Hey guys! This chapter is a little shorter than normal but I hope you enjoy!
I adore reading your reviews so keep them coming!
-Catherine
I woke up to feel my head pounding inside my skull. My memories quickly flooded back to me. Oh the dancing and the drinking from the night before. But then I realized that these weren't my memories that were flooding before my eyes – or even the pain itself I realized; it was Lissa's.
Make it go away. I thought to nobody in particular while I rolled over and into my pillow and groaned.
Sorry Rose, Lissa thought towards me. I hadn't realized that the bond had been very welcoming at that moment-to both sides.
It's okay Liss. It's not your fault.
Well it kind of is. You're not the one who drank so much.
I suppose, I shrugged. It hadn't obviously been my fault but then again I never drank. Not after that horrible party a few years ago with Greg Dashkov and Wade... I quickly shook away the horrible thoughts before they could poison my brain.
Anyways do you need anything Liss? Painkillers? Food? I asked anxiously.
No Rose I'm fine. Seriously. I'll be up soon and then we can leave for court.
Are you sure Liss? We could postpone it for tomorrow.
No I have a meeting with the queen set for tomorrow and if there is one thing I learnt while you were away is to not upset her.
Haha well she can be a bitch but I could definitely deal with her if I had too... I let my thought trail off. I actually wouldn't mind.
Lissa chuckled mentally.
Go get ready Rose I'll be up soon.
I hopped out of bed and put up my barriers putting away all of my most prized possessions into boxes. There were really only a couple of things I would be taking to court, after all most of it was meaningless ; just lots of clothes that I had collected over the years and makeup. It wasn't that I wanted to get rid of that stuff it was just that it wasn't necessary. What was necessary was my memories and I had all of those up in my head but I decided that I would take a few things just as peaceful reminders.
I shuffled through my desk drawers pulling out old and new photo's of my friends. For the most part it was Lissa and I and a few others. Every so often I would come across a picture of Mason and me before he had died and then once everything else was gone or packed away I saw that one picture I had of Dimitri and me. He was looking up at the camera sporting one of his rare laid back smiles with his arm around my waist. His deep brown eyes were shining and his long dark hair carefully framed his face. He looked like a Russian god. He looked like the man I fell in love with.
I let a silent tear escape the corner of my eye and trail down the side of my face. Why did the stupid strigois have to attack? Why did I have to come up with a way to help the kidnapped escape? I knew that I was being selfish, willing to kill thirteen innocent people for my one true love but I knew that I would do it if I could go back in time and I felt suddenly guilty. Well no point in wishing on the past I would just have to hope for the future, after all I had a fair shot at getting him back at this point and I was not going to give up.
I pulled my long brown hair back into a pony tail and pulled on some shorts and a tank top quickly. I slipped on my flip flops and then just as I was turning off the lights I slipped back inside and grabbed my new silver stake. Just in case, I thought. I ran towards the church and saw father Andrew inside the church cleaning like always on Sunday. I would know from experience. I smirked; remembering mine and Dimitri's volunteer time together there. Well for me it hadn't really been volunteer time but more so detention. It had turned out to be one of the best detentions of my life and trust me I've had a lot of experience with that.
"Hello father Andrew," I said quietly approaching him.
"Oh hi Rose, I haven't seen you in a while."
"Yeah I've been busy."
"Too busy for God?" He asked me doubtfully.
"Well I've had a lot on my mind besides this wasn't what I wanted to talk about."
"What did you want to talk about then Rose?"
"I was wondering if you had ever heard of a strigoi reversing back to its original state?" I knew that he probably hadn't, besides there was only a few people that I knew of that knew about it and we weren't even completely sure if it was true or not.
"I can't say I have Rose," he told me giving me a dull look. "Although I wouldn't lose hope," he added.
"I may not have seen this miracle before but I have seen other miracles in my existence so why can't there be another one?"
"Thanks father Andrew."
He just smiled at me. Then I realized how much I respected Father Andrew. He might be a little old and a little crazy for god but he was good to the core. In the end I decided to help him out with cleaning out the church until it was time to leave. I knew it wasn't a great way to spend my first morning as a guardian but I couldn't face talking to any of my friend's and knowing that all we would talk about would be our plans for our trip to Russia. I just wanted to spend it relaxing and reminding myself that even if my world was turned upside down the world was not pure evil. Once we were nearly finished I realized that the night was slowly becoming lighter and lighter and I knew that if we wanted to reach Court by tomorrow we would have to leave soon. As I started to walk out the door he started to speak again.
"Never lose faith Rose." I just smiled at him.
