Chapter One:
The scenery whipped by me as I tore down the cobblestone pathway beside the canal. The water was still and black, reflecting the sky above it like a near perfect mirror and everything was awash with a soft yellow glow from the old streetlights that were lining the road beside us and a few feet above us. At three in the morning the town was almost completely deserted besides the last few stragglers leaving the bars and clubs lining the banks of the canal.
"Keep up Grandpa." I called behind me, tucking the few loose curls that had sprung free of their prison in the tight bun on top of my head. I heard Dimitri laugh softly in response, but I could hear his feet pounding the ground and his pace stayed measured and consistent. "Almost half way!" sprinting up the staircase and onto the sidewalk. We both knew he could easily outrun me any day, but I suspected he was keeping pace on purpose. Even now, after all this time, he was still over protective of me sometimes. Especially when we were alone in the middle of the human night.
When we reached the small row of bushes we agreed was the half way point I had to bend over over and catch my breath. Dimitri wasn't far behind me. We stood by the bush for a minute surveying the landscape around us. The town was beautiful, so beautiful. I could understand why my mother was so fond of it. Everything looked like a fairytale here, like it was untouched by time, but somehow also not stuck in the dark ages. You could have told me the place was built by elves, and I would almost have believed you. Dimitri said it reminded him a lot of a town in Belgium called Bruges.
A town this old was filled with Dhampir and Moroi alike. In fact I'm pretty sure the human to Vampire ratio here was tilted heavily towards Vampires, which was almost completely unheard of these days. Thanks to the human population though, most of us kept to a human schedule, and thus not a huge risk of anything too significant going awry. It did have a fairly notorious nightlife during festival season though, which was exactly why Dimitri and I had been called out here. Festival season was only a few weeks away, and where there were a lot of Moroi and Dhampirs, there was almost definitely Strigoi. The vicious, red eyed, soulless undead. When you combined a whole bunch of humans, Moroi, and Dhampirs with a small space, loud music, and an effectively nocturnal schedule, it's basically providing the Strigoi with an all you can eat buffet. I shuddered at the thought of it.
That wasn't the weird part though. The weird part was that just a few weeks out from festival season, and we hadn't had a single run in with the Strigoi. When we got posted here, my mother warned me that this close to the festivities they were usually already out in force and it made me more than a little nervous that there had been no activity. Anybody else might think that their numbers had started dwindling, or they had found another place to hunt, but that absolutely wasn't the case. People were disappearing through the year, it looked like they were building their numbers, but there was no proof that the Strigoi actually had anything to do with it.
"It's weird, isn't it?" I asked after a moment.
"Yes Rose, it's strange." The concern in his face mirroring mine.
"Maybe we should -" He raised his hand to stop me, and I felt frustration rise in my throat.
"Not this time. We have to remain inconspicuous." He was right. I knew he was right.
"But I just think if we went on a hunt, maybe get in touch with some people… I mean, what if they're planning something again? What if this is just the calm before the storm and come festival season we're outnumbered and under serious attack? What if-" I hadn't realised I'd straightened up and was almost yelling until Dimitri was directly in front of me and caressing my face with his hands.
"Roza." He cooed. "My beautiful Roza. You must not think like that. After everything we've been through together, do you think I'd let anything happen?" He planted a gentle kiss on my lips, and took a small step back without letting me go. "I understand why you are concerned, but now is not the time for this." I looked around and realised he was right. About half a block away we had drawn the attention of a young group of girls talking at the exit of one of the more exclusive nightclubs in town.
"Besides," he dropped his voice to a near whisper, his lips brushing against the side of my neck, "You're basically killing me in those shorts, and I can't think about anything besides tearing them off of you the second we get home." In the pit of my stomach I felt a tingling warmth rise, a need to feel his skin on mine. I felt him kiss my neck, his tongue lightly brushing against me, and I couldn't help the moan that escaped my lips. Before I had a chance to respond to what he was saying and doing in much the same way, he was off again, running back the way we came. I didn't have to see his face to know he wore a satisfied smirk.
"No fair, you can't flirt your way into beating 's a cheap trick." I called after him, knowing my cries were completely pointless. "We're going to talk about this when we get home." I shouted, taking off after him.
"Count on it." I heard him call back. Definitely smiling. Bastard.
By the time we got back home there was only one thing I was interested in doing. Apparently, we were on the same page. I closed the front door and barely had time to turn around before he had my hands pinned above my head, kissing me with my back against the door. I could feel his body pressing into me. His hands danced at the hem of my tank top, his warm fingers sending jolts of electricity everywhere he touched. It didn't take long before he lifted my shirt over my head, and discarded it on the floor beside us, only breaking the kiss to lift it over my head. I could see it in his eyes, passion, hunger, wanting. There was so much about him that made me fall in love with him more and more every day. Times like these made me feel something else entirely. I moaned when his his free hand started stroking my thigh "I want you." I breathed, feeling his own wanting growing against me.
