It had been a week since Angelina’s last call. She told us that for now, England didn’t have any headquarters so we were safe. Even though we were safe in the flat we chose in London, Angelina still wanted us away from the city. She told us to head to her estate, Flordeliza, all the way in the countryside. Liam didn’t seem to agree with it, but I was all for going to her place.

“You do realize that it is a three day travel from there to here?” Liam asked me the night we decided to leave. “You complained about living in Vermont and in this flat, yet you want to go to a place where it takes most of the day to get to the nearest town?”

“Her place is a lot better compared to all the others we stayed at. Besides, I have more fun there then I do here. At least I’m allowed to get out unlike being in the city and it takes a day in a half to get to the estate by running, instead of taking a car.”

Liam thought it through. We both knew that we were faster than cars. If we took the roads that was created for heading halfway to Angelina’s place it would take a two and a half. Then the rest of the way would have to be horseback which will equal to three days of travel. If we chose to run, then we could skip the roads and not worry about being seen since the human eyes can’t see us due to the speed we can run.

As we were heading to Flordeliza, my mind ventured on the times I went there. There was only two times I went there and this would only be the third time. Her place seemed like a fairytale coming to life. Then again, isn’t my life practically nonsense that could be in a book?

Angelina walked with me through a forest one night. It was two weeks after I was transformed that she allowed me to go back to her home. I felt relieved to be back in England. I was expecting Angelina to have a cottage or a simple house in the countryside so I wasn’t excited to see her home, but more excited to meet the other vampires that she changed.

I glanced over at Angelina, who was wearing a floor length black leather corset coat and a dark gray dress. With the hood of her coat on, she looked even more mysterious than she already was. She looked around the forest for a moment.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

Without looking at me, she answered, “I’m making sure we aren’t seen.” Until she was certain, she looked at me. “Follow me and please, keep up.”

A gush of wind passed me. I glanced over and realized that Angelina was running. Quickly, I began to run so that I wouldn’t lose her. What would’ve taken hours for a mere human, it only took seconds to get through the forest. Out of the forest, we went passed a long field. The smell of the wet grass and wild flowers brushed into my nose. I never smelled something so clean before. It was so fresh since there were no roads or houses created.

Within minutes, the field transitioned back into a forest. We ran through the forest for about ten minutes until I decided to look up at the sky. There were so many stars. I never seen so many in my whole life.

I looked ahead of me and realized that Angelina stopped running. Quickly, I tried to stop too, but I was going to fast to where I would run into Angelina. In a swift movement and without looking behind her, Angelina lifted her arm from behind and pushed me back so that I wouldn’t run into her, but instead a tree ten feet away from her.

I groan slightly as I felt the impact of the tree hit me. I was sure that I heard Angelina laughing at me too. Sighing, I got up and looked at the tree. Thankfully, it didn’t fall over, but I did manage to leave a dent. I walked over to where she was and looked around. There was nothing there but a large stone wall covered with poison ivy and a cave that had vines of the poison ivy covering it and a dead end inside it. Is she trying to tell me she lives in a cave?

“You are not to ever bring anyone back here, do you understand?”

I nodded, “Where is ‘here’? All I see is a rock.”

“On the outside,” she muttered as she walked into the cave. Annoyed with her mysterious self, I followed her in the cave until we reached the dead end. She walked toward the right side of the cave and began to push. She moved the large rock away to show a large metal gate.

“What now?”

She pulled out a three inch skeleton key and unlocked the gate. We walked inside and as she pushed the rock and locked the gate, I looked around the place.

There were series of different types of trees, field of wild flowers, and ahead I could see sculptures, hedge mazes, small ponds, and exquisite gardens.

“This land is beautiful.”

Angelina smirked, “About thirty acres, five of them being my home and the rest just nature’s beauty.” Thankfully, we walked towards her house so that I will be able to see everything. Angelina had everything, a piece of land that no one would be able to find or claim as theirs. “Welcome to Flordeliza,” she said, gesturing to the land.

“How did you get this place?” I asked her.

“My creator gave it to me.”

“He just gave it to you without you giving him something in return?”

“Of course, my creator loves me. This was my one hundredth birthday gift. He’s a generous man, isn’t he?”

“Does he live with you?”

Angelina shook her head, “No, he has other things to do.”

“Like what?”

“He has responsibilities and I have mine.”

“A vampire has responsibilities?”

“Yes, for example, I am a coven leader. I create a coven of vampires, watch and protect them, and make final decisions about how things are run.”

“That seems too overwhelming.”

“It can at times,” she agreed. “We’re here. Look over there.”

I looked to my left and saw a clear water lake that had a few lily pads. Beyond that was Angelina’s home…or castle. It was probably six floors, maybe even seven. I looked at the dark gray castle that had a renaissance feel to it due to the stained glass windows and the elegant arches that formed it and the few towers that it had. We crossed a bridge that matched the castle’s theme to get across the lake. Along the gravel path was perfectly healthy grass, flower beds, trees, and lily and rose bushes. We climbed up the seven steps and walked in front of the double doors of the castle. I was too eager to see what it looked like inside. Angelina noticed my excitement and pushed the doors opened and allowed me to step inside first.

