What do you do when your whole world has been tipped on its axis? Have a total break down? Go into a comatose state and hope it all blows over? Or do you pick up what few pieces you can and make sense of what's left?

That's kind of what I'm doing right now.

Two days ago, I came home to my parents... Or who I thought were my parents, getting dragged out of our home by these weird garbed strangers that straight up looked for all the world like cult members. Even their eyes looked...wrong. Dressed in long black robes, they even had hoods, but not all of them had theirs up. The ones grappling with my thought-to-be mother and father had theirs thrown back in the struggle.

Even with several pairs of eyes that had directed towards me as I flew forward to help them, their seeming ruby glow disapproving and mocking, what stopped me dead was seeing those same eyes look back at me from my parents' faces. Their shocked expressions had then turned into even harder fighting against those who held them when they caught sight of me.

It only paused me for a moment, that split second of shock that it takes for the brain to register, but it was long enough for one of the tall, darkly garbed strangers to grab me and keep me from going any further. I yelled and fought, demanded answers, but got none, and when I looked at the man head-on, it was like all the fight had gone out of me. Those blood-red eyes of his seemed to catch me and quell any further actions I wanted to take.

He didn't look all that old, but he felt older. Like that feeling you get when around older people. I'd say grandparents, but I've never met mine, just those of friends around me. A sense of time that seems to wrap around a person. There was also an underlying sense of danger that got stronger the longer he had hold of me, till my very skin crawled with the need to run away.

As soon as he smiled - I think in an attempt to put me at ease yet all it accomplished was spiking my blood pressure - it also bared the fangs hidden just behind his lips. I could feel the blood drain from my face. The sounds of fighting behind me took a backseat to what was in front of me, self-preservation trying to set fire to my limbs to get them moving. Nothing happened though.

Scoffing to myself as I now look back over it all, I curl up tighter in attempts to fill the hollow feeling in my gut. A wrenching sob gets swallowed down in anger, but then I can't hold it in anymore and scream it out into the bed below me.

My home is in shambles from the fighting that had gone on inside before it was taken outside. Those strangers I'm sure caused as much destruction as possible just to be assholes. My room upstairs wasn't touched, all the damage done to it is what I've done.

Everything in here is a lie.

That tall man's crimson eyes haunt me as his words go over and over in my head;

"Alexi and Vivian are not your parents, they are not even human. They are, however, the ones who killed your real parents. You were so tiny back then, and ever since, they have raised you as if their pet. They have been recalled, and you're old enough to fend for yourself now."

Considering I look nothing like either of them, it really isn't too hard to believe. One would think the red eyes a dead give-away, but I'd only ever seen their eyes that color when they were being dragged from the house.

Vampires are known far and wide to be stuck up pricks that think themselves higher than all the other races, but never once did Vivian or Alexi show themselves to be that way. They were stern, sure, but I can't picture them...killing anyone.

And what did he mean 'recalled'? They aren't machines being called back to the assembly line for being defective, so it can't mean that...right? Or...wait. The hollow pit in my stomach cramps even harder as I think of another way he could mean.

War.

They were recalled to take up fighting positions.

The man said they killed my real parents...but is that truth? I have no memory of Alexi raising his hand to me, nor Vivian uttering a cruel word. I do have scars and broken bones from childhood that I remember getting and how I got them, so that means my memories are still intact, right?

Something isn't adding up here, but what? And what am I supposed to do about it?

Before I can get too in-depth into any ideas, a sound alerts me to the fact I'm not alone. Bolting upright, my eyes get directed to my doorway where a man slips on some of the books I had thrown around in my earlier confusion and rage. He grabs the doorjamb to keep his balance, but still almost loses his feet among all the semi-glossy, slippery pages.

