Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice (Dimitri's POV)

Chapter 27

I stood in absolute silence. Nobody had a need to talk to me, so I didn't bother talking to anybody else. It was how I was when I'd first become a guardian, and how I'd been up until about half a year ago. Instead I reflected on how much Rose had changed me. Because I'd always been an introvert. I preferred to be alone than in a big group. I spent my evenings with a book and a mug of coffee. The people I got along best with were my family.

Yet Rose had come dancing into my life and changed me. I laughed more. I smiled more. I relaxed a little, enjoyed myself more. I started talking to the other guardians, made a few friends to hang out with on my breaks. Rose made me look at the world differently, made me try and see it from her point of view. She was such a different teenager to the way I was, the life of the party and a smile full of laughter. Rose had made me a better person.

And I'd retreated back into my shell when I shunned her. I started to become worse than I'd been before, not letting anybody in at all. I trusted nobody, not even myself. Yet all I needed was for her to grab my hand and fling me back into reality, into the real world, and I was whole again. I'd lost so much, and I wondered if I would ever be able to gain it back.

I'd mused over this far too much for my own good. I'd begun to doubt everything I knew just to make it fit in with my strange theories, but all that really mattered was that Rose still loved me. I felt complete knowing that, yet I also knew that I had to fill in a couple of cracks for everything to work properly. If that wasn't done soon, the plaster would crumble and everything would topple down. It was a decision I had to make, and I pretty much knew the path to take. I just wasn't sure how I would do it.

I began to pace as I thought, watching the area whilst still consumed by my own thoughts. I was the first to notice when Rose and Mikhail arrived back, and they gathered us around to tell us the news.

And news it was.

It was a miracle that I was able to keep a straight face in that moment. My emotions ran wild as I thought it through. Yes, all the evidence made sense and...no, I wasn't as surprised as I probably ought to have been. But I was still shocked. And betrayed, most of all. My head spun as I thought of the web of lies the suspect had woven and how Rose and I had been caught up in them. Did the murderer know that would happen? Did they know they were risking our safety? Of course. That was probably what hurt the most.

"Impossible," Adrian muttered, flinging his cigarette to the ground childishly and stamping on it. I hoped he was going to pick that up. "Your Alchemist pals are wrong."

"The motives are there..." Rose mumbled, almost as shocked by the betrayal as I was. "And they are political. Ambrose was right."

"Ian's ID is hard evidence," I added. "But there are a lot of other holes, and lot of pieces that don't fit into it." Why was I trying to defend the suspect?

"Yeah. Like why I was set up for the fall." Everybody stayed silent, and I wondered if I was the only person that knew the answer. There was no way I was telling Rose.

"We need to get back," Mikhail announced. "Or I'm going to be missed."

"And you've got to make your debut," Rose told Jill, whose knees shook nervously.

"I don't know which is crazier, the killer's identity or that Jailbait's a Dragomir," Adrian said. Definitely the killer.

Sonya offered to stay behind as we travelled back to Court, as there weren't enough seats for all of us. Mikhail promised that he would be back soon and they embraced for the last time before we headed off once more. Adrian handed me a small bracelet, which was charmed with spirit to disguise me, and I slipped it on reluctantly, wishing I had my duster to hide it.