"So what do you want to do with the rest of the day?" Dimitri asked as we walked back to the Guardian dorms after breakfast.
"Honestly? Lie in a darkened room and contemplate the poor life choices that led to this hangover," I joked. "But I suspect Lissa will want to spend the day with me."
And right on cue, my phone pinged.
Let me know when you're up. We need to go shopping for silver for me to charm.
"Lissa wants to go shopping," I groaned.
"You should go," Dimitri said. "Tomorrow is the allocations ceremony, and Tuesday we'll probably be out of here."
"You wanna come with?"
"Shopping with Lissa? Thanks, but I'll give it a miss," he chuckled sympathetically. "I was going to hit the gym and drop by Guardian Headquarters to say hello to a couple of colleagues. Maybe we could do lunch?" he suggested, noticing my disappointed look.
"I'd like that," I said looking up into his eyes.
I was stepping forward and would have kissed him, but was interrupted by Blake coming out of the Guardian dorms, accompanied by Ryan, Shane and Dean.
"Belikov. Rose," Shane greeted. "What's this I hear about you topping St. Basil's and winning their elimination fights?!"
I was surprised. Ryan, Chelsea and the other St. Vlad's graduates were shipped back to Court on the Monday after graduation, so missed the fights.
"Where'd you hear that?" I asked, not giving anything away.
"Saw Eddie upstairs," Ryan said. "They've got all the St. Vlad's grads on the third floor! It's like a party up there!"
"Cool!" I said with a big grin. "Hear that, Belikov? Someone might bring a keg up there later if we're lucky!"
My Russian God rolled his eyes.
"Some of us actually like to sleep," he said with a sigh.
"You and your sleep… Some of us have other things we like to do when the sun is up, Comrade," I teased, obliquely referring to the amorous activities we'd missed out on last night due to my inebriation.
"I'll help you with those activities, Rose!" Shane offered, getting part of my joke.
"Thanks for offer, Reyes, but I'm not sure you could keep up with me…" I paused to take in Dimitri's gritted teeth and the other guys' gleeful expressions. "I mean – I can drink an awful lot…"
"No one should be drinking in the dorms unless they want to hear from Croft," Dimitri growled, put out by Shane's blatant offer.
"Suits me," I said with a laconic grin. "I'm still hungover from yesterday!"
My Russian God had reached the end of his patience.
"I'm going to go to the gym. Do you still have my tape?" he snapped.
"Oh yeah – it's in my gym bag, side pocket. I'm going to see Lissa. Go get it from my room," I said, passing him my key when I appreciated he needed an excuse to go into my room to get to his duffel. "Just leave the key with the dude downstairs."
"Guardians," Dimitri replied, nodding to us all as he took my key and headed into the dorm building.
"I thought once we graduated maybe he'd be less scary, but he isn't. How did you guys live with him for so many months?" Shane asked.
I shrugged.
"He's fine. He kind of grows on you," I laughed, before answering their questions about the elimination fights.
"What took you so long?" Lissa grumbled when I met her outside a jewelry store at Court. "We've been waiting ages!"
I mumbled an apology and looked at Celeste. Behind Lissa's back, she smirked and mouthed 'five minutes.'
Apparently, I wasn't the only one feeling a little worse for wear today!
We walked into the store, the attendants descending on Lissa like vultures.
"We're after a stock of ladies bangles, bracelets and wrist cuffs in silver. Can you please show me everything you stock?" she asked, graciously accepting the seat and glass of sparkling water they offered. The only thing Celeste and I were offered were expressions filled with disdain. I don't think the workers in this store were used to having Guardians inside – particularly one not in uniform. And I also suspected it wasn't the place for thick, chunky silver jewelry.
My suspicions were confirmed when the attendants brought out a range of delicate filigree and gemstone bracelets, almost exclusively in gold.
"It needs to be silver. Only silver," I interjected before they got started on their sales pitches. "And it needs to be thicker than that. It's for a Guardian to wear, so it doesn't have to be fancy, but it does need to be durable."
"For a Guardian to wear?" the most uptight of the sales sycophants asked. He sounded so shocked, you'd think I'd asked for a set of bejeweled nipple-clamps for a Court-wide nudie run.
"Yes that's right," Lissa told the salesman with a sigh. She was hungover, and she thought I was being unnecessarily rude.
