"I'm home!" I called out, walking further into my house. When no one answered immediately, I stood still and waited for the sound of someone moving in the house. Nothing. I sighed. They were all out. I walked up the stairs and towards my room when a text came through from my father.

I'm running late be home in thirty

I sighed and entered my room. Uncle Vlad was most likely sleeping and would be for another five hours. Samantha was nowhere in the house, and I honestly didn't know enough about her to assume where she would be if she wasn't here. So far, I don't think she had actually left the house besides to go to the Wolf house with my father and myself.

Entering my room I dropped down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Today was just…a whirlwind of emotions, and I was a helpless leaf being blown about by its gusts.

I sat up; at least one thing good could come from this. Ever since I was young and my mother taught me the basis of writing, I had fallen in love with poetry and writing. I dug out one of my journals and flipped to an empty spot and poured all of my emotions onto the page. In both poetic and normal verses. I hadn't updated my diary since I had moved to Salem, and it was high time I did.

My phone vibrated distracting me from my writing. Maybe my father was coming home early? I climbed towards my phone and hit answer.

"Hey Draculaura," a familiar southern accent said and I smiled slightly. Ah, perfect! After a hard day, my favourite vampire was phoning me. He always knew when I was feeling down.

"Hey Valentine, what's up?" I asked, pulling a pillow to my chest and smiling at the ceiling.

"Oh, you know. I was just thinking about my sweet, how was your first day of American school?"

I suppressed a sigh, and lied. There was no need to worry him, and besides the little spat with Cleo at lunch it was good. So, in the end I wasn't lying per ce. "It was good, I made some Amandine in Home Ec, and I've already made some friends who've watched my back to make sure I don't embarrass myself."

He laughed, "I doubt that you'd do anything to embarrass yourself, darling. You're perfect."

Apparently not perfect enough according to Cleo.

"It couldn't have been all good," Valentine added almost offhandedly. "Weren't you upset a couple hours ago?"

I froze my mouth working but no sound coming out. How did he know that? "W-Why would you think that?"

"I don't know, I started to know when you were feeling bad after you left," he replied, my lips pressed together and I looked down.

"I...have to go..." I quickly pressed the off button, dropped my phone on the bed, and covered my face with my hands. He was starting to know what I was feeling. Only the bad. Angry, sad, and those bad feelings. I jumped up from my bed and paced my room. Eventually, I heard the sputtering noise of Clawd returning home and pressed my hands over my ears.

This was bad. This was so bad. How would my father react to this? Would he be angry? Happy that Valentine was so in sync with me? My father had ever been able to tell if two females in his life were in pain or upset, my mother and me. Though, nowadays I wondered if he truly was able to tell if I was upset.

My teeth sank into my lip. Maybe...maybe if Valentine and I did not see each other for a while, he will not want me as just another mate.

My phone vibrated again, but it was text from my father.

Meeting dragging on. Late night walk later?

I sent him a messaging confirming that. We hadn't gone on a walk for what seemed like ages. It was usually the best, and the only time when he was ever truly honest with me. When I was still human he used to walk me to the river to pick flowers for mother. He'd tell me stories of how he knew my biological father and how much of a warrior he was. Of course, over the years he stopped telling me stories of my biological father, and he became my father. I never met the man whom my mother was married to before Dracula took us in. All I knew of as my father was…Dracula, and the only home I truly knew was Romania.

The moment I thought of Romania, my thoughts started to drift back to Valentine and I closed my eyes tightly and wrapped my arms around myself. I didn't know if I wanted to be with Valentine for the rest of my life. I didn't know if he loved me as much as I loved him, or if he was just filling his egotistical side. I would rather have him love me, like I loved him. If he was turning into another stupid male vampire...well, I could learn to live without him very easily.

A bath would help me relax and get these thoughts out of my head. I already had enough to worry about. My father and I were going to talk about his marriage with Samantha, and I didn't want to be weighed down by thoughts of Valentine during it.

