We had walked barely half a mile before she started talking again. So much for the privacy she wanted.

"Look," she starts by holding up her hand, almost preventatively, in case I lashed out again.

I chose to cut her off again before she continued. "No you 'look.' I am not some long lost granddaughter anxiously awaiting your return, and oh so happy to see you!" I feigned with obvious exaggeration. "I have been here for so long, I-" I stop momentarily before pushing my emotions to the side, "I almost don't even recognize myself anymore. I have hated this place, with a passion since I got here. And now, I find out that you. My great, oh so effing great, grandmother is actually a vampire. So thank you, for letting this horrid place have something to do with me. Beyond my being forced to stay here."

I watched her expression change continually as my words sunk in. Still, her final emotion only displayed worry. It seemed ages before she spoke up, "I am sorry." Her eyebrows bent together upwards and her eyes blinked several times then bent her head down. I expected her to say nothing else so I shook my head, preparing to step away.

"Just, I... listen. Please. Not for me. Not for anyone, but for yourself. I know the weight of my being here. And I wouldn't have come if I didn't know you were in danger here." She shook her head ferociously, "I didn't want this. I didn't want any of this to happen to anyone else in my family. My decisions, they shouldn't have had any effect on you, or your mother." She frowned now as she spoke her last plea, "Please, listen."

My gaze had barely left her face since I had spoken to her last. I couldn't get over her uncanny similar features. Even if she was family, she was distant, so how was it that I recognized her so well? I swallowed, looking down processing what she was telling me. If she was right, if I was in danger, I needed to hear her out. I had to let my pride, and hurt, go for a few moments to learn what I needed.

Finally, I lifted my eyes to meet hers again. "Ok. Tell me everything then. And I mean everything. If you leave me in the dark on anything, and I find out elsewhere somehow, I will never tru-"

"I will tell you everything. From start to finish. I promise."

I nodded, "Ok..."

"It started when I was 23. I had met Cecil when he came back from their annual hunting trips. The boys in the town would leave in groups to hunt; not too many that would leave the town defenseless, but just enough to kill good game. I had known his name, he was royalty in the village, after all, but I had never seen him, not really. Anyways, he was in the village, selling his game to the butcher. I was next door trying to sell my mother's baked goods.

I remember the day he came into the shop, because here he was, holding a dead deer in his hands, looking at delicately baked goods. I mean he was dripping blood! Ah, well, I barely noticed when I saw him. I mean, his son takes the same looks, if you can imagine."

She took this time to eye me suspiciously, humor in her eyes.

"So here he is, holding a dead animal, which I should have been staring at. But instead, I was staring in his eyes. The most blue eyes I'd ever seen, and hair so black, the contrast was mesmerizing... but he'd been staring too.

Suffice to say, we fell in love. Not immediately, because in the beginning he would only come by to "browse" as he would say. And every time he came in he would try something new. I admired that, his ability to pretend as if he wasn't interested in anything but the chocolates, but I knew. You see, Alexis, I was a lot like you. I had attitude, so much so that my mother would hit me for my mouth.

Shaking her head, she looked back to me, her eyes betraying her emotions. I could see how much it hurt her, yet gratified her at the same time, to be talking about her past again.

"You don't have to talk about all of the details if you don't want to, if it's too painful."

"Oh no, it doesn't hurt me, just a memory."

He and I talked about our future together and how we would make plans, and tell stories of our adventures we'd have. We both wanted to travel, at some point later on. But... his father, well there was a certain responsibility to be the nobility in town, to be a nobleman's son. His father was planning his marriage, to someone else. An arranged marriage with the neighboring town to... create an alliance, if you will. But that was just a front. He was a vampire. The village across the river held a werewolf. That's all the distinction that mattered to his father. And if the only way to join the towns, physically and literally was through marriage, so be it. Cecil was to wed Marilyn, the daughter of the werewolves.

