Chapter Two

I stared at Adrian's face for a long time. A really long time. Lissa had been right. Christian had been right. Despite Adrian's own words, I still didn't fully believe this. Adrian Ivashkov loves me? Now there's an unlikely thought. I continued to stare into those mesmerizing emerald eyes. I felt warmth radiating around me, wrapped around me so soft and cozy like a wool blanket by the fireplace in winter. Wait, can't forget the cup of hot chocolate cupped in my hands either…. Then I snapped out of it.

"Why did you just use compulsion on me?" I demanded. Personally, I didn't see the point of using compulsion at that exact moment.

"Rose," Adrian began slowly. "You looked like you were about to faint."

"So? How was compulsion suppose to help?" I knew the answer already, but I was trying to stay away from the subject that was just very recently proven true.

"I thought you could use some warmth to calm down." Adrian looked genuinely concerned for me.

How is it that even Christian got Adrian's message before I did? Not that it was true, or anything….

"Uh… thanks."

A long and awkward silence loomed over us. I stared down at the creamy white leather of the loveseat. I could feel Adrian's eyes on me. I know for sure that I enjoy Adrian's company. A lot. His cocky and yet strangely considerate attitude paired up well with the badass side of me, a side not many people could tolerate. I remember the first time I met Adrian- back in Christmas vacation at the ski lodge resort- that I'd enjoyed his presence, even though he'd be engulfed in clove cigarette and alcoholic fumes. He had a… calming effect that created the right amount of annoyance to distract me from my other major problems like my love life. It's weird, but true. This attraction I had with Adrian was different with Dimitri. With Dimitri, it was all about fire. With Adrian, it was more like sparks. However, with Dimitri, it's an impossible relationship as oppose to a closer-to-possible relationship with Adrian. Dimitri and I both have top priorities to protect Lissa- I can't ever deny that. If we had a romantic relationship, our duties as guardians to Lissa might falter one day when either of us are in danger. Even though I liked being around Adrian, I'm not so sure that I loved him. Liking him as a friend was probably as close to romantic feelings for Adrian as I'd get. That was what I'd thought at first, anyway.

"Adrian, I don't really know how I feel about you," I confessed, shocked by my own confession.

Adrian looked surprised. "Rose, to me those words are a blessing."

I looked up at his eyes, trying to comprehend him. "You're not disappointed?"

To my surprise, Adrian laughed.

"Rose, if I even made you confused of your own feelings, that's one big step forward. I'm even fine with dying right now after hearing those words from an angel. Did you forget how you usually treated me a few days ago?"

I said nothing. My brain and heart really is confused. It's like the whole I like him, but I don't thing. Maybe I should grab a daisy while I'm at it and start reciting he likes me, he likes me not.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door that interrupted my thoughts.

"Hello?"

A girl's voice.

"Adrian, are you there?"

Roxanne's voice. I grinded my teeth.

"Adrian?"

"God. What's she doing here?" Adrian sounded desperate all of a sudden.

Maybe desperate to hide from Roxanne? My hopes and I go way back.

Adrian got up and whispered to me, "I'm not here and you're here to… you can decide on your answer." Then he went into his bedroom, locking the door behind him.

I grimaced. Hang on, I'm Rose Hathaway. I can get away with this little thing. But seriously, what the hell am I suppose to say? I reached for the door and reluctantly turned the doorknob. As soon as the click the doorknob sounded out, Roxanne burst into the room. She looked around the room a couple of times before looking at me for the first time.

"What are you doing here, Rose?" Roxanne's eyes narrowed.

Uh-oh. She sounded and looked suspicious.

"I am here… to lecture him on behalf of Kirova about the rules of St. Vladimir since he has a hard time understanding that the rules here even applied to royals no matter how conceited they are." The lies came out easy now. It's a good thing Roxanne is new and haven't seemed to figure out my badass reputation at the academy because I'd never do a favor for Kirova- not even if you throw me to the fiery pits of the underworld.

"Is he not here?" Roxanne seemed extremely disappointed.

"Do you see him?"

"If you do, will you give this to him?' Roxanne handed me a fancy gift-wrapped box with an envelope..

Is today Adrian's birthday or something? I took the box and weighed it in my hand. The box felt pretty heavy.

