Chapter 1

Rose's Point of View

As the fasten seatbelt light flashed on, I could feel the tension rolling off Lissa in waves. The small air craft we were traveling on had been battered by turbulence for the last 20 minutes, and the pilots had finally had the good sense to declare an emergency landing. We were headed back to St. Vladimir's after spending the Christmas holiday at court with Lissa's family, and the snowy blizzard we'd stumbled upon had made this a less than desirable flight.

Lissa's older brother Andre was sitting across from us, trying to offer up a reassuring smile while Lissa's parents Eric and Rhea were busy making sure we were safely buckled in.

I could hear the storm raging outside us when without warning, the plane jerked heavily to the right side. I watched in horror as Rheas body crashed into the window on the adjacent side of the plane, her body contorting at an unnatural angle. Her husband barely had a chance to react before the plane jerked again sending him flying backwards against the cockpit door.

"Dad!" Lissa cried out while Andre quickly unbuckled his seatbelt to help.

Oxygen masks descended from overhead while the cabin lights began to flicker wildly. Beside me Lissa continued to scream, gripping my hand so tightly I was sure it would break.

I could feel the plane picking up speed as we spiraled towards the ground. This was it, we were going to die. I took one last look at my best friends face, and it was the last thing I registered before it all went black.

8 months later…

With great reluctance I let Lissa drag me into our first period classroom, trying to ignore the stares and whispers surrounding us. You'd think after 8 months the novelty of the accident would have worn off, but unfortunately being the sole survivors of a fiery plane crash makes you something of a celebrity. It didn't help matters that the loss of Lissa's family left her the last remaining Dragomir. In Moroi society there are 13 royal families and the Dragomir's just happen to be one of them.

"I wish they'd stop staring." Lissa murmured as we slid into a pair of seats near the back of the class. I could feel her annoyance through the bond and it caused my own anger to bubble to the surface.

"What, have you never seen two teenage girls before? Quit gawking already!" I growled, sending several heads turning in different directions.

"Please don't make a scene." Lissa pleaded, trying to shrink lower into her chair. Despite her own irritation with being a freak show, it wasn't in her nature to call people out on their bullshit. I on the other hand had no qualms about it. Growing up the only daughter of Abe Mazur had made me something of a novelty long before the accident, and I'd long gotten used to the attention that came with it. Abe was a well-known and feared Royal, and had never been the type to fly quietly under the radar. He was loud and flashy and always had his hand in several different pots at once. Most of his business took place overseas which was the main reason I spent my childhood as an honorary Dragomir.

Lissa and I have been best friends since kindergarten and she's the closest thing I have to a real family. After my mom died we became inseparable and now thanks to that pesky little plane crash our bond is even stronger than ever.

Unlike most Moroi, Lissa's element wasn't one of the original four: Earth, Air, Wind, or Fire. Instead she'd been gifted with the incredibly rare element of Spirit, something that allowed you to heal or bring things back from the dead. In my case, she'd done exactly that after the crash, and now we were supernaturally bonded to one another. I had been kissed by shadows and with that came a ton of insane side effects, most notably the ability to see inside Lissa's mind.

I know; pretty freaky right?

Our first few classes of the day passed in a similar fashion. People gawked, I yelled, and then everyone avoided us like the plague. Personally I hadn't expected any less and was only going along with this whole school charade for Lissa's sake. She had her heart set on college and Queen Tatiana had pretty much insisted on it.

After an excruciatingly long day, I walked into my last class: Intro to Russian. This was the only class Liss and I didn't have together which instantly made me hate it. As I made my way down the aisle I rolled my eyes at the newest round of stares before plopping down in the first empty seat I could find. Unfortunately for me that seat just happened to be in front of two overly chatty Kathy's who I immediately disliked on principle. Of course 2 seconds later they gave me a valid reason to do so.

"You're Rose Mazur right?" A bubbly blond girl chirped up from the seat directly in front of me.

"Yup" I replied, popping the P sound while I dug around distractedly in my backpack.

"So what's it like to be dead?" she asked eagerly, and I froze mid search for my notebook.

"Excuse me?" Who the hell asks something like that?

Apparently this girl.

"Well isn't it true you were like, ya know, dead?

