𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ▸ After Spokane Rose is perilously close to breaking. Discovered in her bed, Dimitri is forced to leave the Academy. Let down by almost everyone she knows and cares for, pulled between duty and love...
"I'll radio it through," Guardian Hughes said as Dimitri strode towards a door halfway down the exterior side wall of the house.
"We're checking out signs of occupation at the old Ivashkov house in town. Send urgent backup," Leslie announced to Abe's other Guardians via her radio, trying to keep the sound of hope and excitement from her voice. It could still all turn out to be nothing.
Leslie had only just finished making her report when an almighty crash sounded, Dimitri having applied his size thirteen combat boot to the door. The rotten timber frame holding the door in place disintegrated, and the door was violently flung back into the house. Carefully stepping over it, Dimitri picked it up and moved it to one side, gesturing for Leslie to enter.
"The chimney that's smoking is for the front fireplaces. The most likely place to have her would be the service areas in the basement," Dimitri explained, knowing the layout of the house from his childhood. "The stairs are this way."
Heading down the corridor toward the front of the house, Dimitri opened a door beneath the fancy central staircase that ran to the upper level of the house. Hidden beneath these more ornate stairs were a plain set of stairs leading down to the kitchens and presumably the Dhampir areas of the house in the basement. Built at a time when Moroi more commonly lived alongside humans, it was typical to have the decorated Moroi family areas on the ground and first floors while the utilitarian kitchen, Dhampir, and servant areas were housed in the basement beneath.
Pausing to draw their stakes, Dimitri and Leslie headed down the stairs as quietly as possible. Probably a useless exercise given the racket the door must have made when Dimitri had kicked it in. Halfway down the stairs, Dimitri gave up all attempts at being quiet. He could hear his Rose, and she was shouting.
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"I could feel it, Christian," Lissa said. "I was sitting here irritable as anything, and then it was like I could feel a little tickle of Rose in my mind. And suddenly I was feeling great – like all my worries and cares had gone away. It's hard to explain, but I feel wonderful now. Better than I have in months. I think she took the darkness."
"Are you sure? You thought she took some the other day, too?" Christian said disbelievingly. "Are you certain it's not a matter of wishful thinking? I know you miss her..."
"I'm positive. I feel like my old self. It's the only logical explanation," Lissa argued, feeling annoyed that he wasn't listening to her and giving her observations credence.
"Well they're running on human time over there, and it's 10 am Sunday morning their time. Why not call her and ask?" Christian suggested.
"I can't. I was horrible to her when we last spoke," Lissa admitted, her brow furrowing in recollection. "She probably won't even talk to me."
"It's Rose," Christian said encouragingly. "She'll forgive you, she always does. Perhaps she's taken the darkness as a peace offering?"
"I don't think so. The whole point of her going away was to recover from the darkness, I can't see why she'd take it?"
