Collateral Damage

- FIVE -

I pulled up in my rental at the gates of St Vladamirs and waited for the guardian on duty to open the gates. I showed them my ID and once they realized who I was they let me in. I parked my car in the car park out the back of the castle and walked up to the school office.

"Can I help you miss?" asked the receptionist, she made me wish she had Meredith's smiling face and singsong voice.

"Yes actually, I'm looking for Adrian Ivashkov,"

"Rose?" asked a voice from behind me. I turned around and found Adrian standing behind me. He wrapped his arms around me and I was instantly engulfed in his mint and smoke scent. The familiarity of his scent was quite comforting in many ways.

Adrian took me our behind the school where there was restricted access for the students. I sat on the grass throwing pebbles into the water while Adrian smoked. I thought that smoking was a disgusting habit, except on Adrian, it just influenced his bad boy persona and it made him seem reckless. But no-one knows that he smokes to combat the symptoms of spirit.

"Go ahead," said Adrian, blowing out a breath of smoke, "Ask me,"

I wiped my hands over my face, "How is it, that in a high security school, the staff here are able to misplace a sixteen year old student?" I could feel my anger bubbling into my question.

"That's a good question, but if you remember you ran away when you were seventeen and that was unnoticed until you were off the grid," I resisted the urge to punch Adrian in the face.

"What happened?" I finally asked, I laid back on the grass and watched the smoke from his cigarette float through the air in a majestic manner.

"The day after her birthday she didn't show up to class, then she didn't turn up to practice with Dimitri." It was then that I realized I hadn't thought this through at all. Dimitri. There was a 99.9% chance that I would see Dimitri here and he would question my reappearance. What about Lissa? Fuck. I am so screwed. "When I went to her room there was blood on her mirror and her room was trashed." I covered my face as I sobbed into them. I thought I was doing the right thing, trying to protect her but putting her in this place. "The blood identified as Tilly's, I've spent the entire day trying to walk her dreams but it isn't working."

I ran my fingers under my eyes to get rid of the tears and ran my hands through my un-washed and un-brushed hair. "We'll find her Rose, don't worry."

I wanted to shout at him. I wanted to scream in his face and ask him how he expects me to not worry. I wanted to punch him for not protecting my little girl. I wanted to castrate him for letter my baby get to know her dad. But that's just it. No matter how hard I wish and apologize and fight for her, she isn't mine. She is the academies. I gave her up when she was a baby, and when I gave her up I lost all of my parenting rights.

"How am I supposed to face them?" I asked playing with the grass on the ground beside me. Adrian gave me a look that I knew meant that he didn't know and if Adrian didn't know than how was I supposed to know? "I need to see Lissa," I whispered, looking up at Adrian. He stood from his spot on the grass and squashed his cigarette with his foot. He helped me stand and asked me if I was sure.

After explaining that I had to see Lissa, Adrian agreed to take me to her. The sun was just starting to set, so everyone would be in bed, hiding from the sun. The sun doesn't kill the moroi, it just stings them a bit, kind of like sunburn. Strigoi on the other hand die if exposed to the sunlight. We are safe behind the gates of the academy because of the wards that magic yielding moroi made to keep those inside the gates safe. The wards are like a life force but because the strigoi are dead they cannot pass.