Prelude

To set the tone, one must share where the events led to, before memory takes to find freedom. The tension is palpable when Anna Lovella faces the men who destroyed her life. But how, exactly?

       ‘Twas an early morning in the countryside of Lovella; the year, 1703. The fields of knee-high green grass warm with spring and wild flowers. A gentle breeze, filled with the same warmth, blew beneath the clear sunny sky, slightly stirring the leaves of a large oak in the center of the meadow. All was quiet but that of the wind blown trees surrounding the meadow. Not even a bird’s song was heard.
      
      From a path at the northwestern most corner emerged a young woman of pale skin, thin, light brown hair, and pale blue eyes riding a white stallion at a slow trot. She wore a pale blue gown, to match her eyes, and a black cloak, her hair untidily loose from its tie due to the ride. The young woman was me: Anna Danielle Lovella.
      
      I gently pulled the reigns and Laina, my mare, came to a stop. I climbed down from the saddle and looked back down the path. It was shadowed and foggy, devoid of life to the human eye. Knowing better, I closed my eyes, raising my hand toward it, and willed it to close. With a short gasp, I leaned into Laina’s side, clutching my own briefly.
      
      Laina turned her head slightly, looking at me with worry-plagued violet eyes. Though silent, still, around us, her voice was strong in my mind. I nodded knowingly and whispered as I stood straight again.
      
      “I’m fine. Go. Take the trail east. He won’t get you. I’ll be fine.”
      
      Laina whinnied slightly in protest, nudging my arm gently. I sighed softly and nodded again.
      
      “I know you’re worried, dearest, but I promise I’ll be fine. We may never see each other again, but we’ll be fine. Now go! He’s coming!” I hissed.
      
      I slapped Laina’s hind, startling her, and she ran east. I looked at the sky for a moment and ran silently to the oak as dark clouds emerged from what seemed nowhere. Just as I reached the base of the great oak, I climbed high into its branches, searching for a memory carved years before.
      
      I found it quickly and pulled a blade from my cloak, lying on my back with my head towards the branch’s base. I prepared myself to remove the portion of the wood marked as a curse, expecting the feel of release, or pain at the most. Just as I lowered the blade to the wood a cold, pale hand took hold of mine with a firm grip, startling me and causing me to fall from the branch. My hand was released and I landed, bare feet first, on the branch just below.
      
      I looked up and let out a mockingly inhuman snarl that seemed real when I saw the pale, dark-haired man I was avoiding. He only chuckled, sweeping the long black hair away from his piercing silver eyes, looking as young as ever.
      “Aww, c’mon, Anna. Stop running,” he said in a soft, seductive voice.
      I only growled louder. He rolled his eyes.
      
      He sighed, “Don’t make me do this the hard way, Anna.”
      
      I glared at him, my eyes narrowing as I attempted to will him to fall back. He nodded and, foolishly, I looked down to see the three of his brothers surrounding the tree. He took advantage of the moment and dove at me. I screamed and looked back at him as we fell. Silencing myself, I closed my eyes, pushing away from him with more than just my failing strength as he began to wrap his arms around me.
      
      I flipped back in time to land on my feet in a catlike manner. I looked at the brothers as they came together before me.
      
      “Why, Alex? Serene? Sorin? Thane? Why?” I scoffed, a trace of misplaced laughter in my voice, as I straightened. “Why should I stop ‘running’? I’m not a part of your little clan. And I don’t plan to be. I am a Lovella, your enemy by blood.”
      Alex, the one I had faced in the tree, growled, stepping towards me as he spoke in his soft velvety voice.
      
      “We offer the only hope you have, Anna.”
      
      The feral growling ceased and his voice softened a bit more as he said, “We love you, Anna. I love you.”
      
      I stood straight and silent as I watched each of them, taking in every detail of their beings. Alex, his long black hair moving with the wind, wore a finely stitched, white cotton shirt that fit loosely and knee0length breeches, his feet bare. He would’ve looked like an angel had I not known the evil behind his eyes. Serene, as always, had his shaggy, dark brown hair tied loosely at the base of the back of his neck and wore a thin black shirt that displayed every contour and curve in his abdomen and black breeches, his eyes just a bit of a darker, less reflective silver than Alex’s.
      
      Sorin’s long, perfectly straight white hair framed his pale face, his silver eyes standing out just a bit with their flecks of gray-green. He wore the same as Serene. Thane chuckled slightly at my silence; his black hair cut unevenly just an inch or so below his ears, making a shaggy curtain of darkness. He, too, wore the black clothing. All, but for Alex, wore a dark cloak that seemed to flow around them like an energy. Only Alex and Thane looked anything alike, if you didn’t consider their eyes. Alex was the youngest, though you couldn’t tell it with the way he seemed to lead the coven of brothers. But not as young as I.
      
      He wore different clothing than his brothers to fool others, like myself, into thinking he was looking for a playfully lost lover while in all actuality looking for young foolish prey. The people of the village of Lovella believed in legends of vampires and werewolves stalking the forests at night, yet failed to realize the very creatures they feared by night prowled the village, both day and night.
      
      Alex took another step towards me, offering his hand. I stared at the cold, undead thing as his voice rose softly, trying to swoon me.
      
      “Come now, Anna. We do not wish to harm you, love. We wish to bring you into a better, more peaceful world.”
      
      The others behind him watched curiously as I put the blade, in my hand still, away within my cloak. I lifted the same hand, my right, and whistled loudly. All four of them dove and I jumped onto Midnight, a wild, black gelding, as he passed at an incredible speed, barely clearing the desperate vampire coven.
      
      Without glancing back, I rode onward through the forest, awaiting yet another chance to try and break the “bond” between the Young brothers and myself.
      
      The bond held by a curse, carved in the large old oak as a young lovers’ symbol to last forever.

Author's Note

Again, amateur work with room for editing and advice before the story continues to public eye.