I don't own VA!
Thirteen
Chapter 21
RPOV
Lissa was practically bubbling with excitement. The academy had managed to get her inheritance sorted out before the shopping trip so she would actually be able to buy things. She was currently bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet while we waited to get in the two cars that would take our group to Missoula for our adventure.
"Calm down, Liss," I whispered. "You've been shopping a million times." She laughed and nudged me with her shoulder.
"I know but it's still exciting," she rolled her eyes at me. "You would've thought it was exciting too, a couple months ago." I smiled but it felt forced. Dimitri and Mikhail approached us and my smile quickly turned genuine. Dimitri planted a chaste kiss on my lips.
"You're my guarding partner, beautiful," he murmured in my ear before pulling away. I grinned up at him as the other guardians accompanying us came over to tell us the plan. The Moroi loaded into the bigger of the two cars we'd be using for our trip. Dimitri, one of Victor's guardians and I were assigned to the back of the same car. Mikhail drove, with Victor in the passenger seat and Lissa, Natalie, and Camille in the middle row. As the smallest in my row, I was placed in the middle seat. I had to resist the urge to cuddle into Dimitri, since this was a training exercise more than anything. Two other guardians rounded out of group, following behind us in a much smaller car. One was Victor's other guardians, and one was a school guard, assigned to protect Camille for the day.
"You'll be near guard today, Rose," Spyridon, Victor's guard, explained. "You're female and more visibly the Princess's age, so it won't draw attention, like Belikov there would." I chuckled slightly.
"He does look like an old man, doesn't he?" I teased, bumping his shoulder. He smirked at me and shook his head.
"That makes you far guard, along with Tanner, Dimitri," he continued as though I didn't speak. "I'll be Prince Victor's near guard and the others will round out the other side of far guarding." After our respective jobs were assigned, Dimitri slipped fully into guardian mode, seeing without seeing and observing our surroundings. I did my best to do the same, though I did rest my hand on his knee and half listen to the Moroi's conversation for the two-hour ride. Lissa's excitement was starting to seep into me and I jumped out of the car, stretching my legs after sitting for so long. Dimitri squeezed my hand on his way past me when he went to join Mikhail.
"Where to, Princess?" I asked, linking my arm with hers and scanning the parking lot. She giggled and looked at Natalie.
"I think Nat should get first pick," she said, diplomatically. "We are her guests, after all." Natalie beamed at Lissa's words, more excited than she'd been for the whole ride. Camille and Lissa had babbled on and on about makeup and boys and it was very much not Natalie's forte. I smiled at the awkward girl and we set off into the mall. The Moroi were in their element, chatting happily and draping garments over their arms. Lissa has told me to pick whatever I wanted, so I got a few pairs of jeans and about a dozen thermal t-shirts. I scanned my surroundings periodically, meeting the eyes of the other guardians and Dimitri when necessary. I stuck by Lissa's side and she eyed my purchases warily.
"You've gone boring on me," she said, after almost an hour of clothes shopping. I smiled weakly.
"It's time I start being a little more practical, Liss," I explained. She frowned then something behind me caught her eye. A sly smile spread across her face and she turned me to look at what she'd seen. A clingy black, strapless dress stood before me on a mannequin. It had a thin lace overlay and very slight flare at the bottom. The rest of the dress was very clearly meant to hug every curve. "That's your dress."
"That's my dress," I reluctantly agreed. Lissa nearly squealed as she pulled my size from the rack and bought it before I could protest. We grabbed lunch shortly after that. Then we hit a shoe store, where Lissa bought me a pair of strappy black heels and herself silver kitten heels. She'd gotten a simple pink sheath dress for the dance. We wrapped things up at a jewelry store. Liss picked out a diamond bracelet and gasped as she went to pay.
"That's your necklace!" she exclaimed as I looked over her shoulder. I groaned. It was a white gold rose, encrusted completely in diamonds. I hated rose stuff, but I could agree that it was pretty. She looked at the price tag and her face fell. "Never mind…"
"Ah, the mad spender has finally met her limit," I laughed at her pout. She simply slapped my arm and took her bag from the woman behind the counter. We drudged to the car, tired from being awake in the middle of the vampiric night. The guardians loaded our purchases into the trunk for us and let Dimitri and I know that we were free to nap with our fellow students on the way home, as our training exercise was now over. I snuggled against his shoulder and he held my hand but I didn't sleep. The ride back to the academy seemed shorter and I felt a sudden burst of energy take over me. Lissa, Natalie and Camille were chattering on and on about something I didn't care about. I decided to jump up on a bench, walking along it and keeping pace with the others. I jumped back down at the end of it, doing the same with the next one.
"Careful up there, Hathaway!" one of Victor's guardians called up. "If you were still on duty, I'd scold you for having too much fun!" I laughed, jumping off the second bench and onto the third. I glanced back, seeing Dimitri grinning at me and smiled at the group.
"No fun up here!" I called back, readying myself to jump back down. "I'm simply checking the quality of-AH!" The bench gave way under me as I started to jump back down, holding my ankle hostage as I crashed toward the ground. I heard and felt the distinct snap of a broken bone. Pain shot through me so intense that I blacked out almost instantly. I did hear Dimitri and Lissa call my name in alarm before blackness consumed me. It felt like I was swimming in a pool of complete darkness and I felt hot, then cold, then hot again. It was an uncomfortably familiar feeling but I couldn't place it. I groaned as I woke up in the infirmary, blinking at the sudden brightness.
