CHAPTER VIII - Summertime

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

Summertime

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy's rich

And your ma is good lookin'

So hush, little baby, don't you cry

I lay back on the poolside recliner, twirling a strand of hair in one hand and holding my phone in the other. The bean-shaped pool in the backyard was empty except for leaves and debris.

The near-dusk air chilled my skin as the sky turned from blood orange to pale pink within minutes. I was awake before anyone else, before most vampires even think of waking, so I've been enjoying the evening as it turns to dusk.

I tried typing in searches for curses that would go after the loved ones of the cursed, and I found a few results on black widow murderesses, but nothing that spoke to what I was going through.

I hadn't had any more… interesting growths coming from my body in the five nights since almost being killed by archers. I could almost convince myself that I'd imagined the seed descending from my hair or the thorns poking out of my back.

I searched for what could be causing this on my phone - different kinds of curses and magical abilities with plants.

I considered that this could be another unknown side effect of the spirit bond, since Lissa has always had an affinity with plants - maybe my best friend was slowly turning me into one as my soul sucked on dark energy from the bond. I thought this even though Lissa never had these kinds of side effects.

I scrolled through fictions and spiritual guides that offer advice on transcending to awaken the mind and soul. Nothing particularly useful, or that answered my questions. Nothing referenced thorns and seeds.

One article stuck out to me and I bookmarked it to share it with Anastasia during therapy later. It didn't answer my questions about what was growing out of me, but it caught my attention.

HOW TO USE NATURE AS A COPING MECHANISM

Survivors of trauma often gain a new appreciation, or add to an existing appreciation of nature. This relationship between trauma and nature is known as the Daphne Effect. This appreciation may manifest as a desire to be outside, to take walks and hikes, or a desire to cultivate and care for living things.

A recent study done at Stanford University found that survivors of a violent traumatic event reported less stress and more positive cognitive schemas when they regularly planned activities outside.

The Daphne Effect refers to an ancient Greek myth about the naiad, or water nymph, of the same name. Daphne was pursued relentlessly by the god Apollo, so much so that her father turned her into a tree before she could be caught, ensuring that no man would ever harm her. It is said that Artemis, hearing of her twin brother's barbarity, was horrified by the fate of the naiad. She banned Apollo from her forests, and from then on she vowed to make her forests a safe place from the eyes and wills of harmful beings.

The affinity for flora and fauna after a traumatic event has been documented over the years; it is common for people to seek solace and peace under the protection of Artemis.

The article went on to list suggestions for getting out into nature. What struck me is the protection that the goddess Artemis offered, that her forests would be a safe space.

I wondered if any of that was true, and if so, who's forests I've been in. I definitely didn't feel safe the last time I was surrounded by trees.

"So your phone does work. Your mother will be ecstatic to know," Abe's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts.

The sliding door whispers as he closes it and strolls toward me until his shins press against the chair next to mine. I'm not surprised to see Abe is already in a finely tailored suit, charcoal gray with lime green pinstripes and a matching kerchief sticking out of the breast pocket.

My lips tilted up though I tried to suppress the smile. "I knew this would happen. The second I agreed to move in with you."

"But you did agree," he reminded me. We hadn't had a chance to be alone since I moved in. I had to wait patiently for the whole reason I decided to stay, which is to get to know my father. When we were both home, he was usually with Konstantinos or Dimitri.

"Did you tell my mom -"

"That our daughter was just being hunted down by maniacs in the forest? Or that our daughter was in a car wreck and didn't tell us about it? The answer to your questions is not yet."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. It had been five days since I moved in and six since archers were shooting at Eddie and I. If Abe was going to tell my mom at all, he would have done that by now. He would have his own reasons for keeping something from Janine. "Why not?"

"If I told her right now she would drop everything and come to court. She's already taken too much time off from work recently and I don't want her to feel pressured." He cocked his head to the side. "Why haven't you told her?"

