Chapter 1

Ancient Stories; Ancient History

This is my tragedy. On the day of my father’s murder, I learned what my fate is as the only Dreamer in this world. In a world where Leeches and Vampires coexist with oblivious Humans I will make it known that the Dreamers aren’t dead. I am Lisa Verra the last Dreamer in a world of lost dreams.

I remember the day my father explained the reason for me being here. I was 11 or 12 years old and some older boys were picking on me because of my heritage; of what I was. I came home sad and my father asked what had happened and I told him what they had said. That day my father told me the story of how I came to be; how all Dreamers came to existence.

Around 480 BC at the Battle of Thermopylae the leader of the Spartans, King Leonidas, was battling the Persians led by Xerxes I. Little known to their people Leonidas was a Leeche and Xerxes a Vampire. They were the starters of the centuries old war between the Leeches and the Vampires. Few knew back then and still few know now what a Leeche is. They are born looking like a normal leech that you would find in ponds or lakes except for extremely large and with bat-like wings. When it comes of age it turns into a human-like form but with huge, black, horned wings, fangs, and a thirst for blood. The two species are not very different and I didn’t understand why they fought. My father said it started with Apollo, the Greek God of Light, Health, and Prophecy, and Ares, the Greek God of War. After getting into a very heated quarrel they decided to play a game instead. Apollo created the Leeches and Ares created the Vampires. What they had done angered Zeus and God very much and they told the other Gods. By the time the Gods came together war had already broken out between all the Vampires and Leeches in the world.

Buddha suggested observing them. He thought they would eventually realize what they were doing was wrong and stop themselves. Odin suggested sending them all to Valhalla, they were all great warriors so it made sense and Thor and Frey agreed. Hathor agreed with Buddha and some, like Aphena, didn’t know what to do. For many hours they argued until Ra quieted the Gods and Goddesses. God spoke up and suggested that they create a new species, a species that were powerful enough to calm the war but had enough knowledge to know not to begin one. By a unanimous vote they all agreed. With a little help of every God of every corner of the globe they created the Dreamers. The abilities of the Dreamers were more powerful and very different than both the Vampires and Leeches combined. Whatever they dreamed or wished for would come true. They were also gifted scholars. They were able to attain knowledge much easier than the other species. They were also gifted with immortality.

Slowly the Leeches and the Vampires grew more and more jealous. Over the years they began looking for a way to destroy the Dreamers. Every war started by humans since the time of the Dreamer’s creation was used by the Leeches and Vampires as a reason to kill them. By the 1930’s and 40’s there was a Leeche in power over Germany. His name was Adolf Hitler. He was joined by a vampire, Emperor Hirohito, leader of Japan, and a traitious Dreamer, Benito Mussolini, leader of Italy. Benito Mussolini, as I came to find out, was none other than my uncle Ying. The three of them killed Jewish Humans and many of the Jewish Dreamers living in Europe at the time. Most couldn’t use their powers to escape because they had been in the presence of Humans, which was exactly what they had wanted. They knew of the Dreamers promise to the Gods to never reveal themselves to Humans or be forever cast out to Hell.

The other Dreamers took note of what was happening and came to the rescue. They used their powers to save the Jews and destroy the Axis powers. They won the war but were condemned to Hell by the Gods. Slowly and surely, the Dreamers began to fade out of existence. By the year 2000 I was the only one left other than the elders. My father use to be a Dreamer as well but during Desert Storm he was captured by Leeches and turned into one. Luckily, my mother made sure to keep me safe while my father was away. Sadly, that duty cost her life.

Back then I was innocent, in an innocent little town in Oklahoma. I’ve changed a lot since those days. Now, I am eighteen and I live, work, and go to school in Venice, Italy. I moved to Italy after my father’s death. I must say Italy is very different.

I work at a local night club named Oasis Nights. I was in the dressing room about to change out of my clothes when Jeffery came in. Jeffery Cooling was one of the only friends I had. He was the owner of the Oasis Nights. He was tall and had the greenest eyes and dark brown hair. He was so handsome and sadly we ladies lost him to the men, if you get what I mean.

“Yes, Jeffery?” I asked.

“You have a customer,” he said his eyes wide with excitement.

“Tell Lindsey to take him for me please.”

Lindsey was my other good friend. She usually had long blonde hair but she changes it to brown every once in a while. She had blue eyes and she was really tall.

“He asked for you. Come on, look how much he gave me just to come get you big!” he shoved five big wads of hundreds in my face.

“Seriously, I could pay the rest of the semester with this,” I said my brown eyes also wide with excitement.

“Come on girl! He’s waiting in the back!” Jeffery yelled as he yanked me to the back exit.

“Why is he back here?” I asked.

“Who cares?” was Jeffery’s reply. He than pushed me out the door and right into the customer.

All I could do was stare with my mouth gaping. This guy was handsome. Okay, handsome is and understatement. He had rag-like black hair and ice blue eyes. He was pale like a Russian winter and tall and sturdy like an American pine.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

I shook myself out of the trance and asked, “Ready for what?”

“For the night of your life,” and as soon as he uttered those words two guys appeared behind me. One had a cloth in his hand. That’s when I realized what they were going to do.

“Who are you?” I asked. I knew better to call for help. If Jeffery came they would turn him into one of them and I couldn’t be guilty for that.

None of them answered and the so-called customer smirked and I noticed his fangs. Than I felt the man, or Vampire, behind me cover my mouth with the cloth and everything went black.