"Hey, umm, Lis, where is Eddie? Isn't he supposed to stay in your room because of the field experience?" I asked as we walked down the stairs of the dorm down to the lobby.
"Oh, yeah, he is. But I told him that since it was a Saturday night that he didn't need to because there's no attacks Sundays. So he's in his own room. Of course, the real reason was so I could get you to sleep in my room." She looked at me and winked as Adrian held the door open for us to exit the dorms.
I looked at him and said, "Thanks." Then looked back over at Lissa and said, "Clever. Very clever."
On the way to the Dhampir guys' dorms, they got me up to date on all the latest gossip; Who's dating who, who hate each other, who's failing the field experience, who's acing it, etc.
We got to the dorm and went into the lobby to find Eddie watching tv by himself. He was watching some movie, I didn't recognize it.
"What's the new movie?" I whispered right into his ear, making him jump in the air and fall off the couch. I couldn't stop laughing. I clutched my stomach because it hurt so much. "You...Should of...Seen your...Face," I managed between laughs. "That was...Hil...Arious." This laughing was killing my shoulder!
I looked at Eddie, and his mouth was wide open in surprise.
"What?" I asked.
"Rose? Oh my God! Where have you been?" He screamed.
"Yadda yadda yadda. All the usual questions. I was in Spokane actually. Tracked a few Strigoi there. Same place as before." I saw Eddie wince at the memory of that place - the place where Mason's life had been brutally taken away from him. "Killed a few, well, a lot there. Found some more at night a bit ago, they were about to get some food - if you know what I mean. About seven of 'em there. Pretty easy, though." I shrugged. "Then I tracked a few more back to the same fucking house," My voice sounded a bit annoyed. "And killed them. Including Dimitri." My voice was only just a whisper by the last word. My mind wasn't here anymore, it was back at that day.
I started telling them the full story. "I had actually just walked right in during the middle of the day so the sun was high in the sky. I came in quietly of course. There were none in the main room of course. I closed the door and crept into the house. My stomach was going crazy, signifying that there were a fare few Strigoi, 10 maybe. I was deciding whether to go on or turn back. But I couldn't. I don't know why, but I couldn't make myself turn around and go back out the door. Instead, I headed towards more rooms. Bedrooms.
"I crept up to a door and opened it, revealing 3 Strigoi in that room, 2 guys and a girl. The girl was the closest to me, only a few feet away, and still asleep. I took my chance and staked her in the heart. Without hesitating, I advanced onto one of the guys. I staked him then the other one finally woke up as I did.
"He was by me in a second. He kicked my feet out from under me, but my stake didn't fall out of my hand, so as I fell, I tried to stake him, but I only scratched his leg. It was deep though. It gave me a second to thrust the stake into his heart.
"After that, I walked out of the room, right into a Strigoi. He punched my shoulder, making me stagger back. He took the second and kicked my gut. I fell back into the room. He pinned me down but as his fangs advanced to my neck, a voice screamed 'stop' to him. He stopped and turned around. His defenses were down so I took that to my advantage, pushing him off me then staking him. I turned to the new attacker but he was gone. I walked out of the room - again - to see 4 more Strigoi. They advanced on me and had me pinned in a couple of seconds.
"They grabbed me and pulled me down to the basement into one of the rooms and threw me into a corner. My head hit the wall, really hard. My vision started blurring and little stars danced in front of my eyes. I tried to fight it but it wouldn't go away and then the blackness had consumed me.
"I awoke and I was still sitting in the corner. The four Strigoi were still in the room. When one of them saw that I was awake, he said something like, 'ah, and she finaly wakes up. Amy, go get Derek.' My stake wasn't next to me anymore, but I could still feel the spare one in my boot. I didn't get it out yet though.
"The only girl Strigoi in there left the room and the guy said, 'I see what Belikov sees in you.' My head instantly jerked up at the mention of his name. The Strigoi noticed that and chuckled. I asked him, 'where is he?' But before he could answer, the door swung open and the girl came in, followed by that blonde bastard who took Dimitri down.
