For the first several days, Joey's discovery that the field training was mostly just waiting around was proved even further. The other guardians had passed by on occasion, but all they ever seemed to do was observe and take notes. Every time she'd seen them had put her more on edge.
But thankfully, things got a lot more interesting really quickly. Her first 'Strigoi attack' occurred only less than a week into the start of her field training. And boy, was Joey ready for it. Almost five consecutive days of Adrian had certainly built up a lot of pent-up frustration. And Joey had just been itching to take it out on somebody – since she unfortunately wasn't allowed to assault the Moroi she was meant to be protecting.
Amazingly, they'd actually been out of Adrian's room for once. It turned out that even the lazy rich boy got bored of the same scenery all the time. Plus he'd decided that being down to only three bottles of vodka and two kinds of wine meant that his alcohol supply was 'running low'.
Apparently, the solution to that was going down to his father's room and taking some of his liquor instead. Joey rolled her eyes when she heard of his plan, but of course, she was in no position to tell him no. He wasn't intending to leave the Court premises or anything, so Joey just had to follow him and go along with it.
She was grateful that Adrian's father wasn't around when he staged his little breaking and taking scheme. Though her parents' unusual, interracial marriage was quite well accepted, there were still a lot of royals that looked down on her and not just because of the whole dropping out of St. Vladimir's thing. Nathan Ivashkov was one of those royals. So Joey certainly didn't miss his presence when she had no choice but to accompany Adrian to thieve from his own father's drink supply.
They'd just been on their way back to Adrian's room when it had happened. Adrian was being his usual self, so Joey had expressed her wish for someone to try and bump him off... And then, it almost seemed to come true.
A figure in black appeared out of the closest doorway and lunged straight at Adrian without hesitation. Of course, Adrian was too slow to react – probably not helped by the two drinks that he'd already had earlier – but Joey wasn't. She threw herself into the fray, roughly pushing Adrian out of the way. He looked surprised, but seemed more interested in keeping the two bottles of Jagermeister safe than anything else.
Joey didn't recognise the attacker. He was quite young with untidy, black hair and green eyes ringed with dark shadows. He had to be the Ray Hawthorne that Hana had mentioned when Joey's field training had first started – the one guardian whom she hadn't heard of.
With Adrian suitably out of the way, Joey was prepared to fight. She dived straight at newcomer Ray, who dodged out of her way. He rounded the move off with a sweeping kick, his foot hitting Joey over the back. She absorbed the brunt of the move in a crouching stance and bounced back up, following through with a punch of her own.
Ray managed to avoid it and most of the following blows, retaliating with more punches. A few of them landed, but Joey didn't let them deter her. She was running on pure adrenaline right now. She may have only been waiting five days for this, but five days was more than enough.
She used her weaker arm to block the next punch, only just about managing it, but it gave her the briefest window of opportunity to strike with her better arm. Her fist connected successfully with Ray's jaw, sending him reeling backwards and into the wall behind him.
Like with all other standard field training, Joey had been told beforehand not to hold back in fear of hurting the 'Strigoi'. The guardians had been trained for this kind of thing. If they didn't get to observe her fighting at her full potential, then the exercise was rendered futile. She'd be expected to fight to her best standards against a real Strigoi, so this was what they wanted to see now.
And Joey was totally okay with that. The moment Ray hit the wall, she was punching him again, this time closer to the temple. He attempted to block, but she twisted his arm round across his own chest and grabbed her practice stake with her other hand in the same movement. The hold allowed her the valuable second she needed to get the stake positioned over his heart. The exercise was over.
"Well done, Miss Hatcher," Ray commended her politely, remarkably calm considering the situation. "You've passed the first test."
Joey lowered the stake, a little breathless, but feeling pleased. "Not bad yourself."
Any other guardian would probably have felt patronised to be complimented by a novice, but newbie Ray didn't seem to mind. "Thank you," he said graciously. He took a small notepad and pen from his pocket and quickly jotted down several notes. "Good luck with the next test."
