"As in Paris, France?" Adrian asked bewildered, though the look of excitement was deep in his eyes.
"Yes, Ivashkov. I'm going to send you all the way across the Atlantic Ocean for this one Strigoi…no, you idiot. Paris, Kentucky." Sydney responded, rolling her eyes in a move that could only be described as distinctly Rose.
"You're feisty, Cupcake," Adrian said, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. "I like it."
Sydney didn't even grace his comment with a response, other than a heavy sigh, another move that was distinctly Rose.
"You ever been to Kentucky, Comrade?" Roza asked with a smirk.
"I haven't had the pleasure, yet," I responded with a slight shake of my head. "Where in Paris, Kentucky are we going? Do the Alchemists have an address?"
"Not really. We've got a general location, as in the city she's in, and description of the house, but we haven't had enough cause to actually get the address. She keeps a quiet presence in the town, travelling to the nearby larger cities to hunt but never bringing them back to her house to raise suspicion. She's been pretty tame as far as Strigoi go."
"If she's never given reason to keep an accurate location, why do the Alchemists know her general location?" Roza asked, voicing the same question that was floating around in my mind, perhaps it was my question that she voiced or her question that invaded my mind.
"Some empathetic soul caught wind of the mission Guardian Tanner had set for himself and started looking into it. By the time they found out anything useful, it was past Tanner's deadline and wasn't of any use to him. It was filed away in case it could be used later, and, lucky for us, we can use it." Sydney explained.
"I'd completely forgot about Mikhail's plight," Roza muttered, sitting down across from Sydney with a thoughtful expression on her face.
"What do you mean?" Adrian asked, sitting down in his seat beside Sydney, much to her apparent discomfort.
"I mean, he was pretty much in the same situation as I was with Dimitri except he didn't accomplish what he set out to do. He didn't set her free, and he most definitely didn't discover a way to reverse the Awakening process." Roza described, her facial expressions changing microscopically, but I could see her distress as she thought back to her promise to free my soulless body.
"Is there a way that we could help her?" Sydney asked after an uncomfortable silence.
"We could," I answered cautiously. "Adrian, as a Spirit user, could restore her. However, I'm not sure if he has the highest healing capacity that is needed to restore her. Between Roza and me, we can hold her and make sure that, if it works, she's not going to be a harm to him, or if it doesn't work, she'll be dead either way."
"That is if Adrian is up to the task," Roza said, looking to Adrian with indifference. I knew that Roza had a new perspective on restoration, considering how I treated her directly afterward, but she also knew what it was like being separated from the one you loved because they lost their soul.
"Would you be willing to teach me what to do?" He asked, a spark shining in his eyes. "I've always wanted to do more than dream walk and see auras."
"I'm not sure how much I can do in terms of teaching you how to use Spirit to heal, but I can teach you to stake a Strigoi properly. Lissa never really had to learn how to heal, she just did it."
"Is there any other Spirit user you know that could teach me? We could always call Lissa." Sydney suggested sheepishly. I could tell that she was hoping we could successfully use the information she'd worked to acquire for us.
"I don't think it's a good idea to call Lissa, mainly because she knows we're on a mission for the queen. I know someone else who could possibly help, but she isn't the best with healing either. Again, I'm not sure if we should call her."
"I am skilled in dream-walking," Adrian suggested with a smug look on his face.
"Can you dream walk anyone? Even if you haven't met them?" Roza asked in amazement.
"It helps if I've met them, but I can also find them with your help. Kind of like a bridge. I'll dream walk you and use your experience with her to find her. I haven't actually tried it before, but I've felt the ability to make the connection. With you, in fact, I've been able to feel the desire to connect with Belikov, and I've almost made the connection between you two, but I didn't."
"That's a little creepy. Does it only work if the person you're dream walking thinks of the other person?" Roza asked, leaning forward, her interest piqued.
"I mean, I can slightly manipulate the dream to make the person I'm dream-walking think about another person subconsciously, but I can't make a bridge without the original dreamer thinking about the other person," Adrian explained. "At least, I think. As I said, I haven't actually done it before, just felt that I could do it."
"It's worth a shot. We'll try it tonight. Regardless of if this works or not, when are we leaving?" Roza asked, looking over her shoulder at me.
After Sydney's outburst, I'd finished lunch and was leaning against the counter waiting for someone to notice their hunger. I could feel Roza's hunger simmering in the pit of her stomach, but her excitement at the new information had stamped down her hunger. It was only a matter of time.
Roza leapt to her feet with a look on her face that suggested she would unintentionally ignore the answer I gave her, but only because her focus was on food.
"If you can learn how to restore a Strigoi, theoretically, of course, we'll bring Sonya back here. It's going to be dangerous traveling with a live Strigoi, meaning we can only move during the night, but it will be safer than bringing you with us." I explained, looking at Adrian instead of trying to answer Roza in this instance. We'll work out the details of our departure when her hunger is quenched.
