Catarina Durcal was born in a small village close to Madrid, Spain on the day of November 2, 1792. Her mother was in labor on the biggest festival known as El Dia de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead. Who would have known that 21 years later she would be Embraced on the exact same day. Her father Pedro Durcal was but a modest laborer for the local vineyard, his wife kept house in their tiny two room dwelling. Catarina was born into poverty, but she didn't seem to mind. While playing in the forest one day she came upon a young child, who turned out to be a faerie. He was crying over the body of a long dead doe, he did not know that the young child was there and he openly swore hatred against vampires.

Catarina was frightened and ran out of the forest. Over the years she grew up to be a very happy young girl, except for the nightmares. After seeing the young child with the doe she began dreaming of what a vampire is and would always wake up screaming. The only that could calm her was her father. When she was but six years old she began to sing. Her parents were stunned for she rarely spoke, but her voice was so sweet they believed it was a gift from God and rushed her to the capital city of Madrid to enroll her at the local Catholic school. The nuns heard her voice and accepted her immediately, agreeing with her parents that her voice was definitely a gift from the heavens above. She was able to catch on rather quickly to her music lessons. Her parents would see her every holiday and were very proud of their young daughter. Her voice did not go unnoticed by the locals, and at her first recital she was the talk of all Madrid. She was known as La Pequena Angel, The Little Angel. When asked to sing for the local rulers she was very frightened but was also very proud that they would ask her to sing, they would be paying her parents an exceptional fee for her to sing for their friends as well.

Little did she know that some of the rulers friends were not all alive, one especially watched her closing. His name was Thomas Santiago and he was the ruling vampire in Madrid and surrounding areas. He knew that when she was old enough he would make her his -forever-. Her career soared for years to come and when she was 17 years old, Thomas began calling on her parents. She was awed at the sight of the handsome gentleman talking to her father. He would only came after the sunset and would take her out to exotic places and dances. She was swept off her feet and feel in love with this mysterious man a few short weeks after meeting him and immediately said yes when he proposed to her. They would be married when she turned 21 years of age. For the engagement party her parents invited a traveling gypsy troupe to perform. Having sent her to get him (Thomas)some punch, Catarina was outside alone walking when she was assaulted by a kidnapper who hoped to ransom her for a high price. She struggled and the knife at her throat dug into her flesh, the criminal knew people where watching and to avoid being caught slit her throat silently.

Catarina knew she was dying and that she would slowly bleed to death. Vainly she tried to call for help, closing her eyes for a moment she saw a woman running over to her. Her vision blurred and she passed out then, upon waking up she was in Thomas's arms and he was whispering to her, "Now you are mine forever, my beautiful NightAngel." Not understanding what he meant she fell into an undisturbed sleep. Regaining consciousness she looked around the room and was surprised to hear her father and Thomas talking in the downstairs study. They had brought her to Thomas's hacienda after the attack. Remembering what happened her hands flew to her neck, there was no bandage for the cut and even more disturbing to her was that there was not even a scar almost as if she had never been attacked. Scared she called to Thomas and gasped when she heard him answer that he will be right up, the thing that startled her was that she could hear his voice in her head. He came up and explained what had happened and that in order to save her life he had to turn her into what he was, confused she asked him what he was if he wasn't human. He told her that he was a vampire and had been for over 800 years now.

Shocked and scared she wouldn't, couldn't believe what he was saying, so she went home with her father back to his house. Trying so hard to understand what has happened to her, she wandered into the forest to think. Once again she came upon the child she saw so many years ago. He was playing a lute and did not hear her approach and continued playing. Entranced by the music she came and sat at his feet, noticing her he smiled softly to her. Sensing something was wrong with her, he asked her what was wrong. Afraid that he would not understand, she hesitated, but the gave in and told him. Appalled by what had happened to her, he shrank away from her and vanished into the forest. Seeing this, she began to cry. Calling out to the heavens, her arms out-stretched upwards, "Why won't you let me go! All I want to do is die! I don't want to live my life like this! Just let me go!" She cried until she was exhausted and lay on the forest floor looking up into the night sky. Watching her from the forest the young faerie watched the young woman carefully. Her aura was rather unusual to him, because if she was claiming to be a vampire her aura would look different, instead it was white and sparkling, almost angelic in nature. Confused he went to ask someone about this woman.

Laying on the ground Catarina felt hungry suddenly, so she wandered back to her fathers house to fix herself something to eat, but upon finishing it she ran outside and retched it all up. It (the food) tasted horrible to her, almost like ashes and something else she can't define. Miserable she sat outside to be alone. "Real food will not sate your hunger, mi angel," Turning around she saw Thomas standing by her house holding the hand of a young woman with him. Disgusted she spat out, "I will never drink blood, Thomas. No matter how hungry I get. Never!" Chuckling, Thomas slit the girls throat as if nothing and left her dying body there and turned to leave. Smelling the blood Catarina forced herself not to enjoy the smell and not to imagine what it would taste like in her mouth. Afraid she would give into the temptation she began to pray to God silently. Asking him to help her resist and not give into Thomas.

She prayed for what seemed like days rather than hours. Clasping her hands together she begged for God to help her. So intense was her prayer that she did not feel Thomas invade her mind and take control of it. Ordering her to open her eyes, she did. Frightened she tried in vain to free herself of his control. He said, "You will feed, mi reigna, do so now on this girl or I shall make you do horrible things that you will hate doing. Now feed!" Shaking terribly she resisted his command. "No! I will not feed! I do not want to be like you, you are some kind of monster and I will not listen." Angry, Thomas said, "Very well, my dear." Frightened and hungry she was weak to his power over her, she felt a sudden impact in her head and she blacked out completely.