Hey, ya'll! Happy Monday!
"Alright, visualize what you're trying to do," I tell Adrian as he hovers his hand over the potted plant. We'd been at this for a few hours—I had missed my afternoon classes—and Adrian was finally started to make some progress with healing. The only thing that differed between us was he could walk in dreams and I could heal. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could do about the dream thing until anyone was asleep.
"Dammit," Adrian says when only a leaf manages to stick up out of the dirt. I hover my hand and watch as the leaf grows up into a stem and finally into a brilliant sunflower. "Show off," Adrian grumbles and I smirk.
"Scowling doesn't make your face as pretty," I say and he snorts. "You'll get the hang of it, Ivashkov."
"Yeah? Tell me when you start walking the dream life," he says and I roll my eyes. Just as I'm about to give him a personally crafted Rose retort, Dimitri walks in.
"Princess, it's almost sunrise, and you missed lunch and dinner. Last I checked, you didn't feed this morning?" Dimitri asks and I purse my lips.
"Fine," I sigh, "later Ivashkov." He waves and lounges back in his chair, whistling a happy tune and looking at us both with amusement. I shake my head, following Dimitri out the door.
"How was practice?" Dimitri asks and I shrug.
"Nothing special. Adrian doesn't have random episodes of anger," I say with annoyance.
"Maybe it was only because you used such high levels of Spirit," Dimitri says, folding his hands behind his back. I look at him sharply and he smirks. "Oh yes, Vasilisa spilled everything. She's not such a great secret keeper when held in a Kimura. Better known as the Double Wrist Lock," he says. I frown and look away, but he stops and pulls my chin with his thumb and forefinger. "Roza. You should know better than to not call on me. Although, I'm madder at myself for missing it," he says, letting me go.
"No," I say, shaking my head. "It's my fault. I should have asked you, but I just…I don't know. A sex-offending Jesse kinda pales in comparison to the undead, ya know?"
"I suppose," he responds after a minute, "but that doesn't mean you still have to deal with it on your own. My title doesn't say Guardian against Strigoi, it just says Guardian."
I nod and look out at the horizon, watching as the sun comes up over the hills slowly. That had to mean it was just about 7am. Way past dinner and feeder time.
"Are the feeders even open still?" I ask as we approach the door. Dimitri looks in the window and nods.
"Yes, I think so. It looks like someone is still in there," he says, opening the door and waving me in.
"Oh, Princess Hathaway, you're just in time. We got a call saying you would be coming in late," the guardian says and I frown.
"Call? From wh—" I cut myself off, rolling my eyes as Dimitri walks in. Of course he would be the one to make sure they were still there when I got here.
"Come, we have Alice waiting for you," the guardian says and I follow him through the curtain as Dimitri takes a relaxed seat by the door.
Walking down the hallway, all the rooms are dark except one, casting an eerie foreshadowing to my feeding. He holds open the curtain for me and I take a seat next to Alice, who is unable to hold up a reputable conversation from the amount of blood she's given today. Her wrist is already in place and I lean forward, sinking my fangs in and closing my eyes. The warm feeling of her blood flowing into my mouth is undeniably one of the best feelings I've ever had.
Until it's not.
Suddenly, the warm turns into freezing cold and the blood no longer tastes sweet, but acrid. Like I'm slurping the most foul, putrid liquid ever known to Moroi. It's like poison on my tongue.
I cough and gag, yanking my lips away and falling to the floor. My body starts to seize and I can no longer see, my vision clouding with red and white, my hands clawing at nothing. I hear footsteps running towards me distantly, and a Russian accent yelling in my ear. But then it all fades to nothing as my eyes roll into the back of my head and I succumb to the pain.
Dimitri's Point of View
5 minutes earlier
I follow Roza into the feeder room just as she finishes speaking abruptly. Giving her a confused look which she merely rolls her eyes at, I sit down in a chair and pick out a magazine.
Looking around, I notice something strange. There wasn't the usual hustle of attendants and human feeders like there normally were. Of course, that could simply be attributed to the time of day, but even Moroi teachers needed blood, and an hour past student curfew was prime time to get some. There should have been at least one or two others here.
My thought process is interrupted by a crash and a scream. I'm out of my seat in a moment's notice and push through the curtain, sprinting when I see Roza seizing on the floor. The whites of her eyes are showing and her mouth is filled with blood. I turn her over on her side and put my hand under head, searching for the guardian attending to the feeders, but he was nowhere in sight. I pull out my radio, patching in an urgent call for assistance as Roza continues to shudder and shake, and there's nothing I can do about it.
Guardians rush in a few seconds later and take in the sigh of Roza and I. She's stopped seizing, and is unconscious with her head on my lap. Dr. Olendski rushes in through the mass of guardians and over to my side.
"How long did it last?" She asks urgently, taking Roza's vitals.
"About three minutes. What happened?" I ask and she shakes her head.
"I'm not sure. She was just feeding?"
"Yes, everything was normal. The feeders office was just about to close when we got here and—" I stop, looking around. "The attendant. He was here and said that he had been waiting for Roz—for the princess. And then this happened and he just—disappeared!" I exclaim and Alberta comes forward, sending the guardians off in search for him.
"I'll need a blood sample from Alice, and the princess needs to be transported back to the infirmary, and possibly the Royal Court," Olendski says and I look at her quizzically.
"To Court? Why?" I ask.
"I'm an elementary and high school doctor. I have supplies equipped for the flu and a scraped knee. If this turns out to be more than that, which I'm sure it is considering the length of her seizure and the abnormality of the feeding, she'll need more intensive care," she says, taking out a needle and putting it into the feeder's elbow crease.
"But…she will be okay, right?" I ask tentatively. Olendski sighs, her shoulders sinking.
"I don't know. I really don't know."
Oh noooo! What's going to happen to Rose? Who do you think did it and why? Let me know in a review!
Roses and thorns everyone? Greatly appreciated.
Review. Review. It's off to review we go!
~BBSweetie~
