Portland

Spar with Me

Rose's POV

I was beyond pissed. Lissa should NOT have told Dimitri that she feeds from me. And he had NO right to ask. Why did he care anyway? I made it to the gym in record time. It was a 24 hour gym to members only. You had to have a key card to get in. I am glad that I insisted to Lissa that I needed a membership a couple of months ago. It was late in the evening, so the gym was, thankfully, empty.

I did a couple of warm up stretches, then made my way over to the punching bags. I intended to take all of my anger out on a punching bag by pulverizing it to a pulp. As soon as my fist connected with the thick leather for the first time, I heard the door open. I fully intended to ignore whoever walked in, but then I smelled it; Dimitri's glorious aftershave.

I froze, mid-punch, and rounded on him.

"How did you get in here? And what the hell do you want?"

He flashed a key card almost identical to mine. His face void of all emotion once again. His voice was like honey when he spoke.

"Let's spar. If you win, I'll leave you alone, but I won't abandon my mission. I will protect you without interacting with you or Lissa. If I win, we talk."

My jaw went slack. Did I hear him right?

"What?"

"Spar with me. We will strike up a deal based on the winner."

"Fine." I can do this. He wasn't going to leave if I didn't. I mentally prepared myself for a fight before lunging at him, trying to get a hit on his left shoulder. He blocked. I kept trying to get any hit on him, but he just kept blocking. After I attempted landing a ton of hits on Dimitri, I faltered for a moment, almost loosing my balance. He took advantage of that and had me pinned to the mats in seconds. He was holding my wrists above my head so I couldn't swing at his face. His chocolate brown eyes found mine and held my attention. He smirked.

"I win."

"That's not fair, comrade. You're like twice my size." My anger had almost completely dissipated.

"Rose, a vast majority of people you spar with are going to be bigger than you. And I've met your mother. You are both incredibly small for dhampirs."

"I want to talk to her." I was surprised at the admission I heard myself make. I decided that it was true, even though now I wanted to talk to her for a different reason that I initially thought. At first, I wanted to talk to her because I missed her. Lissa and I had been on our own for a while now, and when Dimitri said my mother was trying to protect me, it made me miss her. I'd never admit it to anyone though. My relationship with my mother was not a good one, considering that she left me to be raised by the academy at such a young age. I resented her for choosing her job over me so many years ago.

Now, however, I wanted to talk to her to find out why she had this overbearing Russian coming to protect us. I hate that she thought that I couldn't protect myself.

After thinking about it again, I thought maybe I was wrong. Maybe I couldn't protect myself and Lissa. Dimitri had taken me down easy enough. What if it had been a strigoi? Strigoi are the worst type of vampire. They are the stereotypical undead vampires that humans have nightmares about. They kill when they take blood, they burn up in the sunlight, and they are impossibly strong, fast, and pretty much immortal. There are only three ways to kill strigoi: fire, decapitation, and a charmed, silver stake to the heart.

Just then, I realized that Dimitri was still laying on top of me, pinning me to the floor. I noted that his weight felt good against my body, but then I chastised myself. If I fell to his charm, I'd never be able to focus on protecting Lissa. With that, I brought up my mother again.