I was standing in front of the Belikov's house again, only this time I was with Dimitri. I just graduated and Dimitri suggested that we go on vacation before classes start again, Kirova offered us all jobs at the academy, Lissa is going to teach kids about spirit magic, Christian defensive magic, and Dimitri and me are teaching novices. I was nervous to go up and knock because I was worried that they would all be mad at me for just leaving like that.
"It's okay," Dimitri reassured me. I looked up at him and smiled. He took my hand and led me up to the door. He knocked and Paul answered the door. He looked at me then Dimitri and then he screamed and ran back into the house.
We heard shouts from inside like "What's wrong" and "What's going on". Victoria ran out of the house with a stake but stopped short once she saw me.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"We came here on vacation." I answered, not sure if she was happy or not to see me here.
"We?" she asked, looking around. I looked beside me and saw that Dimitri wasn't there and looked around to see where he went. I turned around and saw him standing by the car, trying to avoid attention.
"Dimitri and I," I said going back to grab him.
"You told us he was strigoi!" Victoria yelled, now more of the family was outside, standing behind Victoria.
"He was, when I left last time it was to find him and well, somehow I turned him back. He really is dhampir now; we already went through all of these tests back at the academy so there is no doubt that he is dhampir." I added when they were about to protest.
Paul ran forward and jumped into Dimitri's arms. Dimitri barely caught him because he was not expecting anyone to accept him so soon let alone come over to him, plus he kinda had his arms wrapped around me.
"Dimka?" Olena asked with tears in her eyes. I looked up at Dimitri and saw that he had tears in his eyes too.
"Mama, I'm back, really back," he practically whispered.
Olena and the others ran forward and attacked him in a big group hug. I was able to get out of the way just in time to not get involved in it.
"Roza, you brought him back to us," Karolina whispered with tears flowing freely.
I looked away and saw Victoria still standing in the same place as earlier.
I went up to her and asked, "Why aren't you up there with the others?"
"You didn't say goodbye," she muttered.
"I'm sorry, but you were mad at me and I was afraid you would just get madder if I told you I was leaving. Plus, I'm not good at goodbyes." I was staring straight ahead, trying not to cry. "I didn't mean to hurt you or anyone else. Please forgive me."
"I'm not mad; I just wish you would have taken me with you. It was miserable here after you left, everyone was so sad that you were gone and that you didn't say a word to us about it." She whimpered.
"You shouldn't wish you went with me you would've gotten hurt. I had to hunt down and torture so many strigoi. And when I finally found Dimitri, it was horrible he tortured me and tried to turn me. I was lucky I got out alive, let alone have him back." I was full-on crying at that point so I didn't even see Victoria as she pulled me into a hug.
"I'm sorry," she murmured into my ear.
We stood for a few more minutes before the others came up to us.
"Hey Victoria," Dimitri said, smiling until he saw my face. "Roza, what's wrong?" He pulled me into a hug and I just shook my head against his chest and he understood that I didn't want to talk about it.
"Do guys want something to eat?" Olena asked. "We were just in the middle of dinner if you would like to join us."
"We would love to, Mama," Dimitri told her. We followed the others inside and sat at the table with them filling up two plates.
"You two can take my room," Sonya said, "I'll sleep on the bed in the nursery."
"Are you sure, we don't want to be a bother," Dimitri replied.
"You're family; we can't just send you to a motel or anything like that." Sonya said, sounding offended.
"Well we could take the couches down here or something, we won't feel right if we come here and kick you out of your room." Dimitri told her, I just continued to stare at my plate, I really didn't have the energy to care were we were staying right now.
"Please just take my room and don't argue with me about it." Sonya said, ending the conversation.
"So how long are you two staying," Olena asked.
"We have two weeks of vacation but we can leave sooner if you guys get tired of us." Dimitri said, I decided to look up now and examine everyone.
"Hey, where's Yeva?" I asked, noticing that she was missing.
"She's visiting Mark and Oksana," Olena informed me.
"Oh," I muttered, thinking that I would have to visit them while we were here.
"Roza how's everyone back at the academy?" Karolina asked me before I could look back down at my plate and go back to being anti-social.
"Good, I'm Lissa's guardian now and she got a job at the academy so we get to stay there for a while." I said.
