The drive to Baia passed in no time at all. It was still dark out, the sun wasn't due to rise until 8 am. Dimitri says that it is normal this time of year for the sunrise to be delayed. The time during the day gets shorter and nights get longer.
One of the main reasons Lissa and I chose to stay in Portland was due to the cloud coverage. For Moroi, while the sunlight does not hurt them like they do Strigoi, the daylight is draining and can be very irritating. The clouds provided a protection to her skin while still keeping her safe due to the sunlight.
Here in Baia, the cloud coverage is still good while the daylight aspect could use some work. The Strigoi like to hunt in places with weather like this because they could use the early nightfall to their advantage.
Due to the high number of Dhampirs in town, Baia was protected from these roaming Strigoi for the most part. While not every Dhampir is a guardian, they have at least completed their training and would put up one hell of a fight.
The Dhampir community here is like the Keepers in this facet. They band together to protect their dwelling and the Strigoi would rather hunt for easier prey elsewhere. For example, the road leading to Baia is extremely dangerous because it is so isolated.
Nonetheless, we have arrived in one piece without running into any problems. As Dimitri pulls into a parking space outside of the old, two story house, the small frail frame of Yeva comes into view. Sitting in her rocking chair, her silver wispy hair shines in the early morning.
Yeva and I have a love/hate relationship. When we first met, she pretended not to speak English. She made Paul, Dimitri's, nephew translate for her after the memorial service Olena put together.
Despite all that, the witch really pushed me to fight. She got me out of the rut I was emerging in and introduced me to another bonded pair just outside of Baia. For this, I owed her everything.
It was thanks to her that I heard about Strigoi being restored. I was able to save the love of my life from a fate worse than death. I still don't fully believe in her so-called 'dreams' but I couldn't deny that she had some sort of weird sixth sense.
As we exited the car, it wasn't Dimitri that Yeva greeted first, it was me. This time, she didn't pretend. I enveloped her in a hug that called for familiarity with a family I have yet to meet. But Yeva greeted me in the same tight embrace.
"Welcome back, Roza." She whispered in my ear with her thick Russian accent.
"I'm glad to be back." My voice cracked slightly. As we pulled away from the hug she looked up at me and her bright brown eyes bore into mine. Her hand cupped my cheek.
"Everything can work out. You need to have faith." Her words shot through me and the thirst for more information raked through my brain.
"Do you know why I am here?" I heard the pleading tone and internally cringed.
"My dreams tell me that you have been given this chance to change your future." There Yeva goes, being cryptic again.
"Do they say how?" I was desperate for answers.
"Just that you will know what to do." I worked very hard not to roll my eyes. I think this was the biggest issue I had with people claiming they have some sort of inside knowledge about the future.
Say something universal because nine out of ten times people are always going to do what they think is right regardless of what anyone's opinion is. If you make a non committal comment and things play out the way the other person likes then you're more likely to be thanked by the person for giving great advice.
I can only handle these people in short doses, so spending the next three months, at least, with Yeva is going to be torture. Sure I am happy to see her now but this feeling is going to wear off quickly.
'She is Dimitri's grandmother' I mutter in my head as I look up into the lightning sky.
"You crossed through time and space but that isn't supposed to be possible. Then again the dead should stay dead. Immorality is supposed to be forever yet somehow it came to an end."
Yeva says this loudly enough for Dimitri and Lissa to hear her. She turns to Dimitri and says something, too fast for me to understand, to him in Russian. He looks shocked and hesitant. But she yells something at him that makes him nod quickly.
I did learn some Russian during my two month stint. Not enough to be fluent but to get me by. Lissa however is fluent, like a proper Princess she speaks three languages, but even she had trouble keeping up with Yeva in her native tongue.
I furrow my brows because this was not the reaction I would have expected of Yeva for seeing her grandson in the first of, I don't know how many years. I could tell that Dimitri was a little put out as well but he refused to meet my gaze.
Yeva ushers us into the house where shockingly the whole family was awake. Then again it is after 7 and the Belikovs were not slouches. As I look around at the faces so much like Dimitri, I am again thrown back to the time when I first met them.
They were sitting at the kitchen table as Olena was cooking breakfast talking to one another. Karolina was heavily pregnant with her daughter Zoya, she would be born on the 15th of this month. Paul, her son, was propping his face into his hands, trying to stay awake. Sonya, who was pregnant last time, had a flat stomach. Viktoria was the only one of Dimitri's family who wasn't here, as she was at school.
My muscles clenched at the thought of Sonya not having her baby. Rolan, is an asshole who doesn't deserve to produce, but despite that she was happy to be pregnant and welcome a daughter into the family.
It was Olena who noticed them first. She had turned to ask the table something when she let out a shriek and dropped the pan and let the blini fall to the floor. She was talking fast in Russian and Karolina and Sonya rushed to him as well.
Now this was the reaction I was expecting. Dimitri was smiling so wide his cheeks must have hurt. Karolina was gesturing to Paul to get up and say hello to his uncle. My heart ached once more as I saw just how similar the two looked alike. The deep brown eyes and dark brown hair that all the Belikovs had, and the height that Paul was still growing into.
Lissa and I hung back and let them catch up. Paul finally pulled himself away from the crowd and noticed us by the doorway.
