We all woke up not too long afterwards and prepared for yet another day in paradise. When we got up, it was clear by the snow that was still falling outside that our two guests would be staying for a while longer, not that any of us minded that.

While we were preparing breakfast, I got a call from my adoptive mom, so I had to leave my girlfriends to the food preparation for just a little bit.

“Hey Aurora, is everything going alright there? I heard on the weather forecast that it will continue snowing for a while.”

“Yeah, we will manage. We are currently also providing shelter for a couple of friends who got stuck in the city thanks to the snow. Well, you know Claire, don’t you?”

“Ah yeah, I do remember her.” Alessia sounded happy to hear we were fine. “It’s good that you are there for your friends when they are in need. That’s exactly the attitude why I wanted you to be my successor.”

“I couldn’t leave them out in the cold now, could I?” I chuckled into the phone. “And how are things going over there at the château?”

“Immensely beautiful with all the snow outside.” I swear I could hear Alessia smile over the phone. “As a matter of fact, I’m staring out of my office window right now.”

“I can imagine it looks great with all the snow. It already looked fantastic without it.”

“It is one of the most beautiful areas I’ve lived in throughout my life, that’s true. But sadly, the snowfall does limit our movement a bit. Epiphania and I were thinking about visiting you, but thanks to the snow, we would not be able to get there in any kind of timely manner. All the highways are completely blocked up.

“You can always visit later. I don’t know if the timing would’ve been great considering our guests anyway. Not that they would mind, but you know… Secrets and all.” I said that last part quietly.

“Fair enough.” Alessia agreed. “Still, it would’ve been nice to see my daughter for the festivities.”

“We already saw each other after Christmas, though.”

“And I want to see my beautiful daughter more than that. Can’t I?” Alessia was taking the piss as I could hear a laugh coming up.

“Hmm.” I chuckled once more. “All jokes aside, you are always welcome in my home and Epiphania too of course. Emma was actually talking to me about talking to the other members a bit more than what I’m doing at the moment.”

“And I’m still right about that.” Em commented.

“It’s not a bad idea to do some outreaching. A couple of them have already commented that it kind of looks like you are ignoring them.”

“What? And you didn’t tell me about it?”

“Calm down, Aurora. I did tell them you are still learning and that the situation has been pretty hectic later. No need to panic. They also didn’t really put any effort into contacting you either, which I pointed them to. Hell, it took a long time for me to get into the habit too when I first took over. They have grown a little bit too accustomed to me, I guess.”

“That’s just because you do a good job, Alessia. You can be proud about the fact that people take you as their golden standard.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

Stolen novel; please report.

We continued chatting for a bit longer about the new years celebrations after which I handed the phone to my girlfriends so they also could speak with Alessia for a while.

But as our guests started to come to the kitchen for a breakfast, we decided to be polite and just wish my mom a happy new year, together with promises of contacting her later of course as there was a dinner to be planned with Em’s parents after all.

We spent the entire day doing pretty much nothing. Just lazing around, playing some games together. Chilling out, reading, all that jazz. There were plenty of things to do around the house to not get bored while we were stuck inside. And it was big enough too, so that if you wanted some peace and quiet, you could find yourself a place of your own as well.

As for our evening meal, we just ate the leftovers from the day before, this time prepared in a pan rather than on a gourmet plate as it was just a lot easier to do. There were plenty of greens still left too and the bread was still just fine as well.

We topped that all off with some of the leftover dessert, and just like that we had eaten like kings and queens once again. And in the evening we just continued what we had done the rest of the day already, although this time finishing it off with a good movie to end things. The movie was called Himeko-Hime, which had strong themes of environmentalism and the Shinto religion. I personally really liked the artstyle but the story was just as good. I could tell that Ria really really enjoyed the movie too, but that was to be expected as she really liked to delve into Japanese culture.

The next dawn brought the same old news from the last couple of days, even more snow, just as Alessia had said over the phone. Although it was clear that the government services were starting to get a hold of the situation. At least making it possible to get yourself to a store, although it was still heavily advised not to take a car and shop as locally as you could. Because sidewalks were pretty much unnavigable at the time, pedestrians had to use the main roads after all.

As our ‘human food’ supplies had dwindled a little bit, Claire, Ria and Em proposed to go to the local store to stock up while also heading to the lovely-grandma-nextdoor to ask if she needed something from the store as well. In the meantime, Anya and I could stay behind to clean the house a little bit. It was not something I was enthusiastic about a guest doing, but it was Anya herself who proposed it, so I couldn’t really refuse it, I doubted she would listen anyway even if I did.

And thus, after our girlfriends went off on their merry way into the snow filled landscape, Anya and I took out the vacuum cleaner and the mop to do some good old first-time-of-the-year winter cleaning. I took the mopping for myself, as it was the activity that was by far the least comfortable in winter. And that was one thing I would definitely not leave to our guests. We did limit ourselves to cleaning up the first two floors and the bathrooms for the time being, as cleaning the entire house in one go would take quite a lot of time.

After about an hour of cleaning, I received a message from Ria, saying that they would be out for a bit longer as lady Blanchet had invited them to come inside after they returned with the groceries to give them a little bit of a thank you. It gave Anya and I more time to finish things up. Ria did ask if both of us wanted to join too, but as Anya politely declined, I wouldn’t leave our guest alone in the house.

It took me another thirty to forty minutes to finish mopping everything that had to be mopped, right in time apparently, as Anya came over to me to have a little chat.

“Are you done too?” I asked.

She nodded. “I am, I have also placed the vacuum back in the closet.”

“Ah, thanks. I’m pretty much ready too.” I wrung out the mop and hung it over the bucket I was dragging around with me. The water had pretty much chilled down, it wasn’t very pleasant anymore to stick my hands into it, but eh, I managed.

I expected Anya to go and sit down on the sofa while she waited, but she kept standing right next to me.

I tilted my head a little. “Is something wrong? Do you still want to go to the neighbor? I can let Ria know if you want to.”

Anya shook her head. “No, it’s nothing like that, I just have something I want to tell you. And I would rather do that before my girlfriend gets back.”

This surprised me. “Is it something Claire shouldn’t know?”

“I think it is more important to you than it is to her. But I will tell her in due course.” Anya sounded very serious now. It made me a bit wary about what she was about to tell me. That already limited the amount of things she could tell me considerably.

“Hmm.” I put the bucket aside and gave Anya an affirmative nod. “I have a hunch about what you want to talk to me about, but Claire already knows.”

“Not really.” Anya shook her head. “I do know you are a vampire, but there’s no way Claire knows I’m a vampire hunter.”

My mind immediately went to do a quick double take. “Wait… What?”