First Encounter
"You have to hit it harder Rose, harder, you're not concentrating!" Gomez shouted at me frustrated. I glared back at him and grunted as I punched the punching bag with all my might and stepped back. I leaned my head back and looked at the ceiling as I let out a gust of air. It had been three months since I had left Vladimir Academy, since I had left Lissa alone at the gate of the school. It tore me apart leaving her there all by herself unprotected, but for once in my life I was doing what I had to do for me. I was going to travel to the one place I knew the man I loved would be, and kill him. I looked over at Gomez as he handed me a water bottle and towel. I sat down with him against the Wall. Gomez was a trusted well known Guardian who protected the Dashkov family normally. Adrian had done me a great favour when I set out looking for Dimitri. He gave me access to his money when I needed it and gave Gomez to me as a companion on my journey, not to help me fight because I refused to let anyone fight Dimitri with me I have to do it alone, but to help me keep up my training along the way. We had just arrived in a small village outside Moscow about 3 days earlier and I had insisted on leaving Gomez at the edge of town while looking for Dimitri who I felt was here somewhere, but Gomez told me I wasn't ready to face him I was forced to agree. "You have to work harder Rose! I don't want to be this hard on you, but how do you expect to beat a man who taught u everything you know?" Gomez said sympathetically touching my shoulder. I shrugged his hand off and glanced at him.
"Don't worry about me Gomez I got this, I have a few tricks up my sleeves." I said lightly rubbing my non existing sleeves that were my arms bare covered in sweat. Gomez sighed and stood up. I wiped my forehead with the towel and gulped down some water. "Look lets head back to the inn, I need a very nice cold shower and a change of clothes, and I need to get some rest before I'm waking you up early tomorrow to kick more of my ass." I said as I stood up packing my equipment into my expensive work out bag that Adrian kindly paid for.
"Uh-uh no way! I'm sick of all this working out and no play. Look you're in Europe Rose! You have to experience a little fun even though you're on this big huge mission to kill Mr. Lover once in my life. We're going out tonight and I don't care what you say, plus it'll be harder for you to wake me up if I'm trying to nurse a hang over." Gomez said smirking as he pulled me out the doors of the gym and towards the Inn across the street. I let him walk me into the lobby and then shrugged out of his arm and watched him turn around to face me looking confused.
"You don't know anything Gomez, I can't just go out and have fun, this mission is my life now, I made a promise I need to keep for myself and for Dimitri." I said staring off into the distance. I tried to ignore the stinging pang I felt every time I thought of him or said his name. I then realized Gomez was staring at me and shook of the brief feeling of heart break. "Besides nursing hang over's? You're a Guardian; shouldn't you be a little more responsible then that?" I replied quirking an eyebrow. Gomez smirked and pushed me towards the stairs.
"What can I say? Being here with you? Well it's like a vacation for me." Gomez replied smiling back up at me. I rolled my eyes and headed up the stairs. "Wear something nice, but black! We don't want to stand out too much now do we?" Gomez asked teasingly following me to head to his room.
"Better buy me a drink." I mumbled sourly to him as I closed my door in his face and looked in the wardrobe for clothing I had bought while in Europe. As I showered and got ready I thought that this wouldn't be too bad, it would give me a chance to view my surroundings and maybe see possible places where Strigoi in the city might hang out at night. As I headed down the stairs Gomez smiled up at me.
"So you do own other clothing besides sweats and a tank." Gomez said teasingly. I rolled my eyes at him and followed him to the rental we had to drive the 20 minutes to Moscow. It was a silent ride which was okay because when we reached the night club it wasn't so quiet. Gomez immediately led us to the bar where I didn't complain as he plopped the drink he had bought me into my hands. (Drink that Adrian probably bought me I guess.) We sat on the stools talking small talk for a bit until Gomez started getting a little antsy and insisted on dancing I upright refused to dance with him, but told him to go ahead. He frowned, but got up and bounced towards the dance floor where he started dancing with a few girls. I simply rolled my eyes and chuckled a little to myself, for someone who was a full time guardian on most days, the guy certainly had a sense of humor. I stood up and walked towards a set of doors that led to an outside guardian where people could go and get some air. I walked admiring the pretty flowers and lights that lit up the walk ways. I was alone as people danced and laughed the night away. I thought about how silly Gomez was, but at the same time how grateful I was kind of to have him with me. I knew really I was alone in this and I did feel alone most of the time, but I appreciated the company of that silly man who could take my thoughts off Dimitri while I punched the crap out of a bag. As I stood alone now though thinking his name my thoughts rushed to the forbidden place of him. I thought of him, of how I yearned for him, how everything was going to turn out perfect because there was nothing to worry about as long as I knew he loved me and I loved him, we were going to make it work and then it happened, he was taken away from me. It had been a long time since I let myself think these things and a single tear slid down my face as I looked at the roses. A snap of a twig made me jump and I quickly wiped the tear away. I looked towards the darkness where there was no lights and squinted. I could see a body form, I stood up straight and defensive and glared into the darkness.
"Who's there?" I asked walking towards the darkness and then suddenly it happened. I barely dodged to the side as a man jumped at me just missing me. I turned around to face him in my defensive mode ready to fight with my hands up. This was no man it was a strigoi. He pounded towards me and I threw a few punches at him barely effective. He jumped at me and landed on top of me and he threw me to the ground. I struggled against him and was about to force myself to kick him off me so I could be the one on top when my eyes grew wide and I gasped. My wiggling had stopped. Staring down at me with glowing red eyes was Dimitri. I had never felt so unprepared in my life as tears started welling underneath my eyes. Dimitri growled at me and leaned in closer.
"Look who I found all by herself? Oh Roza I've been waiting to run into you, I knew you were around here somewhere." Dimitri snarled at me and I could see the new set of teeth he had now required. I began to squirm underneath him and his grip on my wrists tightened. I finally stopped and looked back at him and then I saw it. There was something there in his eyes when his met mine. We both stopped for a moment and his face grew serious, the red had disappeared. I searched his eyes looking for something, something was different, and he wasn't like normal strigoi I normally encountered, although he definitely had the strength. Gomez's voice broke the reverie as I heard him shouting my name looking for me. The red returned to Dimitri's eyes and he growled from low in his throat. "This isn't over Roza, next time see if u can catch me off guard." He whispered roughly into my ear and with that he had disappeared. I slowly started to get up as I heard Gomez running towards me. He helped me up and looked at me with concern.
"What happened? Are you alright?" Gomez asked as he lead me towards the parking lot. I stayed silent for a moment then paused as we got to the car and looked over at him with a fake reassuring smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine I just tripped that's all." I replied softly and got into the car. We drove back to the inn in silence. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. Dimitri!! And he knew I was tracking him, but what else did he know? And why did he look at me like that? What did I see in his eyes? Was that a little bit of humanity? Something was definitely a little weird and I couldn't wait for the next encounter with him, I was going to kick his ass.
A/N okay so my first shot at a vampire academy Fanfic, what do you think? I hope good because I do honestly have some very good ideas in my head that I have played out. I think they might even be kinda shocking so let me know okay?