by T. S. Ryder
It made Rosa shiver despite herself.
"How about you tell me a little about yourself now?" he continued, smiling at her. "You're still young, why don't you have a home? A family to take care of you? Why…?"
Rosa cautiously tested sitting. To her relief, her stomach stayed where it was, nausea at bay. "Why what?"
"Why would you agree to being a Vampire's mistress? There are plenty of people out there who consider my kind to be the spawn on Satan, so what makes you so desperate to agree to lie with one? To bear my child?" His hand rested on her stomach, making her insides do strange things.
"I'm not like that," she responded, not moving in case he retracted his hand again. "Vampires are people just like the rest of us."
Angelus tilted his head to one side. "What about your family?"
"My father died when I was a little girl and my mother died two years ago." She turned her face away. "I have no family left."
It was true. Her stepfather didn't count as family. Technically, the house and property that her mother had owned was hers, but she didn't dare try to claim it, not when her stepfather's threats were still hanging over her head. Her mother had supposedly committed suicide, yet she was a devoted Catholic woman and full of faith. She would never have taken her own life. When Rosa told her stepfather that she was going to prove it, he had laughed at her. Then he told her that if she didn't butt out, he would have her arrested for murder.
He was a cop. All he'd have to say was that she had confessed and that would be the end of it. She had chosen to run before he could do anything worse to her than just threaten her.
"There's nothing else?" Angelus pressed gently.
She shook her head. He had no authority over her stepfather, so it was better to just forget about it. "Do you think you'll ever want me to be a Vampire?"
The King looked shocked for a moment. He shook his head. "Now is not the time to discuss that, Rosa. You need your rest."
"I'm not tired."
He reached across her and handed her the TV’s remote control. "I have to go. I'll see you tonight."
Rosa frowned after him, disappointment rising in her. Well, that was her answer. He didn't want her to be a Vampire. He had chosen her to be his mistress because it meant he wouldn't have to keep her forever. A sigh escaped her lips. Oh, well. That was life, wasn't it?
Chapter Four - Angelus
Angelus sighed, steepling his fingers as he surveyed the Vampire Morgan had brought to him. She was blonde and shapely with a power radiating from her that would have caused lesser Vampires to quake in their boots. Tall even for this time, she was a giant when she roamed the Earth as a living goddess, preying on the Norsemen who prayed to her for protection.
"Freya, you know quite well that the creation of new Vampires without my prior consent is forbidden. The only exception is a case where the human being turned is bonded to the Vampire and the near-death is an unexpected event."
The Vampire rolled her eyes, tossing her hair. "Your rules, not mine."
"I am the King."
"And I think that the humans have the right idea when it comes to democracy." Freya smiled sweetly. "It's not like I was making an army. No harm done."
"No harm except your victims are children, and you killed their parents! Vampire hatred is on the rise and actions like yours, slaughtering innocent people and stealing their children, are just making it worse. We need to live in harmony with humans."
Freya scoffed. "Always so concerned with what the humans think."
Angelus pursed his lips as he considered the woman. Freya had been giving him trouble ever since he refused to make her his Queen a hundred years ago. He really ought to have her killed before she started putting Vampire lives in more danger than she already had. Yet, since she had witnessed such history, he was reluctant to end her life. He turned to Morgan. Perhaps a more severe punishment would change her ways.
"Take her to the courtyard and nail her to a post."
Freya laughed, her eyes flashing. "Nail me to a post? What sort of punishment is that?"
"You will also shave her," Angelus added, his anger spiking. "Leave her golden hair at her feet. Three days of humiliation, and then she will be sealed in a coffin for a hundred years."
"You cannot be serious!" Freya's face paled. There was no worse fate for a Vampire than to be cut off from the world, unable to retreat into sleep or death, alone with their thoughts in the blackness.
Angelus stood, nodding at Morgan to deliver the sentence. He disliked using violence to get his point across, but when dealing with ancient vampires with no moral compass like Freya… sometimes it was necessary.
Distancing himself from the unpleasant situation, he headed for the library. Rosa was feeling better these days and they were studying the culture of ancient China together. She was so eager to learn, so receptive to all knowledge. It warmed his heart. He had made the right choice in the mother of his child. She hadn't spoken about the possibility of becoming a Vampire again, but it weighed on his mind. He would very much like to have her with him forever, but she would have to risk death first. That was a risk he didn't want to take.
Rosa wasn't in the library. Angelus frowned. She was never late to one of their study sessions, even when she was so sick that he had to carry her back to her room.
Angelus ran from the library, books rustling in his wake, and headed for her apartment. As soon as he entered her parlor he could smell her and his shoulders relaxed. He had feared something had happened to her… but she was here, safe. No harm done. Walking at a more human pace, he went to her bedroom.
She was laying under the blankets, her head hidden. Angelus heard soft sobs ripping through her body and his lungs seized. He wanted to rush over to her and find out what had happened and destroy whoever had harmed her. Yet, he made himself move slowly.
"Rosa? Are you okay?"
