Okay guys, here is the long delayed chapter two. Sorry it took so long, i'll post three if I get at least one comment, or review. Hope you enjoy! -Ava 3
The next week went by without interruption, me guarding Lissa, me hanging out with Lissa, me bringing Lissa to boring meetings. My time was mainly spent with Lissa and Christian, seeing as Dimitri was still in Siberia. Lissa wanted to spend as much time as possible with Christian before we leave for college tomorrow.
"Rose! Think fast!" My head whipped around to see Christian throwing a carrot at me. I used my awesome ninja skills to snag the carrot mid-air. Take that Christian.
"Whoa! That was awesome!" I guess even after Christian had seen me take out hundreds of strigoi, break a prisoner out of the most high security prison, and escape the royal jail, he was still imprested when I could catch a carrot. I cracked a smile.
"Damn strait!" Christian and I both burst out laughing. Just then Lissa walked in with groceries. Immediately she was swarmed by Christian and I.
"Don't worry!" Lissa laughed, "I bought enough cheetos and sour cream onion chips to last a lifetime!"
That got Christian to laugh, "that won't be enough for Rose this week!"
This felt like old times, when Lissa and I were living in Portland. What life should be like if Lissa wasn't so heavily guarded, if we didn't have to live at court.
"C'mon Rose, we still need to finish packing for tomorrow".
"Oh! I can't wait to go! Lets finish!"
"Ohh!" Lissa let out a squeal. "And maybe if we finish early! We can go shopping!"
"Yea! Lets start now!" Normally I wasn't this excited about shopping, but lately, I haven't been able to wear much besides my guardian uniform and workout gear, so this was an exception.
"Okay, I think I'll leave you girlies to packing. I'm gonna go find Eddie".
Lissa and I giggled, and ran off to her room to pack.
"Oh my God Rose! I just can't believe were going to college TOMORROW!"
"I know right!"
Lissa and I spent the next four hours packing our bags, and the second we finished she called the guardians, and alerted them that we needed to go to the mall asap. Normally I would have thought this a disgrace to alert guardians for a shopping trip, but Lissa and I really did need new clothes, and we really didn't have time to go later. Plus if Lissa is gonna be queen, she should get to do all those queenly things, with all the work she had to do for Tasha's trial, she deserved a break.
Ten minuets later, Lissa and I were leaving court for the nearest mall. Lissa had tried to bring me along as a "guest", but I had insisted that I would guard her with my life anyways, and she should know by now that Rose Hathaway doesn't go shopping as a "guest". We talked and laughed the whole way there, and when we finally arrived, I had to hold Lissa back from jumping recklessly out of the car.
"Sorry". Lissa said sheepishly. "I was just excited to get out of the damned wards, and I kinda forgot that I'm Queen."
I frowned at her trying to look mad, but we both burst out laughing instead.
"It's okay Liss, I'm excited to". With that, we went into the mall. Of course we had to go to all of the stores that Lissa can't shop at anymore. Because we want to fit in at college, and I'm sure her long flowing gowns, and business suits would be laughed of campus. Anyways, we went to Victoria's Secret, H&M, Forever21, Abercrombie, Hollister, and Pac Sun modeling clothes, and spending money at every store. Never once did I let my guard down, and not once were we attacked. Some of Lissa's guardians were surprised, but I got it. It was a last minuet trip so there was no way a strigoi could find out so quickly. I don't see why these guys could call themselves "guardians", ROYAL guardians for that matter! I just hope these idiots would be able to protect Lissa if she was in danger. These thoughts just made me shift to a higher alert as we looked at phone cases and jewelry.
As we were leaving Lissa let out a squeal and started pointing excitedly towards a stand in the middle of the mall.
"Rose! Look a belly button piercing station! You should get yours pierced!"
My first thought was no. I couldn't let my guard down with these fools protecting her. But Lissa pointed out that there was still 30 minuets of daylight left, and there were skylights letting that light into the mall. Plus I had wanted my belly button pierced for years, and now it was being offered.
"I'll pay for it! It will be my treat to you for being such a great friend and badass guardian!"
"Alright fine!" I gave in.
"Yay! And I get to pick the ring!"
"Okay, go ahead!"
Lissa immediately ran over to the stand with me following,
"Oh look Rose! This is the one!" Lissa was furiously jabbing the glass case above a little silver rose with ruby embellishments. I groaned. I hated rose things, but I had told her she could pick, so I gave in.
"Alright".
After talking with the other guardians, I picked out the most capable, put him on near guard, and sat down in the chair. The friendly woman at the counter cleaned my skin, and loaded the little gun. She attempted to make small talk as she worked, but that was just distracting me from watching Lissa so I blocked her out. I felt a small nip of pain, but it didn't even hurt as much as a molnjia mark, so I didn't care. Lissa was all over me in seconds, insisting on healing the wound now so I could take out the ring for training. I had to admit, this was a pretty valid point considering the dangers of having a strigoi rip my bellybutton piercing out, so I considered it protecting her in the long run, and let her heal me. After paying for the piercing, we started towards the car, bags in hand, gossiping and giggling the whole way.
"Oh Shit."
There ten feet from the car was fifteen strigoi looking at us with looks of suck twisted pleasure. I immediately regretted getting the piercing. But just as quickly, battle instinct kicked in, and six strigoi were staked and on the ground. The other guardians looked at me with shock. Morons. Never turn your back on the enemy. Seconds later two of our guardians were dead next to the strigoi, and one was losing his battle. I sprung into action taking down another six strigoi. Yep they didn't call me Rose Hathaway for nothing. The other guardians had managed to take down the remaining three. Immediately, I looked over to Lissa who looked shocked, but not hurt. I started to walk over when she let out a scream.
"Rose!"
My head whipped around as a bulky strigoi grabbed my neck. He whispered something into my ear.
"Give up now, and your friend won't be hurt".
Idiots. This guy clearly didn't know who I was. I pretended to give in, his grip loosened. That was all I needed. In a second I whipped around, staked him, and ran over to comfort Lissa.
"Rose". She whimpered. "I thought I was going to lose you."
"Yeah, well I guess you just cant kill a badass like me". That was my signature line. The other guardians were already calling the royal court and alchemists. Lissa and I just hopped into the car and headed home.