Adrian watched him walk off with a bemused look on his face. He seemed mildly entertained by the whole event. Most Moroi would have been at least a little shaken, even by a fake attack. Adrian had clearly already had enough to drink to dull the excitement down.
"Well, that was fun," he remarked. "Who knew you had that in you, Hatchet."
"Just get moving," said Joey, tempted to put her boot somewhere where the sun most definitely didn't shine.
Her first success was the only highlight of the day. Adrian was as aggravating as ever to be around and apparently, waking hours weren't enough time to annoy her in anymore. Because when she finally managed to sleep that night, she received an unwelcome surprise.
Whatever she'd been dreaming of before, it had dissolved until she was standing in a large lounge with dark furniture and red window hangings. It was a lot more stately-looking than what Joey had been used to, but she was sure that this was one of the rooms at St. Vladimir's Academy. She'd never been into any of the rooms like this before – how had she managed to dream this one up in such good clarity?
"Bet you didn't have a room as nice as this, did you?"
Joey turned, a growing sense of dread inside her. "I should have known not to eat pizza before bed. They always say it gives you nightmares."
Adrian looked mildly amused by her comment. "What are you talking about? I'm quite literally the man of your dreams."
Joey groaned. That was cringe worthy even by Adrian's standards. "Please don't go there," she said, looking around the room again.
Adrian watched her, the amused look still on his face. "Looking for something?"
"I'm hoping there might be a gun lying around so I can shoot myself in the head and wake up," replied Joey, only half sarcastically.
"And after I went out of my way to surprise you with this," said Adrian, shaking his head.
Joey ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "Urgh... Seriously, what was in that pizza? Why are you in my head even when I'm asleep?"
Adrian gave her a wide grin. "You know, there are a million things I could say to that, but I'll admit that this..." He gestured around him. "Is actually thanks to yours truly. Meaning this isn't your everyday dream."
"What are you talking about?" Joey frowned. "Are you saying I'm not dreaming? Does that mean I died and went to hell instead?"
"Cute," said Adrian appreciatively. "But no. I guess you could say this is a little talent of mine."
"I don't get it."
"Well, this is still your dream. I'm just visiting," explained Adrian. "But I do have a certain amount of control over it."
Joey's frown deepened. "How is that possible?"
Moroi had special abilities of their own, generally specialising in one of the four main elements – earth, air, fire and water. Joey had never heard of anything like this before... But it made more sense of why the dream was so realistic and felt like it was lapsing in real time. And how the room was so detailed, despite it being a place she'd never been to before.
"What can I say? I'm special," grinned Adrian.
"Special needs is more like it," Joey muttered. "So I'm guessing the setting is your choice too?"
"You catch on fast, Hatchet."
Joey still wasn't sure she believed him. But she was more prepared to accept Adrian's idea than the possibility of her dreaming this whole thing up herself. "So since when were you ever at St. Vlad's?"
"Back when you were off gallivanting and playing the rebel," said Adrian. "It's a shame. You missed out on all the fun."
Well, that part was certainly right. Joey had heard about the group of Strigoi that had attacked the Academy whilst she'd been absent. That had certainly been one of her bigger regrets over being so spontaneous and doing her disappearing act. Like Adrian had said, she really had missed out on all the fun. She would have given anything to have been a part of that battle.
"Don't tell me you were here to join in the fight?" Joey asked in disbelief.
Adrian gave her a condescending look in response and held up his hands. "Do you really think I'd bloody these in a fight?"
Now that, Joey could believe. "So why were you here then?"
Adrian shrugged. "You're not the only one who sometimes craves a change of pace." He looked around the room, an almost wistful expression on his face. "And I have to say I had some good times here..."
Adrian getting all sentimental and misty-eyed? Ew. Maybe Joey really was dreaming after all. "Right... Well, I don't know if it really is you doing all this, but if it is, then I'd like you to end it now."
