Here's another less angsty chapter.

I spent the next few days avoiding Dimitri. It was a fairly easy job, because we weren't having our lessons for a while. The job was made even easier by the fact that he spent a lot of his time with Tasha. I tried not to let it bother me, because the last thing I needed was another breakdown.

Instead of thinking about Dimitri, I focused more than ever on Lissa. I stuck close to her, pretending it was practice for when we graduated. If she was bothered by sudden over-attentiveness, she said nothing. But even I couldn't follow her around forever. She had gotten an invitation from Tatiana earlier in the day requesting Lissa's help with royal court stuff. I wanted to go with her, but apparently I didn't merit an invitation.

Since Lissa was busy and I was avoiding Dimitri, I had nothing much to do. For lack of a better option, I found myself spending more and more time with Adrian Ivashkov.

"You stink." I told him now. He smelled of clove cigarettes and alcohol, like always.

"Thanks ever so much, little dhamphir. You smell lovely too." He replied, completely unfazed by my insult.

"So why are you here again?" I asked curiously, eyeing him to see if he was drunk. "Did someone leave your cage open?"

"Very funny, Rose." Adrian's hand went for his pocket where he always kept his cigarettes. With a sudden frown he drew back empty-handed. "Actually, I'm here because I was having an out-of-cigarettes experience."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "And I can fix that how?"

"You could distract me," He suggested with an offhand shrug. "You, me, an empty bedroom. We could have tons of fun."

Somehow I felt myself smiling despite the blatant innuendo. Or perhaps because of it. Leave it to Adrian to make insinuations entertaining. "Sorry, but no."

"You sure?" He offered. "Since I'm here, it's a shame to waste me. I vote for a group bath."

"I'm positive Adrian. I have enough guy trouble in my life at the moment. I don't need to add any more." I sighed, remembering less than a week ago when I cried my eyes out for Dimitri. Add Mason to that mix, and I already had no idea what was going on half of the time. "Don't you have something you need to be doing? Like a royal meeting or something? You do know that some people work for a living, right?"

Adrian shrugged his shoulders and replied insolently. "Hard work never killed anybody, but why take the chance?"

I felt a slow smile make its way over my face, and I realized that I was relaxing for the first time in a long time. Adrian gazed at me for a long moment and cocked his head to the side. He looked a lot more alert than he normally did, but that may have just been because he was out of cigarettes and hadn't gotten a hold of any alcohol.

"Why do you do it?" He asked randomly.

"Do what?"

A lot of the time Adrian would go off on spirit-induced philosophical ramblings when he was intoxicated or even normal sometimes. I usually just attributed them to one of his vices, and I figured this question was one like that.

"Why do you fight?" He asked, still studying me closely. "It would be so much easier to drop out and go live with other dhamphir women and never have to put yourself through this type of torture."

"It's not torture." I told him, realizing that he was speaking of my dhamphir training. "It's worth it."

"For others, maybe." Adrian agreed. "But look at what it's doing to you."

"It's different for everyone but for me its part of who I am, I wouldn't change it even if I could. I'd be nothing if I was just another dhamphir who settled down to raise kids. It's dangerous and lonely. Our loved ones die violently, and most don't live to old age. But it's our way of life, so we accept it and move on," I shrugged. I didn't know exactly how to explain it to this pampered Moroi who had spent his life being served by my kind, but I did my best to try.

"You sound just like my guardian did the first time I asked him that." Adrian told me ruefully. "Like you were explaining it to a kid."

"Well, it's a lesson most dhamphirs that train to be guardians learn in kindergarten. It's drilled into us until it becomes a way of life." I shrugged again, not sure exactly how to put it.

"I hated kindergarten," Adrian joked. "All three times."

I shook my head at his hopeless sense of humor. I would have said something snarky in return, but just then there was a knock on my door. I got to my feet to open it, hoping- praying- that it wasn't Dimitri.

I was in luck. Well, kind of. When I opened the door, I was greeted by the face of Christian Ozera, my best friend's boyfriend. I would much rather it had been Lissa, but seeing Sparky was definitely better than seeing Dimitri.

"Sorry, Christian." I told him before he could say anything. "Lissa left a while ago to meet the queen."

"I'm not looking for Lissa." Christian said. He nodded in greeting to Adrian before turning back to face me. "Believe it or not, I'm actually here to see you."

"You're here to see me?" I asked skeptically.

"Really, Rose. Even someone as slow as you should be able to understand such a simple sentence." The only hint that Christian was joking was the slight smile at the corners of his mouth.

I resisted the childish urge to stick my tongue out at him. "What I meant was, half of the time you don't even like me. Do you have a fever or something?"

"I must be sick." Christian returned. "Why else would I be talking to you?"

"Well, I know it's not because of my charming personality." There were simultaneous snorts from both Christian and Adrian which I politely ignored. "So what do you want?"

"Lissa sent me to see if you wanted to come with us to meet up with Aunt Tasha." A little of his black hair flopped in his blue eyes as he continued, "So do you?"

