POV: Adrian

"Alright, take it easy", Dimitri said to whomever was about to blow my brains out.

"Hands in the air and get on the ground", a female voice warned, pushing the gun against my forehead.

I slowly took a step back, the cold metal still pressed against my skin. We both carefully kneeled on the ground keeping our hands in the air. I managed to steal a look towards Dimitri and his expression told me we were in deep shit trouble. The gun backed away from me a bit, but remained pointed at my face. The decline of its proximity gave me a chance to finally see our attacker. And I had to say, I was more than surprised.

"Eva?", I blurted, realizing why her voice sounded so familiar right from the jump.

"Keep your head down Ivashkov if you want to keep it", she retorted, but I could hear a hint of uncertainty as she spoke.

I decided to take my chances because, seriously, things couldn't really get worse than they already were or at least I hoped they couldn't. Pulling my head up, I met her bright, crystal-like blue eyes. The pale skin of her face was flushed from the constant breeze, making the tiny freckles across the bridge of her nose and tops of her cheeks even more visible. Her messy, copper red, wavy hair was pulled into a ponytail, a few loose strands hanging around her face like always.

"I said-."

"Yeah, I know, heard you the first time", I cut in with an attitude too cocky for my own good, "But come on, seriously, you're not going to shoot me. We are friends."

"What are you doing?", Dimitri muttered under his breath and I didn't even have to look his way to know he was glaring at me.

"We are not friends", she exploded angrily, her gun jumping up a little, "You are a murderer and an idiot."

"Now there is something we agree on", Dimitri added in annoyance. It wasn't often that he was this salty, so either he was actually scared or he was kind of cheering for my brains to wind up decorating the pavement.

"Maybe we are not friends now, but you've known me for years, do you really think you'll pull that trigger?", I asked, sending out a silent prayer before rising to my feet again.

"Get back on the ground!"

I was playing with fire, but we were short on time and taking my chances was a lot better than just waiting for them to take us in or simply kill us on site. I just needed the right moment and the right angle and as soon as I got it, I fixed my eyes on hers giving her an order: "Eva, put the gun down."

She looked at me bluntly for a few seconds before obeying. I could see she was struggling, she wasn't dumb or weak willed, so compelling her took more effort.

"I want you to stay calm, no screaming for help or fighting", I continued as I approached her slowly pushing the gun with my foot towards Dimitri.

"Rope", I added as he picked the gun up, not taking my eyes off of Eva.

He worked fast, getting rope and without further instructions securing it around Eva's hands. I grabbed her elbow and pushed her backwards as Dimitri opened the heavy, metal door of the storage behind her. I pushed her inside, helping her sit down and reached into my bag which Dimitri still held in his hands, taking out one of my shirts.

"Are you going to kill me now?", she asked calmly, but I knew under the compulsion she was freaking out.

"Of course not, you are just going to stay here long enough for us to escape your companions and then you'll be as free as a bird", I elaborated before I added to Dimitri, "Ready?"

He nodded, handing me my bag and cocking the gun we snatched from her. I threw my bag over by shoulder and turned towards a very confused Eva.

"Got to go Freckles", I sang, winking at her while I gave her a big smile.

"Don't call me that", she retorted as compulsion started to fade, "You'll never get away with this. You can't run forever!"

"Sure we can", I responded before unceremoniously stuffing my shirt into her mouth, "Don't worry, once we are far away from here, I'll give the police or the rest of the guardians an anonymous tip on your whereabouts cause what kind of a friend would I be if I let you rot in here?"

I stepped out of the storage and the last thing I saw before closing the door behind me was her deathly glare as she mumbled something unintelligible and probably very naughty.

POV: Dimitri

"You know if you wanted to take a hike through the wilderness, you could have just said so", Adrian quibbled, kicking the dry leaves under his feet in a childish manner.

"I wouldn't exactly call this wilderness. It's just a tiny forest."

"Tiny? You're joking right? We've been walking for hours."

"Adrian it's been forty minutes, but I get your confusion, time has the tendency of passing agonizingly slow in your presence."

"Ladies and gentleman we've got ourselves a comedian", he exclaimed theatrically as I rolled my eyes to myself and kept walking.

"Be quiet, they still might be after us."

"You mean, we are not out of the woods yet?", he quipped jumping over a puddle of muddy water, "See what I did there?"

"Yes, your one-liners are hilarious, now keep up."

We walked in silence for a while, until I finally decided to ask the question that's been on my mind ever since we'd encountered that Guardian: "So, who's the girl?"

