"Rose, please go to class," Dimitri said.
I flipped through my fashion magazine. "Why?"
He sighed. "Oh, I don't know. To learn?"
"Learning," I said, "is for pussies."
"Rose!" he chided.
"Just stating a fact," I muttered.
"Oh, Rose," he sat down next to me.
"Come on. You know I'm right," I said. "Besides, I'm smart. A little ditching can't hurt."
"Maintaining a 'B' average isn't exactly smart, Rose."
"Glad to see you have so much faith in me," I muttered. "This school is ridiculous anyway."
"Rose-"
"Don't 'Rose' me, Dimitri. You know I'm right. It's not safe here,"
"I..." he knew I was right, of course. He knew what I was thinking. A sometimes-helpful factor in our guardian/charge relationship. We weren't exactly sure what the Hell it was...just, after the car crash - the one that ended my mother, father, and nearly Dimitri's lives - Dimitri could feel what I was feeling, hear my thoughts, and see what I saw. It was sort of an invasion of privacy, but I didn't mind so much anymore. The one person I trusted in the world was Dimitri. Sure, I had other friends...but that was a social life, I guess. Popular, but people secretly hate you. Not exactly the story of my life, but it was close.
"The raven? The car crash? Mrs. Karp?" I said. "Someone's trying to mess with my head."
"No one is trying to mess with your head, Rose."
"Oh?" I looked at him pointedly, trying (and failing) to cock my eyebrow in that cool way he could.
"Rose...no. What could we do, anyway?"
"Run away," I breathed.
He was quiet for a moment. "How?"
"Compulsion? I don't know. Somehow." I smiled. He was definitely seeing reason.
"Rose..."
"Look, Dimitri. You've seen my thoughts. I can't explain it in words, but you and I both know what I'm sort of talking about, and I'm right."
"I know," he whispered. A few minutes passed, while he thought, before he spoke again. "Rose...it's safe here."
"No, it's not."
"The place is ringed in the wards, swarming with guardians - and you have me." He smiled. "I will always protect you. I'll never let anything happen to you,"
"I believe you," I said. "but, no offense, not even you, Dimitri Belikov, could fight off an army of Strigoi."
"I would try, for you, Rose." He chuckled. "And," he added, "I could probably get through at least half of them."
"I know." I sighed. "I just...please, Dimitri? If you really would do anything for me...well, now is your time to prove it."
"Rose...I couldn't do that. What with you being the last Ivashkov-"
"Screw that. I am Rose and you are Dimitri. No Ivashkovs, Belikovs, or anything. Just you. And me." I was the last survivor of the Ivashkov royal family. The car crash that I mentioned earlier killed my mother and father - leaving me as the last Ivashkov. Kind of lonely, I guess. Family reunions were never very lively.
"No, that's not true, no matter how much you or I might wish," he said. "you are Rose Ivashkov. And I couldn't just...just kidnap you!" He sounded irritated.
"You wouldn't be kidnapping me, silly. I can compel them to forget," I reminded him. "So it'll be like we never existed...for a week or so."
"Rose..."
"Dimitri. Please." I begged.
"Fine."
"What?" I seriously hadn't anticipated this...with more begging, yes. But not so outright. Yay.
"On one condition," he said.
"What?"
"Go to class." He smiled.
I groaned. "Why?"
"I'm doing you a huge favor," he said. "now do me one. Educate yourself for a few more hours. I'll have a plan by tonight, and we'll escape around noon human time."
"Okay." I said, standing up and brushing stray dirt off of my butt.
"Rose?" he asked.
"Hmm?" I replied, gathering my lemonade, magazine, and sweatshirt.
"I really would do anything for you."
"I know." I hugged him and trudged back off to class, escorted by Dimitri, who told Mrs. Carmack I had been sick and in my room. She bought it, and told me to go sit down next to my Magic Buddy (as I called her) Vasilisa, or Lissa, as we all called her, Dragomir. She was pretty, and blonde, and popular - but she was also surprisingly nice. Especially since her great-aunt was the queen. I actually sort of liked her, even though I wouldn't exactly call her my best friend in the world. We made small talk as we practiced the different elements, and she always kept up a conversation - even when I ruined it with my depressing conversation killers (such as: I saw your cat yesterday. It was Strigoi.).
"Hi, Rose," she said as I strewed (yes, it is a word) my crap across my half of the desk.
"Hey." I said. "What are we learning today?"
"Stuff about flowers," she said. Earth magic. Blech. Personally, I wanted fire. It matched my personality. In my sophomore class, only, like, five people had specialized. One creepy emo kid named Christian Ozera had specialized in fire, along with Drake Badica, and Avery Lazar and Lissa had specialized in air, and Mia Rinaldi had specialized in water. Lissa had told me the element exams pretty much sucked; it was mostly written, and then maybe half an hour of demonstrating. Sometimes, I thought it would be majorly cool to be a dhampir. They did nothing but fight, train, and have fun, while Moroi were all wrapped up in our stupid politics. Blech.
Maybe fifteen minutes later, the bell marked the end of class and the beginning of lunch. I crammed my books in my locker and strode over to a couple of dhampir guys I knew. "Hey, Mason," I said to Mason Ashford, a red-headed dhampir and a good friend of mine.
"Rose," he smiled.
"Hey, Rose," said Eddie Castile.
"Can I sit with you guys at lunch?" I asked, twirling a lock of dark hair between my fingers.
"Sure!" they said simultaneously, and a little to eagerly.
I laughed and flashed my man-eater smile. "Cool." I walked in between them, making light conversation and flirting just enough to keep their attention. Mason walked with me to the feeder room, and waited patiently while I got my daily blood fix. I grabbed some yogurt and we sat down at an empty table that Eddie had saved. "So," said Mason. "Don't you normally sit with your guardian? Belikov?"
I laughed slightly. "Yeah," I said, trying to think of an excuse. "he's busy today."
"Cool, it's definitely fine by us!" Said Eddie. Mason shot him a warning look.
"Thanks," I said. "so how's guardian training?"
"A bitch," said Mason. "Stan is so..."
"Evil?" Suggested Eddie.
Mason nodded. "Exactly. I hate that bastard...of course, I'm still gonna be a guardian, but you know what I mean?"
I chuckled. "Yeah. Mrs. Karp is the same way...she's insane," I said.
"Oh, crazy Karp? We've heard about her," said Eddie.
"Mmh hmm," I said around a spoonful of yogurt. I had kind of missed Mason and Eddie. They were like...the comic relief of my life. Kind of ridiculous, never really serious, and always willing to do whatever I wanted. Having man-slaves was useful most of the time.
"So have you specialized yet?" Mason said.
"Nope," I said, then added, "but no one really has. Just Lissa, Avery, Christian, and Drake."
Eddie asked, "What element do you want?" Like I said, I wanted fire. Bad. But no one really got to choose which element...the Ozeras, however, were almost guaranteed to gain fire. It was heritage or something.
"Fire," I said. "I could use it against Strigoi," I smiled.
"That," said Mason, "is our job." He ran his hand through his fine red hair, a habit of his that I had noticed.
"Well, you never know,"
"True. Fire could actually be...really useful." He sighed. "Wish dhampirs had magic shit like that."
I laughed. "Don't worry, you have all the ninja moves," I mimed a karate-chop to demonstrate.
"Rosemarie Ivashkov," a voice called from across the room. "Come with me."