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"I've got time now." I gave a nod of my own to Dimitri and steered Adrian away, walking close<br />
to him. "See you later, Guardian Belikov."<br />
Dimitri's dark eyes followed us stonily. Then I turned away and didn't look back.<br />
"Not into older guys, huh?" asked Adrian once we were alone.<br />
"You're imagining things," I said. "Clearly, my stunning beauty has clouded your mind."<br />
He laughed that nice laugh of his. "That's entirely possible."<br />
I started to step back, but he tossed an arm around me. "No, no, you wanted to play chummy<br />
with me—now you've got to see it through."<br />
I rolled my eyes at him and let the arm stay. I could smell alcohol on him as well as the<br />
perpetual smell of cloves. I wondered if he was drunk now. I had the feeling that there was<br />
probably little difference between his attitudes drunk or sober.<br />
"What do you want?" I asked.<br />
He studied me for a moment. "I want you to grab Vasilisa and come with me. We're going to<br />
have some fun. You'll probably want a swimsuit too." He seemed disappointed by the<br />
admission of this. "Unless you want to go naked."<br />
"What? A bunch of Moroi and dhampirs just got slaughtered, and you want to go swimming<br />
and 'have fun'?"<br />
"It's not just swimming," he said patiently. "Besides, that slaughter is exactly why you should<br />
go do this."<br />
Before I could argue that, I saw my friends round the corner: Lissa, Mason, and Christian.<br />
Eddie Castile was with the group, which shouldn't have surprised me, but Mia was as well—<br />
which certainly did surprise me. They were deep in conversation, though they all stopped<br />
talking when they saw me.<br />
"There you are," said Lissa, a puzzled look on her face.
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