CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
"Thankyou Guardian Petrov, Alberta." He smiled at her before looking down in frustration. "If only I could remember everything—or anything—that has happened in the last…" He looked up at me. "…Six months…"
I know he really wanted to know, but I needed to tell him alone, once he was better and DEFINITELY not here, surrounded by our friends and my family… especially being in the infirmary, just having been healed. No. He'd have to wait.
I shook my head slightly at him and he sighed. Luckily he was looking down or he would have seen all the awkward looks everyone was giving each other about him not remembering being a strigoi. I know no one there envied me having the job of explaining everything to him.
"Well you are good to go Guardian Hathaway. However Guardian Belikov, we are going to need you to remain here under observation overnight." The Nurse picked the best time possible to deliver the news. She exited our room as soon as the words left her mouth so he couldn't object.
"Excellent, Rose, we need you to come to the guardian lounge in half an hour to discuss… previous events" Alberta said with only the slightest pause.
"I will be there Guardian Petrov" I smiled. Dimitri was looking back and forth between us, He knew something was up.
"Well now that's settled, I shall go get myself cleaned up and organize the rest of the Guardians so we have everyone we need at the meeting." Alberta gave a quick nod to everyone in the room and walked briskly out of the infirmary.
Robert said a quick word to Mark and Oksana and they too, took their leave, mentioning sleep and food. At that point I realised how hungry I was. My stomach actually growled.
Everyone—including Dimitri—laughed at my stomach, or the look on my face, i'm not sure which.
"Oh Rose… I didn't think how hungry you must be after you… uh… after what happened." Lissa tried to cover herself, but failed miserably and instead turned a deep red shade. "C'mon Christian, lets go get Rose something from the Cafeteria" She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room despite his confused expression. He mustn't have realised Lissa nearly told Dimitri about me risking my life and soul for him.
Dimitri looked at me quizzically and I knew I'd have to explain soon. Trying to avoid his gaze I looked up and realised the only ones left in our room was Abe and Janine. My Mum and Dad. Well this wasn't something I thought I'd ever see—my mother and father in a room with me and the man I love.
Janine was looking at Dimitri; I could easily read her mind. She was thinking that she would like to stab him with her stake. Or maybe threaten him with bodily harm if he ever hurt me. I was hoping it would just be a warning.
Abe, however, was looking directly at me. His face was quite stern and I wondered what he was actually thinking about.
'You really love him." He finally said still staring at me.
Automatically my sarcastic side kicked in. "OH really? At what point did you get that? When I said I'd do anything for him, or when I risked my own life for him? Was my own word not enough for you when I told you in Russia?" I heard a loud gasp from my left side and realised what I'd said. SHIT.
I turned apprehensively to Dimitri. He was looking at me in shock. "You were… you were in Russia. Those memories I have… are real? But it's not possible… I…" He trailed off into silence.
"Your mother and I will leave now. I love you Rose." Abe said as he touched his right cheek to mine.
"Yes… We will go now" Janine said a little worriedly. "Twenty Five minutes Rose. Don't be late." They both walked out of the room quickly, desperate to not be there when Dimitri found out about his past.
After the door closed behind them I realised I had nowhere else to look except back at Dimitri. I bit my lip and looked down at the floor dragging my eyes across the floor and slowly up the side of his bed, unwilling to actually lay eyes on his confused face.
"What is the meeting about?" He asked straightforwardly.
I decided to tell him about the attack now, and then everything else after the meeting. "There was an attack on the school. Another one like the one where you… the one you remember… in the caves." Oh this was going to be hard. For every question I answered he was definitely going to have at least two more.
He looked at me expectantly, raising his eyebrow as an invitation to continue.
"Look, Dimitri…" I began. "I need to go to this meeting. But then… Then I will explain everything to you, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Okay? Can you wait a little while? It's going to take a while to explain. I think you should try to get some rest. You look a little tired." I kissed his lips and held his hand for a second before getting up to leave. "I love you Dimitri" I said before turning to head out the door.
