Chapter 13:

RPOV

It had been weeks since the cabin. We had been good since then, even if it was killing me. Sometimes I wish it never happened because now that I knew what it felt like being with him, I wanted more, so much more.

But there was also this peace between us. Knowing we would be together after graduation and knowing we were loved. We would be together, someday, somehow.

Our frustration with the current situation was mostly physical.

Today would be a test. Dimitri was taking me to my field exam. Alone, in a car...for hours.

All other novices had taken their field exam already. I had missed mine due to, you know, not being here in the first place. Normally experienced Gardians would come to the school in order to assess the readiness and dedication of future Guardians. But because it was only me this time, we would be going to the Guardian for his convenience. I wasn't complaining. Life at the academy had been boring, it was good to get off campus even for a little while.

Kirova had lifted my probation after the Viktor incident. Even she couldn't deny I had handled it like a Guardian, well other than the lust charm that is, but that was totally not my fault.

It meant I could spend more time with Lissa again. I had told her about what Viktor had said to me. She was as shocked as I was. She broke down crying, thanking God for sending me back to her. She kept saying she did not know what she would do without me. I thought it was funny. She was the one that brought me back.

I still hadn't told her about Dimitri. I had told her that he knew about the darkness and that we could trust him. I had not elaborated on the extent of that 'trust' from my side. I was going to, but since we still had to figure out how we were going to do this without endangering her, I just did not like to make her feel guilty. Also things were looking up for all of us. Life was good, I didn't want to rock the boat, and ruin it with me having had amazing, mind blowing sex with my 24 year old mentor.

Speaking of said mentor, he was already waiting for me at the front gate. I finished the breakfast I had in my hand. I was at least 15 minutes late.

He scowled at me and looked at his watch. I guess some things don't change. I don't show up on time and Dimitri is still disappointed in me when I am late. He should know better by now.

"Sorry I am late." I wasn't sorry really, that fifth swat on the alarm clock had felt so good.

"Don't worry, I told you a half hour earlier, so I knew we would be on time."

I gawked at him. He had not pulled that trick on me. But he should know that only works once. Next time I'll think he will have done the same and I'll be even later to compensate.

"If I am early, then why are you already here?"

"Because I had faith in you." He stated, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I thought for something so important you would be on time. I just added in an extra safety precaution just in case."

Ouch, that one stung. Now I did feel like I had disappointed him.

We walked to the car in silence and I put my stuff in the back. Dimitri took the wheel and I sat down next to him. He started the car, and we were off.

When we passed through the gates I turned on the radio. It blasted country music through the speakers. I was about to change the channel, but Dimitri's hand on mine stopped me. The electricity bounced off of our hands. The air around it seemed to shift. God, I had missed that feeling.

"I set it before you arrived. Had you arrived earlier than me, you would have been allowed to set the radio."

Damn him again with the guilt.

"Maybe if I had known that this was my punishment I would have shown up on time." I pouted.

He chuckled.

"You don't show up on time for an intricate part of your education mandatory for graduating and guarding Vasilisa, but you would show up on time not to have to listen to a certain type of music? I see you have your priorities straight."

I turned to him and smiled.

"I need good music to distract me from the fact that I'll be in the same car as you for hours... all alone...outside of the academy... without anybody's prying eyes," I said, lowering my voice to a whisper at the end.

I could see him physically shudder. I knew it had crossed his mind as well. The reason we had to cool things off at the academy was evident but here on the open road, suddenly the rules did not seem to apply. Of course, Mr. self-control had to ruin it.

"oh Roza, we are on a tight schedule and unfortunately we don't have time for any of that."

"Really, not even a quickie?" I asked, more as a joke than anything else.

To my surprise, Dimitri pulled the car over. We were a couple minutes away from the Academy. No one would see him stop, but still. He looked straight at me. At first, I thought he actually wanted that quickie, but no, what came out of his mouth was worse, much worse. It left me hot to the bone.

"Roza, when I do take you again, I will take my sweet time, bringing you to the edge over and over until you cannot utter a single word or moan. It will take hours."

He practically purred it, his Russian accent thick. He stared at me and all I could do was swallow. Then he shifted back into his seat. His guardian mask back into place. He pulled onto the road again.

"And seeing as we don't have hours, this trip will be PG-13."

My God. He did know how to shut me up. I liked this side of Dimitri. It was a side only I was allowed to see. It was playful and incredibly sexy. He knew me so well, calling my bluff. But still his words left me a little shaken, in a good way.

There was no more talk about radio stations after that.

We stopped halfway to get lunch to go. He got me an extra large fries as a poor solace for his lack of physical attention. Two more hours and we arrived at a mansion. Here we were to meet Arthur Schoenberg, the guardian that was to take my test.

