Last Sacrifice

This is my first fan-fic so please be nice. Right now it's just going to be a one-shot, but I'm thinking about expanding this, and possibly changing the title. Let me know what you think. We're just gonna rate this M, b/c who knows what the future holds for this =) I don't own anything but my imaginings. Richelle Mead owns all the wonderful characters...including Dimitri :(

I laid on my bed staring at the same pattern on the ceiling of my cell for God only knew how long. The pattern wasn't actually a pattern so much as a series of cracks that led into the cell next to mine which I couldn't see into. My mind was going a million miles a minute. Why in the world would I be the person Queen Tatiana would leave something for? I mean, she did seem friendlier than usual, but seriously, I wasn't delusional enough to think that she would trust me to do anything, let alone try to help Lissa. I kept re-reading the note that Ambrose slipped me at my "pre-trial" over and over again in my head. One part kept flashing in front of my like a neon sign: She is not the last Dragomir.

Lissa had a brother or sister, well half-brother or half-sister. It made sense now, all the information I had gathered with my talk to Sydney. The same talk, ironically, that kept me from that party with Adrian that would have kept me out of the cell I was in now. Eric, Lissa's dad, had been dumping money into an account in Vegas that he bent over backwards to cover up. He'd also been a huge fan of the ladies- ladies which were in fact Moroi women that worked at casinos as dancers. Giving their slim build and height, it made them ideal candidates as the dancing types. It was also thought, at least by Adrian's dad, that he had a mistress there in Vegas, which I hadn't believed at first. I hadn't connected the dots before, but after reading that note from the Queen for the thousandth time, it all clicked. If I ever got the chance to get out of this hell hole alive, I'd make my way to Vegas to check there first. Hopefully someone there would have a clue where to find this lost relative of Lissa's; it was a long shot, but I had nothing else to go on. Maybe one of the dancers there would know.

Of course, there was the obvious fact that I probably wouldn't see the outside of this cell until my walk to my trial that would probably get me an execution sentence. Stupid complications. Of course I would get that stupid note when I had no power whatsoever to do anything about it. I couldn't even get a note to Adrian to help me. Although, he'd probably involve Lissa so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that I couldn't get a note to him. Ugh-where was Abe when I needed him? Abe was my mobster father, who I didn't find out was actually related to me until after my stint in Siberia hunting down Dimitri while he was still a Strigoi. He also couldn't get me out of going to trial either after he fought to be my counsel. Some counsel. Although, he was useful in other ways: getting messages in and out of prisons. Like when he got that message to Victor Dashkov inquiring about his spirit using brother, Robert Doru.
That was a fruitful mission. We (meaning me, Lissa, and our friend Eddie) broke Victor out of Tarasov, a highly guarded prison that moved around depending on the time of year, only to lose him when we were attacked by Strigoi led by Dimitri while he was still one of them. But although we failed epically, we did get some very useful information out of that blunder-how to use spirit to restore a Strigoi back to life. That came in real handy when Dimitri used Lissa as bait to get to me; and during the rescue mission I went on with the other guardians to retrieve her, she used that information (which she'd planned on doing and had been successfully hiding from me) to restore my former instructor and lover back into a dhampir. Of course her healing him earned his undying devotion to protecting and serving her, and had him telling me to stay away from him, which to me hardly seemed fair, but after telling me his love had "faded" for me, I had tried to give up on loving him and start loving Adrian. It had sort of worked too until the next day when I went to a little cafè to get something to eat and saw Dimitri, which wasn't the breaking point to my efforts. Him trying to protect me from the Royal Guard that tried to arrest me before I made him stop so he wouldn't wind up where I found myself now, however, was. But that was neither here nor there. I was still in a horrible predicament, which was how I was going to find that long lost sibling, even if it was only a half-brother or half-sister, especially if I was locked up in here for the rest of eternity. If only I had someone I could trust to help me with this that wouldn't involve Lissa.

