They say I'm a girl with a few words. I guess they're right. I can't say anything but thank you for all the awesome reviews!
Here you go, the eleventh chapter but this is just a flashback through time(s) just to clear things out!
In this chappie, mystery guy's revealed. So ENJOY!
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone except for the pipz that are not at the book! Credit's to the incredible Richelle Mead!
Chapter 11:
Flashback in Time I
The sun was high up in the cloudless blue sky and the trees were a pretty color of healthy green and brown – the leaves making jade prisms on the tinted windows of the Dragomirs's SUV.
"You know, I never thought that Montana could have a single sunny day." Lissa mused with a small smile. She was wearing her favorite pale pink singlet, white denim shorts, flip-flops and a cute cap on top of her French braid.
"Me neither," Lissa's older brother, Andre, piped in. As usual, Andre was dressed like the royal that he is except for the slippers, though.
"Hey, guys, I thought you don't like the sun." I said absently as I took in the forest's breath-taking view. I was sitting at the front for safety precautions and Lissa was way back the SUV with nobody.
"It gets uncomfortable," Andre said, shrugged then smiled. "But it's worth it." Lissa and Andre said together and they laughed like hyenas. I chuckled, too, I couldn't help it – they were contagious. Even Force – the guardian driving – cracked a small smile.
Lissa's parents – Vasili and Inessa – were smiling, looking happy and content.
I kind of envied Lissa about how her family was so composed and perfect compared to my most likely to be "orphaned" state because my mom (and father) left me at the academy since I was five to guard a Szelsky lord.
Life is so unfair but now that I had my Dashkov prince with me, life could be bearable.
Xander Dashkov and his silly scarves. Xander was – and still is – my boyfriend for the most of his school year there at the academy. He was transferred to another St. Vlads to some things I didn't know about. He was a very mysterious guy.
Xander had those amazing jade green eyes that would make every girl melt at his stare and that smoky black hair that always made him look like a graceful cat. And his height – it just made me swoon. I didn't know why I loved Xander just after I had met him but sparks were flying everywhere when he introduced himself to me like a gentle man – giving me red roses in surprise with small cards with messages signed with a little x and a capital D.
Xander never really liked his name and usually tends to call himself as Bob. I always laughed every time he mentions that and he just laughs with me, too, as if nothing had happened. There were also times when he felt on edge and not very well – he drinks so much liquor it upsets me. I opened up to him once about his drinking and said he'd stop it all for me.
"If you'll just join me forever." Were his exact words and usually when he tells me that, he smiles mischievously like he had a secret that I was not in on and just disappears out of thin air. He was my mystery guy.
Just then, I was pulled away from my day-dream by a swift, hard movement of the car. Everybody inside the car was screaming on top of their lungs except for me and Force. I looked at Force and saw that there was a blank look on his always-pacified bronze face and he was maneuvering the steering wheel in random directions, causing the car to cuspate a very sharp motion. As usual, everything had gone to slow motion when my adrenaline kicked in – I let out strings of swear words and jumped from my seat to grab and stir the steering wheel away from where it was headed which was a huge oak tree. As soon as I touched the leather of the steering wheel, I felt an earth-quaking impact hit me and sounds of awful metal crushing and glass breaking. The screams refrained.
I am dead.
Flashback in Time II
I was crying.
I leaned on his blood-drenched body and tried again. I closed my eyes and waited for the magic to come to me but it didn't work. Nothing did.
Oh, Andre, please wake up, I said silently as tears spilled from my eyes and hoped that a miracle would happen anytime.
Andre, don't leave me…Mom…Dad…Rose…
I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw were leaves swaying accompanied with black smoke. I sniffed the air and there definitely was smoke. I registered and composed my thoughts first because I was having such a fucking headache that was making my mind go totally crazy. Crazy because the emotions – scratching out other senses – in me were whimsical; I was very tired, and overruled by that were pain – both physical and emotional – loss and depression. I closed my heavy lids and consoled my "crazy" head; I was hearing…fire. It sounded like licking noises of flames and I felt hot, too. Uncomfortably hot.
Fucking headache! I hissed inside my head. The smell of scent was getting heady and it was making my headache worse than it already was.
I sat up from my uncomfortable position from the dirty ground, I groggily looked around where I was and saw Lissa leaning over an ugly red thing. My eyes closed as the memory of the crash came rushing back in and I resisted the urge to scream.
My mind made and audible click and I was on the move. I went to Lissa and gently take her arms away from the bloodied Andre. She saw me and her eyes showed relief and a little happiness despite her depression.
"Rose! Oh my God," Lissa sobbed on my neck and I rubbed her back gently like she was a fragile thing. "I thought you were dead…and…and…" she couldn't speak anymore, she was crying so hard she could hardly breathe.
"Ssshhh…" I kissed Lissa's forehead, wishing it would calm her down but it didn't. Not even one bit. I, ironically, felt Lissa's feelings as if they were my own. I was crying hard now, too. I couldn't hold it even with my guardian skills. Well, I cried because they were like my family, too. They were just like my foster parents – took care of me when my mother wasn't and my father never existed.
