Never Tear Us Apart - Complete

Chapter Thirty-three

It never ceased to amaze me how quickly bodies and minds adapted. We started the first full week of our new training regime, and on Monday night I was tired, but by Tuesday I was feeling ok, and by Wednesday my body was starting to crave the intense workouts Dimitri, with the help of Abe's Guardians, was putting us through. Don't get me wrong – I still moaned and whined and called Dimitri several unflattering things behind his back as well as to his face. But I was enjoying it, as were Eddie and Meredith.

Every day was the same. Breakfast, run, gym, morning tea with Abe when he arrived at the gym, more gym, run home for lunch and a small relax, then another run before heading back to the gym. By Wednesday the local Dhampir population had heard about us, and why we were here, and so far the response had been positive.

It probably also didn't hurt that Abe was spending money hand over fist in and around the town. I'd talked to him about it, and he explained it really wasn't a large sum for him, but he knew that in a town like Baia an injection of money at the various local businesses helped numerous families.

"You're loving being here, aren't you?" he asked.

"I am. It's wonderful to focus on this and leave my other troubles behind for a while."

"Your other troubles?" Abe asked, looking at me shrewdly.

"I'm worried about what's going to happen after graduation," I said, sitting beside Abe at the side of the gym, watching Pavel and Dimitri work with Eddie and Meredith while I took a breather.

"I hope to guard Lissa, but if Dimitri is her other Guardian, we'd always be on opposing shifts. We'd never have any time off together. We had hoped Dimitri could maybe transfer and guard Christian, Lissa's boyfriend, but the night before we left to come here he told me he knows about Dimitri and I and is ok with it, but he's not prepared to be Dimitri's charge."

Abe looked at me an eyebrow raised.

"It's because of his aunt Tasha," I explained. "She has a thing for Dimitri and has repeatedly offered for him to become her Guardian. She lives in the human world and suggested she and Dimitri could even have a family together. He's told her no, but Christian won't have him as his Guardian out of respect for Tasha's feelings."

"So what's the alternative?" Abe asked.

"Dimitri gets a job guarding someone else, and we try and line up our shifts as much as possible," I said. "But with Lissa at university part of the time and Court the rest, it's going to mean weeks or even months at a time apart. That's why being Christian's Guardian would have been perfect – they're going to Lehigh together and would be living together, too."

"What about you guarding someone else?" he suggested. "You could both take jobs at Court or an Academy?"

"We could," I acknowledged. "But I really don't want to guard anyone other than Lissa. It's what I've trained for my entire life."

"Does she know about you and Dimitri?"

"Not yet. I need to tell her, but I want to have a game plan first."

"So what does Dimitri have to say about it?"

My eyes dropped to the ground as I replied.

"I haven't told him about Christian yet. He was so excited about coming here to see his family, and everything was going so well. I didn't want to drop this on him."

"You have to tell him," Abe said.

"I know," I groaned, feeling monumentally guilty. "I will. I'll do it. Soon."

I looked up to see Dimitri walking over to us.

"You two look serious. Should I be worried?" my Russian God teased.