The vampire and the mistress

Chapter 3

We all left together and headed down to the car together. Claire and Mara seemed close and seemed to leave Sarah and I to talk together.

"What is their problem?" I whispered, wondering if I'd maybe missed something.

"What do you mean?" Sarah seemed oblivious to what I was talking about, which made me mentally shake my head. Too innocent or just too ignorant, I wasn't sure which one it was.

"They just seem..." I broke off as if trying to pick the right word that wouldn't offend Sarah, as I knew how close she was to Mara and Claire. "Off?" I finally finished.

"They seem ok to me." Sarah shrugged a little, as if it were nothing, and made me think it was all in my head. Maybe they'd just had a bad day, and because it had been a while since I'd seen them, this is how they reacted, and I'd just forgotten because I was having a bad day too and because of how long it had been since I'd been able to hang out with them.

We got into the car, and the girls instantly started chattering with each other, and I honestly felt like a spare wheel.

"So, what brings you to our neck of the woods?" Claire muttered as she glanced at me in the mirror as she drove.

"I was just having a bad day, and I knew you were all free, and I just wanted to spend my day with you all and wanted to try and kick this mood of mine." I shrugged.

"I thought you'd be too busy with Lord Xander to remember us small people."

"Claire." Mara hissed at her.

"I'm sorry if I made you feel like that." I told her quietly.

"It's just... we thought you were the Lady of the house now..." Mara began.

"No." I laughed, wondering if both of us had gotten each other wrong. "No, I'm just the umm... Mistress." I muttered with a sigh. That had been something Xander and I had discussed pretty soon after we told the vampires about where we stood together. Xander had told me that I couldn't be his wife or the Lady of the house because I wasn't a vampire, and it went against all the rules. I honestly hadn't cared about being the Lady of the house; all I had wanted was the hope that one day I would be able to be his wife, but the night he'd told me that had been the night that I knew I'd never get to be that, so I'd just have to settle with being his forever mistress. I'd also meant to talk to the girls and tell them about what Xander had said, but I'd simply forgotten with so much going on.

"Mistress? I'm not sure if I'd appreciate that title in all honesty, but that's just me. Anyway, so is the Mistress allowed to cut loose tonight?" Mara had turned to look at me as she'd made her comment.

I shook my head a little and laughed. "Xander doesn't know, so what Xander doesn't know can't hurt him." I shrugged. I knew he'd find out because Marie was a snitch about the fact that I'd left, but neither of them could get the girls into trouble because he'd not know where I was or who I was with.

Mara and Sarah laughed quietly as they shook their heads, but I noticed Claire's hands on the wheel seemed to get whiter, as she must have been gripping the wheel tight at my comment. Just what was her problem?

"CINEMA!" Sarah shouted as Claire turned off the road and into the car park. "Made it in time." I couldn't help but laugh this time as I shook my head a little. Boy had I missed this chaos and randomness of my friends.

--- A couple of hours later --

We came out of the cinema, and Sarah, Claire, and Marie seemed to be slightly ahead of me as they talked about the movie. It had been a romantic movie we'd seen. I'd wished I'd known beforehand because, personally, I was done with romance after the last six months and everything that had happened. It wasn't that I wasn't in love with Xander anymore; it was more along the lines of I'd fallen out with romance after all the horror movie stuff I'd had to go through to get my almost fairytale ending. Even then, I knew it never would be the full fairytale ending for me because of my past and because Xander and I were totally different races.

"Come on, Rosa, we're going to grab a bite to eat at the pub that's nearby." Sarah turned and waited for me as the others walked ahead. "What's wrong?" Sarah nudged me lightly in the arm.

"I just get the feeling Claire doesn't want me here." I told her honestly.

"Claire's having a bad day, and I think she's pushing you away because she doesn't see you that much anymore, but I promise, it's nothing personal; we've all been on the receiving end of Claire's bad mood. She'll snap out of it, I promise, eventually."

"I hope so," I muttered quietly as I carried on walking with Sarah. I went into my pocket to find my phone, but it wasn't there. I bit my lip and then realized that when I'd got mad with Marie and Dorian, it must have slipped out of my pocket. I let out a small sigh, as I had been hoping to text Xander that I was ok and not to worry; after all, I didn't have a problem with him.

"She'll be fine, I promise. Come on, let's go." Sarah took my hand and led me inside to where Mara and Claire were sitting.

"What took you two so long? Had to check in with Prince Charming?" Claire asked. That had been the final straw; I'd had enough of the crap.

