Keely stood beside the man that she loved with all her heart.  He was a good man, a rich man and he had swept her off her feet in a whirlwind of gifts and travel.  He had shown her Tahiti and the Temple of Ankor Wat.  Piece by piece she was covered in jewels and fine clothes and as was inevitable he asked her to marry him and she agreed.  Marion never listened to the niggling rumors of college hijinx that went beyond an innocent prank.  It didn’t take long for her to discover the truth but by then Josh had been born and she was stuck.

            The boy covered his head with the blankets in an effort to shut out the shouts of anger but even with his small fists pressed against his ears, he could still hear it.  When the sounds of slaps followed by the heavy thud of a falling body and the sobs of his mother came through he trembled in fear, his face streaked with tears for his mother.

            Keely lay in the hospital bed clutching her tiny daughter to her breast.  She did not feel the horrors of her husband’s assault that resulted in this child; all she saw was a tiny life to be protected.  At her bedside, her son, Josh, just five years old, clung to his mother’s hand.

            She whispered “Josh, you must always protect her.”

            The boy’s face grew hard in a way no child’s should ever and he nodded.

            They took a small house overlooking the ocean.  It was far less than what they were used to but all that mattered was that they were out.  Josh held his tiny sister’s hand wherever they went and she became the most important thing in his life.  The words of his mother he had taken to heart and it was only during school hours that he wasn’t hovering over her.

            Life for the next few years was hard, their mother working two jobs, Josh taking care of Paige from dawn until he tucked her in each night.  Once he’d seen to her, he was left a few free moments for himself and though he rarely when far, he began to enjoy evening walks through the neighborhood.

            Josh had just turned fifteen and his sister was ten when he returned from his evening walk to find the limo in front of the house.  He broke into a run and hit the front door hard when he found the door locked.   Peering in through the front windows he saw nothing but fear swelled in him and he raced around the back of the house.  Through the back door, he saw his mother on the floor, her face bloody, her eyes closed.  When he saw the shape of a man go into his sister’s room, something inside him broke.

            The man never had a chance to look up as he pulled at the girl’s clothes.  The blast of energy so powerful that it blew his body in half also ignited the wall.  The girl was unconscious as the boy lifted her in his arms and carried her out of the back door and laid her in the grass.  The fire spread quickly, the cheap material used to build the house going up like a lantern’s wick.

            Josh ripped off his shirt and covered his sister’s body.  He took her hand and held it searching her battered face for some sign of life.  Then he saw her chest rise then fall and he laid his head on her breast and sobbed in relief.  It was only then he turned his attention to his mother and the house.

            The official report stated the fire was caused by an electrical short in the wall of the children’s bedroom.  The rapidity of the fire’s spread was rightly attributed to the cheap construction material and the flammability of bedding of the bed against that wall.  The press identified the single casualty as Preston John Temple, a well known Los Angeles are TV evangelist, who had been visiting his estranged children in an effort to reconcile with them.  Sources claimed so little remained of the body that it was only but dental records and a single gold filling that the identification was made.  Temple had not left a will and it was assumed his entire estate would go to his wife and children.

            Josh followed the little Japanese girl with the blue hair into the classroom and took a seat just in front of her near Nat and Wren.  Those students toward the front of the room where engrossed in what was obviously various acquaintances from the previous year at the school.  Those behind him were just as obviously the newbies, like him.   Though he overheard a few introductions, they did not chatter like the rest of the class.  He turned to face them.

            “I’m Josh,” he offered.

            “Fuji,” the Japanese girl added with a smile.

            For a moment he thought the next guy was going to dis him but to his surprise the jock preppie offered him a friendly grin.

            “I’m Slater,” he said and then nodded to the tattoo girl.  “That’s Alicia, she’s mine so hands off.”

            The girl’s eye grew wide and her mouth dropped open.  She stared at Slater, stunned.  Suddenly she blushed and turned away to hide it.  Slater grinned.

            Josh sat forward on the edge of the arm chair, his total attention on Christiana.

            “My mother was a San Diego police lieutenant, homicide,” she began.  “Her last case was the violent murder of a family of five.  The killer was a vampire.  Unfortunately, she found it.”