The vampire and the mistress

Chapter 11

I'd made my coffee as I was bombarded with questions from a vampire, but I'd politely told them that Xander was expecting my return to the library, so I got away without having to answer even more. When I was back in the library, I sat in my chair and curled up in it with the cup in my hand.

"Just tell me why you want to know Rosa." Xander tilted his head to the side to look at me, as if deciding what he was planning on telling me.

"I just want to understand what happened." I told him simply. "I just want to try and figure things out. Marie made it known that it was important to know everything, yet she wouldn't tell me about the biggest thing that happened."

"Ok." Xander answered. "What do you remember from that night?"

"I was out in the garden and then there was a loud c***k like glass shattering and then it started to snow, or that was what I thought it was until some landed in my hand and I realised that it was actually ash. That was all I could remember. I asked Liam about it..."

"Anything else?"

"Then the vampires and werewolves and the strange things." I took a sip of my coffee to warm myself up, as I hated remembering the madness that came; it had made me feel frozen to my very core.

"Ok, so let's start with the loud c***k. You were right when you said it sounded like glass. That was the barrier between here and Mirror's Edge."

"Mirror's Edge?" I asked in confusion as to what he meant.

"We'll get there, just give me a moment." I nodded as I listened to him. "When the barrier broke, that meant that everything that was sealed under the city of Mirror's Edge was released, and they came into the rest of the world, if you want to think of it like that. The ash was also part of the sign that the barrier was broken. The ash was also caused by the demons getting free, so those creatures were demons."

"I didn't think..."

"Demons are real? Well, if I'm real and so are werewolves, then so are demons, witches, warlocks, and lots of other creatures." Xander leant forward, took my hand lightly, and gently stroked it.

"Makes sense." I muttered. "So what is Mirror's Edge?" I asked, my head still full of questions.

"Mirror's Edge was a sanctuary built by us for us." Xander told me. "Humans can't get in, unless they are gifted or... well, let's not go into that." Xander laughed. "You could say it is our city. That is the real home of my Master, the vampire king. He lives in the city as it is well protected."

"So the barrier..." I wasn't sure where my thought was going with my statement, as there had been several questions I'd wanted to ask, but I couldn't work out which one was more important.

"The barrier is what kept the humans out and the demons in." Xander leaned back in his chair as I took another sip of my coffee, and Xander tapped his chin with his finger as if thinking about how to explain whatever he was thinking.

"So you said the demons lived there as well. They lived under the city?"

"It wasn't by choice that they lived there." Xander looked at me. "Think of Mirror's Edge as a big square, and the middle of the square is a circle. The square is divided up into quaters. Each quadrant belongs to a different creature. So the vampires have a quater, werewolves have a quater, witches and warlocks have a quater, and things that live in forests, like the fey, have a quater. Are you still with me?"

"Mmhmm, but what about the circle?" I asked.

"That is where the council all meet; that space is our elders space. So my Master will go and have council with the Alpha, the High Priestess, and the Fairy King and Queen, but under their meeting space is where the demons are sealed."

"So how did the demons get there?" I asked, confused but keeping up.

"The hunters." Xander told me simply: "They have special demon blades that banish them there, so they can't escape." I drank my coffee as I began to have more questions than answers about what Xander was telling me. "And just so you know, they aren't called hunters; that was simply the easiest way to explain it to you." Xander laughed. "And I don't recommend calling them that to their face. I mean, some of them are ok being called that, but some aren't."

I nodded again as I wondered just why they all felt the need to protect me from a secret city.

"Why were Dorian and Marie so worried about telling me about that?" I looked at Xander in confusion.

"It's not so much that they were worried about telling you that as they were worried about the rest of the story I found out."

"What did you find out?" I asked, looking at Xander. I looked at Xander, seeing worry cross his face again. "Xander, you promised me."

"I know..." He went to speak when his phone rang, and he answered it. "Hello?"

I sat looking at Xander as if telling him I wasn't going anywhere until he told me the rest of the story. I got the feeling that the rest of the story involved me, and I didn't like that. What have I done?

"Give me a minute." He took the phone away from his ear and looked at me. "Rosa, I'm going to be a little while. Why don't you go up to bed? We can finish this conversation off later."

"Sure." I muttered as I finished the last of my coffee and put the cup on the side table next to the chair. "Good night." I muttered as I got up and walked out of the library. I went up the stairs to my room and hovered around it for a moment until I went back to the box I'd put the charm in and took it out. It seemed like I wanted answers, and Xander was only going to give me half-arsed answers to protect me from whatever secret he'd found out, so I'd get my answers another way.

I held on to the charm tightly and then went up to Dorian's room and knocked.

"Come in, Rosa." I heard him call, so I walked in, shut the door, and looked at Dorian. "What's wrong?" He was a little tense.

"I was told if I want to know the truth, I should bring this to you." Dorian turned around in his chair and looked at me as I took a couple of steps toward him and showed him the charm in my hand.

"Where did you get that?" I noticed his face darkening a little.

"A woman with ice blue eyes gave me it at the market today. She knew my name, she knew what I was to Xander, and she knew I knew you." Dorian took the charm from my hand, looked at it for a moment, and then dropped it back into my hand.

"Of course she does." Dorian sighed as he pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why this Cordelia? Why interfere in this?" He muttered.

"Cordelia? So you do know her?"

"Of course I do." Dorian muttered as he let out a slow, unnecessary breath and looked at me. "She was the high priestess of the witches and warlocks of Mirror's Edge, until they exiled her because they didn't like what she had to say."

"Why did she give me this?" I asked.

"Because as much as I love Cordelia, she's an interfering old bat that needs to keep her nose out of certain business, but she can't help herself." Dorian answered, leaning back in the chair and closing her eyes. "Like I said, I love Cordelia and her nieces to pieces, but Cordelia has a way of screwing everything up."

"And you think she's going to screw this up?"

"No, she's not going to screw this up; she's interfering in this." Dorian muttered. That's a big difference for Cordelia. Does Xander know you've seen her and spoken to her, and she gave you this?"

"No... I..."

"Kept it a secret from him..." Dorian let out a slow sigh and shook his head as he said something in another language. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd sworn. "Secrets cause trouble, Rosa; you of all people know that."

"I know it's just..."

"It doesn't matter; I don't want to hear the rest of that sentence. So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to take me to her." I told him simply.

"What did she promise you?" Dorian moved in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. "Everything comes with a price with that woman, Rosa, and what she has to tell you isn't always worth the price."

"She told me she'd tell me the truth of what I wanted to know."

"About what?" I couldn't look at him. "Ahhh, this all over again." Dorian nodded. "Rosa, you're going to destroy yourself." Dorian warned. "Do you want this, Rosa?" He asked simply.

"If you won't tell me," I told him softly.

"It's not that I won't tell you; it's more that I can't tell you. I made a promise, and I will stand by that promise to protect you. I don't agree fully with it, but I understand why it's necessary."

"Then I need to do this, if you are all keeping a secret about me."

"Then give me a few days to get this arranged." Dorian told me. "But know that you won't like it and know we all did this out of love to protect you from yourself Rosa." Dorian got up and walked to his window. "You should go. I need to sort all of this out."

"Thank you Dorian." I whispered.

"Don't thank me." He warned. I turned and left his room and headed back to my own room. I went and sat on my bed looking at the butterfly charm as I heard Dorian's words again. Don't thank me. What had I got myself into this time?