Sorry again for the late update! I've just moved back to Copenhagen after a wild Christmas, but I'm settled back in again for the start of the semester, so hopefully they'll be more regular updates again from now on.

I think that there's not SO many chapter left now, anyway!


Twenty-Nine

Christian

It was Saturday afternoon when Rose and I headed towards Aunt Tasha's cabin. She was going to cook us dinner and then we were going to sit and play board-games and cards all evening. There was an energy between Rose and I as we walked. Her excitement seemed to reinvigorate me, and the awkwardness died down because we were going to be around people, so there was no chance of us slipping up and accidentally sleeping with each other.

It was just going to be a nice night, the four of us.

I knocked on the door, and Aunt Tasha opened it, ushering us in. The stove made the place toasty, and Rose and I settled into the couch. Dimitri was sat at the table, and observed us with a mask in place. I had no idea what he was thinking, and I felt sure I probably didn't want to. He was too shrewd for his own good.

"It's so good to see you!" my Aunt chorused as she passed Rose a glass of wine. "We're celebrating, well, kind of, so we're starting drinking early."

Rose laughed and accepted the glass with a, "thank you," and I took one, too.

The conversation flowed easily between us. Even though Rose and I made an effort not to touch each other where we sat on the couch, we still joked and chatted as though nothing had ever happened.

"I wish I could cook like this," Rose said as we dug into our food. It was a paella that Aunt Tasha had made. "When Liss and I ran away she did all the cooking. I could barely make pizza without burning it."

Aunt Tasha gave a tinkly laugh. "Practice makes perfect. I was at the burning pizza stage once, too. Christian can cook, you know. In summer I always make him cook for me."

Rose raised her brows at me, and I shrugged. "I'm not as good."

"I can't believe I was eating school dinners all the way through the field experience when I could have been having homemade meals every night."

I laughed. "I don't know where you think I could have gotten hold of a stove and food to cook with."

"Fair point, I suppose. I'll give you that one."

After dinner, Aunt Tasha pulled out a box. "I made Dimka drive me to the mall so I could buy us some new games to play. I feel like forcing Rose into cards again might be a bit cruel."

"I wasn't that bad," Rose complained, but she looked pleased at the idea we might be doing something she was better at.

Aunt Tasha put two boxes on the table. One was Pictionary and the other Monopoly.

"Oh no, not Monopoly," Rose said. "Me and Liss played that so much when we were on the run. It takes forever, too. Let's try Pictionary."

The rules looked simple enough. Split into teams, one draws whatever is on the card, and the other has to guess what they're drawing. Naturally, Rose and I were one team, Aunt Tasha and Dimitri the other.

"Okay, we both draw first round and whoever can guess fastest gets to go first," Dimitri read from the rules. "Sounds easy enough."

It was decided that me and Dimitri would draw first. I looked at the card. Volcano. I could definitely draw that.

Aunt Tasha turned over the timer and I hurried to draw it on the page.

"Volcano!" Aunt Tasha said, grinning.

I glared at Rose.

She held her hands up.

"Please don't tell me you're going to be bad at this, too. Should I switch teams before we get started?"

Dimitri looked aghast. "I'm not switching teams with anyone."

Rose glared at him, and took a long gulp of her wine. "We're going to crush you guys," she stated. "Christian, up your drawing game."

I scowled at her, and she grinned cheekily, grabbing the timer. "Okay, it's your turn, then."

But a knock on the door interrupted us. Everyone in the room frowned, and Aunt Tasha got up from her chair to open it. "Lissa! Eddie!" she greeted, ushering them inside. Lissa cast a blank look at where Rose and I were sat on the couch, and then looked at what we were doing.

I hoped Rose had drunk enough wine that she couldn't feel whatever Lissa was. I knew it wasn't good.

Rose's stiffness managed to fade almost immediately, though I knew she was making a conscious effort.

"Sorry," Lissa muttered, looking at me. I met her gaze head-on and refused to give anything away. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Of course you didn't! Come on, join the game. We only just started, so you can play. You and Eddie can be a team. The rules are really simple."

"Please, this is my perfect opportunity to pawn Rose off on someone so she doesn't drag down my artistic skill."

Rose snatched my poor attempt at a volcano, and then took Dimitri's. "Artistic skill," she mocked. "It's too late for that, anyway, I've declared victory on your team, and now I have to make good on that promise."

I rolled my eyes. "I guess I'm stuck with you, then."

Aunt Tasha had poured a glass of wine for the newcomers. "Sorry, I've only got four wine glasses in here. I hope you don't mind having tumblers."

"Of course not." Eddie smiled as he took both glasses and handed one to Lissa.

The game, for the most part, went off without a hitch. I could feel Lissa looking at me, but I did my best to avoid her. She had no idea I knew what she was thinking, so I couldn't give it away without letting her know that Rose knew everything.

Both Rose and I stopped drinking after that. Loosening up so much that we slipped and looked more friendly than we should would have been a bad idea. Rose maintained a guarded expression whenever she looked at me after Lissa joined the game.

