Chapter 2: An Unexpected Visitor
"Rose. Rose. Rose! Rose, wake up! You don't want to be late." A voice said, then someone began shaking me out of the dark clutches of sleep.
"Uh-uh." I moaned and rolled over.
"Rose, if you don't get your butt out of bed RIGHT NOW, I will get a bucket of cold water and dump it over your head." I paid no heed to the insistent voice, and soon another voice joined it.
"You want me to do it?" This one was male.
"Go ahead," the female voice said.
I heard the sounds of water sploshing in a pot. I heard the bucket start to slowly turn over. SPLASH! The water spilled out and I felt it. It filled my open mouth and nostrils. It soaked my hair and sheets. It was freezing. I jumped up, angry. I opened my eyes and couldn't see, water fell off my head and into them. A towel was thrown on my face.
"WHO DID THIS?" I sputtered.
"Umm, we did," said the male voice sarcastically. The towel was still on my face, so I couldn't see him.
I yanked it off. "Mom? Abe?"
My mother's face showed signs of annoyance, but Abe's held a grin as wide as the Mississippi River.
"Yes, dear. Come, we made breakfast," Mom said.
They had prepared eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. When I say they, I mean my mother. Abe couldn't cook if his life relied on it. Of course, I wasn't quite sure where Janine Hathaway, esteemed guardian and Strigoi slayer, learned how to cook.
"How did you get into my apartment?" I asked, and took a sip of orange juice.
"We stayed the night in your guest bedroom," Abe said.
I nearly choked on my juice. "WE?"
"Yes, Rose, WE," my mother was obviously aggravated.
"Well, do spare me the details," I said as I finished my breakfast. "I have to get going. Will you please leave before I go?" There was an edge to my voice, and my mother noticed.
"Fine, fine, we'll leave." She walked out of the kitchen, hugging my head as she passed. I heard them discussing good hotels at Court, and I resisted the urge to vomit.
I walked to the little café about a hundred yards from my apartment building. Most mornings, I went there to get coffee, it helped me get through my long day.
"Hey Rose, your usual?" the barista asked.
"Yes, Chester. Except, today, I want a vanilla bean latte as well." Lissa had asked me to get her a latte.
Chester handed me the coffee, and I walked out, almost dropping it when I barged into someone.
"Adrian!" I was surprised. Adrian Ivashkov was someone I hadn't expected to see anytime soon. Last I had heard, he was studying some spirit-keeping-people-from-becoming-Strigoi thing.
"Huh? Oh, hi, Rose." He looked depressed, I had never seen him like that. I smelled whiskey, or tequila, or brandy, or some other kind of alcohol on his breath. He took out a cigarette.
"I thought you quit?" I asked him.
"Oh, yeah, I did. Hey, Rose, can I talk to you in private?"
"Of course." I, now knowing more about Court than he, led him to a secluded garden.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Rose, I never told you this, but Sydney and I, we're together." Sydney was an Alchemist who was working with Adrian in Palm Springs, and was also there to help protect Jill, Lissa's half-sister. There had been an attempt to assassinate her. Well, technically, she had died, but Adrian brought her back to life, forming a bond between them, exactly like the bond Lissa and I used to have.
This came as quite a shock, seeing Sydney thought all vampires- even half vampires- were evil creatures of the night.
"That can't be what you're upset about," I said.
"No," he shook his head. "I'm upset because the Alchemists took her. They found out about us."
"Why don't you talk to her in a dream, find out where she is, and break her out? I'll help you break her out."
He shook his head, for about the seventeenth time that day. "I've tried. I can't reach her. I.. I just don't know what happened, Rose. I miss her so much."
"I know," I said. "It doesn't get easier. You feel it every day, gnawing at you, at your soul." It was the first time I had talked about how I felt without Dimitri to anyone other than Dimitri. "All you want, all you'll want when she's gone, is her," I finished my sentence with a wistful look, recalling harder times.
His shoulders shook with sobs. My eyes widened, I had never seen him cry. Sydney must be really special to him.
I glanced at my watch. "Look, Adrian, I have to get to work. I'll find you after." I walked away from the garden, and all I heard were his depressing wails.
"Did you get my coffee?" Lissa asked as soon as I walked in, bouncing Reggie on her hip.
Reggie was small for his age (two), and had Christian's dark hair and Lissa's green eyes.
"Auntie Rose!" He yelled when he saw me. I stuck out my arms and Lissa handed him to me.
"There's my favorite boy! And yes, Lis, I did get your coffee." She yanked the latte out of my hand and took a long sip.
"Amina's counsel arrived today. Visiting them is the first thing on our agenda."
"Okay, are we bringing Prince Reginald?" I asked in a mock professional voice and tickled Reggie on the stomach.
"Yes, a woman on Amina's counsel has a son his age, so I figured they could play together," Lissa smiled at him, "Now, Reggie, I want you to be a good boy for Mommy and Aunt Rose, okay?"
"Yes, Mommy," Reggie leaned forward and Lissa did the same. He gave her a small kiss on the cheek. Lissa smiled again. I was so thankful she had Reggie. She smiled more. He seemed to help her stay away from insanity.
Amina and her counsel were staying at one of the many hotels at Court. It was far from Lissa's home, so we took a SUV over to the Casa De Blanca, a hotel that had a Spanish theme.
Lissa walked to the front desk- with an escort of guardians, of course- and asked the man there what floor Amina and her counsel were staying on.
Lissa walked to the elevator, which only had room for four. So, three guardians rode with her and the other seven climbed the stairs.
We found the dining room for that floor, knowing everyone would be at breakfast, considering the early hour of the vampire nocturnal schedule.
"Queen Vasilisa!" A guardian said, surprised. Lissa nodded her head slightly, and walked on, remembering to be haughty, queen-like.
The tempting aroma of bacon and French toast reached my nose. Even though I had already eaten, I wanted more. It took a lot to power my dhampir metabolism.
The Egyptian Moroi weren't in the dining room, but a waitress told us they had moved to the lounge. So, we walked on.
The lounge was at the other end of the hall, so it didn't take long to get there.
The lounge was not really a lounge. It felt more like a cozy living room, with comfy couches, and a sixty inch flat screen television.
Amina was sprawled on a leather loveseat, and her counsel surrounded her, all sitting primly in chairs, with legs crossed.
The first thing I noticed about them was that they were all women. The second thing was that they all dressed the same. Blue slacks, a white button-up, and a blue jacket.
A little boy played with a train at the far end of the room, and I set Reggie down so he could go play with him. He ran off, and Lissa walked to the youngest in Amina's counsel.
"Rebecca. Thank you for providing toys for my son to play with."
Rebecca smiled, "It's my pleasure. Thomas needed someone to play with." She had a slight British accent, and I wondered why she was part of the Egyptian Moroi.
Lissa began a conversation with the counsel, and I grew bored, so I walked to Reggie and Thomas. They built block towers and then knocked them down, over and over and over again. They never seemed to grow tired of it.
Alberta came up to me. I had forgotten she was guarding Amina.
"Don't you miss that? Being amused by the simplest things?" I asked her quietly.
"Yes. Yes, I do. But, I love what I do. I protect that, that childhood innocence. When I was a kid, 'What are you going to be when you grow up?' was not a question I got asked. I trained, with no option to do something else. Back then, all I wanted was to be different than the other dhampirs. Now, all I want is to protect that, and give them a chance to have a life. I don't regret any of it."
"I don't either," I said to myself. "I don't either.