After three months of careful planning, we are finally able to make our move. We left Minneapolis and travelled to Pennsylvania to be closer to Court. Lissa and the others had finally graduated and left St. Vladimir's to live at Court, Adrian also returning.
Our sources on the inside reported that Lissa knew the moment Dimitri awakened me, that the bond snapped and she had to be sedated because she was screaming bloody murder and hysterically crying. She deserves it after what she said to me at the gates, and I feel no pity or sympathy for the princess.
Another person who was dramatic about it all was Adrian, he was constantly drunk, (more so than usual,) and kept himself locked up in guest quarters, refusing to feed. The only one who took things with grace was Eddie, but a part of me feels a small twinge of…understanding towards him? He is stuck in the same place that I was, being told what to do and when to do it by the moroi because that was how we were brought up. He shed a few tears and pulled himself together when he was in public.
The more that I think about the roles that the dhampirs play in society, the more I feel like we were being treated the same as when the Nazis controlled the people of Germany through media manipulation. They spread their propaganda and encouraged civilians to become members of the party, glorifying the position when really, they were setting children up to die. It makes me sick to think that I followed this faithfully and that Dimitri had done so too.
"What are you so deep in thought about?" Dimitri asks, pulling my hair over my shoulder and cupping my neck, pressing his thumbs into the muscles in my neck. I close my eyes for a moment and enjoy the feeling of his fingers working against my skin, groaning when he digs into the right spot.
"Just thinking about how stupid we were to be raised like cattle for slaughter. I've been thinking a lot about Nazi Germany and the connections there are in the moroi society," I say softly, moaning a little as he thumbs a knot at the base of my head.
It seems strange to me that we can still experience things like knotted muscles, but that is another thing we got wrong as dhampirs. Strigoi still experience a lot of things, pain and strains, we can still crave food and in my case, miss the sun on rare occasions.
Dimitri hums in the back of his throat, moving his hands down to my waist and pulling me closer to his chest, pressing his face into my hair.
"We don't need to worry about that anymore, we're free." He whispers. "Are you ready to go?"
I wiggle out of his arms and turn to face him, raking my eyes over him quickly and raising a brow.
"Why are you dressed like a guardian?" I ask crossing my arms. He is decked out in full black, even wearing a court uniform shirt beneath his duster, hair tied back at the nape of his neck.
"Easier to blend in, why are you wearing that?" he replies and waves his hand over my attire. I have gotten used to wearing nicer clothes and jewelry that Dimitri showers me with since being awakened, but tonight I resorted to a pair of skinny jeans, a tank top and a plaid shirt with a pair of converse shoes. He wants to blend in as a guardian, but I want to look as much as I did before awakening, just to fuck with Adrian's head.
"Blending in," I quip back at him. He shakes his head and pulls me back to him, placing a hot kiss to my lips and I moan against his mouth, snaking my tongue into his mouth and shivering when his fangs caress it. While we may have held ourselves back for months when we were dhampirs, that cannot be said for now. We have spent hours acquainting our bodies, using every moment to fuel our desires. Sure, we may not feel things like love anymore, but we still have that pull to each other and I can still feel the hum I used to feel when he touches me.
Walking him back to the couch, I push him down and climb into his lap, clutching to him like a lifeline. Moving his hands up my back and into my hair, he becomes more demanding and holds me firmly to him, and things would have progressed if it had not been for the loud knock at the door.
I pull away from his face with a huff and stand up, stalking to the door and whipping it open.
"What?!" I snarl and Dominic raises a brow at me. After taking control, there was a bit of a scuffle from those who remained loyal to Galina, but Dominic stepped up and because Dimitri's second in command. Born in the '40s and turned at the ripe age of 28, Dominic is sharp and extremely loyal to Dimitri, thus being loyal to me.
"If you don't want to miss your opportunity, you may want to tuck it back in. We need to leave," Dominic says calmly with a hint of a smirk on his lips. He flicks his gaze over my head to Dimitri before nodding and walking back down the hall. I huff again and turn to see Dimitri seated casually on the couch still, ankle resting on the opposite knee and a large smirk on his face.
