RPOV
Its like watching a storm unfold in the room, ripping against the wood and tiles and threatening to burst through the walls. Its starts small. The air static, all eyes on the man they called the snake, Victor breathing a word and then Dimitri - the first flash of lightening. He'd been standing so still after throwing Zmey to the floor and causing the first roll of thunder. His eyes solid black, skin pale, the only sign of life being the pulse in his neck until Victor spoke and the statue came to life. Dimitri whipped around and before I could process what was happening the chair he'd picked up had exploded against the wall lined with bottles so it rains glass and splinters. Ben yanks me to the ground as the Dhampir Dimitri had been aiming at lands in a crouch after vaulting over the bar, glass speckled in his dark hair. Silver slips out of his sleeve and into his hand.
The room erupts.
Ben kicks the table he's pulled me behind toward the two other Dhampirs close to use, winding one of them and pissing off the other who was able to dodge it. There's silver in their hands now and they rush at Ben.
I scramble back, glass biting into my palms until my head hits the wall. Dimitri and Spiridon are taking most of the force as they encompass Victor. Spiridon the shield and Dimitri the sword.
Somehow they were in sync without looking at one and other, taking down or volleying an opponent to the other to put down. The only thing that was showing as a challenge for them was a Moroi stationed to my far right making fire slither across the ground in a fine rope trying to ensnare their feet and when Dimitri throws a Dhampir back it leaves him open for the Moroi to step it up and hurl a raging ball of flame. The scream of warning barely leaves my throat as the orange reflects off his dark eyes. He ducks and the flame smashes into the panelled wall behind him and blows apart. Spiridon holds Victors head down and pushes him roughly toward the door in the moment of a distraction.
My attention is pulled back to Ben as he dodges his two opponents, how he almost uses them against one and other, by how he uses their force as his own to deflect blows or catapult off them to drive it against the other. But each move is only won by a hairs breadth and the difference between their blows are dictated by the carvings on the opponents faces. Carvings that haunt my dreams and that I frantically look for on every Guardian I meet. The carvings of bloodlust.
Victor has Dimitri and Spiridon and they have each other, the lightening and the thunder surrounding one of the most important men in our world against the most important men in this room.
Ben is on his own.
I have to do something. I have to be useful and I don't have to bow to raging Guardian's, not any more. I can rage back. Every instinct in my body strains to stay on the floor but I make myself stand despite shaky knees, despite not knowing what my next move is. But I guess i'll find out. The woman lock her right arm around Ben's throat and brings her knee up to his back so he bows against her and his belly's exposed for her partner. Ben thrashes to break her grip but she doesnt yield.
I don't think, thinking would hold me back.
I snatch up a broken bottle as the Guardian draws a blade from his belt. Even in the dimness of this place the metallic winks, a promise of pain. I couldn't help my mother, I couldn't help the Other's and I couldn't help myself back then but I can help Ben now. I launch the bottle and it connects to his skull with a thick thud, jerking it sideways and causing him to stumble and then go down like a sack of sand. There's a reason I always curb spillages and accidents from Natalie's clumsy fingers, able to catch her before she tripped down the stairs in her dress and why Dimitri was surprised by my quick reflexes when they aren't frayed by fear. My childhood was always a game of catching and throwing with Eddie, of hiding or scheming or snatching food or things we wanted to play with. I was always quick, less likely caught and when I was it was mostly because my mother could read the guilt on my face but that wasn't often and so Eddie thought we could keep playing the same games.
The women's gaze snaps to me and Ben uses his to his advantage. He angles away from her knee and drive his elbow back into her stomach. Her grip slackens and Ben twists away from her, keeping hold of the wrist that had been against his throat and he drives his other fist into her face.
A splintering noise rips through the room and I look over to see Dimitri rolling under a rain of wood. The corpse of the chair thuds to the floor as he rises with his eyes dead set on Tanner, who I'm guessing had thrown it. Returning the gesture obviously, who knew certified Guardians liked to engage in deadly games of tennis with the furniture. Tanner charges at Dimitri who holds still until the last split second before feinting left.
Furthest from me I see Spiridon has been able to get Victor closer to the front door, they just need one last opening to get out.
There's a gasp of pain and I look back in time to see Ben grip the woman by her short hair, it had been long under her magic disguise, and drive her face down into his knee. There's a wet crunch that I know too well to mean he's broken her nose. Ben's face has closed off, a blank mask with hell fire in his blue eyes. He's not on the defence any more. He throws her back and she topples over the overturned table. She doesn't get up.
"Stay with me Rose." He commands in a voice I don't recognise. He launches himself across the room toward Spiridon who's dripping with sweat.
