“Why do you have this?” I asked her again.

I thought it would be nice if I unpacked for Jazlyn before she came upstairs so I opened her luggage and started to pull out her clothes, but froze. There in front of me was a sharp wooden stake. I didn’t understand why Jazlyn had this in her possession. She wouldn’t have a stake with her unless…

“I...I...um...I was just-”

“What were you planning on doing with this?”

“Let me explain,” Jazlyn begged.

“You do realize that this isn’t going to protect you very well. We don’t get turned into dust or die like in the TV shows.”

“Just let me explain everything.”

I threw the stake out of the way. “Forget it! I know what you were planning on doing.”

“No, Harry, you don’t! It’s not what you think!”

“Is it?!” I growled at her. “You aren’t going to fight with us, Jazlyn.”

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb with me,” I scoffed at her. “If that coven was going to find us, you were thinking about fighting with us, weren’t you? Baby, no offense, but you may know how to put up a fight, but our kind and yours are much different. We are stronger and faster. You’d be lucky if you were alive for two seconds.”

Jazlyn carried an astonished look in her face for a brief second but composed herself. “You don’t…” she paused. “You don’t want me to help protect your family?”

I walked over to her and held her hand tightly. “I don’t want you fighting period. Baby, we brought you here to protect you. I don’t want you to be afraid. My family, my coven, it’s the strongest. We may be small, but trust me. We are the strongest coven that ever lived.”

“I don’t see how,” Jazlyn muttered. “I mean, sure, Angelina is the oldest, but there’s only six of you, seven if you include Niall.”

“We have been in tighter positions than this. Angelina is a great leader and she knows what needs to be done, and with the rest of us at her side, we’ll be able to fight anything.”

She looked down and nodded, “I’m sorry, Harry.”

I hugged her tightly, “You’re shaking, Baby. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“You have no reason to apologize,” she whispered against my chest.

I was about to say something, but there was a soft knocking on the door. I pulled away from Jazlyn as the door opened. Niall appeared, wearing a blazer with a white T-shirt and jeans.

“Nice outfit,” I said, thinking about his outfit yesterday. He wore an old fashion tuxedo last night. I was trying so hard not to laugh at him when I saw that. “Did Angelina give those to you?”

Niall looked down at his clothes. “Is it a man’s custom to wear this now? There was a time where men wore suits all the time.”

“Yeah, that was back in the twenties or something,” Jazlyn laughed.

Niall tilted his head at her, confused. “Men wore suits before that time.”

I cleared my throat, “Is everything alright?”

Niall nodded, “Angelina is calling upon her coven to discuss the matters that you bestowed upon them.”

“We’ll be right there.”

“I would hurry if I were you, Angelina is not patient,” Niall said and closed the door.

Jazlyn burst out laughing. “Wow, how old is that vampire?”

Remembering that I couldn’t give out the information about Niall, I shrugged. “I think a few decades younger than Angelina,” I lied. He was actually a lot older than Angelina is, since he was a royalty and one of the very first vampires. As we went downstairs, I said, “He doesn’t get out much so he doesn’t really understand.”

“What? He’s been stuck in the coffin for too long?” she joked.

“Actually,” Niall said from the couch. “Our kind does not need coffins to hibernate. That was just created for the cinematic features.”

Jazlyn blinked in disbelief that Niall took her comment to seriously. Liam and I were trying our best not to laugh at him since we knew what Angelina would do if we did laugh.

Angelina squeezed Niall’s hand. “Sweetheart, Jazlyn was just trying to be funny. That wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.”

Niall frowned, but nodded. “I suppose that was rather amusing.”

Angelina cleared her throat and looked at Liam. “Were you able to get in contact with Louis and Zayn?”

“They’re on their way.”

“Where were they last night?” she asked.

“I believe they were trying to get information about the coven that might be after us. They wanted to see what the competition was.”

“They just decided to go without telling us?”

“I think it was Louis’s idea.”

Angelina grimaced, “Leave it to Louis to do something like that. I guess it was good that they went. We do need to know more about this coven and the leader.”

“You didn’t see the leader when you went to visit?” I asked.

She shook her head, “The leader didn’t make an appearance.”

“Angelina, that’s a nice ring you have on,” Jazlyn complimented.

