A/N: Okay! After days of trying to get this edited I finally found someone to help! YAY! Sooooo big thanks to her and now a BIG thank you to the following people for having me as a favorite Author:
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You guys are awesome and give me so many wonderful reviews! I am greatful to be part of such a great fandom like VA that has such awesome and intelligent fans!

And now onto the fic! I wanted to do a part where Dimitri tells Tasha no... but it turned into the part where he finds out that Rose is missing... and THAT turned into the part where he goes to get Rose... and it turned in 5,000 words SO this is the first and most likely ONLY multi-chapter VA fanfic! I hope you enjoy it and sorry in advance for the errors!

(Standard disclaimer applies!)

My chest hurt, but I couldn't stop. I just punched the bag harder and harder until finally, I collapsed against it, struggling for air. The small unused gym echoed with my labored breath. I glanced around and felt my heart sink lower, remembering the practices that I'd had with Rose back at the Academy.

I straightened up at the thought of the beautiful young woman that I would never be with and I lost it. I punched the bag with all of the bottled up rage that I had held inside these past few months. The bag split and sand slowly began to pour to the floor. It reminded me of an hourglass, one that I couldn't flip over and restart.

I was staring at the pile of sand on the floor, so completely entranced by it that I didn't realize that I was no longer alone.

"Dimka," Tasha called from behind me.

I turned to face her and a feeling of despair set it. This was it; this was the time to make my decision.

"Are you alright?" she asked placing her hand on my arm. I wanted to feel the things I did with Rose but they never came.

"Yeah," I said trying to sound believable. She leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips. Something switched and suddenly I needed to feel the way I did when I was with Rose.

I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close, deepening the kiss. She responded with the right amount of enthusiasm, but it didn't feel like Rose. I imagined the unadulterated passion behind every one of her kisses. The way her body seemed to fit against mine. I was suddenly more aroused than I had been in ages. I kissed the woman in front of me with more passion than I had ever imagined myself possible.

This wasn't right, though I was kissed Tasha right now, in my head I was kissing Rose and it just wasn't fair to her or me. I pulled back quickly and took a few steps back, putting some space between me and the slightly shaken woman. I looked at her briefly then looked back down at the sand on the floor. I couldn't look her in the eye after what I had just done to her.

"What's wrong?" She was worried now.

"I… I can't." I was trying to do the right thing, finally.

"We don't have to Dimka, not anytime soon. I know things take time to-"

"No," I said finally meeting her gaze. "I can't do it, Tasha. I can't be your guardian. I can't be your husband, and I can't be your lover."

"Oh," she said with a nod. She didn't look upset. She seemed like she knew this had been coming. "Is it because of her?"

I ignored the jolt of panic that ran through my chest and focused on what was in front of me. "It's because of me."

She took a step closer. "It's because of how you feel about her. I am not blind, Dimitri. I see the way you look at her. It is not the way a mentor looks at his student. It's the way a man looks at the woman he loves." She put her hand on my arm again. "I understand. You can't help who you fall in love with. At least the woman you fell in love with is desperately in love with you too." Her face changed with her last words and I saw in her eyes that she truly loved me.

I felt horrible. I had used her and let this whole thing get way out of hand. I closed my eyes trying to banish the guilty feeling gnawing at my gut. I felt her lips on mine. It was a soft kiss, a friendly one. I opened my eyes and saw her stand back and smile.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Just be careful, Dimka." She gave me one last heartfelt look and then left.

Once again I was left to grieve by myself. Only this time I felt worse. Now all three people involved where going through hell. Rose had given up on me. Tasha had been the bigger person and walked away. And I had hurt them both.

I slowly walked out of the gym and up toward my room, not wanting any more company for the night.

"Belikov!" A voice rang through the wooden door, as someone pounded on it.

I quickly got up and threw on a shirt on before answering the door. A guardian whose name I couldn't remember stood in front of me looking alert and concerned.

"What is it?" I asked, not letting on that I had been in a deep sleep only seconds before.

"Someone attacked the guard at the front gate. We need to do a head count and search the school." He turned and walked down the hallway. I grabbed my jacket and followed.

I tried to stop the worry for Rose that was bubbling up in my chest. She is fine, I told myself as I walked into the large hall that had hosted the royal gathering only hours before. I looked around quickly, expecting to see Rose coming up to me, demanding that I include her in whatever was going on. She never came, and as I scanned the room full of Dhampir and Moroi students I couldn't find her.