How was I supposed to stay with him? How could I throw myself into chaos without getting in the way? He syncs with Spiridon, his moves not as harmonious as Dimitri's had been but still effective, still amazing.
Fractured pieces of wood slide and lift from the ground as by an invisible current and I wonder if somewhere along the way i've hit my head until I follow their path and see Zmey's hand outstretched, palm up, the source of the manipulation.
"Your Guardian's cannot protect you from the shrapnel of the havoc you cause Dashkov." He shouts, and with a wave of his hand the splinters and chunks of wood he'd caught in his magic dart toward where Victor braces between the wall and the music box. Victor's eyes widen and he throws up an arm to try and ward it off. The wood missiles jerk as if hitting a new current, some veering off and smashing against the music box, some hit Zmey's guardian's and furniture, get embedded into the wall above but some find their mark and Victor drops to one knee as he's sliced through his thigh.
Spiridon's eyes harden to black ice and he throws of his assailant with a series of quick blows and a fierce kick, giving him the opening he needs to grab Victor and push him through the door. He engages with the opponent Ben can't shake, sliding into position to take the oncoming blow, easily blocking it and with a flash of silver he rakes red across his chest. Spiridon has drawn his stake.
"Get him out!" Spiridon roars at Ben.
Ben doesn't hesitate, he slips out and I see him pull Victors arm around his shoulders before disappearing into the street.
Zmey's lips curl back into a smile. "Aristorats will always scuttle away." His low voice carries even though I don't think he'd intended the words for anyone but himself. Across the room Dimitri and Tanner are making enough noise to eclipse everything. Their lethal dance consists of using everything in their path against each other. Like Spiridon, Tanner has drawn his stake and is slicing it through the air in places Dimitri has just managed to move out of. Both formidable, both deadly but Tanner is breathing hard, face flushed and sweat shines on him as the fight takes it toll but Dimitri is cold fury, composed, almost inhuman. There's no emotion just a magnetic thrum in his black eyes that stay locked on Tanner. He spins under Tanner's arm and rolls over the bars crusted glass surface and when he lands in a crouch blood laces over his hand. He doesn't appear to notice. Instead he stands and sweeps the counter, throwing the shards at his opponent who throws up an arm to shield his eyes.
"Grab her."
A male Dhampir large as Dimitri and doubly thick looms in front of me. I scramble around for another bottle but there's nothing bigger than a splinter. Iron clamps around my arm, over the barely healed wound, and I'm swung around to face the snake in the black suit. Zmey tilts his head studying me seemingly without a care to the chaos around us. Violence doesn't effect him, he doesnt fear the shadow of pain or death – he was man who knew neither would touch him today or he simply doesn't care. I kick out behind me but in vein, it only makes the Dhampirs grip tighter and my eyes prick with the pain.
"You and I are going to get to know one and other." He looks above my scowl. "Out the back, now."
The mountain swings me around and the noise make I resembles an angry alley cat. Zmey strides past us to the double doors, their windows nothing more than empty panels with jagged glass teeth. The doors lead into a bigger seating area with a side door with a green exit sign above it.
There are two Dhampirs on the floor. One leaking blood and the woman Ben had fought. She's still, her eyes open and blank. Spiridon is still fighting two others, stepping around the fallen bodies without fault or apparent difficulty, all his focus is channelled on his opponents. He doesn't see me, he doesn't hear me. The room starts to tunnel and I start the descent down into that frightened closed space that waits for me whenever the world starts spinning with violence and blood. The place that I went and turned everything off inside myself when I had to clean Eddie's body. I haven't visited it in weeks.
A blow sends me spinning to the ground and the impact turns everything inside back on again. In front of me the snake is getting to his feet, a thin line of blood travelling from his hairline to his brow. Under me the ground vibrates in response to the fury of the mountains footsteps and I scrabble sideways so i'm not trampled on as he tries, and fails, to best Dimitri. I get to my knees thinking about running when the Snake's dark eyes flit to me and he lunges forward. I flinch back and burning lances around my neck before a whoosh of air. I open my eyes as Zmey crashes back to the floor at the other side of the room, skidding across the glass and into the few remaining chairs that havent been destroyed.
"Te yeye ne tronesh." Dimitri growls, his silver stake pointed at Zmey in a silent promise.
"Pochemu u neye eto!" Zmey yells back, holding his fist aloft and dangling from it is a strip of gold.
My hand flies to my neck, my necklace.
Dimitri hauls me off the floor and pushes me behind him, backing us up toward the exit. I try to tell him I need to get it back and it doesn't matter that the room is blowing apart with flame and Spiridon's curses because I need to take back the last thing I have left of her. Dimitri doesn't hear and steers us toward the exit, stake pointed at Zmey's heart.
