RPOV
Moonlight was so much prettier than daylight. Moonlight was soft, gentle, and yet held hands with the secretive night that hid terrible things, like evil angels.
Lying here I could see past him to the moon. She was watching us boldly from her perch far above the trees. I wondered what else hid from her light in the darkness and whether she chose to hide it.
I wished she'd hidden me.
I knew this was bad. A voice in the back of my head had begun shouting but it sounded far away. I was being pressed to the ground beneath another body but I didn't feel scared. I don't know why. Had I just accepted that I was going to die and anything before that wasn't terrible? I don't know. I just couldn't seem to think properly. My thoughts were rocking back and forth and I couldn't get a firm footing. If it weren't for him so motionless above me I'd think I was still rolling down the hill.
I look at him, expecting there to be a monster in his place or to see the silver stick, ready to be driven into my chest. Instead, his expression is stoic, his dark eyes trained on my face. A hot prickle runs over my skin as I stare back.
I feel like he could see through me... like I was turned inside out.
Behind his head, the stars swam.
"I'm going to let you up. It would be smart not to run." He says quietly. There was something different about his voice and it brought me back to my own head. Was there a purr within his words or had I just imagined it? A crease forms between his eyebrows. "Did you hear me?"
I exhale and feel the outline of his body above me. The voice in my head isn't so far away anymore. I take a breath and nod.
A long time ago when a Guardian had taunted a little boy with chocolate and the orchard leaves were turning orange, the boy had fought back. One thing I'd seen him do was aim a punch between the Guardian's thighs and it had worked…just not for long enough. There was no time to think of something else because he nodded and started to lean back. He moves into a crouch, his hands moving from my shoulders to my wrists. It's strange how aware I am of his touch but it's most likely because of what I'm about to do and how it could respond mercilessly to it. His fingers curl around my wrists and pull me up. I use the power behind his lift as leverage and bring my knee up. It doesn't hit its target exactly but he makes a noise like he's choked on his own breath.
His grip slackens and I tear free from him.
I make it past two trees before his arms circle around me and pin my own to my body. I kick out at him, trying to connect to the original target. I need to hurt him before he hurts me.
"Stop. Stop before you hurt yourself." He says, his voice stretches but doesn't leave the confines of calmness. It makes me even more panicked. I kick off a tree and he stumbles backward. "If I wanted to cause you harm, I would have done so already so could you save us both-"
I've wriggled an arm free and thrown my fist behind me, at the same time I'm still kicking out. Wherever I hit him was hard, like a cheekbone, and with the blow and my squirming he loses his footing and sends us both to the ground. I roll away as he says a string of harsh-sounding words that are completely unfamiliar. I've barely gotten onto my knees before a hand comes down between my shoulder blades and pins me to the earth.
The smell of dirt and grass fills my nose. The energy that had been coursing through my blood dulls and I try to squash the panic and think around it but it's no use. I couldn't win and all I had to protect me were baggy slacks, held tight to my hips by a frayed cord. It was no protection at all.
I'm rolled over onto my back, two hands firmly planted on my shoulders. His chest is rising and falling and I try to decide if begging will make a difference. Would it be better if he knocked me out?
No, no I need to face it but I couldn't make myself look at him.
"Why are you fighting me?" He asks and the lack of anger in his voice is making my stomach knot. What did he want me to say? Did he want me to beg? I wouldn't beg. I wouldn't give him anything, not when he was going to take from me. My fingers search the twigs and needles for a stone. I meet his gaze and try to hide everything I was feeling. I search within myself for the numbness.
He takes a deep breath. Holding my gaze he says slowly. "I am not going to hurt you."
"I don't believe you." I whisper.
"As a Guardian, I am sworn to protect those who need protecting."
The word Guardian makes me go still under his hands. I notice then the black clothes he wore and remember the way he'd moved gracefully and lethally. I should have known.
I should have run faster.
He'd seen me hurt her guest.
I'd fought back.
Oh no no no no no no no.
His eyes sweep over my face and I feel myself start to shake under his grip.
"I am not a Guardian of the Ozera family." He says clearly. "I know that's where you've come from but they are not my charge. I swear it." I was having trouble breathing but I cling to his words like they could hold me steady. His fingers curl around my shoulders and pull me up into a sitting position.
He keeps one hand rested there while he leans back, giving me some room.
Now that I wasn't imprisoned between him and the ground I gain some control. I peek up at him and his expression is still the same, steady with curious eyes. He could not be a Guardian.
"You have nothing to fear from me."
"Guardian and fear aren't two separate things."
"I just saved your life." He says flatly and his gaze was unwavering. I glimpse a resemblance to the Guardians then, the confidence in his eyes that warranted no argument. "And If I wanted to hurt you I would have by now. You have given me reason to. Now you can get up and walk or I will throw you over my shoulder but either way, you are coming with me."
