Three women came out of the dim wild forest coming over to the small stone wall that was covered in moss and looked more like the leftover debris on some ancient construction ruins, than the boundary of the High Noble household territory.

Even though the state of the stone wall allowed them to freely cross it in any place, girls did not do it. They walked by the wall for some time until they reached what looked like the ruin of the big archway that had some leftover inscriptions resembling a spider on its decayed mouldy stones and walked through it.

Thin layer of transparent film covered them when they entered the archway and they disappeared into empty space one by one.

Short furred cat with a large black and white spot all over its orange fur coat was sitting on the branch of a huge tree inside the forest watching them disappear with a lazy face, while cleaning its paws. However a moment later it heard a rustle from the forest's lush.  Immediately jumping from the place, with quick motion, it leaped off the tree into the forest lush opposite from the place the rustle was coming from.

Huge spider monster appeared from the tree a few seconds later and looked with its many eyes around the place, but could not find anyone and then ran back into the forest.

******

When Cassandra crossed the barrier she immediately noticed the difference. The very air in the area was different than usual. The usual concentration of evil energy lessened significantly. Although it still was quite high, it was a huge improvement from what it was slightly more than a week ago, when she came here to pick up the girls. This however made her frown deepen rather than lessen. Monsters could produce evil energy, not cleanse it. There had to be a reason for such improvement and she did not like any of the possibilities for it that came to her mind.

"Girls, get back behind me." She said seeing the strange looks on her companions' faces, that could sense the difference yet could not pinpoint what the difference was exactly.

"Aunt Cassandra, is something wrong?" Asked one of the young women with her.

"Just be vigilant and stay close to me." Answered Cassandra and walked deeper into the territory with watchful eyes.

Three women walked carefully through the overgrown garden with ugly weeds and plants full of dangerously sharp spikes. While they walked on the thin road that led from the ruined archway to the mansion through the garden, they could see some of the thick twines move slightly as if reacting to their presence. A menacing aura could be felt from the places to the side of the road as if something was watching them. 

However girls were not bothered by this at all. They walked through the wicked lush until they reached the alley of dry husks of trees covered in fog. Once they reached that place they were out of the garden full of twines and walked on the dry hard and cracked earth that had a few leftover stones peeking from the ground as a reminder of a paved stone road that existed here a very long time ago. A few minutes of walk later they noticed the fog around them thin severely and soon they saw a bright shine of sun coming through it.

With strange faces of surprise they left the fog and stood as if frozen looking at the bright sunny garden, mostly clean of evil plants and dry trees, with green grass in patches growing here and there. Huge dilapidated mansion stood proudly behind this patch of land basking in the brightness of the sun.

They looked around and noticed a woman in the maid's clothes working in the garden near what looked like a newly made flower bed. The woman lifted her head noticing the three ladies coming out of the fog and jumped to her feet walking in their direction.

Cassandra stood in front of the girls warily watching the closing woman.

"Who are you?" She asked when that maid walked close to them.

"Good day, Madam Vespertine. Lady Priscilla, Lady Brianna, welcome home." Said woman making an elegant curtsy of a well educated maid. "My name is Zinnia Dryad, I and my two sisters Dahlia and Aster are new maids in this household. It is a pleasure to meet you. Please come inside Madam Threadweaver should be cooking right now." Said Zinnia.

"Why are the Dryads here?" Asked Cassandra without making any moves.

"We have arrived with our new master as his aid." Answered Zinnia. "Madam will explain herself. My sister Dahlia will meet you, I still have my work to finish. If you'll excuse me." She added and curtsyed before walking back to the flower bed.

Girls looked at each other and started to walk but just a few steps later stopped as if frozen seeing a puppet running strangely toward Zinnia with hands full of tools.

"Huh? No!" Said Zinnia. "Why do you bring all of this and why do you need an axe? We are planting flowers!" 

Puppet stopped looking at her, then at the tools.

"Wrong?" It asked.

"Yes! I asked for a shovel. To dig." Said Zinnia showing with exaggerated moves what she needed the tool for.

