𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ▸ After Spokane Rose is perilously close to breaking. Discovered in her bed, Dimitri is forced to leave the Academy. Let down by almost everyone she knows and cares for, pulled between duty and love...
"Was that Abe Mazur? Zmey?" one of the girls in the group asked after he'd left.
"Yeah. He's my Dad. We were out for dinner last night," Rose said as casually as she could.
"Isn't he some sort of mobster?" Rose's classmate gasped.
"Yeah – but I think he prefers the term entrepreneur," Rose replied facetiously.
"So was there really an attack? What happened?" Viktoria asked with legitimate concern. "Was a Guardian killed?"
"Yes, there was an attack as we were leaving the restaurant. Seven Strigoi. Guardian Asimov was critically injured, but was operated on last night and is going to be ok."
"Seven Strigoi! That's huge. How many Guardians?" Viktoria gasped.
"Just Pavel and Asimov, but Pavel loaned me his second stake, so I fought too."
"Did you kill any?"
"Yeah. I took down four, Pavel two and Asimov one," Rose said quietly. She didn't want to make a big deal about it, but they were going to find out when she had four more molnija. Besides Inna's suggestion that she'd been cowering under a table had pissed her off.
"You killed four Strigoi?!" Viktoria squealed loudly, attracting the attention of the rest of the class.
"Want to shout that any louder? I don't think they heard you in the dining hall, Vika. And yes. Sokolov's got me filling out the paperwork for it," Rose grumbled.
"Ahh – that's why you had breakfast with him this morning. We were wondering," Vika said, looking at Inna to indicate it was Inna who'd been curious.
Of course, it had been.
Inna was regarding Rose with aversion. "Well I suppose you'd be used to staking Strigoi by now," she said dismissively.
"Hmm. Not really – these were my first stakings," Rose said, not recognizing it herself until she'd said it.
"What about your other molnija?" Inna asked accusingly.
"I beheaded them," Rose said, barely cognizant of the astonished gasp that ran through the group of girls.
If Rose had hoped things would die down by lunchtime, she was disappointed. Thankfully speculation about Abe being her lover had been quashed when she'd so publically called him Dad in class that morning, but now everyone wanted to know about the Strigoi she'd killed. The Moroi, in particular, seemed fascinated and perhaps even a little titillated by it. Still, even that was better than the direction Anton's thoughts were going.
"Hey - Inna said your mother was Zmey's Guardian for a while? I guess they had more than a professional relationship," Anton joked while Rose was eating the meat-filled dumplings that were on today's menu. "Bet a lot of guys are going to be requesting you as their Guardian when you graduate," he said suggestively, his look hinting he might intend to do just that himself.
Rose knew exactly what he was hinting at and shuddered. "Lucky for me I'm slated to guard Princess Dragomir then, isn't it?"
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