Adrian's expression reverted back to amusement. "You don't want to see more of what I can do?"
Joey felt the slightest movement in the air around her, like a light breeze ruffling her clothes. She looked down and saw that she was suddenly wearing the pyjama shorts and tank top that she'd gone to sleep in. Only seconds before, she'd been wearing some plain old jeans and a Joan Jett tee.
"What the hell?" she spluttered. "Did you just do that?" She really wasn't dreaming. Hell would freeze over before she dreamt of Adrian Ivashkov changing her clothes – magically or otherwise.
"I have to admit I'm really quite fond of those," Adrian mused appreciatively, indicating Joey's pyjamas.
"Try dressing me in anything less than this and you'll regret it," Joey threatened. She already felt violated enough as it was.
Adrian chuckled. "Don't worry. I value my life more than that."
"That's the smartest thing you've ever said," Joey remarked dryly. "And going back to my previous point... What was it? Oh, yeah, go away now."
"That's not how you put it before."
"Because that was before I suddenly became your Malibu Barbie."
Adrian laughed again. "Touché. As you wish then..." The room started to blur and crackle, like an old TV that needed tuning. "Sweet dreams, Hatchet."
Joey awoke rather abruptly. She was back on Adrian's floor and it was still dark. How long had she even been asleep? Did this mean that Adrian was awake now too if what he'd said was true? She rolled over to face the door. She didn't want to know. She'd seen enough of Adrian's annoying face for one night.
XXX
The first Sunday of the field training could not come quick enough. Joey had never been as grateful as she was when it finally rolled around. As soon as it hit midnight on the Saturday, she was bidding Adrian a hasty farewell and getting out of that room as fast as she could.
She had twenty-four wonderful hours to herself that she could spend however she wished. And the first thing that she wanted after the torturous week was a strong drink. Following that, she wanted to get outside for a bit, eat something a bit more fanciable than takeout pizza and find some better company. And not necessarily in that order.
Joey headed straight for one of the bars on the lower level of the Court's complex. This one in particular was always fairly busy, no matter what time it was. And that was exactly what she wanted. By this point, she was almost desperate to be around normal people.
After a couple of hours, she felt much more content. Not only did she have the absence of Adrian – not to mention the presence of drink and the chatter of other residents of the Court – she could actually relax for once. She didn't have to be constantly on alert for the possibility of one of the faux Strigoi attacks. For now, she could just chill.
The bar started to die down a little after a while and the other drinkers who were there started to become more drunk and more irritating. Time to move on. Joey headed over towards one of the all-hour Japanese eateries instead. This was one of the best things about living at Court – the lower level was like being at a shopping mall. Just minus the shops. But of course, Joey didn't mind about that. She was only interested in the bars and the food places.
She ordered some katsu chicken to go and went to sit outside in the gardens at the back of the main Court. It was obviously still dark out, being on a Moroi schedule, but it was a warm night and it was very peaceful outside. Certainly a contrast to the time she'd had to spend with Adrian so far.
Joey had only just finished eating when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She shoved her chopsticks into the now empty takeout box and pulled her phone out with her free hand. She sighed when she saw the name on the display.
She'd grudgingly swapped numbers with Adrian the day before. As much as she didn't want to be harassed by him in her free time, she knew that the rich boy was quite unpredictable. If it reached the Monday and her charge had gone AWOL with some shameless girl, then she was going to be in the shit. She needed a way to keep tabs on him.
She reluctantly clicked onto the text message. 'Fancy coming to move the snake?'
Joey gritted her teeth as she texted back her reply. 'So help you, that had better not be a euphemism.'
The response came quick again. 'Would I ever do that? I have company and it turns out she's not keen on snakes. The reptilian kind obviously.'
Ew. Joey did not need that much information. So Adrian had a girl round already? She'd barely been out of the room for a few hours. Yeesh... What a man slut.
