A few minutes later, the vampire—who told me that his name was Jajaras—and I stepped out of the Shadow Way into the hallway of an unfamiliar building. It was a fairly wide hallway, with old red carpeting along the stone floor. Portions of the walls were slightly darker than others, which seemed to be where old paintings had once hung. It reminded me of stereotypical European castle interiors, except there were no lights or torches by which to see. Not that I needed them, of course, being a half-vampire and all, but it still felt kind of strange anyway.
“Here we are,” said Jajaras, gesturing at the hallway. “This is our master’s base, Castle Rook. It is located in Central Europe.”
“Europe?” I said. “You mean we’re not in America anymore?”
“Why does that surprise you?” said Jajaras. “The
