3. Stalemate

(Sonya POV)

It was the third time the new guardian had smiled at me after class and now he was becoming more difficult to avoid.

Why does he keep looking at me? I wondered, feeling nervous as I remembered the enquiring look in his cool blue eyes. While men didn't exactly go out of their way to avoid me I hardly inspired romantic advances. My reputation as 'Crazy Karp' might have been started by the students but I'm pretty sure half of the teachers on staff secretly thought of me that way too. No. He couldn't be possibly interested in me - there must be another reason.

The more I thought about it, the more worried I became. He had to have an ulterior motive. What did he want from me?

I know I sounded paranoid but things at St. Vladimir's had been getting strange over the past year or so. I couldn't prove it but I was sure that somebody was watching me. Sometimes I'd sense someone behind me when I was tending to my plants or walking around the school grounds after curfew. If I turned around there was never anybody there but the anxious feeling wouldn't go away. Often I would find young trees damaged or flowers trampled in the lakeside gardens that I visited each day, and once I even found a dead bird on my balcony.

None of the events were enough to cause alarm by themselves but there had been too many now to put it down to co-incidence. The most frustrating thing was that I still hadn't figured out who was doing it or what they wanted. At best, it might just be a student was messing with me, trying to get a reaction for a laugh. But at worst? Imagining the nastier possibilities made me physically sick, and I went about my daily routine feeling constantly on edge, expecting to find a tiny piece of darkness or destruction around every corner.

Sitting on the sofa in my apartment sipping at a large mug of coffee, I brought my focus back to the problem of the guardian. Without a doubt he made me uncomfortable, and in the past week or two I did consider that he might be a spy - trying to put me off my guard, waiting for me to relax so he could reveal his darker intentions - but now I wasn't so sure.

If I thought about it honestly, he made me feel uncomfortable for an entirely different reason. I didn't normally fall for guys based on their looks alone, but that professional uniform couldn't hide the fact that my mysterious guardian had a one hell of a physique, and the confident, searching gaze he directed at me had my heart racing every time I thought of him.

Well, if he wants to spy on me then I will spy on him and find out what he's really after, I resolved finally, getting up from the couch to put on my DVD copy of Nosferatu. All this uncertainty was weighing me down and it was high time for me to let go of my worries and leave my problems for another day.

I had to wait three days before the guardian was on duty in my classroom again and my pulse quickened the second I saw him enter the room. As soon as I had set the students to work I made my way to the teachers' desk and opened my marking book. I let my eyes glide blankly over the names and used the book as a shield so I could sneak the occasional glance at the Adonis-like creature who stood silently at the back of the room.

He was relatively tall for a dhampir, 6 foot 4 maybe, and built like a swimmer – broad shoulders, slim waist, muscular but supple. He wore his light-brown hair short and neatly brushed and, depending on the light, I could see a faint shadow of stubble on his clearly defined jawline. There was a slight bend to bridge of his nose as though it had been broken once before, and his crystal blue eyes flashed with an intelligence and depth I wouldn't normally associate with a trained killing machine.

Today he was wearing the standard guardian attire – black trousers and boots with a white button-down shirt. His closely fitted black jacket was zipped all the way up and the only movement I could detect was the smooth torsion of the muscles in his neck as he turned his head slightly to observe another part of the room.

I normally avoided using magic because my particular powers had a habit of leaving me feeling drained and depressed, but this time I made an exception. As I focused in on a spot just behind the guardian's shoulder a faint glow appeared, surrounding him like a second skin. Reading auras was one of my more unusual gifts – most people's aura consisted of a spectrum of colours that changed depending on their mood but there were normally one or two dominant colours that stayed with them for life. The aura I was looking at now was a deep, stormy blue, shot with streaks of gold – very unusual.

As I pondered the meaning behind the guardian's aura my eyes must have lingered in his direction a little too long because he suddenly turned and looked directly at me and it was embarrassingly obvious I had been staring at him. I quickly shifted my gaze back down to my desk, but not before I saw the corner of his mouth twitch with the hint of a smile.

How infuriating, I thought. I'm trying to teach a class here, and this guy thinks it's a good idea to distract me and then make a joke of it. I returned to my work in a huff, but a few minutes later our eyes found their way to one another again and this time I smiled back in spite of myself.

