Reading VA: Reading Frostbite (ON HOLD)

Ch 8: SEVEN

RPOV
"You two really are quite disgusting," knowingly noted Karo as Dimitri and I rejoined the group. Murmurs of agreement buzzed around the room. That's when I truly took in how everyone was sitting, how they were paired or not. Jill was on Eddie's lap-and the pair were looking far too cute. Sydney and Adrian were sitting so close together as they talked; there was no room between them-and Sydney was looking incredibly comfortable. My own mother had her guard down and-here's a real shocker-was on Abe's lap... making out.
"Ew! I don't need a sibling," I sarcastically stated as I sat, breaking my parent's moment. Mom actually blushed. "Forget I said anything. I wanna eat and get this over with so I can be married to this amazing man already," I beamed at the end and rubbed my fiancé's knee.

"I'm reading!" volunteered Lissa after morning tea and a little more wedding planning. Christian collected Frostbite from where he'd set it on the heavy, ornate coffee table and passed it to his Princess.

"I angrily pushed through the double doors that led into the Moroi dorm." Liss blocked the bond and continued to read while Lionel returned to my marks for the kills I'd made in Russia.

I zoned out, letting my mind wander. Dimitri and I had been through so much together and to be together. I was excited to marry him, and each day that brought me closer to becoming his wife made me more excited. That's not to say I wasn't scared of the life-altering event, of how different married life may be-especially at eighteen. But, just like waiting to have sex with him, I knew-I don't know how I knew, I just did-that we'd make it work, that with Dimitri anything was possible and we'd work through it together... whatever came our way. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, he was the one I had been made for, made to be with. It was him, it had always been him and it would always be him if I had any say in the matter. Which was what saying I do and signing those marriage certificates would do-it was me saying I had always loved him and always would, no matter what, I would stay by his side and go to the ends of the earth, through hell and back, to be with him. God knew I'd already done it, so it was a promise I knew I would keep time and again, for the rest of forever.

I listened back in, to hear, "I'd found that about 90 percent of the time, the most effective response was to ignore her. But we had just crossed over to the other 10 percent, because it's impossible to ignore someone announcing to the world that your mother just punched you-even if it was true."

The room burst out in laughter. Lionel even paused his work to laugh with the others. My mother shot me and amused and apologetic look. I shook it off with a 'you're forgiven' look and small smile. Mia also sent me an apologetic look.
"Mia!" I laughed. "We've gotten past that!" I smirked and she nodded before bursting into laughter again.
Dimitri looked at me with a loving look, one that said 'see, I knew you'd reconcile with her'.
"Yeah, I know, Cowboy, I know." He smirked at that, and I giggled. "You are totally clueless, Comrade," I sighed, totally content and in love.

Lissa quickly returned to reading when the room settled. A lighter silence engulfing us. "I stopped walking and turned around."

Again, I tuned out while Lissa read and Lionel marked my neck. This process always took insanely long, even though the pattern was reasonably simple and tiny. I had been through this a few times in the handful of months since Spokane, and the pain and weird sensation it caused never failed to catch me off guard and surprise me.
I didn't like the prospect of how many more times I'd go through this. I had too much blood on my hands already-I needed no more. But I wasn't going to get that lucky. I had a bad feeling that even if I was stuck in filling our whatever else around Court I was stuck in a danger zone. With more Strigoi than ever, and them mounting attacks that just get more worryingly organised and the targeting of Lissa and royals, Moroi in large numbers, I couldn't help but think their ultimate prize would be breaching Court while Lissa was around and heir(or heiress)less. My worry and concern skyrocketed when I paired that with how I was known and hated among the Strigoi. Could I possibly be as targeted as Lissa? Or more so? Just how much of a bounty was on my head because of my time in Russia? Because of my lethality? I had to talk to Dimitri about it, I just had to-it was worrying me too much.