Chapter 1: First Met

(Luna's point of view)

I was really excited when I woke up. Today was my fourteenth birthday and this was something special. Today I will become a full member of my clan. As part of the admission ceremony, I was supposed to get my tattoo, which not only showed which clan I belong to, but also my role and role in it. I got the tattoo of the high priestess of the snake clan because I was the daughter of the reigning high priestess and would succeed her in a few years. We were a small and not very influential vampire clan and we stayed hidden. So much so that the Other Clans only dismissed us as legends. But that was fine with me. So we could live in peace. That we were not completely forgotten was mainly due to the ability of the high priestesses of our clan. They had visionary abilities. I also. The other, especially influential, clans would certainly be interested in my skills. Another reason why I was happy to stay hidden.
After my ceremony it was the great Samhain festival. I was looking forward to it. I loved celebrating the holidays. The rituals were always something special.
But it should all take place tonight. First, I had to somehow get around the rest of the day to avoid dying of excitement. If it were school today I would at least have a little distraction. But no today had to be Sunday.
I stretched myself with relish and got up. I went to my closet and picked out clothes for today. My choice fell on dark blue bootcut jeans and a black knitted sweater with a hood. There were black pompons on the straps and there was one on the top of the hood as well. She also had a fanny pack. After getting dressed, I disappeared into the bathroom and, like every day, painted my eyes black and combed my hair.
My parents were already sitting at the breakfast table in the kitchen below. Ingrid Engström, my mother and our high priestess, made a sandwich while Nils Engström, my father and our clan head, read the newspaper. I sat down at the table and wished a good morning, which was returned with a happy birthday. The breakfast was really comfortable. After that, my parents gave me my birthday present. Impatiently, I fumbled the loop from the rather large and very heavy box. It contained several things. On top of it was a brand new iPhone. My parents thought I was old enough to have a cell phone. But my main focus was on the athamen, with a beautifully ornate black wooden handle. This was on a very thick leather-bound book. A pentagram was embossed on the front and the sides were made of handmade paper. This book was intended for my own magical notes. It was only through these gifts that I became aware that my training as a high priestess would really begin this evening. It just made me more nervous.Still, I fell gratefully on my parents' necks.
I brought the presents into my room when the doorbell rang. I grabbed my bag and hurried downstairs. There I shouted a farewell while I put on my jacket and my winter boots.
When I left the warm house, I shivered for a moment. You could already feel the approaching winter. But I quickly got used to the cold and no longer froze.
At the door I was greeted by a couple of my classmates. My friendship that connected me to them was very superficial from my point of view. I hung out with them at school and went out with them every now and then, like today. There was nothing more. I would love to have a real girlfriend to whom I can tell everything who is simply there for me when I need help. But I doubted that I would find someone like that among the people. Humans have developed into very selfish and superficial beings in the last few centuries. One of the main reasons why we preferred to stay to ourselves. There were certainly exceptions, but you had to find them first.
My "girlfriends" were also pretty superficial. They never talked about really important topics and paid a tad too much attention to their appearance. I say so. I did make up, but I didn't use any makeup or powder. Also, I didn't think I'd stand in the bathroom for two hours in the morning just to do my hair.
After all, they thought of my birthday and invited me to the cinema and to my favorite Chinese to celebrate the day.
To do this, we took the bus that would take us to the next larger city, where our school was also located.
We were on the road for an hour until we were at our destination.
In town I always had singing, piano and violin lessons on Wednesday evenings. On Mondays and Fridays I had capoeira training here in the evening, which I had started at my father's request so that I could defend myself from werewolves and vampire hunters.
First we went to eat. The film wouldn't open until that evening. Since we still had time after dinner, we went shopping. I also found something for myself. It was a black long-sleeved cardigan that went down to the back of my knees. I already loved that part.
The movie wasn't bad, although a few passages were a bit boring. Many young actors were used in the film. Because none of the names or faces meant anything to me.
When I got home, my parents were already waiting for me to have dinner.
Then I went to the bathroom to take a shower.
My nervousness got worse the closer it got to walking.

