Prolouge: Liquid-Silver Eyes.

DASHA

"Dasha?" My identical sister called. I looked over. She looked rather confused for some reason. Even with us being identical, she looked so much younger than me and even though she was as smart as me, always seemed so little and childish. Her feelings were easily hurt, but easily fixed, too. That is one thing I loved about her. She was never very complicated. She got upset, and it was simple to figure out what she was upset about. As a human, I was of the mindset, "I ain't no mind reader, so tell it, or shut it up." Of course, as a vampire I could read memories and know what was wrong so the "ain't no mind reader" thing didn't work no more, but my mindset has still not changed.

Hala's full name was Hallee Taloulah, and mine was Dashela Ciar. We were twins, but we didn't know anything about our biological parents. We had only had each other most of our lives. We lived for two years with a family, but then we ran away when we were five. We ran and stole and conned until we were twelve. I can still feel the feeling of the wind whipping my long hair into my face as we ran away from the mad store owners. Ahh, the good memories. And then a stranger bit us and transformed us into vampires, it was suprising, but I found my ability to read memories very helpful. We were over four hundred years old now, and still only had each other. I loved my sister, she was my world, but I had never gotten rid of that feeling someone, or more than one person, was missing. Whenever I would go down the street, Hala swinging my hand back and forth while I looked around, I wished there was someone at my other side. I had always dismissed it as normal orphan feelings. Maybe I missed the real family I had never had a chance to belong to. I wondered about them sometimes. Maybe they were poor and had to give us up. Maybe they lived in a bad town and wanted better for us? I didn't know. Like I would ever find out, being they were all dead by now, but it still bugged me. No mater what I told Hala, I did really care about why they abandoned me. But I couldn't tell Hala that. She depended on me. She was the good one, the one that always felt bad. I was the one that did what they wanted without a guilty thought like it was no one's business. I was a vampire and all my family had passed on by now, that much I knew without a doubt because no one but a vampire can survive four centries. I couldn't really accept that they were dead. It was like they were still waiting for us. I tried to hide it from Hala, but the girl could read me like I was a picture book. I could read her the same way. It came in handy, but no so much when you wanted to keep things hidden.

"Yeah, Hala?" I responded to my sister.

"I told you of the strange flashes I was getting my my head. Some were your memories, but some weren't. I saw a huge maple tree with a bunch of names, weird ones, like Civic and Christelby and Cyrus and names like that. And quite a few other C's if I think about it. These people really like the letter C."

"What does this have to do with anything, Louie?" I asked, not getting where she was going with this. Hala was a partial-omnist, but she only ever saw my future, hers, and a couple other peoples and she couldn't do it at will. It just came to her in brief flashes of past, future, and present from the person's point of view and could feel the emotions as well.

"I think we should find her, wherever she is. I have a feeling about it. We have to find Christelby Veanina."

"Why? What about the other flashes you've seen, Hala? What do those mean?"

"I think this Christelby is important in our history for some reason, but I don't know why and it's confusing me, Ellie. I keep seeing another girl, too. There's two girls traveling together. One our age, one fourteen. The fourteen year old girl girl is Fallan Jenson. They're traveling together and they're closer than sisters-so in sync with each other, just like we are. I think they're trying to find Christelby. I think we need to find them, too, Dashie."

"So the best option would be to find Christelby, and we'll meet up with the others there?" I tried to sum up the confusing exchange.

"Yes, I think so, Ellie. I'll get our things packed while you look her up on the computer." Hala said and went to get out suitcases.

And so we began our trek to find Christelby Veanina, whoever she was. We didn't know much about her or the other one Hala was getting flashes about.

I serched her on Google. One result. Adoption papers. Must not be a vampire, I noted, seeing the birth date, even though adoption papers were a common thing for vamps under the age of eighteen, declaring them the adopted children of the older members of their family group. The file was restricted but a quick hack thorugh three firewalls and I was in.

Current: Christelby Hazelle Veanina

Born: Christelbi Hazelle Keori

Sex: Female

Date of Birth: December 20, 1999 4:16pm

Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland

Race: White/Native American

Hair: Black

Eyes: Grey

Height: 5'-4"

Build: Slight

Biological Mother: Amy Keori, Native American/White

Biological Father: James Keori, White

Adoptive Mother: Carleen Veanina

Adoptive Father: Andrew Veanina

Was she a family member of ours? Did I have siblings that had children? The decription matched mine, black hair, grey eyes, small build. But the Native American must have come on later in the line, because I was so pale I looked like what I was-a vampire. Maybe she was darker than me. Maybe she was my family. If my eyes were red I could pass as a vampire instead of the pale human I otherwise pretended to be.

What if that was my family name, Keori? It was an Irish name, meaning Awaited-for Tranquillity. It didn't seem like a last name. More like the name of a place. How could be people bring tranquillity? A place could. A forest, a peaceful island, an excape.

