Still playing in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy playground :-D

Malina's head bowed and her curls fell forward, shadowing her face. She laughed low, embarrassed. "Not here, right?"

He pulled his scrubs back up and retied the waistband, using the movement to re-order his thoughts. He scooted back to a more upright position and sat beside her, keeping his hands in his lap.

"Not here," he agreed.

She leaned against him and exhaled loudly. Dimitri concentrated on slowing his breathing and letting his heart rate return to normal, avoiding the all-to-vivid possibilities of her naked skin pressed against his. He felt her body rise and fall with each breath, slowing finally. After a few silent minutes she spoke, her voice unexpectedly, cheerfully disgruntled. "You have entirely too much self control." He didn't bother to explain that she was wrong – that his control was barely enough.

"I could do a quick lust spell," she mused. He could hear the smile in her voice. She trailed her hand down his body and laid her hand on his knee, tracing random patterns near the inside of his thigh. His body responded, but faint alarms rang in the back of his mind.

"A what?"

She cuddled closer. "A lust spell," she murmured thoughtfully in his ear.

"What do you mean?" He kept his voice level but his blood ran cold. She exhaled against his neck and he flinched away from her fangs. It was easy to forget how different they really were.

"A lust spell. I found it in my grandmother's books."

He forced a curious tone into his voice, and if she caught the undercurrent of growing anger she disregarded it. "How is it done?"

She was happy to explain. "Earth-users can weave a spell into something made of earth," she murmured. Her hands roamed higher. "A rock – or preferably, more powerfully, a gem. It wouldn't be that hard to do."

"Have you done it before?" he made himself chuckle.

"Of course," she smiled mischievously. "I didn't even get caught."

He dropped the question he dreaded, but was now sure of. "Did you do it to me?"

She stopped moving, stopped smiling, and in the silence her deep, slow, shaky breaths were deafening. When she finally spoke her voice was low, dangerous. "Who do you think I am?"

Horrible images, awful truths spun before his eyes. "You said you'd tried it."

She pulled away like he'd slapped her. She flounced off the bed, taking the sheets with her. She scowled. "Anyone experiments with a new spell. Nothing happened, no one got hurt, and I would never do it to anyone without permission. "

She'd suggested the spell so easily, how could he be sure?

He cataloged the evidence, horror mounting, anger making him say much more than he should. "I never noticed you until you sat down with me at lunch," he started slowly, "And even though I wasn't interested in you, when you showed up at my door for the party I could barely tear my eyes away. We have nothing in common but we keep hanging out, and the only thing that really works with us is when I can touch you." His mind moved faster, making more connections. "I thought I was dizzy tonight because of the blood loss, the Strigoi endorphins. I thought I couldn't take my eyes off you because you're so beautiful. But just maybe it's from you increasing the magic. Maybe tonight wasn't us almost losing control because we were just attacked, maybe it's because you found the perfect opportunity to finish the spell."

Malina clenched the sheets tighter around her and swayed on her feet. A heavy tear rolled down her face but her voice was hard. "If all I wanted was your body it's not that hard. All anyone else seems to need to do is offer. I could have taken you that first night but if you remember: I turned you down. From what I hear," she bit off, "I'm probably the only girl who has."

Dimitri flushed. "No one has complained. And no one else has played mind games."

She stifled what sounded like a scream of frustration. "Being forward at first was all about getting your attention, all about being like the other girls you liked! But I told you I didn't want to be just another Moroi girl in your bed and I meant it. I liked you, Dimitri. I thought you liked me too. Otherwise I would never –"

She met his eyes, and a raw, vulnerable tremor slipped into her voice. "I've never been with anyone, Dimitri. I didn't say anything because I was afraid that would scare you away. I was ready tonight. When you stopped I just thought a spell might make it… easier… "

His disbelief must have been plain on his face, and it both angered and wounded her more.

"I can't believe I was so stupid. I thought you actually cared about me, that you might get over Katya – or Ivan, or whoever it is that's made you such a mess. I thought that you had some idea of who I am." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I really thought we connected."

He faltered. He'd felt it - the stillness and peace in being with her, and the happiness of waking up to her kiss. He'd briefly trusted those feelings. His anger flared that he was still vulnerable to her spell. "Just part of the spell. You need some kind of connection for lust - even if it's a lie."

She spun away and picked up her discarded hospital gown. She pulled it on, still holding the sheets around herself, blocking her body from his view. "Do you want to know what a lust charm does?" she asked. Her voice was controlled again. Not angry - but, he noted in some part of his mind, not weak. "It doesn't create attraction, or connection. It doesn't make you dizzy, or even make you act like a caveman. If you're not already attracted to the other person it doesn't do anything. If you are, you can't stop. The world just goes away, for both of you. You might be able to take it slow, enjoy it, but you will not stop, - you don't have to stop - not unless you get rid of the charm."

"You could tell me anything, there's no way for me to check." he was less certain, though, and doubting her seemed to connect to a painful twisting feeling in his chest.

"Fine." she said. She turned around and stared him in the eye. Her cheeks were tearstained and flushed. "Believe what you want. But I'm telling you the truth - about everything. And for the record, no, I have never used a lust spell - or any spell - on you. Thanks so much for asking."

She turned away again, wiping her eyes on a handful of crumpled sheets. She dropped them and walked to the edge of the curtains. She shook her head, slowly, dark curls swaying with the movement. "What just happened?" She asked quietly. She didn't turn around. "You don't trust anyone, do you, Cowboy?"

With his history, trust came slowly, if at all. Again, she'd guessed something that no one else had ever bothered to see.

He'd gotten it all wrong. He was attracted to her. Very much. He'd never bothered to notice because until just recently she'd never shown an interest, and he'd had no use for Moroi girls not already knocking down his door. They had more in common than he was prepared to admit; the only reason he'd been able to lie to himself was because he only accidentally shared anything with her. He'd listened to her, learned snippets of her history, but he'd almost intentionally not asked her anything about herself. She'd read his book, one of his favorite American Westerns. He hadn't even asked her if she liked it.

He tried to make her interest in him more sinister, but in truth she had given him every indication that she cared about him, not just as a bed partner or a potential guardian but as someone she wanted as her equal. She was wrong about his control, but she had an eerie understanding of him that went far beyond what anyone else had ever known. More primally, they had an electric physical connection that he'd tried too late to deny, and an emotional connection that was suddenly so deep it frightened him. He'd let his guard down, let her in too far, and now she was leaving.

She slipped through the curtains and was gone. The hollow, warm space next to him cooled quickly, and even the pillows Dimitri stuffed into the spot couldn't fill the absence of her body. He had a hard time getting back to sleep.

Thank you so much to my loyal reviewers and my new reviewers, and to the new handful of readers who've favorite-ed and story alert-ed this story! Do I dare ask for *more * reviews? :-D I'm having fun using echoes of VA to create Dimitri's past, and splitting Rose's personality into Malina and Katya, but I know this isn't a typical fanfic. I hope you're enjoying it! More plot coming up, and more relationship stuff, too :-D.