I couldn't decide if I thought she was incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. After deciding on stupid I prepared to bite her head off, but the guy sitting next to me beat me to the punch.

"Hey Camille, isn't it like true your dad left your mother for a man?" he asked sending her a devilishly smug smirk. I instantly decided to like him. In front of me Camille glared and scoffed before flipping her hair and turning her attention back to the front of the class. The guy next to me just smiled satisfied.

"Okay, that was the best thing to happen to me all day." I told him, giving him my own smile in return. "I'm Rose." I told him, extending my hand.

"Ivan Zelekos." He replied, and I noticed his own voice was laced heavily with an accent. It took me a moment before I realized the accent was Russian.

"Well Ivan Zelekos, tell me, what's a Russian native doing taking intro to Russian?"

"It's an easy A." he shrugged smiling cheekily.

We spent the rest of the class chatting easily and by the end of the period I considered Ivan a friend. He was charismatic by nature, not to mention easy on the eyes. But he also shared my similar sense of humor and blatant disregard for higher education. According to Ivan, finishing school was the stipulation on which he'd receive his trust fund, so he dutifully suffered through it.

After spending an hour with Ivan, I decided maybe this class wouldn't see so bad. Of course, that was until I saw him.

Dimitri's Point of View

Our day started out the same as usual. I dragged a half drunk Ivan out of bed kicking and screaming before playing the role of his dutiful shadow for the rest of the day.

That's what us Dhampirs do, were to be seen but not heard, giving up our own lives in service of the Moroi. If I'm being completely honest with myself, I got lucky guarding Ivan. Not only was he an easy charge, he was also one hell of a friend. I met him two years ago after transferring from St. Vladimir's at a time in my life I wasn't sure I'd ever really recover. I had just spent the last two years teaching advanced combat to the novices and any Moroi that was willing to learn. Unsurprisingly there weren't many, in fact there was only one.

Rose Mazur.

At the time she was barely 17, but she was certainly a force to be reckoned with. Aside from being the most pig headed and stubborn woman I'd ever met, she was incredibly talented and painfully beautiful. I spent months trying to draw some boundaries between us, but every time I did she simply tore them down. She had this innate ability to see right through my walls, and she understood me in a way that no one else ever had before. No matter how hard I tried to distance myself from her, I was constantly drawn back in. Like magnets, we just couldn't seem to stay away.

I knew being involved with her wasn't an option. Not only was she my student and a Moroi, she was a royal at that and the only daughter of Abe Mazur. So after months of struggling I made a decision. With nothing more than a note, I took off in the middle of the night, like a coward, leaving behind the only woman I would ever truly love.

When I'd heard about her accident a few months back, I thought about reaching out to her. I'd even gone so far as to fly back to the states to see her. But as I stood outside her hospital room door, I was struck with the realization of what I was doing. I'd barely had the strength to walk away from her the first time, and if I let myself look into those warm brown eyes once more, I knew I'd fall at her feet and beg for forgiveness.

No, seeing Rose again wasn't an option, except now she was standing right in front of me.

The moment she'd walked into the classroom I'd felt it. Like the old familiar pull that had always existed between us, my body seemed to sense that she was there. Luckily for me, I blended in nicely into the background and she'd yet to notice me herself. I watched as she took a seat next to Ivan, struck by how little time had changed her.

She had the same curvy physique that was so uncommon for a Moroi, and the same olive colored completion that appeared to be kissed by the sun. Her long brown hair fell in gentle waves down her back, and the shorts she was wearing showed off her toned legs that went for days. She was every bit as beautiful as I remembered, if not more, and now she was standing here right in front of me.

"Dimitri?" she asked blinking a few times. Perhaps she thought her mind was playing tricks on her.

"Hello Roza."

I watched as her eyes softened at the sound of my voice; those liquid brown pools conveying so much emotion. I was so mesmerized by her that I was completely unprepared for what happened next.

One minute she was looking at me adoringly, the next I felt a burning sting on my cheek from the slap she'd just dealt me. I reached up absent-mindedly to touch my face and was vaguely aware of Ivan laughing beside me. Without another word she turned on her heels striding out of the classroom with her own guardian right behind her.

And just like that, Roza was back in my life.