First update of the year! And I don't know where the sudden long length of this chapter came from. But I knew about the plot twist. ;)
Usual disclaimers apply.
They say they don't trust
You, me, we, us
So we'll fall, if we must
Cause it's you, me
If they hurt you, they hurt me too
So we'll rise up, won't stop
They don't know
They can't see who we are
Fear is the enemy
Hold on tight, hold on to me
'Cause tonight
It's all about
All about us, all about us
We'll run away if we must
'Cause ya know us
It's all about us (It's all about us)
It's all about love (It's all about us)
In you I can trust (It's all about us)
It's all about us
~ t.A.T.u., "All About Us"
(modified lyric placement)
"A toast," Tatiana said, "To those novices that shall, in a day's time, be guardians."
Everyone raised their glasses and champagne flutes up in the air, my self included. With a nod, I downed the champagne in one quick swallow.
"Wow, Rose," Stan commented as I lightly slammed the flute back on the table. "I didn't know you were the drinker."
"You can thank my freshman year for that feat," I replied. I looked across the cafeteria to where Dimitri, Adrian, and a bunch of my other friends sat. Dimitri was staring back at my rather close seat next to Stan, worry in his eyes. I couldn't help that I was the third most important guardian in the school and therefore had to sit at the head table during the senior novice's gala. It was all Alberta's issue.
"We all have to be proud of something, I guess," Stan said, breaking my out of my thoughts. I laughed and snuck a glance at Dimitri's table. Yep. The green-eyed monster had hit Dimitri square in the forehead.
"So what's your little known accomplishment?" I asked as a waiter came by and refilled the champagne flute.
"I wouldn't call your ability to treat champagne like vodka a 'little known accomplishment'," Stan retorted.
I had to give a full-hearted laugh at that one. I took a smaller sip of the champagne this time.
Stan got a distant look in his eyes for a minute while he tried to think of something.
"Any day now," I muttered, and Stan gave me a mock glare before looking me straight in the eye for a moment, contemplating his words.
"I can play the piano," he said, staring out over the crowd of students and Royals with guardians in the back of the room.
"And 'Chopsticks' is the best you can do," I joked. Dinner was finished, and after the Queen's repetitive ceremonious toast, people were milling about and talking.
He chuckled, shaking his head. He took a sip of champagne, his fifth glass of the night.
"I can play piano as well as you can speak English," Stan corrected, smiling.
"Really?" I asked.
"Really," Stan said.
"Wow," I said. "That's unexpected."
"We've all got secrets, Rose," Stan said in what he thought was a playful manner. "Some of ours are just bigger than others and some of us are better at hiding them than others. Like Belikov. It's so obvious that he's got an issue with us being friends."
"Yeah," I agreed, remember months ago when Dimitri freaked out when he spied on me and saw Stan and I talking about Raine on my security rounds.
"And you, it's obvious you've got some issues with other people. Who those people are, however, is a different story. Janine would probably be among them, am I correct?"
"Yes, Captain Obvious," I said. "If I only hear from her once in a year, then I might have some beef with her."
Stan just chuckled and turned to talk with Alberta about tomorrow's graduation ceremony and tattooing session for the seniors. My eyes scanned the cafeteria. When they found their mark, I excused myself to no one in particular and made my way over to the table.
"How are you holding up?" I asked Raine, plopping down in a seat next to her.
"Fine," Raine said, her "I'm bitter so leave me the fuck alone" façade up.
"Andrew talking with friends?" I prompted. Raine sighed, resting her chin in her hand.
"Yeah," she muttered. She looked around at the string quartet in the corner, the people out on the balcony, the Queen talking with some Royal.
"You two doing anything over the summer together?"
"No. He got assigned to his buddy, Zeklos. Jeremy, I think. He'll be too busy following Zeklos from party to nightclub to party to nightclub. The days of him visiting his father back in County Kerry are over."
"I'm sorry."
"'Sokay."
"I wish I could make things easier."
