A longer chapter! I enjoyed writing this one. Playing around with Christian's POV can be quite fun. Hope it's an okay read!


Four

Christian

The packet on the table taunted me. It was going to be in there, I knew it. There was no way they'd given me the best novice in the school for the fun of it. They thought my mom posed a threat, and they'd given me Rose.

There wasn't a chance in hell they were going to be putting her as my guardian blind. She'd have to know everything.

She couldn't have read it yet.

The next half an hour was torture. We'd been given the day off to adjust to the field experience, to get to know your partner if you hadn't spoken before. I knew Liss would want to spend it together, the four of us, maybe with Adrian.

Liss had managed to poison time with his friends, now. I didn't want to be with her, listening to her talk about the next royal convention she was going to be attending. There was something new nearly every week now. The Queen had upped her ante, and Lissa would be a fully integrated royal before she graduated.

I had to take advantage of it. I had to suffer through mine and Liss's now-glaring incompatibilities so that the Moroi race stood a chance against what was happening in the Strigoi world. Even if my mom's so-called army wasn't real, or big enough, it would only get worse.

Moroi needed to be able to fight.

Spokane still haunted me, though. The entire ski lodge haunted me. Lissa and I wanted the opposite things out of life. She'd be Queen someday, and I was ready for inner-city living as far away as possible from the vampire world. But I could swallow that, I had to swallow that. I could make a difference, and so what I wanted didn't matter.

The fact I fell more and more out of love with Lissa as every day passed couldn't matter.

Rose looked just as miserable as ever. She hid it well with a fake smile, laughing in all the right places, but her eyes were dead. I'd known Rose long enough now to notice when she was zoned out, filtering buzzwords so she knew how to respond without it looking false.

I hoped she'd get back to normal soon. Mason's death was hardest on her, though.

Leaning back on her chair and ducking out of the conversation she was having with Lissa, Rose turned to me. "I normally train in the mornings and evenings, so I'm not sure what you want to do about that."

"How long for?"

"A couple of hours each time."

I let out a low whistle. It was no wonder she was looking so good recently. Rose had been throwing herself into training more than ever. She was rarely around in the evenings and mornings, normally just stopping to grab a breakfast tinier than mine or Lissa's before classes started. "I mean, I'm not much of a morning person, to be honest."

Rose didn't hide her disappointment well. "No worries. Just let me know what you feel like doing on a day-to-day basis, if you want. I'm not tied to anything."

"I train in the evenings sometimes, too." My offensive magic needed constant work to keep it up to scratch, and my Aunt emailed me with new moves and techniques to try. It was best practiced in the woods, just when the sun was starting to rise and I knew I wasn't going to be interrupted. "Normally out away from the campus, though. I don't know if you could train out there. I wouldn't really feel comfortable training in the gym."

Rose's ears seemed to visibly perk at the mention of my offensive magic. "That's cool. I can do some running and stuff."

We decided to go to the library after everyone had finished eating. Liss and I had homework to do, and Eddie and Rose didn't have a choice.

I watched Rose from the corner of my eye as she opened the packet and began reading.

When she found the bit about my mom, her eyes widened, and met mine. I swallowed, and begged her not to say anything right now. She stared at me, hard, before averting her gaze and continuing to read as though nothing had happened.

It was a painful ten minutes before I decided I really ought to go and speak to Rose about what had happened. I hadn't seen it yet: hadn't seen her looking at me with those big brown eyes, feeling sorry for my poor, poor predicament.

It would come, though. I had no doubts.

Maybe not from her, but from Liss. Because I had to tell her now.

"I forgot my textbook," I told Liss, folding my things into my bag. "I need to go fetch it. I won't be long."

As soon as we were out of the library, Rose turned her accusatory stare on me. "What the fuck?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "How much was in there?"

"Photocopies of the notes and pictures."

"Shit."

"What do you mean, shit? When were you planning on telling me this? On telling Liss. She has no idea."

"I was going to tell you eventually, obviously. I just needed to get my head around it."

"The date on the first note is from a month ago. That's only a week after we got back from the ski lodge. Fucking hell, what were you thinking? You can't keep secrets like that from Liss, she's going to be devastated."

