ROSE'S POV

I saw Liss as she took up the book, others might not see it but I can see how much it bothered her reading about Victor again. I can imagine all those vivid images flowing in her mind.

Our bond may have severed but I still can read her like an open book. I don't need the bond to know what is going on in my best friend's mind.

Shaking, Liss started reading.

OR RATHER, THEY HAD BEEN Strigoi. A regiment of guardians had hunted them down and killed them. If rumors were true, Christian had witnessed it all when he was very young.

"this time the rumors were true. "murmured sparky. I love this guy like a brother I just don't like to show it. I don't want people to know that all these people in the room were my weakness.

And although he wasn't Strigoi himself,

At this sparky rolled his eyes.

some people thought he wasn't far off, with the way he always wore black and kept to himself.

"That doesn't mean that I am " said Christian, even if lissa was my best friend since kindergarten, my one year relationship with sparky was just as strong. I could see pain, anger, hurt, radiating from him in huge waves.

Strigoi or not, I didn't trust him. He was a jerk, and I silently screamed at Lissa to get out of there—not that my screaming did much good. Stupid one-way bond.

Everyone chuckled at this

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Taking in the sights, of course. That chair with the tarp on it is particularly lovely this time of year.

Chuckles

Over there, we have an old box full of the writings of the blessed and crazy St. Vladimir.

More Chuckles

And let's not forget that beautiful table with no legs in the corner."

At this everyone lost it and started laughing.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes and moved toward the door, wanting to leave, but he blocked her way.

"Well, what about you?" he taunted. "Why are you up here? Don't you have parties to go to or lives to destroy?"

" did you really think that, that's all I did? " asked lissa." no I was just being a douche Bag back then " Christian replied very seriously. Which would've been hilarious if not for the situation.

Some of Lissa's old spark returned. "Wow, that's hilarious. Am I like a rite of passage now? Go and see if you can piss off Lissa to prove how cool you are?

" Well the bets didn't used to be on you but on rose." replied Mia. I asked puzzled, " me? I don't understand how can someone be cool by pissing me off?"

"yeah because everyone knows that everything can annoy you. Only you rose would get annoyed at slippers and grass. "laughed Eddie. I shot him a death glare. Mia replied," the bets weren't on who could piss you off, the bet used to be on who can talk to you for about 2 mins without pissing you off. "grinned Mia. Everyone started laughing. I pouted at this, Dimitri seeing my expression took my face in his hand and kissed me on lips. I smiled at him. While sparky and Adrian were making gagging noises in the background. Immature freaks.

Some girl I don't even know yelled at me today, and now I've got to deal with you? What does it take to be left alone?"

"A kiss?" asked sparky. Lissa smiled and kissed him. It was now my turn to gag. Sparky looked annoyingly at me, I just poked my tongue out at him.

"Oh. So that's why you're up here. For a pity party."

"This isn't a joke. I'm serious." I could tell Lissa was getting angry. It was trumping her earlier distress.

He shrugged and leaned casually against the sloping wall. "So am I. I love pity parties.

" everyone knows that Christian," said Jill mockingly. Cue Chuckles.

I wish I'd brought the hats. What do you want to mope about first? How it's going to take you a whole day to be popular and loved again? How you'll have to wait a couple weeks before Hollister can ship out some new clothes? If you spring for rush shipping, it might not be so long."

"main question here is how does sparky knows these things? Liss are you sure he isn't secretly a drag queen in bedroom? It won't be a surprise though "I said shrugging. Sending everyone into howls of laughter.

"Let me leave," she said angrily, this time pushing him aside.

"Wait," he said, as she reached the door. The sarcasm disappeared from his voice. "What…um, what was it like?"

" I think you know dude " said Adrian wriggling his eyebrows at him. Leave it to Adrian to turn everything into sexual innuendo.

"What was what like?" she snapped.

"Being out there. Away from the Academy."