"What girl?", he shrugged, but a very visible glimmer lit up in his eyes.

"Don't play coy Ivashkov, the girl who almost put a bullet in each of our heads?"

"Oh, that girl", he exclaimed in fake surprise, "She is an old friends."

"She doesn't seem to think so."

"Well, that's probably because we are wanted criminals. Can you blame her? But, yeah, we went to school together. We were pretty close once upon a time."

"Pretty close?", I chuckled, raising my eyebrow suggestively.

"I see where you're aiming and I'd hate to disappoint, but when I said close I meant a perfectly-appropriate-just-friends kind of close. I know shocker, right? Turns out I didn't fuck every single girl I've met throughout my not very long life."

"I didn't think you've fu-, that's not what I was getting at", I mumbled through a frown, "You know, I don't believe that you truly are what you present to the world."

"Present? What is it that you think I present?"

"You're upholding this image of a careless party boy, determined to spend his family fortune on booze and girls."

"That actually rhymed Belikov and yes, I believe that's exactly what I'm doing."

"No, it's not. If it was, Rose would have been just one more conquest to add to the list", the words slipped from my tongue before I could even think them through.

"What makes you think she wasn't?", he retorted coldly, now clearly angered by my persistence.

His remark stopped me in my tracks and I swung around coming face to face with him. He wore his usual smug look, but I could see it in his eyes, he was hurt by his own words.

"If she was you wouldn't have fought so hard to keep her alive."

"Well, it didn't matter, it was in vain. I failed, like always", he mumbled out looking away.

I searched for the right words, but the agonizing look on his face told me I crossed the line there was no coming back from, no matter what I offered as consolation.

"We should keep moving. I'd like to get out of here before something eats me", he snapped bypassing me and swiftly ending any further discussion on any matter.

I followed soon after, pondering on the desire to punch myself in the face. I used to think handling Rose was hard, but then I met Adrian. I knew I hit the nerve, but it was torturous how easy it was to make him snap. Whether it was a big thing like this, or a small, daily irritation, he would get so difficult at the times I wanted to strangle him and myself while I was at it. The most miserable part was that I knew how much he was suffering and yet he managed to keep up his devil-may-care façade at almost all times. But then again, I would be lying to myself if I said I wasn't hiding behind a mask as well.

POV: Adrian

I lit up another cigarette as I watched Dimitri tinker with the car alarm. I couldn't wait to get back on the road for the sole reason of being able to at least pretend to be asleep in order to escape talking to him.

Back in the forest I was seconds away from smashing his face. Well, to be completely honest, I probably would have caused minimal injuries if I even managed to reach his face before he blocked me, but I was still tempted. Bringing up Rose was a low kick and from his absolute silence since that moment I knew he was aware of it.

We avoided talking about anything Rose related, mostly because her death was still an open wound in each of our hearts, but also because, on top of it all, we both knew who her final choice was. He didn't have to tell me anything in order for me to know that something happened between them while they were away. I didn't want to know what it was, no point in adding fuel to the fire raging inside of me. I knew that the biggest mistake I'd made was staying behind as she fled from her imprisonment. It was a rational choice, a right choice at the time, but from the moment she took off it felt wrong. From that moment I had this voice at the back of my head constantly warning me that it wouldn't end well. And it didn't, on more than one account.

The engine roaring to life dragged me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw Dimitri motioning me to join him. I tossed my cigarette aside, racing towards the car. He didn't waste time on pleasantries and took of immediately upon my entrance. We lost the Guardians, but they weren't far behind, so we needed to keep moving and put as much distance between them and us as possible.

"We can't afford any long stops, so I'll drive until we reach the boarder and you can take over after that", he announced, taking a turn towards the highway.

"Sure. Wake me up when we are there", I responded, making myself comfortable in the seat and turning my head towards the window.

I closed my eyes wishing that dreams would sweep over me, but my mind was too restless to allow that. So I let my thoughts wander, I let them lead me to this safe place I'd created in my mind. The place where I envisioned a world where Rose was still alive, the one I could see her in again and hold her tight in my arms. I realized that I didn't care, I didn't care who she was with in that world. It didn't matter. What mattered was that she was happy. That she'd get to live out her life until she was an old lady swinging on some porch somewhere. That she'd get to taste all of those things life had to offer, all the things she'd now never get to have. I liked that place. It was bright and happy, unlike the world we were left in. The one that seemed like an empty shell without her. The one neither of us really wanted to live in.