While my guard was down by Madelyn McDonald (leveled readers txt) 📖

Prologue
January 5th, 1980

James was grumbling about getting dressed up over a stupid ball. He turned and brightened at the sight of the love of his life.
“Daddy! You look so pretty!” She exclaimed. James smiled at his sweet little 4 year old daughter, all dressed up. She wore a little dress. It was peach with a big bow in the back. It was belled at the bottom. It was the style at the moment.
“ Aww, thanks sweetheart, but I think you are tons prettier than me, in fact, I think you are the most beautiful person in the whole wide world!” James bent down to kiss his little girl.
“NO!” she giggled, “mama is!” she stopped and tried to keep her face strait as her mom peeked into the room.
“What’s going on?” she asked in pretend curiosity. She wore a blue dress, with a big bow and the bottom was the shape of a bell, just like her daughter's dress. “ is daddy picking on you?” that sent the little girl into a fit of giggles as her mom came in and kissed her dad.
“eeeeew!” she managed between giggles.
“Alright, Sarah Rea, be good for gramma.” Arianne, her mom warned. “if I find out you were bad, you will be doing extra chores.” she kissed her daughter and told her husband, “time to go.”
Sara Rea was jumping up and down, excitement written all over her body. “Gramma, gramma! Yay! I get to stay with gramma! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Sara Rae was jumping up and down when the window shattered, she screamed, one short, shrill scream that had her parents run in, in time to see their daughter drop, dead.
The ear splitting scream didn’t register into James mind until the awful beasts came raging in. they were covered head to foot in black, and their eyes were all the same vibrant green as Arianne's and her daughter's.
“you and your daughter are going to be one of us, Arianne!” The raspy voice promised as one of the creatures bounced, straight for her throat.
“No!” Yelled James. He jumped right in front of Arianne, and felt the creature sink his teeth into his neck.
James dropped to the ground. Dead. The creatures looked with horror as James dropped, then jumped out the window, screeching.
Adrianne knelt to the ground and she whispered to James dead body as tears spilled over her eyes “I’ll get your revenge, sweetie, you’ll see, you won’t die for nothing!”
She got back up, and threw herself on the bed, crying. That’s how her grandmother found her, ten minutes later.


Chapter 1
January 5th, 2012

The water was calm. Nothing disturbed it. The moonlight hit it to where it was picture perfect.
Suddenly, the water stirred a little by an invisible force. From the depths of the river, ashes rose up. It stirred the water a bit more.
The water was calm again, the ashes had fallen back down to the bottom of the river. They were closer now, if you looked down from atop the undisturbed water, you would be able to see the black and gray specks at the bottom, only a little distance apart from another little gray or black speck.
Another ripple stirred gently over the water. The ashes had started to rise, faster now. Then all was calm. The ashes floated to the bottom.
Once again, a ripple, a little bigger, gently stirred the water. The ashes had started to rise, a little faster still, and then they started to spin.
Slowly, yet they spun as if eager to become a whole. They didn’t spin faster, but they got closer together.
The ashes stopped spinning, but they didn’t float to the bottom. They rose, and slowly emerged out of the water.
Suspended in the air, they started to spin slowly again. The water rippled with a little more intensity now.
The ashes stopped again, yet the river still rippled. It started to create small waves.
The waves gradually became bigger, and started to reach tremendous heights. There was no wind. There was no explanation for the floating ashes that didn’t move, not even to bob up and down.
Suddenly, the ashes moved, slowly coming together at once.
An eagle started to form from the ashes, yet there was still a lot more ash left. The eagle figure absorbed more ash, and slowly changed to form a great white shark.
Then it absorbed more, turning from a great white to a cheetah.
It absorbed the remaining ash, and turned from that of a cheetah, to a human.
The raging waters splashed against the ashes, forcing them to absorb some of it, and ash turned into flesh.
The human form floated down to earth, and the water went calm, as if nothing had happened. The human was a little girl of about four years old.
“I’ve been waiting for this day ever since I died!” The little girl said, hunger and power etched on her face, goose bumps covering her arms.
Her bones cracked, her arms turned to wings, her face transformed, and feathers started to grow on her skin in a seconds time.
An eagle took flight, soaring through the sky, looking for it’s first meal in twenty-two years, leaving behind the undisturbed water, and forest around it.


Chapter 2

Sara Rae walked through a busy crowd. She had been able to beg a person for a dress. She had been naked, and didn’t want to cause a scene.
She weaved in and out of people, a little bit confused. She didn’t think that the people at this time were very fashionable.
She was very old on the inside, but not on the outside. On the outside she was merely a little girl, and she attracted many stares that made her very uncomfortable.
She walked as fast as she could, trying to look like she knew where her destination was. The problem was, she was in a very difficult situation. She had no shelter, and didn’t know how to hunt, in any of her forms.
She hadn’t been able to tap into any of her forms natural instincts. Worst of all, she knew that her mother and father, and grand mother were long gone and dead.
Sara Rea hesitated for only a second, and that was all a young man of about twenty four needed. He looked down with pity on his face and asked, “Are you lost, sweet heart?”
Sara Rea snapped, “I am not your sweet heart,” But the man thought that she was just scared, and asked where she was going.
“Home.” Sara Rea glared at him, hoping to show defiance and dignity.
“Well, why don’t I walk with you?” He asked. Sara Rea shook her head vigorously and shook with rage at the mere suggestion. She turned on her heel, and walked briskly away from him, in the opposite direction, and thought that he wouldn’t follow.
Sara Rea took a left into an alley way, where nobody would see her, unless they walked right in front of her.
“The ally way is not a safe place for a little girl to be in. you don’t even have a home, do you?” the man that had asked Sara Rea if she was lost before, kneeled right in front of her, and even in the dim light, Sara Rea could see his pitying expression.
“I am home.” she stated simply. He looked her right in the eyes and she knew that he wouldn’t let her stay there.
“What’s your name, Hun?” he asked nicely.
“I’m not going to tell you, my mom forbids me to talk to men who follow me.” I whispered to him, hate filling every syllable, as if I had nothing better to do than hate him and him only. Not that he did much wrong. Much.
He chuckled deep in his throat. “I just want to help, Hun.”
“I. Don’t. Need. Your. Help. Go. Away. Now.” I spat at him, making sure he heard every last word.
“I’m not going to leave you alone. I can wait until your mom or dad comes to pick you up.” He offered, as if he actually believed that I had a mom and dad.
“No. I’m fine, thank you.” I gritted through my teeth. I didn’t want him to know that I didn’t have any parents.
“Fine, I’ll just leave then.” He got up and walked out of the alleyway. I settled myself down and started to think of what I would do tomorrow.
Night came faster than I would’ve liked, and I curled up to go to bed. Half an hour later, I started drifting slowly off to bed. I didn’t know that the man had come back and brought me to his home until the next day when I woke up rejuvenated and in a waterbed that was quite comfortable.

Publication Date: 08-18-2011

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