Vampire Academy? No I don't. Own it, that is.
Tasha POV
I lead Rose into the kitchen and hand her an apron that says 'Never piss off the cook'. It was a gag gift from Christian one birthday. She puts it on as I open the fridge and start pulling out the ingrediants. I know we have more guests coming for dinner, so I bought a lot of meat. "Tasha, either you plan on eating off this meal for the next week, or you think I'm a pig." Rose gestures toward the hamburger. I just laugh and shake my head.
"No, no. I would never think that of you. Christian, Lissa and Eddie are coming over for dinner too." Her face lights up at this news. She probably hasn't seen much of them since school started a few weeks ago. They are on a strange schedule since they're attending a human college and have some classes during the day and some at night. Plus, when not in school, they have homework to do. I can't wait to tell them about the last doctor visit and that the baby is a girl. Lissa will be so excited.
I grab a big bowl and pull Rose over to show her what to do. After we wash our hands, she puts the meat and egg and bread cubes in the bowl with the spices. "Okay Rose, start mixing everything together." She looks at me puzzled and then scans the kitchen in search of something.
"Are you going to give me a spoon or something?" Oh Rose, that would be no fun.
"No. The best way to combine the ingrediants is with your hands." She looks at me like I lost my mind, then disgust at the thought of touching what's in the bowl. She looks into the bowl and pokes a finger at the meat.
"This is so gross." she says backing away.
Just then Dimitri walks in and looks at Rose and then to me.
"What's wrong with her?" he asks. He must be wondering about the disgusted look on her face.
"She doesn't want to touch the meat." I answer with a small laugh. Dimitri rolls his eyes at her.
"Rose, it's already dead. It can't hurt you." he smirks as she glares at him. Just as I am about to say something, Christian, Lissa and Eddie let themselves in. I inform them about Rose's dilemma and Christian comes strolling up next to her and looks into the bowl and back to Rose.
"Rose, If you're waiting for it to mix itself, we're going to be here awhile." he laughs. Rose stomps on his foot and looks over to Lissa for help. She stands next to Rose and looks at the meatloaf to be.
"Come on, Rose. I know you can do it." Lissa encourages.
"Why don't you show me how it's done, Lissa." Rose moves aside to give her space. Lissa backs away, in horror.
"Oh God, no. That's gross." She says, nose scrunched up. I guess Dimitri got tired of waiting because suddenly he's behind Rose, grabbing her hands and plunging them into the meat mixture. He helps her sqeeze and squish everything together. I have to admit being a little jealous at how close he is to her. I know a part of him still loves her, always will. But I also know Rose is in love with Adrian and only wants to be friends with Dimitri. I'm hoping that given enough time, his feelings for me will grow to match the intensity of mine.
"Is this really that bad Rose?" he asks her while we all laugh at how she looks like she's going to throw up. When it looks about ready, I tell her to dump the meat in a pan and put it in the oven. Now we wait. Lissa makes the mashed potatos while Rose spends the next five minutes trying to get the gunk off her hands.
Once the meatloaf is done, Rose helps me plate the food and bring it to the table. It's quite amusing watching everyone hesitate to take a bite. Each person waiting for some other brave soul to take the first bite. Rose sighs and looks to Dimitri with pleading eyes. He reluctantly picks up his fork and is about to take a bite when we hear banging on the front door. Of course everyone wants to be the one to answer it as we all get up and race for the door. "Hurry, let me in." whoever on the other side yells. It sounds like Adrian. He better not have Emily with him or he isn't coming in. We all stop in our tracks, hoping he thinks no one is home, until Rose passes by us to open the door.
"No don't! Emily might be with him." Christian whispers loudly at Rose. She rolls her eyes and opens the door. Adrian comes flying in and slams the door shut behind him. He leans against it and looks at all of us staring at him in confusion.
"Don't worry, she's not with me." he says a bit out of breath. I see his gaze fall on Rose and his face lights up in love. "Hey Little Dhampir, how did your dinner go? I see everyone is still alive, that's a good sign." He walks up to her and puts his arm around her shoulder and walks with her back to the dining room to finish eating.
"Would you like a plate, Adrian?" I ask.
"No thank you. I ate with Emily." Rose looks up to him with her puppy dog eyes. He sighs and turns to back to me. "But there is always room for Rose's meatloaf. Stay seated cousin, I'll get it myself." he says as he heads to the kitchen to fix himself a plate. He really will do anything for her. He gets back and takes the empty seat next to Rose. All eyes are on him as we wait for him to taste her cooking. He looks at Rose and sees her looking to him expectantly. He takes his fork and picks up a piece of food and takes a bite. He seems to be enjoying it as he takes another bite. The look on Rose's face makes me smile. "This is delicious, babe." he tells her and kisses her cheek. God, they're so cute together.
