The split second before he'd spoken my name I'd known where I was. I knew this wasn't a regular dream, everything felt real, the sun on my skin, the summer breeze, the railing under my hands, it was all too real. This was a Spirit dream. I couldn't bear to turn around and face the disappointment and rejection I knew was inevitable. Something struck me, why had he said my name as a question? Why was he surprised? Hadn't he brought us here?
"Now what the hell is this!" He exclaimed. I heard a metallic click and the whoosh of a flame as Adrian lit up a cigarette. I sighed audibly and he laughed coldly.
"Got no one to impress anymore. What's the point of changing? So, and don't ask me how, that brings me right back to what the hell is this?" Adrian said.
"Didn't you do it? I'm not exactly a spirit user or anything..." I said quietly, hardly trusting my voice. I hadn't talked to him since he'd stormed out when he found out about Dimitri and I, i'd done the wrong thing and I intended to put things right. Or...as right as I could make them. I didn't look at him, I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it together. Adrian scoffed.
"Me? Hah!" His voice bellowed out off the balcony and around us. "Why would I want to bring you here? No offense..." He paused. "Actually, yeah. Offense intended." His words stung. I pressed my lips together and turned my head even further away from him, squeezing my eyes shut. He didn't say anything else, letting his last comment hang in the air between us. I took a deep, shaky breath and tried my hardest to steady myself.
"Adrian...I-" I'd started to say
"No." He cut me off. "Let's skip the bullshit and save it for another day eh Little Damph-" This time he cut himself off. I couldn't help it, my head whipped around to him. He looked like crap but essentially the same. If you looked past the bags under his eyes, the hunch in his back and the unclean shave he still had the same dashing good looks and perfect green eyes. He'd stiffened at his accidental slip of my old nick name. I parted my lips to speak but no words came out, I swallowed and turned away.
"Anyway. I didn't do this. I wouldn't. I couldn't...not right now..." He added, I realised he meant he'd dulled his abilities with alcohol. I looked down and realised I was still in my gym clothes, what i'd fallen asleep in. I sighed. When I finally confronted Adrian I didn't want it to be like this. We stood in silence for much too long. I could feel someone else here, it was the strangest sensation. I was used to one on one spirit dreams, aside from my few spirit dreams with Victor and his brother Robert. I turned and leaned back against the railing peering inside whatever room lay beyond the balcony. It seemed hazy, like I couldn't focus on what was inside.
"Who's there? Just get out here already. I know you're there." I called into the room. Adrian shot me a look and turned his head. When nothing happened he gave a cynical laugh and turned back. I took a step towards the doors and reached out curiously, the room came slightly more into focus. I could see a blood red rectangle and a smaller black one lower to the ground which I assumed was a lounge and a coffee table. There were squares and long rectangles framed in gold along the slightly beige walls. Paintings I guessed. I went to place my hand on the door and lean against it but as soon as my fingertips brushed it the doors slammed shut. I jumped back and glanced at Adrian, he'd whirled around and was bracing himself against the railing.
"What the hell was that?" He asked. As if I had an answer. I took a step towards the doors and turned the handles, yanking them back as the metal burned my hands. I held my hands up to my face to inspect them for the burns that should have been there. I could see a bright red line on each of them where the handles had been. Before my eyes, my skin returned to it's usual colour. Confused and furious now I banged my fists against the glass, I made little to no damage.
"HEY! What the hell is this? Who are you!" I screamed, still banging on the doors. I heard Adrian laughing. I almost growled at him before taking a few steps back and running up to the doors, planting my foot right between the doors just above the handles. The doors flung open with a bang, one of them even splintered off it's hinges. My training kicked in instantly. My eyes swept the room once, twice. I loosened my posture and relaxed slightly when I found no one in the room. It was still hazy, I couldn't focus on everything at once and when I tried to it made my head dizzy. I glanced back over at my shoulder at Adrian who was standing wide eyed and stunned, I went to roll my eyes and turn back to the confusing room when a fist connected with my cheek. I stumbled back and regained my footing, turning to face my opponent.
I was shocked to see Robert Doru standing before me, he looked weak, as if that one punch had taken everything out of him. I didn't hesitate. I landed a blow to his stomach and he doubled over, gasping in pain and landing on his knees as I knocked the breath out of him. My hand came down hard on his shoulder but it didn't cause much damage. I was flung backwards as Robert put up the shield that had once separated me from him and Victor in my past spirit dreams with them. The force was so strong that My back landed painfully on the railing of the balcony. The top half of me toppled over the railing, my legs and feet soon followed. My hands groped the air around me as I fell, I caught hold of the landing. I tried to pull myself up but I felt as if I were being dragged downwards. When I looked down I saw that the ground below me shifted and shimmered, flashing in and out of view. I looked back up and tried to get a better grip.
Adrian was gripping the railing on the side of the balcony and staring at me like he had no idea what to do.
