Hey, Marie Lake here! Here's chapter two of Life After Rose. Please read and review, and if you have any ideas about something that you would like to happen next, feel free to let me know (: Enjoy!
"Vasilisa, this is your new guardian: Addaline Dashkov."
No. No, this couldn't be true. It just wasn't possible. I was extremely surprised that Eddie was able to keep quiet behind me. Several protests bubbled to my lips as I thought this phrase over and over, but I tried my best to hold my tongue.
It wasn't going to work. I looked up at Kirova in disbelief.
"No." I used my this-is-my-final-answer voice. Hopefully it would be enough.
Now Kirova was the one looking shocked. "B-but, Vasilisa--" Ugh, stop calling me that. "--Guardian Dashkov is one of the best guardians out there. She meets all of your expectations--"
"Except she isn't Rose." I gritted my teeth. I was upset now. Who was this girl anyways? And who was Kirova to say that she was as good as Rose?
"No," Kirova agreed, looking at Addaline and smiling. "But, you didn't say that you needed Rose. You said you needed someone as good as Rose and well, Her Majesty thinks that young Addaline here may be even better."
Addaline gave Kirova an obviously forced smile. She didn't look like she wanted to do this either. Either that, or Kirova's praise was embarrassing her.
"Permission to speak, Headmistress?" asked Addaline. "But I hardly think I'm better than anyone. More experienced, maybe. But certainly not better."
Well, that was one thing. This girl didn't even look much older than I was. So, how much more experienced was she? I guess I would just have to find out.
"You were assigned to me by Queen Tatiana, is that correct?" I addressed her for the first time.
She turned to face me and I almost gasped. Now that I could see all of her, I saw that she was extraordinarily beautiful. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't like Rose--who was curvy and attractive in a sexy exotic way--but she was attractive in a statuesque way. Her jet black hair looked silky smooth and hung down to the middle of her back. It framed her face composed of thin eyebrows, long curved eyelashes that framed her jade eyes, high cheekbones, full pink lips, and a perfectly straight nose. Her completion looked smooth and clear; she didn't even have freckles. She was tall too, probably around five foot, six. She looked like an angel pulled out of a painting in a cathedral. I felt a sharp pang of jealousy against her.
Oblivious to my studying, she nodded and half-smiled. "That is correct." I could tell she was trying to be polite.
I closed my eyes and mashed my lips into a tight line. Maybe this would be good for me, to finally have two guardians. And it seemed like this one was especially good at what she did… Wait, what was I thinking? She was a Dashkov for crying out loud! Plus, if I accepted her, what would happen when Rose came back? I was replacing her!
As if she could read my mind, Addaline spoke up again. "Please don't think that I'm trying to replace your friend, Princess. I'm merely filling in for her while she is away."
Not replacing Rose? Well in that case…
I sighed and opened my eyes, focusing on my new guardian's face. "I'll accept you, then." I tried to muster up as much of a smile as I could; I liked the idea of her not replacing Rose.
Kirova clasped her hands together. "Wonderful! Her Majesty will be so pleased."
I nodded. "May I go now?" I have to go find Adrian.
"Oh?" said Kirova. "Oh, yes, of course!" She was beaming for some reason, like me having another guardian was the answer to her prayers. "It was very nice to see you again, Vasilisa."
I stood and smiled. "Yes, very nice to see you as well." With that I turned away from her and exchanged glances with Eddie. He apparently looked pleased that Addaline was going to be my other guardian. Then again, he was a boy.
"Oh, stop drooling," I said to him in a voice barely audible; I was sure he heard me though because he grinned.
He replied in the same kind of low voice that I had used. "It's not my fault she's pretty."
I rolled my eyes and walked out of the door, Eddie remained close and Addaline trailed behind us. It reminded me of when we were doing our field experience, how Eddie and Rose took turns doing close and far guard.
We walked for about a minute before I spoke up. "Hey, Eddie?"
"Yeah?"
I hoped I wouldn't sound rude. "Do you think you could take far guard? I want to get to know my know my new guardian a little."
This seemed to surprise him a little, but he agreed, and then left me to switch places with Addaline. She came up right beside me, like we were friends or something. It was a little weird knowing that this was the girl that was going to be guarding me now. This tall, beautiful girl that had apparently taken down loads of Strigoi. Hopefully she could answer all of the questions I was going to throw at her.
"So, you're a Dashkov, huh?" I tried to keep my tone polite and casual, even though I was burning with curiosity. I turned my head to look at her. Her eyes looked alert, but also like they were off seeing something that I couldn't. Like she was remembering something.
"I had a feeling you were going to ask about that." She half-smiled and her eyes flashed over to meet mine for a moment. "Naturally, you're probably curious about why and how I am who I am."
I waited. She sighed.
"That, however, is a very long story." Her eyes looked like they were even farther away now. They took on kind of a foggy, glassy quality.
I decided that even though this was really none of my business, I wanted to hear her explanation. "I have some time."
Addaline chuckled. "Yes, I suppose you do." She sighed a contented sigh and looked around. "Let's just hope it takes us a while to get to where ever we're going."
I nodded, but said nothing. She stayed quiet for a few moments and I assumed she was trying to figure out how to begin.
"My mother's name is Vanessa Dashkov. You may recognize her as Victor's sister, you may not. She lost contact with her brother decades ago after some fight that they had. Anyways, so my mother is a royal Moroi, which is uncommon to say the least. Not that she's royal, because that's normal, I suppose, but the fact that my mother is a Moroi and my father was a dhampir."