"Thanks… Rose, are you sure he's not just avoiding me?"

I froze. Has Roxanne figured it out?

"No, of course not. Should he have a reason to be?" I tried my best not to smirk at her for the truth behind that and answered with my most honest face, hoping she would buy it.

"I guess not. He's just never there when I go to see him. I guess I'll go. See you, Rose."

I stared at her in astonishment as her words sank in. Just how many times had she tried to get Adrian alone and for what reason? The soft sound of an opening door disturbed my thoughts.

"That was interesting," said Adrian, even though he barely sounded interested. Looks like his sarcastic side is now dominant.

"Yeah," I agreed. I, however, did think that conversation was interesting. What was inside the little box in my hand?

"It's probably some expensive cigars or something." Adrian seemed to have read my mind. "The letter is probably a love letter."

"I love letter?" I echoed.

"Yeah."

So she's in love with Adrian? I hadn't thought that she would go all Shakespeare with the love at first sight crap.

"She's been following me around- it's not like I don't notice her. Apparently, I bare great resemblance to her dead boyfriend," Adrian said coldly.

"She didn't actually tell you this, did she? Or was she desperate enough to make up a story to gain some sympathy… not that you have any."

Adrian looked amused. "She's telling the truth."

"How…?"

"In dreams, my little dhampir."

"You visited her in your dream?" I was surprised at my own tone; Adrian noticed this as well and took advantage of this situation."

"Are you jealous?"

I gaped at him, my jaw dropped to the ground "I'm-"

Before I could protest, Adrian said, "Worry not, my little dhampir, you'll always be the only one for me. Going to hell is a better option than loving anyone else but you."

I worried a little at his words. Adrian is the type of stubborn guy that's use to getting what he wants since he's a rich Moroi royal. He could turn insane- not that he wasn't already- and become suicidal if I can't become his. I thought about this. I would never wish death upon anyone, but Adrian has pissed me off till I'm ready to kill him before. "I'm confused. If she didn't tell you about her past, did you see her with her dead boyfriend in her dreams?"

"Precisely."

"Adrian, isn't that kind of private? You looking into her dream is enough of a privacy invasion, but to eavesdrop on her dead boyfriend is plain rude."

"Since when do you lecture other people about rudeness?"

"Since now."

"It's not like I actually did that," Adrian breathed.

"I'm confused." What did Adrian mean?

"I'm actually confused, too. I was about to visit you in my dreams," Adrian paused to watch my expression as my mouth twitched, threatening to protest. "But then I somehow got sucked into hers and I overheard her talking to Cameron."

"That's very believable, Adrian."

"You don't have to believe me."

I couldn't contain my curiosity anymore. "What did she say to him?"

"I thought you said my story wasn't believable."

"If it's not true, you wouldn't be able to think of anything more since you don't have any cigarettes to smoke while thinking about what to say for the next part of the story."

"Rose, you're so goddamn funny with your assumptions of my bad habits," Adrian mused.

"It's true," I pointed out.

"One thing that creeped me out- and you know if I think something is creepy it really is- is how she was apologizing to him for killing him and for deceiving everyone."

"Adrian, your fairy tale is seriously getting sick. What happened to the good old 'happily ever after'? Are you saying Roxanne is a murderer?"

"I'm not sure. I'll look into it. Meanwhile," Adrian gestured to the door, "I think you should go- Vasilisa and Christian are waiting for you."

Right on cue, there was a knock on the door followed by a voice.

"Rose, you there?" Christian's voice.

"Coming!"

I started to get up, but Adrian still held my hand.

"I'll invite in if it happens again, and you'll believe my fairy tale." Adrian kissed my cheek softly and let me go. What Adrian said was really kind of creepy. If Roxanne is a killer… besides Strigoi, I'd be the only other person who can endanger people's lives.

After finishing my daily hand-to-hand combat training that took place after dinner, I escorted Christian back to his dorm. I told him I had something to take care of. Christian grumbled and went to sleep. I knew I had to be really quiet if I wanted to sneak into Dimitri's room to get the latest scoop on the Strigoi attack in Spokane we both just fought in. As I climbed the last set of stairs that leads to the corridor to the guardians' dorms, I noticed something on the window. I walked closer and saw that it was writing. It had been done in dark red- it looked and smelled like blood. Kom med mig, min kärlek. Was it Russian? I searched my pocket for a piece of paper or something I could write on. Lucky for me, I fished out an old, crumpled wad of gum wrapper and a cracked pen.

