5 - ROSE

Alberta dismisses us and students begin to leave the hall. I briefly glance at Adrian but am interrupted by Mason and Mia who came to talk to me. From the corner of my eye, I can see Adrian trying to leave the room unnoticed. You wish.

"Sorry, guys, but I have to go talk to Adrian. I believe he has something to do with this," I explain to them.

"I'll go with you," suggests Mason.

"No, it's alright. Talk to you later. Bye Mia."

"Bye."

I quickly follow Adrian out the double doors and pull him to the side as I catch up to him, only to shove him against a wall. He doesn't look surprised.

"What have I done to be deserving of your precious presence, little Dhampir?" He smiles lazily as he calls me by that annoying nickname again.

I decide to challenge him, giving my voice a dangerous tone. "Dou you have anything to do with this, Ivashkov?" He visibly gulps.

"And here I hoped you wanted to talk to me because you prefer to spend your time with me. It hurts, right here," he counters, feigning an aching heart. Funny. "As a matter of fact, no. No, I don't have anything to do with it."

I don't believe him.

"Whose fault is it then because you sure as hell didn't seem surprised!" I question him as I grab him by the collar of his shirt. I don't care if it gets all wrinkly.

"Calm down, little Dhampir, will you?" Calm down? Is he drunk? "I assume that my aunt arranged for you to be assigned to me considering she was fairly insistent I participate," he told me. Queen Tatiana? Why would she care enough to do this? He moves my hands away from his shirt and holds them inside of his. Can he not? "I am as surprised as you are. But to be frank, I am more than happy that you get to follow me around for six weeks.. little Dhampir. It's going to be fun," he winks at me. Don't remind me. I still wish to wake up any second.

I scoff and pull my hands away from him. "Adrian, you don't get it, do you? I was supposed to be assigned to Lissa!" It's true. It was always supposed to happen like that. We even talked about Field Experience with Lissa's family, back when they were still alive. "I can't spend six weeks in a room with you," I shout-whisper. I give myself a week until his suggestive remarks will make me want to drive a silver stake into my own heart.

He smirks at me. "Why? Is it because you won't be able to keep your hands off of me? Admit it. You can't get enough of me."

He should know better than to provoke me purposely. I am this close to kicking him where it hurts the most, but I restrain myself. It's the first day of Field Experience. I don't plan on failing out of stupidity.

"You better be careful, Ivashkov. I am this close to beating you up. Please, don't provoke me. Unlike you, I actually care about this mission. I don't want to fail because of you not being able to shut it" I sigh. I don't think I'd be able to handle him getting on my nerves non-stop. And I can't leave him alone since he might get attacked. We have to make this work somehow.

Only a few minutes and he's frustrating me again. Great.

"I can't wait for you to move into my dorm. I won't have to use my dreams to see you all the time."

"I'd be nice if you toned that down. I feel awful every time I wake up. It's as if I didn't get any sleep at all."

"As I said, I won't need to anymore. By the way, I would never get you to fail an assignment on purpose. You're way too important to me. I would never endanger your future as a guardian." My eyes widen a bit.

"Thank you, Adrian. It means a lot."

He looks at the ground for a moment. I wish I knew what he's thinking. He's difficult to read. His green eyes meet my brown ones again.

"Why are you so mad about all of this?