"Wrong." Said puppet dropping everything on the ground and turning away to walk back.

"Now stop right there! Put everything back where you took it!" 

Priscilla and Cassandra looked at each other and then as if in united thoughts looked over at the third girl. Brianna stood there with her mouth open wide and her eyes sparkling.

"Bri, stop." Said Cassandra but before she could even react, the girl already rushed to the maid that was talking with the puppet and circled around them as if a happy puppy, asking all kinds of questions from the maid.

"It's useless aunt Cass. She is not with us anymore." Said Priscilla.

"Stay with your sister and look after her until I come back." Said Cassandra and walked toward the mansion with brisk steps.

Priscilla sighed and went to her sister. She may have looked not interested, but inside she was as enthusiastic to see that puppet as her little sister, so she did not argue with her aunt.

*******

Cassandra walked toward the terrace and was met by another maid that looked similar to Zinnia.

"Greetings your highness Duchess Vespertine. My name is Dahlia." Said the maid bowing. "We have informed Madam of your arrival, she is in the kitchen and will be meeting you shortly. Please come inside." Said Dahlia from inside the mansion without walking out to the terrace.

Cassandra squinted her eyes slightly and walked to the glass door stopping a step before entering. She stretched her hand forward and as if surprised she did not meet any resistance looked at the maid and stepped inside the mansion.

Dahlia bowed and beckoned her to come in, then walked in front to guide her toward the kitchen.

"Cass! You're here." Said Tessa with a happy voice walking toward her and hugging her.

Cassandra embraced her back but peered at her with a strange look.

"You…look…different." She said with a raised brow. Breaking their embrace.

"Dahlia. Please help Aster. I will go introduce Cassandra and Noah." Said Tessa and Dahlia bowed and walked away.

"Different?" Asked Tessa smiling at her friend.

"Warm, smiling. Who are you, woman? Where is my cold ice friend?" Said Cassandra.

"Oh stop it. I am not ice cold!" Answered Tessa.

"Yeah you are not anymore and that's scaring me. So what did I miss this week? Noah?"

"Let's go. I will introduce you." Said Tessa grabbing her friend's forearm. "But please remember what I told you yesterday." She added whispering. 

They walked through the halls and came to the door that led to the first floor's main room, where Noah was led to warm up at the fireplace that first night they met.

"Dear. My friend is here. I would like to introduce her." Said Tessa leading Cassandra into the room by the hand.

"Dear?" Whispered at her Cassandra with a raised brow, receiving only a smile in reply.

Noah woke up from his mind's realm, opening his eyes and stood up from the armchair, walking around it and then stopped as if frozen.

*User, * said the system with wary in its voice. *You have to be very very careful.*

/Don't you fucking dare to tell me smile and wave!/ Exclaimed Noah in his mind while looking at the two women closing in on him feeling as if his death has come for him. /She's a…she's a…./

*Nosferatu. The highest class of vampires if I am not mistaken.* Ended his words for him, system.

/And she will tear me apart if she sees me as a nice meal./ Noah added in his mind, watching Tessa's friend with his best poker face while feeling a turmoil of worry inside.

This worry however deepened with every step that closed them towards him, as he noticed that with every step the vampire woman's face darkened more and more. When she and Tessa stopped in front of him, her eyes were squinted with gloom over her face. Noah could swear he saw frost coming out of her cold eyes that stared at him with menace. With his heightened senses that sounded all the alarms they could, Noah noticed how Tessa tensed her hand on the vampire woman's forearm, squeezing it tightly.

"Noah. This is my friend Duchess Cassandra Vespertine. Cass, this is the young heir to the McDaniels house, Count Noah McDaniels." Said Tessa introducing them and Noah made a reverie with all elegance without letting her out of his view.

"Are you a pervert?" Asked Cassandra with a cold voice

"Cass!" Exclaimed Tessa.

"Excuse me, Your Highness?" Asked Noah with a twitch in his eye.

"I have never heard of a human mating with a monster. Are you a pervert?" 