He removes his hand from my shoulder and stands. I have to crane my head back to look at him. He holds a hand out to me and after a few moments I get up without taking it and he gives me one last hard look and starts down the rest of the hill.
"I would stay close, there could be more out there." He calls back and with a jolt, I remember the red-eyed angel. I scurry down after him and linger just a little behind.
He moves silently across the ground. Twigs snap under my feet and with each crack I expect him to rebuke me for disturbing the quiet.
I kept waiting to fall into a trap. Surely there had to be one. He was toying with me in ways that Guardians liked to toy with us.
After a while of walking, I began paying attention to my body. My bones were getting heavier with each step and under the bandages, my arm has begun to sting. I try to block it out and focus on him and where he was leading us.
I didn't recognise anything we passed, everything looked the same.
Could this be a dream?
Another branch snaps under my foot. I feel the rough touch of the undergrowth as it pushes up through a hole in my shoes. This time the wood snapping under me sounded louder and I glance up nervously to find he is watching me. He's further ahead than I realised, half of him concealed in shadow as if he could sink into the night. The terror didn't rise up and claim me under his gaze, it just jittered around my heart.
"Can you walk faster? We have wasted too much time already." His voice is smooth and blank. I try to figure out if he was angry but he gives nothing away. Even his face is like a clean surface.
He raises an eyebrow.
I drop my eyes to the ground and walk. I should not be looking at him, it was disobedient, it was challenging, and it broke the rules. I peek up after a couple of minutes, telling myself it was necessary to make sure I was still following him because he moved soundlessly.
He was tall, much taller than any other Guardian or Moroi I'd ever seen. Walking beside him I reached just above his elbow. He held himself like a Guardian but yet at the same time he didn't. He had the presence of holding attention but he didn't force it around like the other Guardians I knew did. They walked in a way that threw hostility and power outward, daring you to challenge them whereas this Guardian had that presence contained. I'd seen him move as a lethal shadow with the gracefulness of air and with an unyielding skill that allowed him to kill that thing. But now he walked silently and steady, all that power contained.
That seemed even more dangerous.
How could he be a Guardian? But what else could he be? The weight in my bones travels to my head.
"Usually when people stare at you they want to ask a question." His voice breaks the silence and I jump. He doesn't look back but he's paused, his head tilts to the right ever so slightly like he's listening to something.
The stinging in my arm has started to heat.
I swallow. "What was that … thing back there. That woman?"
He glances over his shoulder and I freeze. "Strigoi."
His answer washes over me in a wave of surprise.
"Didn't you already guess?" He didn't sound like he was mocking me.
"I didn't know they looked like that."
"Chalk white skin, red eyes, hostile, bloodthirsty, cunning, and strong. They can be past Moroi, Dhampir, or human." His tone reminds me of my mother's when she told me what I had to do every morning. How important it was I listened. I feel his eyes on me as I look at his shoulder and I nod.
"This way." He says and turns to my left.
I follow, storing away what he's told me with the things I'd overheard whispered between the others, whispered between my mother and Mary. One of the things I'd picked up on is that, no matter how hard and bad things were in our life, the one good thing was that there were no Strigoi. But that had been a lie from what I'd heard the Mistress and Master say, from what I'd seen tonight.
"You stabbed her." I say.
"I pierced her heart with a silver stake. The only means of killing Strigoi unless you can set them on fire or behead them. You should know this."
"Well, I don't." I mutter and glance nervously ahead at him.
He doesn't turn around. "I know but you should."
I wonder what he means but I don't ask and we keep walking. A cold sweat has broken out on my forehead and from time to time the trees tilt to the side. Each time I shake my head to clear my vision. My arm is burning, making my shoulder roll as if I can get away from it, and I pray it doesn't get any worse until I get back to my mother.
Was I going back to my mother? I try not to trip over more bracken or my own feet.
When he was speaking to me it was easier to forget that my body was working against me. With a voice in my head telling me not to I ask him another question. "Who's Guardian are you?"
My voice was so quiet I think he might not have heard me. This was probably a good thing, a lucky thing.
"Prince Victor Dashkov." He replies after a moment.
Prince was something I'd heard thrown around but I didn't know what it meant to Moroi. To my dictionary, it meant to be the son of a ruling king but I'd never heard of a king. My mother didn't like when I asked these sorts of questions. She said it didn't matter.
"So why were you in the woods?" I ask, ignoring all my instincts that are telling me to shut up.
"I was tracking you."
I trip over my own feet and land hard on my knees. He's kneeling beside me before I can blink, one hand stilled in the air between us. I shy away from it and it drops. "Are you alright?"
I nod and the forest turns on its side.
"When she knocked you down did you hit your head?" It was the first time he sounded like the Guardians I was used to.