The time had come. My parents and I put on our black ritual robes and left town together.
After a somewhat longer walk we reached our ritual site, which was in the middle of the forest in a beautiful clearing. The rest of our clan was already there.
Peter, one of our members, lit a campfire, which bathed the clearing in a diffuse light, then we started.
We lined up in a circle.My mother stepped in to open the meeting and the ceremony.
"I greet you my brothers and sisters. Today we are raising our youngest clan member to a full-fledged one. Luna please come to me," my mother began.
I followed her request and stepped over to her in the middle.
"I ask you: Are you ready to carry the full rights and duties of a clan member and to respect the laws of the vampire world?", Asked my mother, turning to me.
"Yes, I'm ready," I replied without hesitation.
"Then sit down," she instructed me.
I obeyed.
My father handed her the tattoo needle and then she sat across from me.
"give me your left hand," demanded our high priestess.
Following her wish, I handed this to her.
She held it with her left hand. Her own tattoo peeked out from under her robe. It was a black and white snake that wrapped itself around her wrist, with the head of the snake exactly in the middle of the transition from wrist to hand. The only color was the eyes. With me they would turn green, like with my mother. The color of the high priestess. For my father and his two deputies they were red, and for the rest of the members they were blue.
My mother pushed up the left sleeve of my robe and attached the needle.
The stitches were extremely uncomfortable. I could smell some of my own blood under the smell of paint.
The outline was ready when I suddenly noticed a strange smell and a rustle of autumn leaves. According to the smell it was human.
The others seemed to have noticed that too. Because they all turned in the direction from which the smell and the sound came.
A girl appeared at the edge of the clearing. She was about my age.
At a sign from my father, the girl was grabbed.
She squealed in panic. Oh yes she was scared. I could smell the adrenaline exactly.
She was brought to us.
"Luna, since she disrupted your admission ceremony, you should decide how we should deal with her," said my father.
I got up and went to the girl. Actually, the law required that people had to serve as a "snack" in such a case, provided that this person had no relationship with a vampire.
I didn't know why, but my intuition told me to let it go.
I looked her straight into her azure eyes. Her blue was lighter than mine.
I gently stroked her cheek and smiled at her to show her that she didn't have to be afraid. After she winced at my touch, she relaxed a little. Her gaze flickered briefly to my unfinished tattoo. I didn't know why. Her skin was warmer than mine. But that was normal because vampires had a slightly lower body temperature than humans.
I wanted to know who she was and what she was doing in the forest at night.
So I entered her mind.
"Who are you?" I asked.
She just looked at me with big eyes. I repeated my question but again she didn't answer.Didn't she understand me?
I asked my question again in English.
"My name is Amy Nikolaevna," she replied in English.
She really didn't understand me.
"What do you want here?" I asked her further.
"I was walking in the forest and just happened upon you by chance," she explained.
"We'll let them go," I said to my father again in Norwegian.
This nodded.
"You will go now and don't tell anyone about this," I addressed Amy again, playing with one of her brown strands.
I found that her hair was very well cared for. With mind control, she obeyed every word.
I released her ghost and she looked at me in horror.
"Run!" I whispered to her with a diabolical grin.
I let my eyes glow blood red to underline my words.
Her horrified look turned into panicked one, but she didn't move.
I growled menacingly and finally she ran and got herself to safety.
When she was out of sight we stood again and my mother finished my tattoo.
At midnight we celebrated Samhain and so I can't go to bed until three in the morning.

(Amy's point of view)

It was November 28th when my parents and I landed in Oslo on an Air Norway plane. We went to baggage claim to get our bags and suitcases and headed to the exit to the taxis. We drove north past the train station to a small town called Olderfjord. There we checked in at the hotel where we had reserved. I went to my hotel room and my parents in theirs and set us up, then I went out. I was walking down the busy street. When fans saw me,