Chapter One.

Paris.

I found my seat and sat down, Dimitri sat beside me. We sat there for a while just looking at each other, we didn't speak; we just smiled like love struck teenagers. Neither of us could believe what was happening. Then he turned his body towards me and put a hand on my stomach. "It really is a miracle, isn't it Rose? We really have created a life together," he said with the most amazed look on his face. "The life of our baby; yours and mine." But before I could answer him my head started to pound.

"Oh no.... Here they come!" I said holding my head. Dimitri put a hand on my cheek and called Lissa over.

"Rose," she said, "Before it gets too bad, let me make you sleep." I shook my head slightly before answering.
"No, wait. It's not that bad. It's not like before." Instead of the normal black splotches and head splitting pain, all I saw this time was just one ghost, "Eddie!" I yelled.
"I thought...... I thought you were gone, don't get me wrong I love that you're here, but it's more than a month since you died." He held up his hand and shook his head; his face was so sad. He tried to speak but as usual, it was too hard.
He pointed to me, "Is it about me? Am I in danger?" he nodded his head slowly, and then he pointed to Lissa.
Fear shot through me, "Lissa too?" He held out his hand, palm down and lowered his hand. I couldn't work out what he meant and I shook my head.
"I don't understand, can you try to talk?" he opened his mouth to try but nothing would come out.
"It's alright," I said. Just then his image started to flicker and his face suddenly became anxious and then he pointed back to me and then Lissa and again he did the same hand movement. I didn't understand but before I could say anymore, he faded away and with him when my headache. I just stared at the back of the seat in front of me.

"Roza?" said Dimitri from beside me. I turned to look into his worried eyes. "What did he say? You and Lissa are in danger?" I nodded.

"He couldn't talk; he just kept doing this...." I showed them the hand movement that he'd done and none of them could understand either. It worried me a bit that I didn't know when this danger was coming, but I hoped that I would see him again soon, headache or not, I hoped he would come back and tell me what was going on but I didn't like the look of that flickering. It's what happened the last time I'd seen Mason. We all talked about my visit for a while longer but when nothing could be determined, Liss changed the subject to my morning sickness.

"So, it wasn't me after all..." she said with a smirk.

"Yeah it was....to start with. I'm only six weeks you know."

"Isn't it amazing" she whispered looking between Dimitri and I... "Isn't it amazing what spirit has done? I used to think it was curse, but now......after all the bad side effects, it's paved the way for a miracle." The wonder of her realisation was plain on her face, and her feelings of joy and happiness radiated through our bond, she was proud that she played a part in this.

Dimitri squeezed my hand and I looked at him and saw the same look on his face as was on Lissa's. The worry about Eddie's visit was pushed into the far recesses of my mind. "Yes, it is a miracle, one I'll cherish forever." He said looking at me then I felt his hand on my stomach. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his; I was transfixed by the depth of his feelings.

"Ooo!" I heard from beside us. "Get a room you two!" We both turned to look up at Christian's face.

I couldn't let that pass.... "Well, Christian, we would if we could, but as we are limited in our options, we could always just give you a free lesson..." I heard Dimitri snicker softly beside me and Liss through the bond.

"Buffy..." he said, "I think you have it the wrong way around. If there's any lessons to be taught on that subject....." the smirk spread across his face as he held his hands up and shrugged his shoulders... "I'm the bomb!" With that, everyone roared with laughter, and in my current condition, I nearly peed myself... It was so good to laugh like this again. I looked at Lissa and she had a weird look on her face.

"What?" I asked her.

"Nothing, it's just your aura. There's hardly any black at all." She smiled... "It's the most colourful I've ever seen it. Red, maroon, white, a touch of purple.... Hgh!"

"Hgh, what?" I asked....

"I've never seen that before on a Dhampir. You have gold in your aura, just a little bit around...." she looked at my eyes and then back down, "your body. Wow!" I wasn't quite sure what to make of that, maybe the happiness I am feeling right now has overpowered the darkness for once.

"Liss, we need to talk about what's going to happen when I can't guard you anymore. We don't know how long this pregnancy will be, but it looks like it's going to be six months like a Moroi pregnancy."

"I know, that's why I asked you mom to take over when we get back. Didn't she tell you that?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Everything will work our Rose." She said confidently.

"Roza. We'll work this out I promise. No-one has to lose anything; you can still be Lissa's guardian. Between us all, this little Choodo will want for nothing." I wondered what that meant... I was so going to have to study Russian.

He said Miracle... Lissa told me. My grin apparently told the others that Liss had let me in on what he'd said... after all, of the four of us; I was the only one who didn't know how to speak Russian. Christian and Liss had studied it at the Academy. The rest of the flight we talked about the babies, Lissa was only eight weeks off having her twins and we discussed what names she'd pick if they were boys or girls. I didn't say anything about the fact that some time ago, I'd searched the internet for Russian baby names.... I was supposed to be doing some research at the library and found myself dreaming of what a baby of Dimitri's would look like and what I would name it. I never believed that one day it would actually happen.