"No." I answer but it's more of a sound than a word. The forest seems to be slipping away but the firmness of his voice was keeping me tied to it.
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
That isn't fair. I couldn't see properly.
He snaps them in front of my face and his hand swims into focus.
"What's your name?"
I hesitate. Not because I can't remember but because unlike yesterday I don't mind saying it, or giving away the only thing I had. "Rose."
His eyes are like the colour of black coffee but they had none of the bitterness. His hand catches my eye, next to my left arm his fingers curl and uncurl like they were distracting themselves from not touching me. I try to sit up straighter.
"Does your head hurt Rose?"
"My arm hurts." I mumble. My eyes fluttered closed.
"Can I look?"
Nobody ever asked. A guardian never asked. Maybe I did hit my head. I nod trying to concentrate on breathing in and out.
It's only pain. It's only pain.
Delicately he pulls up my sleeve and I twitch. He never directly touches my skin and I'm glad. When he's pulled it past the bandage he pauses before asking. "What happened?"
"She hates us." My voice sounds like it's about to fall asleep.
"Can you walk?" His voice is sharper than before and my eyes snap open. I try to get up but my leg gives out from under me. His hands are back on my shoulders. He was going to lose his temper, he was a Guardian and he was telling me to walk so I had to walk.
"I can, I swear." I try again and the same thing happens.
I hate my body. I hate my body. I hate my body.
"Alright, it's alright. Just calm down."
He moves a hand from my shoulder and captures my shaking one. My mind is too jumbled to process the full weight of what he's doing, how his fingers are curled around mine, and then he's pressing my palm against his chest. "Do you feel my heartbeat? Feel how steady it is Rose, focus on it."
There's warmth under my palm and my thoughts begin to spin. I was touching someone else; my hand was on a Guardian. It was wrong and it broke rules and I couldn't-
"Look at me." Without thinking I do and my tumbling thoughts find solid ground. His eyes are steady and like the wooden floor of the library, sturdy and reliable under my feet. "Just breathe."
I tried to stop thinking outside of breathing, to stop feeding the anxiety that was eating away at me, and just to focus on what he'd told me. Most of me can but a smaller part is caught in a storm of questions and instincts.
His eyes don't waver and the confusion threatens to overwhelm me so I shut my own.
It felt like he could see through me, it felt like his gaze dared me to try to see through him and that was insane. I concentrate on the regular thump beneath the softness of his shirt. It was like experiencing touch for the first time and I guessed it only felt like that because of how wrong it all was. You are always more aware of your voice when you tell a lie or admit the truth and of your hand when it touches something it shouldn't.
Slowly my heart stops banging in my chest and the noise in my head quietens down. All that's left is the soft rustling of leaves and the gentle rise and fall of his chest under my hand.
"Better?" He asks. I open my eyes and the forest is still around me. I nod dropping my gaze back to the ground. "Can you stand?"
I do and his hands hover close as if to catch me if I fall.
"When we get back we'll have the wound properly seen too."
I bite my lip and look up. "Dimitri." There's no big change in his features, nothing that gives him away but I get the sense he's surprised. "You said that was your name."
Every muscle in my body tenses as he looks down at me, his expression unreadable.
"It is." He says and then he turns away. "Come on."
I stand for a moment in surprise, just long enough to breathe it in and then I amble after him. I can tell he's holding back from going faster and I do my best to keep up with his slower pace but my body would not cooperate.
He doesn't say anything about it.
He is strange, this Guardian. Everything about this night is strange and half of it didn't seem real. But what shouldn't have been real I knew was, he had told me his name. Well, he had told me twice but the second time gave him the opportunity to take it back, to tell me to address him as Guardian – well I couldn't remember his second name, his formal identity, the one that gave him rank.
He'd given me his name and what is even weirder was that I had told him mine without feeling like I was losing something. When the other Guardian, Alto, had asked for it, it was because it was another way of having power and it was the only power I held. The thought of my name leaving his lips made my skin crawl.
'Rosemarie' belonged to my mother and 'Rose' belonged to me.
I'm so distracted I nearly walk into him. I hastily step away and my thoughts become weighed down again with reality. I notice ahead that the gaps in the trees seem lighter and I realize we're back at the treeline. He'd lead us back to the house.
I was tracking you
"Before we go into the Manor there are some things I need you to tell me." He says quietly.
I nod at the ground.
"Look at me."
I drag my gaze upward and his expression is not unkind but still serious. "I need you to tell me the truth, I'll know if you lying so it would be easier to tell me as honestly as you can."
I hold the weight of his gaze and then I nod.
He immediately asks. "You didn't know you were going to meet Strigoi tonight?"
I shake my head.
"You were told to pass along the message from your mistress that the meeting was cancelled?"
I hesitate and then nod.
"Why did you hesitate?"
My heart jumps into my throat. "She said to say that things have changed."
