Chapter Five
I watched in horror as Rose silently screamed. I had just about given up trying to shake her out of Vasilisa's mind and back into her own, since she wasn't responding to my frantic calls. It seemed no matter what I did; pinch, shake or call her name, she just wouldn't snap out of it.
I had no idea what Rose was observing right now in Vasilisa's mind but the look on her face made me think the princess was in some sort of trouble. Should I call for help? Or should I wait for Rose to tell me herself if Vasilisa was in danger. Groaning, I reached up to grab fistfuls of my hair in frustration.
I would wait for Rose to tell me herself, I decided. No one would know where the princess was anyway and I wasn't one hundred percent sure there was anything wrong.
"Lissa, No!" Rose gasped, my head snapped over to look at her face. Her eyes were still glazed over and little beads of sweat were forming at her hairline.
I stepped forward and gripped her shoulders, shaking her slightly; I leaned towards her, "Rose? Rose?" Rose's mouth went slack and her eyes slowly became focused. Blinking she focused in on my face.
"Are you alright?" I asked concerned.
"I… yeah. I was… I was with Lissa…" she lifted her hand up, to rest it on her forehead. I dropped my hands from her shoulders and took a step back. "I was in her head" she explained and I looked at her confused.
"Her… head?"
"Yeah. It's part of the bond." She said dismissively with a wave of her hand. I thought back to when Rose was having the vision, remembering the look on her face and what she had said.
"Lissa, No!" She gasped. It had sounded like the princess was in danger from the tone Rose had used.
"Is she alright?" I asked.
"Yeah she's…" Rose hesitated, "She's not in danger."
I remembered the first thing Rose had said when entering Vasilisa's mind.
"Christian!" she gasped in horror. Sifting through the hundreds of students, I tried to put a face to the name Christian.
My eyes widened slightly as I remembered there was a boy called Christian in Rose's year. Christian Ozera. Tasha Ozera's niece. Poor Christian, poor Tasha, I thought sadly.
When Christian was only a little boy his parents had turned into Strigoi: Evil immortals who stalked the night searching for their pray. This resulted in his aunt Tasha to take responsibility for him and make sure he was well looked after. That wasn't the worst part.
One day when the two of them were watching T.V at home, Christian's parents came back for him, demanding he become "awakened" to be just like them, Strigoi. Tasha refused to let them do it and Christian's parents got angry. Tasha fought against them to keep Christian safe, only to get backhanded by his mother, leaving a permanent scar across one side of her face. Luckily, the guardians arrived just in time to save them both and destroy Christian's parents.
Christian had witnessed the whole thing and was traumatized by witnessing his parent's death. He has never been the same since. Tasha Ozera had told me one afternoon, after I had boldly asked why her face had scars on it. Tasha was a dear friend of mine and I admired her courage and bravery when protecting Christian.
Now Christian wore all black and kept to himself. All of the students avoided him and kept out of his way in fear he would turn Strigoi just like his parents. I very much doubted he would, but all the same, he was dangerous and quite unstable. If he was with the princess, then who knows what might happen.
"Can you keep going?" I asked Rose frantically.
Misunderstanding what I meant- which was to check the princess was not in danger from Christian, Rose said, "Yeah. I'm fine." If Rose wasn't worried about Vasilisa hanging out with Christian Ozera, then I shouldn't be either. Who knows, maybe they were friends.
Rose and I walked back to the gym and she changed into her training uniform. When she came out of the girls change rooms, she suggested I should let her off this time. I laughed at her mockingly. As if I would let her off training because she had sore muscles from her workout in class earlier today.
"Why is that funny?" she asked, stone faced.
"Oh" I said, my smile dropping. "You were serious."
"Of course I was! Look, I've technically been awake for two days. Why do we have to start this training now? Let me go to bed" she whined. "It's just one hour."
Frowning, I crossed my arms and looked down at her. Enough mucking around, I thought. It's time to get serious otherwise she would try and get out of practise every time she felt sore or tired from the days classes.
Other teachers might have said, yeah, sure, straight away but that had been a great mistake. She would try to get around them every time she didn't feel like training, but if I declined, she would know I wouldn't give in to her that easily.
