Disclaimer:
Dimitri: She doesn't own VA
Me: Can I at least borrow one particular character?
Dimitri: I'm sorry, I belong strictly to Roza
Me: Some girls have all the luck…
"Rose?" I blinked as I looked around the forest. That voice wasn't the normal one that went with the majority of my dreams. Lissa suddenly appeared out of the corner of my eye. "I did it Rose! Finally!" she cheered jumping up and down happily. I smiled, maybe now she'll stop throwing off my sleep patterns to make me go to sleep during her spirit practices.
"That's great Lissa," I replied. "But really, I go to sleep to get away from the rest of the world." Then again if my dreams were being occupied by Lissa or Adrian then I wouldn't be able to have nightmares again. Every night it was the same thing…
Rain was pouring down blurring my vision and I ran through the forest. I could hear footsteps not a few yards ahead of me. I pushed my legs harder against the grassy floor, ignoring the scratches inflicted on my cheeks by the limbs just as a dark figure came into sight.
"Dimitri!" I screamed as my lungs felt as if they were burning as I dropped to the ground. The silhouette stopped and turned slightly staring at me.
"You can't save me Roza," he said darkly. "You failed me."
"No," I whispered crawling towards him. "I can still save you, please," I begged him. He shook his head before smirking showing his bright fangs.
"No, but you can still join me," he whispered crouching down to my level. I wanted to react, I wanted to fight back, hell I wanted to be able to move. My muscles felt locked into place, as if I was too tired to move one inch.
"No..." I mumbled. The ends of his smirk heightened.
"You make it sound like I asked," he replied and his fangs pierced the flesh of my neck.
Every morning I would wake up screaming, probably scared the crap out of anyone around to hear me. Then again they probably just got used to my weirdness; think I was just going crazy again. Only once did someone actually come in, Alberta a couple nights ago must've been on patrol when she heard me screaming. She didn't even say anything, she just walked in and held me while I cried. I honestly can say I have never cried in front of a teacher before (unless you count Dimitri who is/was the love of my life). She never mentioned it again, (thank God) but it sort of confirmed she knew about me and Dimitri.
"Thanks for helping me out Rose," Lissa chirped grabbing me into an embrace. I laughed as I wrapped my arms around her.
"No prob, really wasn't much work, just had to fall asleep," I chuckled.
"Hey I'm going to tell Adrian, see ya when you wake up," she said happily still in an amazing mood. The entire world began to shake and then I opened my eyes staring at the red cotton pillow case directly in front of my face. I rolled over to stare at the clock, 10:32. Oh crap… I can't even catch a break on a weekend! I jumped out of bed throwing on a singlet and shorts sprinting over to the gym.
"And so you don't always have to make an outright strike, sometimes a distraction- and ladies and gentlemen the ever so late, Ms. Hathaway," Christian smirked as I unceremoniously stumbled into the room.
"Shut it Lava Boy," I grumbled. If anything his grin just got bigger.
"Whatever you say Shark Girl," he laughed. "Floors all yours." There was about five Moroi there, one of which was Jill who looked slightly like she was going to have a heart attack. Sheesh you would think I was guest starring on Ellen's show the way these kids were staring at me.
"Right so first rules of defense are…" I gave demonstrations for about half a hour trying to assess where each was and correct any mistakes. Remarkably, they were decent. At least in form, I highly doubted that much force was behind their attacks but it was something.
"So like this?" Jill asked me shyly but still excitedly.
"Close, make sure your thumb is never on the inside of your fist, then you would bring your arm up and direct it to hit underneath your opponent's chin," I instructed demonstrating with my own arm missing Christian's chin by centimeters. For the next hour Christian took back over trying to combine what I taught them with some magic instruction. That was quite a bit rougher. I somehow managed to get soaked, get the wind knocked out of me, and my shirt very nearly caught fire (although I somehow doubting that was an accident).
I sunk to the gym floor nursing a water bottle after the last of the 'students' had left. "So you and Belikov huh?" I very nearly spat out my water.
"How-What… Who…" I sputtered as Christian began to laugh.
"Score one for me, Rose Hathaway speechless… it was just a guess. You would be surprised the things you can figure out after you look outside your own perspective, something you probably wouldn't know about. That and your reaction right there," he snickered. At the moment I was having conflicting reflex responses- Fight or Flight. Either run from the room or beat the crap out of him just to wipe that smirk off his face.
"Might as well add you to my list of people who know now," I grumbled trying to ignore both reflexes. "You, Adrian…"
"Wait the drunk knows?"
"Yes Adrian figured it out way before you, so negative score for you. You got beat at figuring something out by a drunk. I'm pretty sure Alberta knows, and I told Lissa." His smile faltered slightly at Lissa's name. I sighed deeply, "When are you two going to cut the shit and just kiss and make up or whatever the hell you two are going to do?"
"Look things are still-"
"If I wrote out a lengthy apology full of mushy lovey dovey stuff and signed Lissa's name at the bottom would you two get back together?" I asked dryly. "Cause when you're talking to the girl whose," I swallowed choking but a sob. I would not cry in front of Christian. "love her life became a Strigoi, and your soul mate is physically fine and just in the other dorm, along the way my sympathy died."
"And what if Dimitri kissed my aunt and tried to hide it from you?" he asked darkly. I froze, that still was a touchy subject with me.
"That's different," I hissed. "Everyone thinks they would make sense together."
"Oh and you think Lissa and Aaron wouldn't make more sense together than us?" Christian asked. "I'm not stupid Shark girl, I know how people looked at us and what they think about me. I mean it wasn't really love at first sight with us either, it took a while for you to love me too." I snorted, that's one thing we had in common, our egos.
"Yea sure," I rolled my eyes.
"Is that where you were for those weeks you were out of school? Trying to kill him?" he asked curiously. I nodded refusing to look at him. "He really is a totally different guy. I would know," he sighed. "They were completely different when they came back. But the worst part is, it's not like they forget you, they still in some twisted way love you. He tried to change you didn't he?"
I bit my lip, "He tried to convince me." Luckily he didn't ask me how close I was to accepting that offer. He didn't have to.
"You going to try to kill him again?" he asked. "I know you promised you would stick around until graduation."
"Well..." I decided that I trusted him enough. "There's a rumor that Victor's brother has brought a Strigoi back before. Robert Doru, he was a spirit user too. Problem is nobody's heard from the guys in forever."
"Jailbreak huh? Lissa is going to love that," he stated sarcastically.
"She didn't really take it well, but she agreed to help anyway. We may be able to use compulsion to get him to fess up everything he knows." He cocked his head to one side, his jet black hair falling across his face.
"You know you'll need a lot of help with that," he said. The corners of my mouth turned upwards. "Need any extra firepower?"
"You should you and Lissa would be cool?"
"Rose honestly you're like the strange, egotistic, sadistic, older sister I never had… and possibly wanted… What I'm saying is, I'll be helping you out, and I won't let a fight with your other friend," I think both of us flinched when he said 'other friend', "get in the way of that."
"Thanks, I think…" I take the closest things to compliments from Christian when I can. "But we're running out of time, he's coming to change or kill me soon. If we're going to try anything then we need to do that soon."
"Well then," he jumped up. "Call in whoever you think will help us out and who is trustworthy."
"Thanks Christian," I smiled wrapping my arms around his shoulders in a sort of awkward hug. Suddenly I saw the two of us from someone with a perspective of the gym door. Oh and did I mention that there was some boiling rage going on with that?
"Lissa!" I yelled as I saw her sprinting down the hallway.
AN: Please review I write faster when motivated and I have a basic idea of where this story is going but if you have any ideas please share!