"Adrian!" I called out, he didn't move. "Adrian for fucks sake help me!" I screamed at him. He blinked a couple times and slid to the floor, scrambling across to where I was hanging and reaching down to me. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me upwards with the little of his strength. I swung my leg up and my foot caught hold of the bottom of the railing. Hoisting myself up I jumped over the railing and ran towards Robert who was recovering from my blows but smirking with delight. When I hit the shield it was with less force and I was only knocked back a couple of steps.
"Miss Hathaway," Robert sneered. "It truly is a pleasure. It's been too long." He'd stood up and was brushing himself off triumphantly. My fists were balled up in rage and my breath came in ragged pants.
"What do you want?" I growled. Robert flinched in mock hurt and laughed. So the guy had developed a personality since the last time id seen him. Usually you had to piss him off to get any reaction, and trust me, saying something to upset the guy wasn't very hard. Robert clasped his hands behind his back and walked up towards the invisible barrier between us. He was close enough that I could see the sweat on his brow, keeping up his shield was wearing him out.
"Oh Rose, always so quick to the point. You never take the time to cherish what you have. You never know when they might be ripped away from you." Robert said. His eyes narrowing with his last comment. He started picking at his fingernails and casually humming. I banged my fist against the shield to get his attention, once I had it I fixed my gaze on his and spoke my next words so deliberately and so coldly it was scary even to me.
"Doru, I do not have time for your games. Tell me what you want or let me wake up so I can hunt you down and finish you off like I did that pathetic excuse for a Moroi you called your brother." Robert took a step back and grinned. Just grinned. He wasn't intimidated, or scared or anything. I didn't let my surprise show. I held Roberts gaze for as long as I could before his eyes flickered over to Adrian. His face dropped and his eyes faltered into a look of absolute surprise and horror.
"GET OUT!" He screamed, dropping to the floor and covering his ears with his hands. My head whipped around to Adrian who was standing much closer than I remembered. His gaze was narrowed and furious, his arms at his sides, and his whole body tense. I shook his shoulders and forced him to look at me, he reluctantly ripped his gaze away from Robert and looked at me with the same anger in his eyes. Roberts screams faded into whimpers and sobs. I staggered back, no longer stopped by the barrier, my throat went hot and threatened to close up.
My vision blurred with black and red spots, and I felt truly scared for no apparent reason at all, there was just hate and rage and fear. I could feel the violence and destruction, it was like a disease, like wood rotting from the inside out.
Adrian blinked and gasped, running to catch me as I started to fall but getting there a fraction of a second late. He tried to support my head on his arm and lift me into a sitting position but I scrambled away from him, catching my breath. I saw the hurt in his eyes and ignored it.
Robert was on his knees now and still clutching at his head and panting. I got on my feet and prepared myself for whatever he was going to throw at me. He looked at Adrian and flinched, averting his gaze to me.
"Make no mistake Rosemarie, this is not the last we will be seeing of each other." He said coldly. Then, right before my eyes, he shimmered into nothing, the spot where he knelt was now completely empty. I blinked in shock, unsure of what to do and unable to do anything. I heard Adrian getting up and I looked up at him.
"What did you do?" I whispered. He walked back out to the railing and let his head fall, his shoulders following suit. I followed him out slowly and took a deep breath. "What was that?"
Adrian lifted his shoulders and sighed, turning slowly to face me, shaking his head. I took a step closer to him put a hand on his shoulder. "Adrian, I don't know what you did but that was really bad and-"
"Don't you even dare judge me for that. You didn't see it." He cut me off. He shrugged my hand off and turned away from me. Of course I wasn't having any of it. I grabbed his shoulder and pulled it back, spinning him back around to face me. I caught his other shoulder with my free hand and held him there.
"Adrian Ivashkov this is not the time to play the victim, whatever it was you need to tell me so I can figure out what the heck that psychopath is up to!" I jerked my head back to where Robert had disappeared. "And I swear on my life if you don't tell me everything right now I will get it out of you." I dropped my hands and folded my arms, waiting for his response.
"He was right you know." He said in a very flat monotone. "You're always right down to business."
"I don't have time for this Adrian."
"How am I supposed to tell you what happened when I'm not even sure of it? We can't all process a situation the second we see it. We don't all make decisions and worry about the consequences later, if at all." Adrian said coldly.
"What do you mean you're not sure? And you seemed to make a pretty rash decision back there when you did...whatever the hell that was...to Robert and then...to me." I looked away, trying to shake the thought.
Adrian let out an annoyed groan. "Rose you can't possibly begin understand. Goodbye." I felt the edges of the Spirit dream slipping away and I fought to hold onto it.
"Adrian this is NOT over! Get back here. Adrian!" He was already shaking his head and fading away with the rest of the dream.
"Adrian!" I yelled again. Only this time I wasn't on the balcony, I was sitting upright in my bed with an ever alert Dimitri glancing around the room, his Guardian instincts kicking in at the slightest noise. Dimitri's gaze settled on me and I froze.
Well shit...