"Hopefully I'll be assigned to someone that ends up at the Court. I can do practically anything then. If I become a guardian at all."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because it seems like insanity that I'm supposed to drop my life to watch some ungrateful Moroi's back for the rest of their life. They've become so fucking dependent of us and I'd rather were clogs than those god awful shoes we're given. It's about time they learn to fend for themselves. That is, y'know, won't be such of an issue if we keep lying around and waiting for the Strigoi to attack us."
"You've been hanging around an Ozera too much lately?"
Raine laughed – actually, sincerely laughed – and shook her head.
"Go hand with Christian a little. The two of you will get along great," I suggested.
"Will you do introductions?" Raine asked.
"Sure," I said, standing.
We ambled over to Dimitri's table. I poked Christian on the shoulder.
"Ozera, I've got another supporter for you in need of a little heated discussion. She believes in not becoming a guardian because it's about time that Moroi stand up for themselves and stop acting so fucking dependent of the dhampirs. Raine, meet Christian Ozera, King-to-be."
"Well, Raine, pull up a chair. It's time for some Moroi politics bashing," Christian said cheerfully. Raine grinned at me and pulled a chair over. She hadn't even sat down all the way when they dove into an already heated discussion.
I smiled at everyone else including Dimitri before leaving too quickly for anyone to follow me.
I made my way over to Anya. She excused herself from the Royal she was talking with.
"How's my niece doing?" Anya asked.
"Currently in a heated discussion of Moroi politics with Christian Ozera," I told her as we moved to a different table.
"Well that's good," Anya murmured as I pulled the paper out of my pocket.
"Got the last few lines?" she asked as I smoothed the paper out. We'd been working on my vows for the past few months, along with some extra Russian lessons to get me up to speed on what I had missed earlier in the year.
I nodded.
"Let me hear them in English," Anya said.
"And it's because of this undying love for you that I've come to accept…" I told her my last few lines, and she nodded.
"Let me see the paper." She held her hand out for the paper. She began translating the English into Russian when I felt a hand clamp on my shoulder.
"What are you and Miss Ivanov doing?" Dimitri asked, completely honest.
"Showing her what different Russian expressions look like," Anya said, white lying extremely well. "She was curios."
"Ah," Dimitri said.
"I don't need you to dictate everything I do, you know," I muttered.
"So what are some expressions she asked about?" Dimitri asked. "If you don't mind, that is."
"Sure," Anya said, handing Dimitri a napkin I hadn't noticed she had jotted something down on.
"That bastard needs to die?" Dimitri translated, confused. He chuckled, handing me the napkin.
"Hey, Comrade, if you weren't going to teach me how to swear in Russian, I had to use other resources," I replied, going with the flow of everything.
"Well, have fun," Dimitri said, kissing me on the top of my head. "Just wondering. I see you two together a lot, so I was curious."
I smiled up at him as he walked away.
"Thank you," I breathed when he was out of earshot.
"No problem." Anya gave me one of her usual winks that said that we were in it together. "I still get an invite, right?"
I nodded. In return for helping me with my vows, I was inviting her and Raine, who turned out to be her niece, to my wedding. I was also helping Anya out with her American colloquialisms.
She finished translating the lines and told me in typical teacher fashion to try out the pronunciation on my own later. We'd meet up in a few days to firm up anything I needed to finalize and to fix any pronunciation issues I had.
By the time I was done doing my socializing rounds and lecturing Andrew to keep in touch with Raine or so help me God I'd hunt him down and make him call her, nearly everyone else had left. My friends – Lissa, Christian, Adrian, Eddie, Fya, Dimitri, Mia, my mother, and David, who was looking more like my mother's boyfriend these days – were still hanging around. After Christian mouthed for me to hurry up and then yawned overdramatically, I just sighed and finished up my conversation regarding tomorrow's graduation with Alberta.
"Let's go," I said, walking by the standing group. I had been at the school for six months out of my eighteen month sentence, and they wanted to get me off the campus for a few hours. Of course, it wasn't like the Queen had to know about it or anything; school was technically in session until tomorrow and I wasn't supposed to leave when the school wasn't on break.