"Spiridon!" Dimitri yells.
"Poluchite v glaz!" Spiridon spins into view, framed by the broken glass of the door, spikey hair flat on one side and matted with blood. His usual smirk is buried far beneath the hard set of his mouth. He and Dimitri stare at each other for a heartbeat and then the world interrupts. A wall of flame hits the bar and the whole place alights.
Zmey is shouting, the last of his Dhampir's are torn between shepherding him and fighting Spiridon. Dimitri doesn't wait. We fly through a door into a narrow alley.
"Run."
We run like hell is snapping at our heels and by the crashing and shouting coming from behind us I suspect it is. The alley is narrow but it's long and full of metal barrels and empty boxes, some of which I have to jump over to avoid. I refuse to acknowledge the burning in my lungs and my bodies pleads to stop and rest, having grown used to being pampered these last months. We pass the last tower of boxes and almost collide with a gate, well I don't and only because Dimitri yanks me aside so he can throw his shoulder into it. The metal shudders but doesn't give. He scans the frame as the yells get closer.
"What do we do?"
I'm not even sure Dimitri hears me. His pupils have blown wide, skins bleached of colour, tendrils of his hair have escaped and he looks wild. He doesn't look like him. Was this because of the fighting? Is this Guardian Dimitri completely piloted by the adrenaline and violence? But in the woods he didn't look like this - cold, detached, lethal.
Suddenly he sways and puts a hand to his chest.
"Dimitri?"
"Stay back." He utters. The tower of boxes shudder as two men burst around it. There's no hesitation to their attack. The gate clangs loudly as Dimitri's thrown back against it carried by the force of another body. I squeeze myself into the wall, closing my eyes to the thuds and fury. A hand locks around my jacket and yanks but just as quickly it disappears. I land on my elbow as Dimitri spins one of the guys towards the opposite wall, cocks his head back and slams it against brick. I close my eyes.
Harsh breaths, heavy steps, grunting and im being pulled down again to a time gone by in the blazing heat and guardians raising a belt and bringing it down until it cracks against my skin.
"Melt it." Dimitri barks.
My hands are locked around my head like my mother taught me. I peer up from between my elbows to see Dimitri has the last guy bowed against his body, one hand holds the steel tip of the stake at his lower back and his other arm is locked around his throat. Dimitri's breathing hard but his captives face is turning red.
"Melt it." Dimitri growls again and the guys body twitches. I can only guess the stake is being pressed harder into his spine.
"I can't breathe." He grits out.
"Then I suggest you hurry."
Two seconds drag by before his will gives out. A hand that had been clutching Dimitri's forearm reaches toward the chain on the gate. Dimitri shuffles them forward until his hand can grasp the metal.
"I can't-" The guys pants and Dimitri responds by loosening his grip on his windpipe but the hand on the stake jerks forward in warning.
"You have ten seconds." Dimitri says, "And then you'll spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair."
Dimitri can't see the guys eyes widen in fear and the tick in his jaw and suddenly it clicks into place. The Moroi, not a Dhampir, grips the chain and within seconds faint wisps of steam off the silver which rapidly then starts to redden and glow.
"Thank you for your co-operation." Dimitri murmurs.
"You're all fools." The guy hisses, his furious gaze finding me. "Everything is going to change."
There's more yelling from behind us, someone calling down the alley for their comrades. I can faintly hear the wailing of sirens. The guy draws breath and Dimitri promptly slams his head off the gate. He steps over his body to lodge the stake tip onto the heated chain link and he pushes down with his bodyweight. There's a loud clanking as the chain break apart and he pulls them free of the lock. I scrabble up the wall as he heaves the gate open and ushers me out through the gap into the street.
It's disorienting how quiet it is – stepping out into this quiet back street lined with wooden crates and metal trolleys, sticky drizzle falling down around us. Dimitri steps out behind me and it knocks me off the narrow curb.
"Where are we going?" I ask as he takes my elbow and sets a speed that's a crime to anyone under 6'0ft
"We need a car."
"We have a car."
"Ben will have fried the engine and the data. We need a car." Ben and Victor will be long away from here by now. When were we going to catch up? And what about Spiridon? Was he..was he dead? I pull my head away from there. "Turn left."
We make the sharp turn and Dimitri steps down off the curb so we're almost the same height. I cast a glance at him and almost trip. His skin has more of a sheen to it and he's paler still. His eyes are almost completely black. What the hell is happening to him. "Are you okay?"
I expect him to lie but after a moment he says, "No. We need a car. We're about to turn out onto the street we entered the bar on. Most likely his men will be out there so I need you to keep your head down and move normally. Not too fast you'll give us away. The square should still be busy but we need to get to the mall on the opposite side, they should have a car park." He shrugs off his long coat and rolls it up under his arm. He pulls out his hair tie.
