"Hello, Little Project." Adrian said taking my hand and bringing it to his lips, but I pulled it out of his grasp before he got that far.
"Hello, Mr. Ivashkov." I said monotonously.
"Oh, please. Call me Adrian." He said flashing me what was supposed to be a dashing smile. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Likewise, I suppose." I said stepping further away from him and closer to Dimitri. Dimitri, who was doing well on his part, draped his arm leisurely around my waist, but it was definitely a move to show possession.
"Adrian." Dimitri nodded to him, but made no move to detach himself from me.
"It's nice to see you again, Cuz." Dimitri groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"Dimitri here is my cousin. Tatiana is his great aunt." Adrian exclaimed proudly. "We come from the same line of Spiriteds."
"And yet, you couldn't be more different." I mumbled.
"You're the one to talk about being different, Little Project." Adrian said eyeing me up and down causing Dimitri to stiffen and tighten his hold. "Have you seen your aura lately?"
"I haven't seen my aura ever." I told him. "So, I'm assuming that you're oneirokinetic."
"Your assumption would be correct." He said with a smirk. "I must ask, what is your gift?"
"I have many."
"Any of them umbrakinesis?"
"That would be one of mine." Dimitri cut in.
"Well, Cuz, you might want to try and take some of her Darkness. Looks like she could use a little pick me up."
Dimitri shared a bewildered look with Adrian and then turned to assess me.
"You're a Wielder of Death." Dimitri breathed out.
"I'm a what?!"
"A Wielder of Death is one who has vita-mortokinesis." Adrian explained. "Basically, you have Death in your back pocket, but you also have Life at your fingertips, though most vita-mortokinetics don't use Life. With the power to wield Death comes Darkness. Darkness is the Death that seeps into you. Dimitri doesn't feel the effects of Darkness because he has umbrakinesis. He uses both in tandem with each other."
"But I don't have umbrakinesis." I reminded them. "If I am in fact a Wielder of Death, and I'm not saying I am, then how am I going to get rid of my Darkness?"
"There are a few ways that don't require Dimitri's help." Adrian began. "You could always workout. Hitting something always seems to deplete Darkness. That's option one."
"How many options are there?"
"Three. Well, four technically." Adrian said thinking aloud. "So, there's hitting something. Having sex seems to help, and I would be happy to provide my services, if that's the course you choose." Dimitri growled and pulled me closer. I placed my hand on his chest, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. "The third option would be to have Dimitri take the Darkness from you, but that could be harmful for him."
"Then I'm definitely not doing that. Don't even think about it, Comrade." I stopped Dimitri before he could argue with me. "What's the fourth option?"
"That would be to do nothing. The Darkness would eventually build up and drive you mad. This is the option that I would not choose due to the fact that you are so powerful, adding crazy to the mix would be disastrous."
I nodded weighing all of my options.
"Well, I could always hit something. But…" I turned to Dimitri and wiggled my eyebrows. "You could help me with the second option."
Hunger flooded his face and he pulled me flush against him. I looped my arms around the back of his neck pulling myself up to reach his lips.
"The second option will not be happening under my roof." Abe barked out, causing Dimitri to drop me and step away hurriedly.
"Really, Old Man?"
"Yes, really, Kiz." I'd barely remembered that my father and my friends were seated around the dining table listening to Adrian inform me of my impending doom. Well, that was a little dramatic, my possible impending doom.
Lissa and Christian were cuddled up, as were Eddie and Jill. Mason and Mia were close but not cuddling, I had a feeling that Mason was scare of my father. I chuckled internally at the fact that a hulk of a man like Mason could be scared of my father. I didn't find him that scary, though he was my father, so I didn't have anything to fear.
"So, Adrian. What news did you bring us?"
"Right. Tatiana sends her congrats to Rosemarie on a job well done with the escape." He declared nodding his head toward me with a smirk on his face. "She has a little more information on what Victor is planning to do and what he wants with the Projects. The most important news she sends is about Victor himself."
"Well, let's start with that and go from there." Adrian nodded at Abe before taking a deep breath.
"It turns out Victor has found a way to make himself Spirited. He has a brother, Robert, who is Spirited and can loan power to one who is not Spirited. From what Tatiana tells me, he's not very powerful and using the power drains both him and his brother so they can't do it very long or very often."
"What power is loaned?"
"That's where it gets bad, like really bad." Adrian stated looking hesitant to share the information. He seemed scared, but of what or of whom, I didn't know, yet. "We don't know how this is the power that is loaned, but it is: necrokinesis."
"He's controlling the dead?" I asked shocked.
"It seems to be that way. Though, he doesn't control them for long before he gets worn out. Tatiana thinks that it's because he's too old and weak to possess such a powerful gift. According to her, Victor's health has been on the decline recently and as a result, he's doubled his efforts in tracking down the right Project."
"Well if he has power, what does he need Projects for?"
"He's looking for someone with gerontokinesis, so he can make himself young again. He assumes that by becoming young again, he'll heal and get better so he can control the power for longer."
"He hasn't found anyone, yet, right?" I asked nervously. I've never been able to control age, but that didn't mean that I couldn't, it just meant that I couldn't right now.