"'Well if it isn't Rose. Or, well, should I call you Roza?' He asked. I just glared at him. He chuckled at that." I looked up then and saw question marks written all over everyone's face. "Umm, Roza is Russian for Rose. Dimitri used to call me it." I explained, looking down again. "'So, what brings you here, Roza?' the bitch asked me. 'It's Rose' I growled back at him. He chuckled again but waited for me to respond. I just asked, 'where is he?' He laughed again, just as the door opened.
"I didn't really feel like seeing more of my torturers so I just kept up my glare on the blonde. 'Well, you wanted to know.' He jerked his head at the door. I looked slowly over, and there he was. Except it wasn't him," Disgust was dripping off my words now. "It was some new... thing. His eyes had a ring of crimson around the iris' and he was paler, a lot paler. But, the main thing was, he just didn't look the same. He had this new expression on his face. I couldn't tell what it was. Hunger or hatred mixed together or something like that. I couldn't stand it. I looked away at the ground.
"'Aw, don't be like that, Roza,' he said to me. I looked up at him and said, 'be like what? You've changed, so can I.' I looked back at the ground.
"He sat next to me but said to everyone else, 'go, now.' Some of them looked hesitant but they left. The blonde one stayed and started to argue but Dimitri just said, 'Derek, go.' It was like he was the new leader or something, 'cause Derek listened straight away and left.
"'Now, Roza-' he started but I cut him off spitting, 'do not call me that anymore.' He turned my chin so I would be looking at him, but I averted my eyes elsewhere. 'Look at me' he ordered and I did so, but I said, 'you're not you anymore. You never will be. So who am I looking at?' Then ripped my chin out of his grip. 'Roza, we can still be together.' I scoffed and said, 'there is no fucking way I am going to be with a Strigoi.'" I looked up to see a wide-eyed Eddie and Christian, a sympathetic Lissa and Adrian looking down, his face expressionless.
"What? You and Belikov? Oh man, how did I not see that? It was so obvious!" Christian said disbelievingly.
Eddie just kept staring at me, wide-eyed and mouth. Of course! He was Mason's best friend. He now knew why I couldn't be with him. Fuck it!
"So...umm, is that why you and...you know" Mason started asking.
"Umm," I looked down again. "Yeah. It wasn't fair to do that to him." I said sadly. I didn'y want to talk about that. Mason had liked me. A lot. I tried to like him back, he was a great guy, really. But everytime we kissed or hugged or anything, I didn't see Mason. I saw Dimitri. It just wasn't right to be with Mason and pretend I loved him, even though it wasn't him I loved.
"Oh," Was all Eddie said.
"You did the right thing, Rose." Lissa said, coming over and sitting next to me on Eddie's bed and giving me a one-armed hug, rubbing my shoulder reassuringly.
"Yeah, I know. It just still feels wrong. 'Cause it's my fault he was ki-" I started but Lissa cut me off.
"No. Don't you dare say that it was your fault!"
"Yes it was! If I didn't do that to him, if I didn't tell him where the Strigoi were, he would never have done any of what happened!" I shouted, standing up. I could feel the tightness in the back of my throat and the sting in my eyes, warning me I was about to cry. I held it in as hard as I could, but it didn't work. I sunk down to the ground, hugging my knees and sobbing.
Lissa came over to me and wrapped me in her arms. "Rose, it's not your fault. He chose to go after them. He chose to go in after you." I winced at the memory. The Strigoi appearing next to him in less then a second, the sickening crack of Mason's neck being snapped.
Adrian kneeled down in front of me and took my chin in his hand, lifting it up to look at him. "Rose, you can't keep blaming yourself. It's not your fault. Look, let's go get something to eat and that." He smiled slightly, trying to cheer me up.
I smiled. He'd changed so much since I left. He was waymore caring and kind. "Thanks, Adrian. Really."
"It's ok." He was looking at me, a look on his face suggesting he was deciding something.
Then it looked like must of decided. Because he leaned his head down to mine and kissed me softly, very softly.
Sorry it's not up wehn i said it would be, ive had HEAPS of homework.
ANYWAYS; Do you know how lucky you guys are?
I just got Blood Promise, and its sitting right next to my keyboard on the computer desk. But I haven't read it yet.
Instead, I'm on here, typing this up. That's how much I love you guys.
And now that Blood Promise is out, Please don't abandon my story! [=
Haha, Review please :D