Disclaimer: I own the plot. Anything you recognize belongs to Richelle Mead.

Prologue

Present Day

When Guardian Alberta Petrov contacted me and told me that Rose had signed herself out of Saint Vladimir's Academy, I couldn't help but be alarmed. I knew my daughter had been upset about her mentor's untimely and very sudden demise at the hands of Strigoi, but I'd never guessed that she'd react in such a way. When asked, Guardian Petrov assured me that she had no idea where Rose was going or why, but I had suspicions. I hadn't realized until the moment in the caves just how close she had been with Guardian Belikov.

We'd all been so close to the exit. We'd been nearly out of the cave and into the safety the fading sunlight offered. And then those three Strigoi had attacked, appearing so suddenly that we'd all been taken by surprise. Belikov had been drug to the ground by one of them and as soon as Rose had seen this, she'd fought against me to run back into the caves.

Rose, we have to get out of here!

He's in there! Dimitri's in there! We have to go back for him! We can't leave him!

The fear and anguish on her face had been unbearable. She'd tried to desperately to rip out of my grasp and save him, but I'd slapped her, trying to bring her out of her daze.

Run! He is dead! You are not going to join him!

She had looked like I'd punched her in the gut, but she'd followed me back to the academy. Tears had run down her cheeks, her eyes looking even more tortured than when we'd found her in Spokane. She had looked absolutely agonized…and that had been when I'd started to put the pieces together.

How close they'd seemed a few months ago and how much more attached they'd seemed lately. Her reaction when I'd told her about Tasha offering Dimitri a guarding position and even possibly a chance for a family. Belikov's palpable fear for Rose instead of her Moroi friends when they'd gone missing. And glancing over at her, I'd sen how upset she was. No, not upset…destroyed. An ache in my chest had reminded me of the only time I'd ever looked like that…and it hadn't been caused by a mentor-student friendship. It had been caused by lost love. Pushing those thoughts aside, I had thrown up my guardian defenses and buried any emotions I had.

But now, knowing that my daughter was missing mere weeks after her mentor had been turned Strigoi…I knew what she was doing. She was going after him. And I had to go after her. The only problem was that I had to guard my Moroi, Lord Szelzky. Of course I could take time off, but I could really only be gone a couple weeks. I didn't know if that would be enough time to find her. I mean, she had a head start on me and she also knew much more about Belikov than I did. I wouldn't even know where to start looking. But I knew someone who had the resources to find her and much quicker than I could ever hope to.

That dull ache in my chest returned, reminding me that I'd have to face my own demons if I called him. I hadn't spoken to him in nearly eighteen years. The only contact I had with him was sending different pictures and updates about Rose in letters, but I never received any reply. For all I knew, he'd fallen off the face of the earth and wasn't even getting my missives anymore. In one of my rarer moments, I allowed myself to open up the tightly sealed box inside of me that contained my emotions.

Looking back, if I'd known then what I did now, I never would have visited my grandparents that summer in Scotland. I never would have flirted with him. I never would have trusted him or let him in. And I most certainly wouldn't have given my heart to him. Or at least that's what I tell myself in my more emotional moments. In reality, I would never give up that single year…one of the best years of my life resulting in the best thing in my life. Because in order to do that, I'd have to regret Rose. I'd have to regret everything…regret loving him. And that was something I could never do.

Pulling my cell phone out of my pocket before I could change my mind, I found his number and hit send. He'd given it to me nearly eighteen years ago, saying that he only wanted to hear from me this directly in an emergency. I just hoped I could still get in touch with him through it. After all, his number could have changed by now.

But as that voice spoke a single word into my ear, the accent exactly how I remembered it, his tone still exactly the same, I couldn't help but shiver. I remembered everything that voice had said to me…even the things I wished I didn't remember.

"Mazur," I said, flipping my phone open. I was in an important meeting with my guardians and hadn't even bothered to look at the caller ID on the screen. There was silence on the other end.

"Hello?" I barked impatiently.

"Ibrahim…" That voice…one that I hadn't heard in almost eighteen years. Closing my eyes, I waved my guardians out of the room. When I heard the door close, I swallowed hard.

"Janine. What a pleasant…surprise." Why was she calling me? I explicitly had told her not to contact me for anything short of an emergency.

"I'm not calling for me, if that's what you mean," she said, picking up on my slightly displeased tone. I didn't mean to be so harsh with her…it was just hard hearing her voice and not being able to be with her. I'd been faced with a difficult decision and had to break things off with her. I figured that it would be easier for everyone involved if we didn't see or speak to each other. The memories were hard enough to deal with…I couldn't imagine actually seeing her and not being able to touch her…to hold her.

