Chapter 6
I missed training the next morning, and he didn't come to get me. He cancelled the next two sessions with pathetic excuses. On the following Friday, he resumed sessions but things were off between us. He kept his guardian mask on while he made me run laps and we had no sparring.
I started to take Mason down consistently, which meant that they started letting me spar with Eddie. At first he tried to take it easy on me, but after I made a few borderline illegal hits near his face and close to his family jewels; he got the message.
He didn't have Dimitri's power or his reach, but he was a formidable opponent… If I can't handle an alpha, then I have no chance against a Strigoi.
Charlie had kept his distance from me and I was furious at him. He never apologised for violating and assaulting me. I wanted to vomit in my mouth when I thought about the feeling of his body pressed against my back. I wanted them to let me fight him, but they still wouldn't let me.
Lissa was having a hard time after the fox incident, Mia Rinaldi was spreading rumours around school that she was doing it for attention. I was spending a lot of time with her and Natalie providing emotional support.
Christian Ozera was suspended for an incident in animal behaviour class. Mia had been particularly malicious, moving from group to group telling everyone that Lissa killed the fox herself for attention.
Suddenly, she found herself surrounded in flames and started screaming her head off. She dropped down on the ground rolling around for two whole minutes until she realised that the flames were no longer there.
To my dismay, not a single hair on her head was singed and her clothing remained untouched. She had been sent to the infirmary for assessment and a cackling Christian Ozera was sent to Kirova for punishment.
I had been discussing what to do about Mia with Lissa in Slavic arts. I was suggesting that she take Aaron back when Mason leaned his chair against my desk.
"I have some information that you might find interesting, I think you might even kiss me." He said. He looked at me with a slight flush of his cheeks.
I rolled my eyes, "I think a friendly peck on the cheek is the only thing remotely possible, but it would have to be really good information." I had tried to deter his interest after the eclair comment but he continued to flirt in vain. I chose to consistently shoot him down, as even the slightest amount of encouragement resulted in him resuming his unwanted flirting.
"Even if it is about Mia's family?" He asked with an eyebrow cocked.
"Even then," I said firmly.
He gave me a disappointed look but then gave me a cheeky grin. "It's too good not to share. She isn't royal."
"Ohhh, I didn't know that.." I said sarcastically. "Hold the front page."
He rolled his eyes at me. "She sure wants to be. But not only that, her parents work for the Drosdov family."
Lissa humphed. "Many people are employed by royals, some own large businesses."
"I think it is more like service, like the father is a gardener and her mum is a maid." He replied, looking slyly at me.
"I don't think it should matter." Said predictably, naive lissa.
"Come on Lissa, You know what Abe says, 'You have to find and exploit their weaknesses'. This is an opportunity to get her off our back".
"Or it will inflame the situation. There is a time and a place to, if you just spread a rumour it will make her worse."
I understood what Lissa said, but this little hellion would continue to taunt us if left unchecked. It was time for the Hathaway approach, I just needed time to figure out when to strike.
I was called into Kirova's office for a review of my behaviour. My reports from my teachers and Guardian Belikov had been exemplary… for me, but she still wasn't happy.
"Miss Hathaway, I feel that you haven't shown significant improvement in your behaviour for someone facing expulsion six weeks ago. I feel that some community service would be beneficial for your development."
While I knew that I could call my father, who could employ scare tactics to get his way. I felt that if I used this option, it would only make the spiteful Kirova work harder to make my life miserable… So I agreed.
I was assigned to assist father Andrews in the church on the following Sunday. When I stayed back after services, I was surprised to see Dimitri standing next to him.
Ever since we locked eyes back in Portland, when I was without him I felt like a piece of me was missing. Since he told me that we had to slow things down, he had stayed distant and taciturn. His avoidant behaviour made me go from feeling like I had been punched in the gut to despair and depression. The logical part of my brain understood his reasons, but my heart and my ego felt bruised. I felt like there was something wrong with me that made my mate avoid me.
