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Post by Harper Marowski on Dec 28, 2010 18:32:56 GMT -5
Okay, so... in order to understand this new alternate universe, there's some vocabulary you would probably like to understand before reading. >.>
Moroi - Essentially, living vampires. They're kind of like just another species. They're pale and pretty fragile beings, though there are some who are trying to learn to fight. Because they're living, they have magic that flows through their veins. They can "specialize" in one of the four elements: earth, air, fire, or water. There are a few who specialize in none, and they have other special abilities. Those are spirit users.
Strigoi - Evil, dead vampires. These are vampires with no souls because they are Moroi who have killed one of their own or have killed a dhampir. They have red-ringed eyes, sharp fangs, and they're your average vampire. They burn in the sun and the only way to kill them is to either put them in the sun, decapitate them, or stake them with a silver stake.
Dhampir - Dhampirs are half-Moroi, half-human. They are slightly smaller than the Moroi, have their beauty, but have the strength of humans. Because they got the best of both genes, dhampirs are assigned to protect Moroi as guardians. They're kind of like Moroi bodyguards, and it's their job to kill Strigoi.
Royals - In the Moroi world, they have a unique form of government. There are 12 royal families (Szelsky is one of them), and the royal families are sort of the ones who decide on leaders and vote on important decisions. The entire Moroi world is ruled by a single monarch, who sort of has a final say in politics.
This story takes place after Last Sacrifice (AKA Nike, if you haven't finished reading it yet, DON'T READ THIS 'CAUSE THERE ARE SPOILERS). Rose Hathway has gone down as a legend, and her charge Vasalisa Dragomir has become queen. This is the story of Harper Szelsky, a royal Moroi who must face trials of her own... including an arrogant dhampir boy who just happens to be her new guardian.--------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter One: Collide (Harper) You heard about them, gossiped about them, saw news stories about them… but nothing was compared to the real thing. The red-tinged eyes, the gory fangs, the unbelievable strength… watching family members and guardians die left and right as their life was sucked from them…
“Save that one for me, Elijah,” the one called Klaus called over to the one holding my arms against my sides. I cried and futilely struggled as I watched another Strigoi drain the life from my mother. The light from her eyes had long gone, and her mouth was simply hanging open from the screams of pain she’d been emitting a few minutes ago. Guardians were strewn around them, their necks either snapped, or their throats ripped out.
The blood, it was everywhere…
“Miss Szelsky?”
When Klaus turned his attention onto me, I know I’d see my mother again soon…
“Miss Szelsky? We’ve arrived.”
The door burst open and guardians poured in like a wave of superheroes of death, silver stakes raised in the air as they came to strike down the Strigoi that had invaded my home and had destroyed my life…
“Miss Szelsky!”
I was jerked out of my sleep by a gentle hand shaking my shoulder, and my eyes shot open to see the kind but hardened face of the guardian who’d saved my life, Guardian Bessett, smiling assuredly down at me. Suddenly, I was in the real world again, not the nightmare that had been a month ago.
The private jet that I was one had seemed to have stopped moving, which was probably why Guardian Bessett was out of her seat from across the way. I glanced out the window, and all I could see was a forest of thick trees, and some mountains in the distance. It almost looked like the middle of nowhere, but I knew better. St. Vladimir’s was not just any academy and girls like me were sent to. It was one of the best.
The current queen, Vasalisa Dragomir, had gone here as well as her notorious guardian, Rose Hathaway.
And it had been an extreme honor to come face to face with her Majesty just a few weeks ago. It had been Vasalisa’s request that had me sent here, as well as a request for the school to provide me with a guardian around my age. And the queen’s requests, as a general rule, were commands. Her Highness was just too kind to make them that way. Her Royal Majesty had been beyond any of my wildest dreams, really – I’d never expected a monarch to be as kind or understanding or hospitable as she’d been.
After hearing my story, she’d made the decision to send me to St. Vladimir Academy, and had been given the hearty support of Guardian Hathaway, her consort Lord Ozera, and his own guardian, Guardian Belikov. The four of them had definitely agreed: St. Vladimir’s was the best place for me now.
I just wasn’t entirely sure what that all entailed.
Guardian Bessett must have seen the hesitation in my eyes, but the smile became all the more reassuring. “Come on, Miss Szelsky. We have to get you settled in so you can start school tomorrow. You’ll be just fine, I’m sure.”
It was still very early on in the year, so when the calls had been made, the school had reported that it would be no trouble to whip up me a quick schedule based on what I’d already learned in home school. Everyone was being so gracious… it was really beginning to catch her by surprise.
“Are you staying with me?” I asked hopefully.
“Only as long as the Academy needs me to, Miss Szelsky. I have to get back to court as soon as possible. The Academy has assigned you a guardian – you know that. From what I’ve heard, he’s pretty good.”
“Wait, it’s a he?” I had not been aware of that tidbit of information.
Guardian Bessett’s smile turned into a mischievous grin. “Nobody told you about him, did they?” When my blank expression was enough of an answer, she continued, “Well, yes, it’s a young boy about your age, so you don’t have to worry about an old man following you around. The Academy wouldn’t assign you just anyone – you’ll both be going to school, but he’s already passed all his tests and has already gone through the trials because he’s one of the best students they’ve seen in years. Technically he’s a fully-fledged guardian.”
“But why am I getting a boy? Isn’t that… awkward?”
“Only if you make it that way,” Guardian Bessett replied, opening up the door of the jet for me. I followed her out onto the cold platform, glad that I’d worn a coat. Guardian Bessett had been right, it was freezing here in Montana, and the winter months hadn’t even come yet.
No more words passed between the two of us as she escorted me into the school, where she instantly led me to the headmistress’s office. Even though it was the middle of the night (which was, essentially, like noon for us Moroi), there were no students to be seen. But as we passed a doorway that happened to have a window, I took a peek and saw that it was only because everyone was in class. I’d never been in a classroom before, except for maybe when I was in kindergarten.
I followed Guardian Bessett up a stairwell and obediently waited outside an ornate oak door while she went in and announced that I’d arrived. Less than a minute later, she reopened the door and beckoned me inside.
