Chapter 16

DPOV

All guardians were called in. There had been another attack. This one even bigger than the last. There had also been more casualties. We were trying to keep it quiet for the time being. All out panic would not help.

I was in a room with some of the senior guardians, including Rose's mother. I noticed I was the youngest one here. But that wasn't uncommon for me. They treated me with the respect reflected by my skill and rank, not my age.

We were going over the details of the attack. I had witnessed the attack on the Badica house first hand. I thought that seeing pictures this time instead of the actual bodies would make it slightly less unnerving, but I was wrong. It was the same kind of massacre.

You would think for a species that survived on blood they would not waste so much of it. But it was testimony to their nature. They could not control their violent impulses as they ripped their victims apart. They were lost in the bloodlust.

The new attack had the guardians here on high alert just in case they came here. The attack happened only a few hours drive away, so everyone was worried. But it had another effect. One attack was bad but was considered an anomaly. Now that there were two, it was no longer an isolated incident but the new reality. Strigoi had started too adept to our current system.

This called for action... well it called for debate. There was to be a meeting at the end of the day discussing options of how to proceed. This would include guardians and Moroi alike. Many prominent Moroi were here at the lodge, with their families. They would have a say in what would happen next. I groaned at the thought. Moroi and especially royal Moroi were not known for their empathy towards those that were keeping them safe. They didn't care as long as they knew their way of existing was not threatened. I could only imagine the solutions they would come up with.

The meeting was open to everyone, this meant that Rose would no doubt be there. I hadn't seen her in a day or two, but I knew she probably heard what happened. Knowing Rose she would definitely have an opinion. That could be bad. But Rose was not the only one I was worried about. Tasha also had a very strong opinion, and being a royal Moroi, even one with a bad reputation would mean she would be heard. I was afraid of what she might say. I knew she wanted Moroi more involved with their own protection instead of letting Guardians deal with everything, but although she could probably get some non-royal Moroi up for the idea, since they would not be rewarded a guardian anyway, the royal Moroi would never agree to this. And unfortunately they were the ones that made the laws.

As I walked to the meeting that afternoon I saw Rose entering with her friends, I decided to sit close to her in an attempt to placate her if necessary.

When I sat next to her, she bristled. And did she just move away from me a bit? Maybe she was just readjusting. The seats weren't very comfortable. She didn't look at me though. She started to fidget with her fingers. She seemed almost nervous to be around me.

The Rinaldi girl sat down the row in front of us and I saw that she had been crying. I was wondering why, when I remembered the casualty list. There was a Rinaldi on there, probably family by the looks of it. Rose also seemed to have noticed by the sympathetic glances she gave Miss Rinaldi on occasion.

It was such a Rose thing to do. Even for an enemy that had hurt her and Lissa she had compassion. I wanted to grab her hand, but I noticed it was even further away from me than when I had checked the last time.

The meeting started and as I predicted things were not going well. I had to restrain Rose at one point when some idiot Moroi suggested graduating novices early. She held her tongue but the glare she gave me, sent chills down my spine. I didn't understand where all this hostility was coming from. Part of me suggested it was the darkness, but I had seen enough of Rose to know when it was supernatural darkness affecting her judgment or just short-tempered all original Rose. This was the latter.

Luckily for Rose, Tasha agreed with Rose and didn't have me there to restrain her. She said that it was time for Moroi's to do their part in protecting themselves instead of sending out women and children to battle monsters in their stead. This was not received well. I understood her point. I even agreed with her, but the way she was going about it was wrong. This would only create more strife when we couldn't afford it right now.

Tasha added to the mayhem when she actually used offensive magic in the room to demonstrate her point. All hell broke loose after that.

I stood up, no one noticed with all the yelling and screaming back and forth between camps. Rose looked at me confused.

"There is no point in staying. Nothing good will come out of this meeting now." I started to make my way outside and saw several other people do the same, including Rose and her friends. Only Christian and Lissa stayed behind, probably to support Tasha if necessary. I don't know if Christian staying was such a good idea. He had as much as a temper as Rose did. And that was saying something.

I walked outside. I waited for Rose. I was going to ask her why she was upset. She talked to Mia for a second and I saw that she was conveying her condolences. The interesting part was that Mia had initiated the conversation and for the first time, the conversation seemed to be civil.

The halls were emptying out. I pulled Rose aside.

"Hey Rose, are you okay?" I leaned in to touch her arm, but she backed away from me. The glare she gave me let me know something was wrong. She was angry with me. But for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was.

"Shouldn't you be in there protecting your new charge?" She said with venom in her voice. There was a moment where the anger fell away from her face and all I could see was hurt.

