Love, desire and destruction.

Chapter Sixteen

Christian POV:

We've been in New York for almost a week, we've only seen Rose once and when we did she threatened us - this feels like a dead end. I'm worried about Lissa, I understand her concern for Rose, we all love her in our own ways but I'm not going to sit around while Lissa puts her entire life on the line for her, she's already on the verge of losing herself - She's been using spirit for days, trying to find Rose, Adrian too. They are both close to a break down!

"Lissa, maybe you should give it a break and get some proper sleep, your just tiring yourself out, your no good like this!" I put my hand on Lissa's shoulder, trying to encourage her to come to bed.

"No Christian! We are so close, I need to keep going".

"Lissa, please... Look at yourself, you don't look like you and Adrian looks half dead - Dimitri tell them!"

"Princess he's right, you and Adrian have been using too much these last couple of days - Your doing more harm then good right now" Dimitri said.

"Maybe I could use a good night's sleep, after a drink or two of course! Anyone fancy joining? Liss, we'll carry on in a day or two, let's recharge first" Adrian said as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

"Adrian, wait up - I'll come while Lissa hits the hay for a couple hours, I'll promise we'll behave" I aimed that towards Dimitri who was sitting reading a book looking all concerned.

I grabbed my coat, gave Lissa a kiss and we left for a bar, Adrian and myself and 3 guardians who's names I don't recall, think one of them might be Michael?

We hit up a small bar on the corner in the city ends, not far from the feeders lounge, we thought we may as well catch a snack. We spent almost an hour there, Adrian was starving from the looks of it, he went through 3 feeders. "Hey man are you ok? You drank a lot of blood" I said to him .

"Yeah just used a lot of spirit is all, the thirst will past" he said while giving me a small pat on the back to show his appreciation for my caringness.

"Is that a side effect then? I noticed Lissa feed a lot after healing Rose that one time and me later".

"Yeah you could say it's one side effect amongst many" he said smirking. "Now let's hit a casino, I'm in the mood to gamble" he said and again patting me harder on the back.

Walking down the street, it looks as if half the city are out tonight- it's packed! So many different groups of people; the stags, the hens, the oldies, the families and then of course you have our generation of people - I've been to other cities before but I've never seen anything like this, it's amazing! It's a shame we are here to chase down Rose, otherwise this would be a perfect getaway for me and Lissa.
Adrian turns off towards a suit shop, he turns to me and says, "What? We can't go to a casino dressed like this, get in there, we need a tux".

I don't like dressing up but he's right for once, we would be very under dressed! I reluctantly step into the shop, Adrian already knows what he's buying and before I could object, he brought me one to.
Now we are dressed to impress, we make our way towards the casino - we actually arrive without another stop.

Adrian of course sits and orders the bartender to get him a drink, "two whiskey on the rocks please".
Whiskey? I don't drink whiskey, "Oh don't give me that look, you have a Lissa free night, it's time to have a grown ups drink" he said laughing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple hours pass...

We are at one of the tables playing a game called craps, he makes a wager based on the dice he rolls, I don't personally understand it but we are making a killing out of it - I'm almost convinced he's using spirit to win but then again he's had too much alcohol and cocaine to do that!

Adrian has ordered one of the many girls beside him to blow into his hands for 'good luck' as he says in, he then throws me the dice and states it's my turn. I take hold of the dice, make my bet and before I could tuck it, a girl grabs my hand, softly blows into and let's me realise it "Its a winner!" I shout at the top of my lungs as I turn to see Adrian almost choke on his whiskey.

Adrian POV:

I admit, sparky here is actually a laugh, besides the fact he's winging almost everything and 100% sticks out like a sore thumb but I like hanging around with him.

I have girls left right and centre chatting me up and bringing me drinks, if I'm half cut then Christian is definitely drunk and it's not cheating because Rose is god knows here doing god knows what with that guy!

I let Christian have a go, I chuck in the dice and whisper into one of the girls ears to go and blow on them. I take my whiskey from the bartender and thank him, when I turn back around there's a different but familiar girl standing beside Christian blowing into his hand.

The girl has long dark wavy hair that falls so casually just above her waist line, she's wearing a long burgundy dress with partial slits in either sides of the dress, that hugs her in the most classiest of ways. Considering I can't see her face, I know she's a stunner.

I take a sip of my drink, taking my eye of the girl and Christian for a couple of seconds. When I look back up, that familiar face is staring back at me, it's her!
I practically choke on my drink, 'Christian' I shout once I get my breath back but he's already turned to thank the girl for the win. He's just stood there, looking at her speechless.

"Did you miss me boys? I sure missed you" Rose said winking.