Alexis POV
I awake with a jolt. The dream as vivid as it always was. Every anniversary of this night the same images would flicker through my subconscious dreams. Always the same the dark figure biting into my mothers neck before her body is thrown down. Of course the authorities thought I was mad. How could she be murdered by being bitten? They concluded that it had been a sharp object and that the killer had cleaned up the scene of blood.
I glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. Six thirty am flashed back at me. With a sigh I push myself out of bed glancing back at the sleeping form of James next to me. He would sleep through anything. I padded softly to the bathroom switch on the shower. Waiting for the water to warm up I glanced at my pale face in the bathroom mirror. My dark green eyes were underlined by dark circles. My long brown hair ruffled and untamed. 20 minutes later I stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a fluffy towel finding James in the kitchen making breakfast. He glanced my way.
"Was it the dream again?" He asked taking in my tired face.
"Yes, always the same and still I know there is more to this than the police ever discovered." I take a seat an gratefully dig into the pancakes he hands to me.
"Alex you need to move on from this it's been 10 years, the case is closed as unsolved." He says sitting opposite me.
I nod he will never understand. Not that he isn't supportive. I met James four years ago. After the death of my mother I was placed into foster care. At ten years old I had little chance for adoption, most people want the younger kids. We met in my final placement. At sixteen I had already been to five children's home, it was in my final in I met him a surly boy of seventeen who like myself had never had a chance at being adopted following the death of his parents in a car cash when he was twelve. From there we had bonded. His presence always seemed to soothing and thanks to him my dreams happened far less frequently except for this night.
The rest of my day passed as normal. I worked at a local coffee shop, nothing fancy but it paid the bills. As I walked though the door of our small apartment I saw a dark green envelope on the door mat nestled amongst the usual junk mail.
I stared at it the bronze wax seal on the back with a crest embossed into it. It seemed oddly familiar like I had seen this somewhere before. I turned the envelope over to see my name across the front. I opened it sinking into the sofa. Inside was a thick piece of paper with a hand written letter written in the most elegant writing.
Dear Miss Alexis Ashcroft
I write to you as you approach you twenty first birthday the truth that has long waited in silence must at last be spoken.
You were not born into an ordinary life, nor to an ordinary bloodline. For generations, the Ashcrofts have stood in the shadow between darkness and dawn, sworn to a sacred duty . You are the last living heir of a line bound by oath to the Order of Obsidian.
This Order was forged in blood and fire when the first vampire kings rose to claim the night. While others fled or fell, your ancestors stood. They swore that no innocent would be abandoned to the hunger of monsters, and that the night itself would one day answer for its crimes. That vow has never been broken.
By birthright, by blood, and by ancient law, you are called to join the Order of Obsidian as a vampire hunter. This is not a command, but a legacy. You may refuse it—no chain binds you but honor. Yet know this: the blood in your veins remembers what your mind has not yet been told. Courage is not something you must learn. It has lived inside you since your first breath.
On the night of the next new moon, you are to travel to Blackspire Keep youu will become what your blood has always known you to be.
— The Order of Obsidian
I stared at the words rereading the letter. This can't be real. This is some elaborate joke. I stand pacing the room trying to decide my next move. The new moon was two days away. Part of me screamed to dismiss this and throw away the letter. The a slight nagging feeling tugged at my gut, something about the symbol in the wax was familiar.