Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection: 1/6 (166 page)

Adrian surveyed me from head to toe when I arrived at his parents’ town house. They kept a permanent residence here at the Court. The small smile on his face told me he liked what he saw.

“You approve?” I asked, spinning around.

He slipped an arm around my waist. “Unfortunately, yes. I was hoping you’d show up in something a lot sluttier. Something that would scandalize my parents.”

“Sometimes it’s like you don’t even care about me as a person,” I observed as we walked inside. “It’s like you’re just using me for shock value.”

“It’s both, little dhampir. I care about you,
and
I’m using you for shock value.”

I hid a smile as the Ivashkovs’ housekeeper led us toward the dining room. The Court actually had restaurants and cafés tucked away within its buildings, but royals like Adrian’s parents would consider it classier to have a fancy dinner in their home. Me, I would have preferred being out in public. More escape options.

“You must be Rose.”

My assessment of the exits was interrupted when a very tall, very elegant Moroi woman came into the room. She wore a long, dark green satin dress that immediately made me feel out of place and that perfectly matched the color of her—and Adrian’s—eyes. Her dark hair was pulled into a bun, and she smiled down at me with genuine warmth as she took my hand.

“I’m Daniella Ivashkov,” she said. “It’s very nice to meet you at last.”

Was it really? My hand automatically shook hers in return. “Nice to meet you too, Lady Ivashkov.”

“Call me Daniella, please.” She turned to Adrian and
tsk
ed as she straightened the collar of his button-up shirt. “Honestly, darling,” she said. “Do you even look in a mirror before you walk out the door? Your hair’s a mess.”

He dodged her as she reached toward his head. “Are you kidding? I spent hours in front of the mirror to
make
it look this way.”

She gave a tormented sigh. “Some days I can’t decide if I’m lucky or not to have no other children.” Behind her, quiet servants were setting food out on the table. Steam rose up from the platters, and my stomach rumbled. I hoped no one else heard. Daniella glanced off down the hall beyond her. “Nathan, will you hurry up? The food’s getting cold.”

A few moments later, heavy footsteps sounded on the ornate wood floor, and Nathan Ivashkov swept into the room. Like his wife, he was dressed formally, the blue satin of his tie gleaming next to the starkness of his heavy black suit coat. I was glad they had air-conditioning in here, or he’d have been melting in that heavy fabric. The feature on him that stood out the most was what I remembered from before: a distinctly silver head of hair and mustache. I wondered if Adrian’s hair would look like that when he was older. Nah, I’d never find out. Adrian would probably dye his hair at the first sign of gray—or silver.

Adrian’s father might be exactly as I remembered, but it was clear he had no clue who I was. In fact, he seemed genuinely startled to see me.

“This is Adrian’s, ah, friend, Rose Hathaway,” said Daniella gently. “You remember—he said he’d bring her tonight.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Lord Ivashkov.”

Unlike his wife, he didn’t offer to put us on a first-name basis, which relieved me a little. The Strigoi who had forcefully turned Dimitri had been named Nathan too, and it wasn’t a name I wanted to speak aloud. Adrian’s father looked me over, but it wasn’t with the appreciation Adrian had shown earlier. It was more like I was an oddity. “Oh. The dhampir girl.”

He wasn’t rude exactly, just disinterested. I mean, it wasn’t like he called me a blood whore or anything. We all sat down to eat, and although Adrian kept his typical devil-may-care smile on his face, I again got the vibe that he really,
really
wanted a cigarette. Probably hard liquor, too. Being around his parents was not something he enjoyed. When one of the servants poured us all wine, Adrian looked immensely relieved and didn’t hold back. I shot him a cautioning look that he ignored.

Nathan managed to rapidly devour his balsamic-glazed pork medallions while still looking elegant and proper. “So,” he said, attention focused on Adrian, “now that Vasilisa’s graduated, what are you going to do with yourself? You aren’t going to keep slumming with high school students, are you? There’s no point in you being there anymore.”

“I don’t know,” said Adrian lazily. He shook his head, further tousling his carefully mussed hair. “I kind of like hanging out with them. They think I’m funnier than I really am.”

“Unsurprising,” his father replied. “You aren’t funny at all. It’s time you do something productive. If you aren’t going to go back to college, you should at least start sitting in on some of the family business meetings. Tatiana spoils you, but you could learn a lot from Rufus.”

