Ten.
The next morning, I woke up confused, like that disoriented "Where the Hell am I?" kind of thing. It's not pleasant, let me tell you. After a second, I got my bearings and saw Dimitri.
"Forgot I was in Russia..." I muttered to myself. Pfft. I was such an idiot.
"Hm?" Dimitri asked.
"Oh. Sorry," I said. "Did I wake you up?"
He chuckled. "No, Roza. I've been awake for a while."
"Oh." I said. "Well, in that case, can we go get some food?" My stomach growled to back me up.
"Sure." Dimitri said. "Galina went to town, though, so we may have to scrounge." He said, standing up and stretching.
One of the simply amazing things about Dimitri was that he normally slept with no shirt on. Which was pretty damn amazing, if you disagree.
So, here I was, being treated to a little display of muscles and sexiness. Dimitri chuckled at my errant thoughts, and slipped a shirt on. "Damn you," I said, standing up.
"Oh, Rose." He said, wrapping his arms around me and kissing me.
"That almost makes up for your sarcastic 'Oh, Rose,'" I murmured against his lips. He laughed, kissing me again. We walked down the rickety wooden staircase to the tiny kitchen. I immediately flung open various cupboards, and, to my dismay, found nothing but something that vaguely resembled pudding. And some Russian vodka. But, you know. I wasn't going to tell Dimitri that.
"I found pudding!" I announced, holding it up in the air. Dimitri raised an eyebrow, walking over to me and taking the package from my hands.
"Is this edible?" he murmured to himself. He opened it a tiny bit, sniffing it. "I think it's banana," he finally said.
"Think?" I asked. "I'm not so sure I want to eat that," I said, backing away from the pudding. "Unless you test it first to make sure I won't die!" I said.
Dimitri laughed, looking skeptically at the pudding. "Pudding." He said.
"That is such a weird word!" I exclaimed, giggling. "Pudding." Dimitri even laughed. "Okay, okay." I said, taking a few deep breaths. "I dare you to lick The Pudding of Doom." I said, laughing again.
Dimitri smiled. "Fine. But you have to, too." The smiled turned evil as he scooped some vaguely yellow-colored slime onto his finger. He tentatively stuck it into his mouth and swallowed it quickly.
"What did it taste like?" I demanded.
"Bananas." Dimitri said, making a face.
"What do you have against bananas?" I demanded.
"I don't like them," he said simply, holding out the pudding to me.
I took it, sticking my finger in. Ugh. It was slimy...What I like to think was blindingly fast, I shoved the pudding into my mouth and swallowed it. "Ew." I said. "That did not taste like bananas," I said. "More like bananas and...hatred." I deduced.
"I'm not sure hatred has a flavor," Dimitri said.
"It does now!" I declared. "And I am still hungry."
He sighed. "Maybe she has a garden or something," he said, taking my hand and towing me out the door. We walked the perimeter of the house until we found a small garden.
"Carrot!" I exclaimed, jumping at the leafy green frond and attempting to yank it out of the ground. Dimitri bent down, attempting to help me wrestle the damn thing out of the ground. He finally produced a pointy orange thing.
"That," I said. "Is not a carrot."
"Yes it is." Dimitri said in a no-duh sort of way.
"No." I said. "Carrots are small and round. Not pointy." I said.
"Those are baby carrots, Rose. They're made in a factory."
"Oh." I said, looking around. "Do apples grow in the ground?" I asked.
Dimitri looked like he wanted nothing more than to slap his hand on his forehead. "No, Rose." He laughed.
"Sorry, okay? I'm inexperienced at this whole farmer thing!" I said, crossing my arms.
He hugged me. "I know, Roza. Let's go inside, okay? We can eat the carrot." He suggested.
"It looks kind of like..." I got a disapproving glance from Dimitri. "Never mind."
We sat down at the two-chair table, putting the carrot in between us.
"Can you, like, karate-chop it in half?" I asked.
He rolled his eyes. "I don't think that would work." He smiled, though.
"Hm." I said. Then, "I know!" I ran up the stairs, digging in Dimitri's duster until I found his stake. "Ah hah," I said, walking more carefully back down the stairs.
Dimitri looked at me with an expression of confusion as I staked the carrot more or less in half. "Ha." I said. "I killed it," I added.
"Good job, Rose," he said, smiling.
"You can have the part with the leaves," I said, rolling it toward him. "And this is supposed to last us until Galina gets back..." I muttered. "So not cool. When is she getting back?" I asked.
Dimitri shrugged. "I don't know. It's six-thirty, though, so probably within the hour."
"Yes," I said. "Real food!" I chunked the half-eaten carrot remains in a trashcan and plopped on the edge of the couch, reaching for a remote.
"Wait." I said. "There's no TV." I pouted, sitting back into the couch.
Dimitri laughed. "Even if there was, it'd be in Russian." He reminded me.
"Oh." I said. "Right." He sat down next to me, pulling me closer to him. "You know," I said. "There are other ways to entertain ourselves..." I trailed off, kissing his jaw. I tangled my fingers in his hair, and he pulled me up so I straddled his lap. His hands trailed down my back, pushing me closer to him, and I moved my lips to his, tracing his lips with my tongue.
