I am cursed, damned and have been since I was sixteen. As the Prince of the West I had been banished from my home, my life for committing the ultimate unforgivable sin:

killing my father.

When I was fourteen, I met a young girl. She was three years younger than I and even back then she was beautiful, though she was only eleven years old. I'd been captivated by her.

Her hair had been long, curly the color of dancing flames, of blood. Her eyes had been like nothing I'd ever seen. They seemed to swirl and were the color of liquid gold. Skin as pale as the moon at night with no marks. Freckles, moles were non-existant on her. There was one birthmark on her face, though. Three small, perfect circles dripped from the corner of her left eye as if she were always crying.

Her name was Aidan Ember.

It was ironic to me, even back then, that I, a prince of darkness, would fall for one destined to rule the light. And I did fall for her. Hard, instantly. From the moment I first looked on that face I knew she was mine. I started to follow her around, protecting her from harm. From one shadow to the next, from alleys and buildings. As she walked to school I'd be there. Walking home, I'd be in the shadows.To the mall with her friend, I'd be jumping from roof to roof to watch her. You'd be surprised how many people go after a girl such as Aidan. Humans, demons, vampires, wolves, and angels of every form. Two years I fought them off. Two years I followed her until she was an obsession, a twenty four hour, seven day a week duty. And she never knew I existed. I never let her see me. I never let her know me. And still there was an unspoken law across the city: she was mine, I posessed her, I had claimed her. The moment anyone stepped over the line with her, they'd be killed instantly.

By the time I was sixteen I had three older brothers and four younger sisters. I was gone from home so long that my youngest sister Shana didn't know what I looked like. I'd been driven crazy, but I liked every second of it.

Then the day came that ruined me. March 15th. It was nine o'clock and Aidan was just coming home from rehearsal for the play she was acting in. I'd spotted the shadow of a man closing in on her and smelled the scent that accomponies my kind. Anger brewed in the pit of my stomach.

Damnit, Aidan would not be someone's prey!

I jumped from the roof of the building behind the man and dragged him into the allyway where Aidan had just passed, then I procceded to slit his throat open. I left the body there and finished watching Aidan home. Once she was safely inside her house, snug and warm and lying in her bed, I went back to dispose of the sleaze who had tried to kill her.

The night was heavy with the scent of Leech, of partially digested, co-mingled blood. Then of course the venom that seeped out of the body once it was dead. The smell of my people was sickening and I hated it. It was a smell that was associated with death, with destruction. Before I'd met Aidan, I'd welcomed the scent and the adrenaline that came with it. But since then she'd taught me life and the importance of it. But anything that wasn't human was already dead and so I had no problem killing them off. Especially if they threatened MY girl.

I rounded the corner of the alleyway and kicked the body once so it rolled into deeper shadow. I bent at the knees and started to rifle through the man's pockets. A carton of cigarettes I tossed aside, two credit cards were extracted, and then a small golden heart shaped locket on a lilac colored silk string. It was the locket that made my blood run cold. I stared at it in shocked silence then tossed it aside and rolled the body over to expose the man's face and his identity.

Hair as black as pitch, silky with translucent skin already turning grey from death. Elongated teeth that came from between black lips and ended at a sharp chin. The traits of my people. But the fact that the hair was curly and the closed eyes were covered in thick glasses told me that the man I had killed and abandoned so ruthless and cruely, without a second thought was my father. King of the West. Kale Marcus Epic II.

I was banished to the East a month later. My oldest brother Kale III took over for my father and ruled for a year and a half. After he was killed news of the West was lost to me.

I lived in the palace of the Eastern king, my uncle Kane Masters Epic I, who had taken pity on me. Kane and my father had been at war with each other since the time of my birth. Which was why I had been banished there.

For five years I lived there on my uncle's hospitality and never once did I feel guilty over my slaying of my father. No, instead I spent every second of every day worrying over the girl I'd lost. With me gone, who was there to protect her from the evil that was constantly attracted to her bright personality?

Two weeks before my twenty first birthday my father's old advisor, Gilgamesh, arrived at my uncle's castle and told me I was to return home and become King of the West.

All of my brothers, he told me, had ruled and been killed and with only my sisters left I was the only one who could rightfully rule.I was given three days to choose my place of residence. Hoping to see my lost love again, I naturally asked to go home. We boarded a plane the next day.

I was given twenty four hours of freedom before the hell of the next few weeks would begin. I spent my time walking the streets, searching for Aidan's face in the crowd. She'd be seventeennow, eighteen ina few months, barely old enough to be considered an adult, and I'd last seen her when she was thirteen. My chances of finding her were almost non-existantbut I looked...

and I failed.

The following weeks were dedicated only to preparing for the coronation and even simple thoughts as to what I was going to do after my coronation could not be afforded and so Aidan was driven from my thoughts as well. The night of the coronation came and after I was throned, a great party was held.

People came from all over the world to celebrate me and my twenty first birthday. A couple of frat boys decided they'd take me out for a treat. This 'treat' I discovered was a strip bar. The music was too loud, the lights to dim, the air too smoky. The boys took me to a table and soon we were all drinking beers, though we could not get drunk. Soon I was sitting alone at the table and it was an hour later that I noticed a young woman come in through the door. She looked familiar to me, though I couldn't pin point why. Her back was to me and so I could only see long, straight black hair and a jacket that fell to her knees. Then she disappeared behind a curtain and was lost to my sight.

I sat brooding at my table trying to see why she'd been so familiar to me when I knew I had never met her. Black straight hair, medium height, curvy. No one I knew fit that description.

I was so distracted that at first I didn't notice when another woman joined the dancers on stage. Dressed as a school girl, the worst cliche, she slowly started to strip her clothes from herself. When I finally looked up, I knew instantly who she was.

Her hair had changed, had been forced to change. A straightening iron had tamed the curls, dye had hidden the color. Make up covered the birthmark I had so often wanted to trace with my fingers, but the eyes, I could never forget those eyes. Though they were empty now, cold, pain filled, I remembered seeing them brimming with life and love with future and promise. Eyes like I had never seen before.

They swirled, the color of liquid gold.