"Rose," Lissa wept and I could feel that my tank top was wet. The sun was still high up but we were under the trees' leaves shade, I wouldn't risk Lissa with just barely an "uncomfortable" feeling in her current condition. And speaking of shade – there was still the sound of fire.
I looked around the place and saw the breached, burning Dragomir SUV. Tears filled my eyes again and I looked away from it – wondering if the tears were from the sorrow of looking at the car burn with the remains of Lissa's family and a guardian or the heavy black smoke surrounding us.
I half-carried Lissa's crying body with me to a more secluded and shaded area and I cried out in pain.
"Fucking leg!" I accidentally dropped Lissa to the ground and looked at my right shin where the pain was from. I raised the ripped black jeans I was wearing and saw nothing there. Totally nothing even there was blood splattered everywhere on me.
I heard someone groan in…pain? I saw that that someone was Lissa. She tentatively touched her blood-stained right shin and whimpered. The same time she touched it I felt pain from my right shin, too. How coincidental, I noted and picked up Lissa's head and put it on my lap.
"Lissa, Lissa," I mustered all my will power to slap her on the cheek – just softly, though. She opened her eyes and saw that her jade eyes were plain with fatigue and pain.
"Rose?" she croaked.
"Please stay awake, Liss. Don't give up now." I told her and lifted her head off my lap and searched for anything to cover the huge, gaping red gash on her shin. I sighed in relief when I saw a dark green scarf with white initials that I didn't bother to read. I was too panicked to even figure out why was there a pure cashmere scarf in the forest.
I hastily wrapped the scarf around Lissa's wound tightly.
"Rose, stay with me," I heard Lissa say in barely a whisper.
Suddenly, we heard tiles screeching to a stop and people shouting.
"This is the Dragomirs' car!" the voice sounded familiar with that thick Romanian accent.
"Call the academy! We need aid here!"
"I thought they were just behind us!" the voice was so familiar with that thick Russian accent. My brother – Stas. "Akh bozhe moi! Where the hell is Rose!?" Stas shrieked like a girl.
"She was riding with the Dragomirs." The first voice with the Romanian accent said.
"Chyort voz'mi!" that was Stas shouted when another screech of a car sounded.
I should have called to them but I was too tired. I couldn't muster the strength to even lift my head up.
I heard an audible gasp of a deep-voiced woman.
I was so weak…I was as weak as Lissa and my head was aching so much. It felt like a bulldozer just pressed on my head. I could see black spots everywhere in my vision of the dark woods and I felt myself drowning deeper and deeper into a pit of darkness and unconsciousness but before I did, I heard just a faint order.
"Survey the area. NOW!"
I was out.
Flashback in Time III
"Rose? Wake up, sweetie. You're alright now." I heard a voice of an angel say. That voice, my angel – Xander.
"Xander?" I murmured, still sleep-deprived.
"Rose? Thank God you're awake." I could smell something fishy in the air I was breathing in.
"Xander Dashkov, have you been drinking again?" I chided as I sat bolt upright the infirmary's cot.
I was right, he was drunk. He had dark circles under those weary jade green eyes of his.
"I drank only a few bottles of vodka," he shrugged innocently and hugged me tight.
I sniffed the air around me, trying to decipher what kind of vodka it was.
"Russian vodka?" I said it like it was AIDS.
I heard my Dashkov prince sniffle. "I had to, Rose. You weren't waking up and I thought you were going to die." His voice caught into a sob and I just hugged him back. I didn't know what I did to deserve anyone like Xander Dashkov to love me.
And then like a shockwave hitting me, leaving me shocked and distressed.
I'll admit that Andre and I weren't close but we had times that we enjoyed each other's presence and had grown up with him alongside with Lissa. I'll always miss him. And Vasili and Inesssa; they were like parents to me. Since my mom left me at the academy since kindergarten, Lissa and I had been friends and they welcomed me to their family like I were their own, too.
Lissa, a voice inside my head whispered. (Currently as Pat)
I pulled back from my sobbing Dashkov prince. "Where's Lissa?" I asked, almost panicking.
He frowned a little and then smiled at me. "Chillax," he rubbed my stiff arms and I noticed that I was wearing a very stupid-looking hospital gown and I was barefoot. Xander pointed at a plain white door to our right. I quickly jumped out of the bed and ran to the door, opening it noiselessly.
Lissa was there, staring at the bluish light and wall in front of her. She didn't even look up when I came in. I walked closer to where she was lying and saw that her hand was stuck with an IV (Rose has to know what's an IV, right?) and her lips were slightly ajar.
"Lissa?" I whispered, taking her IV-free hand into mine and her fingers twitched at my touch. "Lissa, honey, this is Rose. Can you talk?"
"They're gone?" she let out in less than a whisper and I felt despair choke the air around us, tears stung at my aching eyes. As soon as smelt liquor in the air, I almost relaxed.
