Spirit Bound – Vampire Academy #5

I didn’t want to wake up Adrian, though. He was tangled up in my sheets and slept peacefully. If I woke him up, I’d feel obligated to stick around while he got ready. Through the bond, I felt Lissa sitting alone at a cafe table. I wanted to see her and have breakfast, so I decided Adrian could fend for himself. I left him a note about where I was, told him the door would lock on his way out, and drew lots of x’s and o’s.

When I was halfway to the cafe, though, I sensed something that ruined my breakfast plan. Christian had sat down with Lissa.

“Well, well,” I muttered. With everything else going on, I hadn’t paid much attention to Lissa’s personal life. After what had happened at the warehouse, I wasn’t entirely surprised to see them together, though her feelings told me there had been no romantic reconciliation… yet. This was an uneasy attempt at friendship, a chance to get over their constant jealousy and distrust.

Far be it from me to intrude on love at work. I knew another place near the guardians’ buildings that also had coffee and doughnuts. It would do, provided no one there remembered that I was technically still on probation and had made a scene in a royal hall.

The odds on that probably weren’t good.

Still, I decided to give it a try and headed over, eyeing the overcast sky uneasily. Rain wouldn’t help my mood any. When I got to the cafe, I discovered I didn’t have to worry about anyone paying attention to me. There was a bigger draw: Dimitri.

He was out with his personal guard, and even though I was glad he had some freedom, the attitude that he needed close watching still angered me. At least there was no giant crowd today. People who came in for breakfast couldn’t help but stare, but few lingered. He had five guardians with him this time, which was a significant reduction. That was a good sign. He sat alone at a table, coffee and a half-eaten glazed doughnut in front of him. He was reading a paperback novel that I would have bet my life was a Western.

No one sat with him. His escort simply maintained a ring of protection, a couple near the walls, one at the entrance, and two at nearby tables. The security seemed pointless. Dimitri was completely engrossed in his book, oblivious to the guards and occasional spectators–or he was simply making a good show of not caring. He seemed very harmless, but Adrian’s words came back to me. Was there any Strigoi left in him? Some dark part? Dimitri himself claimed he still carried the piece that prevented him from ever truly loving anyone.

He and I had always had this uncanny awareness of each other. In a crowded room, I could always find him. And in spite of his preoccupation with the book, he looked up when I walked toward the cafe’s counter. Our eyes met for a millisecond. There was no expression on his face… and yet, I had the feeling he was waiting for something.

Me, I realized with a start. Despite everything, despite our fight in the church… he still thought I would pursue and make some pledge of my love. Why? Did he just expect me to be that unreasonable? Or was it possible… was it possible he wanted me to approach him?

Well, whatever the reason, I decided I wouldn’t give it to him. He’d hurt me too many times already. He’d told me to stay away, and if that was all part of some elaborate game to toy with my feelings, I wasn’t going to play. I gave him a haughty look and turned away sharply as I walked up to the counter. I ordered chai and a chocolate eclair. After a moment’s consideration, I ordered a second eclair. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days.

My plan had been to eat outside, but as I glanced toward the tinted windows, I could just barely make out the pattern of raindrops hitting the panes. Damn. I briefly considered fighting the weather and going somewhere else with my food, but I decided I wasn’t going to let Dimitri scare me off. Spying a table far from him, I headed toward it, going out of my way not to look at or acknowledge him.

“Hey Rose. Are you going to the Council today?”

I came to a halt. One of Dimitri’s guardians had spoken, giving me a friendly smile as he did. I couldn’t recall the guy’s name, but he’d seemed nice whenever we passed each other. I didn’t want to be rude, and so, reluctantly, I answered back–even though it meant staying near Dimitri.

“Yup,” I said, making sure my attention was only on the guardian. “Just grabbing a bite before I do.”

“Are they going to let you in?” asked another of the guardians. He too was smiling. For a moment, I thought they were mocking my last outburst. But no… that wasn’t it. Their faces showed approval.

“That’s an excellent question,” I admitted. I took a bite of my eclair. “But I figure I should give it a try. I’ll also try to be on good behavior.”

The first guardian chuckled. “I certainly hope not. That group deserves all the grief you can give them over that stupid age law.” The other guardians nodded.

“What age law?” asked Dimitri.

Reluctantly, I looked over at him. As always, he swept my breath away. Stop it, Rose, I scolded myself. You’re mad at him, remember? And now you’ve chosen Adrian.

“The decree where royals think sending sixteen-year-old dhampirs out to fight Strigoi is the same as sending eighteen-year-olds,” I said. I took another bite.

Dimitri’s head shot up so quickly, I nearly choked on my food. “Which sixteen-year-olds are fighting Strigoi?” His guardians tensed but did nothing else.

