C'mon, Rose, Give In!
I BAKED BLINI YESTERDAY.
ATTENTION: When the fight comes, I'd suggest you move to Youtube and play Wagner: The Ride of the Valkyries. It seems a perfect song for showdown, at least to me...
"Oh, shit shit shit," I cursed and put my hands on my face dramatically. "She's pregnant. Even though she is, she punched you. And she is getting married." I made a theatrical pause. "Shit." Dimitri rolled his eyes (one of them was, unfortunately and by my mother's fault, black) and shook his head at my bad language. "How do you say 'shit' in Russian?" He, of course, already opened his mouth to argue, which would be pointless if Olena's sudden arrival wouldn't cut him off.
"Dimka! What happened to your eye?!"
Oh great. The last thing I needed was to put my mother-in-law (not really, though) and my own into war.
"Mama, it's nothi-"
"The hell is not! How did yo-"
"Rose and I just trained, it's nothing."
Uh. He got away well with that. Well, it made Olena think it was me who punched him, but that didn't really matter.
"Oh. F-fine then." She paused for a moment and then said, "Could you and Rose go and get a Christmas tree till tonight? I know it's all been moving really fast, but yet it is Christmas Eve today, so I thought we could have a festive dinner, not to mention Paul and Zoya are really excited about the presents... Well... yeah." I stared at her blankly for a second. It was Christmas Eve today? In those couple of days, I had totally lost track of time.
"Absolutely. Roza, come on," Dimitri poked me in the shoulder.
"And your eye?" Oh right – he was having fun by now.
"Are you ashamed of me looking like that?" he asked in fake offence. I snorted contemptuously.
"Do you even have to ask?" I replied in my typical self and felt shock my mother had given to me fading a bit.
I pushed him toward the door and, suddenly walking down the street hand in hand, I demanded another thing. "Say 'shit' in Russian."
"Roza!"
"You promised, you Cursing Cowboy."
He frowned and that made my grin wider. "Govno," he eventually spat out and I, of course, repeated the new addition to my Swearing Dictionary as loud as possible.
"Govno!" I exclaimed happily and elderly couple walking down the street looked at me in consternation. "Govno!"
"Roza. Don't be a disgrace to me," Dimitri laughed and put my hand around my jumping shoulders while I was repeating new word like a naughty child. "Please."
"Say 'fuck', Dimitri. Come on."
He sighed. "Roza, I am never betting with you again."
"Comrade."
"No. After we get a tree, okay?" I felt like a really, really bad child being scolded by Kirova, but I'd never been sad for pissing her off.
"No. Dimitri Belikov. You. Are. Annoying. Govno," I moaned and leaned my head onto his solid chest stubbornly. Yum.
"Dimka!" someone suddenly squeaked from the main square. That someone had a stick. That someone was old like hell. That someone had truthfully irritating voice. And, yes, that someone appeared to be Yeva.
"Babushka?"
She was running and waving with her stick around and it was annoying the hell out of me.
Yeva breathed heavily and pointed her stick at Dimitri. "She'll be here by the evening."
Something about her words bothered me, though I had no idea why'd that be. She. She will be here by the evening.
Then it came to my mind out of nowhere.
Tasha.
"Double govno," I mumbled and pulled a face somewhere into Dimitri's way.
He, on the other side, didn't say a word. Instead, he grabbed me and Yeva for our upper arms and started leading us towards the Belikovs' house. "I can walk on my own, you know," his sarcastic granny mouthed out, but he only pushed inside gently, yelling; "Make sure everyone stays in. Rose and I are going to get you Christmas tree after all."
I blinked in surprise at his last sentence but walked beside him. Everything passed by in blur, and before I was even aware, we were dragging a tree back to our house, along with tons of presents. It was a bit frustrating, actually.
"Dimitri?" I chirped, "What are we... What's our plan?"
He kept dragging the tree in silence with firm expression. "Dimitri? Please."
"Everyone's staying inside. You and I are fighting," he replied shortly, but his face softened then. "She is not hurting you, my Roza."
My Roza. His Roza.
"It's not me I'm worried about," I mumbled to myself, but his ear caught everything, as usual.
"She's not touching Lissa either." He did hear my words, but still didn't get it.
"It's you, to be accurate."
He kept dragging that freaking tree and did not even show he heard what I said.
I was about to open my mouth again but realized we were already at house's doorstep, dragging the tree inside, and after handing it to excited family and Christian with a box full of X-mas ornaments (boy, was he a decorator or something?), me and Dimitri backed into our room.
I embraced him wordlessly. He returned the hug immediately, and I sensed him relaxing. His touch made me feel better in the matter of seconds.
"It'll be okay, Roza," he whispered into my ear with such assurance my heart fluttered.
