My name is Sera Erica Reinhardt, and I am the Princess of Germany.  Well, that was what I was called following the night of my last birthday on October 6th, before that I had been a pretty normal girl living a pretty nice life.  My dad was a hard working man providing for me as I grew up and I was a high school girl with great ambitions on what I wanted to do with my future.  My mother had died giving birth to me, and my dad had said it was heartbreaking for him to lose her that he had taken all but a few pictures of her out of the house.  Still, life was good. 

All that changed a few days before my 17th birthday.  When my father broke the news that he was the descendant of the last Kaiser of Germany, which effectively made him the ruler of the country.  And that, in effect, made me the Princess.

Was I shocked?  Yes, so much so I hit the floor when I found out.  First time I had ever fainted.  More shocked to know that since I would be turning seventeen in a few days time we were now allowed to move into a house that had been designated for us when the time was right.  We moved out of our two floor, two bedroom house and into a mansion.  Yes, a MANSION!  More rooms than my father and I would ever need, and now we were able to buy things for ourselves.  Apparently my mother had ordered it in her last will and testament, saying the mansion was mine when I turned seventeen.  My lifestyle had changed for the better, since I believed a bigger place would help my dad as well.

However, I had troubles with my friends because of it.  I lost a good deal of them following the announcement of my royal ties.  Only two remained with me, Eve and Anne.  The closest friends I ever had.  My popularity at school skyrocketed as well.  I used to be the one who minded my own business and went without stirring anything up, now people were trying to ask me all sorts of questions and get into my life when I just wanted to shut them out.  I wanted to be back the way I was.  Don’t get me wrong, being a Princess was something I could find interesting and grow to like, but under the sudden circumstances I felt very out of place and uncomfortable.

Little did I know that what went on in my daily life was just the tip of the iceberg…

The real terrifying part came on the night of my birthday.  I was given a party to celebrate my coronation, a grand one like you’d see in fairy tales.  Grand and breathtaking as one could imagine, especially when the party happened on the roof of the Reichstag. 

I was dressed in a dress that had apparently I was introduced to members of my family; family that I never knew existed.

And there was something wrong with them.  Perfect skin, flawless to perfection.  Beautiful too, even the men which surprised me.  They all had near white skin as well, like they had never seen the sun in years.  The strangest part was that they all had hazel colored eyes.  Not one set of them was blue or green.

Still, I didn’t pay too much to it as I was trying to smile that night.  I talked with my father, and some of the people that had begun to live in our new home.  There was Matilda, one of my personal maids.  She was an older lady who showed me great respect but she was also understanding of my new position.  Then there was Joel, the driver.  He was as young as I was, and said his great grandfather had worked for the Kaiser back in the early 1900s.  I thought everything was going alright.  Then, as I took a drinking glass in my hand, it shattered.  The result was it got my hand all cut up and I started bleeding.

The next thing I knew I was on the floor, and it wasn’t my fault that I was there either.  Someone had tried to tackle me not two seconds after I started to bleed.  The man who had tried it I had seen earlier in the party.  He had given me a genuine smile and he seemed really nice when I saw him.  Then, as he stood over me, he had nothing serene on his face.  He had fangs, sharp pointed teeth, his eyes a red colored luster, his face almost feral as he looked to me.  Put it simply, he didn’t look human anymore.

Two other men held him off while I was taken away.  I was too shaken up to talk, and all I could think about was to run.  I was so scared that I didn’t care what happened to me; I just had to get away.  Joel tried to get me home but just before we reached the edge of the Potsdamer Platz my car was attacked.  Attacked by the same man I had seen before.  He ripped the car open with his bare hands as if it were a tin can.  Joel tried to help me but he was knocked out.  I tried to run but the man got me with his claw-like finger nails.  I was sure I was going to die.

But…I felt the air grow colder.  My skin was still warm so I wasn’t dead, but it felt like it was a late winter’s night.  The man, who had appeared to be a wild animal mere moments ago was now backing away from me like he had seen his life flash before his eyes.  I stood up and saw the reason why.

Standing on the roof of the limo I had escaped from was another man.  Covered from head to toe in crude black armor resembling a knight, and holding a sword in right hand.  The blade had a bright red glow surrounding it.  Everything that happened next went in a blink of an eye.  I felt a quick breeze and got a chill.  Where my attacker had stood was now a pile of ash in his place, and the man in armor was standing behind me.

I suddenly felt weak in the legs, my breathing had surely stopped, and I fell backwards into the cold metal armor.  The mysterious knight had appeared to look down at me, and from the eye holes of his helmet I saw a similar pair of red eyes in the darkness.

I heard him say “Are you alright, Princess?” before I passed out again. 

I awoke in my father’s study back at the mansion.  My father apologized to me for what happened, and when I asked him what was going on, and who or what it was that attacked me he told me the truth.

The truth was he wasn’t the only royal in the family.  My mother had been a royal too.  Not just any royal mind you. 

My mother, Ruina Satella Reinhardt, had been a queen of vampires. 

Taking that bit in without so much as a sob, I sat back and the reality of it sunk in.  My mother had been a vampire…which meant that I was one as well. 

Well, half vampire.  My father explained that I was a dhampir, a half-human half vampire hybrid.  Father further explained that he had tried to hide my heritage from me in order to give me a normal life, and that my mother had wished for it as well.  But when the news came of his lineage to the Kaiser he lost the battle, and then it became a matter of time before I would find out.  He didn’t expect me to find out so soon however.

Then, I wanted to ask him about the man in the armor I had seen, and at that moment someone had walked on in, and I felt the same sort of cold air from when I was attacked in Potsdam.  I saw coming into the room the same man dressed in armor.  He knelt at my feet, took off his helmet, and looked me straight in the eyes with his shining red ones.  They were cat like and mesmerizing to the point I couldn’t move away from them.  He took my hands in with his own, I shivered because of the armor he wore made contact with my skin.

“Princess Sera.  My name is Viktor Nachtmahr, and at the request of your late mother the Queen, I have been asked to protect you.” 

Happy birthday to me, and little did I know that it was only the beginning…