Chapter 28

Nikolaus POV

The morning session with Dri was just about finished, this morning I chose to do some conditioning training since it had been slipping lately to focus on combat training but I knew she was doing her own conditioning training as well as her scheduled class block.

"I want to do one spar session before we finish" I looked over at Dri, she looked so determined. Lately she had been trying harder and harder to beat me or even come close to beating me. I was about to say no because class was starting soon when she widened her eyes and looked at me, I instantly knew I couldn't say no that face. Who knew the stunningly beautiful and smart girl I had fallen for was also creative enough to work out how to soften me up.

"Alright just one, you have class soon"

"I can deal with that" I followed her over to the practise mats that were set up and did some light stretches before we started. There were times where I had to catch myself, I was staring at her and I didn't need her to catch me.

Dri was doing remarkably well in this fight, I was impressed with how well she was doing but I was still able to get the upper hand on her and pin her to the ground. She frowned and I didn't know if it was because she lost or if because I had her pinned to the mat.

Our faces were incredibly close and I knew if the gap closed even the tiniest bit I would be able to kiss her but I couldn't, no matter how much I wanted too. I stood up and pulled her with me, when we were standing I continued to hold her wrist just hoping she wouldn't start yelling at me for confusing her again.

"Can you show me that move you did to pin me?" she spoke softly while looking at me

"Of course" I began explaining what I was doing while I was doing it, I was doing it slowly so she could watch my movements. I didn't even realise that the whole time I had my hand placed on her arm.

I allowed her to practise on me, she was still struggling but what caught my eye was her footwork. I knew if she didn't fix it she would end up tripping over her own feet, I watched as she stumbled and she was heading face first into the mat. I quickly reached out and grabbed her waist to stop her from falling, I pulled her up and back against me.

We were standing like that with her standing in front of me and I had my arm still wrapped around her waist. I half expected her to pull away but what she did surprised me, she turned around and tried the move again. This time she succeeded and ended up pinning me to the floor.

I was proud of her for finally get something, yes I may have been distracted but she was able to perform the move and pin me as well. She was straddling my lap and had her hands wrapped around my biceps. I couldn't help myself I leaned up and kissed her, I expected her to pull away and slap me but instead she fell into the kiss and moved her hands so that her arms were wrapped around my neck.

When she let go of my arms I was able to move my hands, I wrapped one in her hair and placed the other on the small of her back and press her closer into me. I stopped kissing her lips and made my way down her neck and when I made it to her collar bone a quiet moan escaped her lips. If this was what kissing her caused I couldn't wait to see what would happen when this went further.

I took her being distracted for a moment and used it as an opportunity to flip us so I was on top. I ran a hand down her side and stopped briefly at her hip before going down her leg and gripping it, she took this as a sign to wrap both of her legs around my waist and I moved my hand back to her hip.

Just as I was about to take her top off the bell ran, of course it would ring and ruin this. I finally got to kiss Dri and the bell ruins it. But Dri wasn't stopping and I realised that the bell sounded off, that was when I realised I was asleep and the dream started to disappear as I woke up.

These dreams were nothing unusual, I had been having them more and more lately and I was starting to confuse them with the real moments I had with Dri. I finally worked out what the ringing was and realised it was my phone that woke me. I looked at the caller id and realised it was the reception desk downstairs.

"Anastas" I answered wishing it didn't ring and I could be back asleep.

"Just ringing to inform you that Miss Ivashkov has snuck out of her room and the dorm"

"Thank you, I will take care of it" I hang up the phone and climbed out of bed to get dressed before I headed down stairs. Dri had been sneaking out more and more lately and I didn't know if it had anything to do with Michael being here or if she was just stressed.

I headed out to the court yard that was near the dorm, she always went there mainly because it got the most amount of sunlight at this time of the day. I knew she missed the sunlight, it was part of the reason why she began sneaking out to begin with and now I wasn't so sure.

I found her sitting on the grass with her head resting on her chin, if she had noticed me she didn't say anything when I sat down next to her. I could tell she had been crying, normally she made an effort to wipe away the tear stains on her cheeks but tonight she didn't.

"Security or phone call?"

"Phone call, I had an early evening shift allowing me to get a full nights sleep before our session in the morning"

"Sorry I'm disturbing your sleep" I wanted to reach out wipe away the tears that stained her cheek but I had to stop myself.

"Why are you out here and not sleeping?"

"Can't sleep" she turned her head to look back up at the sky, I knew she was hiding something

"Can't or won't?" she turned back and looked at me shocked, I obviously guessed the right answer.

"Bit of both"

"Why?"

"Overactive imagination" she shrugged like it was nothing and reached up to finally wipe her cheeks, I noticed her eyes harden over and I knew she wouldn't be giving up more information. She had started doing this in recent weeks, it was like she was trying to distant herself from me and it was hard for her. I had always told her she could trust me and she had never had problems telling me stuff, normally I didn't care for the boring gossip that floated amongst the students and she didn't tell me that stuff but when something big happened she would tell me.

