Dimitri's Point of View in Frostbite (Vampire Academy) (Book 2)

Part 5

Chapter 5:

When training with Rose finally came she practically ran up to the practice dummy. With a curled fist she slapped its chest, slightly left of the center. Right above the heart.

"There." She told me. "The heart is there, and the sternum and ribs are in the way. Can I have the stake now?"

She crossed her arms as she looked up at me triumphantly, waiting for my reply. Instead of answering I simply nodded in acknowledgement. Looking at her this way made me think of what had happened in Stan's class. Although I didn't want to mention it, I was afraid I'd upset her.

"And how do you get through the sternum and the ribs?" I asked.

With a sigh she answered. Not surprised that I asked her more after that. She knew me by now.

We spent a large part of the practice going over that, and I demonstrated several techniques that would yield the quickest kill.

Finally after an hours worth of demonstrating I extended my hand and offered the stake to her. I thought she would rip it out of my hand like a starved bear, but she didn't. She just simply stared at it. "You're giving it to me?"

"I can't believe you're holding back. I figured you'd have taken it and run by now." I said.

"Aren't you always teaching me to hold back?" She asked.

"Not on everything."

"But on some things."

I simply stared at her. After all this time of building up a wall between us I forgot what it felt like to look at her in a romantic sort of way. And looking at her now, I knew her slip up was just as surprising to her as it was to me. What had gone between us had been powerful and lustful. And some part of me didn't want to let that go. While the other part screamed at the other to do the right thing. And I was struggling to keep myself in control as well as Rose. One slip up like that could turn into something else. And that would be bad.

"Of course." I said in a cool tone, keeping my guardian face on.  There was no way that I was going to show any romantic emotion towards Rose. Because that slip up from her will most definitely turn into something else. "It's like everything else. Balance. Know which things to run forward with--and know which to leave alone." I purposely placed heavy emphasis on the last statement.

Our eyes met briefly. And in that small moment I saw her face lite up, as if she understood that I did understand what she was talking about. But I simply ignored it because I was her teacher and that's what I was supposed to do. With a sigh she stared down at the weapon, considering whether or not to take it.

Finally she reached out and curled her bony fingers around the hilt. She stared down at it trailing her long fingers over its surface. Feeling the glass-like texture that it was made out of. She lifted it from my hand and brought it to her, taking a long time to study it and get used to its weight. She looked down at the stake as if it held all the answers in the world. And then surprised me even more when she looked up at me. "What should I do first?"

I covered the basics first, honing the way she held and and moved with the stake. Later on, I finally let her attack one of the dummies, and the way she struggled I knew she thought it was harder than it looked. And through it all I gave her patience sitting back and guiding her through the manuvers and motions on staking.

"Slide up through the ribs." I explained, as I watched her try to fit the stake's point through a gap in the bones. "It'll be easier since you're shorter than most of your attackers. Plus, you can slide along the lower rib's edge."

When practice ended, I took the stake back and nodded in approval. "Good. Very good."

She glanced at me in surprise. "Really?"

"You do it like you've been doing it for years."

And that was true. Never before had I seen someone as young as Rose take on the dummies like that. She attacked them as if they were real Strigoi. 

She smiled as we walked side by side out of the practice room. When we neared the door Rose's pretty smile disapeared, into a scowl.

"Can I stake that one next time?"

I picked up my coat and put it on. I followed her gaze and saw that she was having a stare down with the dummy with red curly hair. Instantly reminding me of Janine.

"I don't think that'd be healthy." I said.

"It'd be better than me actually doing it to her," Rose grumbled, slinging her backpack over one shoulder. We headed out to the gym.

"Violence isn't the answer to your problems." I said.

"She's the one with the problem. And I thought the whole point of my education was that violence is the answer."

"Only to those who bring it to you first. Your mother isn't assaulting you. You tow are just too much alike, that's all."

Rose stopped walking at that. "I'm not anything like her! I mean... we kind of have the same eyes. But I'm a lot taller. And my hair's completely different." She pointed to her ponytail indicating that her thick black-brown locks were contrasted to her mothers auburn curls.

"I'm not talking about your appearances, and you know it."

She looked away from me. "You think I'm jealous?"

"Are you?" I asked. "If so, what are you jealous of exactly?"

She glanced back up at me. "I don't know. Maybe I'm jealous of her reputation. Maybe I'm jealous because she's put more time into her reputation that into me. I don't know."

"You don't think what she did was great?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. IT just sounded like such a... I don't know... like she was bragging. Like she did it for the glory." She grimaced. "For the marks." 'The marks' could only mean one thing. Molnija marks. Which were tattoos awarded to guardians when they killed Strigoi. Each one looked like a tiny x made of lightning bolts. They went on the backs of our necks and showed how experienced a guardian was.

"You think facing down Strigoi is worth a few marks? I thought you'd learned something from the Badica house."

"That's not what I--"

"Come on."

She stopped walking. "What?"

We'd been heading towards Rose's dorm, but now I nodded my head toward the opposite side of campus. "I want to show you something."

"What is is?"

"That not all marks are badges of honor."

_________________________________________________________________________________
okay so I had to stop here because the next part is where Tasha comes in and I have to conjure up enough ideas and emotions that will come to Dimitri when he first sees her. This is the hardest part of the book and I'm sorry its so short, but it has to be haha in order for it to be good (: So please comment and vote like you always do! (: thanks for reading

<3 LittleDhampir18