The sun gleamed gently on our settling faces. I saw Sofia glow lightly, her face as white as that of a porcelain doll. I wondered what I would do today. Nothing was planned for me now, since I had quite college and Sofia had got me a few days off work. I looked down at her and kissed her forehead.

"What shall we do today?" I asked her, knowing we'd have all the time in the world to do whatever we wanted. She sighed, something brewed in her mind.

"We are going to see my parents for a few days in Scotland. They wish to see you." I looked down at her concerned, but she simply laughed and shook her head as she got up off the bed.

"They're not going to interrogate you, you know. I've mentioned you a few times when you were a human and they've been expecting to see you. Now that you're a vampire, it seems like a good time to visit and tell them." I smiled sarcastically. Meeting Sofia's parents I could handle, but meeting her vampire parents? I wasn't sure whether I'd make it alive out of Scotland or not. But sure enough I was agreeing to it in a matter of minutes because of Sofia's charm. I no longer saw her as a psycho. We packed a few clothes, Sofia travelling lighter than me. I wondered why, but she explained she would have all the clothes she needed in Scotland. We travelled by plane, which was difficult to get me out of the hotel without Lara seeing me, but we managed sure enough. We're vampires right? Once we had touched down in a rather small airport, we were taken by limo out to the countryside. The scenery was beautiful, the green grass blowing in the wind, the flowers beginning to rise from the ground to show their colourful faces. It was a bit wet, but that added to the potential of the scene. The just darkened grey skies made it seem like some sort of fantasy. Sometimes a rainy day was just what the doctor ordered.

We went down a long, winding road. The road travelled along a river, which lead to a loch deep in the bed of the valley. The rain droplets settled on the limo's windows, each droplet like a small crystal. My attention was quickly drawn towards the building coming in to view. It was a huge, old mansion. Bigger than my parents, it looked as if it could fit a maze in it. The stone looked washed and dark, the windows fitting nicely in between them. As we came in to the courtyard, I saw the huge doors open. Their silver hinges creaked as we climbed out the car, and on the other side of them doors were Sofia's parents.

They stood on the steps of their grand house smiling graciously. Sofia quickly sped up to her mother, hugging her tightly.

"Sofia!" She stated with excitement. She was an elegant woman, who looked like she was in her early 50's. Her hair was just greying; a hint of brunette in it, and her face barely had wrinkles. Her father smiled at me and extended a hand out towards me. I walked up the steps, going quicker than I thought, and I almost lost my balance. I looked back at the distance from the car.

Sofia's father grinned. "It takes time to get used to Phasing places."

"Phasing sir?" I asked as I shook his firm hand.

"Yes, Phasing is the speedy way we use to get to somewhere quickly. And call me Mr Smith." I smiled at him and gave his hand another shook. Sofia stepped in as I stepped back and hugged her father.

"Hello daddy!" she said in to his neck.

"Hello princess," he said joyfully back. I extended a hand out towards Mrs Smith and she shook it.

"You must be Liam. Sofia has told us so much about you." I smiled at the thought of someone talking about me in a good sense.

I felt welcome to their great home. As we walked inside I felt the atmosphere, thick with history and alive with a feeling of happiness. The place looked even richer on the inside. The walls were high built and the sleek wooden panels glimmered in the light, reflecting the suns radiation through the pristine windows. The floor was wooden as well, as was most of the house. Everything was beautifully varnished, and Liam wondered why vampires would have so much wood in their house.

"We're not afraid of wood. We are secluded here and wish no trouble upon us," Mrs Smith said this with certainty and then laughed slightly at my shocked face.

"My mother has a remarkable talent," Sofia said in a rather formal tone. "Before she was turned she was a witch, and she had the power of reading the thoughts of others. Now she is half vampire, half witch."

"The best of both words I suppose." Sofia's mother looked at me with a smile. I thought of how much power she must have had, being both vampire and witch, and I wondered how much authority she had in the vampire world, as she looked like the type of person who would be very confident in giving out orders. I stopped thinking about that then in case she could hear me and thought I was being rude.

