Dimitri was on his hands and knees on the floor, a bowl of soapy water next to him as he scrubbed my blood off the floor. He looked up at me briefly and then back down to the floor.
"There is antiseptic and a bandage on the counter." He said as he scrubbed.
"Thanks." I said and watched him for a moment. "You don't have to do that, Dimitri."
He didn't answer me, he just continued scrubbing the floor, rinsing the cloth and then went back to scrubbing. I went in to the kitchen and found the bottle of antiseptic that he'd left out for me with a small pile of cotton wool balls next to it. I took the top off the bottle and put some on a ball and dabbed it against me arm. I hissed in a breath and winced, the stinging sensation making my eyes water.
Someone knocked at the door as I was cleaning my arm but I didn't go to open it. I saw Dimitri stand up out of the corner of my eye and go to answer the door. He was speaking in hushed tones to whoever was there so I turned away and focused on my arm.
"You really need to learn to stay out of trouble, little dhampir." Adrian's voice was tense as he stood behind me.
"You know me, Adrian. Trouble finds me even when I try to be good."
He grunted and put his hand on my shoulder, turning me around to face him. He looked at my arm and grimaced. "That doesn't look so good."
"It doesn't feel so good either." It was the understatement of the year but I didn't want him to know how much pain I was in. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why are you here?"
"I was summoned." He said, his eyes flicking over to Dimitri.
I looked to Dimitri and frowned. "You called him?"
"Someone has to look after you, Roza. You won't let me do it and you wouldn't let me take you to Vasilisa." He said, never looking up from the floor.
"So, I'm the next best thing." He said and held his hands up towards my arm.
I took a step back so that he couldn't touch me. "I don't want you to heal me, Adrian."
He didn't look offended, he just rolled his eyes. "For God's sake, Rose. It's already infected, look at it."
I looked down and knew that he was probably right. There were four deep gashes on the top of my arm where Eric's fingers had gone through the skin like a knife through butter. The skin was already an angry red colour and it felt hot. "It'll be fine."
"Just because you healed yourself when you got shot, doesn't mean that you have to be so stubborn."
"I'm not being stubborn." I snapped. "If I won't let Liss use spirit on me because of the darkness, why would you think that I'd let you."
"Lissa and I are hardly the same."
"Why? Because you drink the madness away?"
"Because it's me and Liss." He said with a hint of pain in his voice. "You care about her."
"I care about you, too."
He turned away from me with a snort and headed towards the door. He turned his head slightly, looking at Dimitri over his shoulder. "When she stops being so stubborn, call me. Otherwise, make sure she sees a doctor."
Dimitri nodded and thanked him for coming before standing up and picking up the bowl of now pink water. The door slammed behind Adrian, making me flinch as Dimitri poured the water down the sink. He threw the cloth in to the washing machine and turned to face me. He didn't say anything, he just looked at me. After a moment he went in to the living and came back with a white envelope.
"This was slid under the door." He said, as he slid it on to the counter in front of me.
My heart picked up as I stared down at my name, neatly written on the front. I ignored it, not wanting to open it in front of him. If he noticed, he didn't say anything. "Why did you call Adrian?"
"I told you, you won't let anyone else look after you."
"What makes you think that I'd let Adrian?" I asked. "And I don't need anyone to look after me."
"No? Then why did four guardians have to save you from getting your throat ripped out?" He asked, his voice cracking at the thought of it. "Did you think that they wouldn't tell me?"
"They shouldn't have told you!" I snapped. "I'm not your charge."
"No, you're not. You're the woman that I love, though you're acting more like a child, Roza. What were you thinking?"
"I don't know."
He shook his head and glared at me. "You're appointment is in an hour."
I'd completely forgotten about the appointment that Dimitri had arranged for me yesterday but I knew that if I refused to go, he'd be furious. "Fine. They can look at my arm while I'm there."
I stood up and took the envelope with me, retreating in to our bedroom so that I could get ready to go. My hair was still quite damp, so I towelled it off again and turned the hair dryer on, tipping my head upside down. When it was done, I brushed mascara over my lashes and put a slightly tinted lip balm on.