"Let's get downstairs, we have a few things to say."
And so we did. Walking down the stairs, with his arm around my shoulders and occasional stops, we eventually made it to ground floor. And when I said 'occasional stops' I meant bunches of stolen kisses.
"Auntie Viktoria!" small voice cut us off, right in the middle of very passionate kiss, "Dimitri is kissing Rose!" Oh, nice. Paul had chosen right person to tell about this. From what I knew, Viktoria Belikova was a professional mocker.
Wait. Telling Christian would be worse.
But he heard it anyway. "Why did he kiss her?" Paul's voice frowned a little.
"Because he's a cradle robber, Paul," Glitterman popped his head into the hallway, his head was fulsomely decorated in golden Christmas chain. He really did look like a glitter right now.
"Christian! You're talking to a ten-year-old!" Lissa yelled from the living room and Christian giggled. I gave him the finger.
"What is cradle robber?" Paul asked in curiosity and Christian quickly took an issue with him over that... thing. A minute later, Paul was filled with all that crap how it was forbidden for Dimitri and me to be together. Hurray.
"God help me," I moaned, "Dimitri. I'd much rather go outside and face that Strigoi army then listen Pyro-boy's childish comments. He is so jealous of you," I added at the end and... uh-oh. The look on Christian's face was priceless.
And so we told the family we'll be spending Christmas Eve alone – in case Strigoi thing would take more time than planned – and headed towards icy and freezing Russian winter night.
For the 'waiting place' we chose a bench, not too far from the main square. Dimitri put an arm around my shoulders to warm me up, but his closeness was enough to do so. Minutes passed, when the time finally came.
"Okay," I whispered in the moment the nausea rolled over my, "Let's roll, Comrade."
He stood up and clung his fingers ever-so-tightly around the silver stake so his knuckles turned white. I took one last breath when three pairs of red eyes appeared in the dark.
The first Strigoi jumped into Dimitri's way (why did they always think of him as the biggest threat?!), but he warded off his attack. As much as I'd have liked to watch my God fight, I had to focus on another danger.
A tall, thin 'evil creature' popped into my side, and his companion got to Dimitri. I staked him almost instantly and tuned around to face another.
The fight went on – as I thought it had all finished, another popped out of the dark, plus my fortune-telling nausea never faded. I wandered if it was Tasha's special technique to exhaust us and then finish the work by herself. Which, by the way, wasn't a bad idea after all.
And there she suddenly appeared. The whole dark beauty of Natasha Ozera. Her Strigoi version made her astonishing, but one single thing made me put on alert.
She wore no scar.
I rose up, hearing Dimitri was still fighting the army of Strigoi – my heart screamed at me to go help him, but my mind knew he could do it. I was focusing on Tasha.
She looked at me under her red, icy gaze. "You should have left him alone."
Coldness of her voice was unbelievable, and I was simply overjoyed just about the fact Sparky stayed inside. "Who asked you?" I hissed in my style and held my stake tighter. Her eyes lit up as I stood in the place, not wanting to do the first move.
Dimitri cried in agony.
And that was all Tasha needed – a moment of my distraction, a second, one terrified look thrown into Dimitri's way – to attack me. She ran at me with unnatural Strigoi speed and knocked me on the ground. That kind of transformed my attention to her, not watching Dimitri, my beloved, powerful Dimitri lying on the ground with evil vampires all over him, trying to overpower him for one last time. It was like the cave all over again – I felt bitter and burning tears spreading over my face and I barely felt Tasha fighting against me. My mind filled with hideous thought of him dying, me losing him again, and I would not be able to bear that sort of pain again. Then I gazed at her in hatred and realized she was about to win the fight.
I punched her spotless cheek with all force that left to me after the long and excruciating fight me and Dimitri had gone through. It didn't cause her any pain, but ruined her focus and balance. Her grip on me loosened a bit and, after one more punch, I dodged her.
After that small victory, I felt a bit more confident – she, of course, wasn't able to escape Rose Hathaway nose breaking specialty – Mia Rinaldi was my guinea pig after all. Besides, I don't think I'd ever broken Strigoi's nose.
She squeaked at me things like bitch and whore, but, hey, I didn't give a govno about that. Instead, I repeated the gesture.
She was probably getting all sick of my breaking techniques and returned a favor with bitchy slap. I dodged her, but earned a kick into my knee instead. And about that – it hurt like hell.
Dimitri and the other Strigoi, judging by the sounds, were still fighting. The regular procedure of me and Tasha taking turns at knocking each other down was persistently cut off by Strigoi or Dimitri's cries – my heart ached at the latter, but I kept fighting my enemy.
