Vampire Academy is all Richelle Mead's!
Katya caught up to him.
"What the hell was that?"
Dimitri walked faster, making her work to keep up with his long strides. He had her nearly running, and finally, aggravated, she jabbed him in the kidney. He spun around, and his fist only missed because his swing was wild - and because she instinctively blocked.
"HEY!" She dropped back, stunned.
He shook his head angrily, trying to clear his vision. He struggled for control. Fighting outside class could get them both suspended, but he ached to hit something, anything. Katya narrowed her eyes, calming down enough to read him.
"Hey," she repeated, lowering her hands, slowly. "This is more than jealousy or big brother crap. You're a mess. What's wrong?"
His heart was pounding and he was having trouble breathing. He shook his head. "Forget it."
He tried to turn away but she grabbed his arm. "You're acting crazy." She searched his face. "You don't like Ivan, fine. I get it. I like him. He's funny and he's nice. He's not one of those royal Moroi jerks who just want some dhampir ass."
Dimitri didn't believe that for a second. He wished he could tell her, explain just how bad a Zeklos could be, but he didn't. She wouldn't believe him. He got his breathing under control and gave her as much of the truth as he could. "He just bothers me, that's all. He's too smooth. I don't trust him. You shouldn't either. And if he keeps asking about guardian work I'm going to hit him."
"He's just interested. And if you hit Moroi, you'll get expelled. I'd rethink that plan if I were you."
"I don't care if he's interested. Moroi need to do what they do and let us do our jobs."
She hooked her elbow with his. "All right," she said. "I'm not going to argue. You don't have to like him, but he asked me to introduce him to the other novices and he figured out we used to date. He asked about you. He's really worried about making friends and you're making things worse. At least pretend he doesn't bother you, and any time you want to tell me what's really going on, I'm ready to listen."
"Don't trust him," he repeated.
"I mean it," she said. "I like him. If you mess this up for me I will drug you and break all your fingers in your sleep."
Her tone was half joking, half warning. Maybe she wouldn't have done real damage, but she was serious about asking him - telling him - to back off. He hated feeling this helpless, but there wasn't anything else he could do.
"I won't start anything if he doesn't," he promised reluctantly.
She kept looking at him. "Go apologize to Malina," she said finally. "I think you hurt her feelings."
He'd forgotten about Malina, and he knew Katya was right. He couldn't do anything else about Zeklos – not yet anyway – and Malina had been a welcome distraction. He tried to catch her, but she was inexplicably busy the rest of the morning. Classes, meals, between class, she was always talking to someone else.
He finally caught up with her at lunch, as she was heading to her seat. "I'm sorry about this morning."
She acted surprised and somewhat indifferent. "Don't worry about it, you were just tense after guarding us. Ivan and Catherine were out of line." He couldn't figure out her tone and he hadn't minded Catherine at all, but Malina walked away, effectively ending the conversation. He nearly followed her, but stopped when she joined Katya and Ivan and the rest of the group from the ward exercise. He watched her for a moment, confused and irritated. He ate alone and went early to the gym.
Classes ran long, well into the evening. The novices worked additional time in the monitoring station - still finding evidence of half-dozen or so Strigoi, though none any closer to the academy - and made up the extra hours of Advanced Bodyguard practice. Dimitri stopped by the elementary dorms before dinner to check on his sisters. News of the ward exercise – though not of Dimitri's storming away from Zeklos – had reached the elementary campus, and they chattered excitedly about it and begged for more details. They'd also heard about the Strigoi sighting but hadn't been given any official information. He told them about his morning and reassured them about the Strigoi threat as best as he could. He stayed extra long to play chess with Sonya and help Viktoria with her homework, and promised to stop by to see them more often. He caught dinner just before the kitchens closed and went back to his room to study.
Malina was in the hall outside his door.
She sat, long legs criss-crossed, reading a book. She didn't look up, and Dimitri almost turned around. She looked tired and unhappy – but still beautiful, he couldn't help but notice - and he didn't know what to say to her.
Her voice – and the thump of her head against the wall – caught him. Her tone was unmistakable – some colorful swearing, he was sure – but he didn't recognize the language. He hesitated and she added in Russian, "Please don't go. If you do I have to chase you, and I don't think my dignity can take much more."
She closed the book and Dimitri saw the title – the same American Western he'd been reading yesterday at lunch. He wondered where she'd found another English copy. She looked up. Her hair was pulled up in a careless knot, and Dimitri had to stop himself from brushing a few soft, messy tendrils away from her cheeks. Her eyes were friendly, even though her mouth twisted slightly in a tired smirk. "Sit with me?" she asked.
"You could come in?" he offered uncertainly. His room wasn't exactly set up for talking, and the thought of her sitting on his bed again was suddenly more attractive than it should be under the circumstances.
She shook her head. "I don't think so."
He dropped his bag and sat next to her. He thought about taking her hand like he had earlier, but she clasped hers in her lap. "What language did you just swear in?" he asked.
She looked surprised, and maybe pleased. "Georgian. Where my grandmother is from."
He nodded. "My grandmother has some creative phrases as well." He told her one of his favorites and she laughed out loud. "Yours can't be as bad as that," he smiled. "What's the translation?"
She told him and it was his turn to laugh. "Say it again in Georgian."
She repeated it, and Dimitri tried out the rolling consonants. She corrected his pronunciation a few times, but he managed to learn the phrase without too much difficulty. He tried it out one last time, with extra emphasis, and Malina laughed out loud again.
"So what did I do to deserve that?" he asked.
She looked away and played with the pages of her book. "Am I making a fool out of myself?" she asked.
She'd lost him. "What do you mean?"
