Ch. 9: Breaking In

"Where are we going?" Adrian asked Rosy, who was speeding through the dimly lit streets in front of him in a stolen gray cloak.

"Voice down, hood up." She chided in a whisper. He adjusted his own cloak, "We're going to a storehouse in the trade district. It belongs to one of my former targets."

"Target?" He wondered aloud. She offered no explanations. She skipped nervously as fast as he could keep up with, avoiding busy streets and places where guards could be, as if they all had the plague. Despite the elaborate route, pretty soon they found themselves in front of a small, windowless building a couple blocks from the harbor. There was a large padlock on the door.

"It's locked." Adrian noticed, "Maybe we could…" He trailed off at the Click of Rosy successfully picking the lock with a thin, needle-like blade that she had in a pocket cleverly hidden in the inner lining of her undershirt.

"That works, too." He decided, impressed.

"Only better." She agreed, holding the door open for him.

"So what does this place have to do with us?" He asked, rapping on a small case of useless trinkets.

"The owner works with the resistance as a spy, but his cover has been blown. That means that we have aligned interests."

"If his cover has been blown, how do you know that he isn't lying face down in a ditch somewhere?" Adrian wondered. Rosy threw back her hood and sat on a table.

"He's my target, so making him lie face down in a ditch somewhere is technically my responsibility. That's why I know that he checks the inventory here every day after he closes his shop at six p.m."

"What time is it now, then?" He asked. 

She laid back on the table, closing her eyes. "Get comfortable, it's five a.m."

"So we're just going to sit in this warehouse quietly for thirteen hours?" He wondered.

"I'm taking a nap." She answered.

...

Sydney was in the room with Jasper when he collapsed.

He just started writhing on the ground, and a bunch of nurses and orderlies started holding him down while others sedated him, then they got him on a bed and started running tests. Soon after, Elder Malachi came racing in. After a while of everyone fawning over Jasper, Sydney asked a doctor how he was doing. Instead of answering, he chose to check her pulse and muttered some medical nonsense. Annoyed, she chose to ignore him and stand up quickly, with a mild head rush.

After a moment of tired vertigo, she shoved her way through the crowd to Jasper. He was barely conscious.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"I'll survive, but this is going to hurt." He groaned. She wished that she didn't know what he meant.

...

"You've been staring for hours. If something is on your mind. Talk." Rosy cracked an eye open.

Of course something was on his mind. Adrian had a thousand questions and he thought of five more with each rise and fall of her beautiful, dangerous chest. Instead of asking the important questions though, what slipped out was, "I'm sorry, I'm just hungry."

"You were hungry, so you just stared at me for like three hours?"  She smirked.

"Yes…?" She laughed, then let him off the hook.

"He keeps dried meat and drinkable water in the back. Just look for the room by the liquor cabinet." She went back to relaxing on the table.

"You sure seem relaxed. Sure it's safe to make ourselves at home like this?" He asked, searching for the food.

"Spoken like someone used to castle life. Throw me some jerky when you find it." He found the meat and tossed a strip across the warehouse. Rosy caught it with her left hand and started gnawing on it.

"What do you mean, used to castle life? Are you implying that I'm spoiled?" He asked, dunking a cup into a barrel of water.

"You train with expert swordsmen, with blunted edges, in a controlled environment. You sleep most nights in a soft bed, with armed guards keeping you secure."

"And you don't, Princess?"

"I spend most of my time in the field. I learned to fight when I was so little that I don't really remember it, and I still have scars. I sharpened my skills by fighting trained, superhuman assassins who follow me, and set ambushes, and I'm only comfortable in unfamiliar environments like this because I'm used to sleeping on the streets, or in back alleys." She told him.

"You have a nicer room than mine." He remembered.

"I don't use my room as much as you use yours, though." She said quietly.

"But you're a princess, don't you have duties to help run this kingdom?"

"I'm a royal vampire heir. Our duties are military operations that are deemed too dangerous for others to attempt."

"That explains a lot, but how do you know that nobody is going to look in this warehouse and see the Rose Princess sleeping on a table in the same room as an escaped political prisoner?" He asked. That had really been on his mind.

"I don't know that. But I definitely know that I have really advanced senses for danger, and a door opening would wake me up. I also know that out faces aren't easily recognizable faces." She sighed.

"Your face is basically plastered on every street corner. Isn't that why you got these cloaks?"

"That portrait is of me in makeup, and a dress. It was made for public support of my father and his line. I got these cloaks because a face as nice as yours combined with gear as high quality as ours would generate unwanted attention." He didn't miss the remark about his face, but he decided not to read into it, or ask more questions.

Though his mind wasn't satisfied, his hunger and thirst were sated, and Rosy's tone was getting increasingly annoyed, and he wasn't about to risk the temper of a person who earned a title like 'Rose Princess.'

"If you're sure you'll wake up if something happens, then I'll trust you and get some sleep too." He chose to lay down on the other end of the same table that she was on. This way his head partially rested in her long hair, so that he would wake up if she moved. 

Before falling asleep, she asked, "Trusting me is a big choice. Are you sure about it?"

He smiled, "You haven't killed me yet." He told her, mimicking her nonchalant attitude.

She scoffed at that, "Get some rest."