"Why did she send you?"
"I don't know."
"Did she give you a knife?"
"No."
"Who did?"
"My mother."
"Why?"
I look away.
"Rose, why did your mother give you a knife?"
My voice is barely above a whisper. "I think because she thought the Mistress was going to hurt me again."
My hands have begun to shake.
"Okay." He says gently. I beat down the fear clawing up my stomach. I'd told a Guardian my mother wanted me to harm her.
He speaks again, warding off the panic. "Before tonight have there been any mysterious guests in the manor, any strange behaviour?"
"I don't know. I'm always outside except for yesterday when I had to take my mother's place."
"What does your mother do?"
I close out the other things, the things he makes her do. "Cooks and then serves their dinner in the dining room."
"And you had to do this yesterday correct?"
"Yes."
"And Christian came home yesterday?"
I try to hide my surprise that he used the young master's name. Again I nod. His eyes get even more intense and he asks quietly. "Rose, what did they talk about?"
I realize then that what he's been asking wasn't just putting myself and my mother into jeopardy but the Mistress too. What other reasons would a Guardian need to know these things if not to be collecting facts? As long as I'd watched them that is what I'd learned they did before taking action.
I tell him what I can remember, pieces of things I didn't understand but had stuck to my memory. I recall the name of a family and of the woman, Tasha, they'd talked about. I thought I caught something flicker across his face at the mention of her but I could have imagined it. My nerves were winding tight and I was trying to remember things past the voice in my head telling me to shut up.
I tell him that they had talked about protection and not wanting the Young Master to return to the academy. About choosing the winning side, Strigoi, and bargaining. I tell him about how they said a guest was coming the next day to explain to the Young Master more. Dimitri's face seems to harden over and it made me forget to draw breath so I finish in a gasp.
"To confirm." He begins. His voice is quiet and as tight as wire. "The conversation you overheard was between Moira, Lucas, and Christian Ozera?"
It was strange to hear my master's names so bare. I nod.
"Rose, I need you to trust me."
"Why should I?" It's out of my mouth before I can think.
"I protect those who need protecting." He responds immediately, his dark eyes looking through me. "You have my protection."
"From what?"
His jaw tightens and the look in his eyes makes me want to shrink into myself.
"Your Masters."
Before that can sink in he's moving again, this time his movements are more precise and I realise he's being extra cautious as he approaches the treeline. I follow, trying to move as quietly as I would through the house. It's a lot harder when my legs are heavier than they have ever been, more so than the day I started in the field, but I manage to be only a whisper across the ground which would be impressive if it wasn't compared to his ghostlike steps.
He presses up to a tree that has the yard beyond it. I stay a few trees back wondering why he was being so careful. He was a Guardian, why was he sneaking around? What was he looking for and why did I need protecting? What –
"Rose, stay close to me." I straighten up from where I'd been sagging against a tree and take the remaining few steps over to him. He casts a sidelong look down at me. "At all times, understand?"
Not really. "Yes."
He nods. "Come on."
I briefly panic that he's going to break into a run but he starts forward in a brisk walk, striding out of the cover of the forest and its darkness. I scurry after him and have to half jog just to match him. It wasn't much of a shock now that he could catch me when I running flat out when I had to nearly run to keep up with his power walk.
As we hurry along I notice the gap between the trees and the fence is bigger than I thought. Again I wait for something to alert me to the presence of the wards. I even look around as if they'll materialize out of hiding but again nothing happens. We reach the fence that runs the perimeter of the field and that's when I realise something that makes anxiety bloom in my stomach.
I'm about to alert Dimitri when we pass a crumpled figure on the ground. I stop, unable to believe what I'm seeing.
I look up and Dimitri is standing a few feet away watching me and patiently waiting even though his body is angled toward the manor.
"He's alive." He says.
I look back down at Guardian Alto. He was on his side and there was a stream of dried blood from his mouth down to his chin. Even though his eyes are shut I wait for them to snap open and pierce me but he remained still and unaware. "How do you know?"
"Because I was the one who incapacitated him."
I savour seeing him so vulnerable and unaware, that it was I towering over him this once and not the other way around. That he's helpless.
"Good." I say flatly and move away.
Dimitri's watching me carefully and the old fears instantly prickle my skin.
"He went down pretty hard." He says blandly and then starts walking away. "If that helps."
It did. A strange sensation passed over me and my lips quirked up.
I stop smiling as we passed another fallen body and then another. "How many did you hurt?"
"Only those who were patrolling this side."
"Why?"
"I couldn't have anyone tracking me when I was tracking you or reporting back that I was following you."
"Why?"
The ground changes from grass to the crunch of gravel and I realise he was heading toward the kitchen door.
"You'll soon find out."
He stops as he reaches the step and turns to me as I come up behind him. His height startles me again and I have to lean back to look up at him.
