Nina's Story

Chapter 1 - I Really Am Like My Mother!

"Nina, open the hell up!" I startle awake from the shouting coming from the other side of my dorm room door. Sitting up, I look over at the clock sitting on my bedside table. It's bloody two in the morning. Who the hell is needing me at two in the morning?

"Nina Vasilissa Belikov, you open your door right now or I kick it down." Ah hell it's Andre. What the hell does he want now? And how the hell he managed to get up to my room is beyond me. I notice that he used my full name which means he's either drunk or pissed off but judging by all the noise he's making, I'd bet it's both.

Andre yells and pounds on the door again. "Ok, ok, I'm coming!" I yell back. Rolling out of bed, I walk to the door and slide the lock open.

"Jesus Christ! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know what kind of trouble you'll get us in if someone finds you up here?" I ask him as I open the door and pull him in before someone comes looking for the noise or my door ends up on the floor.

"Well Nina, I, your best friend, have come to cheer you up." He announces, then bends forward in what I think is his attempt at a graceful bow. Then he produces a half empty bottle. Yeah, he's definitely wasted.

"At two in the morning, are you seriously that stupid? And why the hell are you even drinking?" He shrugs, somehow loses his balance at the same time, and flops against the wall to keep him upright. "Just give me the bottle and go back to your room. Please try not to get caught. Then if you manage to get out of bed at an appropriate hour, I'll talk to you at breakfast." I say taking the bottle he was holding out to me. He protests as I reopen the door and push him out but it's mostly incoherent mumble.

After locking the door, I walk straight into the bathroom and poor the rest of the alcohol down the sink. I up glance at myself in the mirror. Anyone would think I'd been the one drinking with the way I look right now. I go and lay back in bed, hoping that André gets back to his room without getting caught by the guardians patrolling outside or passing out somewhere. I suppose I don't really have the right to be too mad at Andre. I'm known to have a drink or two… or more. But I know when I've had enough so that I'll still be able to get up and go to combat classes the next day. Andre however, has no stop button and is known as quite the partier like our Mum's used to be at on stage, so I'm told. My Mother, I can believe but I can't imagine that Queen Vasilissa Dragomir has ever touched a bottle. Queen Vasilissa, or Auntie Lissa as I call her, is the one in charge of our vampire world. She's constantly dealing with the idiots of the royal elite who have their heads and old ways shoved up their asses and fighting for innovative ways to better our society. The main thing she has been involved in that has changed the way our society for the better is a new law that makes it compulsory for Moroi to take specialized defence classes to learn how to fight using their elements. She also was involved in designing an element class for students who specialize in spirit, like she does, as well as a test for those who have not yet specialized to see if they are spirit users which has unearthed more and more spirit uses. Let's just say it's not as rare as they thought it was. No one was surprised when Lissa's youngest child Lilly is a spirit user like her or that Andre is a fire user like his Dad Christian.

I think about Andre's comment about 'cheering me up'. He's right I suppose. The last couple of days I have been moping around and hating on pretty much everyone, especially my combat partners. It's not his fault though, my parents have gone to Russia for a week and I wasn't allowed to go with them. I haven't seen my family in Baia for six months. We usually go at the end of each year in the Christmas break but Auntie Vika just had her second baby so Mom and Dad went early. They told me I couldn't go because I couldn't afford to miss out on school because while their gone we have a bunch of tests. So, in true Hathaway style, I've really pissed off. Everyone always says I'm my Father in discipline but my Mother in attitude. My teachers tell me I act just like my mother when she was my age and when I ague and say I'm not, they say 'yep definitely just like her'.

I am sixteen years old and will be graduating in two years to become a guardian. I am the top student in all my combat and guardian related classes but let's just say I hold a B average in all my other classes. With parents like mine, Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov, there's a lot of pressure on me to be as good if not better than them. My parents are tough on me when it comes to training and my duty as a guardian but for everything else they don't really care. Well Dad does but Mom just tells him to shut up and let me live. I love fighting and knowing that I'll make a difference when it comes to killing strigoi so it's not that bad.