We walked through several opened rooms until we reached an old fashioned living room. We all sat down on the cool, 20th century furniture, and I looked around to marvel at the room. It was even bigger and bolder than the halls we had just come from. The fireplace sat on the furthest away wall, and it was almost the same size as a person. It had a stone frame around it, and the mantel piece had several pictures of a family of three in early times; the Smith family.

I talked to them for a bit, socialising about my new life and their lives too.

"So, if I'm not being rude on asking, what do you do for a living?" I was interested by this only because of their rich lifestyle that not many could afford, and with that money must have a great job along with it.

Mrs Smith spoke first. "I am on the Vampire Associate Council, sometimes referred to as V.A.C."

"Vampires have a Council?" I seemed surprised that after all those stories about vampires, the real truth was that they were civilised as much as humans, apart from drinking blood.

"Oh yes, and laws too!" She seemed excited to tell me this. "We have to pass punishment to those who do not respect the laws. We deal with the ways of vampires and their rights too. Evil doings are not to be kept from the Queen." So they had a Queen too? This was getting more like human life by the minute. Mrs Smith looked at me and then to Sofia, a look of disappointment.

"What's wrong?" I asked concerning, as I looked between them. They still kept quiet until Sofia finally looked at me. "What?" I repeated.

"One of those laws is that no human must be turned without the consent of the Queen." I started in to space for a moment to see how this would relate to me. It just didn't make sense.

"But it was those vampires at the bar who told you to turn me. Wasn't he anything to do with the Queen?" Sofia looked at me with sad eyes.

"No. Eric, Silver and Adrian are part of a secret tribe. They believe that vampires should be invisible to humans and that they should sacrifice human bodies for blood. When Eric threatened to kill you, I knew I had to do something about it. So I turned you. They are well known amongst the vampire community, but yet the Queen chooses to ignore it, because if she chose to fight against them, it would cause uproar in society, not to mention they are strong too.

The problem is no one had informed the Queen of this event-"

"And she's coming after me now?" I worried, mainly because I had never met this Queen, and I was afraid of what she could do to me.

"We don't know yet. But it is a matter of time before she finds out. There were several people at that bar that night. We'd need something of a miracle to get us out of this situation." I felt a sickness in the bottom of my stomach, something that made me feel, made me know, that something bad was going to happen.

That night was harsh. The winds were racing throughout the surrounding area of the mansion. Sofia and I had a room to ourselves, a small guest room in one of the many floors of the house. I heard the windows creak and whisper as the wind tried to crash through them, and I was surprised they were still holding on. Sofia lay beside me on the soft, king size bed. Her eyes concentrated on a book she was reading, moving back and forth in a steady rhythm. The fire was sparking with a comfortable light that made her face look pure and fresh. I just lay beside her, watching her read. It amazed me how far I had come, from hating her to loving her. It also seemed weird as well, because I knew that the right thing to do was to hate her for being so secretive with me, for turning me in to a vampire. But I couldn't. This was my life now, and I had to get used to it.

That was when I heard it. That small noise you can hear in the background, but it isn't really there. It ringed in my ears, and I could feel it in me. Sofia could hear it too, the elegant sound of death. She stopped reading her book, almost dropping it to look at me. Our eyes concentrated on each other, a storm now brewing outside. Sofia put one hand over her mouth and turned away slightly, as if exercising her neck.

"What is it?" I asked in great fear, although I should have already known what it was. My greatest fear yet.

"They're here. The Queen's come looking for you. She's here." She quickly jumped out of bed and started running out of the room at an urgent pace. I proceeded to follow her along halls and corridors until she jumped the banister. I stopped immediately, worried. It was four flights of stairs she was jumping from, and it had to be impossible not to get hurt. I heard a loud thud, and I looked over the banister in worry. Sofia stood there looking up at me, a tense look on her face.

"Just jump!" she shouted from below. I took a few steps back and then ran for it, grabbing the banister and flinging myself over it. I came to the ground with a thud, almost damaging the wooden floors. As Sofia started off towards the living room, I too followed. We stopped abruptly after entering the room. Sofia's mother was enjoying some knitting beside the cosy fire, and her father, reading a newspaper he'd probably already read today. The stopped what they were doing to look up at us. I thought they must have known, but even Mrs Smith's face was clueless.