I knew enough about royal politics to recognize the name. The oldest member of each family was usually its “prince” or “princess” and held a Royal Council position—and was eligible to become king or queen. When Tatiana had taken the crown, Rufus had become prince of the Ivashkov family since he was the next oldest.

“True,” said Adrian deadpan. He wasn’t eating so much as pushing his food around. “I’d really like to know how he keeps his two mistresses a secret from his wife.”

“Adrian!” snapped Daniella, a flush spilling over her pale cheeks. “Don’t say things like that at our dinner table—and certainly not in front of a guest.”

Nathan seemed to notice me again and gave a dismissive shrug. “She doesn’t matter.” I bit my lip on that, repressing the urge to see if I could throw my china plate Frisbee style and hit him in the head. I decided against it. Not only would it ruin dinner, but the plate probably wouldn’t get the lift I needed. Nathan turned his scowl back to Adrian. “But
you
do. I’m not going to have you sitting around doing nothing—and using our money to fund it.”

Something told me I should stay out of this, but I couldn’t stand to see Adrian dressed down by his annoying father. Adrian
did
sit around and waste money, but Nathan didn’t have the right to make fun of him for it. I mean, sure, I did all the time. But that was different.

“Maybe you could go to Lehigh with Lissa,” I offered. “Keep studying spirit with her and then . . . do whatever else you were doing the last time you were in college. . . .”

“Drinking and skipping classes,” said Nathan.

“Art,” said Daniella. “Adrian took art classes.”

“Really?” I asked, turning to him in surprise. Somehow, I could imagine him as an artistic type. It fit his erratic personality. “Then this would be perfect. You could pick it up again.”

He shrugged and finished his second glass of wine. “I don’t know. This college would probably have the same problem the last one did.”

I frowned. “What’s that?”

“Homework.”

“Adrian,” growled his father.

“It’s okay,” said Adrian breezily. He rested his arm casually on the table. “I don’t really need a job or extra money. After Rose and I get married, the kids and I’ll just live off of her guardian paycheck.”

We all froze, even me. I knew perfectly well that he was joking. I mean, even if he harbored fantasies of marriage and kids (and I was
pretty
sure he didn’t), the meager salary a guardian made would
never
be enough to keep him in the luxurious life he required.

Adrian’s father, however, clearly did
not
think he was joking. Daniella seemed undecided. Me, I was just uncomfortable. It was a very, very bad topic to bring up at a dinner like this, and I couldn’t believe Adrian had gone there. I didn’t even think the wine was to blame. Adrian just liked tormenting his father that much.

The awful silence grew thicker and thicker. My gut instinct to fill conversation voids was raging, but something told me to stay quiet. The tension increased. When the doorbell rang, all four of us nearly jumped out of our chairs.

The housekeeper, Torrie, scurried off to answer it, and I breathed a mental sigh of relief. An unexpected visitor would help ease the tension.

Or maybe not.

Torrie cleared her throat when she returned, clearly flustered as she looked from Daniella to Nathan. “Her Royal Majesty Queen Tatiana is here.”

No. Way.

All three Ivashkovs stood up abruptly, and a half second later, I joined them. I hadn’t believed Adrian earlier when he said Tatiana might come. From his face, he seemed pretty surprised now too. But sure enough, there she was. She swept into the room, elegant in what must have been business casual for her: tailored black slacks and jacket with a red silk and lace blouse underneath. Little jeweled barrettes gleamed in her dark hair, and those imperious eyes peered down at us all as we offered hasty bows. Even her own family followed formalities.

“Aunt Tatiana,” said Nathan, forcing what looked like a smile onto his face. I don’t think he did it very often. “Won’t you join us for dinner?”

She waved a hand dismissively. “No, no. I can’t stay. I’m on my way to meet with Priscilla but thought I’d stop by when I heard Adrian had returned.” Her gaze fell on him. “I can’t believe you’ve been here all day and didn’t come visit.” Her voice was cool, but I swear there was an amused twinkle in her eyes. It was scary. She wasn’t someone I thought of as warm and fuzzy. The whole experience of seeing her outside of one of her ceremonial rooms was totally unreal.

