This point of view has actually been ready for a week or so but I wasn't ready to post it. I reread it today and ended up rewriting the entire thing and extending it. I love this version. I also see that I made a mistake with Thomas, not his death he needed to die, but how I went about it so that's something I'll fix down the track with the original.
Enjoy!
Rose Hathaway
I didn't have time to think of a response as a gunshot rang through the area. Jamie stumbled and spun landing face down on the floor. I couldn't tell if it had been a fatal shot or not. I turned my head ignoring the ache and ringing in my ears and watched as every guard in the room fell to the floor.
There was no chance of cover in the open space and the fight had been over before it'd even really begun. I looked back at Alistair lying motionless on the dirty cement floor and prayed that the asshole was dead.
Thomas limped around me and knelt down placing a gun in my lap. I stared at him wide eyed and unable to believe he was on his feet. "Is he dead?" I asked glancing back at the body on the floor as Thomas began cutting the ropes around my wrists.
"No," Thomas answered hissing as he cut my wrist. I flinched but remained quiet until my wrists were free. Once my ankles were untied I tried to stand and fell into Thomas' causing both of us to cry out and stumble. "We need to get out of here."
Amen. I forced myself to stand on my own. "I'm okay," I tried to sound confident as I pulled away from Thomas' grip. "Let me go, Thomas." I swayed but found my balance. I took a few unsteady steps towards Dimitri but once I was sure I wouldn't kiss the cement I ran to his side and rolled him onto his back. "Comrade? Look at me. We're getting out of here; can you stand?"
His eyes fluttered but he couldn't quite open his eyes. "I-I don't think I can."
"Rose," Thomas called out. "Get out of here."
"I'm not leaving without Dimitri." I cradled Dimitri's face in my hands careful to avoid the burnt blistering flesh of his cheek. Tears threatened to fall as I stroked his unburnt cheeks. "I'm not leaving without you, Comrade."
His eyes opened this time. "Go," He pleaded. "Please"
"Rose! Get out of here." Thomas shouted this time sounding fearful as he watched Alistair struggle to his feet. Shit. Shit. Shit. I need more time- Shit. "Get up! Get up! Get up! I'm not leaving without you, Comrade!"
Dimitri screamed as I lifted him off the ground with strength I didn't know I had. I took his arm and wrapped it around my shoulder apologizing as I did. I'd barely kept myself upright; how the fuck was I supposed to keep a grown ass man three times my size from falling on his ass and taking me with him?
I had no clue.
It wasn't until we'd reached the stairs that I looked back. Alistair and I locked eyes and he grinned at me as if he was excited about the turn of events. "Go. Consider this a head start before the hunt begins. You should remember, Little Mazur, how much I like the hunt."
A cold chill slid down my spine and I felt myself freeze in place. At that moment I was 9 years old again, and watching my family being gunned down by assassins. "Roza." Dimitri's voice pulled me back to the present. His voice was raspy and sounded wet- I closed my eyes and took a breath as I lifted my foot to the first step. "We need to go."
I didn't look back at my Uncle's because I knew only one of them would make it. The naïve teenager who worshipped her mentor believed that Thomas would survive- but the experienced woman that I was today knew Thomas wouldn't make it out alive.
It'd take a miracle.
It felt as if time slowed down as we climbed the stairs… It wasn't until we'd reached the top that I heard my Uncle's scream- my head spun and my grip on the railing tightened as I screamed with them as I watched Alistair twist Thomas' wrist and turn the blade on him.
"NO!"
Dimitri pulled me away from the railing and out into the hall blocking off my view. If we'd been attacked at that moment we'd have been fucked- I couldn't see anything outside that room. Thomas! No. No. No. I knew, that even in that moment Thomas didn't really believe his brother would kill him. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
"ROSE!" Dimitri grabbed my arm his grip painful as he shook me. "Go! Get out of here, now. I'll slow you down." I blinked once, twice, three times before I managed to process his words and look at his face. "Don't look at me like that, Roza. Please. You know it's the truth. You can walk faster- run faster- without me. I can barely stand."
"Don't." I pleaded as I looked up at him unable to fight the tears. "Don't, please, don't do this to me, Comrade."
"GO!"
"NO!" I shouted hitting his bloody, burnt, skinned flesh making him scream and stumble back into the wall behind him. "I won't go!" My throat was still raw from the water torture, and the screaming from earlier but I couldn't stop. "We're getting out of this fucking place, together, even if it kills us!"
