DPOV
"Oh, I love you Dimitri. More than anything. You come first. Always." I was dreaming of the cabin two nights ago, of studying Roza's body while wondering how I had gotten so lucky to have her, of finally giving in because I loved her and had almost lost her before she knew. I was in the middle of responding by trailing kisses all over her when I felt the fear. Fear, pain, heartbreak, anguish, anger and hate all hit me like a tidal wave.
Then the images. The images I never wanted to see again. The images of my other half having a Strigoi bite his neck. The emotions overrunning me. Acting in haze to protect my Dimitri, my soulmate and my lover. The Strigoi had tossed him away as if he were nothing. He was everything, he was my everything. By the time no more Strigoi came I went to my Dimitri, my comrade, and pulled him to me. "Come on!" I cried in anguish. My heart breaking into a million pieces. "Wake up, wake up, wake up. Come on Dimitri, please wake up. I love you. Please, please, please wake up," I quietly chanted repetitively. Tears streaming down my face while I ran my hands through his hair and kissed his forehead. He can't be dead, he can't be, he can't be. Not after last night. He can't be dead after all we'd done last night. We'd just accepted we couldn't fight our love, accepted and embraced it, he simply couldn't be dead.
"Dimitri, please!" I screamed, and sat bolt upright in bed. Oh shit! I did not just blow our cover! We were still on human schedule so I flipped on my dim lamp. My sheets were soaked from sweat- as were my clothes, my long almost-black hair sticking to my forehead, and I was shaking. Oh god. That was terrible. Focus Rose! He's alright. He's fine. He's in his dorm. He's alive and safe. Mayb- Rose! Enough with the negative! He's alive, alive, well and in his dorm. Before I knew it I was sneaking out of my dorm and-
I woke up to a banging on my door and opened up to see a drenched-in-sweat Rose. I could see and sense her relief at seeing me. "Oh Roza." I pulled her into my arms and dorm, shutting and locking the door.
"Dimitri," she cried, tears streaming down her face, as I sat on my bed with her on my lap. "God. It was terrible. Like blow-our-cover terrible," she slowly calmed as I ran my hands through her damp- yet still beautiful- hair and kissed her head. The longer we simply sat, the more she simply listened to my steady heartbeat the more she calmed.
"Rose? What's up?" I gently asked once she'd calmed completely.
"The caves. You and the caves. The screaming, the haze and the heartache over seeing you unconscious." The images flooded my mind. But they weren't in my perspective. Just like my interrupted dream. I was bonded to her, shadow kissed.
"Roza, love, look at me." She looked at me and I felt the pull just before I snapped into her head, into her skin, I could feel how everyplace I touched her made her feel. When I snapped out seconds later I continued. "I know that nightmare. I just went through it with you. I can feel how I make you feel. I can feel all the love and relief flooding out through you. Roza, love, I'm bonded to you."
I heard her thinking 'translation: 'I died'. I did lose him.'
"Oh Roza. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." I kissed her forehead. "I love you. I'm here and alive because of you." My phone just had to choose then to ring. Oh, bleeding hell. Can we not catch a break! "Belikov?" I answered.
"Belikov. It's Petrov. Is Rose with you? One of the students heard her giving a bloodcurdling scream then was gone when we checked her room." Oh shit! Rose was right. Cover blower. I sighed before answering.
"Yes. She is."
"Is she okay?"
"No. She's not, not really. She's calmed considerably but she's still shaken." I could feel it.
"I'm coming. I want to know what had her wake like that. I'm at your door."
'Don't you dare let me go, Comrade.'
"Rose, I have to." I unwrapped myself from her- immediately feeling how vulnerable that made her feel- and let Petrov in while ending the phone call. "Petrov." I nodded.
"Alberta," came Rose's small greeting. I could feel her nerves and fear singing through to me as I shut the door, leaning my back against it. She didn't want to lose me again.
"What happened Rose? It can't be ghosts again, could it?" Alberta gently prodded my woman. The love of my life shook her head mumbling out "Ung-ung. The wards are up, they can't get through." 'A nightmare, however, could. And like hell is that getting revealed willingly' she mentally added.
"Rose? What happened in those caves? You forced us out. I mean that literally." Oh, that was overload for her, she crumbled.
