I awoke to the sound of voices. I sat up, my neck stiff from my uncomfortable position where I'd passed out last night. I hadn't left my spot in front of the door, and apparently, Dimitri hadn't either.
"What are you doing out here?" I heard Pavel's stern voice come from the other side of the door.
"This was as close as I could get to her." His voice responded quietly sounding tired and hoarse. "She's still too far away."
"Were you out here all night?" Pavel asked after a few moments of silence. I assumed that Dimitri answered silently because Pavel continued. "You need sleep, Belikov."
I heard a sigh come from Dimitri and a shuffling from right outside the door. A few seconds later, I heard a door close softly further down the hall. There were another few seconds before a soft knock upon my door.
"It's me, Yeğen, open up." Pavel's voice drifted through. I stood up quickly and unlocked the door. I didn't know what I looked like but based on Pavel's expression, I looked terrible.
He quickly wrapped me in his arms and began whispering to me in Turkish as I buried my face in his chest. It surprised me how comfortable and safe I felt being hugged by someone as serious as Pavel, but I suppose I found comfort in Dimitri's arms at one point.
"I told your father to keep him away from you." He said angrily pulling back to look at me. Though his voice was angry, his face was gentle. "I told him several times that this was a horrible idea, but he didn't listen to me. He kept saying he was repaying a debt to an old friend."
"What old friend could possibly make him want to have Dimitri here after – " I stopped myself knowing there was only one person that could possibly be calling on Abe Mazur for an unpaid debt.
"What is it?" Pavel asked cautiously.
"Yeva," I growled.
"Yeva?" Pavel repeated before understanding flooded his face. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh," I said rubbing my face. "It's okay. I'll try my best to just ignore him as long as you guys try your best to keep him from getting me alone."
"I can assure you, we'll do everything in our power," Pavel said bringing me into another hug. "Now, would you like to go for a run? Well, a jog for you, but a run for me?"
"That'd be wonderful," I said laughing quietly. I quickly went into my closet to get changed. When I came back out, Pavel was standing guard outside my door, mainly looking in the direction of Dimitri's room.
"You ready?" He asked looking down at my bare feet.
"Yep. I hate running in shoes on the sand." I said moving toward the stairs.
We ran in silence enjoying the early morning sun. The old couples that I had seen the past two mornings were sitting on their back porches and automatically waved as we ran past. I used the rhythmic pattern of my footfalls to calm my mind and prepare myself for the rest of the day. I needed to prepare my mind for Dimitri's presence. He was going to be there the entire time, probably never more than a few yards away from me at all times.
I needed to prepare myself for the protective nature Pavel, Christopher, Jasper, and Kyle were going to adopt. I needed to prepare myself not to be mad at Baba. It wasn't necessarily his fault for bringing Dimitri here. I knew what Yeva was like and how hard it was to defy her wishes. If she wanted Dimitri here, there was no way Dimitri wasn't going to be here.
We ran down the beach until Pavel started slowing down, and then we turned around and headed back to the house. When we reached the house, Dimitri was standing just inside the entrance with his arms folded across his chest and an angry look on his face.
"Where were you?" He asked in a calm voice. I didn't respond to him and instead headed to the kitchen to retrieve a bottle of water and a banana from the fruit bowl. Pavel gave him a shrug and followed me to the kitchen. "Guardian Hathaway, I'm meant to be your guardian. I need to know when you're going out if I'm to do my job."
"It isn't my job to inform you when I'll be going out, Guardian Belikov, especially if I don't want you as my Guardian," I responded looking at him expressionlessly before turning to Pavel with a smile on my face. "Would you like to start training or should I wake the boys first?"
"You should probably wake the boys first," Pavel said with an amused grin. I couldn't tell if the grin was in response to my comment to Dimitri or the idea of me waking the rest of our training party. "I'll go see if Sydney wants to join us. Will you be okay?"
I nodded and started making my way downstairs to Kyle's room. I was going to start with the easier of the three to wake first, then move on to the other two. As expected, when I knocked on Kyle's door there was a small thump from inside the room before he quickly opened the door. He only had on pajama bottoms, and his hair was disheveled, the sleep still evident in his eyes.
"Hey, Rose." He said with a tired smile before it turned into a sneer as he caught sight of Dimitri behind me.
"Hey, we're going to start training as soon as I have the other two up," I said trying to ignore the pull I felt toward Dimitri.