“So you are Harper Szelsky,” came a wizened old voice from a woman that looked like a vulture sitting behind an old desk like the one my mother used to have in her study upstairs. I remembered the queen mentioning that her name was Kirova. “Welcome to St. Vladimir’s. The queen said you were taking a private flight today. Sit down, girl, sit down so we can get this whole thing sorted out.”
I did as she asked and watched as she pulled out a file that had my name on it. Opening it up on the desk facing me, she explained what everything was.
“This is a map of our campus,” Headmistress Kirova pointed out. I only had time to barely glance at it before she’d pulled out my schedule. “Based on what we were told about your homeschooling, we’ve managed to make up a schedule for you. You specialized in earth, correct?” I nodded. “We’ve got a teacher willing to test your skills to see what level of class you should take, and if you’re willing we can get that done on Wednesday during your lunch. Otherwise, until then you’ll just have a free period at the end of every day. And then here we’ve got your dorm assignment, and…”
“Excuse me, but Guardian Bessett said that I’d have a boy guardian. Is that true?”
Headmistress Kirova didn’t look pleased at having been interrupted, but nodded anyway. “Gavin Sawyer is at the top of all his classes, especially combat. Because of his exceptional record, despite a few behavioral shortcomings, we had him take his guardian trials last semester and he did almost as well as Rose Hathaway did on hers.” My eyes widened at that statement. Whoever my guardian was going to be, they sure had picked him… despite the fact that he was a boy. “All he needs to graduate are a few more academic classes, which he can take with you.”
I frowned. “I’m afraid I still don’t understand. What exactly will having a guardian like him entail?”
“Gavin has agreed to become your permanent guardian, at least until you graduate in the spring. You two have adjoining rooms in the west wing of the Moroi dorms, and he’ll accompany you everywhere you go, just like any real guardian would.” It wasn’t Kirova that answered, but Guardian Bessett.
My mouth dropping open was probably enough of a response.
“What did you expect? Miss Szelsky, you were the victim of a horrible Strigoi attack. We want to ensure that something like that never happens to you again.”
“But I never signed up to live with anybody!”
The look that Guardian Bessett gave me was more than enough to shut me up. I looked down at my hands, which I had lying in my lap. Headmistress Kirova saw it fit then to continue.
“This is your dorm assignment. As Guardian Bessett explained, Mr. Sawyer will be given a room adjoining yours in case of emergency. While there are Strigoi wards around the perimeter, they have unfortunately been known to be broken and won’t keep the smarter ones out. If the Strigoi attack on your family was a planned one, it could be possible that they’re upset you were a loose end. These are all just safety precaution.” A knock on the door made the headmistress look up and the knowing smile that came onto her face was a little haunting.
“I believe that’s your guardian now, Miss Szelsky,” she said. “Guardian Bessett, would you please let him in?”
Guardian Bessett nodded and went to open the door. When she did, the boy who walked in was nothing like I’d expected.
Dhampirs were usually small and compact, but this boy looked nothing like that at all. He was tall, taller than me, and lean almost like the muscle that had gotten him to the top of his combat class was nonexistent. When I saw Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov, I’d seen the best of the best. They were considered gods in the guardian world. This Gavin Sawyer, while he apparently had the rankings to be right up there with them, looked absolutely nothing like them. His sandy hair hung over his blue-gray eyes and he regarded me with such a cold, calculating expression that it sent shivers down my spine. A denim jacket, a black t-shirt, and a pair of torn jeans were all he was wearing. He had no molnija marks, or any promise mark on his neck.
“This is it?” were the first words that came out of his mouth. “This is the chick you told me I had to guard? I thought you said it was some important royal.”
My mouth dropped open again, only this time it was in anger. I sent him a glare that my mother used to call one of my ‘death looks’. “For your information, Mr. Sawyer, my name is Harper Szelsky and my aunt is Ariana Szelsky, one of the most influential politicians in Moroi government right now.”
Instead of getting the reaction I wanted, which was somewhat of an apology or an admittance to being wrong, my soon-to-be guardian only smirked. “Please, Miss Szelsky,” he was mocking my voice, “there’s no need to tell me all about your little family. I think the Academy already knows enough.”
“Gavin! Behave yourself,” Kirova snapped at him. She smiled at me and handed my file to me. “I expect to hear that you’re in classes tomorrow, Miss Szelsky. I’ll give you the rest of today and tonight to get settled in to your new rooms – someone should have brought in your belongings by now. Gavin, if you’d be so kind as to show Miss Szelsky to her room. And show some respect – if you’re going to be guarding her, I suggest you get along.”
I thought I heard him mutter something like, “Fat chance,” but I chose to ignore it. Instead, I looked at Guardian Bessett hopefully.
“You’re on your own from here on out, Harper,” she said quietly with a small smile. It was the first time she’d called me by my first name, and I stood from my chair to throw my arms around her. The woman, guardian dhampir or not, had been with me throughout all of this. The fact that she was leaving me with this pig of a boy was almost too much to bear. She seemed startled, but patted my back in reassurance. “You’ll be fine. I’ll see you again sometime, I’m sure.”
“Thank you, for everything,” I murmured, smiling at her. “I hope I do see you again. Will you come to visit?”
Guardian Bessett looked surprised at the invitation. “I… maybe, if I have some time off.”
I hugged her again before turning to the boy who was supposed to be my guardian. I refused to think of him as Mr. Sawyer or as Gavin. Both names implied being associated with him. “Lead the way,” I said, attempting to sound somewhat friendly.
He just snorted and rolled his eyes. “Come on.” He shoved the door open and went through it, not even bothering to see if I was following. With one last glance back at Guardian Bessett though, I bit my lip and headed out the door after him.
“What’s your problem?” I demanded as we walked. He wasn’t even looking over his shoulder to make sure I was behind him. I practically had to jog to keep up with him. “Why would you volunteer to guard me if that’s clearly something you don’t want to do?”
Gavin stopped and finally looked over his shoulder to give me a heart-stopping glare. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was heart-stopping because for a second he really looked angry, or if it was because I hadn’t noticed in the Headmistress’s office how beautiful and clear those blue-gray eyes were. “Volunteer?” he was growling at me. “Volunteer?! Why would I volunteer to help a stupid girl like you? Kirova is making me guard your sorry little ass because nobody else at this school is as good as I am – not even the teachers.”
