Rating:
This chapter is Rated T.
Beta:
Isabella Rain; you are my sun that shines through the clouds on rainy days.
Authors Notes:
All your reviews for the last chapter were fantastic! Most of you were like, 'what the hell is with Dimitri?'
Well my number #1 fans... only future chapters will tell.
So KEEP READING and REVIEWING. :)
I got over 400 people reading chapter six on the first day. That's bloody awesome. Keep it up, please.
Disclaimer:
The author Richelle Mead owns the Vampire Academy universe. I Want To Experience Love is a Vampire Academy Fan Fiction story and it is not intended to infringe on any copyrights held by Richelle Mead or Razor Bill Company. Richelle Mead is the creator of the Vampire Academy characters, however this story is my original work. Copyright 2010 by xx-RedRoseBlackThorn-xx. No copying or reproduction of this work is permitted without my express written authorization.
CHAPTER SEVEN
In The Middle
I threw on a pair of blue skinny jeans and a black low cut shirt, grabbing my handbag and sunglasses; I was out the door.
I was the last one to the SUV. I saw Lissa smile towards me while Christian rolled his eyes for my lateness. I stood beside Adrian while Stan was telling us the rules about what we were to do when leaving the Academy.
Of course most of us have been through the rules before and know the drill. However, Christian had never left the Academy. I felt sorry for that boy.
"You will be paired up with a guardian. There are three of us going and there are five of you." Stan pointed to us. "If you need to split up one of us will company you. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Guardian Alto." Eddie replied.
One by one, we piled into the SUV. Stan sat in the driver's seat, while Alberta accompanied Stan in the passenger seat. Lissa, Christian, and Eddie sat in the middle row, while Dimitri, Adrian and I sat in the back.
Dimitri was leaning against the back sliding door when I had to walk past him to climb into the SUV. I quickly looked up and took a glance at him. He wasn't looking back, quite the opposite, he was looking through me. Great, he's going to play a games called 'I don't exist'.
Sitting in the back was a bad idea on my part. I sat in the middle while Dimitri and Adrian sat on either side. Dimitri sat up against the wall as much as he could, while Adrian kept creeping closer to me.
I was feeling rather nervous. Dimitri just walked out on me this morning. After what we went through last night, I was devastated. He wouldn't even look at me, let alone talk to me. I don't even know what I did to make his walk out of the room the way he did.
When he wasn't receiving and sending messages on his phone, Adrian occasionally talked to me, but that wasn't often considering it went off every five minutes.
Curiosity finally got the better of me and I looked over at his phone, to no avail though. I couldn't read the message or who it was from.
"What has your interest little Dhampir?" he said with a smug smile.
The clicking of the mobile buttons and the buzzing from the vibration was pissing me off.
"Who the fuck, are you taking too?" I said with irritation.
"It's none of your concern." He popped his mobile into his pocket.
I gave him a don't-mess-with-me-look and turned away.
"Does it make you jealous?" he asked with envy.
I was confused. I turned around and said, "What?"
"Me paying more attention to someone else? I wouldn't worry. You're on my mind all the time."
"The sound was annoying me." It was a lame answer but he caught me off guard. "If you pull it out of your pocket one more time on this trip-"
"You'd do what?" he laughed.
"I'll -" He stopped me before I could even get a sentence out.
"As long as you make it up to me, I don't mind," he winked.
I rolled my eyes and looked out the window just past his head.
"This is going to be a long trip," I muttered to myself mostly to myself. I heard Adrian snicker.
I stopped looking out the window just as I saw us reaching the outskirts of Missoula. I was going to announce that we were nearly there, but Christian had his arm wrapped around Lissa; I didn't want to interrupt what they were doing and Eddie was listening to his iPod.
I turned to look at Dimitri. His eyes were squinting, like he was deep in thought. One of his hands was holding onto the SUV's door handle for dear life and the other was in a fist. His lips were in a thin line and his body was slightly shaking.
I wanted to check if he was alright but what if he didn't want me too. Oh screw it, since when do I care. Adrian has plugged his earphones into his phone. I assume he was listening to music as well. I didn't want him to have more excuses for me to pay him for if he heard me talking to Dimitri.
I reached my hand over and placed it on Dimitri's fist, while my thumb was rubbing his knuckles. He turned his head to look at me.
"Are you alright?" I whispered. I didn't want the others to hear. Christian and Lissa didn't seem to notice, so I was safe.
He pulled his hand away and looked out the window.
I felt sick in the stomach. Why didn't he want me now?
We parked at the shopping centre and Stan said a few words.
"I want you to pick your groups now." He really didn't want to be here. I could tell by the tone in his voice.
Lissa looked at Christian and Christian nodded. Of course they would want to be together. I guess I'll be hanging out with Eddie, which I didn't mind. Eddie and I had begun to get quite close. He was like a brother.
