A firm hand grabbed his arm, halting him in his tracks.
"You're coming with us."
He glared at the hand, eyes flicking to the woman who was wasting precious time. "No I'm not. I'm gonna—"
"You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you have a choice in the matter, Lord Ivashkov." Alberta began pulling him in the direction the others had taken—a direction that was the exact opposite of the one he needed. He winced—her grip was bordering on painful.
"I have to find Rose!" He dug in his heels, attempting to stop their progress. He hadn't been prepared for Alberta's strength, or for her sheer determination. "I can help her!"
She stopped, her face furious as she thrust her face closer, stopping with only a breath of air between them. ""No! If anyone can save her—can bring her back from… that, it's Dimitri. You're not going to ruin the only chance we have of…." Struggling to calm herself, she bit down on her lip, trying to slow her breathing. "You're coming with me. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice"
He smirked at her, not believing her underlying threat in the slightest. "What are you gonna do Allie, throw me over your shoulder and carry me? I must say, I love when a woman gets forceful with me."
"Don't test me, Ivashkov. I'll do it."
Studying her face, Adrian realized she was serious. Her expression reminded him of a mother bear, determined to save her cub. There was no way he could get past her, even his compulsion was useless against her. Fuck a duck. Maybe he could find Rose through Belikov. After all, he'd tracked the Russian before, and it had been almost too easy.
"Well what the hell are we waiting for? Lead on Macduff."
She glared at him for a minute more, waiting perhaps, for him to try something, then once again began dragging him towards the academy. He allowed her to lead him, closing his eyes and focusing on the darkness inside his head. Concentrating on Belikov, he found the man within minutes. He instantly regretted it. Immensely.
Once again, he felt like a ghost, some spirit taking over the other man's body. He was in Belikov's head, seeing through his eyes—and what he saw was more disturbing than anything seen before. They were in some sort of… cabin, a fire blazing in the large fireplace beside them. It's flames cast flickering dancing light on the girl in front of him, making her seem like some sort of mythological deva, a creature created of flame and smoke. She was beautiful, in the soft light, but her eyes—they were tormented, filled with malice so dark and deadly it made Adrian shiver. He felt Belikov's thoughts as they filled his mind but he threw up a wall, diverting them. He didn't care about the Russian's thoughts, he only wanted to observe Rose—to determine if she needed his aide.
"Rose, I know you're upset, but you know we don't punish people like that. It's … savage."
"Yeah? What's wrong with that? I'd bet it'd stop them from doing it again." Rose's voice was low and dangerous, her body trembling. "They need to suffer for what they did! And I want to be the one to do it! I want to hurt them all. I want to kill them all."
She started to get up, but Belikov's hands were on her shoulders in a flash, shoving her back down. She fought against him, and his grip tightened.
"Rose! Snap out of this!" He was yelling now too. "You don't mean any of it. You've been stressed and under a lot of pressure—it's making a terrible event that much worse."
"Stop it!" She shouted back at him. "You're doing it—just like you always do. You're always so reasonable, no matter how awful things are. What happened to you wanting to kill Victor in prison, huh? Why was that okay, but not this?"
"Because that was an exaggeration. You know it was. But this…this is something different. There's something wrong with you right now."
"No, there's something right with me." Her expression changed, from fury to something even more frightening. It was… cunning. She was planning something. But what? "I'm the only one who wants to do anything around here, and if that's wrong, I'm sorry. You keep wanting me to be some impossible, good person, but I'm not! I'm not a saint like you."
"Neither of us is a saint," Dimitri said dryly. "Believe me, I don't—"
She made her move, leaping out and shoving him away. Thank God the Russian was so fast—she didn't get two steps away before he seized her again. Forcefully pinning her down, he used the full weight of his massive body to keep her from moving.
"Let me go!" She yelled, thrashing against him.
"No," Belikov said, voice hard and yet sounding almost... desperate. "Not until you break out of this. This isn't you!"
Tears filled Rose's eyes, making Adrian's heart hurt deep inside his chest. His poor, poor Rosebud. "It is! Let me go!"
"It's not. It isn't you! It isn't you." There was agony in his voice.
"You're wrong! It is—"
Her words suddenly dropped off, her face freezing as her eyes widened in shock and… horror. She stared up into Belikov's eyes, her expression shifting to one of fear. A second later the rage was back, battling the fear for dominance. He watched as she fought an internal war with the darkness. A war she appeared to be on the verge of losing as she began to fight against him again.
"Rose," said Dimitri. It was only her name, but he had somehow... filled it with... love and worry. His emotions gave his voice power, and it reached out, thrusting into her, strengthening her resolve. Adrian could almost see Rose rebuilding herself, determined to win against the madness simply because of the way the Russian had called out to her.
She stopped fighting him. Her body trembled, the fear winning out over the fury. Dimitri seemed to immediately recognize the change, releasing his hold.
"Oh my God," she said, voice shaking.
His hand touched the side of her face, fingers stroking down her cheek. "Rose," he breathed. "Are you okay?"
"I… I think so. For now."
"It's over," he said. He was still touching her, this time brushing the hair from her face. "It's over. Everything's all right."
She shook my head. "No. It's not. You…you don't understand. It's true—everything I was worried about. About Anna? About me taking away spirit's craziness? It's happening, Dimitri. Lissa lost it out there with Jesse. She was out of control, but I stopped her because I sucked away her anger and put it into myself. And it's—it's horrible. It's like I'm, I don't know, a puppet. I can't control myself."
"You're strong," he said. "It won't happen again."
"No," she said, her voice filled with terror as she struggled to sit up. "It will happen again. I'm going to be like Anna. I'm going to get worse and worse. This time it was blood lust and hate. I wanted to destroy them. I needed to destroy them. Next time? I don't know. Maybe it'll just be craziness, like Ms. Karp. Maybe I'm already crazy, and that's why I'm seeing Mason. Maybe it'll be depression like Lissa used to get. I'll keep falling and falling into that pit, and then I'll be like Anna and kill—"
"No," Dimitri interrupted gently. He moved his face toward hers, their foreheads nearly touching. "It won't happen to you. You're too strong. You'll fight it, just like you did this time."
"I only did because you were here." She whispered.
He wrapped his arms around her, and she buried her face in his chest, whispering against his shirt. "I can't do it by myself."
"You can," he said. There was a tremulous note in his voice. "You're strong—you're so, so strong. It's why I love you."
She squeezed her eyes shut. "You shouldn't. I'm going to become something terrible. I might already be something terrible."
Dimitri pulled back, looking her in the eyes as he cupped her face in his hands. "You aren't. You won't," he said. "I won't let you. No matter what, I won't let you."
No. No no no no no no no. He saw where this was going, and he had to fucking stop it. Adrian tried to pull out of the vision, to return his consciousness to his own body. He felt a sharp, snap inside his head, followed by a burning rush of pain. Wincing, he tried again, only to be met with the same immediate results.
Horrified, he realized that, for the moment, he was trapped in Dimitri Belikov's head, and there wasn't a damned thing he could do about it.