I scowled and fought the temptation to slap him. Not only was he mean, but he was arrogant too. I’d dealt with imbeciles like him at court when my mother and I had visited there on occasion. “Well, excuse me,” I snapped right back at him. “But I didn’t choose this either.”
“You know, no matter whose choice it was,” he spat at me, “it’s too late now. Come on, so I don’t have to waste any more time hanging around you than I already do.”
Without another word, he turned around and set off at a faster pace than ever before. After glaring at him for a few seconds and contemplating making him look like an idiot and losing his charge, I decided against it and hurried after him, clutching my file to my chest so as not to lose it.
He took me through a series of corridors that he seemingly knew by heart. We came to a stop on the third floor of a dormitory that seemed like it was on the opposite side of campus. The entire floor looked like it hadn’t been used in a while, and I blinked realizing that they were all adjoining rooms, like the set Gavin and I would have to share (I still didn’t see the point of that, but I supposed it didn’t matter now).
“Here.” He shoved a key in my direction and I almost dropped it in surprise. “This one’s yours.” He pointed to a door in front of him. “And that one’s mine.” He gestured to a door next to it. “Don’t ever go in there. I’ll come to you if you need something, got it?” Without waiting for a reply, he continued. “You can let yourself in. I’m going to go enjoy my last night of freedom doing something worthwhile.” And just like that, he was gone.
Biting my lip, I looked down at the file and my new key. I guessed this was it – my new life.
I opened up the door cautiously and took the first step inside what was going to be my home until I graduated high school.
It was roomy, with a set of gorgeous glass windows that seemed to look down on the forests that surrounded the school. From here, I could see a guardian walking a beaten down path, apparently doing some kind of patrol. There was a bed next to the window, with my two suitcases lying on top of it. Scanning the room further, there was a door to my right that looked like it was the door connecting mine to Gavin’s. On my left there was another door, but this one led to a bathroom that looked pretty clean. A walk-in wardrobe was next to it, which was open probably to let me know it was safe to store my clothes inside.
But it wasn’t home. This wasn’t my room – the room I could never go back to.
Fighting the tears that came with that realization, I pulled my two suitcases from my bed and barely managed to set them on the floor from their weight. For a second I wondered how anyone had been able to carry these two suitcases that were stuffed with my life up all these stairs.
Finally, once I’d locked my door and had made sure that nobody was around to hear, I threw myself onto my bed and sobbed. And sobbed. And sobbed. My mother, the only person who’d ever apparently cared about me (seeing as my father had run off with one of their guardians and hasn’t been heard from since), was gone. Torn away from me by a lifeless, bloodsucking demon. And now I was forced to live here, guarded by an arrogant ass who was the most insufferable being I’d ever met, and I had to pretend like everything was going to be fine.
Right now, I doubted if anything would feel fine ever again.
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Post by Harper Marowski on Dec 29, 2010 0:10:40 GMT -5
I'm just now realizing how complex Richelle Mead's world really is as I'm writing this. >.>
Just to be clear, Moroi do indeed have fangs, but they can conceal them (Strigoi can't). Also, Moroi have to keep a diet of both blood and regular food in their system, whereas dhampirs just have to eat a lot of food. =3 So, on with this crossover that I still can't believe I have muse for. I think I just want to get to the part where they can actually be together. xD----------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: Two Points for Honesty (Gavin) I hadn’t even known little Miss Sunshine for five minutes, and I already hated her.
The party that was going on in the other dorm was already in full swing when I got there. Girls and guys were dancing and grinding to the pumping music that was making the floor vibrate, and some of the other guardian students were either being sticks in the mud and watching the whole thing or they were partaking in the free alcohol someone had managed to bring in.
Me? I headed straight for the alcohol.
Most of the people here were losers and drama queens, but this kind of stuff was what Moroi were best at – partying and gossiping. The only thing I could look forward to over the next few months was that Harper Whatever-Her-Last-Name-Was would be just as good at partying and would come to these little shindigs, consequently dragging me along with her. I wasn’t into the whole dancing, romantic, relationship crap. I was into the music, the alcohol, and maybe a chick or two if the alcohol made me drunk enough.
They come first, my ass, I thought as I swigged down a drink of the beer I’d swiped. The mantra we guardians were taught from birth was “They come first”. Protect the Moroi – in doing so, we preserved our race. Our chance to reproduce. Which was all I saw them as.
Looking around at the party, I didn’t see how they could be anything more than a chance to make kids. Guys were forcing themselves onto girls, drinking, or dancing like idiots. Girls were either sipping alcohol, dancing in provocative positions, or flirting shamelessly with guys that probably weren’t even their boyfriends. What was worth protecting about these ingrates? All they did was make life difficult for the rest of us. I didn’t blame the Strigoi for wanting to wipe them all out. They were a nuisance.
The whole shenanigan didn’t last. Before long, some adult downstairs heard the noise and came to force us back to our dormitories. I really didn’t want to head back to my room, where I’d be within fifty feet of my so-called charge, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I didn’t know of any other parties that were going on.
Before it was gone, I snagged one or two more bottles of the beer before the adult guardians found it. I stashed my stolen goods in my jacket and poured out my current drink in one of the potted plants nearby. I was like a shadow – nobody noticed me as I slipped out from the party while guardians and teachers were scolding the Moroi and taking names for detentions.
My record would once again stay clean.
I ignored the chill in the quad as I headed back over to what was my new dorm. This chick I had to guard probably had no idea what kind of inconvenience she was being. She probably didn’t even care. Most Moroi didn’t.
I resisted the urge to drink some more until I had reached the third floor where my room was. There was a bottle opener in my room that I could use, but as I passed the Harper girl’s door, I heard something that I hadn’t expected.
She was crying.
The sound was, quite honestly, foreign to me. Girls cried all the time, sure, I knew that. Guys liked to complain about their girlfriends breaking down on them, but this was something else altogether.
