Bureaucracy was a pain in the ass and it was the only thing standing between me and walking of this ancient, magically protected school...well that and a frantic headmistress.. a six foot seven, lean, well muscled Dimitri, oh and his almost but not quite equally god-like guardian sidekicks. According to the majority in the room, neither I or my newly acquired sidekick Christian were in a stable form to mount a rescue for my missing/kidnapped/injured best friend.
"I don't know what it is you think you can do, what either of you can do." Kirova turned her attention to Christian for a moment so not to leave him out of her condescending speech about our recklessness. There was a defeated tone to her voice for a change, she wasn't sitting before us as the headmistress, ultimate queen bitch of the school but rather a shadow of her former self, doubtful, questioning herself. "The Queen has already assembled a well qualified team together to search for the Princess." She added, trying no doubt to restore her own hopes that her well oiled machine of a school wasn't becoming a broken down, ready to be put out to pasture contraption.
"Well qualified?" I questioned with biting sarcasm, interrupting her and gathering stares from all the occupants in the room. Honestly, I did feel sorry for her and hadn't intended to make her doubt herself anymore than what she clearly was doing to herself, but my patience was mostly likely riding out wherever Lissa was. "What a bunch of bull..." I paused deciding to choose my words carefully, my patience may have been missing but my rational mind was still somewhat intact - barely. "It took the Queen's well qualified team over two years to finding two missing high school girls." I glanced over my shoulder at Dimitri to find his troubled eyes watching me carefully. "The same team that managed to let three Moroi kidnap a princess from one of the most," I raised my hands back in the air and turned my attention back to Kirova to air quote my next comments "prestigious and well protected schools in the world."
A deep fog of heavy silence fell over the room. In the past Kirova would have had my ass for an outburst like that, she'd certainly had it for much less than that but now she was sitting across from me, behind her desk somewhat slouched in her chair, defeated.
"The academy is a well protected school," The voice came from behind me and his rough tone was missing its usual platonic, easy going vibe. I could tell and from the look on Kirova's face she could too that Dimitri was pissed off ...and at me. "In the efforts to kidnap the princess, these Moroi broke through magical wards, killed two guardians and knew how to cover their tracks."
Wait, what? Two guardians had been killed? "How..." I went to ask a question but it died on my lips. How was it possible? Easy. The Moroi were professionals or as the human raced liked to call them, they were hit men. A combination of some form of martial arts with magic and you had a somewhat unstoppable opponent but instead of facing one, Lissa had found herself face to face with three.
Crap.
"Who would want to kidnap the princess?" One of the guardians asked from the back of the room, clearly newbie Davies still hadn't caught up on the history of his students and the academy. There weren't too many Dragomir's left in the world, in fact there was only one; Lissa. And she was a spirit user; an extremely rare Moroi ability to be able to heal and bring birds, people like yours truly back from the dead.
"Victor Dashkov would be high on my list." Christian stated simply.
"You mean Victor Dashkov, the Victor Dashkov who is currently rotting away in a state of the art, highly protected by some of the best guardians in the world not to mention magic that would make you quiver in your shoes if you felt even the slightest aurora prison cell in the city?" Guardian Davies retorted with a chauvinistic tone. Ass.
I sighed and faced him, "You mean like this magically and well protected institute?" My tone matching his, his brow raised with his frown becoming more prominent as he considered my words. Yes, I was insulting his magical, well protected institute which was ultimately an insult to him and his lackluster abilities. So apparently I had pissed off two guardians within the space of two minutes - that had to be some kind of record, even for me. I turned back to Kirova and shrugged my shoulders, "So what exactly do I have to do to cut through the red tape to get the hell out of here and find Lissa?"
"It's not as simple as that," Kirova took a breath before she wanted to continue but I interrupted, again.
"It never is with you people." I rolled my eyes and looked off the side of the room at the bookcase which took up almost half of the room. "What's exactly stopping me from walking out of this room and going to find her?" Glancing over my shoulder I eyed up Davies instead of going to the eyes which I usually sought out, fearing that if I looked into his eyes guilt or something would wash over me like a tidal wave. "Sure they can physically restrain me, but for how long?" I turned back to Kirova. "I broke out of this joint once before, I'm sure I can do it again..and this time I'll have a little magic on my side." I said in reference to Christian, making him a co-conspirator.
"You'll never make it past the front gates, sweetheart." Davies spoke up confidently or in my eyes arrogantly.
"Rose could disappear from the grounds quite comfortably." I turned and met his eyes for the first time, they had a weird proud like gleam to them. "It's what we've been training her to be...invisible when needed." He turned to Davies and explained. "Before it took us two years to find her - now with everything she's been through this past year, I doubt we'd ever find her if she didn't want us to." Dimitri told him matter of factly. Ha! One point for Rose, Davies still running around the end zone looking to score.
"What do you suggest, Guardian Belikov?" Headmistress Kirova asked. Everyone appreciated Dimitri's advice he was a well respected guardian and yet sometimes when he was spewing out his advice to me I wanted to shove my fist in his face, mostly because it was usually his opinion about us being together.
"Rose should go with a team and be a part of the search for the princess. We don't know how the bond works specifically, maybe Rose will be able to get a reading if the princess is near or maybe she won't. We know that Rose can sense princesses fate and has on more than one occasion shared a mind with her. The princess could come lucid and even if that is for a minute, it's still a minute for Rose to discover things we don't know." Long winded as usual, bless him he never could just dial it down to a simple sentence.
"In other words, it's beneficial for everyone if I'm a part of the team." I grinned despite the circumstances because I knew that Dimitri's argument was well just and there was no reason to say no. And who would? No one besides me ever said no to Dimitri.
