When Spirit Shows Its Thorns
Chapter 16
Adrian stayed for dinner and it was nice to see that Dimitri and he had settled into a polite acceptance of one another over the last hour. I wish I could say the same for him and Abe. Abe did all but ignore Dimitri, while chatting with Adrian as if they were the best of buddies. Dimitri did not outwardly show his feelings, but I could read him so well. He was exasperated with Abe's chummy behavior with Adrian.
I leaned over and explained to him that he shouldn't pay the old man's behavior any lasting thoughts and told him of what he had threatened Adrian with during my Trials. Perhaps that wasn't the best of ideas though, because Dimitri's face turned a horrid shade of green and he closed his eyes tightly as he choked on the wine he had been sipping.
"Holy Vlad," his quiet words gave way to Russian and I was lost as to what exactly he was saying. Abe had stopped buttering Adrian up to turn his gaze to the two of us. He looked on in amusement and asked Dimitri what I could have possibly said to cause such a fascinating reaction from him. Dimitri held his tongue but slightly cringed under Abe's questioning gaze. That only caused Abe to smirk at him with even more interest.
"Give it up, Old Man. It isn't any of your business. Now play nice." I huffed in Abe's direction.
"Of course, Rose, when have I ever been nothing but polite?" He laughed out.
"Ibrahim, leave the children be." My mother softly cooed to him, patting his hand. His face turned to hers and I wanted to gag at the look of passion that crossed it. I was starting to like my mother more and more every day. I was still unsure if I was going to have to murder my father or not, though. He was wonderful and caring, but nosy in a way that drove me insane.
Janine was able to keep Abe occupied in their own shushed conversation for the rest of dinner. The rest of us ate in near silence hoping to keep it that way. The comfortable silence that past between my friends and I was much more appealing than the tense attention that passed between him and Dimitri. Adrian left to go home soon after dinner and everyone else settled into the living room. Abe had a news station playing in the background as he sat talking with Janine some more.
Christian and Dimitri had put the chess table sitting in the far corner of the room to use, Eddie watching on in interest and calling for a game between him and the winner. I sat with Lissa on the sofa, looking through a fashion magazine and talking about what we should wear for our meeting with the Queen. Adrian had told us earlier that she wanted to speak with us before the Council meeting instead of afterwards, as originally planned.
The living room began to fill with natural light just as I had started yawning. It wasn't long afterwards that I heard Christian's joyous cry of victory. Looking over I saw Dimitri and Eddie switch seats. Dimitri came and running his thumb across my cheek suggested that perhaps it was time to turn in for the day. We gave our goodnights to everyone and slipped from the room. Once there I felt my exhaustion really hit home, and opted to just strip down and fall into bed. Lifting the covers I patiently waited for Dimitri to join me. He didn't disappoint and stripped down to his boxers and climbed in. I cuddled into his side and the world faded away as sleep took hold.
The next evening I woke to feeling refreshed but overly warm. I had rolled onto my stomach sometime during the night and Dimitri now lay sprawled across the bed; his arm over my back with his fingers laced in my hair, and his leg crossing mine, holding them in place. I turned my face and was delighted to see that I could get a good glimpse of his. I loved how sleep left his face soft and unworried. It wasn't often that I would awaken before him, so when it happened, I enjoyed the few moments that I was granted.
After a while my body deceived me and no longer happy to watch his peaceful sleep, I began to trace the lines of his face with my fingertips. As my thumb ghosted over his lips, I felt Dimitri nip the pad of skin and he smiled a good morning to me. His hand began to roam my back, and settled on my buttocks. It wasn't long and our hands were gently and slowly exploring on another. Our lovemaking was just as unhurried and saccharine as we whispered our love for one another. This wasn't a heady need for one another as we had joined in the past; no this was us pouring the love we shared from our very depths into one another. Our love was one that existed beyond time and space and the tender, leisurely joining of our bodies expressed what words would never be able to touch.
When we our release finally claimed us, we rolled to lie side by side. We continued whispering talking and eventually began to play around a bit when there was a knock on our door. Lissa's voice carried through the wood and told us that she was heading down for breakfast if we wanted to join her. I called out that we would be down shortly. Dimitri and I left the cocoon of our bed to shower and dress before joining the others. Lissa and Christian had just finished with their feeders when we entered the dining room.
"Don't forget, we will be meeting Queen Tatiana for lunch." Lissa said as we finished our meal and followed her and Christian into the living room. Christian and Eddie took purchase in the abandoned game of chess from the night before and Dimitri and I settled on the couch talking with Lissa.
I felt bad for Eddie. It seemed the house was pretty much paired off and I hoped he didn't feel excluded or ignored. Taking a good look at his form, I noticed he had appeared to put on at least a couple extra pounds of muscle.
"Hey Eddie, you're getting a little beefy there," I teased. Dimitri scowled at me.
"Yeah, I've been spending some extra time down in the gym. With all of the extra Guardians in this house, I've gotten a lot of good sparring in too. I should be able to handle taking even you on Hathaway, maybe even your Russian God." He jested in return. That piqued Dimitri's attention.
"Since we have a while yet before we need to ready and leave, why don't we spar for a bit?" Dimitri suggested. Eddie and I both grinned broadly and agreed. Christian and Lissa exclaimed it had been a while since they had seen any of us spar followed us to the gym. We decided that Eddie and I would spar first and then Dimitri would spar with each of us in turn, winner first.
It took a lot longer to take Eddie down than the last time we had sparred. I had to admit, he was getting good. He was able to block most of my jabs and kicks and was learning to read me well, though not as thoroughly as Dimitri. It took me forty-five minutes, but I was eventually able to pin him and slap his chest signaling a kill and thus ending the match.