"Christian, Eddie, and I?" Lissa asked me.
"Sure." I looked at her weirdly. Great, that means just Adrian and I. Alone. By ourselves. With no one else. Yep. Adrian is going to love it.
You will see. She said through the bond. She was feeling really excited. What was she up to? I hope it wasn't for me to bond with Adrian. I have a feeling it is. I wish she would stop worrying about match making. She has been working on getting me with another guy for a while now. If only I could tell her about Dimitri.
"Since there are three of you in group and two in the other, Guardian Petrov and I will be guarding you Princess and Mr. Ozera. Eddie you can either enjoy the free time or use this as a training exercise," Stan instructed.
Eddie stood up straight and answered, "I'll use this time as training, Guardian Alto."
Stan looked towards me and asked me the same question.
"I'll rather take this free time if I may." I looked towards Dimitri and he was shaking his head.
"Very well. Castile, I'm sure you will do well." He patted him on the shoulder. "Guardian Petrov, Belikov, and I have radios, however, if you see trouble, yell out 'Pericol'. It's Romanian for danger."
Eddie nodded and we split up in our groups.
Adrian and I were walking into a clothes store when his arm came around my waist and he said, "Ты смотреть красивый как всегда."
I stopped and looked at Dimitri he was looking disgusted. "What did you say to me?" I asked him.
He smiled and said, "It's Russian. I said you look beautiful as always."
I smiled up at him. He was always so sweet to me. "I didn't know you spoke Russian."
"There are lots of things you don't know about me. I speak Italian as well," he smirked and gestured into the shop.
I tried on about three different pants, five shirts and two dresses. I came out of the dressing room ready to show Adrian my last dress when he wasn't there. I would have gotten Lissa to let me know what she thinks, but since she ditched me for Christian, I got Adrian to do the honours. He didn't to mind one bit, he loved the idea. I could trust his opinion, because he always seemed to want me to look good.
I looked around the shop and saw Adrian at the checkout. Some girl was flirting with him. I looked back and noticed Dimitri looking at me.
I blushed and asked, "How does this look?" I twirled around.
He didn't say anything and turned his attention back to check on Adrian.
"Cut the crap Dimka." That's right, I cut really low there. He was being immature when he used to tell me to grow up.
He froze and then walked towards me.
"What did you say?" he voice was hard.
I put on my innocent face. "I said, how do I look?"
"After that."
"I'm not sure what you mean, Guardian Belikov," I shrugged.
"Stop playing around Rose." He placed his hand on the side of the wall beside my face.
I walked back into the changing room. I didn't have to put up with his attitude. I was closing the curtain when a force pushed the curtain open.
I stared at him. "What are you doing? I have to get changed."
He looked towards where Adrian was and stepped in and closed the curtain behind himself. If we weren't fighting I would say, 'This is kind of kinky'.
"You want me now?" I said with sarcasm. "I didn't picture you as a dressing room type."
He stepped closer and place both hand on the wall on both sides of my head.
"You better hurry if you don't want to get caught." Oh this is so fun... keep pushing his buttons.
"You make me crazy, you know that," he half whispered with fury.
"What's your point Guardian Belikov?" I moved my foot up his leg.
Dimitri's lips were on mine before I could respond. He broke away, not long after. He was shaking again and I was scared. This wasn't like Dimitri.
"What's happening Dimitri?" I asked worried.
"Nothing. This was a mistake." He moved away from me.
"A mistake is something you do once or maybe twice but not all the time." I started to take down the straps of my dress. Where was all my confidence coming from?
Dimitri's hand stopped me. "Don't."
Now he didn't want to see my body. I guess I did make him mad. I was about to say something when Adrian's voice caught my attention.
"Rose where are you?"
I looked at Dimitri, he was just as stunned as I was. How could we explain this situation? There was no way you could cover up what this looked like.
Without consulting me, Dimitri stepped out of the change room. Was he an idiot? I can't believe he just did that.
Adrian looked between Dimitri and I with his mouth open. "What was happening in there?" He sounded a little pissed off.
I looked at my dress strap. "I can't get this dress off." I pretended to pull at it and look frustrated.
"Right, so you needed Dimitri to help you." He was using his disappointed tone. How dare he use that tone on me. He would have been more than willing to help if the position was reversed.
"Well, where were you! You were flirting with the checkout chick," I yelled.
"I was buying some clothes." He looked at me like I was being a jealous girlfriend.
"No, you were too busy trying to get in the girls' pants. So I asked Dimitri if he could help." I yanked the curtain shut and got changed. Fancy me being stuck in the middle of two guys. Well I didn't have to choice one, because I already knew who I wanted!