As sad as we were, I knew he had to go. He did too, but that didn't stop him from confronting his father about it. You see Alexis, in my time, there were certain obligations, things you just couldn't help. There was no higher government to right any wrongs. So he did as his father asked him, he proposed. The engagement lasted a week before Marilyn turned in front of Cecil. They were having a private dinner, to get to know one another better when it happened.

Cecil was severely hurt. I hadn't known at the time, but his injuries were mortal. The only way to save him was to turn him, which his father did. I didn't see him for a while... I had assumed he had... died, or the marriage went through privately. During this time, I became involved with the local blacksmith. He was older, much more serious, and I didn't love him. But my mother, my family, needed the money. When we wed, that was the only night we spent, together, if you will.

"Oh yeah, god. Ok, like I said, you don't have to tell me all the details!" I tell her.

She only laughs at me, "Dear, it's an important detail, for later."

"So how long had it been since, Cecil... lost touch?"

"It's hard to say, time wasn't kept as exact as it is now. Maybe about 9 months to a year it had been. That's when he came to my front door. I kid you not. I had been married hardly a fortnight when he just showed up. I remember how heartbroken and confused we both had been. That's when he told me everything that had happened. How she had nearly killed him, and since his turning, his father had to teach him to be, normal, again. He explained how hard the hunger, the thirst was when he first turned. Apparently, because his wounds were so deadly, his thirst was worse the first few months he had turned. Otherwise, a healthy man, or woman, wouldn't need as much time to adjust.

It didn't take long for him to persuade me to run away with him, foolish I know, but I was young, and in love. So we ran away, sending all of our repuations out the window. I would be scorned as the whore, and he as the man who tempted me. But we didn't care. It took us a month to find a new home and settle in together where no one would recognize us. And so we fell into a routine. That was when I started showing...

"Wait wait wait! Are you telling me that Tyler is somehow, like, my brother?" I say, disgusted and appalled. "And how can a vampire procreate?" I almost felt bile begin to rise up my throat.

"Calm down, calm down. Ok listen, Tyler is not related to you. Cecil is his father, but not in anyway related to you. That is where our problem started."

Reluctantly, I chose to trust her as I let her continue, pushing away all thoughts of incest out of my mind as I listened to her story once more.

"When I started to show, I hid it from Cecil, not wanting a fight, but I knew one was imminent. I decided to tell him, the same night he caught me changing. He was mad at me for "cheating" on him and almost more so for not telling him. Even though that was the exact night I had planned to. I tried to explain how it wasn't my fault, how I was married to the man, how I thought Cecil had been dead at the time. He wouldn't hear me, wouldn't hear any of it. So he left.

I was alone, and in a strange new town where I was only beginning to make friends. Cecil and I had played off that we were married, but now that he left, I would be as scorned as I would have in my old home. So I went home to my husband, and my mother. Hoping, preying, for their forgiveness. But my mother had perished while I was away, along with a majority of the town. For reasons I couldn't understand. No plague had attacked my other home.

Unsurprisingly, my husband refused to accept me, even when I made it clear that I was with child. It couldn't be proved that it was his, since no one could know that Cecil was a vampire and could not procreate. I was so alone, even Cecil had run away. So, I lived as an outcast for a while, making a small profit through my mother's old store. I planned on moving elsewhere once I made enough, so that I could start completely anew, where no one would know. I would call myself a widow.

A few weeks later, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Cecilia was my whole world. I loved her as much as I did Cecil. That's why I named her after him. Even though he left, I understood why. He couldn't the betrayal. In some way, I realize how young and naive I had been with Cecil. I was better than him. Yet, he was just what I needed.

It had been maybe a month when Cecil's father knocked on my door. Things were mostly civil until he attacked. He was so upset that I had ruined things for him and his family. I don't remember much from that night, other than waking up. Cecil's mother had saved my life. She too was a vampire and followed her husband to my home. She claimed she had known he might attack me, yet she did nothing to save my human life. It was as if she had known he would kill me. In a way, I think it was her own revenge on my hurting her son.