She hesitated for a moment before answering, caught off guard by what seemed like a genuine attempt at conversation. "It was great. No one knew who I was. I was just another face. Not Moroi. Not royal. Not anything." She looked down at the floor. "Everyone here thinks they know who I am."

" because you are queen duh! Everyone knows their queen Lissa " said Victoria. We chuckled and Liss rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. It's kind of hard to outlive your past," he said bitterly.

It occurred to Lissa at that moment—and me to by default—just how hard it might be to be Christian. Most of the time, people treated him like he didn't exist. Like he was a ghost. They didn't talk to or about him. They just didn't notice him. The stigma of his parents' crime was too strong, casting its shadow onto the entire Ozera family.

"which is horrible "said my mom looking sympathetically at Christian. He shrugged," I was used to it. "

Still, he'd pissed her off, and she wasn't about to feel sorry for him.

"Wait—is this your pity party now?"

He laughed, almost approvingly. "This room has been my pity party for a year now."

"Sorry," said Lissa snarkily. "I was coming here before I left. I've got a longer claim."

"Squatters' rights.

Everyone chuckled

Besides, I have to make sure I stay near the chapel as much as possible so people know I haven't gone Strigoi…yet." Again, the bitter tone rang out.

"yet? "asked Sydney, question clear in her voice. Christian smiled wickedly at her. She shrink back in apparent fear.

"I used to always see you at mass. Is that the only reason you go? To look good?" Strigoi couldn't enter holy ground. More of that sinning-against-the-world thing.

"Sure," he said. "Why else go? For the good of your soul?"

" yes? " said Sydney.

"Whatever," said Lissa, who clearly had a different opinion. "I'll leave you alone then."

"Wait," he said again. He didn't seem to want her to go. "I'll make you a deal. You can hang out here too if you tell me one thing."

" what, was it like a test? You get privileges only if you pass it. " mocked Abe." are you trying to make a joke old man "I said plainly. He chuckled.

"What?" She glanced back at him.

He leaned forward. "Of all the rumors I heard about you today—and believe me, I heard plenty, even if no one actually told them to me—there was one that didn't come up very much. They dissected everything else: why you left, what you did out there, why you came back, the specialization, what Rose said to Mia, blah, blah, blah. And in all of that, no one, no one ever questioned that stupid story that Rose told about there being all sorts of fringe humans who let you take blood."

"busted!"exclaimed Eddie.

She looked away, and I could feel her cheeks starting to burn. "It's not stupid. Or a story."

He laughed softly. "I've lived with humans. My aunt and I stayed away after my parents…died. It's not that easy to find blood." When she didn't answer, he laughed again. "It was Rose, wasn't it? She fed you."

" I will say it again. Busted! " laughed Eddie. " you actually are more intelligent than I give you credit for Pyro. "I said walking at him. He rolled his eyes," unlike you rose I actually have a brain, that I use "Chuckles floated around. I narrowed my eyes at him. He grinned back in return.

A renewed fear shot through both her and me. No one at school could know about that. Kirova and the guardians on the scene knew, but they'd kept that knowledge to themselves.

"Well. If that's not friendship, I don't know what it is," he said.

"it's sisterhood sparky, "I said.

"You can't tell anyone," she blurted out.

"that gave you away cousin. "said Adrian.

This was all we needed. As I'd just been reminded, feeders were vampire-bite addicts. We accepted that as part of life but still looked down on them for it.

" another explanation? " Christian sighed.

For anyone else—especially a dhampir—letting a Moroi take blood from you was almost, well, dirty. In fact, one of the kinkiest, practically pornographic things a dhampir could do was let a Moroi drink blood during sex.

Lissa and I hadn't had sex,

That raised some eyebrows.

of course, but we'd both known what others would think of me feeding her.

"Don't tell anyone," Lissa repeated.

He stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and sat down on one of the crates. "Who am I going to tell?

" walls , plants maybe. "I said. He had decency to look irritated at that.

Look, go grab the window seat. You can have it today and hang out for a while. If you're not still afraid of me."