"No he is not!" Said Tessa with a stern voice. "Stop it."

"He is human, Tessa. I expected anyone but not human! He knows who you are? Saw your true form?"

"Yes, Your Highness. We have mated in all her forms." Answered Noah with a calm voice peering at her without avoiding her cold gaze, while one of her eyebrows twitched at his words.

"So you are a pervert!" She said, with her frosty voice

"Stop it Cass!"

"I am more open minded, you could say. And no, I did not have such fetish when I came here. Tessa and I had to get acquainted and be open to each other before we made that step. It was not easy, but we overcame it." Said Noah, meeting her head on with his calm face and unbending will.

"Theresa and I have been friends for centuries, boy. We are closer than any sisters in any family. I will be civil seeing as she gave you a mate bite." Said Cassandra looking over at Tessa with a raised brow. "But it doesn't mean I approve of this. I will be watching you." She said and for a moment Noah felt how air in the room decreased drastically making him shiver involuntarily, before the chilliness passed as quickly.

"It's a pleasure to be of acquaintance with you, Your Highness." Said Noah.

"Greeting, Count McDaniels." Said Cassandra stretching her hand toward him and Noah took it without hesitation performing another elegant curtsy before she took her hand back, making Tessa silently breath out in relief at the side.

"Oh, where are the girls?" Asked Tessa.

"In the garden with a maid and…puppet." Answered Cassandra turning away from Noah. "Let's go. I asked them to wait until I'll call." She said and walked away.

Tessa and Noah looked at each other and he saw an apologetic look in her eyes. He walked over taking her hand and kissed it, scattering her worry and making her smile at him.

They walked out on the Terrace after Cassandra and saw her calling for the girls. 

A few moments later two girls came over with one of them walking while almost dragging behind herself the other one.

When they came over Noah's eyebrows raised greatly and he looked at Tessa in surprise. She smiled at him again and walked toward the girls hugging them.

"Priscilla, Brianna, I would like to introduce you to Count McDaniels. Noah these are my daughters Priscilla and Brianna." She said, smiling with pleasure.

Both girls stopped as if frozen looking at each other, then and their own mother as if they were seeing her for the first time in their lives and then turned to look at Noah with strange looks on their faces.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Lady Priscilla, Lady Brianna." Said Noah bowing slightly.

Both girls made an elegant curtsy introducing themselves as well.

Noah watched them with a slight smile that was more to cover his surprise. Both girls were actually decades old as he understood from Tessa's words. However what he saw were just two teenagers or barely young women that looked slightly younger than him.

Both of them wore beautiful dresses and had their hair done in beautiful buns. However it looked like Brianna, the youngest of the two, had already found herself in a situation where she got a few spots on her dress and her hairs came out of the bun here and there. Both of them stood there leering at him with strange faces and then looked over at their mother with raised eyebrows.

"He is your mate, mother?" Asked Priscilla with more of a statement than a question in her voice. She did not ask what relationship they had. She could feel the mate mark of her mother on him.

"Yes." Said Tessa with a slight blush to her face. "I have taken Noah into our house. He will live with us from now on." She looked at Noah with a shy gaze. "As long as he wishes." She added more toward him than to her daughters.

However three new women were the ones that had the biggest reaction to these words, which made Noah frown a bit.

/System? I feel a strange atmosphere. Any ideas?/ Asked Noah in his head.

*There seems to be some information that we are lacking. It looks like the mate bite mark is not as simple as Tessa explained. Otherwise these women would not feel such a shock when she said you can live here as long as you wish. We need more info, otherwise we risk stepping on some nasty rake.* Said system.

"Tess." Whispered Cassandra looking at her friend, while her both daughters looked at Noah with stern looks in their eyes.

"The lunch is ready, Madam." Said Dahlias behind them, waking up everyone from their thoughts.

Everyone looked at the newly arrived person and Tessa clapped her hands.

"Wonderful. Everyone, let's go inside!" Said Tessa, thankful for Dahlia's timely appearance and pulled everyone inside.