We exited the car. I felt a shiver run down my spine and it wasn't a good shiver. This place felt cold, and it had nothing to do with the fresh snow which blanketed the mansion.

Dimitri seemed to be on alert too.

"There should be someone on Guard, they should have expected us and cleared the driveway."

Dimitri turned around to me. I could tell he wanted me to stay in the car. I could see the words on his lips, and then he remembered who I was and what I was. I wasn't any ordinary student. I had more kills than he did.

He gave me a spare stake and we each took an entry point. It was nice to be seen as an equal by him. It meant a lot.

I saw a busted door and that cold feeling spread through my body again. I opened the door carefully not touching any of the broken glass. Once inside I whispered for someone, anyone to hear me. But it was eerily quiet in the house.

When I walked into the next room the smell hit me first before the sight did. The coppery smell was unmistaken. The red stained the floor, the walls, even the ceiling. I tried very hard to keep my lunch down, but I knew I was losing that battle.

I had to get Dimitri, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the scene.

Dimitri appeared behind me. His scent finally pulled me out of the blood soaked scene in front of me. I turned around to look at him. To see if he had any answers. But when I saw him, he didn't have any. He didn't seem shocked so I guess the rest of the house looked like this.

"Come on Rose, I have to call this in. There is nothing we can do here anymore."

No, there was no life left in this place.

"Arthur?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Dimitri just shook his head. No one had survived. Not that child on the floor, not the master of the house and not the legend of a Guardian that had survived years of Strigoi.

The drive back was a little different then the drive to the mansion. Where the drive to the mansion was light and tinted with sexual innuendo, the drive back was bleak. Neither of us knew exactly what to say. We had said enough at the mansion.

There had been many Guardians, all had their own version of what they think happened. But one thing had been clear, this had been done by monsters, a lot of them. And although Strigoi had done the most damage, the wards seem to have been broken by humans, but monsters nonetheless. The sight we had witnessed was horrible. I had seen a lot of blood in my day, mostly at my own hand, but this, this was not something I could comprehend.

I had hunted nests before, consisting of two or three Strigoi. I had once encountered four and had barely escaped with my life. I never expected four to be together, that was already highly unusual. But the carnage we had seen meant their numbers were at least double that. It was unheard of.

Strigoi did not frighten me anymore, but the fact that they seem to be changing their strategy and were now able to cooperate with so many, did. This changes everything. The fact that humans were helping them was also uncommon. It opened up a whole new set of possibilities for Strigoi and more difficulties for us.

Dimitri was silent for most of the way, occasionally getting a call and answering. He had conversed with other guardians at the scene. They had given me approval on my test, seeing how I was handling the massacre. I could care less though. I could not get the images out of my head. Especially the children, although seeing dead bodies is never fun. Seeing the corpses of children with blood around them is just a whole other level of creepy.

We arrived back at the Academy and I could see that the news had not only reached Alberta but the entire school.

Lissa stood in a group with Christian, Mason, and Eddie. When she saw me she and the rest came walking up to me.

"Oh my God Rose, have you heard what happened? It's just awful, that poor family."

I guess word had traveled, but not who had found them.

"Yeah Liss, Dimitri and I were the ones that found them and called it in. The guardian we were going to see was one of the victims." I answered with a bleak voice, the images of the massacre returning to me.

Lissa's eyes went wide, and I heard Mason curse.

Dimitri walked up to me. He put his hands on my shoulder. It was meant as a solace, and in our current situation, no one would question the physical interaction. It didn't ignite the heat between us like it usually did, it couldn't, not with the image of blood and bodies still fresh in our minds, but it did center me.

"Rose, Alberta wants us in her office to go over the details. I can go alone if you don't feel up to it?"

I placed my hand over his, giving it a slow squeeze.

"No I am fine, I'll be there in a sec." I needed to learn how to do this part too. It didn't matter how horrible it was. This wouldn't be the last murder scene I would come across.

Dimitri walked away and I heard Lissa ask if I really was okay through the bond.

The things I had witnessed as part of the darkness were in a way similar. I would often leave a scene covered in blood and body parts, just like they did. But it felt vastly different too. There had been a haunted presence in that house. So many lives, just snuffed out. I never considered the Strigoi I killed wasted lives. They were already dead. But this seemed so...senseless.

I nodded towards Lissa and told her I would catch up with them later. Then I followed Dimitri, jogging a bit to keep up with his long stride. Dimitri was in Guardian mode and I think subconsciously that meant a brisker pace. He led me to Alberta's office, where we had to repeat the story one more time.

It didn't get any easier.

The next morning I headed towards the gym to meet up with Dimitri for our training session. I was grateful for this piece of normal routine in an otherwise chaotic world. The Guardians coming in and out of the building had seemed almost frazzled with the news. But frazzled was better than panicked. I heard some of the Moroi had even pulled their kids from school.