I tense as the mouth of the alley gets closer with the noise of the busy street. We step out and I expect there to be a yell or be barrelled into. Dimitri pulls me close to his side, an arm around my shoulder and leads us across the road. We weave through the lanes, a car blaring its horn at us but then we're across and only Dimitri's hold keeps me on a steady pace. I feel like I could bolt. I spot the sliding doors people are rushing in and out of as our destination.
Dimitri's side is incredibly hot and as the rain falls heavier it makes me think that steam should be rising off him. We duck through the doors and the people standing by them grimly looking out at the rain. Dimitri removes his arm and I instantly miss the contact.
"The car parks two levels below." He says, turning away from a sign. "Stay close to me."
He doesn't need to tell me twice. We weave through the human's and I try to contain the curiosity bursting inside my mind. So many humans. I am in a Mall with stores upon stores of food and clothes and gadgets and sparkly things. More than once Dimitri has to take my elbow to hurry my pace, after the third time I keep my eyes down as much as possible. Finally we veer left away from the mainstream of shops and into a narrow hall, Dimitri pushes through a door and we're in the stairwell. The composer he had for moving through the public melts away and without needing to be told we start taking the stairs two at a time, then three.
There's a bang above us and I picture the door we came through bouncing off concrete.
Dimitri grips my waist and I'm flying down the stairs anchored to him. We hit a landing, my knees buckle, he doesn't allow me to go down because he's already moving forward and he doesnt let me go. We burst through another door and we're on a concrete landing full of cars, a sea of different metals, open windows framing the city around us as sheets of water come down on it. Dimitri unlatches his belt and pulls it off, loops it around the door handle and a pipe by the frame.
"To the far wall, three down, royal blue. Run."
I do, not entirely sure what I'm looking for but letting instinct and feet drive me. The only car that's blue is small and less doors than any car I've been in. Dimitri over takes me and slides around to the passenger side. His elbow shatters the glass.
Bang
"Dimitri!"
Three of them pour through the door to the stairwell.
The car beeps and unlocks from behind me.
"Get in, keep your head down!" Tanner, the Guardian from the bar is leading the charge. His face is fury, lips bloodied, hair slicked with rain and sweat. He flicks out his left hand and his stake cuts through the air as it extends with a metal click. Two other men follow at his heels. He doesn't make an offer because he's not here to negotiate. "Rose!"
Dimitri rounds the back of the car and pushed me backward so I fall between it and the neighbouring car. I push up on my elbows to see the dance of war has started again and it's more of a frenzy than before. Three bear down on Dimitri and through the gap in the cars he moves in and out of my sight, every time more bloody. He's taking more hits without Spiridon and Ben here to divide up the odds. Even though my heart is a lead ball in my chest, constricting tighter and tighter, pulling strings and tendons and muscle to a taut thread, I can't help but think – it's beautiful. The art of it, the movements, the flow and clash of limbs and fists - the intelligence behind it, the purpose – they're all fighting for something. Not just torture – not just to cause pain.
Dimitri lurches away from an elbow only to move into the path of Tanner's knee. I hear above the grunts the air woosh out of him. I'm up and running forward, mindlessly, until I'm on one of the guys back with absolutely nothing to contribute but to seek his eyes out with my fingertips and push inside.
He lets out a roar and thrashes trying to throw me off. I clench my knees tight to his sides. Tanner and the other one don't seem to care because they're hammering at Dimitri. One of his knees go out beneath him and I swear my heart clenches so hard a tendon snaps.
"Loll väike lits!" The Guardian roars from beneath me and he throws us to the right, crushing me between himself and a car. The pain rockets through my ribs and my fingers clench down in response. The roar that comes out of him now is in pain and I try to shut it out, try not to think about the give beneath my fingers and the unnatural texture on my fingertips. He launches us again at the car and this time I scream and let go, dropping like a stone to the ground. Nothings broke but it's not good, it's not good at all. His foot stamps near my head and I glance to see blood running out of his ruined eyes sockets. I nearly vomit but instead I push myself underneath the car and roll so i'm in the gap again, between it and the blue car he told me to get inside. I reach up and yank the handle. The Guardians screams still fill the level but even without him Dimitri is still not holding against the other two. Using the handle I pull myself upright, wincing and holding on to my side.
I watch Dimitri dance out of one fist's path to meet the blow from a forearm, to block a kick with his wrist to only take a hit to his side – he was slowing. And he looks ill, face waxen and eyes pitch dark. He is going to lose.
He cannot lose.
"STOP! STOP! He wants me right? I'll come with you."