With those three words out of my mouth he hoisted me up and started carrying me towards the lounge room. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled back for some air, his lips migrating towards my chest. My skin was cold from the frozen night air, and the warmth from his lips felt like he was setting me on fire in the best ways. "Roza." He moaned as I tilted my hips up and down teasing him ever so slightly.
"I guess we'll come back later then…" If he didn't have such incredible reflexes I'm almost certain Dimitri would have dropped me. Standing in the middle of our lounge room clutching a dusty brown leather bag was Sydney Ivashkov. The former Alchemist and Dimitri's cousin-in-law. Now also Adrian Ivaskhov's wife.
Dimitri swore in Russian and gently put me on the ground.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, careful to stand in front of Dimitri. Don't get me wrong, I love Sydney almost like a sister, but usually she at least called first.
"I don't think these guys ever do any grocery shopping. Can we go out for food? Just leave a note, I'm sure they'll be back soo-" A voice called out, making it's way from the kitchen and down the hall past the stairs. It didn't take a genius to figure out what our flushed faces and close proximity were all about, and Adrian Ivashkov was definitely not a genius. "Maybe we should have called first." He wore a smug grin on his face, a face, which had somehow begun to look a lot younger since he stopped poisoning himself with cigarettes and liquor all the time. This entire situation had suddenly become something out of a bad movie. We were standing frozen like that for what felt like a thousand years. All of a sudden Sydney shot to action and handed me the throw blanket off of the midnight blue suede couch, and gave her husband a warning glare. I wrapped the soft blanket around myself and tried to arrange my features into something other than complete horror and confusion. He dismissed her concerns with a smirk. "Why don't we let Rose deal with that, while you find me something to eat in this godforsaken house." Adrian suggested. Dimitri didn't need to be told twice. He turned on his heel and left, more than eager to be out of this situation. On his way out of the lounge room door, Adrian spun around and shot me an apologetic glance. I smiled as disappointment and embarrassment swept over me. A nervous laugh escaped my lips as I turned to face Sydney again. We'd come a long way since I met her in Russia, but that didn't mean that I was okay with her being there for a floor show.
"I'm gonna…" I stuck my thumb out and gestured towards the staircase. I didn't need to explain any more though, she nodded quickly, staring at her feet and I realised she felt more awkward about this than the rest of us.
I came back downstairs half an hour later wearing a set of grey yoga pants that made my ass look insane, tucked into ugg boots, and a midnight blue hoodie of Dimitri's that was insanely soft and doubly warm. "I hadn't pegged you for a hoodies and sweats guy." I declared I first saw him wear it. It was the first week of being official guardians for Lissa and Christian, and I'd had a nightmare about him still being a Strigoi. He gave me a puzzled look when I said it, before I burst into tears and threw my arms around his neck.
"Rose, what's going on? Are you hurt." I felt him go into protective mode, which made me cry even harder. In what seemed like a single movement, he had swept me into his arms and was carrying me over to the couch. "You can tell me."
I knew he was still feeling about what he had done to me, and I felt like it had taken him a lifetime to admit that he needed me as badly as I needed him. Honestly, I was afraid to open up to him about it. At the time I had found myself questioning every single thing I said and did when it came to hm, afraid it would set him back or push him away. He had come so far. We had come so far, and every fibre of my being was desperate to keep that forward momentum going.
"Nightmare." I finally managed. I didn't need to explain. He knew what the nightmare was, although I had wished he didn't. He had wrapped his arms around me, and I had pressed my face into his chest, taking in his smell, and his heartbeat, grounding myself back in reality. The reality that he was alive, and holding me, and whispering he loved me over and over again. One thing lead to another and I woke up that evening naked in his arms, draped across the queen sized bed in his room. I looked over to him and smiled. It wasn't quite sunset, so the Moroi day hadn't started yet. I crept out of bed shrugging his hoodie over my head and climbed downstairs to the kitchen. He sat at the dining table while I was finishing plating up his breakfast and smiled at me like I was a goddess. "You know what Roza, I could definitely get used to this." Somewhere between then and now, I had more or less claimed the hoodie as my own.
I rounded the corner into the lounge room pulling my hair into a ponytail saw Dimitri was wedged between Adrian and Sydney being bombarded with pictures of Declan. "He is beautiful." Dimitri said softly, and I could hear a longing in his voice that made me inexplicably nervous.