It took me a moment to get the bite of eclair down. When I could finally speak, I was almost afraid to. “That’s the decree. Dhampirs graduate when they’re sixteen now.”

“When did this happen?” he demanded.

“Just the other day. No one told you?” I glanced over at the other guardians. One of them shrugged. I had the impression that they might believe Dimitri was truly a dhampir but that they weren’t ready to get chatty with him. His only other social contact would have been Lissa and his interrogators.

“No.” Dimitri’s brow furrowed as he pondered the news.

I ate my eclair in silence, hoping it would push him to talk more. It did.

“That’s insane,” he said. “Morality aside, they aren’t ready that young. It’s suicide.”

“I know. Tasha gave a really good argument against it. I did too.”

Dimitri gave me a suspicious look at that last part, particularly when a couple of his guardians smiled.

“Was it a close vote?” he asked. He spoke to me interrogation style, in the serious and focused way that had so defined him as a guardian. It was a lot better than depression, I decided. It was also better than him telling me to go away.

“Very close. If Lissa could have voted, it wouldn’t have passed.”

“Ah,” he said, playing with the edges of his coffee cup. “The quorum.”

“You know about that?” I asked in surprise.

“It’s an old Moroi law.”

“So I hear.”

“What’s the opposition trying to do? Sway the Council back or get Lissa the Dragomir vote?”

“Both. And other things.”

He shook his head, tucking some hair behind his ear. “They can’t do that. They need to pick one cause and throw their weight behind it. Lissa’s the smartest choice. The Council needs the Dragomirs back, and I’ve seen the way people look at her when they put me on display.” Only the slightest edge of bitterness laced his words, indicating how he felt about that. Then it was back to business. “It wouldn’t be hard to get support for that–if they don’t divide their efforts.”

I started in on my second eclair, forgetting about my earlier resolution to ignore him. I didn’t want to distract him from the topic. It was the first thing that had brought the old fire back to his eyes, the only thing he seemed truly interested in–well, aside from pledging lifelong devotion to Lissa and telling me to stay out of his life. I liked this Dimitri.

It was the same Dimitri from long ago, the fierce one who was willing to risk his life for what was right. I almost wished he’d go back to being annoying, distant Dimitri, the one who told me to stay away. Seeing him now brought back too many memories–not to mention the attraction I thought I’d smashed. Now, with that passion all over him, he seemed sexier than ever. He’d worn that same intensity when we’d fought together. Even when we’d had sex. This was the way Dimitri was supposed to be: powerful and in charge. I was glad and yet… seeing him the way I loved only made my heart feel that much worse. He was lost to me.

If Dimitri guessed my feelings, he didn’t show it. He looked squarely at me, and, like always, the power of that gaze wrapped around me. “The next time you see Tasha, will you send her to me? We need to talk about this.”

“So, Tasha can be your friend, but not me?” The sharp words were out before I could stop them. I flushed, embarrassed that I’d lapsed in front of the other guardians. Dimitri apparently didn’t want an audience either. He looked up at the one who had initially addressed me.

“Is there any way we could have some privacy?”

His escort exchanged looks, and then, almost as one being, they stepped back. It wasn’t a considerable distance, and they still maintained a ring around Dimitri. Nonetheless, it was enough that all of our conversation wouldn’t be overheard. Dimitri turned back to me. I sat down.

“You and Tasha have completely different situations. She can safely be in my life. You can’t.”

“And yet,” I said with an angry toss of my hair, “it’s apparently okay for me to be in your life when it’s convenient–say, like, running errands or passing messages.”

“It doesn’t really seem like you need me in your life,” he noted dryly, inclining his head slightly toward my right shoulder.

It took me a moment to grasp what had happened. In tossing my hair, I’d exposed my neck–and the bite. I tried not to blush again, knowing I had nothing to feel embarrassed about. I pushed the hair back.

“That’s none of your business,” I hissed, hoping the other guardians hadn’t seen.

“Exactly.” He sounded triumphant. “Because you need to live your own life, far away from me.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” I exclaimed. “Will you stop with the–“

My eyes lifted from his face because an army suddenly descended upon us.

Okay, it wasn’t exactly an army, but it might as well have been. One minute it was just Dimitri, me, and his security, and then suddenly–the room was swarming with guardians. And not just any guardians. They wore the black-and-white outfits guardians often did for formal occasions, but a small red button on their collars marked them as guardians specifically attached to the queen’s guard. There had to be at least twenty of them.

They were lethal and deadly, the best of the best. Throughout history, assassins who had attacked monarchs had found themselves quickly taken down by the royal guard. They were walking death–and they were all gathering around us. Dimitri and I both shot up, unsure what was happening but certain the threat here was directed at us. His table and its chairs were between us, but we still immediately fell into the standard fighting stance when surrounded by enemies: Go back-to-back.