Natasha’s den

Natasha, Cassie and I head towards the entrance of the club when Natasha stops.

“Okay, you two. Ground rules. Tell nobody of this location, not even to the Werewolves. Secondly, the entrance is a no-go for claustrophobes.” Natasha says. She presses a button. A stone in the wall pulls in and other stones follow. Suddenly there is a tunnel next to the couch Cassie and I took.

Natasha crawls in, I follow and so does Cassie. As we enter, the stones reform into the wall behind us, closing us in.

Natasha takes us to a junction.

“This tunnel leads to every location in the college. To your left is the cafeteria, to your right is the rooms. We will go forwards.” Natasha says.

“Can vampires become bats to travel?” Cassie asks. Natasha giggles and turns to dust. The dust blocks our view but we hear high pitch squeaking. Natasha has become a bat.

“Follow me!” The bat says. Natasha is communication to us through telepathy. Or the eeking of her bat form. She flies forwards.

Minutes later the tunnel expands. It is big enough to have us stand. Natasha transforms back into her vampire form.

“You need to teach us how to do that!” Cassie says in awe. Natasha smiles. She points to a pillar and a gargoyle.

“That is our guardian. It protects us vampires from other threats. If it detects humans it captures them for us to feed. If it detects enemies, it sends sharp arrows and beams of energy towards them. The light turns them into humans for us to feed. We get a lot of humans this way. Last month we had 3,492. We have other gargoyle guardians around town too, protecting our hideaways.” Natasha says. The gargoyle has a menacing stare, the eyes look like they are made of rubies.

Further into the tunnel we see a door.

“Who goes there?” A voice from the door utters.

“Mistress Natasha.” Natasha replies. “Plus two friends.” Natasha writes something down. I see that she is writing on a tablet in the door. She writes our names on the tablet.

The tablet withdraws into the door and the door slowly opens.

“My god, Mistress! I’m so sorry, I thought you were an intruder. And you two, welcome to Mistress’ home for Vampires!” The voice says. The room is dark but I can point out it is a small woman. She is pale, curly hair and quite elderly.

“Alex, Cassie, this is Marge. She is the caretaker of my home, The Coffin. The Coffin houses dozens of vampires like you two. We have been close friends for centuries, and I turned her when a plague wiped out her village in the 14th century.” Natasha introduces. Marge smiles and waves. She ushers us to come in. Cassie looks at me. She is holding her neck to where I turned her.