My eyes widened at the realisation that Rose knew of Tasha. And by the looks of it, she knew what my new job description entailed. How did she know? And more importantly, why would she be mad at me? She couldn't possibly think I would take it. Not after everything we went through together.

I didn't know how to respond. I had no intention of taking Tasha's offer but I hadn't officially turned her down yet either. I didn't even have time to think about how I would handle it. Also the hallway where everyone was watching was not the ideal location to be going over this.

"Rose, can we talk about this later, away from here."

I tried to reason with her, but I knew Rose was not always the most reasonable person when her emotions were high, and her emotions were definitely high. She was hurt, I could see it in her eyes. She was masking it by being angry. She was hurt and afraid I would leave her. I wanted to hold her and tell her how much I loved her and how I wasn't going anywhere, I was just trying to save my friendship in the process, but again we were in the hallway for everyone to see.

"No, I don't want to hear about how you're going to have a perfect life with Tasha later. You want to break my heart, you can do it right here."

She was putting me in a very bad situation. I was getting frustrated with her. How could she think so poorly of me that I would leave her for Tasha. How could she think Tasha would ever compare. I knew in the back of my mind this was the first 'real' romantic relationship she had been in. She was seventeen after all. She was bound to be a bit insecure about things. But I was getting angry too. She didn't even bother to talk to me. I swear the only time I ever lose control is when I am around Rose, good or bad.

So I said the one thing I shouldn't have said in this situation. The one thing I knew would make it worse, but I said it anyway.

"This isn't the time and place and if you would be an adult about it you would see that too."

Idiot. I knew Rose was worried about the age difference and pointing that out was clearly not the best thing to do right now. I saw her flinch, confirming my suspicion. I was the biggest idiot. I saw her take a deep breath, probably going to give me the verbal lashing I deserved, when we were interrupted.

"Hey little Dhampir, everything's all right? Man, I was in there a moment ago. Things were heating up."

A Moroi guy cracked at his own joke referring to Tasha's spectacle of fire in the meeting. I had seen him talking to Rose before and I did not like it one bit. Adrian Ivashkov's reputation preceded him. And by the way he was looking at Rose, she was his next target. I stiffened at the exchange. I had to admit I was jealous, extremely jealous. I saw by Rose's eye roll he had a long way from winning her over, but I was the only one allowed to look at her like that.

Rose looked from me to Adrian and I could see the hurt of my comment morph into something far more sinister.

"You know Adrian, if you want to discuss politics, I could use a break, buy me a cup of hot cocoa?"

She laced her hands in his arms and she practically purred at him. I knew she was doing this to get to me, to punish me for Tasha. Only there was no Tasha. I was seething, part at myself because I did open my big mouth, but part because she seemed ready to throw in the towel and head towards the nearest guy who showed her any attention. And unfortunately she got a lot of attention.

She did not realize how quickly my control was wavering in her presence. I was almost grateful when she walked away.

Adrian looked at me and gave me the most dazzling smirk.

He knew.

He knew that she was using him as a tool to make me jealous and how it was affecting me. He knew there was something going on between us. This was not good. Although on the inside I was a volcano ready to erupt I had years of practice on my guardian mask. He shouldn't be able to notice anything, certainly not from that brief interaction.

But he knew.

RPOV

I walked away with Adrian holding my arm. I had to fight the urge to cry. I can't believe he said that. My whole world was falling apart.

"Come on, you look like you could actually use a hot cup of cocoa instead of just using that as an excuse to make cradle robber over there jealous."

"Yeah, I won't say no to some chocolate right now. Hey wait, what did you just say? I wasn't trying to do anything to Dimitri, why would you think that?"

Okay I that was lame, I had basically admitted that that was exactly what I was doing. I nearly facepalmed myself. I had to work on my poker face when it came to Dimitri. We were too close together. First Viktor notices in a few interactions and now this guy does with two minutes between us?

"Yeah sure, not into older men, I am guessing I was still a bit too young for you, by the looks of it. And I am not sure about the douchebag comment either. That was some feisty conversation back there."

Oh God, he had overheard us. I didn't know how to get myself out of this. Adrian seemed like a big blabbermouth and I haven't even told Lissa. Well there really isn't much to tell when he leaves with Tasha. How I am going to handle this. I could deny it, but I am guessing he heard enough to know there was at least something going on. He must have seen my panicked look.

"Don't worry little Dhampir, although I think I would be a much better match for you, I won't spill your little crush with your mentor, or his obvious infatuation with you."

That was a relief.

"What do you mean, obvious infatuation?"

