Vampire Academy Sequel The Beginning Of The End

chapter 16

Rose’s POV

 I had fallen asleep with my head pressed against the cool glass. It had left a red mark on my forehead so Dimitri laughed at me.

 We all unloaded out the car. Alec gave Dimitri a wave as he sped around the corner.

We came face to face with Dimitri’s house. With the ivy creeping up the side, and its creative structure, it looked exactly the same as I remembered it.

 Dimitri’s face was anxious in a way I had never seen it before, but his eyes shone with a kind of happiness. Like he had a weight lifted off his shoulders.

Someone must have heard the noise of the car pull up at the drive, because a figure stepped out. I couldn’t really see who it was, because the damn blizzard was shrouding everything with its whiteness. The figure gradually began to step forward in to the clearing, and I saw who it was.

Olena.

Her hair was streaked with gray, and she must have been about 55 by now.

Her feet were cautious, and Dimitri hid behind my back, out of Olena’s sight.

She ran up to me, her wrinkled face brightened up In delight.

“Rose! Is it really you?” she cried, and slung her arms around me.

 “Are you alright? You left so suddenly, I-“she stopped. She lifted her hand up to her mouth and tears began to run down her face.

 “Dimka? Is that… is that you?” she asked voice croaky with tears. I stepped out of the way, and Dimitri’s face remained calm.

 “Yeah. It’s me mom” he said, his voice filled with relief and happiness.

 “But rose said you were a… one of them. You aren’t one of them, are you?” she asked feebly.

“No, its ok mom. Im not a strigoi any more.” Dimitri replied, and his voice sounded like her was close to tears himself. Olena burst into full blown sobbing, and flung herself at Dimitri.

 “Oh dimka! My precious dimka. Im so-so glad you’re yourself again.” She cried through her tears. Tears were rolling down Dimitri’s cheeks as well , and I felt like I should leave while they had a family reunion.

 Olena pulled away from Dimitri, and held his face in her hands, her eyes glistening with tears.

 She yelled back to the house, but I didn’t understand much of it. all I understood was the words Dimitri, Karolina, Sonya, viktoria, Paul and zoya.

The whole family minus Yeva stepped out of the house and they all ran towards us like a stampede of elephants.

They all looked so different. Paul was a teenager now, and a handsome one at that. Sonya and Karolina were older, about 40, and their hair was also streaked with gray, though not as much as Olena. Zoya was still a child, about 7. And finally viktoria.

She was beautiful, and had grown up. It was in her eyes, this new found maturity and independence.

They all ran up to Dimitri, jumping on him and smothering him with hugs and kisses. Well, all except zoya. Dimitri was too tall, so she just hugged his legs.

Almost all of them were crying now, overjoyed at seeing their precious dimka alive and well. They all stepped back one by one, looks of happiness and relief all over their faces.

Then viktoria turned to me.

 “Rose! Its so good too see you! Im so sorry about what happened…you were right” she said while pulling me into a big hug.

 “about what?” I asked. I really had no idea what she was going on about.

 “About Rolan. He wanted me for sex” she said. The events came rushing back to me, and I remembered the night with Rolan. Abe had scared him away and viktoria had been furious with me for getting involved.

 “did he-“

 “no, he didn’t get that far”

 I breathed a sigh of relief.

 “Come on then kids lets get inside. Rose needs to tell us how she saved my son”

 She ushered us all inside the cute little house, zoya giggling and stumbling every so often and landing face down in the snow. Sonya would laugh and pick her up again, finally slinging her onto her back when she kept on falling.

Once we were inside, Olena put on the fire, and I realized Yeva wasn’t inside.

 “Hey, where’s Yeva?” I asked. They all fell quiet and I wondered what I had done wrong .

 Olena coughed

 “Yeva died last week” she said, voice sombre. I immediately felt bad and started mumbling and stumbling over my apologies. I just never thought Yeva would die.

 “Come on, I’ll show you the grave” Viktoria said, grabbing my hand and leading me out side.

 I heard ‘Dimitri, go get the vodka’ before I was out the door.

 Viktoria lead me to a gray stone planted in the ground, covered in frost and ivy creeping up the side.

It read something in Russian I couldn’t understand.

 “She died last week, in her sleep. My mother was devastated. We drank Russian vodka and prayed for her spirit though” she said, voice filled with tears.

 “Im so sorry. I didn’t know. I just never thought yeva could die.” I said.

 “ neither did I” she said, resting a hand on my shoulder.