Prologue

Things happen, and there's nothing to stop it from happening.

The music swayed her body in a rhythmic movement. Everyone was laughing and dancing to the music. Josh kept staring at her the whole time. His eyes glimmered with a look so dialated, you could almost say he was falling you. Nadia knew better and placed the look with something she's used to seeing in the boys attracted to her.

Hunger.

But not the love hunger, the real hunger.

Nadia cursed herself once more for her taste in men.

"Problem?" He asked, cocking his head ever so slightly.

She shook her head, playfully grabbed Josh by the hands, and started pulling him out of view of the partygoers. She knew that what she was about to do was idiotic considering there were people just out in the front yard and inside the house.

She pulled him back towards the backdoor, still swaying her hips just to look like she was just dancing, not plotting his death.

He looked at her with a wicked grin. "We doing something funky?"

She smiled. "Something like that."

Pulling him out of the house, she kissed him. He tasted bitter, and like a dog. She didn't show her disgust, though. Letting her guard down wasn't the best idea. In the backyard, away from everyone's view, the two looked at each other. He smiled, flashing his white teeth. He knew that she knew what he was.

He swiveled up close to her and leaned into her ear. "You know, if you scream, no one will hear you."

Nadia leaned in to whisper into his ear also. "You do know who I am right?" she asked; she felt him nod. "I don't think so, because if you did then you'd understand that you'll be the one screaming, not me."

At that, she did a backflip just to show off then sprang up and flew at Josh. She plowed into him and they fell to the grass.

Sometime while she was in the air she managed to get her silver knife out. She placed it right over his heart. Her on the top, and him on the bottom made it seem like he didn't have a chance.

Except, none of them ever did. He elbowed her in the throat, and when she loosened her grip he pulled his feet up and kicked her in the chest so hard that she went flying.

Bones cracked as she hit the wall. She jumped to her feet, shaking off the dizziness. She coughed at the knot in her throat.

"Son of a-" she started, hand pressed against her forehead.

"Un uh, no cursing, missy." he chastised.

Nadia leaped at Josh again, but this time he dodged her. She landed in a clumsy forward roll, but quickly got back to her feet. She looked around, trying to find Josh, but he was out of sight.

Crap, I lost him. Nadia thought to herself.

The girl looked up, and there he was. He was balancing on the edge of the awning, smiling. He saw that she had seen him and sprang down at her. He planted her to the ground and bent closer to her.

Pressing his body on hers, he kissed her. Her blood boiled. All of them do this. They kiss her before they kill her, or try to kill her, anyways. They think they're so funny.

Boys do not kiss me. I kiss them. Boys do not get that kind of dominance with me. And if he even thinks for a second- her thoughts ran with anger.

She put her hands to his chest, and imagined her hands heating up and burning his shirt, his skin. All of the sudden smoke seemed to be coming from her hands. She didn't feel any pain, but Josh did. He yelped and she, taking the distraction, slammed yer silver knife in his chest.
Blood spewed onto her leather jacket, and she grunted in annoyance.
He almost Changed right there, but she slid the knife in farther, making him lift his face to howl.

She quickly covered his mouth and laid him on the ground.

"Sorry I have to say this, but I don't think this is going to work out. It's not you; it's me. I just don't date rogue, murderous creatures." She said to the dying werewolf.

He growled at her. "You b-" he broke off in a yelp of pain.

He breathed once more and his body dissolved.

'Un uh, no cursing, mister." she sighed.

Every guy, every time. Why am I always attracted to the rogue supernatural beings? Is that saying something? She sighed.

Of course it's saying something, it's saying that I'm a demon magnet. She let her thoughts subside as she walked back over to the door.

She took off her leather jacket and layed it on the ground. Placing her hand over the blood spurts, she let her magic flow through her arm, and onto the jacket, clearing up the blood.

She dusted off her leather pants, and her black cami. They always seems to gather the Remains.

She rubbed off the blood on her leather combat boots and headed inside the backdoor. People were still dancing and drinking, not having a clue as to what happened in the backyard.
She spotted Lucy talking to Drake Rimir, and waved her over. "Hey." Nadia said glumly when Lucy reached her.

"Hey, where's Josh?" Lucy asked, looking around.

"We broke up, he took it pretty hard. He died inside and out when he heard the news," she said truthfully.

"I bet he did." Lucy laughed. "So did he run off screaming and crying? You know, I warned you about him. Actually, I warned you about all your dates. You have seriously bad taste."

"You can say that again." Nadia mumbled.

"No thank you. So...want to go back to the party?"

"Nah, I should probably go home. My date's not here...so yeah. See you later."

"Party pooper," she smiled at me then started to walk off. She turned around just I was about to leave. "Hey, if you see Josh again tell him I said to suck it!" she yelled to me over the groups of partygoers.