"Don't let Rose hear you say that, she might bolt." Adrian joked, but I could tell he wasn't completely certain that wasn't the absolute truth. Back when he and I had dated, I had certainly considered a future with him, but it had never involved kids. It had never involved much of anything really. I always felt tied to Dimitri, and when he was restored, as painful as it is to say it, Adrian never stood a chance. I always felt so horrible for the way things went down between he and I, but it was well and truly in the past now. He had Sydney, and he looked at her with double the love and admiration that he had ever looked at me. In a way I guess Sydney was Adrian's Dimitri. Now though, through some miracle of the universe, Dimitri and I could have kids. There's something about getting brought back from being a strigoi that made two Dhampir's biologically compatible, and I knew it was a thought that had crossed his mind a few times. You could see it when he was around Declan, a part of him wanted a family.
"Speak of the Devil." Sydney smiled, noticing me standing in the doorway. I didn't miss the pointed glare she shot Adrian's way, but I was the only one who noticed it for sure.
We caught up for a little while, and they filled me in about everything happening at Court, Christian and Lissa were making more progress, and gaining more respect with every passing day. Their decision to send Dimitri and I here together didn't sit right with either of us at first, but my mother took my place guarding Lissa, and a guardian from nearby Dimitri's home town of Baia called Vladislav Dostoevsky took Dimitri's place guarding Christian. I felt a lot more comfortable once I knew that it was Janine Hathaway taking over my role as Lissa's guardian for the time being, and Dimitri seemed to trust Vladislav, so I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Which wasn't necessarily the easiest thing in the world for me given the last few years of my life. I still felt naked without the bond though. My hand unconsciously went to the place on my chest where the small scar from being shot sat, when I thought about losing the bond.
"So?" I asked after a while. I was glad to be hearing so much positive news, but frustrated that nobody had gotten to the point yet. "Not that I'm not thrilled you guys are here and all, but what's the big bad?" Adrian and Sydney shot each other a meaningful glance and turned to Dimitri.
"It's Olena. She's… sick." There was something about the way Sydney said the word sick, that made me freeze.
"Sydney." Adrian cautioned. There was something in his eyes that made even me nervous.
"What do you mean sick?" I asked, jumping in before either Dimitri or Adrian could say anything. Concern flooding every inch of me. Olena Belikova was Dimitri's mother, and when I was in Russia tracking him down to shove a silver stake through her son's heart - a fact that she didn't know, she took me in as one of her own. They accepted mine and Dimitri's love without any hesitation, and for a while they made me feel close to him again. For a while I'd even considered staying there with them for good, and adopting them as my own family, but in the end I knew what I had to do, and I left to kill her son.
Dimitri's eyes flicked up to meet mine for the briefest of moments, and I saw an intense blend of fear and sadness in them. We had agreed that we should keep our distance from them for a little while. Last time we went to see them Dimitri had found out about some guy taking advantage of Viktoria, and he wasn't so nice about it. He may be full of self control where most things were concerned, but apparently his family wasn't one of them, but since everyone knew about his restoration, a rumour got out that he'd retained some element of the strigoi, and it had taken a long while for people to trust his family again.
"What are you waiting for?" Adrian pressed when he realised neither of us were about to move. Should't you be making arrangements to head to Russia?
"This is the post we were assigned to. This is our mission. We cannot leave." Dimitri's tone was measured, and I'm almost certain neither Adrian nor Sydney could hear the regret in his voice.
Adrian shot Sydney another look and she produced an envelope from the satchel that seemed to follow her everywhere lately. "We thought you might say that. It's for you." Sydney extended her hand to me, and I stood up and took the letter from her. Curiously I crossed the room and sat in the armchair opposite them.
Guardian Hathaway
Your official orders are to go to Baia for a private mission by command of the Queen. You are to take Guardian Belekov with you. Regards, Guardian Dostoevsky.
Relief for your post will arrive in three days and their transport will take you to the airport.
Lissa's name and signature were also stamped on the bottom of the letter signalling that it had passed through her desk and she had approved it's content. Standard procedure for guardians of the royal court these days. I sighed with frustration. When we had been assigned here, Lissa had giggled telling me there was more than one reason for giving us this post and I knew exactly what it was the minute we walked through the door. She wanted us to have an opportunity to really be a couple, not spend the rest of our lives on one mission or another when guardian duty wasn't calling our names. I appreciated it, a lot. But honestly we were guardians. It was our job.
I handed the note to Dimitri, and I saw relief wash over him. At least now it was an order. I had a feeling our next change in post was also Lissa's doing, and I made a mental note to thank her profusely the next time we saw her. A few hours rolled by and Adrian and Sydney excused themselves. Adrian didn't live on a human schedule, so for him the rising sun meant bed time. Honestly, I was too worried about Olena to think about sleep. I knew only one thing for sure: there was something Sydney and Adrian wasn't telling us, and I had three days to find out what that was.