When I was younger, I always thought that being Lissa's guardian would mean adventures and fun times. She was, of course, my best friend, and although I knew she would have another guardian with her, I expected her to treat me casually, even when we were in public. The incident in Spokane changed that, and I knew more than ever that the Strigoi were the most terrifying beasts in the world. I wanted to protect Lissa from them, and I fervently hoped she would never have to even see one of those creatures in her lifetime.
It was a foolish wish, and one I knew wouldn't come true. She was the last in the Dragomir line, one of the strongest families in Moroi history, and there was no doubt that she would be targeted by the Strigoi. Taking her out would cause uproar in the Moroi world, and if the Strigoi wanted to be rid of the royals, taking the Dragomir line out first would be the best start. What I never expected, however, was Lissa to be attacked by her own race.
It was clear where the glass bottle had come from. It had been aimed at Lissa's head, but she very neatly dodged it. Had I have been closer to her, I would have commended her for her fast response. But the moment it smashed against the wall into thousands of shards, she was swarmed by a group of bulky guardians. I had ran over, along with a few of my colleagues, and tackled the man to the ground, someone using the choke-hold on him to stop him from struggling. He wasn't anybody I recognised, but he was a Moroi, and I spend a second to wonder how he managed to smuggle glass in here in the first place.
We had been through this routine numerous times when we were doing a standard drill, and so I knew exactly what to do and when to do it. Without hesitating, I patted the man down, making sure he had nothing else concealed on his body before nodding to Matthew, another of Lissa's guardians and a friend of mine, who dragged him off to the Court Prison. That was only when I realised that the crowds had disappeared. Including Lissa. In the past, when I didn't know where she was, I would simply use the bond to see if she was okay and see where about she was. However, that was no longer an option, so I had to go off pure gut feeling to where I thought my charge would be. The guardians would have escorted her out of the room, of course, but once she was safely back inside the walls of the palace, they would just let her go where she wished.
She had been ruling for approximately six months now, and although she was still a bit shaky, we had both fallen into a routine. She attended Leigh five days a week, appointing Arianna Szelsky in charge when she was away. As her head guardian and best friend, I was allowed to join Lissa in her classes, acting as her best friend and roommate. There were a few select Moroi who attended Leigh, of course, but they all tended to stick together, and avoided Liss and I. Perhaps the idea of being college friends with the Moroi Queen intimidated them a little.
However, today was Saturday, and we had just arrived back last night. Christian had been away visiting some relatives the past week, and Dimitri and I hadn't had a chance to catch up yet. So I assumed that Lissa was with Christian, which would also lead me to my boyfriend. When I approached their master bedroom, Dimitri was standing guard outside the door, and I smiled to myself. He looked so hot in his guardian uniform, and he was wearing the watch that I gave to him as soon as I was up and actively about after being shot. I'd organised with Lissa before about both of our guardian shifts ending at the same time, and I glanced up at the large grandfather clock that stood at the end of the hallway. 4:25am. Our shifts ended in 5 minutes, and although we knew it would be fine to leave Christian and Liss alone, Dimitri always refused to leave his post even a few minutes early.
The palace was so heavily guarded that the royal couple didn't need permanent guardians, but as we were so close to them, and spent most of our time with them, Dimitri and I always guarded them. Technically, all of the guardians had shifts where they had to be their personal guardians for a few hours, but I often just told them to go and guard something else. However, I had already warned the people on the shift after us that we would be doing our own thing tonight.
I had no idea what that thing was. Dimitri had texted me last night to tell me to keep my evening free and come meet him after his shift. Judging by Dimitri's stiff posture, and the closed bedroom door, I assumed that things were getting hot and heavy the bedroom. I rolled my eyes, and just as I was about to approach him, I heard footsteps behind me. It was Dimitri's replacement for the night, a guardian whose name I couldn't remember. As Lissa's personal guardian, it was my job to organise the shifts for everybody, if I didn't offload the job to someone else, and I had to learn so many names that I couldn't remember everyone. Of course, Dimitri knew every single person, their history, and all of their details.
"Here to take over, Guardian Jacobs?" I heard Dimitri's voice float over from behind me, his slight Russian accent complimenting his stronger, American one. Jacobs nodded, and walked over, me trailing behind him. Dimitri shook hands with his replacement, and told him not to enter the room unless he wanted to be mentally scarred for life, before taking my hand and leading me off down the corridor. We walked in a comfortable silence. That was one of the best things about our relationship – we didn't need words to express our feelings. However, curiosity was burning me, and eventually I broke the silence. "Where are we going?"
He chuckled, and shook his head. "Wait and see," he replied with a smirk, and I hit him playfully on the arm. I could have pressured him for a better answer, and the old Rose Hathaway probably would have, but I decided to play along with him, trusting that he wouldn't take me anywhere that I would despise. He knew me too well... and he knew I would pitch a fit if he ruined our night alone by taking me to some crappy place that he enjoyed, like a book reading. He did that to me once, and I kicked him out of our room for the night. What was worse was that it was a western book we had to listen to.
I suddenly realised that we were standing in front of our room's door. As guardians, we had a room to sleep in, but as we were the royal couple's personal guardians, we got a very large room to sleep it. So large, in fact, that there was enough room for a sitting room with a TV and a sofa, a small kitchen, dining table, and a large king sized bed. Along with our en suite bathroom with a power shower and Jacuzzi bath, we were very content in our room.