"Rose. Shhh. It'll be okay." I looked my woman in her eyes and she pulled me in.
Looking at me from her perspective was rather intriguing. When she looked at me she saw her other half, her home, her safety, and her sanity saver. I felt all the love she felt for me along with all the total and utter disbelief that I was hers and that she was mine. I couldn't help the smile that pulled across my face and I felt her heart skip a beat, her breath catching and her mind going blank. God, what I did to her.
"Guys? What's going on? And don't say nothing." Alberta snapped us back out. I actually had to shake my head and Rose laughed. 'Now you know how I feel when Liss pulls me in.' "Seriously guys. One of you please tell me." Alberta continued.
"We're bonded," was all I said because that was all I could get out. Rose flinched because it meant I'd died, that she'd lost me, that she now kept me out of the land of the dead, that I'd also see ghosts and sense Strigoi. Alberta looked between us disbelievingly. "Rose, settle. I'm right here," I said in response to her inner turmoil. 'Not close enough. You're never close enough.' "I know Rose. I know." I felt the same way. She slowly calmed. "Much better."
"Mmm. Better, Dimitri. Not much better, just better." 'Much better would be an undiscovered us back in the cabin.'
God, that made me have to stifle a chuckle. I completely agreed. "You have a point there."
"You two really are bonded. Belikov, I'll leave you to deal with her. And I mean don't-return-her-to-her-dorm deal with her." Did she know? Were we that obvious? "Try and keep it G-rated. No one needs to know what you two are really like in action. How are you still standing there Belikov? Go to your Rose." Oh, she knew. She already knew beforehand. I joined my woman on my bed, wrapping her in me and trying to shelter her from everything.
"Petrov? How?" I barely got out.
"It's a long story. As long as you two's. She needs you Belikov, don't let go of her."
"How could I when I'm bonded to her as well?"
"Night lovebirds," with that soft farewell she left.
"I'm just locking the door Roza," I whispered in her ear before doing just that. Returning to her as quickly as possible. "I love you. Shower time?"
'Together?'
"Come on." I led her into the bathroom and turned on the shower. That shower most certainly wasn't G-rated. It completely calmed and reassured my Roza though. "I love you."
"Hmm. I love you too. I also need you, more than you know."
"I might have an idea," I switched our positions on the bed so I hovered over her before leaning down and kissing her. And it began again. Staying G-rated with my Roza when she needed me, needed to know just how alive I was, needed to know how much I loved her was simply impossible. We fell back to sleep entwined. This time her dream of the cabin interrupted mine. "Mm. Roza. Love. You pulled me in again." I whispered in her ear when I pulled back to my own head.
"Damn. Sorry Dimitri," her sleep-laced voice mumbled.
"Forgiven my love." I kissed her cheeks before returning to my own sleep. Or so I had thought.
"Ivashkov, what are you doing?"
"Stop dreaming of Rose. She's your student."
"Stop dreaming of my soulmate? Stop dreaming of the woman who's keeping me alive? Not happening Ivashkov. You're not getting her. Stop visiting her. I can tell you know, I can always tell when you've visited her and pissed her off. She's mine. All mine. And I'm hers. All hers. I know exactly what's going on with her." He simply scoffed at that. "I'm bonded to her Ivashkov. I can't leave her side; I keep her sane and she keeps me alive. You're not getting her."
"Oh. I'll get her. She'll see reason."
"You can't get her. As I said, she's mine. In the traditional sense of the phrase."
"You slept with her?" He looked like he wanted to be sick.
"Yes. I hold her. She holds me." It was true.
"Good god. Why?! Why?"
"Why do you think? I love her." More than life itself. "Now. Leave her alone. If only in the sense of stop invading her dreams."
"I'm about to see her now. Later Belikov." He released the dream and I jumped into Roza's head just in time for Ivashkov to show up. "Leave her alone," I growled at the idiot.
"Bu-"
"You heard him Adrian. Leave. I've had a long night. Leave, me, alone." With that she shoved him out. "Sorry about that Comrade."
"You didn't pull me. I came voluntarily. He'd just interrupted my sleep and told me he'd visit you after I'd explicitly told him not to. I dove in to do just what I did."