Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Academy.

Ch. 21 Return of Darkness

Adrian said his good-nights to us, and Eddie quickly retreated to his own room immediately after Adrian departed guest housing to go home.

Then it suddenly hit me – I had nowhere to sleep for the night. Uh oh. I really didn't want to knock on Eddie's door and ask to room with him…that was just going to be awkward, even though we were friends.

"I don't want to sleep out on the floor," I grumbled to myself. What a night it was going to be – sleeping outside in the halls of the guest housing…

Dimitri laughed. "You know, you do have another option."

"Alberta?" I asked, incredulous. The thought of knocking on her door and asking if I could room with her because a drunken Lissa and Christian had taken over my room was laughable.

"No, silly Roza," Dimitri whispered, stepping closer to whisper in my ear. "Have you forgotten about me?"

"Oh," was all I could say. I could room with Dimitri…

"But try to behave yourself," I said to him, reaching up and tracing his jawline and down to his neck.

He laughed huskily. "No promises."

And with that, he picked me up in his arms, kissed me, and carried me to his room.

I was still in my party clothes, and I didn't want to sleep in such skimpy clothes.

"Why didn't I grab my own things while I was in my room?" I lamented, sitting on Dimitri's bed with a thump. It was a huge king-sized bed, which would be perfect for us when we slept…

"Is Lissa awake?" he asked me.

I closed my eyes and reached out through the bond.

I recoiled instantly. She was definitely awake now (with a terrible headache) – and making out passionately with Christian.

He unbuttoned her ruffled blouse, and threw it on the ground, still passionately kissing her as he pressed her against the bed-

Grimacing, I immediately pulled out of her mind and shoved my mental barriers into place to keep from slipping into her mind. The Court was safe enough that I could go without the bond, at least for now. "Uh…you could say she's awake," I muttered.

Dimitri raised his eyebrows at me. "And…?"

"I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to be disturbed right now. Let's just leave it at that," I said, shuddering. Ugh. This was not a perk of sharing a psychic bond with your best friend – being stuck in her head while she was making out (and maybe getting it on) with her boyfriend. Ewwww.

Dimitri tossed me one of his shirts. It was a white oversized shirt, and as I caught it, I caught a brief hint of his scent. "Sleep in that."

I considered it, and shrugged. He'd seen me in fewer clothes than this, so it wasn't anything bad…

I went into the bathroom to change, and came out in his shirt.

He finished getting ready for bed, and we got into the huge bed together.

I reached up to kiss him, but he kissed me back for a moment before he pulled away.

"What are you doing?" I protested, trying to pull him a bit closer.

"You said to behave," Dimitri teased me.

I crossed my arms over m chest, and tried not to pout. "Yeah, but since when was kissing not behaving?"

"True," Dimitri agreed, "but when we kiss…it leads me to want to not behave, Roza."

I leaned up, and before he could react, kissed his mouth very quickly. I lay back down on the bed, my heart pounding.

"You're just asking for me not to behave, aren't you," Dimitri murmured, scooting closer to me. He pressed his lips to mine, and I kissed him back, putting my arms around his neck and pulling him closer. I drifted off into sleep with his arms tight around me.

Things haven't been going well in the week we've returned from Court.

Right now, I was with Christian, and we were watching Lissa and Adrian experiment with their spirit powers in a classroom during lunch. I looked out towards the window, wishing that they could hurry up and finish so we could go outside.

"Concentrate," Adrian said to her. "Look at me, and focus until you can see my aura."

She nodded, and I could feel her mood shoot up as she used her spirit powers. Using her magic made her happy, even though in the long run it could lead to insanity.

Through her eyes, I could sense her intense focus. Finally, she saw a slight shimmer of colors around Adrian, and tried to focus even harder. She saw a combination of different colors – teal, blue, green. And Adrian's aura in particular was ringed with gold. Since it was unique to them both, they both thought that an aura marked with gold light was a sure sign of a spirit user.

"I can finally see your aura without trying too hard," she murmured.

Adrian smiled briefly. "Of course. It took me years to be able to actually see an aura. I didn't know what it was for a long time."

