I made this chapter with Dimitri and Rose's POV to make up for my absolutely horrid and short chapter.
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DPOV (Dimka first, 'kay? There's some stuff that needs to happen so I can stop making him all depressed soon)
After the guardian had deposited me at my room (miraculously, I'd made it without breaking someone's spine), I had a few hours to myself.
I spent them drifting in and out of dreams of my Rose. Sometimes, she was right in front of me, eyes sparkling with life and happiness, laughing, teasing me. Other times, she was far away, taunting me to come closer, and then disappearing when I did.
I was aroused from my dreams by the sound of someone knocking on my door. Groaning and still half-asleep, I stumbled to the door and opened it.
Lissa's anxious face filled my vision. Her eyes widened considerably when she saw me.
"Holy crap, Dimitri! What the hell happened to you?" She exclaimed. I was about to make a sarcastic remark when I remembered she didn't know about my father just suddenly showing up at the academy.
I managed a weak smile, thinking about how bad I must look to worry Lissa so much. "Nothing happened, Princess. You just woke me up. I always look terrible when I just wake up."
She nodded, clearly not buying my excuse. "Call me Lissa, please. Can I come in?" She asked abruptly. Unconsciously, my eyebrow rose, but I stepped aside to let her in.
My dad's words echoed in my head. Everything that you love will be torn away from you…
Lissa looked around my room hesitantly, sitting down on my couch. I sat down on my bed and stared at her expectantly. I swear it…
"I'm sorry for earlier. It—it was the darkness," Lissa burst out, staring at me like she was very worried I wouldn't forgive her.
"Princess—Lissa, I know it wasn't really your fault. It's fine." I smiled tightly, trying to pretend that memories of Rose weren't dancing through my head. Everything that you love…
Lissa saw right through me. Giving me a reprimanding look for trying to pretend that everything was fine, she said, "No. I know that it reminded you of… Rose. And that night the Strigoi attacked." Lissa swallowed hard, her eyes bright with unshed tears as she recalled her own memories of Rose.
It would be a damn shame if anything were to happen to Rosie… My father's sinister whisper made me shudder internally. I turned to Lissa, looking to change the subject.
"It's fine, really. Is there another reason you came to see me?" I asked her abruptly. There had to be. Lissa wouldn't come all the way to my room just to apologize.
"Yea. The Queen's requested me. I've have to go to the royal Court for a few days. I think she's going to assign me another guardian. I have only one and that's Rose. But the Queen isn't aware that Rose… isn't here so she's just gonna give me one, I think." She grimaced.
I nodded. That was good. Rose would still have her position if she came back. "Who else is going?"
"Well, Adrian, obviously, and Christian. Which is why I came to you. You and Felix are both Christian's guardians, which means that at least one of you has to come with us. I came to you because I didn't think Felix would want to go, because of the whole Anastasiya thing. But if you want to stay, that's fine. I'm sure no one will care because he's an Ozera. I mean, it's only for a few days." She looked at me hopefully.
I suppressed a groan. The last thing I wanted to do was leave the peace of my room. "Of course I'll come. Lord Ozera is my charge."
"Christian," Lissa corrected me absentmindedly. Her gaze returned to me. "We leave in three hours. We're taking the academy jet. Be ready to go."
I watched her leave. When she was finally out the door, I began packing with a heavy heart. I seriously didn't want to leave my own room and go out in public, but I had no choice. They come first. That damn mantra controlled my life. It was the reason I was here, packing to leave instead of out searching for the love of my life.
Three hours later, I was on a plane heading for the Royal Court. About an hour before we left, Alberta had come to my room with the news that the princess and Lord Ozera had decided that they wanted to stay at court instead of returning to the academy after the Queen was done with Lissa. Something about how it was easier to stay at court in case they were needed. So now Felix was with us and we were flying away from the academy, and away from Rose.
I was leaving her behind. That was all I could think about as I stared out the window. How could Lissa bear to do this? Rose was her best friend, her guardian, her bondmate. How could she just leave Rose behind? Perhaps Lissa truly was just like every other Royal Moroi. Maybe she just used people and didn't care what happened to them beyond that.
The thought angered me. Rose was willing to go crazy for Lissa and it appeared that meant absolutely nothing to Lissa.
Felix, sitting next to me, noticed my tension. He gave me a concerned look but said nothing. Things were still weird between us, more so since I had yelled at him earlier that day. I knew what he'd say to me though. Hell, I knew that I'd probably say the same thing he would if anyone ever came to me in this situation. Before making judgments, I should talk to Lissa and see what her real reasons for leaving were. I was starting to understand why Rose hated my "Zen life lessons".
Coming to a decision, I stood up and walked to the back of the plane. Lissa and Christian were sitting together, their heads together as they talked in low voices. Lissa looked extremely upset and it appeared Christian was trying to comfort her.
Taking a deep breath, I tapped Lissa on the shoulder.
"Princess? Can we talk?"