A flash of thoughts went through my head. Strigoi could have attacked and she had gone after them. No, she wouldn't have been that careless. She could have sensed danger and gone to find Lissa. No, I saw Lissa standing in the corner by herself, looking tired and slightly worried.

"Belikov," Janine Hathaway barked as she walked over to where I was. "They're gone."

"Who?" I felt my chest tighten.

"Rose, Mason Ashford, Eddie Castile, Mia Rinaldi, and Christian Ozera. The entire resort has been searched and there are no signs of Strigoi but the children a gone."

"Has anyone spoken to the guard that was attacked?" I was trying to remain calm. Where was she? She wouldn't have left unless there was some danger. And she sure as hell wouldn't have left without Lissa.

"He is still out. When he comes to we'll be able to talk to him. You and I are going to go to the bus station to see if the might have skipped town. I swear my daughter is probably the most irresponsible person I have ever met." Her tone was harsh but a slight undertone of worry let me know that she was concerned for her daughter's safety.

I nodded quickly and we both set off for the bus station. I hoped like hell that they were there sitting, waiting for a bus for some stupid immature reason and that nothing had happened to them.

"No sir, sorry, I haven't seen any teenagers in here at all this evening. Not even with adults." The man at the counter seemed like he didn't really care, but answered the question formally due to the fact the Janine looked like she was going to rip his face off at any second.

"Thank you for your time." I steered Janine away from the counter and out toward the car.

"He is useless. They had to have come here. There isn't even anything else around here! And we checked everywhere else. Maybe he wasn't on shift when they came in!" she was starting to lose her calm and it worried me to see the legendary Janine Hathaway like this. She knew what I knew. They were going to be in trouble soon, if they weren't already. I could see in her eyes that she didn't believe Rose would just leave, to go on some little trip. She knew she had to have gone for some dire reason… or she had been taken.

"We'll try again tomorrow, maybe another cashier saw something." I was impressed with my own tone. I sounded far more calm and collected than I felt. "In the meantime, let's go find out what Lissa knows."

"I'll bet that she's covering for them."

"I doubt that. She looked pretty worried herself."

"Worried that she would go down with them; I swear to God, when I get my hands on Rose she is going to wish that that black eye had been intentional."

"Hathaway, cool it." Though she held seniority, Janine caught the warning in my tone and looked out the window with a huff.

As we pulled up to the front gate of the resort, I could tell the Janine was itching to get out of the car and go find Lissa. She was determined to find her daughter before the sun set.

We both raced up the stairs and down the hall to the room the Lissa and Rose had been sharing. I knocked on the door quickly before Janine opened the door and stepped inside glaring at a startled Lissa.

"Lissa, do you know where they are?" I asked gently.

She shook her head looking as though she might cry. Janine scoffed and I glared at her. Lissa sat on the bed closest to her and sighed, looking down.

"I know you want to protect them, but we need to know where they are." I was trying to stay calm for the sake of everyone in the room.

"I told you," she said looking more upset. "I don't know. I don't know what happened."

Janine stepped forward. "I can't believe they wouldn't have told you where they were going," she said sounding cold. "Especially with your… bond."

"It only works one way. You know that."

I knelt in front of her and looked into her eyes, silently pleading with her for information. "Are you sure there's nothing? Nothing at all you can tell us? They're nowhere in town. The man at the bus station didn't see them… though we're pretty sure that's where they must have gone. We need something, anything to go on." Okay, so my pleading wasn't so silent.

Lissa gritted her teeth and glared at us. "Don't you think if I knew, I'd tell you? You don't thing I'm worried about them too? I have no idea where they are. None. And why'd they even leave… it doesn't make and sense either. Especially why they'd go with Mia, of all people." Her features grew hurt as she said the Moroi girl's name. She had made their lives miserable back at the Academy so it made no sense to Lissa or me why they would take her along to do whatever it was that they were doing.

I sighed and leaned back on my heels, feeling defeated. We were no closer to knowing what I did earlier. I was starting to feel a gut-wrenching despair in the pit of my stomach. What if something had happened to Rose and I never got the chance to tell her how much I loved her, to show her how much I did.

I left the room quickly without a word to either of the women in the room. I needed to find something that would help me.