"Lissa," I pleaded. "Come on we have to go now!"
"I'm coming!" she shouted from behind the door.
"You know that I know that you're not so why don't you just open the door?" I asked her.
She opened the door for me to find Lissa standing there looking as lovely as always.
"Well you look ready." I grinned at her.
"I am," she insisted. "I just have to bring the boxes down to the plane."
"Okay, how many do you have?"
"Five," she answered nodding her head in the direction of the five huge brown boxes behind her.
I sighed. "Why didn't you just pack the whole school?" I asked her sarcastically while I piled four of the boxes on top of each other. They were relatively light for their size although the stack I was carrying had to be at least twice the size of me.
"Can you get the last one?" I asked Lissa as I started to walk out the door. She bent down and grunted once she got the whole impact of the weight. It wasn't heavy to me even though I was carrying four times as much as her.
We walked in silence all the way to the plane where we found Christian, Adrian and Eddie talking with two other guardians. I wondered why they were taking so little guardians with them; after all they were three royals but then I realized that I and Eddie added to their numbers; we were now officially guardians as well.
"Hey guys!" I yelled when we were about five meters away. "You don't think that you could make yourself useful and help us load these boxes do you?"
Adrian chuckled at my reluctance to go any farther.
"You made it this far why don't you just continue the rest of the way?" He asked me.
"Oh just come on!" I begged. Eddie and Christian started to walk towards us but Adrian stayed where he was. Ass hole.
Eddie took two boxes off of my load while Christian took the box that Lissa was carrying. I was grateful; moroi were fragile but Lissa was especially.
Once we had the entire luggage on the plane we all boarded the plane. I groaned would the ghosts come back? I hoped with my entire being that they didn't. We had decided to split the shifts between the four guardians. I would guard the first three hours with a young man named Kevin Smith while Eddie would guard for the remaining three hours with an older guardian named Arnold Nazal although he insisted we call him Arnie.
As soon as we were up in the air my head exploded. Ghosts blurred my vision and attacked my mind but I did my best to fight them off. I could do this. I had been using up all of my energy fighting off the ghosts that I didn't have any energy left to hide this pain from Lissa.
"Rose," she pleaded. "Just let me make you go asleep."
"No I'm fine Liss," I insisted.
Lissa seemed to take my statement to the heart because she did not insist like her usual self. After a few more minutes alone in my head with the pain though and I started to admit defeat. At first it was only a small groan but then my knees buckled from under me. I couldn't take the pain anymore. I grabbed my head in my hands and tried to smother the ghosts like you put out a fire. Why did they always have to do this?! I was soon surrounded by blackness though and I was happy that all of the pain was gone.
"Hello my little dhampir." I heard from my left as suddenly the blackness changed to a nice beach. I looked around to find Adrian leaning against a palm tree.
"Thanks Adrian," I told him.
"Anytime," he grinned.
"Um, Adrian shouldn't you let me go I mean I have to perform my guardian duties..."
"Relax," he told me and I did. "Eddie will take your watch."
"He doesn't have to do that." I protested.
"He wants to, and of us would it's not worth seeing anyone suffer like that Rose. Especially you. "
Adrian took a deep breath. "I made you come here for a reason."
"Really? I hadn't noticed I thought you just took me here so that I could see a beach," I remarked sarcastically.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Congrats!"
He raised an eyebrow at me.
"You wanted to talk to me right? Well isn't that exactly what you're doing right now."
He chuckled.
"I wanted to know what you think we should tell my aunt. You know about us."
I laughed so hard that before I knew it I was crying.
"Adrian," I choked in between tears of laughter. "You have got to be joking."
He just grinned.
"Yeah I am. But seriously we could be good together, I mean I make you laugh don't I?"
"You do make me laugh Adrian but you know that I'm not ready for that..."
"You promised to give me a chance," he reminded me.
"I did." I said flatly. "But your assignment was your chance."
"No Rose that was my chance to prove myself to you. Not my chance with you." He said in a deep husky voice as he started to walk towards me and wrap me in his arms.
"Adrian," I protested. "I'm not ready."
Adrian continued though and I couldn't do anything about it; this was his fantasy world not mine and I did not possess all of my kick ass abilities that I had in reality. Here I was just like a tiny mouse waiting at the cave of the lion.
"Adrian stop now or send me back to the ghosts." I told him. "I don't want this and you are just making a fool of yourself?"
"Am I?"
"Yes you are now let me go." I told him firmly
Adrian let me go and as soon as he did the world that surrounded me faded to blackness once again.
