Prologue

My history, like my name, remain a mystery to Mortals. It is not what you would call �normal�. Those who know my name, and my life�s story which follows in these pages, are my closest friends, Kayti and Aleira. We are not what you would call normal. Allow me to begin with Kayti, the one who may lead the simplest lives of the three of us ...
Kayti is a Witch, by the blood of her parents. Purebred witches with hereditary powers are becoming very rare as old families die out, so she was very respected in the Wiccan world as a powerful witch, one of the proud lines of The Summers wizards and witches until she befriended Aleira, a vampire. As Wiccans are peaceful people who despise evil and strive to stamp it out of the occult world, (evil creatures give us witches bad names you see) her coven, The Night Stars, disowned her. She still confides with her childhood coven friends Jacquie and Jennifer, and her sisters, Emily and Madeline, also of the Summers line, though, when we are in dire need of powerful magicks that the three of us, in their small circle cannot create.
Aleira and I are also witches, practitioners of the Wiccan religion.
Aleira is a vampyre. At least, part vampyre. Her mother had been turned late in her pregnancy. By "turned", I mean a vampyre sired her.
Allow me to explain. "Sire" is just a fancy way of saying that a vampyre bit someone, drained the victim to the point of death, then the vampyre would allow the victim to drink the blood from their wrist. The victim would die, per se. A vampyre's body is a vessel for the mind, with no living organs. A vampyre needs no air to breathe, since the lungs are dead, and no reason to eat or drink expensive wine, as these are not the requirements of life. All a vampyre needs to survive is a dark place to rest during the day, and the blood of the living to sustain what life they have. If you can so by that name, "life". This usually means the brutal murder of countless humans over the years, But Aleria, still claiming her humanity and therefore her soul, found this as cruel as any normal person would. Most of the time she drank the blood of small animals, like that of rats and other vermin. At other times, when no small animals were to be found lingering in the area, she would drink the excess pigs blood, given to us by the local butcher. Kayti and I always made sure that there was enough blood available for our roommate.
The vampyres have a long and complicated history. Many diverse versions of it have been written down. Each one contains a morsel of the truth. But the true story has never been heard by mortal ears. If any mortal were to hear the truth about vampyres, I pity their souls. Even I, who has seen so much time go by, do not know the full tale. And for that, I may one day be thankful.
Only some of the vampyre's traits were passed to Aleria. She craves blood, and a stake to the heart might kill her. However, she can go out in sunlight. Aleria is also part mermaid. This is very confusing, I know. Even I, who has come to learn so much about so many things in my long life, do not quite fully understand mermaids. Below is what Aleria has written down about her own history, what she once told me concerning mermaids:
Now Aleira became a mermaid at only five years old. Now, you�re all wondering �How do you become a mermaid?� Well, Aleira�s great grandmother was apparently a descendant of a great line of mermaids. Of course, like in all great historical families, naturally all this information was lost. So Aleira grew up with this guy named James for most of her life. They used to love swimming in the ocean together. This is how they met:
One lovely August morning, Aleira arrived at the beach a little earlier than she was supposed to. She had left without breakfast, as she knew her adoptive mother�s most recent boyfriend, Vince was expected home today from a �business trip�. He was a big time drug dealer, and incredibly abusive. Aleira had learned early on to stay out of his way.
Her adoptive mother (Her biological vampire mother had been killed by a Wiccan Vampyre hunter shortly after Aleira was born) never cared where her adoptive daughter was, and allowed her to wander the enormous city of Los Angeles. Her mom could actually care less if Aleira died (little did she know that Aleira was already technically dead). So she changed onto her swimsuit and jumped in.
James, also quite young at the time, loved to swim close to the shore, but in order to avoid people seeing him and allegedly destroying mermaids lives forever, he only did so when humans were less likely to spot him, late at night, and in the wee hours of the morning. Neither of the children were expecting the shock they received when they saw for the very first time a species that was for Aleira fabled and for James feared. James was in his natural form. A Merman. Aleira found out and was completely entranced by this. They became instant friends, and started to meet every day.
This was all well and good until James discovered the penalty for humans discovering the existence of mermaids. Death!!! In order to protect the mermaid culture, humans, (greedy creatures) were executed to avoid exposure. James talked (more like begged) to his parents (who, yes, were also merpeople) if Aleira could become a mermaid, therefore saving his friends life.
Now this is how things work �down under�. Much like up here there are cities located all over the different oceans. They have their own little way of �flying� for when they need to go long distances. This is much like a super powered submarine but we won�t get into that. It�s just too confusing for your brains to handle. James�s father happened to be very well thought of in the mer world and was told many of the old secrets that everyone else seemed to forget. The request was debated, and finally approved when the childs age and innocence was considered. Aleira was allowed to become a mermaid. It is a very slow and very painful process that you do not want to go through, trust me. It involves sacrifice and many other gruesome, not very polite, things. Now, in becoming a mermaid, Aleira could change back and forth between her normal form and her mer form whenever she wished." (You can read Aleria's fanfic once she�s put it up.)
Aleira probably has the strangest history out of the three of us. Including my own, which is written down in the following pages. My life may be about as confusing as that of my 2 friends. Yet it may be easier to explain since I know my own life better than that of my friends. Let's begin shall we ...