"I'll be there. Good luck trying to get those two up." Kyle said laughing before he closed the door to his room.
I moved on to Jasper's room next, not bothering to knock. Jasper was sleeping peacefully on his back in the middle of his bed.
"Jasper," I called out to him. A facial twitch was the only indication he gave as to hearing me. I let out a sigh and moved to the edge of his bed and sat down. Another facial twitch accompanied the movement I caused. I poked his face and was rewarded with yet another facial twitch.
"Jasper!" I called loudly. His face twisted into a scowl but he opened an eye warily and looked over at me.
"Why are you yelling?" He asked gruffly.
"Because you wouldn't wake up when I wasn't yelling." I chuckled. "You need to get up for training. If you're lucky, Sydney will be there." I finished with a wink, and he was quickly making his way out of bed.
I laughed at his eagerness and moved on to Christopher. Like with Jasper, I didn't bother knocking and walked straight into his room. Christopher was sprawled across his bed, one foot hanging off the edge, his sheets tangled around his body. He was like Kyle in that he was only wearing pajama pants, but unlike Kyle's muted blue plaid, Christopher pants were an obnoxiously loud fuschia with neon yellow pineapples.
"Christopher!" I called out in a sing-song voice. He groaned and rolled over, burying his face in a pillow and mumbling incoherently. "Come on, Christopher, it's time to train."
"Go away, Rosie." I heard him mumble. I rolled my eyes and jumped up on the bed.
"Get up, Christopher." I laughed as I bounced up and down.
"What are you, six?" He grumbled before grabbing my legs. I squealed as I flopped down beside him on the bed. He threw an arm and a leg across my body trying to keep me in place. "Sleep, Rosie, it's good for you."
"Christopher," I said sternly not attempting to escape his poor grip. "You need to get up."
"Why?" He whined.
"Because I said so," I responded childishly.
"Wow, thanks, Mom." He grumbled rolling his eyes. However, he did let me get up. I quickly rolled off the bed and landed gently on my fingers and the balls of my feet.
"Are you going to get up?" I asked him placing my hand on my hips after I stood up straight.
"Yes. I'm getting up." He groaned throwing the covers off of him overdramatically.
"Good," I responded chipperly and skipped out of his room. I heard him chuckle behind me. I continued skipping all the way down the hall and into the gym. Pavel was already there with my swords. I skipped over to him and took my weapons off of him to strap onto myself.
"Does the harness fit okay?" He asked.
"Like a second skin," I said smiling up at him.
"Looking good, Rosie," Jasper said entering the gym. He smiled at me before scowling at Dimitri who'd taken up position near the back corner.
"Feeling good, Jasper," I said with a smirk. I turned back to Pavel bouncing eagerly on the balls of my feet. "So, what are we doing first?"
"We aren't doing anything with weapons first." He told me with an amused expression that made my face fall. "We're going to get you used to fighting with the swords attached to you. It isn't that you'll be fighting without your weapons drawn, but if we can get you used to fighting with them sheathed, you'll also be able to dance and move more easily in the club. It will make it less conspicuous."
"So, we need to get weapons for those three," I said gesturing to my hunting partners now that they'd all shown up.
"Yep," Pavel responded with a firm nod. "I suggest they all have the same sword just in case one loses theirs during a battle, any of them can pick up the weapon and use it just as well."
"That's a good idea," I said making my way over to the panel at the back of the gym, which happened to be right next to Dimitri. He looked hopeful as I walked toward him, and I had to fight from rolling my eyes.
I smirked when he realized what I was doing, but I don't think he noticed. He readopted the stoic Guardian mask while observing the guys as they warmed up. I waited patiently as the scanner read my retina and allowed me access to the weapons' room. I walked slowly around the room examining each of the different short swords that were on the wall. Pavel and I had decided that it would be easier to conceal a short sword as opposed to a longsword.
I stopped in front of the Kindjal. It was a lightweight sword, double-edged, with a slight curve. Some would probably call it a dagger, but it was longer than our stakes. I grabbed three and moved back into the gym. Christopher was already on his back with Jasper and Kyle looming over him.
"What did you guys do?" I asked handing Kyle and Jasper their swords before reaching down and helping Christopher up.
"Pavel was having us work on our teamwork. We attacked Christopher as a team, and he wasn't good enough to fend us off." Jasper said with a shrug.