I didn't think she would come to court. She always prioritized the job; I learned they come first from her before I did from my training. It would be impossible to explain things to her without her making me feel as though it were my fault. I swallowed the lump that sat in my throat. I already felt that way, I didn't need to hear it in Janine's voice too.

I can't tell Abe any of that, so I just say, "I don't want her to worry."

Abe hums and taps his index finger by the seam of his trousers. I've seen him do that before, but I haven't figured out what kind of tell it is. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"It's your house." I wave my arm out to the chair he's standing over.

He lowers himself to sit, but while I'm reclined back, he's upright with his legs hanging off the side, facing me.

"Why are you awake so early?" he asks casually. "Do you always get up before the mormolykeia?"

"Mormon what?"

"Mormolykeia. They're mythical creatures that hunt at night. They go after misbehaving human children who don't sleep when they're supposed to."

"Could have just said vampire, or strigoi."

He grins and leans in, placing his arms on his knees. "Then you wouldn't have learned something new. So, is my daughter nocturnal like the rest of us, or perhaps diurnal like the humans? There's also a handful of creatures that are crepuscular, the ones who go wild at dawn and dusk. What kind of creature is Rosemarie?"

"A dangerous one." I smirk.

Abe chuckles, and his smile is still there, but his sharp eyes are analyzing me. He's waiting for a serious answer. I shrug, it would be hard to put into words for even Liss to hear, let alone the man I'm getting to know as my father. "I just couldn't sleep. Why are you awake?" I counter.

"I came here from a different time zone, this is still normal for me."

"The time difference didn't bother me," I said, referring to my time in Russia.

"I'm not surprised, you're still young. Time doesn't move the same for you."

Abe shifts to recline in the chair like I'm doing. "How is the boy?" he asks, a slight edge to his voice.

The boy. He means Adrian. My boyfriend who's not my boyfriend anymore but who I miss.

I tip my head back and look at the sky. The sun had almost completely disappeared beyond the horizon now. It was the time of year that the sun set on a slow path, drawing out its journey toward the horizon. We had a few more days before the equinox, and these evenings with sunlight would become fleeting. That thought compounded my sadness and tightened around my throat.

"Nothing's changed," I say, the words feeling heavy on my chest. I've been saying that a lot recently. The words are my shield, but they also feel final, like nothing will change in the future either.

Abe reaches over and squeezes my hand. "He has the best doctors royalty can afford, and Vasilisa is a talented healer. You've done everything you can for him. No matter what happens, he will not be in pain for any of it."

I let out a heavy breath. Abe's words released a fraction of the guilt that had been weighing on me without giving me empty promises, which I was grateful for. I decide that I want to tell him something else that's on my mind. "When I visit him in the hospital, I have to sneak in because his mother banned me from being there."

His eyebrows shot up. "You have to sneak in?" he repeated, shocked.

"Well, I'm not forbidden from entering by the staff, but I can't be there when she's there, and she's always there."

"Why does she dislike you?"

"She never liked me, from the beginning she was cordial at best. I'm just a dhampir, and her son is royalty. And I kind of told her that Adrian and I broke up."

I knew I could tell Abe this without him giving me pity. I don't know why, but I knew he would understand without patronizing me.

He sighs deeply. "Oh Rosemarie. Young love is complicated. No one gets out unscathed. What he's going through is punishment enough in my eyes, but if you'd like, when he wakes up, I'll make good on my promises then."

Though I was worried about Adrian and though it was awful to think, I laughed. Laughter continued until I felt my ribs getting tight, and I wondered why Abe wasn't laughing with me. I laughed until I looked over at him and saw that he was being deadly serious.

My eyes go wide, recalling each violent threat.

"He said he would take an eye out if I ever took a picture of you and showed it to another man." Adrian shivered in the cool air outside the arena.

"What else?" I asked, morbidly curious about the imaginative things my father concocted.

"He said he would blow out my kneecaps if I ever left a mark on you, and he implied that bite marks count," Adrian said with a pout. He named a few more threats, each sounding more and more ridiculous and gory until I couldn't hold back the laughter.

