Prologue

PROLOGUE

The night air is still, too still for an ordinary summer night. Lucinda watches the unswaying trees from the balcony of her bedroom. Thoughts of change and redemption from the dark abyss of the modern world occupy her mind. From the distance she sees a figure, no a man. His long strong strides give him away. He walks like a soldier; brave and with purpose. The shadow of a man reaches the old steel gate that wraps around the mansion like the tentacles of an octopus. From here Lucinda can see that he’s carrying something under his robe. She watches the man take a hand away from the package he’s holding and reach up to ring the doorbell. While doing so, the shadows that had obscured the man’s identity slip away into the darkness. Lucinda takes a deep breath as the sound of the bell rings in the mansion.

It’s Dominic and he’s brought the baby.

            Dominic urgently rings the bell a second time and glances around

            Lucinda opens the door slowly, and steps outside. She looks in both directions quickly scanning her surroundings.

“You shouldn’t have come here Dominic,” Lucinda says softly as if afraid the shadows of darkness will hear her.

 “Where should I have gone Lucy?” Dominic asks in a hiss that matches Lucinda’s eery tone.

“Anywhere. Anywhere but here.” She stares at the tiny bundle in his arms.

“She’ll die anywhere else.  Please, help me.” The powerful man pleads.

 “Maybe she doesn’t deserve to live.”

“How could you say that? She’s a baby!” Dominic screams in rage, startling the still night.

“She’s a monster. She was never meant to exist! The magic of the witch and the immortality of a vampire is a deadly combination. It’s too much power for one being to possess,” She shakes her head.”You haven’t changed Dominic, always the hero, always saving the poor and helpless. You should have let her die in the demon fire. It would have been better for everybody.”

“You would never let a baby die in demon fire.”

She shifts uncomfortably. “She’s not an ordinary baby.”

“Nor are you an ordinary woman.”

She sighs, “Perhaps not. But I am a witch, not a monster.”

“You chose good over evil, Lucinda. Give her the chance you were given.”

The baby wails.

“She sounds like a nightingale,” Lucinda says in awe. She uncovers the bundle and peeks at the child inside. A pale baby with large blue eyes rimmed in red stares back at her. Lucinda touches her hand in amazement. The baby’s fingers are long and clawed but the black crescent on her wrist immediately brings Lucinda back to the reality of what this child is. She looks up at Dominic and shakes her head, “I can’t do this.”

Dominic tries one more time. “You’re a witch Lucinda,” he says, “Hold her hand and sense her aura. If her aura is black I will bother you no more.”

Lucinda does what he asks and grasps the baby’s tiny clawed fingers in her own. She mutters something incomprehensible and gasps as the child’s aura is revealed to her.

“What is it?” Dominic asks.

“I have never seen anything like this in my entire life,” she says softly. “Her aura is a mixture of the darkest of all blacks and the brightest emerald I’ve yet to see.”

“What does it mean?”

“She can either be a blessing so great or a curse so terrible. She is powerful like no creature that has ever existed.”

Dominic glances behind him, “I can’t keep this up much longer. The People are too strong, their technology is too advanced.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lucinda listen to me…the people have been trailing me. In sixty seconds the protective wall I have up around us will break. Go inside the mansion, they cannot find you there. There is an ancient magic that will protect you, but,” he says, “take the baby.”

Lucinda hesitates, then holds out her hands. Dominic hands the baby over. Gunshots sound.

“Go,” he screams.

“Wait, what shall I call her?”

“Nightingale,” he replies quickly, but the sound of a single gunshot that misses him by a mere inch drowns out the first part of the word.

“Gale,” Lucinda says closing the large oak door, “I wonder why he chose that name.”

Reviews

[JLarsino]

Well done plotwise. You did a good job of introducing the characters without it being over the top. The descriptions were lovely. I was confused about one thing though, and that was the time period. They talk as though they are from the past like the Victorian period or maybe Early America. This is just the prologue though so it isn't something that has to be revealed right away. I'm assuming Gale is going to be the main character which is pretty unique since I have never heard of a story about a vampire witch. Sounds interesting, well done!