Nobody stops, not even a pause if anything they just starting hitting faster, angrier. I keep shouting but there's nothing throwing me forward this time. There are no more yells from the Guardian I jumped on, just some low moaning somewhere below the cars.
The guardian with Tanner gets impatient and darts forward to directly take Dimitri down, well, tries to. Dimitri has advantage inside his own space, his hand snatches out and grabs his wrist, twists his arm around, angling him between himself and Tanner, and brings his fist down on his elbow. The Guardian's scream should have cracked the concrete.
I've seen mutilation and death, I've seen bruises and infections, I've seen sores and blood but still the unnatural shape of the Guardians arm makes me gag. Dimitri throws him aside where he crumples. Tanner paces and resizes the situation. Dimitri's standing but only by sheer will by the looks of things. What the hell is the matter with him? He isn't bleeding bad enough to explain it. Tanner's going to win, it's just a matter of when. His stake glints in his hand – Dimitri hasn't drawn his.
"I'll come with you." I say again.
"Roza, you will get in the car." Dimiri snarls, sweat pouring down his face.
Tanner snorts then he lunges. He's fast and Dimtri's just about able to block his blows but stumbling back each time, Tanner gains his ground and keeps coming. I come out from beside the cars and try to calculate an opening when I should run in. If I could jump Tanner like I did the other.
Tanner feints right and Dimitri moves to block him – but this is what Tanner wants. He springs left and kicks out at Dimitri's side. The force of it sends him stumbling into the rear of a car, pain rolling across his face.
"Stay down." Tanner advises and begins to turn to me. Dimitri grunts and pushes away from the car. He plants his feet and rolls his shoulders back. Its clear he's in agony but still determined. Tanner looks at him pityingly. "You can't be serious. Even Dashkov would not blame you for this."
"Dashkov no." Dimitri's breathing is harsh. "But it's not him I have a debt to."
"I'll go!" I start moving toward them
Dimitri glances at me and snarls. He lunges toward Tanner. Tanner deflects him and punches him straight in the gut. His knees hit the ground and before I know it my hands are grabbing at Tanner.
He throws me off and I don't see it coming, only feel something hard connect with my cheek and it steers me to the ground.
"STAY DOWN." I know he's not yelling at me but I wish he were. Wish Dimitri would stop. A hand clamps on my sore arm and pulls me up. I yelp but he ignores me. "Dont -"
The earth turns on its axis again as something collides with both of us. The ground greets me once again and I taste metal in my mouth. There're more grunting and then a final yell of rage and a thud.
"Beschestiye." Someone spits.
I roll over. Tanner is on his back with his eyes closed, an angry purple bruise already blossoming on his cheek. His stake is lying metres away and beside it Dimitri is sitting upright, an arm curled around his side. I push myself up and stumble to him. His breathing is worse and his pale skin is shining.
I help him stand and he grunts through his teeth.
"The car." He orders and we make for it. He pushes me off to move around the drivers side.
"Dimitri."
"Get in the damn car."
I obey and I clip myself in. I help him do the same. He closes his eyes and leans his head back, trying to control his breathing but it still hisses out through his teeth. I don't say a word, don't question how he's going to manage driving us out of here, how we're going to find the others, how we'll get home.
"Do you still have your phone?"
"Yes."
"G-good. Type in these numbers and then dial." He springs into action as I pull out my phone. He brakes something near the wheel and pulls out wires. "0-.-6-0-8-0-0-9-5-4"
I put the phone to my ear but there's no calling noise. The car growls to life around us and Dimitri reverses us out. It wouldn't be a pity if we ran over anyone.
"Is he dead?" I ask, looking at him instead of out the window. One of Guardians screams at us in Estonian and I can only imagine what he's promising.
"We do not kill our own." He answers, his hand leaving a dark smear on the wheel. "We shouldn't."
Dimitri drives us up a slope and it turns into a spiral climb, my stomach presses up against my ribs.
"Give me the ticket off the dashboard." I hand it to him as we pull up to a barrier. He draws down his window and feeds the ticket to the machine. The barrier raises. His hand is covered in blood. He tucks it inside his jacket and gives me a look that tells me not to ask.
"The number didnt ring."
"It wasn't meant to. When we get to the motel I need you to ask for the room."
"What's wrong with you?"
"I made a mistake." He says and then lurches toward the wheel with a groan. A car blares past us. "Rose hold the wheel, I'll steer us but I need you to keep it steady."
Every other word he has to stop to suck in air and it's evident that he's fighting to stay awake.
"Should we go to the hospital. They have a number don't they, 911?"
"No humans." He says and forced himself upright. We stop at every red light and it feels like months until they turn green but when they do we speed off to the protest of Estonia's people.
