Hey guys, sorry for the chapter delay but my teachers decided that it would be a good idea to drop 3 hrs of homework on me in one go. I also had some trouble writing this chapter because I was describing cities and building I have never been to before or really heard much about. I wrote using only pictures as guides. I am sorry if it is not entirely accurate but I did my best. Hope you all like it! R&R.
Chapter Four: Travel
The journey to Zagreb took us just over 2 days. I t started with Abe telling us that the closest airport that was still selling tickets this close to departure was Missoula so we used the Royal Court's private jet to get there. They weren't going to let us use it for the whole trip though.
Once we arrived at Missoula Airport we went though all the usual checkpoints and rode economy class to Denver where we caught our connecting flight 6 hours later. The connecting flight took us to Chicago where we waited until around 8.30pm that night. From Chicago we were off to Munich and we privileged enough to spend 12 hours in such an amazing city. We spent our time sightseeing and went to this beautiful clock tower called the Blick vom altenPeter. It was gorgeous, especially at night with all the city lights. We had dinner at a delicious restaurant called the Cube. It was very modern in a city with so many old, history rich buildings, but the food was amazing and that's all I really cared about. After Munich we finally arrived in Zagreb.
Zagreb had to be one of the most beautiful cities I had ever been to; this was including St. Petersburg and Moscow. This city was filled with classic buildings and quaint streets, fountains littered every square and in the afternoon glow the water simply sparkled an amazing amber colour. I was enthralled and so were Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Adrian, Mia and Czar. The guardian looked so wondrous and excited. Dimitri, the royal guardians and Abe's guardians just sat and stared out the windows with apathetic expressions, but I saw through Dimitri façade and saw the wonder and astonishment in his eyes. Abe appeared bored, obviously this wasn't his first trip to Zagreb.
After an hours worth of driving, and I suspected that our driver may have taken a longer route so that we could see the sights, we arrived at our hotel.
For the next week we were going to be calling Austrotel Palace home. Its outward façade reminded me of the Plaza's in New York. The inside though, did not. The inside screamed of opulence and grandeur. Chandeliers hung in most rooms and more than half the lobby was gold-plated. The floors were made of white, green and yellow marble. The overall effect was aesthetically pleasing to the eye and made you feel like royalty.
Several footmen who wheeled our luggage along on big trolleys escorted us to our rooms. Lissa, Mia and I were sharing a room, so were Christian, Eddie and Adrian. Abe had a room to himself while his 3 guardians had to share with Dimitri. The four royal guardians had a room two doors down from us girls.
Our room looked out onto a pretty, little snow-covered park called Strossmayerov. Our beds were made up in purple silk and the rooms furnishing matched with a colour scheme of yellows, maroons and browns. There was a living room with comfortable sofa's and a 50" flat-screen L.C.D complete with D.V.D and Tivo; it also had American cable. There was a study that had an oak desk, leather chair, notepads, pens and other stationary. There was a small collection of book in one corner and a cable running around the edge of the room to hook up to the Internet. I went into the bathroom that was made from pure white marble. There was an enormous shower with multiple showerheads and a positively massive bathtub that could easily fit 5 people comfortably. There were him and her basins and a basket of full of lotions and facial washes. On the door hung 4 white robes with matching slippers.
There girls and I 'ooh-ed' and 'aah-ed' over everything we saw as we toured our suite before going back into the living room to unpack our belongings which took us just over an hour.
We had just slumped down onto the sofas and turned on the T.V when there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," I volunteered, opening the door.
"Rose!"
"Sydney? Ohmigosh! Hi! How are you?" I said excitedly giving my friend a hug.
"Oh, I'm fine. Your life is much more interesting than mine," Sydney replied, glancing cautiously around the room.
"Sure," I muttered. "Come in, this is Lissa Dragomir and Mia Rinaldi," I said pointing to each girl respectively.
"Hi," Lissa said warmly. "I've heard so much about you."
"Oh, hi, I'm Sydney," She said nervously.
"Nice to meet you, Sydney," Mia said kindly, registering the other girls discomfort.
"Um, Abe sent me up here," Sydney said turning to me. "We're going out for dinner so that I can be briefed on why it is you have traveled half way around the globe this time," Sydney said with a bit of the dry humor I remembered.
"How much time do we have to get ready? Lissa asked.
