Hey guys so thanks everyone for the reviews you guys are really great.
Sorry I've slowed down it's the vacation, however, I'll be back on Tuesday so the writing will definitely be every day. You guys won't even be able to keep up with the reading!
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Thanks –Val
Chapter 13
I spent about an hour at Tasha's just hanging out and talking. She didn't press me about being in love with another woman any longer, nor did she do any more obvious flirting.
We did watch TV though, sort of and talk about our old times.
It was casual but nice and I felt like I could almost be open with her.
Finally, I left because I was sure someone would come looking for me.
I promised Tasha that I'd play pool with her and some of her friends the following day and made some more rounds before going to bed. Tomorrow would be a big shift day.
The following day I received a message that I was needed in Janine Hathaway's room to discuss the attack again as I was making my rounds. I was actually supposed to be off for the rest of the day, but well, when there was a massive Strigoi group out on the loose, I had to put everything aside.
I was walking towards the wing where Janine would be when I heard someone say, "Ladies, ladies. No need to fight over me."
I immediately remembered that tantalizing voice, damn Ivashkov. Probably with some other girls. Good maybe he'd leave Rose alone now.
Then I heard Rose's voice, "We're not. I just want to know what's going on here." God dammit.
Mother fucker.
Did she have to be with him?
"Me too." I answered as I came to the door.
God fucking dammit.
She was basically in his room, basically fighting with another girl over him.
What the hell?
Rose jumped at my voice and her eyes widened when she saw me. Good –I hoped I looked scary.
I expected this sort of behavior from Rose, but as I walked in past Rose into the room to see who the other girl was, I was a little shocked to see Lissa. I doubted it was like that, Lissa couldn't keep her hands off Christian.
Plus, Rose and Lissa wouldn't be fighting over a guy.
And Lissa didn't really get into much trouble.
I looked between the three of them and immediately stated, looking at Adrian the entire time, "Male and female students aren't supposed to be in each other's rooms." It wasn't exactly the coolest or threatening remark, but it was the most logical thing for me to say.
"How do you keep doing this?" asked a frustrated Rose.
"Do what?" asked Adrian innocently, the nerve.
"Keep making us look bad!" exclaimed Rose.
Maybe because you keep hanging out with him. Maybe Rose you shouldn't hang out with idiots.
Adrian chuckled. He fucking chuckled. "You guys are the ones who came here."
"You shouldn't have let them in," I immediately interjected. I knew somewhere deep inside that Adrian had a point, but right now, I didn't care. "I'm sure you know the rules at St. Vladimir's," I continued sounding like I was a hundred.
Adrian shrugged. "Yeah, but I don't have to follow any school's stupid rules."
"Perhaps not," I answered coldly –but I can make you –I wanted to add, but instead, I answered strategically, "But I would have thought you'd still respect those rules."
Adrian rolled his eyes at that. "I'm kind of surprised to find you lecturing about underage girls."
He crossed the line right then. I swear, I was ready to show this asshole why he should stay away from my Rose.
I kept my face composed though, never revealing anything. Never revealing how I felt. I knew that he had heard the other day and I didn't like that being thrown in my face, but what else could I say. I'm not trying to take advantage of her; I'm just a pedophile teacher who is in love with his personal student.
I did have to clench my fists to keep the shaking from being apparent though. It was the only thing that revealed any sort of emotions.
"Besides," continued Adrian, "Nothing sordid was going on. We were just hanging out." Really. I'm sure that was your intention. When a Moroi invites a Dhampir girl to his room, it isn't just to hang out.
"If you want to 'hang out' with young girls, do it at one of the public areas," I retaliated. If nothing bad was going to happen, why the hell did he bring them to his room?
A little silent voice in my head pointed out that they sort of had come here, but I shushed it. I was beyond reason right now.
Adrian laughed just then, a weird kind of laugh, one that a psychopath makes at a mental institution.
"Young girls? Young girls? Sure. Young and old at the same time. They've barely seen anything in life, yet they've already seen too much. One's marked with life, and one's marked with death...but they're the ones you're worried about? Worry about yourself, dhampir. Worry about you, and worry about me. We're the ones who are young."
I didn't really know how to react to that. One minute he was an annoying asshole and the next he became this unstable psycho.
Who let the nutcase out the hospital?
Adrian then seemed to compose himself. He looked like that perfectly normal asshole again and turned away and strolled toward the window, glancing casually back at the rest of us as he pulled out his cigarettes.
