From the Darkness

Prologue

As he listens to Raelynn play in the sandbox, Gavriel sits on the swing and tries to concentrate on the conversation with his boss going on inside his head. Telepathic communication was something the Royal Family taught him to do when he first started working for them.

This task, keep an eye on this girl by feigning being her babysitter, was given to him by the Royal Family, the group of vampires that are in charge of every single vampire on the planet.

This girl is special, her father is a vampire, once royalty, to be exact, but her mother a mortal, giving her a chance of either being completely normal or half vampire. If she is a half-blood, she will be immensely powerful, especially with her royal blood.

So far the only signs that she's a vampire is her light complexion and light blonde hair. Not because vampires loose all of their pigment, they don't, but because it matches her father's traits, a sign that she would take after his vampirism.

"Gav, look!" the small girl yells.

"Hold, on one second," he tells his boss.

"What, Rae?" he says, trying not to sound annoyed, but rather interested.

"Look at my sandcastle!" she says proudly.

If it was possible for him to become any paler, he would have then when he saw that her sandcastle was a simpler version of the Royal Castle, something only a vampire should know. All vampires know the Castle, even if they've never visited it. It's almost as if it were an instinct.

"That looks great, Rae," he says, trying to keep his voice from shaking with anxiety. He must have achieved this because she looks up at him and beams. He returns the smile and then hurries back to the swing that hangs from a branch on the giant oak tree next to the sandbox.

"Sir, I don't know if this is a sign, but Raelynn just built the Royal Castle in her sandbox. Do you think it's a coincidence?"

"It very well could be, Gavriel, but there's just no way to know for sure. We may not know until her transition, you know that," the man says.

"Yes sir, I understand," Gavriel answers, and with it, he feels the connection with his boss slip away.