She opened her eyes and looked at the man with the white hair. "What did you call me?"

"Eliza. That is your name," he replied with a small chuckle.

"No, it's not. It's Elizabeth. Now, where am I?"

"In a secret place."

"A secret place? That doesn't tell me anything," she started to panic inside, but the panic was pushed away by something stronger. Curiosity. "So, now what?"

"Come," Caleb stretched out a pale hand. "Take my hand and I will show you."

Against her better judgment, Elizabeth/Eliza, took his hand and was pulled gently into the air. His hands were surprisingly strong. As they flew, she realized that she was no longer wearing her pajamas. She was now clothed in leather, all leather. She wore a tight mini skirt that barely covered her, thigh-high leather boots with a medium heel, and a leather vest that showed more cleavage, and made her breasts look bigger than she would have thought possible. No… they ARE bigger, she realized. Damn, I must look hot, she mused to herself, smiling.

Elizabeth felt herself descending. She looked around as their feet touched the ground and saw a huge stone castle.

"Wait a minute. Where are we? I know there is nothing like this in Tennessee," she said.

"No, there is nothing like it in Tennessee," Caleb agreed. "We are in Scotland. A remote portion of it anyway. An island off the coast that does not exist to mortals. This is home," he waved his hand in the direction of the castle.

"Home? You live here?" she said incredulously. This could not be happening, this wasn't real. It couldn't be. It's all a dream, she told herself. Out loud she said, "Why are we here? Am I supposed to live here too? I already have a home, you know, in Tennessee."

"You are here for training. This is to be your home while you are training and as long as you like afterwards. The home you think you have in Tennessee is not your home while you are in this form." He spoke quickly and it took her a minute to digest what Caleb just said.

"What training?" she finally said, slowly.

"Eliza, do you know what you are?"

"Umm… well, not really. How 'bout you tell me. Tell me the what and the how. Tell me what the hell is going on. You said you'd tell me later. Well, this is late enough. I am not doing anything until you tell me." Her fear was getting the better of her. Not only was her fear taking over, but so was her anger. She didn't care how hot this guy was or how hot she looked in this body; if she didn't find out what was going on soon, she didn't want either of them.

"Come inside. I will tell you over our drinks. I am sure that you must be thirsty.' Strangely enough, she was thirsty, but she didn't want water, she wanted something else, she just didn't know what.

Elizabeth followed Caleb inside the castle. She was surprised at what the inside looked like. The outside looked old and dirty, magnificent, but old nonetheless. The inside, however, was quite the opposite. It had been completely remodeled. It was very modern with expensive furnishings. The floors were all white and black marble, the tables all dark wood, the other furniture was all glass and wood with white and black leather couches and chairs. Everything was white, black, or dark wood. All of it, that is, everything except for the hangings on the walls. These were pictures of sunrises and sunsets, a whole bunch of people, some of which even looked similar to Caleb or herself, and other pictures and paintings of many foreign places. The place was beautiful.

"Does anyone else live here with you?"

"No, it's just been me for a while not. I just had the place redone. Do you like it?" There was a tiny bit of what sounded like pride in his voice, almost as if he had done it all himself.

"It's beautiful. I love it!"

"I'm glad. Come, have a seat." He showed her to what she thought was the sitting room and motioned her to a chair while he went to a table in a corner and poured them both drinks. When he gave her her drink she noticed that it was a crimson color. It smelled sweet and when she tasted it, she found that it was indeed sweet.

"Now," Elizabeth set her drink down. "Tell me what is going on." She sat back and crossed her legs with her arms resting on the armrests. She looked like a dark queen. Caleb looked at her for a moment like he'd seen a ghost, but he quickly recovered.

"You are a vampire. You are one of our Guardians and our Queen. As an infant, you showed signs of great power and your true name is Eliza." Her eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open. She quickly recovered and started to speak, but he put up a hand to silence her. "Please, let me continue. This is a long story. It will take a few hours to get completely through it.

"Thousands of years ago, the first vampires were born. The population grew for a few hundred years, and then the Hunters came. Thus our Guardians were born. They were vampires, but they were different. They could sense when a person was a hunter, and rather than run and avoid them as the others would, the sought them out and killed them, protecting us. Contrary to popular belief, most vampires are not very violent. In fact, most of us are not in the stories, we hide. The stories come mostly from the Guardians. They are not as careful out in public as the rest, they tend to like to be noticed, and they think it attracts the hunters to them." Caleb chuckled and continued to tell her about the history of their race. Then, when he got to the present, he began to tell her the basics of how they lived.

"Now, you need to know some basics. The way this works, how we live, is as two parts: a human part and our vampire part. As the human part is awake, the vampire sleeps. The vampire has no control over when she sleeps, and by sleeping, I do not mean that you would suddenly fall asleep in mid-sentence, but you would simply vanish as your human-self wakes up. We are almost like…" he paused, searching for the right way to put it. "… like tangible dreams. The Hunters are the same way."