She hesitated, studying him. He looked dark and surly, lips curled in a sort of I'm-such-a-rebel smirk. But he didn't look too dangerous. He didn't look Strigoi.

"of course I didn't rose, because I WASN'T "exclaimed sparky. I said," hold your horses Pyro.

Gingerly, she sat back down in the window seat, unconsciously rubbing her arms against the cold.

Christian watched her, and a moment later, the air warmed up considerably.

Lissa met Christian's eyes and smiled, surprised she'd never noticed how icy blue they were before. "You specialized in fire?"

" no duh! "said Christian sarcastically.

He nodded and pulled up a broken chair. "Now we have luxury accommodations."

" if that was luxury accommodations then what was your first time like in a garbage can " mocked Adrian, to which he recieved a smack on his head by Sydney.

I snapped out of the vision.

"Rose? Rose?"

Blinking, I focused on Dimitri's face. He was leaning toward me, his hands gripping my shoulders. I'd stopped walking; we stood in the middle of the quad separating the upper school buildings.

"Are you all right?"

"I…yeah. I was…I was with Lissa…" I put a hand to my forehead.

"you don't know how worried I was. "whispered dimitri. I shivered at the close proximity.

I'd never had such a long or clear experience like that. "I was in her head."

"Her…head?"

"Yeah. It's part of the bond." I didn't really feel like elaborating.

"thank Lord for his mercy. "exclaimed sparky. I threw a cushion at him at that comment.

"Is she all right?"

"Yeah, she's…" I hesitated. Was she all right? Christian Ozera had just invited her to hang out with him. Not good.

"oh rosie such trust in me. I'm honoured " said Christian in a very high pitched voice sufficed with a roll of eye.

There was "coasting through the middle," and then there was turning to the dark side.

This earned Chuckles and an eye roll by a pissed fire user.

But the feelings humming through our bond were no longer scared or upset. She was almost content, though still a little nervous. "She's not in danger," I finally said. I hoped.

"Can you keep going?"

The hard, stoic warrior I'd met earlier was gone—just for a moment—and he actually looked concerned.

"I was." said dimitri. My mum smiled at him. Well that's a first. I guess hearing him say he actually cared about me made the difference.

Truly concerned. Feeling his eyes on me like that made something flutter inside of me—which was stupid, of course.

"So that's when you started falling for him. "asked lissa. I shrugged I can't pin point the actual moment.

I had no reason to get all goofy, just because the man was too good-looking for his own good.

Everyone laughed, I looked at Olena and said," and I have Olena to thank for that. " she chuckled," thank you Roza. "

After all, he was an antisocial god, according to Mason. One who was supposedly going to leave me in all sorts of pain.

" yeah all sorts of pain Lil dhampir. "said Adrian earning eye roll from everyone present, come on who wants to listen to a person who makes even simplest of the sentences sound dirty.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

I went into the gym's dressing room and changed into the workout clothes someone had finally thought to give me after a day of practicing in jeans and a T-shirt.

There was a collective chorus of eww from Sydney, Mia, Jill, karo and Victoria

Gross. Lissa hanging out with Christian troubled me, but I shoved that thought away for later as my muscles informed me they did not want to go through any more exercise today.

"this is the sign I was looking for to prove that you are crazy. " said Christian making me so very pissed.

So I suggested to Dimitri that maybe he should let me off this time.

He laughed, and I was pretty sure it was at me and not with me.

"Why is that funny?"

"Oh," he said, his smile dropping. "You were serious."

A chorus of laughter rang throughout the room.

"Of course I was! Look, I've technically been awake for two days. Why do we have to start this training now? Let me go to bed," I whined. "It's just one hour."

He crossed his arms and looked down at me. His earlier concern was gone. He was all business now. Tough love. "How do you feel right now? After the training you've done so far?"

"I hurt like hell."

"You'll feel worse tomorrow."

"So?"