Anyways, I waited until Cecilia was 11, when she began asking too many questions. That was when I faked my own death. It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I knew her biological father would continue to raise her. You see, Sammuel and I made up after a few years. It was for the best, especially when you could see his features on her. Still, it was one of the hardest things I have ever done, to this day. I still watched over her, of course, and attended every event that I could, including her wedding, and ultimately, her funeral. I mourned Sammuel's death as well, it was a good partnership between us, and I missed that confidant.

Anyways, it wasn't until that I heard about this facility opening, about how it was in honor of Cecil's father, Castel. You see, "The Castle" is not just an obvious name, Castle in latin, translates to Castellum. And his father's name Castel, was named from Castellum, in which he was born in.

I blink a few times, letting the gears in my head finish turning as I let what she is saying make sense. "So you're telling me, the whole idea of this place, the whole reason it exists... Is because of his fight with you? One that he has never gotten over, in what almost 200 years?"

"Well, yes." She studies me, bracing herself for the myriad of questions I was about to throw at her. "And I am almost 270 years old. I was born in 1747, outside of Italy."

"Woah. So you're not just my great great grandmother, you have to be like my great great great great, grandmother! How... what is that, like? To have lived that long?"

"It's not been easy. It was in the beginning when not a lot changed, but then friends and family began to die. The only way I've found a reason to live this long was my family. I've been watching over every relative, and descendent of mine with pride and joy." A smile spread across her face in pure ecstasy.

"So you changed at what age? 24? 25? How long have you been that young, I mean you don't look that young... no offense."

"Well, with vampires there are ways to age, and there are ways not to. I chose to stay my age, at 26, for about 150 years. It wasn't until I grew tired of it, that I decided to live off of something besides blood. Well, human blood that is. The only reason vampires crave, or need human blood to stay immortal is because the carrier body is human. As soon as I began to drink animal blood, I noticed small changes in my body, and that over the years, I aged. It's not an exact science, but I think that because I'm not a deer, or a bear, that its blood cannot sustain me like a humans would. I have accepted that slowly, I am aging and it's going to stay that way. I won't drink anymore human blood."

"...have you ever killed anyone?"

"Yes," she barely blinked.

"How many? Were they children?" As much as I hated to admit it, after hearing her story I felt sympathetic towards this woman. And because this woman I hardly knew was my distant grandmother, I was also feeling close to tears.

Her head lowered to her chest, as her hair fell around her face. "I, in the beginning I did things I don't wish to repeat." She lifted her head again, her eyes watery, "As I told in my story, it is harder for new vampires to adjust who were close to death. Those who had little blood in their system at the time of the change. I struggled in the beginning. And yes, I took the lives of many generations."

"Generations? You-you mean lives!" I was backing away from her now, my anger bursting at the seams. "Lives, you took lives! You killed people because you are one of them! You are just as bad as any of the people, those things, here! You are no better than they are." I was screaming, but my voice lowered as I released more venom into my tone.

"Alexis, you still need to hear me out. I'm not done. I understand you are upset but you are still in d-"

"Oh! Yeah, I forgot I'm in danger too!" I yell sarcastically at her. "Please, get on with your captivating story."

She calmly looks at me, "I will not tell you so long as you speak to me like this. I am here for your safety. But you need to appreciate what I am doing."

I snort, "yeah and I am in danger every second that I spend in here. Tell me something I don't know. And let's not pretend you're here for anyone but yourself. I know you value family, so tell me. How can you keep your entire bloodline safe?"

She clenches her jaw, debating how to respond to my impetuous behavior. "You are my family, which means I am also yours. So respect me. And heed my warning. Do not continue to think you are somehow invincible here. Do not be blind to the obvious things around you. And do not ask questions you don't want the answers to."

I kept silent, biting my lip. "So. Do you want to hear my warning or not?"

When I raised my eyebrows at her, she finally got to the point of her story, "You are a target. Because of me. This place, it was created because of my dissociation with Cecil. And now that it's been here for a generation, it has created a name, Alexis. A name in the eyes of their enemies, now your enemies."