I was starstruck.

In foyer there were two curved double staircases with a dark red carpet and gold railings with matching gold sconces. The floor was had the matching carpet like on the stairs. In the center of the floor, there was a table that held a china vase and flowers that probably came from the gardens. On either side of the staircases were matching lady sculptures, clutching to a bouquet of flowers. The walls were painted a soft yellow with arches carved into the walls and ceiling. Hanging from the ceiling was an extraordinary chandelier with real crystals on it. I glanced up and saw the six floors that had the same gold swirl railings like the stairs, with interesting paintings and sculptures too.

“This place is beautiful,” I muttered in awe. “Your creator gave you all of this?”

“Like I said before, he is a generous man.” Angelina removed her hood, untied her coat, and placed her coat on the table in the center. “Would you like to meet the others now?”

“That would be great.”

Angelina nodded with a smile. “Liam? Louis? Will you come here please?” she said in a normal toned voice.

I rose my eyebrows up at her. “I don’t think that they would be able to here you from the size of this-”

“Angelina!” called a voice. I looked to the left and saw a man with brownish golden hair and slightly taller than me. He ran up to Angelina and hugged her tightly.

“You look well,” Angelina touched his cheek, smiling brightly. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been well. How was your trip?”

“America was a pleasant trip. Where’s Louis?”

“Who’s the new meat?” asked another voice. On the third floor, there was another man.

Angelina smirked at him. “Hello, Louis. Are you going to come down?”

In a swift moment, Louis came down stairs and stood next to Angelina. “Are you going to introduce us to your new friend?”

“This is Harry. He’s the new addition to the coven. Treat him fairly, gentlemen.”

“What makes you think we won’t?” Louis asked, wrapping his arm around Angelina’s waist. “He seems like a fairly decent man.”

“I’m more worried about how you treat him rather than Liam.”

“Why is that?”

She touched Louis’ cheek, “Louis, you were jealous of Liam when I brought him here. I have reasons to be worried about Harry.”

“I’ll behave,” Louis promised.

“Good,” Angelina glanced at Liam. “Liam, can you bring Harry to his room?”

“Of course,” Liam said.

As I followed Liam, I glanced down and noticed that Angelina and Louis weren’t at the foyer anymore. “They seem like a good match together,” I commented.

“Yes, you’d think they’d be a couple.”

“They aren’t?”

“I think with them living together for two hundred and fifteen years, it changed their views on each other.”

Liam opened a door from the second floor and allowed me to step inside. “Here’s your room. My room is two doors over, Louis’ is down the hall, and Angelina’s is the third door on the other side. If you need anything just say our names.”

“Thank you,” I muttered, too busy looking at my new room. My room had a dark cherry wood headboard, pillar arcs, chairs that matched the bedding, and a stain glass window. I stepped further inside too see a bathroom about half the size of the bedroom. I moved to the window, pushed it open, and sat down on the window ledge. I stared up at the stars, thinking about my new life. Could things get any better?

Liam and I stepped into the castle, looking around the place. It looked like it wasn’t touched. Regardless of the furniture being covered with white blankets and the air smelling musty, it still felt like home. There was a sense of peace that carried inside.

“Let’s clean this place up,” Liam said, pulling off a blanket that covered the table in the middle. “I can’t believe we left this place for so long.”

“It’s been awhile,” I agreed.

We started to pull off the blankets and cleaning up around the place. Thankfully, the job took about two hours to get done thanks to our vampire abilities. Through the decades, Angelina slightly modernized the castle. She would buy new kitchen and bathroom equipment, along with managing the electrical things. However, she kept the furniture theme of the castle renaissance. Once the house was cleaned, Liam and I sat down on the grass by the lake with a bag of blood that we took from the hospital.

I took a deep breath of the fresh fragrance. “God, I love it here.”

Liam stared up at the sky. “This place was striking the first time I came here. It still is for me.”

“You never told me what it was like for you living here before I came.”

“I was the third wheel in a way. It was mainly because Louis placed me there.”

“I thought you said Louis and Angelina weren’t together.”

“They weren’t,” Liam assured me. “It seemed like Louis wanted them to be though. He did all that he could to impress her. It was strange. It seemed like Louis wanted to show off that he was the first chosen by Angelina since she is our leader. He thought that it should make him feel important and I suppose he didn’t understand that Angelina treated us like equals.”

“Did she ever tell you how she chose him?”

Liam shrugged, “She just said that, just like me, she found him lying in the streets hungry and sick. She spoke to him, gave him a choice, and turned him.”

“Do you think Angelina misses him?”

He glanced over at me. “Yeah, I could see it in her eyes. She doesn’t even want to hear his name or talk about him. It’s clear that she still does care for him regardless of what happened.”

“You think we’ll ever be a family again, Liam?”

Liam didn’t answer me for a moment. He took a final drink from his bag and stood up. “I don’t know anymore. Come on, we got some more work we can do.”