"Are you sure?" Roza asked for probably the twentieth time.
"I'm absolutely sure," Sydney replied, sounding just as annoyed as the first time Roza had asked.
"It's just…are you sure?" She asked again. Her body had gone into shock as the identity of the Strigoi informant was revealed. I was just as surprised as Roza, though I'd never known Sonya while she was still Moroi, I imagine it was the same sort of feeling knowing that Galina was turned, but worse considering Sonya turned on her own volition.
"If I change my answer, will you believe me enough to stop asking me that question?" Sydney finally broke, almost growling out the sentence, not that Roza was taken aback by it, she was still in shock. I'm surprised it took her this long to break, but she seemed to be trying to figure out how to gain the needed information without having access to the person who knew it. It was the same puzzle I was trying to solve, but I'd yet to come up with a solution.
"I'm sorry," Roza mumbled, resting her elbows on the table in front of her and dropping her head into her hands. I didn't even want to try and comprehend the puzzle Roza's mind was trying to work through.
"So, what does this mean for the mission?" Adrian asked, breaking out of his own shocked silence to ask the question I'd been too hesitant to ask. However, when he looked toward me for an answer, I knew I was probably the one that was going to provide an appropriate response, probably best seeing that the females were still working through their own mental scenarios.
"I'm not sure. The only person that we know of that has a connection to the mystery mistress is Sonya Karp, not that it's going to do us much good considering her current state, if she's still alive…or would it be undead? Anyway, if we knew where she was, we could possibly get her to tell us who the mistress is with a little persuasion. There's a chance that Sonya is a relative of the woman considering that she is the POD. It is odd, however, that the person never went in and changed the POD when Sonya turned."
"Maybe she doesn't know that Sonya turned." Roza provided, letting her arms fall back down on the table with a loud thunk.
"I highly doubt that. The news of her transformation was widely spread in the Moroi world, there's an extremely small possibility of her not hearing about it." I theorized, sitting down in the seat next to Roza seeing as this could potentially be a lengthy conversation.
"So, going in and changing it probably would have meant that someone would ask too many questions," Adrian stated.
"Probably," I answered with a nod. "Sydney, is there a way that you could potentially find Sonya? I'm not sure how wide the net Alchemists cast is and if it encompasses Strigoi, but finding Sonya could be our only chance in the near future as to finding this lost sibling."
"If the Strigoi are of high priority we can track them, but I'm not sure if Sonya Karp falls under that umbrella, but I can try," Sydney said, a newfound determination taking over her expression as she immediately started typing away at her laptop.
"What are we going to do if we find her?" Roza asked, looking a little dejected.
"The same thing you did with the Strigoi in Russia when you wanted to find someone," I answered. I'd heard Roza was looking for me fairly quickly after she arrived in the city. A group of rogue Dhampirs taking down Strigoi and interrogating them, that kind of news travelled fast despite the Strigoi's aversion to teamwork.
The whispers of a dark huntress had reached my ears, an American nonetheless, and I'd known immediately it was Roza. My Roza. At the time, I felt annoyance at her presence in Russia, she wasn't supposed to be there. She was supposed to be in Montana, finishing school, and staying as far away from me as possible.
However, Roza never was content with staying where she should have, and I couldn't be more grateful for her rebellious behavior.
"You want me to interrogate my former teacher?" Roza asked, looking at me as if I'd grown a second head. It really wasn't the craziest thing I could ask her to do. She was already on this impossible mission, why not add another insane task to the list.
"You have no trouble interrogating dozens of Strigoi you've never met, killing them if they didn't have the information you were looking for, but you have a problem with questioning your former teacher for information that could be vital to getting Lissa her seat on the Council?" I asked, challengingly raising an eyebrow.
"That was different, Dimitri, and you know it." She huffed, falling back in her chair while throwing her arms up in frustration. I could see her resolve wavering, though. I knew if I played the Lissa card enough, she'd give in. It seemed the Adrian had also picked up on that piece of information.
