Hello!
Just a heads up that from here on out this story will be shown from multiple points of view. Dimitri, Cassie and Rose.
There are events and dialogue from the movie Push that will be used from here on out as well. I do not own that content.
DPOV
"She told me that there's a flower. That flower would bring everything down, but it has to happen from inside."
I realized what my mother meant all those years ago. I remember the day I met Rose so clearly, and it was a day I wouldn't forgot. A flower; my flower. I had spoken to my mother a week before and she had told me that a watcher had told her something that was important for all of us.
I just wish that it didn't have to connect to Rose.
I glanced at Rose as she slept, cuddled up to my pillow with the blanket twisted around her waist. She looked peaceful and it wasn't something I saw on her face often, and I wanted to capture it all to memory.
I leaned back in my chair and pulled my wallet out and opened it, pulling out something I kept tucked in the back of it. I looked at it for a moment and then looked at Rose again, feeling fear crawl up my spine before picking up my pen. Rose was the first envelope of instructions in my pile. I folded up her instructions and slipped it into the envelope and wrote her name on the front of it.
What I told her wouldn't make any sense to anyone. Not even her right now. There was no need to have my mind wiped of writing it.
I tucked it away in a safe place and changed for bed, crawling in beside her. I had to wrestle her for my pillow for a moment, but I eventually got it away from her, trading the pillow for my body instead. She curled against me and tucked her head in the crook of my neck. The tequila Rose and Cassie used to induce the visions knocked both of them on their asses, Rose more than Cassie. Rose was asleep the moment she hit the mattress; Cassie asleep sprawled in the chair in our living room.
I rested her cheek against her hair and held her tightly, feeling dreed set in my chest. There was a chance I could lose her all over again, and it wasn't something I wanted, but at the same time it was necessary.
RPOV
Cassie was able to find out what the case looked like, and was able to get a clear enough look at it that she knew what the vial and syringe looked like. We were all grateful for that as it made our jobs a bit easier. Dimitri had been sitting at Lissa's table all morning tapping the pen against the table, trying to this all without drawing attention, but I could tell he was agitated.
But I wasn't surprised since Cassie dropped some pretty vivid drawings on us this morning.
"What is that?" I asked as I peered at the photo. It was drawn upside down but our names with the right direction. It was more of a cartoonish drawing of Cassie's, Dimitri and I's eyes closed and colour splattered over the page.
Cassie flipped the book the other way around. "We die. I keep seeing it over and over. I think I've drawn us dying in at least six different ways since last night."
Dimitri scoffed as he pulled his sweater over his head. "Great."
Christian and Lissa's expressions were worrisome, and Adrian's was just simply confused. None of us knew really how to react to all of this. Every single one of us had died in this room at least twice.
I got up from where I sat with Lissa and pulled the pen from Dimitri's hand. Dimitri straightened up enough for me to sink into his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.
"You look like you're going to explode."
"Making a plan with very little planning is hard. I sent Eddie to find the guy that wiped my mind the first time. That's really the only thing I've been able to do," he said with a sigh, "Christian went to search for the case."
I nodded and stroked his cheek. "When we mentioned Tasha yesterday, you seemed a bit more tense. What's going on there? Did something happen while you were in Division?" I asked. If there was something that happened between them, I couldn't exactly blame or judge him for it, but I did need to know.
"Not really. But I did know her before," Dimitri said quietly, resting his hand on my thigh. "She was the person that I was traveling with that stole everything."
I frowned and rested my head against his shoulder.
"She hates you."
"She's never even met me."
"I know that. But she knows that I would never choose her over you. Even when I was in Division I still was uninterested in her. She made it practically her mission to find you and you were too smart for her. She was pissed."
I frowned to myself and kissed his forehead tenderly. Dimitri hummed quietly and I could feel his body relax the slightest bit under me and his hand squeezed my leg.
"I love you, Roza."
I smiled to myself and I snuggled into him despite the people in the room. "I love you too."
"We have another problem."
Dimitri and I both looked up at Cassie as she set her notebook down on the table. The look on her face was hard and uneasy. I looked down at the page she had open. A red eye.
"Bleeders."
