Forever for Rose

Chapter Twenty Two.

A week ago when Dalton walked out on me, I fretted for hours over how hard it was going to be to see him again after the fool I'd made of myself. I'd really let myself confuse lust for something totally different. I laid awake all night and most of the next day just trying to avoid him and what he knows now. I'd admitted it to him, and he just walked away.

I didn't know at the time though that my hiding away was pointless.

Dalton left that very night.

I not only scared him out of my arms, my bed, and my room but also Castrum de Petra all together. Pedro saw him in passing the night he left and he said he wouldn't say much just that he needed to go. He didn't know how to stop him, so he didn't.

Pedro says he thinks he may have been trying to avoid the danger surrounding us here now that he knew that he was a target, but I knew the truth. He left to avoid me.

Eyan's pointed glares all but tell me that it's true whenever I see her.

"Rose?" Pedro's worried voice pulls me back to the present.

I raise my brows. "Yeah?"

"You ok?" He asks, tilting his head.

I look around the living area, Lance and Fallon look worried too, while Malcom smiles.

"I just said something truly offensive and you didn't even as much as turn your head." He shrugs. "I'm guessing that your fiery outbreaks are expected of you from your friends here and you're being in lala land yet again is giving them cause for worry."

"Observant, aren't you?" I snarl.

Malcom grins widely. "There she is, now may we continue?" He asks and I nod.

Pedro and Lance spent days going over all of the information they could get their hands on and found that I'm right about the blood. Of all of the ones whose families they could track down, each one is a legacy vampire. Legacy. That's what they're calling us. The special little freaks. I gave Pedro the names of Dalton's parents and he's trying his best to track them down, though it isn't like their son is here anymore anyway.

I chased him away from the only home he's had.

The life he had planned.

All because I couldn't just let it go.

"Rose!" Pedro snaps and I jerk to look at him again. "What is wrong with you?"

I pull my knees up to my chest, trying to fold myself away. "I'm sorry, my mind is just elsewhere."

"Get it back here, please." Malcom rolls his eyes. "I detest being here. I'd like to be of use so I might go soon, before all hell breaks loose."

"Fine." I nod, shutting off my mind to only focus on him.

Malcom stands, taking to pacing the small area in front of the table.

"I was approached, many years ago, before my time as a keeper here in Ireland, by a group of vampires who were trying to grow their numbers." He tells us. "They had fewer than twenty at the time, but they were recruiting, and I won't lie, their points were pretty valid." He half grins, but then tilts his head. "Deadly though. Too much risk for my tastes."

"What kind of group?" Pedro muses, holding his chin thoughtfully.

Malcom squares his shoulder. "Vampire supremacists." He shakes his head. "Hell bent on taking over the whole damned world. They promise some tempting things, but I didn't see it coming to fusion, so I bowed out gracefully."