We were all neck and neck when we got to the end. It was mine and Rose's turn to go first at the final hurdle. If we guessed within the time limit, then we'd have won.

Rose was drawing, and I had to admit she was a better drawer than me.

She grabbed the card and looked at it, her face falling.

I scowled. That wasn't good.

"Just give me a minute," she said, biting her lip and looking at the piece of paper. Then her eyes brightened. "Okay, I'm ready."

We huddled over the paper, and she began to draw. I immediately recognised where she was going. It was a hurried replica of the image she'd shown me in the offensive magic book before the attack; the man whipping the other man on the bum with a fire whip.

I stared, mouth open, but not understanding what it was supposed to mean.

"Our category is person," Rose said, teeth gritted.

"Oh. Right. Henry," I said. It was the name of the relative who had written the book.

She beamed, and began drawing again. It was a door, with someone knocking on it.

"Knocking," I guessed. She nodded, and gestured with her hand for me to keep going. "Knocked. Knocks." She pointed at me. "Henry Knocks."

"Yes!" she exclaimed, just as the time ran out. "Henry Knox."

Everyone was looking at the paper like we'd gone mad. "Who on Earth is Henry Knox?" I asked her.

"Not a clue." She grabbed our counter, and slammed it on the finish line. "We win!"

I beamed too, and everyone groaned. "Now you get to experience us both being sore winners!" I told Aunt Tasha, and she just shook her head.

"You two are unbearable. I only agreed to this because I was sure I'd win."

Rose and I laughed, and high-fived. "Pictionary was definitely better than cards."

We both leant back on the couch, smug smiles on our faces, and Dimitri chuckled at us. "I still don't understand how that was supposed to be Henry," he said, gesturing to Rose's crude drawing.

I grabbed one the right book off the pile that currently sat on Aunt Tasha's table. "It was in one of the offensive magic books." I flicked to the right page and showed him. "Written by Henry Ozera." I showed Lissa and Eddie, too, who grinned.

"It's pretty close to curfew, you know," Eddie said, checking his watch. "We'd only planned on stopping by."

Rose and I glanced at each other. We'd been planning on staying far later than curfew, but knew that with Liss and Eddie here it wouldn't be the same. "Yeah, we should probably head back," Rose said.

We all stood up and hugged each other. They were leaving in two days' time, and so this was the last time we'd all be together like this. I'd maybe ask Rose if she wanted to come back with me tomorrow, to say a proper goodbye, just the two of us. It had become habit for the four of us to sit and talk into the evenings during the field experience, and I knew everyone involved missed that.

Then the four of us were heading back to campus, and an almost awkward silence descended on us. I wished it was just Rose and I; we'd have spent the walk back laughing about the good night, not allowing anything to bring us down.

Now, Rose stuck by Eddie's side and barely lifted her gaze from the ground. Liss was close by my side.

I wondered if the bond had come back to life; it was a while since Rose and I had stopped drinking, and she was probably sober by now.

Eddie and Rose headed off towards the Dhampir dorms, which left Lissa and I alone. "Is there something going on between you and Rose?" she asked as soon as we were alone.

"We're friends," I answered, trying to control my face.

"I've seen the way you look at her, you like her."

I lifted a shoulder. "She's your best friend, I'd never tell her that I like her."

"Even if she liked you back?"

"I don't think she does."

Lissa sighed. "I can't help myself being bitter towards her. I hate feeling like that. She's my best friend."

"I'm sorry," I said, and I almost meant it. I was sorry for getting in between Rose and Lissa, but I couldn't bring myself to be sorry for having fallen in love with her.

"It's not your fault, you can't help how you feel, I just—" she shrugged. "It's difficult. I barely even see her anymore. She's training all the time."

"After graduation it'll be different. She'll be your full time Guardian, and you'll be at college together."

"I guess so," she admitted. "I just want things to go back to how they were."

"It's not her fault that I like her. Besides, I hardly spend any time with Rose, anyway. Like you said, she's training all the time."

"I know it's not her fault, I'm just jealous." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, pausing at where we'd be taking different corridors. "Do you know what you're doing after graduation yet?"

I tried my best not to flinch. "I'm not really decided."

"You're going to follow her to Court, aren't you?"

I did flinch at that. "I'm going to follow all my friends to Court, Liss. I finally have people that I like and that like me. I don't want to just give that up."

She sighed again. "Yeah, I know. Just ignore me. I'll get over it eventually."

I shifted my weight uncomfortably, guilt gnawing at me. If she knew the truth about everything, she probably wouldn't get over it all eventually.

"Anyway." She took a deep breath and gave me one of her dazzling smiles. It no longer did anything to me like it used to. "I'm going to sleep. I'm sorry for nagging you."

"I'm your friend, you can talk to me about stuff that's bothering you." Though I'd have rather she never brought up my feelings for Rose ever again.

"I know. It's just still a bit strange for me."

"I know. It'll all seem normal soon, though."

"I hope so. Night, Christian."

"Night, Liss."