Hearing the girl cry, well, it brought an ache to my heart. Something I hadn’t felt in a really long time. Not since… well, I guess just not for a very long time. I knew she’d been some victim of an attack, but nobody had bothered to explain to me what exactly had happened. For a second, I thought that maybe I was the cause of her crying, and that just made me feel guilty. Making people cry might have been something I was good at, but I honestly hadn’t meant to make this girl cry.
I was tempted to go in there and see if she was okay, but thought better of it. There were two beers stuffed in my jacket that were just waiting to be drunk. True, I’d probably regret the drinking later, namely tomorrow, but I didn’t care. Like I’d told the Harper girl – I was going to spend my last night of freedom doing something worthwhile. Something fun. And defying the rules was definitely something that was considered fun.
The crying didn’t stop until halfway through the second bottle. By then, the alcohol was beginning to have an effect on me, so it was clouding my judgment. Looking back on the whole thing, I wouldn’t have done what I did.
But at the time, it had seemed like a good idea that, now that the crying had stopped, to see if she’d fallen asleep. Part of me was curious, and the other part just wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t bother us for the rest of the night, or day, whatever it was.
I stumbled over to the door, tripping over my own feet, and yanked it open.
Everything in her room was untouched. She hadn’t closed the curtains even though the morning sun was blatantly shining through the glass of her window. None of her clothes were hanging up in the wardrobe (which was a hell of a lot bigger than mine, by the way), and her suitcases were just sitting there beside her bed. They hadn’t even been opened.
My eyes finally came to rest on the girl herself. She hadn’t even climbed under the covers – she was just curled up on her bed, her face streaked with tears.
It startled me, realizing how beautiful she was. Before, I’d been way too ticked off to really take a good look at her.
She wasn’t as pale as most Moroi were – Kirova had mentioned something about how the girl’s branch of the Szelsky family had originated in Bulgaria, so her tan skin was actually something of a genetic thing. Her hair was long and dark, and it looked silky but I didn’t have the guts to go over and see. There was just something about her that made her beautiful; I couldn’t tell what it was, exactly. She looked careless while she was asleep, too, peaceful. Nothing like before, when she’d looked stressed and irritated. The tears that were staining her skin weren’t even detrimental to her beauty.
Call me a creeper, but I stood there for at least five minutes staring at her. It wasn’t really about checking in on her anymore, it was just… something else.
Then she shivered in her sleep.
If I’d been being rational, I would had said that it was her own fault for falling asleep without any covers. But like I said, I was drunk. That was my official excuse for what I was about to do.
Heading back into my own room, I snatched a blanket off of a chair sitting in the corner. It was a fleece, and I paused when I remembered who’d given it to me. It had once been my sister’s. Kimberly’s. Before I could start thinking about her too much, though, I just rolled up the thing and carried it into Harper’s room. I should probably get rid of the thing anyway. Keeping Kimberly’s stuff wasn’t healthy.
Gently, so as not to wake her, I tossed the blanket over her and tugged it to that it was covering everything up to her chin. In her sleep, she squirmed a bit, and I froze.
“Sure, Mom,” she murmured in a tired voice before rolling over and taking the blanket with her. For the first time in a long time, I smiled. A real smile.
And that was all I remembered until the next morning when I was sullenly following Harper to breakfast the next morning, my head pounding from the alcohol. She was blathering off about something that I really didn’t care about, and now that I had a rational mind, it made me really irritated when she turned around and snapped,
“Are you even listening?”
I smirked. “Nope.”
“You know, I’m trying to be nice here, and you’re messing everything up,” she said with a scowl.
For some reason, what she said really pissed me off. “I’m messing everything up? I’m not the one who just waltzed her way in here causing a huge fuss.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. You don’t even care, do you?”
Harper glared at me. She probably thought she looked like such a big bad tiger, when in reality all she looked like was a fuzzy kitten. It was kind of cute. “Actually, no, I don’t know what you’re even talking about.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course you don’t. Because you think the world revolves around you.”
“If you’d tell me what was wrong, I would know what you’re talking about! I know the world doesn’t revolve around me, but it doesn’t revolve around you either.”
“Please. You don’t even know who you’re talking to.”
She raised her eyebrows at me. “Oh? Then, please, enlighten me.”
Just to make her mad, I replied, “I don’t think so. Now come on. I have to go to breakfast, and you need a feeder, and I really don’t want to sacrifice anything else for you.”
Huffing, she turned away from me, throwing some of that long, beautiful dark over her shoulder and stalked off. Smirking, I followed her.
The cafeteria, as usual, was already full of dhampirs and Moroi. Some small chambers off to the side led to rooms for the Moroi, where they kept human feeders cared for and ready whenever a Moroi needed blood to fill their system. Without even asking if I was okay with it, Harper briskly headed over there and disappeared into one of the chambers. Rolling my eyes, I did what I always did. I got my food and sat down at a table by myself.
Honestly, I was surprised Harper hadn’t brought up the blanket thing. With the pounding headache I had, I could barely remember last night. But that was one of the things that remained in my memory. The little red blanket from my sister that I’d given to Harper when I saw her sleeping…
Just then, Harper appeared at my table with a small plate of a few fruits and a low-fat yogurt. Having just fed, she didn’t need to eat all that much food. When she sat down across from me, I scowled.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“You’re my guardian, aren’t you? I have to stay near you at all times. And I don’t know anybody else at this school.”
Oh. I hadn’t remembered that she was brand new to the whole school thing – the old bird Kirova had mentioned something about her being homeschooled. Accepting her answer, I just shrugged and shoved some more of my pancakes into my mouth.
She looked at me in disgust. “Has anyone ever told you that you eat like a pig?”
I swallowed and scowled at her. Was everything she had to say something annoying? “Oink, oink,” I snapped. “Now shut up and eat your yogurt.”
To which she automatically replied, “You’re an ass.”
“Stop telling me things I already know and eat your damned yogurt.”
She just scowled at me with that kitten expression (which was what I’d decided to call it) again. “I can’t believe you. How do you ever expect to be a guardian when you have such an attitude? I don’t see anyone else in this cafeteria being as mean as you are. I’ve never done anything to you.”
