The Vampire Prince's Beloved

Strangers

"You are nervous, right?" asked a young handsome man sitting with Angela at the back seat of the car that was driving them.

Angela, who had been staring at her reflection on her phone screen deep in thoughts, turned her face towards him. His eyes were fixed on her.

"Well," Angela started. "I am more of confused than nervous."

The young man didn't say another word. Angela rested her head on the chair gently and drifted back into thoughts. She had been previously occupied with the thoughts of Dan, her husband and Ella, her best friend. She knew how terribly downcast they would be after the execution.

She had thought of calling them via phone call but it wouldn't be a good idea. Apart from the fact that she wasn't in the best place to make such a call, she couldn't call any of them and tell them that she was Lily trapped in another body.

"Why?" the young man's voice came interrupting her thoughts yet again.

"Uhn?"

"Why are you confused?" he clarified his question. His eyes were steady and his voice was calm.

Angela looked at him not sure if he wanted to know. His face was expressionless and not easy to read.

"I don't know," Angela said. "Everything is just happening so fast."

A chuckle left the young man's lips and he said, "You would be fine. Everything would be back to normal soon."

Angela sighed not knowing what to say in reply to that. He didn't understand her predicaments and she couldn't explain to him because she also didn't understand what had happened to her.

"I hope so . . ." she finally said.

The car drove past a long fence surroundings a large piece of land with a mansion visible some distance away from the fence. The driver kept driving and then got to the gate. The gate opened immediately they got infront of it and the driver drove in. There were two men who stood behind the gate to man it.

"Yup! Here we are," the young man said when they drove in. Angela let her eyes feed on the beautiful surroundings.

The ground from the gate was covered in pavers and it continued down forming a drive way to the mansion.There was a huge square-shaped lawn at the middle of the floor in front of the mansion with three equally spaced fountains at the midst of the lawn.

To the left of the driveway from the gate also had another huge lawn with well-trimmed flowers grown at strategic places to beautiful the lawn. Something of similar design was replicated by the right of the fountains and after another drive way.

The car came to a halt close to the building and the two body guards at the front seat came out of the car. One of them opened the back door for the young man to come out. Angela almost expected them to open her door for her but she remembered that she was no longer the person she was so she opened her door herself and came out.

The young man's phone rang and he picked up the call.

"Hello, Frednard," he said and started to walk towards the mansion.

"Excuse me!" Angela called his attention and stopped to look back at her. The phone was still held to his ear by his hand. "I didn't get your name." Angela said.

The young man eyed her from the head to her shoes, scoffed and turned. "Yes, big bro. Sorry about that," he continued his phone conversation proceeding to the main entrance of the house. "Mum said it should should be a surprise . . ."

Angela stared at him as he walked towards the door of the house. She felt embarrassed on how he just laughed and walked away. It was her fault to have expected that they could be friends just because of a little conversation they had in the car.

"Why are you still standing here?! Move it!" one of the guards that opened the back door of the car for the young man, spat in a stern tone.

Lily had only spent a few hours being Angela and she wasn't enjoying the life one bit. She was been bossed around by everyone and she did not like that. She had never experienced such treatment since she was born. Everyone had always pampered her and treated her like a princess since they day she was born till she grew up. The way she was not being treated like a trash, was not going down well with her. Would it not had not been better that she died after the execution than to face the continuous humiliation of her person?

She got to the door of the mansion which was a wide storey building duplex with other shorter buildings attached to the side. There were equally two men guarding the entrance of the building just like those at the gate. There were also other guards positioned at various points in the compound and she could tell that they were more guards on stand by than the ones around the compound.

Angela opened the door herself, not making another mistake of expecting them to open it for her like they opened opened it for the young man. As she walked into the common area, she met the young man seated on a white three seater sofa chair concluding his phone call.

"Have your seat. The one who invited you is coming," the young man said to Angela, after ending his phone call.

Angela came to the sofa chair where the young man sat and wanted to have her seat.

"Over there," the young man stopped her, pointing to a similar chair opposite to where he sat. His voice was firm and he looked irritated that Angela wanted to sit on the same sofa with him.

She sat where she was directed to and waited for "who invited her" to appear. She used the opportunity to get a grasp of her environment as she waited.

There was a mini swimming pool not too far to the right of where she sat. Beside the pool was six wooden chairs rallied around a rectangular wooden table. The wood used the form both the table and the frame work of the chairs were solely mahogany. By the type of items some maids and men servants were bringing in from a door and placing on the table, Angela knew that was the dining. She had lived in luxury all her life but she couldn't deny that the owner of that house were much more luxurious and wealthier.

"Mum, you are out already," the young man's voice stopped Angela's eyes from touring further. He was looking a person behind Angela

She followed his eyes, turned and beheld a woman coming to where they sat. The young man had called the woman his mum but she looked younger than what Angela was expecting. Her head was held high, her face was straight and her eyes were commanding. Her short deep black wavy hair were neatly styled to the back. She had a brown button-up dress on her body and a necklace with a red diamond around her neck.

She took her steps gently and confidently as she came to where the young man and Angela sat. Her aura was louder and more ntimidating than that of Frednard who Angela had met at the hospital. The young man was already on his feet and Angela had intelligently done likewise.

The woman stretched forth her right hand towards the young man and he bent to kiss a diamond ring she had on her pointing finger. Angela noticed that the diamond on the finger ring and that of the pendent were the same. After the young man had kissed the ring, he pecked her by the both sides of the cheeks.

"Mum, I have brought your GUEST as you had requested," the young man said with a scornful chuckle. The way he emphasised the word "guest" in his sentence showed that he was being sarcastic.

Angela's face sighed in disgust of his behavior. She was beginning to find him annoying exactly how she found Frednard's bodyguard to be annoying.

The woman turned to Angela and stared at her for a moment. Her eyes were piercing and her gaze was too strong to behold. Angela's eyes automatically fell to the ground which seem most comfortable to look at that moment.

"What is your name?" the woman's voice sounded and it came with chills. Her voice was deep and authoritative.

"Li – An – Angela," Angela stuttered. She was disappointed how her voice came out. The woman's personality threw her off balance. She used to be the C.E.O of a huge textile company while she was still Lily and she had met with a lot of high class people but this woman was strangely intimidating.

"Do you remember me?" the woman asked.

Angela stumbled on the reply to give to her. She didn't know if the woman was someone who the former occupant of the body was supposed to remember. A thousand thoughts began to rush through her mind. Did the former occupant of her new body get into some trouble with this woman? What kind of trouble could that be? Did she steal from her?

"No, ma'am," she said in an unstable voice. All her efforts to make her voice come out straight had failed terribly.

"Really?" the woman's voice pieced again.

Angela's heart began to pound as various scary questions came to her head. Though her eyes were still fixed to the ground, she could still feel the woman's scary gaze fixed on her waiting for an answer. The house was well air-conditioned but sweat began to build up on her forehead. Was she going to be beaten up? But she didn't know a thing about what had happened in the past. Why had life chosen to be punishing her for things she was innocent of?

As Angela quaked in fearful thoughts, the door of the main entrance opened. She lifted up her eyes to the enterance along side every other person there. It was Frednard and his annoying righthand man, Mac. She felt so relieved to see them. She never had thought for once that she would ever embrace s*****y but at that moment she was grateful that her master had come to take her out of that hostile environment.

"Frednard, I see you came," the woman said.

"Mum," Frednard said and Angela's mouth fell open in shock