L-pov
We were quietly talking in my room. Christian tough trusting Dimitri somewhat had insisted on being there, for my sake. I had agreed as long as he pretended to be there for Dimitri's sake and not my safety. We were discussing the usual, his guilt and trying to find ways to move past it. Something had happened with Rose yesterday at church but I didn't know what. All I knew was that Dimitri had been a wreck ever since. I hadn't actually talked to Rose yet but sent her a message trough the bond not to disturb Dimitri anymore. I knew it was hard on her but she had to understand he couldn't heal with her around.
Suddenly my phone rang. I had just gotten it and was slightly confused as to who it could be other than Tatiana needing me for something but she would send a guard or servant instead. I picked it up casually assuming it was wrong number. The voice at the end made my blood freeze. I didn't recognize it but the tone and the message sent chills down my spine.
"Today is the day Rose Hathaway dies." An ice-cold voice announced. Christian quickly sensed something was off and took the phone from me.
"Hello?" He asked and then his face turned as pale as mine. We both looked at Dimitri who, thanks to his dhampire hearing had heard it too.
"We need to get to her." Christian said before storming off towards her room. He was furiously banging on the door when we arrived and shouting for her to open. I took over, knocking more lightly and called out her name. she didn't open and I had to raise my voice, on the verge of shouting before finally, the door opened.
"Geezz, try knock a little hard it might work." Rose said sarcastically when opening. She was dressed in in jeans with sway at the bottom and a Fall out boy, t-shirt with a V-neck that I didn't even knew she owned. Her hair was in a messy pony with shreds of hair hanging down, framing her face. I ignored her sassy attitude and pushed my way in.
"We need to pack your things and get you out of here." I yelled trough the apartment and went straight to her closet looking for a bag to start throw things into. Christian followed but Dimitri stayed at the door. However instead of helping me pack Christian stopped and looked at her sofa-table.
"Damn, what the hell is that." Rose looked sheepish and scratched her neck.
"Just my medication…" she trailed off. That didn't seem right, the only medication Rose took was sleeping pills and there were at least five different bottles on the table. I frowned but kept packing while commenting.
"You don't use that kind of pills." I mused and she looked uncomfortable.
"I uh, I am mixing medication!" she exclaimed and we looked at her shocked.
"That is right," she said with an expression that looked like she was trying to convince herself too. "I am high!" she declared somewhat proudly and I stopped packing to look at her worried. Christian picked up one of the bottles and examined it.
"Must be some high, this stuff is strong enough to kill a horse. Rose… are you trying to commit suicide?" He sounded genuinely concerned and Rose looked frantic from side to side then sighed and placed her hand on her hip.
"Well yeah, why did you need anything? Because I can postpone it if you need my help, I mean it is not like it is going anywhere." She let out a nervous laugh to cover up her suicide joke. I roughly gave Christian the back and came over to stand closer to her.
"Why would you do that?" I asked both in anger and despair. She shrugged.
"Well I just arranged a prison break, united an army of guardians and helped restore a strigoi to his original state. I mean when is my life going to top that? I figured I might as well stop now while I am on top and go out with a bang." She did a finger gun and I was outraged at how easy she was taking this. I was about to say something but she cut me off.
"Anyway why did you come here? I got to be honest I sort of figured Adrian would be the one to find me." I shook my head trying to shake of the weird vibe she was giving me.
"Someone is going to kill you, we need to get you out NOW!" She looked shocked then considerate then she dumped down on the couch.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled at her but she just shrugged.
"What? This is perfect! I mean I thought I would have to do this myself," she gestured to the table and its content, "And now you come in and tell me there is someone coming to do it for me? That is like the most luck I have had since… I don't even know!" I stared at her in disbelief then sighed, knowing Rose and knowing when she had set her up to something we couldn't do anything about it.
"Dimitri!" He came in immediately taking in the scene; Christian packing, pills all over the table and Rose sitting stubbornly on the couch.
"Princess what is going on here?" He asked me and I didn't even want to get into it. I sighed and held out my hand towards Rose.
"She isn't coming willingly, could you, please?" I asked, hating to put him in a situation to close to Rose but he nodded, willing to do anything for me. When he looked at Rose I saw the pain briefly cross his features then his face hardened again.
"Easy or the hard way?" he asked her, referring to some earlier event between them. She just stared straight ahead ignoring us.
"I am not moving!" she said stubbornly and he sighed then went over and threw her over his shoulder and carried her out that way. She kicked and screamed the entire way but he didn't seem faced. Christian and I followed with her bag quickly making our way towards more secure places when suddenly we heard a loud bang behind us. Rose gasped in surprise from where she hung over Dimitri's shoulder and therefore could see the building behind us. We turned to see flames out her window. If we had still been there the explosion would have killed us all.
