Lissa's POV

It must've been an hour after the sun had fallen below the horizon when I awoke. I was lying in bed with my head on Christian's chest, thoughts of the last few months swirling around in my mind. It had been a few months since Rose left the Academy, and I was just now starting to get over it.

With Rose gone and Dimitri a Strigoi, Eddie Castile, a friend of mine (who was also my guardian for his field experience), became my guardian. I was offered another guardian, since I am the last Dragomir and all, but I refused. Until they found someone as good as Rose, I'm just going to go along with one guardian.

It's not like I don't have Christian, too. When those Strigoi attacked the Academy all those months ago, he was a total bad ass. I have no doubt in my mind that he can keep me safe.

After my last school year ended, something changed in me. I decided that instead of going to live at the Royal Court and attend Lehigh like I had planned, I was going to stay at the Academy for a little while longer. Kind of as a free spirit, like Adrian has been. Well, I guess I shouldn't say had been because he was still at the Academy too. He'd decided that if I wasn't going to live at the Royal Court, then there was no real sense in him going either. After all, we were still trying to study spirit together.

It felt like so much had changed in so little time here at the Academy. Nothing was the same after the Strigoi attack. Those who had been involved in the Mână were punished severely and were now forced back into their corms three hours before the regular curfew. Wards were also renewed every week, instead of every two weeks. The attack had given everyone a taste of what the real world would actually be like. It showed us that we weren't always safe at school.

Because of this, many parents made the choice to pluck their kids from St. Vlad's and send them to another school that they felt would be safer. But the truth was that nowhere was safe. The attack was a revolution in our world, because we'd never experienced anything like that. Over fifty Strigoi working together when even ten seemed impossible. After the attack, things seemed to be getting worse. The loss of Dimitri and Rose, one of the world's greatest guardians and one of the world's greatest soon-to-be guardians, was a tragedy to say the least. Especially for me.

Coming back to the present, I felt Christian stir beneath me. He groaned and yawned, stretching out his arms in front of him, and then wrapping them around me. I smiled and turned my head towards him.

"Morning," I murmured pleasantly.

"More like 'evening'," he replied with a chuckle, leaning forward to place a soft kiss on my lips.

I closed my eyes and chuckled too, happy that we could act like a normal couple in spite of all the craziness in the world.

I yawned and opened my eyes. "So, what's on the agenda for today?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Hmm…well, I don't know. Nothing?"

I gave him and sarcastic look. "Oh, you know what I mean." I raised myself off of his chest and sat up, looking around our room.

We'd been given an upgraded room, since we were no longer students. It was a lot like Adrian's actually, except maybe a little bigger since it was Christian's and mine. I think it's actually the biggest on campus, which is kind of cool, I guess. Our bed looked like it was bigger than king-sized and could probably fit five or six people on it comfortably; it was centered on the far wall away from the door in our room. Before I could study the rest of our room, I noticed Christian sitting up beside me.

As I looked at him, I immediately felt lucky that he was mine and that I was his. I stared at his face that I'd become so accustomed to. He stared back; his eyes perfect pools of ice. His jet black hair was untidy from sleep—and a few other things we'd done—but it still managed to look good.

Noticing my scrutinizing, he lifted his hand and stroked my cheek. "What's on your mind, Liss?"

I smiled. "You are."

He chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully. "Well, I already knew that."

"Well, then you know what's on my mind."

With that I slipped away from his hand and scooted off the bed, standing up. I stretched my arms and cracked my neck. I didn't feel like I'd slept that long, but I didn't think I could lie there any longer. Christian's question just brought up memories of Rose, and I really didn't want to start crying this early in the day.

I walked out of the bedroom and into our humongous bathroom—complete with steam shower, Jacuzzi, toilet (duh), and three sinks in a marble countertop. What we needed three sinks for I had no idea. I walked over to the first sink a stared at myself. My hair was pretty wild looking from last night, but I didn't care much. My jade green eyes seemed to pop out at me against my Moroi-pale skin, and I was grateful to see there were no shadows beneath them.

With a sigh, I reached for my hairbrush and tried to turn the messy tangle into the soft silky waterfall of hair that I was used to. The knots however, were putting up a very good fight; they just didn't seem to want to come out of my hair. I rolled my eyes and decided that a hot shower would probably put an end to them. I walked across the tile floor and out of the bathroom.

