Fear and Blood

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Rome stepped into the car park later that day and spotted Ly standing next to his car, but he wasn't alone. Standing next to him was a well dressed young man of about Ly's own age. He was shorter and a little stockier and his brown hair had been tied back to keep it off his good natured face.

It was hard to hear what they were saying, but she knew they noticed her, because they stopped talking and turned in her direction. She took a step back, not wanting to look like she had been listening in on their conversation and extremely reluctant to meet one of Ly's friends, remembering the man that had attacked her. 

“Looks like we have company,” Cassian said to Ly as they saw Rome appear from across the car park. Ly kept his eyes fixed on the other vampire, not wanting him to think that Rome meant more to him than any other student. “I saw you with her today and the other night. So she's the one you've been staying out to see.”

“This is none of your business,” Ly growled. As Ly went about his usual routine he had felt Cassian close by, following him. Tristan had said he was going to send someone to watch his lessons with Rome, but he knew his brother wasn't going to send Cassian. So the question was, what was the other vampire doing here? “Get out of here Cassian or I swear you'll regret it.”

The other vampire just smiled, ignoring Ly threat, and turned to wave at Rome, who they saw take a step back. “She seems pretty nervous,” Cassian said to Ly before raising his voice to address Rome. “Don't be shy girl, come over here.”

Rome's eyes darted to Ly, then back to the Cassian, wondering if she should do as he asked or stay where she was. Her tutor just stood there, hands in his pockets and she felt sure that if there was any danger he would have done something by now. Reluctantly she began to approach them.

“It's very nice to meet you,” Cassian said, with a smile, as the red-head reached them. He shook her hand enthusiastically. “I'm Cassian Varro, a friend of Ly's. I'm surprised he's never mentioned someone as lovely as you before.”

“Oh,” Rome said, blushing as she looking at Ly, who didn't seem happy at all. Rome found it strange that Cassian would introduce himself as a friend when Ly so obviously disliked him. “I'm Rome Armida, Ly's my ancient history tutor.”

“Is that right?” Cassian replied whit a grin at the other vampire, and Ly just knew that he was laughing inwardly. How he felt like punching the other man in the face. “Well, well, you never told me you had started tutoring people.”

“That's because it's none of your business,” Ly said roughly, not missing the slight emphasis Cassian put on the word people. “Now you can just crawl back to Tristan like a good little worm. I'm sure he'll be waiting for you.”

“There's no need to be so rude,” Cassian said, pretending to be hurt by Ly's remark. “I only wanted to see how you were doing. We haven't been seeing a lot of you lately and Tristan wanted me to give you a message. It was nothing terribly important, just that Damon was in the area. I think Tristan might want you to go and see him after you're done. You're busy right now though, so I'll just be going. It was nice to meet you Miss Armida.”

Rome watched Cassian walk away and reflected on what she heard him say. It wasn't the first time she had heard the name Tristan, having overheard two of Ly's conversations with the man himself, and for the first time she began to wonder who he was. The way Cassian spoke and from what she had gathered from the phone calls, Tristan was a very important person. The way he ordered people around put her in mind of a mob boss. It wasn't hard to picture Ly working for a criminal organisation.   

“Get in the car and stay there,” Ly hissed at Rome once Cassian was too far away to hear. “I'll be back in a second.” He ran off after the retreating man, knowing that something wasn't right. There was no way Tristan would send Cassian all the way to the university just to tell him that Damon was following.