Chapter 4

As I walked to Christian's first class, I pondered over the fact that Lissa knew about Dimitri and me. And Lissa and Adrian! I hadn't said anything to her because I didn't want to know why. How hadn't I noticed before? I hadn't been paying attention to the bond for a few days so I had no clue. But, even though Adrian pissed me off, I was glad that Lissa wasn't upset over the breakup and was moving on quickly… very quickly. I decided to try to talk to Christian before he exploded from pent up anger.

"You know, Christian…" I started before he cut me off.

"Just shut up, Rose. I know that this isn't your fault but I can't talk to you right now." I was about to shut up when I saw the look on his face. It was resigned but still extremely pissed off. But I figured, all the times that Christian had annoyed me, he needed payback.

"What do you mean?" I said, expecting his answer.

"Yeah, I know I made a mistake with accusing Lissa of being with Adrian. I was wrong then. And I know that I threw her into Adrian's arms. But did he have to take her!? She would've come back to me!" He seemed perfectly convinced that she would've, but I had known that she was getting tired of him. He had begun to treat her differently. "God and now I know for sure that they're together!" Now this wasn't something I had expected.

"You heard our conversation?" I had begun to feel pity on the poor boy.

"Just the ending. But it wasn't a huge surprise. I should've known." We got to his classroom and went in. I spent the whole class period half watching the room and thinking about all the crap that was wrong in my life. The class was about over when two shapes in all black flew into the classroom. I shoved Christian behind me and shifted into defensive mode. He had to be protected. I sprang at the first hooded figure and punched him in the face, causing blood to spurt from his nose. The hood fell back and I saw Stan coming at me again. I thought briefly how good it would feel to beat him and I made sure my practice stake was still there. I kicked him back across a desk and brought the stake down over his heart. He immediately stopped fighting and I turned to see the other fighters. I saw the other novices desperately trying to ward off this attacker, but they were failing. Several had already been beaten. I ran over and kicked the guardian in the back. He turned around and I almost froze.

It was Dimitri. I didn't allow myself to stop fighting but internally, I was fighting with myself. I knew I had to beat him, but I was telling myself I wasn't good enough yet. But I kept on fighting and forcing myself to use his moves against him. We had been fighting against each other for months, so he knew my moves and I knew his. We circled each other and he sprang at me across the desks and reached for my throat. I kicked him as hard as I could in the stomach and jumped back at him. He landed on the desk and I saw him wince in pain as the small of his back caught the edge of the desk. I yanked the stake out and shoved it over his heart. Not paying attention to what I was doing, I allowed my exhaustion to take over and I laid my head down on Dimitri's chest. We were breathing heavily and we were pressed together because of his position on the desk. I closed my eyes for a brief second and felt his hands discreetly on my waist. I opened my eyes again and saw him staring back at me with pride, and love. (I hoped.) Knowing I had to, I got off and helped him up. I heard the whole class erupt into cheering and I grinned. I had beaten Dimitri. I remembered the look in his eyes and I was sure that lust had been in there somewhere, just as I was sure it was in mine. Even though I knew I shouldn't I asked quietly,

"Dimitri, Christian, may I have a word with you?" Christian looked at me curiously, but Dimitri showed no expression… for now.

"Of course, Rose." Said Dimitri politely; as if he thought nothing was going to happen. We walked down the hall away from the classroom. Christian had a break right now and I was going to take advantage of it.

"Christian, can you excuse us for a minute? I need to ask Dimitri a question." He looked curious again but nodded. I walked into an empty classroom and Dimitri followed me. He closed the door after telling Christian that it was guardian stuff. He smiled at me.

"Roza, you did amazing back there." My heart fluttered idiotically hearing him compliment me.

"Thanks, comrade. I just wanted to talk to you without a bunch of people hearing."

"Of course." Awkward silence fell between us, and I felt like a moron for bringing him in here.

"I was wondering what you and Stan were talking about, that day that you had to call practice early." He stared at me for a long time before answering.

"I'm petitioning to switch guardians for Lissa. Stan volunteered. Now only the technical stuff is left." For a moment I stood there uncomprehendingly.

"But why…" and then I understood. "Oh!" He was switching so that we could be together. There was no other way. We couldn't be guarding Lissa together, and in love with each other. We would protect each other. Not her. "Does Stan know about…. Us?"

"Yes."

But I wasn't able to say anything else before his lips slammed onto mine. I closed my eyes and melted into the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his waist and felt his arms tighten around mine. The kiss deepened and I moaned softly. His arms got tighter around my waist and I brought my arms up around his neck, bringing his mouth closer to mine. The door suddenly slammed opened and we sprung apart. A shocked Christian stood at the entrance.

"So this is secret guardian stuff? How long has this been going on?" He stood there dumbfounded and looked from Dimitri to me.

"Christian, I can explain," I said, "but you can't tell anyone!"

"Oh trust me. I won't tell. No one else needs to be subjected to this. But, Belikov, this is surprising. I never expected this of you." I glared at Christian, and I was surprised to feel Dimitri's arm go around my waist.

"Trust me, Ozera. I never expected it either. But, Rose got the best of me." I was shocked to hear him admit this, but thrilled at the same time. Christian grinned.

"You never answered my question. How long?" I groaned. I really did not want this conversation right now. But Dimitri answered for me and lied slightly.

"Not long. But I couldn't stay away from her." I blushed. He was taking all the blame, which wasn't exactly fair. I hadn't been any saint. Christian slowly whistled.

"Wow. Lots of new love all over the place!" The smile left his face and he left the room. Dimitri looked at me.

"They broke up?"

"Yeah, and now Liss is going out with Adrian." Compassion shot across Dimitri's face. God, I loved him.

"Oh… He's taking it hard?"

"Yeah. He feels guilty because he broke up with her." Dimitri, being the gentleman he was, didn't ask why. We left the room and met Christian outside. I slipped into Lissa's head very quickly to see what she was doing. I shot back out as soon as I saw she was with Adrian