"Do you get to stay too, Dimitri?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I was given a job there also, even though I'm not anybody's guardian."
There were small conversations after that and I just kind of tuned out until dinner was finished and we went upstairs.
"Roza, what's wrong?" Dimitri asked as soon as we were in Sonya's room with the door shut.
"I was just talking to Victoria and what we were talking about depressed me," I said simply, hoping he would drop it. Luckily, he did and we just crawled into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.
The next morning we got up and went down stairs to join the others. Olena was in the kitchen with Sonya, making breakfast, while the others were in the living room watching TV. Yeva was sitting in the chair staring at me for some reason.
"Hi," I told her, unnerved by her staring. She stared at me for a moment longer then turned her attention to Dimitri.
"Hello, Babushka," He muttered.
"Welcome back," she told him, then turned away again.
I looked at Dimitri, but he just shrugged and greeted everyone else.
I smiled and greeted everyone and then asked Dimitri if I could talk to him for a moment.
"Dimitri, I was just wondering if we could go visit Mark and Oksana today?" I asked.
"Sure, but may I ask why?" he asked.
"I just have some question for them that I have a feeling that only they can answer."
"Wanna try 'em with me?"
"I'm sorry, but I really think that that wouldn't be a great idea until I have an idea if I'm right." He looked disappointed but excepted that I thought this really would be better.
We went out to the kitchen and joined Olena and Sonya in the cooking. Well tried to, but they told they had it covered and we ended up just going in to watch TV with the others.
Soon, Olena called us in for breakfast and Dimitri told them of our plans to go to Oksana and Mark's house later that day. After that announcement, we just ate in silence. Once we finished, Dimitri and I picked up dishes and washed them while Olena put juice and milk away. As soon as we finished, Dimitri grabbed my hand and led me outside.
Once we were out, standing in the beautiful garden out back, Dimitri pulled a little box out of his pocket. He knelt down on one knee and looked up at me saying, "Roza, I love you so much and I want to protect you and be with you for the rest of my life, as long as that may or may not be. I promise to never hurt you again if you will just marry me and make me the happiest man alive, so please, will you marry please Roza?"
I fell down on my knees in front of him nodding my head then I said, "Yes." I pulled his face to mine and kissed him passionately.
He pulled us both back up to our feet and took us back inside, presumably to tell his family about our new engagement.
"Why so happy guys?" Victoria asked, being the first to see us come in.
The others turned to look at us and Dimitri said proudly, "As of thirty seconds ago, we are engaged." Everyone got up and bombarded us with hugs and congratulations.
"Umm, Dimitri, I should go call Lissa and tell her about this," I muttered in his ear, partly just to get out of this crowd.
"Okay, want me to come with?" he asked.
"No, it's fine, stay here with your family." I went up to the room we were staying in and grabbed my phone off of the charger, then called Lissa.
She answered on the third ring and said, " Rose?"
"Yeah, it's me." I answered.
"What's up?"
"I was just calling to tell you that I am now engaged."
"Seriously!"
"Yeah! Dimitri proposed just a couple minutes ago."
"When is the wedding?"
"Whoa! We haven't even started planning anything yet!"
"Oh. Well can I help you? We could just plan over the phone or something."
"Of course I want your help Liss! I just gotta go right now, Dimitri and I are going to go visit Oksana and Mark, I'll call you when we get back."
"Okay talk to you then."
I hung up and went downstairs to find everything calmed down and Dimitri waiting for me so we could leave.
We went and decided to walk to their house, well actually jog, we have to continue training. Half way there I sensed a strigoi nearby right before we were ambushed. A dozen strigoi jumped out at us and we were immediately on the defense. I staked the nearest one to me as it came to attack me and saw Dimitri fighting with one of his own. More came to attack me and I tried to fight back, but I felt one grab me by my hair and sink his teeth into my neck. I screamed as he started to suck the blood out of me and vaguely saw the others leaving for some reason, like they just ran away. I felt the strigoi being pulled off of my neck, and screamed again. I knew Dimitri was just trying to help, but when he pulled the strigoi off, it ripped my throat out. Dimitri was busy killing the strigoi, while I was on the ground. I knew I was dying, but made myself live long enough that I saw Dimitri turn back to me. I tried to tell him I loved him, but I couldn't make my body work. He was coming towards me when I just blacked out.