At last, I managed a beautiful – I have to praise myself for that – kick in her evil stomach that lay her down instantly, considering her mighty balance. I jumped on her belly, ready to plunge the stake into her solid chest which she, of course, covered smartly.
Instead of giving up, I cut her cheek with my silver stake mercilessly, which made her look a bit more domestic. She screamed in pain, and my soul noticed Dimitri's screams along. In the moment of distraction, she grabbed my two hands holding the stake and disabled any possible hurting caused to herself. I gathered all my power left to push it further, as close to her heart as possible, but her unnatural strength made it unrealizable. My lover's cries occasionally broke the tensing silence between us which weakened my heart and determination.
"You know, Rose," Tasha spat at me and pushed my stake farther from her chest, "I wonder if Dimka told you about us? Seeing how honest you are with each other and all..." Oh, so she was going to make out with dirty talking about her and him to distract me?
"Yeah, Tasha, I believe there's nothing to tell," I hissed in reply and I managed to push an inch or so closer to her heart once more.
"You couldn't be more wrong," she laughed icily and my mind got blank for a second, "Some things are actually pretty 'hot and heavy', but I'm sure you've done it all already."
I pretended her words didn't pierce my heart with pain that silver stake had never caused to any of them. "Yes," she continued mischievously, noticing sorrowful tears streaming down my cheeks, "Dimitri and I... Hey, Dimka," she screamed with her insane Strigoi voice into his way and it tore my soul apart, "Don't you miss us? Don't you ever think how it was, how we both loved it? How we made love?"
My soul, my heart, it all burst into small, tiny pieces, shards, and yet, it was still easy to break it all over again. I was taken aback, and vampire under me used the moment to push me back again. Her evil laugh kept ringing in my head, and her words kept punching my heart. The whole world around me turned red, my head was spinning around and sobs, shouts and cries were rushing out of my mouth along with painful tears in agony. It hurt, it hurt so much hearing her, and yet, I gathered my last atoms of power to push the stake closer and closer when I realized I was growing weaker and weaker. I was not capable to make one last, final move and my strength was getting smaller every moment, and I was almost pushed over the edge, into unconsciousness when Dimitri showed in front of my teary face, pointing the stake into Tasha's forehead as she screamed in agony, not even close to the one that was romping in me. I collected all the power I had left and hissed with all hate I was capable of. "You may rot in hell." Dimitri's move weakened her, and in the moment I was about to give in, ready to fall over, I pierced her heart.
"I'll make a reservation for you, Rosemarie Hathaway!" After one last cry, her dead body lay under mine, and I was sobbing and tears were everywhere.
I didn't loosen my grip on the stake, but I felt Dimitri shaking my body gently. He was holding my shoulders, repeating my name in Russian with one of his worried glances. I forced myself not to look at Strigoi's dead body. Instead of their evilness, I threw a glimpse at the most beautiful and yet powerful being in front of me.
I sobbed once more at the sight of him. "You don't believe her, do you, Roza?" Dimitri whispered in slight amount of pain in his gentle and calming voice, "Tell me you don't."
How could I? Fighting evil creature underneath, my heart was broken. But now, when I saw his wonderful, clear and good face, I could never believe it. He could never do that to me. My Dimitri was the embodiment of goodness and loyalty, and his love for me. No matter if his lip was cut and he had bruises all over his face. I was probably even worse.
I didn't answer his question at all – all I was able to do in that very moment was leaning forward and pressing my head against his good, loving heart. There he had his answer.
"Roza."
"Dimitri."
"I love you so, so much," his voice broke at the last word and turned into whisper. I resisted the urge to let the tears on once more.
"I know," I said instead, "It's hard not to." He smiled into my thick, dark hair and replied; "True. Now we should get inside before any Strigoi attacks as again."
God has a sick sense of humor, because in that very moment, my nausea got all over me again. But before we had a time to react on possible attack, well... Someone overhauled us. A Strigoi scream cut the night quietness and I threw a glimpse at our savior.
"Can you never get the job finished?" Yeva mumbled bitterly with a stick and a – well, well, well – silver stake in her hands. Who'd say babushka was a badass?
I shook my head in disbelief but rose up, my legs still shaky.
"Oh, and, Roza?" he whispered into my ear, "You did amazing."
I smiled exhaustedly into his way, "Thank you. And so did you." I heard Yeva groan angrily.
"And so did you, granny!" I yelled to her and held Dimitri's hand.
I walked into living room, with Dimitri as a support – I was terribly tired and fed up. But for today, surprises showed no mercy.
"Rose?"
"Sydney?!"
"Little Dhampir?" mouthed a voice from the living room soon after. Even if it wasn't for the nickname, I'd recognize it in the moment.
And I almost fell over.
"Adrian?!"
AWW cliffhanger!
I hope you liked the showdown!