Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection: 1/6 (142 page)

“For me, it’s as bright as day.” When I didn’t respond, he added, “It could be like that for you, too.”

I tried to picture that. Would the shadows seem as mysterious? Would the moon and stars shine so brightly? “I don’t know. I kind of like the darkness.”

“Only because you don’t know any better.”

I sighed. “So you keep telling me.”

He turned toward me and pushed the hair away from my face. “Rose, this is driving me crazy. I’m tired of this waiting. I want us to be together. Don’t you like this? What we have? It could be even better.” His words sounded romantic, but not the tone.

I did like this. I loved the haze I lived in, the haze in which all worries disappeared. I loved being close to him, loved the way he kissed me and told me he wanted me. . . .

“Why?” I asked.

“Why what?” He sounded puzzled, something I hadn’t heard yet in a Strigoi.

“Why do you want me?” I had no idea why I even asked that. He apparently didn’t know either.

“Why wouldn’t I want you?”

He spoke in such an obvious way, like it was the stupidest question in the world. It probably was, I realized, and yet . . . I’d somehow been expecting another answer.

Just then, my stomach twisted. With all the time I’d spent with Dimitri, I really had managed to push the Strigoi nausea off my radar. The presence of other Strigoi increased it, though. I’d felt it around Nathan, and I felt it now. I sat up, and Dimitri did too, almost at the same time. He’d likely been alerted by his superior hearing.

A dark shape loomed over us, blotting out the stars. It was a woman, and Dimitri shot up. I stayed where I was, on the ground.

She was strikingly beautiful, in a hard and terrible way. Her build was similar to mine, indicating she hadn’t been a Moroi when turned. Isaiah, the Strigoi who’d captured me, had been very old, and power had radiated from him. This woman hadn’t been around nearly so long, but I could sense that she was older than Dimitri and much stronger.

She said something in Russian to him, and her voice was as cold as her beauty. Dimitri answered back, his tone confident yet polite. I heard Nathan’s name mentioned a couple of times as they spoke. Dimitri reached down and helped me up, and I felt embarrassed at how often I needed his assistance, when I used to almost be a match for him.

“Rose,” he said, “this is Galina. She’s the one who has been kind enough to let you stay.”

Galina’s face didn’t look so kind. It was devoid of all emotion, and I felt like my entire soul was exposed to her. While I was uncertain of a lot of things around here, I’d picked up enough to realize that my continual residence here was a rare and fragile thing. I swallowed.

“
Spasibo
,” I said. I didn’t know how to tell her it was nice to meet her—and honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was—but I figured a simple thank-you was good enough. If she’d been his former instructor and trained at a normal Academy, she probably knew English and was faking it like Yeva. I had no clue why she’d do that, but if you could snap a teen dhampir’s neck, you were entitled to do whatever you wanted.

Galina’s expression—or lack thereof—didn’t change with my thanks, and she turned her attention back to Dimitri. They conversed over me, and Dimitri gestured to me a couple of times. I recognized the word for
strong
.

Finally, Galina issued something that sounded final and left us without any sort of goodbye. Neither Dimitri nor I moved until I felt the nausea dissipate.

“Come on,” he said. “We should get back.”

We walked back through the maze, though I had no idea how he knew where to go. It was funny. When I’d first arrived, my dream had been to get outside and escape. Now that I was here . . . well, it didn’t seem that important. Galina’s anger did.

“What did she say?” I asked.

“She doesn’t like that you’re still here. She wants me to awaken you or kill you.”

“Oh. Um, what are you going to do?”

He stayed silent for a few seconds. “I’ll wait a little longer and then . . . I will make the choice for you.”

He didn’t specify which choice he’d be making, and I almost began my earlier pleas to die before becoming Strigoi. But suddenly, instead, I said, “How long?”

“Not long, Roza. You need to choose. And make the right choice.”

“Which is?”

He held up his hands. “All of this. A life together.”

We’d emerged from the maze. I stared at the house—which was crazy enormous when viewed from the outside—and at the beautiful gardens around us. It was like something from a dream. Beyond that, endless countryside rolled away, eventually becoming lost in the darkness and blending into the black sky—except for one tiny part that had a soft purple glow on the horizon. I frowned, studying it, then turned my attention back to Dimitri.