"Fine, I'll get the paper work in order and send over the information to the Queen. But it would be better if you were already off of school grounds before her reply was returned." So the Queen's not so high opinion of me was well known. "Guardian Belikov as Rose's mentor and the Princess's official guardian you too will be a part of the team." Kirova waited for Dimitri to nod before continuing. "Guardian Davies with your previous experience in this field, I would like for you to join Belikov and Hathaway on the road."
"And me?" Christian asked irritated, most likely feeling like a third wheel in this conversation. "You want me to sit at here and what bake cookies? I may not be a mouthy, well trained novice.."
"Thanks..." Sarcasm was an old friend rearing its beautiful head for me.
"But I can throw a punch with a bit of heat behind it." He said referring to his ability. "Not to mention that with all this training you guys have been putting us through, I'm an ace with compulsion so if you decide that I'm not good enough for this mission then I'll just compulse as many guards as I need to get out of this joint..and then"
"Enough Christian," Kirova dropped her usual formal approach to students and called him by his first name. "If you can get legal consent from your aunt to leave the school and take part on this mission and if Guardian Davies and Belikov don't protest at your presence then you too will be able to leave the school grounds." Kirova stood from behind her desk, "But I would suggest sooner rather than later, the longer you decide to stay the less likely you'll find an outcome which suits you all."
And that was our cue to leave. I stood up and nodded to Kirova to show my gratitude, deciding to skip asking her why she wasn't going to ask for my guardian to give consent, because she knew full well that my mothers reply, much like the Queens would have been in the form of a hell-no.
I stopped outside of her office and watched as Christian followed me out, getting his cell phone out of his pocket while he walked.
"An ace with compulsion?" I asked with absolute disbelief.
"I'm not that bad..."
"You're not that good either," I retorted.
"Whatever it got me in your little black opts team, so why don't you do whatever it is you people do and come and get me in ten minutes." He didn't bother to wait for my response, he grinned as his phone became alive with a voice on the other end of the line. "Aunt Tasha..." Christian walked off down the hallway.
I turned my attentions to the door and watched as Dimitri and Davies approached me.
"This is a fool's errand." Davies frown was back in place.
"Then don't come. Stay here and be a good little Guardian," I turned and looked up at Dimitri. "I'll meet you in the gymnasium in ten minutes." I turned in my bare feet and began to walk away from the two guardians. "And don't call me sweetheart." I said loudly as I made my way to my dorm room, to get ready to face whatever it is we were facing.
--
Ten minutes later armed with a pair of my old faithful sneakers, dark blue tinted jeans, black v-neck sweater and a black jacket I was ready to walk a thousand miles, to kick a Strigoi's ass if needed be, I was ready and dressed appropriately for the unknown. When I walked into the gymnasium, I was surprised to find Adrian Ivashkov sat on the desk in the corner, waiting.
"What are you doing here?" I asked confused.
"I'm joining your little black ops mission." He said, with a wicked grin touching his lips
"Look despite what you may have heard, Adrian, this mission is completely hardcore and only the strong willed and those with strong arms may apply...and you kinda fall short on the last one."
"I'm not asking for your permission, Rose." Adrian stood from the desk and crossed the room to stand in front of me. His messy but usually well groomed hair was just messy today, his eyes were looking red and strained. "I was with her when she got attacked," Once again, breaking news was being delivered to me at a slow speedy today. "They knocked me unconscious and when I came too, I was lying next to a patch of grass covered with blood."
"Look...I know you feel responsible..."
"Of course I feel responsible, I could have prevented this." Adrian's troubled eyes bore down onto mine with a weight that I imagine could have easily sunk the titanic.
Leaning up, I touched his face with the palm of my hand. "They killed two, well trained guardians. There is no way you could have prevented this." I said trying to reassure him and myself at the same time. Maybe he was right maybe he was partly responsible but wasn't everyone in that case?
My well enhanced features didn't pick up the fact that the door had been opened and Adrian and I were currently being watched like we were in fish bowl, the only indication I got that there were other people in the room is when someone cleared their throat. I turned my head in the direction of the door and saw Davies, Christian and Dimitri stood there, ready to go...all with disapproving looks on their faces. I turned back to Adrian, looked up at my hand and closed my eyes taking a step back.
"Lover boy isn't coming." Christian was the first to break the silence and from his willingness to cut through the current tension, my bets were on him for the throat clearing.
Adrian plastered on his usual cocky grin at Christian, "I'm providing a private jet, what are you bringing to the table?"
"You wanna find out?" Christian took a step forward, Adrian laughed, Davies rolled his eyes and Dimitri, well he had the same unamused facial expression masking his face.
"Well this is gonna be so much fun, me and three broody, moody, guys.. but do you think we can hold out on the my ruler's bigger than your ruler's contest until we find Lissa?" I sighed and crossed the room to the others.
"Don't worry Rose, you wont be the only girl for long." Christian took a step back to his original position beside Dimitri. "My aunt is going to meet us in Missouri, she wants to help us."
"Great," I tried to sound enthusiastic at the prospect of having another person helping us with our search but did it really have to be Tasha Ozera? I sighed, sure I was being childish and petty, the issue at hand was finding Lissa, it shouldn't matter who was helping us... but it didn't really help that it was the woman who had tried to lure away Dimitri to a life of bliss and happiness, a life that didn't include me. "So what's our first move?" I asked Dimitri.
"We pay a visit to Victor Dashkov."
Author's Note: Hello to those still reading, if there are any of you still reading. I apologise for the lack of updates, but I've had no inspiration for this story but out of nowhere tonight like a punch in the face, it came out of nowhere and found me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.