The only question that Natalia had in her mind at that time was why there were humans in a vampire's place and over that all alive and by the look of it, they all seem close to each other.
Until now she has seen only two types of vampires, first, the one who came here for humans to smuggle them into Orleans to get some penny, and the second ones who just want to live.
For once she was confused about whether this old man is an actual vampire or she just mistook him for one, how is he helping others when he is the one who is in dire need of help?
But on the other hand, she just passed through an invisible shield and saw some frozen human on the door and she felt his aura too. He was a vamp for sure.
Everything aside, now she was only concerned about the humans in the house, if he isn't the person he showed himself to be then he must be keeping all these humans as his blood reserve.
She went in with him, all the children gathered around him as he entered the room.
"Grandpa! you came"
"Grandpa came with a guest"
"Grandpa! who's that person with you"
He put down the kids he was carrying earlier.
"Kids say hi to the big sister."
"Hello!"
All the kids said in unison and welcomed her warmly.
"Now I have to talk about something with our guest, so I will go with her first and then come back to play with you all"
"Please make sure that no one disturbs us", the old man asked a lady in the room.
The lady nodded her head, "This way please."
The old man took her outside the room in his garden.
"Who are you? Why are there so many humans in your house?", Natalia asked as soon as the old man closed the window from where they entered.
"I will explain everything to you.", the old man said with poise.
"Everything"
The old man knew what she meant by everything, besides the humans in the house, she wanted to ask about the ones who are frozen but alive and lastly how things ended up like this for him.
"I won't tell everything in detail but will explain briefly. I am the sole guardian those kids and women have, they have their own stories about how they ended up here. I know what you are afraid of, I won't suck them. And those who you saw outside, deserve to be there, I only use them to quench my blood thirst. They are paying for their crimes."
"How can you decide what they deserve.", Natalia said in an offended way.
"You know what my special power is, I can see a glimpse of a person's life. Do you want to know what I see in your life?"
Natalia didn't say anything as she didn't know whether she wanted to know it or not. She remains silent bewildered in her thoughts.
"You are living happily here for now, but soon you have to return where you belong to."
"Where I belong to, whether here or there, I am just in between the two. I have no place to return to."
"That's good. I thought you will resent them."
"I used to, but now I won't neither I want to. I do not want to have such memories.", she said calmly.
"You do not have to remember any bad ones but you should keep the good ones in your heart."
"I barely have any memory, I want with myself forever.", she said looking at nowhere with a gloomy expression on her face.
"Then only keep those, no need to look for more. And everyone has a place they belong to and wanted to return to", the old man said with a slight smile on his face.
To stop him from talking about her she tried to change the topic.
"Do you and those in, know where they belong to and where they should return?"
"For me, I belong to the place where I was born and soon will go there. As for the place I should return to is here. I promised them, that I will protect them, and if there is an afterlife I would like to come back here.", his face was shining with the orange sun rays falling on his pale skin.
Natalia was completely mesmerized by his words.
"I know what you do. So just take me with you from here."
"You must've known about this too."
"I do, thus I celebrated my farewell already here."
"By the look of it, it doesn't seem that you are planning on returning."
He just smiled at her words and said, "Do I? I do want to but I don't know if I would or not."
"You should but next time legally. It's your time to return now.", Although Natalia did seem a bit concerned about him yet she also knew that she has to send him back.
"Let's go then, I will not waste much of your time."
"I don't understand one thing, why those people are here?"
"They came to me asking for help and I did, I asked them for something in exchange too."
"What was that?", for the first time for a few seconds she saw a dark, killing expression on his face.
"That's past. Just remember one has to always return where he came from and the same goes for you", the dark vibe suddenly changed into a joyful one.
After that Natalia didn't ask him anything further, thinking him to be a lunatic.
"It's time for you to return for now."
"Good Bye!"
With her last words to him, he captured him and transformed him into his bat form, and took him to send him to Orleans.
When she opened the window and entered back into the room, she saw all kids focusing their eyes on him. For a second she got shocked.
"Yo... Your grandpa will come back soon, jus..."
"We know he is in a better place now.", the kid from before told him.
"Thank you for taking him to a better place", another kid elder than the last one spoke.
These words from the children remained engraved in her memory for a few days.