The following morning I woke up to Lia and Lucas' hushed conversation reaching me from the kitchen. I was still lying on the sofa in the sitting room, and from the bone-deep tiredness I felt as soon as I tried to move I knew that I couldn't have slept much longer than a couple of hours.

With difficulty I tried to recall what I had seen during my short sleep. It wasn't really a dream this time, it was more of a nightmarish hallucination of Vlad looking for me in a long, dark and empty corridor. I could not see him but I could hear his voice calling my name clearly. I tried to call back so he could find me but couldn't, and every time I thought that he was finally close to me and reached out for him, my hands hit a damp stone wall...

My eyes filled with tears at the awful memory making me feel alone and desolate. I wiped them away quickly with the soft blanket covering me from head to toe, before calling to Lia and Lucas, "You can stop whispering, I'm up!"

They were at my side in a heartbeat.

"Lucas said that you've been calling someone in your sleep," Lia announced, sitting down next to me and pressing her hand against my forehead, checking for fever. "Honestly, you can't go on like this. You look desperate and depressed, and you never sleep enough... Why don't you call in sick today and rest, let me take you to bed..."

"No, Lia. I'm good." I said, knowing that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep now anyway. "I'm going to work and then we're meeting my mum..." I looked at Lucas.

"Yes, but she's right, you could do with a day off..." Lucas agreed with Lia.

I sat up, shaking my head. "My day off is tomorrow. Anne is off today, and if I don't turn up, Mr. Turner will call her. That's not fair."

"Ok then, come have breakfast with us before you get ready. It's still early." Lia resigned.

Lucas reminded me over breakfast to write down everything that I had seen at night in my notebook, insisting that however unimportant it might look to me, his uncle might see it differently.

So I added my new nightmare to my previous scribbles as soon as I reached my room, then got ready for work quickly.

When Lucas picked me up in the book shop in the afternoon, I was so tired that I could hardly speak or even concentrate on his words, and when he told me to take a nap before going out with Mum, I did not protest.

"Uncle called me while you were sleeping." Lucas said as he helped me into my coat once we were ready to go out in the evening. "He's extremely curious about your dreams. Get ready for his interrogation." He grinned, locking the door behind us.

I rolled my eyes at him, "Your uncle... Why does he think the dreams are so important?"

"Well, he will be back tomorrow night and I'm sure he'll tell us all about his new theory soon. He's quite excited about it." Lucas explained as we descended the stairs.

"Are you really sure you don't want me to drive?" He added once we stepped outside, into the cold darkness of the wintery evening.

I shook my head no. "It only takes ten minutes by bus and the stop is so close to Luigi's... There's really no point." I said, taking a step in the direction of the station and slipping on the ice-covered pavement.

It must have rained while I slept, the streets were full of small, frozen puddles, glittering in the light of the streetlamps and the passing cars.

"I ask you one last time, are you sure? It's parked just around the corner." Lucas said, lacing his arm through mine and steadying me before I could fall.

"Absolutely. Come on, let's go or we will be late."

"I have never met a girl more stubborn than you, Samara." Lucas announced, chuckling.

"Whatever you say." I mumbled in response as my feet slipped on another frozen puddle, then giggling when he noticed and pulled me behind him as if we were ice-skating.

Luigi rushed towards us as soon as we entered his noisy, crowded restaurant.

"Samara, my girl, are you all right? I've heard everything..." He said, pulling me into an embrace.

"I missed you," I told him truthfully.

He let go of me momentarily to pull Lucas in the same sort of embrace, whispering something in his ear, making me wonder how come the two knew each other.

Then he was back in front of me, his hands on both of my shoulders, holding me at arm's length. "I'm so glad because of the child, you can't imagine... I had been so blind, girl. You grew up here, in front of my very eyes, and it never really occurred to me that it could be you until Abraham told me... " He said, eyes glittering with-- Tears? Really?-- as he hugged me again. Just what...

Luigi pulled me away from the door and let go of me as new customers arrived, and when I looked behind I saw Mum walking towards me, followed by a tall, blonde guy. Julian.

Mum introduced us and we shook hands, then I presented Lucas to them as my new friend and flatmate, hearing my own voice as if it belonged to someone else. I couldn't concentrate on them, my eyes were darting after Luigi, who was walking from table to table, across the large room. How come he knows Lucas, and Stoker...

"Samara, hey, I'll explain. Come on." Lucas' voice pulled me back from my reverie as he took my arm and made me follow Mum and Julian to our table.

I looked at him as he took my coat and pulled the chair out for me, feeling utterly confused.

"I'm sorry," he whispered when he finally sat down next to me. "I should have told you before. But I thought you knew, that Uncle, or Luigi, have told you already..."

Mum and Julian glanced at us curiously from the single menu they've been looking at when they caught us whispering, their faces lit up with happy smiles.

Forgetting everything else momentarily, I smiled back at them. I haven't seen Mum looking this happy in years.

