As usual I do not own anything Vampire Academy. I hope you enjoy this chapter (here's hoping it's alright on my part _ ) and would love to hear any comments anyone has. :3
Laying there cuddled up to Adrian's side was bliss. My arm was wrapped around his chest and my legs were pleasantly tangled with his beneath the sheets. I was drifting off when a loud banging came from the front door followed by a booming voice telling us to open up.
Shit, why did this have to happen now, when I was finally relaxed and enjoying myself? I wondered as the banging continued. Damn, what were they trying to do? Ram down the door?
I watched with a smile on my face as Adrian reluctantly got out of bed and pulled on his pants from before, which had been wadded up on the ground. I could hear the click of the deadbolt as he unlocked the door and from where I laid could make out only a sliver of the doorway.
I waited there hoping whatever this was would be over quickly and he could return to bed with me. He spoke to whoever was at the door for several long moments, their speech soft and muffled to my ear, before finally returning to me with a grim look on his face. The door was still open, light spilling in from the hallway lit up the room slightly.
I propped myself up on my elbows and looked at him, worried. "What is it?" When he didn't respond I knelt on the bed and moved as close to him as I could, clutching the sheets to my body to cover myself. "Adrian?"
Reaching out I placed my hand on his face gently and looked him in the eyes.
"Guardians are at the door." He started softly and finally truly returned my gaze. "They're demanding you come with them."
"What for?" I couldn't think of anything other than dislocating Jesse's shoulder that might cause their concern. But taking me into custody with more than one guardian to escort me to where seemed rather excessive.
"They didn't say babe." Adrian smiled grimly and kissed me softly. "They said they're under orders from my aunt though." He whispered gently. Great. His aunt… Tatiana… commonly known as the Queen of the moroi.
Sighing, I got up off of the bed, dragging the sheet with me as I collected my clothing. Might as well see why they were here. It really was no surprise that they had found me here, other than Lissa and I's own suites, Adrian's was the next place I'd look for me too. Quickly I threw my clothes back on, barely finished pulling up my shorts when the guardians finally entered the room, probably too impatient to wait for either of us to call them in.
I glared at them as they approached me. There were three of them and I vaguely recognized them from around court however their names alluded me. When they finally reached me I was suddenly whipped around and held with my hands behind my back.
"Let go!" I snarled viciously and lashed out at my captors out of instinct. The impression had been that they were here to collect me willingly but apparently that wasn't entirely the truth I realized as they cuffed my hands together. My foot came down on the instep of the one holding me and I grinned as he yelped out in pain, and yet his grip stayed put around my arms, tightening in anger if anything. At least the quality of guardian training was still high.
As they led me to the door I pulled at my wrists, hoping that there was some leeway or weakness in the cuffs however I frowned in severe dismay as I felt thick plastic scraping against my skin. Twisting my head, I was barely able to catch sight of the edge of the 'cuffs' and cursed under my breath as I realized they had tied my hands together with zip tie cuffs. The only damned way to remove those things was to cut them to pieces and sadly they left no leeway for movement.
Then we were gone, out of Adrian's suite without even a moment for me to truly say goodbye or even say that I was willing to go with them. I wondered for a moment what they would do or say if I were to tell them I wouldn't go with them, although when I was already cuffed that statement would have next to no desired effect. They were dragging me through hallways and corridors when I finally spoke up.
"So where are you fellows supposed to be taking me anyways?" A dead silence met my question. "Can you at least tell me why you're taking me wherever the hell we're going?" I demanded, once again silence met my words. "Do you even KNOW why you're taking me?" I demanded several moments later and was at least met with a rough grunt from one of my captors.
The rest of the walk was rather uneventful as I continued to pester these other guardians about where we were going and why. My attempts at getting anything out of them however were futile. I was just about ready to scream when we finally reached a doorway. And unfortunately a doorway I had had the displeasure of seeing before.
This was the doorway to Tatiana's private office.
As they dragged me through the doorway I barely suppressed a groan but did take the chance to look around and judge my surroundings. It looked the same as it had before. Positioned in a lavish seat was the Queen herself and across from her sitting on an equally extravagant piece of furniture was Jesse Zeklos, with a swollen black eye and bruises lining his arms quite thoroughly. I knew I had caused him pain but this wasn't my doing.
The guardians brought me suddenly to an abrupt halt, causing my head to be thrown around in a rather uncomfortable manner. I raised my gaze and looked at Tatiana, the royal bitch who constantly was finding any little way to bring me down it seemed.
"Rose Hathaway…" she spoke my name like it was some vile curse, a poison that tasted bitter on her lips. "How… fortunate it was that you could join us." Tatiana shifted her gaze and addressed the guardians behind me next. "I trust you had little trouble finding her." Her statement almost poised as a question instead.
"Not much. She was not in her own apartments or Lady Dragomir's but we were able to find her in Lord Ivashkov's, your majesty." The guardian who had been dragging me for most of the way, a tall blonde haired man probably about a decade older than myself, responded.