"I've been trying to figure out how to make you like me," she shrugged – and blushed. "I even tried avoiding you today."
He couldn't figure her out. "You were avoiding me?"
She thumped her head against the wall again. "Yes, you dolt. Did you even notice?"
"I noticed you were busy," he said honestly.
The corners or her mouth twitched. Her head was still resting against the wall and her eyes rolled ceiling-ward. "I guess that's something."
He stayed silent.
"I'm not usually this pathetic." She turned her head to look at him. "It's obvious you're never going to get over Katya. Just – do I have any chance? Or should I stop humiliating myself?"
He didn't know what to say. He was definitely attracted to her, but she'd blindsided him. If she'd been any other Moroi girl he wouldn't have hesitated, but she seemed to want something more.
"I can list the Moroi girls you've been with," she said quietly, filling the silence. "And you've never stayed with any of them. Is it just that you can't imagine a Moroi wanting you for anything more than your body? Or –" realization dawned, "do you not want anything more from a Moroi?"
The therapist his mother had sent him to when he was thirteen had been good at reading him. Malina was better.
"My mother was involved with a Moroi for almost twenty years," he said, trying to explain and realizing too late that he was sharing so much. "She met him when she was a guardian and she says – claims - he was good to her. I guess he was exciting, adored her, always full of flattery and gifts. He got her pregnant four times."
He shouldn't have said the rest, but he couldn't stop. "I don't know when he started beating her, but he didn't stop until I was thirteen."
He did manage to stay silent about why the beatings had ceased. Malina wrapped her hands around his clenched fists. She didn't make excuses or try to make him not be angry.
"My grandmother nearly married a dhampir," she said. At first he thought she was changing the subject, then he realized she was trying to share a much different story. "They weren't together openly, but he was her brother's guardian and they all went to the same university. She loved him, but when he asked her to marry him she was afraid of what the family would do. She said no and he left - got another assignment and never spoke to her again. She says it was the biggest mistake of her life. Everyone says I'm like her." She looked away. "Maybe too much like her."
She was definitely not like the other Moroi he'd been with. "I don't think I'll marry you," he offered.
She smiled, like he'd hoped. "I'm not asking you to – yet." Her voice was teasing. She squeezed his hands and her expression turned shy. "But if you'll let me, I'd like to prove you can trust at least one Moroi."
Two novices who lived on Dimitri's floor walked by, briefly saving Dimitri from answering, but the silence continued too long after they'd passed.
She dropped his hands and scrambled to her feet, embarrassed. "Never mind."
He caught her hand. "Don't go."
She pinched her lips together and wouldn't meet his eyes. Her words came out in a rush, like they'd slipped out, only accidentally said out loud. "If you want me to stay you're going to have to kiss me." She still wouldn't look at him, but her grip on his hand was tight.
He still wasn't sure how he felt about her, but he didn't want her to leave. He stood up and pulled her closer, and she came into his arms willingly. He wondered briefly if he could truly trust her. Moroi girls had always thrown themselves at him – much like Malina had just yesterday. Why wouldn't she just kiss him, if that was what she wanted? But she was in his arms and he wanted to take the chance.
He kissed her awkwardly and she responded immediately, eagerly. She stepped closer and he deepened the kiss. He threaded his fingers into her hair, enjoying how her silky curls slipped through his fingers and how her slight curves pressed against his ribs. He pulled her toward his door.
"Slow down, cowboy," she murmured against his lips, but he could feel her smiling.
He pulled back, confused, frustrated.
She pulled him close again and slipped her hands under the bottom of his shirt. Her hands were warm against the bare skin of his back, and he relaxed into her touch. "I don't want to be just another Moroi girl in your bed," she whispered in his ear. "I really like you. Just give me a chance."
"What do you want?" he asked. He was completely unprepared for what Malina seemed to be offering. She'd caught his attention by being as forward as the other Moroi girls he'd been with, but he was starting to believe that she really was different.
"Ask me to play pool again, help you with your homework, anything," she smiled, her mouth still by his ear. "I asked you out, it's your turn."
"Help me with my calculus homework?" he tried.
"Absolutely," she answered. She let him pick up his bag, then wrapped her arm around his waist and led him back downstairs to the common study area.
Anyone have any ideas for what Malina's grandmother's curse / expletive would be? Or Dimitri's grandmother's, too? I liked the little exchange between Malina and Dimitri, and I'd like to think that when Rose hears Dimitri mutter something that sounds like Russian swearing, that he's actually repeating Malina's grandmother's curse. I googled like crazy, though, and couldn't find anything specifically Georgian (though I did learn that The Republic of Georgia is close to Turkey and Armenia and Azerbaijan). Worse, Russian cursing – mat – if I'm understanding right, is too vulgar for Dimitri's grandmother to even admit to hearing it, much less using it herself; and Dimitri would never repeat something mat to a Moroi, especially a Moroi girl he might like. So, let me know if you have any good ideas, or just pretend that I came up with something perfect...
I liked Malina calling him "cowboy" since she was reading his American Western novel, and because it kind of echoes how Rose called him "comrade" at first…
I had trouble figuring out how long Olena would have been involved with Dimitri's father… BP p.101 – Dimitri's older sister Karolina had a ten-year-old son, so assuming she had him right after she finished her training, that would make her 28-ish – so four years older than Dimitri. Dimitri beat up his Moroi father when he was 13, so Karolina would have been 17. I just rounded up to twenty years…
Sorry for the delay in posting! I finally got another HON chapter out the door, and the sequence of events for the next couple chapters of this story just weren't lining up right. This one still feels a little uneven to me, but I'm posting anyway. I hope it's okay!
Thanks again so much for reading!