The next morning, I woke up a little late. My head still hurt a little bit, but I wasn't about to say anything to anyone in fear that Dimitri might not let me practice. I got ready and slowly made my way outside, trying to keep my head from hurting more than it already did. When I got outside, Dimitri was sitting on the sidewalk. When he heard the door close, he looked up.
"Sorry, I'm late. I didn't hear my alarm." I told him. He shrugged.
"It's fine. I figured you'd cancel anyway." He said. He stood up when I reached him. "How's your head?"
"It doesn't hurt anymore." I lied. He raised an eyebrow at me. "What?"
"I think you're lying." He said, simply.
"I'm not lying. It doesn't hurt anymore."
"Okay then. If you say so." He told me. How he knew I was lying, I'd never begin to understand. Maybe he really could read me like a book. I sighed.
"Alright, maybe it still hurts a little. I'll be fine though." I promised.
"Rose, if you start to feel weak or your head starts hurting more, you need to tell me and we'll stop. You need to get better. Having practice today wasn't a good idea, but of course… I let you talk me into it." He said, shaking his head.
"Maybe you're just a push over." I said. He rolled his eyes.
"Definitely not." He told me.
"So, what are we doing today?" I asked. He motioned to the boxes taped to the ground, and picked up a set of gloves off the sidewalk.
"We're sparing." He said, handing me a pair of gloves. I remembered doing this back at the academy. I always rocked at it. Although with a slight concussion, I doubted myself a little. I slid the gloves on and stepped into one of the four boxes taped onto the track. "You sure you want to do this, Rose?"
"I'm positive. Stop worrying about me; I swear you're worse than Lissa." I muttered. He smiled. He threw a punch, and I blocked.
"Speaking of Lissa, how are you doing?" He asked. I threw a punch, he blocked.
"We're good. I forgot I haven't told you. I think she heard me a few nights ago." He threw a punch and caught me in the chest. Point.
"Heard you?" He asked, confused.
"She was… well, she was making a not so smart decision, and I was yelling at her through the bond, and I think she heard me." I explained. He raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know?"
"Because she called my name, almost as if I was in the room with her, and it scared her cause she dropped…. Something." I said, realizing I couldn't tell him what was really going on. I threw a punch and caught him. Point.
"Why do I feel like I'm missing a major part of the story?" He asked, throwing a punch that I blocked. I shook my head.
"You're not." I said, simply. I jumped boxes, and landed a punch on him. Point. He stopped, leaving himself open. I debated on swinging again, but realized this wasn't the time.
"Rose…" He said.
"You're not missing any major part of the story." I said, my voice hard. I realized that I'd feel ten times better if I was able to tell someone, if I was able to help her, but I couldn't. She'd never forgive me, and I knew that.
"Is she okay?" He asked.
"She's fine." I promised. "Can we get back to practice, please?" He stood there for a second, narrowing his eyes at me.
"I thought we were past all this evasiveness now, Rose. I thought you've figured out that you can trust me."
"Not this time." I whispered.
"Rose… don't do this." He said. I sighed.
"I can trust you, Dimitri. I know that. I'm not questioning it. This isn't about trust between you and me anymore, its trust between me and her. I can't betray her trust in me like this. I won't do it." I told him. He stood there for a second.
"You're a good friend, Rose… but if she's doing something that's hazardous, I need to know. I can help her. We can help her." He promised me. I shook my head.
"It's under control, Dimitri. I promise, I won't let anything happen to her." I said. He nodded.
"I know you won't." He said. Our sparing then ensued. We went back and forth for atleast an hour, before he called it. He'd gotten sixteen hits on me, and I'd gotten fifteen. I'd lost by one, which frustrated me, but I took my loss with my head held high. I sat down on the sidewalk, as Dimitri pulled his gloves off and set them with mine.
"You going to be okay to go into full training tomorrow?" He asked me. I nodded.
"I'm sure I will be, yes." I said.
"Good, because I've got something different planned for tomorrow." He told me.
"Really?" He nodded.
"Okay."
"Do you miss the academy?" He asked.
"I miss Lissa. The rest of it, I could do without." I told him.
"The rest of it?" He asked.
"Classes, Kirova, Guardian Stan. Ugh. I don't miss any of that at all." I told him. He chuckled.
"You don't like Stan?" He asked.
"Hell no. That man hated my guts, and I hated him just as much." I said. He laughed.
"Stan can be a little difficult at times."