She typed out another irritated reply. 'Move the tank yourself.'
She didn't have to wait long for the next message. 'Remember how my hands aren't used for fighting? Well, they're not used for carrying things either.'
Joey snapped her phone shut in annoyance. Of course. Lazy rich boys didn't do manual labour. But the most annoying thing about it was that she couldn't really complain. Adrian could have said from the offset that she couldn't keep Blackheart in his room if he'd wanted to, but he hadn't. So Joey had to try and play nice if she wanted her pet to stay in his good books.
As an afterthought, she opened her phone again and sent one last text before getting to her feet. 'You'd better have some clothes on when I get there or I'll let Blackheart loose in your room.' Well, she couldn't play nice all the time.
She deposited her takeout box in one of the nearest trashcans and grudgingly made her way back to Adrian's room. She didn't bother knocking – she just barged straight through the door, very astutely not looking anywhere but down at the carpet. "Right. Let's just get this over with."
"You don't have to stare at your feet," came Adrian's amused voice. "I did heed your warning."
In spite of herself, Joey looked up. Thankfully, Adrian was telling the truth. He was sat on the edge of the bed still in his jeans and wearing an unbuttoned shirt. Joey caught a glimpse of a girl with red hair and glasses behind him, but quickly averted her gaze again. The less she knew about Adrian's booty calls, the better it would be for her sanity.
She concentrated instead on getting hold of Blackheart's tank before any suggestions could be made about her staying to join them. With Adrian, that was always possible. "She'd just better be gone before midnight," Joey warned.
Not wanting to give Adrian time to make another smart comeback, she hurriedly struggled out of the room with the tank, leaving the door open. She could probably have shut it with her foot, but she didn't, just to be annoying. She took Blackheart back to her own room in the meantime and decided to let her out for a bit.
"How is he still managing to annoy me even on my day off?" she lamented to the snake that was now twisting its way through her hands and around her forearms, as she reclined back on the cold bed.
Of course, Blackheart had no response to give, but Joey began to feel less frustrated the longer she lay there. She sighed. This first week had been aggravating enough. How was she supposed to get through another few months of this? Besides the fake Strigoi attack, it didn't feel much like she was doing guardian duties. It felt more like babysitting.
Somebody knocked on the door, disturbing her thoughts. Joey sat up, feeling a sense of foreboding. If this was Adrian, then she was definitely prepared to see if her pet snake really was big enough to strangle somebody. She crossed the room and reluctantly opened the door.
"Hi, sweetie. I was hoping I'd find you here."
"Oh, hey, Mom," Joey breathed a sigh of relief. She hooked Blackheart around her shoulders – it looked like her pet wasn't going to get her prey today.
"I knew it was your day off today so I thought I'd come and see how you were doing," said Mela Conta. She took one look at Joey's face and made up her own mind. "But I'm guessing it's not going so great..."
"You could say that," Joey agreed.
"Come on," said Mela, steering her daughter back into the room and shutting the door behind her. "Let's talk it out."
Ever the good politician, Mela's preferred method for problem solving was talking things through. They both sat back down on the bed and she allowed her daughter to complain to her about everything that was on her mind. Which generally all came down to one thing.
"I wouldn't really wanna walk in on a good friend in that situation," Joey pointed out. "Let alone somebody I don't even like. It was totally unreasonable of him to ask me to go in there, knowing what he's just about to do." In the midst of her ranting, she'd conveniently forgotten the whole 'couldn't complain' idea.
Mela let Joey talk herself out before making her own point. "Well, the fact is that no matter how much he annoys you, no matter how unreasonable he may or may not be, he's still your charge. If you want the fair chance to become a guardian now, you have to stick with your field training. It's like it or lump it basically."
Joey scowled to herself. Her mom was right. She was always right. There were other guardians who didn't necessarily get on with their charge, but you didn't hear them complaining. It was all about being professional – no matter how aggravating the person was who you had to protect. You worked as hard as you could to protect them, regardless.
