Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 5c

When I got back to my dorm room, I sat on the bed and tuned into the bond to see what Lissa was doing. Within each of the dorms, students were allowed to move freely, so Lissa and Adrian were just settling in to one of the lounges to work on spirit together.

"Did you bring the jewelry, like I asked in the lobby?" asked Adrian.

"I did," Lissa replied, showing him her jewelry box out from under her arm, "What's it for?"

"I was thinking about charmed objects," he said. I could tell he was thinking about Victor's necklace. "I mean, earth users can make compulsion charms, all of the other elements add theirs to stakes or wards. What if we could put spirit into an object, too? Like a ring that would compel you to want to give up smoking? Or a bracelet that you put on and it heals you?"

Lissa smiled. "Are you asking me to compel you to quit smoking for Rose?"

"I might be," Adrian replied, "It'd be interesting to see if that could be done. If it worked, it'd be better than a nicotine patch, wouldn't it? So, pull out your jewelry. Let's see what you've got."

Lissa opened up the jewelry box and spread it all out on the table in front of them. A few pieces were cheap costume jewelry, but there were definitely some gold and silver pieces that would hold a decent compulsion spell. One was a very plain golden ring without any ornamentation on the band.

Adrian held the ring up. "This one," he said, trying it on his pinky finger. "It fits me. Could we try it?"

"Sure," Lissa replied, taking the ring in her hand. "Will we know if it works?"

Adrian continued sifting through the jewelry. "It's worth a shot," he said. "Would you be okay with it if I tried to make Rose a healing charm with one of these? I think I could use this necklace." He held up a plain-looking silver chain with a small cross on it.

Lissa said, "I don't know if you could really convince Rose to wear a cross, though. You might have better luck getting her to wear the ring."

Adrian unclasped his Rolex watch, eyeing it skeptically, "This says that the band is white gold. Do you think it's gold enough to work the compulsion on it?"

Lissa echoed Adrian and said, "It's worth a shot," as she handed him the ring and began concentrating on Adrian's watchband.

I left the bond just in time to hear a knocking on my dorm room door. I knew that Dimitri wasn't planning to have a chance to stop by until midnight, so I wasn't sure who it could be. I got up and opened it.

"Mom," I said, half-startled I was using the informal name for her.

"Rose," she said, brusque, but friendly, "May I come in?"

"Sure."

She came in and paced around the room like a caged animal, then sat at the desk in the corner, not looking me in the eye. "You were amazing in the battles with the Strigoi," she began, "I couldn't have been prouder of you. You've grown up so much."

"Thank you," I said, once again caught off-guard by this new warmer Janine Hathaway.

I was quiet for another minute when she blurted out, "Your father called me. He wants to meet you."

"Does he even know I exist?" I asked.

"Of course, he does!" she exclaimed, finally meeting my eyes. "We just live in ... different worlds. Obviously, we'd have to wait until the campus is safer for him to arrive. And I'd prefer that he wait until after your birthday next Sunday." A sarcastic voice in the back of my head was surprised that she actually remembered my birthday.

"Do you want me to meet him?"

"I don't know," she replied. "I think so."

"Will you still be here when I meet him?" I asked.

"I'll be leaving as soon as the campus is off of lockdown. I don't think I could really get away again that soon," she said.

I nodded, "Have you heard anything more about field experience?"

"I'll have to let Guardian Petrov know that I told you: she said that you will be back to full-time field experience within a few weeks after the campus is secured. We could arrange for him to come on your day off on a Sunday?"

"Okay," I replied. How about the 28th?"

"I'll set it up," she said. She hugged me - also a shock - and left.

---

Author Notes:

For a while now, I've felt like at least some of the verbal banter, especially early-on like this, or for significant events, like this, would be similar but probably not 100% identical to what happened in the Mead's original text, so I had to add that "You see something you like?" piece where she repeated it post-sex from Last Sacrifice, even if I didn't make Dimitri's response exactly the same. "A butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, a hurricane happens in another" and all that. I omitted the part where Rose was saying how she had thought about the lust charm because I feel like the way she brought up the dream sort of brought life to that comment earlier, and the part where they both promised to protect each other, because I feel like those particular comments following the original lovemaking in the cabin came about partially from the spirit-fueled darkness and the fight with Jesse that happened beforehand. After all, at that point in time, Dimitri had just recently thought she was possibly going to kill herself or become crazy - or get expelled - when he made that promise, not as much that she was a completely amazing (but reckless) badass fighter at the top of her class, who could hold her own against several Strigoi, who had just brazenly confronted him about the feelings he was trying to keep hidden.

As far as Rose's birthday goes, I had trouble figuring out an exact day for it (and many people in the fanbase have very heated opinions on dates and times). In the books, she goes to withdraw on her birthday, but a Vampire Academy wiki site suggested her birthday was March 21, 1992, which would make her 18th birthday a Sunday (thank you, Google). I didn't figure that she would've been able to see the Headmistress early in the morning on a Sunday and I didn't love it being on a Sunday, but I tried to stay accurate to the original. Timing out exactly how long there was between the attack and the qualifier trials was also a little bit tricky, but I didn't want to drag out that time where she would be basically alone for too long, so I hope I guessed right.

So here's my question of the week:

What is your favorite part of the Vampire Academy book series?

For me, I think I would have to say the happy ending of a story is always my favorite part of any story, and I expect it in the things I read.  I just need the Happily Ever After (HEA for short) to happen to make it feel 'complete' to me. That scene where Rose wakes up in Dimitri's arms at the end of Last Sacrifice is definitely my favorite.