"Come on you should go back to your room and get some sleep"

"Can't I just sit here a bit longer?" the look she gave me almost made me believe I was still asleep and dreaming. I had never seen her look at with those wide eyes and slight pout on her face, I knew I was making it up in my head but seeing it in real life just made me realise how much she did affect me. I shook my head trying to get the dream out of my head and she frowned, obviously taking my shaking of the head as a no to her question and not something else.

"10 minutes" the smile of her face and the sparkle in her eyes was enough to make my heart melt. If the situation was different or we had completely different lives, we could be together, we could be on a date sitting in the middle of the park and I would have no problems reaching out to hug her and kiss her.

Before the 10 minutes was up Dri stood up and gave me a small smile. "Thanks I really needed this, I can get back in on my own"

"You sure?"

"Yeah but thanks anyway" I watched as she walked away, it was then I noticed the person standing off to the side trying to blend in. When Dri was completely gone the person emerged from the shadows and it was Hathaway making her way over here.

"I thought you follow Michael not Dri"

"I'm working security. Alberta asked if I could cover the night shift, what's bothering Dri?"

"She won't tell me anything anymore, she just said she was having problems sleeping" I looked at Hathaway as she took a seat beside me

"Dimitri told me you have fallen for her and I have been told bits and pieces from Dri. You're sending mixed signals and her being with Jeremy, it's confusing her"

"She told you that" I wanted to kick myself for this, I didn't think I had been that obvious

"No, she just told me you were confusing her. Doing that wasn't normal or playing hot and cold. I would have suspected what was going on but when Dimitri told me what you told him that was when I put everything together. She didn't say she was confused with everything, you and Jeremy but I could gather as much" we were both silent for a moment and then she punched me, and god damn did that hurt. If I had expected it I could have braced myself or even block it but I didn't either way.

"What was that for?"

"Beating the living shit out of Dri"

"Right...I expected Belikov to hit me as well"

"He wanted too but he didn't, he knows where you're coming from"

"I've heard what it was like for him what was it like for you?"

"It was weird, to begin with I just thought the little moments we had were just that and they weren't anything out of the ordinary. There were moments when I thought to myself how would Dimitri handle this or what would he think but I didn't think anything of them until the lust charm. After that I realised that I was in love with him and I couldn't stop it, I had even tried dating other guys to push the feelings away. We both tried so hard to stay in control and there were small moments where we lost the fight and then there was a big moment where completely lost and it was then that we agreed we would make this work. A few hours later he was a Strigoi"

"I've heard most of the story after that, you waited out the weeks until you turned 18 and then you took off in search of him. You didn't succeed in killing him and you came back, got placed back in classes, graduated at the top of your guardian class and went off to Court to be placed with a Moroi. Somewhere along the way Queen Vasilisa got kidnapped and you organised a raid to help get her and the rest of them back and Queen Vasilisa turned Belikov back into a dhampir, he was arrested and held in jail. Not long after he was set free you were placed in jail and then he broke you out"

"They're the stories everyone knows, there is always more to them then what meets the eye. I went to look for him and I found him but didn't succeed, I had to find him because we had unspoken promise that neither one of us wanted to be stuck that way. After that he was hell bent on killing me because if he didn't I would kill him but this has nothing to do with what we were talking about"

"You're right sorry..."

"It's fine but your situation with Dri is different to what Dimitri and I had. We didn't have someone out to us"

"No but there's Michael"

"You worry about Dri and I will worry about Michael. I hate that he did that to her and she felt like she couldn't tell anyone what happened"

"I'm assuming Belikov told you"

"After I had calmed him down, there's a reason that it's just me out here and not him as well. Christian was more than willing to send him here as well and I hate leaving Lissa but she convinced me I needed to do this while they worked on it back at Court. I think my dad has even gone to Australia to find some paperwork"

"Then what is the reason Belikov isn't here? I know he was here to begin with, why did he go back when he could have stayed? Dri said herself she felt better knowing both him and myself were watching from the shadows"

"You can't tell anyone this, I don't think Dri even knows and Dimitri's soft spot for her is almost as big as mine. But his mother was abused by a Moroi"

"It's why he's so set on helping Dri isn't yet? He hates that someone else he cares for has had this happened to and there was nothing he could do"

"Exactly, even now he can't do anything because he's a royal and there's no proof"

"I just want him gone from here and hopefully she can go back to living her life when her only worry was wondering if he was ever going to find her"

"We will, we're working on it. Come on I should get back to my post and you need to get some rest" she was right and I had to trust her and everyone back at Court. They all cared about Dri and didn't want her to suffer anymore than I did.

A/N: GwennyDee thank you for reviewing, it reminded me I had a new chapter to post. Yes I had him it admit it to Dimitri and Dimitri didn't hit him because he knew what he was going through. As for what Rose did, well she never had the self control that Dimitri had. I'm glad my comments made you smile, I enjoy getting reviews that I can't not saying anything in return!

Thank you everyone for reading!