When Joey didn't say anything, Mela added, "Do you know why we pushed you two together when you were kids?"
Joey was a little startled. She'd never really imagined there to be a proper reason behind it. "No, why?"
"Though most of the royals were always quite accepting of mine and your dad's marriage, there's still a couple of old-fashioned fools who believe it's 'wrong' and 'unnatural'," Mela explained. "In general, Moroi and dhampir friendships are fairly common, but not so much inside the Court itself. So we wanted you and Adrian to be an example of that."
Joey made a face. "Plan kinda backfired seeing as we were never friends on any level." She then frowned as she realised something. "And why would Nathan Ivashkov agree to that? He's never exactly been my biggest fan."
"Because we didn't allow him a say in it," said Mela, almost smugly. "This was mine and Daniella Ivashkov's idea. She actually always supported me in the political side of things, so she didn't mind going along with it."
From what Joey knew of Adrian's mother, that didn't sound much like her. She hadn't expected her to be one to favour Moroi-dhampir relations, especially when it came to involving her own son. But then she'd never really understood how different things could be from a political viewpoint.
"Wait... You weren't ever hoping for anything more than a friendship when you planned this, were you?" Joey asked suspiciously, sincerely hoping that the answer was no.
"It wasn't the original intent," Mela reassured. "But we wouldn't have been against it if it had progressed that way between you two." She laughed at the face Joey was making. "Besides, Adrian's from an extremely powerful family. If things had gone that way, it would have looked good for our family too."
"Sorry, but that's never gonna happen," said Joey, really quite appalled by the idea. Who knew her mom had such a manipulative side when it came to image?
"Well, I can always have hope for you yet," Mela teased. "They say that there's a fine line between love and hate."
Joey looked quite horrified. "Ew is all I can say to that."
Mela laughed again. "The reason I'm telling you this is that I just want you to try and be a good guardian to him, okay? It really does look good for us and he's not as bad as you think. He's had a bit of a tough time lately."
"Why, did they stop doing the cigarettes he likes?" said Joey sarcastically.
Mela ignored her daughter's sarcasm. "He had a rough break-up not that long before you came back to the Court, so go easy on him."
Joey couldn't imagine Adrian having a real relationship, let alone a real break-up. She certainly couldn't imagine him being particularly cut up about it. "Huh."
"So now that you've finished complaining about your charge, what do you think about the rest of the field training so far?" Mela asked.
"It's a lot of waiting around," Joey admitted. "I mean, I knew it would be anyway. Anyone training to be a guardian knows that. I just didn't know how much waiting around you had to do... But I did well with my first fight! Did you hear I already beat one of the guardians?"
"Of course I did," Mela smiled. "Everyone knows to give me the gossip on how you've been doing. Ray Hawthorne was quite impressed, from the sounds of it."
"Ah, it was great! I managed to get him in the jaw twice!" Joey rambled on excitedly, giving her mother a play-by-play recount on how the fight had gone. They sat talking for another half an hour before Mela deigned that it was time for her to take off.
"We've got a council meeting tomorrow, so I need to go and brush up on a couple of things that I wanted to bring up," she explained, getting to her feet. "But I'll see if I can find you again next Sunday and see how you're doing."
"Yeah, okay," said Joey brightly. She'd always gotten on well with her mom and she enjoyed their talks, even if the things she told her weren't always what she wanted to hear. "I hope it goes alright."
"Oh, I'm sure I'll muddle through it," said Mela casually. Joey just smiled. What her mom did could never be described as 'muddling through'. "Good luck again with your training. And remember, try not to be too mean to Adrian."
Joey made a face. "Yeah, yeah, I'll try." Trying didn't necessarily mean succeeding.
Mela stroked the side of Blackheart's head, who was still hanging contently around Joey's neck. "And you know that threats always work if he really won't play ball," she joked.
Joey's face split into a grin. "Now that I can do."