Chapter 3: (A Penny For Your Thoughts)

Dimitri

I still remember the day Mason died, his death could've been avoided, they made a very stupid decision to go after some Strigio. Rose was broken, I mean completely broken, I couldn't figure out what to do. She was so hurt, so broken, it even hurt me. I loved Roza and still do, nothing is going to change that. I wished I could hold her in my arms and tell her how I felt, but I was the teacher, she was my student and even in the vampire world that was unacceptable.

Even in training she was different, I don't know how else to explain it. She didn't joke around as much anymore, and when she did it seemed forced. She was more focused, which is good, don't get me wrong, but none of this was her. I wanted my old Roza back, but I wasn't going to push her, I was afraid I'd push her away if I did.

I was hoping things would go back to normal after Mason's funeral. I wasn't sure if it would help, but no one would know for sure for another hour. I had decided to let her go alone, mostly because I was afraid of what I would do. These last few days have been hard, seeing her hurting and not being able to do anything. It was choking me to death, I needed to be away from it, but that to was killing me.

I had finally finished cleaning the training center. I looked around trying to figure out what to do to take my mind off of my feelings. I'd finished all the cleaning and paper work and filing I had to do. Maybe I could get a workout in before they all got back. I knew it wasn't going to help me stop my thoughts wandering to Roza but then again nothing really did seem to work anymore.

The first time I saw Rose, was about a year before we were able to bring her back to the academy. Her hair had grown out since the picture in my hands had been taken. She was still just as beautiful and breath taking.

We'd been planning on capturing her that night, but some stupid guardian gave us away and they got away. But not before I got a good look at her. She had bite marks on her neck, it looked like six healing and one that might have been a day or two old.

They'd been smart, they'd been careful over the last year, but they left crumbs. It turned out that Lissa, the last of her royal line, had a talent for very powerful compulsion. We'd never seen anything like this though. They don't teach compulsion at the academy because they believe its a violation of ones own ability to make their own decisions which in a way is true.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I looked away from the punching beg that was in front of me that I hadn't even touched. My eyes meet Rose's, they seemed to be a little brighter, less dark and depressing. Her lips curved into a perfect smile, it wasn't even a forced smile.

"sure, but you'll be broke when I'm done," I said giving her my half smile that I know drives her crazy. She laughed which surprised me, the noise was so unfamiliar. I guess the funeral was all she had needed in the end. I was beyond pleased that she was back to normal.

We began our normal sparring routine. Our moves matched making it almost impossible for either of us to get a punch in. Finally, she was able to get a hit in and I stumbled backward. Then Rose playfully pushed me making me fall. She then pinned me to the ground. My breath quickened, she was so close to me, I could smell the scent of her shampoo. I wanted to kiss her and never stop. Her hair was falling out of her hair band and fell around her face.

Her lips were inches away from mine. She had my arms pinned down, but I wasn't trying to escape. But I soon did, I quickly grabbed her arms and rolled her over, pinning her down. I looked her in the eyes and I could tell she wanted me to kiss her just as much as I wanted to kiss her.

I couldn't help it, I bent down and kissed her softly at first then with more intensity. She responded with the same need, grabbing my waist and pulled me to her. I fell on top of her still kissing her. She rolled me over and took off my shirt, when she saw my bare chest she moaned and ran her hand down my chest and stomach. Making me shiver with desire,, she was driving me crazy. I kissed her and started to take her shirt off when she froze. I stopped and looked at her, she looked like she was trying to fight some mental battle.

"We can stop if you want to, Roza." I tried not to call her Roza, but in this moment I couldn't control it. She was so close to me yet just out of my reach. I wondered if I'd ever really get her back and with that thought she was taking off her shirt. She had on a plain black bra that was mostly covered by her hair that had completely fallen out of its ponytail. I continued to kiss her as I ran my hands down her back. She went from kissing my lips to my neck, I'd never in my life felt anything like this. I never wanted this moment to end.

"Roza," I said, but it came out more of a moan. I pulled her off of me as I snapped back to reality. Our training session was almost over and class was about to start. She looked confused and hurt. It hurt, because I didn't mean for it to hurt her. This had been the most amazing time in awhile for me, I kissed her one last time before I pointed to the clock.

She quickly grabbed her shirt and tossed me mine. I really didn't want this to be covered, but what we just did might seem right in our hearts, but definitely wasn't morally. We both knew we needed to make sure it never happened again, no matter how much it tries to pull us in.

With that Eddie walked in, he'd been good friends with Mason and I knew he wished he'd been the one to die instead of Mason.

"Hey Eddie," Rose said in an upbeat tone that seemed to shock Eddie just as much as it had me earlier.

"Hey Runner, has Bolvok been working you too hard?" Eddie said trying to smile but it was still too forced.

"Of course I have, she missed two years of training remember?" I said jokingly.

"Yeah, I do remember that…" His eyes seemed to glaze over and he seemed to be in a different place and time, but it only lasted a moment. "Oh yeah, Rose, Lissa is looking for you." He said it with so much urgency that it made Rose freeze in her tracks.

She looked at me but didn't say anything. Everything was in her eyes, her beautiful eyes. "Go," I told her, "I won't tell anyone you missed class. As far as anyone's concerned you were here." I looked at Eddie who just nodded in agreement.

Rose ran out the door before either Eddie or I could've said anything else. I looked at the clock again, there was about ten minutes before class started.

Once again, I couldn't stop my mind from wandering to another memory of Rose. It was a memory of Tasha. I remembered how Rose go jealous when she heard that Tasha had asked me to be her guardian.

Rose began to give me the cold shoulder. She started hanging around Mason, which I didn't like. I love her of course I'm going to be upset if she's sucking faces with another guy.

But now Mason was gone and I felt bad, there was nothing I could do for Eddie or Rose.