The priest had us emptying out Lissa and Christian's meeting space, the church attic. We sorted through books, some of which I placed in a separate pile for myself and Lissa to go over. Once we moved large items out of the attic and catalogued the books, he asked us to take a selection of books to the elementary campus.
Dimitri and I each grabbed a box of books each as we walked to the elementary campus. He was silent as we walked together and I kept giving him sidelong glances.
"Why are you here?" I said.
"I thought you might need some help, Kirova has been unhappy for some time and wanted to punish you without your fathers involvement."
I rolled my eyes, that wasn't what I had meant and he knew it.
"You aren't the one being punished here, and it is your day off." I pointed out to him.
"What else would I do?" He asked me. I had noticed that Dimitri didn't socialise with others, he mostly kept to himself. I wondered whether he had been lonely over the last couple of weeks without me.
I smiled to myself, his presence made me feel relaxed. It was nice to have his company outside of training, even if I had to keep an appropriate distance in public.
Dimitri directed me to the middle school dorms. Dimitri left me with the boxes while he went to find Miss Davis, who ran religious studies for the elementary and middle school students. I looked outside the window to see Eddie sitting with a moroi girl in the inner courtyard.
She looked to be 13 or 14, but she was much taller than me. Her hair was a cloud of brown curls, and she had freckles—rare among the normally pale Moroi—across her face. Her eyes widened when she saw me looking at her and she tapped Eddie on the arm.
He had a strange look on his face, it was the first time I had seen him look this relaxed in years but that changed as soon as he saw my face. I walked out to the courtyard, leaving the boxes by the door.
When I saw him, I saw his usual blank guardian face in place. "Hey Eddie, whatcha doing?" I turned to the girl and smiled.
"Rose… This is Jill Mastrano. I've been helping her with her studies. Jill, This is Rose Hathaway." Eddie said.
Jill's eyes lit up with excitement and she gestured for me to sit down. Eddie was good at school, but it seemed a little weird that he was tutoring a moroi girl. Perhaps he was earning extra income, but he seemed very protective of Jill.
"Oh my God. Wow. You ran away with the princess." She exclaimed. "I hear you are training with Alpha Belikov. What's he like? Is he as good a fighter as they say? Is he as handsome as they say?"
Eddie pursed his lips at this comment. She started rubbing her hands over a small raised scar on her right hand, looking at me excitedly. I decided I liked her, she had something appealing about her, she was very earnest.
"Alpha Belikov is helping me catch up from my time away and he is an amazing fighter."
"I want to learn how to fight with magic. Do you think that you could teach me to punch? Eddie won't. But I want to learn to fight against Strigoi some day, so I think it is something that I should know." She didn't stop for a breath, this girl was a little exhausting, but quite charming.
Eddie hid a little smile at her rambling, but when she talked about learning to punch his mouth tightened again.
"Maybe you should ask your PE teacher?" I suggested. Eddie looked like he wanted me to drop the subject entirely.
"I did, but he said No!" She replied and I couldn't help but laugh as she was distraught from this response.
"Well, it probably wouldn't protect you from strigoi, Moroi have abilities that we don't." Eddie shot me a fierce glare and I realised that I should change the topic. "What are you two working on today?"
"We were discussing the Christmas carol by Charles Dickens" Eddie replied. Jill smiled shyly.
"Lissa and I love the muppet version, we watch it every year at christmas. Maybe you should check it out." I saw Dimitri enter the courtyard, his eyes relaxed when he spotted me.
"Hey," I told him. "I have someone who wants to meet you. Dimitri, this is Jill. Jill, Dimitri." Dimitri looked over to jill.
Dimitri shook Jill's hand and then looked over to Eddie like he was assessing him. Yet again, I thought that I was missing something, particularly between Eddie and Dimitri.
Maybe it was an alpha thing. I hadn't seen them interact much before and Dimitri and Charlie had mostly hostile interactions. Alpha's tended to want to take control, often they would size each other up and have pissing contests.
