Dimitri's Point of View
"This is bullshit!" Rose yelled as she stormed through my door, slamming it behind her.
Knock Knock Knock
"You see what I mean!" she cried incredulously, shooting an irritated glance at the door. I feared for the safety of the guardian on the other side so I pushed her gently towards the bed to answer the door myself.
"Guardian Belikov, I just wanted to make sure Ms. Mazur was safely inside with you." The guardian on the other side explained. I refrained from laughing at the absurdity of his statement; did he not just watched her walk through the door and start talking to me?
"Understood Guardian Ross, but I can assure you Rose is perfectly safe." When I closed the door to turn around and face her, Rose's position on the bed surprised me. She was sprawled across my bed wearing nothing but her underwear, and I had to fight back the urge to take her right there.
"Roza…" I chastised, pulling a large T shirt out of one of my dresser drawers and tossing it to her.
"Oh come on Comrade, I'm wound tighter than a spring. Help a girl out here!" She gave me her best man-eater smile and on the inside I was already picturing her underneath me. But outwardly I kept my impassive guardian mask in place.
"Roza, we've talked about this. Now is not the time."
"Ugh!" she groaned, pulling the T shirt over her head. I was eternally grateful because if I'd had to see her like that for a moment longer, I probably would have given in.
"Honestly Dimitri, if we hadn't had sex already, I'd swear you were gay."
I chuckled at the disgruntled look on her face as I climbed into bed beside her.
Ever since the incident with Victor, Roza spent most of her nights with me. It was like her and Ivan had switched guardians, and we laughed behind their backs about the fact that Ivan and Sophia thought they were fooling anybody. For weeks now they'd been more than willing to spend all their time together, pretending they were simply being supportive friends who wanted to give us more alone time.
Ha!
Despite her previous irritation with me, Rose snuggled closer into my body, laying her beautiful head on my chest. She let out a contented sigh when I started running my fingers through her hair.
"So Thanksgiving's coming up…" I stated conversationally.
"Don't remind me." She grumbled.
I couldn't quite make sense of her response. Last I knew Roza loved the holidays. The Dragomir's had always made such a big to do about them, even the littlest ones like St. Patrick's Day.
The Dragomir's.
Oh Crap.
"Oh Roza, I'm sorry. I didn't even think…" I trailed off, feeling like an insensitive ass.
"Don't worry about it Comrade. I'm just not really looking forward to the holidays this year. It'll be the first one since the accident." She told me, letting out a heavy sigh.
"Do you want to talk about Milaya?"
"Nope" she replied, making sure to pop her P sound. She knew how much it irritated both me and Lissa. I rolled my eyes knowing she was doing it on purpose and a quick glance at her amused expression told me I was right.
Later that night after Rose dozed off I started thinking about the last Thanksgiving we spent together.
*Flashback*
I hadn't really planned on spending the holiday with her. I knew the Dragomir's were in town, and there wasn't a very plausible explanation we could give them about me joining in on their private family dinner. Instead I had settled in with a new novel and was prepared to spend the evening in bed reading. I was just getting to a good part when my phone started buzzing on the nightstand.
Meet me at the cabin in 20-R
She didn't have to tell me twice.
20 minutes later, I walked through the door of our little hideaway to find Roza impatiently waiting for me.
"Took you long enough!"
She was wearing a beautiful blue sweater dress, and her luscious long brown hair was pushed away from her face with an adorable satin blue headband with a bow. She looked incredible. I didn't bother to dignify her impatience with a response. Roza was notorious for being less than punctual. Instead I used 3 large strides to close the distance between us and smother her with a heated a kiss. Since the moment I had entered the room I had been thinking about our last time here together, the night that we first made love.
When I finally pulled back from the kiss to catch my breath, Roza's beautiful face lit up with a dazzling smile.
"Well hello to you too Comrade."
"I missed you today." I told her earnestly, pressing my lips against hers once more.
"So did I." she told me."Hence the secret rendezvous." She winked, gesturing around at the room we were in. She pressed her lips against mine again before remembering something.
"Oh, I almost forgot, I brought you something." She ran over to the small kitchenette and pulled a heated plate out of the oven. I peered over to see that she had made me a plate of her leftover Thanksgiving dinner.
"You didn't have to do that. Wasn't anyone suspicious about what you were doing sneaking off with a plate of food?"
"Nope." She smiled proudly. "I told Rhea it was for you. I played the whole, he's away from his family in Russia at the holiday's card and she practically insisted I bring this to you right away. In fact she actually chastised me for my poor manners, telling me I should have had the good sense to invite you to dinner."
I laughed at her smug expression and dug into the plate at her urging. When I was finished, she returned to the kitchen and pulled out two slices of pumpkin pie.
"For dessert…" she winked, carrying the two plates and a can of whip cream. The sinful side of me started picturing all the things I'd love to do with that whip cream, and in the way only Roza can, she started to strip herself of her shirt like she'd read my mind.