"Yeah. Apparently, Division's watcher is a double sider."
My brows knitted together, and I looked at Dimitri. If Tasha was trouble with Division, she was even more trouble with the Strigoi clan.
"Is that why they went after me?" I asked.
Cassie looked at Dimitri and shifted on her feet. Cassie wasn't stupid, that was something I learned quickly. She had visions so often that it wasn't anything that would phase her. Dimitri didn't say anything and shook his head in disbelief.
"Cass?"
"I did see something a few years ago just before I met Dimitri," Cassie started and I felt my heart drop onto my stomach.
"What did you see!?"
"Roza," Dimitri started but I shook my head.
"I deserve to know," I said to the both of them, "If Tasha has been working with them, and she sent them after me, I deserve to know!"
Cassie looked torn as her eyes moved from Dimitri and me before she nodded. "She spoke to the bleeders that cornered you. She paid them off."
I got up and walked out of the room, beelining for Lissa's bedroom before I broke. Or screamed. Or threw something. I made it into Lissa's bedroom and closed the door, moving to the far side of her room. There was a loose board in the floor that she hide her safe under and I went to it and opened it.
I hadn't wanted to look at it, even after getting Dimitri back, but I needed to now. I reached into the safe and pulled the fabric bag out, sticking my hand inside and pulled out the boxes. I shifted and sat on the floor beside the bed, drawing my knees up as I rested the boxes against them. I set one down and opened the other, looking down at the pendant.
I ran my index finger over the pendant as my tears fell. It was beautiful and so intricately detailed that I wished I had opened it earlier. I pull the chain from the box and carefully clasped it around my neck. I leaned back against the bed and closed my eyes,
The bedroom door opened and I stood up, finding Dimitri standing in the doorway. I wiped my hands over my cheeks and sniffed.
"I'll fucking end her."
"Rose," Dimitri whispered, and I could hear a mixture of hesitation, concern, and grief in his voice.
"She is the reason our baby is dead! Don't you get that!" I cried, pressing my fists against my eyes. I thought the Strigois finding me and torturing me was coincidence, but knowing that she hated me because of Dimitri's disinterest, it made everything fell into place. Cassie's confirmation was the nail in the coffin.
"You're not a killer," he said and I looked up at him, anger and hatred flowing through me.
"I don't care! She killed my baby; she doesn't get to breathe after that," I said forcefully and he nodded, trying to console me. "Why aren't you just as angry as I am?!"
"I am!" Dimitri exclaimed, "I'm furious because I still haven't come to terms with the fact that our baby is gone! There is so much going on inside my head that I don't know what to process first! I could spit fire right now, Roza!" Dimitri exclaimed and I watched him break too. The tick in his jaw and flare of his nostrils showed just how angry he was, but the broken look in his eyes showed everything else.
I wrapped my arms around him, slipping them up under his arms to clutch his shoulders tightly, my head resting against his shoulder. I could feel him shake too as he held me just as tight. I thought that holding onto this and packing it away would be the best thing for me, but Adrian was right. I did need to talk about it and really process it. Because getting it all out made me feel like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.
"I knew you lost the baby while I was in Division," he said, "Tasha came to me and told me, like it was just something that crossed through her mind. She acted like she was sympathetic but I could tell it wasn't sincere. I couldn't think about it, I could let myself feel it because I was already trying to fight it all."
I nodded and sighed against his shoulder, pressing my face against his skin.
"We'll take care of her together," Dimitri promised, "But we need to do this first."
I leaned back against the step as I waited for Christian to come out. He had worked directly with Carver in Division, he knew where to look for him here in Hong Kong. We all had things we needed to do before Dimitri wrote the letters to us all. Which meant we needed to find where Carver was. Because I was on the watch list, I wasn't actively looking for Carver, but simply back up if Christian needed it.
I looked down at the drawing in my lap and tapped my fingers against the page. None of my visions were making sense lately. Some could be anxiety bases, mostly the vision of a pregnancy test, but the others were harder to find logic to. A green syringe, a red envelope and seeing Carver sitting in a plane chair. I flipped through the box and went back to a vision from a few days ago to see if anything connected or made sense.