Angelina smiled, “Thank you, Jazlyn. It was a gift from Niall. Do you know what it is?” Jazlyn shook her head. “It’s a Claddagh ring, an Irish promise ring. If the heart is pointed down, it means you are single, but if it’s pointed towards you, it means you are taken.”

The front door opened and Louis and Zayn came in. Louis didn’t take notice of Niall until he looked up and saw that Angelina and Niall were holding hands. His eyes grew dark and his expression hard. Angelina was calm and her eyes were just as unreadable as Louis’s. Unfortunately, every second that Louis, Niall, and Angelina remained in the same room, the air grew thicker and thicker with tension.

“Who’s this?” Zayn asked, nodding over at Niall.

Niall stood up and extending his hand to Zayn. “I am Niall.”

“My name is Zayn,” he said, taking the handshake. “Wait, are you the Niall?” Zayn looked around the room.

“If you are referring to Angelina’s love interest and cre-”

Angelina quickly stood up and placed a hand on Niall’s chest to stop him from talking. “Yes, the Niall.” Angelina settled her warning eyes on Niall and looked back at Zayn. “He stopped by last night.”

Louis approached slowly, staring darkly at Niall. Niall noticed, but still raised his hand to Louis. He glanced over at Angelina, who was staring back at him with eyes that begged for peace.

Louis didn’t shake Niall’s hand. Instead, he straightened. “So, you’re the one who abandoned Angelina and left her with a broken heart.”

Angelina groaned in frustration. “Louis,” she sighed and sat down on the couch, covering her face with her hand.

Niall nodded, “Oh, so you are Louis. Yes, Angelina has spoken of you.”

“She spoke of you too,” Louis said. “She told me about how you left, broke her heart, and left her alone for all these years.”

“Louis, that’s enough!” Angelina snapped.

“I believe you know the reason why I had no choice but to leave her.”

“If you truly loved her, you wouldn’t have left.”

“Can’t I say the same about you?”

“Stop this, please!” Angelina begged. “We have bigger things to worry about than this!”

Neither of the two was listening to Angelina. They were too fixated on their machismo war even listen to the one they were fighting for. They were both standing tall and clearly not willing to back down.

“That was different compared to yours,” Louis growled.

“Yes, it was,” Niall agreed. “You left by choice while mine was by force. Which sounds worse to you?”

Louis launched at Niall, making Angelina scream. Niall removed Louis’s hands off him and slammed him against the opposite wall. Louis charged at him and slammed a fist at Niall’s jaw that made him step away from Louis. Niall punched Louis, sending him across the room and skidding near Jazlyn. I moved her away so that Louis wouldn’t trip her. Louis slammed into the glass table that held a lamp. He quickly got up and was ready to continue fighting with Niall. Before either of them could make things worse, Angelina stepped between Niall and Louis.

“Instead of acting like children, settle this like the men you are!” Angelina shouted at them. They both relaxed slightly, but prepared if one of them were to strike at each other again.

“She is right,” Niall nodded at Louis. “We shall settle this like men.”

“Thank you,” Angelina sighed.

“Fine,” Louis agreed. “Let’s duel this out.”

“What?” Angelina gaped. “What duel?!”

Louis stepped towards Niall. “We are both men from the earlier centuries. You remember when men want something or disagree, there’s a duel. Let’s do that.”

“A swords fight?” Niall questioned.

Louis nodded. “State your claims.”

“If I win, you will move on from your lusting relationship of Angelina and you will treat our relationship with the highest respects. If you win, I will do the same for you.”

“I want you gone,” Louis corrected him.

Angelina’s face was mixed with shock and disgust. “I am not a prize that can be won!”

They ignored her.

“Shall we settle this now?” Louis asked him. “The third floor has a fitness area and there is enough room for it there and there are swords.”

“You can’t be serious about this!” Angelina looked the two of them. “This is ridiculous!”

“No,” Niall looked down at her. “This is fighting for our love. I am tired of not being separated from you and always having to fight for us to be together. It ends now.”

Louis and Niall headed up to the third floor to get their duel settled. Angelina chased after them followed by Liam and Zayn, who seemed to be excited and interested on what was going to happen. Jazlyn and I followed them up the stairs too.

“What do you have to say about this?” Jazlyn asked as Louis and Niall prepared themselves for the duel.

“I have no say about this actually,” I shrugged.

Zayn glanced over at us. “This has been long overdue. Louis has been waiting for this day for a long time.”

Angelina nudged Liam roughly. “Say something! Stop them from doing this!”

