Chapter 1
The bringer of faith and hope will be born on the day that the light is covered by the dark. She will bear extraordinary gifts, the ability to change form and the ability to wield the powers of the elements.

When the Bringer comes into full power on the eve of her 18th year, she will face many trials. She must be tested and found pure.

She will partner with the Son of the Moon and the Son of the Night, one in love and the other in friendship.

Only if all is done as has been foreseen, will she successfully unite the clans against the Under Lords and restore faith and hope to mankind.

If she fails, hope and faith will be lost forever.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where all you see are words instead of pictures? Well that’s what this dream was. The Prophecy of the Night kept running through my dreams. All my life my parents have told me that this prophecy is about me, but they have got to be crazy! I mean, ok, I was born on a solar eclipse, and both my parents are slayers, BIG DEAL! Okay I admit I can shape shift, but that could just be coincidence. It’s not like I can control all five elements, so see, they must be crazy. I’ve been lying in bed awake for the past 2 hours trying to figure this out, but I just can’t.
“Faith, you’re going to be late for training if you don’t hurry up!” My older brother Max yelled up the stairs at me. Sighing, I slowly rolled out of bed. I began to strip as I walked toward my closet, and put on a pair of my comfy clothes after throwing on a black sports bra. I’m so not looking forward to training today; I mean it’s my birthday for crying out loud! I run into the bathroom grabbing the brush and I begin to run it through my long blond hair. I throw my hair up into a ponytail and then step back from the mirror to get a good look at myself.
I’m not bad looking. I’m 5’7”; I have emerald green eyes, and long blonde hair. I’m tanned, and my body is well toned and fit. My body is toned due to all of the training I am forced to endure. With me being part of the slayers clan, and tonight being the night I turn 18, I get to join the hunt. As I stare at myself in the mirror my mind starts to run throw different scenarios of how tonight could play out. Stop it Faith you’re scaring your self, it’ll be fine. Take some deep breaths and calm down. Closing my eyes I begin to take a few calming breaths.
“Faith, no matter how long you stand there with your eyes closed, you’re not going to get anymore beautiful” says a deep voice from behind me. Startled I open my eyes and spin around with a metal nail file in hand ready to defend myself if I have to. I realize I am staring into a pair of emerald green eyes, the same as mine. “Max, what are you thinking scaring me like that?” I ask as I put the nail file down.
I turn back around to face him, and he is shaking with laughter. Rolling my eyes I push my way passed him, “If you haven’t noticed, we are going to be late for training!” I holler over my shoulder as I begin to run down the stairs. Max is by my side in just a few long strides. Max is 19 and he is my best friend right along with being my big brother. We have the same emerald eyes, and blond hair. He’s tanned like me from all the work we do outside, he is muscled, has a six pack, and the girls all look at him like he’s something to eat. YUCK!
I glance out of the corner of my eyes at him, and I can’t help but smile. “What are you smiling about Fai?” I realize that he has been staring at me. “Nothing!” I reply, “Hey Maxxy you want to race!” I say as I speed up and head to the training arena. I love the feel of the wind on my skin as I run, it’s exhilarating.
“Yeah, but try not to cry too much when I beat you” He tugs on my ponytail and runs passed me. I grin and begin to sprint after him. This is what I love about Max, he still loves to have fun, and hang with his baby sis. I run up to him and push him; he stumbles and falls behind me. “That was cheating Fai!” I hear him holler, and glance back to make sure he was ok. All I see is him sprinting full speed at me. Oh shit he is going to tackle me! I kick it into high gear and run as fast as I can to the training arena. As I reach for the handle of the door, I feel his body slam into mine. I’m gasping for air as we hit the ground. He is sitting on me and starts to tickle me. I’m gasping for breath and laughing like crazy. “Let….. Me….. Up….. Max!” I manage to get out between giggles.
“Maxwell, let your sister up. Have you two forgotten that you have training?!” My fathers voice rings out from the door way. Max jumps to his feet grabbing my hand and pulling me up with him. “No Sir” Max replies as he ducks under fathers arm to enter the training arena. I can’t help but smile as I watch Max rush into the arena. “Good morning Daddy, how are you this fine morning?” I ask in my sweetest voice. A smile spreads a crossed his face and he leans down and kisses my forehead, “Happy birthday Angel, and no you’re not getting out of training.” He winks and walks into the arena. Sometimes I swear he can read minds. Well come on Faith lets go beat up on the boys! I heave a sigh and then follow him into the arena.
As soon as I step inside I look around. Our arena is the size of a football field. It has all our training equipment; targets for archery practice, dummies to work on decapitation and vampire staking, and a lot of other items.
