Drabble:120

POV:Adrian

When I received Lissa's call to come to Court ASAP, I knew something major was up, because Lissa sounded frenetic. So, I hopped onto the first plane to Pennsylvania (all expenses charged to Her Majesty's accounts, of course) and rushed onto Court only to be dragged onto another plane by an enthused Lissa, a Royal jet this time, with a platoon of Royal Guardians in tow.

Lissa immediately disappeared, to give some last-minute instructions to her secretaries back at court and Christian stretched like a cat and was snoring within seconds of the flight. And I was left…clueless, with an orange juice (freshly squeezed) in hand. Only after half-an-hour did Lissa reappear and I finally got answers as to what was going on. We were on their way to Russia.
Siberia.
Baia, more specifically.
Or if you wanna get down to the nitty-gritty, the Belikov residence in Baia.
The revelation was so surprising, it took me five full minutes to actually comprehend that I was flying transatlantic to the cradle robber's ancestral home, with Lissa and Christian (not to mention their gaggle of guardians), to visit Rose and Dimitri (whom the aforementioned couple was really missing). Oh, and there was a big surprise too. One that Lissa refused to tell me, one that made her eyes (and aura) sparkle with pleasure and excitement.

Awesome, I thought, as I settled in my chair and exchanged my orange-juice for scotch. I'm going to meet my ex-girlfriend and her can-do-no-wrong boyfriend in a dhampir commune (where Moroi were either treated to stink-eyes or come-hither glances). And there's a surprise. Could life get any better?

One transatlantic flight (spent mostly drinking and dozing and wondering about my ill-fortune), one connecting local flight (more drinking, dozing and pondering about the universe's sense of humor) and a 2 hour car ride later (spent regretting the drinks), we arrived at our destination-the Belikov residence.

The house was picturesque and surrounded by a clean yard and before the entourage had taken more than 3 steps, the door burst open and a figure zoomed past the near-guards (almost knocking over poor Guardian Archie, who'd lost to me at pinochle on the flight) and enveloped Lissa into an enthusiastic hug, firing off questions non-stop. That's when I realized who it was. Rose. Aforementioned ex-girlfriend.

Belikov emerged from the house a couple seconds behind her and nodded at us moroi before doing a round of handshakes with the near-guards and the captain of the Royal guard. He ushered everyone inside for refreshments and I followed them into the wooden house, to be greeted by three females, who Belikov introduced as his older sisters and mama (the rest of the family were either away, sleeping or at school). Wait….mama? Did manly-man Belikov just say mama? Really?

I was very warmly welcomed by Olena (apparently I was the only new presence here as Lissa and Christian had visited once, a couple of months ago), while everyone else followed Rose into the kitchen. After thanking Olena for her hospitality (no, I wasn't tired, of course I'd visit again, for a longer time next time, after whatever-the-hell I was here for was sorted, and sure, I'd like some tea, and no, no special requests for dinner, thanks), I tried following the others to the kitchen, but Lissa grabbed my hand and steered me towards the living room (after a meaningful non-verbal-head-nodding conversation with Olena).

Emerging into the room, I was hit by a vision of gold…literally. My aura-vision blinded me with it's goldenness, so it took me a few seconds to realize that it was radiating from the couple facing us. Love is golden, of course.
But before I could process more than 'how did Rose and Dimitri get here so fa-', I realized that one of the aura I was seeing was dashed by black. The golden of love tinged by the black of the shadow-kissed….

Holy mother of god!

How did Rose's aura get back its ring of darkness?

When?

But before I could voice my questions to Lissa, who was smiling (and golden-aura-ed beside me), I realized a couple more things-

Her aura was iridescent, blindingly gold, as if influenced by something more than love.

The darkness wasn't emanating from her aura, but his.

What The Hell!?

To be continued…..

I know, I know…horrible place to stop…..but I promise you the next drabble (the continuation) will be posted within 36-hours.
Till then, any guesses as to what is going on?