Vampire Academy One-Shots

From Afar

I was writing a one-shot and got the idea for this one. This series is so easy to write one-shots for. There's just so much to go on.

----

?POV

This was it. Finally. It had taken eighteen years, but I was a guardian now. Soon I would get my charge, and with any luck, it would be an important Royal who liked traveling to new places. Then, once I had more experience, I'll work my way up and get to work with the Queen as a Royal Guard. Yes, I thought, a grin forming on my face as I looked around Court. My future was a bright one. I'd been at the top of my class and gotten a more than respectable score for my trials.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as my classmates exited behind me. My thoughts were interrupted by a shouting. I turned towards the voices and was shocked to see two fellow dhampirs arguing. They looked familiar but he couldn't place it.

"Seriously?" The woman shouted, "Do you even have to ask what the problem is?"

The man seemed much calmer, and I couldn't make out what he was saying, but whatever it was made the woman scowl and narrow her eyes before responding in a low voice. He must have said something else because she started shouting again.

"You know what? That's your problem! Get off your goddamn high horse and accept that I'm right!"

I couldn't see his face but his stance shifted and he crossed his arms. Obviously, he wasn't giving into this woman. And to be honest, I don't know how he was doing it. She was beautiful and I probably would have fallen at her feet begging for forgiveness, especially at the look she was currently giving him. It was almost chilling, but there was something else to it, something he couldn't place.

She let out a loud groan and threw her hands up in the air before turning to leave. He caught her arm and pulled her back. She broke his grip but stayed where she was, and made what I can only assume was a biting remark. He ran a hand through his hair before returning to his crossed arms position, which she was now matching. I could tell he was saying something by the slight movement of his jaw, but his voice was too quiet and I was too far away to hear.

I belatedly realized that I was probably intruding on something and should have just walked away, but something about them made that impossible. But it seemed he was the only one. The other guardians that he thought would break up the fight a while ago simply gave the two an amused look and a head shake before returning to their business.

He turned back to the couple just in time to see him pick her up and throw her over his shoulder.

"Put me down!" She yelled, pounding on his back.

Now that was something that surely had to be interrupted. I moved forward to tell the man to leave the woman alone when I felt a hand fall on my shoulder. It was Guardian Petrov, and she had the same amused smile on her face that the rest of the guardians in Court seemed to have.

"I wouldn't follow. It certainly won't be pretty if you do."

I was shocked, was she condoning that man's treatment of the woman he'd been arguing with? "But he just dragged her off against her will! We can't just sit here and let that happen!"

That made her laugh, and I was baffled. "Look, Luke, I get you're trying to be helpful, but Rose Hathaway-Belikov doesn't do anything against her will." She reconsidered, "Well, not since her field experience anyway."

Then it clicked. Rose Hathaway-Belikov. The formidable head of the Royal Guard. A total badass in all ways. She'd married fellow guardian Dimitri Belikov earlier this year. It had been a hot topic among the guardians at school. "If that was Guardian Hathaway-Belikov, then that was..."