The buildings start to melt away and the roads come in longer stretches until even I know we're leaving the city. Dimitri's breathing is coming in shorter bursts and his knuckles are white on the wheel. I don't have to make many turns with the wheel. Inside the city Id been to petrified to look away from the road encase I had to make us swerve because some lunatic human decided to run out in front of us but now I dare look at him.
The car veers left.
"Rose!"
I push the wheel back up until the car straightens out. "You're bleeding." He grunts in response. "Why are you bleeding that much? When -" My voice cracks and I hate myself for it. "When did they get you?"
"It's not that bad." He rasps. "Turn right, here." We eat up the road in silence, my head full of white noise and mouth full of iron. I've bit through my lip and I'm too scared to look at him. "There's a turn to a motel up here." The car begins to slow as he eases up on the pedal, whether he means to or not I don't know. I turn the wheel right, keeping my eyes set firmly on what's in front of us because if I focus on that then I wont have to deal with what's happening to him, not yet. The car jolts as we mount a curb and a hiss slips out from behind his teeth. He slumps back in the seat as we make it into the lot and it's up to me to direct the car as it coasts to a stop. The lots mostly empty so I dont have to worry about hitting another car but we do come to a bumpy stop by mounting what looks like a sorry attempt at a flower bed.
Im breathing like i've been running. Slowly I turn to him.
His face is aglow with sweat, his shirt soaked with it. I watch a droplet run down his neck, propelled by his pulse thrumming against his skin.
The sun is fleeing the sky, the last ray of light a stripe across his face.
"Dimitri." I whisper in the dark space between us.
"Take… take my wallet. Got to the desk and get a room. Hurry." I hesitate and then I do as I'm told. I hunt through his pocket until I find it and then I run from the car.
I pound across the damp tarmac toward the florescent light of the reception lobby. With every slap across the ground I see my mother hit the ground, the fever that gripped her, the young master blue eyes alarmed, Eddie's last defiant look and Dimitri's resolute face surrounded by the forest.
I've lost them, my mother and Eddie. Holding on to them was like trying to grasp water and I am dying of thirst. I cannot lose Dimitri, not yet, i'm not ready and not like this. What am I thinking? Im not going to lose him, Dimitri is not someone you lose, he will not – he cannot … not him. He's more solid more sturdy, more assured than the nights sky.
I rip into the lobby and a man looks up boredly from the TV. He says something that sounds like a question.
"Uh, one room. One." I hold up a finger.
He asks me something else. I blink and repeat myself. He rolls his eyes and slaps some paper down on the counter with a pen. There are boxes and numbers arranged on it. I open Dimitri's wallet and scoop out most of the bills in there. I don't know how much it is, I don't even know what kind of money it is but I watch the man glazed over eyes suddenly spark to life. I put it down over the paper.
"One room." I say again sharper.
He snatches up the money and reaches behind him to a wall of keys. He tosses one across the counter.
"Thank you." and I run out.
Dimtiri's head is slumped against the window. I feel like someone has shoved a tennis ball down my throat as I pull the door open and catch his shoulder so he doesn't slide out of the car.
"Dimtiri." It's surprising how steady my voice is. "Dimtiri I got it."
His eyes flutter open. I search the dark brown for him and slowly he comes to find me. "Roza?"
"I got the room. Can you – can you stand?"
"U menya yest' vybor?"
"That's not helpful."
His eyes find me again and a ghost of a smirk plays at his lips. "Help me up."
I wind my arm around his waist as he untangles himself from the seat. He moves like his limbs are made of lead. When he stand his body leans into mine. Under his coat his shirt is completely soaked through and he's hot, too hot.
"Dimitri -"
"Where's the room?"
"I – I don't know. 204? I'm sorry I don't know."
He squints toward the doors closest to us. "They're odd numbers. We're on the upper floor." He lurches forward and I stick to his side keeping him steady. The stairs loom and I pray I'm strong enough for him.
We take them one at a time and its now it truly hits me how bad this is. With every step his breathing gets thinner, more rough and his weight sags on me. He keeps one arm tucked across his torso but the blood still seeps through his fingers and over his hand. The sight of it gives me a surge of strength and I pull him up the last steps and swing us around into the corridor. The rain has picked up and the sky cracks like a whip.
"Here." Dimitri pants as the door bearing 204 finally appears. He slumps against the wall why my stupid fingers try to unlock it. My hair sticks to my face and rain slips under my shirt.
The door swings open and Dimitri rolls himself around the frame and more or less falls into the room. I shadow him and just about manage to direct him to the double bed so he collapses there rather than the floor. I rush back to the door and shut it to the storm.
