The next morning I was brutally awaken with a message through the bond from Lissa. I glanced at my clock, 9 o'clock, I had actually managed to sleep for a few hours, Vlad knows it practically took me all night to fall asleep.
'Rose, are you awake? Well, if you are, come over before you go out so we can discuss plans for tonight!' Well, I was certainly awake now, I thought bitterly.
I hauled myself out of bed and jumped in the shower before dressing in my Guardian uniform, although I technically wasn't on duty today, I was meeting with Hans later so I supposed I should try and look somewhat professional. I did leave my hair down though, running my fingers through the shoulder length strands as a way of brushing it.
I took the chance to actually have a cup of coffee in my own kitchen, I wasn't sure I'd even had a proper meal here since I'd moved in.
I gulped down the last few drops of the caffeinated goodness before rinsing the mug in the sink and making my way out of the house, checking my stake was securely in my holster before locking the door, as I did every morning.
I crossed my own front lawn and Lissa's, then let myself into their house. The newly engaged couple were sat at the breakfast bar when I walked in.
"Hey Rose, are you alright?" Lissa asked sincerely as I walked in. "I promise we had no idea they were going to turn up then, Tasha said she wanted to surprise us."
"Well she certainly succeeded." I said, not meaning for my voice to be as bitter as it was. "Sorry, they just caught me off guard, I didn't think I'd ever have to see him again, and now they're here. Oh god, they're not staying here are they?" I said suddenly, scanning the surroundings for any sign of the couple.
Christian chuckled at my sudden panic. "Nah, they're staying in guest housing. They're going to be here for at least a few months, Rosie, probably until the wedding. Are you going to be okay?" I was touched that fireboy actually cared how I was handling this, she was his Aunt after all; he should be annoyed with me if anything.
"It'll be fine; I can just avoid him as much as possible. I'm sorry I've made this so difficult for you both." I said, feeling truly guilty.
"It's fine Rose, I wish there was some way we could make this easier." She said with a sad smile on her face. I hated that this was troubling her. I should be protecting her.
"Honestly don't worry, Liss. I'll be fine, I am fine." Even I didn't believe my own words.
"Cut the crap, Hathaway. That asshole broke you, and now he's waltzing back in here as if nothing is wrong. He wasn't there to see what he did to you, but we were. You looked like a walking corpse for fucks sake Rose. And I know it's not totally your responsibility, but you better not let him hurt you again. Hell, we couldn't even speak his name until a week ago!" Christian was breathing hard by the end of his speech, and my throat was so tight I was struggling to get air into my lungs.
I had no idea what I was supposed to say, Christian had never showed me so much emotion before. Lissa must have noticed my panicked expression as she quickly cut in.
"Anyway, this isn't why I called you over. We're all going out to a fancy restaurant tonight to celebrate, they will be there, but so will Adrian so he'll have your back, so will we." Crap, avoiding him really was going to be difficult.
"Alright, is Eddie coming?" I asked hopefully.
"No, we did invite him but he's on duty tonight and couldn't get out of it." That was a shame; I could really have used his company.
I stayed with them until I glanced at my watch; it was half past one already. "Guys, I'm going to have to go, I'm meeting Hans at two. What time are we meeting at the restaurant?" I asked.
"We'll meet there at eight. Wear something nice." Lissa confirmed. She didn't say why, but through the bond I could tell she wanted to see how Dimitri would react to seeing me again, especially all dressed up.
I gave Liss a quick hug and briskly made my way to the Guardian Headquarters where Hans' office was located.
I made my way to his office right on time and knocked on the door. "Come in!" Was called through the door.
I stepped into the room and the sight before me made me want to turn around and run as far away as possible. "Am I early or something?" I knew it was unlikely, but there was no way I was meant to be here right now.
"As if you could ever be early for anything. No, you're surprisingly right on time." Hans said from where he sat at this desk. "Please, take a seat."
There were two basic leather seats placed opposite his own with his desk in the middle. Only one chair was available, because Dimitri fucking Belikov was sat comfortably in the other.
I simply turned and glanced at the chair, and its distance from the Russians chair. Of course Hans didn't miss my hesitation. "Hathaway, sit down." That was a direct order, one I couldn't exactly refuse. I didn't dare look at Dimitri, instead I focussed my attention on Guardian Croft.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I've called you both here, together." He said with a slight hint of amusement on his aging voice. I only nodded and gave him a murderous look.
"Well I'll get right to the point. As you may or may not know, Guardian Belikov here is going to be staying at Court for a few months at the least, and he generously offered his services around Court. And while we all know that he is completely safe and back to his usual self, some Moroi may not be quite as likeminded." He said before pausing, looking at me as if he was expecting me to interrupt him.
"Go on." I prompted.
"And what with varying Strigoi movements outside the wards, we can't really waste a perfectly capable Guardian. And so I have come to the conclusion that our best option is for Belikov to shadow another perfectly capable and well respected Guardian. And so he will be joining you on all of your shifts from now on, and will gradually have shifts of his own."
I couldn't be hearing this correctly. No way was I supposed to have him following me around while I'm on duty. I was putting every ounce of power I had into staying away from him!
"Please, you can't be serious." I muttered, I hated to say it, but I don't think I could survive the next few months if this is how it was going to be.
Dimitri's head snapped towards my direction before he quickly recovered and slammed his Guardian mask back into place. Was he actually surprised by my reaction to this situation?!
"Oh I am very serious. Look, I'll be honest with you both. I know about your history, and though I wish I didn't have to do this to you Rose. You're one of the best Guardians we've got around here, and you are simply my best option." I knew he truly felt bad about putting me in this situation, if only because he called me by my first name.