Grow up Sonya, I chided myself silently. You're 28 – way too old to have a crush. I summoned all of my self-control and completely ignored him for the rest of the lesson.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to avoid him when the lesson was over. It was the last class of the night and I sighed thankfully as the students exited the room before moving across to clean off the whiteboard. Most of the teachers at The Academy used interactive boards but, as an art history major, I couldn't comprehend how something as stark and impersonal as a computer could possibly be used to explain culture and describe beauty. My hand moved slowly across the text on the board and I watched in silent fascination as each carefully-formed letter I had written faded away into nothingness like they had never existed.

I was only half-way through my task when I froze, suddenly aware of the familiar sensation that somebody was watching me. Gripping the duster tightly, I turned and felt my breath catch at the sight of the tall guardian waiting patiently next to my desk. I looked across at him, temporarily unable to speak, and waited for him to explain why he was still in my classroom.

'Miss Karp,' he said in a deep, clear voice. 'I'm Guardian Tanner. Mikhail Tanner. I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your classes.' He had some kind of accent that gave his words an exotic flavour. Not quite Russian... Hungarian maybe? Romanian?

I shook my head, my eyebrows knotting slightly into a frown. It had always been difficult for me to accept praise.

'No, really,' he continued. 'I didn't enjoy art when I was a student, but the way you teach it makes me want to learn so much more.'

Tanner - 1, Karp - Nill.

'Thank you,' I replied, finding my voice and giving him a hesitant smile.

There was a moment of awkward silence before he realised I wasn't going to add anything further to the conversation.

'Well, enjoy your weekend,' he finished, holding my gaze for a moment longer and then he was gone.

Over the next few weeks our little spying game continued. Sometimes I founding it amusing and other times it just irritated me. Either way there was no denying it any longer. Something was definitely going on. Mikhail Tanner had taken a personal interest in me and I was beginning to take a very personal interest in him. Every time we passed in the hall or on the quad he would stop to greet me, and at the end of classes he would hang back after the others had left to ask how my day had been. It was flattering but I didn't know how to react. It had been a long time since a man had paid this much attention to me and I wasn't sure if he was just being friendly or maybe after something more.

And then I started dreaming about him. The first night it was just like a normal class; Guardian Tanner walked past me and took up his place at the back of the room but instead of throwing a casual glance in my direction he stared at me for the whole lesson and all I could do was stare back. I woke up feeling breathless and exposed, and I was grateful when he didn't show up any of my classes that day.

As it turned out, I didn't see him for several days after that. I thought that the distance between us would help, but the next dream was so much worse; I walked into the classroom and watched as the guardian went to stand at the back, but when he turned around to look at me his face was different. I needed to get closer to see what was wrong, and as I approached him I watched in horror as the features on his face began to swim and fade away, becoming formless as though he was made out of melted plastic. My breath caught in my throat and I felt a scream build up in my lungs. And then I woke up.

The pillow under my head was covered in sweat and I struggled to unwrap myself from the blanket, kicking my legs erratically as I fought off the feeling of claustrophobia and panic. Stripping off my damp pyjama shirt, I hopped into the shower and let the water trickle over my head and shoulders, wrapping my arms around myself as I tried to shake off the disturbing dream.

'This has got to stop,' I said to the tiled wall in front of me, hoping that if I spoke the words aloud it might help. It didn't.

When the hot water ran out I wrapped myself in a towel and padded over to the wardrobe. It was Sunday and I wasn't the type to go to church, but I needed to get out of my apartment for some fresh air. I found a pair of yoga pants and a light zip-up jacket, pulling on a pair of trainers as I headed for the door.

As I stepped out into the school grounds I felt disorientated by the unexpected glare of sunlight and I realised that my nightmare must have woken me early. There was at least another an hour of daylight left before the rest of the campus would be up and about, but I couldn't bring myself to return to my apartment.

I turned my face to the late afternoon sun and looked directly into its warm orange glow, trying to hold myself steady as the uncomfortable stinging sensation spread across the skin on my face and hands. Eventually I couldn't handle it anymore so I pulled the hoodie of my jacket over my head to protect my eyes and stuffed my fists in my pockets. Turning from the light, I made my way slowly to the place where I knew I would find my peace.

Author's Note:

In this chapter we get to see Mikhail Tanner through Sonya's eyes. Yum! When I imagined what Mikhail might look like I wanted him to be different to Dimitri (there is only one Dimitri!). He needed to be attractive to Sonya so I've made him a bit trimmer & more 'moroi' in body type.

My Mikhail muse is currently the Turkish actor Burak Hakki. Aah - lovely!