"Perhaps try the men's section?" Celeste suggested helpfully.
Receiving Lissa's nod of assent, the salespeople spread out, returning with other offerings, but nothing was suitable. Even the male stuff was on the prissy side, and not designed for someone in a physical line of work.
"You must have something?" Lissa wailed. She was tired and wanted to wrap up shopping as quickly as possible.
"We could commission something if you'd like?" the slimiest salesman offered.
"We haven't got time for that!" Lissa snapped, momentarily losing her regal demeanor.
"Maybe we should try the dhampir part of Court?" Celeste said with a shrug. "They might have more robust things?"
"The dhampir part of Court?! Will you be safe Princess?" slimy gasped aghast.
"She'll be surrounded by scores of Guardians. I doubt there's anywhere safer," I drawled dryly.
"There was no need to be so rude, Rose!" Lissa huffed once we were out on the pavement. "They were just trying to help!"
"What? By staring at Celeste and I like we're farm animals?" I growled. "Slimy's assistant looked like he wanted to frisk me on the way out."
"They're just not used to having dhampir in the shop," Lissa explained as if that in some way excused his behavior.
"Yes, that's right. I forgot – a dhampir's place is out on the sidewalk."
"He didn't say that!" Lissa defended.
"But he thought it. People only act like that to Guardians because charges let them!"
"You're not my Guardian," Lissa pointed out wearily.
"All the more reason for me to be treated with respect," I replied. "If I wasn't there as your paid protection, presumably I was there as your friend. They wouldn't have treated Tasha or Mia like they treated Celeste and me."
"That's different, Rose," Lissa said in exasperation.
"Yeah? Have a good think about it, then explain to me how."
Celeste stepped in, hailing a taxi, diplomatically suggesting I ride beside the driver while she and Lissa sat in the back. In minutes we were in the dhampir shopping area. It wasn't anywhere near as nice as the Moroi shopping district – but at least it looked as though it might have what we were after!
Even here, the deference paid to Moroi was noticeable. Lissa walked straight down the center of the footpath, dhampir and Guardians moving out of her way to let her pass.
We stopped in front of a jewelry store – the only one we could see along the street. Guardians didn't tend to wear a lot of jewelry, so inside there were none of the usual engagement rings and earrings for ladies. Instead, the items leaned to the more practical – decorative stake holders, new silver stakes and the like. But there was a section with wrist cuffs, chains, bracelets, and bangles.
Stepping in before they could fawn all over Lissa, I explained what we were after, and soon enough there was a display of pieces. I tried them on, trialing some combat moves in slow motion with Celeste so I could check my movement was not impeded. Eventually, we narrowed it down to a quite pretty silver wrist cuff and a plain not too manly chain link bracelet. They had three of each in stock, so Lissa purchased them all and placed an order for three more of each.
"You can bring them back, and I'll re-charm them when they're used up. Now let's look around! I've never been in this part of Court before," she suggested now she'd found her second wind.
"Sure thing, Liss," I said with a heavy sigh. Not that I was that put out. I hadn't had a chance to check out the dhampir part of Court yet either.
As would be expected, a lot of the shops focused on practical Guardian needs – but there were other stores as well, including a Russian foods store. My face lit up when I saw it.
"I want to look in here," I said, all but dragging Lissa in behind me. The store was small but packed, and if I closed my eyes, it had the same smell as the general store in Baia. I recognized some of the tins from Olena's pantry, but since I still couldn't read the labels, I didn't know what most of them were.
"I'm so coming back here when I have my first paycheck," I said enthusiastically.
Celeste laughed. "I remember my first pay! I had a list a mile long of things I was going to buy!"
"Yep," I said, smiling at her. "Same! I'm going to splurge on all new workout wear. Everything I have is saggy or torn. I have to wear two sports crop bras, one over the top of the other because they're just not up to the job anymore if you know what I mean!"
I felt a pang through the bond, and with a little digging, I discovered Lissa had been pondering my comments about how dhampir were treated differently. It also hadn't occurred to her I might have things that needed replacing but not the means to do so.
"You should ask your father to get you some new workout stuff," Lissa said abruptly.
"It's ok," I said. "I get paid in two weeks time, and it's something I want to do for myself."
