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"Um, wow," I said.

"Yeah. How would I rid the world of Strigoi? I'm Moroi. My grandmother's a bit crazy, but I love her. She's my family," he told me. "Now what's the more?"

"The more to my story?" I asked. I sighed, knowing that I had to tell him more. "Well, sometimes, I get these weird feelings. When Strigoi are around? In the pit of my stomach. It's always happened. Lissa gets it too. We feel all of the same things. The worst is that if I get mad, or use my magic, she takes the dark effects that it has from me. She gets really mad, so in turn, I get really mad, until she calms down."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

Dimitri handed me a mini-bottle of some crappy alcohol. I took it. He pulled out his own, and we clinked bottles. Then we downed them.

The burn of alcohol felt good, almost.

Rose! You're supposed to be in class, not drinking with the exchange student! Lissa scolded in my head. Now you're breaking two rules!

Oh, jeez. I'm fine. I told her, and put the wall up.

"Thanks," I said. "I needed that. Where'd you get those?"
"Swiped em' off the plane. Not hard," he smiled. "I needed to have something to celebrate with."
"You can't celebrate without alcohol?" I smirked.

"I can, it's just less fun. Especially lately. I don't drink too much."

"Same. So what can you do with fire?"

He looked at me, then looked at his hands. There was a ball of fire forming, and then, he made a strange movement, and then, the fire spelled Rose in the air. It puffed out, and left only smoke. Then, he moved the fire back into his hands, and shot it at a target someone had drawn on the wall.

The paint in this place was peeling, and it looked old. The fire made it look more entertaining, and it made me smile wider.

"That's really cool!" I exclaimed. "I can't do much."

If I concentrated, I could do things with different elements, because, wielding spirit, I could do that. It was hard, and drained my energy faster.

I concentrated on forming fire in my hand, and it made a sloppy ball shape in my palm.

"How…?" he asked.

"Oh, um, spirit users have low control over the other four elements. I can't do much. This is about it," I aimed for the wall, and made a tiny burn mark. "I've tried to do more, but I haven't tried hard."

"We'll work on it," he grinned. "Finally, someone who sees my point of view. You can fight. You can teach me physical fighting, and I'll help you with fire. Deal?"

"Of course!" I looked into his deep, inviting brown eyes. They were warm, and they said so much.

"So what now? Do we ditch the rest of the day?"

"You got more alcohol?"

"Yeah," he pulled out six more little bottles.

"Then yes, we do skip the rest of the day," I said happily.

I stumbled back to my room just before curfew. I had just dropped off Dimitri, and Lissa was waiting for me, sitting on her bed.

"You missed the rest of the day, and training with Christian," she said, anger building in her voice. "And you got drunk! Rose, how could you!"

"Oh, Liss, it's not that big a deal. Plus, it scored you some alone time with Christian. How'd that go?" I inquired.

She couldn't keep a grin off of her face. "We kissed. Like five times. Oh my god, Rose, I am so hopelessly head over heels for my teacher! My mentor! I'm screwed up in the head!" Her grin faded to a frown.

"Liss, he's only two years older than you, not even. So relax. Plus, it's not bad. You guys would look really cute together!" I told her.

She smiled again. "We would, wouldn't we?"

"Yeah. On a baby, your blonde hair and his blue eyes? Perfect!"

She sighed. Even though she was a Dhampir, she could have babies with other Dhampirs, because I was Moroi and she was part of me, and I was part of her. We had tests done by the Academy doctors.

It was possible. And they'd be Dhampir children. My children would be… well, we weren't sure.

"That's true. Adorable, huh?" she smiled, her emotions going back to normal. The drinking and everything temporarily forgotten about.

I smiled to myself. She was easy to derail.

I set my alarm and fell asleep.

I woke to the alarm, threw on clothes, and ran to training.

Lissa was there, and was standing in front of the gym, waiting for me.

"You're on time!" She exclaimed happily.

"Yes, I am," I grinned back.

"Good job, Rose!"

"Thank you, thank you. Hold the applause please."
I was such a show off. And that was okay.

Dimitri walked towards me. Why was he up so early?

"I came to watch you train," he smiled. "You said you got up early, and that it was really cool, so I came to watch."

Oh, do I feel romance in the air? Lissa smirked mentally.

"No!" I exclaimed out loud. Dimitri looked confused. "Sorry," I apologized. Lissa's just an idiot, it's the bond. Come on," I motioned for him to follow.

I felt strangely connected to him; I didn't feel the need to hide anything. It was like he was a close friend, though I had just met him. He wasn't like other royals, for that I was thankful.

Christian stood inside, looking directly at Lissa.

"Lord Belikov," Christian bowed.

Dimitri frowned. "It's Dimitri."

"He came to watch," Lissa explained.

Christian raised an eyebrow, something I couldn't do and had always wanted to do.

"Alright," he said. "Twenty laps, go."

Dimitri stood to watch us run. Lissa and I ran quickly, and were done not long after we had been assigned the laps.

We went in to spar.

Christian took Lissa first.

Lissa won.

Then I went up to spar with Christian.

He lunged toward me, but I dodged, and somersaulted to the side. I stood on my hands, and kicked my legs out at him. He got kicked pretty good in his stomach twice, but grabbed my ankles, and threw me to the ground.

He kicked my shins, and I flinched.

I flipped around, and punched his face. He was close to going down, I could feel it.

I faked right, and hit the left side of the face Lissa loved so much.

Christian was on the ground and I 'staked' him.

Dimitri clapped, and I beamed.

Lissa walked over to me, and we positioned ourselves.

She came at me first, thinking I wouldn't expect it, but I did.

Before she could get me, went to punch her face, walls blocking her out mentally. The blow made her stagger, but she lashed out with a blow to my stomach. It barely touched me, I had dodged just in time.

I tackled her, using the full weight of my body. She almost went down, but instead, swept my legs from under me.

She was trying to hold my hands down, but before she could 'stake me' I flipped us over, and 'staked' her. Quickly, cleanly, and easily. She hadn't seen it coming.

Maybe I was a better fighter.

I grinned, and heard Dimitri's clapping.

This was a good day.

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