"Roza!" Dimitri exclaimed, sounding relieved. He hugged me gingerly, kissing my cheek. I smiled up at him, then groaned again.
"I was taken out by a bench!" I whined. Laughter danced in his dark eyes and he shook his head. "How long am I gonna be out of practice?"
"You're not," he said, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"I definitely broke something, comrade," I responded slowly. "That'll keep me out for at least a few weeks." He shook his head again, frowning.
"We all thought so," he told me. "When you were falling, it looked bad. Sounded bad too. But nothing's broken."
"Sprained then?" I asked, totally confused. I'd felt it twist at a horrible angle. I pushed the blankets away, inspecting my ankle. The skin was a little red but I could move it and it wasn't swollen or anything. "Huh."
"You've got a guardian angel somewhere out there, Roza," Dimitri told me, taking my hand and kissing it. "And some presents to open." I shook off my confusion at the mention of presents, sitting up quickly and squealing.
"Presents?" I asked, bouncing a little in the bed. He laughed.
"This is from Prince Victor," he handed me a small bag. "He'd bought it to congratulate you on a job well done, but now it's a get well soon gift as well." I rolled my eyes at his comment but dumped the contents of the bag in my lap. It was the rose necklace Lissa had wanted to buy me but couldn't afford. I gasped, reading the note quickly.
I'm glad you're not seriously hurt, Rose. It's truly a miracle. Well done today. You'll be a fine guardian when you graduate.
Prince Victor
"That's a generous gift," I commented weakly.
"You did an excellent job," he responded.
"Until the bench took me out," I scowled.
"That really wasn't your fault. It didn't look rotten," he defended me. I grinned at him.
"You did say gifts, right? As in more than one?" He laughed at my excitement.
"These are from Mikhail," he handed me a pack of black leather gloves with faux fur lining. "And this is from me." I kissed him squarely on the lips as a proactive thank you and he returned it gently.
"For a job well done?" I asked, pulling a tube of my favorite lip gloss out of the bag and beaming at my boyfriend.
"Mikhail got you the gloves so your hands don't fall off," he said, drily. "And I simply wanted to make you smile."
"It worked," I leaned forward again, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him deeply. His arms snaked around my waist as he returned the kiss eagerly. Someone cleared their throat in the doorway and we broke apart as a blush spread across my cheeks.
"Now that she's awake, you should get back to your room, Dimitri," Dr. Olenski scolded gently. "And as for you, Rose, I just need to double check you, then you can go home as well."
"Can I stay to walk her home?" Dimitri pleaded, smiling innocently at the doctor. She sighed.
"Not today, I'm afraid," she told him, apology clear in her eyes. "Headmistress Kirova is already annoyed with me for letting you stay in the first place." Dimitri looked dejected, but kissed my forehead anyway and told me he'd see me in class tomorrow.
"You're lucky," Dr. Olenski told me once Dimitri left. "With all the noise you made coming in, I thought it would have to be amputated."
"How embarrassing," I mumbled, looking away and chewing on my lip.
"Your boyfriend looked absolutely panicked when he carried you in, too," she smiled at me warmly, making me blush again.
"He carried me?" I asked, my heart fluttering slightly. She simply nodded, looking over my ankle and checking off a couple things on my chart.
"You're free to go," she finally said. "Don't forget to thank that guardian angel of yours." I chuckled at her joke and tentatively placed my feet on the floor, still surprised I hadn't broken my ankle. I nearly gasped when realization hit me, just as a surge of extreme sadness pulled me into Lissa's head. She was looking in the mirror, tears streaking her pale cheeks. She was relieved that I was okay, but something much more potent was in charge at the moment. Depression was setting into her very bones, dark and twisted and angry. She studied the razor blade in her slender fingers, barely recognizing them as her own. Then she brought it to her opposite wrist, pressing hard and making even lines across the pale chest. They were far deeper than she normally did and I fought to remove myself from her head as she switched hands to do the other side. I must have screamed because Dr. Olenski was shaking me gently and asking what was wrong.
"Lissa!" I gasped out. "She needs help!" I told her where the guardians needed to go and took off at a sprint myself. The guardians beat me there and were already carrying her to the clinic I'd just left when I arrived at the seldom used bathroom she had holed up in. I begged them to let me stay with her, but they sent me back to my room. Fear tore through me, worried she'd gone too far this time and had lost too much blood. I could still feel her in the back of my mind, but the bond felt muted, as though she were sleeping without dreaming. And I suppose she was; she'd passed out from the blood loss by the time the guardians got to her. I felt myself starting to panic and snuck out of my room and to the roof, needing the fresh air desperately. I burst through the door, gasping from running up the flights of stairs to get there.
"Roza?" Dimitri turned around at the sound of the door opening, looking confused and concerned. A sob escaped my throat as I flung myself towards him. He caught me with ease and held me upright. I bawled my eyes out into his chest as he rubbed my back and whispered to me in Russian. Déjà vu hit me hard as I snuggled deeper into his chest, letting out all of my pent up emotions from the last few weeks. He held me close as the sun rose, waiting patiently for me to tell him what was wrong.
Please review!