I woke up again, not knowing whether it was night or day. The heavy velvet curtains were drawn shut and the light had been dimmed. In the dark I could make out two figures, sitting in the chairs. I wondered if it was still Dimitri and Alexander. My stomach grumbled in protest and I realized I had forgotten to eat yesterday. I gracefully threw my legs over the side of the bed, getting up. Seeing me get out of bed, one of them stood, his figure clearly defined, the duster told me it was Dimitri.
"What time is it?" I asked sleepily.
"Midnight," answered Dimitri.
"Lunch? I'm starving," I stated.
"You haven't eaten?" asked the other figure in the chair.
I recognized his voice as Nathan's. And he was the only one who wouldn't have know that I hadn't eaten.
"No, mostly sleeping," I answered, "Can I turn the lights up a bit?"
Dimitri nodded and walked over to the light switch, illuminating the room. It was still dim, but at least I could see.
"Thanks," I smiled, "Food?"
As if on cue, there was a knock on the door and a human came in with a tray. She set it on the table Nathan and Dimitri had been sitting at, glancing a few times at Nathan, who was fixated on me. I got the clue, she was one of those kinds of humans and she happened to be in love with Nathan. By those, I meant the humans who wanted to be turned, not caring for all the evil of being a Strigoi, only being consumed by the promise of an eternal life. She lifted the lid off the food, a traditional Russian meal. I stared at it for a while, while the feeling of nostalgia consumed me. I finally got a hold of myself and turned to her with a smile, speaking in Russian,
"Thank you. May I have a glass of vodka with this?
"You keep away from Nathan! He's mine!" she said rather aggressively.
I heard a half-choked laugh from Dimitri, to which she responded to with a deadly look.
"Nathan?" I echoed laughing, "I wouldn't dream of it."
She looked relieved, "Inna."
"Mirabelle," I returned.
She nodded and left the room to get my vodka.
Nathan leaned forward, "Is it true? That you agreed to join us?"
Clearly Nathan didn't understand a word of Russian, which might have been a good thing, since we were talking about him like he was a possession anyways. I ignored him, I was starving; I had no time for small talk. I sat down opposite him, seeing as he wasn't going to move, and just started shovelling food into my mouth, which earned me another laugh from Dimitri. Even when Dimitri was a dhampir, he rarely laughed, so to have him laugh twice in the last five minutes was really something strange. But now his laugh had no humour, no warmth in it like it used to. It was cold and eerily hollow.
"What?" I asked him between bites.
"Slow down, you'll choke," said Dimitri dryly, "And since when did you drink?"
"Well, might as well. If what we learned long ago is true, this may be the last time I enjoy that vile drink" I shrugged.
That really caught both of them off guard.
"You're willing to awaken today?!" Nathan exclaimed.
He was more excited than he should have been. Inna came back and set the entire bottle of vodka in front of me.
"Sorry, I could not find a glass. Drink what you want and leave the rest, I will come by to clear away what you don't want later," apologized Inna in Russian.
Inna clearly knew no English...how convenient...
"Thank you," I said dismissively.
She nodded, not really noticing the dismissive tone in my voice; she was busy looking at Nathan. I really didn't care about her. She was going to be someone I could use. She paused for half a second to see if there was anything else I needed, but when I didn't say anything, she left.