"This is funny to you?" Adrian asked cooly.

I tried to stop the laughter, because I felt bad that he seemed so offended by it, but stifling it was difficult, and I had to keep a hand over my mouth.

Once I calmed down, I placed my hands on his arms and asked him to look at me. He was still annoyed, his face pinched tight in anger. His breath shook a little, a sign that he was also afraid. I made a mental note to talk to Abe later.

"Adrian, he would never really do that. He can be very intimidating but that's all it is, intimidation," I assured confidently.

Adrian sighed and shook his head. "You would think that. You're his daughter."

"You mean to tell me you weren't exaggerating?"

Abe shrugs with a small smile, but his eyes are analyzing me again, trying to determine if this is too much for me to take in. "I've done those things before, I can do them again." He pauses, shifting in his seat is the only sign he's uncomfortable revealing this to me. "Does this bother you?"

I consider this. I don't enjoy violence, and I have seen more than my fair share of it. But I also understood that means to an end are not always pretty or easy, and I've hurt people who stood in my way before.

"Yes, but no at the same time," I say. "I don't know what those people did to deserve having kneecaps busted or genitals mutilated, but I'm not in your position. Besides, I'm not much better. I've done things to make strigoi talk."

Abe gave me an impressed look. "You interrogate strigoi?"

"Only when they have something worth sharing, which isn't often."

Laughter overcame Abe, rocking his whole chest. It was infectious and soon we were both laughing. Between Janine and Abe, it's no wonder that I was starting and ending fights since I was a kid.

As my head was tipped back I saw movement in my peripheral vision. I looked up at the house and caught the rustle of a curtain. It was from Dimitri's room. The window was left slightly ajar and the breeze whisked at the curtain. Was he awake, listening to us? I wondered how much he would be able to hear from that distance. Probably everything.

If he slept with his window open that was news to me. It made me realize how much I never knew about him. It's hard to separate the old Dimitri from the new. I wondered if he always kept the window open or if this was something new - it seemed strange for someone who's so guarded to sleep with such a vulnerability.

When I thought of Dimitri I felt disappointment and something even darker. I had hoped that was ready to open up after he came to my room the other night, but that was a fluke. He was back to secluding himself. He was present, physically, but closed off from me. I didn't want to press him in front of the others, and I couldn't prove it but I knew he was purposefully avoiding being at the house when it was just Viktoria and I home.

Internally, I was screaming at him out of rage and desperation, but on the outside we were both cool as cucumbers. It was only a matter of time before I handled things in true Rose Hathaway fashion, and that hasn't had good results with Dimitri recently.

"Why is Dimitri living here?" I ask. I don't bother to disguise my interest or defend it. Abe knew whose family name I called out to be with in Baia, and why. He was at the funeral. He knows - some things, at least.

I needed to know why - why the very person who wanted to stay far away from me, who told me that what we had has faded for him, is here now. I need to know why I should have to put up with his stupid face at my breakfast table.

Maybe he's pulling out people's eyeballs for my dad. That would be something.

"Belikov is more useful here than he is playing the peacock for all of court to see and Hans knows it." He sounded self-assured.

"Hans is trying to integrate Dimitri -"

"Belikov doesn't want to integrate. Moroi will never accept him, not after what he was, and dhampir are still reluctant to be near him. He knows that too," he said with a tilt of his head toward the window.

This came as a shock to me. I knew there was an issue with the public and their perception of what should be impossible, it was a hurdle, but I had faith that once they saw Dimitri the way I would, that would change. I would have thought Dimitri wanted this as much as I did. Hans certaintly made it seem like it was Dimitri's top priority, but maybe it was just Hans' priority.

"What did you mean he's more useful here? What are you making him do?" I demand.

"Nothing," Abe says simply. "I just make sure he has everything he needs."

I frown. "I don't believe you." Abe had just admitted to the extent of his own violence, I'm sure his men have to do many of those tasks. I didn't want to think of Dimitri as being one of Abe's men, but it's becoming clear that's exactly what he's become.

