CHAPTER TWELVE

I stood in the stall for what felt like hours, waiting and trying to keep my breathing controlled.

I heard the outside door to the bathroom open and then the inter door squeak slightly as it opened.

My heart rate jumped when I heard not one but two sets of footsteps. The limited space of the bathroom could be to my advantage if I choose the right time to attack, but even a second out and things could get very bloody, very quickly.

With the rise in my heart rate the strigoi paused for a second. They were right outside the stall door. I had planned on letting them come to me, kind of like a bottle neck so I only had to deal with one at a time, but as impatient as I am, I threw open the stall door.

I saw a female strigoi first. The red rimmed eyes and the pale complexion twisting what would have been a beautiful face in life.

She reached for me but I was already moving, I spun, making sure I eluded her grip and as I came round to face her again, I took advance of my momentum and flung my arm out. My stake bit into her heart before she could even process what had happened.

Taking my stake with me I spun back out of the way as the second strigoi, a male, made a grab for my neck.

I could see anger written all over his face. So I had obviously just killed his mate.

He lunged for me as the bathroom door opened which took his focus off the lung and he tripped a little on the body of his mate. But before I could use his stumble to my advantage, the person who had opened the door flashed to the strigoi, grabbing it around the neck at the same time as bringing a stake up under his arm and slamming it passed the ribs and into the heart.

Stunned at the fact that the second strigoi was dead, I took a minute to realise who my helper was.

Dimitri.

He let the now very dead strigoi fall to the fall, and we stood there looking at each other.

He hadn't even broken a sweat taking out the second strigoi and as per normal he had made something that should have been hard and made it into an elegant dance of lethal perfection.

"Come, we have to get going before anyone finds us in here with these bodies." Dimitri said strongly and he took my hand and led me out the bathrooms and over to the gate my flight was due to depart from.

He found a couple of empty seats to the side of the waiting area.

I sat down making sure my stake was securely in my pocket.

"Are you alright?" Dimitri asked me calmly as he sat next to me.

I snapped my head so I could look him in the eye.

"Of course I'm fine; I've been in worse positions before".

Dimitri slapped on his your-about-to-get-lectured face.

"What were you thinking, leaving the hotel? You're lucky it was just a couple of hungry strigoi and that I found you in time to help. If it had been guardians, you would have been back in custody." He sighed then and put his head in his hands.

It took me a couple of seconds to regroup and answer him. He really did seem to be worried about me, but I needed to get away from him and head to New Orleans.

I stood and looked down at him.

"Dimitri, I'm sorry for leaving you at the hotel, and thanks really for your help in there, you made my day a touch easier, but I can't go home to Baia with you, I've got something I need to do before I disappear off the grid."

He looked up at me with a frown.

"Rose you need to talk to me, maybe I can help."

"I don't know if you can, I mean you obviously told Abe that you would take me away and keep me safe, and knowing him he's probably got something on you to make sure you cooperate, I mean you told me in Siberia that you couldn't stand him and I know you don't want me, so why else would you be doing all this."

"Enough." Dimitri yelled and all but jumped to his feet.

I stood there stunned by his sudden lack of control.

Without any warning he grabbed me, one hand on either side of my face and kissed me.

At first I didn't kiss back but the heat of his lips on mine sent familiar sparks flying all over me, so I responded with the same heat and passion that he was kissing me with.

The world around us dissolved. I heard nothing but the sound of Dimitri's heart beat, felt nothing but his lips and then his arms as he rapped them around me like a protective blanket, and then, just for a second, all that mattered was him.

I pulled away first, I still loved Dimitri, who was I kidding trying to put him out of my mind and leave him behind, as I opened mouth to speak he beat me to the punch.

"Rose, after the hearing I went to Abe. I told him I loved you and would do anything to save you."

I looked at Dimitri with my mouth open unsure what to say, but he didn't stop there.

"That day in the cafe when the queen's guards took you away, I fought for you. I fought because when they said they were taking you I realised that I never wanted anyone or anything to take you away from me again. I kept sending you away from me because of the horrible things I've done to you. To let you have a life without a constant reminder that I would have killed you had I had a chance."

A single tear ran down Dimitri's face then. One drop that was an ocean of unsaid things and emotions denied.

My own eyes wet with tears, I kissed Dimitri lightly on his lips and then pulled back just enough so I could look him in the eye.

"I love you too, Dimitri."

"Would all passengers holding tickets for American Airlines flight 2376 to New Orleans please now board through gate 32."

"Shit." I said pulling away from Dimitri again.

"What?" Dimitri asked looking a little confused.

"This is my flight, come on we need to get you a ticket." I said taking his hand and heading for the closest counter.

"Rose wait . . . . " Dimitri said trying to stop me.

"I'll explain on the plane, i promise, you just have to trust me, we need to get you a ticket."

"Rose, stop." I spun around about to give him an earful for not trusting me but once I was facing him I realised he was waving a ticket in front of my face.

"When you left the hotel, I figured you'd try to get away from New York, so I headed here. Just as I parked out the front I saw you going in the main doors. I followed you and heard you booking your flight, so I got a ticket after you moved away."

"You were going to grab me on the flight weren't you?" I said putting my hands on my hips.

Dimitri smiled his beautiful half smile that I always liked and all the fight went out of me.