The vampire and the assassin

Chapter 12

To begin with, Dorian and I walked in silence together as I looked around the hallways. He took me down. I tried to remember the route in case I ever needed to go this way again, but I was fast forgetting the direction of the twisting and turning corridors. The house was not what I had expected at all. Part of me had expected that the decorations in the house would be very dark, not bright and modern at the very least. Dorian stopped, which made me stop and look at him.

"Is everything ok?" He asked me, as if he saw something on my face.

"Yeah," I answered as my heart began to race at being asked that. Dorian gave me a face that told me he could see through my lie, so I looked down. "No." I retorted. "Everything feels... a world different." I offered, as I was not really sure how to explain what I was feeling except on edge and nervous; however, I knew I was on edge because of what was at stake.

"Lucian's house is just the same, only a little bigger, I'd argue. Ok, his manners are nothing like Xander's." Dorian shrugged as if he wasn't bothered by my reaction to hearing Lucian's name.

"I don't know what Lucian's house looks like," I confessed. Dorian then scowled a little at me in confusion.

"I thought that's where you came from."

"I was Lucian's, but I didn't live in the house," I told Dorian as a cold shiver ran through my body. "I was more like a prisoner if you will." I offered hoping that it would explain everything to him or that he'd at least understand what I was talking about if he knew what Lucian was like.

"The old farmhouse..." Dorian nodded to himself as if it all made sense now. "Give Xander a chance," Dorian told me softly. "That's all I'm going to ask." I noticed how pity seemed to wash across his face. A small part of me began to get angry as I saw it. I didn't need him or anyone else feeling sorry for me; Xander was the one who needed the pity, and when they finally caught up to me and asked me why I'd done it, I would tell them because it was me or him. I mentally took a deep breath, reminding myself to play dumb and not to allow my feelings to get the better of me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, playing confused, but Dorian reached around me and opened a door to a library.

"Go and wait in there. He'll be along in the next few minutes." He winked, and before I even had the chance to ask anything, Dorian had ditched me. I let out a frustrated sigh and walked in, shutting the door behind me as I noticed a fire had burned in the fireplace. The fire lit the room a little and gave it a cozy glow. I certainly hadn't been expecting this.

The room was filled from top to bottom with books; there was no light in the room except for the glow of the fire. I walked around the rows of books, looking in awe at what they were. I got to the end of a row to find a set of stairs that went to the upper floor. I didn't go up and went back to stand near the fire as I looked at the books again. Were these all Xanders? I couldn't help but wonder if he'd collected them, which then made me wonder just how old he was. I shook my head a little to focus as I pulled a classic book from the shelf. I noticed from the spine of the book that it had been pretty well read.

"The great escape." Xander's words had taken me by surprise, as I hadn't heard him come in. I'd assumed it was because I'd been so busy looking at the books. I put the book back quickly as I blushed deeply, as if I'd been caught having a personal moment. I knew what the book was, and I'd also read it a few times in my life. It had been strange to consider that in the chaos and madness that was my life, when I had a little spare time, I'd enjoyed reading as my escape. When Liam had left me alone locked in the house, that's what I'd done very often.

"Please... Don't put it back on account of me." I turned to see Xander standing by the fire with his hands behind his back, watching me intently. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but not in an uncomfortable way.

"It's an amazing book," I told him softly as I looked at him and then lowered my head. "I'm sorry for snooping at your collection." I knew he'd complain about me lowering my head again, but I couldn't help it. One, it was just part of me from living in the two houses where I had to show I was the weak one, and two, I needed him to think of me as weak, and then when I went to kill him, it wouldn't be expected.

"It's fine." He laughed quietly. "Do you enjoy reading Rosetta?"

"I do when I am allowed to." I looked up at Xander to see a small frown crossed his face, and then he nodded as if he'd reminded himself of something.

Well, here, you can read whenever you want to. My library is always open for you."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." He went and sat in one of the chairs. "What were you doing in here anyway? I thought you still had work to do?"

I walked over and stood by the fire as Xander gestured for me to sit down, so I did. "Dorian came and got me and told me you wanted to talk to me now."

Xander laughed quietly, shaking his head a little. "I swear by the end of today I will be killing that vampire." He muttered. I knew the comment had been mostly to himself, but at that moment I hadn't been able to help myself.

"Is that even possible?" I asked curiously. "I mean another vampire killing another vampire?" I knew I had to add in the last part, as I didn't want him to be suspicious of me.

Xander looked at me, confused for a moment as to why I'd asked, and then shook his head. "Yes, very much possible. We don't do it very often, and I didn't mean I would actually kill him..."

"I know it was just a figure of speech, but your comment threw me and made me wonder," I answered honestly. "Sorry," I muttered. I frowned a little at myself. So much for not drawing attention to myself.

"No, it's fine." He retorted, shaking his head about something. "I'm pleased to see you've stayed. Or is it because you feel like you are obligated to stay here?"

At the comment, I lowered my head to look at the hem of the dress and began to fiddle with it. I didn't want to say what I was really thinking, which was that I was obligated to stay because I had to kill him, and even if I wasn't, I would still have stayed because I had nowhere else to go. I knew my family wouldn't want me anymore.

"How did you sleep last night?" I heard Xander reach for something, so I glanced up to find him reaching for a book. He put it up in front of his face. I figured that he did it for me, so I would look up at him. A small smile crossed my face at his action and also at the way he'd shifted the conversation away from where it had been going.

"I slept ok," I muttered as I looked down again at the hem. Small talk, I reminded myself. It's what humans did to fill an awkward gap in conversation; who knew vampires also did the same?

"I'm pleased; how did work go? I mean, when Dorian wasn't bothering you."

"It was good. Sarah, my roommate, is a good teacher, and she's patient with me."

"So she hasn't pressured you into telling her where you came from?"

"No," I mumbled. Even though she already knew, as she'd put two and two together, and I confirmed it to her tonight. I wondered if she was suspicious of me or if she really thought nothing of me.

"Glenda told me that she was worried about you, Rosetta." He lowered his book as I looked up at him. "She said you'd been hurt." He'd been building the conversation around this; that had been what all this had been about.

"It will heal," I told him quietly as I took a slow breath to stop myself from crying. I'd been hurt in the past, and I knew with time the cuts would heal and there would probably be more scars on my body.

"Are you sure you don't want the doctor to check you over?" I saw the way Xander looked at me, he was worried, and I could tell from the way he was pushing the conversation that he wasn't as convinced as I was about myself.

I shook my head. "Most of the scars are old ones from everything else before him." My mind seemed to wander back to Liam. I turned my head away quickly as if it would save me from what I knew had happened.

"Ok, do you want to talk about it?"

"No..." I was terrified of talking about it; I felt like if I did, I'd mess up and end up admitting what I was really doing there, and then Lucian would find out and end up killing me.

"Rosetta, it's no good keeping it all bottled up. All it will do is make you sick." I looked up to see Xander shift to the edge of his chair. "I can see you are hurting, and it is hurting me that I can't help you in some way."

I went to open my mouth to tell him that it was just all strange and that I was still scared and on edge when the door burst open. I saw a flash of annoyance cross Xander's face, and I quickly dropped my head.

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you. Dorian has been giving me nothing but the runarounds tonight." A shrill voice that was clearly annoyed. Just who was this, and who would dare interrupt Xander? I had no idea, but this would be the moment that I'd maybe, just maybe, see the real Xander.