We ended up in a hotel in Missoula. It was one of those fancy Hiltons where they had tables and chairs scattered around the indoor courtyard. We pulled a few together, ordered drinks, and relaxed. It was a nice change of scenery, and even Dimitri seemed to loosen up.
"So what do you do for a living?" I asked David, who had taken a seat next to me. We had talked briefly earlier, but seeing as Janine knew him well, I figured I'd do the same.
"You'd never believe me," David said, setting his drink down on the table.
"Try me. Weird is my middle name," I joked.
He smiled tightly for a moment, looking at the waterfall in the middle of the indoor courtyard.
"Really. I can handle anything." I took a sip of the Diet Coke in front of me.
"I am an artist," David said slowly. He played with the rim of his beer. "Well, a photographer, but that falls under being an artist."
"Why'd you abandon becoming a guardian?" I asked, not missing a beat or blinking an eye.
David gave me a sidelong look. "You were serious."
"Told you," I replied, finishing off my drink.
"It didn't feel right for me," David said, answering my question. "From an early age, I had an interest with cameras and lighting and photography. When I was taking shots of my classmates in my school's quad, I felt more at peace and in touch with myself than when I was beating the shit out of some practice dummy."
"Huh," I nodded. "So how did you meet my mom?"
"I do freelance for the British branch of National Geographic. I was in Scotland doing a piece on their endless amounts of sheep, and she was visiting her parents. The pub was tiny, and she accidentally tripped into my table, sending my whiskey flying all over me."
I chuckled. My mother tripping must have meant that it was a very small building for the chairs to be so crowded.
"Mind you, it was a small trip, but she did brace herself against my table. We got kicked out, and since my hotel was on the other side of town, she offered to drive me through the pouring rain. It was all very Hollywood if you ask me. Turns out that we both went to the same academy, but I had been a few years ahead of her."
"Which would explain the lack of knowing each other," I finished. David nodded, taking a drink from his beer.
"So, flipping the tables, how did you meet Dimitri?" David asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. "I knew you were still in school, but details, details, lass."
"You've been with my mom too much," I muttered, trying to control the blush in my face.
"C'mon." David nudged me playfully.
"Lissa and I had ditched school in freshman year. Dimitri was the head guardian of the team that brought the two of us back. To catch me up, he was roped in to giving me extra practice sessions. And, well, you know…."
"Ah," David said, nodding. "It was kept secret for a while, I assume?"
"Yep," I replied. We talked for the next hour about dhampir relationships, and by the time we were all ready to leave and the $250 tab paid, I was really starting to like David. He told me he'd send along bits of his work he thought I'd be interested in.
We had driven in multiple cars, and I went back with just Dimitri. We pulled out of the parking lot first, and I ignored the speed limit, pressing my foot against the gas pedal harder than I should have.
"What's with the speed?" Dimitri asked as I merged into the far left lane.
"Frustration," I said, staring straight ahead. An old Lady Gaga song was playing softly on the stereo.
Dimitri stayed quiet and I muddled over my feelings. When the sign for our exit came up, I flew past it.
"I need to drive right now. I can't go back there so quickly," I explained as Dimitri raised his eyebrow. "I don't want to succumb to that hellhole right now. If Tatiana yells at me for breaking the rules, someone needs to tell her to go fuck herself because she might get more pleasure out of that." I tossed Dimitri my cell phone. "Here. Call Lissa and let her know what I'm up to."
"Alright," Dimitri said, flipping the phone up.
"She's on speed dial. Number two."
We drove in continued silence, broken by Dimitri talking to Lissa.
"She says to be safe and that she'll see you tomorrow," Dimitri murmured, setting the phone down in the cup holder. The car he had rented was a black Porsche – way more expensive than what he could've afforded. Right now, though, I was thankful for its speed.
"Mind telling me where we're going?" Dimitri asked softly, his tone curious and calming.
"I have no idea," I admitted tiredly, glancing at him. "I'm thinking of starting my summer vacation early. You up for that?"
"I would be if my stuff wasn't at the school," Dimitri said.
"Oh, live a little, Dimitri," I playfully whined. I leaned back against the dark leather seat. "It'll be fun to do a road trip."
