"Where are you?" I called. "I know you're here."
Adrian stepped around from behind an apple tree that was thick with pink and white flowers. He wore jeans - something I'd never seen him in before. They looked good and were undoubtedly a designer brand. A dark green cotton T-shirt - also very simple - covered his upper body, and the sunlight brought out highlights of gold and chestnut in his brown hair.
"I told you to stay out of my dreams," I said, putting my hands on my hips.
He gave me his lazy smile. "But how else are we supposed to talk? You didn't seem very friendly earlier."
"Maybe if you didn't use compulsion on people, you'd have more friends."
"I had to save you from yourself. Your aura was like a storm cloud."
"Okay, for once, can we please not talk about auras and my impending doom?"
The look in his eyes told me he was actually really interested in that, but he let it go. "Okay. We can talk about other things."
"But I don't want to talk at all! I want to sleep."
"You are sleeping." Adrian smiled and walked over to study a flowering vine that was winding up a post. It had orange and yellow flowers shaped like trumpets. He gently ran his fingers over one of the flowers' edges. "This was my grandmother's garden."
"Great," I said, making myself comfortable against the apple tree. It looked like we could be here for a while. "Now I get to hear your family history."
"Hey she was a cool lady."
"I'm sure she was. Can I go yet?"
His eyes were still on the vine's blossoms. "You shouldn't knock Moroi family trees. You don't know anything about your father. For all you know, we could be related."
"Would that mean you'd leave me alone?"
Strolling back over to me, he switched subjects as though there'd been no interruption. "Nah, don't worry. I think we come from different trees. Isn't your dad some Turkish guy anyway?"
"Yeah, according to my - Hey, are you staring at my chest?"
He was studying me closely, but his eyes were no longer on my face. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared.
"I'm staring at your shirt," he said. "The color is all wrong."
Reaching out, he touched the strap. Like ink spreading across paper, the ivory fabric turned the same shade of rich indigo as the vine's blossoms. He narrowed his eyes like an expert artist studying his work.
"How'd you do that?" I exclaimed.
"It's my dream. Hmm. You're not a blue person. Well, at least not in the color sense. Let's try this." The blue lit up into a brilliant crimson. "Yes, that's it. Red's your color. Red like a rose, like a sweet, sweet Rose."
"Oh man," I said. "I didn't know you could kick into crazy mode even in dreams." He never got as dark and depressed as Lissa had last year, but spirit definitely made him weird sometimes.
He stepped back and threw his arms out. "I'm always crazy around you, Rose. Here, I'm going to write an impromptu poem for you." He tipped his head back and shouted to the sky:
"Rose is in red
But never in blue
Sharp as a thorn
Fights like one too."
Adrian dropped his arms and looked at me expectantly.
"How can a thorn fight?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Art doesn't have to make sense, little dhampir. Besides, I'm supposed to be crazy, right?"
"Not the craziest I've ever seen."
"Well," he said, pacing over to study some hydrangeas, "I'll work on that."
I started to ask again about when I could go "back" to sleep, but our exchange brought something to my mind.
"Adrian ... how do you know if you're crazy or not?"
He turned from the flowers, a smile on his face. I could tell he was about to make a joke, but then he looked at me more closely. The smile faded, and he turned unusually serious.
"Do you think you're crazy?" he asked.
"I don't know," I said, looking down at the ground. I was barefoot, and sharp blades of grass tickled my feet. "I've been ... seeing things."
"People who are crazy rarely question whether they're crazy," he said wisely.
I sighed and looked back up at him. "That doesn't really help me."
He walked back over to me and rested a hand on my shoulder. "I don't think you're crazy, Rose. I think you've been through a lot, though."
I frowned. "What's that mean?"
"It means I don't think you're crazy."
"Thanks. That clears things up. You know, these dreams are really starting to bug me."
"Lissa doesn't mind them," he said.
"You visit hers too? Do you seriously have no boundaries?"
"Nah, hers are instructional. She wants to learn how to do this."
"Great. So I'm just the lucky one who gets to put up with your sexual harassment."
He actually looked hurt. "I really wish you wouldn't act like I'm evil incarnate."
"Sorry. I just haven't had much reason to believe you can do anything useful."
"Right. As opposed to your cradle-robbing mentor. I don't really see you making much progress with him."
I took a step back and narrowed my eyes. "Leave Dimitri out of this."
"I will when you stop acting like he's perfect. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he's one of the people who hid the trial from you, right?"
I looked away. "That's not important right now. Besides, he had his reasons."
"Yeah, which apparently didn't involve being open with you or fighting to get you there. Whereas me..." He shrugged. "I could get you into the trial."
"You?" I asked with a harsh laugh. "How are you going to pull that off? Have a smoke break with the judge? Use compulsion on the queen and half the royals at court?"
"You shouldn't be so quick to slam people who can help you. Just wait." He placed a light kiss on my forehead that I tried to wiggle away from. "But for now, go get some rest."
The garden faded, and I fell back into the normal blackness of sleep.
Eight
FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, I followed Christian around without incident. And as I did, I found myself growing more and more impatient.
For one thing, I was discovering that a lot of being a guardian was waiting around. I'd always known that, but the reality was harder than I'd realized. Guardians were absolutely essential for when Strigoi decided to attack. But those Strigoi attacks? They were generally rare. Time could pass - years could pass - without a guardian ever having to engage in any sort of conflict. While my instructors certainly wouldn't make us wait that long during this exercise, they nonetheless wanted to teach us patience and how important it was not to slack just because there'd been no danger in a while.