We looked around for another hour, me spotting a few things I thought I could get Dimitri for his birthday. It wasn't until December, but it never hurt to get ideas.
"I'm all shopped out," Lissa eventually declared. "Come back to mine for lunch?"
"I was going to have lunch with Dimitri."
"He can join us," she said carelessly. It didn't occur to her we might have wanted to lunch alone, but Dimitri was right. I should spend the time with Lissa while I could.
"Will Tasha be home?" I checked warily. "And does she know about our new allocations?"
"Yeah I told her, but she's ok," Lissa replied with a sneaky smile. I'd been worried Lissa's compulsion wouldn't hold.
"What do you mean?" I hissed.
"You'll find out," she laughed, lifting an eyebrow suggestively. "Tasha really wants to see you."
It was with misgivings that I texted Dimitri and suggested he join me at the Ozera house for lunch. However, my bad thoughts disappeared when we arrived, and the house smelled great.
"What are you making?" I asked Christian who was busy in the kitchen.
"Meatballs," he replied with a grin. "Tasha suggested it. She thought you might need some home cooking today."
"Hi, Rose!" Tasha said with a grin. "Thanks for bringing these two back safely. Although, I wish you lot had drunk like that at the graduation ball. If you had, I wouldn't be the only one who had to endure a lecture from Tatiana!"
I didn't know what to say, so I settled for a smile.
"Sooooo... I was wondering if we could have a little chat… You know - woman to woman?" she asked nervously.
I tensed. I tried to probe Lissa's mind, but she was blocking me, although she looked amused. I let Tasha lead me over to the sofas out of earshot of the kitchen.
"I was just wondering how well you know your father's Guardians?" she probed.
"Guardians? Yeah, I know some of them quite well."
"Who do you know the best would you say?" she asked with a casualness that was entirely fabricated.
"Hmm. Chaung, Kirk and Pavel, I guess," I replied. I had no idea where she was going with this.
"And Pavel… is he single?" she asked hopefully.
Oh. My. God. I could see it immediately. She'd moved on from Dimitri, alright! Now she was lusting after Pavel!
I quickly stifled a laugh, schooling my face into a neutral expression.
"Hmm, I don't know. He's with Abe pretty much twenty-four seven. I'm not sure it leaves him a lot of time for a relationship."
I couldn't tell if Tasha was pleased or disappointed.
"I've not heard him mention anyone special…" I added helpfully.
Tasha lit up like a Christmas tree.
"And your father's back at Court?" she confirmed. There was no mistaking her excitement now. "Is he staying long this time?"
"He's here for my allocation ceremony," I murmured wondering what Pavel would think about Tasha's sudden interest. "I'm not sure how long he's here for."
"Well. I think I should have him over for dinner to thank him for his generosity to Christian and Lissa in Russia. It was kind of him to put them up and transport them home," she said. "Do you know if he's free tonight?" she schemed.
"I'm not sure, Tasha. I think since it's my last night before my allocation he was planning to dine with me."
"What a good idea! You can all come. Invite your mother too, if you'd like. Why don't you message Abe now and see if he can come?" she suggested.
Lissa was leaning against the kitchen counter covering her mouth with her hand, but her eyes gave away her amusement. When she got an idea in her head, Tasha's single-mindedness was impressive.
A knock at the door heralded the arrival of my man. Freshly showered after his workout, he looked good enough to eat.
"Hey," I said, standing on my tiptoes and brushing my lips across his.
"Hey yourself," he replied, wrapping an arm around me and returning my kiss. "Lissa, Christian. Tasha," he greeted.
"Hey, Dimka! Did you drink as much as these three on the plane?" Tasha teased. She was friendly but not too friendly, and she accepted our affection without a second glance.
"More. I can just hold my alcohol better!" he said sinking onto the sofa and pulling me down beside him.
"So – tell me all about your new allocation," she said to both of us.
"Not much to tell," Dimitri replied. "All we know is it's with the Alchemists and in New Hampshire."
"Teaching combat, right?"
"That's the plan," I smiled.
"You two would be perfect for that," she commented. "I've never seen Guardians move the way you two do together."
Tasha hadn't seen us spar since Christmas time. Months of training together meant we were even more in sync now.
