Chapter 1

Lisa and I had been bestfriends since sixth grade. We had laughed together, cried together, travelled through universes, and (believe it or not) turned into mythical creatures together. Yeah, it's a long story, and there's lots of blood, betrayal, friendship and romances. I hope that I did mention blood and betrayal. It all started one day during an autumn, long ago.

We were standing at the bus station, Lisa, Julia and I. As usually, we were chatting about everything between sun (excuse me, I meant moon) and earth. Lisa and I coughed violently, but we had decided to do our every-sunday-shopping-day. We could be sick tomorrow, instead.
"You're really doing everything together, don't you?" Julia sighed. Lisa and I snickered, and then I got another violent attack of coughing.

"I'm dying!" I complained, and fake-fainted onto one of the benches. Julia and Lisa couldn't stop laughing as I sticked out my tounge. We were acting like five-year olds, though we were sixteen.

"Should we leave Ella here, or drag her onto the bus and pertend that she's just drunk?" Lisa asked, as the bus arrived.

"Look, it's a miracle!" I exclaimed, and jumped up. "I'm alive!" Lisa and I begun to cough again. Julia sighed irritated.

"Will you stay here, or go shopping?" she asked. Her hazel eyes gazed at my forehead.

"Jeez, Ella!" Julia looked at Lisa, too. "And Lisa, you too! What is that?" She pointed at my forehead.

"What?" I asked, and touched my forehead. Suddenly I felt a jolt of pain run through my head. "Ouch!" I looked at Lisa.

"Ella, are you alright?" Lisa asked me, but I couldn't answer. I could just stare at Lisa's forehead. There was a crescent, and that crescent hadn't been there one minute ago.

"We can talk later, I want to get on that bus." I replied, and stepped on the bus. We settled down at the seats at the back of the bus.

"What is that?" Julia asked me, and pointed at my forehead.

"What is what?" I didn't understand what she was talking about. Lisa pulled out a mirror from her bag.

"Look here, Ella." she said, and I looked at my reflection.

"Sweet erbos!" I gasped. My face was unusally pale, even to be me, and at my forehead there was a crescent in the same colour and size as Lisa's. I touched the crescent again, and one single word appeard in my head. Vampyre. Why?

"You got one too." I said, and handed the mirror to Lisa.

"Do I..? Oh!" Lisa almost dropped the mirror at the bus's floor. Her hair seemed to be even redder against her pale skin, and her eyes seemed to be more green. And when I thought about her hair... had it grown a little? I fingered at my own hair, which also seemed to have grown a little. Otherwise, I couldn't see any difference at my hair. It was the same boring hair colour, that I never really could decide which colour it truly was. Sometimes it seemed to be light-brown, sometimes darke-blonde. There were only one loope in my hair that I truly could trust in which colour it truly was. 'The Bimbo Spot', as Jojo (my dear firend) called it. 'The Bimbo Spot' was bright blonde, the same colour as all of my hair had when I was a little girl. But my hair had darkened in time, and now I couldn't decide which colour it truly had.

"When did you do that?" Julia asked, "And why didn't you tell me? Now I looks like some sort of outsider!" Julia puffed up her smooth, black hair.

"It's not like we really planned this." I said, and felt a little anger grow in me. Why did she always act like it was our fault when something that she hadn't planned happend?
I told myself to don't act stupid, and then I saw him. He just sat there, one or two seats from us and just watched us. The man was arounf twenty-twentyfive, and was pale. At his forehead he had a crescent, just as Lisa and I. But that wasn't everything, he aslo had a tatu that looked like arrows that shoot out from his crescent. Honestly he scared the crap out of me. Lisa seemed to have noticed him too, but Julia didn't seem to have a clue about what we was watching.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, "Lisa? Ella? Hello!" Nope, she didn't see him.

"Don't you see him?" I replied, "The man?"

"What m-" but then the air exploded. At least the bus did. The scariest thing was that no one screamed, everything I could hear as my vision went black was my heartbeat.

As I awoke, I felt a lovley and salt and... Perfect. My mouth watered and I took a deep breath, and looked around. Where was I? As a wiccan, I believed in reincarnation (be reborned, if you didn't know), and heaven was not at my map. A voice begun to speak

Daughter.

The voice was almost as wonderful as the smell, and I closed my eyes.

"Yes?" I replied, and wondered if it was some sort of judgement. I hoped that the Goddess hadn't seen that I had cheated at the test in maths the week before.

Come to me.

"Where are you, Mother?" I asked. 'Mother' is the wiccan title for Goddess, or a importat person. A strong light appeard infront of me. At least I was smart enough to understand that I should step into or follow the light somehow. When I stepped into the light, I appeard in a cave-looking room. In the middle of the room there sat a woman with crossed legs. The woman wore a black-blue dress that reminded me of a starless night. Her hair black, straight and hanged down to her waist. I swear that my jaw dropped.

Ella Clineton, preistess over the Purple Circle, I welcome thee.

"Mother, am I dead?" I asked. I was surprisingly calm.

No, daughter, you are far from dead. Your journey has only begun.

"But you are the Goddess, right?"
The woman smiled.

I have many names, daughter. Gaia, for an example.

"Who are you now?" a very unmannerly question, but the Goddess smiled warmly against me.

You will know me as Nyx, the goddess of the night. You'll be the guide, but you'll also be the enemy, the fooled and the lost.

"Goddess, what do you mean? Who could I guide? I am barely ready to be preistess to my own coven!" the tears burned at the inside of my eyelids.

You are Marked, daughter, you are meant for this. Remember the gift

"I don't understand... The gift? And the bus... Where's Lisa?" the gift? At once I thought of... no, it couldn't be possible. I had some sort of, well, talent to make people do things for me. I could talk them into things, that they maybe'd regret later. But the Goddess couldn't mean that, could she? Suddenly I wanted to panick, where was Lisa? And Julia? Again the Goddess smiled at me.

Lisa is fine. You'll meet her again, daughter.
I sighed with relief.

"And Julia?" I asked. The Goddess looked sad.

I am sorry, daughter. But she's only your first sacrifice to your new life.

"New life? Mother..?" what did she mean with 'new life'?

You are now a vampyre, daughter. That's what the Mark at you forehead means.
I touched the crescent.

"Mother, what do you-" but the Goddess rose up, and leaned towards my forehead.

Farewell, daughter.
The Goddess kissed the crescent, and again everything went black.