Andre is one of my best friends. All our friends tell me that he's totally into me but I don't want to ruin our friendship by taking it any further. He's hot, I'll give him that, but I've always seen him as more of a brother, so it would be kind of weird to date him. He's dated a lot of girls while I've never even had a boyfriend. I mean I'm be a huge flirt but nothing more. I don't really have the time. My other best friend Becca Ivashkov, Adrian and Kat Ivashkov's eldest daughter, is going out with our other best friend Josh Castile, Eddie and Mia Castile's son. It's kind of weird how I'm friends with all of my parents' friend's kids. I guess it's because we all grew up together. Becca should technically be in the grade below us but her mom wanted her to be with the rest of us, so she started early.

I can't go back to sleep so I get dressed and sneak out to the gym. I do it all the time and I've never been caught. The woman that sits at the front desk is useless and an entire football team could get past without her noticing. I walk down the stairs to the ground floor. Keeping out of the light, I walk along the wall through the common area and straight out the door. I go around the side of the building and head for the gym. I'm lucky that the gym has no windows so I can turn the lights on. Knowing the guardians patrolling this area would be able to see the light under the door, I roll my jacket up and lay it on the floor across the bottom of the door. I go and close the other doors that lead to change rooms and store rooms then go over to a punching bag. I beat the absolute crap out of it. I bend over with my hands on my hips as I gasp for air. I position myself to start punching again when I hear a noise at the door. Before I have time to even blink, it opens. Shit! A guy walks in and when he sees me he jumps.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone was in here." He said and then he looked down at my jacket on the floor before giving me a questioning look.

"I was just leaving." I say taking my gloves off.

"No you weren't." He starts walking towards me and then stops. "Who are you?" He asks.

"I'm Nina. Who are you?" I ask back.

"Nina who?" He takes a few steps closer.

"Strange name, no offence but it doesn't suit you." I say ignoring his question and he laughs.

"Matt Watson. I mean Guardian Watson." He states.

I had never seen him before but he was hot. He had skin a bit less tanned than mine but dark brown hair and eyes like mine. He looked really young for a guardian, like just out of school young. Did I mention he was hot?

"Well Nina can I at least know your last name?"

"Belikov, Nina Belikov." I say looking at the ground.

"Oh, well Nina Belikov you gonna be my sparring partner or not." He says with a smile on his face.

"You're not going to turn me in for breaking being out of my dorm?" I ask looking at him confused. I thought for sure I was busted.

"Nope." He told me picking up a pair of gloves and moving to stand in front of me.

"What kind of guardian are you, not turning me in." I ask as I put my gloves back on and get myself into position.

"Not your average, that's for sure." He said with a wink and I swear I could have died.

An hour later we were finished sparring and were stretching on the mat.
"Well now I know what all the fuss is about." He says and I look up at him with a questioning look. "You. Everyone knows about you. I just graduated from Vasilissa's Academy last year and all the guardians talked about how great you will be, with parents like yours." He stands up.

"Oh you went to the Queen's academy? And they talked about me?" I'm amazed.

"Yeah well, you are famous. You have dhampir parents. One who is an ex strigoi and one who is bound to the queen and is head of the royal guard. Both are legends and you're their kid. They say you are destined to be the biggest most badass guardian ever. And from what I just saw, you are going to be lethal. No strigoi will even be able to lay a finger on you." He says this with awe in his eyes, like he's finally meeting his idol or something. If he wasn't so damn good looking it would be a little off-putting.

When I don't say anything, he finishes packing up and says, "Well I have to go and get my shifts. I'm sure I'll see you around. Bye Nina." Then he turns and walks out of the gym. I had this sudden urge to run after him and kiss him but decide I better not. I was crushing on a guardian. Oh my god, I really am like my mother!