Hi guys! I won't bore with the reasons I've been away. Enjoy :)
When I got home, I found Sonya and Victor seated at the dinner table, a table full of food awaiting my aggressive eating I would no doubt partake in. I may be small, but man, I could eat double my weight. Thank God for genetics. Your vampire genetics, a voice in my mind whispered. A sobering thought. Suddenly I wasn't so hungry anymore. I took my seat across from Sonya, refusing to make eye contact. I had no idea what to say to her all of a sudden, the anger I was consumed with still threatened to escape, but now I just felt… awkard. I would handle this as calmly as I could, I decided. I needed to keep calm for my own sake.
"How was your day?" Sonya asked, shoveling green beans onto her plate. I wasn't the only one in the family with a huge appetite.
I shrugged, taking the bowl of green beans she extended to me. "It was fine. This guy I met took me for a drive and showed me to the school he teaches at." I tried to keep my voice as bland as I could.
Victor looked up, confused. "Belmont is the only school close to here." He lifted his glass of wine and slowly swirled its contents around, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I suppose there is one in Cooper, about an hour and a half away from here. There's no way you'd make it there and back before dinner."
"Sure there is." I said as cheerfully as I could. "St. Vladamir's is only a half hour away." Victor spit his wine out as he took a sip, and Sonya dropped her fork. The loud clang it maked against the glass plate would usually make her flinch, but she just stared at me, shocked.
"Wh-what did you just say?" she shook her head, seeming to try to convince herself she misheard me.
A flash of anger spiked in me at her shock. So much for staying calm. "Oh, come on." I exclaimed. "How long did you think you could hide this from me? Belmont may be far from any other town, but there's no way you could keep this a secret. I was bound to run into someone sometime who knew I wasn't human." Sonya's face paled about three shades at the mention of me not being human. "Fortunately for me, it happened sooner than you expected. You had to have known I would find out." I threw my hands in the air for dramatic effect. "This exactly the best place to hide me."
Sonya glanced quickly at Victor, who had just as much of a shocked expression. Good, that'll teach them, I thought. I couldn't help but feel a bit smug over the whole thing.
"I promised your mom I'd tell you once I felt you were ready if she ever passed." She rested her head in her hands. "I never expected this to be the conversation we would have." She sighed, and sat up straight. "Okay, then. Who is this Guardian you met?"
I hesitated a moment. I didn't want her to forbid me from seeing Dimitri again. I still had so much more I wanted to know, and I had to admit I did enjoy what time I spent with him.
"His name is Dimitri-"
"Belikov. Guardian Belikov." Victor finished for me. I nodded. "I can imagine your meeting him was unpleasant. He's the best there is. There's a reason he was assigned to the Dragomir Princess. They plucked him right out of Russia for the assignment, direct orders from the Queen herself."
Vasilisa, I realized. The last of her family's line. I remembered Dimitri telling me he was there for when she needed an escort. I didn't realize how extensive protection was. I only knew a small amount about Moroi needing protection. Royals such as Vasilisa usually had two guardians assigned to them. I wondered briefly how that would affect plans for her future.
"It wasn't at first." I paused. "Or the second time. The third wasn't great either." Not until the end at least, when his hand was on my cheek, wiping away a tear so gently-
"Excuse me?" Sonya shrieked, pulling me abruptly out of my thoughts. "How did you get into three meetings with him? I want to know everything, Rosemarie" she demanded.
I froze. Shit. My mouth really did not help situations sometimes.
"The night of the bonfire by the beach was the first time. I took a walk on one of the piers and ran into some Moroi and dhampir kids-"
"Students were outside the wards?" Victor exclaimed. He slammed a fist down on the table. "How stupid can they be? Dhampir know better than to put Moroi in a dangerous position. That's what they train their whole childhood for!"
"Will you let me finish?" I snaped. Victor gave me a surprised look, but he stopped talking. "They came and talked to me and and my friend Christian. Christian recognized they were from St. Vladamir's and told me to stay away from them. I had to use the bathroom after that, and I saw three guardians had found them. I tried to stay out of the way and hide behind a corner, but Dimitri found me. After I heard them say the school's name and a few other strange things, I googled the terms I heard. So after I researched the school I convinced Christian to-" I stopped, and thought carefully about how to continue. I really didn't want to get him involved any more than he already was, or get myself into any more trouble.
"You convinced him to what?" Sonya asked through narrowed eyes.
I took a deep breath, then continued. "I convinced him to go to the school with me," Sonya's breathing basically stopped, To go find out for myself what was going on. We got caught, and were taken to separate people to explain why were there. Dimitri picked me up from school yesterday. That's all."
Sonya scoffed. "That's all? Are you kidding me?" I refused to back down under her scornful glare, no matter how badly I want to. I refused to show any weakness. She was in the wrong for not telling me any of this. There was nothing wrong with me looking for the answers no one in my family seemed to think I needed.
"There are two problems with your story, Rose." Victor said. I raised my eyebrows.
"Oh, really? Enlighten me then." I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair.
"One, it's impossible to just Google anything about the vampire races. Humans haven't known about us for hundreds of years. And two, Christian can't have just known about St. Vladamir's. The schools, along with the Royal Court, are the most protected areas in the world. It's impossible to penetrate, unless you know where to go. The roads to the school are hidden by magic. Christian wouldn't have known where to go, unless there's something he hasn't told you. As for the information you found online, that's a mystery of its own."
I frowned. "No, that's impossible. Christian doesn't know anything. He was terrified when he found everything out." My mind raced. There was no way Christian could be one of us. Surely he would have told me.
"Enough of this tonight." said Sonya wearily. She rubbed her forehead with her hand. Exhaustion clouded her features. "We will continue this tomorrow." She stood and threw the cloth that lay across her lap onto her plate of uneaten food. All of us had forgotten about dinner.
I stared down at my own plate, unable to believe what Victor had told me. If Christian knew any of this, that would mean he was a vampire.
Hmmmm what could Christian be hiding? I'm already working on the next couple chapters, so updates will be consistent from now on! Leave me a review and let me know what you think!