"Lucy!" Nadia laughed. Lucy gave an innocent look and walked off.

I'd love to send that message, except he can't come to phone at the moment. Like, ever.



* * * * * *



"There isn't a silence on the street. The wind is gently blowing the sickly smell of rotted garbage from the pitch-black alleys that even the junkies are afraid to go into. They fear the beasts that her kind kills.

"Though there is normally a few creatures roaming around, tonight there is only the occasional shadow of a human that leaks across the roadway, walking home because they're too drunk and their family is too ashamed to be seen with them. There's the faint, tinny sounds of a nightclub up at the end of the dimly-lit block, and the hiss of the music fades into a kind of grainy wash that fills the street, seeping into the darkness between the pools of light on the dirty sidewalk.

"Silence would be too frightening. But the place has music to call its own.

"Metal shutters, caked with graffiti, are strapped like plasters over the reinforced windows, and they softly rattle. There isn't any business here any more, and the doorways are all locked and barred, and the only things that stand sentinel are the poles and posts carrying electricity, like the skeletons of trees.

"The old bars still have their neon signs flickering and buzzing, a few letters burnt out for good measure. Some ragged flyers are posted to the peeling paint of sickly-yellow walls, but not many. There aren't that many attractions on this side of the town.

"This place is complete in its incompleteness; the gap in the row of buildings on one side feels like the hole in your gum after a tooth's just come out. It sucks at you, the wilderness of an abandoned lot blooming with twisted crabapple, and rotted brush, and the litter of a thousand fast food restaurants. The wind blows colder, and the creak of a shutter as it raps back and forth on an empty window is a sudden, invasive sound. There are no trees. Scrubby plants poke from the cracks of the concrete in people's yards, and weeds ooze around the slabs in the sidewalk. The road itself is a black ribbon of slick asphalt, reflecting only the nighttime cast of the streetlights. And then, just above her own breath, barely heard above the pounding of her own pulse, is a set of footsteps.

"She smiles, knowing nothing-"

Nadia grunted in annoyance as her phone rang. She pulled out her ear buds, turned off the cassette tape, and grabbed her ringing device.

"What do you want?" She demanded into the device. A car honked at her for walking in the road as it flew on by her, the driver obviously giving her the finger.

"Just letting you know that I won't be home 'til later, so don't wait up. I'm eating at Jenny's." Aidan said.

"Why would I care if you eat with us or not?"

"I mean for you tell dad, no, not dad. Tell mom."

"She already knows."

"She does?"

Nadia sighed irritatingly. "We already ate dinner, before I left to go to Mikah's party. Nobody was waiting up for you. You never eat with us, anyways."

"Well fine then Miss. Grumpypants."'

"Just because we're twins doesn't mean I have to like you."

"Come on, Nad, don't be like that. Why are you so upset?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Look, I'm almost home and Violet's probably hungry again. You know how she gets."

"Okay, little sis. I'll let you babysit."

"Little sis? We're the same age!" Nadia protested.

"I was born first, you got your name from mine."

"Whatever, look, do you need a ride? Since you don't have Shifting down and you can't drive, do you need me to get you?" She asked.

"Yeah, is it that obvious?"

"Obvious? Not really, but it's kind of a normal routine for me."

"Right, so where-"

"Train station." Nadia interrupted.

She hung up the phone.

She walked through the kitchen door, setting her keys on the counter. Her feet started to move her over to the fridge for a drink, but stopped dead in their tracks.

There was a figure lying on the island in the dark kitchen, it's features blanketed by darkness. She knew what it was before she even saw it, but she ignored that nagging piece of knowledge.

Please don't be her; please don't be her. She begged to no one in particular.

As she neared it, features on the figure started to appear.

Little hands and feet, a white nightgown, and deep black hair had Nadia backpedaling into the counter. "No!" she yelled as she ran back toward her sister. She shook the tiny girl's figure, screaming her name. "Violet! Get up! Violet!" Nadia face twisted with disbelief, but no tears came. No, she never cried.

She fumbled with her phone and dialed 911. Nadia knew it was pointless, most of the time regular police couldn't help.

"Hello, please state your emergency." a woman said.

"My sister, she-she was stabbed. There's so much blood." she choked back a dry sob. "I don't know what to do."

"It's okay, just stay calm; the police-" the woman went silent for a moment and picked up the receiver again. "I'm sorry, but I need you to please hold." the lady said.

"No, no, no. You have to-" music started playing on the other end. Nadia yelled and threw the phone across the room. The phone shattered to pieces. "Stupid humans! You're worthless!" She yelled at the demolished device.

Nadia's dad came in asking what was wrong.