"Will you back off, Rosa, tonight?" Sarah snapped. "You're not the only one having a bad day, week, month, or whatever it is." Sarah looked at Claire warningly.

"Sorry," Claire muttered to me, but the apology didn't feel sincere in the slightest. I wasn't about to fight it out with her, not when Sarah had stepped in for me.

"Don't worry about it," I told her quietly, but I had a feeling that this wasn't the end of whatever was wrong with Claire. It felt like whatever was going on with her was directed at me, which was why Mara had looked over her shoulder at the house because she'd been worried about Claire's reaction to me.

"Now that you two are sorted out, let's eat. I'm starving." Sarah handed out the menus to us. I took one, not really wanting to eat after the outburst from Claire, but I knew for the sake of Sarah I had to eat. This was going to be a long meal. When the waiter came across, we all ordered our food.

After we'd ordered, the atmosphere grew heavy again. We all laughed, but I noticed the way that Claire would watch me a little suspiciously. I so badly wanted to drag her outside and ask what her problem was, but I knew that wouldn't help the situation at all.

"Excuse me," Sarah announced, as I just realised her phone was ringing. "Hello?" She asked. She went quiet and I looked over at her. "Ok." Sarah pulled the phone away from her ear and passed it over to me. "It's for you." She told me softly, I took the phone and raised it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hello, sweetie, may I inquire where you are?" It was the all-too-familiar voice of Xander that seemed to melt the anger in my chest that I'd been feeling.

"Give me one minute." I got up from the table and headed out to the front of the pub, passing some people who were smoking out in front of it. "I'm out with Sarah," I told him.

"I figured that out as I rang your phone and was surprised to find it in the library under a chair. I had to ask Glenda to give me the number for Sarah." I could hear the disappointment in his voice. "Both Marie and Dorian said they had no idea where you'd gone. I then asked why you'd leave on your own, especially after I asked you to stay put at home safe; however, neither of them told me anything."

Cowards. I let out a slow breath I'd been holding in. "It was a case of I left or my anger got the better of me." I decided to opt for. If they were going to twist the truth, then I sure as hell wasn't going to admit the truth either.

"Hmm, what's set this off? I know you too well, Rosa; you do not get angry on that level without a good reason."

"It doesn't matter; I thought you weren't coming home for a little yet."

"I thought I'd surprise you after our little chat earlier, so imagine my shock when I get home to find you not here. Now, what has set this anger off? If you do not tell me, then I will get it out of Marie or Dorian."

I let out a sigh of frustration. "It's been all little things, and tonight it was enough to just trigger me if you will."

"Tell me."

"You were away for so long; I was stuck in the house for all this time going stair crazy, Marie getting mad at me for earlier, Marie telling me I could pick the subject, and yet when I asked her to tell me about something, she point blank refused, and Dorian backed her up, and Dorian never spoke up when he knew that it was you who said to let me sleep in." I had no clue if I felt better after getting that off my chest or not.

"Ah, I see. How about you enjoy the rest of the night with your friends, and when you get back, we talk about it?" I could hear that Xander was doing his best to negotiate in the situation he was in.

"Ok," I whispered as I looked up to see Sarah coming out. "You're not mad at me?"

"You know my view on that, Rosa. You are your own person to make your own choices; I cannot make those choices for you. I am more upset that you never had your phone on you."

"I'm sorry." I muttered as I lowered my eyes.

"It's fine; you're ok and safe, and that is all that matters, sweetie. Will you be back any time soon?"

"We're waiting for food."

"Food's here." Sarah corrected.

"Then enjoy yourself, and I will see you when you get home."

"Ok, I love you." I tried to keep my voice quiet, but I knew that Sarah would have heard the comment.

"I love you too, Rosa." I pulled away the phone, hung up, and then handed it back to Sarah. "I'm sorry that you got pulled into that."

"Don't worry about it. Everything ok?"

"Mmm, Xander came home early, he'd just wondered where I was." Sarah nodded at me as if saying she wasn't going to pry any more.

"Let's go and eat before the food gets cold." I walked in with Sarah and sat back in my chair. Not long ago, I'd not have wanted to go back to the house, but now I wanted to go back. I didn't want to stay in the company I was in; I wanted to go back to Xander and make my apologies to him for my bratty outburst as I realized I was behaving just like Claire towards Xander, and I knew he didn't deserve that from me of all people. As I picked up my sandwich, I prayed that the meal was over pretty quickly so I could go home. That was all I wanted more than anything in that moment.