"A bomb?" Rose exclaimed. "Awesome! That would have been going out with a bang!" I ignored her suicide joke as Dimitri placed her on the ground and dragged her by the arm. We hurried towards the council room where I was sure we were guaranteed more safety. We crossed three guardians on the way and I relaxed till suddenly two of the pulled their guns and started shooting at us, or more exactly Rose who just stood there, as if wanting the bullets to hit her. Dimitri too realized Rose was going to do nothing to save her own life and threw her over his shoulder again making a run for it. We somehow made it to the council building without being hit and Dimitri placed her down again once we were inside the door.
"What is the matter with you! Why didn't you try to dodge those bullets?!" He yelled at her with thick accent. She just raised both eyebrows.
"Have you been paying attention at all to the conversation or-" she was cut off by a yell from deeper inside the building.
"Hey you!" Another guard stood there and suddenly he was in front of us, stake raised going for Rose. He was outnumbered and Dimitri had him knocked out in seconds, though Rose did everything in her power to get in the way. He shot her another angry glare but we didn't have time for him to yell at her again. We needed a new safe place and I sprinted towards the exit and made my way to the queen's chambers where I knew there was safe. We got there and ran straight into Tasha who looked startled.
"Oh hi Tasha!" Rose said somewhat cheerful. "The craziest thing just happened. I was about to commit suicide and then Lissa comes in saying someone is going to kill me! I mean how crazy is it-" She was cut off by Tasha throwing a fireball at her. It apparently shocked her enough she at least dodged it.
"What the hell?!" she exclaimed right as Tasha attacked her again. This time Rose sprang into action and quickly had Tasha knocked to the ground. I took her wrist and pulled her to Tatiana's main chamber where we almost fell over another guard who had his stake raised about to stake Tatiana. When he saw us however he turned and went after us or well, Rose. She dodged again and looked outraged all of a sudden.
"Is that MY stake?" she exclaimed and dodged again. I didn't know what her stake looked like but I knew a guardians' stakes was like their trademark. And boy was Rose pissed! In blind rage she jumped him and knocked the stake out of his hand and wrestled him to the ground. She struggled with him as he was much bigger and Dimitri stepped in, knocking him out and pulling Rose up.
"Come on we have to get you out." He grumbled and pulled her by the arm. We went straight across court and ran into Adrian. I don't know what happened but he cast one glance at them then jumped in to tear them apart. Dimitri was so surprised he actually let go. Rose took this as an escape option and went off. Dimitri was quick trough and quickly had her on the ground face down.
"Could you at least cooperate?" he growled while fighting to keep her still. She stilled a moment and pretended to think about it then sneered.
"hmm let me see… no." He sighed and looked up in time to block Adrian's fist coming towards him. Adrian was unexperienced, and unpracticed and Dimitri just brushed him aside as if he was an annoying fly.
"Get away from her! Haven't you done enough?!" Adrian screamed at him and I sent Dimitri a questioning look which he didn't answer to. He looked conflicted for a moment with Rose still wiggling underneath him. Then decision crossed hi features and he drew fast his fist and hit Rose on the side of her head so fast I didn't even have time to react. She slumped on the ground unconscious and he threw her up on his shoulder again, this time without the fear of being hit by a kicking leg.
"No! Let go of her!" Adrian yelled again and tried to approach Dimitri but gave up, knowing he didn't stand a chance. Then he looked at me, eyes burning with anger and disgust.
"How can you let him do that? She is your best friend, how can you just let him treat her like that, hurt her so much?" I wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about, but I could tell it was more than just Dimitri knocking her out. We didn't have time for that drama however.
"We need to get her out of here, someone is trying really hard to kill her. Now you can come with if you can keep up but we don't need any more resistance." I filled him in briefly and he only took a moment to decide.
"Fine, but only because I am not leaving her with him again." I rolled my eyes but turned to Christian.
"What do we do?" he looked speculative then got an idea.
"We take her to the guardians' headquarter. Someone there should be willing to help get her out and we need a car." Dimitri shook his head.
"We can't, those who attacked us were guardian's too, we don't know how many assassins are out there but we know some of them are our own. Bringing her to the headquarter would be like taking a moroi into a strigoi nest, we have to find another way to get her out." He argued logically.
"Or we could just use my car." Adrian suggested and we all turned to look at him.
"You got a car?" I asked, not even sure why I was surprised. He rolled his eyes.
