authors note

Eliza is to be pronounced eleeza; the "i" is to sound like a long "e"

She looked at the mirror, "What's happening to me?" She knew it was herself that she saw, but it did not look like her. Her hair in the image was black, her eyes an equally dark sapphire and set in a moon-pale face that was delicate and beautiful. She looked down at her hands; they too were moon-pale. She looked back at her face in the mirror, at the crimson red lips and smiled. Her eyes opened wide at the sight of, not her regular teeth, but of perfect pearly white teeth and sharply pointed canines.

Suddenly she cried out in pain, her back felt as if it were on fire. She felt as though someone had stabbed twin daggers into her back. Before she fell into total darkness, she saw in the mirror that her eyes were completely black and luminescent.

"Oh my God," she groaned. She opened her eyes, the pain had subsided. There was still nothing but complete blackness around her and the mirror. She looked into it now out of pure instinct… a specific compelling to do so… and she gasped at what she saw, what had caused her so much pain. Sprouting from either side of her spine were large, shiny, black wings. As she thought of them they moved and she found that she could control them. She closed them around herself and it was as if she were in a cocoon. She felt warm and safe inside.

"You're a fast learner." It was a man's voice. It was the most chilling, warming, and sexy voice she had ever heard. It was musical and sounded unreal, strange and yet somehow eerily familiar.

She opened her wings from around herself a bit and peered out. Her heart seemed to stop and her breath caught in her throat as she looked out at the most beautiful creature she had ever laid eyes on. His hair was pure white, like snow, and it hung down in a loose ponytail to the middle of his back, with tendrils in the front that framed a face as pale as her own. His eyes were a bright violet in the face that was also beautiful and delicate, yet strong and masculine at the same time.

"What's going on? Who are you?" she demanded, opening her wings fully to reveal herself and folding them behind her. She noticed he had wings just like hers and were in the same position.

He chuckled, "I will tell you all about it later; you won't understand yet, but you will eventually. For now you may call me…" he paused thoughtfully. At last he said, "Call me Caleb for now, my beautiful Eliza."