"Zdravstvuyte," he greets. 'Hello'
This broke up the crowd and Dimitri immediately switched from Russian to English.
"Mama, everyone, this is my charge Princess Vasilisa Dragomir and her friend Rosemarie Hathaway." Dimitri introduced.
Ouch, just his charges friend.
"Please just Rose." I cut in.
"Also just Lissa. I hate being so formal." Lissa chimes in as well.
After all the introductions are made Olena ushers us to the table where she starts to plate our food. Fresh black bread and blini with different jams. Vlad, I missed Olena's cooking.
Dimitri is seated with Sonya and Karolina flanking his sides listening to him raptly between bites of food. Paul, who was excited to see his uncle, told him all about his 10th birthday party next month.
—
The rest of the morning and afternoon passes by quickly as the family catches up and Olena rushes around the house preparing a room for them. She manages to get Sonya away from Dimitri and send her to the store for dinner tonight.
Olena wants to make all of Dimitri's favorite foods.
"Mama, please-" he was cut off by a sharp glare.
"Hush, I only get to see you so often, let me spoil my baby." She says.
"Awww" Lissa and I let out at the same time.
It was so much fun seeing his ears turn slightly pink while he keeps his mask in place.
I follow Olena to the kitchen and feel Dimitri's eyes on me the entire time.
"Olena, is there anything I can do? I'm happy to run to the store with Sonya, or help out, in here."
"Oh, it is sweet of you to ask, Roza, but I got everything. Please rest, I know your journey must have been long." She forcefully pushes me from the kitchen so I go back to the living room.
Everything was just the same as the last time I visited except Zoya's baby things were sitting neatly in the corner of the living room. The hardcover books written in cryllic tucked away on the bookshelves. The home of the person I love the most.
I just wished he knew how much I loved him.
Dinner was a loud affair and the love shown on the Belikovs faces was like being with the Dragomirs again. I didn't get the family upbringing that Dimitri or even Lissa had. While the Dragomirs have always tried to include me once Lissa and I became friends, it wasn't the same as having your own family.
I used to wish that my mother could be just like Olena Belikova. She is a nurturer and it is so easy to talk to her, but now I wouldn't trade my mother for anything. My mother is a badass guardian that people look up to. Janine Hathaway is a force to be reckoned with and I hope that I will be just as badass as her one day.
That doesn't change the fact that I wish I had a close knit family like this one. A place to call home. To go during the holidays and the summer. Guardians don't get much time off because they have to protect their Moroi. They come first. But a selfish part of me wished that I came first, to my mother.
I can't be too upset because I understand where my mother was coming from. She was young when she had me, just starting her career. She wanted people to take her seriously and didn't want to end up like her own mother.
Growing up is also just learning to accept what can't be changed. Janine has changed a lot in the last year that I've gotten to know her. Or maybe it's because I'm no longer giving her the cold shoulder. Our relationship is healing and I don't plan on making the same mistakes as I did last time around.
I was pulled from my train of thoughts by Dimitri's voice.
"And why aren't you in school Paul?" He asked sternly.
"I might have punched this stupid moroi in his stupid face." Paul replied while pushing his food around on his plate. "They suspended me for a week, I will go back on Wednesday."
I snorted
"Rose has done that" Lissa said laughing
"Hey!" I defended myself. "He was asking the younger Moroi to steal for him!"
"So has Dimitri." Karolina ignored my defense.
"Hey!" Dimitri exclaimed, "We aren't talking about me."
The entire table starts to laugh, including Dimitri.
As Olena brings around dessert she finally asks the question. "Dimitri, you know that we love having you here, but what are you doing here? You haven't said a word and you just show up out of the blue with the missing Dragomir Princess."
Lissa quitely wipes her mouth and looks at Olena.
"That's because of me Ms. Belikova, I'm so sorry. I don't feel safe at the academy any more and that's why Rose and I ran two years ago." Lissa starts.
"When Dimitri found us, Lissa wasn't going to go back and Kirova, that's the Headmistress, kicked me out." I continued for her. " I knew that the only way we would be safe was if we went to a Dhampir community where we could blend in. Dimitri mentioned his family and…"
Dimitri says something to her in Russian that I understood as a placating gesture.
"Lissa put in her formal removal from the school and as the Princess she is the head of her family, so they can't force her to go back but that doesn't mean that she wants people to know where she is." I picked it up again.
"One of the main problems was that the Princess was without her guardian and now that I am with her, she is safe." Dimitri finished the story that they had practiced for when the question was finally raised. "It is important that no one outside this house knows who she really is."
Although I didn't appreciate the comment that Lissa was safer with Dimitri than she was with me, even though that is true for the former me, I sucked it up.
Sonya and Karolina showed us to our rooms upstairs. Dimitri reclaimed his childhood bedroom from Viktoria while Lissa and I were put into Sonya's room, next to Dimitri's. Paul's room downstairs, which will become the kids room once Zoya is old enough, is taken over by Sonya and Paul is sharing with his mother until Wednesday when he goes back to school.
Thankfully, Yeva and Olena have their own rooms downstairs or I would have felt even worse for crashing into the Belikov home. I'm hoping that we don't have to stay longer than the New Year which would involve slight overcrowding during the Winter break, but nothing too horrible.
Here is to hoping everything goes according to plan!
AN: Let me know how everyone is feeling! Are we still liking this story? Any notes?