"Should we move on to dream walking?" she asked. She still couldn't walk in people's dreams, no matter how many times she tried.

Adrian frowned. "Maybe you should teach me more about healing, Miss Healer. I'm getting a little burned out from showing you how to see auras."

Lissa groaned. "But there's nothing to heal around here."

"Did you forget about this?" I interrupted, showing my arm to them. A bandage was wrapped around my elbow, courtesy of me practically tripping in a puddle at Court. The cut extended from my elbow up to my wrist. Although it had bled a lot at first, once I'd gotten a bandage, it had been fine. Lissa had wanted to heal me, but I didn't want her to use spirit on me and encourage the deterioration of her mind.

Lissa didn't hesitate. She strode over to me, and unwrapped the bandage, exposing the angry-looking cut. She put her hands on my elbow and concentrated. A warm golden feeling coursed through her, and she felt more happiness at using spirit. It felt like all the wonderful and beautiful things that made you want to live was coursing through her. My own mood dropped though, and I had no idea why.

When she let go, the cut was completely healed. There wasn't even a scar, and my skin was completely unmarked.

To my surprise, Adrian hadn't exactly been paying attention. His eyes were wide as he looked from me to Lissa, but he made no comment.

"Did you get that?" Lissa asked, turning back to him.

"Uh…yeah, I did. Except now I don't have anyone or anything to heal!" Adrian grumbled, throwing his hands up in exasperation. He looked at me, his green eyes dark with concern. "And besides…I don't think we should keep on using spirit today."

"Why not?" Lissa asked, a tad petulantly. "I want to learn more-"

"Look at her, Lissa."

Lissa turned her head to look at me. She tilted her head to the side. "I don't see anything different about Rose…"

"Damn it, I meant her aura!"

Lissa looked at me. My mood went even darker as her gaze fell on me. "Rose! Your aura's…"

"What's wrong with it?" I asked, trying to sound lighthearted.

"Your aura's completely dark! What's going on?"

"Nothing," I said. In truth, I had no idea what was going on.

Adrian crossed his arms over his chest. "Your aura has never looked this dark before, Rose." I looked at him, taken aback by his words, and how he called me Rose instead of "little dhampir."

Christian looked from Lissa to Adrian. "I have no idea what's going on here."

"If you had spirit…" Adrian said, without taking his eyes off me.

"Rose's aura looks terrible," Lissa added, standing beside him.

My mood felt like it had been building, and suddenly I exploded. "Why are you talking about me like I'm not even fucking here?"

"Rose!" Lissa protested. "We're trying to think of a way to help you!"

"Yeah? Maybe for starters, you shouldn't go around making out with Christian at night," I said bitchily. Lissa's face was stunned, and she looked like I'd slapped her.

Shock and a bit of anger radiated through the bond. Rose, what's the matter with you?

I felt a teeny bit bad at upsetting her. That rational side of me was taken over by the dark side that wanted to keep raging at how unfair my life was. "In my dreams it carries over! I don't want to wake up and find myself dreaming about making out with Christian! Do you know how easy your life is? You don't have to spend your life constantly watching and waiting for Strigoi who might get the drop on you!"

"Rose!" Christian shouted, his voice hard. His pale blue eyes were like icy fire, which uncomfortably reminded me of his crazy aunt. "Don't talk to Lissa like that."

"It's the truth," I rambled on. "She never has to worry about being killed in the heat of combat for her friends. If you think being a guardian is all a picnic-"

Adrian walked over to me, and locked his eyes with mine. My mind went blank for a moment as I stared at him.

"Rose, please calm down," he said in a soothing voice. "Just calm down for a moment, and think."

I suddenly felt the need to be calm. Rambling on like this…why would I want to keep on doing it? I should just calm down and rest. I sat down at one of the desks.

Lissa looked at Adrian worriedly. He shook his head at her, warning her to be quiet and not say a word.

Suddenly, I realized why I was behaving so calmly and not being…whatever I was. He'd just used his compulsion on me!

