Author's Note: Edited as of February 15, 2009.

Chapter One

The cold wind traveled in behind me as I entered the bar. I slammed the door shut, though no one neither noticed nor cared. My eyes scanned the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. It was an instinct, I guess you could say. You could never feel too safe in the world I lived in. The first person I spotted was Layla, one of the newest members in the society to find their true magic. She was sitting on a bench with her brother Aldrin, staring intensely at a bug crawling carelessly across the floor. Her eyes flashed dark red and she continued staring at the bug. Aldrin sat there, watching Layla's eyes and whispering to her. Curiosity stopped me from continuing towards the bar. What were they up to? I looked back at the bug, which had stopped moving. Layla's eyes flashed dark red again then suddenly her pupils disappeared and her eyes were blank white. The bug started floating with its legs squirming helplessly underneath it, and Aldrin smiled. He whispered something to Layla again with a smile playing on his lips, and the bug was lowered. With her eyes back at her original sky blue color, she smiled and clapped her hands with delight.

"I did it! I've used my magic! I cannot believe I just did that!" Layla squealed, bursts of happiness and joy all around the two. Aldrin gave her a hug and dipped his head into a nod.

"That was great, Layla. Soon you'll be able to pick up heavier things. I'm so proud of you! Ma and Pa will be too." Aldrin said cheerfully and another hug was delivered. Getting that nauseas feeling in my stomach from the over-the- top amount of happiness, I left the scene and slid over to the bar counter. I don't think I was that ecstatic when I used my magic for the first time. But of course, that was just me. Little 'ol depressed and pessimistic me.

"What can I get ya miss?" An old bartender asked as soon as I had comfortably settled onto the stool. He wiped the counter clean with a rag as he waited for my response, his mouth hanging open slightly to make his rotted front teeth visible.

"Just a beer…and how about a bottle of water too." I said casually and pulled out some money. He grabbed it then dropped it in a half-empty jar. I slipped a couple dollars into his hand and he stuffed them into his back pocket with a wink, grateful for the tip. He passed me a cold water bottle from the cooler sitting a couple paces away. As I waited for my beer, I pulled out an empty bottle from my backpack and replaced it with that new bottle of water. I looked up to see my beer in front of me and I thanked the bartender. I picked it up and turned my chair to see Layla focusing on lifting the bug again. A laugh slipped from my mouth as Roy, a boy who was too young to have discovered his true power yet, stumbled across the room and accidentally stepped on the bug just as it began to levitate. He clapped his hands over his mouth and scurried into the boy's bathroom, highly embarrassed. Aldrin doubled over in laughter, while as Layla ran towards the direction of the bathroom, yelling after Roy that it was all okay.

Shaking my head, I turned back to the counter and tugged my sword from my waist-band. Its beauty was blinding, and it was almost impossible to go a day without gazing upon it for hours on end. The handle was covered with deep green dragon skin with a crystal sphere on the end, sparkling in the light when it was turned. I stroked it slowly, feeling the warmth of the hide. My fingertips traveled up the icy blade. It was shining proudly, and I turned it over to gawk at both sides.

"Miss, here's the paper." A voice said, interrupting my gaze. I looked to see the bartender shoving a newspaper into my hands.

"Ah, thank you." I grabbed it from him, and he went back to wiping the counter clean. I took one last glance at my sword before sliding it back at my waist. Actually, the sword belonged to my grand father and had been passed down in the family business. So technically, it wasn't my sword. I took a sip of my cold beer and flipped the paper open to page 20 automatically. WANTED was slopped across the top in bold and blocky letters. I quickly looked through the haunting faces, not recognizing any, which was not a good thing with my job at stake. Yes, I had the job of hunting down those men. Those sick, low-life monsters who committed some of the worst crimes you could imagine. It was a hard job. The monsters usually put their tails in-between their legs and hid in the scummiest and foulest of places. It was a great feeling to bring these pieces of shit to justice but I didn't enjoy the areas I had to go to search for them. But it was a huge deal to my family and I had to carry it on, no matter how much I hated it. We had a long line of history to the business, as I have heard my Father and Mother say countless times.

It all started when my grandfather began the business out of pure boredom. He was out of a job, and noticed how horrible the police were at capturing the criminals. So he decided to do things his own way, and there it all started. But it was hard to do alone, so he got my father, Ace, involved at the tender age of 18. A few years later, Father married his first wife, Hazel. She didn't join the hunting, but she did get busy with Father and had my three half brothers, Louis, Jakob, and Ozzy, triplets. Things didn't go too smoothly though because they got a divorce not too much later. Apparently, Hazel was only in this to get low and dirty with Father, but she got bored after she had the triplets. While Father was going through intense therapy because of how depressed he was that Hazel wanted to end their "so called relationship", he met my mother, the oh-so beautiful Jasmine. She was working on taking phone calls for the office at the Divorce Therapy Clinic and well, she and Father flirted the whole time he was there until he had to go to his appointment. And ta-da…I was born a few weeks before they got married. In Mother's spare time, she helped the family with the business and the moment Louis, Jakob, Ozzy, and I turned 18, we got dragged in with 'em.

Anyway, this week hadn't been going so well. The monsters were getting smarter and it took me twice as long to find them. Things were getting stressful, and all I hoped for was a break. I flipped to the last page, sighing deeply. But my sigh halted roughly and nearly turned into a scream as I blinked down at page 21. Nausea ran up and down my throat, thick and hot. Life felt like it was fading from reality to a nightmare.

It was a familiar face looking into my eyes from the page.

It was me covered in blood staring back.