The vampire and the mistress

Chapter 11.2

Xander P.O.V

I sat and thought about Dorian's words and his warning for a moment or two and then got up. I couldn't just sit by idiolly and do nothing and I couldn't tell Rosa the truth either. I'd seen her come for far in the time we'd been together and I saw the weight she carried on her back with Lucian and now Liam, I certainly didn't want to add another needless weight on to her, so I decided to go to the only other person I could turn to for help. As much as I didn't like the idea, I didn't know who else to turn to.

I grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair and left my office and decided to go there by running instead of traveling by car. I just wanted tonight to be a simple there and back trip so I could get home and go curl up next to Rosa to let her know how much I loved her and how much she meant to me, even if I'd been bad at showing her it recently with everything that had been going on.

I ran through the woodlands as my feet just seemed to know the route. As I ran I began to think back on what Dorian had said. You can't keep her in the dark. I knew I couldn't do it, I just needed to buy a little time. I needed to buy enough time to find Liam and find out what he wanted with Rosa and keep her in the dark until I killed him then I'd come clean. That had been the plan, but I knew Rosa would hate me for it as she'd made me promise to keep away from Liam because she'd wanted to deal with him.

I understood her thoughts on that one. The whole Lucian thing I had wanted to deal with personally as he'd sunk low even for him to get his place in Mirror's Edge quicker. I wasn't the type of vampire that just allowed stuff like that to happen to me without someone paying for what they'd done to me and I knew his time would come, I just had to be patient, I knew that but it was hard knowing who his target was as I wanted to protect her at all costs.

Why can't you just turn me vampire Xander? It would save a lot of trouble and it would mean Lucian wouldn't be able to fight me. I stopped for a moment as the memory of Rosa asking me that all those months ago threw me. I'd told her the night we'd discussed it that she'd be too unstable to fight Lucian on an even footing and I'd told her that Lucian would have experience while she had none, but that had been far from the truth. The truth had been that I didn't have the heart to end her barely even lived human life. Rosa was still young and there was so much I wanted her to see. She'd had a bad human life and I wanted to make it up to her for everything she'd missed out on. I wanted to take her traveling around the world to see vampires I knew in other countries. I wanted her to see things she'd never dreamed she'd see. I wanted to give her the world. I knew I could do all these things with her as a vampire, but I just simply couldn't allow myself to end that beautiful beating heart of hers. I lowered my head and looked down at the pitch black ground as I balled my hands up.

Maybe it is best we turn her. Then at least you won't have to worry about her as much as you do, she'd be able to hold her own.

"Because I took too many lives when I was living with him because I could. I swore after I turned Dorian, I'd never turn another person and I certainly won't turn her unless my choices are her perminate death or this life for her." I muttered to no one but myself.

"Talking to yourself child?" An all too familiar voice asked from behind one tree. He stepped around and I saw him stood in front of me. The person I'd come to see in hopes of getting some type of answer out of him. "First sign of madness you know." He laughed quietly to himself and I bowed.

"I'm sorry Master. I was too wrapped up in my thoughts that I wasn't paying attention to what was going on around me."

"I noticed. You better come inside." I stood upright and looked at my master, the vampire king. He turned his back to me and walked ahead a little and I knew that was a sign of to follow him. I really hadn't wanted to, but I had no one else to turn to as I'd exhausted all my other options. Silently I followed behind him as we walked into his small tea room that was in the gardens of his human house. I remembered being a new born vampire and visiting the house. I'd spent a lot of time alone in the tea house as it had been my calming space.

When I got to the door I slipped off my shoes and then walked inside and looked around. Nothing had changed at all. The paintings of the cherry blossoms were still on the wall and the wooden floor still looked brand new, the only change was there was a new table in the middle of the room that had a bonsai tree in the middle. I walked around the room a little as my Master went and sat at the table in the middle of the room. I got to a corner where I found the scratch marks I'd made into the wall when I'd been a new vampire.

