Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 27 - Accomplishments

Author's Notes:

Mature content in the section immediately after the second break.

-=o0/&\0o=-

Dimitri and I had finished our afternoon weapons training about fifteen minutes before Adrian was due to leave. The two of us stood in the shadows and watched with bated breath as the SUV departed for the airport. It was a relief when he was finally gone, but neither of us wanted him to know we were watching him leave.

Once the vehicle was safely past the gates, I turned to Dimitri. "Is this real? Is it really over?" I asked him.

Dimitri pulled me in for a hug, saying, "Yes, Roza. You are safe now. He can't compel you anymore." Dimitri looked around cautiously, then leaned in and brushed his lips against mine for the briefest of kisses.

I knew in my head that it couldn't go further than that while we were here in the open, but my heart wanted his comfort. I put my arm around his neck and tried to pull him in for more, but Dimitri pulled back. "Roza," he said, "You know we can't. Not here."

"I know, Comrade. But that doesn't mean I don't want to."

"The feeling is mutual," he said, "but we only have a few more days of field experience and then we can go back to training for your trials. Once that happens, we'll be spending a lot more time together. But right now, we have to get you back to Christian before his class gets out." Dimitri began to walk me towards the building Christian's class was in.

"See you at Moroi defense training after dinner?" I asked.

"Not for sure," said Dimitri, "Alberta is leading today. I have gate duty for the first half."

"Okay. Well, stop by if you can. You wouldn't believe how close Jill is to getting the twenty laps down. She really wants to be able to learn how to use a stake."

"But Christian?" Dimitri asked, "Or the princess? Do you really want them to learn how to use one?"

"I want them to be able to run like that," I said, "And you know that, even as a royal, Christian isn't likely to have his own guardian unless he stays close to Lissa. He should be able to know how to defend himself."

"His best weapon is his fire. That is what he will use to defend himself if he needs to. And you know that Vasilisa will always have at least one guardian when she's outside of wards."

"You started this by getting her hopes up, you know? If everyone else is going to learn it, of course she's going to want to, too. And she is the best runner out of the whole group. She's already gone twenty-five laps without stopping. And she's getting better at throwing a punch!"

"It doesn't matter, Rose. When is she ever going to be alone with a Strigoi without a guardian? Besides, it's not like the princess will be carrying a stake around with her, anyways. The only chance of her being able to actually successfully stake a Strigoi is if someone handed her a stake and pointed her at a Strigoi chained down to a chair."

"I know. I just hope this doesn't instill any false confidence in her if she ever comes face to face with one of them."

-=o0/&\0o=-

That evening at the Moroi defense training, Lissa and Christian both managed to throw a punch that would leave a mark. By the end of the training session, Jill had mastered her form to throw a punch, although she still lacked power behind it. Neither Christian nor Jill still had managed to go the twenty laps, either. Christian was up to eighteen and Jill was up to seventeen, so I thought that they could probably both get there in the two weeks remaining before the end of the term.