Twelve.
"Ivashkov." I repeated. "Adrian Ivashkov."
Adrian chuckled. "That sounds about right, cousin."
"You can't be an Ivashkov. They would've found you by now." I said, totally in denial. No way. Oh, look at me, I'm in denial about being in denial. Yay. I'm totally sane. Totally.
"Or," he said, interrupting my mental argument, "I'm just exceptionally good at hiding."
"Whatever." I said. "You have no proof. So I don't believe you."
"Stubborn, are we?" he chuckled in that annoying way of his again.
"No." I said defensively. "You don't even look like me," I said. It was true, too. I had dark brown, almost black hair, and eyes that were a few shades lighter. Adrian, with his emerald green eyes and profoundly lighter brown hair, couldn't be more different. No family resemblance whatsoever.
"Or," he said again. "Maybe you just don't look like other Ivashkovs."
"No way." I said. "My parents -" had green eyes, I finished silently. "Well, damn," I muttered. "Still. Lots of royals have green eyes."
"Fine, don't believe me," he tilted his head back, closing his eyes and becoming as much the picture of ease as a guy tied up and handcuffed to an uncomfortable chair could be. Which was saying something. My back was killing me. "Your loss,"
"Only people that lose say that." I snapped.
He chuckled. "Normally, I would agree. But I would've thought you'd be happy to find out you have a cousin - especially because I'm...well, me," he smirked.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I demanded.
"Oh, you know. I'm incredibly sexy, witty, great to hang out with...Need I go on?"
"Self-centered much?" I scoffed. "Maybe we are related," I mumbled under my breath.
"Anyway," Adrian said, "you might want to get some sleep."
"Why?" I asked, tilting my head ever so slightly to the right.
"Isaiah normally keeps us up, to weaken us or whatever. So sleep while you can." He leaned back again closing his eyes. I did the same, and, to my surprise, found myself drifting into the blissful land of sleepy-bye within minutes.
Or...so I thought.
"Adrian?" I snapped to the tall figure standing before me. "But you...and me...where...what?" I spluttered.
He chuckled. "Hi, there." I looked down - I was dressed in a navy tank top and white shorts.
"Blue," I spat in disgust.
"Hmm," Adrian said. "You're right. Blue really isn't your color," and, as he said it, the shirt slowly turned a deep crimson that happened to compliment my skin perfectly.
"So you have a fashion sense," I said. "What, are you gay or something?" *
He chuckled that stupid chuckle of his. "No, silly Rose. I was merely making an observation,"
"Where the Hell am I?" I demanded, glaring up at him. Oh, the woes of being five-six.
"In a dream." He smiled.
"No duh, idiot. I meant...wait, why are you in my dream? I don't remember having a nightmare,"
"Ouch," he said, smirking again.
"Let me go back to sleep!" I said, looking around for, I don't know, an EXIT sign or something.
"You are asleep, silly Rose," he said.
"Whatever. Let me go back to whatever normal, non-Adrian dream I was having," I glared for emphasis. Oh, how I wished I was a dhampir. Then, then I could kick his ass.
Well, I could always have Dimitri do that for me...
"What's the magic word?" Adrian taunted in a sing - songy voice.
"Please." I spat.
He shook his head, laughing. "Sit down for a minute."
I sat. "What do you want? Besides the fact that you so obviously are determined to annoy me to death?"
"You probably think this dream is conjured by you, right? Your brain and stuff?"
"Seeing as it's my dream, yeah." I said, growing wary.
"Well, it isn't." He said somewhat ominously.
"So, what, you control dreams?" I rolled my eyes. "Dream stalker," I muttered.
He laughed. "Is it really insane? Not as far out as bringing people back from the dead, obviously," he said. Dimitri's face immediately flashed in my mind. Dimitri...no, he hadn't been dead. Right? Surely not. Those kinds of things didn't happen, no matter who you are. Then why can he hear your thoughts? A sort of logical part of me asked. Why could he hear my thoughts, my emotions?
What was wrong with me?
Crazy. I am now, officially, crazy.
Just like Mrs. Karp...
"Holy shit," I breathed. "What do you know, exactly?" I asked, a bit nicer now.
"Well," he said. "I have a few theories." He smiled. "One, I haven't specialized, you haven't specialized. Right?" I nodded. "Well, it'd obviously be a bit stranger for me because I'm eighteen. You're...what, sixteen? Fifteen?" I nodded. "That's when Moroi start specializing. But..." he said ominously. Him and his drama. "What if we already specialized?"
