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Chapter 23

"Rose!" I heard Adrian call out. I turned, and was almost knocked over as he hugged me and kissed my forehead.

"How-" I started.

"Lissa and I have been working on it." He interrupted me, planting a quick kiss on my lips. "Distance healing. Lisa read about it and we've been working on it for a while. You've been training so often lately, you never noticed Lissa and I were practicing." He hugged me again. "I can't believe it worked."

"Maybe you really have to want it." I suggested. Lissa and Christian appeared, and were hugging me. I didn't dare say anything about any of my injuries; they had done far too much already. "Um… I think I have to get to… um I gotta go." I said, and I dashed away, leaving them talking about offensive magic and spirit's uses. When I got to the clinic, there was a line out the door. Moroi were there, but mostly dhampirs. Too bad, I'll just go back later.

As I was walking out the door, and down the path, I saw Eddie. Shit. His leg was pretty badly messed up, and I could see the pain on his face. "Rose!" He called out hoarsely.

"Oh my god…" I trailed off. I ran back inside and got another guardian, who helped me pick up Eddie and carry him back inside and onto one of the beds that was quickly made available. Once we set him down, and everyone else had left, the doctor to get the tests, and the nurses to help others, I put my hands over my eyes and leaned on my elbows. "Eddie, how come no one found you until then?"

"Um…" He seemed not able to explain. "I-I don't really know. I can't remember anything. I stood up and crossed over to him, quickly checking his major viens for signs of being bitten. There it was. The answer had been right in front of me. There was a big bloody wound in the crook of his arm. I shuddered as the remembrance of what it felt like to be bitten hit me.

"They always go after you don't they?" I asked softly.

"Yeah." Was all he got to say before I was directed out and to a nurse to bandage me up. She wrapped an ace bandage around my ankle, gave me a brace for my wrist, and cleaned all of my cuts. I knew I couldn't hide these from Adrian for too long, but I could try.

Adrian found me right as I was coming out the doors. "Need a feeder?" I guessed. He nodded, lacing his fingers through mine and leading me to the feeder's room. "What does blood taste like?"

"Um… blood?" He answered, bending over the feeder's neck and drinking. He came up and licked his lips. "Copper."

"Can't they flavor it?"

He laughed. "No they can't." He paused. "But that would be pretty cool."

Adrian and I were kissing on his bed within the next ten minutes. He lips trailed down to my neck, where he lightly kissed the scars that his feeding earlier had left. My shirt was long gone, and I was surprised he hadn't seen any of the damage inflicted on me from the fight. Well he had noticed the wrist brace, but I had convinced him to leave it. There should have been bruises all down my stomach and back, and cuts along my back from where another guardian's stake had grazed my skin. I guess he wasn't paying attention. My hand automatically felt around to see if the cuts were there, and that got his attention.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Nothing." I tried to bring my lips to his again.

"Rose let me see." He moved my hands and examined it. "You know this could have made you really sick?" He asked.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"This is going to get infected." He placed his hands on the cuts that still stung, and they disappeared. "I don't know if this will get it out of your blood."

"When did you get all smart?"

"My friends dad was a doctor." Was all he said before he kissed me again, passionately.

I knew Adrian could get protective of me, and would react badly if I kept these things from him, but I didn't want the darkness building up in him. He didn't have much of a way to get it out other than the drinking, which he had been doing much less of, and the smoking, which he knew I hated.

I pushed him up and slightly away. "Adrian." I started. "I don't want you healing me as much as you do. You know what it does to Lissa, and to me." I paused. "I'm willing to do a lot of things to get you stop healing me, at least as much as you do."

"Rose, I'm just worried about you, like what if you won't heal?"

"I always heal, it's in my genes. And you have to listen to me Adrian, please?" He seemed unsure. "No kissing until you agree not to heal me unless I ask you to."

He rolled on top of me, in one swift motion planting his lips on top of mine. I rolled him back over and pulled away. "I mean it."

The look on his face was priceless. His mouth was open, the look in his eyes pure shock, as if he didn't believe I would do this to him.

I got up close to him, my lips barely a millimeter away from his. "All you have to do is say yes." I whispered.

"Fine, you win." He kissed me quickly.

He pulled back and he grinned one of those grins that said 'Aren't you lucky'. His lips were on mine again then, kissing me with all he had. There was a knock on the door. "Damn." We said in unison.

I grabbed my shirt from the floor and pulled it over my head. He tried to smooth the covers before answering the door. We were both smiling really fake smiles.

"You know you are really bad liars, right?" I knew that voice. A voice I hadn't heard since camp several years ago.

"Sydney?"