"Not yet, though I'm sure he felt he was close with you. But now that you're out, he'll probably begin testing for other abilities in all the Projects just to be sure he didn't miss anything. He's probably going to have more of his people looking for you, too."
"How many compounds are there?" I asked, ignoring the threat on my life, though I felt Dimitri tense.
"There's another one in the States, over in Montana, and then two in Russia." Adrian started to pull out blueprints of the remaining Academies. "These are about a decade old, so we don't know how much has changed in each compound, but this is the best we could do."
"We'll take what we can get." Abe said as he began investigating the blueprints. "We'd like to get the Projects out without having to destroy the buildings, not that we won't if we need to."
"Sorry about that." I said shyly.
"It's not your fault." Abe stated while glaring at Dimitri.
"Old Man…" I warned.
"I know, I know. I'm dealing with it." He didn't sound too convincing, but I let it slide. "Do you know where Victor is currently?"
"We think that he's in Russia at one of the compounds. After Rose escaped, the next best Project is housed there, so he presumably went to keep an eye on progress." Adrian provided. "But we don't know for sure. No one has seen him for about a week. We're just assuming that word of your escape reached him and he's trying to protect his assets."
We all nodded, scanning the blueprints, though no one but Abe knew what they were looking for. We sat in silence for a little while, letting the information sink in so we could process it all.
"Recently, Projects have been leaving the Academy. Do you know where they're going?" I asked suddenly, remembering all of Projects that had been removed due to "downsizing."
"We think that he's found another Project that is gifted in neurokinesis and is using that individual to control the other Projects. Normally, compulsion on a Spirited is difficult because they are at least a little immune to any gift, but those Projects that were taken were the ones that aren't all there, making them easier to control."
"So, he's building a Spirit Army." Abe stated.
"What for?" I voiced.
"I'm assuming it can't be good, considering it's Victor." Dimitri voiced. "How could we know all of this and not be doing something to stop him?"
"Victor is deeply imbedded in the government, both here in the States and in Russia. He's gotten officials to believe the Spiriteds are individuals to be feared. With each Project brought in, he's been sure to have a planned disaster that he blamed on the captured Spirited." He then looked over at me and chuckled quietly. "Though, not all Projects had to have a cover story planted."
"That wasn't my fault. He had it coming." I huffed indignantly. "You'd do well to keep that in mind if you try anything."
I saw Adrian's carefree demeanor flash with fear and anxiety, before masking it with his usual arrogance.
"You wouldn't do that, Little Project. You like me too much."
"You keep telling yourself that." I snorted.
"Do I want to know what you two are talking about?" Abe asked hesitantly.
"Tatiana didn't tell you?" Adrian gasped giddily.
"Tell me what?"
"How the Guardians found Rose and her mom." He was like a child on Christmas, bouncing up and down in his chair.
"No." Abe answered slowly. "Do I want to know?"
"I'd like to know." Dimitri stated and I saw nods from Christian, Eddie, and Mason. I'd already told the girls how I ended up in the Academy. Lissa and Jill both thought it was hysterical, Mia already knew because she'd gone to the same school and read it in all of the papers.
"Let's just say that when I refer to 'Tricky Dicky,' I'm not talking about Richard Nixon." The boys and my dad started cracking up, but Dimitri looked lost.
"Richard Nixon was an American President that was involved in the Watergate Scandal, and lied about it, he then received the nickname 'Tricky Dicky.'" I explained. "Dick is a nickname for Richard, don't ask me why. It doesn't make sense to me."
"That still doesn't explain how an American ex-President connects with your capture."
"Oh, Dimitri." Mia sighed. "Rose and I went to the same high school before she was captured and I was sent on the run. This kid named Jesse, a real prick, kept harassing her, really every girl, but Rose didn't give in. He tried a more forceful approach and Rose didn't take kindly to that." Dimitri, bless his heart, still looked lost.
"I bent his dick, Babe." I stated plainly. Dimitri's eyes widened before he snorted.
"Why does that not surprise me?" I narrowed my eyes at him and he lovingly took my hand and kissed it. "I mean, he had it coming. Serves him right."
"That's better." I grumbled, pacified.
"Well, let's just say that Jesse is pretty much harmless nowadays. From what I've heard, he's still a jerk, but no one is bothered by it anymore. Once work got out about his disfigured member, he lost any control he ever had." Adrian commented still smirking.
The laughter from the other males at the table had died down and the mood was beginning to plummet again. My thoughts turned back to Victor. I didn't know what we were going to do. Getting to Russia wasn't a problem, finding him was. We had old blueprints of the facilities and word through the grapevine that he was actually going to be there.
He was building an army of Spiriteds, for what? We didn't know. I could feel worry in the pit of my stomach. Victor was getting close to finding what he wanted. I had a sickening feeling that I was it. I glanced around the table wondering how many of us were going to make it out of this war. Victor was dangerous and with Projects and the Dead on his side, I didn't know what was going to happen.
I then realize, Dimitri and I's power of vita-mortokinesis was useless against Victor's loaned power. It was impossible to bring death to those that were already dead, and giving life back to them would be challenging.
My hand tightened around Dimitri's and he looked over at me with a small smile. He'd probably come to the same conclusion I had: in order to come out of this on top, Victor would have to be killed.
With that information in my mind, I took a deep breath, calming myself.
"I have a plan."