He draped arm around my shoulder and I looked at him – he looked genuinely sad but other than that, he looked angry. I touched his hand than was on my shoulder.
"Angry, Xander?"
Xander tensed up and closed his eyes as his nose falred.
"They should've known better than to hire Force." He all but growled and I could see Xander's calm demeanor fade.
"It's not his fault." I said just to calm him down. Yes, I blamed Force – just a little, though. Force was lazy but he would never let any Moroi down.
"No, Rose," he looked at my eyes intensely. "Look at what he had done – Lissa's broken," he gestured to the motionless Lissa beside us. "You could've died."
Abruptly, anger consumed my being and I hated Force.
"He was driving recklessly and he was driving a damn royal Moroi family with him, he should have been more careful. Hell, he was driving a royal Moroi family in the woods where anything could happen." For a second, I thought I saw an evil glint on those mesmerizing eyes of his but it was gone as fast as it came. My anger turned to suspicion and despair.
"I don't really blame Force," Lissa voiced out in a tiny voice and I felt determination fill me – so much of it, it almost hurt. Despite Lissa's present state, she gave Xander a funny look and stared at us back and forth.
"Something's wrong here." I heard Lissa say but I didn't see her lips move.
"Did you say something, Liss?" I asked her, jerking my gaze away from the confused looking Xander.
She shook her head innocently. "I didn't say anything," she said and her brows furrowed. "Except for the 'I don't blame Force' part." She sounded more like herself again.
"Rose, can you hear me?"
"There it is again." I blurted out and Lissa shot me un-dagger-like daggers at me so I shut my mouth.
"If you can hear me, please don't say anything," her voice rang clearly inside of my head. I gave her a slight nod that was accompanied by a huge question mark.
Xander was frowning, looking at us back and forth.
"I don't know what's the exact problem, Rose, but I just have the feeling that it is not a good thing." She said through my head and a chill ran down my spine. It was a reflex reaction to every time something bad was going to happen. Unfortunately, I didn't get that reaction before the car crash happened.
I cracked her a smile and turned to see Xander, only he wasn't there. I was greeter by a paper with his initials. It read:
Sorry for leaving so abruptly.
I had to go to the feeders – slightly thirsty.
I'll see you soon.
Love,
xD
Flashback in Time IV
"I knew that you and Aaron were dating but what's up with the Strigoi-wannabe, Princess?" Camille Conta, the bleach-blonde haired bitch asked. Well, accused rather. She was looking at Lissa intensely, her huge blue eyes practically bugging out of their sockets.
"Oh, what was his name?" Carly obnoxiously tapped her index finger on her chin. "Ozera was it? Christian Ozera?" she looked at Lissa like she had just won something.
"Hardly," I snorted and both bitches looked at me with confused looks.
"Uh, no," Lissa said slowly and the bitches looked back at her, they sarcastically batted their eyelashes at Lissa, feigning curiosity. Oooh, I wanted to crack a bitch or two's nose. Unfortunately, Lissa was calm; our "bond" as we liked to call it was safe from me. For now.
"He's just an acquaintance," Lissa had that same tone on her voice that she was using compulsion. Cautiously, I put a hand on Lissa's shoulder but she shrugged it off. She was pissed, alright. Go, bitches!
Exasperated, I looked around the place, making sure no one catches Lissa using compulsion on these two poor girls. I should say Lissa was good with compulsion because just a second passed; the bitches of royals nodded absently and started another conversation.
"Hey, I heard that Xander Dashkov is dating your best friend." Carly said, none too pleased.
"Yeah, and said they're going away together forever." Said bright-haired Camille.
I rolled my eyes and I just let Lissa handled that rumor to herself. I scanned the room, looking for danger that was coming. Nothing was coming fortunately but I felt a shiver run down my spine.
What now? I sighed in exasperation and we heard a scream. A guy's scream. Xander's scream.
Quickly, I looked around the room, nobody was listening to it, and I didn't know why I was the only one who heard it. He screamed again and it turned into an ugly gurgling sound. Then heard by everyone else were glass breaking. A loud one and strings of Russian cursing.
I heard Lissa gasp and we ran toward where the broken glass window was. It surprised me that Stas was there, that might have been him cussing. Stas looked mad and deep in thought. His golden hair was a mess and I could see there was blood - little amount of it – on the broken glass window. Reflexively, I looked down at what was down but then I realized that Stas was holding a dark green scarf with white initials of xD.
My heart pounded so hard and the suspense turned painful. Slowly, I peeked down at who was at the window. People were already around the window, gasping in disgust and pity. I pushed everyone aside but before I could go peek at who fell, a hand was on my shoulder, stopping me.
I turned to see Stas' vacant guardian mask. He shook his head. "You don't want to see that, Rose." I didn't listen to him and I defiantly looked at who the hell fell.
My heart broke to pieces when I saw my Dashkov prince's body covered with blood.
If you're all wondering if the Masquerade Ball's still up, then yes, there will still be a ball! So stay tuned and I will update soon!
XOXO
skyluvstark09
