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was you who said you wanted to speak to me."
    "I want to speak to you about a lot of things," he said, sitting on a chair opposite her. "One bein' that vampire you seem so fond of."
    "And what business is it of yours what I do, Tristan?"
    "We have the same end game, Arrow. We can help each other, you know. So, I would say your attachment to him is my business if you want my help."
    "Who says I want your help ?" She let her lip curl up in a sneer. His assumption angered her more than she thought it would.
    "He's a piece of work, your boyfriend," he grimaced, blatantly ignoring her question. "Very volatile."
    "What did you do to him, Tristan?" she scolded him automatically.
    "Just offered a few friendly words of advice."
    "You had no right."
    "It needed to be said, Arrow."
    "What?" she hissed.
    Tristan only shrugged.
    "You don't get to mess with this, do you understand?"
    "You really love him, don't you?" he asked, like he hadn't believed it until now. "I didn't think you had it in you."
    Aya didn't want to get into it. She knew exactly what he would say, but she wasn't the same person she was a thousand years ago. Only a fool would presume that. Instead, she turned the conversation back onto him. For her, there was only one question that he needed to answer. "What have you been doing the last six hundred years, Tristan?"
    "Lookin' for you."
    Like she believed that. "Tell me the truth, knight or I will rip it from your chest."
    Tristan held his hands up in front of him defensively, trying to hide a grin. "Calm down. That was mostly the truth. After you left me in Austria, I wandered Europe for a while, and life was alright , I suppose. Like most, I had many different lives. Lived in many human societies. Then about two hundred years ago, I met a curious man named Regulus."
    Aya stiffened. "Tristan na Tri Tor..."
    "Arrow," he cut her off before she could scold him. "I knew exactly who he was, even if you neglected to tell me about him. I recognized he was Cauis' brother and that could mean a way of findin' you. I did his biddin'. I did much more to undermine his efforts."
    Her eyes narrowed as she watched Tristan explain himself. As far as she could tell, he was speaking the truth. Nothing other than arrogance radiated around him. As she had thought once before, Tristan was overly sure of himself.
    "Right now is a prime example. Consider this a defection," he winked.
    "Why did you work for him?"
    He sighed, scratching the stubble on his chin. "Honestly?"
    "Spit it out."
    "Alright, alright," he held a hand up. "I knew he was lookin' for you. That much was obvious. Arrow, I wanted to see you again."
    "Aren't I lucky," she snorted.
    "Aren't you pleased to see me?" Tristan asked with a chuckle.
    "Under different circumstances, perhaps."
    "Look. It was a chance to get inside. You know, like a double agent. I thought if I got close to Regulus, I could at least try and thwart his attempts at findin' you and be a thorn in his side. That's the truth."
    Aya regarded him silently. All that time she had known Tristan, he had been a decent person. Apart from his unconventional beginning, he had become close to who he had been when he was human. And she had known him in both lives. He had taken his oaths as a knight seriously.   Vous ou la mort , you or death.
    "Then," she said, "how did you come to be here?"
    "Regulus told me to come."
    "He knows where I am?" She wasn't surprised, but it still annoyed her.
    "Yes. But I expect that he thinks that you'll be gone already. I was sent to warn you for a reason."
    "And what reason was that?"
    "No idea. But, if there's one thing that I've learnt about him, is that he can be just as cunnin' as you. It could be any number of reasons."
    "He wants to flush me out." That was the only logical reason and one they 'd used before. If he confronted her here, she would have a greater advantage, but in reality she would be the one with more to lose by staying.
    "I would think so." Tristan was nodding his