Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“Hopefully I’ll be better friends with ghosts than I’ve been with people. The bar isn’t all that high.”
He opened the taxi door for me.
“Orcop is a small village. Your options were limited there.”
“They probably always will be in Orcop. I’m sure glad I moved to London.”
“Perhaps you felt compelled to move here,” he said as he slid into the seat beside me.
“Yeah, you could say that,” I said, and then it clicked. Hans had always been in the shadows, beckoning me. London sure was a beguiling place, even more so when a vampire wants you there.
The driver turned to face us before I could ask Hans to elaborate.
“Where are you heading?”
“Ashwell,” Hans told him. “Hertfordshire. The Manor of St Louis.”
All thoughts of Margaret and George were pushed aside at the mention of our destination. I’d heard of Ashwell before. I’d seen it in online searches when I was dreaming up my perfect future. It was one of the posh quaint villages outside London. It gave me a buzz just thinking about it. A posh little village hiding a blood house. I couldn’t wait to get there.
“Sounds exciting,” I said.
“Excitement is guaranteed,” Hans assured me.
The world outside the cab windows was alive with a new sense of life for me as we pulled away. I was fascinated by every streetlamp, and every single figure we passed on the roadside, transfixed by the dance of energy I’d never seen before. It was crazy, wild. Otherworldly in the most fantastical of ways.
“It will take some adjusting to,” Hans said. “Don’t worry. You will get used to it.”
I didn’t need his assurances. I was filled with a sense of confidence – stemming from a side of myself I’d never been able to know.
“Did you know I was blocked from myself?” I asked Hans. “Right from a little girl, I mean.”
“I knew your mother and grandmother were trying to block you from yourself, yes.”
“Did you know they were succeeding?”
“I knew they wouldn’t succeed for ever, and that’s all that mattered.”
I felt a horrible wave of sickness at the thought of Mum and Grandma. I didn’t want them to die in chains, running into death with their own souls still hidden away under trapdoors, just like mine had been.
“Very noble of you, I’m sure, But you can’t fight their battles for them,” Hans whispered. “Their road to their soul is their own road to walk. You can help them, but you can’t force their paths.”
“They tried to force mine.”
“Yes,” he said. “But they didn’t succeed, did they? Look at who you are tonight. Look at who you are becoming.”
I wished I could see exactly who I was tonight. I’d love to see myself in a full-length mirror and check out the full scale of my transformation. There must have been as many waves of energy in my own aura as there were in other people’s. Maybe even more so.
“Definitely more so,” Hans said. “Your soul has been unleashed, sweetheart.”
I traced my fingers up his arm, adoring the fresh burst of static as I sensed his aura merging with mine. I had no idea what situation we’d be walking into with the blood house, but no matter what, I knew my heart would be ready for it and I belonged there. I’d follow Hans into Hell itself to see his true living culture.
“It’s not Hell.” He squeezed my knee. “It will most definitely be an experience, though. Expect the unexpected.”
I relaxed into his warmth. “I’m getting used to expecting the unexpected, don’t worry about that.”
I absorbed the new me in the bursts, sparks and jangles of life around me, comfortable in the silence between us as we left London city and set off towards Hertfordshire. I could have asked more questions about the Manor of St Louis and what lay ahead there, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to feel the whole, true shock of it in my veins.
The radio was loud enough that the driver wouldn’t hear Hans’ whisper.
“How do you feel about taking other people’s fangs in your flesh? Is that what you want? Do you want to sample blood play with the other vampires we’ll be joining?”
His eyes were bright in the dark of the cab. I stared right into them as I answered.
“Not yet.”
“Not yet?”
“No, not yet, but maybe one day.”
He smirked. “Sooner rather than later, I imagine.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
“Not for all that much longer, little one. Here comes Ashwell.”
We’d reached the quaint little village I’d seen in pictures. The streets were filled with fourteenth century houses with beautiful timbered walls. Gorgeous.
“Wait until you see the Manor,” Hans said, and the driver swung up to the left.
It didn’t take long before a huge building appeared on the top of a hill, at the end of a large sweeping driveway. It was surrounded by fields, in the middle of nowhere. A halo of a glow burning loud on the skyline.