He pulled back, eyes closed. "Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said. "Just a little nauseous..." he trailed off. "Weird. It just came over me-"
Bang.
"What was that?" I whispered. Dimitri put a finger to his lips and reached back to the table to pick up his stake.
"Go upstairs," he whispered.
"What the Hell is wrong?" I demanded.
"Strigoi." Was all he said. I walked up the stairs to our room, shaking with fear.
What if I died?
What if Dimitri died?
I looked out the window at the dark landscape. I saw one, two, three, four...five figures I assumed had to be Strigoi.
"Shit." I said, turning off all of the lights and picking up the reloaded gun from Dimitri's duster. There was another bang, and a few grunts and then a thud. Then more than one pair of feet rushed into the house.
And one came up the stairs.
I aimed the gun at the door, wanting so badly to close my eyes but too afraid to. The door handle turned, and a pale, red-eyed woman walked into the room.
Galina.
"Rosemarie," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. "So good to see you." I pointed the gun at her, firing twice. She hissed at the pain, but otherwise wasn't hurt.
"Stay back," I said.
"Now, now." She said. "Don't be troublesome." She smiled sadistically, knocking the gun out of my hand and covering my mouth with her hand. "The last Ivashkov," she murmured. "I sure got lucky, didn't I?"
She held me by my hair, pushing me down the stairs in front of her.
Then I saw what had to be the most badass thing...ever.
Dimitri fighting four Strigoi at once, one already dead on the ground with a hole in his chest. The way Dimitri moved was graceful and deadly at the same time, and his face just screamed lethal. I had seen him frustrated, happy, sad, angsty, expressionless, and in love - but this? This was a whole new Dimitri. And it just made me love him more.
Galina kept a hold on me, waiting for Dimitri to falter, I imagined. He didn't, though. He wouldn't. He ducked another female's kick, tripping the guy on his left and scratching his cheek with the stake. The Strigoi hissed in pain, and Dimitri drove the stake into his heart, immediately turning around to the threat behind him. Galina was glaring furiously at her failed Strigoi attack.
I seriously hated this bitch.
So, I did what any normal person would do; I set her hair on fire.
Now, it wasn't any type of fire-specializing move, it was just kind of a I-have-a-pretty-good-control-over-that-element-so-ha-bitch-I-lit-your-hair-on-fire type of thing.
"Ah!" She said, letting go of me and putting her hands to her head. Mistake. Her hands started to burn, too.
"Burn, baby, burn." I smiled. Then, feeling empowered, I balled my fist and socked her in the face.
And she fell down, too.
I looked back to Dimitri. Only one Strigoi left, to my pleasure. He looked old, though. Experience. He and Dimitri sort of circled each other, matching the other's moves and feinting their own. It was like some weird, violent dance. Dimitri would occasionally glance over at me, but, other than that, he was dead on focused. Dimitri jumped at the Strigoi, and they grappled for a moment before the Strigoi had his fangs way too close to Dimitri's neck.
"Oh, no fucking way." I said, glaring and body-slamming the Strigoi as hard as I possibly could.
So now his fangs were near my neck. Yay.
Galina had doused her hair, but she was mostly bald now. She glared at me before going after Dimitri.
"So you're the last Ivashkov," the Strigoi said.
I glared at him. "Who are you and what the Hell do you want?" I demanded.
He chuckled. "I am Isaiah, child. You will do as I say, or you die. What I want is your blood and terror for Moroi civilization." He smiled evilly. So this guy liked speeches. "Now," he said. "Come quietly and I don't kill you."
"No." Dimitri said from behind him. "Make one more move and I kill you."
Isaiah turned to the new threat. Galina, I noticed, was gone. She had probably escaped while she still could. Isaiah laughed and bolted out the door before Dimitri could do anything.
He turned to me. "Are you alright?"
"Fine," I said. "Just. I don't know. Scared. Freaked out," I said, sitting down on the destroyed couch.
Dimitri sat next to me. "I know, my Roza. I'm sorry." He sighed. "We need to leave."
"But...it's dark," I said.
"I know. The drive to Baia is half an hour, and it's better we relocate than risk staying here for the rest of the night." He said, glaring at the floor.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Yes. Come on, let's get our bags." He said, wrapping his arm around me and towing me up the stairs. He stuck the gun in his waistband, and slid on his duster and backpack. He handed me mine and we walked down to the car.
Which was destroyed.
"We couldn't've driven that, anyway. Too obvious," he walked to a small wooden shed that I assumed was a garage, and quickly ran back inside to get something. He returned with car keys and started an old Honda, opening the door for me and speeding down the dirt road.
We drove in silence, Dimitri occasionally glancing at me. He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. I placed my hand on his arm, looking up at him with eyes that held all of my love and faith in him. His mouth formed a hard line, and he looked down. Looked like he thought he'd failed me.
"You haven't failed me, Dimitri." I said.
"Yes, I have. I shouldn't have let that happen...we should have left sooner. I don't know. You were in danger, and it's my fault." He said. I didn't reply, because I knew it didn't matter what I said. At least not at the moment.
All I could hope for was that the blur I had seen out of the corner of my eye was not a Strigoi.