Never Tear Us Apart - Complete

Chapter Twenty-eight

"So you have three sisters?" Meredith was asking my Russian God. We were installed in Abe's private plane, waiting for clearance to take off from Court. I'd managed to get through my farewells to Lissa without letting her, or Dimitri, know about my conversation with Christian.

"Yes. Karolina, Sonya, and Viktoriya. The older two live at home. Viktoriya is sixteen and studies at St. Basil's."

"So there'll be how many at your house?" Eddie asked a little nervously.

"My mother Olena, my grandmother Yeva, Karo, her son Paul, her baby Zoya, Sonya, and Viktoria when she comes homes on weekends. Plus us four."

"That's eleven! How are we all going to fit?" Eddie gasped.

"Tell me there's more than one bathroom," I pleaded straight after.

"The house is very large," he assured me. "For many years my grandmother ran it as a boarding house. There is a full bathroom and a washroom downstairs, and another two bathrooms upstairs."

I looked at him and raised my eyebrows.

"Hot water is provided by the district and piped to the houses, so it is endless," he was quick to assure me accurately understanding the direction of my thoughts.

"And the weather?"

"Down to mid-thirties overnight, and between sixty and seventy during the day. Not an arctic wasteland," he teased, draping an arm around me.

Meredith and Eddie both seemed a little surprised to see Dimitri so openly affectionate with me, but here on the plane, everyone knew about us, so there was no longer any need to hide.

"All ready to go?" Abe asked, walking down the aisle having concluded his chat with the pilots. "It's clear skies and fair weather ahead!"

"As ready as I'll ever be," I commented, checking my pocket for the drugs I'd need if things got too bad in the air.

"Are you going to be ok?" Dimitri asked tenderly, his lips nestled in my hair near my ear.

"I hope so. I'm hoping the ghosts won't be so bad over the water," I murmured back.

With his enhanced Moroi hearing Abe had picked up on what we were saying. I'd told him about the ghosts, and how I didn't fly well because of them.

"I've spoken with the pilots, and we'll be flying into London. If you're struggling, we'll stop overnight for you to recover. Otherwise, we'll refuel and keep going through to Omsk."

"I'd rather push through if we can," I said. "I've got some drugs here to knock me out if it gets bad."

Abe sat in a chair on the other side of the aisle, strapping himself in beside Pavel. The seats were arranged in conversational groups, so he could see me as I sat cuddled beneath Dimitri's arm. Eddie and Meredith sat opposite Dimitri and me, and there were a handful of other Guardians on board.

"All cleared for takeoff," a pilot announced, and then we were hurtling down the runway and lifting up into the sky.

"You're going to love Russia," Dimitri crooned, lifting the armrest up between us and pulling me even closer to him once we'd leveled off. "I'm going to show you where I grew up, where I trained. I can't wait. But I can't wait to introduce you to my family," he said, with a particularly tender expression on his face.

I leaned up and gave him a delicate kiss. He returned it lovingly. From the corner of my eye, I could see Meredith looking at us with a sweet smile, Eddie looking a bit embarrassed. I don't suppose they'd had much of an opportunity to see us kiss before. Well, they'd better get used to it, because I intended to be doing a lot of it now we could!