The flight to Las Vegas was long and boring. I sat next to Denis, leaning on his shoulder while he smiled. I closed my eyes. I was still very tired, i had only gotten an hour of sleep in the car.
I was worrying about my dream. When i recapped on it, leaving out the melting heads, i had no clue. All i could think was 'What the hell!'. What was it meant to mean? It was nice, then i touched the flower, and it was a nightmare. They had died because i had touched the flower, because i had felt the power.
WHAT THE HELL?
I didn't sleep while i rested on Denis' shoulder. How could I?
I closed my eyes and let my mind slip into Lissa's. It continued to surprise me how every time I slipped in, she was always in some place different. This time, she was in bed, snuggled up to Christian's clothed shoulder.
She was falling asleep fast, feeling Christian's warmth under her hands.
Everything went black, and we both arrived on an island. Well, half an island.
On the other side, as far as the eye could see, was Adrian's garden, but we were quite clearly standing on a beach.
I looked to Lissa, who was just as surprised as I was.
"Is it always like this? Dream walking?" she asked me.
In the middle of the two worlds, they began to blur together. The blur grew bigger and bigger, smooshing anything under it.
"Never. Did you do something wrong?" I asked her, stepping in between her and the blur that was fast approaching.
She shook her head. "No, I did it perfectly. What's going on?"
Realisation took over me and I shook my head. Whether the thought was placed there, or it was my own creation, didn't matter. The fact was that it made sense.
"Someone doesn't want me talking to you," I told her.
"Why?"
I shrugged. "I don't know, but it's working. It's too dangerous to talk anymore, Lissa."
She shook her head. "No. I need to talk to you!"
I kicked myself for the next realisation. "They don't want me seeing you." I whispered. "They're making it hurt."
"Why?" she asked again.
"I wish I knew, Lissa. I wish I knew." I told her honestly. "But you can't tell anyone about this. You can't trust anyone anymore. That means Christian and Adrian and all of them. Promise me."
She nodded. "I promise."
The blur reached us, Lissa screamed as I was sucked into it.
I woke up coughing, breathing deeply.
"Oh cough up a lung, why don't ya." Denis joked.
I rolled my eyes at him. Denis smiled gently at me, and I smiled back. As innocent as that seemed, I saw Dimitri's eyes peircing into Denis' back. I sighed, but I was quite flattered at his jealousy.
I closed my eyes and rest against Denis again, and for the first time in…forever, I got dreamless sleep. But it was short lived, I thought, cause it was too soon that Denis was shaking his shoulder, making my head bob up and down. I woke up and tried to stretch, noticing that the plane was lower than it had ever been out the window.
"Where are we?" I asked either of them.
Denis grinned. "In Las Vagas, baby!"
He didn't shout it or say it in any way that would suggest that he said that every time he came here. It was like he was actually calling me 'baby'. I didn't care anymore. I was tired and grumpy.
I yawned on my way out of the terminal and out to collect our bags.
"So where too first, Boss?" Denis grinned.
I sighed. "Oh I don't know. Maybe we should look around? Ask a couple of questions to the people here and there?"
Dimitri didn't look happy about this arrangement. "It would be nice to know what we are looking for. We would help you, you know."
Of course they could help me. But that wasn't the question in play.
Could either of them be trusted?
My heart told me to trust Dimitri. I knew I could trust him with my life. But Denis? Truth was, I only just met him. It has only been a couple of days, but it seems like I've known him forever.
And there was the issue with me and Lissa. Was it Denis who was keeping us out? Highly unlikely, but it was always good to make sure.
"Maybe later," I told Dimitri, acting like I was telling Denis too. "But right now we need to rest and just relax for a little bit. Hopefully no one will find us here. Actually, scratch that. No one will you you guys with me. But I doubt that with Yeva's masterpeice."
They both nodded and helped out with the bags. By the time they were both carrying all that they wanted, I was left with nothing. Any other girl would be flattered, considering I had had now a total of four hours sleep, but not me. I stared at the boys, shook my head in disbelief, and grabbed one bag from each guy. They were now happy carrying three bags, and me two. Mine.
We pulled up at a scroggy hotel in the middle of nowhere and booked a room for three.
The room was gross. I was guessing this hotel was more like a whorehouse than anything. Would anyone really care if I screamed in here? They'd call me a slut if anything.
If only they knew.
"I bags the bed next to Rose's!" Denis shouted, jumping onto one of the two beds that were close to each other, landing in a perfect sitting position. He grinned at us like a child.
I raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that you wanted to be close to me." I told him. "Did you need me to read you a bedtime story?"
Dimitri smirked.
Denis got the joke, though. "Yes please!"
I laughed with him. "You're such a child." I told Denis. "How old are you?"
"Twenty five. The same as smirky man over there." He told me. "And I'm not a child. I just like to have fun. You like to have fun too, Rose. Or, you did."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
He shrugged. "You seem off lately. Always on a mission."
"That's not my fault." I argued.
"I wasn't finished." He continued. "Even when you were on a mission before, you always loved to have fun. Now your just…like anyone else."
"She's responsible." Dimitri cut in, glaring at Denis. "Or, she kind of is."
"True dat." I nodded, walking over to the other bed, the one in a separate part of the room, and dropped my bags off.
Dimitri didn't acknowledge me. "Don't say she is doing the wrong thing by it." He warned Denis.
Denis' eyes shot up. "I'm guessing he's the one who took that innocence away from you, huh."
"That's none of your business." He growled.
Denis smirked when he looked at me. "Well, since night time is the only time to have fun around this place, we could always…make the best of it."
"Don't you dare-"
"You gonna stop me, Dimka? Geeze, I was only suggesting we go down to a casino."
"I know better than that what you were-"
"Alright! Time to cool off."
I stood in between the two of them and placed a hand on either of their chests.
"Cool it or I'll force it." I warned.
Both guys relaxed under my words, but they didn't cool it at all. Denis stalked off to my bed, dragging his fingers slowly along the bed, before walking into the bathroom, winking at me on his way.
I breathed out the air I had been holding in. One guy I could handle.
"Why did I think I could go all the way around the world with two testostrone fueled guys?"
Dimitri pulled half his mouth into a half smile, but didn't take his eyes off the bathroom door.
I sighed. "Why don't we go for a walk?"
His eyes shot to me, just like I had suspected them too. "At night? You're kidding me."
I shook my head. "I never joke when it comes to distracting you. It's once in a lifetime, really."
I fell onto his bed, pulling a leg up and hugging it.
He saw what I had done, then smiled. "Only you, Roza. Only you."
I laughed silently. "And it only takes a walk at night. Pitiful really." I joked.
He grinned and fell onto the bed with me, although he fell all the way down, pulling me with him until we were both lying on his bed sideways. I laughed with him for the shortest amount of time I had ever laughed with him. That had only been once before…I thought I had anyway.
"You ready for that walk, Roza?" Denis asked from the bathroom doorway.
Dimitri instantly sighed and let go of me. I sat up as he did.
"I was kidding." I told him. "You really need to work on your eavesdropping. If your not as good as me, it'll get you into trouble."
He grinned. "I suppose a lot of people wish to be as good as you."
I rolled my eyes and heaved myself from the bed. I turned back to see Dimitri still glaring at him, but this time he added something new. A shaking of the head.
Great.
Now not only was I travelling the world with two testostorone fueled guys. But not only that, they were best buds, but because of me, they hated each other.
Crap.
I rubbed my forehead. "I need a shower."
"Save water, shower togeth-"
"No." I warned Denis.
He grinned. "Only joking."
"Sure you were."
I couldn't help but smile at his pitiful attempt. I grabbed a towel from within my bag (I really didn't trust multicoloured towels the hotel had for us. They looked like the lost and found bin on a rack.) and walked into the bathroom. I closed the door, but then stopped, and quietly opened it again. I tried to listen what they were saying.
I wasn't lying. I was pretty good at it.
"Roza is something, isn't she?" Denis sighed.
"It's not working." Dimitri warned. "You can't just waltz in here and steal her from me. She's smarter than you think. She'll see past your pitiful games."
"Just like she sees through yours." Denis shot back. "I know the real you, Dimitri Belikov. She's looked past the killing. She's looked past the fact that you beat your own father up. She saw that as heroic."
"You know what happened. That was to protect my mother, not put on some big show."
"But you did anyway. She thinks you are so invincible. Watch it unravel as she sees how cowardly you really are."
"I'm not playing a game, Denis."
"Well sure you are. If you wanna keep her, you'll play the game with everything you've got. If you don't, just give up now. Go home."
"And if I don't want to play the game? If shes the love of my life and I don't want to play a stupid, childish game to keep her?"
Denis grinned. "Too bad."
I closed the door, leaning against it to think. Games? Yeah, Denis laid it on pretty thick but…
What the hell was going on?
