Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice (Dimitri's POV)

Chapter 20

"You're looking awfully happy," Sonya said, shocking us all out of what we were doing. I realised she was talking to Rose who blinking back to reality suddenly.

"Lissa passed her second monarch test," she told us all. Perfect. That would buy us some more time. I began to realise Lissa was a lot stronger than I'd previously thought.

"Of course she did," Victor muttered, expelling my theories that he might've gone to sleep. I quickly checked Robert, but he was still sleeping soundly. A thought immediately came to me. I had no idea what these trials were; nobody did. But what if something happened to Lissa?

"Is she okay?" I asked. "Injured?" I knew Rose wouldn't be able to live with herself if Lissa got injured whilst she was away. It reminded me briefly of Ivan and I, but I shook off the thought.

"She's fine," Rose murmured, but I sensed something else. She seemed quite far away and I wondered if she was affected by Lissa's experiences. I hoped desperately that she wasn't. I watched silently, driving down this endless road as Victor's eyes soon slid closed.

As if she'd been watching him and was finally satisfied he was out, Rose yawned and then her eyes also shut. So then it was just Sonya and I for a while. I knew this was no place for a Strigoi conversation, especially over the others. Other than that, we didn't know anything about each other. She was Rose's teacher. She was a spirit user who'd gone crazy and turned Strigoi. She liked flowers. That was it.

Nothing much happened until I saw Sonya turn to stare at Rose. Her eyes seemed to be examining her, something I'd become attuned to because I did it so much. Not just Rose, my thoughts hastily corrected themselves, and I wondered why the clarification was necessary. I was really going mad. However, Sonya seemed confused.

"What?" I questioned. "What's wrong?" She turned hurriedly to me.

"Oh? Nothing," she blabbered. I eyed her critically.

"It doesn't look like nothing to me. Are you sure there's nothing you're not telling me?" She wisely decided against keeping secrets.

"Well, it's Rose's aura, really."

"Oh?"

"It's, well, it's shining slightly. Nothing unusual. I think she's in a spirit dream."

"A spir-oh. How can you tell?"

"Her aura's slightly gold. And it's shining."

"Does that mean anything?" She shrugged.

"Nothing to be worried by. It's not glaring bright or anything..." As she drifted off, her posture changed and I recognised her lie immediately, but decided not to push it. It probably meant probing into Rose's private life and emotions, and I still retained some part of the gentleman my mother taught me to be.

"Probably just the dream."

"Yeah." She turned away to the window then and I focused on my driving. I exaggerated all my thoughts, not letting them drift anywhere else. I didn't want my mind wandering into unwanted territory. Take a left onto the I-77. Wait for the roundabout and take the 2nd exit and drive until the next junction. I switched gears impatiently.

I was alerted by a movement behind me and turned to see Sonya intently studying Rose again. Rose sat up and opened her mouth before closing it again. What was she going to say? Rose was so aggravating just in the little movements. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to know everything about her. She almost leapt out of her seat and saw Sonya in her face. I tried to imagine how those blue eyes would be staring into her soul. Literally.

"You were having a spirit dream," Sonya stated.

"How'd you know?" Rose wondered. I kept my eyes on the road, still listening in to their conversation.

"Your aura."

"Aura's used to be cool, but now they're just starting to get annoying." Starting to? They were annoying the first time I heard of them. No, that's not true. They were only annoying after you met Adrian properly and knew he could do them. I worked to kept he scowl off of my face. People probably thought I was schizophrenic.

"-informative if you know how to use them." Oh, good. I hadn't missed much. "Were you with Vasilisa?"

"No. My boyfriend. He's a spirit user too." My heart sank with the confidence in which she said my boyfriend.

"That's who you were with?"

"Yeah. Why? What's wrong?" There was a pause and I resisted the urge to turn around and therefore let them know that they weren't as quiet as they thought they were.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." Again, I heard that tone of voice that was slightly off. I could feel eyes on me and I hoped I hadn't missed something important. Was there some direction she'd given?

"Come on, it sure seemed like-"

"There!" Sonya yelled out. "Take that exit!" I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from swearing as I cut off in front of another guy who tooted me and gave me the finger. I crossed over onto the exit, just scraping past the barrier. The car shook and Sydney cried out, telling me she was awake after all. Robert and Victor also woke up, having had their heads banged against the windows.

"A little warning next time might be helpful," I informed her, kind of hoping for an apology, or a "Yes." However, she just stared out of the window. I turned to the sign that read WELCOME TO ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. Sonya stiffened and I realised that this was the place. The last Dragomir lived here. I couldn't help a small bit of excitement run through me as I realised how close we were to finding them. It would mean everything we knew changing.

"Are we here?" Rose asked, reminding me of little kids shouting , "Are we there yet?" Except not as annoying. In fact, far from it. She was way too beautiful and strong to be like that. Scratch my analogy. I was really losing my touch. "And how long have we been on the road?" I glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

"Six hours," I told her, surprised. It had felt so much longer, probably because it had just been me, the stupid music and the road for most of the journey.

"Go left at that second light," Sonya told me. "Now right at the corner." We drove past dozens of houses down an impossibly long road-or so it seemed. The further we got, the more I breathed in. As soon as Sonya pointed one out, a collective exhalation rocked through the car. "There."

"Do you know if your relatives still live here?" Rose asked her as I pulled into the brick driveway. The house was nice, picture perfect with a neat green lawn. Definitely Moroi. She nodded. "I guess there's only one way to find out. Same plan?" I suddenly recalled the plan we'd discussed earlier that I'd all but forgotten about.

"Same plan," I echoed. "You go to the house. You look less threatening."

"Hey!" I smiled. I knew that was going to happen.

"I said 'look.'" Sonya, Sydney and Rose got out of the car and suddenly decided that a, "Be careful," was necessary. What if it was the wrong house? What if here were Strigoi? What if everything went wrong?

"You too," Rose responded and I felt my heart twinge. She cared about me at least, even if only a little bit. I couldn't help the smile that spread over my face. I knew I would need it anyway. In a car with Victor and Robert. Yeah. I watched nervously as they strode up the driveway and hoped to God that nothing happened to either of us.