I am the reformed Rosemarie Hathaway. I doubt none of my old friends recognize me now. Instead of my luscious dark brown hair, I cut it to shoulder length and dyed it a bright red. I replaced my brown eyes with azure contacts. I did this, two months after I left the court.
I can recall the memory that happened practically 2 years ago. Every word spoken, every exchange of conversation, and every drop of tear. "Love fades, mine has." I stare at Dimitri for a second. He was serious. I put on my blank guardian mask and left church before tears started running down my face. After all this time, after everything I have done, he doesn't love me anymore. I traveled across the world to Siberia, to save him. I broke a person out of jail, to save him. I risked my own life and my friends' life...for him. Get the point? My heart was shattered in a million pieces, a million pieces that can never just come back together. I ran to Lissa. I always did. Whenever I had problems, she was the person I confided in. However, when I spoke to her, tears running down my face, she seemed disinterested. I was somewhat annoyed. After all, I have heard her speak about all her troubles, I felt like I deserved it myself. I asked her about it.
"Hey, Lissa, you seem kind of off today..."
"I am not off, thank you very much." Lissa snapped, her jade eyes flashing.
"Did I do something wrong?" I asked, somewhat confused.
"I've been wanting to tell you this, but I've been brushing it off. I suppose now is the time to tell you."
"Wait, are you marrying Sparky?" I exclaimed, thinking that was the news that Lissa wanted to tell me.
"NO, Rose. Look, stop with your bitching and moaning about Dimitri. Get this across your head, Dimitri is not interested in you. Seriously. Like, I'm tired of hearing you groan about Dimitri. He doesn't like you anymore. Get over it. I have a date with Christian in thirty minutes, and I don't have time for you bitching." Lissa looked outraged, as she stood up and walked over to her mirror.
"Lissa...are you sure you're okay? This isn't you. And for your information, I wasn't bitching and moaning."
"God, listen to yourself. He'll never like you okay? I know that's, like, hard to get across your head. I'm really tired of you, Rose. You can never do anything right. Like at Spokane. For god's sake, Mason died. And if it wasn't for you, he might be here right now. The more you do, the more damage you do to everyone. For all we know, Victor's out there, plotting some revenge or some crazy kidnapping for me." Lissa glared at Rose. "Get out of my room. I don't want to see you."
I stood up numbly, going out of Lissa's room and slamming the door behind. I sprinted back to my room, barely making for it before tears started running down my face. What have I done wrong? I cried for a long time. I rarely cried, so this was unnatural for me. After two hours or so, my tears had finally ran dry, and I was laying on the floor, surrounded by a tissue box, a trashcan, and droplets of my tears. My hair was a complete mess and my eyes and nose were red. There was a knock on my door.
"Little dhampir?" It was Adrian.
"C-come in..." I call, sniffling.
"What's wrong, Rose?" I rarely hear Adrian call me that. He always called me by my nickname. Adrian sat down on the floor beside me, and held me in my arms, murmuring comforting words as I explained my story, crying rivers. I buried my face into his shoulder, relaxing in his scent of clove cigarettes and the fancy cologne.
"Why would Lissa say something like that?" He growled. I pulled back, running a hand over my eyes. I rarely saw him that angry. "It makes me mad, for her to treat you like this. For that..." He paused. "Russian god," He spat out. "to say that...what are you going to do, Rose?" Adrian asked me.
"I've already graduated...I think I'm going to go to Russia and meet up with Denis, Lev, and Artur." I sigh, pulling my hair up in a messy bun.
"Who are they?" Adrian asked, raising an eyebrow. Damn, why does everyone know how to do that?
"Friends I met when hunting for...Dimitri." It hurt to say his name, as if a cut opened every time I said it. Adrian nodded.
"That would...probably be good for you. Here, I'll get you some tickets and some cash to get you by." I almost started crying.
"Thank you...Adrian. This means a lot to me." I tell him earnestly, as he stood up and made several calls on his cell phone. "But...why are you doing this?"