Dimitri shook his head defeated tears sliding down his face. "I'll slow you down, Roza. I'll get you killed! It's more important to me that you survive."
I closed the distance between us as I cradled his face in my hands. "If I lose you, Dimitri, I don't want to live. Don't you understand that by now? You're all that is keeping me alive. You're all that has kept me alive through all this. I need you. I need you, Comrade. Fight. Fight FOR me. Fight WITH me. Please. Fight."
Dimitri pressed our foreheads together his hands tightening around my arms. "I love you, Roza."
I cried but managed a smile as I looked up at him. "I'll say it back once we're free," I promised as I pressed a chaste kiss to his swollen lips. I handed him the gun I'd swiped from the dead guard at the bottom of the stairs. "I'll support your weight and you watch our backs."
"You're so stubborn," Dimitri didn't fight me as I helped him off the wall. "There's an exit sign." Hanging from the ceiling was an old exit sign. It was a slow getaway but we'd managed to turn down the 3rd hallway before we heard the gunshot. "Don't think about it, Roza."
"I'm going to kill him," I promised.
"I believe you," Dimitri murmured. "But not today."
"No, not today." I agreed reluctantly freezing as I spotted a door up ahead. It couldn't be that easy? The door opened and a guard walked in with a McDonalds bag and drink tray… Seriously. The guard only had time to drop his takeout before Dimitri pulled the trigger and a bullet hit him between the eyes. Damn. "Even half dead you are still a perfect shot."
"I'm not dead yet, Baby." Dimitri leaned on the wall as I searched the dead guard. "Hurry. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to stay conscious." I took the dead guards gun, blade, wallet, car keys and cell phone. I stood back up and wrapped my arm back around Dimitri's waist helping him out into the night air.
I pressed the lock button on the car keys and heard a faint beep from around the side of the building. I struggled for a better grip on Dimitri as we struggled to get across the yard and around the corner. Come on. Come on. We're almost there. I spotted the silver Audi with the lights on- and released a sigh of relief. "We're almost there."
"Hurry."
It felt as if Dimitri was getting heavier with every step we took towards the Audi. Please, please, don't pass out. I'd barely opened the back door and pushed him inside when he lost consciousness and threw up on the backseat. I cursed and rolled him onto his stomach and draped his head over the seat so he didn't drown in his own vomit. I tossed the guards belongings into the front seat before I lifted his feet into the back of the car making him cry out in his sleep.
I limped around the car and climbed into the driver's seat. I'd just reached for the car keys from the passenger seat when a bullet shattered the back window spraying glass all over Dimitri's face. I ducked my head and shoved the keys into the ignition before throwing the car into reverse and flying out of the parking spot.
The back windshield took two bullets and flew through the air and into the windscreen in front of me. Jesus, that was close!
… Three Hour Later …
It'd taken an hour before I found a road that led me in the opposite direction and another hour before I saw a sign in Arabic that gave me a clue of where we were; Israel. Where in Israel? I didn't have a clue.
Dimitri had been in and out of consciousness for the last three hours. I needed to find a chemist or veterinary clinic- I could treat some of his energies, stop infection or blood poisoning but if I had too I'd take him to a hospital. It'd be the first place Alistair would look but if he tried to hurt Dimitri again; I'd kill him.
It was only a matter of time before Alistair found us… I'd tried using the guard's mobile to call out but there was no service in the wasteland. I glanced back at Dimitri again and tightened my grip on the steering wheel. "Please don't die, Comrade. I'll be really pissed if you die on me now."
The corner of his mouth perked up. "I'll do my best, Roza."
"Good," I laughed focusing back on the road ahead of us. "Because we've got a lot to talk about."
"Can it wait until after we've killed your crazy Uncle?"
"No, it cannot." I reached for the mobile phone and handed it back to him. "I've been trying to call Zmey and Pavel for the last three hours. I can't get through. See if you can get somebody on the phone."
Dimitri tried for several minutes cursing in Russian words I hadn't even known existed before now… Any other time I might have laughed or demanded he tell me what they mean but I was too focused on the roads and making sure we weren't being followed. It was only a matter of time.
Finally, after about half an hour, Dimitri was speaking to somebody… "We're in Israel."