“And what then? Then I work for Galina too?”

“For a while.”

“How long is a while?”

We came to a stop outside the house. Dimitri looked down into my eyes, his face alight with a look that made me take a step back.

“Until we kill her, Rose. Until we kill her and take all of this for ourselves.”

D
IMITRI DIDN’T ELABORATE. I WAS too startled by his words and the rest of the night’s events to even know how to begin to address them. He took me back inside, past the Strigoi on guard duty, and upstairs to my suite. Nathan was no longer outside.

For a few brief moments, that nagging voice in my head spoke loudly enough to break through my addled thoughts. If I had no guard in the hall and Inna returned soon, I had a very good chance of threatening her enough to get out of here. Admittedly, that would mean I’d have to deal with a house of God only knew how many Strigoi, but my escape odds were better in the house than in this room.

Then, almost as soon as those thoughts appeared, they vanished. Dimitri snaked his arm around me and pulled me to him. It had been chilly outside, and even if his body was cold, his clothes and jacket provided some warmth. I snuggled closer to him as his hands ran all over me. I thought he was going to bite me, but it was our mouths that met, hard and furious. I wrapped my fingers in his hair, trying to pull him closer to me. Meanwhile, his fingers were running against my bare leg, pushing my skirt up almost to my hip. Anticipation and eagerness lit every part of my body. I had dreamed about the cabin for so long, remembering it with so much longing. I’d never expected anything like that to happen again, but now it could, and I was astonished at how badly I wanted it.

My hands moved down to his shirt, undoing all the buttons so that I could touch his chest. His skin still felt like ice, a startling contrast to the burning within me. He moved his lips from mine, down to my neck and shoulder, pushing down the dress’s strap as he covered my flesh with hungry kisses. His hand was still on the side of my bare hip, and I frantically tried to pull his shirt off altogether.

Suddenly, with a surprising abruptness, he jerked away and shoved me down. At first, I thought it was just more of the foreplay between us, until I realized he was purposely pushing me away.

“No,” he said, voice hard. “Not yet. Not until you’re awakened.”

“Why?” I asked desperately. I couldn’t think of anything except him touching me—and, well, another bite. “Why does it matter? Is there . . . is there a reason we can’t?” Until I’d come here, sex with a Strigoi had never occurred to me…maybe it just wasn’t possible.

He leaned toward me, putting his lips near my ear. “No, but it’ll be so much better if you’re awakened. Let me do it . . . let me do it, and then we can do anything we want. . . .”

It was a bargaining chip, I realized vaguely. He wanted me—it was written all over him—but he was using the lure of sex to get me to give in. And honestly? I was this close to accepting. My body was overriding my mind—nearly.

“No,” I whimpered. “I . . . I’m scared. . . .”

That dangerous look softened, and while he didn’t exactly look like the Dimitri from before, there was something a little less Strigoi about him. “Rose, do you think I’d do anything that would hurt you?” Somewhere, hadn’t there been a discussion about how my options were to turn or die? The latter seemed like it might hurt, but I didn’t mention that just now.

“The bite . . . the turning would hurt. . . .”

“I told you: It’ll be just like what we’ve already done. You’ll enjoy it. It won’t hurt, I swear it.”

I looked away. Damn it. Why couldn’t he still be sinister and scary? It was so much easier to put my foot down and resist. Even in the heat of passion, I was able to resist. But somehow . . . seeing him like this, calm and reasonable . . . well, it was too close to the Dimitri I’d loved. And
that
was hard to turn away from. For the first time, it made turning Strigoi seem . . . not so bad.

“I don’t know,” I said lamely.

He released me and sat up, frustration filling his features. It was almost a relief. “Galina’s patience is running out. So is mine.”

“You said we still have time. . . . I just need to think more. . . .” How long could I use that excuse? The narrowing of his eyes told me not much longer.

