Her Vampire Prince

Chapter I

It had been six months since the tragic passing of Faith's parents occurred. The grief was still as strong as it had been the moment she found out, but she had learned to live with it, and pack it away in the back of her mind. She was determined to carry on and honour her parent's choice of her becoming a top PA for a law firm, even if it took a little longer then she had previously expected, due to a lack of funds. Her parents had always been... pushy, accepting no less then the best. In year five when she had come second place in the Best Young Scientist Programme, her mother kicked up a fuss in front of all of the other parents and demanded that the scores be checked again. Faith came first that day, but she doesn't know whether it was for her talent or her mother's haughty, pushy rage.

Although making her mother proud of her was a huge deal to Faith, nothing was more sacred to her then earning her father's approval. Her father had always wanted a boy, but 'was landed with two soppy daughters instead', in his words. Faith tried her best to make him proud, but when he did acknowledge her, it was for hardly more then a request to fetch something for him or a grunt in response. What made it worse was he treated Faith's only male cousin, Daniel, with more love and respect then he did her, even though she was top of every class and Daniel was barely passing. She had never admitted it to anyone, but she once heard her father say to Daniel that he was the child he always wanted, which hurt like somebody constantly stabbing her in the chest and ripping her intestines out. She cried for weeks.

Now Faith would never get the chance to hear him say he was proud of her.

All the years of studying, isolating herself and tireless hard work amounted to nothing. But still, Faith knew that moving away was a chance to put herself first, and do what she wanted to do, not what her parents had chosen for her. She wished that she could be more like her sister Hope, who didn't care about what anyone said, was beautiful, laidback and most importantly, fun.

Faith doubted she could ever be totally laidback and free through. It had been drilled into her since she was a baby that she had to be the best at everything, otherwise the world would explode. It didn't help that she always put unsurmountable amounts of pressure on herself, but Faith was trying to be more imperturbable. She waited a whole day after Blackstone was selected on the map to start planning their new lives, well on paper anyway. They managed a quick sale on the house, which was not hard to believe since they lived in a rather desirable townhouse in London, and Faith managed to get a job almost right away, no interview required. Faith was worried about what such institution would not thoroughly examine their employee's before deciding to hire, but she forced herself to relax and just take the job. She hoped it would turn out to be a pleasurable adventure.

It was one-step to her dream occupation anyway – that being a vet. Faith has always loved animals, unable even to kill a spider. Her favourite animal had always been bats, and Faith hated the way Hollywood had demonised them through the years – to her they were nothing more then little bird puppies. Needless to say, the job she had accepted was as a secretary at "The Demelo Animal Rescue and Sanctuary" – essentially a classy vet. Today was Faith's first day at work, and although she was very nervous, she was also immeasurably excited. Just thinking about all the animals that she would be able to see and (hopefully) help care for made her giddy with delight, even if she couldn't be there for long. She had to save up enough money to go back to university, to earn her degree and make her parents proud, even from the grave.

Stepping out of her car, she remembered one of the eight pieces of advice her father gave her – 'you never get a second chance at a first impression.' This was her time to shine. Gently shutting the car door, she briefly examined her smile in the gleaming white paintwork, making sure it was acceptable, before fixing her ocean blue pencil skirt and matching blazer. Her heels clacked on the concrete pathway leading up to the vet, before she arrived in front of the automatic doors, opening and inviting her into the future.