Passion | | Sebastian Sallow *under slight editing*

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Rookwood was pacing back and forth in his office, in deep contemplation. He had been doing this for the past few hours and he was still stuck on it. Of course, the plan of convincing Astoria to give him what he wanted was still in the works and he knew she wouldn't go down easily.

Astoria was a smart woman and Rookwood knew she wasn't going to show up without a plan that ended in her favor. So Rookwood had been thinking of every single possible thing she could come up with so that he could have a counter plan just in case.

He had some advantages; more people on his side, more fighters, and social advantages, but none of that had proven very effective against Astoria already. One of the advantages he had over her was that prisoner he had taken from Norway, but that was a story for another time.

Rookwood of course had a backup plan just in case Astoria was to try and kill him-- which she probably was but of course, he'd try everything to try and persuade her to give him the wand, the location of the repository, and then for her to join him and fight for him. Of course, that last one would be harder but he'd settle for just the wand and the repository. But of course, there was always the imperius curse which he had no problem using.

Ever since Bradley's death, Rookwood's mind had been in a bit of a fuzz. Who would kill him and why? He still hadn't been able to find that out. His first suspect was Tana, of course, but he didn't have any evidence against her regarding the situation at all. After a while of trying to think about it, Rookwood just assumed the story of him getting drunk and drowning was what really happened. After all, Bradley had never really been the most aware of his surroundings when he was drunk.

But Bradley's death still affected him pretty badly and it probably always would. Ever since William had betrayed him, Victor had always leaned on Bradley. Rookwood had had a lot of allies in the past but he was betrayed by many of them but Bradley had always stayed loyal to him.

He wished Bradley were still here, he'd know exactly what to do. "That stupid man..." Rookwood sighed, slumping back into his chair. "Getting drunk and getting himself killed... what an idiot." He muttered, shaking his head.

His door then opened, interrupting his train of thought. "You still brooding in here?" A voice asked with a slightly amused tone.

Rookwood looked over, his brows furrowed. It was Tana. "What are you doing in here?" Rookwood asked, standing up. "I thought I locked the door and specifically told everyone to not disturb me. Can't you see I'm busy?"

Tana shrugged her shoulders. "You don't look that busy to me." She said nonchalantly. "Oh, and I have a key to your office. Did you forget about that?" She asked in a slightly humorous tone. Great, just what Rookwood needed; Tana's mocking humor.

"I should kick you out." He spat, sitting back down in his chair.

"But you won't." Tana mused, sitting down in the chair in front of him, across from his desk. She knew Rookwood like the back of her hand, he wasn't hard to read at all. "Are you still whining about Kennick's death or are you finally getting over that? Because if it's the second one, thank Merlin. I was starting to get annoyed."

Victor narrowed his eyes at Tana. "Are you really coming in here to mock me about mourning over a man I considered my brother?" He asked in an offended tone. Tana was indeed doing just that but of course, she wouldn't admit it out loud. Instead, she just had to fight fire with fire.

"When you dragged me into this hell hole because you saw "potential" in me to become your little puppet and have some gross fantasy about me, you never gave me time to mourn." Tana hissed angrily. "You took me away from the only people I considered to be my family and you never gave me a chance to mourn. So don't be so sorry for yourself."