"How well do you know around the manor?"
Anxiety coils tighter in my stomach. "I only know the bottom floor. I don't know where everything is."
"Do you know where they are most likely to gather when they have visitors?"
I nod.
"Can you lead me there?"
I nod again.
"Stay close." He orders climbing the step and opening the door before I can ask more questions. I hesitate then follow, figuring it was safer to do what he said than not.
The lights are off in the kitchen but it's not a problem for our eyes. Seeing the kitchen asleep was like seeing a different room completely, it was so peaceful.
Dimitri takes the stairs up to the main door in two strides and looks once over his shoulder to check I'm following before pushing it open. With it being the only door obviously connected to the main house he didn't need me to direct him but once we were in the hallway he pauses and looks at me expectantly. It was a different kind of dark and quiet in here than it had been outside. I was really aware of the small distance between us. Guardian Alto lying on the ground flashes in my mind and I begin leading him down the hall. When it opens up into the foyer I glance over at the dining room. Everything is slumbering and immaculate, no trace of the other night, and a shiver passes down my spine. Dimitri makes an impatient noise and I quickly cross over to the other door.
We were halfway down the next hall when the floor squeaked beneath me and I freeze.
I look down in horror.
"Rose?" he whispers.
I'd worn my shoes inside the house.
Oh no no no no no no.
Fingertips lightly touch my shoulder and I flinch away. I think I see the end of something flitting across his face but I couldn't even think about it because I had to go back.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't wear shoes in here."
He looks to the ground and then back at me raising an eyebrow. My heart is hammering again and I turn to go back when he seizes my forearm. Not enough to hurt but to restrain me and I let out a small yelp. He loosens his grip but doesn't let go, his mouth pressed into a hard line.
I start shaking my head not knowing if I should start saying sorry or try to run or to-
"It's okay."
"No, it's not." I say desperately, looking up at him I had to make him understand. "She'll kill me."
His expression slackens but his eyes hold steady. After a moment he says. "Remember what I told you."
I think back to what he'd said and try to hold on to it. Everything inside me was telling me to go back and I try to centre myself in the middle of the conflict. I take a breath, realizing that it doesn't really matter what I thought because I had to do what he said.
He was Guardian and I was nothing.
I nod at the floor and he drops his hand. Without looking up I start down the hall with his light steps shadowing me.
I lead him into the centre of the house, where the darkness is left behind by soft lights that glow. I try to believe that none of this is real. It couldn't be real and every time I started to let it sink in it pressed against my chest trying to crush my ribs. My footsteps have become clumsier but I was too tired to worry as much as I should have.
We step into the illuminated south foyer and I look up at the ceiling, which was mostly made of glass. The moon is framed in the centre, a perfect and remote silvery orb. I wished more than ever that I was with her. Standing here was the closest I'd come to being peaceful in the past couple of days and I just want close my eyes and savour it. A movement out of my peripheral sends any relaxing vibes running into the shadows.
I swallow. "It's just through there." I motion at the door across the room. If I had any hope about being able to leave and retreat back to the barn, to my mother who would be able to explain tonight to me, it was squashed as his hand lightly touched my back urging me forward.
I suddenly don't feel so tired. Suddenly I'm aware of every rule I've broken today. Everything I've done and wrong. What if this Guardian, Dimitri, was tricking me and it was a test? But it didn't make sense –
Raised voices bring me up short and his hand presses against my lower back, making me jump. He doesn't spare me a look but closes the remaining distance to the door with his shoulders set back. Without knocking he swings it open and walks into the room, me rushing up behind to remain in his shadow.
"I have to say, I do like how you've kept an Estonian air of the place whilst keeping up with modern-day décor." Someone was saying casually.
Dimitri doesn't stray far from the doorway, keeping away from the heart of this huge room where its occupants are gathered. Peeking out from behind his elbow I spot Master Ozera straight away, sitting in an armchair that neighboured a crackling fire in the grand fireplace. He was sitting so close to the flames that I worried about the leather burning and wondered how he didn't find it uncomfortable. The mistress hovered on his other side and my blood turned cold at the sight of her. Her dark hair was pulled away from her face into a neat knot and it only made her face look even more severe to me. I knew she was pretty but it was all clouded by the hard set of mouth and flinty eyes.
On the leather sofa sat a man with hair as black as coal. He was leaning back with one leg crossed over the other and looking completely at ease compared to my masters. Positioned behind him was a Guardian with blonde hair that was standing at all angles like he'd run his fingers through it and it had stuck. That wasn't all that was unusual about him, what was unusual was he was wearing half a smile and showing obvious attention to his superiors. I'd always known Guardians to stand like a part of the furniture when in the presence of their Masters but this one wasn't. I would have remembered someone like him, with his strange hair and smirk that made me think he was laughing at something. Beside him stood another man, with a more composed expression and with a normal hairstyle.