"It's true, he needed clothes when he got out of jail. He needed groceries and other necessities. I provided those."

"And Dimitri has to do things for you in return."

"Come now, I have a generous heart."

I side-eye him skeptically. Whatever deal Dimitri made with Abe, I would find a way to undo it. I had that power as his daughter, right?

Abe was completely sober now. "Rosemarie, he has so much grief in his heart right now. He needs to repent for what he has done, and I'm offering him that chance."

Forcing Dimitri to commit violence against those who opposed my father would not help Dimitri repent, or heal from what he's already endured.

I knew Dimitri and I knew where he would want to take out his frustrations right now, meaning Abe could only mean one thing; Dimitri's was a common goal for moroi and dhampirs alike, something my father would be a fan of - killing strigoi.

I gasped. "You… You're sending him outside the wards. He's…" I couldn't form the words. Rogue and Dimitri didn't belong in the same sentence. My first thought was that I should have known, I should have seen it immediately, but that wouldn't be possible with how far Dimitri has pushed me away.

Abe's eyebrows pinch together and he leans toward me. "Where did this come from?" he asks, lifting his hand to my hair. He pulls back and I feel the hair, or whatever it is, rip from my scalp. In his hand, Abe is holding a seed that had cracked open, revealing a thin green plant stem.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.


My training for becoming a bartender had lasted two days. Ambrose showed me the well where I was to keep the liquors out in a specific order. He showed me the stockrooms and where to get ice and cleaning supplies. I watched over his shoulder as he took orders and created drinks. He gave me the world's shortest tutorial on the cash register, and told me I could go to him with any questions before leaving behind the bar alone.

I clocked in and within minutes I already had my first customer, and it was not going well. A moroi woman asked me if we had Don Julio Reposado, which I had to ask her to repeat. I told her I didn't think so, and she lifted her freshly manicured finger to point on the shelf behind me, where a bottle was labeled with that very name.

"I'd like a double. Chilled, not on the rocks." The woman blinked her thick eyelashes at me and pressed her chin against the fuzzy collar of her bathrobe. Like many of the guests here, she walked on feet pointed to the sky in thin-slips of foam with more foam pressed between each painted toe.

"Okay," I murmured, wondering how the hell I was supposed to ice a drink without leaving the ice in.

I turned around to grab the bottle of Don Julio and pulled out my phone to Google how to chill a drink.

"You need to pour the shot into a tumbler, with ice, shake it up, and then use the strainer to pour it into the glass without the ice," said a different woman with a melodic voice.

"Thank you," I say with a grateful smile as I grab the bottle and turn back to the bar. I almost drop the bottle when I come face to face with the same woman I saw with Ambrose at the dining hall. The drop-dead stunner - a moroi woman who works with us at the spa, who is dressed more finely than the customers she attends to in a lilac dress that hugs every curve and divot on her body.

My smile falters but she returns it as if she didn't notice me being taken aback. She must get that a lot. She takes a seat next to my customer and watches as I follow her instructions.

I place the glass of chilled liquor on the counter. The customer drops a bill that covers the cost of the drink and then some, takes the glass with a satisfied smile, walking away delicately on her upturned feet.

I turn my attention back to my new coworker, who is regarding me as well. She leans in, her forearms crossed on the bar in front of her with her lips tilted up. "You can call me Vanessa," she states.

"Rose."

Vanessa has skin darker than me, with black hair in the tight curls of an afro. The last time I saw her, her hair had been smoothed down, but now it sat naturally full on her head like a crown, encircling her face like an aura encircles the whole person. She has violet eyes, I don't think I've ever met a person with eyes her color before.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Rose."

"Finally?"

Her smile widens. "Rhonda speaks highly of you. Any friend of hers is a friend of mine."

The words from her mouth take a while for me to process. I was shocked to hear Rhonda's name, especially to hear that she would speak of me, highly or not, to any moroi she knows.