"Why does it have to be different?" Adrian asked. "You were doing what you did in Russia for your love of the Cradle Robber; you can do this for your love of Lissa. Besides, it will only be one Strigoi, not dozens. It will be easier this time. Not only have you had practice, but you've also had experience fighting someone you knew in Strigoi form."
"Exactly," I agreed, though I did narrow my eyes at his continued use of an insulting nickname. "You can think of this as an act of love. You might not be trying to free her soul of eternal evil, which we can if we find her and get the information, but you could be helping her change things in our society for the better."
"If, and that's a big 'if,' Sydney can find Sonya Karp, I will do what it takes to extract the information from her." She sighed at last. I saw Sydney's mouth twitch in a slight smile before her face evened out as she continued to click away. I figured this would be another push for Sydney to find Sonya, just so Roza would have to keep her promise.
Adrian looked amused and excited, but I wasn't sure if his excitement was the progress of the mission or because he'd soon be getting to spend some alone time with a certain Alchemist while Roza and I were out looking for Sonya. I'm not sure which reason unsettled me more.
"Excellent!" Adrian exclaimed, clapping his hands together and receiving an odd look from Roza. "In the meantime, what are we doing? I know you two basically have degrees in it, but I'm not really good at this whole waiting around doing nothing thing."
"Well, Dimitri and I are going to go upstairs and shower because we smell like the forest, but I don't know what you're going to do. You should try finding a hobby, maybe read a book? If Sydney does find Ms. Karp, you're going to be doing a whole lot of waiting until Dimitri and I can get any information out of her." Roza said with a smirk, rising to her feet and offering me her hand, which I quickly took before standing to my own feet.
Before either of us could hear a response from Adrian, we were already making our way up the stairs. I did, however, hear some mutterings over the sound of Sydney's keystrokes that I figured were Adrian's peeved remarks.
Roza and I took our time in the shower, making up for the rushed morning routine that Roza had put me through. Her muscles were tightly wound, and I was still having trouble comprehending that she had died a couple days ago. It felt like weeks had passed since that horrible night, but the world around us was moving so quickly that is only seemed that way.
Perhaps I would have a chance to process everything that had happened while we waited for Sydney to find something, anything, but thinking about the determined look on her face suggested my wait wouldn't be as long as I thought it would be.
"What are you thinking about?" Roza asked, breaking me out of my thoughts as she rinsed the suds from my chest with her gentle caress.
"I'm just starting to process everything that had happened in the past couple of days," I stated, unconsciously pulling her closer to my body to reassure myself that she was still there, alive and well. Images of a bloodied Roza, lying lifeless in my arms assaulted my mind before I had a chance to block them out.
"It seems crazy to think that a week ago we were hunting Strigoi through the streets of New York City, never planning on going back to Court, let alone doing a top-secret mission for the queen." She chuckled, purposefully skirting over the fact that she had died. I knew she didn't like to think about it, I didn't like to think about it, but it kind of needed to be discussed.
"Roza…you died," I said, pulling back to look at her face completely. The stream of water was flowing over her shoulders, capturing her hair in its flow. "You lost your bond to Lissa. You'd had that bond for three years, does that not bother you?"
"Of course it bothers me, Dimitri." She muttered, pulling me back to her and pressing her cheek against my sternum. "But I don't like to think about it. I could have lost you that night."
"I almost lost you, Roza," I mumbled into her hair. My heart clenched at the memory of holding her body in my arms, sobbing because I'd thought I'd lost her. "Hell, I did lose you for a minute."
"I'm not too upset about losing the bond with Lissa." She said after a little while, the sound of the shower being the only thing to fill the silence. "I mean, I'm grateful for what she did, but I didn't ask for the bond. Once we understood what the bond meant and how it formed, I felt obligated to use it to protect Lissa. I know that's what Anna did for St. Vladimir, but she had a love for protecting Vlad before the bond formed. I felt like the bond took away some of my choices in life."