Oh well, better than nothing.

I carefully copied every letter onto the gum wrapper and hurried off to see Dimitri, who just might have a clue to what the message says. Besides, someone has to report this bloody message.

Dimitri was reading attentively by his desk light when I got to his dorm. Man, did he look sexy in the dim light.

When he say me he said, "Rose, what are you doing here? You should be sleeping in Christian's dorm!"

"The door was open so I invited myself in. Besides, I have something you should look at and hear about. It's urgent," I said in my most mature voice to sound serious.

"What's so urgent that you can't wait until tomorrow?"

I sighed in frustration. "Dimitri, I need to know something. Right now. It'll make my life a hell of a lot easier if you can help me with it. So please." I looked up at him with pleading eyes.

Dimitri stared at me, debating with the two sides of him. One side urged him to step up to his duties as my instructor and make me go back to sleep, while the other side- the side that yearned for me- wanted desperately to help me. Finally, side one gave in and side two dominated.

"Okay, make this quick."

I gave him my most polite smile. "Thank you." I showed him the message.

He looked at the message with pondering eyes. Was it not in Russian?

"Rose… I don't understand this."

"You… don't?"

"This isn't in Russian or Romanian."

I crinkled my eyebrows in confusion.

"What language is it, then?"

Dimitri looked at the message, again. "I'm not sure."

"Hell, if you don't know, then who will?"

"Try the library. We have a large selection of research books."

"God, I hate researching."

Dimitri stood up. "That settles things. Go back to sleep before someone else notices you."

"Wait! I have to show you the real message. There's something important about it."

I grabbed Dimitri's large hand and led him towards the message written on the window. To my surprise, the message wasn't there anymore. My hand stroked the window glass and felt nothing but cold, smooth glass. I looked at Dimitri, who looked confused and suspicious.

"I swear it was here."

"Are you sure you saw something?"

"Yes! I swear it on my life."

"Well, it's not here anymore and you should be asleep." Dimitri started to push me towards the Moroi dorms.

"Why won't you believe me?"

Dimitri looked pained. My heart jolted at his sad expression. I wish I could reach out to him and be his consolation. I could only guess what he's thinking. "It's not that I don't, it's that we have no evidence but the message so we can't really do much except look up what the words mean."

"Guess I got research to do." I started walking back to Christian's dorm. When I got back to his room, I could hear the soft sound of his snoring. I stifled a giggle as I hopped to my made-up bed of blankets.

The next day was my day off so I spent most of it researching in the Academy's library. The place was huge and I spent an hour looking for the right section. I could've just asked the librarian, Mrs. Windsor, but she was so old, she didn't look like she could move another step without hurting herself. I wasn't a believer of karma, but I still hoped that by sparing Mrs. Windsor the impossible effort to climb the ladder to get to the books, I'd be able to find what I'm looking for. Books on languages were in the 400s. I had to rule out a lot of languages with characters instead of the alphabet letters like Greek and Korean. After searching through ten books, I decided that most languages that used the alphabet or alphabet-like letters were European countries. Three more books later, I ruled out Italian, French, and Spanish since the message didn't really seem to match the tone of these languages; I studied French and a bit of Spanish before during Lissa and my great escape. Italian just didn't seem to work. Yes, I know I'm being pretty unreasonable, but if I wasn't, how much longer would this take? After skimming painstakingly through five more books, I came to a conclusion: the few fitting languages included German, Welsh, Dutch…. I decided to look up the individual words of the message with dictionaries. This process took about a thousand years. Next time I go to Spokane, I'm getting a computer. If I had a computer, I could've probably translated those words into English in a second, but instead I'm stuck in the library researching for hours. Finally, I matched up the with the word, kärlek, which meant love in Swedish. Why was the message written in Swedish and not Russian or whatever language vampires around here usually know? Then something clicked in my head. Vampires around here. Could Roxanne be the one who wrote it on the window? I don't know where she comes from, but I heard from inside Lissa's head that night she and Christian… had a conversation about the new "boy" about how she was from a different country. If she did do this, what's her deal?