"You ladies should probably go. He's right. I am a bad influence." I didn't want him to use that for his advantage. But frankly, a few more minutes in that room and I'd probably be arrested for seriously injuring the Queen's nephew.
I saw Lissa and Rose exchange looks and both of them hurriedly followed me down the hall to the lobby.
Finally, Rose broke the silence. I knew she couldn't possibly last very long. The girl couldn't keep her mouth shut for five whole minutes.
"That was...strange," Rose commented. I missed my Rose. Always the one to break that awkward silence.
"Very," I agreed a little taken aback. Maybe Rose you should consider this situation and never associate with Ivashkov again.
Wishful thinking, dhampir, a fantasy, I noted.
Damn, was I calling myself Dhampir now.
That was stupid.
Maybe I should call Adrian Moroi from now on.
What an idiot.
A little more space though allowed for some clear thinking and I realized, the truth was I was being a little unfair. Sure, female and male students weren't allowed in each other's rooms, but it wasn't that serious and we weren't stupid. We knew it happened all the time and I had sort of over reacted.
But as wrong as it was, as dumb as it was, I still sort of felt that Rose belonged to me and that I needed to protect that at all costs.
It wasn't fair but, I was just trying to keep her safe.
Honestly, I was hoping I could just talk to the girl.
Rose started to follow Lissa but I called and stopped her, "Rose," he said. "Can I talk to you?"
Rose turned towards me and stepped off to the side as to not block traffic. There were still a ton of Moroi leaving the lodge thinking that they weren't safe here –they had Strigoi paranoia written all over their faces.
I snapped Rose's head away from the Moroi family, god dammit would it kill her to look at me, "That's Adrian Ivashkov," I began. Here comes the big lecture. Try to leave you can't hang out with him because I'm afraid you'll fall for him or he'll touch a hair on you out of it D.
"Yeah, I know," she answered. Smart ass.
"This is the second time I've seen you with him," I replied, hoping she'd tell me that it was just those two times, that she never really hangs out with him.
Instead, she answered, "Yeah. We hang out sometimes."
She said it like it was the most normal thing.
I arched an eyebrow, looking at the room we had just come from, "You hang out in his room a lot?" Had I had my eyes closed?
Because I swear, if she said yes right then I'd fucking kill Adrian. If she slept with him, I'd be left with no other choice.
Rose contemplated for a few seconds before responding with confidence, "What happens between
him and me is none of your business," managing the exact tone I had used when Rose made the comment about Tasha and me.
That felt like acid being thrown back in my face.
"Actually, as long as you're at the Academy, what you do is my business," I retorted. I knew I wasn't entirely right, but fuck it. There was no way I'd let her whore herself out to Adrian Ivashkov, some guy that was just using her.
"Not my personal life. You don't have any say in that," Rose retorted.
"You're not an adult yet," I answered back, if she wanted to be a kid, I could be too.
"I'm close enough. Besides, it's not like I'll magically become an adult on my eighteenth birthday," she answered.
"Clearly," I answered back. I could play this game all night and win. Keep it coming little Roza.
I had the pleasure of watching her blush, "That's not what I meant. I meant-"
"I know what you meant. And the technicalities don't matter right now. You're an Academy student. I'm
your instructor. It's my job to help you and to keep you safe. Being in the bedroom of someone like him
... well, that's not safe." Especially not for him, I added silently.
"I can handle Adrian Ivashkov," Rose muttered. "He's weird- really weird, apparently-but harmless."
Really? Like he isn't trying to sleep with you? She was so naïve.
"Speaking of personal lives ..." Rose continued, "I suppose you were off visiting Tasha, huh?" Rose suddenly said switching the subject.
I guess I deserved that, "Actually, I was visiting your mother," I explained.
"You going to hook up with her too?" Rose asked.
I ignored that and just gave her a weary glance, now she was acting like a jealous ten year old, "No, we were looking over some new data about the Strigoi in the Drozdov attack."
Rose's expression changed from anger and snarkiness to compassion and concern, "What'd you find out?" she asked quietly.
"We've managed to track some of the Strigoi," I said. "Or at least the humans with them. There were
witnesses who lived nearby who spotted a few of the cars the group used. The plates were all from
different states-the group appears to have split up, probably to make it harder for us. But one of the
witnesses did catch one plate number. It's registered to an address in Spokane."
"Spokane?" Rose asked incredulously. "Spokane,Washington? Who makes Spokane their hideout?"
"Strigoi, apparently," I answered, deadpan. I'd never actually been there. "The address was fake, but other evidence shows they really are there. There's a kind of shopping plaza that has some underground tunnels. There've been Strigoi sightings around that area."