I had a vision of my mom earlier in the day that made my blood run cold. Cassie was sitting with me when I had finished drawing it, and I felt like I couldn't think because of it. Cassie said she was starting to see visions of our mothers dying, but now that I was seeing them too it made both of us concerned.
"They know. They know that we are coming for them. We're getting too close for comfort," Cassie said solemnly. "We don't have much time left."
I was starting to wonder what was holding Christian up when the sound of footsteps carried down the alley. The sound wasn't the same as Christian's. These shoes had a clip to them that sounded expensive. I glance up and sucked in a breath when the man I never wanted to see again stepped into the area, lit cigar hanging between his lips. He stopped when he saw me and I choked on my breath, down casting my eyes. There was no doubt he knew who I was, or my relations. I shifted uncomfortably as he moved closer and took the notebook off of my lap, looking at the drawing of my mother.
"You already know the ending to this story. You can only draw it so many ways," he said taking the cigar from his lips, flipping through the pages.
"We're going to change it," I said quietly, turning my face away from his so he couldn't push me. The fear that crawled through me was strong. I knew I was a strong push, but he was much stronger. I couldn't help the tears that gathered in my eyes either
"You don't believe that, do you?"
"Please… don't make me do anything to myself."
"Hurting you would change the future, and I like how this future goes," Carver said to me, dropping the notebook onto my lap. I looked up at him and sniffed.
An image flashed across my eyes, and I turned my head to look at Carver.
"So will killing him," I bit back dangerously. Caver pulled the cigar from his lips and looked at me for a moment before turning back down the alley way. I let out a ragged breath and wiped the side of my hand under my eyes. I sniffed and leaned back, tipping my head up towards the sky. I let a few gasping breaths out as I calmed myself. Being that close to him was terrifying.
A few minutes later I heard shuffling footsteps and I looked down, finding Christian shuffling down the alleyway. His lip and nose were bloody, his one eye darkening and he made groaning noises as he walked. He came to a stop in front of me with a sigh, rolling his shoulder back.
"I think I just saved your life," I said bluntly and put my notebook back in my bag. Christian laughed dryly and rubbed the back of his head.
"I forgot how powerful Victor was."
"Victor?" I asked as I stood up.
"Yeah," Christian groaned, "His puppet. Victor is a mover like Dimitri. Actually, I think Victor would give Dimitri a run for his money. He's terrifying."
I frowned and nodded. "That's not comforting. Did you get what we needed?"
"Well, I was able to slip the chip into Victor's pocket, so yeah. We got what we needed."
"No."
"Roza."
"I agreed to all of us splitting, I did not mean you and me. I'm staying with you," I said firmly, crossing my arms over my chest. Dimitri gave me a look as he handed everyone their envelopes. I noticed that everyone's envelope had a time written on theirs, aside from mine. Lissa, Cassie, Christian, and Adrian all looked at their envelopes before walking into the other room while Eddie lingered behind.
"I want to stay with you," I whispered, feeling out of sorts. Too much was happening that I didn't know, and after seeing Carver, I didn't want to be separated from him.
Dimitri nodded and cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead. "You can't. They would look for the two of us together. It's safer if you go with Eddie," he said. I sighed and rested against him dejectedly. Dimitri wrapped his arms around me tightly and held me close, making me feel like I was really out of the loop.
I pulled back after a few minutes and looked up at him, toying with my envelope. "When do I open it?"
Dimitri ran his hands over my shoulders and down my arms, stroking them softly. "When you start to doubt the truth," he said. I remember saying those words to him years ago and closed my eyes, nodding my head. I really was walking into this all blind. He didn't want me to know what to do.
I looked up at him and sighed. He looked in my eyes and I could see something there that scared me. He was scared. Dimitri leaned down and kissed me, holding me tight to him as his lips were moving against mine. It felt like a goodbye.
"I need you to remember something."
I nodded.
"I love you. And whatever happens, I will always come back to you."
I nodded and kissed him one more time knowing that Eddie and I had to leave. I stretched up on my toes and hugged his again before letting go and turning to Eddie.
"Let's go," I said quietly to Eddie, not looking back at Dimitri because I knew if I did, I wouldn't go.