“I have to go,” he said harshly. There would be no more touching or kissing, I could tell. “I need to deal with some things.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, both confused and afraid. I didn’t know which Dimitri I wanted. The terrifying one, the sensual one, or the almost—but still not quite—gentle one.

He said nothing. Without any other warning, he leaned down and bit into the tender skin of my throat. Whatever feeble escape strategies I had were gone. I closed my eyes, nearly falling over, and only his arm wrapped firmly around me kept me upright. Just like when we kissed, his mouth was warm against my flesh, and the feel of his tongue and teeth sent electricity through me.

And like that, it was over. He pulled away, licking his lips as he still continued to hold onto me. The fog was back. The world was wonderful and happy and I was without any cares. Whatever he’d been worrying about with Nathan and Galina meant nothing to me. The fear I’d felt moments ago . . . my disappointment over sex . . . my confusion—I didn’t have time to worry about any of that, not when life was so beautiful and I loved Dimitri so much. I smiled up at him and tried to hug him again, but he was already leading me to the couch.

“I’ll see you later.” In a flash, he was at the door, which saddened me. I wanted him to stay. Stay forever. “Remember, I want you—and I would never let anything bad happen to you. I’ll protect you. But . . . I can’t wait much longer.”

With that, he left. His words made me smile more broadly. Dimitri wanted me. Vaguely, I recalled asking him outside
why
he wanted me. Why on earth had I asked? What answer had I wanted? Why did it matter? He wanted me. That was what counted.

That thought and the wonderful endorphin rush enveloped me as I lay on the couch, and I felt drowsiness overtaking me. Walking over to the bed seemed like too much work, so I stayed where I was and just let sleep come.

And, unexpectedly, I found myself in one of Adrian’s dreams.

I’d pretty much given up on him. After my first desperate attempts at escape in the suite, I’d finally convinced myself that Adrian wasn’t coming back, that I’d sent him away for good. Yet here he was, standing right in front of me—or, well, at least his dream version was. Often we were in the woods or a garden, but today we stood where we’d first met, on the porch of an Idaho ski lodge. Sun shone down, and mountains soared off to the side of us.

I grinned broadly. “Adrian!”

I didn’t think I’d ever seen him look as surprised as he did just then. Considering how mean I usually was to him, I could understand his feelings.

“Hello, Rose,” he said. His voice sounded uncertain, like he was worried I might be playing a trick on him.

“You look good today,” I told him. It was true. He wore dark jeans and a printed button-down shirt in shades of navy and turquoise that looked fantastic with his dark green eyes. Those eyes, however, looked weary. Worn. That was a little odd. In these dreams, he could shape the world and even our appearances to what he wanted, with only a little effort. He could have looked perfect but instead appeared to be reflecting real-world fatigue.

“So do you.” His voice was still wary, as he eyed me from head to toe. I was still in the clingy sundress, my hair down and loose, the sapphires around my neck. “That looks like something I’d normally dress you in. Are you asleep in that?”

“Yup.” I smoothed down the dress’s skirt, thinking how pretty it looked. I wondered if Dimitri had liked it. He hadn’t said so specifically, but he had kept telling me I was beautiful. “I didn’t think you’d come back.”

“I didn’t think I would either.”

I looked back up at him. He wasn’t like his usual self at all. “Are you trying to figure out where I am again?”

“No, I don’t care about that anymore.” He sighed. “The only thing I care about is that you aren’t
here
. You have to come back, Rose.”

I crossed my arms and flounced onto the porch’s railing. “Adrian, I’m not ready for anything romant—”

“Not for me,” he exclaimed. “For her. You have to come back for Lissa. That’s why I’m here.”

“Lissa . . .”

My waking self was pumped full of endorphins, and it carried over here. I tried to remember why I should be so worried about Lissa.

Adrian took a step forward and studied me carefully. “Yeah, you know, Lissa? Your best friend? The one you’re bonded to and sworn to protect?”

I swung my legs back and forth. “I never made any vows.”

“What the hell’s the matter with you?”

I didn’t like his agitated tone. It was ruining my good mood. “What’s the matter with
you
?”

“You aren’t acting like yourself. Your aura . . .” He frowned, unable to continue.