Chapter 1

As you may have gathered in the previous chapter, I am a Witch, or a practitioner of the Wiccan religion, and an Elf, skilled with sword and bow. If you were to ever happen upon an Elven army, you would probably notice that it mainly consisted of males. That is because there are few female Elves who can handle a sword, much less one of the fabled ones, which tend to be heavy, and quite beautiful, most often used by those the Elven king of the time favors. As for learning the skill involved with a bow, every Elf is taught the basics when they are young.
I shall begin where every history starts, at the beginning. I was born in a place called Mirkwood, in Middle Earth. I don�t expect any of you to know where that is. If you ever happen to pass a bookstore, stop in and get a book by JRR Tolkien. That is where his stories take place, and it is beautifully explained in The Silmarillion. Now, most people would believe that it doesn�t exist, this place called Middle Earth, where there are Elves, Men, Dwarves and Hobbits, fighting against evil forces, such as Orcs, and evil beings, such as Saurmon and Sauron the Deceiver. And I don�t blame you. I probably wouldn�t believe it existed if I hadn�t lived there for almost 2000 years.
I may be further confusing you, but it is true, I am 2713 years of age. I am an Elf, and as some of you may know, Elves are immortal. Now, when I say �Elves�, I don�t mean Santa�s little helpers, who come only up to your waist and scurry around making toys for Christmas. No. I mean beings that are the wisest, and fairest of the beings of Middle Earth. Elves are immortal, as a vampire, in life span.
I won�t bore you with my childhood, which went by too fast for my liking. I�ll start with when I became what would be know as a teenager, or a young adult by mortal standards.
The day I turned 93, was the day my father forged for me a sword, in likeness to Narsil, the fabled sword that cut the One Ring of Power from Sauron�s hand at the end of the Second Age. I learned quickly the swordsman ship from various Elves in Middle Earth. I already knew how to use a bow, and was quite good. At the age of 1003, I went into the Elven army of Mirkwood. I learned more from the other Elves in the army on swordsmanship. They all held respect for me, being one of the five females in the Elven Army of Mirkwood.
After serving the Mirkwood army faithfully for 500 years, the King of Mirkwood called me into his chambers. I was surprised, since the soldiers aren�t called into the King�s chambers unless it�s of dire import. To tell you the truth, I was worried that two things had happened; that either an assault upon Middle Earth had been unleashed, and we were, all of us, going to war. I was not worried for my sake, or the armies� sake, but that of the Elves who could not fight, could not use any weapon past a bow. My second fear was that I was to be sent home. As it turns out, neither fear came true. There was no war, and I was not to be sent home. Quite the opposite actually; I was given command of the Army of Mirkwood. Needless to say, I was surprised, shocked. That my King should ask me, female and among the younger of the Elves of the army of Mirkwood, to lead them to war.
I accepted, of course. For the next 300 years I lead the Army of Mirkwood through many small battles against the dark forces. By that time, I was celebrating my 897th year of life. Life was pretty quiet after that. Sauron�s orcs had dispersed, their population depleted; Most of the dragons and Balrogs had been killed off. There remained one dragon, and one Balrog, both of which lived in the farther reaches of Middle Earth.
Like I said, life was quiet. Wars became less, and few in between, the armies restless. My heart yearned for travel, and adventure. Granted the permission to leave for 50 years by my King, I went off in search of the adventure my heart so yearned for. Many paths I explored, many of the races I met and befriended, including the race of Hobbits and Dwarves. Though Elves and Dwarves do not get along as they used to in the First Age, a few of the old alliances remain. I went deep into the mines of Moria, and found the one Balrog that had escaped our blades. I also went to Lake Town, and town of Men just past the forest of Mirkwood. There I saw the dragon that horded the treasures of the Dwarves deep in the tunnels of the Lonely Mountain. I saw many things on my travels, but the most interesting was yet to come...

