CHAPTER TEN

I pulled away from Adrian and turned to Eddie. "Guardian Castile, it's good to see you." I told him respectfully.

Eddie grinned and pulled me into a hug. "Come on Rose, no titles between us."

Eddie and I parted and I turned and starting walking back towards the elevator. "Come on."

Adrian turned and began talking to someone and for the first time I noticed the feeder that Adrian had brought with him.

She was young, maybe a little older than me, with mousy brown hair and glazed over blue eyes. Definitely a vampire-bite junkie.

Something about seeing her churned uncomfortably in my stomach. Just the idea that a feeder had to come with us at all upset me, and I found myself getting irritated with Adrian for some inexplicable reason. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" I asked snottily.

Adrian mistook the malice behind the words for jealousy and grinned at me broadly. "This is Dana." He said. "Dana this is Rose."

Dana looked over at me, her eyes slightly unfocused. "Hi Rose." She stated dreamily.

"Hi." I replied back shortly, but she was so far gone off of the bites that she didn't notice my unpleasantness. I turned to Adrian and Eddie. "Let's go upstairs." I told them.

They all followed me into the elevator and then up to our room.

The look of surprise on Abe's face as we entered was laughable. His eyes narrowed at Adrian and Eddie and then darted over to me. "What are they doing in here?" He asked.

"They're here to help."

"No. I mean, don't you think they should get their own room?" He asked, and it was then that I noticed that Abe had adopted some sort of protective stance towards me.

Adrian cowed a little under Abe's death stare. "Of course, sir." He said solemnly.

"Very good. Well then, I see you have brought a feeder do you mind?" Abe inclined his head to Dana and Adrian waved a hand at him.

"By all means." He answered him casually.

"Adrian!" I shouted, suddenly outraged for Dana.

"What?" He shrugged.

"Don't you think you should ask her if she minds being passed around?"

Adrian looked sheepish for a moment and turned towards Dana, who was absent-mindedly gazing around in a vampire bite coma.

"Dana-," he began but she silenced him with a wave of her hand.

"I don't mind." She stated. Okay, so I guess she wasn't as out of it as I thought she was.

I also didn't feel as bad for her when Abe pulled her into our bathroom and shut the door.

Adrian clapped his hand together and turned to me. "You hungry? Cause I am starving. We should go to Arnauds." He told me, and when I stared at him uncomprehendingly he laughed. "I forgot you've never been here before. Arnauds is like the best possible place to eat at here. It has a cool atmosphere too. You get all dressed up and go eat under the candlelight, while live jazz musicians play music. You'll love it." He told me

Adrian stepped towards one of his suitcases and unzipped it. He pulled out a green button up shirt and a pair of black dress pants and then looked up at me. "Aren't you going to get dressed? You can't wear that to Arnauds. I mean, I may like the jeans and tank-top look, but I don't think they will let you in dressed like that."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Adrian, we can't go out. First, there are flyers all over the city with my face on them. Someone will recognize me."

Adrian smiled slightly. "Yeah, I saw those. They aren't very good, are they? You're much hotter in person." He shrugged. "But, don't worry, no one will recognize you."

"Even if that were true, which I doubt, I can't go. I don't have any clothes."

Adrian went to another suitcase, pulled out another item of clothing, and tossed it to me. "I figured that, so I picked this up before I came to the hotel."

I shook the dress out and looked at it. It was a gorgeous shade of purple that would have looked awesome with my brown hair. As it was, it would still okay with the red. "Adrian, I-," I was pretty much speechless, so in response I ran up and hugged him. "Thanks. But I still don't think we can go."

Adrian handed me a ring and smiled. "You're right. We can't go, but I can with my lovely blonde date." He said and I realized that he had handed me a charmed ring like the one Lissa had given me to escape.

Once again, I was speechless. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the bathroom, where Abe and Dana had just exited to put the dress on. Adrian grinned even broader. "There are shoes in the bag somewhere too."

Abe looked between Adrian and I and his very own smile, albeit a devious one, spread across his lips. "Are we going on a date?" He asked, and the tone of his voice left no room for debating the fact that he meant we, as me, Adrian, and himself.

Adrian, while I'm sure had meant this to be a romantic date, smiled casually at Abe. "To Arnauds. You're welcome to join us if you want." He offered.

"I love Arnauds." He said by way of acceptance.

Half an hour later I found myself sitting sandwiched between Abe and Adrian, at a restaurant that was everything Adrian had described.

It was too bad I couldn't enjoy it, thanks to the fact that Abe and Adrian were bickering over what they thought would be best for me after this whole ordeal was finished.

