Chapter Two - A Change of Scenery
A/N: Lalala. Welcome back! Hope you enjoy the next installment! Hope you like it :)
Disclaimer: The following story is based on the excellent works of J.K. Rowling and Richelle Mead, they are not mine. Not including the characters you don't recognise, which are mine.
On the plane, I sat with Christian beside me and Rose sat across from us with Mia, with a table between us. Underneath the table was the games we'd already played; Game of Life, Scrabble and Rummikub. Now we are playing Backgammon.
Christian doesn't know how to play, so he and I are on the same team against Rose and Mia. Mia knows how to play, but Rose only knows how to play because I do; she accessed the bond to find how to play before we started. Of course, because she accessed my memories on how to play; we have similar styles and strategies, so it's an even game.
Across from us in another four-chaired area was Jesse sulking by himself. Really, he didn't need a four chair section, but being a Royal pain he did have second choice of seating, after me. Not that I abuse my position, we're using our area. Jesse has just collapsed the table, put his feet up on the chair opposite, and is now asleep.
Behind us are five rows of double seats on either side of the aisle. It's one of the smaller, faster planes the academy owns. The Dhampirs were spread out comfortably, and I think most of them were asleep as I could only hear one conversation; between Eddie and the girl from the meeting. She came to say hello before takeoff and introduced herself as Meredith.
Rose tells me that there are only the four girls in her year; herself, Meredith, Katalina and Stephania, and that Katalina's up in the top of the class with Rose and Eddie.
The two boys also introduced themselves to me. The sandy-haired boy was Jason, and the tall one was Samuel. Samuel seems friendly enough, whilst Jason has a more scary demeanour.
"What do you think is in London?" Mia asked, rolling double fours and moving accordingly. "I mean, why can't we go straight to Scotland or whatever?"
"They said uniforms and books," I said, "What books though?"
"Kirova said wand magic like levitation," Rose offered, frowning at the game board.
"Yeah but they must know more than that!" Mia pointed out, "It's a high school right? So they learn other stuff. Like maybe... um... shrinking stuff? Turning metal into gold? What about changing hair colour?"
"And then they do potions," Christian pondered. He sat back in his chair with his eyes closed, having long since given up on understanding Backgammon. "Lots of magical lotions to make your skin pretty and other crap like that."
"Maybe a potion to help us walk in the sunlight for longer?" Mia said, smiling. "That'd be nice."
"Yeah, how's that going to work?" I asked. "Do we still have night classes? Or are they going to make us get out in the sunlight to walk between buildings?"
"Dunno, have to wait and see, I guess."
"They wouldn't put you in a position like that," Rose said, "The safety of the Moroi is paramount, the Guardians aren't going to force you in overwhelming sunlight. Maybe the school is indoors or has tunnels for you to use."
We fell into silence after that, and it didn't take long for me to win the game. We packed it up and no one suggested another. Christian fell asleep and soon after I must have for the next thing I knew a guardian I didn't know was coming down the aisle to secure the games in an overheard locker and telling us to put our seat belts on and straighten up our chairs.
I pulled aside the curtain to see a city of lights sprawling beneath us; London. It was beautiful.
"What time is it here?" Rose asked, not looking away from her window.
"Almost eleven," a new voice said. Dimitri had appeared, standing beside Mia.
"What are you doing here?" Rose demanded, looking up at him. Her hands flew to the seat belt keeping her from standing.
"While I have absolute faith in your abilities and those of your companions, we are not going to send Princess Dragomir, Mr. Ozera and Mr. Zeklos here to the other side of the Atlantic without some protection." Dimitri said, the ghost of a smile gracing his expression. "We're here for you, too, Mia, and the rest of you. Besides, you'll need someone to run your guardian sessions."
"You're training us?" Eddie's voice came from behind me. He sounded excited.