2 hours later we were lying naked on a blanket in front of the fire, taking turns feeding each other the forgotten pieces of pumpkin pie.
"Happy Thanksgiving Comrade." She whispered.
"Happy Thanksgiving Milaya."
*End Flashback*
Rose's Point of View
After Dimitri mentioned Thanksgiving the other night, I decided I was in need of a little Lissa time. With everything that had been going on lately, I hadn't exactly been a very good friend. However thanks to that pesky bond of ours, I knew she was holding up alright. She'd even managed to get into the holiday spirit and had insisted our day consist of some Christmas shopping.
"Liss do you really think leaving the wards is such a good idea. Dimitri is going to shit a brick when he finds out."
"Oh would you relax. Thanks to your dad we've got an army of guardians at our disposal. You've got nearly as many guardians as the queen now, we'll be fine."
"I hate to agree with Lissa, but I agree with Lissa." Christian piped up from behind me.
"Who invited Sparky? I thought this was a girl's day?"
Honestly I just loved to toy with Christian. I was actually kind of glad he was coming. Christian was one of my best friends, and Lissa wasn't the only one I'd been neglecting.
"Hey, I'm here at the princesses request little fireball."
"Ugh, seriously Christian, could you please not use Adrian's pet name for me." I complained, hating the reminder that he could be lurking somewhere nearby.
"Uh…speaking of Adrian." Lissa murmured, looking around anxiously.
"Oh no, I know that face. What is it Lissa, spit it out."
"Well, he may have called me last night to confirm were still going to court for Thanksgiving…"
"Lissa!" I cried.
If it were up to me, we'd be staying here at Lehigh for the holiday, but the Queen had reached out to Lissa and invited us back to court, and when the Queen sends out an invitation you can't exactly say no.
"Unbelievable." I grumbled, climbing into the packed SUV. "Oh look, it's my favorite Turkish jailer." I chirped, patting my fathers most trusted guardian Pavel on the back. Unlike most of the shmucks my father hired, Pavel wasn't half bad. In fact, I actually kind of liked the guy.
"Are we all set Miss Rose?"
"Seriously Pavel, we've talked about this. Enough of this 'Miss bullshit.' It's just Roses okay?"
"Of course Rose." He smirked, and pulled out onto the highway.
6 hours later we were dragging our plethora of bags back to the car when it happened.
Lissa had her arm looped lazily through mine, and we had deemed Christian the honorary bag boy. Sophia was trailing behind me close by, and I couldn't see Pavel and the others, but I knew that they were there. We had just about made it to the car when I saw him.
It was as if he appeared out of thin air, standing in front of us, a snarling sinister smile across his face.
"Hello Rose." He spoke and Sophia was in action within seconds.
If he'd been working alone it wouldn't have been so bad, but as if his words were the cue, more than 8 Strigoi suddenly surrounded us, and the fear I felt from Lissa through the bond was overwhelming. Next to me I saw Christian abandon the bags and replaced his hands with a warm fireball; I quickly followed suit.
By now all the guardians on this trip had emerged from the shadows and were currently involved in combat. I noticed Sophia struggling a bit to take down a fairly large Strigoi so with a flick of my wrist I set him a blaze, allowing her to stake him with ease.
Pavel was the next one I looked for, and I was horrified to find him on the ground, inches away from a Strigoi's fangs. I sent a fireball hurling towards the monster of top of him and was more than pleased when I saw the Strigoi burst in flames. Pavel shot me a grateful look and jumped back in the fray.
Unfortunately my joy was short lived when through the bond I felt Lissa's emotions spike with fear, and seconds later she let out a piercing scream. I spun around to find her in the tight embrace of a Strigoi who looked ready to snap her neck. I started to call on the fire within me, but the Strigoi just shook his head.
"I wouldn't try that if I were you. I'll have her neck snapped before the flames can finish me."
Son of a bitch.
I let the fire disappear from my palm and mentally wondered why the hell Christian hadn't been watching her.
"Now, in the spirit of the holidays I'm willing to make you a deal." The Strigoi told me with a smug smile on his face. "You know why I'm here; you know that Victor wants you. So if you come with me willingly, I let your tasty little friend here go. If not, I'll just enjoy my thanksgiving dinner a few days early."
The fear and anguish circulating through the bond was overpowering and I was having a hard time not getting sucked into Lissa's head.
"Well Rosemarie, what's it going to be?" He asked, tightening his grip around Lissa's neck a little tighter.
Thanks to small miracles, it was a decision I didn't have to make.
"No deal." Pavel growled from behind him as he slid his stake through the heart. I watched as the Strigoi's eyes grew wide before they went blank; his grip on Lissa going slack as his body fell to the ground. Seconds later, she was in my arms bawling.
So much for a stress from day of Christmas shopping…