I do not own Vampire Academy or Richelle Mead. Ha!
I finally managed to escape Dimitri and having to make conversation with him by giving him the very valid excuse of having to put Sasha—his niece—to bed. Why did life seem so horribly intent on breaking me? It just wasn't fair. Once I got to her room in the elementary dorms, I gently set the sleeping angel in my arms on her bed, and carefully took her boots and snow clothes off. I hung them up thoughtfully, before grabbing Sasha's pajamas—which consisted of a rather large tee shirt—and walked back over to her bed. I took her day clothes off and put her into her night shirt, before I ever-so-gently tucked her lovingly underneath the covers, and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. I turned to leave, checking on her one last time before I walked out the door and quietly closed it behind me.
As I walked back to my own room, I tried to process the information Dimitri had given me. I loved Sasha dearly, but Dimitri was her half-uncle. He and the rest of the Belikovs were the only family she had left. A pang of fear tore through me as I thought about the possibility that Dimitri might take Sasha away from me and send her to live with his mother and sisters in Siberia. I found myself praying to God or whoever was listening that he wouldn't be so cruel to destroy me like that. He'd already hurt me beyond repair once before; if he took my little girl, he would devastate me completely. I would probably jump off the steeple of the school's church if he did that.
Shaking my head in frustration, I sighed, knowing I shouldn't be thinking like that. I had it figured out. If Dimitri even tried, he'd have to pry her from my cold, dead fingers, and if he succeeded, I'd have Lissa bring me back to life so I could beat the holy living shit out of him. I smiled at the thought as I entered my room, thinking about all the practicing and training with my newly-developed techniques. If we ever ended up sparring during this whole, blasted visit, and he thought he was going to beat me, well… he had another thing coming. I would make him cry for his momma, and I would enjoy every bit of it.
I closed the door and locked it behind me, feeling dazed as I changed into a loose, black tee shirt and my flannel pajama bottoms. I brushed my teeth and let my hair down, shaking it out of its ponytail before I crawled into my bed, emotionally drained. The second my head hit the pillow, I was dreaming of the golden sun, laughing as I held a little girl with teal eyes and chocolate hair on my hip as we were both sheltered in the strong, protective arms of a tall, lean body wearing jeans and a duster. Chocolate brown eyes and a full, beautiful smile sparkled at me as those loving arms pulled me closer. A beautiful, tinkling giggle sounded from the little girl as a pair of soft, wonderful lips pressed to mine and held my mouth in a familiar way. 'I love you, Roza… I love you both.' Damn it! Now my dreams were conspiring against me.
Never the less, I woke up that morning with a beaming smile on my face.
I woke up early, and decided to further my training in the gym. Pulling on a pair of shorts and a tank top, I tied my hair back, and grabbed my bag before running at top speed to the gym, trying to get out of the cold air as soon as possible. When I got there, I rubbed my arms frantically, trying to warm them up from their stinging numbness. I shook it off, and ran a couple of warm-up laps around the gym before stretching my loosened muscles. Feeling good, I set up a few hurdles on the indoor track because I was in the mood to jump around this morning. Once I did, I turned on the stereo in there, and went to crouch at the starting line, waiting for the music to start. "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas came off, and as soon as the three Ha's went off, I tore off down the track, letting the music fuel me as I pushed myself to go faster, flying over the hurdles as I came up to them. I was grinning stupidly while I ran, thoroughly enjoying myself.
Unfortunately, I missed a step, and started to pitch forward, but I caught myself, turning the trip into an awesome ninja stunt as I pushed up off the ground with my hands, and tightened my core as my legs flew over my head, flipping me around in the air. Expertly, I landed on my feet, and let out a whoop of triumph. Ever since I had arrived at the Academy, I had been training myself and practicing to do crap just like that. If I could do it while I was running, I could incorporate it into my combat training. And I had just done that, giving me the ability to outmaneuver whoever I was fighting. Of course, I hadn't tried it on any Strigoi yet; I haven't needed to. Fighting Dimitri would provide me the biggest challenge and opportunity to try out my new techniques on him.