I slowly make my way over to Max who is standing with two other guys that I knew Hunter, and Damon. “Hey there Fai, you ready for training?” Hunter asks with a huge grin. Hunter is a good looking 19 year old guy, he has a well defined jaw, long black hair, brown eyes that were so dark they looked black, and is about five inches taller then me. He thinks he is god’s gift to women. I roll my eyes, “Are you ready to lose again, Hunter?” He grins and wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close to him. “Baby I let you win. I love rolling around on the ground with you” He looks down at me and winks. Oh brother, he is a sleaze. I look up at him with a sweet smile. “Don’t ever call me baby” I say in a dangerously calm voice. I pull out of his grasp and move towards Max. Before I got very far Hunter grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him. “Little girl haven’t you ever learned to respect your elders?!” Hunter snarls into my ear.
Max sees everything going on and starts to take a step towards me to try and help. He must have seen the look in my eyes because the instant he looked at my face he stopped and smiled. I jabbed my elbow deep into his side, grabbed his wrist and spun out his hold. I wrenched his arm behind him kicking his legs out from under him, holding his wrist in a way that must have been uncomfortable to him; I planted my knee in the center of his back. I lean down and whisper in his ear, “The only I’m respectful to my adults is if they deserve it” Suddenly I feel myself being pulled off of Hunter. “Down girl, you don’t want to break him” I hear Damon chuckle behind me. “Awl I was only having fun” I fake whine. Damon puts me down on the floor and hands me my weighted gloves. “Thanks D” I say with a smile.
Training went perfectly; Hunter left me alone for the rest of the day. I ended up with a few bruises but other then that I felt great. I ran into the house and up to the bathroom to take a nice hot shower. I slowly undressed and jumped in the shower and let the hot water run over my sore muscles. As I began to relax, I heard a light tap on the door. “Who is it” I ask irritably. “It’s Max” Why is Max knocking on the door? “What do you want Max, I’m kinda trying to shower!” I say as I stick my head under the water. I could hear the door opening and closing quietly. Sighing I look out at Max, “What’s up Maxxy?” He looks into my eyes his filled with worry. “I’m worried about you going out tonight” He looks down at the floor. “I’ll be fine Max, I’ll have you and dad there with me” I can’t help but smile at the way he cares about me. “I know, I’m just worried…. I mean you’re my baby sister. I just don’t want anything to happen to you”
“Max, can you get me the towel right there” I indicate at the fluffy green towel that is hanging behind his head. He hands it to me and I wrap it around myself and climb out of the shower. “Max I’ll be fine” I wrap my arms around his waste and hug him tightly, “Don’t worry ok?” I look up and stare into his eyes…. Everything will be just fine. He smiles at me and kisses my forehead, “Since when did you get so self-confident?” He teasingly chucks me under the chin. “Since I’ve had such an awesome big brother like you to look after me” I say and squeeze around him and run into my room to get dressed.

Chapter 2
As soon as I got into my room, I started going through my closet to find something to wear. Lets see it’s my first hunt what do I wear! Around 6:30 I was still in my closet looking for something to wear. How about we go leather! I got to the back of my closet and found the perfect outfit. A pair of leather pants that lace up the sides and a red, a black Harem bodice corset that ends above the navel, black and red leather arm bands that, and black knee high boots with no heel. I throw my clothes on and run to the bathroom and run a brush threw my hair and throw it up into a high ponytail.
“Whoa, are you going to a vampire night club, or going hunting?” Max teasingly asks from the door way. I spin around to give him the full view of my outfit, “Hey I had to look the part…. Can’t let Buffy the Vampire Slayer out do me” Max cracks up laughing. “Ok you knuckle head, lets go get our weapons” He grabs my hand and we head downstairs to the basement.
We walked to the back wall and Max found the lever and the wall swung inwards to allow us to enter our weaponry. It’s not the first time I’ve been in here, but its breath taking. Seeing all the weapons. There are swords, daggers, throwing stars, bows and arrows, spears, and anything else you can imagine. This is the moment I’ve been training for, to finally get to be here and not just with dad or Max! I ran straight to my weapons of choice, the blades! I fiddled with a few before I found two twin swords that were made for me. One is black and the other is white. They were edged with silver and the hilts are in the shape of a phoenix being reborn of the ashes. I twirled them around before sliding them back into their sheaths on my back.
