Never Tear Us Apart - Complete

Chapter Fifty-four

"Oh my God! What are you guys doing here?" Chelsea gasped as Eddie sat next to me, Meredith beside him.

"Had our trials this morning. Here ready to graduate tomorrow," I laughed, dropping our bombshell with a cheeky lift of my eyebrows. It was wonderful to see old friends, and while I'd never been super close with Chelsea or Ryan something about seeing them here made me feel more at home.

Artyom and Elizaveta stood, coming to stand at the table beside us.

"I thought you were graduating from St. Michael's?" Elizaveta said with barely contained animosity. "Your mother said that's where you three and Blake were going?"

"Nope. We left Court hours after you, and we've been training privately since" I retorted smugly. "Although Blake did go to St. Michael's."

"Private training?" Ryan groaned. He knew the three of us were already good, and now we'd probably be even better. "Where? With who?"

"In a little town, two hours from here called Baia. We've been training with Belikov and some other Guardians," Eddie supplied.

"You trained with Guardian Belikov?" Chelsea asked, a little smile on her face.

"Yep!" I said gleefully, popping the p. "Eight hours a day six days a week. Stayed at his house for a month and a half, too!"

Meredith was smirking at Chelsea's dreamy expression. Dimitri had his fair share of female admirers, as I well knew!

"Does he have any younger brothers?" Chelsea asked, a blush forming on her cheeks.

"Three sisters," I replied apologetically.

"How lucky Guardian Belikov was available to train you," Elizaveta snapped. "How did that come about?"

"Rose's father organized it," Eddie said easily. "He flew us over here and paid all our expenses. The training was great. We worked with Belikov and a few of Mr. Mazur's Guardians every day. And each weekend we participated in an open fight club sort of thing. I learned loads!"

"I bet the two of you loved being over here away from your mother's attention," Elizaveta said in a nasty tone of voice giving me a loaded look.

I tensed, wondering what she knew when it dawned on me that she still thought something was going on between Eddie and me! I couldn't help but smirk, which only fueled her erroneous assumption.

"What scenarios did you get for your trials?" Artyom asked, quickly changing the subject after shooting his sister an annoyed look, wordlessly telling her to drop it.

"Outdoor obstacle course for me," Meredith replied.

"I got classrooms," Eddie piped up.

"I got that one, too," Elizaveta replied in a friendlier tone, seating herself on one of the empty chairs at the table.

"I got an outdoor amphitheater filled with junk," I added.

"I got that one!" Ryan commiserated. "Made it hard to get past the Strigoi!"

"Yeah, I know! I pushed one over the edge of the cliff, so then on the next attack I had them in front and one behind," I bitched.

"How many Strigoi did you all get?" Chelsea asked. "I only got one!"

Meredith confirmed she'd also only got one, while Ryan and Elizaveta mentioned they'd each had two, but in separate attacks. Eddie told the others about his three.

Artyom wasn't saying anything, which made me suspicious.

"How many did you face?" I asked him.

"Five, in three attacks," he said quietly, a little embarrassed. "You?"