None of us spoke a word after the change room incident. I stopped when I saw a shop that sold underwear. I walked in and Adrian whispered, "Я убил бы, чтобы видеть Вас в некоторых из них."
Dimitri turned towards him and it looked as though he might punch him out. Not that I didn't' want to see Dimitri sexy body move in a graceful way to punch a guy out, but I didn't want Adrian to have a broken face. It wouldn't look good on Dimitri's record if he punched a royal Lord.
I stepped in between the both of them and held up my hands.
"Adrian, why don't you look over in the guy section," I pointed to the other side of the store.
He looked at Dimitri with a big smirk and nodded. "I'll do anything for you Rose," his thumb pad brushed my lips and I understood the double meaning in his words.
I turned around to look at Dimitri. "What did he say?"
"Nothing for you to worry about." He was still fuming.
"Nothing to worry about? I wasn't born yesterday," I scowled.
He took a deep breath. "It was inappropriate."
I walked past him to look at a red pair of underwear and a matching bra. "If you don't tell me, I'll go ask Adrian. I know he will tell me." I knew it was awful to use them against each other, but it was to my advantage.
He looked at the underwear and looked away. He looked really uncomfortable. Maybe I should have told him to wait outside.
I laughed. "We can go if you like?"
He looked at Adrian and then back at me. "It's fine. Just don't take too long."
We were on our way back to the Academy when I heard Dimitri's radio go off. Lissa was asleep on Christian; which he had his eyes closed to rest. Eddie was listening to his iPod again, while Adrian was listening to his phone. Alberta and Stan couldn't hear us because there was a window parting the front from the back.
"What is it?" As I looked at Dimitri's worried face.
He didn't say anything while the radio kept receiving messages. He finally spoke into the device.
"Is it safe to return?"
He started to nod his head, as if he was agreeing to the other end of the line.
"We're about fifty minutes away. The three of us should be able to keep them safe."
He looked at the others before looking towards me. He moved towards me and whispered, "There has been an attack at the Academy." He saw the look on my face and placed his hand on my leg. "They have it under control; however they don't want the princess to return tonight."
"Why?" I understood that the attack at the Academy would cause a few troubles, but not enough for her not to be able to return, and why not stop Adrian or Christian going back
"Some people were taken Rose. The wards came down for ten minutes and ten minutes is a lot to Strigoi. We want to protect Lord Ozera and Ivashkov as well, but Princess Dragomir is essential to protect." He seemed to know what I was thinking.
"How many people have gone?" I squeezed his hand on my leg.
"Five. Three teachers and two elementary students. Everything is taken care of but they don't want to take the risk. If they have taken down the wards once; they might be able to do it again. We are going to have to take a detour and stay at a hotel tonight. Just to be extra safe," he gave me a reassuring smile.
"Does Alberta and Stan know?" Of course they did. They had radios as well.
"Yes." He looked me in the eyes. "Can I ask you to do something for me?"
"Of course."
"I need you here, to be alert for the princess. We are going to be out in the human world; Strigoi might find us," he tensed.
I nodded and looked to my right. Adrian was asleep. Thank God he didn't hear anything.
Dimitri seemed to be talking to me like an equal at the moment so I decided to take advantage.
"About last night-"
"Lets' not talk about it here." He looked away. It was worth a try. When would be the right time to talk about it?
"You still haven't told me what Adrian said before," I said in a soft voice.
He rubbed my cheek. "I don't want you to kill him in the car, because Petrov and Alto would want to know why I didn't stop you."
I laughed. He made a joke. That's something good between us. Though he has been very moody.
"He said, 'I would kill to see you in some of these".
"Why did he say it in Russian? Why not in English, like he used to do?"
"He is just trying to piss me off, Roza." Did he say what I think he said? He said pissed, right?
"I'm sorry to say it Comrade, but it's working," I was playing with the bottom of the sleeve on his duster.
He kissed the top of my head. "I know."
I wanted to keep talking to Dimitri, but this subject wasn't going to go down well. So I changed it to a different one...
"It's my birthday in thirteen days," I said as I looked up at his face.
"Not counting or anything," he smirked.
"Nope, that's not my type of thing," I giggled.
"Got anything you want for your birthday?"
Yep. You. You wouldn't like the answer to that question though. I don't want anything else.
"Not really," I replied.
"What? Rose Hathaway always knows what she -" He looked out the window.
He knew what I wanted for my birthday. It's the only thing I wanted. My eyes were starting to get sore from trying to keep them open.
"How long until we stop?" I asked with a yawn.
"Thirty minutes at most." He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him. "You can rest you eyes."
I bent my neck onto his shoulders and sighed. The smell of his aftershave was astonishing. I felt him shrug his duster off and placed it over my body.
I opened my eyes and smiled. He smiled back.