"Yeah, right." Christopher scoffed. "I let you guys win."
"Really? So, you wouldn't mind fighting for real this time?" Kyle asked with a smirk.
"Of course I wouldn't, but aren't we supposed to be helping Rosie?" Christopher said gesturing toward me.
"Yes, you are," Pavel interjected. "That being said, you three need to coordinate a plan of attack to take her down."
"You want us to fight Rose again? Don't you remember how that went the last time?" Jasper asked.
"I do. Vividly." Christopher said with a shudder, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"It was quite amusing," Pavel said. "However, you need to improve much more than Rose does, so you'll be fighting her. If you can somehow manage to take her down, I'll cut training short."
"We got this, guys," Kyle said assuredly, though I could sense his hesitation.
"Strap your weapons on your backs before we begin," I instructed and moved toward the middle of the sparring mats. "You can begin whenever you're ready."
While the guys fixed their back scabbards to their liking, I took the time to center myself. I could still feel Dimitri's eyes on me. They never left my form for more than a few seconds. The more he looked at me, the more the sense of longing filled the space. The way I easily interacted with the guys made him angry and jealous.
I tried to get my body used to the feeling of his eyes on me, but no matter how long the feeling stayed, my body kept reminding me of the fact that he was still watching. The black tendrils of Darkness had slowly been seeping out of me the longer I stood there. The smoky trails pooled at my feet, swirling and morphing, waiting for my command.
I could feel everyone's anxiety grow as the puddle of Darkness surrounded me.
"Ready?" I asked looking toward my partners.
"Yes, but you're not allowed to use that," Jasper said pointing to the Darkness at my feet. "It's cheating."
"Like I need to cheat to beat you." I scoffed rolling my eyes.
Without warning, all three of them lunged at me. I planted my left foot behind me and crouched low. I bent down and launched Jasper over my back as he came from directly in front of me. With a summersault forward, I successfully evaded the other two.
I felt the air shift to my right as Kyle aimed a kick at my kneeling form. I grabbed his ankle and went with the motion of his kick. Kyle pitched forward and landed hard on his back as I still had hold of his leg. I rolled backward to where I was hovering above his head and brought my fist down to foe-stake him.
My head whipped up as I heard Christopher release a battle cry and saw both he and Jasper racing toward me. I let a quick smirk show on my face as I lunged for Jasper's midsection. He wasn't expecting me to come for him, and he landed on his back with a groan.
He used his knee to push me off of him before I could get a decent shot at his heart, but he didn't get up quick enough. Christopher was rushing at me yet again, and I grabbed his arm as it swung at me and flung him into Jasper as he was getting to his feet.
Both fell back to the mats with similar groans. I had Christopher staked before his groan finished and Jasper's demise wasn't far behind.
"Alright, maybe fighting Rose isn't the best way for you three to get better," Pavel said after I stood up straight again, dusting the imaginary dust off my clothing. Kyle had righted himself but Jasper and Christopher were still groaning in front of me.
"Perhaps I could be of some assistance?" I heard Dimitri call from the corner, and the room tensed.
"I'm not sure that would be a good idea," Pavel said hesitantly looking at the Guardians that had taken on looks of hatred as the Russian spoke.
"Why not?" Dimitri asked a little hurt. I slowly backed my way behind Jasper and Christopher knowing that if I didn't they would step in front of me.
"Because we hate you," Jasper growled.
"You don't even know me," Dimitri growled back.
"But we do. We know what kind of person you are. You showed us that yesterday, and Rose has told us plenty." Kyle said firmly.
"Then you really should have no problems fighting me," Dimitri said pulling his mask back on. "In fact, that should be all the more reason for you to fight me."
"I'll fight," Christopher said stepping forward with his hand raised. Dimitri looked at him with a scowl before stepping forward anyway. I moved to stand by Pavel, Dimitri's eyes never leaving me.
I stood slightly behind Pavel as Dimitri and Christopher started circling each other. As far as I knew, the two of them were evenly matched as far as strength went, but I didn't know much about Christopher's fighting style to determine who was more likely to win the match.
Christopher seemed to understand that he knew nothing about Dimitri's fighting style and was waiting for him to make the first move. Dimitri seemed to be thinking the same thing because he was waiting for Christopher to make the first move. Dimitri was much more patient in the waiting game.
I shifted slightly, but the slight movement drew Dimitri's attention back to me, and Christopher took the opportunity to take a swing. Dimitri blocked the move at the very last second, but his distraction resulted in a severely bruised forearm.