I thought about it for a minute. I liked Tasha Ozera, when she wasn't busy making moves on Dimitri. I also wanted to spend more time with Lissa, but I wasn't sure I could be around Tasha without hitting her due to recent events. And then there was always the fact that Dimitri seemed to spend most of his time with her. Dimitri. Just thinking his name, I heaved an involuntary sigh.

"Will Dimitri be there?" I asked before I could stop myself. I shot a nervous glance at Adrian, knowing he would sense the meaning behind my question.

"Belikov?" Christian asked curiously. "Probably. You know how he and Aunt Tasha are. Why do you want to know?" Adrian, wisely, chose not to comment.

"Just curious," I said in what I hoped was a dismissive tone. I tried to keep my face impassive as I spoke, but I was already feeling sick at the thought of Dimitri and Tasha together. "Tell Lissa that it sounds like fun, but I'm going to have to pass. I already promised Mason that I would hit the slopes with him today."

"Your loss." He told me. "And now, I have to be going. Lissa's waiting." I wondered if I was the only one that caught the smug look he sent Adrian as he said it.

He left the room, leaving me alone with Adrian once again. "How many times have you told me you're not into older guys, little dhamphir?" He asked knowingly, referring to my question earlier. "Because by now I'm pretty sure that you're lying."

"I told you already," I snapped. "I have a boyfriend."

He raised an eyebrow. "You could have fooled me."

"Well, I do." I said decisively. "And like I told Christian, we have plans today."

Adrian pulled one of his ever-present clove cigarettes from the pocket of his shirt and lit it. Taking a long drag, he eyed me thoughtfully. "Go spend time with your boyfriend, little dhamphir. You need to relax."

"I thought you said you were out of those!" I pointed out.

"I lied." He said evenly. "Go have fun, little dhamphir."

After that very weird experience with Adrian, I went to find a distraction. I had lied to both Christian and Adrian when I told them that I had plans with Mason, and I felt bad about using Mason like that when we weren't even really dating. I just hoped neither of them said anything. My thoughts were circling around the topics of Mason and Dimitri, so it was ironic that the first distraction to appear was Mason himself.

He was standing in the middle of the hallway, talking to two Moroi girls about our age. From the looks of things, he was flirting. From across the hall, I heard one of the two girls burst into laughter and she placed a hand flirtatiously on Mason's arm.

I cleared my throat loudly and was amused to see that Mason jumped guiltily. I had this much power over him and we weren't even dating. I knew in a place full of small, skinny Moroi girls like these, my curvy body was attractive, but it was still nice to see that I had this sort of effect on someone. Even if it wasn't Dimitri.

Mason made some sort of excuse and left the girls to walk over to me. "Whoa," He said as he came up beside me. "Your smile is blinding, Hathaway."

"If you don't play nice, it won't be the only thing that's blinding." I grumbled possessively. "My hand might slip and accidentally hit your eye, Mase."

"Oooh, scary." Mason said in a tone that implied the exact opposite. "Then we'll match."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You should be afraid, Ashford. Very afraid."

"You're just jealous of those girls." A slow grin spread across his face, crinkling the skin around the corners of his eyes. "Admit it, Hathaway. You want me."

"Not as much as you want me." I replied teasingly.

"That's arguable." He said. He smiled that adorable smile I always loved. "But I can think of quite a few better things to do with your mouth than arguing."

"And which of your brains came up with that?" I retorted. Oh how I loved bickering with Mason. Compared to my relationship with Dimitri, talking with Mason was both simple and stress-relieving. If only I felt the way about Mason that I did about Dimitri.

"Do you not want to use your evil powers of seduction?" Mason paused. "Or are you going to punish me for flirting?"

"Hmmm," I pretended to think about it. Pursing my lips thoughtfully, I told him, "Probably a little bit of both."

"Oh, I'm hurt, Rose!" He pressed a hand to his chest. "Didn't you enjoy our kiss?" Looking into his blue eyes, I saw a hint of real worry. Mason looked genuinely worried that I was toying with him. I couldn't really blame him for it, because I was always hot and cold around him.

"I enjoyed it." I reassured him. "I even liked it enough to want a repeat performance."

Mason's eyes lit up, and his smile was almost blinding. "Really?" He asked. He couldn't keep the excited tone from his voice. "Well, then today is your lucky day, because kissing was the first thing on my list of enjoyable things to do with Rose Hathaway's mouth." His words were teasing, but the look he gave me was completely serious. His eyes told me that he genuinely cared about me. It was nice to be cared about.

Mason leaned forward eagerly to press his lips to mine. Like our first kiss, this one was gentle, sweet, and nice. Just like Mason. It was enjoyable, but nothing like my kisses with Dimitri. Where Mason was tentative, Dimitri was passionate. Even as I kissed the former, I couldn't keep my heart from longing for the latter.

As Mason pulled away, his eyes met mine. They were shining with warmth that was only ever directed at me. I had finally relaxed and started to enjoy myself. And just as the day was looking up, my luck ran out. Dimitri appeared.