The Hidden Blood (Vampire Academy)

Chapter 25

“Lissa?” I ask and touch her elbow pulling her away from the conversation.

“Yes?” she felt worried expression on her face and from the tears springing into my eyes, I know why.

“I need you to do something for me, and I need you to just do it and not say anything or make judgements. I know that I don’t deserve to ask you that,” I sniffle and keep going, “but I need you to.”

Lissa didn’t even need to take a guess, she already knew what I was talking about.

“Rose, I’ll do what you ask. But, you need to know that this isn’t the right choice to make. Racheal should be able to process through this like anybody else.” She licked her lips and tugged at her ear not knowing what to do with her hands. “I know that I should have done it a long time ago since it’s breaking a lot of the rules having her at St. Vlad’s, but I trusted that you knew what you were doing. You brought her here for a reason, you knew that she would find out deep down.”

I nod, “Yeah, you were right… But you didn’t see the look of disgust and pure hatred on her face.”

Lissa stood still not moving, her hands just clasped together. “It’s your choice.”

“But it’s your power,” I added.

“I will do what you ask, Rose, if you think it’s the right thing…” She raised an eyebrow looking at me like what she said would change my mind.

“This is the right thing…” I convinced her, maybe along with myself. “She can have a life to go back to, a fiance’. I’m not going to ruin her happily ever after.”

Lissa was silent for a while and when she noticed that I was waiting for her to say something, she stuttered, “Uh… Um, what do you want her to remember?”

I thought about it. “She can’t forget me totally. Grandma would just remind her about how she left with me… I want her to remember how much fun we had at Vampire Academy. I want her to forget all her doubts and I want her to remember being happy the last days we were together. She’ll remember how much she misses her boyfriend and how she wants to get back to see him. She won’t want to leave us and the kids, but she knows it is the right thing to do.

“I want to stay with you, for now until unknown. She’ll say her goodbyes tomorrow and leave back to grandma’s. She won’t remember the Strigoi or anyone acting mysterious. She’ll miss me and the kids but know it’s for the best.”

Lissa nodded and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Okay, Rose… Don’t worry, it’ll be painless.”

I shook my head, “No it won’t. It’ll be the hardest thing I have yet to do besides leave you.”

I felt her heart break just like mine and I mumbled, “I can’t watch,” leaving the kitchen and going out into the forest to get lost.

I don’t know how much time passed but when Dimitri came out to join me on a swingset I found in the middle of nowhere, he was carrying ice cream and strawberries.

“How’d you know?” I said taking one of the bowls.

“It’s what my mom always gave me when I was feeling down,” he smiled and sat down on the next swing.

I huffed a laugh, “I forgot how similar we were.”

“Are,” he corrected bumping his leg against mine.

I dug into the ice cream tasting the different flavors spin around on my tongue.

The silence between Dimitri and I was deafening. Soon, the silence made my ears ring and that got my thoughts thinking of different things to say and that got my heart beating faster.