I headed into the bathroom and stripped. As I ran a brush through my hair, I remembered when I took a shower at Clawdeen's house. How Clawd had accidently opened the door while I was indecent. A blush coloured my cheeks.

My fingers ran through my hair and I could smell the bleach. My father was right. I hoped the pink colour would not escape. That would be awful.

I searched the bathroom before finding a Rosemary and Peppermint bubble bath bottle in the closet. After I tested the scent, I poured some into the bathtub and started the bath. The smell rose and filled the room. While I was waiting for the water to rise and the bubbles to fill, I got some candles out, set them around the mirror, and lit them. The scenario was very relaxing and I was able to slip into the bubbles after the water had risen so the bubbles were just about touching the lip of the tub when I climbed in. My head tilted back and I stared at the roof where the candles were throwing orange flickering lights.

My ears picked up small things going around outside the bathroom. I could faintly hear my uncle snoring. Samantha came home shortly after I got into the bath, and a while after, my father entered the house. My father and Samantha talked downstairs for a while. I could hear Count Fabulous occasionally squeaking in his sleep. I was calm and collected. It was nice moving here...not that I would admit that any time soon. I was glad we had, and a feeling deep inside of me made me feel as if there was so much more waiting for me just around the corner. Nothing bad. Something good. It gave me just enough extra encouragement to strive to stay here.

Which meant...accepting the fact that Samantha and my father were to be married. I wondered if he would ever tell her that we are vampires. I wondered if he would tell her that he was married to three other women still. Well, four if you included my mother. Except they weren`t married and I hadn`t seen her for around three hundred years.

I climbed out of the bathtub after around an hour of soaking and letting my muscles relax. After draining the tub, I pulled on the dress I had selected and ran a comb through my hair. After styling my hair, I headed downstairs.

"How was school?" Samantha asked cheerfully.

"It was…good," I replied, "Thanks for asking."

"You're welcome. Now," she turned her attention to her fiancé, "I was thinking we could go to the movies tonight and-"

"I can't," my father stopped her; "Laura and I are going out for a walk."

Samantha didn't seem too pleased by this, "What?"

"I'm going on a walk with my daughter," his tone left no room for an argument. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, I just wasn't expecting that," Samantha replied and then shrugged her shoulders, "Have fun then."

With that she turned and headed up the stairs and into their bedroom without another word. My father waved towards the door. "After you, mi cara."

Night had already fallen when we left; I had been in the tub longer than I thought. My father took my hand and tucked it into his elbow, guiding me down the street. We lived on the outskirts of Salem, and so the forest stretched out behind our houses. Most likely to give us the most privacy, if we had people who lived behind us they would see things that we couldn't allow them to see, and we'd have to flee. Though, this time it would be many families fleeing instead of just one.

Neither of us spoke as we walked along, just basked in the light of the moon. It was…nice and simple. Something that I hadn't thought when I thought of my father for a long time. I knew he was waiting for me to start the conversation, and I also knew that I couldn't put off what we came out here to talk about forever.

"Do you love Samantha?" I asked quietly, after we were well down the path in the forest. The question must've thrown my father for the loop, his hand over top of my tightened ever so slightly.

The only women I had ever heard my father say 'I love you' to was my mother. I had never heard him say any sort of confirmation of his love to the three wives back in Romania, my first stepmother, or Samantha. I had asked him the same question about each wife he married, and he always distracted me and never gave a true answer. If he did the same tonight, I would tell him that if he didn't love this woman, he was better off leaving her.

"I…" he started and then sighed, "Sometimes I…feel as if I do. Other times? I can't stand the women. It's not the same as my wives, I care for them, but I never feel as if I am in love with any of them. Not the way I loved your mother. I don't think I will love another woman as much as I loved Camilla."

I leaned my head against his arm, "I miss her."

He kissed the top of my head and murmured some comforting words in Latin.

