I woke up alone, it was night time for humans, which was the schedule we were on currently. I got up and heard my stomach rumble. I headed into the pitch black kitchen when I heard someone shuffle. Even without my super dhampir sight I would have known who it was. "Dimitri, are you, uh, alright?" I asked. He shuffled uncomfortably and then looked me in the eyes. "Roza... I'm so sorry" He whispered. I knew why he was sorry; someone must have told him about my crying. He always blames himself for these things.
"Dimitri, it wasn't your fault, that strigoi was strong" I whispered. I walked towards where he was sitting in a dining chair. When he didn't say anything, I sat on his lap, letting him wrap his arms around me just as I had with Adrian. Adrian, he was bound to Adrian. This could help us work things out when I got proven innocent. He could guard Adrian, and we could spend our time off together so long as Adrian stays at the royal court.
"Rose, I can tell Adrian is awake. His thoughts are really bugging me" He whispered and I giggled a little. I turned my head a little and noticed he was smiling. "I love you Dimitri" I whispered. "I love you too, Roza" He kissed my forehead. I hopped off his lap and walked over to the fridge grabbing the first thing I saw. Strawberry yoghurt. I opened a draw and grabbed out a spoon and began eating.
I realised that the bond between Dimitri and Adrian had grown a lot quicker than mine and Lissa's. I then remembered something, Lissa and I are best friends and our bond took longer to form, Adrian hates Dimitri but there bond formed in less than a day. "Dimitri," I said between spoon full's of yoghurt, "Your bond is forming quicker than mine and Lissa's did, so you're probably going to be taking away the darkness soon. You will also begin to see... ghosts" I told him. He smiled, and I wondered what was so funny. "Hey, why are you smiling?" I questioned him. "I found it funny that I was once your teacher, now you're going to be mine" He laughed. I hoped he meant I'd be his in more than one way and giggled myself.
Once I'd finished my yoghurt and threw it in the bin, I headed upstairs with Dimitri. We quietly entered the room and slipped into bed. I snuggled up to Dimitri, and felt warm almost straight way. I fell asleep after a while of thinking. How was I going to get proof that it was Victor? What if I wasn't proven innocent? What if the guardians found us before we could get proof? I didn't know what we were going to do, but I knew it would involve a lot of willpower, and I mean that in two ways. We needed to use compulsion. I had an idea, one that could get us a step ahead. We needed to find where Robert lived, and I had an idea.
I woke up, alert and ready for anything. Today was going to be a big day. Dimitri was already downstairs, so I quickly got changed and headed downstairs to talk to Lissa, Adrian, Christian and Dimitri. I knew where we needed to go. "Good morning" Lissa smiled when I walked into the kitchen.
"Everyone, pack your bags, we're going back to Vegas" I said sternly. They all looked at me, confusion all over their features, but they knew me well enough to trust my words. They all headed upstairs, except for Dimitri. "Rose, why Vegas?" He asked. I remembered when we were their earlier in the week, and recalled the way he was always agitated and on edge. Then I remembered that was where he'd attacked me and Eddie. Eddie would have killed him there if I hadn't of got in his way. I quickly cleared those thoughts out of my head, and spoke again. "We need to go to Red Rock Canyon, it's where Robert lives. I remember when we were talking to them, Robert told Victor he would hide him there if Victor wanted" I told him. He nodded and got up, handing me a yoghurt.
I quickly ate it and headed upstairs to get my bag. This time I was going to stay long enough to say goodbye to everyone. Everyone except Viktoria. Viktoria had already left for school, and Sonya, Olena, Paul and Karolina's baby, Zoya were the only ones here. I grabbed my bags once they were packed and headed downstairs with Dimitri, to find everyone waiting patiently. We all said our goodbye's and left. We caught a taxi to a motel about an hour away, and then we caught a different taxi to St. Petersburg. It reminded me of when I'd first came here looking for Dimitri.
When we got to the airport, Adrian bought the tickets. We had a one-way flight to Las Vegas, and once we'd all boarded, we relaxed a little. "So, why are we going to Las Vegas?" Lissa asked. "Remember when we came here to talk to Robert," She flinched at his name, but I continued anyway, "Victor said he lived out near Red Rock Canyon" Everyone nodded, except Christian who didn't know much about this. Lissa understood straight away, except I hadn't explained my reason. "Um, Liss, I, uh, spoke to the Queen. Victor killed her, he was with Robert" Nobody looked amazed that he was the one who did it.
I was sitting in between Dimitri and Adrian, while Lissa and Christian were sitting across from us. How weird, I was stuck between both of my men. The airport at St. Petersburg was actually surrounded by wards, it was kind of different because the airport wasn't normally a main attraction for Dhampirs. We'd been waiting in the terminal for about an hour before they let us board, and we'd been waiting about forty-five minutes for the plane to take off. Everyone sighed a sigh of relief when an announcement came over telling us we were about to take off.
Once we were in the air, I noticed Dimitri begin to squint in pain. He put his fingertips on his temples and started to rub them, just as I did when I started seeing ghosts. "Rose," He whispered. I was getting worried. It took me so long to be able to block them away, and for Dimitri, it was going to be hard. "Just focus on good things, put the, uh, whoever is there in the back of your mind." I whispered gently. I noticed him feel a little better, but the higher we got the worse it would get.
"Liss, do you have any more charms" I asked. She shook her head, so I pulled off the ring Oksana had helped Lissa charmed and handed it to Dimitri. He put it on and removed his hand from his head. "It still hurts, and there are shadows every now and again, but it feels a lot better" Dimitri whispered. "Go to sleep, it helps" I told him. He leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes.
Just as the plane landed, Dimitri woke up. You could tell he was still in pain because when we got up to get off the plane, he kept putting his hand up to his head. "Liss, when we find a motel I want you to start making a charm that will get rid of the ghosts temporarily." I whispered. She nodded, and gave Dimitri a polite smile. Once we got our luggage, we headed off in a taxi to go to a motel that we'd once stayed at. The Luxor. It bought back bad memories, but it was going to have to do.
Once again, Adrian spent his money to get us our rooms. We were in two rooms, right next to one another. Dimitri, Adrian and I were in one room, and Lissa and Christian were in the other. There were two queen sized beds in our room and one in Lissa's. We all put our bags away and met in my room to work out a plan.
"So, as you know we need to get Victor and Robert, who are both pretty good at compulsion," I started. Everyone nodded, except for Christian who was still a bit behind on our crazy scheme. "We need to first of all, map out where Robert lives. All we know is that he lives in some sort of cabin out near Red Rock Canyon." I told them. "Liss, can you and Christian find some phonebooks for out there, Adrian, can you find some street directories or something." I said. "Yes ma'am" Adrian saluted. Normally I would have found that funny but right now things were serious. "Dimitri and I are going to drive out there and have a look around." I finished. Lissa, Christian and Adrian all headed out the door, with Dimitri and I following. Dimitri and I headed to the elevator and waited for it. Once it got to our level, an unexpected visitor was waiting inside.