"What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled that she'd never mentioned this back at the academy.
"I knew I wanted to guard Lissa after we graduated, but after the bond had formed, I felt like I had to, like it wasn't my duty anymore but my debt. It was like I was paying for the life she saved by signing it over to her. There's always a chance that we don't get assigned to the Moroi that we were hoping, and for a little while, I didn't think that I was going to get assigned to Liss because of the stunt I pulled in finding you. At that point, I wasn't sure I wanted to be a Guardian anymore. My sense of duty had shifted, and it wasn't on Lissa anymore, and the fact that I wasn't assigned her Guardian made it easier to make my choice. The only challenging thing was dealing with the bond."
"Did you not want to become a Guardian because of what happened with me?" I asked quietly, smoothing the hair away from her face while tilting her chin up to look at me. Not that she would ever lie to me about something like this, but I needed to see that she was telling me the truth.
"In a small way, yes. I'd seen what being a Guardian had done to you when you lost your best friend. I know I told you that I wouldn't let anything happen to Lissa, but you'd probably promised the same thing to Ivan. You were alone after Ivan was killed, and then you found me. I was convinced that I wasn't going to allow Lissa to die because I was going to do such a great job protecting her, but then you came along. It was challenging, but I'd still promised myself that I wouldn't let anything happen to Lissa, and you'd be there to help me if I should fail."
"What changed?" I asked.
"You died." She stated, resignation in her voice. Even though she'd brought me back, I'd still died, but she'd come to terms with that, just as I would have to come to terms with her death. "You died, and I was going to be alone should something happen to Lissa or any Moroi I guarded. Before I met you, I was convinced that even if something happened to my Moroi, I would be able to deal with it and move on and do my job better the next time, but after seeing how you handled Ivan's death, I didn't think I was strong enough to have another Moroi should something happen to mine. So, I decided that I could protect the Moroi by ridding the world of Strigoi. If we didn't have as many Strigoi, I wouldn't have to worry as much about any Moroi, mine or otherwise, dying."
"As noble as that sounds, I doubt you could have taken on the entire Strigoi population." I chuckled, resting my cheek on the top of her head.
"No, but I could have made a difference. I have made a difference. For every Strigoi I kill, I probably save at least a dozen people's lives." She theorized, her arms wrapped tightly around my waist as the water slowly turned cold.
"We should probably get out and see what progress has been made. Either with Sydney's findings or Adrian's path to self-discovery." I said, reaching behind her to turn off the shower. She reluctantly peeled herself away from me and reached for the towel on the other side of the shower door.
I watched hungrily as she slowly ran the towel over her curves, immediately regretting the decision to leave the shower and join our friends downstairs. However, I'm not sure how often I feel comfortable having sex with other people in the house. I knew it was in Adrian's nature to make crude remarks should he hear us, and he most likely would considering Roza was a very vocal partner, but Sydney was so uptight that I didn't want to piss her off.
On the other hand, I don't think I'd be able to keep my hands off of Roza that long. Perhaps on our trip to wherever Sonya was Roza and I could possibly rent a hotel room for a little alone time. I'd have absolutely no objections to that, and I doubt that Roza would either.
"Are you going to stand there staring or are you going to dry off also?" Roza asked, looking over her shoulder at me with a seductive smirk.
I fought off a heady growl and stepped out of the shower, gently taking the towel that she'd wrapped around her body and using it to dry my own. She huffed in the most adorable way, rolled her eyes, and strutted back into the bedroom.
I watched with great interest as she bent down to retrieve an outfit for the rest of the day. Whether it was unconscious or not, her ass swayed gently to a tune in her mind as she dug through her bag, drawing me nearer with each beat.
Against my better judgment, I walked right past her, though I did stop to give her a light kiss on her head, receiving a gentle sigh from her. I went to my own bag, pulling out jeans and a shirt before getting dressed. I sat patiently on the bed, watching through the door as Roza fixed her hair and applied minimum makeup to her face.
