The Disappearing Act (Vampire Academy Fan Fiction Book 2)

Chapter 3: Viktoria

Chapter 3: Viktoria

                       

                When Dimitri told me we had to come back, I’d nearly slapped him. We’d promised ourselves not to return for the safety of our loved ones; we were danger, and we couldn’t bring that there.

                We had been gone for four years, disappearing into thin air after the wedding. The time was spent hunting down the Strigoi that were seeking revenge on Dimitri; we were trying to be safe enough to come home one day. It was true that the danger followed us and, our instincts still intact, we couldn’t bring that threat to our friends, not after what had been dubbed the Wedding Massacre. We stayed away to protect them but, the morning I found him buying tickets to America, I didn’t know what to think.

                I certainly didn’t expect Viktoria to be dead.

                She’d been killed defending Lissa at the mall; got caught between her and a Strigoi. I knew she’d joined the Queen’s Guard since we’d left, but I had no idea she’d grown that close to the group. She had been killed valiantly and had proven that she put the Moroi first, the way all Guardians did. She had the cookie-cutter tombstone.

                Cassie was the one who told us; no one else had bothered.

                Viktoria left most of her possessions to her family; money, trinkets, furniture. Her will had said the extra cash would do them some good, and it was a thank you for everything her mother had done for her. But, she left one thing specifically to Dimitri and I: her baby.

                We hadn’t even known she’d kept it, let alone that we’d been named the godparents. I’d completely forgotten she’d been pregnant before we’d left; Dimitri hadn’t said a word about it since then.

                But, somehow, Viktoria had thought it a good idea to leave us her kid.

                When we’d found out, we’d been in Paris working on a lead we’d dug up from somewhere in London. It was our newest hope to finding the leader of this Strigoi mafia, but we’d had to drop it to come back. I still wasn’t ready to face everyone after sacrificing so many of their lives. We had to get the kid though; Dimitri planned to honor his sister’s wish, even if I vehemently disagreed. A life of running was no place for a toddler.

                The keys to our cars were still in their rightful place near the garage door and, after changing into our old, standard black clothing, Dimitri insisted we go visit her grave.

“I have to say goodbye,” he said, the keys clutched in his fingers. “I can’t leave without doing that.”

                Personally, I didn’t want to go anywhere we didn’t have to, but he was right. We owed her a visit before we left again. His SUV purred to life without a hitch and we headed out to the Court’s cemetery where Cassie said she was buried, under the Queen’s request. I was supposed to be buried there someday, too.

“You should call Cassie,” Dimitri said as we drove. His fingers were tight on the wheel while the rest of his muscles remained relaxed. His level of control scared me sometimes.

“We’ll see them in the morning. At the hearing,” I shrugged and opened the glove box, smiling faintly at the dusty pair of sunglasses that were there. It was nearing noon and, even if I was only half vampire, the sun was giving me a headache. Then again, maybe it was just being back. “Besides, I don’t want them to send the mob after us again.”