I was outraged, and sprang to my feet. My calmness vanished, and the darkness reared its ugly head, demanding to be let out. "Why the fuck did you just use your compulsion on me?" I shrieked.

"I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't thought there was another way to calm you down," Adrian said pleadingly. "Please, Rose. Listen to us." I didn't want to listen to him, and be calm.

Lissa looked at Christian. Although I was lost in the darkness, I could sense fear and her wanting to help me through the bond. "We need back-up. Now."

"Who am I supposed to get?" Christian demanded, at a lost. "No one around here can compel her to remain calm!"

"Get Dimitri!"

Christian took off from the classroom.

I seethed with fury, but the tiny rational part of me said to try to calm down and be reasonable. I tried to inhale and exhale, but didn't feel any calmer.

Christian returned with Dimitri in tow. "What's going on?" he asked, confused.

"It's Rose…" Christian said, pointing at me.

Dimitri took me in, and his eyes widened when he saw me. "What happened to her?"

"I don't completely understand," Adrian said, "but I think that she's been absorbing the darkness from Lissa's use of spirit. That's why Lissa is now fine, but now Rose…isn't. Putting it mildly."

"Maybe if you stopped using spirit, I wouldn't be like this!" I shouted at Lissa.

"Rose!" Dimitri shouted, standing in front of me and putting his hands on my shoulders. He looked me in the eye. "Rose, please. Calm down. It's me."

The darkness didn't want to leave. It demanded to stay, to take all of me with it. The darkness wanted me to succumb to it, and make it grow. I was terrified, and I wanted it to go.

"Rose…" Dimitri whispered. His voice was like velvet, soft against my skin.

Slowly, the darkness retreated from my mind. With the biggest effort I'd ever made, I forced the darkness away and out of me. When it was gone, I finally untensed – and nearly fell.

Dimitri caught me before I hit the ground and picked me up, bridal style. "Do we need to send her to Dr. Olendzki?"

"There's nothing the doctor can do," Lissa said softly, looking at me with pain in her eyes. "It's related to her mind. I don't know if we can heal it with spirit."

Although I'd forced the darkness out of my mind, I could feel it lurking in the corners, ready to spring. If I gave in, there was no saying what would happen once my darkness came back.

"What do we do?" I whispered. I didn't want to be crazy. I didn't want to take all the darkness from Lissa and be turned crazy, even though it was better I suffered it rather than Lissa.

"Maybe we could try to heal it with spirit," Adrian suggested tentatively. "In the meantime, we'll do a little research on it…"

"There's nothing to be looked up about it though," I reminded him. "Even all those old stories about St. Vladimir…we don't know fact from fiction."

"We'll try, at least," Adrian said firmly. "And maybe I should ask my great-aunt if she could start searching for more spirit users."

"I'll heal you, Rose," Lissa said, stepping over to me, palm facing out.

"But…your dark moods…"

Lissa sighed and brushed that aside. "You're more important, Rose. If my moods keep leaking into you…well, we need to try to heal you."

"It might not be permanent…but for now, it'll have to do," Adrian added.

I nodded.

Lissa placed her hands on either side of my face, and I closed my eyes.

I felt that warm golden feeling I had earlier, and this time, it made me happy too instead of my mood going down. The magic felt sweet and brilliant, like happiness in concrete form. If it had a color, I would say it was golden and made up of all the colors in the world. Lissa summoned spirit from deep within herself, and sent it into me. Although it made her happy, she was growing weaker from using it on me.

Her magic flowed through me, crowding out all the darkness rage I'd felt earlier and banishing it. I don't know if it was completely gone, but in that moment, it felt like it had never been there to begin with. My mind felt as clear as before the darkness had taken over.

"It worked," Adrian said in surprise. "But like I said…I don't know how long that'll last."

"We definitely need to research this," Lissa said, slumping into a chair. Christian rushed over to her at the same time I did.

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking at her with fear.

She smiled a little weakly at me and closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them again. Christian knelt by her side, holding her hand as he watched her worriedly. "I'm a bit tired, but nothing serious. Don't worry, Rose."