She slapped him! He was stunned at first, but then regained his composure.

"You may treat your lackey's like that. You may treat the other members of your congregation like that. But so help me Lucius Sigéric Benoit Christophe Baldwin de Clermont, you will never treat me like that again. I will go."

Baldwin shot her a wry smile.

"I will leave and never return. And don't think you will be able to hunt me down. Even your senses have their limits."

"Is that a threat Rose?" Before she knew it he was behind her grasping her wrists.

"It is, but not like the ones you've been sending lately. Let go. You're hurting me." Rose said the last part quietly as she tried to wriggle from his grasp, all the fight had gone out of her.

Their relationship had always been a volatile one. Stemming from Baldwin's stern nature and her unpredictability and mistrust of people. They were both stubborn to a fault. Hot headed, they would both react first before thinking. They were both unmoving when they had made up their mind. He had met Rose a few years ago. A member of the aristocracy, or what was left of it, Rosemarie Kent had a charmed life. Or so it would appear on the outside. Rosemarie knew what she should do, what her station in life meant for her to do. Her father trained her in the old ways. She was trained to look down on everyone that wasn't what she was, elite. Whether he was present or not, his feelings toward his daughter were distant.

Something sifted in Rosemarie's life when her father passed away. It was felt all the way back at The Congregation. Magic tied in with a mystery. They had received reports of her, a new talent. Baldwin was sent to investigate. Not sure why he, the lead, and a Vampire was sent, he grumbled all the way there.

What he found was astounding. She wasn't anything, but had a keen sense of the world around her. Her spirit seemed to be tied with the Earth. She could weave threads of magic about herself, glow with them, and express them through art, through dance, through whatever she really put her mind to do. It was daemon, witch, and human all mixed into one extraordinary creature.

That's how Baldwin treated her, since he first met her, a creature, a play thing, something to be entertained by.

Baldwin smelled the building up of her English resolve. The fiery spark that had given rise to the slap was out. Extinguished by his treatment of her. He didn't want to crush her. He could easily, but this last fight had effect both of them.

"Perhaps you're right." Baldwin let her go. "Hey. Please look at me." This was new thought Rose. She hesitated before turning around. "How can we work together?"

"Just what the hell does that mean?" Rose was really confused now.

"I mean. I'm…"

"Baldwin Montclair. Don't say it. Don't you say it!" The spark was back. He could smell her. Rose retreated to the other side of the room.

"Why not Rose? Why can't I? You're the one person who understands."

She crossed her arms. A sign of protection. A sign that said that she was scared.

"Why? Oh I don't know?" She tried to sound incredulous, but inside she was near breaking. "Maybe because we fight all the time. Maybe because you treat me like a doll to be taken up and put down as you fancy. Because you're just standing there looking menacing."

Baldwin chuckled, they both chuckled. "Menacing? Me? I'll try and work on that." He visibly soften, relaxing and slowly took a step toward her.

"Yes you. You are menacing."

"And what about you? You give out just as much as you take." He slowly took another step.

"That's just it. Like I said. We fight all the time. I don't want to fight. I can't be, I can't do this. It isn't healthy." Her arms came down, but her stance did not change. He could tell she was frightened. The worry filled her face. Baldwin closed the distance between them then, and placed his hands on her arms. Willing her to believe him.

"Look. I know what's happened in the past, as well as you." Baldwin stiffened as she interrupted.

"The very recent past. It was not five minutes ago that you tried to control me."

Baldwin sighed. Tempers were still high. "Yes you're right. And before you say anything else, I'm not placating you. What if I could, wanted to even, change?"

She laughed. A staccato, musical sound, but a laugh none the less and he visibly stiffened again. "A 1500 year old vampire and an emotionally distant human change?"

"You're not just any human Rose. You can pull the magic from everything around you and bend it to shape your every whim. I, on the other hand, well let's just say it will take work. But I'd like to try? I'd like to know what a relationship is that isn't controlling. One where someone can acknowledge that there are two very powerful people here."

Rose set her jaw. "And the fighting?"

"Are we fighting now?" He couldn't help himself and dipped in to smell her. Now it was her turn to stiffen. The dark clouds gathering in her eyes. But he wasn't threatening. Oh he could. Baldwin could make you feel like his presence was a threat and his taste of you was a promise of exactly what he could do. She had witnessed it. She had experienced it.

Baldwin watched her. Watched the storm clouds gather. This was when he would normally thunder away. They would each simmer alone until they were done and it was safe to come back out. They would act as if nothing happened, until the next time they got into it. Baldwin continued to look her in the eyes. Eventually the storm stilled, but did not clear. He could see it, just at the surface. He cocked his head to the side, gave a small smile and dipped lower. He stopped inches from her lips, wondering what her lips on his would feel like. He could sense her resolve fluctuating. Saw her eyes flutter, a single tear escaping the dam she had put in place. It was all he needed.

"I don't think I can feel." Her sentence was stopped by his kiss. A gentle one. Baldwin had even surprised himself.

