here's your sample =]]]

Chapter One: First Ride
I rolled over in my bed, begging for the sun to go back down while pulling my covers over my head, so I would not have to wake up, but my dream was short lived.
*knock knock knock*
Who possibly needed me this early in the morning? No matter I had to answer the door eventually.
“Oh, good, you're finally awake,” commented Casandra, my lovely step-mother, as she looked me over, judging my sleep wear no doubt, “you need to get yourself dressed and presentable, Jilana. Your father is in request of your company.”
I nodded and turned to get ready, closing the door behind me but Casandra held her hand out to stop it, clearly not finished speaking to me.
“You have to meet him in front of the council, traditional clothing. Don't even think about meeting him in any of those clothes you wear at the stables. Understand?”
“I got it, Casandra, traditional.” I answered back sleepily to which she decided to clear her throat. Apparently I was still doing something wrong.
“Are we forgetting our manners?” she spoke before I got the chance to close the door once more. I wonder if I ever mentioned to her how much I hate mornings and being rudely awaken by a woman I can't stand? The temptation to slam the door in her face and laugh my head off at her flatten face was so great that it was almost impossible to withstand. But alas if I did I would have to face the wrath of my father. So instead I muttered a thank you and then shut the door before she had time to critique me again.
Traditional clothing? Goodness, what has happened now? And we haven't visited the council in ages. I headed towards my closet to find just the right gown I knew my father would love. It was a rather slimming dress, that flowed oh so slightly, v-neck, an off shade of white, with gold trimmings and beads. Not to mention, it use to belong to my mother who I happened to be the spitting image of. With her long deep chocolate brown hair that would not be tamed, and her crystal ice blue eyes, I was my mother's twin when she was my age.
I looked in the mirror and saw the similarities between my mother and myself, but there was one small difference that distinguished me from her in a great way. A scar looking mark that I had been born with. It was a jagged line stretching from the corner of my right eye, down the side of my cheek, around the back of my neck, came down ended at the base of my throat. The mark was so strange and the cause of it was still a mystery. To some it seemed like a curse that ruined my oh so perfect face, but to me it was the mark that showed I was different, special, and was meant for something.
I attempted to tame the untameable one last time before I knew I would have to leave to meet my father. It was rude to keep someone waiting. I left my room on the second floor and headed downstairs to where I knew my father would be waiting. The gate. The gate had a deep magic that had never been found anywhere else and was our ticket to the past, literally. And the past held the key to the future, again, literally. Great, I sound like a crazy but just let me explain.
Years ago, and I do mean years like a lot of them, the council had been put under a spell which sent them back to the past where they were trapped. Now as far as anyone knows, the council is perfectly fine and living among us in the present time, this is mainly because my father, Eric Drake, doesn't want to cause chaos where chaos is not needed. And to be frank, I agree with him. See my father is the leader of our coven so to speak and he was also originally the only one who saw the council in the first place because they hold a power over him. But that's too much to explain right now.
Anyways, the gate was the way to visit the council, and generally visits were often paid in times of war for advice or you were summoned there because something has come up. The last time we had been summoned was when I was one hundred and twenty-one. I'm now twenty days away from being two hundred years old, oh and that's still young. Did I mention to you that I was a vampire?
Yes another day as a vampire feels just like the last. I approached the door to the room where the gate was held still trying to figure out what was going on. We weren't in any time of war so clearly we were being summoned. But what for? I entered the gate room and found my father pacing back and forth with a worried look.
“Father?” I asked in a soft tone to not startled him from his thinking. He jumped anyways.
“Ah, Jilana, there you are,” her father took a few steps and waved her into the room, “Come in, come in, let us not make them wait too long,” he looked me over to make sure I was dressed properly, “you look lovely, dear.”
“Thank you,” I answered back but my curiosity was getting the better of me, “Father, what is this all about? We haven't met with the council in years.”
He took his time answering me, clearly decided if he should lie and say he didn't know or just tell me the truth. Apparently the subject was rather sensitive if he couldn't just flat out tell me. In fact there were only a few subjects that my father and I avoided talking about. You know, things such as marriage, a woman's place, boys in the coven who took an interest to me, what I was going to do with my life, his current wife. I held so much of my mother in me that talking about certain subjects would remind him so much of my mother and it would hurt him. But none of those subjects that we avoided would involve the council, right?
But then it hit me. Marriage. Of course, I should have known better than to agree to come, especially now. The council would be concerned with who is taking the rule after my father due to the fact I was the only heir of my father, which the council would not approve of. I was after all a woman and the rule should be in the hands of a man.