"A little?" I asked. He laughed.
"Alright, you're right, most of the time he's hard to get along with." I nodded.
"That's better." I said. He pulled the tap boxes off the track, and threw it into the trash.
"I guess we're done for today." He said. I nodded.
"I'm gonna go watch the other novices. That's okay, right?"
"Yeah, that's fine. Just don't distract any of them." He said.
"I know my beauty can distract some of the guys, but I'll try to stay out of view." I said, smirking as I stood up. He laughed, which was the reaction I was hoping for. His laugh was probably one of the rarest sounds. It was nice to hear him laugh. I walked inside and into the gym, sitting on the benches, watching the novices train. The girls were the most interesting to watch, because they looked so afraid of their mentor as they fought. Being a guardian, you can't fear anything. They wouldn't make it in this profession if they didn't break that. I watched for awhile, before Landon finished and walked over to me.
"Hey there, how you feeling?"
"I'm fine." I told him.
"Did you have training today?" He asked. I nodded.
"We sparred for about an hour before he let me go. He's babying me after I hit my head." I told him. He laughed.
"Maybe you need to be babied." He said. I tried to hit him, but he dodged, and laughed.
"Jerk." I snapped, smirking. He chuckled. I stood up and followed him out into the main room. He went and got a bottle of water, and sat down at the table.
"So, I think we should try to talk the guardians into letting us all go out this weekend." He said.
"Yeah, because that's going to work." I told him.
"I'm serious. The students at the academies get to leave with the permission of their guardians. We should see if they'll take us to Missoula to go shopping. Something, anything to get us out of this place for awhile." I laughed.
"You honestly think they'd agree to that."
"Guardian Belikov took you somewhere, didn't he?" He asked.
"That was different, that was business." I told him. He shrugged.
"You should talk to him about it, since he's your mentor and all." I rolled my eyes.
"Why don't you do it?" I asked.
"Because he scares me." Landon said. I laughed.
"He's not as big and bad as he looks. Just don't tell him I said that." I said, remembering to yesterday when he took me down because I'd said that. He laughed.
"I won't." I shrugged.
"I guess I'll talk to him tomorrow about it. See what I can do." I told him. I wouldn't mind a trip to the mall. Hell I wouldn't mind a trip to the grocery store if it got me out of here. He nodded. We sat at the table and talked for while, before all the others exited the gym. Glenn and his posse came into the kitchen to get water bottles.
"Hey there, Hathaway." He said. I looked up at him and wrinkled my nose.
"Can I help you with something?"
"So, I heard that Guardian Belikov took you to see your moroi." He muttered. My heart stopped.
"I'm sorry, what?" I asked.
"I heard Guardian Belikov too you to see the princess. I don't really think that's fair, seeing as how you were taken away from her for a reason." He said.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I told him, shaking my head.
"Don't play dumb, Hathaway. I heard Castille grilling Belikov the other night for it." He said. I stood up.
"Glenn… walk away." I told him.
"Getting defensive are we? So it's true. That's a crock of shit. They kicked you out, you shouldn't be able to go back and visit when you please. We're all separated from our friends, but we don't whine and cry until someone takes us home to see them." He snapped at me. I felt darkness bubbling within me. I was on a slippery slope.
"Glenn, knock it off." Landon said, standing beside me. Glenn smirked.
"Awe, Lookie there. Did the bloodwhore make a friend?" He asked.
"Glenn, you're best bet is to walk away… unless you want another broken nose."
"Seems like the only people who can stand to be around you, is this loser and your bitch of a mentor." I wasn't sure why, but the moment he said something about Dimitri, I lost it. He could call me a blood whore, like I hadn't heard it before, he could make fun of me for not having friends except Landon, but for some reason, him talking about Dimitri set me off. I shoved him back as hard as I could, causing him to stumble into everyone. He caught himself, and started back towards me.
"Does that bother you? Me talking about Guardian Belikov? He's a no good guardian." He told me. I lost it. I started forward, punching him dead in the face. He swung back on me, but I blocked it and hit him again. I started in on him, letting him have it. When his friends realized that he was losing, they all jumped in, going to help him out. One of the girls grabbed my hair, trying to pull me away. I turned and swung, catching her in the face. A bunch of them tried to grab me, but none of them were able to do it. Landon was trying to pull them off of me. I grabbed a hold of Glenn and just pounded on his face, as a string of obscenities left my mouth. It was then that all of the guardians busted in, hearing the disruption. Before I knew it, a strong set of arms pulled me off of Glenn, pulling me away. I'd only taken two or three hits, but he'd taken a beating. His face was completely red, covered in blood.