"You know you don't need that, right?" I asked as she screwed her mascara wand back into its tube.
"I know I don't, but it makes me feel like I've got more control over what people see in me. Besides, I'm pretty sure your opinion is biased on a grand scale, so I can't really take your word for it." She chuckled, pulling me out the door by my hand.
"I'm pretty sure dating you makes me an expert when it comes to beauty, yours especially," I said, placing the hand that she wasn't latched on to over my heart in mock offense. Even though she wasn't facing me, I could feel her rolling her eyes as we approached the kitchen where the sound of keyboard keys could still be heard.
"Don't ask her if she's found anything!" Adrian's voice called out from the living room. "She gets a little grumpy answering the same question over and over again."
"I wouldn't get grumpy, Ivashkov, if you didn't ask the question every two minutes. If you gave me a reasonable amount of time in between asking me, I'd be a little more understanding." Sydney called out, stopping her typing and looking angrily in Adrian's direction. "Besides, I'm not grumpy."
"I already told the Wonder Twins that I'm not great with the waiting thing," Adrian remarked. I took a curious glance at Roza's face to see how she would react to the two bickering. She had a large smirk plastered on her face as she stared down Sydney.
Sydney, for her part, looked as innocent as she was pretending to be. I think Sydney's time spent with Roza and, recently, the other three Guardians had made her less uptight, and much more accommodating of Dhampirs. Roza seemed to know something I didn't, though, judging by the glint in her eyes.
I knew that Adrian was interested in Sydney, but I knew, despite the understanding that Sydney had found with Dhampirs, she would never reciprocate the Moroi's feelings. It went against the very nature of her culture and early beliefs.
"Don't give me that look, Rose. I don't like it." Sydney muttered, quickly picking back up her typing and ignoring us.
"Whatever you say, Sage. Just don't think I won't tell you 'I told you so' when the time comes." Roza chuckled before meandering into the living room where Adrian was. I grew more confused at Roza's statement as a slight blush crept over Sydney's face. She couldn't possibly have feelings for Adrian, could she? No, it isn't possible.
"Hey, Little Dhampir." I heard Adrian greet before tuning them out. I stayed in the kitchen, looking at Sydney quizzically.
"May I help you with something?" She asked, barely sparing me a glance when I still hadn't moved on or said a word after a few minutes.
"Not really. I'm just trying to decide what to do." I stated, taking a seat at the table with her. "Do you need help with anything?"
"I hate to say it, but I'm hungry. Do you think you could make something for lunch?" She asked, looking up with pleading eyes. I'd seen that look before from Roza.
"You've been spending entirely too much time with Roza," I muttered while shaking my head.
"I heard that, Comrade!" Roza called from the living room.
"Love you, Roza!" I called back before making my way over to the fridge to figure out a plan for lunch.
"Mhmm." I heard muttered before all went quiet, aside from the clacking of keys.
"Why did you say that you'd hate to say it?" I asked, turning my attention back to Sydney.
"I've never been one to eat much, but as you said, I'm spending too much time with Rose. Her appetite is growing on me. Plus, she says I can stand to gain a little weight." Sydney responded quietly, glancing toward the doorway to make sure she didn't receive a rebuttal like I had.
I didn't say anything in response to that, only giving a hum that could be interpreted however she chose. I didn't think it polite to comment on a woman's weight, even if I did agree with Roza, nor was I going to fake a socially acceptable comment and tell her that there wasn't anything wrong with her weight.
Lunch was almost done when Sydney shouted in triumph, causing me to drop the pan I was holding. The clattering sound was ignored as Adrian and Roza rushed into the kitchen, hoping the shout was good news.
"I found her!" Sydney shouted, looking surprised and proud all at the same time.
"Where?" Roza asked at the same time Adrian asked, "How?" Sydney chose to answer Roza's question first, but it left us just as puzzled as before.
"Paris."