A part of me had hoped that getting us here, to a safe room would mean everything would be okay because we were away from the problem but i'd been an idiot. Because as the door seals the raging world outside it allows the spotlight to shine on the real problem and there isn't a way to out run it.
I turn back to Dimitri and suppress the instinct to sink down onto the shabby carpet and retreat to the dark place inside.
"Rose - my cellphone." He wheezes. I hesitate and then I'm beside him in an instant. Even in the dimness of the room I can how slick with sweat he is and how pale. I rifle through his pockets until I pull out the phone. "Did they reply?"
I push the home button. "There's nothing. Who do I call? What do I do?"
He tilts his head back and groans. The panic I'd kept at bay releases in a torrent and explodes through my veins. I reach for his face as he falls backward on the bed. "Dimitri! Dimitri what do I do? What do I do?"
I clutch as his shirt as his eyes flutter. Under the fabric I can feel his heart hammering as if it's yelling at him too. His hand finds mine and steers it inside his jacket until it touches on something cold and heavy. I pull out his gun.
"Why are you giving me this?" I whisper and the sky cracks again outside.
His eyes find mine. "...Run."
And then he's pulled away from me, his breathing gets worse and I wonder if his heart is going to explode. I drop the gun and reach for his face, I need him to stay here.
I beg him but the only reply is his shallow, lengthy breaths and then a noise beyond the room, below the storm and outside our door. They'd followed us. I beg him again and slap him because he needs to get up, he needs to.
The thunder outside creeps into my head and terror, that I haven't felt in so long, embraces me like an old friend.
They start to bang on the door and before I know it i've snatched up the gun. It feels so stupid in my hand, a child with a toy trying to play pretend.
The door explodes inward and the wind screeches it's greetings.
"Point that fucking thing away from me!" Spiridon fills up the doorway looking like he's stepped out of hell. The gun trembles between us like a living thing. "If I get shot at again I swear to god i'll -" His gaze sets on Dimitri and his expression drops. He darts across the room and leans across the bed. "Belikov? How long has been down?"
I can't make my tongue work. I can't make my body work. I'm still pointing the gun at the open door. Spiridon spares me a glance before he starts examining Dimitri. He pull back his eye lids, holds two fingers to his neck, runs his hand inside his jacket and pulls up his shirt.
"Jesus christ." Spiridon hisses. Even in the dim light it was still easy to distinguish the black and purple clouding on Dimtiri's skin. The gun hits the floor with a dull thud.
Spiridon turns to me and his voice is flat and brisk. "I came here in one of our cars, under the front passenger seat is a first aid box and a black case. Get it now. NOW."
I run.
I skid and slip on the stairs but I run. Spiridon's abandoned the car across the lot and instead of metres it feels like miles to cross. The back windows shattered and I have mind enough to wonder if that's what Spiridon meant about being shot at again. I retrieve what i'm told and run back. In the room Spiridon's stripped Dimitri of his coat and shirt. The bruising, the old scrapes and the newest red smile of a gash are so bold on his skin – like red paint being splattered across white silk. Emblems of pain and ruin.
My vision starts to blur but all I feel is confused.
"Bring that here," Spiridon snaps. "Close the door."
I bring him the boxes and then put the security bolt across the door. It won't shut otherwise. I drift closer to the bed where Spiridon works, afraid if I get too close then suddenly it will all make sense and be real.
Dimitri might… he might..
"His hearts going to stop." Spiridon says. "Its working too hard which is why he's losing more blood. Here, I need you to staunch it. ROSE."
I move without really knowing how and replace his hands with mine.
"What's that." I hear myself say as he rips open the black box revealing a setting of buttons and wires.
"A defibrillator. I need to restart his heart." He slaps plasters to Dimitri's chest and under his rib cage. We both ignore the horrible, choking noises leavng Dimtri's throat. Spiridon punches the buttons and the box makes a low frequency sound and numbers light a screen. It counts down from 30.
"If you die on me i'll kill you, you sonofvabitch." Spiridon growl. Bloods matted in his eyebrows.
"He won't." He can't.
"Hold it Belikov, twenty seconds and then you can die. Give me fifteen at least."
I'm torn because I want to hit Spiridon for what he's actually saying and how he's saying them so calmly but Dimitri, in his state, has his eyes trained on him and they shine with trust. I can't do anything but grip his hand.
Suddenly his back arches, his eyes are wide and he's gasping like he's under water. "Rose…are you listening…..keep pressure on it…. ROSE" and I know he can't see anything and this is it, this is the edge we're all brought too but can't see what wait for us below before we're shoved off. I see my mother falling to the ground as Dimitri's hand in mine goes slack and collapses on the bed.
The room's suspended in silence.
