Chapter One

Stone Haven

I sat in the back seat, shivering from the cold of the early morning. It was only five o'clock am., yet I was sitting in the back seat of a silver Mercedes. I didn't know the man who was driving, but considering how things had been the past few days, that was the least of my problems. I was scared, but not of the man who was driving. He was supposedly the friend of a friend who knew what was wrong with me. I doubted that severely.

I looked out the window at the passing scenery, New York state flying by so quickly I knew we weren't doing the speed limit. I had lived with my mother in Oklahoma since I could remember. But that wasn't an option any more. My mom was gone, dead, and it was all my fault. Sometimes I swore I could still hear her voice, reminding me to brush my teeth or take my vitamins.

Just like that my eyes teared up, and I had to push back the sadness and sorrow. I was a strong girl, and very private, and I didn't want the man driving to see me upset. I never let anyone see me cry, not even my mom since I was about eight years old. Perhaps I had to grow up too soon, what with being the oldest child of six and none of the sperm donor fathers bothering to step up to the plate. Either way, I hated people seeing me vulnerable and weak.

I sniffled, unable to stop myself. Immediately I noticed the man glance at me through the rear view mirror. I stiffened, glaring back at him with my cocoa brown eyes. And yes, there is a difference between cocoa brown and chocolate brown. I didn't get that warm hue to my eyes that you associate with chocolate. Nope, my eyes were brown but bordered on black, like pure cocoa powder does.

He seemed to sizing me up, looking me over to see how well I was handling everything that had happened in the past week. It didn't seem like a week. It didn't feel like my mother had been killed seven days ago, or that her funeral had been two days ago. It also didn't feel like it had been less time than that. Somehow, it felt like yesterday and yet a hundred years ago.

"Are you sure you don't want me to turn on the heater?" The man asked, her voice a welcoming respite from the silence. And somehow comforting in the depth of tone.

I shook my head. He had asked me the same question what felt like a million times already. The cold, normally avoided by me, was a respite for me. It allowed me to think, to focus. And at the same time, it was like a punishment. After all, it was my fault that my family had been torn apart; that my mom was dead. Being cold for a few hours was the least I could do.

"You want the radio on?" He asked, fishing now.

I knew he wanted to get me to talk. I hadn't spoken at all since my mom had been killed. I hadn't even been able to say goodbye to my brothers and sisters. And I had wanted to! But how could I have explained that mom's death, mom's murder, was my fault? How could I explain to them that I was sick, that I couldn't step up and take care of us because at any time one of them could have been the next one? It had broke my heart to see them leave, go to their fathers or grandparents or even into the foster system.

My eyes watered again, and I closed them quickly to keep the man from seeing the tears in my eyes. I refused to let him see me as weak. Instead, I kept my eyes closed, leaned my head forward so my walnut brown hair fell over my face, and listened to the silence. It droned in my ears, piercing my mind, and all I wanted was relief. But I couldn't sleep, hadn't been able to eat much, and I refused to start crying.

It didn't feel like long, but soon I felt the car start to slow down. The man driving actually came to a stop at a light, and turned around to look at me. He handed me a candy bar, a Snickers, before he spoke. "We will be there in only a few minutes. You're going to need the endorphines from the chocolate. I have to make a call."

I just took the candy bar, figuring I would need the feel good chemicals in the candy. The place he was taking me would be my new home, and the people there would be my new family. Kind of like they adopted me, but I wasn't allowed to leave the family. It was this or prison for what I had done. And since my sickness would be worse in prison, this was my only option.

I opened the candy bar slowly, my fingers moving clumsily from the cold. I heard the man dial a number and speak into the cell phone, but I wasn't listening to what was said. I was trying to focus on anything else. I wasn't pleased to be here, wasn't pleased to find myself among strangers, and I didn't want people to sit there and poke and prod at me. My emotional state was fragile enough without people trying to find the weak spots.

The man driving looked at me from the mirror again, a sympathetic smile on his face. "Jeremy Danvers will be up when we get there, and he is expecting you. You'll talk with only him and Elena at first, and be introduced to the rest of the family slowly." He explained. I simply arched a brow at him. The names he gave me meant nothing to me, but that didn't seem to stop him. "Jeremy will explain everything. And Elena will be there to help you out, as another woman. You'll like her." He said gently.

I shrugged, not really caring at that moment. It wasn't like they were really my family. They were a bunch of strangers, probably as much to themselves as to me. The only reason I was going to them was because of my sickness, for they were supposedly people that could teach me to cope with it. But I didn't want to cope with it. I wanted to get rid of it, to be cured, to be normal again. Because, if I was normal I could go and get my brothers and sisters and take them home.

And we could be a family again...

"Tiffany, this isn't the end of the world." The man driving said. I couldn't look at him, because it felt like the end of the world to me.

We sat in silence for another five minutes, with me staring out the window. I read the archway, saying StoneHaven in beautiful carved letters. There was practically a forest here, as their front yard, and a part of me relaxed a bit. I liked forests, woods, where I could take a walk and clear my head with the sound of birds singing. It was autumn, so the trees were colored, but I could barely see it with the darkness all around. I found myself looking forward to the daylight hours, when I could see the trees in all their colored glory.

The house, or rather a manor, was large and obviously old. I felt my jaw drop as I looked at it. The manor looked like a house out of my dreams, the kind of old age house that made you feel automatically comfortable and awestruck. And the forest came right up to the house on one full side. There was even a full pull around driveway, nearly taking the car right up to the front door. I was excited, more so than I could ever describe.

I was in total awe...