"For now it will be just myself and Guardian Tekovitch," Dimitri answered, nodding his head towards the other guardian who was sitting at the front of the plane. "He will take your theory classes, I will be present for combat classes. Once everyone else comes in two weeks, everything will be back to normal in terms of teachers, and your schedules shouldn't change too much."
"Guardian Belikov?" Mia asked, "When will the classes be? During the day or night?"
"During the day with the rest of the school. It's one big castle so the sunlight shouldn't bother you too much. As for any outdoor classes you wish to attend; we're working on having evening classes."
"Can we learn wand magic?" Rose asked. I'm sure she'd find it useful, not to mention interesting. She's a Dhampir; so of course she can't wield magic and would jump at the possibility of doing so. That might not stand for all Dhampirs, but Rose seems pretty keen.
"No, it's a magic that comes out of you. I don't think there are any Moroi or Dhampirs who wield their kind of magic." For myself and other Moroi, we understand what it means for magic to come from within. For Rose, it is another challenge. I can just imagine her stealing some poor kid's wand and trying to use it.
Rose must have heard my thoughts for she turned to me with an indignant "Hey!" before being hushed by Dimitri.
Dimitri returned to the front shortly after, and I felt the entire plane move as it dipped it's nose and descended. The lights of London spread out, came closer, grew brighter, I don't know how to describe it, but I'd never seen so many lights sprawled out and watching them as the plane lowered was something so strange and wonderful but at the same time so pointless that I loved it and will never forget it.
"Lissa, you're being dramatic," Rose said, a smile playing on her lips, "Calm the poetry down; you're ruining this for me. They are just lights."
"There is nothing wrong with enjoying the little things in life," I defended.
"Yeah, yeah, sappiness," she poked her tongue out at me, and then laughed when she felt my indignation rise.
The plane jolted as it hit the tarmac, waking Christian, and the cabin filled with the sound of the plane slowing down, and soon enough we were shepherded off of the plane into a cold winter night in London. It wasn't snowing, but the wind was like ice.
"This way, Princess," the other guardian, Tekovitch, directed, "We can't be out in the open too long."
There may be few Strigoi dangers out here, but this is still a big city. I'm grateful they're taking care of me; I'd be scared if I was out here alone, Princess or not.
"It's okay, Liss," Rose said, appearing by my side. "I'm right here. So is Christian. You're safe."
And I'm not alone. Thanks.
She nodded and we followed Tekovitch to a lit up hanger which offered some protection from the wind, and awaiting us were three black sedans.
"Princess," Dimitri said, opening the door to the first car.
"Is Rose coming with me?" I asked, my voice a little higher than I would have liked it to be.
"Of course," he said, giving a slight bow as I slid into the car.
We drove for half an hour to a dingy pub whose door I mistook for a pillar between two other stores. Inside, it was dark and smoky, though my heightened Moroi senses allowed me to see it all. A sign above the bar proclaimed "The Leaky Cauldron", a strange name if ever there was one. Dimitri went straight over and was handed a number of room keys, and we quickly made our way upstairs.
Rose, Mia and I shared one room, with Christian, Jesse and Eddie right across the hall. The rooms were not five-star accommodation, but they were quaint, and we each had a double bed and table. I thought I'd slept enough on the plane, but the minute my head hit the pillow I was gone. It may have been because Rose was there, alert and ready to go. I would trust my life to her, as I'm sure she knows.
I woke up in the night to find a shadow on my bed. André. He didn't say anything, just sat there watching me. Then he smiled before silently disappearing into nothing.
Eventually, I woke up to find sunlight streaming through the thin curtains over the window. Mia, who was still asleep, lay in a bed by the window and was bathed in the light. I don't know how long the sunlight had been on her, but any longer she would break out in rashes and her skin would dry up very fast.
I crept over to Rose and tapped her gently on the shoulder. She immediately sat up, pulling a stake from beneath her pillow.
"What is it?" she demanded, her eyes searching for a threat.
