Incomplete (A VA Fanfic One-Shots & Shorts Collection)

Rose & Dimitri Blood Bond during the Cabin scene

Part 4
Janine'sPOV
I sat Rose down in the chair by the desk in my room, pacing while trying to figure out what to ask her first. I don't know how to handle this, approach it. I feel winded, confused, lost... like someone's pulled the rug out from under me that I hadn't realised I was even standing on.

Why? Why her? Why with Belikov? Why now?
How? How was it formed? How does it work? How does it impact their promise? Their duty?
What? What else are they hiding? What else wrong have they done? What else are they going to do? What were they thinking? What are the side effects? What do they want from it?
Where? When? Where did it begin? When did it? Where did it peak (has it even)? When did it get this obvious and intense?

"I can't answer your questions if you don't ask them, Mom."
Halting, I turn and face my daughter whose eyes are both hers and Belikov's. "I don't know where to start, Rosemarie."
She rolls her eyes at her proper, full name. I don't understand her dislike of it. "Rose, Mom. And how am I to know where to start if you don't know what you want to know most? What do you expect me to say? I'm sorry? I'm not. I'm really not. That I'd change things? Pick someone else? Absolutely not. It's not ideal, but it is right—I cannot stress that enough."
We're silent a few moments before I ask my first question. "How? How does it form?"
Rose shrugs, slouching in the chair before answering. "It just kinda... well... does. We always just... sorta... understood each other in ways we don't want to understand ourselves. It grew from there... but there must be something minutely different genetically—more Moroi—but it isn't unlocked unless we meet the other. It doesn't activate unless everything else falls into place just so with just that one other."
"When you say minutely more Moroi...? You mean...?" I cannot quite meet Rose's gaze. The ingrained reaction to the image of Rose being fed from just too strong. I can't comprehend the enormity of what else is involved.
"The need for blood, yes. But only each other's. I only want his, because his is the only one I need—the only one with that extra something to enhance me, complete me. And it's the same for him. My blood has something unique about it, too, and it's meant only for him. My blood is the only blood he wants—the only one he needs."
I don't want the images she's placed in my head. The taboo of standard blood whores makes it nearly impossible to stomach the thought of two dhampir drinking each other's blood. "Can you undo it? Will it disappear if you stopped... feeding?"
Rose shakes her head. "No. We haven't even had it for a day, barely fourteen hours if we're lucky, but not feeding isn't an option. It makes us stronger individuals and as a pair. Physical distance alone such as we're experiencing right now is physically painful and depleting the strength gained by feeding. You know the reports from the attack. When Christian and I were attacked on our own, Dimitri was on elementary campus and had been fighting alone for half an hour without backup, almost on top of top of the wards while I raised the alarm with Alberta. The combination weakened me just enough to leave me so vulnerable if Dimitri hadn't arrived when he did and Christian hadn't taken action I'd probably be dead. We had no option but to feed before we took a single step towards elementary campus. And well, you know what happens next."
"Absolute destruction."
"You could phrase it like that."
"I could also accurately call it 'total carnage'."
She just shrugs, completely unconcerned. "Whatever floats your boat. I'd call it extremely bad luck for the Strigoi and life saving good luck for the Moroi and littlest novices in that dorm. Pure power. Total synchronicity. One person in two bodies."
"Wasn't there. Didn't witness it. Couldn't comment on the process. All I know is the body count you accumulated and how quickly."
"What else do you want to know, Mom?"
I still don't quite know where I'm taking this... discussion... Q&A. "Why Belikov, Rose?" This is what truly irks me the most. "He's your mentor. Your personal teacher. He's what—mid-twenties? What can you possibly have in common? Apart from guarding?"
"Because Dimitri and I are yin and yang. And he's twenty-five. Our attitude towards and passion for guarding is the basis of our characters. It encapsulates everything we are.
"We are the same in every aspect that matters most, it just manifests differently. As I said: yin and yang.
"It doesn't matter that he loves '80's music but I can't stand it—I love that it's so unexpected given his quiet but dangerous behavior, that it makes him happy. I love that he reads cheesy westerns and wants to be able to be a cowboy living by his own code because again, it makes him happy, gives him an escape, even though I don't see the appeal of reading for fun—when you're not learning anything important.
"I love that he doesn't care that  he's different for growing his hair out to cover his marks, to not come across as proud of them when he's absolutely not. I love that he doesn't want me to cut my hair because not only does he adore it this long but because he knew before the fact that I wouldn't want to have my marks on display all the time, gaining unwanted and unwarranted attention that just reminds me of traumatic events I want to forget but never will."