When news of their deaths reached her, via her sister, Sara, Zoe was only ten years old. She traveled to New York for the funeral, briefly meeting with Arnand. Sara, feeling the same fervor for justice as their parents, told Zoe what her 'purpose' in this life was : to rid the night of it's crawling creatures. Zoe was only ten, she thought her sister was talking about bugs! And in a way, she was.

Not truly understanding this new mission that Sara seemed in a hurry to put her on, Zoe none-the-less stayed in New York, despite wanting to remain with her Grandparents. She was put into public school, and divided her time between homework and learning fighting techniques. It was all a game to Zoe, until her first real brush with death came, when she was eleven. She and her sister were returning from her lessons when the attack came. A group of Hemithane's looking for a new game. Help came on the heels of the attack from Arnand Jacobs, but not before Sara was wounded in the attack. Unable to continue to train Zoe, Sara handed that aspect of her life over to her trusted mentor, Arnand.

Sara wasn't to be around for very long, because a month after the attack, she was slaughtered in her own bed. Zoe, in shock, demanded to be sent to New Hampshire to live with her Grandparents. There she was able to resume something of a normal life, and pursued one of her talents, music. By fifteen, she was performing in all of the clubs in New Hampshire. She never once thought of returning to the Forty and that life.

Zoe's Grandmother died of a heart attack when she was sixteen, and threw she and her Grandfather into a spiral of confusion. Feeling helpless, she took up martial arts training once again, which eventually led into weapons training.

Seven years later, she and her Grandfather were visiting her Grandmother's grave, as they had done every month for the past seven years, when they were jumped by a newly Embraced vampire. That was no problem for Zoe, as she quickly dusted him. But the vampires Sire and minions were enraged, and came at her from all sides. Her Grandfather was killed in the fight, drained and left broken on the tomb of his wife. They left her, with broken bones in dozens of places, internal bleeding, and on the road to death. But then the ambulance arrived, something Zoe always believed was a pity, and she was carted off to the hospital for a another year to heal, and mourn. At twenty-two, Zoe found the drive to enter the world of the Forty once again.

When she was finally released, she had a very private ceremony to her Grandfather, packed up the house and sold it, took her car, and started for New York. Her drive isn't justice, or slaying the creatures of the New York nights - it's Revenge, plain and simple.