Rumor Has It

“Let me get this straight.” Christian ran a hand through his black hair and his icy blue eyes narrowed. “You’re guarding me for the next six weeks?”

“I am.”

“Not Lissa?”

“Unfortunately.”

He exhaled. “It’s going to be a long six weeks.”

“That’s how I feel.”

There was silence until we sat down at the table. Eddie was sitting next to Lissa, prematurely alert and watching for ‘attacks’. Adrian was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t know if that delighted me or upset me.

“Where’s Ivashkov?” Christian asked before biting an apple.

“He said that he had to make an important call. I think the queen or at least his father or something. He should be back soon,” Lissa replied. “Why?”

“I don’t have a headache,” he said coolly.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Lissa frowned. “He’s not that bad.”

“No,” he said, indifferent. “He just doesn’t know when to shut up.”

After catching my breath, I agreed. “Lissa’s right.”

Tons of questions crossed her mind almost immediately. She settled with the one I’m sure the others wanted to know. “Since when do you defend Adrian?”

I was glad the bond only worked one way at that moment. The day by the tree trunk lingered in my thoughts longer than I’d expected, especially the kiss. That stupid, quick, fantastic kiss. The warm feeling in my stomach. It wasn’t as great as Dimitri and I shared, but it was better than tall the rest I’d had. That fact surprised me briefly, then and now. It also made me smile.

“Earth to Rose?”

I scowled. “What?”

“I asked when you and Adrian became friends.”

“Actually, I remember it worded a little differently.” I thought about the kiss again, but also one of the dreams. “Some time last week.”

“How?”

“He decided to join me on a walk around campus. He let me vent about the rumors and all that.” I glanced at the doors of the cafeteria as they opened and Viktoria entered. I quickly waved to her before turning my attention back to Lissa, who, by now, was sitting on the edge of her seat. She really wanted Adrian and I to be together, for who knows what reason. “I guess I just realized that he’s better than I give him credit for.”

“Who’s better than you give them credit for?” Viktoria asked as she gracefully fell into the chair next to me and began examining her nails. “If you’re talking about my brother, I highly doubt it. What you see is all a charade.”

I snorted with laughter. “I don’t think so.”

She grinned. “So, did you use any of the stories against him yet?”

“Not with full force,” I replied while shaking my head. “I did call him Captain Fuchsia, but he was trying to reason with me over the whole field experience thing.”

Viktoria giggled and went to say something; Christian just beat her to it. “I don’t mean to me rude or anything, but who the hell are you?”

She still kept a smile on her face, much like her brother could. “Viktoria Belikova—Belikov here in the States I suppose.”

“This place is swarming with Belikovs then,” Adrian joined in, sitting in the other empty seat next to me.

“What is with the two of you being rude?” Lissa glared at both Christian and Adrian.

“It’s in their nature,” Eddie muttered, still scanning the cafeteria carefully.

“And he speaks!” I exaggerated by waving my hands a little. “Really, Castile, the field experience doesn’t officially start until after lunch.”

He eyed me as he gulped down some water. “You never know.”

“On the first day?”

He simply shrugged. “Guardians can be insane.”

“I told you that earlier, Rose!” Viktoria exclaimed. “Insanity is expressed in different ways. I swear Dimka cannot be sane with how collected he is. Something has to make him lose that control.”

She glanced at me the same time Adrian did. They both knew and neither wanted to hear about any of what went on in depth. Viktoria didn’t because, obviously, Dimitri was her brother. Adrian didn’t because he had some type of crush on me. Sitting between them really made me uncomfortable suddenly. I don’t know how Christian, Lissa, and Eddie didn’t sense the all-knowing awkward tension.

“I don’t think Guardian Belikov is insane,” Lissa pointed out, but used a teasing tone. “Maybe it’s your sibling bias? I, for one, felt that way—”

It was a reference to her late brother, Andre. It had been a few years sense the accident now, but it always haunted her. Even if we didn’t have the bond—and I had miraculously lived without the help of spirit—it’d haunt me too. The bond and her thoughts seeping into my own aside, it did haunt me.

At the moment, her mind was racing with images from the accident. Ones that I hadn’t seen from actually dying like her family. She was overwhelmed with grief and fear that it might happen again. She was shaking and tears brimmed her eyes.

“Lissa…” Christian squeezed her hand. They didn’t have a bond like we did, but he didn’t have to read her mind or feel her emotions to know what she was thinking and feeling. Not that I had to either.

I frowned. “It won’t happen again. I’ll make sure of it.” She looked down and closed her eyes. She was still picturing her family’s lifeless bodies. My lifeless body and then her healing me unknowingly. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Liss, I know it’s still hard, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Something had to have been wrong with me because Viktoria hurriedly pulled me into a hug. She, like the rest of her family, already considered me like family, despite not knowing me very long. At all. She mumbled something in Russian; I only picked out the word for sister. I only knew that after hearing it excessively from Dimitri. It was bizarre. I never felt the need to cry in front of others, yet something about the Belikovs just made me feel that it was okay to. When I heard a sob, I acknowledged it as my own. I didn’t know why I was sobbing. I wasn’t the one who lost my family. I still had a mother—and a complicated relationship with her. I still had a father somewhere in this world, possibly.