"How do you feel right now? After you've done training so far?" I asked her, arms still crossed.
"I hurt like hell!" she groaned.
"You'll feel worse tomorrow." I told her.
"So?" she said.
"So, better jump in now while you still feel… not as bad." I explained.
"What kind of logic is that?" she retorted, screwing up her face.
I didn't answer and she decided not to argue further. I led her into the weight room and showed her the weights and reps I wanted her to do for today's session. Then I sprawled myself in the corner with a battered old western novel. Once she'd finished I showed her a set of cool down stretches.
"How'd you end up as Lissa's guardian?" she asked. "You weren't here a few years ago. Were you even trained at this school?"
My body immediately stiffened and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I didn't answer her straight away, I was mainly trying to stay calm and in control, desperate not to lose it.
"No. I attended the one in Siberia." I answered shortly.
"Whoa, that's got to be the only place worse than Montana." she said. My eyes lit up in amusement, and I almost smiled. Siberia was a dangerous place to be educated. Strigoi roamed the place, attacking young novices for fun. I continued without acknowledging her joke.
"After I graduated, I was a Guardian for a Zeklos lord. He was killed recently." My lips turned down into a frown and my face grew dark. "They sent me here because they needed extras on campus. When the princess turned up, they assigned me to her, since I'd already be around. Not that it matters until she leaves campus." I explained. Rose pushed further.
"Did this lord die on your watch?" she asked.
"No. He was with his other guardian. I was away." I fell silent, remembering when I got a call one night back in my hometown, at my family's residence in Russia. A guardian I'd never met told me a Strigoi hunting party had descended at dusk, killing the guardian on duty as well as my dear friend Zeklos.
Rose piped up. Seeing my expression she said, "Hey, did you help come up with the plan to get us back? Because it was pretty good. Brute force and all that." I arched an eyebrow curiously.
"You're complimenting me on that?"
"Well, it was a hell of a lot better than the last one they tried."
"Last one?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah. In Chicago. With the pack of psi-hounds."
"This was the first time we found you. In Portland." I said. She sat up from her stretches and crossed her legs.
"Um, I don't think I imagined psi-hounds. Who else could have sent them? They only answer to Moroi. Maybe no one told you about it?"
"Maybe." I said dismissively. I didn't really think they wouldn't tell me about something as serious as sending psi-hounds. They were only used for hunting. The Academy wouldn't send them on a rescue mission; you would send them to kill the runaways.
I told Rose she could leave and she did. On my way out, I saw Alberta trail after Rose. As she reached me, I gave her a small nod of acknowledgement and in return, she gave me a small smile. I went straight to my room after that and collapsed on the bed, completely exhausted from the day's events. I fell asleep in minutes.
The next morning, I woke up bright and early and decided to go for a quick jog around campus just to clear my head. I thought about a lot of things, whilst jogging, at a steady pace.
Rose, for one, was seeming to understand that it's game on from this point. She has a lot of work to do, a lot of bodybuilding and also a lot more technique was needed in her fighting. If she was going to be ready for her trials in the spring, she would have to step up to the plate and give it everything she's got while keeping a level head. There would be no bitching, groaning, or complaints while she was aiming to achieve her goal to become Vasilisa's guardian.
I also thought about Kirova, and how spying on a student should be considered an invasion of privacy. Rose seemed to be coming along well in her training, so far, and it looked like she could prove her past and her future were two very different things. I believed her attitude, manners and respect would improve with every day that passes.
I also thought about my former charge Zeklos, which was distressing as I still hadn't gotten over his death. It was something I thought about every day that passed. For each day, the guilt got more and more unbearable; it kept on eating away at me until eventually I knew I wouldn't be able to bear it any longer and let it take over. Ever since the incident, I had distanced myself from others in fear that they too would leave me someday, without warning.
Friends come and go, some staying longer than others. Not many survived. Dhampir friends especially; they died trying to protect their Moroi quite often. If I kept to myself, rather than trying to connect with people, I would save myself a lot of grieving and sadness.