"Wipe that look off your face, or you'll be going through a dry spell for the next six months," I snarl at him. He smiles wider and is in front of me in a blink of an eye, hands at my hips, and his lips at my ear.
"You wouldn't last until the end of the week," he jokes and smacks my ass before proceeding out of the room. I roll my eyes at the fact that he is right and follow him.
Slipping in through the back entrance of Plaisir, I walk through the lite dressing room and skim my eyes over the scandalously dressed women touching up their makeup, I look for one particular woman. Medium-high, predominate curves with a small waist, brown hair and eyes. I spot one and walk over, looking at her in the reflection in the mirror.
"Outfits are in the next room, love," the girl says to me as she touches up the red stain on her lips. I smile sweetly at her before looking over her costume. It's much more tasteful then what some of the others are wearing and a wicked idea pops into my head. Screw fucking Adrian's head by letting him see me dresses as old Rose, I have a better idea.
"Is there one similar to yours? I absolutely love it," I say kindly. She looks up and smiles at me, and I can see the haze in her eyes that is either from booze or drugs. She stands up and moves to the other room with me on her trail and picks out a replica of what she is wearing and hands it to me.
"I need a favour," I say sweetly while locking our gazes, compulsion thick in my voice and her eyes glaze over even more. She nods her head slowly and I lean in to whisper my plan, promising to give her a hit of a high better than the one she is currently on. She agrees and walks back to her dressing table while I put my plan into motion. Not only is this going to send Adrian through a tailspin, but it surely will send Dimitri through one as well.
An hour later I watch from the shadows as Dimitri trades places with one of the guardians accompanying Adrian with the help of compulsion. Everything seems to be falling into place. Glimmer, the lovely lady who has been assisting us tonight is currently bring Adrian to a private room and Dimitri follows, acting as the dutiful guardian he used to be and standing in the back of the room.
"You got to keep your eyes closed sugar," Glimmer whispers to Adrian and he smiles and closes his eyes. For good measure, Glimmer wraps a scarf around his eyes before running her hands over him and stalking out of the room towards me.
"It's done," she whispers and I repay her by sinking my teeth into her wrist and swallowing a few gulps of her blood before releasing her and compelling her to forget everything and to go home. She nods in her haze and walks away. I move towards the room, opening the door and stepping in and locking the door, throwing Dimitri a wicked grin. His eyes move over my barely covered skin and his eyes darken and I step towards Adrian and run my hand over his chest and shoulders as I walk behind him.
Clothed in a stereotypical schoolgirls skirt, black heels and a red busty bra, I wink at Dimitri before making my way around to face Adrian and straddle his lap, keeping my eyes trained on the man observing us. Settling myself as if to perform a lap dance, I run my nose up the column of his neck, breathing deeply and moaning as my mouth waters from the smell of his blood, Adrian moves his hands from his side to run up my legs.
Reaching my hands up the back of Adrian's neck to his head, I fist and hand in his hair and the other around the knot of the scarf and tug the scarf off of his head and pull a predatory smile onto my face as Adrian opens his eyes and settles on my breasts that are right at eye level. He leans forward to kiss my collarbone and I smirk at Dimitri over his head before pulling Adrian's head back sharply.
"What the h-," Adrian gasps before his eyes settle on my face and his eyes widen, sobering slightly.
"Hi Adrian," I say and wag my brows at him. I can hear his heart start to race as the gravity of the situation becomes clear to him and he opens his mouth – possibly to scream- and I clamp my hand down over his hips.
I tsk at him and shake my head, my hair falling around my shoulders and brushing against his chest.
"Come on, you always wanted me in this position. You should be enjoying this," I coo and he struggles against me as I clamp my thighs around his legs and hold him down in the seat. I visibly lift my head to look over at Dimitri and he moves closer to us, Adrian trying to swivel his head to see who I'm looking at. The minute Dimitri walks into his line of view, he whimpers a little and I let out a shrill laugh.
