Chapter One

Training

God damn it, I creased as I ran down the hall. The one day that I decided to sleep in, well my body made the diction for me but who cares about details. It's not like I could teach myself how to kill Strigoi all by myself. That is why I have Caron teaching me the ropes. Of course I could ask my older brother to teach me, but he just took on teaching a girl around my age. I rounded another corner and kept on running to the gym. I have my shoulder length black hair up in a pony tail and my dark hazel eyes aiming toward my destination. My family is proud of me, I know they are, even if I haven't been in Russia for a few years. I remember my brother bringing me here to America seven years ago. I don't know why he choice me out of all his sibling to join him to this academy but he did, and I don't regret it.

Out of breath, I burst thought the gym doors and right when my foot stepped into the gym, that booming voice brought me down. "Aqua Maria Belikov," Caron's brightly dark green eyes frowned down at me. He's close to Dimitri's age, about two years younger , but he was still three years older than me. Caron is also close to my brother height to, like 6'7'' and his frame is full of muscle. If there is one thing that I know, is that Caron is plenty stronger then my brother. But even then, I wouldn't call Caron a better Guardian then Dimitri. "For the millionth time, you're late." I could also hear his German accent, it was faint, fainter then my Russian accent, but you could still hear it if you focus on it.

I glared up at him. "That is such bull, this is like the tenth time I've ever been late."

He shook his head, making his golden brown hair fly in his eyes. "That is beside the point Maria, you need to be on time always."

I rolled my eyes. "I'd get better treatment with Dimitri…"

"Will you please," I didn't see that Caron had moved closer in front of me until I felt him hit me over the head. "Stop comparing to me your brother."

"Ouch," I yelled. "What did you do that for!"

"Because your acting like Dimitri when he was younger." Caron snapped at me.

"Hum, duh, that's because we are brother and sister." I smacked him over the shoulder and gave him the no duh look.

"You know what I mean Aqua." He said. "Your brother was argent, more friendly when he and I were in the furan class together."

"Ya I know." I say flatly.

"He brought you here when you were so young." Caron said wisely. "I know why he left Russia and possibly why he brought his younger sister…"

"Shut up." I spit at him. "You don't know anything about me or my family. You're supposed to be training me."

Caron blow out a long breath. "Yes of course, how silly of me, let's begin."

Me and Caron haven't known each other for that long and have just started to over the last few months. I didn't want to be hard on him, but he's starting to act like a know-it-all. Just because he knows my brother doesn't really mean that much to me. I picked up the plastic stake that we use for practice. At times Caron just seems to be nothing but a big bully. He never lets me off easy for anything and acts more like a father then a teacher. Caron planted his feet in the strong fighting stands and I shove the stake into my belt. I could feel the muscles in my legs ball up when Caron made the first move. Covering more ground with his long legs, he reacts me within moments and ready to grip my arm. But I'm faster than him. I side step him, turn on my heel so that I could swing my leg into his back. This made him lost his balance and fall to the ground. Caron did a tuck and roll and was back in his feet a few feet away from me. He grins at me, telling me that was a good move, and then in the next moment he was charging at me again. I move away from his first punk and kicked him on the side of his right knee. It was enough force that he buckled and was brought down to one knee. I couldn't help but laugh and that's when he had his opening. Caron quickly rose from his knees and pushed me back with his body. It was like I was being hit with a train as we flow back and hit the fare wall. I hit my head pretty hard, stars danced across my view and I was a little dizzy.

Caron pulled away a little and glared down at me. "You let your guard down, how many…" That's when he must have noticed that I was a little off balance. He cups my face in his massive palms and his vibrant green eyes flaked with worry. "Aqua, are you alright, does your head hurt?"

I blink to try to get the stars out of my eyes. "Ya, I'm alright, just a little dizzy."

He brushed a stray lock of my hair away from my eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to use so much force…"

"It's all right Caron," I say with a smile. "Your just doing your job." There was a long pause and all we did was look at each other. Green and hazel, I've never told him but Caron has stunning eyes. I never thought that color green could ever be an eye color. And by the way that he was looking into my eyes, I think he was having the same thought about my eye color. Mentally I shook my head, this was insane, so what if we were thinking about the color of our eyes. We have more important things to do at the moment but Caron has seemed to forget about them. He raised his left hand and ran that hand throw my hair. In doing this, he pulled out my hair band and dropped it on the floor. "Caron," I whispered as my cheeks fill with color.

"Maria…" Caron started to close the space between us and then I heard a whizzing sound. One moment, Caron was standing right in front of me, the next a doge ball hit him the head and he flow off to the side.

I gasped. "Caron," I turned on the person who did that. "Hey, what the hell…"

I was pulled into a head locked and got my hair messed up. "Don't say hell young lady."

"Dimitri! You damn Russian, let me go." I growled at my brother.

"Hey now be nice," He scolded me and released me. "Your Russian to so don't be bitter."

My gaze lowered to the floor. "Sorry barbrosta."

I could hear a smile in his voice. "It's alright sistro, just be more careful." Me and Dimitri have these pet names for each other. They weren't the real Russian names for brother or sister but the two of us just made it up.

"So," I look back up into his brown eyes. "What are you doing here brother?"

He smirks at me. "Just wanted to see how you were doing on your training and I wanted you to meet someone," Dimitri turns and opens his left arm wide to show the young girl standing behind him. She was about my height and has long brown hair in a pony tail. She has darker tanned skin like me because of all the sun light that we get and has dark colored eyes. My brother nodded. "Aqua, this is my new student, Rosemarie Hathaway."

The girl smiles at me. "Just call me Rose."

"And Rose, this is my sister Aqua Maria." Dimitri finished the introductions.

