Burned (Book1) The White Rose Vampire Series

Prologue

It is amazing and horrifying how quickly things can change. In an instant, everything can go from happy and carefree to tragic and dark, changing a life that was so familiar into something strange and foreboding. It had happened once before. The night my grandmother died. 

The same day, we sat at her table eating peach cobbler in her kitchen at the old, round wooden table. Her laughter saturated the air around us filling us with warmth and love. I still remember how that laughter sparked in her eyes blanketing her whole face. Then, we left, promising to return on Sunday. The police officer's knock came instead. The oven had been left on. A fire had started, taking my grandmother before the firemen could reach her.

Her funeral was on the Sunday we were supposed to visit but somehow, it didn't feel like Sunday anymore. Sunday had always been beautiful and magical but without my grandmother, it had lost all its familiar wonder leaving bitter nostalgia behind.  It couldn't be Sunday ever again because she wasn't there anymore. My favorite dessert, peach cobbler, was never the same again.

I should have known it could happen again, but people are naïve when it comes to death stalking them and I was no exception. The day was too perfect. I went shopping for clothes with my best friend, Izzie Sutton. Band shirts were scattered across my bed with other odds and ends of our trip to the mall. We shopped in the stores that felt like dark corners with more alternative apparel. Even in my happiest days, I enjoyed the darkness. I suppose even in happiness my mind tried to give me a hint of where I should be, but I didn't listen.

The knock on the door of my dorm stopped the laughter I thought I would return to. A stupid grin was still plastered over my face until the door was pulled open to reveal police officers with grim expressions. I stupidly wondered what I had done to get a visit from them. I was in a design class that rarely gave me time to do anything else but study. The outing that day had been a rare occurrence.

"Lanie Price?" The youngest of the two police officers asked with a grim expression to match the grim voice he spoke with. The smile I had held onto slipped from my face as I realized they were there for me. Worry twisted in my stomach.

I nodded numbly as Izzie made her way beside me and gripped my hand, her eyes traveling from the officers to my face. Izzie had always been like that. Tough looking with an attitude but the most loyal, caring friend a girl could ask for.

As the police officer spoke, the words floated through my head, confusing me in their detached delivery while catching on certain words.

"Regret to inform you..."

"Your parents..."

"Passed away at the scene..."

"Identify the personal effects..."

I almost laughed. I don't know why but I almost did. It bubbled up in my throat but instead, a sob broke through, tearing my throat to shreds. I tried to take a breath, but it felt as if I were breathing through a thick, dark cloth. My eyes blurred from tears as I shook my head. Izzie's arms around me, pulling me against her was what pushed the oxygen back into my starved lungs as I realized she was the only one I had left...My sister of the soul.

She was the one who stood by me as I signed the papers for their cremation. The day they would turn to ash floating up in bold letters...Sunday...The day that didn't seem like a day at all to me anymore...Sunday...Now, a word I would always think of when I thought of death...A word that used to be as sweet as a peach cobbler but now was soured by loss.

Sunday the word that destiny would give me as a warning...Sadly, I always noticed the word, but I never listened because Sunday was the day I stood in front of White Rose Manor frightened but with a great hope that it would solve the problems created by my parent's death. Boy...Was I wrong...