The Awakening

Chapter 2: Meeting the House Guests

Alice slowly licked the blood from the holes pierced in my neck and sealed it with a kiss. She slowly leaned back with one of the most beautiful smiles in existence as she gazed at me reacting to the pleasure we had both just felt. I furrowed my eyebrows at her and found myself using my trembling hand to wipe my blood from her lips and her eyes brightened as she slowly took my finger in her mouth and sucked off the remaining blood. I slowly drew back my hand and stared at it as though it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"First time huh?" she asked rhetorically. It was my first time being bitten but for some reason, this did not affect me the way I thought it would. I stared at her in a daze and she chuckled again.

"You have such lovely reactions," she giggled.

It took me some time, but I finally came back to reality or something much closer to the world I was just in. I was lost, so lost that I stared into her face in utter awe of her beauty and elegance that I did not even hear her question and she had to snap her fingers at me which startled me.

"So, I take it that you and Jason have been acquainted?" she asked as she glided around me like a leaf showcasing not a care in the world and just going with the flow of life. "Tyler, are you hearing me?" she called again dragging my whole consciousness to reality.

"Yes, we're acquainted," I answered slowly.

"Good, so we can go to meet Isabel and the others." Alice smiled as the doors flew open and she glided through them into the hallway while I stood there staring at her retreating figure as it disappeared around a corner then my legs woke up and I sped behind her, but I was immensely puzzled at the type of vampire she was. After a while of following her, I found myself back at the library and she continued in the direction that the lady had turned to that was arguing with Jason and I wondered if that was Isabel. We came out of the building and found ourselves in a massive garden and I figured that the lady here was Isabel.

We came to a path of marble stones that seemed to loop around the garden almost as if it was taking people by the hand to show them the best sites. The garden was breathtaking with luscious beds of grass contoured by hedges and shrubs. The lake-side air was pungent with the fragrance of jasmine that came from the flower beds that were hard to miss making them attention-grabbing, and the hedges along with the climbing plants certainly attracted attention too. The smaller flower bushes were obviously paid keen attention to and deserved some credit, but everything dwarfed in comparison to the lake. I looked out at the lake and stood awestruck. This was no natural basin filled with mere water, as its greatness shone like a thousand diamonds glistening in the sunlight. An emerald field of grass encircled the lake adding to its uniqueness. Several, stocky trees stood in the back, their branches forming an umbrella that shielded the entire garden. Plants and vines playfully crept and crawled their way through the garden, eager to expand their foothold beyond the locations given to them. The trees, walnut trees, seemed to have stood there for countless years, and are, for all intents and purposes, the guardians of this garden, and therefore one of the most appealing parts of this majestic garden. A fountain stood in the middle of the garden, offering an extra aquatic element of tranquility, often enjoyed by birds. It was a large fountain surrounded by water that was a paradise for koi. Smaller flower bushes gracefully surrounded it boasting pride and joy within this garden, as they were very well cared for.

"Hey Belle," Alice called as she saw Isabel in her griffin form.

"She... She's a griffin," I stuttered as I stared at the massive creature only thought to exist in myths standing before me. She looked into my eyes and my mind became lost but this time it was due to puzzles, riddles, and mazes that raced in my mind causing my head to hurt and I held my head in pain.