She pause. I'm guessing she wanted me to take in what she had said. Her father was a dhampir? Did that mean...
"His name was Gregory Solomon and he was assigned to be my mother's guardian. At first, he didn't like her very much. Even though she was very pretty, he found her very stubborn and even immature. She, however, thought that he was attractive, but was much too serious and lacked a good sense of humor. So, my parents were opposites, to say the least. I'm not exactly sure what happened to change their minds; I was much too young for them to tell me together. But my mom's mentioned once or twice about how he saved her life from a Strigoi, and I guess they just fell in love after that.
"They were got themselves in a bit of trouble at that point. Typically, dhampirs didn't stay with Moroi. It just wasn't really something that happened. So you can imagine how people felt when they decided to get married. Apparently, my father's father had had enough Dashkov blood in him so that my parents kid would also have the Dashkov name."
I couldn't help but interrupt.
"How did the rest of your family feel about that? About...a dhampir having your name?" I prayed that I didn't sound rude.
"Well, that comes on later in the story actually." She caught my eye and gave me a dry smile. "Anyways, they got married and had me, their only child. My mother decided that Addaline Marie would be my name, after her great-grandmother or something; I prefer people to call me Addy. And I guess that's it." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Wow, that didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would."
"You edited," I accused.
She shrugged. "Not much, really. I took out most of the boring details."
"You never answered my question, though." I noticed. "How did your family feel about you?"
Silence followed that. The only sound coming from our footsteps. I had a feeling that I'd struck a nerve.
Finally, she sighed. "They were against me in the beginning," she admitted, but honestly didn't sound bothered. "They didn't like the idea that it was possible for me to one day be the oldest Dashkov and have to accept the title of 'Princess'. As it is, my mother is currently the Dashkov princess, with Victor in prison and all." She paused. "They came around eventually though. My father was forced to become a Strigoi when I was five years old and by the time I was seven, I was already mature enough for me to decide what I wanted to do: I wanted to become a guardian. So I began my training then, staying at home to learn rather than attending a school. When I was eight, my mother re-married Nicholas Voda, a fellow royal Moroi. They had my little sister Andromeda in the same year. My sister showed much potential, even as an infant and I told my parents that when the time came for me to accept the princess title for the Dashkov family, I would decline and pass it on to my sister. My other family members seemed to like me better after that."
But I had a hard time understanding this. "But...why? Why wouldn't you want to become the next Dashkov princess? That would start a whole revolution of royal dhampirs!"
Addy chuckled at this. "That's kind of why I didn't want to do it. I don't know why, but it just didn't seem right to me. Don't get me wrong, I don't really approve of dhampirs just having to serve Moroi their whole lives. the whole 'They come first' thing just didn't seem right to me, but I wasn't in any place to question the system. Technically speaking, I didn't even have to become a guardian if I didn't want to...but I did. I wanted to protect people against the kind of things that took my father away from me." Her voice broke and I saw her grit her teeth as if she was trying not to cry.
"You're very brave." I told her, actually meaning what I said.
She smiled. "Yes, I suppose so."
I wanted to ask her more. Like what had happened to her father, but that was really none of my business. She could tell me when she wanted to.
We were back at my room now, and I hadn't even realized that was where I had been heading. I reached for the doorknob and opened the door without really seeing what was in front of me. I imagined that my own eyes took on that dream-like, far away look that Addy had had earlier. I was too caught up in everything that she'd told me, that I found myself picturing what her life must've been like growing up in her home. What she must've gone through. Where I'd lost my parents to a car crash, she'd lost her father because he'd been taken from her and made into something terrible. Her father had had a fate worse than death.
As I walked into my room, I was a bit surprised to see both Christian and Adrian sitting on one of our couches, watching TV. They both looked up when I walked in and Christian said, "What did the queen want?" at the same time Adrian asked, "Who's your friend?" They both stood up, Christian walked over to me and Adrian walked over to Addy.
"Well, hello." He said in a polite but interested tone. He was, no doubt, marveling at her beauty the same way Eddie had. He grabbed her hand and pulled it up to his mouth, kissing it softly. "And who are we, exactly?"
Addy rolled her eyes. "We've met, Adrian." Her answer caught me off guard.
Adrian seemed surprised too, since his eyes widened a little. "Have we now?"
She nodded. "Yes. It's me, Adrian. Addy. Addy Dashkov."
He continued to look puzzled for a minute or so, but I could see the wheels turning in his head. I could see that he was piecing it all together. Then he gasped. "Addy? No way! I haven't seen you since we were kids!"
Addy grinned and the two hugged, surprising the rest of us in the room even more.
"Wait a second," Christian said, looking around the room from me to Adrian to Addy to Eddie. "What's going on here, Liss? Who is this girl?"
Adrian answered for me. "This is Addaline Dashkov." He was grinning now too.
Christian rolled his eyes. "Well, duh. I figured that out myself. I mean, what is she doing here?"
"Yeah..." Adrian agreed. "What are you doing here?"
She answered before I could. "I've been assigned to be Lissa's new guardian."
The whole air in the room shifted and became something much more uncomfortable. We all fell silent and weren't sure what to say to follow that.
Finally, Adrian broke the silence, and he didn't sound very happy. "What?"
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and more is to come soon (: Please review.