I wandered over to the bed, hopped on and crawled over to Christian, who apparently had lain down again. I settled myself on his right side, the silky blanket that covered the bed separating us, and rested my head on his pillow.

"Christian?" I murmured.

He didn't reply.

"I was going to take a shower, do you want to join me?" Again there was silence. I assumed that he had fallen asleep again. Oh well, he'd regret it later.

Smirking, I rolled off the bed and stood again, walked across the room and back into the bathroom. Since I was already naked I didn't have to go through the task of removing my clothes. I slide open the glass door to the shower and stepped inside, shutting the door as I went. I turned the shower on full blast. Though the temperature steaming hot, it didn't seem to bother me; it actually relaxed me. I turned the shower knob to the waterfall setting as I began to shampoo and condition my hair, taking extra time to eliminate every chance of there being tangles.

After a good scrub down, I shut the shower off deciding that I'd taken long enough. I slide open the now foggy glass door and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel as I did so. After drying off my body, I wrapped my hair up so it would dry and made my exit from the bathroom. Unfortunately, I did that a little too fast and slipped on the wet tile. It didn't hurt very much, but it sure didn't feel good.

"Ugh," I groaned from the floor, I was going to be wet again. I heard the TV on in the other room and I assumed that Christian was awake now and probably didn't hear me fall. I got up as quickly as I could manage.

Once off the tile, I walked back into the bedroom, past Christian—who was now sitting, fully dresses, on one of our couches and watching TV—and over to my closet. One of the perks of having an upgraded suite was definitely my walk-in closet. I felt like I was kind of in my own little world when I was in there.

It only took me a few moments to figure out what I was going to wear. I chose a cute little crème-colored dress that fell about three inches above my knees. It was spotted with yellow, turquoise and salmon colored flowers and I absolutely loved it, though I couldn't remember where I'd gotten it. I paired it with a pair of chic black peep-toe wedges. After sliding on some undergarments and my outfit, I walked out of my closet and shut the door.

Christian was there, right out side the door, and he caught me in his arms, pulling me close. We kissed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. We got so lost in the moment that I forgot that there was a towel on my head until I felt it slip off and fall to the floor.

I pulled away, looked down at the towel and laughed. "Oh, now look what you did!" I teased, releasing my arms from their position around Christian's neck.

He faked his shock. "What? Me? You were the one getting so into that kiss." He smirked as he said this and I grinned.

"If you say so." We laughed and broke apart, and I headed over to the bathroom again to brush my hair and put on some makeup. Just because Christian thought I was beautiful with and without makeup didn't mean everyone else did, and, after all, I was the Dragomir Princess.

I took only a few minutes to blow-dry my hair and then brush it smooth. And a few more minutes to make sure my makeup looked how it should: perfect. With that, I walked out of the bathroom and headed for the door. I paused to wait for my boyfriend.

"Are you coming?" I spun around to look at the room. He was watching TV again, but looked up as I spoke.

"What? Oh, um, yeah." He shut off the TV and cut off whatever the host on whatever game show he was watching was saying. With that, I opened the door and walked out, nearly running into Eddie—who was station right in from of the door—in the process.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, steadying myself. "I'm sorry, Eddie—I mean Guardian Castile." The apology was meant to be serious, but I couldn't help teasing him.

Eddie grinned at me. "Well, if we're going to be going all formal, I suppose I should call you Your Highness instead of Lissa."

I rolled my eyes. "Only if you deem it necessary." We both laughed at that and Eddie held up his wrist to check his watch mockingly.

"I was thinking you guys were never going to wake up. I might have had to bust in there to make sure you were still alive." He laughed again. "So, what're we doing today?"

Christian spoke up from behind me. "We're still working on that…but I think I need a feeder before we do anything."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, me too."

Eddie also nodded. "Alright, off we go then."

He let us pass in front of him so that he could still be close, but not have to glance back every few seconds to see if we were still there. The walk from our suite to the cafeteria was shorter than it used to be when we were students. The guest house was actually the second closest building to central campus. It was still about a five minute walk, but I don't think any of us minded.

Since it was a school day, the campus was pretty empty as we walked through, except for the occasional guardian that was patrolling the grounds. This is why it surprised me to see Adrian wandering around looking rather bored.

