"Sacrifice is -"
"You saved the human world. You won't let anyone - even him - destroy it."
"We'll return to the mortal world and live normal lives. He will do as I say."
"For now."
Irritated, Eden's eyes cracked open. It was her moment of triumph. For the first time in her life, she didn't want to think about what happened next. She wanted to sit in this moment and relish it, take pride in the fact she achieved an incredible victory, even if those she did it for would never know.
"I am here, because we Originals are obligated to one another." The Watcher knelt beside her. "You have what you want. If you don't stop now, there will be nothing left. The boy you adopted is now an animal without restraint."
"I don't intend to destroy your precious world," she snapped. "I only wish to save mine."
"Which you've done. Now, you have an obligation to the monster you created. Put the leash back on him or the Watchers and Others will kill him. It might take every last one of them to do it, but they're willing to."
"You're threatening my Xander?"
"I'm telling you the future I See. If you don't cage him now, you lose the ability to curb the animalistic side of him. You will conquer the worlds. He will die. You are a fan of choices, Eden," the Watcher continued. "Choose. Does he live or does he die?"
"What kind of monster refuses to kill women? You have no idea what Xander is."
"Answer my question. Does he live or die?"
Her heart was beating fast. She didn't fully understand why. She knew what Xander was; after all, she was the one who taught him war and bloodlust. It was the only way to build the army she needed to protect her world. The ten-year-old child she adopted and turned into a killer started as a weapon with no more attachment to her than a sword or dagger. As the years passed, their relationship transitioned from master and weapon into something different. Their armies thought they were mother and son, and she stopped denying Xander was anything else.
She was the one who healed his wounds until he was old enough to do it on his own. She brought him humans to feed off of and - in the lean years where they'd been struggling to survive - she let him drink from her. In the twenty years since she took him in, she was the only one to offer him protection and respect. The humans and immortals alike reviled him and what he did. Those he didn't kill, he turned into vampires like the ones she'd let loose on the Grey God's city.