On their way, Noah and Heidi exchanged friendly words with each other. She found him to be an easy going man who spoke like they knew each other for a long time. Just as they crossed over a street she caught sight of a familiar face. Copper brown hair glinting under the sunlight and eyes that charmed the woman in front of him as he spoke. She realized it was none other than the vampire she had met a few nights ago. So he was of this very town, thought Heidi to herself. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed him before. The woman he was talking to was the daughter of a wealthy counselor. He then turned in the way she was walking and when their eyes met, he smiled from where he stood at her before his eyes fell over the person walking next to her.

“Ms. Heidi?”

“What?” Heidi asked breaking eye contact with the vampire to look at Noah.

“I asked who is at your house now. This is too much to carry for a person like yourself. Not that I am saying you are small,” he said looking at the big bags made of a sack.

“I wouldn’t disturb them over such trifle things, after all, they are busy with other matters.” Daniel was out with her father while Nora was studying again to turn herself into a proper lady. Sadly even though their mother was one of the most educated women of their time Heidi had come across, Nora hadn’t acquired the same genes. She lacked interest in it and preferred to invest her time by dolling herself pretty, which in Heidi’s opinion only made it worse.

“That must be difficult,” he murmured.

“It isn’t actually. I have gotten used to carrying these many things. And sometimes there are people like you yourself to help me with it,” she smiled stopping in front of her house and he laughed heartily.

“Ah! We sure will be. Especially when it is someone as pretty as yourself,” her cheeks turn red due to the unexpected compliment, “I’ll take my leave now. See you around.,” he said turning his back and walking away until he disappeared in the next street corner.

Nora who was in the house, cooling herself by keeping her feet in a bucket of water heard voices outside the house. Unmistakably one of the voice belonged to her sister, curious of who was out there with her, she stepped out of the bucket and walked towards the window to have her eyes narrowed at the view. It was Noah who was with her sister and with the way it looked it was clear that he was interested in Heidi. Though Nora had no interest in the man as he was a peasant in status, that didn’t mean she was alright with the fact that one of the handsome bachelors who hadn’t shown interest in her was talking to her sister now.

She had begun hating Heidi from a very young age, possibly since the girl had been brought into their house. She was the child whom her mother showered love on, spent time with and did everything she wanted to do with her mother. She was her mother and not Heidi’s. Hers and Daniel’s alone.

Heidi seeing Noah disappear turned around to see the curtain of the window move suddenly. Having an idea of who was there she walked towards the door, knocking on the wood with her hand.

“You are rather early today, sister. What took you so long? Had to wait for vegetables to grow?” Nora asked her sarcastically after letting Heidi in.

“If I was, it would have taken me weeks to get back home. It takes time to grow…just like your brain,” Heidi murmured the last part to herself.

“What did you say?” her sibling asked following her to the kitchen knowing she had said something.

“I said vegetables take time to grow. You are the educated one, you should know it,” she stated with an obvious tone.

“Don’t think that I have no idea of what you speak and do. An illiterate like yourself should shut your mouth before someone cuts that long tongue of yours,” Nora said crossing her arms over her chest, “Play nice, sister,” she smiled and turned on her heel to get back to what she had been doing.

She had heard of how siblings quarreled with each other and she took it as what had happened just now. It was the usual after all to ‘play nice’. Some more time, she thought to herself, she just had to bear a little while longer.

Truth was that Heidi had far more knowledge than Nora had as their mother Helen had spent her time on the little girl when no one was home, teaching her how to read and write, explaining her about the Empire and its history.

The Empire was made of four lands- Mythweald, Valeria, Woville, and Bonelake. Mythweald was the South Empire which was ruled by a human Lord, the North Empire which was Woville was ruled by a human Lord again. Similarly, Valeria the West Empire and Bonelake the East Empire was ruled by Vampire lords. To maintain an equal balance between all the lands there was the council who took just actions in consideration for both the humans as well as vampires. Unfortunately, even though it had been centuries since knowing the existence of the vampires, the humans and vampires were in an internal conflict. The vampires and humans lived together physically but not mentally. They had their own ideas and view each other. While come had been accepting when it came to the coexistence of both the creatures, there were some who wanted to dominate the other.

All these years Heidi had maintained good distance with the vampires in their town. It would be a lie if she said the vampires didn’t scare her. A few years ago when she had only been taken into the Curtis household she had witnessed a vampire sucking a woman’s blood until she fell down dead. She still remembered it vividly, her mother then had to coo her to sleep telling her that it was a deranged half vampire who had sucked the woman’s blood. As she grew up her mother had then explained to that vampires had different kinds. There were three types of vampires in the- the normal vampires, half-vampires, and lastly the pure-blooded vampires. The normal vampires and the half-vampires were the ones that fed blood from animals and humans while the pure blooded ones could feed on their own kind that is the vampires as well, making them the highest creatures in the entire hierarchy that ruled the lands.

The turned humans were the half-vampires, and when their transformations went wrong which the human body couldn’t cope would usually turn them into rogue vampires.