Turning Tables

Chapter 23

Rose

ninety eight, ninety nine, one hundred.

I got up after finishing my round of push-ups. I was sweating and trying very hard not to let it show that my wound was still hurting. Dimitri was in the gym with me most days and he was watching me like a hawk, looking for any sign that I was in pain.

I smiled at him and he rolled his eyes. He knew I was pushing myself and he had tried - repeatedly- to make me take it easy. But I needed to move, to work-out. I was now a Queen's guard and Lissa was still going to Leigh, which would have its own challenges.

I needed to be ready.

The gym was filled with Guardians. Dimitri and I were drawing a crowd. We usually went when it was quiet, but today we hadn't been able to make the hours work. I had returned to a few hours of light duty - meaning sitting in Lissa's office watching her work and getting frustrated.

One would expect that Dimitri was the object of everyone's staring. And he was getting a bit of attention. Not only was he the tallest one here, and the most skilled, but he was also a former Strigoi. But apparently being a Queen's guard at eighteen, getting shot on pretty much the first day and saving your Queen, then dying and then coming back was a bigger attraction. Although Dimitri had died and come back. Or maybe people were just enjoying the irony. I had been very vocal about my opinion of the last Queen and now found myself guarding this one.

I went to the pull up bar, hung my legs over the railing and started doing vertical crunches. Upside down the faces of those staring at me looked a little better. Until I saw bright blue eyes staring at me. Her head was tilted trying to match my angle, but she was failing.

I jumped down and righted myself. If me and Dimitri were an attraction then Mia was a circus. Probably the only moroi to train here in this gym, she drew a crowd. Not to mention, word was getting out that Mia had joined us in a slayer mission and had done well. The guardians respected her for it. She waved to some of her guardian friends but returned her attention back to me and Dimitri.

She wasn't wearing her training gear so she wasn't here to train.

"Hey, Mia, What's up?"

She looked over to Dimitri and then back to me. "I have been wanting to talk to you two. You guys have a minute?"

She looked around the gym wearingly. "Not here though, back in your apartment."

Okay? This was weird, but my name wouldn't be Rosemarie Hathway if I wasn't intrigued.

Ten minutes later we were in our apartment, sitting on the couch, looking at each other and then back at Mia. For once in my life I didn't know what to say. I just kept opening my mouth but closing it again, because I couldn't really find the words.

I kept checking to see if Mia was joking, but the briefcase that was on the coffee table said otherwise.

Dimitri was also silent. His frown changed a few times, and he kept crossing his arms and uncrossing them.

"I can't believe you went back for this." He practically accused Mia.

Mia just shrugged. "I didn't. You said you didn't care, and you were busy with Rose and so was Sonya. So while you two handled the nutcase over there." She said, waving her hand in my direction. "I grabbed this. It really wasn't very heavy."

Dimitri sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. It was refreshing to know I wasn't the only one who could bring that particular emotion out in him. I nearly high-fived Mia for that, but still too dumbstruck to move.