I woke up on a bed in Adrian's arms. Everyone was looking at me, scared. Adrian noticed me waking up and said "Rose, are you awake?" I looked up at him and tried to speak but nothing would come out. I was so tired. He noticed me looking at him and released me. He pulled the blanket up onto me and let me fall asleep.
I then realised I was having another Adrian dream. "Rose, are you okay?" He asked. "Yeah, I can't remember much though. Where are we?" I asked. "We are in New Orleans. You kept saying that is where you needed to be, so we drove here. You have been asleep for 4 days." He answered. "What happened to you? You were fine until we left the court, are you... seeing ghosts?" He asked. "Yeah, as soon as we left the wards I saw... Tatiana. She was trying to tell me something but she couldn't say anything" I told him. We didn't say anything after that. He just looked at me, a little shocked.
He finally asked "Can you let me see her, or any of them?" That caught me off guard. No one had seen Mason at St. Vladimir's, but when I used them to fight Dimitri as a strigoi, he saw them. If a strigoi could see them when I made them visible, maybe a moroi could. Maybe even a spirit user. "Maybe... At St. Vladimir's nobody could see them though. But once, when I was fighting Dimitri as a strigoi, I let my mental wall down and he could see them" I said.
The dream then disappeared and I woke up, suddenly feeling alert and ready. Adrian was sitting next to me, looking at me curiously. The others weren't in the room, so I quickly read Lissa's thoughts and realised she was in a room across from this one.
"Can you try to show me now?" He asked gesturing around the room. "I guess, but it won't last long. I shouldn't be letting them in y'know" I said. I let my mental wall down, it took a few seconds before Tatiana materialised in front of me. Adrian was looking in the same direction I was. After a few more seconds Lissa's parents came into view, then Andre. Adrian looked at me and shook his head. I put the mental wall back up and they were gone. It was just me and Adrian.
"Who was there?" asked Adrian. "It was Tatiana... and Lissa's parents and brother." I answered. "Oh, are you... okay?" He asked. "Yeah I'm fine" I lied. I was feeling so exhausted, like bringing them forth takes a lot out of me. I suddenly felt angry and upset and depressed. "Why did you make me do that?" I yelled. "Calm down Rose!" Adrian yelled. "It's kinda' hard to calm down when people are out looking for you and if they find you they will kill you!" I was screaming now. "Please Rose, calm down. You are not going to die!" He grabbed hold of my shoulders and was shaking me. There was suddenly a knock on the door. "Lord Ivashkov, what's going on in there?" Dimitri called from outside of the room. "Get Lissa and come in here" Adrian called back.
"Why are you getting them in here! I thought you didn't even like Dimitri!" I screamed. I suddenly had the urge to punch someone until the door opened and Lissa, Dimitri and Christian came into the room.
"Calm down Rose" Lissa sat me on the bed. She passed me a necklace, a silver chain with a rose hanging from it. She put it around my neck and the anger went away. I then realised that all of Lissa's compulsion had taken its toll on me. She not only used it to get me out of prison and through the Court gate, she'd used it while I'd been blacked out. She used it to get on the plane, hire a car and get into the motel.
"Feeling better now?" she asked and hugged me. I nodded. Poor Adrian, I must have really upset him, and from the look on his face he wasn't planning on talking to me for a few hours. Lissa stayed with me a little longer before going back to Christian who was sleeping. Adrian went to the bathroom to have a shower and Dimitri went back to his own room.
As soon as I heard the shower turn on I quickly scribbled on a piece of paper;
Adrian,
I have gone to get some fresh air and a bite to eat. I'm so sorry about what I said earlier, I hope we can talk about it later.
Rose