I looked in the mirror on our wall. I was about five-four with a small, petite build making me look tinier than I was-small, weak. But I wasn't weak. Never weak. It anyone could put up a fight, it was me. I wasn't very curvy, being only twelve, maybe thirteen. I only know I was born somewhere in midwinter of fifteen-sixty-seven, not the date. I was very pale, the effect of being a vampire and the fact I had never really had dark skin in the first place-I'd seen vampires darker than I was as a human. My black hair made me look even paler against its dark curtains, but I loved my hair and wouldn't dye it any other color. As a human, I seemed immune to tanning, no matter how much time I stayed in the sun. My most promenent feature were my bright, peircing, liquid-silver eyes. It looked like I was wearing contacts made of pure white gold, with pupils of dark onyx.

I didn't know then that there was a girl looking into a mirror in green California, seeing liquid-silver eyes that were the exactly like mine to the last degree. I didn't know then that Christelby glanced briefly out the window at the tall maple tree in her backyard, the very same one Hala had seen in her flashes. I didn't know that Christelby Veanina lived in California, or that she had a four year old nephew, or that she had a nineteen year old sister who was pregnant with a baby boy who's middle name she would name after her late nephew, and his last name would be her and her husband's. I didn't know that Christelby was very impatiently awaiting his birth. I didn't know that looking at Christelby would be like looking at a mirror. I didn't know that Christelby knew nothing of us at all, and thought that her only sibling left alive was her older sister. But most importently, perhaps, I didn't know that she was a vampire, born on December 20th, 1567.

ILAH

"Fallan, where do we go from here? We've seen Paris countless times before." I said emotionessly. I liked Paris, but after a few months of living here, I had already seen everything there was to see. It never much changed. Fancy people, fancy decorations, fancy places. Smelly cheese that you could smell from five miles away. I traveled quite a bit, and with no family or sentimental value to any place, I didn't like to stay for very long. It only reminded me that I never belonged anywhere. Ever since I was human, I had known that the people I lived with were not my real parents, and that I was adopted. When I asked them, they told me the truth without any lies, no sugar-coating, which I had always hated. If I didn't want to know the truth, I wouldn't have asked. I had asked about my biological parents. My parents said that they knew nothing of them because I was just dropped off at the orphanage and they adopted me before I turned one. Then they drowned in a flood when I was eleven. The rescue team found me clinging to a tree. I couldn't remember how I got up there, I must have blanked out, but all I know is I got up there, seeing as I was alive. I could only remember a woman with dark hair swiming fast to get me.

Fallan's unusally quiet, unusually sad voice pulled me out of my memories. "Ma-Maybe back to America, I think. I haven't been there since I was changed. My...My family probly still lives in Arizona." My face stayed the same, but I felt sad for Fallan. I knew she missed her family. I was different. There was nothing I could do about my parents, either biological or adopted, seeing as my adopted parents died and I don't know know my real parents are. But to have your family there and not be able to see them, or talk to them, or do anything, it must have been heartbreaking.

When I traveled after I became a vampire, I had met Fallan a couple decades ago. She had quickly become my best friend, and we discovered that when I blanked out for fifteen seconds or so, I would say things about the future or advice or such. I was omnicent, more or less. Fallan had no Gifts, but that was fine with her. She said she had me and that was more than enough to make up for having none of her own. She was like a sister to me, except for the sibling fighting part. I preferred to keep my emotions to myself, but Fallan had the ability to read me even when I wore my usual expression: a blank and unreadable face. People who exposed their feelings got hurt. People who showed no emotion didn't. I felt like I had a reason not to show emotion. Why be happy? There was no surprise in life when you saw everything happen before it did, every funny thing, every present, every thing that could bring you unexpected happiness. That was my problem. With me, everything was expected. The word unexpected didn't apply to me. When I met a person, I already knew how they were going to react to me. When I went somewhere, I had already seen everything there was to see.

"We'll go back to America. Just don't get attached to your family. You know you can't stay. I-" I struggled to say my feelings out loud. Hiding my feelings had been three and a half centries ingrained before I met Fallan. "I don't want you to get hurt Fallan, when they pass on."

"I know, Iles. I know I left and I can't go back. When do we leave for America?"

"Whenever we want to, Fallan. Vampires don't have a schedule to keep."

"I'll get the bags, Iles, you call the airlines. Please, since we're going back to America, the land of dreams, can we take first class?"

"That will be fine, Fallan. We will fly first class if it pleases you." I said, giving in to her simple request. I didn't much like being in close quarters with people because I didn't much like physical contact. It seemed like I had been cramped for so long and just needed my space now.

Then I got one of my frequent images of the future. There was a girl, about my age. She was looking in an ornatly carved mirror, real gold trim, silver accents. The works of a rich girl. He solid silver necklace told the tale, it was a beautiful chain with her name on it. Her name was done in a very fancy, beautiful writing, a calligraphy of some sort.

"Hey, Christelby, you know where Hala is?"

"No. Check her room, Dasha. Last time I saw her, she was heading that way."

Then it ended. I had seen Dasha through Christelby's eyes. The girls were identical. Very pale, very beautiful faces. The problem was I also saw that same face when I looked in the mirror everyday.