"So, better to jump in now while you still feel…not as bad."

" what kind of logic is that? "asked lissa. I tried to look solemnly at lissa," see comrade, even lissa agrees. " dimitri chuckled and kissed my head.

"What kind of logic is that?" I retorted.

But I didn't argue anymore as he led me into the weight room. He showed me the weights and reps he wanted me to do, then sprawled in a corner with a battered Western novel. Some god.

That made everyone l laugh again.

When I finished, he stood beside me and demonstrated a few cool-down stretches.

"How'd you end up as Lissa's guardian?" I asked. "You weren't here a few years ago. Were you even trained at this school?"

He didn't answer right away. I got the feeling he didn't talk about himself very often.

" no I didn't roza. " said dimitri. I shivered at my nickname. The way he said my name always sends a shiver down my spine.

"No. I attended the one in Siberia."

"Whoa. That's got to be the only place worse than Montana."

" I hate to contradict my own words but it is really pretty there. "I said." really? " asked Jill. I nodded karolina spoke up," it is really pretty there, I'm sure you'll fall in love with it. " Jill sighed dreamily.

A glint of something—maybe amusement—sparked in his eyes, but he didn't acknowledge the joke. "After I graduated, I was a guardian for a Zeklos lord. He was killed recently." His smile dropped, his face grew dark. "They sent me here because they needed extras on campus. When the princess turned up, they assigned me to her, since I'd already be around. Not that it matters until she leaves campus."

I thought about what he'd said before. Some Strigoi killed the guy he was supposed to have been guarding? "Did this lord die on your watch?"

"No. He was with his other guardian. I was away."

"which brings a question to my mind. How did he die? " I asked. Everyone looked intrigued with this. Dimitri sighed and started speaking," Ivan was my best friend in reality. So my birthday was around, he did everything possible to send me on a holiday before it so that he could surprise me with party and gifts. When I went for the holiday he took Alex, his second Guardian to nearby city for shopping, on the way back they were ambushed. Even Ivan fought with his magic but the Strigoi were too much the two of them " dimitri shuddered. I hugged him tight. No one spoke a word after that.

He fell silent, his mind obviously somewhere else. The Moroi expected a lot from us, but they did recognize that the guardians were—more or less—only human. So, guardians got pay and time off like you'd get in any other job. Some hard-core guardians—like my mom—refused vacations, vowing never to leave their Moroi's sides.

Mum looked sad at this, so when she raised her head I silently told her that, it was okay I understand. She visibly relaxed and smiled at me.

Looking at Dimitri now, I had a feeling he might very well turn into one of those.

"true, dimka never visited us again. He just wrote letters. We missed him soo much but he distanced himself from everyone. He is lucky that you are in his life roza. And we will forever be grateful for you too give our dimka back to us, in more ways than one " said karo. I fought back tears. And dimitri crushed me into his chest."the feeling is mutual dorogya sestra" dimitri murmured.

If he'd been away on legitimate leave, he could hardly blame himself for what happened to that guy.

"way to be considerate rose " said Adrian. I poked my tongue out at him. Thankful for the normalcy of the comment.

Still, he probably did anyway. I'd blame myself too if something happened to Lissa.

Lissa silently told me that she won't ever let that happen. No matter how much older Lissa gets, she still has that naive streak in her.

"Hey," I said, suddenly wanting to cheer him up, "did you help come up with the plan to get us back? Because it was pretty good. Brute force and all that."

" you are complimenting him on that? " asked mum raising an eyebrow, damn am I the only one who can't do that.

He arched an eyebrow curiously. Cool. I'd always wished I could do that. "You're complimenting me on that?"

" it's scary how you both think alike. " I said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Well, it was a hell of a lot better than the last one they tried."

"Last one?"

"Yeah. In Chicago. With the pack of psi-hounds."

"This was the first time we found you. In Portland."

I sat up from my stretches and crossed my legs. "Um, I don't think I imagined psi-hounds. Who else could have sent them? They only answer to Moroi.

