Marie P.O.V

Knock, knock, knock.

I groaned and rolled over. Please, please, please go away, so I can continue sleeping.

Knock, knock, knock.

I rubbed my eyes with one hand and poked Adrian in the side with the other. He groaned. "What?"

"You've slept long enough, and someone's at the door."

"No such thing as too much sleep," he yawned.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

"All right!" I yelled. "Don't give yourself a heart attack!"
I pushed my uncooperative curls back into what I hoped was a less cow-licked style and opened the door, perhaps a little bit too hard because it flung back and left a dent in the wall.

I wonder if I'm going to have to pay for that? I mused as the very impatient knocker tapped her toe in the hallway.

Rose stood in the doorway, hand on her hip, with Lissa and Eddie behind her. "The Queen wants to see us. Now." She said, irritated for whatever reason. It didn't take a lot to piss her off.

"Okay," I said as I turned to Adrian, who had a pillow on top of his head. I pulled off the pillow.

"What?" He whined, reaching for the pillow again.

"Adrian, you're acting like your five years old. Get out of bed now-and you drooled all over your shirt."

That got him out of bed. "I do not drool."

"Maybe not, but you snore."

"Yes you do. It's cute. Now let's go."

Adrian P.O.V.

The hallways at the Grand Court were, typically, old fashioned. So old fashioned that they bordered on being tacky. It's not like I could say that out loud, sadly.

I held Marie's hand as we sat down in the large "throne room". She was so nervous that her aura was starting to affect me the way a really strong aura would. I rubbed small circles into the back of her hand soothingly. Tatiana's eyes never left our intertwined hands.
Uh-oh.

My great-aunt wrinkled her nose. She really could be a kind person…when she felt like it. Apparently today wasn't one of those days.

"I said bring the moroi only-Princess Vasilisa and Adrian. Not their…friends."

All of the dhampirs in the room-except for her guardians-stiffened in offense. Okay, so it was no secret that moroi were more favored in the vampire world, but did Tatiana have to make it so obvious?

Rose turned to leave almost immediately, her long dark hair sashaying behind her as she walked away. I looked at Eddie. Were we supposed to leave as well? He shrugged and we both turned to follow Rose.

"Oh stay, if you must," Tatiana conceded with a wave of her hand. "This may be important for you to hear as well; after all it does concern the future of Vasilisa as well as my nephew's."

"My future's pretty much set in stone," I said happily. "Smoking, drinking, and dying at an early age of lung cancer. Of course, Lissa could probably just heal me before I die, which means I'll have more time to smoke and drink." Yup…sounded like my kind of life.

"Adrian! If you cannot control your language I will ask you to leave. Now everybody, have a seat."

I sat down immediately, even though everybody else did the respectful thing and waited for the queen to be seated before they were. Fuck respectful. I was Adrian Ivashkov and the queen's favourite nephew. I could be as respectful as I wanted to be.

"Now, Vasilisa, after you graduate from St. Vladimir's, what do you intend to do with your education?"

"Well I-," Lissa started in her soft angelic voice.

"I believe you wished to go to college, did you not?" Tatiana cut in.

"Yes but I…I wasn't planning on going to a moroi school. I want to go to a human one." Lissa nervously tucked a stray piece of blond hair behind her ear.

Well, she wanted to go to a human school. Nothing wrong with that, humans threw the best parties, and made pretty damn awesome play-things.

Well, my aunt on the other hand, she didn't exactly seem to like that. "Absolutely not!" She exclaimed in a voice full of authority. "I will not see our last living Dragomir in some outcast, trashy school like some lone dhampir!"

The silence in the room just then was thick enough to cut with a knife. Marie looked like she wanted to stab my aunt through the head. Rose stood up, probably to do just that.

"Sit down, Rose. If you kill my favourite aunt I won't give you your Christmas present." I said as I looked at my nails.

Rose ignored me and proceeded to march out of the throne room.

Tatiana seemed unfazed by what she had just said. She probably figured that, since she was the queen, she could say what she wanted about the half-human vampires who gave up their lives trying to protect the moroi.

"We'll talk about this later," Tatiana promised Lissa. Lissa didn't seem too thrilled about this 'talk'. "And you, Adrian. How long do you plan on wasting your time at St. Vladimir's? Are you going to enroll their again as a student, or will you finally grow up and finish your school year at that art school you're currently attending?"

A distraction right about then would have been helpful. Something big and devastating, that would render my aunt unable to speak for a very, very long time.

I got my wish. Dinner.

Marie P.O.V.

Food. Everywhere, and not just normal human food for the dhampirs-who needed it more than the moroi-but also a few human feeders, all extraordinarily gorgeous. The type of people you see on the street and can't help but stare at. Adrian let his gaze settle on a pretty redhead with brown eyes and boobs big enough to touch the other side of the room.

Well maybe not that big, but still big enough to make me jealous.

I expected Adrian to get up and bury his face in her neck, but he didn't move. Just stayed in his seat beside me and fidgeted. I could feel the thirst burning through the bond, strong enough to make me want to bury my face in her neck. After all, being thirsty was something that I was familiar with-too familiar with.

"Adrian, really this isn't going to work out if you're shy to bite someone in front of me." I said when I realized that the source of his discomfort was me, sitting there beside him.

"I'm sorry, but the word shy doesn't exist in my vocabulary."

Then, to prove his point, he got up and buried his face in Ms. Big Booby's neck. I severed the bond for that instant-I really didn't want to feel blood going down his throat when I was about to eat. I would lose my appetite.