I head over to the daggers and throwing stars, strapping on a thigh sheath. I grab a dagger that has a gold blade but silver tipped. I grab some throwing stars and hook them to a belt and strap it on. I double check and make sure I’m all set. I turn around and watch as Max grabs a dark forest green compound bow, and a quiver full of silver and wooden tipped arrows. He glances over at me to see if I’m ready and all he does is smile. “What are you smiling at, Max?” I ask looking myself over again to make sure I didn’t have anything on me. “Nothing sis, you just look so grown up” He chuckles. I smile, “Well I wasn’t going to be a baby forever! So are we going to go or are we going to stand around and continue talking about how grown up I look?” He rolls his eyes and sighs. “Lets go Fai, they are waiting for us anyways” and with that said we headed out of the house to meet the others.
There were about 15 people waiting in front of the training arena around father. I could hear the rumble of his voice so I knew they were already talking strategy. I was so excited and nervous at the same time I had to keep myself in check so I wouldn’t run up to the group. As we neared the group father looked up and broke away from the group to approach us. He looked at me and smiled, “My daughter you look so grown up,” all of a sudden I am enveloped in a huge bear hug, “I am so proud of you Faith; you have become a very strong woman.” I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. “I just hope I don’t disappoint you tonight” I whisper in his ear. “You could never disappoint me, Faith”
With that said he pulls back and holds me at arms length and stares down at me and smiles. We begin to walk towards the group to talk strategy, when all of a sudden one of our scouts burst through the trees and runs straight up to father. “There is a pack of maybe 30 werewolves headed this way!” The man is gasping for breath I could hardly understand what he was saying. But I caught what he said, and at that moment my blood ran cold in my veins. I must have started shaking because Max put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. “It’ll be ok Faith” he whispers in my ears. How can he say it’ll be ok when we have a pack of werewolves heading our way! Faith how could you have ever thought you were ready for something like this?! I silently scolded my self.
Father made a plan and we were to split up into groups of three. “Hunter, Max, and Faith you are in a group. You will follow the path to the river and get around them. Damon and Shawn will go with you, stay put till I give the order” He looks at Max and out of the corner of my eyes I catch his quick nod. “Go…. Now” We begin to head into the woods. Heading towards the river. I glance around the forest because I get the feeling that someone is watching me, and then I look at Hunter and realize that he is staring at me. He has a weird look in his eyes and it is unnerving. What is his problem is he still upset about earlier?! I silently ask myself.
When we hit the river, I hear an ear piercing howl shatter the quiet of the night. At the sound of this I freeze up and stop moving. Max slides to a stop behind me, grabs my arm and pulls me back into motion, “We have to keep moving Faith.” I give a quick nod and keep moving deeper into the trees. We ran in a huge ark around the pack, and then Max pulled me to a stop. We crouched down behind two huge oaks. I looked into the dark forest but I couldn’t see anything. I was about to turn to Max and tell him I couldn’t see anything, when something moved and it caught my eye. I strained my eyes to see what had just moved, when it suddenly moved out of the shadows and I got a good look at it.
It was a huge brindle colored wolf; after that one emerged several others did to. I had never seen wolves so big; they were the size of a full grown horse. There was one that caught my eye; it was pitch black with a white patch on the tip of his left ear. He had Blue eyes that reminded me of a crystal clear lake in the dead of winter.

Chapter 3
As I stare at the wolf mesmerized by the beauty of the odd coloring, I’m not paying attention to anything around me. Out of no where I hear a blood curdling howl of pain. I turn and stare at Max wide eyed, that’s when I noticed the wicked gleam in his eyes. As he grins at me, I try to suppress a shiver. At that moment I realize what that look in his eyes meant. “It’s time” Max whispers as he squeezes my shoulder reassuringly. You can do this girl; you have been training for this moment. I gave Max a weak smile and nodded my head, “Let’s do this.”
Max looked at the others, “Let’s go guys!” He stood up and took off. The men followed my brother into the battle. The black wolf let loose a vicious snarl as he leapt at Max. I stood rooted to the spot as I watched them clash. Oh my god! What have you gotten yourself into?! I was screaming at myself in my head. Let’s do this Faith, go help the guys. This is why you have been training.
Before I could build up the courage to join the fight, something slammed into me. I went flying threw the air and crashed into a tree. I jumped up and scanned the forest. Did one of the wolves get by Max and the others? I couldn’t see anything. What the fuck just hit me?! I see a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I whip my head around but no one was there. Okay this is really pissing me off!
“What’s wrong Faith, you don’t like my game?” a familiar voice asks. I squint into the darkness, and a figure starts to walk towards me. “Hunter” I growl. He laughs and stops a few feet in front of me. “What do you want, Hunter?” I continue to glare at him.