"So Dimitri…" Tasha said in a slightly cloying voice that immediately set him on edge and made me nervous. "I was just asking Rose if she knew much about her father's Guardian Pavel…"
Ryan had been right about the third floor being like a party. When we returned late in the afternoon, all the doors were open and graduated but not yet allocated Guardians were wandering up and down the halls, talking about possible allocations, drinking, sharing takeout and generally getting up to mischief with their former classmates. A few, like Dimitri and I, had plans to go out to visit family or friends, but the majority of those accommodated there were settling in for a long night of drinking.
"Makes me glad to be going out," Dimitri muttered under his breath as he met me at my dorm door to escort me downstairs to go to dinner. There were just too many people around to risk Dimitri staying in my room, so he'd reluctantly moved his bags to his own room earlier in the day and had gotten ready there.
"Come on beautiful girl, let's go," he whispered giving me a panty-dropping smile. Oh God, I hoped my former classmates would drink themselves into oblivion by the time we returned so I could sneak Dimitri into my room for the night. I was so turned on it wasn't funny – and seeing my Russian God in dark jeans and a tight black button down wasn't helping!
"I don't see why I have to be there," Janine grumbled as we met her in the foyer of the Guardian dorms.
"Because Tasha wants to thank Abe for his generosity to Christian and Lissa in Russia, and since it's my last night before allocations I thought it would be nice for us to spend it together," I explained, not for the first time.
"We could eat somewhere without Abe," my mother suggested with her usual Scottish feistiness.
"Or you could show off how good you look in a skirt and a pair of heels," I smirked. She'd argue otherwise, but Mom had gone to a lot of effort to look her best.
Dimitri and I couldn't decide whether she or Abe had won their breakfast skirmish. But Pavel had been right about one thing – Abe had enjoyed it, and on some level, I think Mom had too. So while she was complaining about coming to Tasha's with us tonight, it wasn't with any real conviction.
"Ladies?" Dimitri suggested, gesturing us forward to the waiting taxi. We could have walked to the Ozera's house, but Mom and I were both wearing heels.
The sun was just coming up as we stepped out of the cab a few minutes later.
"That's one thing I'm going to love," I commented to Dimitri and Mom. "Being back on a daytime schedule."
"Yes. But aren't you two concerned about living in the human world? For five years?" Mom asked.
"I grew up in a human/dhampir township, so it's not unfamiliar to me, Janine."
I shrugged. "I've done it before. Lissa and I lived with humans for two years. It was fun."
Mom gave me an odd look, and I thought she about to launch into another tirade about how irresponsible I'd been going on the run with Lissa. But she didn't.
"Maybe you two are the right ones to send on this mission," she said lightly, putting her arm around me tentatively.
"We are if they send us together," I assured her.
"Come on – let's get this over with."
Once we were inside, Mom was a lot more gracious. Tasha was effusive in her compliments, and her friendly, chatty nature soon put Mom at ease. We'd only been there a few minutes when Abe arrived, accompanied, as always, by Pavel.
"Abe," Tasha greeted pleasantly, accepting his gift of flowers and wine.
"Nice to see you, Natasha. Thank you so much for inviting us. I always enjoy a home cooked meal."
"Thank you for coming," she said with a smile, but she wasn't giving Abe her full attention. Her eyes were flicking behind him to where Pavel stood, looking slightly bored.
"And Guardian Pavel," Tasha simpered, slipping past Abe to smile up at Pavel through her lashes, standing uncomfortably close before playfully touching his chest. "I'm so glad you could make it. I haven't had a chance to thank you for helping me the other night when I'd had a little too much to drink…"
Pavel nodded and mumbled something about all part of the job.
"You say that, but you were so marvelous. The way you picked me up and helped me back to my room, as though I weighed nothing at all. It was so… manly!" she said in breathy voice, her eyelashes fluttering.
It was just starting to get weird when Christian came out of the kitchen, took the flowers and wine from Tasha and suggested everyone move through to the dining room and take their seats at the table for dinner.
"Dimka and Rose, you're up that end, Abe you're next to Rose. Christian and Lissa there, Janine there, Emil here and Pavel? You can sit here. Right next to me!"
When it wasn't my man Tasha had her sights set on, it was entertaining to watch. Tasha was laying it on thick, yet the only person in the room not to appreciate what was going on was Pavel himself.