“Well, when I planned on being a guardian, I didn’t expect I’d be guarding someone as stupid or as annoying as you are.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“And I don’t want to.”
To end the conversation, I stuffed some more food into my mouth. I now understood why some of the guys in my classes wanted to remain perpetual bachelors. Girls were so blessed annoying it just made me sick to my stomach. Harper could see that I wasn’t going to respond to anything anymore, so she just piped down like I’d originally wanted and only ate a few spoonfuls of her yogurt before pulling out her schedule and studying it.
The rest of breakfast passed in silence, and I liked it that way. Harper didn’t look up from her schedule, so I took that liberty to scarf down the rest of my food before she could look up and something else stupid about my eating habits.
Our first class (I still couldn’t believe I had to take all of her classes with her – my entire schedule had been moved around for this girl) was a doozy. People stared at Harper, as they did with all the new kids, whispered amongst themselves and did so even more then she took a seat next to me. It was just kind of a general rule that people didn’t sit around me. I wasn’t exactly a pleasure to be around during the school day.
Once we’d left it, I snapped at her. “Look, you can’t sit next to me every class we go to.”
“Why not?”
“Do you need to know why? Just don’t sit next to me, okay?”
“But I want to know why.”
I sighed and sent her one of my ‘looks’. “If I said it would help me protect you better, would you accept that excuse and move on with your life?”
I expected her to say something just to spite me, but instead she just sighed and said, “Fine. Whatever.”
Our next few classes passed like any other school day. While there, I could pretend like life was going on as normal with her sitting in the front and me sitting in the back. Once or twice, I pulled out a composition notebook and either doodled or wrote in it when I got too bored.
My notebooks were something that nobody else really knew about it. A few other kids saw me with them, but nobody knew what was in them, because I never showed them to anybody. The pages were filled with journal entries, and occasionally a poem or two. The doodles that lined the pages were all stuff I did in class when the teacher’s boring lectures got to be too much for me. I saw Harper glance at me once or twice, and I could tell she’d noticed the notebooks. But she’d never know about them. I intended to keep her out of my personal life as much as possible.
At lunch, she was just as annoying as breakfast. I understood that she probably couldn’t sit anywhere else because nobody was her friend (I assumed it was because she was just that agitating), but the fact she assumed she could sit with me was really beginning to tick me off.
“What, you can’t sit anywhere else?”
She just glared at me and ate the salad she’d gotten for lunch. God, she didn’t even eat real food. She really was one of those stick royals who had nothing better to do than ruin other peoples’ lives. Observing her over lunch, I noticed that she hardly ate anything at all anyway. I considered telling her that she should eat more, but I then decided that if she passed out from hunger in the middle of the day, one it wouldn’t be blamed on me and two it would just be funny.
After lunch, we had three more classes. Harper unbelievable did as I asked and didn’t sit near me in the classrooms, and when the final period of the day came I glanced down at her schedule. There wasn’t an eighth period there.
“What the hell? They’re giving you extra special privileges now? You don’t have to have a full school day like the rest of us?”
She gave me that kitten look. “No, the school doesn’t know how skilled I am with my earth skills, so I have to take a test on Wednesday to see what class I need to take. Until then, I don’t have a class to fill this time with.”
“So you just get to do whatever the hell you want, and I have to go with you? I’d rather sit in a classroom.”
“Why don’t you? Maybe then you could leave me alone.”
Leave her alone? She was the one who’d been bugging me all day. “And you wonder why you don’t have any friends,” I muttered.
“What did you say?”
“None of your concern, your Majesty,” I growled, rounding on her. “I was just commenting on your apparent lack of brainpower or problem solving abilities.”
She was silent for a minute or two, and I thought that I’d made a point, but when I turned around to walk away, she demanded, “Well, what about you?”
“What about me?” I warily looked over my shoulder at her.
“You obviously don’t have any friends. You’re such an ass all the time I can understand why, but what I don’t get is what made anyone at this school think you could be a guardian. You don’t even act like the other dhampirs here. You might have passed all your combat classes, but I don’t know how the hell you passed the social courses, because with every passing moment I spend with you, you act like more and more like a complete asshole to me,” she snapped at me. “I don’t even see how your mother could be proud at the way you treat everyone around here. Does she know her son is such a pinhead?”
Without even thinking about it, I grabbed her arm and pushed her against the wall, making her drop all her books and causing a few heads to turn our way.
“Don’t. Ever. Mention my mother like that. Or I’ll snap your arm so fast, you’ll never know what happened.”
My family was a subject that nobody was ever allowed to bring up. My first year here, another dhampir had said something that had insulted my mother, and the next day he was in the hospital wing with three broken ribs, two broken arms, and a broken nose. Since, nobody had ever mentioned anything family-related to me. Until this stupid Moroi came along.
But instead of getting scared like I expected her to, she just glared up at me defiantly. “And that’s exactly what I’m talking about. No dhampir would ever do something like this.”
“Well, I’m not just any dhampir, am I?”
“Obviously not. I hope you never become a real guardian – you’re horrible at it.”
I smirked. “You’ve never even seen me in action, little Moroi. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“You have your charge pressed up against a wall. I’m pretty sure I know you’re capable of at least being insane,” she hissed at me, and then she did something that I’d never seen any Moroi do before.
She bared her fangs at me.
Seeing her like that, so angry and yet so harmless, stirred up something in me. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, or why those feelings were awakening, but there was a surge of them through my long dormant heart. Memories of seeing her last came rushing back to me, seeing her so peaceful and just so beautiful… so I did something I definitely regretted later.
I kissed her.
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Post by Harper Marowski on Jan 7, 2011 0:04:46 GMT -5
Chapter Three: Fall for You (Harper) He was freaking kissing me.
Gavin Sawyer, the biggest ass on the planet and my supposed guardian, was kissing me.
But, the scariest thing about it? I loved the way his lips felt against mine, the way electricity was shooting up and down my body at the feeling. I loved this kind of kiss. And as soon as I realized that, I got really pissed off.
The only problem was, he was a guardian, and so he was a lot stronger than me. My shove against his chest didn’t do much good, but it was enough of a message for him. He backed off, and I hated myself for actually missing the feeling he’d just given me – there had to be something wrong with my emotions… my hormones had to be out whack to actually enjoy something like that.