Liam shook his head, “I get stop this and besides, Angelina, they need to get this out. This needs to be settled once and for all.”

Angelina groaned loudly. “Niall, Louis, stop acting like children, please!”

Louis tossed Niall a sword and he caught it. “Why don’t we make this more interesting?” Louis asked. “There are wooden swords in that trunk. We could-”

“No!” Angelina shouted at them. “You are not going to stake each other with wooden swords! You’re already doing this!”

“I agree with Angelina,” Liam stepped in. “That’s too far.”

“Alright, fine. It was just a suggestion anyway,” Louis shrugged.

They got into position and began. The first moment that Louis struck, I heard Angelina suck in a breath but then released it when Niall blocked it easily.

“I feel like I’m watching Zorro,” Jazlyn said to me. “Is this how all vampires handle situations like this?”

I shook my head. “Nope, we usually just kill each other.”

Her eyebrows shot up, “What?”

“That’s how I got you,” I winked. I turned to see Angelina covering her eyes on Liam’s arm. I poked her teasingly. “What’s wrong, Angelina? You don’t want to see the men you love fight until death for your affection?”

Her response was grabbing a fistful of my shirt and throwing across the room. The distance I was thrown was close to where Louis and Niall were. They both stopped and waited until I walked back to my spot and continued to fight.

Louis was mostly offense while Niall was defensive. Skillfully blocking Louis’s every strike, Niall struck, but only when Louis least expected it and it was a very close call. I think everyone knew that Angelina would pick Niall no matter who won the duel, even Louis.

“This is ridiculous,” Angelina hissed.

“Ridiculous but entertaining,” Zayn announced.

Finally, Niall managed to unarm Louis with just a twist of his sword. Niall pointed his sword at Louis, showing that Louis lost. Louis’s face was unreadable and his eyes stared darkly at Niall as he walked over to Angelina.

Angelina’s face was stern. Niall leaned down to kiss her on the lips, but she moved her head to make him kiss her on the cheek. He looked at her confused.

“What is wrong?”

“Do you believe that fighting like this wins my affection? My love isn’t a prize to won. You, of all people, should’ve known that. If you both are going to act this way, I’d rather not have you at all.” She stormed out of the room.

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what was going to happen next.

“Well that took a different turn than I expected,” Zayn commented. “I thought Angelina was going to give you a kiss and there’s a happily ever after.”

“I think it is best if I go and look for her,” Niall suggested, walking off.

Louis shrugged, “Well, if their conversation goes sour and she breaks it off with him that means I can keep her.”

“Did you not hear what she said?” Liam looked at Louis. “She doesn’t want there to be any fights. It’s her choice on who she wants to love.”

Louis leaned against the wall, “I knew she was going to pick him either way, just like how I knew she would be pissed off at Niall for allowing the duel to happen.”

“So, you made it seem like it was going to benefit Niall when all along, it was going to benefit you instead,” Jazlyn said, understanding.

“Exactly,” Louis grinned. “I’m such a horrible person, but he asked for it the moment he came back in her life.”

Shaking my head, I took Jazlyn’s hand and went downstairs. On the second floor, we heard Angelina and Niall arguing with each other. It seemed more like Angelina was shouting while Niall was trying to calm her down.

“I hope they’re going to be alright,” Jazlyn commented. “I don’t know Niall or Louis that well, but it looks like she’s better off with Niall.”

“They’ll be alright by dinner.”

“Do you get why she was mad at him?” Jazlyn asked as we cuddled on the couch. “I don’t know, I think the dueling this was kind of cute.”

“Angelina doesn’t like it when people fight for the wrong reasons,” I told her, “For example, this duel. There were other ways to settle the love triangle.”

“I feel bad for Louis though,” Jazlyn sighed. “His heart must be broken.”

“He always did try winning Angelina’s affection. It was either by giving her fresh blood, showing off, or even getting into fights.”

“It didn’t work though.” Jazlyn looked up at me, “So, are you rooting for?”

I smirked, “Team Harry.”

She frowned, “Team Harry?”

“Yeah, you know, Team Harry for Jazlyn.”

“I was about to say,” she laughed.

“What?” I laughed, “Sorry to disappoint, but I only have eyes for one girl and one girl only, and that’s you. That will always be you.”

“No matter what?”

I caressed her cheek and kissed her. I pulled away slightly and said, “No matter what.”