“Oh, Father, no please don't tell me that this is what I think it is.”He nodded his head and I knew he was happy I had figured it out without him having to tell me.“It's time, Jilana.”“In no way is it time, no, I still have twenty-two more years till the deadline. The law clearly states at two hundred twenty-one a woman vampire must be married. I'm only one hundred ninety-nine...”“Almost two hundred, so really twenty-one years,” my father corrected me, “and besides do you want to waste time and end up with an arranged marriage? Don't you want to find love?”“Father, its twenty-one years, I think I will be able to find love in that amount of time. But when I'm ready.”“Jilana, twenty-one years is not as long as you think. For our kind it will be here and gone in the blink of an eye.”“But...” I began to protest but I knew I was defeated. There was nothing more to do but face what the council had to say head on.
“Jilana,” my father spoke before we entered the gate, “please, the council has requested your presences. You know if I could I would not be making you come, but you know I can not do that. No matter how much I wish I could keep you with me.”
I shifted my gaze to the ground, racking my brain for an excuse but there was none. There was no way out of anything anymore. I was the daughter of my father's first wife and that meant I was above my other brothers and sisters who had been born from my father's second wife. The reign would have to come to me and that would mean I would have to marry. No questions asked.
“Alright,” I finally spoke.
“Shall we go then?” my father asked trying to give me as much time as possible before everything changed.
I just nodded twice and then we both turned towards the gate and stepped through.
The familiar rush I hadn't felt in ages came so swiftly and smoothly over my skin, brushing my hair back just enough to lift off of my back. I welcomed the enhancement to my senses that came with going back into the past where the deep magic was trapped. The bright light at the end of the tunnel that most would run from I ran towards until I was standing in front of the four most powerful vampires that had ever lived. It had seemed like forever had gone by sense the last time I had been in front of the council but they still looked the same. It was as if I expected them to age when I myself hadn't aged in a century. No matter, there they were before me, in their prime, but nearly two thousands years old.
There was Julian, Gabriel, Timothy, Cornelius, and Marcus, the head of the council. I took each of their appearances in, trying to determine if anything was different about them. There wasn't. There came a certain age when you stopped aging and the number just became a representation of how long you had been on the earth. The only thing that really gave away just how old they were was their clothing. But the power they held still amazed me, just as it always had.
A moment passed by, then my father and I bowed in respect and waited for the acknowledgement from Marcus that we could stand. It seemed the acknowledgement would never come but then a hand came down under my chin and lifted my face to gaze upon Marcus, who was now standing in front of me.
“You are so lovely, Jilana Drake, and I almost thought I had seen the ghost of your mother when you walked in,” his eyes were on my neck and his finger came to move along the line of my mark, “but with a mark such as this how could someone not recognize the daughter of Eric Drake?” Marcus turned his glance over to my father, removing his finger from touch the end of my mark, “arise Eric, your respect has been acknowledged.”
Marcus turned back to his chair that was lined along the back wall in between the four other chairs that were still occupied. As he turned to sit in his chair, as well, I couldn't help but take in the sight of him. He was a very attractive man, just as most vampires were, but it wasn't mere good looks that he held. He also carried a confidence that could not be matched and a sense of power and strength that both frightened but impressed me. Oh no, I have never though of him as someone for me to marry, due mainly to the fact that he was two thousand years old, but I simply admired his authority. Yet, I was also in great envy of him, because he had been chosen.
Being chosen is an honor that only few will ever receive, and the majority of those who receive it are male anyways. To be chosen meant that one of the three great species had singled you out as their master. Vampires had connections to these animals, but it was the animals choice who to make this great connection with.
A dragon, the top of the species, only chose the best of the best, and a dragon choosing was so rare that there were hardly any dragon riders. A stallion, the warrior species, was a common beast to chose a vampire, and any vampire who was chosen by a stallion was always put in a place of authority or became a great warrior. Lastly was a cat, the intellectual species, but no one desired to be chosen by a cat. Like I said, it was mostly men who were chosen, and most men wanted a place of power or to be a warrior, and to be honest most men found no use for the cat. Some went as far as being chosen by a cat was a disgrace because clearly you aren't man enough to handle a dragon or stallion. But what those men didn't realize is that with a cat you would always have a companion, someone who would forever be loyal to you.
Marcus had been chosen by a dragon, many years ago, and he was the last one who had ever been chosen by a dragon. My father had been chosen by the Great White Stage of the East, a stallion that no one ever thought would be tamed. These two men in my life I held so much respect for and made me wish every day that I had been born a male. If I had we wouldn't be here right now.
“Marcus, might I inquire what you summoned my daughter and I here for today?” my father asked calmly. Now that our respect had been shown we could enter into a normal conversation without worrying about offending the council.
“We summoned your daughter and yourself here today,” Timothy, sitting at the right hand of Marcus, answered, “because Cornelius has been searching for the meaning behind Jilana's mark.”
My mark? There was a meaning behind it? I thought it was just there, you know, like a birth mark.
“Yes,” Cornelius spoke up, he was sitting on the other side of Timothy, “I believe I have come to a conclusion...”
“She is to be chosen, Eric,” Marcus spoke out, interrupting Cornelius, “for nearly four thousand years ago there lived a woman with a similar looking mark wrapped around her arm. She was also the only known woman to have ever been chosen by anything other than a cat. She also became one of the most powerful rulers in our history.”