"A month with just the two of us," Dimitri mused. He gave me a wry smile that I saw under the passing, orange street lights. "You might get bored."
I laughed. "Like I haven't heard that before."
"It's true," Dimitri replied.
We talked small talk and the sign for the Idaho/Montana Stateline passed by us at noon. It was our midnight, but I felt like a live wire, ready to keep going for forever.
"I love you," Dimitri said as we passed a sign that said "Seattle – 40 miles". He rested a hand on my knee, seeing as my hands were occupied with the steering wheel.
"I love you more," I teased, looking at the man who put up with my craziness.
"I doubt that," he replied. His hand slipped down my leg, and I could tell it was totally intentional.
"Trying to distract me, Comrade?" I asked, putting as much Rose Hathaway seductiveness as I could in my gaze.
"Is it working?" Dimitri whispered huskily, leaning over to kiss my temple. I stared straight ahead as his hand slipped in between my legs. They involuntarily squeezed shut, and Dimitri chuckled against my neck.
"What you're doing is dangerous," I muttered, trying to keep my voice even. I failed miserably as his teeth grazed my neck.
"I don't think so," Dimitri murmured. His hand pressed harder against me. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel.
Eventually he pulled away, and my tension disappeared. We agreed that stopping in Seattle would be a good idea, and since it was nearing dusk, we pulled into the parking lot of a rather expensive hotel per Dimitri's directions.
"Adrian gave me control of a spare account he made for me before we get married," Dimitri explained as the valet took the car away.
I didn't catch the name of the hotel on the way in, but the restaurant was expensive enough that they didn't bother putting the prices on the menu. It was one of those places where they expected you to be able to pay whatever they threw at you.
"So what's with the sudden interest in flashiness?" I asked as Dimitri gave the waiter a platinum credit card I'd never seen before. We were definitely in human territory. It was obvious with a quick sweep of the restaurant patrons.
He shrugged. "Since we only have three weeks before the wedding, we might as well have some fun."
"It's like Halloween," I joked. "And we're the little kids pretending to be royal Moroi."
"Yes it is," Dimitri agreed with a laugh as the waiter came back with the card. Dimitri signed the slip without a second glance, and we walked up to the front desk.
"Do I want to know how much was on that bill, Mr. Ivashkov?" I teased as the woman behind the counter gave us a room.
"It might give you a heart attack, Mrs. Ivashkov," Dimitri murmured in my ear. A shudder ran through me as the receptionist handed Dimitri a room card.
The suite was bigger than our apartment back home. Everything had an open, white feel to it, and the bathroom was blinding white. I didn't have time to admire anything before I crashed in the middle of the king-sized bed, fully-clothed.
The next day was spent shopping at the higher end stores in Seattle. While not the same as New York and Los Angeles, the city still held many of the same designer stores Lissa was accustomed to.
We were walking through the streets, looking for a place to eat lunch, when my cell phone rang. We had dropped our replacement clothes and new suitcases off at the hotel earlier.
"Where are you?" It was Lissa. "Everybody else is freaking out because you and Dimitri didn't come back the other night."
"Don't worry," I told her calmly. "We're in Seattle."
"Seattle? What the hell are you doing in Seattle?" Lissa's voice accusatory and I felt jealousy and disappointment float through the bond. I put my mental barriers against the bond up and answered her.
"Road trip. I'm starting my summer vacation earlier."
"You missed the graduation. You know, that big ceremony you told everyone you'd be there for."
"Change of plans."
"I'm sorry, but-"
"Liss," I said, cutting her off. "I don't want to hear it. I haven't had a moment to myself in years, and I just want to be able to do I want for once."
"Fine," Lissa snapped. "But don't expect me to cover your ass."
"I don't expect you to," I told her cheerfully. She hung up, and I snapped my phone shut.
"Lissa doesn't like us taking off," Dimitri guessed as we crossed the street. I shook my head and slipped my phone in the front pocket of my new skinny jeans, an indulgence I hadn't worn since school.
We were silent until I spotted a McDonald's. Normalcy at its best.
"Let's go. I'm starved," I said as I grabbed Dimitri's hand.
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