I was excited. I was looking forward to the prospect to reuniting two lovers in the manner it ought to be done. While I still feel a twinge of guilt when I think of how I treated Roza when I was restored, that doesn't mean every restored Strigoi would act as I had. If we succeeded in restoring Sonya to her former state, I would make it my personal mission to have a happy reunion between her and Mikhail Tanner.
Plus, if Sonya was able to lead us to the lost Dragomir, it was possible that we would be around to see the love blossom yet again. With another Dragomir to get Lissa her spot on the Council, it was likely that Lissa would be able to fulfill her promise to Roza and get Guardian strikes approved.
However, I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay at Court. I'd seen what that society did to Roza, what it did to me without me really realizing it. I'm sure that change was in the near future if Lissa could only get her spot on the Council. I'm not sure if I was looking forward to potentially leading a raiding party, but I knew I would do it if that was what Roza wanted.
Speaking of Roza, she was eagerly devouring her food as I sat staring at her with what was probably a highly admiring look, which could be considered creepy since she had been shoving food in her mouth like a crazed woman.
"What?" She questioned, irritation present in her voice, as her fork was halfway to her mouth.
"Nothing. Your appetite still intrigues me is all." I stated, a small smile still living on my face. She rolled her eyes and continued eating, though I noticed she made an attempt to consume a little more daintily than before, not by much.
"Are you guys sure you want to do this? I mean, this is only the first lead we have, it doesn't have to be the only lead, I can keep looking. I may be able to find a better lead that won't put you two in as much danger." Sydney stated, opening her laptop hurriedly.
"Don't worry about it, Sage," Roza interjected. "We're used to being in danger, and, besides, it will give us that opportunity to help someone else other than Lissa. This could benefit more than her. If you want, you can look for another lead, but I don't think we're going to need it. I think Sonya will be able to give us the information we need."
"Are you sure?" Sydney asked, her fingers hovering precariously over her keyboard, ready to type whenever Roza said the word.
"I'm sure," Roza said with a gentle smile. Her plate cleaned, but her fingers twitching for more. I could see her sparing a glance toward me before getting up and helping herself to another heaping plate of food.
"There is a reason I make so much food," I said when she gave me a guilty look. At first, she gave me a broad grin before it quickly fell.
"I'm going to take that to be a sweet loving gesture and not you calling me a pig." She said as she plopped down in the seat beside me.
"I'd never call you a pig, my love. You never put on weight when you eat, and I find your appetite to be endearing." I soothed, leaning over to place a kiss on her temple. She hummed in contentment, sparing me a loving smile before returning her attention to her food.
"I'll be happy when you two leave…" Adrian muttered, a look of disgust living on his face, though his eyes gleamed with happiness. I wasn't sure if his happiness was caused by Roza's happiness or because our departure meant he would be alone with Sydney. Either way, I wasn't going to respond to his statement, mostly because I didn't really know how other than with a withered look.
"You know you're going to miss this, Ivashkov." Roza quipped while gesturing to her body.
"It will be hard not having your beautiful face around here, but I think I'll be able to survive as long as Sage doesn't leave, too," Adrian responded with an overexaggerated wink. Sydney scoffed in response what Roza gave a half-hearted glare.
"I don't know what to do with myself now that I'm not the only beautiful woman in your life." Roza huffed, slumping in her chair. Sydney looked extremely uncomfortable with their exchange, but I could also see a slight blush creeping up her neck.
"You have the Russian, you don't need me," Adrian responded raising an eyebrow.
"I have a name, you know?" I interjected, though they both ignored me. I felt a little better when Sydney rolled her eyes at me, however.
"He doesn't put as much sass and uninhibited emotions into his sarcastic comments. His sarcasm is dry, but at least I've got him to make sarcastic remarks now. It's a huge step up from when I first met him." Roza pointed out looking rather proud of herself.
"At least I didn't try to beat you up when we first met. I was trying to be civil and then, you being you, had to bring violence in the mix." I noted in my 'dry' sarcastic way.
"Hey! That's so not fair. I was trying to protect Lissa!" Roza exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.
"And you did your job. I was doing mine." I noted, sitting back with my arms crossed over my chest. She narrowed her eyes at me, but I could see that she wasn't going to fight this pointless battle.
"Speaking of jobs," Sydney began, breaking the staring contest that Roza and I were having, "do we know how we're going to accomplish this?"
"I'm not sure how much planning you can do on your end, but Roza and I will go see if we can find her given the Alchemists' information is up-to-date and accurate. We'll subdue her there and see if we can extract the information we need from her as a Strigoi, then we'll bring her safely back here for Adrian to restore her, hopefully. If all goes well, we'll be able to look into any information we gather while talking to Sonya while she's getting more adjusted with you and Adrian. I'm hoping because you both are Spirit users, you'll be able to relate more to each other than either Roza or I will." I explained, hoping that the plan was detailed enough because I really didn't know how things were going to play out.
I knew from experience that things rarely worked out the way that I planned, so I suppose I was taking a page from Roza's book and not really planning anything, just a basic outline. It seemed to work better for her than any of my planning had for me.
