Welcome to my new fiction series, Raising Diana. I love how this started, inspiration flowing after reading Magically Bound by Rachel Medhurst. So I just went with it and wrote like I always do. I’m really happy to have found my style of writing and for now, I am comfortable here. I hope you like it!

Raising Diana.

Fiercely loyal, Diana will protect her kind and those she loves to the end of the Earth. But is it enough? And can she save everything she holds dear from those trying to destroy her world before it is too late? It’s time to go to war but exactly who is Diana fighting and can she trust those who say they are there to help her?

It always took her by surprise, that feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like a hunger that needed feeding but an appetite, she could never sate. It hits suddenly just before the anger rolls into the mix. The first time it happened she was terrified as it burned its way through her body. She felt like she was being ripped inside out and the pain, just thinking of it made her shudder. She lost 48 hours straight, the thought of what could have happened had she not been somewhere safe was too much to bear.

Time had been a great help in learning to control the urges and desires but sometimes, like now, it appeared so suddenly, so ferociously that Diana knew there was no stopping it. Out here, on the short walk from the barn to her grandmother’s farmhouse, she wasn’t sure if she could control the beast from within. The stress of trying brought out that twitch in her left eyelid that her mother called her tell. The more Diana fought it, the more her eyelid would twitch as if it was having some of spasm.

“I can hear you” she called out in the darkness “I know you are there so show yourself”

There was no reply to Diana’s request, her words reverberating through the corrugated iron buildings from where her grandad had attempted to undertake a quick patch and repair job on the outhouses a few years back after the hurricane. The farm had been left to her when they had finally succumbed to old age at a noble 646 and 640 years. Diana really missed their words of wisdom right now. They would know exactly what to do with creatures tailing her.

“This is your last warning” she heeded “I’m not sure I can or want to control it tonight so if you are after a fight that is exactly what you are going to get”

The footsteps slowed as Diana came to an abrupt halt under the floodlight her mother installed a few months back. Her grandpa may have had the gift of night vision but not all of their clan were so gifted. Diana had to rely on other senses and she was suddenly grateful for her mothers sometimes overbearing and controlling ways.

Flicking her lilac tipped blonde hair from one shoulder to the next allowed her a quick turn of the head. The growling inside her was growing and she really wasn’t sure if she could or even wanted to contain it tonight. Someone came here looking for trouble. Diana made it her policy to never go looking for trouble but it always found her regardless. Her gut told her she needed to be ready for a fight and she very well would be. Her eyes caught the movement of a shadow form melting into the background.

So they sent a shadow maker after her, did they? Diana scoffed at how much thought wasn’t put into this, well whatever this was. “I can still see you and you have exactly 30 seconds before I relinquish control and you meet your end tonight” Diana wasn’t mincing her words, she was too tired for games and for fights but they brought this to her and on her property too.

“Diana” came the deep silky smooth voice ” We are not here to hurt you. We are here to help”

Diana scoffed “ha, I don’t need any help thank you very much” she muttered under her breath. But her interest was piqued and she turned to the direction of the voice that had captured her attention.

“I swear, we haven’t come for a fight, we have come to offer our help” The owner of the voice released himself from his shadow behind one of the outhouses and came to join her on the edge of the floodlight. “We too, like your people have been wrongly persecuted. We have been waiting for you to take your rightful place as leader so we can join forces to rid our world of the evil within. Diana, will you help us?”

For once in her 127-year existence, Diana was lost for words. People often mistook her for a teenager, looking a mere 18 human years old. She was well used to being misjudged but she knew that wasn’t the case tonight. Sensing the threat level had been downgraded from imminent to not today, her rage calmed inside her, holding back the transformation until another day. Diana caught her breath as her eyes took in the shadow maker in his human form. His piercing blue eyes at odds with darkness he had morphed back to her from were framed by soft brown waves that tickled the side of his face as he swept his hair back into a man bun revealing cheekbones so chiselled she feared she would cut her finger as soon as she touched them. Not that she would be touching them. Why would she?.

Diana snapped back as she remembered why he was here and pushed all thoughts of tracing his cheekbones to the back of her mind along with thoughts of finding out how soft his lips would be on hers. She regarded him squarely and straightened her back standing tall as she took on his words.

“Please” she invited “Tell me more”