Shucking the tears from my eyes in a hurried manner to see him clearer, he isn't someone I recognize, nor does his appearance bring any comfort. Boots, blue jeans, and a tucked-in shirt are normal enough, but the dark cloak hanging off his shoulder pretty much pegs him as 'other'. Fair skin on a handsome face with angular features, if it weren't for the cloak, he could pass for one of the college guys the other senior girls are always raving about.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

My voice sounds a little shaky as it comes out, even a little raw from all the recent screaming I've been doing. Grass green eyes look around the destruction that is my room, a frown curling down his mouth. With the slight turn of his head, it shows that the light brown hair on his head that looks slicked back is actually in a longer ponytail in the back.

"What happened here?"

Backing away from his advancement has me at an impasse; allowing him to completely block off my exit and putting me in the corner of the room. He hasn't made any threatening moves and I know my initiating any could mean my death, so I answer his question.

"Shouldn't you know?" I gesture to the dark-colored cape hanging off his shoulder. "A bunch of your people came and dragged away my par... The people who lived here."

The hiccup rising in my throat is painful and I have to stop talking in order to swallow it back down, even going so far as to raise a hand to my mouth as if to hold it in. The man opposite me had furrowed his brows and his lips pursed, but his eyes never leave my face, their perusal downright unsettling. Moving them to looking around the room again isn't much better, but I can breathe a little better now.

"The Vampires who took Alexi and Vivian are no subjects of mine. Did they say anything to you? Give you a clue as to where they might have gone?"

Wrapping my arms around my cold body, I can feel my head shake before my mouth opens.

"Just that they weren't my real parents but were the ones who killed them. It was a large group, but many just stood around and watched as they were dragged away. I didn't see where, I didn't even see what vehicles they had. There was a taller man who made sure my attention was on him. He did say they were being 'recalled'."

The seeming dumbfounded young man standing opposite me finally blinks, and a tidal wave of emotions seem to play over his face all at once. It also leaves no doubt as to who or what he is when his eyes flare and radiate a blood-red. Trying to shrink in on myself so much that I drop down to wrap my arms around my legs, heart pounding within my chest, I clench my eyes shut.

"Tara, listen to me. Vivian and Alexi may not be your birth parents, but they love you as if you were their own. They would give their very lives for you. It is true, they did kill your biological parents, but you must understand, they were not good people. It is not my place to tell you this story, yet you can be rest assured that you were raised in a loving home by those who cared for you."

The man's softly spoken words tear at my heart and cause my eyes to burn with a fresh flood of tears. Confusion still weighs heavily in my mind as does my doubt, but hope is there as well. The only way to really know what really happened would be to ask them directly, and for that they have to be found.

The heaviness in my chest slowly eases as a plan to find answers takes over. Lifting my head, the intruder is crouched just a couple of feet in front of me, startling me into raising my head higher.

"My name is Soren. Alexi is a close friend of mine. He spoke of you often, highly, and quite fondly. He is very proud of you."

I can feel my cheeks heat up even as the thought crosses my mind that I've never heard of this man once.

Unlike how some old wives-tales will have you believe, Vampires are quite diurnal. Many will stick to being active only at night to keep their activities secret, but they can be in sunlight. They are among those that are immortal, which is why many have developed a snob complex over the other races. There are also ruling families that have large territories they claim as theirs and as such all those within it. Warring between these families has been quiet for years, but everyone knows that there's still fighting going on that isn't publicized.

"Tara?"

Blinking at the man in front of me to bring him into better focus, I recall earlier how he'd said those robed people weren't 'subjects of his'. Is he a member of one of these families? Dropping my eyes to his outfit, he sure doesn't look like what one would think royalty to look like, not till I get a better look at the cloak that's pooling next to him. That's when I see the golden inlay of the crest in it's folds.

My eyes dart back to his in fear even as his furrow at me in question, my own seeming to burst out of my mouth without thought.

"I never heard Alexi mention your name, not once. Why?"

He nods, not looking concerned or dismayed at all.