Adrian grinned at her. He was clearly the most comfortable person in the room right now. For reasons I never understood, Tatiana loved and spoiled Adrian. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t love her other family members; it was just clear that he was her favorite. It had always surprised me, considering what a scoundrel he was sometimes.

“Aw, I figured you had more important things to do than see me,” he told her. “Besides, I quit smoking, so now we won’t be able to go sneak cigarettes out behind the throne room together.”

“Adrian!” chastised Nathan, turning bright red. It occurred to me then that I could have based a drinking game around how many times he exclaimed his son’s name disapprovingly. “Auntie, I’m sor—”

Tatiana held up a hand again. “Oh, be silent, Nathan. No one wants to hear it.” I almost choked. Being in the same room with the queen was horrid, but it was almost worth it to see her verbally bitch-slap Lord Ivashkov. She turned back to Adrian, face thawing. “You’ve finally quit? It’s about time. I suppose this is your doing?”

It took me a moment to realize she was speaking to me. Until that point, I’d kind of hoped she might not have even noticed me. It seemed the only explanation for her not screaming at them to remove the rebellious little blood whore. It was shocking. Her voice wasn’t accusatory, either. It was . . . impressed.

“W-well, it wasn’t me, Your Majesty,” I said. My meekness was a far cry from my behavior at our last meeting. “Adrian was the one who had the, uh, determination to do it.”

So help me, Tatiana chuckled. “Very diplomatic. They should assign you to a politician.”

Nathan didn’t like the attention on me. I wasn’t sure I did either, semi-pleasant or not. “Are you and Priscilla doing business tonight? Or just having a friendly dinner?”

Tatiana dragged her gaze from me. “Both. There’s been some inter-family squabbling going on. Not publicly, but it’s getting out. People are making noise about security. Some are ready to start training up right now. Others are wondering if guardians can go without sleep.” She rolled her eyes. “And those are the tamest of the suggestions.”

No question about it. This visit had gotten a lot more interesting.

“I hope you’re going to shut those would-be militants up,” growled Nathan. “Us fighting alongside guardians is absurd.”

“What’s
absurd
,” said Tatiana, “is having strife among the royal classes. That’s what I want to ‘shut up.’” Her tone grew lofty, very queenlike. “We’re the leaders among the Moroi. We have to set an example. We need to be unified to survive.”

I studied her curiously. What did that mean? She hadn’t agreed or disagreed with Nathan’s stance on Moroi fighting. She’d only mentioned establishing peace among her people. But how? Was her method to encourage the new motion or squash it? Security was a huge concern for everyone after the attack, and it fell on her to figure it out.

“Sounds pretty hard to me,” said Adrian, playing oblivious to the seriousness of the matter. “If you still want a cigarette afterward, I’ll make an exception.”

“I’ll settle for you coming to make a proper visit tomorrow,” she said dryly. “Leave the cigarettes at home.” She glanced at his empty wineglass. “And other things.” A flash of steely resolve crossed her gaze, and even though it melted as quickly as it had come, I felt almost relieved. There was the icy Tatiana I knew.

He saluted. “Noted.”

Tatiana gave the rest of us brief glances. “Have a good evening,” was her only farewell. We bowed again, and then she headed back toward the front door. As she did, I heard scuffling and murmured voices. She’d been traveling with a retinue, I realized, and had left them all in the foyer while she came to say hello to Adrian.

Dinner was quiet after that. Tatiana’s visit had kind of left us all astonished. At least it meant I didn’t have to hear Adrian and his father bicker anymore. Daniella mostly maintained what little conversation there was, attempting to inquire about my interests, and I realized she hadn’t said a word during Tatiana’s brief visit. Daniella had married into the Ivashkovs, and I wondered if she found the queen intimidating.

When the time came for us to leave, Daniella was all smiles while Nathan retired to his study.

“You need to come by more often,” she told Adrian, smoothing his hair in spite of his protests. “And you’re welcome anytime, Rose.”

“Thank you,” I said, dumbfounded. I kept studying her face to see if she was lying, but I didn’t think she was. It made no sense. Moroi didn’t approve of long-term relationships with dhampirs. Royal Moroi especially didn’t. And royal Moroi related to the queen
especially
didn’t, at least if past experience was any indication.