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Chapter Three

My heated dream which involved reliving my encounter with Christian this morning began to fade around me and I tried desperately to cling onto Christian as my surroundings shifted to match Adrian's room here at the Academy.

I sighed as the last remainder of Christian's body disappeared from my vision. Adrian dissolved in front of me and rewarded me with a large smile, but then it fell off almost immediately.

I sent him a puzzled look, but then realised why he was looking so mad. I was wearing what I'd gone to bed in, which was only a large t-shirt. All the bruises and the love bite were visible.I shifted uncomfortably under his heavy scrutiny.

"You look like you've been having fun." He commented with a grimace, continuing to stare at my legs.

"I just made out with someone in the year below." I explained with a grimace. Why did Adrian have to dream-walk me tonight? Of all the nights. I'd already struggled with explaining this to Liss, I just wanted to move on and try and forget about it. "It's not a big deal."

Adrian raised a sarcastic eyebrow, making a sweeping gesture of my legs. "It looks like a big deal."

"That's from training." I dismissed him, pretending to be offended. "It wasn't anything, honestly." Then I smirked for a slight second. "It wasn't even good."

Adrian looked sceptical, but he decided not to push it too far, my comment clearly hadn't amused him like I'd hoped. "You seem to have moved on quickly enough."

His words cut me and any smile I'd had on my face vanished. I averted my eyes. "I've not moved on at all. It didn't mean anything. I didn't even know him that well. I just felt lonely, I wanted to see if I could still enjoy making out with someone randomly." It hurt me to lie about something like this. I wondered why I'd really slept with Christian. And why he'd slept with me. I figured it was just the heat of the moment. Like we'd suddenly realised how attracted we were to each other and had been just been consumed by sudden lust.

Adrian sighed and slumped down to take a seat on the bed. "I'm sorry for snapping." He apologised. "I just don't like seeing you like that. I don't want to imagine you with anyone else." Now I felt even guiltier for lying to him. He'd have every right to be angry at me if he knew the truth. "I just thought that after guardian Belikov left you might finally give me a chance."

I joined him on the bed and forced myself not to hang my head in shame. Maybe I would give Adrian a chance eventually. "I don't want to use you as my rebound." I told him honestly. "And I know that's not what you want either."

He nodded. "It's not." He agreed, then thankfully changed the subject a little. "How have you been holding up little dhampir?"

I shrugged. "I've been okay." I decided I should just be honest with him. "I've been trying to distract myself, training Christian has helped, and hanging out with Liss and stuff. It's mainly just at night." I admitted. "I get bad dreams sometimes." I chuckled gently. "You're actually a welcome relief sometimes." Not tonight, though, I'd been perfectly happy in my dream world.

He gave me a faint smile. "Well I'm more than happy to visit your dreams." Then he began to blur slightly. "You're waking up." He managed to say before I was met with the familiar setting of my own room.

Christian and I had cancelled training this morning because it was the beginning of the field experience and so the gym was being used for us to receive our assignments.

The excitement began to bubble inside of me. I'd been waiting ages for this. No normal lessons, just spending all day and night with Liss, getting to fight the guardians and relax a bit. Then it dimmed as I realised what spending 6 weeks of time with Lissa actually meant. Because of what had happened with Christian, it was going to mean 6 weeks of complete guilt, lying to my best friend and trying desperately not to be awkward around her and give anything away.

Sighing, my happy mood deflated, I got ready and went to meet Eddie before going to the gym. "Excited?" He inquired, a rare grin gracing his face.
"Of course." I agreed. His enthusiasm was contagious and I allowed it to flow through me, smiling as I focused on how much I'd been looking forward to this. "It's going to be good."

"I just hope I get someone good." Eddie replied, looking at Alberta, who'd just appeared on the stage, hopefully. "At least you're lucky enough to know who you're getting." I refused to let my smile fade and decided to listen to Alberta's spiel about the rules to keep my mind off what the field experience actually held for me.

Everyone fell silent as Alberta began to read out the assignments in alphabetical order.

"Eddie Castile, you have been assigned to Vasilisa Dragomir." A mixture of anger and relief flooded through me and Eddie glanced at me apologetically before walking up to the front and retrieving his wooden stake.