" I don't know how I kept missing these clues. " I said to no one in particular.

Maybe no one told you about it."

"Maybe," he said dismissively. I could tell by his face he didn't believe that.

I returned to the novices' dorm after that. The Moroi students lived on the other side of the quad, closer to the commons. The living arrangements were partly based on convenience. Being here kept us novices closer to the gym and training grounds. But we also lived separately to accommodate the differences in Moroi and dhampir lifestyles.

*cough*racism*cough* said Sydney. We laughed.

Their dorm had almost no windows, aside from tinted ones that dimmed sunlight. They also had a special section where feeders always stayed on hand. The novices' dorm was built in a more open way, allowing for more light.

I had my own room because there were so few novices, let alone girls. The room they'd given me was small and plain, with a twin bed and a desk with a computer.

"what else did you wanted a walk in closet? " asked Mia." hey I wasn't complaining " I answered.

My few belongings had been spirited out of Portland and now sat in boxes around the room. I rummaged through them, pulling out a T-shirt to sleep in. I found a couple of pictures as I did, one of Lissa and me at a football game in Portland and another taken when I'd gone on vacation with her family, a year before the accident.

I set them on my desk and booted up the computer. Someone from tech support had helpfully given me a sheet with instructions for renewing my e-mail account and setting up a password. I did both, happy to discover no one had realized that this would serve as a way for me to communicate with Lissa.

"careless people " muttered mom.

Too tired to write to her now, I was about to turn everything off when I noticed I already had a message. From Janine Hathaway. It was short:

I'm glad you're back. What you did was inexcusable.

Abe sent a disapproving glance towards her which she was oblivious to, mainly because she was too wrapped up in her own guilt.

"Love you too, Mom," I muttered, shutting it all down.

When I went to bed afterward, I passed out before even hitting the pillow,

"is that even possible? " asked vika to which Eddie replied," everything is possible for rose, physics, chemistry doesn't even begin to apply for her. " laughing I punched him lightly on the arm. Which was possible bc he was sitting right next to me.

and just as Dimitri had predicted, I felt ten times worse when I woke up the next morning. Lying there in bed, I reconsidered the perks of running away. Then I remembered getting my ass kicked and figured the only way to prevent that from happening again was to go endure some more of it this morning.

My soreness made it all that much worse, but I survived the before-school practice with Dimitri and my subsequent classes without passing out or fainting.

Everyone laughed at my pathetic condition.

At lunch, I dragged Lissa away from Natalie's table early and gave her a Kirova-worthy lecture about Christian—particularly chastising her for letting him know about our blood arrangement. If that got out, it'd kill both of us socially and I didn't trust him not to tell.

"I don't know why I'm not surprised at this? " said sparky sarcastically.

Lissa had other concerns.

"You were in my head again?" she exclaimed. "For that long?"

" creepy isn't it cousin? " asked Adrian clearly talking about his bond with Jill. Lissa nodded.

"I didn't do it on purpose," I argued. "It just happened. And that's not the point. How long did you hang out with him afterward?"

"Not that long. It was kind of…fun."

"Well, you can't do it again. If people find out you're hanging out with him, they'll crucify you."

"exaggerate much " asked Sydney. I rolled my eyes, and Mia spoke," no literally Sydney you don't know high school like us it's a very viscous circle you live in, words can do lot more than you can even imagine in your wildest dreams. "

I eyed her warily. "You aren't, like, into him, are you?"

She scoffed. "No. Of course not.

Christian raised his eyebrows at this. Lissa giggled. Eventually sparky also smiled, letting her cuddle to his side.

"Good. Because if you're going to go after a guy, steal Aaron back." He was boring, yes, but safe. Just like Natalie. How come all the harmless people were so lame?

"That's why they are harmless rose." said Abe.

Maybe that was the definition of safe.

She laughed. "Mia would claw my eyes out."

" no wouldn't. I wasn't even into him you know. " said Mia. Liss and I shrugged.