I came to another hurdle, and launched myself up in the air, tucking my head and knees into my body and somersaulting over it. I laughed and finally got tired, and leaned over with my hands on my knees as I caught my breath. Automatically, I snapped up to attention, when I heard a low whistle. Dimitri was standing against the wall, watching, and obviously impressed. Great.
"I can tell you've definitely been practicing without me to harp on you all the time, Rose," he stated with a grin when he saw me looking at him. I sighed and rolled my eyes, but brightened, deciding to make good use of his presence.
"Whatever, Belikov. Get your ass over here so I can kick it," I shot back at him snarkily, beckoning him closer with my fingers. Not even Dimitri could ruin my good mood today. He just chuckled, shaking his head, as he shrugged off his coat, and hung it over on a piece of equipment as he joined me on the training mats. I tried not to think about how good his black running pants and the slightly loose, white tee shirt looked on him, because if I did, it would be my demise.
"All right, Rose. Let's see what you can do," he told me patronizingly as he took a fighting stance in front of me. "Ya Mama" by Fatboy Slim suddenly started to play on the stereo, and I grinned, mirroring Dimitri's position. He was going to get his butt handed to him on a silver plate when I got through with him. I almost felt sorry… almost.
We circled each other, each watching the other's every move. What Dimitri also didn't know was that I had learned another very useful little trick. If one watched a person or an animal long enough, they could see the slight changes of the facial expression and the way the body was held, allowing one to anticipate what they were going to do a split-second before they did it. So, when Dimitri struck out at me with his fist, I was able to easily block it and brush his hand away from me as easily as if I were shooing a fly. Over the months, I had not only worked to hone my anticipation skills, but also to make my moves as unpredictable as possible, keeping my face neutral, and not acting until the last possible second. A cobra's strike had nothing on my speed and accuracy with how much I had trained and practiced, perfecting my skills.
This allowed me to fake him out with my arm, but twist around and deliver a swift round-house kick to the right side of his ribcage, knocking him over when he tried to block my fist. I watched him as he rolled to his feet in a crouching position, looking at me with surprise. I just grinned at him and shrugged, watching and waiting for his next move. He thought I was distracted by my shrugging, and took the opportunity to lunge at my knees, trying to grab around my legs and take me down to the ground, but I launched myself in the air, tucking my knees up to my chest as I dove forward, and tumbled to the ground, immediately back on my feet and facing him. Dimitri growled with frustration, and I had to try really hard not to laugh. Serves him right.
"How are you doing that?" he demanded. I've never been able to evade or knock him over this quickly in a fight. I tsked, and shook my head.
"Sorry, comrade. I gotta keep my tricks for the trade," I teased, not realizing my slip of tongue. Unfortunately, I'd also let my guard slip ever-so-slightly, and the next thing I knew, I was pinned to the ground beneath Dimitri. "Damn it!" I swore as I fought against him, trying to make him slip as he struggled to hold me down. The proximity between us was electrifying, however, and I could feel my excitement grow, deep within the pit of my stomach. Inwardly, I cursed myself for still letting him have this effect on me, and pushed the painful awareness I had of him into a little box in the back of my mind, diverting my attention back to the fight. Dimitri had my wrists pinned above my head, and the weight of his body held me to the ground. Oh G-d, he was so close! I wanted to wrap myself around him; to surrender to him and let him torture me however he wanted.
Instead, I interrupted my own naughty thoughts by slipping my knee up and thrusting it up against Dimitri's legs, knocking him off of me and over my head. I rolled back to my feet and watched him as he mirrored my movements, only looking like he'd had a bucket of ice water thrown into his face. Apparently I wasn't the only one effected by that little… escapade, but I'd be damned if I'd let the hope that had bubbled up inside get the best of me. I squashed it like a bug, focusing my energy on fighting him. We both stood this time, and when he lunged towards me, I danced easily out of his arms, spinning around till I was behind him, and slammed my heel into the back of his knee. I didn't want to break his knee cap right now, but the back of the knee would hurt just as much with the nerves there.