"No offense, man, but you're a little biased. I'll wait a minute to see if you keel over before I eat." Christian says while crossing his arms over his chest. Adrian shrugs and happily takes another bite. I see Rose take a bite and smiles. Convinced that she must have done alright, we all start to eat. I don't know why I was so worried, I was with her the whole time.
"Adrian, did you go to the feeders after you healed me today?" Rose asks full of concern. He nods his head and gives he a small smile. "Do you need a drink?" He shakes his head this time.
"No, you're all I need." he winks at her and I see the slightest of blush appear on her cheeks.
"So, how come you're not with your girlfriend?" Eddie asks what we are all wondering. Those two are always joined at the hip. It's really disgusting.
"Ditched her. I don't know if you all realized this, but she can be an annoying bitch." he states as the room errupts in laughter.
"We figured that out the first day. We just didn't think you saw it." Christian says. "How'd you ditch her?"
"Let's just say Spartacus 'accidently'" he uses air quotes "got loose. I'm supposed to be out searching for him now." he says as he takes another bite.
"Why are you even with her? She's not a very nice person." Lissa asks totally serious. Adrian looks over to Rose, who nods at him to encourage him to answer.
"They're our friends. We should tell them the truth." She says. Okay, now I'm confused. I look around the table and see that I'm not the only one.
"Lord Conta and I made a deal. If I date Emily and help her climb the social ladder he would leave Rose alone. He's interested in her in inappropriate ways." I can see the anger in his eyes as he confesses his actions to us. The last part I find shocking. Poor Rose. I wonder if he's tried anything.
"Well, your arrangement isn't working very well." Dimitri pipes up. Rose glares at him while Adrian looks surprised.
"What are you talking about?" He directs to Dimtiri. Then he turns to Rose. "Did Conta do or say something to you?" His voice is rising and he looks like he's about to run out the door and kick some Conta butt.
"Today after training, he grabbed me and threatened to harm you guys if I didn't submit to being his bloodwhore." she tells with anger in her eyes. "I would've beat the crap out of him if someone didn't stop me." She says this last part while glaring at Dimitri. I look over to him to hopefully get more clarification on what she's talking about.
"He's a royal Moroi, Rose. You just can't go around punching them, no matter if they deserve it or not." He must have stopped her, thank goodness.
"Well, it seems Lord Conta isn't holding up his end of the bargain. There's no reason to date her now." I tell him. "But, we still have the problem of what to do about his advances toward Rose."
"Can't you write up a formal complaint against him?" Lissa asks.
"Not really. There aren't any witnesses. Dimitri didn't hear what he said to me and neither did Guardian Conner the day he arrived. It's my word against his and who do you think they'll believe?" Rose says a little defeated.
"What did he say to you when he came here?" Dimitri asks getting pissed. He's so protective of her.
"We didn't have a room assigned to him and he asked if I could find him a place to 'sleep'. Then he grabbed my ass. I left before I hurt him and had Conner handle him. Then he gave Conner his business card to give to me with a job offer for a sexy guardian and his personal cell number. I was hoping he'd lose interest, but clearly he finds me a challenge since he knows I'll never do anything with him willingly." The tension in the room is sufficating. No one says anything for a time until Lissa speaks up.
"The nerve of some people. He needs to pay." Lissa can be pretty scary when she's angry. Everyone nods their head in agreement.
"Emily too. I don't like the way she treated you all. I appologize for bringing her into our lives like that." Adrian looks so guilt ridden. I see him holding Rose's hand under the table. We all stay quiet, thinking of ways to get them back. "I have an idea." Adrian is the first to speak. "Next week is Emily's birthday and her mother is coming in. We could all take her to dinner with her parents and I can break up with her. Humiliate her." That's not too bad.
"What reason are you giving to leave her?" I ask.
"Maybe we can get her to cheat on you and get pictures. You find out and dump her." Lissa suggests. "Ooh, and with a guardian too. The way she always talks about Dhampirs makes me sick. If we could get evidence with her and a guardian in a compromising position, she'll look like a hypocrite and be shamed among her friends." That sounds great, but what guardian would be willing to do this? Every eye in the room goes right to poor Eddie.
"No way. Don't look at me like that. Besides, I'm too busy guarding Lissa to have time to seduce her, like I could." Eddie says. Automatically, everyone looks at Dimitri, but he shakes his head.
"She would know something was up if I suddenly showed interest in her, especially being in a committed relationship with a baby on the way." I let out a breath. I didn't like the idea of him kissing her. Who else would help us out like this?
"I might know someone who might do me a big favor like this." Rose says. Adrian narrows his eyes at her. He must know who she's talking about and doesn't like it. I'm about to bust in curiousity.
"Well, are you going to tell us?" I ask.