"No, let me go." I cried, trying to get back to him. I wasn't sure why I was so angry. It couldn't have just been because of him talking about Dimitri. I wasn't sure what he'd let lose inside of me, but I'd lost all sense of composure in that moment.
"Rose, stop it. Calm down." Dimitri begged. I shook my head, trying to break out of his hold. I knew better, but it didn't stop me from trying.
"No, let me go. I'll kill that ass hole." I cried. He pushed me out the back door, slamming it with his foot. I continued to fight against him, but I finally gave up. Angry tears were streaming down my cheeks.
"Roza?" He asked. He took my face in his hands and wiped the tears. "Calm down. It's okay." He told me.
"It's not. It's not okay. I hate him. I hate him so much, Dimitri. He's done nothing but give me shit since I got here. Then he started talking about you, and I just-."
"He was talking about me?" He asked.
"He knows you took me to see Lissa. He heard you and Eddie arguing about it. He said you were a shitty guardian and mentor, and you didn't know how to put your foot down. He called me a blood whore, and Landon a loser, and I just lost it. Then they all tried to help him when I kicked his ass. I ended up punching almost every one of them in the mouth." I told him, showing him my hands which were covered in probably about five people's blood plus my own.
"He's a douche bag, Rose. Don't let him phase you." He told me. I never thought I'd hear Dimitri used a word like 'douche' and I never thought I'd hear him call someone that.
"I don't know why I lost it when he started talking about you, but I did." I said. He smirked.
"Protective?" He asked.
"I don't know… I guess it just bothered me. You've done a lot for me since I've been here, so it was just kind of… instinct. Plus, Landon… Landon is one of the only friends I have here, and he called him a loser. I've been called a blood whore before. That wasn't anything new, but when he said something about the two of you… I cracked."
"You're not a blood whore, Rose." He said. I sighed.
"I know, but somehow or another he found out about-." I stopped, realizing I'd never told Dimitri about that.
"Found out about what?" He asked. I moved my hair to reveal the two light marks left on my neck from when I'd let Lissa feed on me in Portland.
"When Lissa and I were away, we didn't have a feeder. I was her feeder." I said. "They all took that and ran with it, saying I was a blood whore in the making. I won't ever be a blood whore. I did what had to be done to keep Lissa safe and alive." I told him. He shook his head.
"They're stupid to call you that. You did what was necessary to keep her alive. Rose, don't you ever let them make you feel like what you did was bad. It wasn't." He told me.
"I know." I murmured. He took my hands, examining them. They were pretty bad off. I'd beat the hell out of them. They weren't exactly well manicured like the other two girls here.
"Come on." He said, leading me inside. The rest of the guardians had cleaned up the mess that was the rest of the novices. He took me into his room, and sat me down in his computer chair. He walked into the bathroom, and grabbed what looked like a first-aid kit and brought it into the room, along with a wash cloth. He knelt down in front of me, and took my hands in his, cleaning them off.
"You pack a hard punch, but jeez, Rose." He said. I was biting my tongue as he ran the rag over the raw flesh. He then poured alcohol on it and placed it over my hands. A slight whimper left my lips. He smiled up at me. "Sorry, I know it hurts." I shrugged.
"I'm fine. I've endured worse." He then grabbed a gauze pad and some cloth and wrapped my hands up nice and tight. When he was done, he met my gaze. I smiled.
"Thanks, Dimitri." He nodded.
"Try to stay out of trouble, Rose. I don't want to have to kick you out of here too." He teased. I shrugged.
"I'd make it on my own. I've done it before." He smiled.
"I don't doubt that." He said. I stood up, and so did he. "How's your head?"
"It's fine. I think I was so pissed, it overruled the pain." I told him. He chuckled.
"Atleast that's better." He said. I nodded.
"I need to go check on Landon. He took a few hard hits for me." I said.
"Okay. Try to stay out of trouble, please." He said.
"I will." I promised him, before starting for the door. When I reached for the doorknob, he called after me.
"Rose?"
"Yes?" I asked.
"I know it wasn't exactly smart of you to fight him, but thanks for sticking up for me." He said. I smiled.
"Not a problem." I told him, before walking out. I spared a final glance at him before starting out and down the hall to find Landon.