"I appreciate you keeping me up to speed on things," James said after taking a toke of his blunt, "but do you have to use my place to hide?"

After grabbing a few things from the apartment I proceeded straight to James' condo. Carmen didn't want to be alone in case the hussars showed up again so she came with me. Max was already there as he was sharing the same blunt as James.

"I felt that it's safer here while Talia's is closed. I mean, you fixed the barrier to your place so it's working, right?"

"Did you come to think you're being followed?" James passed the blunt to Carmen. "You stopped by your flat before informing me that you're coming over. If you'd warned me ahead of time I may have something set up."

I held up the jar containing the magic sand. "Talia gave me this. She said it would protect against the soldiers if they come back for me again."

"Are you certain this royal pain-in-the-ass won't come directly for you?"

"My guess is he wouldn't bother crossing an ocean just to get me personally. All I need is a place to hide out for a couple of days until their water crossing charm wears out. What's the going rate for those any way?"

James took the jar and unscrewed the top. "Depends on how the witch is friendly towards vampires. It can cost you a lot, especially if you accumulated funds over centuries. What makes you think that they don't know a witch here that would extend their stay? Talia may cover your back, I can certainly help you for free in this situation, but this won't help me with what you're facing exactly. Besides, Talia's been around long enough to know a few things about this guy you've been force hitched to."

He did have a point there. As I watched him and Max take some of the sand and scatter it in front of the front and balcony entrances, I pieced the information together. Donnie and Talia were acquainted and Talia was at least aware that Boys from Venus was touring the country. Whether they cancelled their tour or not, they had to cross water somehow without having anxiety attacks. The fact it took a little over a century for Lukasz's men to find me proves they weren't able to get a witch to do what they asked. Well, part of that involved a little inside help to not let any witch assist them in finding me, but apparently that didn't last long as I thought it would.

"There, that should take care of that. Mind you my ex broke though my barriers, even when they were calibrated properly." James dusted off his hands and pulled out a piece of paper. He folded it into the shape of a ram and Ramsay appeared. "Unlike you, I need rest, and I can speak for all of us."

"I don't mind staying up late and keeping watch," Max offered after scattering his sand portion.

"You've been up for nearly a day already. You almost knocked over a whole shelf because of your lack of sleep."

"I think I'll take a rest too," I said while stifling a yawn. What the Hell was I supposed to do when I'm being chased? Watch TV which would indicate that someone was awake at 3 in the morning? As for Carmen, she passed out on the couch already.

"It's settled. We're all going to get some rest. Ramsay will keep watch and if there's someone or something that tries to come close, even cleaning staff, I'll be notified."

After we each took a place to crash, I lay in the guest room for what seemed like hours. It may have been seconds, but with this immortality thing it's something I don't really pay much attention. Sun up means it's day. Snow on the ground means it's winter and that's all pretty much what matters, even with a calendar. And because of that I assumed Lukasz would be back in his castle and not leaving it. I was wrong.

I woke from my nap to get a drink of whatever James had in his fridge. Most witches were forced on vegetarian diets after the age of ten so it was expected there was no meat or animal based products in the fridge. He had soy milk, coconut water, and some other plant based water beverage. I believe it was aloe. There was also some red liquid in a jar that could've been blood, but I wasn't going to take any chances so I grabbed the soy milk. There wasn't much left, so I opted for drinking from the carton and finishing it. Just as I was about to take a swig, Ramsay bumped into me and ran into James' bedroom. I of course had to drop the carton.

I crept out of the kitchen and headed towards the balcony, careful to not step on the sand. No one was standing there after tugging back a panel.

Carmen stirred a bit. "What time is it?" she yawned.

"It's one in the afternoon, and it's Saturday."

"Hmm ... I think I'm slowly turning into you. I'll go make some coffee."

The instant she got off the couch there was a knock on the door. She looked at me and I knew I had to hide. I made my way to the couch and crouched behind it while she went to look out the peephole.

James walked out of his bedroom with Ramsay in front of him. "If it's the neighbour complaining about the smell, it better be the neighbour complaining about the smell," he muttered as he tied his bathrobe on and ruffled his hair.

I too was hoping it was just an annoying neighbour.

"Lena, how old is this Lu-cash guy? Fourteen?" She whispered hoarsely.

"Ileano, już czas, byś do mnie dołączyła. Przyszedłem, by zabrać cię do królestwa," the voice from the other side of the door said. It was Lukasz and whether Carmen gave me away, he somehow knew where to find me.

"That's him, Carmen. Vampire puberty arrived at the same time as he entered mortal puberty. He hasn't age since the first time I met him."

"Well, that's quite awkward," she commented. "Usually situations like this call for some handsome-looking bastard who's evil, not some peach-fuzz growing snot-nosed kid."