"Well, Rhonda hasn't led me wrong before."

Her grin widens, teeth shining in the fluorescent lights. "No, that would be my job. Rhonda is the 'good' influence," she declares with air quotes. "I'm a bit like Rhonda, actually. I can see things that others wish they could."

"Oh, you're a vrăjitoare."

"I've been called many things over the years, and a witch is just one of them. I see different kinds of things, I see desires and I see connections between people. On top of giving a great massage I offer the best advice. Do you want to know what I see for you?"

I wondered if she meant auras, and if so, she could be another spirit user. "Not right now, thank you." I already knew what she would see in me.

"Hm," she says, from her that feels like a full sentence. "I see that you're anxious for action. Physically and romantically. You feel trapped, and your usual outlets are failing you."

I tilt my head to the side, wondering where this moroi got the audacity. "My usual outlets are running and punching, people don't like it so much when I start punching," I said with my jaw clenched.

She pursed her lips and nodded. "Then you need to start fucking. Seriously. I can't go a day without it, personally."

Her gaze didn't leave mine in challenge, so I kept my gaze steady on hers. I looked for malice in her and found none in her violet eyes. She wasn't mocking me, belittling me or just being snarky like an entitled royal.

"Let me know if you find anyone up for the task," I remarked coolly. She smirks, her eyes crinkling. "I wanted to introduce myself, but I have to get back to my client now. I left her laying on the table. If you ever want a massage, it's on the house, or on me, I guess."

Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked away. Strangely, I think that I've made a new friend.

For the rest of the shift, I made it my goal to commit orders to memory. I had to use my phone a lot to search how certain drinks are supposed to be made.

For hours, I wiped counters, poured liquor, mixed spritzers, crushed mints… all of it became a blur of tacked on smiles and tips. It was a nice distraction, but nothing could keep thoughts of Dimitri hunting alone out of my head. I almost cut off my finger when slicing a lime because I was thinking of him being bitten again.

Toward the end of my shift, Konstantinos came to the bar. He flashes a grin as he wipes a hand over his sweaty forehead and through his golden curls. He had come here straight from the gym and he should look out of place, but Konstantinos had that relaxed air about him that meant he could fit in anywhere.

"What am I making you today?" I ask.

Konstantinos claims to know every cocktail ever made, so he promised to come in and test my mixing capabilities. He takes a seat at the end of the bar and looks down at his phone. "Let's do something simple. Make me a mojito."

"Okay, so white rum," I say confidently. I was relieved that was his choice, I had just had to look up the drink for another customer, so this one was fresh in my memory.

He nods approvingly. "What else is in it?"

"Sugar and mint, pressed. Lime juice and soda water."

I use a mortar to grind sugar and mint leaves together. Heels click on the tile floor and I know it's Vanessa before I look up.

She stops in her tracks when she sees Konstantinos, her eyes alight with fury.

He senses me looking at her in confusion and looks up from his phone and turns to her. He freezes, caught off guard and I see fear flash in his eyes. The moment passes quickly, and he breaks into a huge grin.

"Hello, my golden apple." His grin shifts into a smirk.

"You two know each other?" I ask, even though it was clear they did. It made sense, if Ambrose was raised by Rhonda who knew Vanessa somehow, and Ambrose was as close with Konstantinos as he claimed.

"Unfortunately, for a very long time," Vanessa quipped drily. Her composure recovered, she saunters the rest of the over to the bar and sits, leaving two seats between her and Konstantinos.

"Don't be like that. She's been so mean to me lately," he remarks to me, his blithe and happy self restored.

I place the mojito in front of Konstantinos and don't miss the questioningly judgmental look Vanessa gives him. He sips it and gives me a thumbs up and a satisfied smile. With the smile still on his face, he turns to Vanessa. "It's good to see you here. You should invite me over sometime and we can catch up," there was an obvious suggestive tone to his offer.