Dimitri pitched over, swearing violently in Russian as he held his, now very numb, leg. I felt a little bad, not wanting to hurt him quite so much, but in my small moment of pity, I'd hesitated.
"Son of a bitch!" I shrieked again as Dimitri, now properly furious, had taken advantage of my distraction. He grabbed my ankle, and yanked it out from underneath me, making me fall and land flat on my ass. Now on his good knee, he grabbed both of my legs and yanked me towards him, making me pitch backwards, the back of my head crash against the mat. And just like that, he was on top of me again, straddling my waist, still snarling Russian curses in pain. I tried to punch him, but he grabbed my swinging fists, and struggled to hold them down at my sides. Oh, I was so dead now.
"You. Are. Amazing!" he growled, angry, but impressed. His words sent me back to the night I tried to escape him as a Strigoi back in Siberia, and all of a sudden I was really freaked out and really turned on all at the same time. Biting back a moan, I threw my legs up, and hooked my knees around his face and the top of his chest, making his hands fly from my wrists, trying to pull my legs away from him. All he did was keep his neck from being broken when I yanked him backwards, away from me. I wriggled out from underneath him, and threw myself forward, grabbing his wrists and pinning them above his head, as I straddled his hips, preventing from using his legs the same way I had done. Holding both his wrists with one of mine, I used my free hand to push his face down on the mat.
"You're dead!" I all but screamed, staring down at him, wild-eyed. I hadn't realized my hair had fallen from its ponytail, sending my shoulder-length locks to hang askew around my face, a few strands sticking to the thin film of sweat that covered my skin. Our eyes met, and I saw the look in Dimitri's eyes go from battle-lust to wonder and longing as he stared up at me. He managed to slip one hand from my grasp to reach up and twist a few fingers around the dark strands.
"You cut your hair…" he murmured softly. I nodded, realizing he'd never actually seen how short my hair was, as I had worn it up since he'd been here. Dimitri smiled a little, looking like an angel as he laid there. "I like it," he told me, and I found myself smiling a little back at him. As we continued to stare at each other, entranced, I slowly became aware of the sexual tension that had suddenly wrapped around us. When Dimitri stopped fiddling with my hair, he let his hand fall and rest on my hip. I still had one of his wrists pinned to the ground, my other hand palm-first on the ground, my arm supporting me. I realized I was still straddling his hips, and my face flushed slightly, but it felt too right for me to want to get off of him. I bit my lip when I felt his excitement grow beneath me, pressing against my longing through the fabric of his pants and my shorts, and good G-d, did I want him! By the hungry gleam in his eyes, I could tell Dimitri was thinking exactly the same thing as I felt his hand flex and tighten its hold on my hip, holding me firmly against him.
The sigh escaped my lips before I could stop it, and the next thing I knew, Dimitri had freed his other hand from my grasp and clutched my hips, shifting slightly beneath me, turning my sigh into a sharp gasp. I could hear him hiss with longing, and I wanted nothing more than to lie down beside him and wrap his arms around me. My whole body missed and yearned for him. I leaned forward, ever so slowly, until I was close enough for the ends of my hair to tickle his face. Dimitri's thumb had dipped underneath my shirt, and lightly stroked my side, making goose bumps jump up from my skin as my eyes slipped closed in ecstasy. My lips must have parted too, because I felt Dimitri sit up slightly, tickling the skin of my face with his cool, sweet breath.
"Roza," he murmured softly, his lips barely brushing against mine, tantalizing me. I was about to shift my head slightly so that my lips would press to his a little more soundly when a small, confused voice suddenly rang through the air, making me freeze, my eyes flying open.
"Auntie Rose? What are you doing with Uncle Dimka?"
Author's Note: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I hope you all liked that chapter. I had fun writing it. Now, REVIEW!
Have a great day!
Love,
Nancy :D