"It's nothing, shhh," I whispered, then pointed at the sunlight, "Can you do something about the curtains? Mia's going to get burnt in her sleep."
Rose groaned. She pulled a bath robe on and concealed her stake within the folds before leaving the room. She returned with some thick and heavy curtains which she deftly hung over the existing, moth-eaten ones.
"Where'd you get those?" I asked her, once we'd made ourselves comfortable sitting on my bed.
"Went down to the front desk and asked the old man behind the counter for some decent curtains because some friends want to sleep in."
"Do you think they know? What we are?"
She shrugged. "They might be suspicious of you guys, but I don't think vampire has crossed their minds yet. Speaking of, are you getting hungry?"
It was my turn to shrug. "A little, but I visited the feeders at lunch yesterday, or whenever it was, so I think I'll survive today at least."
"No worries, two feeders came with us, do you wanna wake Mia and go see them?"
"They came with us? I didn't see anyone else on the plane."
"Then you weren't looking very hard," Rose scolded. "They were in the last row, they slept the whole way."
"Oh, um, yeah okay, can we go?" I smiled, and she laughed before heading over to shake Mia awake.
Mia groaned, and complained a little before Rose mentioned feeders, then she made more of an effort to get up, and soon Rose was leading us down a hallway and into a parlour room of sorts.
Christian was already there, talking to Eddie, and Jesse was still sulking, but by the door as there weren't good curtains in here. Christian smiled at me, a gesture I returned, but I was really thirsty so I approached one of the feeders first. The lady smiled at me, still in her right mind, and arched her neck for me to bite. I drank deeply, feeling her blood fill me to the tips of the fingers and my cheeks. When I'd finished, she nodded, her eyes slightly out of focus.
My bite, for some reason, has been known to be a little stronger than most, so I'll usually be ushered to a feeder who hasn't given a lot of blood to balance it out. Even now, I can see her mental equilibrium struggling to hold her upright. I can't help it, but I feel bad all the same.
Christian wrapped his arm around my shoulders once I sat down with him, and gave me a quick kiss before turning back to Eddie. The two were trying to work out whether or not Kirova was telling the truth when she mention flying on broomsticks.
"It's a load of crap!" Christian exclaimed, "Silly things humans tell each other. Like how we sleep in coffins all day. Absolute bullshit."
"But if they use wand magic, maybe they used a spell to make brooms fly," Eddie argued.
"So what? They sit on a broom a point their wand to steer? Or use magic spells to turn left, and go faster or whatever? I'm telling you, she had us on."
"It could be possible! I want to try flying, don't you? It could be pretty cool."
"I think she was telling the truth," I offered. Her aura had shown no signs of lying during the meeting.
"Hah!" Eddie tapped Christian's chest with his finger, "If Lissa says Kirova wasn't lying; she wasn't lying! They have flying broomsticks!"
Eddie began to do some form of celebratory jiggle around the room, a move which highly amused Mia, and produced another annoyed scowl from Jesse's corner. Rose had remained outside to talk with Dimitri, probably about patrol schedules or something whilst we stay here. Speaking of...
"Hey Eddie," I called. He promptly returned to his seat. "How long are we staying in this placed? Are we moving to another location soon or is this it?"
"Tekovitch says we stay here for three nights, then it's the first of February so we can catch the train Kirova mentioned to take us to the school. We have until then to get uniforms and books, and look around. Apparently the magicians have their own shopping mall called diagonally which we're going to be using."
"Diagonally? Is it in a magical fourth dimension?" I asked, my mind thinking of a mathematical z-axis or something to that effect.
"No, just what they name the place. We're going to get some guide coming up at ten to take us through, show us around, and let us explore the place. Until then we just stay here and get some food into us."
"Speaking of," Christian interrupted, "Shall we head downstairs to see what the breakfast special is?"