A scowl darkened Tatiana's brow as he mentioned finding me in Adrian's rooms. She saw it unfit that her precious nephew would 'lower' himself to dating a dhampir and one as rebellious as myself at that. But I almost smiled at how much I noticed his offhand comment irritated her.
When her burning glare refocused in my direction however I lost any amusement that had briefly fluttered through my mind.
"Guardian Hathaway. You have been called here on account of some rather disturbing reports of you acting against and physically harming moroi royals without cause." Finally, someone told me a reason why I had been dragged here, even if it was rather vague.
I scowled as I replied, "If this is about how I dislocated Jesse's shoulder I had a quite plausible cause. He's a weakling if he can't handle a little pain." I bit out between clenched teeth, my anger beginning to get the better of me.
"His shoulder?" Tatiana raised an eyebrow and flicked her gaze in Jesse's direction for a moment. "What about his eye or the various bruises from when you viciously accosted him."
"I did no such thing!" I spat out, glaring at Jesse.
"But she did your majesty! I was walking along and Hathaway jumped on me, beating on me like a heathen, threatening my life!" Up until then Jesse had been silent and I cursed that he had to intrude the conversation with his irritating voice.
"Liar!" I shouted, aiming my words in his direction. "You are nothing more than a pathetic weasel of a man trying to…"
"I'm pathetic? You sent your goons back to my rooms to assault me last night! I barely left with my life! Luckily one of my guardians had walked by when they did otherwise…"
"Enough!" The queen roared, fury lacing her voice. "Jesse you may go."
"But my Queen…" He began to protest.
"You are dismissed." She told him sternly, enunciating her words clearly like one would to a young child.
I nearly felt the need to gloat as Jesse slinked from the room but soon enough the severity of the situation hit me once again. I faced the Queen and tried to soften my glare although I doubt I was successful at all really.
"It has been noted that you attacked Lord Zeklos yesterday in the hallway and dislocated his shoulder. We have numerous witnesses that agree with Lord Zeklos' account." Her words made my scowl deepen. "Do you deny these charges?"
"No your majesty." I was just able to bite out the proper title rather than calling her by a rather rude name. "I do not deny the fact that I dislocated Lord Zeklos' shoulder but I do disagree on the account that I had no cause."
She glared at me for a moment before finally replying. "And what would be this justifiable cause of which you speak Miss Hathaway?"
"I was headed back to my own rooms when I ran into Mr. Zeklos and his group. When I tried to pass he had his buddies and him block my path entirely…"
"And so you attacked him? Hardly reasonable Miss H…"
"Actually your majesty I attacked him after he made some rather rude suggestions and calling me nothing more than your nephew's personal blood whore." I bit out, cutting her off just to be able to finish my side of the story. Originally I had aimed to leave Adrian out of the story as my involvement with him was a sore spot for the Queen however it had slipped out before I could stop myself.
"Still a rather weak reason to attack someone who you are sworn to protect…. By extent." She tacked on, meaning that as a guardian my overall job was to protect the moroi. "As for the rest of it. Well.. Lord Zeklos returned to his guest rooms last night to find a trained fighter lying in wait for him. He was brutally attacked and my mere luck was found by his guardians before too long. None of them were able to catch a good look at this attacker but they seemed trained as a guardian from what they could figure. Not to mention the fact that they found a stake at the crime scene. Oddly enough however a note threatening Jesse Zeklos' life and several others' was left behind. Zeklos described his attacker as around your height and weight with a similar skin tone although in the darkness he couldn't catch much more. You have been charged with attempted murder and conspiracy against several moroi." She eyed me with a high amount of suspicion in her gaze. "What do you say to these charges?
I sputtered for air for a few moments before finally calming myself enough to restrain from yelling in her face.
"I have no clue of what you speak your majesty. I was not involved in any way with this secondary attack on Lord Zeklos and neither was I in league with anyone else involving anything of the sort." I could tell by her mistrusting stare that she didn't believe me a single bit.
"A court date shall be set. Until then Guardian Hathaway is suspended from all duties as a guardian and shall be taken to remain in a prison cell." Tatiana told my captors icily before standing up to walk away.
I was being dragged out of the room and she was almost gone when I spoke up. "What about Lissa? She needs two guardians." I began to protest. Lissa was additionally my best friend and I felt responsible but good knowing that I was in charge, at least in part, for her protection. It was hard for me to entirely trust anyone else with her complete wellbeing when they didn't share the mental connection or friendship I did with her. Locking me up would leave her vulnerable without my protection, at least somewhat. Not to mention all I had wanted while we were at Saint Vladimir's was to be assigned as Lissa's guardian in the end.
The queen turned back quite slowly to face me at last. "We shall find her a new one." And with those words the Queen was gone and I was taken off to await my fate in a cold, dreary cell as my life as I knew it shattered around me.