"I love you with all my heart and soul my Roza" I heard him say before the door closed. I looked up and met his eyes as the door closed. I hope my eyes were as full of my love for him as his were for me.
I walked quickly through the corridors, trying to put distance between me and the horrific
task of telling the love of my life he was a strigoi…who tried to kill me. I also really wanted to get to that meeting, and find out what happened to everyone.
As I walked in the room the many hushed conversations around the room came to an abrupt halt and Alberta stood up at the head of the table. "Ah Rose, you are early. Excellent."
It looked like everyone had been early by how packed this room was. Alberta must have seen my face because she explained for me. "The meeting was supposed to start a little while ago, but then you woke up and I decided we would wait for you."
I nodded my thanks and she motioned to a seat by her side. I walked over and sat down.
"As most of you know" Alberta began. "We fought long and hard into the night. I am saddened to report the six casualties on our side. Everyone fought long and hard and though these guardians will be missed; it could have been a whole lot worse. We will have a service in the morning for them. I hope to see you all there."
"Secondly, as far as we are aware we managed to kill all of the strigoi, except for a select few who retreated once they realised they were losing. Unfortunately for them, they didn't realize how close dawn was, so when we discovered them hiding in the caves again, we ambushed and killed them, there were twenty two total left in there. I am pleased to report no casualties for this raid and that now all the strigoi are defeated from that large group. Because all our moroi and novices were safely hidden before they got here, they didn't get anyone. It was an almost complete success."
"Thirdly, I know most of you are aware that roughly six months ago, we lost one of the best guardians to the strigoi, and he came back last night to fight amongst them." I noticed she didn't say he was their leader. Probably a good idea, who knows how many people would be nasty to him for it.
"He is now dhampir once again. Changed through the powers of spirit… and love." She looked at me. Suddenly I realised she wanted me to speak. Ugh. "Rose has managed to bring him back, but from what I understand it can only be replicated under the most specific conditions. Rose?" She sat down and motioned for me to take her place.
I stood up and took a deep breath. I think I understood now, she wanted me to let people know he was back to normal, and that it couldn't be done for just any old strigoi. I figured now was as good a time as any to explain about our relationship as well seeing as she already mentioned the 'L' word.
"Okay, well I guess first of all Dimitri is Dhampir again, but he doesn't remember anything from the time he was turned. If any of you happen to see him, please don't remind him yet, I need to explain it all to him in our own time. Please listen to me when I say, bringing him back was extremely dangerous. I could have lost my life, or my soul at several different times, and we have both changed now."
I looked around the room at each guardian and said very carefully. "This procedure is nearly impossible to accomplish, and can only be done with certain situations. I can NOT ever repeat this again. The strigoi in question must have a little of his old spirit within him still, to bring him back you have to be or be connected to a spirit user and the very few who are actually able to bring them back have to be in love with that person before they were strigoi…" I heard a few gasps and hushed whispers as they understood the implications. "…and that person has to have been in love with the one bringing them back."
At that point the whole room broke into chaos, full of people unbelieving that two dhampirs could be in love, or that we had allowed it knowing we were student and mentor before he was changed. Then again there were those few that were defending us.
Over the noise and confusion I heard a loud familiar voice booming through the crowd.
"SILENCE!" Screamed none other then my mother Janine. "Rose has achieved the impossible, bringing Guardian Belikov back from the dark side"—I had to restrain myself from making a bad start wars reference—not that I watch much star wars.
"—and she does not deserve all you people judging her. I stand by all her decisions, and respect everything she does. My daughter is an exemplary guardian and I am willing to bet she is a lot better then most of the guardians in here. I know we don't get what we want in life. I—more then anyone here—know that 'they come first'. But sometimes, sometimes we have to do something for ourselves. I know many of you who have been in love with fellow guardians. Do you so begrudge my daughter a little happiness? She has more then earned this little happiness. She is not giving up her guardianship as far as I am aware and as for her age, who can choose who they fall in love with? They are both old enough to know what they want."