Of course Rose was only thinking about Liss.

She massaged her temples. "Christian you're in so much danger and you've been practising your magic, alone, in the middle of the forest? Why didn't you just ask me to come with you? You wouldn't have even had to tell me why."

I rubbed a hand on the back of my neck. "I didn't want to tell anyone."

"Does Tasha know?"

"Yes."

"I guess at least that's something. So, the school and Tasha know. What are they doing about it?"

"What they can." I did air quotes around the phrase.

Rose threw her hands up. "Someone has threatened the school and one of the students with a fucking army of Strigoi and they're doing what they can?"

I chuckled. Well, the pity definitely wasn't going to come from Rose, and I was glad. "My Aunt is flying in soon. They'll take her more seriously."

Something in Rose changed. The fire in her died for just a moment, replaced by a deep seated helplessness I didn't understand. Then it was gone, and she'd hidden it almost perfectly. "Good." She rubbed at her eyes with the palm of her hands. "Shit, Christian, I can't believe you didn't tell me."

The thing is, I would have told Rose. If Lissa wasn't in the picture, I'd have told Rose in an instant, because of the reaction she was having now. She was hard, efficient, angry. She would have been able to help me feel better about it.

But I couldn't have told Rose and expected her to hide it from Liss. It wouldn't have been fair.

"I'm sorry." And I meant it. "I just didn't know how. I can't deal with Liss fussing around me and pitying me. I don't want our relationship dynamic to change because of this."

"Just tell her that," Rose said, though I could see by her face she knew exactly what I meant. "She'll try and tone if down if you're honest, I'm sure."

"Well, I guess I have to tell her now. I'm not going to make you lie to her."

We reached my room. It was completely bare except a few books, clothes and my bed. It was going to be weird living with someone. It had always been just me. Even Liss rarely stayed the night. We met in the attic at the church and retired to our own rooms afterwards.

I hoped I wasn't too loud when I woke up in the night.

Rose perched on the edge of his bed, hands in her lap. She looked exhausted, slouched and with obvious bags under her eyes.

She looked up at me, trying to gauge something. "Are you okay, though?"

"I'm sure I will be."

"Well, if you ever want a non-pity-filled chat, I'll be here for literally six solid weeks."

I chuckled. Maybe I'd take her up on it at some point. "Thanks."

An awkward silence settled over the room. I could almost feel Rose's need to barrage me with questions, but she managed to hold back. Her eyes flashed over the picture I kept on my dresser of me and my Aunt. A sigh escaped her lips. "Well, I guess we should go back to Liss. You were only getting a textbook, after all."

That didn't make me feel any better. Maybe answering Rose's questions would be more fun.

"I don't know how to tell her," I said, running a hand over my face and taking a seat beside her. "You're right, it's been too long."

"Just tell her the truth. Or, well, lie a little bit and tell her that you were just so upset about the whole thing that you couldn't bring yourself to tell her."

"That's only going to get me pity."

She lifted a shoulder. "I'm not very good at diplomatic conversations, sorry."

I laid back and stared at the ceilings. "What if she comes here, my mom. You read the note. Kills all my friends, turns me. I mean, an army of Strigoi, it's not exactly a small threat."

Rose turned to look at me, eyes distant. "I don't know. We can only do our best."

"Our best includes teaching Moroi how to fight." Maybe testing the waters with Rose would be the best idea. Maybe then we could go to Liss together, get her to take up the cause. She'd already spoken about it at the ski lodge, I knew she was in favour of the Moroi learning how to fight.

"True. Liss is all buddy-buddy with the Queen and the royals now. Get her on your cause and you'll be laughing."

"I've just been putting off thinking about it."

"I don't blame you." Rose looked like she'd been putting off thinking about a lot of things, too. "Okay. Let's go back to the library. You need to tell Liss, sooner rather than later. Just rip the Band-Aid off."

I sighed, forcing myself up and off the bed. "Let's go, then. Get it over and done with, I suppose." I was slipping up around her already, talking about Liss as if she was a burden. I needed to rein myself in. Liss was my girlfriend, and I loved her.

End of story.