The sounds of voices and footsteps brought me out of my reverie. As I took my eyes off the ceiling I got the weirdest feeling of deja vù. Standing at my cell looking in was Dimitri. It was as if we had switched places. It was weird enough that I was in his old cell, but now...definitely weird.

"No," one word was all I said, deja vù really setting in.

A small smile spread across Dimitri's face, like the ones I used to get during our before school practices when I said something he found funny.

"No? I haven't asked anything yet. Shouldn't you wait until I've asked something?" Something glinted in his eyes that was gone before I could place it. I knew he was remembering when Mikhail had snuck me down here to see him when he was in the same position I found myself in now-locked up.

"No, and shouldn't I be the one making the smart-ass comments? You're kind of stealing my thunder here." I rolled my eyes, "What I meant is no-I'm not going to let you ruin your already fragile freedom by coming down here and doing whatever the hell it is you're actually doing."

Something came to me suddenly.

"Speaking of which, what exactly are you doing down here? What, the frosty atmosphere out there making you wish you were in here again? Well, I hate to break it to you comrade, but your cell's occupied, or haven't you noticed?"

His smile grew a little at that. "Glad to see that being locked in a cell for a few days hasn't dampened your sense of humor any. Only you could still remain stoically sarcastic while awaiting a trial that would probably lead to your death."

"Well, you know me, I'm nothing if not consistent. You still haven't answered my question, what are you doing down here? If I remember correctly, you wanted me to stay away from you, a fact that we were discussing when I got arrested."

He shot me a dry look at the reminder, "I came here to spring you, isn't that obvious?"

I laughed for the first time in days, "Ah good one. I never knew you were this funny. Are you planning on becoming a stand-up comedian?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a look saying that he really didn't think it was funny. Then, it clicked.

I shot up into a sitting a position. "What? You have got to be kidding me! There is no way you are taking me anywhere. You got that? I'd rather stay here."

He let out an aggravated sigh, one that reminded me so much of the Dimitri I had fallen in love with. The Dimitri that would fight so hard to make me see the logical side of things when I wanted nothing more than to be illogical, "Rose, you're being ridiculous. There's no way I'm going to let you stay here. You think that they're just going to let you sit here and actually get to a trial? You'll be lucky if you get to see the outside of this prison again. The only way to make sure you're safe is to get you out now while we can. Now stop being childish and let me get you out of here."

My control snapped at that, "Why do you care? Love fades, remember? You told me that about a week ago during that church service I crashed to see you after your constant steadfast refusal to see me. And maybe love does fade, maybe yours has, but I can't just put my love on some shelf somewhere as an arrant thought that I once had. So I'm begging you, if you ever felt love for me, if there's even the tiniest spark left in your heart somewhere for me," I swallowed past the lump in my throat, swallowing the remainder of my pride with it, defeat showing on my face, " please leave. Just leave and don't come back."

"Rose, I-"

"Dimitri, don't." I laid back and started staring at the ceiling again, lacing my hands behind my head.

"Oh, and tell Lissa to stop with the escape attempts. I'm not leaving. And if her, or anyone else tries anything, I may just have to do something drastic. It was nice seeing you though; it'll definitely give me something interesting to think about when I get too bored," I said, my man-eating smile plastered on my face.

Dimitri looked flustered but still had that guardian mask in place. Leave it to Dimitri to still look bad ass while being flustered. "How did you know? She said she was able to keep you from finding things out most times."

"Well I wouldn't know if she can or not, but I guess she can; I can't really notice what she's hiding when she's hiding things."

"So, how did you know it was Lissa that sent me here, and not me coming on my own?"

"Well, it could have only been your devotion to Lissa that would send you on a mission like this. Come on comrade, you've got to give me a little more credit than that." I smiled wistfully, trying to keep the sorrow from my eyes," You've made it abundantly clear you want nothing to do with me." I closed my eyes to keep the tears from flowing.

I heard him sigh before I heard his footsteps as he left me and returned to the land of the living.

So what do you think? Like? Dislike? Continue? Leave it alone? I'm open to suggestions =) So please R&R!