There he was.

Golden eyes narrowed, head of dark curly hair a mess. His eyes zeroed in on her almost immediately, expression getting nastier once he saw her. Then, he smirked, as if his eyes hadn’t been screaming bloody murder at her a second before.

And that was somehow worse than his previous expression. Esadora’s hand came up to her left shoulder, body tensing. Why was he here?

It was then, as she, Holly, and the soldiers fully entered the room, that she noticed the other people there. A lady with black and wavy hair sat in a seat next to the boy and against the wall, face a stark resemblance of his. A blonde girl who looked to be 7 or 8 sat next to him in the same seat, staring at Esadora with curious yellow eyes. One other boy sat next to her, the youngest of them all. On the other side of the room, there were several women and men dressed in black suits.

And at the front of the room, behind a colorless desk, was sat a blond man with narrowed eyes staring directly at Holly.

Esadora had to resist the urge to grab her and hightail it right out of the building.

“I’ve been expecting you… but who is the other girl?”

Esadora couldn’t come up with a plausible answer for the life of her. What was she supposed to say? Oh, I’m just a witch-turned-vampire who broke into the Vampire Belt with my wizard friend to exact revenge on a vampire.

Yeah, no.

Luckily, one of the soldiers answered for her. “Due to her strange behavior, we have reason to believe that she is in league with the wizard who came through the barrier.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong…

“Bring both of them forward,” the man said, tone deadpan.

Esadora’s hands went clammy as one of the soldiers, who was suddenly behind her, nudged her forward. She took numb step after numb step, staring at the ground until the soldier stopped her from moving forward anymore. She looked up and found herself staring directly into the man’s amber eyes. Her eyes automatically flinched away.

It was several moments before the man spoke again. “I’ve only ever seen a few wizards come here, and none as young as you. Why are you here?”

“Um…” was all that came out Holly’s mouth as she sent nervous glances at Esadora.

She decided not to answer for her, since she was pretty sure the answer would prove to be more harmful than silence.

“What about you?” the man said, a sigh leaving his mouth. “I can’t understand why a vampire would work with a wizard, so explain it to me—what is your motive?”

Esadora bit the inside of her cheek to keep her mouth shut, stomach flip-flopping.

“If neither of you answer, I have no choice but to send you to the Interrogation Center. Trust me—you won’t like it there.”

Now both of the girls were sending anxious glances at each other—but what could either of them do or say to fix this situation?

The man shook his head. “If neither of you have anything to say—”

“Excuse me!”

All heads eyes in the room flicked to the person who’d spoken, and Esadora was surprised and more than a little concerned to see that it was none other than the vampire she’d come here for.

The man in front of Esadora furrowed his eyebrows. “What is it, Leon?”

The boy—Leon—stood up. “I have something really important to say, but… I need all of them”—he gestured to the adults in business attire—“to leave.”

“We were in an emergency meeting before these two came along, and I have every intention of finishing it after I send them to the Interrogation Center, so that won’t be possible.”

“But if you listen to what I have to say, they won’t have to go to the Interrogation Center at all.”

What could he possibly have to say that would change her and Holly’s fate?

The man seemed to ponder over it, however. “Alright.” He gestured to women and men sitting on the other side of the room. “You’re dismissed.”

Some of them look rather puzzled, but they left, and all too soon, the door had shut behind them.

Esadora sent Leon a wary glance. What was he going to say?

“So, me and… Esadora over here already know each other. Isn’t that right, Esadora?”

Her eyes widened. How did he know her name?

“See, a week or two ago, I left the Vampire Belt and went to Esmeralda.”

“You what?!” The words were shouted in unison by the dark-haired woman and the man. They both stood, stalking over to him.

“You better be joking! What would you have done if they caught you?” the woman asked.

“What possessed you to do such a thing?” the man said. “Are you even aware of the situation we’re in?”

Leon rolled his eyes. “Of course I am. Probably even more so than you.”

“You dare—”

“But that's an argument for later,” he interrupted. “Anyway, when I went there, I… bit a witch. And that witch was Esadora.”

The man seemed like he was this close to exploding at Leon, but he glanced at Esadora and Holly and shook his head. “So let me get this straight—you turned Esadora into a vampire?”

He shrugged. “Basically.”

The woman shook her head. “I think I’m just about done with this nonsense. I’ll leave this to you, Isaiah.”

Isaiah nodded as she left the room. “I can’t understand what drove you to do all these things, Leon, but even so, this doesn’t explain why she and the wizard came here.”

“My guess,” Leon said, “is that she feels lonely now that she’s not a witch, and came here for solace. I don’t know about the wizard though.”

Esadora flushed, crossing her arms and glaring daggers at Leon. How dare he speak such nonsense about her? She would never come to vampires for anything?