I grimaced, now I just really hoped I wasn't assigned to someone I didn't like. "Rose Hathaway," I held my breath. Both Ralph and Jesse hadn't been called yet. "You have been assigned to Christian Ozera."

My eyes widened. That definitely wasn't ideal. I dragged myself to the front of the room, my body suddenly feeling extremely heavy.

It wasn't that I wasn't glad to be assigned to someone I quite liked, it was just that, after the incident, spending all my time with Christian couldn't be a good idea. I had to sleep in his room and everything. I sighed as I took the practice stake and joined the other novices who'd already been assigned Moroi.

Eddie's face was full of apology. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea, why would they even do this?"

I grimaced, but waved him off. "At least she got someone really good, if it wasn't me."

Eddie smiled at the compliment, but I had to try not to show the slight relief I was feeling. "I'm going to have to go and talk to Alberta." I told Eddie when all the novices had been called.

I wasn't even sure why I was going to Alberta. I didn't know whether guarding Christian or Lissa would be worse. Either way, I was positive Alberta wouldn't change my assignment, no matter what. The only reason I was really going to speak to her was because it would probably look odd if I didn't, considering how passionate I'd always been about guarding Liss.

"Christian, really?" I demanded when I caught up with her. Thankfully, she was alone and I didn't have to deal with all the guardians looking at me.

Alberta sighed. "Yes, Rose." She confirmed. "You have to learn to work with other Moroi. And this way it allows you to keep training Christian. I figured that since I wasn't going to assign you to Vasilisa either way, Christian would be the next best thing. It'll mean you'll be with the princess a lot anyway."

I nodded. I couldn't really argue with that. At least now I could tell Lissa that I'd tried to get Alberta to swap when she was disappointed I wouldn't be her guardian. "Okay." I agreed, jogging back to where Eddie was waiting for me. "Let's go find our Moroi." I suggested, slightly dejectedly. I was going to have to put on a seriously annoyed front for Lissa.

We were supposed to go and find them at lunch time, which would be any time now, and I flicked through the package that gave me all the information I could possibly need on Christian. I suddenly realised that they'd probably also assigned me to Christian because they knew I was sensitive about his past and didn't despise him for it, like some of the other novices might have.

Lissa beamed when she saw me walking towards her. "You're my guardian!" She exclaimed, rushing up to me and giving me a quick hug. Then she saw what was in my hands and the expression I was wearing. "Oh." She scowled. "I guess not."

Christian raised an eyebrow from where he was sitting. "You're not Liss's guardian?" He questioned, not bothering to move from his seat. "Who's are you then?"

I grimaced at him before throwing him the packet in my hands. "Take a guess, buddy."

His eyes widened marginally before they met mine. He'd obviously had the same thought process as me. Christian managed to shake it off, though, and smirked at me. "What a stroke of luck." He grinned. "You and me are going to have so much fun, Rose. Picking out curtains, doing each other's hair, telling ghost stories." He teased.

I snatched the packet of information back off him. "Just kill me now." I exclaimed dramatically, slumping down into the seat beside him.

Lissa chuckled. I could feel that she was still disappointed I wasn't her guardian through the bond, but she was happy I'd still be around and also that her guardian was Eddie. They got on well enough.

"So how exactly does this work?" Christian asked me as Eddie and Lissa talked between themselves.

"Well I basically just follow you about." I admitted. "Come to your classes and stuff. The guardians dress up as Strigoi and I have to protect you." Then my face fell into a frown. "I have to sleep in your room and stuff."

"Oh right." Christian didn't let any emotion show on his face, but it was obvious the situation was becoming increasingly awkward for him. "I guess it works pretty well, really." He admitted. "It'll be easier with training and stuff." Then he smirked. "You'll have no excuse for being late any more."

"Hey!" I exclaimed, swatting his arm playfully. "You know I'm not late that often."

Christian smirked. "I don't think you're allowed to attack your charge."

I grimaced. "My apologies, Lord Ozera." I mock bowed and was rewarded with a scowl.

"Okay, we'll call it quits. You can attack me as much as you like as long as you never call me that again."

I grinned and punched him in the arm, none too softly. "Deal."