The Border Trilogy (Book #1) Enemies to lovers, Forbidden love

Prologue

Ever wonder why age-old rules are still in place today? Laws are still carried out even though they were established in a completely different time. A time much poorer than today, a time that was less hopeful. Maybe even a time more violent than today.

We never really question them, do we? We just follow them. I guess because they don't really bother us one way or another. We've lived this way for years and it's worked for us, so we keep going, consciously following rules, ironically like zombies.

I'm the type of girl who does what must be done, follows the rules without questioning, and stays away from whatever is deemed forbidden in my tribe, the Kairi tribe.

We're named after the ocean because we possess all rights to the ocean on our side of the border.

What's on the other side?

Well, we don't really speak of them much within the village, or to anyone really. They're the reason we have our number one law, which is one of our three most important laws:

The Third Law: No one hunts outside the hunting lines set by our ancestors.

The Second Law: No one may hunt, hurt, or come into contact with humans.

The First Law: No one crosses the border.

Because across the border lies the Theon tribe, our lifelong enemy.

Since we don't speak much of them, not everyone knows the whole story of why they're our enemy. Yet everyone blindly follows the laws and believes there must be a logical reason, which I only learned not too long ago.

According to my grandfather, centuries ago one of the Theon Elders betrayed our Elders and nearly had them all wiped out by another tribe, the Ra'am tribe, our now common enemy. But there was never enough evidence to prove it, so nothing could be done about it. After that came a dispute over land, and our tribes battled until finally, our warriors killed half of their Elders and the Theon tribe surrendered. To keep the peace, the land dispute was settled and the river separating our tribes became established as the border.

Because of the violence and amount of lives lost surpassing any battle in our history, the Elders decided to keep both tribes separated indefinitely. The treaty acknowledged the land on our side of the border, including access to the ocean, belonged entirely to us and that the Theon tribe would never be permitted to cross over for any reason. Everything on the other side of the border belonged to them, and we were forbidden from crossing onto their side. If they needed to travel, it would be by river only until they crossed into another tribe's territory.

The treaty is still active today, but years after it was signed, two boys from the Theon tribe crossed over attempting to reach the ocean discreetly to travel to avoid a longer voyage by river. They were caught by one of our Protectors and brought before our Elders.

Protectors are like the police in the modern human world. They protect us on our land from anyone who might try to harm us, whether from our own tribe or another. The Elders, also known as the Council, are what I suppose humans would call their government. They are the heads of the tribe. They make the laws, settle disputes, and decide punishments. Everything that happens within Kairi goes through them.

They decided that the two boys should receive the death penalty for breaking the treaty. Since a death penalty for crossing the border was an lawful punishment but not mandatory in the treaty, the new Elders of the Theon tribe argued that it was unjust, cruel, and unfair because the boys meant no harm.

Still, they were killed.

And so the treaty was revised, stating that anyone who crosses the border will be sentenced to death by the tribe's Elders. Though it has never happened again since, our hatred of them- and their hatred of us- grows stronger with every year.

And what are we?

You might call us vampires, but that's almost insulting.

Our ancestors were vampires. They were active only during the night, lived for nearly two centuries, and survived solely on blood. But with each generation, and with all the medical and technological advancements made by humans, they slowly died off and we adapted to the new age.

Over the years, our genes changed and the abilities our ancestors possessed slowly faded away. Only a select few of us still retain certain traits, including myself. But I prefer to think of them as enhancements of things anyone can do.

For example, I can run faster than most of my tribe. Some are stronger. Some leap higher. Some can see or hear from miles away as clearly as if it were right in front of them. But that's the extent of it.

Where our ancestors survived solely on blood, we have no use for it today. We hunt, cook, and eat the animals around us. Calling us human is just as inaccurate as calling us vampires, considering each of us possesses the strength of at least ten humans combined and can move much faster than they can.

When it comes to healing, we don't get sick, but if we're injured, it takes time to recover, whereas our ancestors' wounds healed within minutes. They once lived for up to two centuries, but now our life expectancy is no different from that of humans.

With every generation we've become weaker.

But at least we don't need the sun to hide for us to come out.

We are the day walkers.