White As Day

Chapter 1

Ten years later...

Eira squinted at the chess pieces displayed on the checkered board. A grin replaced her thoughtful expression as she noticed where her castle guard was standing, she could check Jock's king. With one swift movement she slid the castle guard up the board to land a space away from the king.

"Check," She smirked as Jock's eyebrows arched in surprise.

He leaned down, looking for a move he could take to save himself. Moving his king he sighed, "I'm going to loose... again."

Eira laughed, "Don't be a poor sport." She said as she moved her queen to check the king once again, "Checkmate!" She shouted happily.

Jock stood from his seat, "I swear you cheat."

Charlotte who had been watching from the doorway shook her head, "She doesn't cheat Jock, she's just smarter than you." She smiled innocently at him as he frowned.

"That's right Jock, I'm just smarter than you." Eira teased as she stood from her chair as well.

Jock shook his head, "You only wish you were little Eira." He said as he ruffled his hand in her blonde hair.

She scowled at him, "I'm nineteen now Jock, I think you can stop calling me little."

Jock shrugged, "I don't care if your fifty, you're still little Eira to me."

A small smile replaced Eira's scowl, it was a sweet comment, something Jock did not often do anymore since her mother had died; or at least they supposed she had died since anyone who stood up against the Clave was immediately put to death.

The Clave, yes they had now come to have a name. The Clave was an elite group of angels. Angels that didn't happen to be as angelic as people had thought they were. The Clave ruled with a cruel hand and would smite down anyone who crossed their path. They even somewhat ruled over the demons. Little devils, with horns, and mischief running through their dark veins. They were heartless creatures and had a ruler as well. Their congregation had a name that even described how evil they were, the Heartless Ones, and heartless was right, they couldn't feel anything. They couldn't feel happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, peace, anything, especially not love.

There were other creatures who had entered the world when the sky went dark, but they lived mostly peacefully among the humans who still existed. They did not interfere with the Clave or the Heartless Ones, but sometimes, if they were brave enough they might even hide a human for the night. They didn't bother with getting involved in anything, they just wanted to party and enjoy life. The more rich and famous ones owned clubs, dive bars, or even fusion lounges. They were party animals and welcomed anyone into their clubs with open arms.

The humans called them Shifters, while the Clave and Heartless Ones called them animale, meaning "animal" in Italian. Italian seemed to be a well known language along with English among the Clave, and the Heartless Ones had begun to pick up on the languages as well.

These Shifters were human looking, but could shift into all kinds of different animals. Some could take the form of a lion, while others shifted into an innocent looking deer. Each Shifter had their own animal they could become and along with becoming the entire animal, they could also choose to only partly become the animal. Some Shifters would walk around with tails swinging back and forth behind them, or ears that would perk up from the tops of their heads.

Eira shook all thoughts from her mind as she turned towards the woman who had entered next to Charlotte. She was a shifter, and had been hiding them for the night. A black tail swung from behind her as she spoke, her black, cat ears on top of her head moving as they registered sounds that were unheard to the human ear.