They all looked up as we came in and I shrank closer to Dimitri's back. When the mistress looked across the room I was surprised her eyes were blue instead of red.
"Ah." The older man smiled. "Dimitri, there you are."
"Will you tell us what exactly you think you're doing, Victor?" Mistress Ozera demands. She looks away from Dimitri to the man on the sofa. With a jolt of realisation I remember Dimitri saying his charge was Victor Dashkov.
Mr. Dashkov leans forward, ignoring her completely. He eyes Dimitri expectantly. "What news?"
"Your worst suspicion is true. There was Strigoi in the forest nearby and I believe it had intentions to make its way here." Dimitri speaks formally, in a way that shows respect but unlike other Guardians, he didn't speak stiffly to his superior.
This is all so confusing.
"Oh dear." Mr. Dashkov says simply after a moment's silence. He turns to Master and Mistress Ozera. His face has gone blank but the Mistress looks enraged. "What do you make of that Lucas, Moira?"
"Of a Strigoi in the woods near a Moroi household and royal one at that, well I find it concerning but its motivation clear." Mistress Ozera says back, her voice like burning ice.
"Ah well true, it doesn't take much to guess why a Strigoi would be lurking close to a royal blood source." Mr. Dashkov says agreeably but then his brow furrows. "But what I meant was and what concerns me is, could there be a different explanation?"
"Like what?" Master Ozera says, sitting up straighter. His eyes are hard but there's something about him that makes me think he's nervous. It was so unlikely but the tells were there, in the way his hands were curled so they wouldn't shake, that it was will that made him challenge Mr. Dashkov's gaze and not pure anger. I knew these things, I lived my life trying to cover the tells. "Victor, you have arrived unannounced at our home, refusing to give us a straight answer as to why and now one of your Guardians has burst into the room talking about your 'suspicions'. I think it's about time you offer an explanation."
"And I will." Mr. Dashkov says earnestly, looking almost hurt. "Let us just hear more from Dimitri first. "About the Strigoi, how did you come across it and then learn that it intended to come here? I doubt it offered you such information willingly."
Behind him, his blonde Guardian's smirk deepens. Master Ozera's face is blank and Mistress Ozera is casting a glare that could melt glass. I'm grateful that Dimitri is so tall and has such a presence that I've gone unnoticed.
"You'd doubt correctly." Dimitri responds flatly. "I was tracking a girl I'd seen flee into the woods. I thought it odd she was going outside the ward boundaries in the middle of the night without any protection. I followed and watched as she came into contact with the Strigoi. She delivered a message from Moira Ozera that plans had changed and when she attempted to leave the Strigoi naturally attacked and I intervened. It made reference to having preyed before on messengers but from the same correspondent, I can't say. Upon questioning the girl I learned she'd overheard a conversation between the Ozeras yesterday night with their son in which they discouraged he return to school and that there were deals to be made with Strigoi."
Seconds drag out in which the only noise is the crackling of the fire.
"Now what plans could you have possibly made with a strigoi, Moira?" Mr. Dashkov asks softly.
That's when a few things click into place in my head, things that had been blurred and now come into focus. One was that Mr. Dashkov is playing a game, one that Guardians liked to play when any of us were unfortunate enough to catch their eye and they toyed with you until they won. The second was that my mother was right, Mistress Ozera had planned to hurt me again. She'd wanted the strigoi to kill me.
The storm of nerves and fear settle down in my bones. I almost reach out a hand to steady myself which would mean touching Dimitri. I take a deep breath and the flame I thought had been extinguished flickers to life.
She'd tried to kill me.
She'd sent other messengers who were most likely dead.
There was a noise somewhere between the start of a laugh and cough. "Well obviously to get our nails done." Mistress Ozera says sweetly and then her voice snaps in half. "How dare you parade yourself in here and have your Guardian try to put a vicious lie into place!"
"It was hardly a parade, there was no glitter." The blonde Guardian drawls.
Whatever else was about to pour out of the mistress's mouth doesn't. She stares at the Guardian, her mouth agape.
"Not now Spiridon." Mr. Dashkov murmurs.
"There has been no respect shown!" Mistress Ozera shouts, snapping out of her stupor. "You allow your Dhampir to speak to me like that? You are less than guests in our home, the nerve of it-"
The blonde Guardian looks more amused than ever.
"Insolent half breeds that we are supposed to be gratuitous of-"
"Moira." Master Ozera whips out and cuts her voice off.
"By what inclination does my Guardian have to lie about such things?" Mr. Dashkov asks.
"By what indeed." Master Ozera replies from between his teeth.