"My husband doesn't like you right now," she shot back. "I'll have a cabernet, please," she says to me. I glance at her ring finger, which is bare. I thought it was strange that Vanessa wears pearls on her ears and neck, and her dress is very fine, so they obviously have money - but no ring.

"He can't still be mad!" Konstantinos laments. She has one eyebrow raised like how Dimitri does and her face remains clear of any assurance.

"Aw c'mon it wasn't that serious, I said I would get you a new rug!"

"That rug was one of a kind, hand-woven!" she hisses.

"Dite, please."

She gives him a cold look. He turns white seeing how she reacted to the nickname.

"How you've managed to be here for more than an hour and not screw everything up is beyond me," she replied. I placed the glass of red wine in front of her, which she almost snatches from my hand and takes a big sip.

I want to diffuse the tension between them so I jump in. "Vanessa was telling me that I should get false lashes, what do you think?"

"You don't need them. You know, Vanessa, you always act like this, which is why Ambrose didn't tell you I was at court." He emphasized both of their names like he was mocking them.

Vanessa taps her nails in quick succession against the counter several times as she visibly bit back the words she wanted to spew at him. Then she gives him a smile full of venom and threats. "I suppose we need to set certain things aside for now if we both want to be friends with Rose," she said.

This felt wrong. Each word was a stone thrown, every phrase had a double meaning. They looked over at me and it felt like they were appraising a show animal. They glance at each other and share a look of approval.

Their attention returns to each other and I breathe a little easier. "Then you'll invite me over tonight? In the interest of being friendly." He bats his eyes at her, that playful tilt of his lips unaffected by Vanessa's mood.

I make myself busy with wiping down the already clean counters that shelve the liquor bottles so my back is to them.

"My husband is home tonight," Vanessa retorts.

"I still have what it takes to sneak past him. He can't stop us once we've started." My eyes widen and my mouth drops open. I didn't know Konstantinos could be so brazen. Ambrose was brazen, too, I realized, it was something they shared.

"The answer is no," she says firmly.

He sighs softly, like a child that's disappointed there won't be dessert after dinner. "Have we scandalized you, Rose?" he asks.

"Just a little," I remark as I turn back to them. Konstantinos chuckles and I feel that it's at my expense.

Vanessa was beautiful and I'm sure she has men throwing themselves at her feet all the time, but I thought of her a lot differently now, seeing how casually she spoke of the possibility of cheating on her husband.

I thought the academy was dramatic, but court is a whole new beast, and I think I'm just beginning to uncover the hidden layers of scandal, and my new friends definitely had skeletons in their closets.


After dinner, prepared by Konstantinos, Viktoria and I opened the windows in the living room to let in the warm evening air and the chirping of insects. We sat on opposite ends of the couch with our feet up, a stemmed glass balanced on both of our laps that we're sipping from.

"We should go somewhere. You should see the ocean before you go home," I suggest. "Flying over it doesn't count, you need to lay on a beach."

Viktoria hmmed and nodded. Her mind was somewhere else and it wasn't hard to guess what occupied her thoughts.

"Where do you think he is?" I ask and my voice sounds hollow. I had a good idea, the thought of Dimitri going outside the wards to hunt without a partner gnawed at my mind. Could a transformed person become a strigoi again?

On the surface I aimed to appear concerned, but not too much, and on the inside, my blood was beginning to boil over.

Viktoria knows who I mean, we wouldn't be talking about anyone else right now.

He missed dinner tonight, and even though it wasn't a requirement, the house had fallen into the routine of eating breakfast and dinner together.

"Probably walking to clear his head." She rested her chin on her knee. Her words and tone indicated she doesn't suspect that he's actually hunting.
"Rose, I'm worried about him." In the dark her eyes were luminescent. "He's so secretive now, I understand that he doesn't want to talk about being… being a strigoi, but it's like he doesn't want to talk to our family at all. He's showing me around court to distract me, take me on tours or some bullshit, when I just came here to check on him. He's always been a little shy and reserved, but this is different. We're all worried."