"No, we're staying in the rooms we've got. We don't know the area and there are too many people coming and going so it's not secure enough. It's easier to just stay up here and order room service."
"Well where's the phone? Let's get some food." I laughed.
"We already ate, but you're welcome to order more," Eddie said, standing up and heading to the door. He opened it, and Dimitri and Rose stood there arguing about something.
"What is it, Castile?" Dimitri asked, sounding awfully hostile.
"The Princess requires food," Eddie replied, not sounding too pleased with the way Dimitri had addressed him.
Eddie's words, however, seemed to knock Dimitri out of his trance. He stepped in and turned to me. "What would you like? I can go down and get it for you now."
"Just some toast and eggs, please." I said, smiling in an attempt to lighten his mood.
"Anyone else need some food?"
"I'll take a bacon sandwich," Jesse said, not looking up at Dimitri. "Make sure they don't burn it."
"Could I have a croissant, please?" cut in Mia's soft voice. She could be amazingly shy sometimes. I guess Dimitri was a scary-looking man if you didn't know him like Rose and I did.
"I'll be back soon," Dimitri said, once the orders stopped, and he left without another word.
"What was his problem?" Eddie asked Rose, who had followed him over to the table.
"He won't let me be on guard duty in the corridor at night, he says I should just stay with Lissa and not worry about anything else. But that's bullshit, even you're pulling shifts, Eddie!"
"Yeah, because three people is the ideal amount of watchers. Besides, you're better off as an emergency second layer of protection for Lissa inside her room with her."
Rose nodded at Eddie's logic and stood quietly behind him, deep in thought. By that point, Christian's free hand was slowly creeping up my arms and fiddling with the end of my sleeve.
"Cut it out, you fool," I laughed, gently removing his hand. "We've got other things to do."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah-" and before I could even begin to reiterate the whole moving to the other side of the planet thing, not to mention the wizardville trip today, he began kissing me.
I'll admit, it was a bit embarrassing when we were with company and no one else was making conversation, but he's a good kisser, and I responded warmly to him. The arm around my shoulders eased my position closer to him, and he began playing with my hair whilst my hands snuck below his arms and around his waist.
I don't think we were distracted for long, but soon we were interrupted with a loud coughing noise from Rose, and I opened my eyes to see Dimitri back with everyone's breakfast.
I whispered a sorry and thank you before accepting my plate and starting on my breakfast. Eddie's head was on the table, and his shoulders were shaking softly from laughing or crying. I think he was laughing, as Rose was having a hard time keeping a straight face and Mia was bright red as she took a bite out of her croissant.
Christian, as usual, was unfazed by the attention. Which is strange for he's usually the one going unnoticed as opposed to me having my every step watched by guardian's and classmates alike.
The morning passed by uneventfully after that, though I did notice a continuing hostility between Dimitri and Rose, which I thought strange since Rose had seemed to accept Eddie's earlier logic regarding their night patrols. I must be missing something.
At ten o'clock by my watch, though 10:02 by Eddie's, Dimitri arrived, bringing with him the rest of our party and a new stranger. She introduced herself as Harriet Tarringer, a representative of the Department of International Magical Cooperation here to show us around, and she was dressed in a strange emerald robe as though it was the latest fashion. She was introduced to everyone, and after Dimitri nudged her, she gave myself, Christian and Jesse a bemused but respectful bow.
"Right, so are you all excited? I hear you've never seen our kind before, must be strange. Shall we head down now?" Her last question was directed to Dimitri, who shook his head.
"We're waiting for two more."
"Who else is coming?" Rose asked, standing up straighter. "We can protect Lissa without any more help getting in the way!"
"Like it or not, Miss Hathaway, you are still in training and we have three Royals between two guardians. Mr Zeklos also requested he have his own Guardian, so two from a nearby Moroi settlement are on their way to help out."
"So there are some of our kind here?" I asked. A whole settlement? There must be a spirit user here. Please, oh please may there be one.