"I asked him not to. His position of being close to me was already known by others, as is his own reputation, that alone should have kept you all safe. For you to still be here and they not be means..."

While I'm still trying to wrap my head around what kind of reputation my adoptive father could have, his carried off words catch my attention.

"Means what?"

When he holds a hand out, I look at it a little suspiciously but take it after a few seconds. He helps me up so we're both standing, him at least a foot taller than I.

"Means that their being grabbed was a matter of state more than an attack directed at me."

Looking back at him in confusion, he gives a slight smile, which make my breath catch in my throat. Scowling, I turn away and look over the destruction of my room. Granted all the damage in here was me, but everything below was because of some political thing? And why would it have anything to do with my being left here dealing with him? I'm so confused.

More and more questions keep piling up with no answers, frustration adding fuel to the fire. Turning back around to face Soren, I have to take a step back as he seems to have moved closer to me. Frowning and raising an arm to hold a hand out, he makes no move to come closer, just looks at me curiously.

"So, let me get this straight. Viv and Alexi should have been safe not just because of their connection to you but because of his own reputation, but neither of that clearly mattered to these people – which has you thinking it revolves around some political means. Where as if I had been included in anyway... It would have been an attack directed towards you specifically? Why?"

His head cocks, but he has yet to blink. His eyes had returned to their green hue, no ruby glowing can be seen, and it's reminding more and more of a feline stare. While unsettling, I'm not getting the same skin-crawling sense of danger that I had been with the other man.

"You've heard the terms 'prisoners of war' in your schoolings, yes? How people of interest would be taken for a variety of reasons, a main one being to gather information? Alexi and Vivian are highly skilled fighters that will not go down easily. For them to have been grabbed this way; so quickly, efficiently, without bloodshed, and without me being alerted sooner, lets me know that I have a mole in my ranks and that they have to be using something other than body-power to subdue others."

My head is kind of spinning right now with information, getting more than I thought I would yet not getting my question answered at all. It's something at least. Hearing that my adoptive parents are fighters really isn't a surprise, not when they'd taught me from a young age different ways to protect myself. When to fight and when to be smart.

Memories of them fill my head and make my heart ache. Blood parents or not, they did in fact raise me as if I were their own, there's no doubt about that. They went above and beyond to do things for me that other parents wouldn't do for their own kids. Friend gatherings here at home was always common as everyone loved them.

Stiffening my spine, I look back up to Soren who's still watching me intently.

"How can I help?"

The man again smiles, this one wider than the last to where it reaches his eyes. It flashes fang, but that isn't the reason my heart seems to start pounding even as my face warms.

"Get changed and I'll meet you out front."

Looking down at myself, my clothes are the rumpled outfit that I was wearing the day this all first happened. My face flames, not so much at my appearance, but at what I had to have smelled like to his senses. Not showering in a few days while wallowing in grief sure doesn't do wonders to one's aroma appeal.

Getting cleaned up with a fresh change of clothes equipped, I'm outside in about fifteen minutes. Memories bombard me as soon as I step out, guilt trying to take root, but it gets counteracted with the thought that I'm finally doing something. Even if it isn't much, it's something that gets me out of the house.

"Are you ready?"

Jumping to the side, Soren seems to appear next to me. With a racing heart, I nod. He motions to the car parked at the curb, another man standing by it at attention. Even though there are other homes along this street, no one came out that day to see if we were alright. No one came by the house afterwards. No phone calls.

"Why did no one else come?"

The Vampire next to me follows my eyes with his own with a slight frown.

"People do not see what they don't want to see. If they do not bear witness to it, then it does not happen in their world. Humans are not the only species with this trait, many others have it to, and that is what will lead to..."

He shakes his head, but motions me forward towards the vehicle once more. The slouching in his shoulders isn't missed, and even more questions start whirling around in my mind, but right now, I'm moving forward. The beginning was slow in coming, but I'm finally on the path to help them; my parents.