Her words sink in like stones. It confirms what I had already seen with my eyes, that he's trying to isolate himself from everyone. Somehow that's worse than if it were just me getting the cold shoulder.

"I couldn't get through to him either," I say. That night, with a green evening dress on, a mask in one hand and my other outstretched between metal bars, reaching and not touching anything, will live on in my memory forever.

"What happened between you two?"

I take a sip, then reconsider and tip the whole glass back like I'd seen Vanessa do earlier. "It doesn't matter."

"I thought you were together. Like, together." Viktoria looks down at her lap where she's rubbing her thumb over the knuckle of her index finger. "At his funeral the people started calling you vdova."

Sydney had told me that. It means 'the widow'.

"I know," I say quietly. It's not a title I had actually earned though, I didn't like to think of myself that way when what Dimitri and I had, as powerful as it was, had been so fleeting.

"And then we heard you started dating that Ivashkov lord," Viktoria continued. Heat rushed to my cheeks. I felt irrationally like I had betrayed their family when I moved on. They had opened up their home to me and cared for me, but I couldn't stay there and be Dimitri's vdova.

"I was really happy for you," she assured. She reached out and placed a comforting hand on my arm. "I really was. We heard you had graduated and were moving on, mama said she was so proud of you. We all were. When you got your marks we felt like another one of our sisters had joined the ranks. I know Dimitri is proud of you too, it's true!" exclaimed when she saw the dubious look on my face.

"It must be complicated to have a boyfriend and have my brother back in your life now, but I don't understand how you two can live together and not talk to each other."

I didn't understand it either. It's not like I relished the moments we caught each other in an empty hallway and both cast our eyes to the ground, moving forward as if we'd seen a ghost and nothing more. I didn't enjoy eating breakfast that was made by someone who wouldn't hold eye contact with me at the table.

"Are you asking me a question?"

Viktoria downs the rest of her glass. "Yes, Rose. I'll ask again. What happened between you two?"

I look out the window into the darkness speckled with the lights of fireflies.

Images of dried blood, gauzy nightgowns and green upholstered furniture came to the forefront of my mind. I don't remember everything from that hotel room, but I'll never forget the image of Dimitri knocking Nathan down like he was nothing more than a fly and bare his fangs at him, marking his territory over me.

"Look, it wouldn't be right for me to unload to his sister. I think he should talk to you, but I can't do that for him."

"Ugh." She drops her head to her chest dramatically like my words have wounded her. "Pretend I'm not his sister for a minute. I'm just your friend and I'm confused and a little concerned about your relationship."

"There's nothing to be concerned about, there is no relationship anymore," I said dismissively as I plucked imaginary lint from my shirt.

Viktoria scoffed, "All right."

We were silent for a long time, the noise coming from the outside filled the empty air between us.

"Viktoria?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm worried about Dimitri, too."

Viktoria moved toward me with her arms outstretched. She wrapped me in a warm hug. I held on to Viktoria and tried to grab hold of the thread of hope she still clung to.

Her phone pinged and she pulled back to look at the screen. "Speak of the devil, he said he's on his way back now."

The decision to confront him was already made. I never had to mince words with him in the past, and I was sick of being forced to do that now. "Viktoria, I'm going to wait up for him."

"Oh, okay." Her eyes widened and she squeezed my hand. "Good luck."

Viktoria went upstairs and I waited for over an hour, finishing off the bottle of wine by then and moving on to my dad's liquor.

I heard him approaching the house, soft footsteps on the empty street. I watched as Dimitri got closer, he came from the direction of the Alley of Kings and Queens.

I felt a fire kindling inside of me, and seeing him was like a huge gust of air sweeping over the coals. I felt that I was about to ignite, and it was too late to stop the flames.


AN: Next chapter is DPOV, and it's already mostly written. Originally this chapter was going to be split between both POVs, but I got carried away developing Rose's chapter.

Then chapter 10 will be third person POV, it's time to get to know the new players a little better.

Please drop a review! xoxo