DPOV
I watched Rose's cab leave with a weight in my chest and I turned to go back into Lissa's only to find Cassie standing behind me holding a bottle of whiskey.
"She's gone?"
I licked my lip and nodded, stuffing my hands in my pockets. "Yeah."
"And you didn't warn her."
"You already know that," I said dryly as we started walking, "I take it Christian has already opened his letter."
Cassie nodded and tilted her head to the side as she looked at me. I don't know what she saw in my face but she stopped and rested her hand on my arm.
"Hey, you'll see her again."
"Will I?" I asked seriously, "I literally handing her over to him."
Cassie twisted off the cap of the bottle and took a swig, handing the bottle to me.
"The future is always changing," she said looking up at me, "I like believe that we can still change everything."
I didn't like what she said but took the bottle from her, taking a few gulps and sighing. I felt like I was betraying Rose, letting her blindly walk into the arms of Division. I could hear Janine's words rattle in my head and I took another gulp and handed the bottle back to Cassie.
A ringing startled both of us and Cassie laughed to herself as she fished through her bag and pulled out a cell phone. She frowned at the screen for a moment before answering.
"Hello?"
I watched her for a few seconds as her face changed to even more confusion. She blinked a few times and extended the phone out to me.
"It's for you," she said quietly. I took it and noticed the blocked ID before putting the phone to my ear.
"28 Yun Street. One hour. Come alone," a man said on the other side. He didn't give me time to respond before he hung up. I furrowed my brows and looked down at the phone before handing it back to Cassie.
"You okay?"
I nodded and ran my hand through my hair, pulling it from the tie. "Yeah. Fine."
Cassie didn't look like she was fooled but let it be when her phone dinged instead.
"Christian's back, we should head in."
I nodded and followed Cassie back towards Lissa's house, meeting Christian at the door. He was carrying a black carry on suitcase that looked familiar to me, and it was like a piece of a puzzle snapped into place in my mind. I remembered the case now.
Christian let himself into the room and set the case on the table next to the identical case on the kitchen table. Lissa stood up and came over with Adrian following close behind.
"It's the right shape, right size," Lissa commented, looking between the fake case and the case Christian retrieved from where I hid it, "Except it should be black."
"No problem," Christian said waving his hand over it and in a blink, it changed from being a vibrant red to a sleek black. Cassie nodded and got to work, slipping the replica syringe and vial into the fake case.
"We better hurry though, it won't last long," Christian said turning to Cassie. She took the case and we all got ready to move. Cassie handed me a burner phone and I stuck it into my pocket as I slipped the duster Rose kept safe on. I had my envelope in my pocket and my watch set.
Lissa said goodbye to all of us at the door, taking a moment to hug all of us. She lingered on Christian and then on Cassie, giving all of us soft looks. Her part was already done, aside from opening her envelope at the time indicated. Nobody felt right with putting the mother to be in the direct line of fire.
Adrian gave me a look as he tapped his opened envelope in his hand. The man I couldn't trust, the man that looked so much like the man who hit my mother, the man who was the only other family I had that knew what this life was like, had the most important job of them all. And he looked terrified too. Because he was the only person I could trust to do this part.
When we all lived through this, I would finally tell Rose about my relation to Adrian. Maybe she knew and hadn't mentioned it. But I would finally tell her.
"Make sure you get to the shifter on time, we can't have everything blow up because of a minute's difference," Adrian said with a clearing of his throat.
"I will. I have one thing to do and then I will go there," I said. Adrian nodded and looked up and down the street before he crossed, disappearing into the night. I looked at Lissa and gave her a nod, a signal that I was off too. Lissa smiled sadly at me and closed the door. I went to follow after Adrian when Cassie called out to me.
"Dimitri!"
I stopped and turned to face Cassie. She looked at me with a worried expression and shifted awkwardly with the weight of the case.
"Take an umbrella," she said awkwardly, "It's…it's gonna rain." The unsaid words hung in the air between us. It was easy to forget that Cassie was still a kid. A kid who had lost too many people she cared about.
"You be careful too," I said sincerely, knowing what she really wanted to say.
