Diamonds Shatter

Chapter 6

6. The Unknown Cause, The Known Affect

After hanging out with Nick for most of the day, Dimitri finally decided to leave him and go sleep off the rest of his pain and fatigue. On the way to his own room, he remembered Angelo and the healer. He looked around the house for them, to thank them, but they were nowhere to be found, so he shrugged it off, and then finally being alone let out the string of profanities he had held back earlier, because shrugging hurt like hell.

Dimitri slowly strolled over to his bed and lazily collapsed into it. After a few moments he slowly and carefully stretched out and peeled off his shirt, it would have to be thrown away now. Then without hesitation, he reached into his nightstand and pulled out one of the little orange, plastic, bottles, popping its contents into his mouth like pez candies. He fell away into a painless, dreamless unconsciousness.

A while later, a light rap at the door woke Dimitri from his hazy sleep. He jumped to answer it, and pulled the door open, wide, expecting Nick. Only, it was Anna. She was looking down, pulling a string from her sweater and her copper hair was falling over her hypnotic, dark eyes. The sight of her gave Dimitri a jolt, almost like a hankering that he couldn’t reach.

"Natasha called earlier, and an old man answered the phone. He said that you and Nick had been hurt and that we should come over-?" then she looked up from her sweater, and stopped. Her eyes went wide at the sight of a bare chest, inches away from her. She bit her lip, looking away.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you, I’ll just come back when you’re…" she trailed off and started to walk away. Dimitri grabbed her by the arm, jerking her back.

"No, stay." then realizing what he had just done he released her and took a step back.

"Come in?" he asked, gently, softening his voice. Anna didn’t really know how to respond. Dimitri was standing there shirtless, inviting her into his room, and she was distracted by the wiry muscles that were his chest and arms. She kept her head down, and fumbled with a button on her sweater, as Dimitri waved her inside and made his way to the dresser.

Dimitri knew Anna shouldn’t be there, because the affects of what he had done earlier hadn’t worn off yet, but he couldn’t let her go. Anna’s very presence calmed him down and took his mind to nicer places. He was searching in the drawer for his favorite tee shirt, when he felt tentative fingertips trail over the wounds on his back. He froze, because when she touched him he felt sparks of light and warmth like the sun rush thru his veins. It was nothing he had ever felt before and it wasn’t very pleasant either, because a cold electrify had also been rushing thru his veins at that moment, thanks to the little orange bottle. He couldn’t help the shudder that ran over him, as he jerked away from under Anna’s touch.

"Oh my goodness…how bad was it?" she whispered, in shock. Dimitri grabbed whatever shirt was on top and turned around to face her, leaning back against the low dresser,

"It's getting better, wasn’t really as bad as it looks." he replied softly, and then pulled the shirt on quickly before she cold notice the rest. But by the disapproving look on her face, she had already seen the rest.

"What happened?"

"We had to go see some vampires." Dimitri replied simply, with a shrug.

"Why would you go see vampires?" Anna asked, a bit disbelieving. Dimitri gave her a smirk, and shook his head.

"For this." he replied, pulling the black sealed letter from his pocket. It turned out that Nick had managed to hold onto the letter during the vampire attack. He had given it to Dimitri earlier, when they were hanging out in his room.