Grinding my teeth, I attacked him again, and again he dodged me.

"Come on!" I cried, pressing a hand to my ribcage.

"You need to concentrate, Rose." I met Dimitri's eyes, giving him a full on glare. "I am concentrating!" I snapped, and went for him again. I hadn't gotten in a single blow for a full two hours, and it was starting to get to me.

"You're too tired. We need to call it a quits."

There was no way I was going to admit it, but I was glad he'd called it a quits. I actually was exhausted.

"You should have called it a quits ten minutes ago, Dimka. She looks as if she's going to pass out."

I snapped around, and a girl stepped out of the shadow. She wore a black pencil skirt, a white blouse and a black blazer on top. From her outfit, I immediately knew she was a guardian. I hadn't seen anyone pull off the guardian look as well as she did, though. She had long, wavy brown hair and her deep brown eyes shone beautifully, her skin fairly pale. She also had an amazing figure even I envied.

What caught me most was her British accent, thought there was a hint in it telling me it wasn't her native language.

"Katarina?" Dimitri sounded surprised, shocked even. Which shocked me.

"I use Katie now. It blends in easier with the crowd." Katarina flashed me a smile showing off all her pearly white teeth. "I'm taking it you're a student of his, eh?"

I nodded, dumbfounded.

"He's a harsh teacher."

I nodded, frowning. "How would you know?"

She laughed. "He taught me everything I know."

My eyes swept to Dimitri who now stood right beside me, then back to Katarina.

"How do you two know each other?" From the look on Katarina's face, I felt embarrassed for asking such a question. She clearly thought I already knew.

"Rose, Katarina is an old friend of mine," said Dimitri, and I gave her a polite smile. He'd once told me he had sisters, but I never considered he'd befriended anyone … female. Apparently he had, and she was now smiling at me.

"What are you doing here?" asked Dimitri, though he hugged Katarina long and hard. It was clear on his face he'd missed her, and I felt a stab of jealousy.

"Em wanted to visit her brother, so naturally I had to tag along. Didn't mind though, since I got to see you." She flashed him a warm smile, but is disappeared quickly. She pushed her index finger into his chest. "Because I haven't heard from you in years, because you never visit, you never call – you don't even bother with a stupid letter or postcard."

Dimitri winced, and I couldn't wipe away the smile of my face. I probably wouldn't even if I could.

"I've been … busy."

"For three years? Too busy to say hi?"

"You haven't spoken in three years?" I asked, disbelief clear in my voice.

"No he has not. Ever since he came here, he's gone off the radar."

Katarina didn't seem very happy, though I didn't blame her. I would've been pissed, too, if Lissa had gone off radar for three years.

"Who's your Moroi?" I asked, hoping to get both of their attention. Maybe even lighten up Katarina's mood, but I had no such luck.

"Emily Ozera," she answered bluntly, though she took a step away from Dimitri.

"Ozera?" I had only known of two other Ozera's alive – Brett, who was distantly related to Christian, and Tasha.

"Yes." Katarina gave me a puzzled look, as if not understanding why this was such a shock for me. Naturally, she had no idea so I couldn't exactly blame her.

"Can we talk?" asked Katarina, now directing her question to Dimitri. He nodded, and then he addressed me, "you can go early, Rose."

I wanted to protest, but I decided against it and hurried to see Lissa instead. Because where Lissa was, Christian was.

Through the bond I realised she was at the library, and with a light jog and closed the distance in a matter of minutes.

"Aren't you supposed to be training with Dimitri?" asked Lissa as I slid into the seat next to her. Christian was nowhere in sight.

Typical.

"A friend came visiting. Sort of," I said, "Where's Christian?"

Lissa frowned, "I don't know. Haven't seen him."

I rolled my eyes. Why was it that the one time I needed him, he was gone?

"Any idea where he could be?"

Lissa shrugged. "His dorm?"

Of course.

"Thanks!" I answered hastily before jogging my way over to Christian's dorm, and I felt smug when I actually did find him.

Except he wasn't alone.

"Rose?" Christian gave me a puzzled glance, but my eyes where on the girl sitting beside him on the sofa. They shared the same ice blue eyes, and the same Moroi pale skin. Her hair was different, though. It seemed auburn, but had a tinge of a stronger red colour, which was currently pulled up in an extremely messy bun.

"So you do have a sister," I stated, and the girl I presumed was Emily gave me a warm smile. She stood up and offered me her hand. "I'm Emily. It's nice to finally meet the notorious Rosemarie Hathaway." She flashed me a brilliant smile.

I accepted her hand, "the honour is mine, Lady Ozera."

"Please, no titles. It makes me queasy." She grimaced. "I've heard a lot about you, though. You've got quite the reputation, and Chris has told me a lot of nice things about you."

"Have not," muttered Christian, now standing as well.

"You don't have black hair," I pointed out, once more speaking before thinking.

She just smiled at me, thankfully, and I took it as a sign she wasn't annoyed or irritated.

"The black hair comes from Daddy's side of the family," she said, and I had to control myself so my jaw didn't hang open at her mention of "daddy". "I've go mum's hair."

"Oh." Really, that was the best response I could come up with. What else was I supposed to say?

Then I noticed another difference.

"You speak British!"

I could see Christian roll his eyes, but ignored him. I wasn't interested in him. Emily just continues to smile at me. "I've lived in London for a few years now, and the accent kind of gets to you after a while."

I nodded, finally looking over at Christian. "You never told me you had a sister."

He shrugged is a nonchalant way. "Never came up."

Emily suddenly frowned and turned to her brother, "have you seen Katarina?"

Christian shook his head.

"She's with Guardian Belikov," I said.

"Belikov?" gasped Emily and both Christian and I frowned.

"Which Belikov?"

"Dimitri," I said, my frown growing. Emily knew Dimitri? How?

"Where is he?"

"I can take you to him?" I suggested. I wanted to see this.

She beamed at me, "that would be great."

And so I started to walk down to the gym again, Emily walking silently beside me. Christian had gone off to see Lissa.

I pushed the door open, and breathed out in relief to see Dimitri still there. He and Katarina sat on a bench and were talking together. Dimitri was even smiling, which is insanely rare.

"Um, Dimitri?" I felt uncomfortably small as I spoke up and Dimitri turned to me, though his smile fell immediately when he noticed whom I'd brought.

I looked over at Emily, and he face was just as blank as his, but her eyes glowed.

Dimitri stood and walked over to us, and I shuffled away a bit, not feeling like standing in the middle of this.

He clasped Emily's face in his hands, and the spike of jealousy I'd felt when he'd hugged Katarina was nothing like what I was feeling now.

From the look in their eyes, it dawned on me.

Emily wasn't just someone Dimitri knew. She was someone he cared about.

A lot.