I walked towards the gym. Outside I was met with a mop of red hair and friendly smile.

"Hey, Mason. What are you doing up early?"

He beamed when he saw me. I tried to give him a radiant smile back, but I knew I fell short. Thank God, his smile quickly morphed into more of a smirk.

"Rose, not everyone needs your ridiculous amount of sleep. I am usually up around now. Are you heading to training with Belikov?"

He sounded almost jealous.

"Yeah."

I didn't give him more. I mean, what did I have to say? I was going to training with Dimitri, and I actually was on time this time.

Mason had his hands in his pockets and he moved back and forth on the balls of his foot, he was searching for something to say and so was I. My God, when had talking to Mason become so awkward.

He finally seemed to have found a topic of conversation.

"So have you already packed for the trip? We are leaving after Christmas."

Trip? What trip? My face must have shown my confusion because Mason clarified.

"The Ski-trip. Because of the Badica incident many parents don't want their children over for the holidays, but they can't all come here. So all students and relatives are going to a Moroi Ski-resort that is well guarded. We are all going. Skiing and snowboarding and just having an actual vacation. I mean it is sad what happened but we might as well enjoy ourselves."

My face lit up. It was just what I needed. I was already dreading winter break, because I never had anywhere to go. But spending it at a Ski-resort? Now that I could get behind. I smirked.

"So I get to go to a resort and kick your ass at skiing? Count me in."

I had on my seductive smile and I saw Mason swallow, damn I didn't mean to do that. Was it ever going to be easy around him? I always knew Mason had a crush on me, but before we both had been so young. Now we were in the proper dating age and Guardians kind of had to get all their dating in high-school, because we didn't know if and when we would get a chance again. But obviously I couldn't, but he didn't know that.

He had recovered a bit from my smile and his easy going mask was back on.

"Don't count on it Hathaway, you are going to be staring at my ass not kicking it since I'll be in front of you the whole way down the slope."

I just smiled not really wanting to say anything in case I would say the wrong thing, or something that could have a double meaning, or look at him again, or you know, breathe.

"You should get inside, I believe Belikov is waiting for you."

He slowly walked away towards the commons and I headed to training with Dimitri.

I had to do something about the Mason situation. I saw things were getting worse. I didn't want to lose him as a friend and I liked the way we bantered it felt familiar. But since I got back things had changed between me and Mason. It is like his feelings had been dialed up to eleven.

I had to rail myself in with the flirtatious comments. But part of that is just me, that's what I do with everybody. But it was not fair to Mason to give him hope. Maybe if I wasn't in love with Dimitri I would give him a chance. But that ship has sailed. I was going to tone things down around Mason, I just did not have the heart to break his.

After training and Dimitri complaining I was late again, no matter how much I said it wasn't my fault, I got to class. The day seemed to drag out more today. I could smell vacation on the horizon, but it meant the time we did still have left in school moved that much slower. I finally made it to the last class of the day, Stan's class. Urgh I was so not looking forward to it.

After the Natalie incident he lightened up a bit. I assume he thought I was not completely useless after all, but still Stan would be Stan.

Although when I got to his class it wasn't Stan that was teaching the class. A brief moment of shock and glee was quickly replaced with a repulsion that rivaled Stan. Three experienced guardians were in class and they were going to be sharing war stories with us in light of the recent Badica incident. To my utter surprise and much to my dismay my mother, the famous Janine Hathaway, was one of them.

With her red curls, fair skin and short stature, we looked nothing alike, and we were nothing alike.

Our eyes met, but there seemed to be no response from my mother. If I didn't know any better, I would think she didn't recognize me. But I knew that wasn't true. I was kind of hard to miss. But I hadn't seen her for years. She hadn't even come to see me when Dimitri brought us back. I would have at least expected a once over, or a nod, or something. But there was nothing. Just Guardian Hathaway. She stopped being 'Mom' a long time ago.

They took turns telling us stories of conflict they face in the field. Everyone was on the tip of their seats, intensely listening to their tales. I must admit I was too. The first two were good, I would have done some things differently if I was in their shoes, but you cannot argue with the results. They were alive and the Strigoi were not.

When it was my mothers turn, I zoned out. I had heard the story a million times, not from her of course. That would mean she actually had to talk to me. My whole life I had heard of this incident. It was what the famous Janine Hathaway was famous for, the Hatrick of kills. She had killed three Strigoi using the three methods of killing them, staking, decapitation and setting them on fire.

But really if you think about it, what kind of creature doesn't die from those things.

She was going on about how Strigoi had kidnapped some Moroi from a high end party and she was able to retrieve them. I was actually listening now, not because she was saying anything new, but because my own experiences and knowledge had caught up to hers. I could see holes in her story that I hadn't heard before.