“Viktoria,” Dimitri’s voice sounded behind me, “what happened?”

She replied in Russian at a fast pace, one that I don’t think I could even speak English in. And then that’s when I wasn’t being held by her anymore. Instead, I was somehow walking out of the cafeteria with an arm draped over me and hearing soothing Russian murmurs.

After a few minutes of walking, I was pulled into another hug. This time the scent of Dimitri’s aftershave got to me. I let out a sigh.

I tilted my head up to look at him. His guard was down. I wasn’t his student at the moment. I was his friend. I was his lover.

“Roza?” He definitely had his guard down. “What happened?”

He’d already heard it from Viktoria, but I knew he wanted to know exactly what happened in the bond, not just an uninformed witness’s account. “Well…It started out with Viktoria and I making up some jokes about you. Lissa got caught up in the moment and brought up…Andre.” I shifted myself in his grasp. “She never finished reminiscing. She just kept thinking of what she saw at the scene of the car accidents. The bodies.” I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘corpses’. All of that. I think her emotions took control over me and I couldn’t help but just break down.”

Dimitri tightened his hold on me briefly before stepping back and looking me in the eyes. He kept his hands firmly on my shoulders. “I wish I knew how to help, but you know that there is lack of knowledge about bonds like you two have.” He grunted. “But it may not be just Lissa’s emotions getting the better of you.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You bottle up your emotions.” He let out a sigh, looking around at our surroundings before locking his eyes with mine again. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you’re finally grieving over what happened in the accident.”

“But—”

“There’s nothing wrong with that, Rose.” His eyebrows twitched while he thought over what to say next. “It’s better that you grieve. It may not seem that way since you want to appear strong in front of everyone, but it’s not healthy to not express yourself. A good cry is what we all need once in a while.”

“So you…” I couldn’t imagine him crying. He was invincible.

“I said once in a while,” he said, his mouth turning up at the corners. He was trying to make me feel better. That much was obvious. Either I was rubbing off on him or he was trying his best to make a joke with his next words… “I know it comes as a shock to you and everyone else, but yes, even I, Dimitri Belikov, cry.”

And it worked. I smiled at him, even laughed a little. It was truly awful, but it was nice to know that he cared. It was wondrous how easily he was able to get me to stop worrying and calm down.

I heard the bell ring, much like the last time we had been alone, and I practically dread what would happen for the next six weeks. I didn’t want to leave the amazing man in front of me. Ever.

However, Dimitri straightened up and dropped his arms from off my shoulders. He smiled. “It may not mean much right now with all that has happened, but I’d like to wish you luck with the field experience.”

I nodded. “Thanks, comrade.”

“I’m not Captain Fuchsia now?”

“Do you want to be?” I grinned mischievously. “I have no problem calling you that. I’ll have plenty of other nicknames for you by the end of the week, even when I won’t be staying in my room for the next month and a half.”

He scoffed. “Don’t remind me.”

“Don’t jinx it. I’ll plenty of material and plenty of nicknames for weeks, even months, to come now that your sister’s here.” I flashed him a smile, allowing him to know that he’d done his job. Then, I just laughed as I, unwillingly, started to head toward the ever impatient Christian Ozera, who was tapping his watch repeatedly. “Keep your panties in a bunch, Sparky! I’m coming.”

Christian grimaced. “Don’t call me that.”

I came to a halt and bowed. “As you wish, Lord Ozera.”

He rolled his eyes at his formal title. Normally, he’d be glad to be acknowledged as Lissa’s equal, as a royal, but he was frustrated at the time. “We’re running behind.”

“The bell just rang! How are we running behind?”

He ignored the question and walked as quickly as he could down the hallways. To me, it wasn’t all to fast, so I kept his pace easily. I wasn’t about to be one of the professional guardians and follow my Moroi around like a haunting ghost.

Ghost.

Just when I thought my troubles of the day had been solved, I remembered the translucent figure of Mason a few days before. His sad expression was imprinted in my brain; it wouldn’t leave. The sad expression falling into pain was even worse. He had seen Dimitri and I exchanging words and gestures like a couple would, not as a mentor and his student. I’d never wanted him to witness that.

“Hey, Rose,” Christian was right in front of me, standing still. Not being exactly graceful and having enough time to react, I ran into him. He scoffed. “I know you’re not too thrilled with this assignment, but could you at least pay attention? I’d prefer not to have to miss any class just because you aren’t watching where you’re going.”

“I—” I guess he had a point. I was so caught up with my worries that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking. “Sorry. I’m still trying to think straight.”

His eyes narrowed. “Whatever. Let’s just get to class.”

The rest of the day went by surprisingly fast after that. I still pondered my encounter with Translucent Mason. I occasionally checked up on how Lissa was coping. I gladly can report that she was better, but probably still a little shaky over thinking about the accident. Christian wasn’t as bad as I made him out to be, but he was still a major pain in the ass. The ‘attacks’ had already begun and I was waiting anxiously waiting for my first test of the field experience.

Either the next six weeks would breeze by or they’d be like watching a snail trying to cross a highway…