Mum raised an inquiring eyebrow at me, then inclined her head infinitesimally towards Lucas who was now pretending to study his menu, apparently oblivious to what was going on around him. I scowled at her, shaking my head. I had introduced him as my friend and didn't want her to start speculating... However, my reaction only made her smile widen. How irritating.

I felt a foot nudging mine under the table, then Lucas' hand rested on my elbow. Looking at him I found him smiling at me, the warm look in his large brown eyes making me relax. It reminded me that this was exactly what we wanted-- letting people, and vampires, jump to their own conclusions about us. Mum, like Anne, apparently chose to believe that our friendship wasn't just that. Oh well.

I nodded at Lucas, letting him know that I was fine about it.

When I glanced back at Mum I found her staring doe-eyed at Julian who just brought her hand to his lips, pressing soft kisses over her knuckles. A thing I had never seen Dad doing...

"What are we having?" Lucas asked, scattering my thoughts.

"I'll just have a pizza, any kind, and a coke." I said, going for the usual without opening the menu at all. "Tell me about Luigi." I whispered, leaning closer to him.

He nodded as he closed his menu, but before he could say anything Mum interrupted us, asking about my appointment and demanding to see the picture of the baby. I passed it to her and while she got lost in memories about her own pregnancy, Julian and Lucas started to talk about football.

It was well after Luigi took our orders and we were served by one of his waiters, when Lucas finally whispered, "Luigi and Veronica are vampires, Samara. They are even older than Uncle and have been friends with him for ages. They know your legend as well as any of us."

I nodded thoughtfully. It somehow wasn't surprising at all, it kind of made sense...

"Are you not surprised?" Lucas whispered as I folded my napkin and placed it next to my plate.

Shaking my head at him silently I stood up, apologizing to Mum and Julian, and left our table in search of Luigi. I needed to speak to him.

I found my friend in the kitchen, helping his cooks and waiters.

"Luigi!" I called over the clatter of pots and pans and the shouted instructions coming contemporaneously from different parts of the bustling room.

"Samara..." he said, reaching me by the door, then opening it for me and ushering me back into the eating area.

"You could have told me." I said, embracing him, as we found a place to talk in a more quiet corner of the restaurant, but in a full view of those sitting at our table.

A thought of him choosing this place on purpose so Lucas could see us, that he was in on the plan and knew everything, maybe even more than I, flashed through my mind.

"What should I have said, 'By the way, don't be alarmed but my wife and I are vampires?' He chuckled, making me giggle.

"Why not?" I joked.

"So, it is you. It's... wonderful." Luigi mumbled. "We all know about..."

"Luigi, don't start with that, please, it's so... weird. I don't care about your vampire legends, I just want my child to be well and healthy, and then find my way back to him..." I pleaded, interrupting him.

"I know!" Luigi said, pulling me in an embrace. "You'll be both fine..."

"Thanks, Luigi. I think I should go back," I added, noticing Mum looking towards us curiously. "Say hello to Veronica, please."

He nodded, letting me walk back to my table alone as he was called by a customer.

"Well, I must give you that, you are a natural with vampires." Lucas whispered, smiling, as I sat back down next to him.

I rolled my eyes at him, "You're my favourite kind of monster, I guess." I announced matter-of-factly, making him laugh.

"Talking about monsters," Mum interfered, catching only the last part of our exchange, "I keep feeding your fox."

"You have a fox?" Both men asked at the same time.

While Mum explained Whisper to Julian, I leaned closer to Lucas, whispering again, "And two wolves on the other side. I hope someone feeds those for me..."

My breath hitched at the last words, I missed my other world so much that even a simple memory like this was still causing me a nearly physical pain.

"She always liked big, wild animals," Mum said, interrupting our whispered chat again. "Do you remember that enormous, black, stray dog that used to follow you home after school, because you kept feeding it? It was as big as you. And how much did you cry when finally one day he didn't turn up anymore? What was it you called him, Padfood, right?" Mum laughed. "I remember you had a crush on one of the characters in Harry Potter books, you didn't read anything else back then."

I scowled at Lucas whose lips were twitching with a suppressed laughter, then looked back at my annoying mother. "Mum, that's embarrassing, please stop it." I said, feeling a blush spread over my cheeks. "It was a hundred years ago."

"Not really. No more than six, honey. And now you leave me with your fox."

We spent at least half an hour talking amicably after we had finished eating. Mum was trying to get to know Lucas better, asking anything that crossed her mind, making me groan inwardly at hearing some of her questions. Poor Lucas.

In the meantime, Julian, having noticed my suffering, tried to distract me from their conversation by telling me about his little art school in Richmond and then his son, who was exactly as old as me.

When I thought I couldn't stand it any longer, I nudged Lucas' foot under the table. Right on cue, he looked at his watch, asking me if I was tired.

When I nodded, Mum almost expelled us from the restaurant, telling him to take me home immediately and make me rest.

I stood up, and once Lucas helped me into my coat, walked around the table and kissed her on the cheek, promising to keep in touch and be careful. Then, refusing to leave without saying goodbye to Luigi, I followed Lucas who spotted him on the other side of the restaurant.