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Summer
I took my first breath into the big world that stormy night. I smell a flowery fragrance that smells like honey suckles and some other scent I couldn’t describe. I felt the fresh cold tears, the heavens drop upon me. I am nestled close to something warm though and felt safe. A crash of thunder was heard and I started to wail.

James
“Come on Miranda! We don’t have all night, they will find us soon. We must go!” I say urgently to my wife, but she wasn’t listening. She was too busy fondling over our new baby. It pained me to see the baby, she was gorgeous and now we had to make the decision. The one we’d been talking about for weeks, the decision of whether we will keep the baby or throw her out to the human world where she’d have to be raised by the humans. Against my will, my head turned down, looking at the girl. The rain had soaked me to the bone, but I didn’t notice.
“What should we name her?” I ask quietly.
“Summer, because she was born in a summer storm.” Miranda says in a deciding tone, her sweet voice ringing in my ears.
She looks up with pleading eyes, the question dancing in them. I sigh, about to give in, until I see blue flames that were coming towards us. I shake my head quickly and hiss. “We must go now!” I say between my teeth. I yank the baby out of her hands and take a bracelet out of my pocket. I engraved Summer: June 10, 1993 – born in a summer storm. Then I slipped it on her wrist and put her in a basket. I laid her under a tree, ignoring the look of agony on my wife’s face. She starts to sob but I just pull her along, running from the blue flames.


Miranda
I look at my beautiful newborn daughter, she was perfect. As a crashing sound of thunder was heard she starts to cry, I try to soothe her but with no prevail. I hear my husband’s urgent voice, but I zone out of it and only focus on my perfect gift from heaven. I then hear James ask about her name. It took me only a split second before I had the perfect name.
“Summer,” I’d said, “because she was born in a summer storm.” I add. I look up at the sky. I believed every raindrop fell to come and welcome Summer into the new world. I then look at James, my eyes begging that we didn’t have to leave her behind. It looked like I’d almost won, when something had caught his eye. I look behind us and see what he’d seen, blue flames that were advancing quickly. I knew then that we’d have to leave her behind. He takes Summer out of my hands and my face falls into sadness. He then takes the bracelet that I’d gotten earlier this week and engraves her name. As he slips it onto her wrist, I felt the full weight of reality come upon me. I start to cry, just as my daughter had when she’d heard the thunder. I hear James put Summer under the tree, so she wouldn’t get soaked by the rain. He then tugs me forward and we were on the run again. I was moving slower though, much slower…the weight was just too heavy to bear.

Kate
I sigh as I look out the window, watching the rain. I hear a maid behind me bringing in my afternoon tea. I turn around slowly, but manage a smile. “Thank you.” I tell her and go over to the tiny table. I sip the tea and nibble on a scone. I was deep in thought, when I saw a piece of paper lying on my spick and span desk. I got up and picked it up. It was a list of dreams that I’d written in 8th grade. I read through it and chuckled at a few of them. More practical ones were written on there too though like getting married, going to college, having a daughter…I stop reading. I sigh and take a pen and cross that dream out and then start to continue reading. The last dream on my list was to become rich. I smile, well that sure came true. I ended up marrying the richest man in the world! My gaze follows up to the dream of having a daughter. I stare at it for a while, daydreaming of what it would be like. She would have my black wavy hair that I could always play with. I would go shopping with her all the time, and help her learn to put on make up. I sigh as the daydream goes on and on. I had been blessed with a son though…Jacob, but he avoided the family as much as possible. Always staying in his room doing who knows what.

Tom
I sit at my desk typing an email to a client when a sound of thunder claps from outside. I jump slightly, but then continue on with the email. I don’t hear my wife in the other room, she was being so quiet. I get up to go check on her when the doorbell rings, I’m surprised.
‘Who’d be out in a storm like this?’ I wonder, but go to the door anyway. I open the door and see a couple, drenched to the bone. The woman was tall and had dirty blonde hair and the most vivid violet eyes I’d seen in my life. She had a chiseled face and a perfect body that was golden tan. The man had jet black hair and sharp green eyes. He was about as perfect as the woman, who I’d assume was his wife. “Can I help you?” I ask, confused why such a pair would be outside my house. They glanced at each other quickly and then the woman replies in a musical voice, “We were wondering if we could stay for the night, just until the storm passes.” The man kept glancing nervously behind them as if something was chasing them. I look at them and am mesmerized by there flawlessness and agree to let them stay. I call Kate downstairs to the front door where the couple where standing in the doorway. She hurries down and then spots the couple; she raises an eyebrow in curiosity. I let the couple into the house and lead them into the living room to warm up, and then head back to my office to finish the email. I was sure Kate would take care of the pair.