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had never been heard of any one woman being chosen, not even by a cat, and I had also never heard of any woman ruler. I looked over to my father whose face was still so calm that I wanted to scream at him to get some form of reaction out of him.
But then I took in everything Marcus had just said. She is to be chosen.
“Wait, I am to be what?” I blurted out before I could stop myself, “I mean, did you say, I was to be chosen?”
Marcus nodded his head, “Yes, dear Jilana, it would appear that way since no other mark has ever been heard of appearing on our kinds skin such as yours and...”
“Marcus,” my father interrupted before he could tell me the name of the other woman.
“Shall I hold my tongue, Eric?”
I looked at my father, who now had a tense look on his face, what was he freaking out about now? Who was the other woman? I racked my brain for any information that would help me. Through all my years of schooling I had never remembered a woman being so important in history. In fact, there were no women who were important to our history because women weren't meant for anything but mating. What they were saying and what I had been taught didn't match up. If only I had had a mother figure in my life, if only my mother had disappeared after I had been born so that maybe I would have learned of this woman. I couldn't even remember the days when my mother had been in my life. She had just altogether left and I couldn't remember her. All I had known about her was the way she looked and that was merely from pictures.
My mind came back to the presences, well past really, and I took in what Marcus had said. Shall I hold my tongue? What were they keeping from me?
“Father?”
My father looked at me, and his face relaxed, his eyes became watery as if he was going to cry.
“I should have told you sooner, Jilana,” was all he said.
“Told me what?” I demanded from anyone in the room who would answer me.
Julian happened to be the only one who would.
“The reason you don't know your mother, child,” was all he said.
“She left us,” I answered back, “right?”
“No,” Julian continued, “your mother is not from your presences, rather she is from the past.”
From the past? What did he mean by that?
“Jilana,” my father walked over to me and placed his hand on my arm, “please, let me explain, but some other time. I have been meaning to tell you this. But there seemed to be no way of telling you. I knew not how to say it without being ashamed.”
“Ashamed of what? Having me?” I immediately took defense. This man I had looked up to so much for my entire life was beginning to not make any sense.
“Never, Jilana, never would I ever be ashamed of you. You are my daughter, the sunshine in my life. The one good thing that came out of my horrible mistake.”
“What mistake?” I questioned him.
“The mistake of rebellion. The misuse of the gate and its power. Changing the past which changed the future. And the reason for the war that put us, the council, back in the past,” Marcus spoke out again, with such authority that I was in shock.
What had my father done? Well it seemed, from what Marcus had said, that he went back to the past, met my mother, got her pregnant, I was born, and then everything that had happened changed, because I was born. The weight of everything I was being told fell on me like the weight of the world on my shoulders. How was it possible that my birth changed everything? How was it possible that because I was born the council was now stuck in the past? How was I ever going to live with myself again?
“So, then it's all my fault?” I said weakly, feeling my eyes water.
“No, Jilana,” my father tried to comfort me, “it was my mistake, and only I will bear the punishment for what I did. You did nothing wrong.”
I tried to let his words sooth my guilty thoughts but I couldn't get past the fact that my birth changed everything. The thoughts swam around my mind haunted my every being but I worked through the pain. I fought hard against the voices in my head to shut them away where I would be able to deal with them later. I was after all in front of the council and would need to put this past me to keep a good face.
“Marcus, don't you think we should get to the other subject at hands?” Gabriel, who sat on the left of Marcus, finally spoke after having been silent this whole time.
“Ah, yes Gabriel, we do have another matter to deal with. Eric,” Marcus addressed my father, who turned towards Marcus giving him his full attention and letting go of the hold he had on me, “Jilana is nearing two hundred, and it is under our impression that she has yet to find a mate. Is this correct?”
“Yes, it is correct,” my father answered back, calmly of course.
“Well, that would leave only twenty-one years left for her to find such mate for the law strictly states a woman must be married before she is two hundred twenty-one years of age. We find that an arranged marriage may be the only option for her.”
“What?!” I blurted out, for the second time that day, but for crying out loud there was a lot being thrown at me today.
Marcus turned his gaze at me, “Jilana, do you really believe you could get someone to fall in love with you in twenty-one years?”
“Yes, Marcus, I do. After all, it's twenty-one years we are talking about not twenty-one days.”
“Dear child, twenty-one years will go by almost as fast as twenty-one days could. Sometimes, we must take necessary actions to avoid breaking the law. Also, an arranged marriage could mean peace between another coven which would prevent any future wars. Don't you want to help your coven?”
“Well, of course I do, but how long will I have before an arranged marriage will be forced upon me?” I asked, frightened that I would not have any time at all.
“That surely depends.”
“On what exactly?”
“If you are chosen after all,” Marcus smiled.
Chosen? She is to be chosen. Were they really being serious?





xoxo,
bekah