Chapter 2

Many great adventures I had throughout those years I spent wandering and I never returned to Mirkwood and my Army. Instead I made my way here, to your world. I have not heard anything about Middle Earth, and the Army of Mirkwood for long years now. I managed to find and locate one man, who had written a book about the war at the end of the Third Age, the war I had thought would soon come.
I talked to this man, and discovered that in an attempt to find me, the races of Middle Earth (indeed, every race was looking for the young female army general that had left and gone to this world) had contacted this man. Too late did I talk to the one named Tolkien, and too late did I try to make contact with my kin. Since then, the only news I have heard of Middle Earth is through the books Tolkien wrote.
100 years after meeting Tolkien, I met Kayti. But I�ll get to that in due time. Tolkien had died 56 years previous. I stopped trying to talk to my kin, though every once in a while I�ll pick up one of Tolkien�s books and begin reading it, remembering my days on Middle Earth. Again my heart was yearning for a change, so I moved to Los Angeles, the City of Darkness, or so it is called.
I moved into an apartment just outside the downtown square. Sometime during my first 100 years in L.A., I found an old witches coven. How I had come to find it, I cannot say exactly. Some Elves are gifted with the power to speak with their minds. I was lucky enough to inherit this power. I was walking through downtown L.A., when I came across a rather interesting mind. Decidedly, I turned in that direction. I wanted to meet the person who�s mind so interested me. I made my way into the coven, and met Kayti, who now remains my best friend. The coven allowed me to enter freely. They said they needed the magic of an Elf to finish a spell a few of the elders had been working on. Kayti had been sent out to try and find one in the city of L.A. She moved in with me, since the coven�s home was expecting new arrivals soon. Since then, Kayti and I have remained inseparable.
This brings me to how I met Alex, my other roommate. For 600 I had moved through your streets unnoticed by all except Kayti�s coven. At the age of 2603, I noticed something I may have noticed before, but never payed attention to; The city of L.A. was filled with vampires, and other demons that moved as I did, unseen. Most used the cover of night to hide their identities, while few braved the daylight. Among those who used night as their cover, were the vampires, being who cannot go out in the direct sunlight. I ran into one of them, the vampires, during my 2603rd year of life. How I came to do so? Quite simple. The vampire is the only other being gifted with mind-reading abilities. Every other race must learn, and teach their mind to read others. One who is born with that ability can also block their mind, keeping their thoughts hidden from one such as I. Now, normally I would not have given a second thought to this, since I had run into a few vampires before. But what intrigued me about this particular vampire was that it was moving around in the broad light of day. I have studied vampires, and how they live, and I knew that no normal vampire could move around during the day. There is one such vampire who moves in daylight, and that is Blade, the Day-Walker, whom I know. This mind however, was different.
I located the vampire in an alley, and I could not sense a weapon on them. However, vampires prefer to use their strength, speed and fangs as their weapons. I pulled out my daggers from the ankle sheaths that lay concealed by my jeans, and waited for an attack. I did not have to wait long. The fight was quick, and left me the victor. The vampire lay pinned flat against a wall, one of my daggers positioned over the heart. Is she moved just a centimeter; a pile of dust (ashes to be more exact) would have covered the alley floor.
�Who are you?� The vampire snapped at me, studying my face. A few seconds later she had started laughing. �An Elf I see. Pray tell, what is an Elf doing in L.A.?�
�My business is my own. What is a vampire such as yourself doing out in the light? I know of only one vampire who can do that. And you are not him.�
�Ah, then you have not met me. I am Aleira, the only other vampire to go out into the light unharmed. I have heard of your friend, though I have never had the pleasure of meeting him. Surely though, if I did, he�d kill me on the spot, would he not? The Day-Walker, some call him. Too, they call him the Vampire Killer or Hunter. He hunts my kind, his kind and kills them, trying to save the pitiful world he loves. Ha!� She studied me again, and I felt her probing my mind, though it was closed to her thoughts. �Let me go. I will not harm you, just let me go.�
I looked at her, saw the pleading in her eyes. Still... �How do I know I can trust you? I have yet to hear of a vampire that has kept their word.�
�We�ll call it a blind trust.� She tried to escape my grasp. I held her down for another minute before lifting my dagger from her chest.
�My my, aren�t we testy?� She had a bit of a southern accent, though I hadn�t noticed it before. I just glared at her, the bright sun blinding on the pavement past the end of the alley. I bent over, putting my daggers back in the ankle sheaths. Glaring at the vampire one last time, I watched as she turned on her heel and stalked out of the alley. It was then that my curiosity got the better of me. I ran out to catch up with her. �Why were you following me? Before I mean...� She simply looked at me. �Why will you not tell me?�
�Because you do not need to know. Put your mind at rest, it was mere curiosity on my part. Never seen an Elf in L.A. before.� �Yes, well. I�m a restless spirit. Never been able to stay in one place.� She seemed nice enough. I almost regretted the thing in the alley before... �Look, about the thing in the alley... I�m sorry. I�ve been kind of... testy, since coming here.� I smiled at her, hoping to make amends. The last thing I needed right now was a vampire who could walk in sunlight for an enemy.
�No hard feelings.� She smiled in return. �You wanna go get something to eat? There�s a great ice cream parlor nearby.� �On one condition...� I saw her visibly tense, and hesitated before I continued. �I want chocolate.� She laughed and smiled with relief.
�No problem. So, what did you say your name was?�
�Well, the name given to me in Middle Earth was L�miothiel. Lately I�ve been going by Raelyn, and name I took on to conceal my identity, if you will.�

And I leave you all at a cliff hanger... I'm working on the rest...