Darick
I rush after the faint outlines of the two vampires my men and I were after. I see that they’ve stopped. I stop and watch, but soon start to advance again. The couple then started to run again, but the female moved slower. They suddenly disappeared in the shadows. I growl and stop my men. We wait for them to reappear but they don’t. So, we head towards the shadows where we’d lost track of them. I cursed silently to myself as the captain of the Guard for the Elders, I shouldn’t have lost track of them so easily.

Miranda
I look around the house; following the man who’d I learned was named Tom. His wife, Kate got us some dry clothes and tea. The room Tom had led us in, was bright and cozy. There was a rug in the center and a TV on the west side. Then on one wall was glass paneling that led out to a patio and overlooked a pretty meadow. There was a leather couch facing the TV and a love seat in the corner, I then notice my husband’s approving nod. I sigh in relief.
Tom had gone upstairs but Kate sat down to entertain us. I introduced myself and James. I don’t see any clues that these couples had any children.
“What brings you out here at this time?” Kate asks.
“Just passing by, along our way though, we thought we heard a baby crying.” I hint. My husband catches my eye but doesn’t comment.
“Oh, I’ll get my husband to check it out. What area?” Kate says.
“We heard it near the big lake and oak tree.” I reply.
“Well, thank you for telling me.” She says politely.

James
I look outside and realize the blue flames had disappeared. I start to panic and quickly say, “We must get going, I just remembered we have an appointment to attend to.” I say. I shoot my wife a warning glance. She gets up and thanks our host. We leave flightily.
“The flames have disappeared!” I said once we were out of earshot. She looks around and realizes I’m right.
“Maybe they gave up.” She says hopefully. We both knew that was very unlikely though.
“Well, you thought you could hide.” A silky male voice said from the shadows. I freeze, my heart going cold.
“Darick.” I say, “We meet again.”

Summer
Warmth no longer enveloped me. I start to shiver, but then hear gruff voices.
“Look! There’s a mansion ahead, they must have hid there!” one voice said.
“Well then come on! What are you waiting for? An invitation?!” another voice said.


Darick
I walk out from the trees and shadows and smile wickedly at James. “After all these years, you thought you could hide. Well now I get my revenge. Unfortunately, when you married you dear wife, you sealed her fate.” I say and then signal my men and then all I saw of the couple was flailing arms and legs.

James
Warm blood spilled. It had a metallic but sweet smell. The men had bombarded my wife. I go to protect her but she just shakes her head before she’s hidden under all the attacking bodies. Then I hear a snapping of bones and then smelled the rose scent, a dead vampire’s body gave off.

Miranda
I saw them come towards me. Unlike in movies though, it wasn’t happening in slow motion. Everything happened so quickly and then I died. I didn’t even see memories flash before my eyes….it just happened.

James
I watched helplessly as my wife died before my eyes. Darick stares at me, for what seems like eternity. Darick finally says, “You’re coming with me.” And with a snap of his finger a guard had shackled my hands and shoves me forward. I slowly make myself walk away from Miranda’s dead body.

Darick
I watch my men escort James away before slipping behind a bush and grabbing a basket. I peer inside and still see the baby. I smile and leave it by the dead mother. I then walk up to the mansion door and knock. When I hear movements inside the house I leave and follow my men.


Kate
I hear another knocking at the door and hurry to answer it. I open the door expecting the couple but what I see instead is horrifying. I see the woman on the ground dead, with blood spilled on the ground. I scream, and then I see the basket with something living in it. I carefully walk over, avoiding looking at the woman’s dead face and peer into the basket. Looking back is the sweetest baby’s face. I smile and pick the basket up. I cradle her in my arms as Tom comes rushing out.
“What the-“ he starts to say until he sees the dead woman by my foot and he goes pale. “What happened?” he asks.
I shrug. “She was obviously murdered after she and her husband left. In fact I wonder where her husband is now.” I say. Perhaps he’s the one who killed her…I shake my head, when I’d met them it didn’t seem that he’d do such things. I look down at the baby again and then the woman. She looked so much alike. I gasp, finally putting the puzzle pieces together. She’d had a baby and she’d wanted us to adopt it. I remember her mentioning the crying baby, but that didn’t make sense. Why didn’t she want her own child? I show Tom the child, and he looks at her. He takes her hands in his and then notices a bracelet on her wrist. He examines it and reads aloud, “Summer: June 10, 1993 – born in a summer storm.”
I gasp and say, “She was just born today than!” Tom mashes his eyebrows together, “Then why did they leave her?” he asks.
“I’m not sure, but Miranda had hinted she’d wanted us to adopt this child, so I think we should.” I say. Tom frowns slightly but nods anyway. I take the baby into the house and tell a servant to get the crib down from the attic. I take Summer into the nursery where I’d raised Jacob.


Hunter

When my dad, Darick, came home I was asleep. “Hunter! Wake up!” he barks. Abruptly I awaken. “Take this prisoner and lock him up.” My dad says. I yawn and get up, and lock the man up in a dark cell without a second thought.