"Consorting with Strigoi is unnatural and a vile violation of our way of life." Mr. Dashkov declares. He shakes his head like he is greatly confused by the idea. I know the only person in the room that's confused is me. "Why would I want to disgrace a royal name, a noble line of blood in such a way? Why would anybody?" He pauses looking from Mistress Ozera's livid face to Master Ozera's contained one. He turns back to Dimitri with a sigh. "I don't suppose the girl survived? Or do you have any evidence to prove you are not the liar you are being accused of. The fact I know you're not doesn't help move things along here."
Dimitri looks over his shoulder and I clutch to the fire in my belly and step out from behind him. Out of all the things I expected, yelling, punishment, pain, the one thing I didn't was the shock on Master Ozera's face.
He turns to his wife, whose flesh looked ready to melt off her body. "You sent her?"
Mistress Ozera's nostrils flare and then she draws herself up straighter. "And like a cockroach, she just won't die."
She crosses the room, passing Mr. Dashkov and his Guardians. They are all staring at me and the blonde Guardian is no longer smiling.
"Are we clarifying that Dimitri is not a liar then?" Mr. Dashkov asks. He drags his eyes back to Master Ozera who was looking down, his chest rising and falling.
Mistress Ozera opens a large mahogany cabinet beside a heavily curtained window. There's the sound of clinking and a cork being pulled free of a bottle.
"I'll say we have." Mr. Dashkov says.
The blonde guardian hasn't stopped watching me. "What age are you?"
I frown, remembering how the Young Master had asked me the same thing. Mr. Dashkov looks back at us.
The blonde Guardian unfolds his arms. "Or don't you know?"
Mistress Ozera snorts, crossing back to the seated party and sitting down delicately in the other armchair. "Most likely."
The fire in my belly pushes a defiant flame up my throat. "I'm eighteen."
The Mistress chokes on the sip she's taken and her head snaps back to look at me, like everyone else in the room is. I take a step closer to Dimitri. My answer seems to not only have angered the Mistress, which I had to admit was the reason I'd spoken in the first place, but the stupid part of me had also taken hold and made me want to fight back. It was the part of myself I hated the most because I knew it would get me killed.
But she'd tried to kill me.
The blonde Guardian is now looking at me as if I'd thrown up on myself. "You should be in school."
His face flickers with rage and his gaze swings back to the Masters which inspires a new surge of conflict. I want to warn him but at the same time...he looks like the one to be afraid of.
Mr. Dashkov is shaking his head and his voice has lost all friendliness. "What exactly have you two been doing?"
"Is this the high and mighty part of your show, Victor?" Mistress Ozera says and takes a huge drink from her glass. Her husband clasps his hands together and leans back in his chair.
"She is the same age as Natalie, as Christian, she should be training at-"
"Do not put that thing on the same level as my son. As your daughter! Do you have no honour?"
"DO YOU?" Mrs. Dashkov roars and I stumble.
My heartbeat is in my ears and it's only when a hand touched my shoulder that I realise I'm pressed up against Dimitri's side. I step back, putting space between us whilst angling myself behind his arm.
Mr. Dashkov takes a breath that shudders with anger. "I suspected you kept Dhampir slaves but I never thought you kept children...or have you sired them?"
Mistress Ozera begins to laugh, cold and cruel.
"Child or not, Dhampirs have one purpose." She finally replies.
"And many skills. I, for one, can cut out a tongue in one swipe." The blonde Guardian snarls as he leans over Mr. Dashkov's chair.
I thought Mr. Dashkov's outburst was surprising but this truly made me think I'd hit my head. If it weren't for Master and Mistress Ozera's mirroring expressions of astonishment I would believe I'd slipped into a nightmare.
"Spiridon." Mr. Dashkov warns but without conviction.
"If you can't control your Guardians perhaps you should muzzle them." Master Ozera says after a moment.
"Excessive expenditure to revoke the freedom of speech is not a something I find necessary, unlike yourselves. I consider my Guardian's input important but I imagine excessive amounts are the only way you hold your Guardians employment. Unless you have them handpicked for obvious reasons."
"I'm growing bored of this." Mistress Ozera declares, relining back and cradling her wine glass to her chest. "What is it you have travelled all this way here for Victor? To criticize our lifestyle? Well if I do recall correctly there is no law against how I choose to govern my Dhampirs. Actually, I think there is hardly any law at all." She laughs again, low and delighted, it sends chills down my spine. "What is it your calling yourselves now? The Collation? Bunch of fools."
"Of course, you'd think less of those who are trying to restore some order to our world." Mr. Dashkov replies calmly.
"Our world is falling apart." Master Ozera exclaims. "The monarchy fell near twenty years ago, the Royals have been scrabbling ever since and the Strigoi have used our weakness as time to organise. Is ridiculing our lifestyle your way of trying to exercise some authority as a politician? Because I have to say victor, you have no audience."
"Have you been slapping the Zeklo and the Ivashkov family's wrists too?" Mistress Ozera smiles over the rim of her glass.