"Then ..." Rose frowned. "Are you going to go after them? Is somebody going to? I mean, this is what
Tasha's been saying all along.... If we know where they are ..."
I shook his head. "The guardians can't do anything without permission from higher up. That's not going
to happen anytime soon." I wanted to go after the Strigoi, but the Moroi were a little dumb when it came to this sort of thing.
Rose sighed. "Because the Moroi talk too much." Our thoughts linked.
I needed to be the adult though.
"They're being cautious," I answered, not really buying into all this Moroi crap. If it were up to me we'd all go after them and kill every single one.
Rose got worked up once again, "Come on. Even you can't want to be careful on this one. You actually know where Strigoi are hiding out. Strigoi who massacred children. Don't you want to go after them when they don't expect it?"
"It's not that easy," I tried to explain suddenly feeling like a coward. "We answer to the Guardian Council and the Moroi government. We can't just run off and act on impulse. And anyway, we don't know everything yet. You should never walk into any situation without knowing all the details."
"Zen life lessons again," Rose sighed. Ouch, she had to stop with that crap.
She then ran a finger through her hair and I couldn't help but notice how incredibly sexy she looked as she did that. I felt my heart rate increase, all this testosterone was starting to get to me.
"Why'd you tell me this, anyway? This is guardian stuff. Not the kind of thing you let novices in on," Rose noted.
I considered what she said and she was right. I wasn't supposed to be telling her, but well, I sort of saw her as my equal, why shouldn't she know?
I thought back to the things I said and immediately tried to apologize, "I've said a few things...the other day and today...that I shouldn't have. Things that insulted your age. You're seventeen...but you're capable of handling and processing the same things those much older than you do."
"Really?" she asked all giddy. Did she have to be so damn adorable?
I nodded trying to mask my feelings, "You're still really young in a lot of ways- and act young-but the only way to really change that is to treat you like an adult. I need to do that more. I know you'll take this information and understand how important it is and keep it to yourself."
Rose looked really happy then, that was until a voice called "Dimka," immediately I recognized Tasha's voice. She walked up to use and smiled at Rose.
I sort of felt a little angry that she was disrupting our moment but it quickly faded.
"Hello, Rose." Tasha said.
"Hey," Rose said flatly clearly no longer happy.
Tasha placed a hand on my forearm, sliding her fingers on my leather coat. Rose's eyes seemed glued to Tasha's hand, I should be seriously concerned about this.
But honestly, it was nice to know that Rose still cared and wasn't head over heels for that idiot Adrian.
"You've got that look," Tasha said, getting my attention.
"What look?" I asked smiling; I knew exactly what she meant.
"That look that says you're going to be on duty all day." Tasha explained.
"Really? I have a look like that?" I teased back.
Tasha nodded. "When does your shift technically end?"
"An hour ago," I answered.
"You can't keep doing this," Tasha groaned. "You need a break."
"Well ... if you consider that I'm always Lissa's guardian..." I tried to justify.
"For now," Tasha said knowingly. "There's a big pool tournament going on upstairs."
"I can't," I said, still smiling, realizing that I really did want to go, "Even though I haven't played in a long time ..."
"Come on, then," Tasha begged. "Just one round! We could take them all."
"I can't," I repeated unfortunately. "Not with everything going on."
That seemed to sober Tasha a little if there was such a thing. "No. I suppose not."
Glancing at Rose, she said teasingly, "I hope you realize what a hard-core role model you have here. He's never off duty."
"Well," Rose answered, copying Tasha's lilting tone from earlier, "For now, at least."
Tasha looked puzzled.
I however, knew exactly was Rose was doing –she was trying to make fun of Tasha and whatever progress she had just made completely flew out the window. Tasha had been absolutely nothing but nice to her and she didn't deserve to be treated like that regardless of how Rose felt.
"We're finished here, Rose. Remember what I said," I immediately asserted. She was back to acting like I ten year old.
"Yeah," Rose said, "Definitely," and walked away.
"That was weird," Tasha noted when Rose was out of ear shot.
"What was?" I asked.
"The way Rose –" she began, "Nothing, it was probably just in my head. So can you really not come hang out?"
"No, I would love to but I really have to handle this. Maybe later?" I tried to make her feel better.
"Yeah, I'd like that. Just come by," Tasha answered.
"Well I better go," I told her.
She kissed me on the cheek, "See you later Dimka!"
I smiled back, "Bye Tasha," and headed towards Janine's room for a dreadful day of going over the details of the Badica and Drosdov attacks.