I faintly hear the battle in the distance, when suddenly I hear a cry of pain and a tree crushing on impact. MAX!!!! I start running towards where the noise came from. Max please be okay, if you die I will find a way to resurrect you and kill you again myself!
A hand comes out of no where and wraps around my neck and throws me to the ground. I land hard on my back gasping for breath. I roll on to my stomach and push myself onto my feet. As I look at Hunter he has that evil glint in his eyes again. “What do you want Hunter?!” I spit out. “Just some pay back, you humiliated me in front of everybody” He grins and takes a step towards me. “Aww poor Hunter, did getting beat by a girl wound your ego? It’s okay you have to much as it is” I can’t help it, I crack up. He just stands there glaring at me.
He draws his sword, “You won’t be laughing after I get done with you.” I grin at him as I reach back and unsheathe my swords. I twirl them around as I get into a fighting stance. “You think you can beat me the second round?” I can’t help but chuckle, “I’d like to see you try.”
“You’d like to see me try? Then you will die!” At that he charged at me with his sword held high. Holy hell he is really going to attack me? I take a deep breath and smile. Well then let’s show him why people don’t mess with me. Bringing my swords up I block his attack.
I get my foot up and kick him in the abdomen sending him flying into a tree. He pushes himself up, and begins to circle me. I follow him with my eyes and slowly begin to shadow his movements so he is nowhere near my back. I hear another howl of pain followed by a cry from Max. I did something I was taught never to do; I turned my back to the opponent. He charged at me, I turned around with barley enough time to block his attack. Shit Faith what are you doing, Max will be fine, get your head in this fight or you will not make it. He put enough power behind his attack that my arms were shaking.
I deflected his attack and ran at him, he struck out and I twirled around avoiding his attack. As I twirled I thrust one of my swords out and sliced a gash in his arm. He whirled around and swung at my neck, I ducked and swung upwards disarming him. I glared up at him; “It’s over Hunter” I stood up and backed away. I sheathed my swords, and walked over to his sword and picked it up.
“It’s not over until I finish what I started!” He yelled and charged at me. I saw a flash of something in his hand, it was too late for me to block his attack or move out of the way. He plunged a dagger deep into my gut.
Searing pain shot from the point of entry through out my whole body. My legs gave way and I collapsed to the ground. Hunter stepped back and stared down at me, he had this evil glint in his eyes. All I could do was glare at him, as I pulled the dagger out of my stomach with an audible gasp. Shit this hurts like a bitch. I was about to throw the dagger to the ground when the color of the blade caught my attention. My eyes widened as I took in the blade, it was a copper blade with three claw marks etched in the blade. “No!” I whispered in shock.
“I’m sorry Faith but you will die shortly. Just like your mother did” He threw his head back and laughed. “As you can see that is the lámina del dragón, or as most people call it the Dragon Blade. The blade is coated in the venom of the Amphisbaena, it will spread through your system and slowly kill you, but it will be very painful.” As he finished a sharp pain shot through my body. He knelled down by me and ran the back of his hand down the side of my face.
“This was the exact same hate filled look your mother had on her face as I killed her” He stood up turned away from me. Tears began to fill my eyes as I remembered the day my mother had died.
Ten Years Ago
We were heading home from picking medicinal herbs from the forest. I smiled up at momma as she took my hand, “Lets go home mi ángel” she said smiling down at me. “Yes momma” I said as we started walking. Out of the corner of my eye, something red caught my attention. I pulled my hand from my moms and ran over to see what it was that caught my attention. “adónde usted va miel?” Momma called after me. “I saw something momma, I want to find out what it is”
“Look momma I found red flowers!” I said excitedly looking up at her. She smiled at me and bent over to look at the plant. “You have found and herb known as Yarrow. This herb was said to have been used by The Greek mythical hero Achilles, to stop bleeding in wounded soldiers.” I smile up at her, “Really momma?” She stood up and pulled me along with her, “Sí mi querido, now we must get home your father is waiting for us.”
Momma stopped walking and turned around to scan the forest behind us. “What’s wrong mommy?” I asked tugging on her hand, I was getting scared. I looked into the forest and I saw someone moving towards us. Momma pushed me towards the house, “Run mija, run as fast as your feet will take you.” My feet wouldn’t move I looked into her eyes and could tell she was scared, “I don’t want to leave you, I want you to come too” I was scared and had tears welling up in my eyes. “I’ll be fine, now go!” she pushed me again then turned to face the man emerging from the cover of the trees.