He smiled, clearly finding this conversation more amusing than I did.

"Oh if only you can see what I see, little Dhampir. He was about ready to gut me when we walked away, never seen someone so green with jealousy. I was glad when we left, I was beginning to fear for my life."

He made a dramatic gesture where he gripped his heart as if Dimitri really had been after his life.

I was confused. I had noticed Dimitri got annoyed with Adrian and me. But I could read Dimitri pretty well and he was still covering it up with his never changing guardian mask. For someone that had never met him, they should not be able to tell what he was thinking.

How could Adrian read Dimitri better than I could? He was full of surprises.

We walked to the coffee bar and to my surprise he got three cups to go. One with hot chocolate for me, a black coffee that I saw him pour a bit of alcohol in, I assumed it was for him, and a Latte.

"You want to come. I was going to meet up with Lissa in my room."

Why would Lissa meet Adrian in his room? I was curious and this was just what I needed to get my thoughts off of Dimitri. Also I wasn't going to let Lissa go into this guys room alone. I don't think Adrian was dangerous. He had something very endearing about him and he had been nothing but nice. But still.

And if word somehow got back to Dimitri I had been in Adrian's room, well so be it.

We walked through to the other side of the resort. I saw Lissa standing outside his room, obviously waiting for him. She was surprised but happy to see me.

We went inside his room. If I thought that our room was luxurious, Adrian's room was over the top, his was at least twice as big, containing a lounge and everything. Lissa sat on the couch and I sat next to her both holding our warm cups.

"Look at you two. Like the sun and the moon, ying and yang, day and night. One light and gold, the other dark and flaming."

What was he talking about? He had a weird look in his eyes. Like they were glazed over. Wherever he was he was not here in his room with us. How much did he already have to drink today? A few moments later he snapped out of his trance.

"Sorry, it happens sometimes. My inner poet wants to come out very badly." He winked, coming back to his annoying self.

"So what do you want to talk to me about, Adrian?" Lissa asked.

"You know what I want to talk about. I know you know what I am just like I know about what you two are."

Okay now I was confused. I looked at Lissa for an explanation. She seemed a lot less frazzled by this than me. Lissa looked at me and clarified.

"Adrian is a spirit user like me."

Wow. There was another spirit user? Adrian? He didn't strike me as a spirit user. The only three people I knew of were St. Vladimir, Miss Karp and Lissa. Adrian just didn't fit in that picture. Weren't spirit users supposed to be like healers and such? But somewhere I knew it was true. His charisma was like Lissa's, you could not help but be drawn to it.

"So you can heal and stuff too?" I asked Adrian.

Adrian looked confused.

"Heal no, Lissa, you can heal people?" He asked rather impressed. Well, if he couldn't heal then how did he know he was a spirit user? Isn't that supposed to be the common denominator?

"You can't heal, so what are your skills then?" Lissa asked, voicing my own thoughts.

"Well I see aura's. Don't you see aura's?" Now it was Lissa's turn to look confused.

"No, what are aura's?"

"Well they are colors that are around a person indicating general things like personality but also their current mood. For instance yours is gold because you are a spirit user and it now has calm colors and a bit of orange indicating excitement. Rose's is more red seeing her more feisty personality, but it is always laced with a black ring I haven't seen before, very strange."

Aha, that is how he knew about Dimitri's feelings. I wonder if he meant actual green in his aura for jealousy. I was relieved though. It meant Dimitri and I weren't horrible at hiding what we were to each other, Adrian just had insider information.

Although at the moment I didn't really know what we were to each other. Dimitri had gotten really angry with me. How come he got to be angry?

We talked for a bit after that about spirit and the different things Lissa and he had done. Lissa showed him that she could heal by healing a scratch I got during skiing. We also told Adrian about me being shadow-kissed and how that works. He was amazed that a spirit user had the power to bring someone back to life and that it probably explained the darkness in my aura. He was particularly interested in our psychic bond. Although he made it very clear that he would not be raising the dead anytime soon. He didn't want people snooping in his head. I had to concur with that. Although being in Lissa's head had its downsides, I imagine Lissa's thoughts were very demure compared to Adrian's Poor bondmate. He did also seem to have great compulsion skills. Another trait I imagined spirit users share.

After about an hour or two talking we left and headed back to our own room. Well I went back to our room. Lissa sneaked off to see Christian. I guess I would be putting up blocks for a while.

I was in no mood honestly. Two days ago I was happy in love. Even if it was complicated I knew Dimitri loved me and we would find a way to be together. Now I doubted everything. I just wanted to get to my room and sleep.