"The Queen's here. She's come for me." Mrs Smith's face was shocked; her hand over her mouth, the same reaction Sofia had given. Maybe the Queen coming after someone didn't happen very often. "I should leave. If I leave quick enough she won't even touch your house-"

"You will do no such thing!" Mrs Smith interrupted. "You're part of our family now. We stick together." Mr Smith stood up quickly and put down his paper.

"We need to put out all form of light around the house. We'll hide in the cellar until she goes." Everyone dashed off to put out lights around the house, and trust me, there was a lot of them. I remembered having a fire on upstairs, so I dashed up to the bedroom. The fire was glowing red amongst the ashes. I grabbed a copper jug that was sitting with flowers in it from the bedside table. I hesitantly threw the flowers out of the jug, and chucked the water on to the remaining fire. It hissed in protest as it simmered to sleep. Sofia came in the bedroom and rushed around, switching of all the lights. I could see panic in her face, something that I guessed you wouldn't find often in a vampire. We stood in the dark for a minute, looking at each other very closely. Sofia came closer to me and hugged me, and I returned the gesture. She gave me a light peck on the lips.

"Everything's going to be alright." I whispered to her.

"But what if its not. Our world is a lot darker than anything a human can imagine. She's powerful and won't hesitate to kill us." I thought I was able to escape death for a while as I was a vampire now. I must have guessed wrong.

"All the lights are out!" Mr Smith shouted up to us. "Get down to the cellar now!" We didn't waste any time, scrambling to the cellar. This time we used the stairs, as I was not prepared to jump again. As we reached the bottom of the stairs-near the front door-I saw a figure standing outside the door. I stopped and pointed at the door.

"Sofia." I said in a dull yet serious tone. Sofia turned around to look, and Mr and Mrs Smith appeared immediately. Mrs Smith closed her eyes and steadied herself against the wall.

"It's Damien." Everyone sighed with relief and Sofia opened the door. Damien grinned as everyone looked at him.

"What? No welcome home? Speaking of home, why is it so dark in here?" Sofia groaned as she pulled Damien inside and pushed the door shut with a hard push. As we rushed down some hidden stairs, Sofia explained the situation to Damien, who laughed at most of it. He seemed as though not much mattered. We entered a small dark room, its corners light with a small light at each of them. We huddled inside and Mrs Smith shut the large, stone door. Her hands wondered over the edges of the cold stone, sweeping them lightly. I wondered what she was doing, the intricate way she weaved her hands over the four corners of the door. Mrs Smith started to mutter something again and again, whispering it to the door.

"Chiuderci da tutto malvagio, per proteggerci con questa barriera lei ci fornisce, Chiuderci da tutto malvagio, per proteggerci con questa barriera lei ci fornisce ..." She repeated the words in a foreign language. I didn't understand what it meant, and I looked over to Sofia, who just looked as clueless as me.

"It's Italian. It's a spell to protect us inside here, locking the door from others," Damien said this in a rather casual and controlled voice. I noticed he was always relaxed.

"What is she saying?"

"She is saying 'shut us from all evil, protect us with this barrier you provide us'" I looked over to Mrs Smith, who was finished concentrated. I could feel the magic surround us. It made you feel light, butterflies in your stomach. If you had said this to me a year ago, I wouldn't believe it, but now I was open to a new world of possibilities.

We waited silently, each vampire holding themselves in suspense. We all looked up in to the dusty ceiling as footsteps walked over it. They were light, dainty, something you'd expect from a Queen. It was followed by two other pairs of footsteps. One slightly heavier and the other were almost as light as the Queens. The voices were quite audible as our hearing was very strong.

"They are here. I can smell it." A dark, posh male voice spoke. I could match it to the light footsteps of the henchman. The other one spoke.

"But this is their house, it would smell of them." This voice was slightly lower, rougher. They were both silenced with a 'shhhh' from the Queen. She raised her hand to both of them, and at the same time I was amazed how I was able to tell what they were doing. She walked forward alone, taking a deep breath in. Then she wiped a finger alone the banister of the stairs.

"We will leave for now," she said loudly, and I felt as though she was pointing it at us. "But be warned. When you decide to run, we will track you down." I heard footsteps leave in a flash; they sped away out the back door. They were gone, and I felt my whole body relax. But I knew it wasn't over yet.