I opened my mouth then closed it. Everest wasn’t around to answer that question for me, so I had to go with my gut. And my gut told me to be honest. One, because I was likely to mess up being a vampire anyway. But two, I remembered Katelin from the future, and something told me she was one of the vampires Everest’s crew said were against Sweyn.

Katelin stepped closer then glanced left and right. Then she leaned in and whispered, “Is this new for you?”

I nodded. “Hoy.” I grimaced. That was not an obvious sound for the word today. So, I pointed to the ground.

Her eyes widened. “Today?”

I nodded.

She exhaled roughly. “Big day for you.”

I threw my hands up. You have no idea.

“Right. So, we cannot withstand the sunlight. It will burn you to ash in minutes, so our quarters are underground. Now you should know, a vampire’s eye color will tell you a lot about them. If they were born a vampire, they will look like mine—-red and white. I am the youngest born vampire here right now, the rest of them are centuries old and will feel strange to you. They are colder and lack most human-like qualities. When a human is turned into a vampire, they retain their eye color but get a red ring around them.” She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to me then pointed to my eyes. “Yours are a pretty dark green with red, in case you have not seen them yet.”

My eyes widened. I had not seen them yet. The hall was dark underground, with very few torches, but I suspected vampire-heightened sense of vision did not require much light. Unfortunately, I was not given those senses just a superficial disguise. I’d counted the fourth torch when she finally stopped and opened a wooden door. With it standing wide open, she hurried in and lit a couple candles. I stepped inside and was actually relieved to find the room small and quaint, albeit a bit cold. There was a decent sized bed covered with a wool blanket and another fur one. On the other corner sat a set of wooden chairs and a small table where one of the candles sat.