They broke apart, Baldwin still staying within inches of Rose's lips. "You can't. You've said it yourself, by your actions. You will only be with another vampire." Baldwin's lips where on hers again, this time more urgently.

Rose put her hands on his chest for a minute before gently pushing him away. She tried to move to the side. His hand sought hers and found it, giving it a slight tug. When she turned back to him the tears had started to flow. "What if I'm emotionally incapable? I get anger, I understand it. But this? I don't understand. I don't know how to." He enveloped her in his embrace. The kiss was longer and when it ended salt remained on his tongue.

She stared blankly at him before rushing from the room and out of the house.

Baldwin let her run. She needed time to catch the threads swirling around her. It was true. He had told her small pieces of his life. He had told her his resentment of his brother. It being fresh because of the fact that his brother Matthew had mated with a witch. What exactly were his feelings and when had they changed. Rose was intriguing, fun to play with, and good company. She was trained in the arts of entertaining and she truly was.

In recent months however she had felt comfortable enough to open up, bits and pieces. Sure, Baldwin had suspected the hurt and fury that she carried inside. It wasn't hard to see, that was part of her power. Her powers were part witch and part daemon. Born of a human it was an interesting thing to see. Even Baldwin himself, didn't realize when his reasons had changed. A few months ago he stopped agitating her. Stopped the retorts that were so quick to come. Rose hadn't seen a difference. He'd still love to debate her on other things. He was truly repentant for the way he had treated her in the past and had tried to make it up to her.

Their last major one, the one that got them into this mess was one felt so strongly. Baldwin was right, and had argued his point. Rose had thought he was controlling her, when all he wanted to do was protect her. She had slapped him, the fire burning with in her lighting his righteous one. In truth he didn't really know how to treat another either, but he would try, for her.

His attention was turn from his thoughts by a light wind. He smiled as it played with his hair. The whisper in it said Rose was ready. Out he walked to her favorite thinking spot.

Rose stood with her arms crossed and her back to the house, looking out over the pond. Could she really do this? His behavior of late had been different. Was he learning how to work with her instead of against her? And what of his controlling tendencies? What of her slap? She had resorted to violence to get it into his head that she could make decision about people on her own. Rose sighed, the storm she had felt inside of her subsiding. The wind she had sent to him let her know he was there.

She hung her head, but did not turn around to face him. "The slap was unforgivable."

"Rose, it's already forgiven. I can be hard headed sometimes. That's the first time you've apologized. Normally we just go on as if nothing happened."

Rose shook her head. "Well I've never slapped you. I've become my father. I swore I would never become him. I don't want a life full of fighting." Here her voice broke. They both stood still for a few minutes.

Baldwin chuckled. He was turning into another man. "Did it ever occur to you that I love to spar? Just as much as you? Besides the energy you give off when you get worked up can light up an entire house without electricity! I can keep a cool head when I need to."

"Were you deliberately fighting with me, Baldwin Montclair? Taking the opposite side just to quarrel, so you could see that energy?" Rose swiped at her eyes. "Uh! I can't do this." She turned her hands covering her face.

Baldwin closed the distance between them. "Now who's looking to quarrel? Rosemarie Kent, you are baffling!" Rose dropped her hands and studied him. Was he telling the truth, were his emotions real? Baldwin could tell she was studying him, he hoped he made a favorable report. "Mostly it was because I didn't want to back down. One of the reasons I'm…one of the reasons I'm here, now, is because you don't either. We are equals even if you're not a vampire."

"I'm afraid Baldwin."

"I know." He wrapped his arms around her again. "You needn't be."

Rose finally calmed, stilling in his arm. "You were the first to call me Rose."

"I was just the first to listen. Now will you hear it?"

She nodded and swept her eyes down. He lifted her chin back up so she could study him as he said it. "Rosemarie Georgina Kent. I'm falling for you."

Rose bit her lip and looked down again.

"I know that you aren't ready yet. That is all I can say until we prove that we can work together. I want you to know that. As a vampire to acknowledge anything else would be a commitment for life. One that we both should be ready to enter into. Now Miss. Kent I'd really like to kiss you again."

Her head rose as his lowered. Their lips met in the middle for a sweet kiss. Rose's arms lifted and fit around his neck while his hands lowered to her waist bringing her impossibly closer. The kiss deepening until they broke apart.

"Did it just get warmer?" Baldwin chuckled. "Now to explain you, us really, to The Congregation." He stepped back and ran his hands through his hair. "Not to mention my family."

"Indeed Mr. Montclair."

"Well you are already well versed on multiple aspects of things you probably shouldn't be knowledgeable about."

All Rose could do was wink and smile. The light streaming through her and warming the very atmosphere around her. He caught the scent of vanilla and roses, the freshness of the earth after a storm, and of sweet blossoms.

"Come Rose, let's take a walk." He extended his arm and she took it. He placed his other hand over hers on his arm. Together they followed the path through the gardens.