"I never had the heart to change this place after you left. Of course I had to change the table after your last tempertantrum here." He laughed quietly. "Yes, your scratch marks are still on the wall too that you did as a new vampire when you thought you were dying of thirst." I looked over and saw him shaking his head. "Always the drama queen you were."

I clenched my fist into a ball at his comment and then relaxed. "So what brings you to my home Xander. You never visit me and you never ask me for anything, so it must be serious." I walked back to the table and then sat down opposite him.

"I want to make this as fast as possible as I want to return home to..."

"Your beloved little assassin woman. Rosa." He finished as he looked up at me with a knowing look. "Tell me Xander, how is the war against your brother going? Is it all playing out how you intended or is your little assassin woman regretting her choice to not work for me?"

"Rosa doesn't know I'm here." I lowered my head in shame. I'd found myself in Rosa's position a few months ago. I was the one keeping secrets from her.

"But your here because you want something and you want to protect her."

"Please Master Viktor." I told him quietly. "Does it matter my reasoning behind why I am here?"

"It does Xander. I want to hear it out of your mouth that you are in over your head with your brother."

"Do you really think I can't handle Lucian?" I couldn't help but laugh as I shook my head looking at him.

"That attitude is the reason why I chose you as my first born Xander. The fact that you don't know when your beat, but you'll go down in flames if it means you can prove a point and if it means you can tell everyone to go and get fucked." Viktor laughed. "So has Lucian yet made his move in this game of chess between you both. You do know he is coming for your queen right?"

"I do and he won't get close enough to my queen as I'll kill him first."

"That's not how chess works Xander. I thought I explained this long ago to you. The queen will protect you. Your mate will protect you and have your back through everything regardless."

"What do you know about where Lucian is?" I asked deciding I'd had enough of listening to his chess rants.

"Is Rosa deciding to enter my service or are you willing to turn her and allow her to enter my service?"

"No." I told him simply as I knew he'd tell me nothing. If I wanted to know where Lucian was to take the fight to him, then I'd have to pay the price and Lucian certainly wasn't worth the price Viktor was asking. "I see this is a pointless conversation." I went and got up and bowed to my Master. "I am sorry to have disturbed you."

"Have you heard from Helena?" His question caught me off guard as I looked at Viktor again.

"No, why?"

"You are better putting your focus on to her rather than your brother. Your brother will come out of his little hole when he is ready to strike, however Helena is the one you should be worried about and the one you should be hunting. She is the one who will cause you trouble."

"What makes you say that?"

"I told you all those months ago when you came to me to tell me your intention of marrying that w***e. She will do nothing but f**k your life up Xander and if you are not careful, she will do just that because she can. I told you to keep away as you two are not good for each other."

"Yet you were going to allow me to marry her."

"I knew you'd not go through with it. I also heard you'd found your mate so you certainly wouldn't have done that to Rosa would you?"

"No and why are you telling me this?" I could feel the tension in me begin to coil tighter.

"I'm warning you because I've heard her name dropped in with another name. A human male called Liam."

"Not the first time I've heard that name today." I muttered. If I'd been honest it wasn't the first time this week I'd heard Liam's dropped and the more I asked questions the more I found his name coming up and I certainly didn't like it and it began to make me worry what this all meant for Rosa. "I should go. I need to be home with Rosa after hearing you say that."

"My offer is still open to her Xander. She'd be an asset to me. I'll keep her safe from them all and she would still be yours."

"No." I told him sharpish. "Rosa made her choice that night at the party. I am not going against her choice as much as I know you'd keep your word. She doesn't want to live that life anymore. She wants to try and enjoy her human life and I will do everything in my power to keep her safe."

"If you find it gets too much, the offer is there." Viktor grinned as if he knew something. "Have a safe journey home Xander and I look forward to our next conversation."

That'll be when hell freezes over and the devil is allowed to assend to hell. I bowed my head and headed out the tea room and put my shoes back on the ran home. I needed to get home and check on Rosa. I needed to find Liam and fast as it felt like time certainly wasn't on my side no more despite being an immortal.