"Clear." Spirdon says.
Dimitri's body jolts and then Spiridon is leaning over him with his hand folded over his chest and pumping sharply.
The silence ends. I hear cars passing, I hear the rain hitting tarmac, I hear Spiridon counting in time with his pumping.
"If you want him to live you will stop being useless and pressure his fucking wound." I grab the towel and awkwardly manoeuver around him to press it to the cut. Spiridon is cursing. "Can you see the charge? Has it reloaded?"
"Yes."
He pulls back and snatches it up. Dimitri's body convulses again and then the rawest gasp escapes him and he starts to joke. Spiridon is talking to him but I can't process meaning to the words. I'm crying and I've never, never been so happy.
/
Dimitri is asleep. Asleep, not dead. Every thirty seconds or so I find myself watching his chest just to make sure is rises after it falls just to be sure. But I have to look away because eventually I start to take in the bruising, the swelling, the cuts and the bandages and I have to swallow the golf ball in my throat and dig my nails into the gritty carpet.
Most of those injury's weren't from today but he pretended he was fine. Spiridon explained, as we cleaned him down, that he and Ben had encountered Strigoi whilst they were scouting the old nest but neither of them had admitted how bad the encounter had been. Also with Dimitri's injuries he bet he'd been able to play it off with pain killers and adrenaline sachets. The same energizing mix he'd gave me back the masters house.
I had to bite my tongue and by his darkening tone I knew he was more pissed off than he was showing, and Spiridon never minded showing.
I turn away as Dimitri's chest rises to where Spiridon is sprawled out in the shabby chair, it doesn't look comfortable but he looks too exhausted to care. Bloods crusted on his face, under his nose and in his eyebrows and i'm pretty sure his neck is burned from the fire one of the Moroi's was throwing. Plus, a Moroi was fighting a Dhampir...with magic and they weren't shy about it either. The bigger the world gets the weirder it is.
"We should clean you up. Before something gets infected."
He doesn't even look up. I get up off the floor and go to the bathroom for a fresh towel, if you can call the rough as rocks towels here fresh, dampen it with warm water and get the kit from the bed. Dimitri's chest rises.
I perch on the armrest and decide I'm too tired to be self-conscience as I start cleaning him up. A minute later he seems to realise I'm there.
"Why are you being nice to me." He takes the towel starts rubbing his his face with more vigour.
"I'm not. I just figure you're the only one who'll know what to do next."
He chuckles. "Good. I don't like charity."
"Being nice isn't charity."
"Sure it is. The only time you get something for nothing is when someone pities you." He says and then lifts himself heavily out of the chair and disappears into the bathroom.
"How did you know where we were?" I ask when he comes back.
"This is Spot B. We plan for the worst too, kid. Something goes tits up we split, go to a rendezvous zone, wait for a day or two, assess the situation, get home."
"Where are Ben and Victor?"
"Half way to America by now if Ben has any sense, or Canada."
"Why not wait?"
"Victors too important. At first opportunity we get him out – if they wait a day the airports and private airfields could be compromised. Although, the snake seemed more interested in holding onto you than him." He looks thoughtful and I remember the look on Zmey's face as he held my chain. I touch my throat. He sighs, "I can't think."
"I have salve for your neck." I dig out the little travel pot from my pocket. "Its the stuff from the alchemist, you should only need a small bit."
He takes it from me and walks back to the chair, drags it in front of the broken door and collapses into it. I look around the floor. It's not that bad and it's not like i'll sleep much anyway.
"Belikov's not going to be doing much rolling around – get into bed." I look at the double bed that Dimitri's occupying half off. "And he doesn't snore."
I feel heat on the back of my neck. It didn't seem right getting in beside him when he's not aware...and hurt. What if I rolled over on him?
"Be grateful, you could be in the crappy chair but fortunately for you, you weigh as much as twig so if someone comes kicking in the door again i'd have to peel you off the wall."
"You're so sweet, have I told you that?"
"Always thinking of others." He turns his face away.
I slip off my shoes and gently slide under the covers, keeping as much distance between us as I can. Spiridon's tucked the sheets around his waist. So much muscle, so much discipline and yet he's lying here broken. I once thought Guardians solid and incapable of being hurt – I never thought i'd be sorry to be wrong.
Moments later Spiridon's soft snores fill the room and even though I think there'd no possible way to sleep I slowly start to drift away, watching his chest rise and fall slowly until i'm back in the forest where we first met.
Hello, angels. It's been a long time. I won't bore you as to why - but i'm back. I expect this might read a bit inconsistently and i do apologise. I've been sitting on this chapter for over a year so we've not been friends. I hope it at least eases you back in.
Thank you so much for reading xx