Vampire Academy Seven: Guardian Promise

Chapter Four

Placing a gentle hand on my leg, Dimitri gripped my knee. God only knew what ways he would silently torment me for what I did tonight.

"Paperwork?" He whispered in my ear as he stood to place his bag in the overhead compartment. My stomach clenched and I rolled my eyes.

"It seems you finished all the work early." I remarked as he plopped back down next to me. Lissa sat in the row diagonal to me and shot me a brief look of some type of emotion. Was it sympathy as she, and everyone else, caught on to my lie? Or was it anger that I would lie about this and try to deceive her and Dimitri?

"Good thing I did. I nearly missed the plane." Dimitri's dry humor prompted another eye roll from me.

"Good thing you didn't." I smiled tightly as the pilot announced takeoff was going to commence and buckling up was recommended.

I redid my buckle and leaned my head against the seat. The rocking of the plane had me asleep before Dimitri could say another word.

Black danced in front of my vision and I could see a faint shadow in the corner of my right eye. I turned to see what it was, but then it appeared to my left. I reached out a hand to swat at it but grasped nothing.

It was taunting me. I didn't know who it was or what it was doing, but it was there and I needed to know.

I threw out both my hands trying to reach for the silver shadow that now was right in front of me. It had a woman's shape, but the height could only be a man's. Unless it was a Strigoi. A had to find out...

"Roza! Wake up!" My eyes shot open to see a panicked Dimitri in front of me. He had a small bead of sweat on his brow from nervousness and his eyes were wide. "Oh God." He muttered something in Russian also before sitting down next to me out of breath.

"What happened?" I asked looking around my surroundings. Lissa and Christian were talking in low voices and shot a glance in my direction. Adrian was past out behind me with a half-empty glass next to him. Eddie was no where to be found, and Jill was sleeping beside Adrian.

I smiled softly. Jill and Adrian were always good for each other and kept one another under control to the best of their ability.

Sighing, I turned back to Dimitri who stared at the ceiling. I didn't need words to know he was upset. I grabbed his hand and held it with both of mine. His hand was large and sweaty, one of the only physical signs of his despair.

I kissed the top of his knuckles and clutched his hand close to my chest before he would look at me. When he finally did, any emotion was gone from his face. He always held his emotions in so well compared to me. I acted out any chance I got while he hid behind a mask.

"Are you okay?" I whispered so Lissa couldn't pick up on what I was saying.

"When you had that nightmare, it reminded me of Christmas and how you saw ghosts on the plane." Dimitri's voice broke and I could only imagine the things he was remembering. How he led me on and left me behind during Christmas or how he treated me in general.

"It's okay now." I reassured him. I didn't need him knowing that I was now seeing suspicious figures out of the corner of my eye.

Dimitri pulled his hand out of mine and put his arm around me. I leaned into the warmth of his chest and I assumed that I was forgiven for my earlier misdeeds.

Dimitri's chest rumbled as he spoke, "I was going to wake you to tell you we are going to land soon before you lost control." I went to lean back into my seat to buckle in, but he held me tighter. "Just wait until he says it's necessary."

I didn't argue.

"So Rosie, having nightmares about big and bad Strigoi?" Christian teased. Lissa hit him in the arm and muttered something under her breath about men being uncontrollable.