"I don't know why you have married so many people," I spoke after the sadness of my mother faded. "I know you married Sonia as a power move, and to give me a mother figure," I added before he could explain her, "but what about the other three?"

"After the second time Sonia attempted to run away with you, I banished her," my father told me something I already knew, "I still needed a wife, and so I married Aleera, and she moved in with her ladies in waiting Marishka and Verona. One thing led to another and-"

I quickly pulled a face and moved away from him, "I don't want to hear about your private life, Dad."

He cleared his throat, "Yes, well, you know the story."

At first I didn't say anything, and we began to loop back towards the house. When the house came into view, I saw Uncle Vlad sitting on the back porch reading a book under candlelight.

Before we got into hearing distance of him, I said, "If she truly makes you happy, then I can put up with her."

My father kissed my head, "Thank you, my dear daughter. Though I must admit that ever since I started to date Samantha, it's like every day she becomes more and more important to me…like soon she'll become the only one who matters."

"Daddy, this is you we are talking about. You have four women you are married too; you had my mother, and countless others who you have dated. As well as the fact that you normally don't look twice at a human unless they look like they are healthy and would have nice tasting blood," I replied shaking my head, "That probably makes her more…alluring to you."

"Which is why this whole thing is curious," Uncle Vlad said, placing the book on his lap. "I know your father very well, known him since I was born," he was clearly trying to attempt at humour there, but I was more curious as to what he was getting at. "He basically hates humans and only puts up with them because not all deserve to die; he sees them as cattle basically. Since when does a human want to marry cattle? When either the human has serious mental case issues, or they have been..." he trailed off, swirling his hand as if he wanted someone to continue.

"Given drugs?" I asked, after he gave a very long and exasperated sigh when neither my father nor I spoke. He pointed at me with a smile.

"Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner!" he exclaimed and jumped to his feet, he headed over with the book in his hands. My father did not look amused by his brother, but then again my father scarcely ever looked amused. I don't think I had ever seen my father smile at his siblings.

"Are you saying she drugged me into proposing to her? I know what every drug tastes like-" he paused and glanced down at me, "Don't do drugs," he added as an afterthought, "-and quick frankly I'd know if she was doing something to screw me over."

"You claimed her as a mate then?" my uncle asked, looking at my father, "Which is weird, especially if you just said that she makes you feel like no one else matters. Normally that means you are in love with her, not just her body and maybe her conversational skills. Which, honestly that woman has zero of. Have you seen her talk to any of the others here? In two seconds she is able to offend everyone in the room."

"I don't think Samantha has the courage to do that, she may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I would like to think she wouldn't try to drug one of the world's richest and most dangerous men," I shoved the conversation away from mates and back into the drug area. I did not want to think about the former, Valentine's words still fresh in my mind. "Besides, Dad isn't exactly dumb, he knows when he's being tricked into something."

"Van Helsing? Remember him, dear brother? Tricked you. You didn't even expect him to be vampire slayer!" Uncle Vlad said, crossing his arms and staring straight at my father.

"Are you saying that Samantha is a Van Helsing? Because I know the taste of Van Helsing blood, I know the taste of Samantha's blood and there is no way they are in anyway related," my father became instantly defensive. He straightened his back and his fangs extended slightly. My uncle raised his hands and backed off.

"I'm just using a parallel to what I think is going on, minus the vampire slayer bit. She could be using you for your power."

The two went off bickering and I headed into the house. I giggled at the thought. Samantha, a vampire hunter? She could barely stand the sight of blood. Killing a vampire would take so much guts and a strong stomach. We don't die easily, and heal very quickly. Unless you are able to stab us in the heart directly, or cut off our heads we wouldn't die. However, you'd have to catch us extremely off guard or be faster than we were to accomplish even the slightest damage.

The only creature fast enough to even the playing field was a werewolf, and there was no way that Samantha was one. Too little hair.

I sighed, my uncle was wrong. Samantha was just a human and my father was marrying her. She was going to be part of the family, and I had to accept that fact. It would make my life so much easier.