Love in a Strange Place: A Vampire Witch's Journey to find where she belongs

Chapter 9

We enter the dining room and both Vlad and Angela rise from their seats as we do and I see Vlad's questioning look at our hands, which were interlaced in a way that they wouldn't be if we were a normal father/ daughter, but then a look is exchanged between my father and him and he then gives a knowing smirk and thankfully doesn't say anything. Once we were all seated Vlad asks

"I trust you had a good rest? And your back is better?"

"Yes, to both, thank you." I replied as I was being a little overwhelmed by the emotions within the building as he had a lot of staff and while they were not bad or anything else like that it was his very active dungeon that being on a level closer to it meant that I was picking it up more than in my room. He seemed to pick up that something wasn't right so he asks

"Is everything ok?" I give him a tight smile as I try to just focus on him and then take as deep a breath as the corset would allow, which was more than I ever thought I would be able to and then leant a little closer in my chair as the corset and chair would allow towards my father in order to ground myself with his calmness better before replying

"My abilities sometimes suck and as such I am just a little overwhelmed with all the emotions I am picking up within your home without meaning too is all and I just need a moment to be able to quiet them enough to focus, but your active dungeon is the main problem now that I am in a part of your home that is closer to it, but please don't think I am complaining or anything as once I am grounded with the ambient emotional atmosphere I will be ok, it just can take time to achieve that is all and the more people in a building the longer it takes, but once I am grounded it won't be so hard next time."

He gives me a concerned look for a moment and my father wraps an arm around my shoulders and I accept this for a moment before I feel that they were going to ask something about what they could do to lesson my discomfort, so I sit back in my chair which meant my father had to drop his arm, but he places it on the arm of my chair and then after I take a breath I reply to their unspoken concern

"Honestly it is ok, I need to go through this in order for me to be able to function being here and there is no way to lessen my discomfort. Just know that I may not be talkative for a bit, but once I am...um..." I had to pause to breathe through a rather unpleasant feeling that wasn't my own before I continued "used to everything I will be all good, just talk between yourselves for the moment."

They all look at me before they just nod their heads and simply go about talking between themselves as I just focus on my breathing and I just try to count the things around me that I could see, like how many glasses were on the table and how many people were in the room with me that I could see and I actually noticed that Vlad had ordered his guards to be more visible than I am guessing is normal like with my father's and that helps a lot and sooner than normal I was grounded enough to let them know I was ok and to ask

"So what is on the agenda now that we are finally here?" I thought it would be better to get straight to the point and this seems to be the right thing as Vlad gives me a small head nod before answering

"The plan is that tomorrow your father and I will go over everything that my people have gathered and I will be putting the final details together for accepting you into my line fully while Angela shows you around our home, then I am hoping that the day after tomorrow we can get that out of the way because the sooner we get that done the better.

The day after that is done we will wait to see how that news travels and then we will leave either that same day or the day after so it should be no more than a week and you will be back in Egypt where we will be having a holiday that we are long overdue for I think." With this last part he looks at my father and they share an almost cheeky look and then my father seamlessly continues