"Nie jestem szczeniakiem! Mam ponad pięćset lat suko!"

"He said something rude, didn't he?"

I shook my head yes.

"Seriously? Is that a yes or a no?"

James stepped out of the kitchen holding a dropper bottle. "The only way he can understand us is because someone, probably the witch working for him, gave him an oral-dingua potion."

"Or he could have a phone with a translator app," I suggested. "His hussars pretty much had to use theirs when they showed up at the bar."

"He's not holding a phone in his hand," Carmen said after peeking out the peephole again.

I walked up to the door. Careful to not step on the sand, I looked through the peephole and there was the pasty kid standing on the other side. He wasn't that pale in real life but he loved to make himself appear whiter than white so any blood that landed on him stood out. And he had a severed head in his hand. And that was supposed to impress me.

"Jimi, I think that potion of yours might come in handy."

I took the bottle from James, placed a drop in each ear, then handed it off to Carmen. I was about to open the door but James stepped in front of me.

"Let me handle this." He picked up a dust pan and after saying a few words to Ramsay he opened the door. "Now that's just fucked up. As much as I hate that neighbour I wouldn't use decapitation. I'd cast a spell over him first."

"That's sounds a lot like what a da-" I was about to comment but, as usual, James cut me off.

"Let's get things straight, whelp. Lena is going nowhere with you. Whatever she has that you want she won't give it to you. Now take your crew and whoever came along with you back across the ocean. You can all go in once piece or I'll be glad to send you back in pieces."

"You kill me and you get a war." Lukasz flashed the head in front of him as he pointed. "You keep her here in this prison. She is not happy here. I will kill everyone in this castle for her if it means for you to release her. I demand you decide before this protection spell for crossing water wears off." Then he tilted his head just to make eye contact with me and said, "I have more heads waiting for you."

"I feel sick," Carmen groaned, "and I think you're on the losing end of this, Lena."

Indeed I was. While it was quite simple to fight Lukasz just me and James, Ramsay maybe, the ramifications would've been worse. Who else was still in the building besides us middle of the day? Donnie saved me from jail time already and I didn't want to face the legal system.

"Fine, I'll go with you, Lukasz, but on my terms."

"You're not serious, are you?" James turned around. "We can kill him and anyone who comes your way."

"Like Carmen said, I'm on the losing end of this. As much as I want his head on a platter, it'll have to wait."

James moved his head to the side. "The fucking whelp," he mumbled as he moved out of the way.

I walked up to the sand barrier. "There are certain conditions that have to be met before returning to the Homeland."

Lukasz sighed heavily, not amused at being called a whelp, but was calm knowing I was returning with him. "What are these, terms, you speak of?"

"I have things left in my apartment which I need to bring with me. I feel better if I retrieve them. And Carmen comes with me. She's not food though."

He scoffed. "Are you suggesting that the Mongoloid female is your familiar?"

Carmen looked at me and then at James. "Is this potion accurate at translating? I could have sworn he called me a Mongoloid."

"I heard Mongoloid too," James confirmed.

As offensive as it sounds, I played along too. "Yes, the Mongoloid female is my familiar."

"She does not grovel at your knees."

"That's because I don't treat her as a slave or a less superior being. Now if you do as much as harm her or not allow her to come with me, I won't go back. No severed head will make me happy, but if you wish to see me happy, I would like you to honour my terms."

He held the head in both of his hands, looked at it, then tossed it aside. "I accept your terms. Do not make this a plot for you to escape or I won't hesitate to kill your familiar."

"Fair enough."

Carmen wasn't too happy with the terms. "So if I decided to go for a pee along the way–"

"I'm ninety-nine percent sure he'll kill you."

She kicked the wall and proceeded to gather her stuff. "I sure hope we all don't end up dead or this guy's slaves."

Once we had all our things, James scooped up some sand and the barrier deactivated. "You two hang on, okay? I'll find a way to bail you out."

"Just don't take a whole year to find us, okay?" Carmen said as we left the condo unit. And thus began our journey back to the place I call the Homeland.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Fun translation notes (same user on here who did the Polish translation):

Ileano, już czas, byś do mnie dołączyła. Przyszedłem, by zabrać cię do królestwa (Ileana, it's time for you to join me. I came to take you to the kingdom.)

"Nie jestem szczeniakiem! Mam ponad pięćset lat suko!" (I'm not a whelp/puppy/kid. I'm over 500 years old, bitch!)

Who here was expecting that Lukasz was someone with abs? Show of hands anyone? Vampires can't always be beautiful despite their vanity obsessions.

Comments are greatly appreciated :)

Song featured: "You Don't Own Me" by Leslie Gore (someone did a cover of this for the Suicide Squad soundtrack if it sounds familiar).