"With all due respect, Hans, you don't know anything about our history. When do we start?" There was no way I was getting out of this, so I may as well be as cooperative as possible. I could see Hans' eyebrows rise ever so slightly in surprise.
"Your partnership will begin tomorrow, at the beginning of your shift starting at two."
I stood up abruptly once he had finished speaking; I wasn't going to hang around here any longer than I needed to. "Very well, if that's all I'll be on my way." I said looking directly at Hans, waiting for him to dismiss me. He simply nodded; I didn't do Dimitri the honour of looking in his direction as I exited the room.
As soon as I was out of the room I let out a breath I didn't realise I had been holding, and my shoulders sagged in relief.
I leant back against the wall outside his office door, I hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but once I heard his rough accented voice, I couldn't pull myself away. I had only heard him speak one word since he'd been here.
"Thank you for the opportunity, Guardian Croft." He said as politely as ever.
"It's no problem at all Belikov, it'll be good for your reputation and it'll help our numbers." He replied before continuing. "If I may be so bold as to ask a favour of you Belikov?" He questioned finally.
"Of course, anything." He declared without hesitation.
"Don't make this anymore difficult for Hathaway than it has to be, follow her orders and respect her wishes, she is your superior as of now. You haven't seen her over these past years so you don't know how dedicated she's been to her role, she barely does anything other than work, and I think we both know why that is. I wouldn't want anything getting in the way of that." He finished. I had no idea Hans was going to say anything like that, I honestly thought I was a pain in his ass, but I suppose we had come to a mutual respect of each other as of recently.
"I can assure you that I have no intentions of making this difficult for her, she did a surprisingly good thing by agreeing to this, I will be nothing but grateful." The odd thing was that he actually sounded sincere.
"Good, let's keep it that way. You can go now if that's all, Belikov." I almost laughed; he was trying to dismiss him as politely as possible.
"Thank you." He said, and I knew that was my moment to leave. I ran around the corner as quickly and quietly as possible so he wouldn't see me, I left the building as quickly as possible without drawing attention and literally ran home after that.
I still had time to kill before the dreaded fancy dinner tonight, and so I put my workout clothes on and went for a run around the Courts track. Guardians Lawrence and Reyes were on the track when I arrived and they keenly called me over to run with them. I normally preferred to run on my own, but to be honest I was grateful for the distraction.
We ran together for a solid hour before they left, I continued for a few more laps before deciding I had done enough and made my way home again on shaking legs.
I was covered head to toe in sweat and decided another shower was exactly what I needed. Once I was out I pulled open the doors to my wardrobe and scanned the clothes.
Lissa had said to dress nicely, but she didn't specify how nice. I checked the bond and saw that she had chosen to wear a deep green knee length dress; it was tight fitting but had graceful lace sleeves.
I scanned my wardrobe twice more before pulling out a black dress and studying it closely before deciding it would have to do. It had thin straps that lead down to a modestly plunging neck line, and although it was knee length, it had a slit up the side leading up to mid thigh.
I hadn't worn the dress in a few years, and it had been a bit too tight to be comfortable back then, so I figured it would fit nicely enough now.
For my hair I decided to simply clip the front strands of my hair to the back of my head and letting the rest fall naturally. For my makeup I went for a dark smoky eye with a deep red lip colour.
I was just slipping my strappy black heels on when a knock came at my front door. A quick check through the bond told me that it wasn't Lissa, she was already on her way to the restaurant with Christian.
I opened the door to find Adrian leaning casually up against the doorframe, I had to admit, he looked incredibly handsome.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" I asked with a smile as I opened the door wider to let him in.
His eyes appreciatively roamed my body before he pulled me into a hug. "Damn Little Dhampir, you look stunning." He said sincerely.
"You look pretty good yourself." I stated honestly. He was wearing a deep blue shirt with a black suit jacket and trousers. His hair was tousled in a way that was sexily messy.
"Thank you. I came by to walk you to the restaurant, if that's alright?" He asked.
"Of course. Ready to go?" I asked as I picked up my clutch, in it was my purse, stake, house key and lipstick.
Being as gentlemanly as ever, he held his arm out for me to take once I had locked the front door, and we made our way to the restaurant in comfortable silence, arm in arm.
The restaurant was soon in sight, and I could even tell from the exterior that it was overly fancy. Perfect for a bunch of royal Moroi.
The front of the building was all glass windows, meaning we could see inside. It seemed we were the last to arrive. Lissa, Christian, Tasha and Dimitri were already seated around a large round table, two empty seats waiting for us. Tasha's hand was placed comfortably on Dimitri's arm, Dimitri barely seemed to notice, instead his eyes kept glancing around the restaurant.
My feet stopped moving on their own accord. Adrian looked at me with concern. "Hey, are you going to be okay?" Although I had always avoided the topic of Dimitri over the years, he had been mentioned once or twice while Adrian was in my company. I knew Adrian knew that Dimitri was the reason we couldn't maintain a relationship. But he seemed to know that we were better as friends. Friends who occasionally had benefits.
"I'll be fine, just need a minute to mentally prepare myself." I said with a forced laugh.
"Listen to me, if you want to leave just say the word and I'll go with you." He said sincerely.
"Thank you, Adrian. Now let's go in, I think I'm going to need a drink."
There we have Chapter 4! I can't believe how quickly I'm writing these chapters, I'm just enjoying it so much! I was going to include what happens in the restaurant in this chapter, but it seemed long enough already, so that will be in the next chapter, things do get interesting! Thank you so very much to everyone who followed, favourited and reviewed the last chapter, I was blown away with how many reviews I got! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please let me know your thoughts!