"Sounds good to me." Roza chirped while rubbing her hands together enthusiastically.
"Wait. You want to leave a newly restored Moroi in my capable and his not-so-capable hands? We don't even know how long you'll be gone should Sonya decide it's in her best interest to give you the information she may or may not have. We don't even know that she knows who this mystery mistress is, let alone who their child might be. She might not even know she's the POD on the account." Sydney reasoned, being much less flexible than Roza.
"No, but we know that we can find her, probably, and that she might have the information that we need. If she has the information that we need, fantastic. If she doesn't, we get to reunite two lovers, one of which thinks he's lost the other for all eternity." Roza explained, making me more determined to find Sonya.
"Are you guys going to leave before or after I figure out how to charm a stake to stake a Strigoi?" Adrian questioned, looking kind of hopeful, but I couldn't tell if the hope was for us to leave sooner or later. My bet was on the latter.
"Do you need us to stay with you until we figure it out?" Roza answered his question with a question of her own.
"I'd appreciate a little bit of instruction on how to properly stake a Strigoi. It doesn't need to be intensive or anything, but I'll need to know how to reach the heart." Adrian said with a grateful looking shrug.
"Then, we'll plan to leave in a week's time. We'll dream walk with Oksana tonight, and we'll start the physical work tomorrow whenever you decide to wake up." I stated with finality. I didn't know what to do for the rest of the day, though. It wasn't like we had anything we could be doing.
If we were leaving in a week, we had plenty of time to plan out the more specific details of the plan. At least, that would have been my course of action. I doubt, though, that Roza would have thought any more about the vague plan that I had laid out.
I suppose I could use Google Earth and find the house, or possible houses, that Sonya is residing in to make our search a little less intensive, but if I was going to do that, I'd probably wait a few more days.
"A week will be more than enough time." Roza declared, nodding her head in agreeance.
"Soo…Is this the part where we all sit around and start asking each other 'what now?'" Adrian asked after a few moments of awkward silence.
"Maybe this is the part where you start your silent meditation," Sydney suggested in a sweet voice while batting her eyelashes in Adrian's direction before her face turned serious. "You know, so we don't have to listen to you anymore."
"That's harsh, Sage," Adrian muttered looking slightly offended when Sydney and Roza shared a hearty laugh.
"That was not harsh, and you know it." Roza quipped when she'd gain control of her laughter. "Come on, Ivashkov, let's go do some yoga."
She and Adrian rose from the table and moved outside. The sun was still high in the sky from what I could tell by glancing out the window, but the shade on the porch provided them with enough protection for Adrian to be alright.
I could still hear the unamused grumblings of Adrian as the door closed while Roza tried to stifle her giggles.
"Are you going to be alright being alone with him?" I asked in a serious tone once the door was finally shut. "I know you've grown accustomed to living with us Dhampirs without too much trouble, but he is a Moroi. I don't want to put you in an uncomfortable situation by leaving you alone with him."
"I'll be fine, Dimitri. While I'm not too keen on the idea of spending God knows how long with him, I'll find a way to distract either him or myself if I find I can't handle it. Besides, because you'll most likely be bringing back a Strigoi with you, and you'll need to remain inconspicuous, you won't be taking the motorcycle. If need be, I can just take Sasha away for a few hours to clear my head and keep me from killing him."
"Roza's not going to be too happy about that," I muttered glancing toward the front door.
"About having to leave Sasha or me potentially killing Adrian?" Sydney asked with a smirk.
"I honestly think she'd be more upset about leaving Sasha than if you killed Adrian." I chuckled, standing to clean up the mess I'd created while making lunch and mess Roza had created by consuming it.
"What's he like?" Sydney asked in a quiet voice as I turned my back, my hands occupied with dirty dishes.
"Who? Adrian?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder to see her nod. "He's a lot better now than when I first met him. I think part of that was the Darkness. It takes a lot out of a person, and before meeting Roza, he didn't really manage it really well. I suppose that Roza helped him understand that he could deal with it on his own without needing cigarettes or alcohol, not that he doesn't still use them, he just doesn't abuse them anymore.
"He's really good at reading people, and it's hard to hide things from him. Not only does he know when you're lying, he likes to have any information that could possibly lead to gossip. Most people would call him arrogant, and he is confident, but more in the sense that your opinion of him isn't exactly what he cares about. I think he truly cares about Roza's opinion of him because Roza wants him to be the best him he can be, if that makes sense. But make no mistake, he's a flirt if I've ever seen one."
"Don't worry, I won't let myself be fooled." Sydney scoffed, though the note in her voice hinted to something entirely different.
"Don't be afraid to let him get close, Sydney," I said softly. "He's a loyal friend and one of the more honest people you'll ever meet. He's a good person, and he's trying to get better."
"Is Rose helping with that?" She asked after a few moments of quiet contemplation.
"I'm sure she'd like to think she is, and I'm sure that he thinks she is, but Roza isn't the person Adrian needs to become a better person," I stated after replaying the progress Adrian had made in the short while of being friends with Roza.
"Then who is?"