Dimitri gave me five minutes to grab a drink and for my body to work through the natural high that winning brought on. During this time, I noticed that everyone in the house, with the exception of a handful of Guardians, lined the walls watching. Even my parents stood in a corner in attendance, smiling proudly at me.
I took a deep bow in their direction, causing laughter to course through the room from those attending. Dimitri yelled at me to get my head back in the game and I danced over to the sparring ring, wriggling my hips and never taking my eyes off his. His eyes flashed appreciation at the movements before his Guardian mask slipped into place. I wasn't going to seduce a win this time.
We circled one another, gauging for any tells. We were making our second round when Dimitri quirked and eyebrow at me and stepped close to the boundary and bowed. I slipped out of my battle stance, about to ask him what he was doing when he launched at. I barely had time to block his kick to my hip in my surprise. His move caused another round of laughter to fill the gym. I barely heard it as I was concentrating on blocking his attack. I was still a bit tired from my sparring with Eddie and decided I would keep a defensive stance until Dimitri had started to wear down. There were several times I could have placed well deserving jabs, but instead chose to stand my ground and keep him moving. His kicks were starting to weaken and I knew that I had him where I wanted him and went on the offensive.
He had taught me most of my moves and with all of the sparring we had done with one another, Dimitri knew me too well. He turned my tactics against me and I backed away giving him an opening to once again go on the offence. I wanted to keep him tired out. Back and forth we went until I tried to pull off a high kick to his shoulder. Dimitri caught my ankle, holding it in place and stepping towards me caused me to begin falling backwards. His other arm wound around my waist and he dipped me towards the floor as if we were dancing. Seeing the shit eating grin on his face, I knew, he was only toying with me now. He swiftly pulled me up and dropping my leg leapt away from me.
Another round of cheers and laughter filled the air around us as we began to circle one another again. We both flew to one another kicking and jabbing, but before I knew it, Dimitri had me pinned to the mats, his hands on my chest, and his teeth grazing my bottom lip as he softly whispered, "Dead," before rolling off of me. We lay side by side, catching our breaths as everyone else broke into cheers and groans around us.
Pulling myself up into a sitting position, I noticed several of our surveyors exchanging cash. They had been betting on our sparring match. I shook my head and noticed my mother walking towards me, my father right behind her.
"You're good Rose. Every time I see you spar, you surpass my expectations." She beamed at me.
"Each time is just as surprising as the last." My father added, as he smiled down happily at me. "Sadly I should not have made that bet with your mother." I heard him say under his breath as he turned to Janine's expectant face. Instead of a look of dread, though, he looked at my mom a bit overjoyed. He took her hand and led her from the gym. I watched them leave, pushing all thoughts of what they could have battered from my head.
"Umm, Dimitri, Lissa says we have to leave in an hour, so do you mind if we hold off on that match until later tonight?" Eddie asked as he walked over and gave me a help up. Dimitri sat up and rocked himself into a standing position beside me.
"Yeah, that will be just fine." He answered. "I think we could all use a bit of cleaning up before heading out." With that we filed out of the gym and upstairs.
"Rose, wear your dressier Guardian uniform, you too Dimitri." She called to us from her bedroom door. I nodded at her and entered my own room. Dimitri went into the bathroom to start the shower, as I grabbed our uniforms from the closet and laid them on the bed. We quickly showered and dressed and I sat down at the small vanity table, brushing my hair out. Dimitri had excused himself to go have a word with Eddie, when we heard a knock on the door and Lissa call out to let her come in as soon as we were decent.
She dried my hair and placed it in an elegant, but functional French twist. I took in my reflection in the mirror and my hand automatically came to rest on the back of my neck, covering my molnija and promise marks. Lissa knelt beside me, gently hugging me.
"It's okay. I miss him too, you know." She knew that of all the markings on my neck, the two I had received from Spokane bothered me the most.
"He saved me twice, Lis." I whispered into her hair. "I can never repay him. I can never fully forgive myself for his death." Tears began to well in my eyes and I felt her hold on me loosen only to be replaced by one much stronger. Dimitri lifted me from the chair and brought my face to his chest, making comforting sounds into my hair.
"Shush now, Roza. It's going to be okay. You will never forget him, but believe me, it will get easier, Milaya. He knows, Roza, he knows how much you cared for him. He would not have returned to you as he had if he didn't. Celebrate his youthful happiness, Roza, don't dwell on the bad. Please, Milaya, don't let Mason's death feed the darkness in you. You have suffered too much." Dimitri pleaded with me as he began to wipe the tears from my face.
"I'll give you two a few moments," I heard Lissa say, "but we need to leave soon." I nodded from against Dimitri's chest and tried to reel in my emotions. They all knew that I still struggled greatly with Spokane. The feelings didn't surface as much as they once had, but every now and again, I could not stop his memory from evading my thoughts.
Dimitri carried me to the bed, sitting down and placing me in his lap as my tears dried. "Feel better now?" He asked softly.
"I do. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." I said raising my face to his and capturing his lips, conveying my thanks and love of his support.
"I understand, Milaya." He said before we both grew silent. I was still tucked in his arms when Lissa came to fetch us to leave.
I planned for this chapter to be the one that would cover the meeting with the queen and the council meeting both, but my mind took its own path and I ended up needing to split everything into two chapters. I surprisingly completed them tonight (a feat I was not expecting at all) so I give to you Chapters 16 and 17. I hope I met everyone's expectations after the building them up in my last notations.