15 yrs later…

Summer

I sigh in boredom and finish the last math problem, then slam my pencil down. Suddenly, I got a text saying, ‘We’re watching you!’ I stare at the text and then burst out laughing. It was a nervous laugh though. I look around carefully. I hear Kate call me to dinner. I hurry downstairs and sit down. I cringe slightly as the scent of blood hit my nose. I still don’t understand how I smell the blood or even appeal to the smell. I wouldn’t dare tell Tom or Kate though, they’d freak out. When Kate brushes by me, I inhale the fruity aroma and my mouth waters. She sets some food in front of me that doesn’t smell nearly as delicious but I choke it down to please her. After I was done, I excused myself and went up to my room. I sighed in satisfaction as the warm vanilla sugar hit my nose.
I go outside to read a book and sit under an oak tree.
James
I look at the bare walls for the billionth time. I think of Miranda and then Summer. I wonder where Summer was now and what she looked like. If she had blossomed into the beautiful flower like her mother had. What color hair she had, and if her eyes were still that jade green, that resembled emeralds. I mostly wondered if she felt like she fit into the human world, or knew something was off about her…


Hunter

I realize how hungry I am and go out to hunt. I stop by a mansion and see a young girl. ‘Perfect....’ I think. I sniff the air but catch no scent. I saunter closer and smell again. This time I smell a scent, but the scent is unexpected. It had a lilac and vanilla sugar scent. I look closer and see how flawless the girl was. She had honey blonde hair and green eyes. Her skin was golden and she had a curvy body shape. I walk closer and see she’s reading. Suddenly, a rabbit appears beside her and I snap.

Summer

I look up quickly and soon see a dead rabbit beside me and a mysterious boy. I was shaking slightly, the boy looks at me, curiosity burning in his eyes.
“What are you?” he asks.
“Do you mean, who am I?” I ask. He made it sound like I was a different species. He shakes his head.
“No, I said what not who…although it would be polite to know your name.” he says.
“Well, I’m obviously human and my name is Summer.” I say, still confused.
“You can’t be human; humans aren’t as perfect as you. I’m Hunter by the way.” He says.
“Well, what if I’m a model” I challenge. He considers this.
“You may be a model, but you don’t smell human.” He says slowly. I flinch and sniff carefully; I smell something I’d never smelled before.

Kate

I look out the window and see Summer and a boy that I’d never seen before. He seemed like Summer’s age and looked similar to Summer and Summer’s dad and late mom, flawless. I decide to ask Summer about him later.

Darick

I notice my son is gone, but think none of it. I go and visit James who is in the corner. “Hello…having a nice time?” I ask, my voice dripping with unfelt sweetness. “Well hopefully you won’t be here alone much longer; the Elders are looking into your daughter. She seems to have…umm…defied her true nature.” I say, dangling the words like fish bait. James looks at me, his eyes flash in anger. “Don’t hurt her!” he says. I laugh coldly, “I don’t make that decision, the Elders do.” I say. “And so it seems, you should’ve taught your daughter to drink blood while you still had her.” I add. James purses his lips and says, “But that’s just a natural instinct.” I shake my head with pretend sympathy, “Well, it seems she didn’t quite catch on to that.” I say. James eyes widen and he chokes out, “No!” I just shrug and then throw some food in and leave without another word.

James

I couldn’t process what Darick had said fast enough. It was like my mind was trying to work through molasses. I didn’t believe that my daughter didn’t have the instinct for blood, and that now the Elders were after her. I shake my head, if only I hadn’t Miranda…and fallen in love…I then remember how we met.