I shot a puzzled look at Dimitri. I wanted a romantic night, not one eating nachos in front of the TV! I could do that anytime! He chuckled, and shook his head at me. He always seemed to know what I was thinking, like he was a mind reader or something. He handed my his key, and told me to open the door. Rolling my eyes, I pulled my own key out and turned to him. "I'm not as irresponsible and forgetful as you always think, Comrade," I remarked before opening the door.
What lay in front of me took my breath away. The room was lit only by the soft glow of vanilla scented candles that lay dotted around our apartment, and the thick, dark red curtains were drawn, restricting any light from outside to enter the room. There were red rose petals scattered across every surface and the floor, and our small dining table had been covered in a white tablecloth and set with cutlery and plates for two people. Romantic music was being played from our music system, and the whole room was filled with a feeling of romance and love.
"I... Don't know what to say," I whispered, still looking around the room in astonishment. Dimitri chuckles softly, and led me into our apartment. "You'll find some clothes ready in the bathroom," he told me before heading towards our kitchen, from where a delicious smell was being emitted. I watched him wistfully for a few minutes, and then headed into the bathroom, curious to what he'd placed out for me. I expected the black dress that I wore when Lissa was captured, but what I found was something that I'd never seen before, and it took my breath away.
It was a short dress, strapless, that looked like it would stop around mid thigh. It was a dark red colour, and had black sequins on the bottom of the dress. It was simple yet sexy, and I was fairly sure Dimitri must have had Lissa's help in picking it. I didn't know how they managed it, because I was with Lissa pretty much all the time. However, I didn't allow myself too much time to think about it, and put the dress on. It fitted like a glove, and it was the type of dress that didn't leave much to the imagination. Completely and utterly my type.
After brushing my hair quickly and applying some essential makeup, I exited the bathroom, where Dimitri sat at the table in a tuxedo, with two plates of food already served. I laughed as his eyes nearly popped out of his sockets when he looked at me. The amusement in his dark brown orbs soon changed to lust and desire as I sat on his lap, my lips just centimetres away from his. "Thank you," I whispered, knotting my hands in his hair. I leant forward, gently brushing my lips with his, and he emitted a moan, pulling me closer. I allowed myself to follow his lead for a few seconds before pulling away. "Our food will go cold," I told him breathlessly, hopping off his lap and moving to the other side of the table.
Our dinner was delicious, as always, and it passed quickly. We mostly ate in silence, except for passing a few comments about our day. He had already been informed of what happened before with the bottle, and only asked a few questions, like whether I was okay. My reply to this was an eyeroll, and he chuckled, sending shivers down my spine. He should know better. I've survived so many worse things that a drunk man at a speaking, and yet he continued to worry about me. Sometimes, especially one week a month, I took this very personally, and assumed that he was implying that I was weak and couldn't look after myself.
I cleaned the plates up as Dimitri took two mousses out of the fridge. They were chocolate, my favourite, and sprinkled with chocolate shavings and chocolate balls. I'm pretty sure my eyes lit up with happiness, and I completely forgot about the dishes. He placed them down on the table, and I wolfed mine down, not noticing that my boyfriend wasn't touching his. When I'd finished it about a minute later, a cold, brown mess hit me in the face, and dripped down onto the white tablecloth. I glared at him, realised I had nothing to throw back. Dimitri, meanwhile, was roaring with laughter.
After looking around the room desperately, I resulted to scraping the mousse off my face and throwing it right back at him, hitting him on his forehead. The moment the goo left my hand, I launched out of my seat and threw myself behind the sofa, knowing he wouldn't throw anything messy over there in fear of it touching the furniture. He was paranoid like that, and was constantly nagging at me to pick up my clothing that I liked to leave lying on the floor.
Dimitri washed his face with a tablecloth, and came over to me, shrugging off his tuxedo jacket. I allowed myself a long period of time to bask in his glory. His shirt was tight, emphasizing his biceps and six pack, and he's let his hair loose, making him look sexier. I was just thinking about how lucky I was to have him when he finally reached me and gathered me up in his arms. They were like a safety blanket to me, and I immediately forgot all of my worries.
"We haven't done this in ages. I've missed you," he murmured into my hair, sending chills through my body. I looked up to smile at him, and saw the love from my eyes reflect in his. It reminded me of when I was still out of action from Tasha's gunshot, and Dimitri took time off to care for me, much to my frustration. I hated that he had to serve me, even though he seemed to enjoy it. Although I was ready to go back into action almost immediately, Lissa wasn't convinced, and forced me to stay off for a month afterwards.
Tasha was found guilty of murdering the queen, and was sentenced to death. It was hard on Christian, and for a while he held a grudge towards me, but he eventually left it behind him, with a lot of help from Lissa. We were now closer than ever, whether that had anything to do with the fact that we both knew that we'd have to put up with each other for the rest of our lives now I don't know. Christian had popped the question about a month ago, and of course Lissa had been over the moon.
She'd dragged me into wedding planning with all guns blazing, and it had really turned me off getting married. The Moroi and Dhampir community still hadn't fully accepted the fact that Dimitri and I were together. We still got weird looks from people in court, even though Lissa had done her best to open people up to the idea, and we didn't show many public displays of affection, but people were still aware of it.
Dimitri laid me down on the bed and lay on top of me, hovering a few inches above me. He brushed the straw locks of hair away from my face, his hand lingering on my cheek as he caressed it lovingly. His smouldering eyes rested on my lips, and I licked them cheekily, teasing him, taunting him. He chuckled again, and I smiled lazily. "I love you," I said earnestly, before pulling his face down to mine. Against my lips he repeated my comment back to me, making me fade into the world that only he and I occupate.