Chapter one

  Cadence sat in first block algebra, playing with her bracelets on her wrist. She rarely wore any kind of jewelry but today it was necessary to hide the bruising left from another night of pain. As she thinks back to the night before, she saw the look in her dads eyes, anger and rage. She felt his fingernails dig into her wrist,and remembered the feeling of the blade slipping through her thigh. Her way of coping with the abuse. Her father was drunk again and she just managed to get in his way. She shouldv'e stayed in her room, gone another night without eating. she quickly wiped away the tears forming in her eyes. The sound of her teachers voice shook her from her daze. 

     "Now class, we have a new student today. His name is Alaric Lightstone, and I want you to make him feel welcome. So to kickstart this process, we are going to play the name game."

    She glanced up boredly thinking to herself that this will be just another jerk football player fitting the classic jock look. But when she looked up and saw long shiny black hair and piercing blue eyes and a brooding posture, she gasped out loud. She was expecting blonde crew cut hair and dull brown eyes. Its people like that that make her glad she looked different. Her hair was so light it looked silvery white, it never did turn the dark red her mom told her it would. Her eyes were a shocking green, the color of grass.  It took her friend poking her side to realize that she was staring, and saw that the new kid was staring back, just as shocked as she was. Everyone was staring at the two of them like they were the center of attention. The teacher finally broke the silence. 

    "Well. Now that the awkward silence is over, lets get started shall we? Miss Elwood, would you like to start off our little game?" 

   Cadence stared at him in mortification before reluctantly standing up at her desk and mumbling her name. Alaric just looked at her dumbstruck. She coughed and raised her voice, light and melodic, for him to hear. 

    "H..hi. I'm Cadence Elwood, and I'm happy to make your aquaintence and maybe we will get to know each other better. I hope you enjoy it here." 

    She sat back down and banged her head on her desk with a groan.  Everyone snickered and laughed, but then Alaric spoke and her heart fluttered. 

    "Hello Cadence Elwood, its a pleasure to meet you too, and I hope I get the chance to get to know you too. I can tell we will become great friends."

She looked up shocked as he walked over to her and held out his hand. Tentatively she held hers out, thinking he wanted to shake her hand, but instead he took her hand and kissed it, as though she was royalty. She blushed and smiled and noticed that he has his eyebrow pierced, a small black hoop barely visible under his long bangs. When he smiled back her heart raced and she became flustered, looking away from his piercing eyes. 

   "Mr. Thomas, I do believe we are done here. I have met all the people I wish to know. Where is an empty desk for me to sit at?" Alaric said calmly and coolly his eyes never leaving her. Mr. Thomas looked at him shocked that his idea was shot down so quickly. He sighed and pointed to the desk right behind cadence. 

"Well, I was hoping that our game would go on longer so I didn't have to teach, but since Mr. Alaric is new here, we shall follow his bidding. So class, take out your Algebra books and turn to page three hundred and two."  

   Cadence could tell from that moment on that something weird was going on between her and Alaric, and that he was now public enemy number one, and she had to protect him. She just didn't know how or why she felt so protective over this new, mysterious guy, but she did know she wont be able to rest until she found out. Something surprised her and she jumped, realizing that her fear was just caused by Alaric passing a note over her shoulder, sending a woodsy scent along with it. Floating through her senses was a scent like none other, musk and earth and a strange flower she couldn't quite put her finger on. She sat and breathed it in for what seemed like hours, until he whispered into her ear feather-soft. 

    "Are you going to read it or what?" 

  She jumped back to reality and embarassedly nodded her head while opening the note. Inside said I know you feel it too. Meet me in lunch, I know you have all the same classes as me. Along with that strange request was two numbers. She could only guess that they were his locker number and cell phone number. She shivered and wrote back in agreement. He passed the note back with a single word written below her long script. Moonflower. How did he know what she was thinking? This was getting way too weird for her liking.