It was a rainy and gloomy day; I was working with the Elders at the time, and was a guard. I was standing on the castle walls looking around for any danger when a young lady walks up asking to see Melissa Stone, one of the Elders’ apprentices. I said that no one was allowed to have any contact with the apprentices or the Elders without being summoned. The lady introduces herself as Miranda Stone and my mind starts to spin. They were sisters, but that should be impossible! One of the rules to be an apprentice was you couldn’t have any family members that knew where you were or what you did as a job. I look at Miranda, she looked desperate for something, so I disobeyed all logic and rule and leads her inside through a secret passage way. She thanks me and goes into Melissa’s room. She had stayed in there for awhile but soon came out looking gleeful. She thanks me again and goes away. I didn’t think anything more of the incident until….
A few days later, the Elders had called to me. They explained the scenario perfectly, from what Miranda looked like to the exact time she came in and then out; I was found out. They put me on probation; I was too scared to learn my fate though and ran away. I soon saw Miranda again, this time in a park. She was sitting on a bench reading a book. I recognize her immediately and involuntarily shy away. She looks up at the sound though and recognizes me; she smiles. I return the smile and go over. I tell her how I got in trouble without meaning to and she starts to apologize.
We somehow fell in love, I don’t remember how though; it was too many years back. When I asked her to marry me, I didn’t think anything of the consequences if the Elders ever found us. Now, I regret the moment I ever set eyes on Miranda and fell in love. I feel responsible for her horrid death. Flashbacks of the death came back to me then. I sigh, wondering where Miranda would be if she were still alive.
Summer
He smelled delightful, but not the kind of delightful I was expecting. There was no burning feeling in my throat; it just left me tingling in happiness over the smell. He smelled of the ocean, salty but fresh. He laughs as he sees my surprise as I smelled him.
“Yep, you’re definitely a child of the moon.” He says.
“What? Are you saying I’m a vampire?” I ask sarcastically, not really serious.
“Yep, that’s what I’m saying.” He says, with a delvish smile. “You’re pretty smart to figure that riddle out.” He adds.
I shrug, “Whatever.” I mutter. He laughs quietly and as he inhaled and his nose twitched. He crouches down and I watch curiously, suddenly I smelled it too. It was Kate, I didn’t remember what Hunter’s natural instinct would be until it was too late. Kate comes out and in a blink of an eye, Hunter has her pinned, his fangs exposed. Just as he was about to go into his prey, I finally find my voice.
“STOP!” I scream, as tears bubble under my eyes but dissolve as quickly as they appear. Hunter pauses for a moment and cranes his neck to look at me in surprise. Kate is trembling in fear, but fiery anger danced in her eyes. “Let her go.” I say calmly, Hunter listens to me, I was slightly surprised but didn’t let that emotion show on my face. Kate gets up slowly and as soon as I was sure she was okay, I started to breathe again. “Hunter, this is my…mother.” I say, I watch as he jaw drops and I would have taken pleasure of the facial expression if not for the latest scare I just had.
“You’re mother? But she’s a-“ he starts to say.
I just give him a quick glare before cutting in smoothly. “No, she adopted me.” I say, which was the truth. He raises an eyebrow for details but I just roll my eyes and shrug.
“I’m a what?” Kate demands, anger still flickering in her eyes. Hunter shrugs casually, “You’re a lot more beautiful than your daughter.” He says flashing me a smile. I growl under my breath and make a mental note that he would pay for the comment later.

Kate
I blush at the compliment and shrug. I slowly get up from where I had been pinned and brush myself off. I then go back in the house…
A few hours later Summer comes to me asking if she could go to Hunter’s house. I was suspicious, since she only just met the boy but agree unwillingly. When Hunter finds out he smiles. I hear him murmur something but couldn’t pick out the words. My motherly instincts kick in and I can feel Summer was a bit uncomfortable by what he had said. I wonder if I made the right decision. Before I know it though, and before I could turn back on my decision, Summer and Hunter were gone.

Hunter

I sprint off as soon as Summer’s human mother leaves. I still don’t get how she’s a vampire with a human mother, and how she contains her hunger for blood so well. I shake my head to try to clear it. I had to stop thinking about Summer. When I look back, Summer isn’t behind me. I stop and run back, she’s still standing where I’d left her, her mother gaping open. I laugh softly as I realize she must have not known about her extra strengths.
“Just run.” I say, my eyes twinkling with humor. She pauses and then sprints off. I follow quickly and soon am leading the way. We stop at the big gates of the castle of The Elders. She looks at it curiously, I wonder if she’s ever heard of the Elders. I shrug and call up to the gate keeper. He lets us in and I walk up a path to where my dad and I live.

Darick
I hear the door creak open and know it’s probably Hunter.
“Find a nice kill?” I ask, but when I smell the air and smell an unfamiliar scent. I could tell Hunter was here but who was his guest? A snack maybe…I get up, my mouth watering at the thought of a fresh meal. When I step into the hall I see Hunter and a pretty girl.
“Why who have you brought along?” I purr. Hunter rolls his eyes.
“Drop the act dad, she’s a child of the moon too.” He says. I sigh, but look her over again, she was pretty, even for a vampire and now that I smelled her better, she had the scent of a vampire too. A vanilla sugar scent but no scent of blood, and when I look at her neck, there was no pulse. I shrug, now uninterested, Hunter tended to bring random girls into the house, it was normal. I wonder if she knows that….
“Dad, this is Summer. Summer this is my dad Darick.” Hunter says, trying to get me interested. I show more interest had expected. What if she was the vampire girl the Elders were after.
“Summer..eh? Nice to meet you.” I say extending my hand out. She smiles radiantly and shakes my outstretched hand.
“You too, sir.” She says, her voice like wind chimes tinkling in the breeze.
“Just call me Darick.” I say smoothly. She nods in compliance.
“So..who are your parents?” I ask. I see Hunter stiffen slightly at the question.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.05.2011

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