While Christopher retreated, Dimitri spared another glance my direction. I kept my face as emotionless as I could, and I think being unable to read me was starting to annoy him. I could see his jaw twitch slightly as he planted his back foot and pivoted it slightly.
Christopher also picked up on Dimitri's subtle shift in stance and braced himself for the kick he knew was coming, only, it didn't. Dimitri launched off his back foot and aimed a fist toward Christopher's chest. Christopher quickly changed tactics and dodged the punch as quickly as he could.
When Dimitri was retracting his fist, Christopher managed to grab his wrist. With Dimitri's fist in his right hand, Christopher used his left to grab onto Dimitri's shoulder and forced him to bend at the waist.
Christopher quickly kicked the back of Dimitri's right knee causing it to bend and Dimitri to fall. Christopher still had hold of Dimitri's wrist as he brought his fist down into Dimitri's back to simulate a stake thrust.
This was the first fight I'd seen Dimitri lose that wasn't to a Strigoi or me. Christopher released Dimitri's wrist, but Dimitri stayed in his kneeled position breathing heavily. He didn't look phased, in fact, he looked pleased with himself.
"Again?" He asked looking up at Christopher.
"Sure?" Christopher responded looking confused. I didn't know what Dimitri was playing at, but he was up to something.
Dimitri rose to his feet and crouched low. Again, they circled. Christopher looked a little more cautious this time, but still, Dimitri's patience outlasted Christopher's. Dimitri wasn't distracted this time as he fought with a smirk on his face.
He blocked each of Christopher's punches effortlessly, and I half expected him to start using just one arm and stifle a yawn with the other. With each blocked blow, Christopher looked more and more annoyed. Dimitri wasn't retaliating, he was just blocking each blow.
Either Dimitri got tired of defense or Christopher got tired of throwing punches because their positions switched. Dimitri wasn't trying to throw punches with a lot of power, though. It was almost like Dimitri was toying with him, and if the smirk on his face was any indication, he was.
"Now I see how you got so good," Pavel whispered almost in awe. It was true. If anyone other than Dimitri had taught me, I'd be good, but I wouldn't be as good as I am now. Dimitri had made me the Guardian I am.
"I'd like to think I could have been this good without him," I grumbled.
"You probably would have, but it would have taken you a little longer," Pavel said with a pacifying smile.
The fight was still raging. Neither one wanting to give up. Christopher wasn't going to stop trying to beat him, and Dimitri wasn't going to end the game. I think Dimitri was trying to prove a point, but to whom? To Christopher? To Jasper and Kyle? To Pavel?
To me?
I had no question as to Dimitri's fighting prowess. I knew what he was capable of. I'd seen him fight on numerous occasions. I'd been the one to fight him in several of those. I could tell when he was holding back or when he was giving it his all.
The few times we had fought, not sparred, I could tell he was giving it his all. Right now, Dimitri wasn't giving this fight his all. He was treating it like he did when he was first teaching me to spar. His movements were precise and quick when blocking a punch or a kick, but his retaliating blows held no power.
I just didn't know what he could gain from dragging this fight out.
Just as I thought that Dimitri stopped another one of Christopher's punches, this time, however, Dimitri landed a solid punch in the middle of Christopher's chest. Had Dimitri put his full power into the punch, Christopher would probably have a broken sternum. As it is, the punch sent Christopher flying, and he had barely landed on the mat when Dimitri was over him to simulate a stake thrust.
Christopher's body slumped onto the floor as he tried to gain control of his breathing. Dimitri righted himself, his breath even as he met my eyes. He held my gaze until the intensity became too much for me and I turned away. He, however, kept looking at me.
"Alright, Belikov," Pavel said after a few moments of everyone but me staring at Dimitri. "You will be training with us from now on. You're mainly going to be in charge of sparring with those three. I'll be helping Rose out with weapons, and we'll occasionally do another group attack just so she has practice."
Dimitri kept staring at me and nodded in response to Pavel. Christopher had gotten up off the floor and made his way over to me. He stood confidently beside Pavel and slightly in front of me to protect me from Dimitri's intense gaze.
Following Christopher's lead, Jasper and Kyle came to stand to either side of me.
"Don't think this changes anything, Belikov." Christopher started, but Jasper finished.
"Yeah, we still hate you."