I walked into the cafeteria to see a crowd surrounding something I guessed was a fight, I stepped in between people to get a better view of what was happening, and to see who the combatants were. And, what I saw completely caught me off guard, in the middle stood Christian and Adrian, Christian seemed to be on the offensive. Eddie was in between them, and it was obvious he was trying to get some control of the situation.
I shoved my way through people and ran into the middle with him. "What the hell is going on!?" I asked,
"I don't know!" Eddie said back, he seemed relieved to have me there with him.
"Of course! That's because you didn't want anyone to know!" Christian yelled over to Adrian. I'd missed the beginning of the conversation, but that didn't matter in the moment, because this was ridiculous, and I couldn't let anything stupid happen.
"Can we sit down and discuss this like the mature adults we are?" Adrian suggested, his tone was lazy and sounded easy going, but fear was still laced into it.
"What? Afraid I'll use this?" Christian said, then a ball of flame floated above the palm of his hand, bright orange and blue at the base,
I heard footsteps approaching us about fifteen away, footsteps to light and quick to be anyone but guardians,
"Christian, don't do something stupid…" I warned, he gave me a glance, and I saw uncertainty in his eyes, but that soon disappeared as he looked at Adrian again,
"What's going on here?" I heard the stern voice of Alberta, but I had a feeling Christian was going to do something rash before they reached us, I could see the resolve in his eyes, as he began the one movement with his wrist that could seriously injure adrian, "No!" I cried and I grabbed his arm before he could do it, and yanked him to the ground. I felt the searing burn on my side before we hit the ground. I heard the small screams around me as fire shot into the air, but my adrenaline was pumping again, as we struggled for power, it didn't take me lone until I pinned him down, hands beside his head, my legs straddled his torso, "Christian!" I said loudly, trying to get through to him, he struggled beneath me, but I had him on the ground, flames glowed above his hands again,
"Get off me, Rose, I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't hurt me."
"Rose…" I heard Dimitri warn, but I had to ignore him.
I was feeling breathless as the immense pain in my side began to register, I knew there were guardians near us, but they couldn't approach us while Christian was using his element offensively. I could see it in his eyes now, that glazed over…gone look, he's been compelled.
"I said, Get off me!" He yelled, I flinched as the flames dancing above his hands intensified, and an uncomfortable amount of heat washed over my knuckles where they were holding his wrists to the ground.
"No!" I yelled back, "Christian! Listen to me," He looked over toward Adrian again,
"Somebody, get him out of here!" I said, "Christian's been compelled!" I looked to the side and saw 2 guardians grab Adrian and lead him out of the cafeteria, leaving Dimitri, Stan, and Alberta with us. I could see the fear in Dimitri's eyes, he hated not being able to move forward, because if he did, he'd be putting others in the room at risk, and me…in worse danger, considering this scenario wasn't great as it was. I was fighting compulsion…on someone else, who happened to be holding flamed inches from my face, one wrong move and I could be burnt alive. Dimtri was smarter than that.
"NO!" Christian yelled again, getting my attention again, he burned my hands, and I was forced to let go, he threw me to the side, and now his anger was on me, now the tables were turned and his legs straddled my waist,
"ROSE!" I heard Dimitri yell, Christian's hand was above me and all I saw were flames, he was going to kill me, or seriously injure me, I closed my eyes.
"CHRISTIAN, STOP!" I heard Lissa's frantic voice scream as she broke into the circle. Christian froze, her voice reached him somehow.
"Please…Christian, stop!" Lissa begged him. He looked completely torn,
"I-I have to…he said I-"
"No…Christian…you don't." I said as soothingly as I could, "You're stronger than this…" He looked me in the eyes this time, and then the flames were gone. I took the chance immediately, and threw him off me, and ended up on top again, my breathing was labored, I closed my eyes tightly, fighting back tears, my body was shaking as agony coursed through me.
"You're hurt…" He said.
I felt arms around my upper torso, and I immediately knew they were Dimitri's, I didn't know how I knew that. But I didn't have time to ponder it as he pulled me off of Christian, and to the side, instead of standing, I slipped to the ground, holding my side, he immediately knew something was wrong. I choked back a small sob, and closed my eyes tightly again.
"You're hurt." He stated, his voice hard, angry and worried at the same time, he kneeled beside me, I looked down, the burn was more severe than I originally thought, my breathing was erratic as I tried to maintain the intense pain, the burn started near the middle of my stomach and extended down to my hip. He looked at me and caught my glance at my stomach, he gently moved my arm, and I whimpered in pain. When he saw the burn, he cursed in Russian, and slowly moved me into a laying position, I choked back a cry of pain again, as the movement sent waves of pain throughout me.
"Damn you, Christian." I whispered.
"Rose…I'm so sorry." I heard, he sounded far away, and I saw Stan leading him out of the cafeteria, probably for questioning.
I heard whispers all around me as people saw the wound.
"Rose, I need you to breathe, alright, this is going to hurt, but I need you to hang on." Dimitri said looking up at my face, momentarily. I couldn't say anything back though, but I braced myself as he, gently as he could, pulled my shirt up, carefully separating the melted fabric from my scorched skin. I gasped as it pulled at the raw skin, and tears welled in my eyes, instinct took over and I tried to pull his hands away.
"Here." I heard a voice, Alberta's I realized, and she handed Dimitri a glass of water, and grabbed my hands tightly in hers, in a restraining, but comforting grip as Dimitri pulled my shirt up the rest of the way.
"Oh God." I whispered seeing the glass of water, I tried my best to clear my mind, I stared up at the ceiling, bracing myself again. I closed my eyes tightly, as Dimitri poured the wet coolness over the burn, all of my muscles tensed in protest, and all my instincts told me to fight them as the water ran over my burnt, raw skin. This time I couldn't stop it as a small sob tore its way through my body. I felt Dimitri's warm, soothing hand on my stomach, to everyone else it would like he was holding me still, but I knew it was also more than that. It distracted me from the pain as that same electricity feeling went through my body, a few seconds later and the pain dimmed slightly, and the coolness of the water took some of the pain away. I lost track of time, and I felt exhausted, I felt Dimitri's arms beneath me as he picked me up bridal style, and him and Alberta took me to the clinic, Dr. olendski met us in the waiting room,
"I heard." She said, "My favorite patient is throwing herself into the middle of fights. Here, bring her over here, we'll give her some morphine, put her out for a little while we take care of the burn."
They must have taken me into a room, and I felt the sting in my arm as they hooked me to an I.V, and soon enough I lost consciousness, but the last thing I felt was a small hand on my arm and then the beautiful golden, life that was Lissa's magic as she healed me.