Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 42 - Epilogue

Author's Notes:

Mature sexual content in the fifth section.

-=o0/&\0o=-

"Stop shaking me, damnit," I exclaimed as I pulled the blanket around myself, resting too comfortably to want to wake up.

"Roza," murmured a silky deep voice with a Russian accent, "No one's shaking you. The plane just landed. But it is time to get out now."

I half-opened one eye, saw the sunlight streaming in, and closed it again, pulling the blanket - no, wait, that's not a blanket; that's my jacket - over my head to block out the light. "It's the middle of the night," I grumbled, "Come back when it's morning!"

"But, Rose, it's six A.M. local time. It's dinner time," said a snarky-sounding voice that could only belong to Christian Ozera, maybe ten feet away from me, "If you get up now, there might still be enough food left to feed you. Well, maybe."

I groaned. My stomach did feel empty. Almost as if on cue, my stomach growled loudly. I still didn't open my eyes, though.

"The guardians will have to go to headquarters first," said Dimitri. Oh, yeah. Eddie and I were guardians now, too.

Dimitri leaned in to whisper in my ear, saying, "After dinner, I have a special surprise for you, Roza, but you have to get up if you want to have it."

I cracked my eye open again and saw his gorgeous chocolate eye looking back at me. "Can't I have five more minutes, Comrade?"

"I'm afraid not, Roza," said Dimitri, "This plane has been scheduled to go to another academy to pick up their graduates after we disembark. They need us to go now."

"Fine! But this better be a damn good surprise," I told him as I opened both eyes and began to pull my jacket on.

"Oh, it is," assured Dimitri.

-=o0/&\0o=-

"Incoming new recruit or reassignment?" the guardian at the front desk asked me when I reached the front of the waiting line. His name tag said 'Cole'.

"New recruit."

"And your name?" he asked.

"Rosemarie Hathaway," I told him, as he looked over the stack of papers in front of him and flipped through the pages.

"Ah, here you are," Guardian Cole said, after flipping around for a minute, "Oh, you're an odd one. I don't think this looks right. It says here that you are ranked as a Blast Master two, have seven monija and a zvezda, and already have the Dragomir princess as an assigned charge designated by the queen herself. Must be a mistake."

From immediately behind me in line, Dimitri told him, "There's no mistake, Richard. Rose has the highest final trials score of all time. She participated in the battle of St. Vladimir's and killed seven other Strigoi since January. Rose has beaten me in sparring so many times I've lost count. She even broke three of my ribs during a fight once."

"Belikov!" Richard said, giving Dimitri a smile, "It's good to see you again, man! Wow, I couldn't beat you in sparring! It must be right, then. Here you go, Hathaway." Richard handed me a folder and a small box with my name on it. "This folder contains your housing information for where you'll be sleeping to start with, maps and general information about Court, a dossier on your charge, and your schedule for the next three weeks. The box contains your key to your quarters and a Court-issued cell phone for you to use until your charge can obtain you one. Your luggage will be at the front desk of the guardian housing building when you arrive. You'll have about a week to get acclimated to living here, while all of the other new recruits to get their assignments, before you're expected to have any guardian duties. Once you're rostered, we'll start you off slow. You're welcome to head to your new quarters, meet up with your charge, or explore Court now. It's just about dinnertime and there's a banquet hall that will be serving meals for all of the new arrivals from the academies during the next week, too. You'll find it labeled on your map. I was told that they're serving a triple-layer chocolate cake tonight as dessert in celebration of all the new arrivals. Belikov, give me a sec and I'll grab your paperwork, man."