With three laps around campus, I headed to the gym a couple minutes early. I set up the gym equipment as a special treat to Rose. No doubt her body would be aching all over after yesterday's efforts.
Once I had just finished setting up the equipment, I sensed her coming. I couldn't explain in words what Rose's presence did to me but I got a weird sensation all over when she was near. It was strange. I had never been able to "sense" when someone I knew was coming, especially a girl. It scared me a little. Rose was hard to ignore, and I couldn't take my mind off her no matter how hard I tried. Right on cue, Rose entered the gym with a sour expression on her face. She was already dressed in her uniform ready to go.
She came straight over to me. "Hey, Comrade. You were right about feeling worse tomorrow. My back is killing me! And everywhere I touch is really tender." She whined. A small smile spread across my face.
"Stop complaining and start training." I ordered, and she grinned.
I don't know what it was about Rose but she had this kind of energy that made her hard to ignore. She was a person who you either loved or hated. She could be your best friend or your worst enemy. Rose had a lot of friends, sure, among the dhampirs, but among the Moroi, she was considered a threat to most girls. Her wit, charm, and body intrigued the Moroi males and her running commentary proved a great novelty factor. Most girls were either just attractive or just amusing; rarely would you find a girl with both qualities. Rose however, was a special case, something everyone wanted to lay their hands on and claim as theirs.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye as she gradually made her way through the weights and reps I told her to practise. She was struggling quite a bit, since she was only beginning to start her regular routine training. It had been nearly two years since Rose worked out last and I was surprised she even showed up for practise this morning. Her body would be giving her hell right now. But she finished her training, not giving up or complaining that much. There were a few grunts when she was using the weights, but she proved to be strong and carried on through them none the less. I let her go two minutes early since she'd done so well. She smiled before quickly running out the door.
~ ~ ~
Lunchtime came by a breeze, and I found myself, for the first time ever, wanting to go to the school cafeteria. I was sick of hiding away in my room like a coward. This morning's session with Rose had put me in a good mood and made me gain slightly more confidence in myself.
As I entered the cafeteria my eyes immediately searched for Rose. I found her sitting at a table in the far left hand side corner with Vasilisa and a bunch of Moroi, one whom I recognized as Prince Victor's daughter Natalie.
Grabbing a salad role from the canteen, I plonked myself down at an empty table on the opposite side of the room from Rose. That way, Rose wouldn't be able to spot me among the crowd of students. If she saw me, I knew she would come over and insist on sitting next to me so I wouldn't be alone. That was the kind of person she was. However, I didn't need to worry because Rose had grabbed Vasilisa's arm and pulled her away from the table to talk to her privately.
They stood near the door to the feeders, whispering in frantic voices it seemed. Rose looked at Vasilisa disapprovingly and Vasilisa looked back at her shocked at something she'd said. Maybe Rose was telling her about her experience in Vasilisa's thoughts, aka mind.
Their expressions matched the obvious reactions to that kind of news, especially if Rose was saying something about Christian Ozera. They stood there talking for the rest of lunch and continued talking as they made their way to their next class together. I knew they were in the same class since I had both of their timetables stuffed in my pocket.
Because they were in the same class neither Alberta nor I could guard the class, so Guardian Chase was taking over for us. Instead, Alberta and I were guarding a senior novice gym training session. Relaxing a little, Alberta and I spoke casually about spying on Rose and Vasilisa.
"It's just not right!" she complained. "Rose shouldn't need to be followed. She's not a little kid." She complained.
"I know. But there's no changing the headmistress's mind. She's dead set on watching Rose's every move." I agreed.
"I just feel sorry for her; all she's got is punishment and criticism since she's returned. I can see she's changed and will try harder. The old Rose would have broken a rule or two by now. I'm amazed we haven't caught her going off to secretly hang out with any boys." She giggled. My eyes narrowed at the last part and I sighed.
Rose's fascination with boys was none of my business nor was what she got up to with them. I wasn't her father I couldn't tell her what to do, in that sense. All I could do was send disapproving messages with my facial expressions. Would Rose listen to them though? That was the real question.