“What. The. Hell?!” I demanded of him, brushing myself off like that would get rid of the feelings that had suddenly sprung up from the pits of my stomach. “What was that?”
We were beginning to attract a crowd, as students paused in their commutes to their classes and stared at our display. There were one or two wolf whistles from the crowd of boys that had stopped, and they received glares from two jealous Moroi girls whom had made Gavin an object of their affection. It was obvious, from what I could see, that he had a reputation here. I didn’t. People were cheering for him, not me. That was probably what pushed me over the edge.
I refused to look at him, and just growled, “I’m going to my room. Don’t follow me – it’s not like you’re my real guardian anyway.”
With that, I walked past him and shoved him with my shoulder before turning down a different hallway and ignoring the cat sounds some of the other students were making.
Going to school was harder than I’d ever expected.
Before long, I found a deserted hallway and leaned against the wall. I sank down to the floor, pulled my satchel off of my shoulder and just began to cry.
I hated crying, but lately it seemed all I was able to do. If it weren’t for those Strigoi, I would never have come here. I never would have had to deal with Gavin Sawyer, and I never would have lost my mother. My mother, Tricia Szelsky, the best woman on the face of the planet, and she was gone. She’d never be able to give me advice again, especially now, when I needed it so much. She’d be able to tell me so much.
She’d be able to tell me what everything back there had meant. The spark of electricity that shot up my arm at his touch, and the thundering of my heart that had occurred when he kissed me… she would have been able to explain it to me.
And she’d be here to comfort me. But she wasn’t, and she never would be able to wrap her arm around me, tell me that everything would be okay, ever again.
I wasn’t sure how long as I sat there crouched against the wall, bawling my eyes out. It could have been minute, or it could have been hours. The only thing that brought me back to reality was a gentle hand on my shoulder, and a voice that asked me,
“Hey, you alright?”
I looked up, wiping away my tears and probably ruining the small amount of mascara that I had on my face. I found myself face to face with a blond dhampir girl, her chocolate brown eyes concerned but also a bit mischievous. She had no bag on her, and for a second she almost looked too old to be going to school here.
“Look, kid, you’re going to miss dinner. It starts in about fifteen minutes and I don’t think you want to have to wait until breakfast to get some food in you. And trust me, it’s hell to try and get into the kitchens once the sun comes up. I would know.” She grinned at me and winked, which made me feel better. It was just then that I noticed there was a guy coming up to us, a well-built-looking dhampir who had sharp blue-gray eyes and was looking at me uncomfortably. He must have seen my tears.
The dhampir girl looked over her shoulder at what I was looking at and scowled. “Az, get lost,” she snarled at him. “This isn’t any of your business.”
The boy called Az held his hands up in surrender. “I’m just passing through. No need to get all bitchy. And besides, you left this in the training room.” He tossed her what looked like a silver stake, the most key tool for killing Strigoi in our world.
“You own a silver stake?” I asked my eyes wide in wonder. I’d seen guardians use them before, but seeing them up close was different. This one, the girl’s, had an antique-looking pattern carved into the handle that looked like a bird taking off from a tree.
She nodded, twirling the stake around proudly. “Every dhampir is given one once they reach the age of eighteen,” she declared with pride. “My birthday was just last week, and I got this yesterday. Every stake has a pattern on it, unique to the guardian that uses it. It helps us identify whose is whose on a battlefield, I guess.” Then, sheepish, she glanced over in Az’s direction. “Thanks,” she grumbled, and it was barely audible even to my sensitive ears. Moroi, like me, had a keen sense of smell and hearing, but a dhampir’s was comparably better. It was one of the reasons why they were guardians.
“Dinner’s starting soon, and I’m not waiting up for you, no matter how cute you might be,” Az told us, winking at the girl. “Come on, Ave. Bring your pet Moroi with you, we can introduce her to the guys.”
The girl, who apparently was called Ave, rolled her eyes. “Go ahead then. I’ll catch up with you.”
Az shrugged and left me with Ave, who smiled down at me as she pushed herself to her feet. “We’ll find the nearest bathroom and get you cleaned up. What’s your name?”
“Harper Szelsky,” I said quietly as I allowed her to pull me to my feet. I picked up my satchel and slipped it on over my shoulder, wiping my eyes with my sleeve.
“You’re the new kid,” she observed, looking me over. “Thought I’d never seen your face around here. Well, welcome to hell.”
I laughed bitterly. “You have no idea.”
Ave grinned. “Never met a royal who agreed with me so quickly before. You’re not excited about all the social opportunities? The fact that the queen and her guardian went here only a few years ago? The beautiful Montana scenery? The gigantic shopping mall only an hour away?” She raised her eyebrow at me as we started walking.
“That stuff doesn’t really interest me,” I told her honestly, even though I lied about the shopping mall. I liked shopping to an extent, but I was no mall rat.
“You’ve impressed me. I like you already.”
Ave led me to a bathroom that was down the hall, and waited outside while I washed the tears from my face and checked to make sure my eyes were no longer red and puffy. When I looked acceptable, I went back out to where she was waiting. She just smiled at me and led me to the cafeteria, giving me a vocal tour when she heard that I didn’t really know where anything was yet. When she asked why someone hadn’t shown me around yet, I told her who should have.
“Oh. Ouch.” She hissed in sympathy. “Gavin Sawyer’s an ass. He was in my combat class freshman year, the little bastard. Then again, I guess that was right after…” Ave fell silent, looking down at the ground.
“Right after what?”
She shrugged. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. But, I guess it’s sort of public knowledge.”
“What is?” I was more than curious to know – a part of me wanted to understand Gavin, and the other part of me just wanted to leave it be because nothing would change the fact that Gavin Sawyer was the devil.
Ave paused. “We’re too close to the cafeteria. I’ll tell you later. For now, I’ll introduce you to the guys. Your little guardian won’t mind, will he?”
“Even if he did, I wouldn’t care.” I was determined to stand on my own two feet. And I was going to ignore Gavin for as long as possible. Whether or not he was my guardian.
