A Broken Rose

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

As I sat there and explained everything to Abe, and I mean everything, I saw his face go from pale to a red that is just unnatural for a Moroi.  After I finished I just sat there and waited for him to say something, anything, but he just stared at the wall silently.  I wonder if the great Abe Mazur could go into shock.  I cleared my throat to try to get his attention.

“Ahem” nothing.  “Earth to Abe” still nothing.  “DAD.”

Abe slowly turned his face to me and you could see the fury written all over his face.  “I’LL KILL HIM!”

“No you most certainly will not.  You promised me!” I said through gritted teeth.

“How can you sit there and defend that man.  He is a piece of scum not worthy of any part of you.” Abe replied. 

“You do not understand everything.  I love him and he loved me at one point.  He just changed after Lissa restored him.  All I want to do is get on with my life and let him get on with his.”  I was trying to keep my cool because I wanted Abe to keep his promise to me.

“So you think it is possible to get on with your life while hiding out here with me.  That is not getting on with your life it is running from it.  Do not get me wrong I love that you trust me with this information and that you are asking for my help but I want you to get one thing straight.  You are running.”  Wow I was not expecting that so I just stared at him.  I didn’t know what to say.  “I will let you stay her Kizim but you eventually will have to return back to court and face him.  Let him know that he is not worthy of you or your love and that your life will be better off without him.  I wasn’t sure of Adrian when I first found out about the two of you but he is proving himself to me right now.  I assume he knows why you ran.”  I shook my head that he does know.  “That is a man that I can respect.  He is there for you even when you are hurting because of another guy.  I might think about being nicer to him…um I thought about it and I probably won’t.  I don’t want to ruin my reputation or anything” he said with me smirking.   

“I know you are still mad Abe but please, for me, just leave Dimitri alone.”  I pleaded with him.

“I will seriously take it under consideration if you do one thing for me.”  I was curious to know what I could do for him.  “What do you want from me?”

“Call me baba” he said to me with a look of uncertainty on his face.

“Ummm okay?  What does it mean?”  He looked nervous, which I found humorous since this was Abe we were talking about.  “It means Dad.  I mean…I guess you do not really have to call me that.  I just thought it would be nice.  But… never mind just forget I said anything.” 

“Oh my gosh old man if you could see your face right now you look kind of scared.  I wish I had a camera right now.”  The longer I just sat there and stared at him the more nervous he looked.  I didn’t know what the big deal was I had called him dad before.  “You know baba has a nice sound to it.”  I smiled at him as he released a breath I didn’t know he was holding.

“Oh Kizim you have no idea how long I have been waiting to hear you call me that.”  He pulled me into a hug and as strange as being hugged by him was it felt good.  “I am going to let you settle in and I am sure Adrian will be coming back soon.”

Right on cue Adrian walks into the bedroom and takes a seat on the bed.  “Sooo is the awkward talk over with?”  I just roll my eyes at him and Abe glares at him.

“Yeah it’s over Adrian.”  I go and sit on his lap as Abe leaves the bedroom with a low growl. 

Adrian leans in and kisses my forehead and then he slowly pulls my face toward him and gently kisses my lips.  I wrap my arms around his neck and start kissing him back.  We sat there enjoying each other for a while until Adrian pulled away with a knowing look on his face.  “I bet your hungry little dhampir” he smirked at me.  “Oh you think you know me so well don’t you?”  Just as I said that my stomach growled. 

“See I do know you pretty well.”  He is so arrogant sometimes but it is one of the qualities that I love about him, most of the times.  Adrian had really gotten to know the house during my talk with Abe so he showed me to the kitchen.  Abe was in there talking to someone on the phone but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.  He soon hung up the phone and noticed that we were in the kitchen.

“Is there anything good to eat in here?”  I asked him while walking to the refrigerator.   

“Well if you know how to cook then you can whip something up for us all” Abe stated as I gave him my best death stare. 

“Um Abe there is something that you should know about your little girl here.  She pretty much burns everything she touches in the kitchen including water.”  I slapped Adrian’s arm away from me and pretended to be insulted.  He just laughed at me.  “You know I’m right, remember when you tried to make macaroni and cheese at my place.  I have never seen so much smoke.  I mean you never really told me what happened.” 

“Well I sure as hell am not going to tell you now.  You will just make fun of me.”  I was so not in the mood for him to laugh at me.  “Come on I promise I won’t make fun of you.”  He was batting his eye lashes at me and he looked so ridiculous doing it that I caved.  “Fine!  I apparently didn’t read the first step that you had to boil the noodles.  So I had them in the pan with the fire on and they burned.”  Both Abe and Adrian laughed.  “At least I tried to make something for you.  When was the last time you cooked something?”  

“Oh sweet Rose I know my limitations and you will not find me doing anything in the kitchen besides getting a drink.” Adrian was once more smirking at me.

“Well I guess that I should try to hire a full time cook.  I would hate it if my houseguest starved to death.  Until then we can go into town to get something to eat.”  Instead of letting him know that I thought that was a good idea I just turned and practically sprinted out of the kitchen.  I could hear a couple men laughing at me from the kitchen. 

We enjoyed a nice meal at a local café and spent a lot of time just talking and getting to know each other.  Abe was pretty vague about what he did for a living but I had heard the rumors so I had a pretty good idea what it was.  I didn’t push him about it I figured the less I know the better.  As we were walking to the car the familiar nauseous feeling came over me.

“Strigoi”