Adrian and I stood on a dusty countryside road that cut a vast field of wildflowers in half. In the distant, I could see a windmill spinning in the wind next to the ocean. This place looked like somewhere in Scandinavia, overlooking the Gulf of Bothnia, a place I'd studied during the time Lissa and I escaped from the Academy.

"Where are we?" I asked in a surprised tone as I realized that this place wasn't reality but a dream.

"In Roxanne's dream, of course. You didn't think we'd elope this quickly, did you?" Adrian threw me a flirty smile.

I glared back. I guess Adrian hasn't heard that he was to marry Lissa on the queen's command.

"Where's Roxanne?"

"She's… probably around." Adrian surveyed the land. Unfortunately for him, there were only fields of flowers in the landscape. "I think we'll have a better chance of finding her by the windmill- that's where I saw the last few times."

"And just how many times are you talking about?" I demanded. I can't believe how bothered I was by that.

"A couple."

"How many, Adrian?"

"Several."

"Spill it. Now."

"A few times."

"Are you trying to yank on my chain because the chain is broken and the only thing that's keeping me from killing you is Roxanne's dream world, where I assume murder isn't part of reality," I said out of sheer frustration.

"I might be, but not on purpose."

"Yeah right," I muttered under my breath.

Adrian and I walked about two miles before reaching the windmill. It was an old-fashion one, with glossy black and gray wood panels and a small garden flourishing with greens by the base of a tall willow tree. As we got closer and a better view of the windmill, it looked like there was a small cottage attached to the back. Yeah, this was definitely the countryside. There was a hushed sound of a soft weeping came from inside the cottage. Adrian and I moved closer and ducked underneath the window ledge.
"This is what I've dreamed about: Rose Hathaway and I out spying."

"Shut up! She'll hear us," I said, too excited and anxious to give a damn about 'us spying'.

Roxanne seemed to be murmuring sadly to herself; her voice was hard to hear even with the extra-sharp hearing from my vampire power. I could only make out the words, 'I'm sorry' over and over again. I glanced at Adrian, who was playing with my hair.

"Is this what you mean?"

"Yeah. Except last time I actually saw her apologizing to Cameron. It was pretty eerie to watch."

"Did he really look like you?" Two Adrians? That's something I don't get to see everyday.

Adrian shrugged. "I can see some resemblance, but me being the real Adrian… besides, he looked too clean."

I raised an eyebrow. "Too clean?"

"No cigarette or alcohol scent."

'Then I might just like him."

Adrian's eyes grew wide. "Does this mean that if I don't smoke any more cigarettes or drink anymore beers, you'll like me?"

"Maybe."

"Wow. I'm amazed at how simple you are behind all that perpetual murderous intent."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I said maybe. I didn't say yes."

"But you didn't say no."

"But I will if you keep it up."

Adrian eyed me playfully and let it drop. He rested his hand on top of mine, but I was too intrigued by Roxanne's confession to worry about it.

Please forgive me. Roxanne's voice was still soft but more audible. I'm so sorry. Deceiving everyone is such a painful thing I don't know if I can do this anymore. I can't believe I gave in. That should've been our first night.

I gulped. Do I really want to hear more? Unconsciously, my gaze brought my eyes to Adrian, who gazed back at me. Adrian was probably imagining something explicit judging from the mischievous look he wore. I focused back at listening to Roxanne, trying to ignore Adrian's actions.

Oh Cameron, we were so close in our relationship- Adrian's hand moved to my bare leg- you and I could've really been together- the hand slid up my calf and over my knee- it would've been an impossible dream come true, a miracle- fingers played at the edge of my skirt- but that miracle pried us apart- they slid up my thigh- we really are star-crossed lovers, aren't we? I lost it and now you're gone- the hand froze. Adrian and I were thinking the same thing. My heart pounded against my chest. What happened to Roxanne that forced or somehow made her kill Cameron?

I hoped you enjoyed this part! Please review this for reviews are really inspirational! I don't own Vampire Academy- that belongs to Richelle Mead.