I love my ruby ring. It reminds me of blood. I like the sight of blood, especially when I am hungry, and I am often hungry. After 7 centuries, that has not changed.

Other things have changed. I'm in Chicago, where I've lived for the past 7 years with my brother Nick. and I can't find my mother, Janette, the one that brought me across, because I was dying, and I didn't even know what I was dying of. I still don't. All I know it was July 14, 1228, the night I turned 14.

I also can't feel Janette, and that frightens me. It can mean only one of two things. One, that she is dead, but I would know that, because I can feel it when vampires I am close to die. I've felt it before, and it hurts. Two, it means she has somehow turned mortal. I know that is not possible. Once you are a vampire, you are one forever. I should know, because I, Katriane de Bremond, have been one for 764 years.