Chapter Six

Moments and Requests

After a week at St. Vladimir's Academy, I was beginning to lose faith in the Alchemists. I hadn't heard from them since my chat with Sydney, and I was wondering if they'd forgotten about me. I mostly hung around Lissa, Christian, Mason, and Eddie, but I hadn't talked to Jesse since the blood incident. It still made me shudder, thinking that I'd let some stupid, drunk Moroi drink from me. I felt myself getting sick just thinking about it. It was nearly as bad as Adrian cheating on me.

Adrian cheating on me. Somehow, it didn't make me want to cry anymore. It just made me furious. He'd lured me into his web like a spider, and also like a spider, he wanted me for one thing: to satisfy himself. He messed with my emotions, lied to me, and broke my heart to get the one thing he wanted: my virginity. Who knows how many girls he'd been cheating on me with. I doubted it was just Cecile. I felt kind of sorry for Cecile. I wasn't sure how long their relationship had been going on, but she'd been in pain too. Adrian had broken two hearts in one night. Good job, Adrian.

This morning, I woke up and groaned. It was Sunday, and though I didn't normally attend, Lissa had coaxed me into coming with her. She wasn't as bad as the majority of the Alchemists, but she was still semi-religious. I didn't really want to know. I would've been content just sleeping all day. Unfortunately, someone had different plans because someone knocked on my door.

"Who is it?" I yelled, feeling too lazy to get up and see who it was.

"Rose," Dimitri called back. "Open up."

"Don't you have a key?" I asked, hoisting myself up from the bed and moving slowly towards the door.

"Not with me."

I cracked the door open and peeked out at him. "What is it?"

"Headmistress Kirova wants to know how you're doing." He glanced behind me. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." I stepped aside and let him in. "So...Kirova wants to know how I'm doing?"

"Headmistress Kirova," he immediately corrected, sitting down in a chair. I rolled my eyes. He was way too stuck on formalities. "And yes."

"Does she know when the Alchemists are coming?" I asked, sitting on the edge of my bed and swinging my legs back and forth.

Dimitri shook his head. "No, not yet. She hasn't heard back from them. Apparently the raid is still holding them up. It could take them a while before - "

I cut him off. "You knew?" I exclaimed. "You knew why they couldn't come?"

"Not until recently," he answered hastily, probably knowing I'd get mad if he said he did know, though I was nearly positive he wasn't lying about not knowing until recently. "It's pretty bad. The nearby academies are taking extra precautions."

"What about St. Vladimir's?"

"Headmistress Kirova is taking a few precautions, but we are probably one of the safest academies. She doubts the Strigoi will come here," Dimitri explained.

I frowned. "Where's the academy that got raided located?" It was kind of like talking to one of my co-workers.

"Near Sandpoint, Idaho."

"That's not that far away," I admitted. "I didn't realize the acadmies were placed so close together."

"A few of them are, but some of them are widespread." Dimitri swiftly changed the topic back to me. "So how are you, Rose?"

"Fine. Well, as fine as I can be knowing that a vampire bit me and all he got was three days of suspension." I gritted my teeth together. "Just perfect."

"Lissa tried to convince Headmistress Kirova to give him more," Dimitri assured me. "She convinced her to give him an extra two days." He gave me an apologetic look.

"Kirova was only going to give him one day?" I was pissed to learn this. "He bit me! He could've killed me! That asshole," I seethed.

"Rose." He put his hand on my shoulder. I glanced up at him at the contact. "We tried our best. But Kirova is the one who makes the ultimate decision."

I gave him a small smile. "You just said 'Kirova'."

He returned the smile. The first smile I'd ever seen on his face. It wasn't much, but it made him look that much more attractive. I didn't think he could get anymore gorgeous, but I was wrong. "I guess I did."