RPOV
I stared with wide eyes at the men across the street from me. My hand hovered by the pay phone anxiously. Slowly, without moving any other parts of my body, I licked my dry and cracked lips.
These men had followed me from the restaurant and now were staring at me and smirking at my fearful expression from across the street. My whole body was tense, ready for action as my mind raced through my options.
I could scream, for one. Even in a small, barely populated town such as this, someone was bound to hear me and come running. But that might be a bit drastic; there was still a chance these men was harmless. I doubted it though. They didn't look harmless. No harmless person wanders the streets this late at night while they followed an innocent girl around. If they came over to me and tried something, I was sure I could beat them up. Something I'd learned in these past two weeks was that the old me kept my body in great physical condition. If I decided I couldn't beat them all up, I could always run. They didn't look all that fast to me. Looks could be deceiving though.
A sound in the street made me jump. I turned my head to see a car, slowly making its way down the street towards me. Its headlights flashed, illuminating me and the men across the street.
As it passed me, the guy driving—a teenager—honked his horn and wolf-whistled at me.
But I didn't care. My glimpse of the men's faces in the headlights had me frozen to the spot. Surely, my eyes were playing tricks on me. What I saw couldn't possibly be real. Horror made the hairs on my arm stand up straight. Utterly terrified, my breathing quickened and all my senses started screaming at me to move, to get the hell away from the strange men.
Because the men's eyes were ringed in red.
Biting my lip hard to keep from screaming, I turned to flee. My plan was to dart away and try to forget I ever saw the men with red eyes. I was here to start a new life, not get scared to death.
Suddenly, one of the men was there in front of me. His smile gleamed in the moonlight, and this time I did scream.
He had fangs. Oh, dear God, I was going to die.
His smile grew larger as he grabbed me and pulled me in close. As his teeth grazed my cheek, I lashed out, screaming full force and struggling to get out of his grasp. He clamped a hand over my mouth and leaned in close to me.
"Shush, dhampir." He cooed softly into my ear. I almost vomited. His voice was sickly sweet. "We wouldn't want to cause a scene, now would we?"
Dhampir? What the hell does that mean? I figured, I'd puzzle it out later.
I struggled wildly, managing to free my mouth. "That's exactly what I want!" I spat. "Now let me go, you—" His hand came down over my mouth again, silencing me. Thinking quickly, I bit his hand as hard as I could. I heard him hiss and his grip loosened. I fought free of him and kneed him in a spot no man should ever get kneed in. He he let out a groan and went down. I bolted away, sprinting for the first building I saw. Behind me, I could hear the guy's buddies racing over to him.
I pulled desperately at the first door I saw. Locked. Dammit… With no time to run for another door, I didn't think, I just acted. I kicked the door as hard as I could, unleashing a feral cry as I did so. The door was knocked right off its hinges. Yea, I was a badass.
I darted into the dark and seemingly abandoned building. Why did I have to pick the building that was completely devoid of human life?
Thankfully, my eyes adjusted fairly quickly, and I was able to locate a door about ten yards away, on the side wall. Guessing it was my best bet, I wrenched it open and was met with a staircase. The stairs went up to a second floor and down to what I was assuming was the basement. The light from the staircase—why did the stairs have lights but the rest of the building didn't?—showed me that there was another door in the room I was in, as well as multiple boxes. I decided that going down the stairs was my best bet and I had a little time because they had to check the other door and all the boxes.
I crept down the stairs slowly so as to make as little noise as possible and staying alert for the sound of the door opening.
About one minute later, when I was almost to the bottom, I heard the door creak open. I dove to one side and crouched down, not even daring to breath. I heard the guy take a deep breath as if he smelled something. A few seconds later, I heard him yell, "She's over here! She went down the stairs!"
What the hell? How did he know I was down here? Had he seen me, or was it possible that he had smelled me? I knew I hadn't taken a shower in like two days, but I didn't think I was that smelly.
Not even bothering with being quiet, I opened the thankfully unlocked door and slammed it shut behind me, locking it in the same instant. With my quick thinking that I was beginning to notice, I saw a box next to the door. I shoved it under the door handle and prayed that it would take them a few minutes to break through.
I knew that I had done a lot of things today that were really unusual and creative. My guess was I had been a fighter before whatever unfortunate accident took my memory. It certainly explained why I was able to come up with ways to hide in split seconds. I knew that if they truly could smell me, though, I was so screwed.
I surveyed the room and saw another doorway. Thank God because there were no other boxes in here to hide behind.
I ran into that room, also locking that door and pushing a crate that was full of something in front of the door. My heart pounding, I glanced around and spotted a pile of boxes in the far corner of the room. I hid behind those boxes and waited, my breath caught in my throat.
So two cliffies for you all! And the action for Rose starts next chapter. Will she ever remember? And what the hell is up with Lissa just abandoning all hope of ever seeing Rose again? It's so unlike her! …Or is it?
Review! And for those of you who actually care, Rose will get her memory back pretty soon.