"There's about sixty or so living a two-hour drive southwest of London. They mostly keep to themselves but have risen to our arrival quite well, there aren't a lot of Royals out here."
"We're not a showcase for them," Christian remarked.
"You are still strangers. English Moroi don't see a lot of outsiders, as very few of us will even leave the America's for a holiday let alone a permanent move."
"Makes sense though, we have no idea what kind of dangers are out here." Eddie said.
"What are you all on about?" Harriet laughed, "You make it sound as though there are dark wizards waiting outside this door for you."
"Dark what?" Rose demanded, taking a step closer to Harriet.
Harriet mumbled defensively, muttering something about wizards and death eating. Strange concept, if you ask me. Either way, I sent some calming thoughts through the bond to Rose. She looked at me and gave me a brief nod before resuming her position by the wall.
"Like any community," Dimitri lectured, "There are bound to be unfriendlies. We have to be on our guard even if the Strigoi threat is highly unlikely."
A knock on the door put all the Dhampirs on high alert, and Dimitri only relaxed when a distinct knocking pattern was repeated. He opened the door to reveal two female Dhampirs in matching Guardian Black.
"You're the Guardian's Torresville sent?" Dimitri asked, looking at them suspiciously.
"Yes, can we come in?" One replied. Once the two were in and the door closed again, she introduced herself. "I'm Kathryn, daughter of Leon Szelsky. This is my sister Annalise. It's an honour to serve you all." She must have immediately picked myself for the Royal as she came over to drop to her knees and bow her head. Her sister, with whom the only difference I could find was a slight chestnut streak in her otherwise brown hair, followed suit, but the two were quickly brought in line by Dimitri.
"Whilst we appreciate your commitment, those kind of actions are not necessary and hinder the entire groups' time. Just know they all appreciate you helping out."
The two nodded vigorously and stood.
"What's the plan, captain?" Kathryn asked.
Dimitri made sure we were all listening before detailing how the trip would work.
"The two Szelsky Guardians will be far guards, leading the group. They know the area better than we do so will know all the hiding places to look for threats. Rose, you are to be beside the Princess the entire time. Eddie, you're responsible for Mr. Zeklos, and Kat, you'll be with Christian. The rest of you students will remain with the group, no wandering off alone. Mia, stick by Rose and Lissa if you're worried, but we should be right. I will be not too far behind you and Guardian Tekovitch will be further behind me keeping an eye on everything. Understood?"
We all nodded. Dimitri did not take ventures like this lightly, and I could see he wasn't happy about assigning students to real fieldwork with such big numbers.
"I thought one of them was for me." Jesse complained from his corner.
"Very well," Dimitri said, "You can walk ahead with the two of them. Let's go."
Harriet led us downstairs without further ado, though we were held up as Dimitri and Tekovitch scanned the bar area downstairs for any signs of danger. I think we have the upper hand as our eyesight and hearing skills are not clouded by the smoke as most of these non-vampire magician people are. Although I have to hand it to Harriet, she knew exactly where she was going as she led us out a back door. She must come here often.
In a dingy alleyway with a dead-end, she pulled a wand from somewhere within her robes and tapped the wall. It began to shift and move, and I felt Rose move closer to me as it did.
Eventually the bricks rearranged themselves into two pillars, between which now sprawled a magical lane way. This must be that place called Diagonally. There were more people dressed in silly robes, owls and rats everywhere, pointy hats, cauldrons, funny smells, the occasional small explosion, small goblin looking things carrying bags that looked much to heavy for them. It was so much to take in and we all eagerly stepped forward.
Harriet, at the front of the group with the Szelsky girls and Jesse, said something along the lines of "Welcome to-" but I could barely hear her, there was so much going on, but it was an amazing place, I couldn't wait to look in every funny looking store. They each looked a hundred years old, with glass shop fronts filled with the most bizarre items.
It was simply amazing. Magical.