"You handled yourself very well with Novice Hunt, I think it is only fair that I do a one-on-one session with you like I did for Novice Hunt. Hopefully you have become more adept with mastering your alpha strengths." Dimitri said. "Rose has a skills test with Guardian Petrov on Monday afternoon, would you like me to do a session with you then?"
Eddie looked at Dimitri for a long pause. "I would like that opportunity very much."
I saw Miss Davis standing by the doors of the courtyard. Dimitri and I said goodbye to Jill and Eddie, picking up the boxes to bring to Miss Davis's quarters. We dropped off the boxes and promised to return with more.
I caught him looking at me on the way back to collect the remaining boxes. "Jill knew who I was."
"Are you surprised by that?" He raised an eyebrow.
"I never thought of myself as someone that people know or look up to." I replied. I was a sophomore when we left, I didn't think I was known other than Lissa's cute dhampir friend.
"Well, not many novices would leave school, keeping a royal moroi safe for two years without the rest of the school knowing who you are. You are subject to a lot of discussion at this school, but most of it is positive."
This was news to me. "Really."
"You are beautiful and very skilled, dedicated and outgoing. You excel at everything you do, of course people admire you." I flushed in response, aching to jump into his arms.
We had reached the church to collect the remaining boxes. The return trip felt shorter than last time and I felt sad as my time with Dimitri was coming to an end.
"Why did you help me today? I asked. I was still a little confused, he had been avoiding me for the last 2 weeks.
"Do I need a motive?" He asked me, sounding hurt. I felt conflicted, I knew he cared for me but I couldn't help feeling rejected by him. I felt like I was getting whiplash from him turning his feelings on and off.
"Everyone has motives, some are more obtuse than others… It gets confusing." I replied. keeping my eyes on the ground.
"Sometimes not the motives you think." He said as we reached Miss Davis's room. "I'll see you later." He said sadly as we left the building.
Today had been weird, almost like we just went on a date or something. As soon as he left I felt a dull ache, like my heart felt like it was missing something.
I lay on the couch in my study space, thinking about Dimitri. I thought I had acted like a bit of a bitch and maybe my attitude would drive him away. I checked in on Lissa, she was in her attic, trying to get a break from Natalie.
Christian Ozera appeared at the top of the stairs. "Hey."
Lissa looked at him warily. "Hi."
His shoulders dropped at her response. He had seemed almost hopeful when he first arrived. "What's wrong?"
She sniffed. "You lit Mia on fire."
He rolled his eyes. "Yet not a mark on her. I controlled the flames so that they didn't hurt her."
Lissa looked a little mollified but she pushed on. "Why did you do it? You just made yourself more of a target."
"She was talking shit about you, this gave them something else to talk about and it shifted the focus off you." He replied. I could feel Lissa flush with excitement. She was actually pleased that he stuck up for her.
"You shouldn't have done it." She said lamely.
He stepped closer to Lissa, looking annoyed. "I stepped up for you, no-one else was."
"I didn't ask for your help" She said, stepping closer to him and tilting her head to flip her hair over her shoulder.
He stepped forward, closing the distance between them. "Maybe I wanted to," and he kissed her. She got pulled into the kiss, melting. At this point I started to claw my face, trying to pull myself out of this nightmare.
I returned to myself with a sigh. I would have to remind Lissa what a psycho he was or get him to leave her alone.
At breakfast the next morning I started to chew Lissa out for kissing Christian. We hadn't had a lot of time to ourselves, Natalie always wanted to be included which meant that we often couldn't discuss things.
I had barely spoken to her about Dimitri, she knew that we were mates but as far as she was concerned, nothing had happened. In my opinion, nothing had happened or was going to happen, so there was no need to tell her more.
AN: I still own nothing! All rights to VA belong to Richelle mead.
The next chapter... Most of it had been written for a while, i'm looking forward to your reactions.