"I knew that already," I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice. "Whoever the fuck you are talking to had better be able to arrange pickup." Dimitri was talking faster in Russian and giving instructions and repeating directions to me for a motel in the city that was only an hour away. "Get it done, Matthew." Dimitri hung up the phone and attempted to sit up- he tried not to scream but eventually gave up and punched the back of the passenger seat. "FUCK!"
I bit back my guilt and the urge to ask if he was alright- I already knew the answer. "Who is Matthew?"
"Matthew works for me," Dimitri answered his back pressed against the back door with his head tilted back out the window. "He will be here by morning with backup and a helicopter."
...
Dimitri passed out after making his phone call to Matthew. I made it into town in under an hour and managed to find a 24hr chemist and a veterinary clinic. The nurse who'd let me in was curled up asleep in one of the larger dog cages with a litter of puppies to keep her warm.
After I picked up the supplies and emptied the cash register at the clinic Dimitri and I dumped the car and walked several blocks until we caught a taxi and took the 30-minute drive to the motel where Matthew had already booked out a room for us.
The bathroom sink currently looked like a surgical tray, and the shower cubical looked like a makeshift hospital room. Dimitri was currently in the shower with an IV in his arm and the bag hanging from the shower railing above his head while sitting in a chair from the dining area.
I turned off the shower and helped dry him off as best as I could before I began treating the more serious injuries. I couldn't do much but I'd do what I could. I'd offered him drugs before the shower but he'd refused on the grounds that Alistair could find us before his men arrive- and he'd be no use if he were drugged out of his mind.
After I'd finished playing Doctor with Dimitri's injuries I helped him to the bedroom. Dimitri stared at the ceiling while I stared at him trying not to cry- apparently I wasn't doing a very good job because Dimitri reached out and placed his hand on my thigh. "I'm sorry." Dimitri whispered making me laugh bitterly.
"What?"
"I'm sorry," Dimitri repeated meeting my gaze. "I should've told you the truth about what I did in Russia after-"
"-You thought I was dead." I cut him off feeling myself getting detached, as I looked anywhere but at him. "You should rest."
"Roza." Dimitri pleaded his hand tightening on my thigh forcing me to look at him. "Please. If it'll make you feel better scream at me, throw shit, punch me if it'll make you happy… But please don't shut me out."
I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. "When I first asked you what happened in Russia I knew you lied to me, Dimitri. I'm not a fool. I might not remember a lot but I remember you. I know you better then I know myself at times. Our kind of love it's maddening and I know what I'd have done if I'd lost you. So it didn't take me long to figure it out. Sure, you'd have considered ending it but you also consider suicide a weakness and you'd never abandon your family on purpose. Never. Sex is how you process your emotions… Anger. Sadness. Happiness. Fear. Joyfulness. Disgust. Surprise. Grief… Sex is one of our favorite hobbies, and it's why we were so well-matched for each other before."
"Before? You say it as if you're speaking in past tense, Roza."
"Perhaps I am, I don't know," I answered without looking at him. "I'm not sure where we go from here, Comrade… I don't know if there's anywhere to go from here."
"I love you."
I looked at him then and smiled. "I love you too."
Dimitri raised his hand to my cheek and sighed. "I don't want to lose you again." I rolled onto my side, closer to him, kissing his palm. "We're going to survive this, Roza, and after your crazy Uncle is dead we'll sit down and work through what's left."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
...To Be Continued...
I know a lot of people didn't expect them to get away and expected the story to end there but NOPE, or if you did expect them to escape you figured Dimitri would be the one to carry Rose out but that's just sooooo damsel ish and I couldn't do it. So, Rose practically carried Dimitri out instead... Unrealistic? Mhmm. Maybe. But it happened so let's roll with it.
Our favorite couple isn't out of the woods just yet and Alistair is gaining on them as we speak... But the question is who will arrive first? Matthew? or Alistair?
And in case you guys have forgotten- Matthew aka Matt is the lawyer, hacker, problem solver friend and employee of Dimitri's that helped Jace escape the FBI ... ;) It's going to be so much fun writing the next couple of Point of View... I can't wait. I almost want to make a cuppa coffee and keep writing but these eyeballs are about to roll out of my skull.
.NIGHT.
P.s. Let me know in the comments what you think is going to happen next.
Also, do you have a POINT OF VIEW you'd like to read before the story ends?
I might add a few extras as bonus content for once the story is finished.
Thanks for Reading.