It took me about five seconds to realize how weird the moment was getting. He wasn't getting closer to me, he just kept on staring into my eyes. And I didn't mind all that much either, until I remembered a few very important details. One: he was a dhampir. Two: this was probably going to be really awkward later. And three: why the hell wasn't I moving away?

I did just that. I blinked and leaned back, trying to distance myself from him and figure out what the hell just happened. He did the same, and we both looked at each other oddly for a few moments. Finally, he got up from the chair he'd been sitting in and said, "I'll see you later, Rose."

"You too," I said back, watching him leave out the door. I felt weird. "God, damn it." Life had been so confusing lately.

I met up with Lissa later on for lunch, after a boring session of church, glaring daggers at Jesse's back as he approached his table, his standard grin on his face. Lissa's face wasn't very nice either as she looked at him. It wasn't a glare, but it wasn't a friendly look either. I wondered if Lissa could stay mad at a person longer than a day. Probably not. Christian caught up with us, catching the look on Lissa's face.

"What's up with - " He followed her look and recognization dawned on him. "Oh. Jesse Zeklos. I get it."

I glanced at him. "You heard?"

"Who hasn't?" He shrugged, and my jaw nearly fell open. People knew about the bite? "Lissa told me after you got out of the clinic." A scowled crossed his face. "One day Jesse's crimes will catch up with him."

"Hopefully," I muttered. Glancing at his table, I realized it probably wouldn't happen any time soon. People like Jesse, no matter what they do, will always have people to back them up. "Is Jesse always like this?"

"An asshole?" Christian asked. "Yes."

"He should've gotten more time," Lissa insisted. "It's not fair."

"Kirova doesn't like me," I pointed out. "It could just be something to make me run away or something. I'm surprised though that she didn't talk to the Alchemists after the incident." If Kirova wanted me out, then she probably would've talked to them. Yeah. I'd had more than enough confusion for one day.

Christian shrugged. "Maybe she forgot."

"Maybe," I said. I didn't really think that Kirova had forgotten though. I knew from personal experience that it was pretty hard to forget a person you had a grudge against. I didn't know what I'd done to Kirova - actually I was pretty sure she just instantly disliked me - but if she held a grudge against me, I didn't think she'd forget her plans to get rid of me.

I would've been happy if she'd wanted to get rid of me, because I wanted to get out of this place. I just wanted to go live a life where I didn't have to worry about confusion or any of this shit. How they did it, I wasn't sure. Why couldn't I have just been born to a normal, human, naive family who had no idea that there was a whole other species walking the earth?

Well, I guess I wouldn't be Rose Hathaway if I had a normal life. But being Rose Hathaway was pretty hard sometimes.

A week after that, I found myself knocking on the door that led into Kirova's office. It was the week. The week. I swallowed my tears as I barged in. Kirova looked up from her papers and glared at me, not liking the intrusion. "Yes, Miss Hathaway?" she asked.

"I was wondering if I needed to have permission to leave campus," I explained.

"No, but you need to consult me before you do." She raised an eyebrow, watching me. "Is there somewhere you need to be?"

"Yes," I affirmed. "Casper. Casper, Wyoming."

"If you're traveling that far, you may want a guardian to escort you," she suggested. "You'll need one to drive you there, anyhow."

"Who will be my driver?"

A few hours later, I learned my guardian would be Guardian Stan Alto. I also learned a few hours later that Guardian Stan Alto is an asshole.

"Okay," I told him, "I need to be there by tomorrow, and I figure I'm going to be staying there for a day or two."

"A day or two?" Stan exclaimed. "I students to teach, Miss Hathaway."

"Yeah? Well I have two dead parents," I snapped. "I think you can make room for that, Guardian Alto." I said his name with a bitter tone.

He grumbled the entire while he got in the car and made arrangements and light conversation with the gate guards. When I snapped at them to hurry up, they glared at me and began actually doing their jobs. I made four new enemies. It had to have been a record for me.

"Finally," I mumbled when we were finally on the road.