"Are you freaking blind?" She yelled at him.

"What?" he said innocently.

"She's not breathing. Help me, or something! I don't know how to heal people yet!"

He looked at Violet and clicked his tongue. "Why should I help her? She had it coming."

Nadia pushed back her shoulders and looked at him, antagonism filling her features. She smoothed her voice to a dead calm. "What happened?"

"I came home and the dishes weren't done. So I grabbed one of the dirty knifes and cut her with it. Just to give her a taste of her own medicine. If it had been clean, she wouldn't have been infected."

Nadia turned red with anger. "You did more than cut her with it! Do you see what you did? There's a hole, in her stomach! She bled to death because of you!" She screamed. She knew her father was mean, and drunk all the time; but she never thought he would ever stab someone - not even Violet.

He shrugged again and walked over to fridge, pulling out another beer.

As fast, and as expertly as he got the beer out the fridge, Nadia got her bow and arrow out of her bag and knocked the arrow. Without even looking straight at it, she shot the beer. The glass fell to the floor and shattered around his feet.

He looked at Nadia with fury in his eyes. "That was my last beer!"

"And this is the last straw." Her eyes glowed with rage. She knew she should calm down; her powers were never under control when her emotions weren't either.

Nadia grabbed another arrow and knocked it, pointing it at her dad.

Her voice was menacing. "Get out," she whispered. "Get out! As much as I'd like to see you rot in a jail cell, it would just expose us. You're a bad liar. You'd spill our secret like you spill your beer."

"Hmm, that was a simile." He said to himself. "I like similes."

She ignored him.

"I'm going to count to three and if you don't leave, I swear to God I'll shoot you." She warned. He stared at her.

"One." she counted.

He didn't move, only raised an eyebrow.

She pulled the arrow back farther, closer to her mouth.

"Two!"

He looked at her, and a second later he bolted. The kitchen door slammed shut behind him.

She dropped the bow and ran back over to Violet. Nadia thought of what she needed to do.

It's the only way to keep us safe, she thought.

"I'm sorry." She told her sister, as if the body could hear.

She placed her hand over Violet's stomach and imagined her hands sinking into the skin. Imagined her hands reaching inside Violet's and pulling out the magic that demons could take for granted.

Nadia has always hated doing this to all the dead witches and warlocks. She's done it many times before so the demons didn't get ahold of the magic Hunters possessed.

Sirens in the distance stopped her.

Crap.

She moved her hands off Violet's stomach and ran to the window. She glanced out and saw flashing lights off in the distance.

Great, now they come. She thought to herself.

She walked over and kissed Violet on the forehead, praying that no one would take her body.

Why wasn't I here to protect her? Right, I was too busy partying and listening to "books on tape" to pay any attention to my little sister being left with a drunk abusive father. Nadia sighed. If there is a God, he obviously doesn't care about us. He created us, why doesn't he protect us? Why doesn't he at least protect our magic?

"I'm sorry, little sis. I broke my promise." At that, she thought of the train station, and darkness overcame her.





She was sitting at a train station, waiting for her sister to show up when the TV was changed to a news channel. Violet's name being said made Nadia's head snap up.

"Violet Maxwell, an 8 year old girl, was roughly abused by her father, Jack Maxwell." The woman on the television said, her formal voice filling up the room. "The father was in a drunken rage and beat the girl, finally stabbing her to finish the job. At least that's what the police are saying. The police are looking for the father, hoping to send him where he belongs; prison, with all the others."

"He belongs in the grave, six feet under, but still breathing." Nadia said out loud. The lady sitting next to Nadia looked at her oddly and scooted a bit farther away from her.

The newsman sitting next to the woman took over. "The police suspect that the rest of the family had a part in the child's death. They might have gotten the father drunk on purpose to get rid of the child so they don't have to do it themselves. Though that claim isn't very confident. They only thought that because the mother and sister were just recently seen skipping town in a black Mercedes. The police tried to follow them, but the car practically disappeared." The man said. "While they're still looking for the father, let's switch to something more cheerful. They're sending last week's injured whale back into..."

The phone booth right next to Nadia started receiving a call. She knew it was for her, no one else heard it ringing.

"Hello? Mom?"

Silence.

"Mom? Talk to me."

She heard someone take a deep breath on the other end. "We're on the run again. Aidan and I are running. But you're not coming with us. Too dangerous, Aidan and I are going to die. We'll take the fall for you, you have more magic than all of us." Nadia could hear the slight sigh of mental pain her mom always seemed to be in. "Now, you have to go hide. Go see a guy named James Holtz. He'll help you."

"Wait, what do I need help for?" she asked frantically.

"She's not dead." Nadia's mom said, calmly.

"Mom, what are you-" the line went dead.