Chapter Seventeen: To Be Or Not To Be

POV: Nik

Having been out all day, having meetings with the witches and the wolves, all I wanted to do was sit down and have a drink. That is what I would have done if I had not got wind of Roses sent, lavender and nutmeg. It led down into the basement and a tingle of worry went though me. What was she doing down in the garden. She was a non-practing witch in a room full of starving vampires.

With that I used all of my speed to go down the long corridor.

When I got to the last room the one that housed my brother Kol, I saw a site that made me burn with rage.

A vampire that had been in the garden for a long time, was holding my Rose as if she was a long lost lover. He didnt even seem to see me in the moment that I paused in the door way. I could smell the blood from where he was bitting her neck. See the blood that had stand her white shirt crimson. The pool under her hand where there was also a bite, spread much too fast.

She was dying.

And I could let her. Let him kill her, be rid of this protective feeling. This longing… no I did not want to be rid of it. I wanted to understand it. And that would not happen if she died.

With that though in my mind I rushed the vampire, who looked much too healthy. He had a redness to his cheeks and almost looked as if he was alive aging.

How dare he look so full of life?

Her life.

The vampire had a small smirk on his blood smeared lips until I snapped his neck. I would deal with him later.

I dropped the vampire to the floor and then rushed back to Rose's side.

Blood. So much of her blood, her life, spill onto the floor. Her eyes were closed and her skin was so pale. Even her lips that normally held the same color as the blood spilling rapidly onto the floor, had no color.

If it had not been for the fait beat of her heart I would have though her dead. But still she lived.

The bites where not as bad as I had first thought. It didn't seem like the vampire had ripped at her to much. But I was still fearful of giving her any of my blood yet. I didn't want her to have this live unless it was what she wanted. And anyway she was of more use alive.

I lifted her into my arms and rushed her from the room. I needed to be sure she would live before I healed her.