Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice (Dimitri's POV)

Chapter 15

Sydney's expression when we got back to the car was a mixture of fear, exasperation, shock and disgust. Fear of what happened to us with the Strigoi. Exasperation at our dirty states. Shock at our dirty states. Disgust at our dirty states. And we were pretty dirty. Rose had scrapes on her knees and I had a large gash across my shirt where I caught it with my stake, and the blood had stained my hands.

"I hope you don't stain the car," she grumbled once she'd recovered.

"Are we going to Paris?" Rose asked me, ignoring Sydney's complaint.

"Paris?"

"Not yet," I told them, leaning back in the seat. I took a deep breath and could feel Rose's eyes on me. I had to make sure she thought I was fine. I had to make sure she believe that I was okay, that she didn't know what I could see in my head. Because all I could feel was a grim glee at Donovan's death. I instead put on a fatigued face, which wasn't hard to do. That fight had taken a lot of energy out of us. "We should wait until daytime. We had to go for Donovan now, but if Sonya's got a house, she'll probably be there all day. Safer for us in daylight."

"How do you know he wasn't lying?" Sydney questioned, which would've been a good set of reasoning if we hadn't been...sure. Rose shivered.

"I don't think he was lying," she murmured, and I repressed the urge to squeeze my eyes together. Sydney drove us out of town as fast as possible and I told her to find a hotel. We were going to need some place to clean up. We checked into an average hotel where we got one room with two double beds. We decided that we really need to stay together now, what with Strigoi around. Rose sent me to the shower first, no matter how much I protested, and I relaxed a little when I felt the warm water rinsing away the dirt. I tried to let it rinse away my worries and cleanse my soul...of course, I'd never really believe in all that Zen stuff I taught Rose. That was just something I'd got from Galina...who I'd killed when I was a Strigoi. She was a Strigoi, too, she was...

No. I shook my head, spraying water everywhere, and got out of the shower. I was much more respectable looking now, not including my inner feelings. I pulled on the T-shirt and jeans that Sydney had given me before and let Rose go in the shower. Thankfully, she was quick. I didn't think I could stand being in here alone with Sydney much longer. She kept watching me, as if she knew what I was thinking. That wouldn't be good; I was either thinking about being a Strigoi or remembering how Rose would look in a shower. I tried to focus on the moment and what we had to do next, but my thoughts were always dragged back.

You're over her, Dimitri, mother's voice chastised, but I was beginning to doubt myself. Was I really over her, or had that all been fake? Whichever it was, it had worked in driving Rose away. She was probably happy with Ivashkov now. After she came out, Sydney insisted on bandaging us up, even though we were most likely going to run into Strigoi tomorrow. According to her, this was all the more reason. She then turned on her laptop and pulled up a map of Paris. We squished around and I made sure Sydney was in between Rose and I. This was not what needed now.

"Lots of creeks and rivers," Sydney mumbled, searching the screen. "Not much in the way of lakes."

"Do you think that's it?" Rose asked, pointing at a blue blob on the screen that was obviously not a lake.

"Maybe. Ah, there's another pond. That could be a suspect to, or-oh! Right here?" I glanced at where her slender fingers had found Martin Lake. It seemed to be the only official lake on the map. I sat back and yawned.

"That looks like the most likely option," I told them. "If not, I don't think it'll take long to drive around the other ones."

"That's your plan? Just drive around and look for a blue house?" Rose and I exchanged a look. Of course that was our plan.