“That’s my kind of attitude,” she said with approval, wrapping an arm around me and steering me into the cafeteria.
Even though I couldn’t see him, I could feel he was here. I wasn’t entirely sure how I knew, but I knew he was glaring at me. For whatever reason, I didn’t really care. I turned my head to see him, as I’d suspected, sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, giving me a really hostile glare. Whether or not he was my guardian, he had royally pissed me off (no pun intended), and I was not about to let that go. So I flipped my hair over my shoulder, smirked, and turned to face the table that Ave seemed to be guiding me to.
There were a few people there. All of them were dhampirs, except for one smaller framed blond Moroi girl who smiled up at me as I approached.
“Alright, guys, this is Harper Szelsky. Harp, this is the group.” I really didn’t mind the nickname ‘Harp’… in all honesty, I’d never been called that before. It was kind of nice. She sat me down in a seat next to her, and I looked around at everyone. They were all regarding me with open, curious, but kind expressions. Except for Az, who was sitting across from Ave and smirking at her.
“You’ve already met Az. This is his brother, Dan,” the boy who was sitting next to Az, and looked comparably like him with curly brown hair and sharp green eyes, “my sister, Delia,” the girl sitting on Ave’s other side, with blond hair like her sister’s, “that’s Nick and Gail,” a tall-looking fellow with dark hair and eyes had his arm around the small Moroi blond who’d smiled at me earlier, “and this over here is my pouty brother Luke.” The last guy was sitting on the edge of the table, with blond hair that spiked out and blue eyes that almost looked haunted.
“Hey.” Ave reached over and snapped her fingers in front of her brother’s face. “Anna isn’t over there – stop looking.”
Luke gave her a look that was a mix between irritated and amused. “Avery, don’t.”
“Avery?”
Ave shrugged. “That’s my full name – nobody ever really uses it though.” She gave a warning glare over to Luke who just smiled and rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s get you some food.”
Dinner passed without any further incident. I found that these dhampirs (and Moroi) were a family more than anything else. It wasn’t just that most of them were related in some way, they were best friends. Something I’d never really had before. At home, home-schooled and only out to go shopping with my mother, I’d never realized that I’d never really had a group of friends before. Yeah, there had been the guardians back home (I tried not to think about them too much, like my mother, they were gone), but that wasn’t the same as having real teenage friends.
Maybe, just maybe, school wasn’t so bad. I could handle this. I looked around the cafeteria, seeing all the other royal Moroi sitting at their distinct tables, gossiping and pointing and giving each other dirty looks. Looking at the carefree table of dhampirs that I sat at, I realized that I was so lucky I hadn’t been raised in an environment like this. My mother had always kept me at home, wanting to keep me from politics as long as possible. And I was never more grateful than I was right now.
That was, of course, when I spotted Gavin.
He was still sitting there at his table by himself, stuffing food down his throat like I was convinced he did at every meal. The way he glared at everything, it looked like he was purposefully trying not to look over here, and I huffed. Good. I hoped he was miserable.
Dinner only lasted about half-an-hour. Then everyone began to disperse, head back to their dorms. Ave, Az, and Delia were the last ones who stayed with me, and when I sheepishly admitted that I didn’t know the way back to my dorms by heart, the three of them told me where to go. Before I left, Ave invited me to a party that was going to take place in the Moroi dorms tonight, and I graciously agreed to go.
I was halfway back to the dorms when I heard that voice growl,
“Where the hell have you been?”
I turned around and, just as I’d suspected, it was Gavin. He stood before me with that glare on his face, arms folded tightly across his chest. I smirked, glad that he was so wound up. I wasn’t sure what sick game we were playing, but for some reason it was better than any game I’d ever played. It was too addicting.
“That’s classified information.”
“I got my ass chewed out by Kirova just before dinner because you weren’t anywhere to be found. Do you realize I could have gotten kicked out of school?” he demanded to know.
I rolled my eyes. “Better for the school, then.”
“I can’t believe you! I get that it was stupid I kissed you, I get it.” But from the expression on his face, it didn’t look like he was sorry. “But it was even stupider for you to run off and not tell me where you were going.”
“That’s not my fault. I’m just a stupid little Moroi girl – weren’t you supposed to stop me?” I bat my eyelashes at him and grinned.
Gavin growled in frustration. “You shouldn’t have been stupid enough to run off in the first place. What if something had happened to you? You could have hurt yourself and nobody would have ever known.”
“Or cared, at the time,” I snorted. “Please, it’s not like you’d have cared. Stop trying to pretend like you’re a real guardian.”
“I am a real guardian.”
“Says who? Some certificate? Some little license card? A few test grades? Until you can handle your Moroi, you are not a real guardian. Until you can stop being a complete idiot about what it means to protect your Moroi and to actually be civil to me, then you aren’t my guardian, get it? I don’t care who told you that you had to watch me. If you’re not going to care about what happens about me, you might as well move back to whatever room you came from and go back to your pitiful life. But don’t hang around me if all you’re going to do is make me feel bad for something that isn’t my fault. Do you think I wanted those Strigoi to come in and destroy everything about my life?” I demanded.
That seemed to catch him off guard. “S-Strigoi? That’s why you’re here?”
“What? Nobody ever told you? Yes, that’s why I’m here. I was… I was just sitting there, enjoying a quiet evening with my mom and our guardians when they…” I stopped. I refused to go into detail about the most traumatic night of my life, especially to one like Gavin.
I wasn’t sure what it was, but something in Gavin’s eyes changed. It wasn’t pity, exactly, but maybe some kind of understanding. I couldn’t help but feel like this had something to do with what Avery had told me earlier – about something that had happened a few years ago to him. Had Strigoi taken away someone that he’d loved too?
“Come on.” He turned away from me abruptly. “Let’s get you to your room.”
There was no hostility in his voice, or anger. Surprised by that fact alone, I followed him without question.
Before we went into our separate rooms, I cleared my throat. He turned to look at me, his hand on the knob to his room. Feeling a little embarrassed, I rubbed the back of my neck.
“Look, um, do you know where the Moroi Commons are?”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, I do. Why?”