"Because you're my friend, Rose. I know you'll never feel the way I feel about you...but, I'm doing this because it'll make you happy." Adrian grinned at me, flashing his white teeth at me.
"So...how am I supposed to go to Baia?"
"You'll find out soon..." Adrian smiled mischievously at me.
Soon was 3 days later and the surprise came in the form of Abe Mazur.
"Zmey!" As much I hated to admit it, I liked Abe. He was practically like a father to me.
"Ah...little girl," He wrapped his arms around me and whispered into my ear. "Do you want my bodyguards to take on Dimitri? They're more than ready." I rolled my eyes. Overprotective...as usual.
"It's fine, Old man. What are you doing here?" I asked, surprised.
"I'm going to be your ticket out of here. I have a private jet, we'll be heading to Baia...Adrian's been keeping me up to date on you," Abe explained. "What do you plan to do at Baia?"
"I'm going to go with Denis, Lev, and Artur. I met them the last time at Baia. We're going to be hunting for strigoi..." I trailed off, seeing the dangerous look in Abe's eye.
"You're not going to do that. You might as well put a sign 'I want to die' on your forehead." He snapped.
"Look, Old Man, you're not in charge what I'm doing. Believe it or not, I'm an adult now and I can make my own choices," I shot back. Abe sighed.
"I'm not going to be liking this, but if you ever want, I have a position for you to help me with the Alchemists. Your...little friends would be welcomed too." He said, as he took my duffel bag and handed it to Pavel. "We have to leave now...I want to get back to Baia as quickly as possible."
I grinned and turned to look at Adrian. "I'm going to miss you, Adrian..." I sigh.
"Same...I'll be visiting you in your dreams." He told me, giving me a hug. I was going to miss him.
"That'd be good," I tell him truthfully as I boarded on the jet without another look back at the court. I was going to miss it, but it was time to start a new life. A new Rose Hathaway. A reformed one...My heart wasn't mended yet, but maybe...I can build it back, piece by piece, in Baia or wherever I decide to go...
"Rose...Rose, you there?" Denis tossed his cup of water at my face. I shrieked, it was ice cold. I gave him a glare, and Denis began backing up.
"Lev, Artur, Damien, Tamara, Ian...anyone one of you mind helping me here?" They grinned at Denis, as I started to approach him. He broke out in a run and I gave chase for a while, before stopping and turning back to the others.
"Wonder how far he would run," I smirked mischievously as I sat back down on the table and snagged the donut that Damien was about to eat. He glared at me as I polished off the donut within seconds.
As I reflected my past, I realized that I changed a lot. I was steadily going out with Damien, the sexy Italian man with the darkest eyes I've ever seen and light brown-blonde hair. I was in the sexiest vampire hunting group...ever. No joke. We regularly wear club clothes, for me, it was usually a tight dress or shorts and a tank top. The others wore dark jeans and a nice-looking shirt, hair combed perfectly. We usually hung around clubs, that's where most of the strigois head for their dinners. I had a new best friend, Tamara. I had learned Russian after discovering that it was extremely difficult to teach her English. She's better, of course, but I was speaking to her in Russian from now on.
Denis came to the cafe, 10 minutes later. He looked somewhat outraged, but I knew he wasn't angry.
"Enjoyed the exercise?" I laughed, looking at Denis as he bent over and breathed heavily. He muttered a Russian curse word under his breath.
Life can really change, for the better or worse. I was almost glad that Lissa said that to me. Without her, I would never have met Damien. I would never learn Russian. I would never had been Tamara's best friend. And of course, I was closer to Abe than ever. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.
Hey, everyone. I'm just a new writer out there, and I'm really glad you took time to read my first chapter of this story. Just leave some reviews, and if you find anything you feel worth mentioning to me, remember to pipe up in the reviews! I pretty much planned this story and I think I'll update every one to two days...maybe a week the most. Remember, reviews are like cookies to authors. I love cookies. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story...remember to review!
I need a beta reader so anyone interested please PM me, thanks!
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Anyone who reviews gets a shirtless Damien...and fine, Dimitri.
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Sleep tight and don't let the strigoi bite!