Blood And Glory | Vampire Academy

Chapter Four

I gasped for air, sitting up in my bed with beads of sweat over my forehead. The flimsey white blouse I had worn to bed was nearly see-through and stuck to my back like a second skin. It wasn't the first time I had woken up like this in the middle of the night. I told myself I would eventually get used to it; I was wrong.

I really didn't know what burned my skin more: his look of betrayal when I staked him or the hopelessness that came afterwards. Whatever it was, it still stung. His dark brown eyes still haunted me.

The gentle sound of rain drops hitting the window drew my attention. The weather was as gloomy as I felt on the inside. I ran my fingers through my sticky long brown hair as I swung my legs out of bed. I put on my slippers and slipped my arms through the sleeves of a sweater I just picked off the floor.

Nights like these were absolutely the worst; I was too tired to do something productive and too haunted to go back to sleep. I stepped out of my room into the dimmly-lit hallway of the Royal Court. Ribbons and flags of green and gold were decorated everywhere, signifying who the current ruler was. I closed my eyes and searched for Lissa through the bond.

The woman was asleep.

I opened my eyes with a sigh. Life was perfect, or it looked like it was perfect. Nevertheless I wasn't satisfied with what I had in my life. There was always that empty void in me. Perhaps it came with being twenty-four, and single, and very much in love with a dead person.

Walking to the end of the hallway to where the balcony was, I took my sweet time to get there. My hands pushed the doors open and the smell of Pennsylvanian rain blew in. It smelled of wet dirt and fresh grass with an icy prick to it. My tensed muscles eased at the soothing scent. Call me melodramatic years ago and I would have punched you in the face. Funny how little things become more important as you get older.

Morning came a lot sooner and I found myself groaning in my bed with heavy eyelids. Somehow during the night, sleep hit me like a bulldozer and knocked me out completely. I'll have to thank all of my sleepless nights for working such wonders on me. I got out of bed and once I was all dressed and ready, I went to tackle my first task of the day.

"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked, catching up with Christian as he was walking to Tasha's little training school. It turned out that my curiosity got the better of me and I simply had to find out.

He groaned, "Sweet mercy, it's you again." His annoyance only made me grin wider.

"Well? Are you gonna tell me?" 

"Not now, Rose. I'm on my way to see my aunt."

I halted. "You mean Lady Tasha Ozera?"

"The very one," he confirmed to me. "She invited me to watch her teach one of her classes and give her feedback."

Checking my watch, I smiled and said, "I have two hours before I head over to see Lissa. Hope you don't mind me tagging along."

The school was a brick townhouse with a few posters advertising moroi self-defense classes. I had heard that the royal families were still against this idea and saw it as an unnecessary risk. I followed Christian in and an inaudible gasp escaped my lips as the sight before my eyes.

Moroi children and adults were wielding their powers on dummies as a black-haired woman with familiar piercing blue eyes attended to each one of them. It was like a dhampir training facility, but moroi style.

"Wow," I breathed out in astonishment. "I never imagined it like this."

"She's done everything she could to build this place. She's sacrificed so much for this," Christian explained with a shrug, a glossy look in his eyes.