I looked down at my feet, feeling strangely awkward to be admitting this to him. “Well, I… I got invited to a party by these dhampirs, Avery and Delia. I want to go.”
“Then I’m going with you.”
“What? You don’t have to watch me all the time, you know.”
“Yes, I do. And besides, even if I didn’t, you’ve never been to a St. Vladimir’s party. You need someone to watch over you in the first place. All because dhampirs invited you doesn’t mean it’s not going to be full of royal male Moroi just looking for a piece of ass. And with a new, innocent, cu-“ He cut himself off and continued again, “girl like you, they’ll be going nuts. You’d need an army behind you anyway going in there.”
I smiled, trying to fight off a blush. It wasn’t that hard to figure out what he’d been about to say, but the fact that he’d been about to call me ‘cute’ was somehow really flattering.
“Look, when’s the party?” Gavin cleared my throat, bringing me back to reality.
“When the sun comes up.”
He smirked. “Then get your cutesy clothes on, Sunshine Girl. We’ve got a party to go to.”
Something about the way he said it made a shiver run up and down my spine. For some reason, I was all the more excited to go to the party. But then something he’d said caught my attention. “Wait, Sunshine Girl?”
That trademark smirk of his just remained there. “You’re too bright for my taste. You’re too sunshiney. So you’re Sunshine Girl.”
I smiled, and without another word, I retreated into my room. A half-hour later, I emerged in a blue halter top and dark skinny jeans that my mother had gotten me for Christmas last year. I’d applied some mascara, eyeliner, and blush, but that was it – I hated caking on the make-up. As for shoes, a pair of Converse was all I needed to dance the night away. I was kind of glad for this chance to forget my troubles.
I knocked on his door. “I’m ready!”
A minute later we met outside in the hallway. I was surprised by him; it looked like he’d made an actual attempt to look reasonably nice. Granted, he was wearing exactly what he had been earlier, but his hair was combed.
“Come on, then,” he said after giving me a once over. His face didn’t give away anything, which left me a little disappointed. When I realized this, I chided myself internally for expecting a compliment from him anyway, or even wanting one. It was ridiculous.
He walked me down the two flights of stairs and across a small little courtyard into what looked almost like a ballroom, but there was loud pop music blaring from the inside. My eyes brightened at just the thought of dancing. I’d always loved it as a kid, and always loved watching those cheesy dance movies and pretending to be one of the dancers. My mother had always said that one day I could probably be a professional dancer. She may have even signed me up for tango lessons the day before she… I shoved the thought out of my mind. Tonight was about fun, and forgetting the past.
The pair of us walked into the party, immediately engulfed by the crowd. The music was almost hurting my ears, and for a second that was so obvious to me that I didn’t notice that I was swept away from Gavin as someone grabbed me and dragged me over to a quieter part of the room.
“You made it! I didn’t think you would, Harp.” It was Ave, and she was grinning at me. “And you brought the damper dhampir with you.”
“I don’t think he’ll crash anything,” I reassured her, even though I wasn’t entirely sure that was true. I honestly had no idea what Gavin was like at parties.
“I’m not worried about that. You just enjoy, alright? Welcome to St. Vlad’s.” And with that, Avery was off, probably to go check on something else. This was her and Delia’s party, after all.
I stood on my tiptoes after that, desperately trying to find Gavin in the crowd. But even on my tiptoes, I couldn’t see over the head of even the shortest dhampir here. Huffing in annoyance at this revelation, I just tried to find the refreshments table. The way Gavin ate, I was sure he’d show up there at one point or another. This was the safest place for me, anyway. From the smells around me, I was mostly surrounded by dhampirs anyway. I was probably the smallest person here.
“Well, aren’t you just the hot and sexy little Moroi tonight?” I looked to my right to see a dhampir just a little taller than me smirking at me, his dark hair spiked up. “Where’d you come from, beautiful?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”
“You’re Harper Szelsky, the new little royal, aren’t you?” The guy smiled at me and handed me a drink. “The name’s Pat. I heard Gavin Sawyer’s your guardian, is that true?”
I took a sip of the drink he gave me. It tasted like Kool-Aid, but a little sweeter. It was good, and I was thirsty. “Yeah. It’s true. Why?”
Pat shrugged. “I was just wondering why an ass like him gets to guard a little beauty like you. I mean, the guy isn’t even that good of a guardian. Is he even watching out for you right now?”
Despite what I said earlier, I almost felt a little defensive when Pat said that, almost like he was insulting me and not Gavin. “We got separated, it’s not his fault. And I’ve heard he’s pretty good – he got the best marks in his combat classes and almost did as well on his trials as Rose Hathaway,” I told him. I took another sip, but this time decided to take a gulp following it. The stuff was really addicting.
“Please. He’s not any better than the rest of us. And he’d be an idiot if he hasn’t tapped you, if you get my drift.”
I was convinced that this guy was a jerk now. “This conversation is over.”
I set down my drink, but got a little woozy. I tried walking away, but Pat grabbed my arm, smirking down at me. “No, I don’t think it is. Has he tapped you?”
“That’s none of your business,” I snapped.
“So I’ll take that as an extremely regretful no, then,” Pat retorted, squeezing my arm. It was just then that I noticed the empty beer bottle in his hand. “How about you and I go somewhere a little bit private so you can see how a real dhampir is in the sack, huh? What would you say to that?”
“I’d say go to hell and try again later.”
“But I don’t want you later, I want you now.” Pat looked like he was getting angry, and his grip on my arm was getting painful.
I glared up at him, beginning to feel the beginnings of fear stir up in my stomach. “Let go, Pat.”
“I’m not going to.” With that, he yanked on my arm and pulled me outside. I tried to drag my heels, use my weight against him, but he was much stronger than I was. His dhampir strength was much too overpowering for mine, and for some reason when I tried to call on my earth magic, my brain felt fuzzy. The drink, something told me in the back of my head. It had to have been something in the drink.
“Pat, stop!” I exclaimed as he smirked down at me with glinting eyes. “Let me go back to the party.”
It was just as he was trying to shove me against the wall that the doors to the party burst open, and a pair of angry blue-gray eyes landed on the pair of us.
“Get the hell off her, McGinnis.” |
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