When the story was over everyone was in awh. Well everyone but me.

I put my hand up to indicate I wanted to ask a question. Stan glared at me. Everyone knew about my rocky relationship with my mother, and Stan knew this could lead to no good. But he had no choice; he could not just ignore a student's question especially when I was the only one in the room willing to ask one.

"Yes, Rose, You have a question for our experienced guest speakers." His tone was not lost on me.

"I do, I was wondering who screwed up in that situation?"

Everyone just stared at me and I could see Stan already lose his patience. I could feel Dimitri's eyes burning a hole in me. He was in the corner scowling as if asking 'there have better be a point you are trying to make'. Oh, I was.

"I mean, the Strigoi had free rein on the party. How were they able to get so close? I assume there were a lot of Moroi and therefore a lot of guardians guarding the perimeter. How did they get past the guardians?"

I saw a bit of relief on everyone's faces. It was actually a legitimate question. My tone could use some work I admit. My mother answered.

"There were old tunnels we were not aware of. That is what allowed them to slip by undetected."

"So your information was faulty." I returned. My mother's face, although still professional, was starting to look annoyed with me. Good.

"You don't always have all the information going into a situation. You have to expect the unexpected and react accordingly. You have to be able to make a strategic plan based on fast pacing events and make split second decisions. In this case we made the correct one. We only lost one guardian and all the Moroi were saved."

I knew I had her now. I thought about the situation and although her solution wasn't wrong I had one that would have been able to save that guardian too. Was I going to let this go and save her face or was I going to humiliate her in front of the staff. Choices, choices.

"If you had moved on the north side of the tunnel, had an earth user Moroi block it off then have a party to take the Strigoi out, you would have trapped the Strigoi. The Moroi they took would not have been dragged to a secondary location and you probably could have prevented them being fed upon and saved the guardian that died at the second location."

Everybody in the room just stared at me. I knew I was right. I saw it on my mother's face. She was thinking over the scenario I had created and had come to the same conclusion as I did. I looked at Dimitri, he had a mix of looks plastered over his guardian mask, pride because of my strategic solution and disappointment for my delivery method.

It was Stan that unfortunately came to my mother's rescue.

"Although that might have worked, you would have endangered the Moroi blocking off the tunnels. They would have to use magic out in the open. Getting a Moroi to agree to this would not only have cost valuable time it would also be incredibly reckless, no Moroi would agree to being thrown into danger like that. That is what their guardians are for."

I saw my mother look at Stan. She actually did not agree. Neither did I. The Moroi would have been far away and surrounded by Guardians. Also, this stemmed from the notion that Moroi magic was not to be used for the purpose of helping Guardians. God forbid they were actually useful in a fight.

I wanted to protest, but from the corner of my eye I saw Dimitri's posture tense. One look at him told me I had to let it go. I was battling with myself but his self-control was rubbing off on me. I grunted and sat down again. I did make it very clear I did not agree with Stan.

After class I got up and walked towards the commons. My mother was catching up to me.

"Rose, stop right there."

I stopped in my tracks. Her tone did not leave much to interpretation. I was to stop. I turned around and glared at her.

"Rose, although you made a good point you cannot and will not speak to your mother and your teachers in that tone."

Wow, I don't know if I was to be shocked or angry. She actually complimented me and right after scolded me for telling it as it is.

"Oh come on mother, you know Stan was full of shit. In this case, a Moroi could have actually been useful, but no one even thought about it because God forbid they actually lifted a finger."

Her eyes narrowed. I didn't know what my father was like. But I knew the one thing, probably the only thing I got from my mother was her temper. And hers was on the forefront now.

"Rose, watch your language. I can't believe how insolent you can be. I haven't raised you like that."

Oh, I was fuming now. The last bit of self-control was used to not call Stan a total ass in class and I had none left.

"You didn't raise me at all," I yelled at her and stormed off, leaving my mother speechless in the hall.

I walked over the grass field of the Academy and I could feel someone following me. Dimitri. I didn't even have to turn around. The sound of his boots and duster, his scent, all of it were indications of Dimitri. I always knew when he was close.

I sat down in the grass and waited for him to sit down next to me.

I was not calm in the least and started ranting at Dimitri.

"You know I was right. That would have been a better solution, but no one even thought of it because the idea of a Moroi, a royal Moroi at that, even lifting a finger to help with Strigoi is preposterous, even if it was a simple task and they were in no real danger. But nooooo, instead of people to recognize how twisted our world has become I get scolded by my teacher and by my mother for even bringing it up."

I inhaled sharply. I didn't realize I said all that in one breath. The ever calm Dimitri just looked at me and waited for me to catch my breath. He started smiling at me. Why was he smiling?

"Come on, I have someone I want you to meet. And after what just happened she is going to want to meet you."