She was very riled up, her eyes flashing around at the guardians who had dared disrespect her daughter—me. I could really see how people could be so afraid of her. She seemed to grow taller before my very eyes.
"I think as mature responsible adults we need to all support Guardian Belikov through this hard time." She finished, nodded towards Alberta and sat down.
"Thank you Guardian Hathaway" said Alberta. "I believe you have said everything I was going to add on the subject, although I will say that I also stand behind Rose's decisions one hundred percent, and will support her and Guardian Belikov through this difficult time"
Everyone was silent by this time; most people having accepted what had happened and surprisingly, being fine with it. Except for one.
"But that's not right! If they were together while Rose was still at school, and he was her mentor, he should be in jail!" Said one male guardian I vaguely recognized but didn't know.
"GUARDIAN Rose Hathaway" Began Albert angrily, "was not WITH Guardian Belikov while they were here, in fact they never did anything to let anyone, or even each other that they were together. They tried to ignore it. Obviously their love is real because now he is back. They have done nothing wrong and don't deserve to be discriminated against." The man who had spoken seemed content, if a little unhappy, with her response.
She looked around daring anyone else to object but everyone else seemed satisfied with her explanation—even though it wasn't exactly one hundred percent true.
"Where did you go when you left the school?" One guardian asked. I didn't realize this would turn into question Rose day.
"Ahh, I…" I looked at Alberta with pleading eyes.
"That is not a discussion for today. Our meeting was to inform you of the success of the raid, and update everyone on Dimitris status. This has been done. This meeting is now over. Thank you for coming. You may leave."
Most people hung around talking after the meeting. I made my way over to my mother and surprised her with a hug. She hugged me back stiffly. "Thank you" I whispered in her ear.
She pushed me back and grabbed my shoulders, looking into my eyes. "I meant every word." She smiled and let me go. I was glad she had seemingly accepted Dimitri and I and I hoped it would continue.
Suddenly I got pulled into someone's head. At first I thought I was in Lissas head but then I realised I must be in dimitris head because I could see myself. He must have been dreaming.
It took me a moment, but I began to panic when I realised where I was. I was in Russia, in the tower he had kept me in.
"It'll be the best decision of your life, Roza" Dimitri said in his cold strigoi voice.
I looked over at him with love and a little… was that excitement in my face?
I was wearing a forest green sweater dress that looked quite good on me.
I could see the sweat forming on my forehead as I looked at myself, no at Dimitri, this was Dimitris dream.
"Tell me again. One more time. Why do you want to awaken me so badly?" My dream self asked.
I could see the hope in my own face and it broke my heart.
"Because I want you. I've always wanted you." Dimitri said wearily. At that moment my dream self leant up and kissed Dimitri on the lips.
It was very strange feeling like I was kissing myself. I could feel everything Dimitri was feeling both as a strigoi and as a dhampir reliving this nightmare experience. I felt longing and a certain hardness form one. And utter despair and self loathing from the other.
Suddenly I felt an excruciating pain in my chest and screamed as loudly as I could while my hands felt the stake protruding out of my body and I felt myself collapse.
Suddenly I realised I was back in my own body in front of my mother and I was still screaming. I stopped abruptly and then I heard Dimitri.
Roza? Oh god Roza is it true? Did it really happen? Where are you? Are you okay?
I could feel his panic through our new bond and I knew he'd probably feel my worry. I would definitely have to work on shielding myself from this bond like I do with Lissa.
I'm coming Dimitri, I'm on my way now.
I took off running towards the infirmary. When I reached the room I burst through with no warning and saw Dimitri sitting up with his face in his hands.
As a got to his side he looked at me and I realised he had tears in his eyes.
"Please tell me it's not true." He pleaded with me.
Hey everyone I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much for all your support through pm's and reviews. It means so much to me to know how much you enjoy this story and that you think I am doing a good job of it.
There will be a little more Lissa/Rose interactions in the next chapter…
Thank you for reading (and hopefully enjoying)