Amidst The Shadows(A ShadowLand Novel-Vol.1)

Prologue

Hello Readers,

I'm over the moon that you've decided to take the time to read 'Amidst The Shadows' the first installment in the ShadowLand Series. If you like vampires that don't sparkle then here's the story for you. Just kidding. I happen to be fond of the sparklers. But these blood-sucking fiends do not sparkle, they do, however, bicker, fight, and tease like any siblings you've ever known, hold grudges, and have lives just like you and I.

Apart from that, I've come to find that there aren't many Strigoi/Moroi stories out there and so I've decided, they, like all other bloodsuckers deserve some credit.

So, to you I say,"Jump in... the water's (Book's) fine!"

ENJOY!!!

~J.Slone~

******Check out the new cover!! Courtesy of Isabel_R_Buell of Daggers Edge Graphics. So excited to have this cover!! Thanks, Lovely!!!!

~Prologue~

The change was  like nothing I had ever experienced in my life, like nothing you'd read about in vampire romance novels or see played out on the big screen.

    The venom coursed through my veins just like the fluids being pumped intravenously when hospitalized for dehydration for which I knew that feeling once upon a time. It was cool and refreshing like that. I felt my toes curl as it reached them and turned back to complete its course.

    All was quiet in the room... and then my eyes closed, no longer focused on the metal riveted ceiling overhead. It was the first of the darkness that took over, but what I saw when my lids were shuttered completely took me by surprise.

    Like a spectator, I hovered over the body of my mother as her feet were planted in stirrups, her white hospital gown drawn up over her swollen belly. It was a silent movie, but I knew deep within that this was my birth without having to see my mother's face or hearing her melodic voice.

    My eyes shot wide as the baby -I- was birthed. I was unseeing of the room of which my transformation was taking place, though, I knew it was there and the people were watching me both in anticipation and angst. I could feel these emotions as if they were a part of me. 

    A glorious bright white-yellow light overtook my vision, becoming brighter and brighter until it was as serene as what I imagined heaven would be. My body tingled with a feeling so whole it was hard to breathe and then as the image of my first breath flashed across my mind, the breath too, rushed out of me. I felt my back arch off the cool metal slab beneath me, my body lifting toward the light. My lungs filled once more and a cry ripped from my lungs as well as the lungs of my infant form, mingling as one.

    My hands shot wide, my legs splaying as the light filled my body from head to foot, making me whole and pure. My adult form was mimicking that of infancy. The first breath, cry, reaction to being birthed was like being basked in sunshine, being freed.

    A series of events that had taken place in my life flashed before my wide eyes; myself as an infant being coddled by my mother, and a shadowy figure, then as a toddler learning my first steps as the figure hovered behind my mother and I, then both myself and the shadow hovering over my mother as she took her last breath. The time in the orphanage soon followed and in each clip, the shadow lingered nearby, always there but never to be seen. I didn't know whom the shadow belonged, but I wasn't afraid, because that shadow I had always felt was my guardian angel, keeping watch over me.

  The last image in the reel was that of my acceptance to become what I was meant to be and as the reel ticked and clicked as a normal projection image would, the lights went out, on me. On the world.

    The completion of my transformation was as glorious. It was quite like falling asleep, the way it felt when your eyes grew heavy and your body relaxed until sleep consumed you.

    The venom grew warmer and warmer, making me snuggle deeper into the warmth my body obviously sought out. I wanted to grab it and wrap myself within it, shroud myself from all that threatened to take it away.

    I felt my body curl in on itself seeking, reaching for the warmth. My fingers curled into my palms as if to grasp at it and hold tight. At once the warmth intensified giving me what I craved and though I was completely in the dark I felt an abundance of heat from that same sunshine from my birth.

    The warmth weaved and threaded through me, filling my lungs, my limbs, my heart -all of me- to a capacity that verged on breaking the seams. As the threads laced and crossed over themselves it created a tugging sensation, a call that I felt obligated to answer. I allowed the tether to drag me down to it, slowly. It would consume me, I knew, and I wanted to be consumed by it; completely, eternally.

    As I fell into the warmth, the darkness and it's ever growing brilliance, my body settled, my heart slowed, and my lungs deflated. Only a minute trace of life remained, but it wasn't the life I had lived.

    I was aware that my transformation was complete and as the smile stretched over my face and I felt cocooned in the warmth of my transformation, my body gave a shudder of contentment, releasing not the last but the very first breath of new life; my life, the one I was born and had just died for.