DIMITRI WAS SILENT ON THE drive to Baia. His jaw was clenched in that angry way of his, and his hands gripped the steering wheel a little harder than necessary.
"I'm sorry, Rose," he finally said. I sighed, resting my chin on my hand and staring out the window.
"Don't beat yourself up about it. I'm okay, you're okay, and we're almost to Baia." I said softly, not really wanting to make him angry. He tended to get pissed off whenever he got it into his head that he'd "failed me." Stupid Russian bastard.
"Yes," he said tersely. What a lie. We spent the rest of the ride in silence - me falling asleep pressed up against the window and Dimitri glaring across the countryside. After maybe another two hours, the car slowed down.
"We're here." He said. I perked up immediately, unbuckling my seatbelt.
"So I'll finally get to meet your family?" I said excitedly, climbing out of the car and grabbing my backpack. Dimitri nodded, taking the bag along with his own and walking up the worn path to a nice-looking cottage type thing. It was set sort of away from the village, but it seemed nice all the same. Dimitri knocked on the door. A few seconds later, someone who looked pretty much like a shorter, female version of Dimitri opened the door.
"Dimka?" she said tightly, her eyes widened and almost...frightened? I don't know. Weird. Maybe that was normal for Siberians.
"Privet(means "hi"), Viktoria," he said as warmly as he could manage given the situation, hugging her as she stepped outside a little bit.
"Hi," I said, stepping up to the porch and sticking out my hand. "I'm Rose, Dimitri's Moroi." I said awkwardly, looking at Dimitri for confirmation that she even spoke English.
She smiled weirdly again, shaking my hand. "Hello, Rose. I'm Viktoria Belikova, Dimka's younger sister."
I smiled. "Nice to meet you."
"Can we come in, Vik?" Dimitri asked after a moment.
She nodded, her face falling again. "Please." She said, opening the door to a warmly lit room...
...filled with Strigoi.
"Seriously?" I snapped in outrage. This was just fucking stupid. Why the hell wouldn't they leave us alone? I glared at Galina and Isaiah, my eyes filling with tears when I saw Dimitri's family tied to chairs or held captive in some other fashion. A really old, really pissed off lady who I assumed to be his grandmother was tied back-to-back in chairs with a defeated looking dhampir woman. Probably his mother. His older sisters were tied up the same way, and Galina immediately tied Viktoria back up when she stepped inside. Isaiah was holding a sleeping kid - probably his nephew, Paul or something.
I really, really wanted to kill something right then.
"What the hell is this?" Dimitri snapped emotionlessly, his guardian mask on but tinged with rage.
Galina smirked, stepping away from the newly tied-up Viktoria. "This, Belikov, is what is called fair trade. A deal. Equivalent exchange. Call it what you want, it's us trading the lives of your family members for that Ivashkov standing before us." She said, smirking in that triumphant way of hers.
Dimitri's mask shattered, his true feelings showing through. Shocked, really pissed off, and scared half to death. "Wh-what?" he said, for once totally at a loss for words.
"The entire Belikov line in exchange for her." Isaiah said snidely. "You see, Belikov, a bunch of dhampirs mean next to nothing to us - they don't even taste very good. One Ivashkov? The last Ivashkov? Do you have any idea what our ranking would be? We'd be feared throughout all Strigoi, our names in your history books. And why? For stamping out a line. Causing mass chaos - finally making you idiots believe that we are a very real threat, and any one of them could be dead like that." He said, keeping a smile on his face the entire time.
"I'm not letting you take her." Dimitri snapped.
Galina smirked again. "Okay. Then I guess we'll start with...what was his name, Paul? I know! Let's turn him, Isaiah. It's more fun that way - I've never seen such a little one..." she said, moving her fangs to the sleeping boy's neck.
"No!" I cried, lurching forward only to be caught and restrained by Dimitri. "No, please! Please don't. He's a baby. You can have me, you can have me," I said brokenly, kind of on repeat. "Please. Don't hurt them."