"We can take her. Besides, he deserves someone who doesn't shop at Gap Kids."

Mia scowled at me, I reciprocated that gesture though.

"Rose, you've got to stop saying things like that."

"I'm just saying what you won't."

"She's only a year younger," said Lissa. She laughed. "I can't believe you think I'm the one who's going to get us in trouble."

" no one can Liss "Eddie said laughing with others.

Smiling as we strolled toward class, I gave her a sidelong glance. "Aaron does look pretty good though, huh?"

She smiled back and avoided my eyes. "Yeah. Pretty good."

"Ooh. You see? You should go after him."

"Whatever. I'm fine being friends now."

"Friends who used to stick their tongues down each other's throats."

Christian looked very uncomfortable at that. Lissa whispered something into his ears, making his mood take a complete 360. I can only imagine what she said. I so not need these mental images in my head.

She rolled her eyes.

"Fine." I let my teasing go. "Let Aaron stay in the nursery school. Just so long as you stay away from Christian. He's dangerous."

Again Christian raised his eyebrow in question. I shrugged.

"You're overreacting. He's not going Strigoi."

"He's a bad influence."

She laughed. "You think I'm in danger of going Strigoi?"

She didn't wait for my answer, instead pushing ahead to open the door to our science class. Standing there, I uneasily replayed her words and then followed a moment later. When I did, I got to see royal power in action. A few guys—with giggling, watching girls—were messing with a gangly-looking Moroi. I didn't know him very well, but I knew he was poor and certainly not royal. A couple of his tormentors were air-magic users, and they'd blown the papers off his desk and were pushing them around the room on currents of air while the guy tried to catch them.

"bullies! "exclaimed Sydney. I always used to feel bad at for these people, they don't deserve it. These thoughts made me upset. Dimitri somehow sensing my mood, rubbed my arm soothingly. I smiled up at him. He smiled back at me.

My instincts urged me to do something, maybe go smack one of the air users. But I couldn't pick a fight with everyone who annoyed me, and certainly not a group of royals—especially when Lissa needed to stay off their radar. So I could only give them a look of disgust as I walked to my desk.

"which, did nothing to them. " I said.

As I did, a hand caught my arm. Jesse.

Dimitri tensed up at his name. Now it was my turn to sooth him.

"Hey," I said jokingly. Fortunately, he didn't appear to be participating in the torture session. "Hands off the merchandise."

He flashed me a smile but kept his hand on me. "Rose, tell Paul about the time you started the fight in Ms. Karp's class."

I cocked my head toward him, giving him a playful smile. "I started a lot of fights in her class."

Mom rolled her eyes at this.

"The one with the hermit crab. And the gerbil."

I laughed, recalling it. "Oh yeah. It was a hamster, I think. I just dropped it into the crab's tank, and they were both worked up from being so close to me, so they went at it."

" animal cruelty. " muttered Sydney under her breath. Dhampir hearing surely is a blessing.

Paul, a guy sitting nearby whom I didn't really know, chuckled too. He'd transferred last year, apparently, and hadn't heard of this. "Who won?"

I looked at Jesse quizzically. "I don't remember. Do you?"

"No. I just remember Karp freaking out." He turned toward Paul. "Man, you should have seen this messed-up teacher we used to have. Used to think people were after her and would go off on stuff that didn't make any sense. She was nuts. Used to wander campus while everyone was asleep."

I smiled tightly, like I thought it was funny.

I always sypathised with her, even though at that time I didn't knew the reason behind her craziness. I've learned very early in my my life to never judge a book by its cover.

Instead, I thought back to Ms. Karp again, surprised to be thinking about her for the second time in two days. Jesse was right—she had wandered campus a lot when she still worked here. It was pretty creepy. I'd run into her once—unexpectedly.

I'd been climbing out of my dorm window to go hang out with some people. It was after hours, and we were all supposed to be in our rooms, fast asleep.