Isaiah turned toward her. “Is this true, Esadora?”

She was about to scream that no, of course, it wasn’t, and Leon was lying but stopped when Holly gave her a look. What would happen to Holly if she said all that?

Swallowing her pride, she said, “Yes. It is.”

Holly slouched in relief, giving her a tentative smile. Esadora could barely send a fake one back.

“But what about the wizard?”

“I just met her on the way,” she said quietly.

“This changes the whole situation, then.” He motioned to a soldier in the room. “Call Emil.”

The soldier nodded and went off.

Esadora’s eyebrows raised as Isaiah stepped up to her. “I’m sincerely sorry for my son’s actions toward you. As much as I dislike witches, I don’t endorse what he’s done.”

“Um… it’s alright…” Well, no, it wasn’t by any means, but she couldn’t possibly say that when this man was genuinely apologizing to her.

Esadora couldn’t say for sure, but she thought his lips twitched upward. “Good.” He turned to Leon, looking like he had something to say to him but seemed to decide against it.

Right then, the door cracked open, revealing the same boy who’d shown them upstairs. He bowed his head slightly. “You called for me, Mr. Veharic?”

Mr. Veharic? But didn’t that mean Leon was—

“Yes. Show these two girls to somewhere they can rest and wash up.”

Emil nodded. “Yes, sir. Follow me, ladies.” And with that, he left the room.

Esadora and Holly gave each other quizzical looks. But what were they to do? As they shuffled out of the room, Esadora’s eyes traveled through it one last time. The young girl and boy were still on the couches, staring at her, and Leon and his father were having a stare down. Suddenly, Leon’s eyes flickered to hers. He smiled.

She shivered, taking quick steps into the hall, but she didn’t relax, not even when the doo Noticing Holly and Emil were already far down the hallway, she hurried along. Her boots clacked on the floor as she caught up with Holly, echoing in the empty space around her. Her steps slowed with caution as she followed the two into the dark path.

She shielded her eyes from the brightness that came when Emil flicked on the lights. He stopped in front of an ornate door and opened it, motioning them forward.

“This will be your room for as long as you would like to stay, ladies. Unless you would like two separate rooms?”

Esadora shook her head slowly, not wanting to be in such an unfamiliar room alone, even if she barely knew Holly.

Holly voiced her concerns. “Um… why is Mr. Veharic letting us stay here?”

“Mr. Veharic has not divulged that information to me, but I’m sure he has his reasons.” He paused. “So would you both like to room together?”

Holly shrugged and Esadora nodded. Emil gestured into the room once more. “I hope you both find your room satisfactory, and I'll be up with a change of underwear soon. You can find clothing in the closet.”

He sent them a smile and swept past them, soon down the staircase.

Esadora was the first to speak once he was gone. “Well, that was weird.”

Holly shrugged again, rather forcefully this time, and went into the room. Esadora furrowed her eyebrows but went in as well, closing the door behind her. She flicked on the light switch and stood in admiration of what she saw.

The room was much like the one downstairs, a russet carpet in the middle and a coral-colored curtain covering the one window in the room. The floor was a much lighter brown, walls bordering on white. A desk and two soft-looking chairs were against one side and the head of the one large bed in the room rested against the far right wall. Holly sat on it, gazing at the wall in front of her.

Esadora stared at her for a minute before edging toward her, seating herself a few spaces away from her.

“Are you okay?”

Holly’s eyes flitted to hers for only a moment. “Fine.”

“You don’t look fine to me.”

“Yeah, well, it’s none of your business. Can you leave me alone?”

Esadora furrowed her eyebrows at Holly’s words. Though she’d said them softly, her voice sounded strained, like she was holding something back. Esadora wasn’t sure whether to leave her be persist.

She sighed. At the end of the day, she hadn’t known this girl for even a day, and she couldn’t very well force the words out of her. “Okay.”

She stood and made her way over to the closet with sluggish steps. She barely registered herself opening the doors and searching for something decent to wear other than musty clothing and dirty cloak. What ended up in her arms was a pair of sweatpants and a plain T-shirt.

She jumped as someone knocked at the door, wondering who it could be. It was probably Emil, of course, but there was always the chance that Leon would be standing in front of her when she opened the door. Despite her worries, she made her way to the door, body slackening when she saw Emil.

Emil gave her a bag full of something. “Is there anything else you might need?”

She shook her head.

He nodded. “Have a good afternoon, ladies.”

Esadora let a small smile appear on her face, then closed the door. She found that she didn’t care to know what was inside the bag—she just wanted to go to sleep.

She ditched the clothes she’d been checking out on the desk by the wall and stepped toward the bed. Once she’d decided it was clean and tidy, she laid on it and prayed that a good dream would find her that night.