I stand up and bind his hands to the back of the chair in a flash and saunter over to the chest against the wall, and bend down to look through it, sending a flirty wink in the direction of the two men in the room. Pulling out a set of cuffs, I walk back and cuff Adrian's feet to the legs of the chair.
"Can't have you running away, now can we," I say and test the durability before standing and strutting to Dimitri, splaying a hand over his chest and kissing the underside of his jaw.
"I got to play with Tasha, he's all yours," I whisper into Dimitri's ear and pull away, moving to observe from behind them. One of the reasons we chose to intercept Adrian here of all places is because of the structure, being designed to have walls thick enough to allow their patrons to be as wild and loud as they want, but it works in our favour that nobody will be able to hear us over top of the loud music.
"What do you want from me?" Adrian asks looking between us. Poor, poor Adrian, so stupid to not figure this out.
I snort a laugh and hop up onto the table, crossing my ankles and swinging my legs back and forth, looking over at Dimitri intently. He looks over his shoulder at me with a wicked gleam in his eye, before returning his attention to Adrian and swinging his fist at his face, cracking his head to the side.
"Please, I can't take this anymore," Adrian gasps from the chair, blood trickling down his face from a cut under his eye and I smirk at him while examining my fingernails. Dimitri had been more than happy to take over and let out his pent up frustration out on Adrian, landing blow after blow on his body. His nose is clearly broken, and a black eye is forming over his left eye. I can be sure he has a couple of broken ribs too by the sound of his wheezing. I hop up off the table and saunter over, patting Dimitri's shoulder as I step between them and bend over to be eye level with Adrian.
"You want this to stop?" I ask innocently and he nods his head timidly. I lean in and place my lips on his cheek, licking upwards to collect the blood that has run down his face and moan at the exquisite taste. The last time I had moroi blood was a few weeks ago when we happened upon one by chance, but I restrained myself and stood up and walked back to my man standing behind me.
"I've had my taste," I say to him and sending a dangerous smile over to Adrian and step away to allow Dimitri to advance. He yanks Adrian up out of the chair violently, breaking the links of the cuffs around his ankles and tearing the scarf binding him to the chair and bites him, and gulping deeply before releasing him.
Dumping Adrian back onto the ground Dimitri turns to me with a look of fulfillment on his face.
"Good?" I ask sarcastically and he walks over to me and stands between my legs where I perched myself back onto the table while Dimitri fed.
"Delicious," he says and kisses me, allowing me to run my tongue inside his mouth and I'm able to taste remnants of Adrian's blood on his tongue; distinctively cloves and vodka.
Nicking his lip with my fang, I suck on his bottom lip and lick the small bead of blood that pooled on it and slide off the table. I twirl my hair and bat my eyes innocently at him before gesturing to my outfit.
"Like my change in wardrobe?" I ask huskily and a growl rumbles through Dimitri's chest as he wraps his arms around me. I wrap my arms around his neck and stretch up on my toes and rub the tip of my nose against his and squeal when he pinches my ass firmly.
"I do, but I'd prefer if it was for my eyes only," he retorts and kisses the tip of my nose. I smile and take over the view of the floor, where a small pool lays beneath Adrian's pale body and I hum in contentment.
While I was the one to suggest Adrian for the list, it was more for Dimitri's benefit. I may have had to deal with him flirting with me constantly, Dimitri had to witness it and pretend like it never bothered him and I know that he wanted to do nothing but shake him senseless for it. Not to mention the request Adrian asked before I left for Russia.
"Come on, let's go home," I say and walk towards the door. Dimitri stops me and shucks off his duster, draping it around my shoulders and buttoning it in the middle.
"I don't want anyone else looking at what is mine tonight," he says stroking my cheek and tucking my hair behind my ear. I beam at him and walk towards the door, hand in hand with my man and close it tightly behind us. We stand at the end of the hall for a moment, watching as the other guardian that was supposed to take over approaches the door and walking before, bolting back out and calling for his partner.
Two down, three to go.
A/N: Again, I am the only one to proof and edit so I apologize in advance.
If there is anything specific you would like to see in this story, send me a PM or add it in a review and I will take it into consideration.
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