FROSTBITE -- CHAPTER 7
I trained for the next few days, sometimes alone and sometimes with my mother. Dimitri was studiously avoiding me. I spend Christmas with my mom, Dimitri, and Lissa. Tasha, Mason, and Eddie. I invited Meredith too. Mason wasn't getting the message, and I needed her to keep flirting with Mason, who was still trying to get my attention. Lissa gave me a box and I saw the maroon - colored beads, and the scent of roses floated out. "What the . . ." I lifted the beads out, and a heavy gold crucifix swung from the end. She had given me a chotki, similar to a rosary, only bracelet-sized. I flipped it over, only because I knew what to expect. On the back of the cross was a dragon wreathed in flowers that had been carved into the gold. The Dragomir crest. I looked at her, puzzled. "It's a family heirloom," she told me. "One of my dad's good friends has been saving boxes of his stuff. This was in it . . . it belonged to my great-grandmother's guardian." "Liss . . ." The chotki had a different meaning now. "I can't . . . you can't give me something like this." "Well, I certainly can't keep it. It's meant for a guardian. My guardian." I wound the beads around my wrist. The cross felt cool against my skin.
"Thank you." I hugged her tightly to me. It made my gift seem slightly lame now. I found a jewelry box in one of my boxes and charmed the ballerina to look like a dragon instead, and instead of turning it was beating its wings. I engraved Rose and Lissa inside the cover myself. Lissa's eyes lit up, and she wanted to know where I found this. I only said I had it made a while ago, and it was sent to me. For Christian I got a black t-shirt that had I will light your ass on fire written in the front. He just laughed. Dimitri got the newest Louis L’Amore book. My mother gave me a Nazar, and I knew it was from my father. I got her a necklace with a Celtic pendant inside a Rose. "So, you can carry me with you always." I hugged her again, and she told me she loved it. For the rest of my friends I just got cool T-shirts not knowing them that well. I even got Tasha something, a white gold hairpin with a blue stone in it. My mom came with me to my room and we sat on my bed just talking about everything. I did ask her about my dad, but she was real tight-lipped about him. "Maybe one day?" I asked her hopefully, and she gave me a stiff nod. I did not want to push.
She did tell me about what Tasha offered Dimitri, I guessed that it was his choice, and I would not begrudge him that. If he wanted to be a father, it was not something I could give him here. It hurt a bit, but it would hurt worse if I lost him through death, having loved him completely. I was still in the falling stadium, and even though he told me he loved me I could not bring myself to admit my feelings out loud yet. Admitting them out loud would make it real, and that would make it hurt so much more.