The vampire and the assassin

Chapter 10

The next morning I was shaken violently, which made me jump a little to find a worried face close to mine. "You sleep like the dead." The woman muttered as relief washed over her face, and she moved back. "You've got to wake up now or we'll be late and won't get the chance to have breakfast." I sat up, rubbing my eyes, confused for a moment about who the woman was. That was when memories came back to me of the previous night.

"Come on, Rosa, hurry up. Your uniform's already out, so the day housekeeper must have brought it in for you."

"Day... housekeeper?" My fuzzy, not yet woken-up brain could not keep up with this conversation

as I threw my legs over the side of the bed, stood up, and grabbed the uniform. I looked at it confused and then realized it was a black tunic dress with a white collar and a white band on each upper sleeve; there were no trousers. That was when the panic began to set in.

"Yeah, the ones who watch over the house when they are all asleep, and so are we. Then again, do vampires sleep? That's one question that's always bugged me since I started working here." Sarah seemed to shrug and then began to get herself sorted.

"Ummm, Sarah." I looked at her in hopes that there were some trousers or something I could wear over my legs. I wasn't very comfortable with my body being shown when it came to my scars. I knew that over time I'd learn to live with them, but at the moment, the memories of the scars were still too raw for me.

"What's wrong, Rosa?" She turned and looked at me, as I now realized she had her uniform on already and was in the middle of pinning up her hair. I really didn't like this one bit.

"Are there any trousers with this?" I asked hesitantly. Even though I'd asked, I felt like I already knew the answer to the question. If there had been any, I would have been given them.

"No..." I looked away, feeling a little on edge at the idea of showing off my legs; even in tights, I was not too fond of the idea. I still had a few cuts from Lucian's last tantrum that had been healing.

"Why is something wrong?" She looked at me, giving me her full attention now. I bit my lip out of nerves about how to explain it. How did someone tell someone else what had happened? I had no clue, but I had to tell her casually and in a way that kept quiet who my old master had been.

"It's just... my old master... Umm... I have bruises and cuts," I trailed off as I bit my lip out of worry again. I really hoped she didn't want more information about it, as I certainly wasn't in the mood to share the information with her.

"I have some leggings you can put on tonight, but we will have to let the night housekeeper know; otherwise, you could get in trouble. But I'll back you up and say I've seen how they upset you." She went rummaging through her drawers and then pulled out some leggings. "Now, hurry up, as you still need to get your hair pinned up." I took them from Sarah, thankful to have her here to help me through this. Maybe I could make one real friend while I was allowed to have something of a life before I threw it all away to kill Xander.

I rushed into the bathroom and got changed and dressed into my uniform, then ran out as I took the brush from Sarah, brushed my hair back into a ponytail, and took the bobble from Sarah and put it in place. It wasn't perfect, but then again, I hadn't really had the chance to practice much, all things considered.

"That'll do," Sarah muttered and dragged me as we both shoved our feet into our flat black shoes and headed down the stairs and into the noisy kitchen. Sarah dragged me through the crowd and managed to grab us some toast and fruit, then led us to where two women were standing.

"Hey." Sarah greeted with a grin as I stood next to her. "My new roommate here, this is Rosa."

"Hi," I muttered, taking the toast and banana from Sarah.

"Hey." The two women retorted and then looked at Sarah. "Did you hear about last night?"

Sarah shook her head as she bit into her toast, looking at the pair in confusion. I noticed there was a slight excitement about her. Was this what happened when there was gossip? I tried to remember, but one of the girl's next words caught my attention.

"Whispers that Lucian was here last night. One of the girls whose window looks over that view said that he came out looking a little happy with himself. So I don't know what's happened." I found it a little strange that they were gossiping about Lucian.

Sarah turned and looked at me. I guess she'd put two and two together as I quickly put the toast into my mouth, so I couldn't answer her if she started with any questions. She eyed me a little suspiciously when one of the girls spoke.

"Did you see anything last night, Rosa?" I felt the two extra pairs of eyes look at me.

I shook my head and quickly looked away, hoping someone, anyone, would come and rescue me. I just carried on eating as the three girls carried on talking with each other, and I let out a small sigh. This was going to be very hard. It had been so long since I'd interacted with humans that I was finding it pretty scary to be in a room full of them. Humans were so unpredictable; I knew because I was one of them and I knew what my own mind was like at the time. I knew vampires could be too, but they were also predictable in the same breath, as it was easy to lure them back on track to what you wanted when you had to.

"Come on, it's time to go. I'll introduce you to the girls properly later if we get a chance." I finished up my breakfast quickly and followed after Sarah, who had said her goodbyes to the two girls, and we'd gone in a different direction from them. "Stay close by me; otherwise, you might find yourself lost."

I nodded as I made sure that I was close to her; the last thing I wanted was to get lost going to wherever it was we were heading. I really didn't want to interact with more people than I had to.

As it turned out, if I hadn't kept close to Sarah, I would have found where I was going pretty quickly, considering there were other people going the same way and also that it seemed like I was going to the place that I'd come back from last night.

"We'll be sweeping, polishing, and dusting downstairs tonight. Just stay with me and you'll pick it up pretty quickly, I feel." Sarah smiled at me softly as we walked side by side. "So what was all that earlier? When the girls mention Lucian? I mean, you seemed like you weren't going to talk about whatever you saw last night."

"Lucian walked away like the cat that got the cream because he dropped me off here and Master took me in," I muttered quietly to Sarah. I hadn't really wanted to tell her, but I knew the conversation would come up again considering she seemed to be like a dog with a bone; she wouldn't leave it alone if she knew that you knew something. I hadn't spent that much time with Sarah, but I had found that about her, considering the way she'd been watching me and had brought it up to me.

"Oh... Rosa... That's why..." She stopped and looked at me, worried, and then grabbed my wrist as we fell behind a little with the group. "Is it true about him?" She whispered quietly as she glanced around, making sure no one was listening. "That he is awful?"

"Awful is too nice a word for him," I retorted. Look, Sarah, I'm sorry, but I'd rather not go over it all. I'm...I'm... I'm just really lucky to be here because Master took me in." I smiled at her in hopes that my words would sound genuine towards Xander and what he did for me last night because I really had been thankful for him taking me away from Lucian; I'd just wished that it hadn't been in the situation it had been.

"Oh..ok, umm... I understand, um... If you want to talk...."

"Thanks," I told her softly. I was really happy about the offer, but I had no plans to share what had happened in that house in the slightest. We both walked in silence until we went through a door, and everyone seemed to branch off in the right direction as if everyone knew what they were doing. I had no clue where I was going or anything, so I stuck with Sarah until we came to the hallway that I had known from last night.

"Here." She handed me a cloth and a spray. "Let's start with dusting, and then we'll sweep next." We both set to work polishing everything that was in the entranceway. I hadn't realized just how big it had been when I'd come in, but then again, I'd just wanted it over and done with, but I'd walked with my head down, not wanting to think about my fate. Now, here I was; fate had decided, and Xander would die because of that fate.