"keyword here is, supposed " I said making quotation marks making everyone chuckle.

Such escape tactics were a regular practice for me. I was good at them.

But I fell that time. I had a second-floor room, and I lost my grip about halfway down. Sensing the ground rush up toward me, I tried desperately to grab hold of something and slow my fall. The building's rough stone tore into my skin, causing cuts I was too preoccupied to feel. I slammed into the grassy earth, back first, getting the wind knocked out of me.

"ouchie." said Eddie, clearly having experienced it at first hand.

"Bad form, Rosemarie. You should be more careful. Your instructors would be disappointed."

Peering through the tangle of my hair, I saw Ms. Karp looking down at me, a bemused look on her face. Pain, in the meantime, shot through every part of my body.

Ignoring it as best I could, I clambered to my feet. Being in class with Crazy Karp

"you should not say like this about your teachers rosemarie. " said Janine

while surrounded by other students was one thing. Standing outside alone with her was an entirely different matter. She always had an eerie, distracted gleam in her eye that made my skin break out in goose bumps.

There was also now a high likelihood she'd drag me off to Kirova for a detention. Scarier still.

Instead, she just smiled and reached for my hands. I flinched but let her take them. She tsked when she saw the scrapes. Tightening her grip on them, she frowned slightly. A tingle burned my skin, laced with a sort of pleasant buzz, and then the wounds closed up. I had a brief sense of dizziness. My temperature spiked. The blood disappeared, as did the pain in my hip and leg.

Gasping, I jerked my hands away. I'd seen a lot of Moroi magic, but never anything like that.

"What…what did you do?"

She gave me that weird smile again. "Go back to your dorm, Rose. There are bad things out here. You never know what's following you."

Everyone was listening intently to what going to happen.

I was still staring at my hands. "But…"

I looked back up at her and for the first time noticed scars on the sides of her forehead. Like nails had dug into them. She winked. "I won't tell on you if you don't tell on me."

" what kind of teacher says that? " asked mom. Lissa shrugged," couldn't have expected anything else from her though. "

I jumped back to the present, unsettled by the memory of that bizarre night. Jesse, in the meantime, was telling me about a party.

"You've got to slip your leash tonight. We're going up to that spot in the woods around eight thirty. Mark got some weed."

Mom muttered something which sounded like 'darn teenagers'

I sighed wistfully, regret replacing the chill I'd felt over the memory of Ms. Karp. "Can't slip that leash. I'm with my Russian jailer."

" Did you always called me names behind my back?" asked dimitri. I replied, "this is my way of affection comrade, what are you complaining about and don't tell me that you wouldn't want to be my personal jailer, with handcuffs and all. " I whispered the last part and gave him a smoldering look. He shivered. Looks like dimitri's little (which was not at all little ) comrade was waking up.

He let go of my arm, looking disappointed, and ran a hand through his bronze-colored hair. Yeah. Not being able to hang out with him was a damned shame. I really would have to fix that someday. "Can't you ever get off for good behavior?" he joked.

I gave him what I hoped was a seductive smile as I found my seat. "Sure," I called over my shoulder. "If I was ever good" .

"that's the end of chapter. " said Lissa." I think we should have lunch guys before another chapter. " said mia. To which everyone agreed. Meanwhile I pulled dimitri to into the bathroom.

AUTHOR'S NOTE :haha I know, I know tease. But I Couldn't write the lemon because I wasn't sure if you wanted it. I will post it in the next chapter though if you guys want so, review and tell me guys if you want it.

I would like to thank Ginevra Annabeth Herondale for her reviews. And after considering the reviews on the last chapter I've decided that the bond won't be reconnecting anytime soon. Because the reasons you guys gave me were, frankly speaking, logical. I loved reading your answers and reviews.

You guys made my day. And follow me on instagram ana_chirpy_bird

So review guys, and tell me if you want lemon in the next chapter or not.

That's all for now. Stay safe, stay healthy. You guys rock

-love anvi