Turning Tables

Chapter 9

Dimitri

I did feel lighter after I talked to Rose. I hated to admit it, but she was right. Maybe I was grieving. I looked up the stages of grief. I don't think I have been in denial yet.

There was a very loud voice in the back of my head telling me I was still in denial, certainly where Rose was concerned.

Anger was obvious. I was in that stage now. I had already been through depression, so maybe I wasn't really doing them in the right order. The last one was acceptance. I wondered how long it would take to reach that stage. Accepting I had changed wasn't very difficult. I had been saying that since I was restored. Accepting who I was now was more difficult, but I think I could get there - eventually. But accepting what I had done? I didn't know if I could ever get there.

Helping take down my former associates was a start though.

Rose had explained the plan for tonight. She really was coming into her own. She was leading this mission and taking it very seriously. She had always been a great guardian, but now she was also a good leader. It was certainly nice she was dialing down the crazy now that other people were involved. I knew if it was just us, she would have been far more reckless.

Luckily she didn't use the ruse tonight that we did last time. It was hard fighting in the tattoo parlor but we had little choice. There was no way we could lure them out of the parlor, so we had to scout out the place and attack them there. After we confirmed that there were only two Strigoi we attacked. Mia would take care of any customers and get them out of there. Mikhail would kill the one we didn't need and Rose and I would try to 'question' the other one.

I was a little worried about Mikhail taking on a Strigoi solo, but he did alright. Rose and I had the other one down to the ground pretty quickly too. Although not without a few bumps and bruises. After Mia had taken away the one customer she helped too by taking a leg Mikhail took the other leg and I put my weight on top of him to stop him from moving.

"Belikov? Is that you? What in the-"

Rose sliced with her stake across his shoulder. He screamed. "- we will be asking the questions here."

I was starting to realize how Rose had gathered information in Russia. I knew she had, but seeing it up close was different.

"We need Sonya Karp." I said, trying to put on a scary front.

He just hissed at us, like a cat. Rose made another pass with her stake, but it didn't have the effect we wanted. I grabbed his head in both my hands and slammed his head into the hard concrete floor of the tattoo parlor. The floor stained red, I hit it again and again and again until he definitely saw stars.

"Sonya Karp" My voice didn't sound human then, it sounded like I was Strigoi. It had the same effect like I was too. He was afraid - of me.

I wanted to run and never come back. I wanted to hide from Rose and Mikhail and Mia. They were seeing me so exposed. But when I looked over to Rose her eyes held only compassion and calm. She was trying to calm me down. Right, something beautiful and alive. Like her eyes, full of concern for me. Or how her chest rapidly went up and down as she was trying to calm down after the struggle.

I felt centered again and Rose and I moved our attention back to the Strigoi. He looked from me to Rose and back... And then he gave us everything.

Back at the hotel, Mikhail went to his room and we didn't say anything. He obviously needed a bit of time. He had looked for an entire year and nothing. Now we had a lead. I thought he would be glad, or at least relieved, but that hadn't been the expression on his face.