"Guardian Conner is a good friend of mine. He might do it if he knew the reasons why." She says. Ah, yes. I think Guardian Conner has a little crush on our Rose, by the way I've seen him look at her. That might work. "But I don't think Emily will just make out with a guardian without an ulterior motive. Maybe if she thinks Conner and I are dating, she'll do it just to get back at me." Adrian doesn't say anything, but I can tell he hates this idea, but isn't offering any alternatives.
"I'll talk to him tomorrow. Now what are we going to do about Lord Conta?" Rose asks. That ones a little trickier. Then Rose gets an evil grin on her face. "How about I beat the crap out of him and Adrian and Lissa can heal him afterward so he doesn't have any evidence of the attack." she says full of hope.
"Rose, honey, I think that will just anger him. We need a more permanent solution." I tell her. I'm sure that'll make everyone feel better, but it doesn't solve the problem.
"You said his wife is coming to town, so maybe we do kinda the same thing we're doing to Emily, but have his wife walk in on him and Rose." Eddie suggests. I don't think he realized exactly what he said because of the shocked look on his face when the rest of the table gasps and Rose practically jumps out of her seat to tackle him. Adrian is holding on to her waist, keeping her off the table.
"Eddie, if you're suggesting I have sex with him just so his wife can catch us, you better start running now, because I'm going to kill you." she screams. Eddie looks ghostly pale as he tries to speak to explain himself.
"No, no. I mean maybe she catches him just making a pass at you, in public. You don't have to do anything." Rose settles back down and takes her seat.
"I think we've done enough planning for one night. Let's move on to more pleasant subjects, shall we." Adrian ends this topic.
"The meatloaf was really good Rose. I knew you could do it." Lissa succesfully changes the subject.
"Of course if it wasn't for Dimitri, we'd be eating steak tar tar." Laughs Christian. Adrian looks puzzled. "She didn't want to touch the raw meat. Dimitri forced her hands in the mixture and made her mix it." Adrian laughs at the thought. Rose doesn't seem to like his reaction.
"That doesn't surprise me actually since she can't even kill a spider. She gets all squeemish." Adrian rats her out, laughing. "This one time, she came running out of the bathroom yelling 'Squish it, squish it, squish it!'. She ran behind me and pushed me in to kill the spider." She elbows his ribs and glares at him.
"Adrian, tell it right. We had just finished watching Arachniphobia and I swear the spider was as big as my fist." She shudders, recalling the memory. I don't really blame her, I hate spiders. We all get up from the table and the guys go to the kitchen and clean up while Rose, Lissa and I go to the living room. Lissa and I immediately corner Rose with questions about her and Adrian.
"So, are you an Adrian a secret couple or something? I saw you two holding hands at dinner and the way he held you after your training match yesterday. What's going on?" I ask first.
"No, we're just friends." Both Lissa and I roll our eyes at that. "You know we can't be together because I'm his guardian. I have to put his safety first and a romantic relationship will be too distracting." she defends herself, and badly I might add.
"So, Dimitri is my guardian and we don't have a problem."
"It's different. You can help Dimitri in a fight with your fire magic. No offense Lissa, but Spirit isn't a big help in warding off Strigoi. Besides, female Moroi don't have the same stigma for loving and leaving Dhampirs and using them as bloodwhores. There's a lot more scandal with Adrian and I."
"But you are in love with him, right?" Lissa asks.
"It doesn't matter. It's not going to happen." Rose is so stubborn. Someone needs to make her see truth. I go find Dimitri and pull him into our bedroom to talk.
"Dimitri, you need to talk to Rose and tell her she's being ridiculous about not being able to have a relationship with Adrian just because she's his guardian. It works for us, it can work for them too." he doesn't say anything, just looks at me.
"I don't think I can say that. It is different for them. Royal Moroi men aren't known for long term relationships with Dhampirs and I won't push her into something that will hurt her in the long run." He did not just say that.
"Are you serious? Have you not seen the way he looks at her? The way he'd do anything for her? He loves her, Dimka. And she loves him too, although she's too stubborn to admit it." I take a deep breath to say what needs to be said, no matter how much it hurts the both of us. "She isn't coming back to you. She loves Adrian. You broke her heart and he put it back together for her. You need to realize this and move on. You lost your chance to be with her, but you can still help her be happy. Help her realize that she's strong enough to love him and protect him. Even though she covers it up well, she's miserable not being with him. Help her Dimitri." I can see the hurt in his eyes, and the guilt he feels that I know what is in his heart. He nods and walks out the door. I watch as he and Rose go out to the balcony alone to have a chat. I just hope he can convince her to put her happiness first.
It looks like Emily is going to be in for a surprise. I just hope it works out the way they plan. I wonder if Dimitri will be able to convince Rose to try to make a relationship with Adrian work. I guess we'll have to wait for next chapter. Thanks for reading and please review and let me know what you think.