SPIRIT BOND: Anna and Vladimir's story

CHAPTER 2 : The Book

Anna's POV

"Please do come in, and welcome to Saint Nicolas Cathedral, what can I do for you two?" A moroi man in his late fifties greeted us as we walked into the cathedral "Are you the priest?" Danila asked him "Yes I am Father Oleg" He answered with a warm smile "We're sorry for coming late, but we need shelter for the night. Do you perhaps have any room for us?" Danila explained "Of course I do anyone is welcome in the church, well except strigoi" He said whispering the last part. It was rare to see a moroi and a priest at that in such a happy state and damn was it annoying, I mean no one and I do mean no one can be that happy it's down right depressing. This man has sure as hell had never seen anything scary in his life. "You can stay here in the back room for now until the humans have left, then you can make yourselves comfortable on any one of the benches" He said gesturing us to follow him "Dani are you sure this is save?" "Why would you asked that?" He looked at me with curios eyes "Because that Father Oleg isn't as sane as one would think a priest to be" I said eyeing the door to make sure no one else heard me "Anna are you scared of him?" Danila asked with a huge grin on his face "What!, No he's just- what's the word" "Happy “he interrupted "Strange is al" I said looking through all the books on the shelf "Hhmm, I believe you" Danila said trying to hold his laugher back "Go to hell" I spat back, sometimes I just loved my sharky attitude, does well for quick comebacks. "Well look on the bright side, if anyone one here needs to be afraid it's the priest that needs to be afraid of you, when waking you up in the morning" He laughed as he said those words and I gave him a cold death stare which just made him laugh harder. But he was right I didn't like being woken up especially when I had a rough day before like today.

I stared at the books going through every one of the titles until one caught my attention it was named 'Spirit' "Danila look at this" "What is it?" He asked coming over to my side "It's a book but it's not about religion" I said paging through the book "What is it about then?" Danila said taking the book from me "Magic" I said slowly "a forgotten magic" "You mean this book is a magic guide, because if it is, it really is old" Danila said also paging through the book as I had done "and there isn't a element named Spirit, there are only four elements" "Didn't you hear what I said. I said a forgotten magic" I repeated my words taking the book from him. "Alright you two forgive me, I never even asked your names" Father Oleg said holding his cross neckless with his one hand "I'm Anna Romanov and this is Danila Belikov, and we are novices doing practical training to try and make it to full guardianship" I told him "Well now that is quite the journey" He said smiling "Can I ask you something Father?" Is asked still holding the book "Yes my dear, what is it?" "Could I please borrow this book from you?" I asked showing him the book  "Oh that old thing, you can have it if you like my dear, it's not mine but it has been here sins I started here thirty years ago, never had the chance to throw it out dough" He explained "Thank you Father" I said giving him a smile "Right, now you young one better gets some rest you going to need it for your journey" He said as he walked up the stairs "oh and I'll bring you something to eat" he added.

After we had our meal we settled down on 2 of the church benches "Anna, are you still awake?" Danila asked in a whisper "Yes, what's the matter?" I asked leaning over the bench to look at him "Well I was thinking is the reason where here in St. Petersburg right now because of that man you keep on seeing in your dreams" Shit how did he know that "Yes" "Anna!" He whisper yelled "Shhh, your going to wake Father Oleg" I hushed him "Why Anna? We've told you about a thousand times now, he's not real his all in your head" Danila said angry at me for keeping this information from him "He might be in my head but he's as real as you and me" I spat back furious at him "Why did we come here?" He asked after a moment of silence "He asked me to come here" He didn't reply to that, he kept quite that alone told me that he was trying to calm himself down "Dani?" "What Anna!" "I'm sorry" I said in a broken voice with tears blurring my vision "It's alright I forgive you, but next time keep me in the loop." He said coming to sit beside me "I didn't mean to make you cry, I'm sorry Anna" He said giving me a hug. We stayed like that in a comfortable silence for a while and I started thinking about al the times we both ended up apologizing. I gave a dumb smile and we both started laughing "We know each other too well don't we Dani" I said whipping the tears of my face "Yes we do and it's because of that, that we fight so well together" He said smiling at me "get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow" He said kissing my forehead "Goodnight Dani" I said laying back down to get some sleep.

"Anna, my Shadow Kissed Anna, come to me " Oh no not this again I thought to myself as my unconscious darkness started to become gold and a place started to materialize "Where, are you?" I asked looking around the dream looking for his tall dark figure "Anna.......Anna........are you in St. Petersburg" His word came from behind me, I swung around in surprise to find his shadow silhouette right behind me "Did I scare you?" He said with a hint of amusement in his voice "No, I just wasn't expecting you behind me" I said crossing my arms "Are you here?" He asked "Where's here?" I asked confused "In St. Petersburg, Anna" He said admiring the dream gardens roses "Yes, I am" "Good" He replied after a few seconds "Now find me" "Wait, why" I asked but the dream was already starting to disappear "Find me my Shadow Kissed Anna and I will explain everything to you....." His voice vanished as did everything else and I was left in the darkness of my unconsidered ones again. I awoke to the sound of loud thick manly laughter that echoed through the cathedral "Ooopf" Danila said holding his the back of his head. Yes I threw him with my boot "Anna!" His voice bellowed through the cathedral "Be quite would you, I'm trying to sleep here" I said laying back down "Your friend is very scary, son" I heard the priest remark to Danila. I knew I shouldn't have thrown Dani with a boot, but I really don't take kindly to people waking me up especially after one of those crazy dreams that and my aim was a little off. "Let me guess, you dreamed again right" Dani said poking my back to get me up "Yes, now go away" "Anna" He taunted   "Shut up" "Anna" He continued "Dammit Danila, if you don't stop calling me I am going to kick your sorry ass!" I said as I flew up swinging fists at him, but my hands were easily caught by his awake reflexes "There we go, now get dressed so we can move to the next town." He ordered "No" I said crossing my arms over my chest "What, why not?" He asked turning back towards me "Because he asked me to find him" I whispered so the priest wouldn't hear. "Anna, you can't be serious" He said his expression dropping. I kept quite looking him in the eyes "Fine" He finally said "but only today, tomorrow we leave" "Yes" I answered back, but my mind was racing, how in hell was I going to find him in a side as big as this one.