God, what the hell was wrong with me? I was losing my big bad attitude over a woman.

"Then what is this about?"

"It's about your daughter," she said. I noticed she refused to say "our." Knowing her, she was trying to stay as emotionally detached from anything to do with me as she could…which was honestly in her best interests, even if it did aggravate the hell out of me.

"What about her?"

"She's gone missing."

"Missing?" I asked, stunned.

"Yeah, as in absent, disappeared, gone."

"I know what missing means, Janine," I growled. We may have been apart for nearly two decades, but apparently she could still get under my skin. "Why is she missing?"

"Her mentor was turned Strigoi a couple weeks ago. I think she's gone to try to find and kill him."

"That doesn't sound like the usual mentor-student relationship to me," I murmured.

"That's because it isn't."

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked, louder than I had meant to.

"I think they were closer than most people assumed. But that's beside the point. Rose is very good at killing Striogi, she's shown that, but she doesn't know what it's like when you go up against someone you once knew. She doesn't realize that she'll hesitate, especially if she cares about him as much as I think she does, and that hesitation could get her killed." I was still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that my daughter could have been having a relationship with a teacher, so I was a little behind.

"She had a relationship with a teacher?"

"Don't get all fatherly now, Ibrahim. You lost that right a long time ago when you said you didn't want us." I had said that, but it had been the only way to get her to leave. The only way to save her from what could have been certain death. I hadn't wanted to lose her or my unborn child. Honestly, I think a part of me had realized that if they were dead I wouldn't be able to survive. Even though I was a million miles away from them, I at least knew they were alive. Knowing that much was what kept me going.

"Are you going to help or not?" she asked, her anger making her voice quiver slightly. Unless it was due to something else…but I pushed that hopeful thought aside. She had hated me after everything I'd said and done...that couldn't have changed.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Her mentor, Guardian Dimitri Belikov, grew up in Russia." Belikov? As in the Baia Belikovs? "I think she'll start looking for him there. I need you to watch out for her…please. I know you don't want anything to do with us, but please…she's all I've got." I was surprised at how much emotion she was showing, but decided not to comment on it.

"You want me to find her and send her home?" I asked, making sure I understood.

"Yes."

"Do you really think that if she left the academy and came all the way to Russia on some sort of mission that she's just going to listen to me and go back home? If she's come this far, she'll want to see it through."

"She'll get herself killed. And besides, you're good at convincing people to do things. That's your business, if I recall correctly." I could hear bitterness in her words, although I didn't think she realized how much she was giving away to me. I'd always been able to read her really well, even when she'd thrown her defenses up against me.

I sighed, frustrated. "I'll see what I can do, but I make no promises." There was silence once again on the other end, almost making me think that she'd hung up without so much as a goodbye. After everything I'd done in the past, in her eyes I'd probably deserve no less.

Then I heard her whisper, "Thank you, Ibrahim." Hearing her say my name sent a shiver down my back. I instantly shook myself, trying to dispel whatever she was doing to me.

"I'll keep you updated," I said before hanging up. That had been a lot harder than I'd ever imagined. Of course I'd thought that I'd never see or hear from her again, so I hadn't spent much time imagining either of those things.

I could send out my best agents and order them to take her home as soon as they could, no matter how difficult she fought against them. They'd do it; they always did as I said. But for some reason, I knew this was a job I had to do myself. Knowing I should call my guardians back in and discuss our newest mission, I decided to give myself a few minutes to process this sudden shift that had just occurred in my life.

To the world, I was the most fearsome Moroi in existence. I was a snake or so they said. My nickname, Zmey, even meant it. I was a cold-hearted bastard that ran a dangerous business and lived an even more dangerous life. I was callous, cruel, and calculating. I'd been raised by the best mobster in the world, my father, so it shouldn't have surprised anyone how I'd turned out. And I'd been happy with the life I lived and the business I knew I'd one day inherit. Or at least I had been…until her.

I'd never expected to fall for a rather short, auburn haired Dhampir. But that summer had changed everything, realigning my world so that her brown eyes were the center of it. She'd shown me the goodness in the world, the happiness I'd never before felt. I'd no longer wanted the family business. In fact, I'd wanted to get out so bad that I'd accidentally tipped off my father. He'd done the one and only thing that would have ever made me remain with him, resulting in my falling out with Janine. We'd lost everything as quickly as we'd gained it.

So to the world I was the most fearsome Moroi in existence, but to me…I was a heartbroken man that had lost the chance to know his daughter as well as the love of his life.

Damn, I really had to stop being so sappy…