"No, Rose. No, no, no way in hell am I letting you - " his grandmother cut him off.
"Nyet, Dimka. Roza ne oshibaet. Vse povernut vne nailuchshsim obrazhom pod konech." She spoke strongly, like she was sure in whatever the hell she was saying.
Galina smirked again, turning back to Dimitri. "Listen to your grandmother, Dimitri." She said, chuckling.
"You're wrong, all of you. No way am I letting you take her." He snapped.
I couldn't let him let his family die, could I? Hell no! That was wrong, sick, twisted, whatever you want to call it. I wasn't gonna let it happen. "I'm sorry," I whispered before slamming my heel into Dimitri's foot and breaking free of his grasp, running to the middle of the room.
"No-!" Dimitri roared in shock, clawing at the space I had been about two seconds ago.
"Promise you'll let them go," I said breathlessly. "I'll go with you. Just let his family go."
Isaiah smiled like a fucking creep. "You have my word, princess." He said, slinging me over his shoulder and bolting like hell out the door. Heavy footsteps followed him - probably Dimitri - and Galina sprinted alongside him.
"Rose!" Dimitri roared into the night, "I won't lose you! I'll get you back, I swear!" he cried before his voice faded entirely. Galina and Isaiah were simply...too fast for him. Too fast for Dimitri. That concept felt off to me. I perceived Dimitri almost as a god - like he could do absolutely anything. And while, yes, he could fight off an army of Strigoi, he couldn't keep up with two of them when they had a head start to begin with.
You know what? Maybe I could save myself, for once.
"Fuck you." I spat at Galina, scrounging up all the fire magic I could muster and setting her hair on fire. She screamed, falling to the ground and batting at her head and cursing in Russian.
"Get up." Isaiah said coldly, stopping for a moment to make sure she wasn't dead. Once the flames were mostly gone - and she had a very noticeable bald spot - he took off again. And after about half an hour of running and my protesting, we came upon a way too cliche-creepy warehouse type thing. "If I were you," Isaiah said quietly, "I'd cooperate." He snapped before throwing open the door to a nice, well-decorated room. Isaiah set me down, roughly grabbing my arm. Galina sat down in a plush chair, and a little human girl in a maid outfit hurried up to cater on her.
Wait. Human?
Humans...why would a Strigoi keep one? Like a pet? That completely baffled me. If dhampirs and even Moroi were so far beneath them, then why...?
"She wants immortality." Isaiah said, noticing my staring. "It's tempting to mortals," he continued in that regal way of his. "We could give you immortality, too, you know. It's not as bad as your Moroi make it seem..." he said, baring his fangs in a creepy smile. "Let's go." He said, tugging me toward another door and a flight of stairs. He towed me down them, into a brightly-lit basement filled with Moroi and dhampirs about my age. I contained my shocked reaction as Isaiah set me down in a sturdy metal chair, binding my hands with flexi-cuffs and leaving abruptly with a terse "goodbye."
The boy next to me laughed. "Hi, newbie." He said, flashing a gorgeous smile. Even in this shit lighting, he was gorgeous. Tousled chocolate brown hair, emerald eyes, and he looked pretty built for a Moroi guy.
"Uh, hi," I said dejectedly, kicking at the chair.
"I'm Adrian. You are?" he said conversationally.
"Rose. Hathaway," I added at the last minute.
He raised an eyebrow. Wait, could fucking everyone do that except me? "Hathaway? Where did that come from?"
I whipped around to look at him in a shut-up-you-bitch sort of way. "You tell me, then, if you're such an expert on me." I snapped.
He laughed, a nice golden sound. Ugh. He was probably a preppy boy back home. "I'm no expert, Rose. I just recognize my own cousin." He said, grinning like an idiot.
"Excuse me?"
"I never told you my full name. Hi, Rosemarie. I'm Adrian Ivashkov."