"Half an hour," Sydney replied crisply.
"Shit!" Mia groaned.
"Well, we will have to hurry," Lissa sighed.
"Wait!" I yelled. Everyone had started bustling around searching for clothes, make-up or some other beauty product.
"What?' Mia asked.
"Where are we going?"
"Restoran Karaka," Sydney replied promptly.
Lissa, Mia and I gave her blank, uncomprehending looks.
"It's seafood, very elegant. Named after a Croatian medieval sailing boat." Sydney said in an exasperated tone.
"Oh," we all said concurrently.
Half an hour later we arrived in the lobby to see the four royal guardians, Abe's guardian, Eddie and Dimitri in formal guardian wear. Abe had a grey cashmere suit on with one of his many colorful scarves. Adrian wore a tux, his hair was stylishly messy as usual and dayum! did he look sexy. Christian was also wearing a tux but he didn't send chills running down my spine like Adrian did but Lissa's head became all red and misty with lust. I cleared my throat, both to announce our arrival and to clear Lissa's head. It worked. All those boys turned and stared. I don't know about the other two girls but Lissa and I were relishing the attention.
Lissa looked stunning as usual in a pale lavender dress that hung just below the knee, her hair was poker straight. Mia wore a black mini dress that sat mid-thigh; she had somehow put her hair in this crazy up-do that reminds me of Star Wars for some reason. Sydney didn't have a change of clothes and she felt underdressed so Lissa generously offered to let her borrow one of her dresses, which made her look seriously pretty.
Me, on the other hand, went for something slightly more casual, comfortable and, most importantly, easy to fight in. I wore black skinny jeans, a strapless red shirt with about 4 diamonte necklaces and silver hoop earrings. I wore my hair out and I had a pair of black ankle boots from none other than Jimmy Choo thanks to Lissa-my Christmas present.
Eddie whistled he had eyes only for Mia though. Christian came over and whispered something seductive in Lissa's ear. Adrian walked over to me with a lusty expression and hugged me tight, whispering some rather naughty things in my ear; both of his hands were on my ass.
Abe cleared his throat; "Shall we leave?"
We all nodded, I felt a prickling on my neck and turned to see Dimitri staring at me, Adrian had his arm around me as we walked out. This man was so confusing, he tells me he doesn't love me and then fights a whole battalion of royal guardians for me, he doesn't say a word to me ever, yet glares whenever my boyfriend is near me. I just don't know what to make of it.
Dinner at Restoran Karaka was delicious, the food was amazing, everything was fresh and cooked to perfection. I wasn't much of a seafood eater but this was something else. It was like a gift from God Himself it was that good.
The conversation started off light but turned more serious as the meals progressed, by dessert we had already decided who would be researching what and when. We had organized a guarding system too, which I insisted on being a part of, Abe, who seemed to be our 'leader' reluctantly, agreed.
I was still singing the restaurants praise as we walked out the door, I am ashamed to say I was a little bit tipsy. We caught a cab back to the hotel and went inside, each going to our assigned rooms. Lissa and Christian hung back while I said goodbye to Sydney and said that I could wait to see her again the next day.
I started walking back and caught up with Lissa and Christian. "Hey," I said.
"Hey, can you come somewhere…uh…quiet with us?" Christian asked tentatively.
"There's something we want to talk to you about," Lissa added.
"Sure," I said, slightly weirded out by their serious expressions. Both seemed to sigh in relief as we continued to walk towards the lift. Lissa hit the button for the top floor, our rooms were on the eighth floor, this was two floors above us. I gave her a questioning look.
"Somewhere quiet," she said, reiterating Christian's words. "We don't want anyone to know quite yet."
"Ok…"
We reached the top floor and climbed a stairwell to the roof. Once we were up there, Lissa and Christian turned towards me.
"Ok, well…" Lissa said. "Where to start?" She looked to Christian for help. He shrugged.
"About a week ago something happened and I kept it from you because we wanted to keep it to ourselves for a while and its not cause we don't love you or anything its just-" Lissa rambled and I cut her off.
"Whatever it is Liss, I wont hate you or be pissed you kept it from me, ok?" I said reassuringly.
"Good. Because-" this time it wasn't me that cut her off, or even Christian. It was the ghostly white hand that had wrapped around my throat.
"Run," I croaked.