We talked about what would happen when I got further into the pregnancy and what we wanted to happen after he or she was born. By the time we were ready to land, I felt positive that it would all work out. The pilot came on the radio to say that we would be landing in half an hour. Lissa & Christian didn't have time to feed before we left so a couple of feeders came with us, so they were going to feed now, I wanted to stretch my legs so I went with them. When we walked back to where they were I smiled and shook my head, Alice had been one of the feeders to come with us.

"Rosemarie, it's so nice to see you again. It's been a while." She said.

"Hi Alice, how are you going? I didn't expect to see you here."

"Rose, he'll try to hurt you both," my heart skipped a beat. What did she know, how was she able to know things like she did, she was only human. "Don't give up Rose, never give up."

"What do you mean Alice?" I asked, she turned to Christian and smiled.

"The fields of blood red and white castles will shine the way." I looked at Christian who looked as confused as I was. "Burn it all..." she whispered.

"Burn what Alice?" he asked her.

"That's where they'll be. Follow the grey...... it points the way." I shrugged and said goodbye to her as I went over to Lissa and her feeder as Christian bent down to Alice's neck.

"What was all that about?" she asked me.

"I have no idea. I don't know what to think of her ramblings, sometimes she says things that seem to mean a lot, then other times....." I shook my head. "Go ahead; you need to feed before we land." I told her. She then turned to the young girl who was looking out the window; Dimitri came up behind me then and wrapped his arms around my body. He was so warm and he smelt so good, I couldn't wait to get to the resort so that I could have my way with him. I rested my head against his chest as she started to feed. A small drop of blood trickled down the girl's neck and the smell of it made my mouth water..... What the hell...? I thought to myself. I just stared at the blood and then I realised that I was moving towards the girl.

"Rose, where are you going?" Dimitri asked. "Rose...?" I swallowed as I snapped out of my 'almost' trance.

I turned to him and asked, "Can you smell that?" He looked confused. "That girl, her blood." I closed my eyes and breathed deep, oh man.... I couldn't describe the smell but it was mouth watering.

"What do you mean her blood?" He was looking at me like I was some sort of alien. I was so confused, why was it affecting me like this? I pulled him away from the feeders and back to our seats.

"Her blood smells so......I don't know.....what's going on Dimitri? I could smell her blood and it smelt really good. What in the hell is going on?" I was starting to get a little worried, as worried as Dimitri looked.

"I don't know, we'll get the Doctor to have a look at you when we get to the resort. Maybe it has something to do with the pregnancy." I nodded to him as I thought about the possibilities. Just then Christian and Lissa came back and the pilot told us to buckle up for landing.

Lissa sat on the other side of the isle to me so I turned to her and asked her "Liss, can I ask you something weird?"

"Yeah...."

"Can you tell me what that girl's blood smells like to you?" She was a little shocked at that question; she obviously wasn't expecting me to ask something like that.

"Well, I suppose it smells sweet," then her eyebrows raised as she'd thought of something, "Sort of like that cookie dough we used to make up when we were away..." Shit....what did that mean? That was exactly what it smelt like to me too.... I thought.... "Anyway, why would you ask that?"

I turned to look at Dimitri. "That's exactly what it smelt like to me too... What's going on?" He shook his head but I could see he was trying to find something to say to make me feel better. Just then the plane banked to the left and we descended. I glanced out the window to see Paris in the distance, but we were going to a resort south-west of the city that my father had managed to acquire for the week, apparently the owner had a debt to pay him so we had the whole place to ourselves. We were landing at Tours-Val-De-Loire Airport where a car would meet us to take us to Le Domaine De Beauvois. I couldn't wait to get there so I could think things through.

The plane landed and there was a stretched limo waiting for us. So many things were going through my head that I couldn't even enjoy the fabulous car that we were now in. "We'll find answers Rose." Said Lissa. She'd asked me privately what had happened on the plane so I'd told her; she was as confused as we were. It was dark now as we drove to the castle resort and we were going through a heavily treed area, it would probably be beautiful in the daylight. Just then I saw Eddie outside of my window and in an instant, all hell broke loose....the nausea hit me first....bad.... Then the driver of our car hit the brakes and swerved sharply causing the car to veer off to the left, then it hit the bank and started to flip, no-one in the back was strapped in, so we were thrown around like ragdolls. I'm not sure really what happened next, I hurt everywhere, and I felt so sick, my ears were ringing but I could hear fighting, screeching, screaming.... then I was vaguely aware of being dragged.... then it was black.