She flinched when he put a hand on her back even though the touch was indirect, buffeted by blankets. Angelus' eyes widened and he withdrew. She never recoiled from him, not even on that first night when he scraped his fangs along her collar. It had happened once when he first touched her, but she assured him it was because she wasn't expecting his skin to be so cold. What had happened that she was withdrawing from him now?
"Is it the baby? Are you hurt? Let me see you, Rosa."
She pulled the blankets tighter.
Did she think he would hurt her if she had miscarried? His heart felt like it might collapse at the idea, but he pushed aside his worries about the baby. Rosa came first: her health, her safety. Angelus gripped the blankets, peeling them down.
Her dark eyes shone with terror when he finally saw them. Terror of what?
"Tell me what happened. Please."
Rosa swallowed audibly. "You were late for our studying, so I went to see you. I heard you... Nailing a woman to a post…?"
Angelus blinked in surprise. "That's it?"
He had said the wrong thing. Rosa's eyes widened and she shifted away from him, trembling. Angelus shook his head. He couldn’t expect her to understand the Vampire ways or the history of infractions that Freya had committed to warrant such a punishment.
"That woman is a dangerous criminal."
Rosa's hands clutched the blanket as she nodded. She didn't believe him. It was clear as day that she thought he was making up excuses for what she saw as an act of barbarism. He sighed. He'd have to introduce her to the children Freya had turned, then. There was the slight risk that one or more of them were psychopaths, but even child Vampires were usually able to control their newfound desire to drink blood–unless they actually liked hurting people.
They had a long adjustment ahead of them, though. He shuddered, thinking about the other children Vampires he had met. Just imagining being an ancient being stuck in a body that was, for all intents and purposes, defenseless made him feel sick.
"I can see that you're still frightened," Angelus said, trying to be gentle. "We can talk about this later
. Freya deserves the pain she gets, and I hope I can help you understand why. I'll see you at supper."
Rosa disappeared back under the blankets. Repressing a sigh, Angelus left the room. He would give her some time and then try to explain his reasons. She was human, though, and despite the atrocities he had seen humans commit, her morals were fundamentally different from his. Maybe it was just because of the centuries between them. Humans these days were generally less violent than those in the days of yore.
He returned to his office and called Lucilia to join him. She looked grave when she entered, though Angelus ignored it, pacing from one end of the room to the other, deep in his own thoughts about Freya and Rosa.
"I want you to bring one of the children from Freya's… 'experiments' to Rosa's room. I don't want any talk about what Freya did to the child, just some interactions. She heard Freya's punishment and is horrified about it… I need to get her to understand, or else—"
"Uncle, you have bigger problems than whether your human girlfriend likes you or not."
Angelus turned on Lucilia. "Excuse me?"
"She'll come around. You just need to give her a little time to adjust to the differences between Vampires and humans."
"I will not be spoken to—"
Lucilia's eyes narrowed. "If she survives."
"What?" he snarled.
"I'm not threatening her," Lucilia replied. "But she is being threatened. I was sorting through the normal death threats that you receive and I found some directed towards Rosa. Somehow, the humans know that you have her here, Uncle. There was more than one letter declaring that they are going to kill her and the child. Some go into quite gruesome detail about it."
Angelus' vision tinged red, but he forced himself to stay calm. He always took threats seriously but never believed that they could actually hurt him. After all, he was a King, and he had more security than even the President of the United States. It wasn't as though the humans that hated him could just waltz into the palace and cut off his head. Even their silver bullets wouldn't kill him, though they did slow his natural healing abilities.
Yet, threats against Rosa were an entirely different matter. She was so fragile, so human. All it would take to end her was a knife. Less, even. She could be killed by a man's bare hands. He couldn’t just tell her that her life was in danger. She would be even more terrified than she already was, and that wasn't good for the baby.
"Contact the human authorities. We will have to work with them on this." Angelus considered for a moment. "Tell Morgan to double security around the palace and have the sniffers take a look at the letters. I want those people threatening my Rosa to be hunted down. They will not get away with this."
Lucilia nodded, bowed, and backed out of the room. Angelus moved to the window, struggling to keep himself under control. If he let his anger get the best of him, he would end up in bloodlust. If that happened, what he had done to Freya would seem merciful as opposed to what he would do to anyone who threatened Rosa and his child.
Chapter Five - Rosa
He was just like that. Charming and friendly one moment, harsh and cruel the next.
Rosa submerged herself in the lukewarm bathwater filling the old copper tub. Odd that a place with so much luxury would still have one of these old things, but then it did add to the charm of her apartment. Everything had an ancient grace to it, albeit usually with a modern twist. It was just like Angelus: fashionable, unique, very much his own style.
She shivered at how easily he had dismissed her concerns when she asked him about what she had heard. The woman now had spikes sticking through her body in the courtyard. From her room, Rosa had a perfect view of it. The woman was a Vampire. She was still alive even though she had been literally nailed in place. She hadn't screamed, but Rosa couldn't bear to bring herself out of her room to face Angelus again.