I turned and ran as fast as my feet would take me, but I couldn’t force myself to go to far. I stopped and hid behind a rock so they couldn’t see me. They were yelling but I could not make out what they were saying. Then the man pulled out a sword and ran at my mom. I stared on wide eyed, as my mom pulled out her katana, and blocked his attack. The fight lasted a total of about fifteen minutes, it looked like my mom was winning, then the man pulled back his arm and ran the sword through her chest.
“NO!” I screamed as the tears began to flow, I jumped up and ran towards them. The man looked up at me and smiled maliciously, then turned and ran into the forest. I dropped to my knees by her, she was struggling to breath. “Mommy it’ll be okay, I’ll go get help” I started to get up but her hand flew out and grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. “No my darling, I don’t have much longer. You need to know, do you remember the prophecy of night?” Her voice was coming out in a whisper. “Yes momma I remember” I was trying not to cry but the tears just kept coming.
“That prophecy is about you mi nina, you are the chosen one” She gasped in pain and began to shake. “Mommy…. MOMMY! Please don’t leave me, I need you. You promised me you would always be with me.” I was crying now, “Please don’t leave me”
She smiled weakly at me and reached her hand up and wiped away my tears. “Mi amor I will always be with you, in here” She moved her hand to my heart. “Anytime you need me just think of me. I love you my little Faith, don’t cry anymore little one” and with that she took her last breath and closed her eyes.
Back to the Present
The tears were flowing down my face, “You killed my mother!” I growled, “Why?!” I glared at him. He smirked, “Because it was my duty, just like it is my duty to dispose of you.” At this point my blood was boiling, “Who sent you to dispose of us?” He looked bored, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you, seeing as you won’t last long. I was sent by the Under lords, to kill the prophesied one. Your mother was a bonus and was in the way” He grinned at me.
“I’m going to kill you, you Bastard” A sharp pain shot through my body again, as I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stand up. The pain was so strong that I felt myself slipping into the darkness, Stay conscious Faith! I screamed in my head. I was up on my feet, I was so unsteady I had to brace myself against a tree. I looked down and realized I had lost a lot of blood, when I looked up he was smirking. “You can barely move Faith, how are you going to kill me. You’re going to die soon”
“Well when I die I’m taking you with me” I was shaking with rage. With the thought of avenging my mother I had a sudden rush of adrenaline. I pushed myself up straight and started walking towards him, with an evil grin. All I could think was I wanted this bastard to burn. Out of nowhere fire spurted from the ground and surrounded him, I was freaking out but I was to pissed to really understand what was happening. But I just felt this power flowing through me, I didn’t question it I just used it. I felt the elements flowing through me.
I felt the cool breeze of the wind, Smelled the fresh smell of water, felt the roughness of the bark of trees, and felt the scolding heat of fire. I used the power of air and threw him up against a tree. With a twitch of my hand the tree branches wrapped around him and held him captive. “Now you will die!” I shouted as I raised my hand and concentrated on the water in his blood stream. I began to thicken his blood making it painful for him to breath. I smiled at him and thought DIE Son of a Bitch! He looked at me with fear in his eyes as he struggled to breath.
Then it hit me, the pain was so sharp I lost all concentration, feeling the power slip away. I reached down and put my hand to my stomach trying to physically hold the pain back. It got worse and I fell to the ground, gasping for air. This can’t be it, I can’t die here. I need to get to Max. My vision started to go hazy then I looked up and saw a face. She had flowing blond hair and emerald green eyes. My eyes began to tear up. “Momma” I whispered.
“Yes my darling it is me” she reached down stroked my cheek. “Am I dead?” I asked groggily. “No, but you must act fast and dispel the poison.” She grabbed my hand and laid it on my wound, “Concentrate…. Focus on healing” She smiled at me. “I can’t momma, it hurts to bad” I panted, trying to take in more oxygen. “Yes you can little one, close your eyes and focus” I closed my eyes and focused. “That’s it my child” The voice whispered getting fainter.
I opened my eyes and she was gone, and so was Hunter. I slammed my hands against a tree, “Dammit!” I yelled. I still felt pain and looked down realizing my wound wasn’t healed. Looking at it I got dizzy. I fell backwards into a pair of arms. I looked up and saw….. Max. He looked so worried. I gave a weak smile, “Hi Max” I whispered. He looked around, “What happened to you Faith?”
“It was Hunter Max” I struggled to sit up but got light headed and fell back down. I felt him shiver with anger. I smiled, “Max, I saw momma” I felt so faint, I was being sucked into the darkness and I couldn’t fight it anymore. Just before I let it consume me I looked over Max’s shoulder and and saw a pair of piercing blue eyes staring at me from the forest.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 21.11.2010

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