I sat on the edge of the bed and opened the envelope that Dimitri had given me, wondering who would have slid it under the door. It was another magazine note, though this time it said 'I'm half crazy over the thought of killing you'. The last note may not have been particularly threatening, but this one certainly was. I folded it back up and put it with the other one, hiding them in my underwear drawer.

"How are you feeling, Rose?" Dr Nikolaev asked once we'd sat down.
"Fine." I said, keeping my eyes on him and not looking at Dimitri. He had white hair and a mole on his left cheek that had little whiskers poking out of it. He had kind eyes that made me feel better, peaceful even.
He turned to Dimitri with a knowing look. "How has she been feeling?"
"She's insisting that she's healed and that she's ready to go back to her training. Also, she had an altercation with three strigoi this morning and her arm is in bad shape."
"Let's take a look then, shall we?" He said and put his glasses on, balancing them on the end of his nose.
I slipped my jacket off, glad that I'd only got a vest top on and offered my arm for his inspection. He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and poked the area gently, though it still hurt.
"Are you sure that this happened last night?"
"Pretty sure." I said between clenched teeth as he spread the cuts open and looked inside. "Why?"
"The amount of infection that you have in this wound would be unlikely considering that it only happened a few hours ago. It scratched you, the strigoi?"
"Yes." I said, though it was hardly a scratch.
"Interesting." He said, snapping off his gloves and turning to write something on a pad. "Are you feeling well otherwise? No headaches, nausea or fever?"
"No."
"What does this mean, Dr Nikolaev?"
"I'm not sure." He said as he took his glasses off and stared absently at my arm. "I'll have to do some research on strigoi scratches. I don't see too many of them, especially not this deep. It goes down almost to the bone. We'll stitch it up and give you a course of antibiotics to tackle the infection."
"Thanks."
"That will mean no training, not until your stitches have been removed."
"How long will that be?"
"At least seven days, perhaps more. It depends on the rate of healing at the time."
Inside I was screaming every dirty word that I could think of but on the outside I smiled and sat quietly as he injected me with an anaesthetic and sewed up my arm. I thanked him for seeing me and then I stormed out of the doctors office and stood on the pavement, fuming. Dimitri came out and stood beside me, though he didn't put his arm around me like he usually did. He was angry but hell, so was I.
"That's great. That's just perfect!" I shouted at no one in particular.
"Calm down, Roza. It's just another week."
"Another week of being stuck in the house and watched by you." I snapped.
"Would you rather that I wasn't there? So that you could sneak out to the gym or go outside of Court again?"
"I-"
"You need to think of your health. If you won't do it for me then at least do it for Vasilisa. You need to be ready to train. Rushing back in to it will only do you more damage, possibly permanent damage. You will never be her guardian again and then where will that leave you?"
"What? No Zen lesson?" I snapped, knowing that he was right and hating it.
"No, Roza, no Zen lesson. You never listen to those any way."
I scowled at him, biting my tongue and holding all the bitchy things that I wanted to say to him. I knew that it wasn't his fault but the words were itching to come out of my mouth. I wanted to scream that it was his fault, that the whole reason I was in this mess was because of Tasha's obsession with him and that he was driving me crazy with all of the watching and the lecturing. That I didn't need him to be my babysitter. That he could go back to work and stop hanging around the house as if I were some sort of flight risk. It felt like it did when he and Sydney took me to that God awful motel and watched me, making sure that I didn't leave. I didn't though. I bit my tongue and scowled at him like a four-year-old that wasn't getting her own way.
"Let's just go home, shall we?" He asked and starting walking before I even answered him.
I followed behind him like a sulky child. I'd tried to fold my arms over my chest but I was in too much pain, even with the anaesthetic. Angry tears filled my eyes and I swiped them away quickly before Dimitri saw them.

When we got home, I went straight in to the bedroom, closing the door behind me and shutting Dimitri out. I closed the curtains, even though it was dark outside, and crawled in to bed with my clothes still on. I curled up in to the smallest ball that I could and cried myself to sleep.