"Rose should resume her post as a Guardian." Abe stated.

To which Adrian responded, "Come on, Abe. They aren't going to let Rose be anyone's Guardian. They were already considering giving her a desk job as it was. Rose would be much happier traveling the world with me, and killing strigoi every once in a while than working a stuffy old desk job."

Abe turned to me. "What do you think?" He asked me, and Adrian turned to wait for my response as well. I twirled the glass of water I was holding and looked across the table at Eddie, who was doing his damndest not to smile at the ridiculousness of the situation, and then looked back down to my water glass.

"Well, I, um, I guess I haven't thought about it much." I answered honestly.

I didn't really have any idea what I was going to do after I found Lissa's brother or sister and cleared my name. The truth was, that Adrian was probably correct and I was going to end up with a boring desk job if I went back to the Guardians, but I wasn't sure if traveling around aimlessly with Adrian was something I really wanted to do either.

Luckily, all further discussion on the topic was brought to a halt by the appearance of our waiter. "What can I get y'all?" He asked us.

Adrian ordered filet mignon, as did Eddie, Abe and Dana.

I was not hungry thanks to the fact that I kept turning my unsure future over in my head. "Can I get a vodka and tonic?" I asked, knowing that I would regret that decision later.

The waiter looked at me carefully. "Can I see your I.D?" He asked, and I mentally kicked myself for my bad luck.

Adrian looked over at me questioningly, and then moved his gaze on to the waiter. "You've already seen her I.D." He told him, and the guy's face went blank for a second as Adrian's compulsion took hold.

"Oh yeah, I did." He answered dazedly.

Adrian looked over at me again, and made a little sad face. "Go ahead Adrian. Get a drink." I told him resignedly, because it would be hypocritical to get a drink and then not allow Adrian to get one as well.

Adrian ordered the same thing as me, and the waiter walked away.

And Abe started in on Adrian. "She is underage Adrian, you shouldn't have done that." He hissed.

"You didn't stop me, so I thought it was fine."

Adrian and Abe bickered over it as the waiter returned with mine and Adrian's drinks.

The waiter placed mine in front of me, and I immediately downed it and then slammed the glass back down on the table, causing Adrian and Abe to stop fighting and look at me. I looked up at the waiter and smiled as charmingly as I could. "Keep 'em coming."

I ended up ordering grilled salmon to eat, although it's taste went unnoticed by me, because by the time my food arrived I was pretty drunk from the four vodka and tonics I had consumed.

I ordered one to go right before we left, and then we left the restaurant and began walking, well I was more like stumbling, back towards the hotel.

Adrian's arm was around me, and as I leaned into him, I noticed his hand reach towards his pocket before he shook it and dropped it back to his side.

I rolled my eyes. "Just smoke a damned cigarette, Adrian. I'll let it go this time." I told him, and he hugged me closer to him.

"You are so understanding, little dhampir." He told me, as he let his cigarette.

Once again, I could see the doors to the Inn ahead of us, so I took off Adrian's ring and picked up my pace, when a figure stepped out in front of me and stopped me short. I dropped the glass of vodka in my hand and it shattered on the concrete, splashing vodka all up my legs, and just stared.

His brown hair was loose around his shoulders and his brown eyes, full of questions.

I shrugged myself out from under Adrian, a knee-jerk reaction that I don't think he noticed because he was slightly drunk.

"Dimitri." I breathed.

"Rose."

"Figures they would send you to come after me. How did the Guardians find me anyway?" I asked, sagging in defeat. Looking at his god-like glory, I really didn't even mind the fact that it was Dimitri that they had sent to come get me.

Confusion flickered across his face, before Dimitri spoke again. "Rose, I'm not here to arrest you." He said.

In my drunken stupor maybe I caught on a little late. But I was quickly brought up to speed when Lissa, Christian, and Mikhail stepped out from the shadows.

"Rosemarie Hathaway," Lissa began, storming up to me.

"Lissa, what are you-," I started, walking towards her with my arms open so that I could hug her. I hadn't felt her through the bond since alcohol numbs our connection, and despite the fact that I hadn't wanted her involved in this mess, I was glad to see her.

I was interrupted, however, by Lissa's fist connecting with my face.

I was surprised, there was a lot more force behind the punch than I thought that Lissa was capable of, but I wasn't injured at all. Mostly, just shock was what caused me to rub at my jaw where her fist had made contact.

I stared at Lissa a long moment, before I grinned slightly. "You've been practicing with Christian again, haven't you?" I asked her.

This time when Lissa spoke my name it was with pure relieved happiness. "Rose." She said and then she threw her arms around me and hugged me.