Primal Desires

Chapter 6

Dimitri's POV

Rose and I spent the rest of the day tangled in each other's arms, as though we were making up for lost time. I could hardly stand to be away from her and I felt like a love-sick puppy. I no longer had the strength to keep myself from her. I had been a fool. Distancing myself from her only undid all the progress we had made in our relationship and it was almost as though we were back at the Academy – mentor and student, denying our love for each other. It was difficult to stay away from her back then, and even harder now, so my decision to try and put the past behind us and not allow my Strigoi days to hold Rose and I back was needed. I had realised that if I was to let the past have any kind of a hold on us, then the monster inside me would win. He had hurt Rose in Russia and he'd still be hurting her now by influencing me to stay away from her. I couldn't let that happen again.

I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face, lying in bed with the love of my life curled up in my arms, and surprisingly my Strigoi self didn't make an appearance in my dreams at all in the night. It had been the best night's rest I had managed in a long time, and I woke up the next day feeling refreshed and happy, rather than depressed, guilty and full of self-loathing. It was a good feeling.

Christian had asked me to meet him early today to do some training with him, so I woke up earlier than usual and left Rose asleep in bed as I showered. With Vasilisa now reigning, she had been campaigning for the Moroi right to fight alongside their guardians. And with Christian's complete faith in her that she would win the vote, he had been eager to practice with me. I had already taught him some basic offence and defence moves, and he was quickly coming along. Today though, he had wanted to practice using his magic and so, for health and safety reasons, we had to do this early when there was less of a risk to those around him.

I returned to the bedroom after my shower with just a towel wrapped around my waist. I saw that Rose was now awake, but she still lay in bed with the covers pulled up around her. A glimmer of moonlight had escaped through a small gap in the curtains and rested perfectly on her, causing her fanned out hair on the pillow to glisten. I noticed her big, sparkling eyes peeking up and staring at me from just above the covers.

"You see something you like?" I questioned with a smirk, knowing this was the exact same question she had not so subtly asked me those years ago when I had caught her with that Jesse what's-his-name.

I heard her giggle and I knew she was smiling behind the sheets. "I always see something I like when you're in the room, Comrade."

I smiled at her forwardness.

"What have you and Vasilisa got planned for today?" I asked as I discarded my towel and pulled on a pair of boxers and my trousers.

She pulled the covers back slowly and sat up in the bed, stretching as a yawn escaped her lips. "Not much. I think she wants to go over her speech again before addressing everyone tomorrow but other than that I don't think she really has any plans to go anywhere."

After rummaging in my chest-of-drawers for a top, I pulled it on, unable to miss the slight look of disappointment on Rose's face when she saw that I was now fully clothed. "So you'll just be hanging out then?" I chuckled.

"Probably," she climbed out of bed and made her way over to me before kissing me softly. "It's amazing being your best friend's guardian," she added before disappearing towards the bathroom.

I smiled, knowing that Rose was so happy made my heart sing. I finished dressing and put on my shoes ready to leave. I grabbed my phone, wallet, keys and, as always, my stake – not that I ever needed it at Court – and called out to Rose to let her know I was leaving. I heard her shout something back to me but it was unintelligible, the sound of the shower drowning her out. I presumed it was just a goodbye and left, ready for my day with Christian.