What have I done...?

Chapter 20

I was in shock, but I tried not to let him see it, not wanting to give him the pleasure of knowing that he had shocked me.

'How in the hell am I WELL KNOWN enough for this son of a bitch to know my last name? I am still a fucking novice. But then he did say well trained and well-known novices as well.' I thought to myself.

"How in the fuck do you know who in the hell I even am?!" I asked in a furious voice which I was using to try to cover my worry and concern.

He laughed. "I am sure you will figure it out soon."

"How?!!"

"Someone called and told me."

"Who?"

"As I said, I am sure that you will figure it out soon enough. But obviously it is someone who hates your very existence in this world. But you won't find out who she is until after you have been awakened."

Knowing that he wasn't going to answer my question right now, I moved our conversation right along. Just as if he had never said anything whatsoever about who in the hell, I am at all. I didn't after all want him figuring out exactly what I am doing. And even though I moved on the thought that someone hates my 'very existence in the world'. At least enough to sic a strigoi on me was also turning around in my mind.

'Wait, he said that 'she' hated my very existence.'

"Dimitri, did you catch that?"

"Yes, Roza moya, I did." (my)

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked him.

"I am, but I am also praying for Christian's sake that we are both wrong." He admitted.

"So am I Comrade. So. Am. I." As Dimitri and I carried on our conversation I was completely ignoring what was going on inside that basement.

"Was the turn painful?" I asked trying to cover the fact that I had not been paying attention.

"Most of the pain that I experienced was from having Heinrich's fangs biting down into my neck. The actual awakening, I was unconscious for, so I didn't feel it. But I have awakened my fair share of people over the years, and the older strigoi have the power to make the awakening process hurt our victims as little or just as much as we want it to. And apparently Heinrich wanted it to hurt like a fucking bitch, so while I was conscious, it most DEFINITELY did hurt. It hurt like hell as a matter of a fact. I, personally, have yet to find anyone that I would try to block the pain from. So, I don't ever care one way or another."

I nodded, forcing myself to look as though I was actually contemplating what he had told me.

"Any more questions?"

"Are you rich?"

He scoffed. "A hell of a lot more than I ever was or ever even COULD HAVE BEEN as a guardian. More than I could have ever even DREAMED of becoming as a dhampir much less a guardian actually, but a good bit less than a royal. I can have anything that I want, I don't actually need money for that."

"How does that work exactly?"

"If I see someone with something that I want, I just kill whoever has it and take it."

"Ahh, I guess that would be much easier than having to work for what you have."

"Work?!!! The strigoi don't work, we don't have to don't be so completely ridiculous." He looked at me as if he were aghast at my insinuation. As if the very idea of working for what you have is totally ridiculous concept.

'Kind of like most of the royals if you asked me.' I thought to myself momentarily.

But personally, I actually have a very deep respect for people who put in a full day of honest work if they are physically, mentally, and emotionally capable of doing so. If they are not ABLE to do so my respect for them does not diminish in the least. There is a drastic difference in someone not being ABLE to work and someone not being WILLING to even when they are capable of doing so.

I could tell that by discussing working for a living that he was obviously getting irritated. So, I quickly changed tactics by asking a different type of question.

"What about relationships? Are there any restrictions put upon who you can and cannot be involved with? Do strigoi even have relationships?"

"Some have short term... understandings between each other, just like some guardians do. A very small few of us do have long term relationships; some with other strigoi, some with moroi and even some with humans that want to be awakened. There are even some strigoi who have relationships with moroi who want to be awakened sometime in the future. Like my 'relationship', if you want to call it that, with Natasha Ozera." He started laughing, as he looked at Christian, for a moment before he continued.

"If she found out that I had her precious little nephew here in my hands, and that I HAD NOT tried to convince him to awaken yet. Or just gone ahead and awakened him regardless of his choices."

Again, he started laughing. "She would be furious with me. Not that I care or anything, I just fuck her in exchange for the information on the moroi world and movements that she gives me. She gives me information that I want on the moroi and dhampir world and I give her what she wants in return. Which is being pounded just as hard as she can possibly take. She quite enjoys having me feed from her pussy actually. And ohhh how she loves it when I feed from her clit. She even loves having orgies with multiple strigoi, just as long as she is the only non strigoi in the pile of course. We have had this arrangement for almost twenty years as a matter of a fact." Isaiah continued to laugh.

I heard Christian gasp quietly in complete and total shock and horror. Turning to him I could see that his poor heart was broken, hell it was fucking shattered.

"Oh my God, Comrade?!!"

"I know Roza, I heard him."

"She actually intends to have, not only herself but also her precious little nephew here, awakened after he turns twenty-one if not before if the opportunity presents itself. But for some unknown reason she seems to think that if we wait until he is older, that he will not only enjoy it more but that he will understand her decision to do so better. You know, be thankful to us for it. But as I said if the opportunity to awaken him sooner presents itself, as it has now, then she would be fine with that as well. Which is exactly why she would be angry that I haven't already awakened him. Although she already knows that I have all of you..."

I quietly gasped. 'No, please tell me that he is not about to tell me what I am afraid, for Christian's sake, that he is.'