Revisions: A Vampire Academy and Shadowhunter Chronicles Crossover

Chapter Sixteen: Adrian

Adrian hated awkward situations. Usually his charisma and charm kept away these atrocities, but talking to Rose was something he couldn't honey.

He found her in a forgotten room on the highest level of the Inquisitor's home. She was curled up in a ball on an unmade bed, face glued to the pillow.

"Knock, knock," he said. Rose slowly raised her head from the pillow. Her skin was blotchy with tears. He didn't think it possible with the paleness that came with being a Strigoi.

"Go away, Adrian!" she cried.

"We're going to have to talk sometime, you know." Adrian said sitting on the edge of the bed.

Rose studied him. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Adrian shrugged. "You're not a Strigoi." There was a little bit of a lie laced in what he said. Her appearance did make him uneasy. Adrian feared Strigoi and seeing the infamous characteristics on Rose's beautiful face was like a dream turned nightmare. But she didn't act like one. She was still the same Rose he had met on that cold winter night. And that was all that mattered to Adrian Ivashkov.

Rose frowned and played idly with the bed sheet. "Why is it so easy for you to understand that, but not Dimitri and Lissa? You'd think they'd know me better..." A tear streaked down Rose's face when she said this. Adrian fought the urge to wipe it. He wasn't allowed to do those kind of things anymore.

"Well you have me," Adrian said quietly, "Doesn't that count for something?"

Rose studied him again, this time somewhat deeper as if she had noticed him for the first time.

"It does," she said, "I don't know what it means for us, but it does."

The room was silent for a while after this. The lone window allowed the moon to bath the room in an eerie light. Adrian wondered what would happen when the sleeping city would awake. What was in store for Rose, who wore the face of those she despised and he, who felt as out of place as a wolf without a pack?

Meeting the shadowhunters had changed Adrian's perspective on many things. He hadn't sworn off his race completely, but the Nephilim had showed him what a different world it was outside the high walls of the Moroi world. In a weird way it gave him comfort to know that there was a chance to escape his dark past. And if Lissa made an enemy of them he would lose that chance. He couldn't let that happen.

"What are you going to do about Lissa?" He asked suddenly. He almost forgot about their queen's recent incarceration.

Rose's face grew worried as if she was trying to forget as well. "I hate to admit, but there's not a whole lot I can do... I have no idea where they're holding her and the Lightwoods have already made me promise I wouldn't try to break her out... Even if I did find her cell and break her out we'd have nowhere to go. I can't call Court because she could potentially loose her crown if the news got out... I can't enlist the other guardians' help because they think I'm a Strigoi... Urgh"-Rose clenched her fists-"I hate feeling like this!"

Adrian cracked a smile. "I may be able to help you with one of those things..."

Rose sat up. "What? They're all dead ends!"

"Well I mean it won't solve any of those dead ends, but it'll get you somewhere."

"Alright shoot."

"I can take you to see Lissa."

Rose frowned. "How do you know where Lissa is and I don't?"

"I may or may not have gotten an escort to the place," Adrian said slyly.