"I am a twenty-one, year-old rich playboy, what do you think Lissa?" He didn't wait for a response but indicated we should follow him. Apparently there was a giant underground parking lot in the middle of court. Adrian talked to the moroi in the front booth who handed him a key and then we took the elevator six levels down to where he had a Range Rover parked. We were about to get in when Christian pointed out another problem.
"We can't get trough the front gates." He said suddenly looking around the group. I sighed.
"What do you mean we can't, of course we can!" He shook his head.
"No we can't. They won't let you leave unguarded."
"We have two guardians with us." I pointed out.
"We have one, unconscious and degraded guardian and one possibly dangerous, former guardian." Adrian pointed out. He was right no way they would let us out. I threw my hands up.
"Well then what do we do?" Christian thought for minute then his brightened.
"We might be able to get out." We looked at him questionly and he elorated.
"Adrian needs to drive for obvious reasons but that could work. Everyone knows he is in a relationship with Rose so we can put her in the back and tell them she is sleeping. If you can make them see me as a guard then we can pretend Adrian and Rose are on a last romantic getaway before she gets assigned elsewhere. You and Dimitri would have to hide in the trunk but that way we could get trough." I frowned. He was right about most part but I didn't really want to ride in the trunk with Dimitri. The ride with Rose and Eddie had been really close and I didn't want to experience that again. Besides I wasn't sure Dimitri would be comfortable being so close to someone at this point.
"Why can't I just charm the rest of us too?" I asked getting a little mad.
"You can't hide Dimitri's height, that is too advanced and he is too recognizable. Me riding trough the gates with two girls, one being Rose, they would easily figure out you were the other even if you were disguised. Christian is right, this is the only way it could work. Otherwise we would have to either put all three of you in the trunk or leave you and Dimitri behind." Adrian said wisely, knowing the limits of spirit. I sighed but knew he was right.
"Do you have any silver?" I asked and they both looked at each other uncomfortable.
"No.."
"I am pretty sure her necklace is of silver." Dimitri nodded towards Rose who he had placed in the Rover's open trunk. I frowned.
"I don't want to charm her necklace, it is really personal for her, it seems like a violation." Christian let out a loud noise of impatience.
"Well we don't really got other options right now!" I knew he was right but it still bothered me. I went over and carefully removed it from her neck then tried to send as much energy into it as I could. I gave it to Christian who wrapped the chain around his wrist. It didn't scold I'm which was good. Adrian nodded satisfied.
"He definitely looks dhampir if I don't use spirit to look at him. Let's get settled." He ordered and pushed Dimitri out of the way so he could take Rose from the trunk. Glaring at Dimitri he picked her up bridal style and placed her carefully in the back seat. We stood a moment staring at the trunk, trying to figure out how to fit. Finally Dimitri came up with a plan, pointing out the trunk, due to the height of the car was big enough that we could sit up straight. Then we could be leaning on either side and have our legs towards each other. It was a good plan that required as little body contact as possible, confirming he was as uncomfortable as I. Adrian closed the trunk and started the car driving off. The trip up to ground floor was pretty bad due to the many turns but we made it to the front gates in no time. Adrian stopped and we could vaguely hear his conversation with the guardian on watch.
"No one is supposed to leave, there was an attempted assassination of the queen." The guard told him grumpily.
"Yeah I heard, but my girlfriend and I had this squealed for weeks. Don't want to be delayed." Adrian said, voice laced with charm and compulsion.
"Is that guardian Hathaway?" the guard asked and I realized he must have looked into the car.
"Yeah lucky me huh? You didn't think I meant this stud when I said girlfriend right?" Adrian laughed and I could only assume he was pointing towards Christian who looked like a guardian thanks to the charm. The guard laughed.
"No certainly not. I can't let you go however. The queen said Rose fought off her attacker and we are going to be needing her testimony." Fuck, we hadn't even spared Tatiana another thought when we ran off.
"It can wait till later." Adrian said calmly and I realized he had tuned up the compulsion.
"It can wait till later." The guard repeated.
"You'll let us trough and wish us a good trip without asking where we are going." Adrian said again. A minute later the sound of the gates opening reached us and the guard wished Adrian a good trip with his girlfriend then we were off. A few minutes later Adrian pulled up and let us out.
"Christian is going in the back seat with you, I've taken Rose up to the passenger seat." He told us and I merely nodded and sat in the backseat between Christian and Dimitri.
"So what do we do now?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Right now we find a hotel, then we make calls." I was confused, who would we need to call?
"Calls to who?" He shrugged.
"Her dad, her mom, anyone who can help really." I nodded and leaned my head against Christian's shoulder. All this running had teared on my energy and I suddenly felt myself slipping into a deep sleep.