"Dhampir slavery is a shameful liberty. You take people designed to be warriors and make them slaves. People who should have choices in whether they willingly fight for you which in most cases they will be willing because it is a calling in their blood and yet you chain them up like dogs to tend to your land."
"Well, we have more than enough Guardians and I do like to have my lilies in excellent condition." Mistress Ozera says with a smile.
Mr. Dashkov sighs. "Dhampir slavery is not something I think I can change singlehandedly. It is not why I am here."
"Oh yes, your 'suspicions'" Master Ozera says, seemingly clear of nerves now and comfortable in his oversized chair. "In which your only support would be your Guardian and a little girl who would have every reason to lie."
I am not a little girl.
"I thought we'd moved past speculation and confirmed you are consorting with the enemy?" Mr. Dashkov says.
The silence stretches out in which Master Ozera and Mr. Dashkov stare each other down. I glance down to see Dimitri's hand in a fist.
"You have no proof." Mistress Ozera says silkily. "And if you did what is it you'd blackmail from us? What could we possibly give you?"
"Blackmail is such an ugly word." Mr. Dashkov says. "But I suppose now yes, I should get straight to business."
Mistress Ozera laughs again.
"I do wonder how you plan to negotiate with us when you hold no cards." Master Ozera muses.
After a beat Mr. Dashkov says. "I have an informant."
"And who would such an informant be?" Master Ozera asks.
Mr. Dashkov smiles. "Why, Your sister Natasha."
The confidence falls off Master Ozera's face.
"Yes, you see Natasha contacted me a little while ago. Quite a visionary your sister, such great ideas she has but she'd grown worried about her family. Hearing whispers of secret trips to isolated areas of Romania. Her nephew asking her odd questions about things his parents had said. If I am not mistaken, Donovan was last heard of in Iasi, a city in which you visited last month Lucas."
"Natasha is a fool, an attention-starved little girl who wants to save the world in hopes someone will thank her, maybe even love her for it." Mistress Ozera declares, snapping forward in her chair. Master Ozera has turned grey. "She is a hippie who wants to unite Moroi under ridiculous ideas of fighting alongside their Dhampirs. We have Dhampirs so we do not have to fight! Lower the Guardian age, make them breed to make up their numbers, and let them do what they were created for."
"You would send a sixteen-year-old out to face Strigoi? A child younger than your own."
This voice grabs everybody's attention. Mistress Ozera's face conveys that Dimitri is someone she'd been completely unaware of as if he'd appeared out of thin air. Or maybe she looked unnerved by the rage smoldering under his words. It would be a change for her I suppose to be on the receiving end of fire.
I'd been so caught up in the room that I'd been able to ignore my own body but now I could feel the cold sweat between my shoulders and even worse, I was well aware of the pain in my arm. It was melting downward into my bones.
My head swims and I shake it, bringing the room back into focus.
Mistress Ozera sets her chin and stares at Dimitri across the room. "As I said before, child or not they have one purpose." Her eyes fall past him to me. "So I would gladly do it."
Even if the pain ate away at my basic functions, like being able to stand, I doubted I would fall because the look she gave me pierced right through my chest and holds me to it.
Dimitri moves to the left severing her look by concealing me behind him and air comes back into my lungs.
"So I learned earlier." Dimitri responds quietly. "And I feel I should inform you Royal blood or not, I am not tolerant of tyrants or child abusers. Threaten her again and I will gladly break your neck."
A silence fills the room in screaming volume.
"You dare threaten me." She whispers and although I couldn't see her I curl into myself.
"I don't think you've quite gotten the point of this visit." Someone says and mockery was dripping from their voice, the blonde Guardian. "That is what we are here to do. I think you'd prefer to take the word blackmail now huh?"
"Victor." The Master's voice is a hollow question.
"Here are my terms." Mr. Dashkov says flatly. "You will start attending meetings, you will come to Court and you will show me support. Alexander Voda is awaiting a phone call that confirms I have managed to persuade Prince Ozera to be a part of politics again and to give him a chair on the council. However, if I have not been able to do this then one can only imagine it was because I arrived at their manor house to find it entertaining Strigoi as their guests. Oh, I'd be most shaken to have seen Moira Ozera as a Strigoi's Blood Whore and begging to be awakened. And how it almost killed me to give the order to burn the whole place to the ground, saving a Strigoi corpse to take as proof and a handful of Dhampir slaves we managed to rescue. And to what if the community finds this unbelievable? I do not think your sister would hold well under questioning, not when she's bowed down by grief and the guilt of her harboured suspicions."
I lean around Dimitri's side until I see Mr. Dashkov. He was leaning forward, his hands clasped between his knees and he was smiling.
"If I dare say so, I think my cards are promising."
Updated 12/04/2022