Never Too Late: A VA Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-One

Disclaimer: I don’t own Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead does.

DPOV:

I didn’t know who was more stunned in that moment, Rose or me. I couldn’t believe Lissa would do that to her best friend. Didn’t she care about Rose at all?

“And it’s not only Adrian,” Rose said hollowly. Her voice her me, it was so empty. It felt like it was freezing me, quite the opposite of its usual warm quality. “She knows what using spirit does to her. She always gets so upset, which means I’ll have to take care of her and make sure she’s okay. It’s karma, isn’t it?” Rose looked at me, her eyes as empty as her voice. “It’s because I wasn’t thinking about her when I was with you, because I wasn’t being a good guardian, so now I am forced to uphold my duties.”

I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. The two of us had always skirted around the fact that both of us were Lissa’s guardians. I knew we would have to face it sometime, but hoped it would be later in the year, after we had figured some things out.

“No, Roza,” I assured her. “It’s not because you have been slacking. You’re pregnant, you’re not on duty. You need to relax. Let me know if there is anything wrong with Lissa, and I’ll take care of it, okay? Right now, I am her guardian, I am the one who is supposed to worry. Not you. You need to take care of yourself and your baby right now.” I hoped to God that she didn’t take anything wrong in my little speech, but of course, I once more forgot that she was a hormonal Rose.

“Oh, so you’re saying that’s all I’m good for? Taking care of my child? I’m not some worthless blood whore, Dimitri! I’m not going to sit on my ass in some dhampir commune! I’m going to guard Lissa whether you think I can or not!” she snapped.

I stared at her, appalled. I couldn’t believe she had just said that. Yes, my family lived in a dhampir community, and she knew that, but she also knew that they were all trained and ready to fight for their town. They chose not to be part of the guardian life. She also knew that they weren’t blood whores and that it was a sensitive subject.

It seemed that she finally realised what she had said because she slapped her hand on her mouth. “Oh, my God, Dimitri, I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry!”

She continued rambling her apologies, looking near tears. No, scratch that, she was crying. Part of me wanted to gather her up in my arms and kiss her tears away, while the rest of me, the larger part which was angry and sincerely hurt that she said that, wanted to just walk away and not talk to her for a very long time.

I took several deep breaths, reminding myself that she was pregnant and her hormones were all over the place. She didn’t mean it. She was just mad. When I was sure I wouldn’t do anything rash, I looked at her, my face blank.

“Let’s go inside.”

I spun around on my heel, and started walking forward. I heard Rose quickly follow me, but I didn’t turn around to look.

The walk back to our room was long, as we were all the way across the grounds. It took us at least a half an hour to get back to the buildings through the three foot deep snow. Several times I would here Rose panting behind me, trying to catch up, so I would slow down until she was no longer in a hurry.

We stepped into the building and blinked for several moments at the suddenly bright lights. In the sudden absence of footsteps or shouts from other people, I heard Rose’s stomach growl. With a pang of guilt, I realised that she hadn’t eaten lunch yet. I wondered how long she had been this hungry and why she hadn’t said anything. Then I remembered I was mad at her.