Dimitri

19

"This has been a night that St. Vladimir's will never forget. We have extra guardians manning the academy perimeter. Nothing can get in. Victor Dashkov will be confined to a holding cell downstairs until he can be transferred to the Royal Court Prison to await trial."

Rose and I stood in Kirova's office with Dimitri. I didn't look at him, I didn't want to see how he looked at me.

"How's Natalie? She worshipped her father. She must be devastated."

"The other members of the Dashkov family are removing her from school."

I nodded as she looked at Rose, handing her another telegram.

"Uh-oh, Rose. This came for you."

"Oh, great."

I smiled as she looked at Dimitri, I looked down.

"Uh, Dimitri, one last thing... The time gap after Rose so dramatically burst out of my office..."

"It should all be explained in the other file. A Nobu charm was put on a necklace Andrea had been wearing. The spell caused her to attack me and me to attack her. I disengaged the necklace before critical... violence could occur."

"Mmm."

As she dismissed us, Dimitri was the first one out of the room. I followed after him, Rose went to wait on me but I told her to go.

"Hey, we should probably talk about what happened earlier. I just want you to know I would never show you my markings unless I truly felt you could handle them."

"It is not a matter of amusement or discussion. It was horrific."

I took a step back, I tried not to frown as I looked at him. I subconsciously rubbed my arms, feeling the markings. Was I really that awful to kiss, to love.

"Horrific... isn't really the first adjective that comes to mind."

"Don't make light of this. It's one thing if I were 36 and you were 31, or me 28 and you 23."

"That's a lot of math for someone who's not interested."

"Your life is about boys, dances, dresses."

He seemed like he really thought it was a mistake.

"How can you say that after what happened?"

"It's what it should be about. I'm not interested in you in that way. OK. It was... just a spell."

"Yeah ok."

I went to leave as Kirova looked at me.

"Andrea?"

"Yeah?"

"You're still here? I'm not sure how I feel about this, but Victor has requested a moment of your time."

"Yeah, no, that's not gonna happen."

I looked back as Dimitri tried to keep my from him. He wanted to tell me what to do.

"He said something about you being marked by the angels."

"She's not going. That's final."

I nodded my head, I looked at Dimitri and smiled.

"Don't tell me what to do."

Walking past him, I had gotten down to the security room. As I walked down the stairs I seen rose standing there. He must have said something about the bond to get her down here.

"You look good, Vic. Which is ironic, considering it means more time rotting in jail."

"I said the same thing."