Over the time she had been with him, her initial fear had dissipated to just awe and maybe–just maybe–even a little bit of love. But after this…
Rosa fought back a wave of nausea that had nothing to do with her morning sickness. When her stepfather first started dating her mother, it was all promises and chocolates. Then there were the snide comments about her mother’s weight, about the way other men looked at her, about her friends. By the time Rosa realized that their relationship had turned abusive, her mother was already a shadow of who she used to be. She was timid, afraid of the man she loved and blaming herself for every blow that landed.
It was yet another reason why Rosa ran after her mother died. She didn't know what her stepfather would do if he found her now–if he would lock her up for threatening to reveal the truth of what happened to her mother or just establish himself as having custody over her and all of her possessions. Regardless, she was determined to never allow him any sort of power over her.
Yes, Angelus was sweet and kind and tender, always telling her how smart and pretty she was. But would she recognize it if he changed? If he could be so ruthless to that female Vampire in the courtyard, what would he do to her, a human who was just a contract to him?
Rosa got out of the tub. There was only one thing to do. She couldn't wait around to see if Angelus would end up being like her stepfather. No, she had to leave. She had to make sure she wasn't blinded by love if he did.
***
She didn't tell him when she left. She took only the clothes and books she had brought with her to the palace and the credit card linked to the account that held the first payment for her year of being his mistress. No doubt he would take it away when she broke the contract, but going back to the women's shelter wasn't an option at the moment. A hotel was the next best thing.
Angelus followed her to the hotel the same night that she left. He had called her to tell her he was coming, and she had been tempted to hide somewhere else until he gave up, but instead decided to hash this out. Maybe there was a chance that he could explain and she could believe him...
She was reading her copy of the contract she had signed when he arrived. He brought with him a dozen beefy guards that stood in the corridor, glaring at the other hotel guests.
"Can I come in?" he asked her when she answered the door.
Rosa nodded. Inside the hotel room, Angelus looked out of place. He was dressed too finely, his presence too grand for the modest room. His stance was open and relaxed as he sat on the bed, looking at her.
"Rosa, I want you to come back to the palace with me."
She shook her head.
A surprised looked passed over Angelus' expression. "Is it because of Freya? Look, Rosa, she murdered people and turned children into Vampires against their will. I have tried reasoning with her in the past, but brute force is all she seems to understand."
Of course it was the woman's fault. Rosa could have laughed. Were her supposed crimes even true, or was he just looking for a way to justify himself? Rosa crossed her arms and glared at him. "Do you really believe that?"
"If you want, I will imprison her instead of leaving her in the courtyard."
"Why didn't you just imprison her to begin with? Why nail her to a post? I know you're Roman and they liked their crucifixions, but this is the twenty-first century!"
Angelus' brow furrowed. "I wasn't a Roman. I was a slave."
"You told me. You were a gladiator. But just because you had a violent life then doesn’t mean you have to lead a violent life now."
"My goal is to reduce violence as much as I can. Freya–well, she has attempted to overthrow me many times. She… she has done horrible, horrible things, including forcing humans to worship her as if she were the Norse goddess she's named for. It's Vampires like her that kill and terrorize humans and make it so difficult for humans and Vampires to exist in peace. I just want to find a way to make her listen so that I don't have to kill her."
Rosa swallowed hard. She wanted what he was saying to be true so badly. But could she really just believe and forgive him so readily? He nailed a woman to a post today–what would tomorro
w bring? Looking away, she flipped through a few pages of the contract she had signed.
"This says I can break out of the agreement anytime I wish," she mumbled.
"Yes." Angelus' voice was just a whisper. "You can. But please don't. Please. I haven't enjoyed spending time with anyone like I have with you. It's not just about the sex. It's you. I love the way your eyes light up when we're talking about history and the way you ask so many questions, unashamed of your curiosity."
Rosa clamped her lower lip between her teeth. His eyes were so earnest and sincere, the plea in his voice so raw. How could she not believe him? He reached to touch her face, but she drew back. She had to have more than his love for her to go back to him, didn't she? Michael always said he loved her mother. Maybe he even believed it himself.
Angelus withdrew. "Why are you afraid of me?"
"I… I can't live with casual violence," Rosa whispered. "I just can't."
"I would never hurt you."
"Unless I did something to deserve it, you mean."
Angelus' brow furrowed. He was silent for a long, long time. Eventually, he swallowed hard and hesitantly touched her hand. "What happened, Rosa? What made you so afraid?"
She couldn’t help herself. Tears began pouring down her face, and she blurted out everything about her stepfather. Angelus' eyes widened as she spoke, and when she finished he pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. Rosa clung to him, a great sense of relief washing over her. She had never told anybody this before. It felt so good to be in his arms…
"Oh, Rosa… There is no excuse for what that man did to your mother. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. I would never do the same. There could never be a reason for hurting somebody like that. I'm sorry that what I did reminded you of him. I'm so, so very sorry."
It was exactly what she wanted to hear.
Without thinking, she lifted her face and kissed him fiercely. Angelus' eyes widened further, but at that moment Rosa didn't want to talk anymore. She didn't want to be afraid of her stepfather or what might happen between her and her Vampire King in the future. All she wanted was this moment–this feeling of being safe in his arms. It wouldn't last, she knew, and so she would take advantage of it for as long as she could.