"That's crazy. Water can't bring back the dead, air can't hear thoughts, fire can't control dreams, and earth can't heal people!" I said.
"So what if it's another element? An almost unheard of element?" he raised his eyebrow.
"Damn you," I said, pissed that everyone could do that except me. Dammit. "Anyway, what other element is there?"
"That's where I'm stuck," he admitted. "What else can you do, besides healing people?" he asked.
"Well...I don't know, actually," I said, looking down.
"Can you see peoples'...auras?" he asked after a moment of searching for the right word.
"Aura? Like their emotions? No. Definitely not," I said.
"And you can't dream-walk," he mused.
"More like dream-stalk," I muttered.
He chuckled. So. Damn. Annoying. "But you can heal. And you've got a Hell of a lot of compulsion, right?"
"Yes." I nodded. It was one of those bittersweet kind of things. On the upside, it had gotten me out of a Hell of a lot of trouble. It had helped us escape. On the downside, it was considered wrong. Like, wrong wrong. You weren't supposed to do it. Ever. Oops.
"So we're sort of similar," he said. "Well, I think I'll let you go now. Isaiah's coming."
"How do you know?" I demanded, standing up.
"Because I'm awake." He said, looking at me confusedly.
Awake. I played with the entire concept in my mind for a minute. Dream-stalking...if I could learn how to do it, if Adrian's theory or whatever was right, then I could see Dimitri. I could see Dimitri, and explain, and just hope he still loved me. Because, honestly? If he didn't, I wasn't sure what the Hell I'd do without him. Maybe I'd get lucky and Isaiah or Galina would kill me now, here, before I got a chance to suffer any longer.
But God. I missed Dimitri. He was my rock, someone I could always, always count on. He'd do - or used to - anything for me, and I felt the same. How often was it you come across something like that?
And now it was gone.
My fault.
"Damn you, Rose," I said to myself. "You screw everything up."
"Not true," Adrian said, smiling. "Everybody messes up sometimes,"
"Okay." I said. "You're getting dangerously close to sounding like a Disney movie or some inspirational poster." I said.
"It's a good thing, Rose. It's a good thing."
"Keep telling yourself that, Adrian," I said, rolling my eyes as the bright colors faded around me and I woke up to a very pissed off Isaiah and Galina. "Yay," I muttered to myself, looking down.
"Hello again, children," Isaiah said. So maybe he wasn't pissed off. Like maybe it was just the permanent look he had on his face. How lovely. "We've devised a new feeding schedule," he said. The Moroi in the room groaned. "You won't be able to feed - at all - until one of you decides to make the decision to become Strigoi. Then, you may feed from the dhampir here." He smiled cruely as our eyes widened. The dhampir actually looked up, glaring at Isaiah. "Just let one of the guards know and he'll make sure you get what you need." Galina glared at me as the walked off.
"Well, shit." Adrian said.
"What?" I asked. "They were feeding you before?"
"Barely," he said. "We got to feed off a human, all of us, once every three days." He sighed. "Wasn't too fun. But whatever, you know? It was better than this. No way I'm turning Strigoi," he said, shaking his head. "No damn way."
"Me either." I said. And I meant it - but I wasn't really thinking about the effects on me. I was thinking, as always about Dimitri. He'd get a call, maybe he'd find out I was Strigoi - then what, right? He'd hunt me? Track me down, here in Russia, and kill me? Now, yeah, I'd want him to kill me. I wouldn't want to kill other, innocent people. But would I if I became Strigoi?
And Dimitri would be so simply devastated. I would be, too, were he Strigoi. I'd track him down to the best of my ability.
So I'd obviously fail pretty bad at that.
"Don't worry about it, Rose," Adrian said to me. "Just don't bite the dhampir."
"No worries about that," I said. Then, "can you...can you teach me how to dream-stalk?" I asked.
"Why?" he wondered.
"Because I need to see Dimitri."
"The Russian lover, huh?" he said suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Whatever, Adrian. Just...please?"
"Alright." He said, sighing. "I'll try, at least. It's one of things you just...know, you know?"
"Not really," I said. "But thanks, anyway," I said.
"Let's start in the morning - or night - or whenever I wake up, 'kay?" he said, settling into his seat once more.
"'Kay." I said, watching my last way to talk to Dimitri drift off to sleep. "Adrian?" I asked.
"Mm?" he replied, keeping his eyes shut.
"You can't dream stalk me if you're asleep, right?"
He laughed. "Right, Rose."
"Good." And I settled back into blissful oblivion.