I returned the smile. "Just Aqua, thank you Rose." Then I just remembered. "Oh and the guy behind me is my teacher, Caron Viertel. "

"Don't tell me that you did that yourself Dimitri," Caron had gotten to his feet okay with a nice red mark on his face. Ouch, he was going to feel that tommorow. Caron gave my brother a jugmental look that he gives me but this time the look was given in a more joking fashion. "And here I thought that you had better restrant then that old friend."

Dimitri gave Caron a playfully smug smile. "I do, and I give full credit to my stundent."

Caron looked at Rose and raised an eyebrow. "Still have restrant do you. In what way, yourself and your student or just you?"

Rose smiled a devil smile. "It was really fun to throw that ball at you by the way."

Caron smiled. "What did you use, a left or right curve becuase it really felt like a right."

"Good call on that one Mr. Viertel." Rose brust into a big grin, she must really like his sence of humor.

"So Caron," My brother inquired. "How is my sister doing in training."

Caron walked froward and messed up my hair even more. I swear, it must be sticking up like spikes by now. "Oh she's a natrual old friend, I think that she is going to be better then you one day."

Dimitri smiled down at me with pride. "And I'll be every proud when that moment comes."

I blushed at my brother praise, I normally don't get it much but whenever I do...I treasure it.

" Barbrosta, your too kind." I say in a whispered voice.

My brother leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. "Always for my baby sistro."

"So," Caron started to ask. "How is your student Dimitri?"

My brother's face turned into that serious teacher face again."Rose is doing well, she'll make a great Guardian one day."

"Maybe neven better then you one day brother." I teased.

Dimitri glared at me, warning me in a teasing, brotherly way to shut my mouth."Well, we should leave the two of you to training."

I give my brother a quick hug. "I love you Barbrosta."

He returns my hug. "I love you to Sistro."

Kissing me on the forehead, my brother turned and told Rose to fallow. I called after him."See you at dinner tonight brother."

"Look froward to it sister." Dimitri smiled and walked out of the gym doors.

Once the doors to the gym were closed, Caron came to my side and hit me upside the head. "You can be such an embressment."

I growled up at him. "How about I continue what I was doing earlier, kicking your ass."

He smirks at me. "I'd love to see you try."

I swing my leg up and try to knee him in the gut but he was already moving away from me. "Hold still." He just smiles at me and lungs for me. I roll off to the side and land on the balls of my feet. In a fast motion, like I'm break dancing, I lift myself up with one hand and useing my weight, I spin in a cycle. In doing this I was able to catch Caron on the ankle just in time and bring him to the ground. He yelled and fell to the ground. Acting fast I get up as fast as I can and use my weight to pin him to the ground.

Caron huffed when I was sitting on his mid back. "You cheated."

I laughed. "No I didn't, it's called I used what my teacher taught me."

I heard a smile in his voice. "True Maria, very true."

A Few Hours Later

The training session ended in it's normal way. I was still kicking Caron's butt and now I'm happy to be in my brothers and cooking us dinner. It wasn't really common for silbings here at this school to be so family like or at least, that is what I've noticed. But the other students don't matter to me, all that matters to me is to share these simple few hours with my bother, the only family that I have in America. I don't hate America, it was a nice country and has good people. But i think that Russia has better family ties then here and Dimitri is the last bit of family that I have. I spoon up the wild spice soup into bowls and walk over to where my brother was sitting. He was in the small living room's cushion chair and reading one of his favorite old west novels. Brother had changed out of his training cloths and was now in his pj pants and white tank top. I set his bowl and spoon on the side table and sit on the floor infront of him."There is your dinner barbrosta, wild spice, your favorite."

"Thank you sistro." He says and puts back his book mark. Placing the book beside the plat that soup bowl was on and picked up the bowl. Hunger sparkled in his eyes as he spooned out some soup into his mouth. Dimitri smiles."This is very good Aqua."

"Just like momma made it." I ask him.

Dimitri's eyes soften."That and more sistro, mom would be proud."

"I wish we could see her and our siblings." I say sadly and take a sip of my soup.

"You know why we can't," Brother said sadly into his soup.

"I'm sure that father is gone by now..."

"It dosen't matter," Dimitri told me."You know that home is not the same after what he did."

"I know," I say, thinking about what my father did to my sweet mother. I know that Dimitri did the right thing, not wanting me to have the fate as our sisters. But we both missed home, it was hard to think about what could be happening back in Russia."Dimitri?"

"Yes," He says as he eats.

"What are your feelings on Rose?"

He stops eating for a moment."She's a good students and learns fast..."

"Yes but I saw a sparkle in your eyes today." I say soflty."Are you...I don't know, liking her..."

"That is insane Aqua," Brother cuts in."Rose is just a student, in a way becoming a good friend I guess you could say. But no, there is nothing romantic going on sistro."

"But barbrosta," I start to say.

He shakes his head."No buts sistro, Rose is to young for me to begin with yet some other things." But then Dimitri throws that card back at me."And what about Caron."

I blush a little."What about him?"

"I saw him pin you to the wall today," Dimitri scowls at me.

"It was part of the training session." I defended.

"Funny, that's not how it looked from where I was standing." He says with a raised eyebrow.

I shake my head."Look, whatever the case may be. Caron is my teacher and that's it okay."

His eyebrow was still raised."You sure."

"I promise barbrosta." I tell him honestly.

After a moments hesataion, Dimitri sighs."Alright, I turst you Aqua."

After that we finished our soaps and I made my bed on the couch for the night. Dimitri tuks me and kisses me good night on my forehead. It was such a childish thing to let him do but I just don't mind. Once the good nights were out of the way, Dimitri turned and walked around to his bed to fall asleep. Me on the other hand stayed up a little longer and thought about what happened in the gym. I know that brother has a point and it really could be true with Caron. But if it was...what was I going to do about it.