Chapter 2.
The next morning, the Sands family sat a large wooden table in a room just off from the kitchen. David sat across from Jordan who sat next to her little brother. They all had plates, a bowl, knives, forks, spoons and cups. There where two jugs on the table, one full of orange juice, the other water.
However, David had a cup full of coffee.
Madame Varcolac, once again dressed in grey, and the odd hairstyle, walked in from the kitchen with a large silver plater with a lid on top. She walked in between Jordan and Hunter before placing it onto the table top.
Jordan spoke up, "Before you open that, you should know that I don't eat mea-." She was cut off by Madame Varcolac taking of the large lid.
"Bagels and cream cheese, was Dragomir's favourite." She said in her thick Romanian accent. David looked at his kids with a look that said 'see?' and gestured for them to take one.
Just as Madame Varcolac was about to leave, Jordan called her name. "Uh, Madame Varcolac?" Wolf howl, and more confused looks, "Uh, we're going into town after breakfast. Is there anything you need?"
"I give you list."
Hunter spoke up too, "Is there an internet café around here? I need to get online."
"'Ve have 'vorld 'vide 'veb here, boy."
"You do?" Hunter asked, clearly surprised. But the manor was old.
Madame Varcolac spoke, her face not changing from her expressionless face, "Da. Passvord is Brangelina." The she let out a creepy, borderline evil laugh, while throwing her head back. Before Hunter could even give Jordan a questioning look, Madame Varcolac was back to the expressionless face.
David, who was drinking coffee, looked up and the sound of the creepy laugh and managed to catch the keys Madame Varcolac tossed to him. "Careful on road, is speedtrap." Was the only thing she said.
She then continued to walk out.
"That was weird." Hunter said, before taking a bite of his cream cheese bagel.
Although David agreed with him, he still gave him a light reprimanding, "Hunter."
But Hunter just shrugged in a 'what?' way.
"Hello?" The voice was unknown and shocked all three of the room's current occupants. They turned to the voice and were shocked to see a girl, who looked to be the same age as Hunter, standing at the head of the table. "I'm Lillian Varcolac, Madame Varcolac's," Wolf howl, "niece."
This was news to them.
"I was wondering if I could go into town with you?" Her dark brown hair was set in a messy bun, at the back of her head. She had high cheekbones, a straight nose and sharp, almost cat-like green eyes. She wore a smile, dark washed skinny jeans, a white t-shirt and wore a maids hat, apron and was holding a dust-buster in her left hand.
"I'm sorry," Jordan was the first to break out of the awkward stare and
silence, "I'm Jordan Sands, are you the maid?"
The girl let out a small tinkling laugh, "Kind of." She looked over all of them, stopping on Hunter slightly longer than the other two. "I, as I said before, am Lillian Varcolac, Madame V's niece."
Hunter noticed the shortened name from Madame Varcolac, and decided he might start to use that himself.
"Oh! Well then, I'm David Sands, this is Hunter." He pointed to his son, noticing that he probably wouldn't say anything himself.
"It's nice to meet you guys!" She was cheerful, and the three of them noticed that she did not have the generic Romanian accent that most of the people they had met so far had. "This place has been rather quiet ever since Mr. Dragomir passed." She paused, her face turning sad for a moment, before turning back into the bright smile. "So, can I come with you to town?"
David shrugged slightly, "Sure, meet us by the van in five?" When she nodded, he smiled, "Okay then." Just as she was about to leave he stopped her, "Lillian, right?"
"Yep!" She said brightly, her green eyes wide, and then she literally skipped out of the room.
There was silence for a few more moments before Hunter spoke, "She's weird too." And then he stood up, having finished his bagel.
As the van was small, and really only had room for three, Hunter found himself with this Lillian girl, half on his lap, half on the seat.
As they went over a bump, Lillian fell to her right, almost banging her head on the door on the other side of Hunter.
"Sorry," She muttered, picking herself up from Hunter's lap.
"S'okay." He muttered back, not noticing the light pink his cheeks turned. In fact, only Jordan did, and she let out the tiniest of smirks.
"So, Lillian-" David was cut off by the girl herself.
"Please, call me Lily."
David smiled, and glanced over to her for a moment. "Okay then, Lily, how come you don't have a Romanian accent?"
Lily smiled, and once again picked herself up from Hunter's lap, as she fell once again. "My dad is Auntie V's older brother, and he went to school in England and met my mother. Long story short I was born there, and lived there for about seven years before my parents left me here with Auntie V, while they do research in Africa."
"What do they do?" Jordan asked, interested in what research they were doing in Africa.
"My mom's an archaeologist and my dad is a entomologist." Hunter gave her a confused look, which she smiled at, "My mom looks at old things, while my dad looks at bugs."
The rest of the ride was spent with Lillian picking herself up from Hunters lap, whose face would get pink, then go back to normal, only to become pink again when she fell on his legs.
And once again, only Jordan noticed.
They made it to town, in relatively one piece. As they were getting out of the car, Lillian noticed that Hunter slipped on some sunglasses while Jordan pushed her glasses up her nose slightly, then pulled down the sleeves of her jacket and then crossed her arms, all whilst ducking her head slightly.
But when they saw the beautiful, old, village square, both of them looked around in wonder, which made Lillian smile.
However, David was looking at a large sign at the entrance of the village square. "Hey, kids." He called, making the three teens look over at him, "Properties by Paulina, hey, um, I'll catch up with you guys later." The three nodded, both Lillian and Jordan smiling, before turning around. "Oh, Hunter," They looked towards the man once more, who jokingly pointed at the boy, "Don't bring home any stray vampires." And then they all split up.
As the three of them walked further into town, Lillian smiling and saying 'hello' to locals she knew, they came across the large monument of 'the Great Wolfsberg Protector'. In front of the large brass statue was a man with long dark hair, tied back into a ponytail.
"Behold!" He said in his thick accent, his facial hair making him look older than he probably was, "The great beast, reins supreme!" As they passed him, Hunter and Lillian smiled at the man, who did a quick trick with his hat as they passed.
Hunter then exclaimed, with a wide smile on his face, "This place is awesome! Let's cruise around, and check it out!"
"No cruising! We have a list." Jordan emphasised her point by pulling a small piece of folded up paper from the pocket of her horrible- in Lillian's opinion- orange, knitted cardigan. She looked up at one of the shop signs, "Here's the market." She paused, squinting once again at the sign, "I think."
Hunter was looking off somewhere else, whilst Jordan walked into said market. Lillian smiled when she saw he was looking a poster of the Wolfsberg Beast. "Hunter." She placed her small hand on his shoulder, something which secretly got his heart rate higher. "We're going into the market."
Hunter nodded, and this time, she definitely noticed that his cheeks heated up. He shook himself mentally, before following Lillian into the market.