Rite of Submission - Rite 1

24: Stranger Dreams may Come

                The room was still dark when Dmitri shook my shoulder to wake me. I was not ready to deal with him yet, so I pulled the blanket up over my head and groaned at him to go away. He shook my shoulder again, more insistently until I tossed the blanket back and sat up to yell at him. Before I could get a word out, he'd placed a hand over my mouth. "I don't want to wake Sophie," he whispered harshly.

I rolled my eyes and pushed his hand away, "If it's that early, why are you waking me up? What do you want?"

He just walked to the doors that led to the hallway and stood there staring at me expectantly. Grumbling in protest, I pushed myself off the sofa and made my way across the room to where he stood. "Where are we going?" I asked quietly ignoring the way his eyes lingered on my outfit.

He waited until we were out in the hall to answer, "Dr Martinez needs to see us, and I don't want Sophie to worry if she doesn't have too." He started walking down the hall, expecting me to just follow after.

"What time is it?" I grumped, not even trying to keep up with his long stride.

"About 4:30 in the morning I think," he shrugged.

I stopped dead in my tracks, "Nope," I turned around and started walking back to the room, "it's too early for this shit. I'm going back to sleep. You can take me down after breakfast." I squeaked a little when he scooped me up in his arms and began carrying me. "Fine, fuck it!" I sighed, laying my head on his shoulder and breathing in the scent of him, "Wake me when we get there." He chuckled as I tucked my arms against his chest and closed my eyes.

The medical wing was dark and chilly at this hour. I found myself snuggling into him for the warmth. Instead of an exam room, he carried me into a small office, with Dr Martinez sitting behind a desk. "Is she alright?"

Setting me down on my feet, he laughed, "She's fine, just lazy, and clearly not a morning person." I glared at him but he ignored it. "You wanted to see us so here we are." He flopped unceremoniously into one of the empty chairs.

"Yes," she grabbed a tray off her desk and walked around to the side Dmitri and I were on. "I'd like to get a new sample from each of you, to make sure both of your levels are still declining, for a start."

I was very awake all of a sudden, "Sophie said you didn't have any wolfsbane in your system," I accused him, and the guilty look on the Dr just confirmed the lie. I grabbed her hand, as she reached towards me with the rubber tube to tie around my arm. "How much?" I raised my voice more than I meant too. She looked back towards Dmitri, but I turned her back to me. "I don't care what he told you not to say, you answer me! How much was in his system?"

"It's ok Isabel, just tell her," he sighed, looking rather tired himself. I noticed the circles under his eyes were darker, and his skin looked paler than usual.

"Not anywhere near as high as yours," she tried to reassure me. "I think he's been being dosed through contact with you, so the amount is significantly lower and if we can get an idea of how quickly you're working it from system we can work out when you were dosed." I held my arm out to her, still glaring at him. At least I could tick that question off my list. "Remarkable," she examined my inner elbow, "did you happen to notice how long until..."

"About an hour," I interrupted her, "can we get this over with? I have some yelling I'd like to do."

"Yes, yes, of course Luna," she set about pulling the vial of blood from my arm and taping the cotton over it again. After labeling the glass tube and dropping it into her lab coat pocket, she moved over to Dmitri. "Have you noticed any other side effects?" She asked, too fixated on drawing a vial of his blood to notice the look he gave me.