"Ahh, there you are, cousin." He sounded relieved, as if I could be the cure to his boredom. Since he was originally walking in the opposite direction we were, he had to turn to keep pace with us. "Heading off to the feeders this evening?"

"Yes, actually." I said, half-smiling. I kind of felt bad for Eddie, now that he had three of us to keep track of, but I was sure he didn't mind much. After all, it was his job. "Where were you heading?"

Adrian shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's so boring around here so I thought I might catch up with you and we could practice some more."

I felt Christian stiffen slightly at Adrian's words; he still kind of thought that Adrian was interested in me in a romantic sort of way. But it wasn't me he was after…

"Maybe after I get some food in my system," I joked. "I'm super tired."

He nodded, but didn't say anything else. I could tell that today he'd decided to stay sober, because he was definitely more calm than he usually was.

As we were arriving at the cafeteria, my stomach practically growling, a noticed something odd. It was just passing by, so I didn't get a good look at it; it was moving pretty fast. But I was pretty sure I saw a bright crimson crotch rocket that must have been doing at least fifty miles per hour drive through the entrance gates for the school, past our group of people, and towards where Kirova's office was.

I stopped walking.

"Did you guys see that?" I asked, eyes wide. I looked around at Eddie, Christian and Adrian as if they held the answers to the questions swirling around in my mind.

It was Eddie who answered. "Yeah," he said in a low voice. "I wonder who was on it though."

I nodded. "Me too. It was definitely somebody though. Do anyone at the school own anything like that?"

"Definitely not." Adrian stated in a matter-o-fact tone.

"Can we figure this out later?" Christian asked impatiently. He was always like that when he was hungry. "I want to get to the feeders. With any luck I'll get Alice again today." His tone seemed to brighten after that comment.

I sighed, but agreed and we set off again. Like the campus, the cafeteria was practically deserted, so it took no time at all to get a feeder. Unfortunately, Christian didn't get Alice like he wanted; I did. She was looking rather old today, even though she couldn't have been older than her sixties. I had a feeling that she was going to have to stop feeding some time soon though. Her skin was pale from all the blood loss, but still, her eyes brightened when she saw me.

"Why, Vasilisa, it's so nice to see you again." She sounded like she meant it. I smiled.

"It's nice to she you too, Alice." I settled myself in my chair next to her.

"Where's your guardian today?"

I'm sure I looked puzzled. I glanced over and saw Eddie standing by the entrance to Alice's cubicle. "Eddie's right there. He's my only guardian."

She raised an eyebrow. "No, no, no. I'm sure you have two. After all, you're a princess. You need proper protection."

I nodded. "Well maybe I'll get another guardian someday, but for now it's just Eddie."

With that, I bit into her neck, officially ending the rest of that conversations as she lost herself in the high of my bite.

I finished quickly since I didn't need that much, and I was a little surprised to see that Christian was already done and waiting for me at the door to the cafeteria. He probably hadn't stopped to make conversation with his feeder. I stopped next to him and we linked hands, smiling at each other in the happy couple way that we did.

"Where's Adrian?" I asked suddenly, looking around for him.

Christian shrugged as if he couldn't care less. "I don't know. He must've left while we were feeding."

"Oh," I said, disappointed. I was really looking forward to practicing spirit with him today. Oh well…

Just as we were leaving the feeding room, I noticed Alberta walking towards us, looking anxious.

"Princess, Kirova would like to have a word with you. Now."

I was shocked; I hardly ever talked to the Headmistress anymore.

"Um…" I stammered, not sure what to do. "Oh, yes, okay." I turned to Christian motioned for him to come too.

"Kirova requested that she see you alone." Alberta stated dryly. "Guardian Castile can accompany you, of course."

I did my best to hide my confusion, but agreed anyways and followed Alberta to Kirova's office. It wasn't a very long walk, but it felt dragged on for me because I didn't know what it was about. And I was really starting to hate surprises. While we were walking, my mind was automatically trying to prepare for the worst. What was wrong anyways?

We stopped rather abruptly, and I barely had the time to snap back to reality before we walked right into Kirova's office. It looked the same as it had when I was a student here, except now it was much less intimidating. As we entered the room, I was pretty shocked to see that Kirova was deep in conversation with a girl I didn't recognize. She was standing up, facing Kirova--which meant her back was turned to me--and the only thing I could see was that she had jet black hair and pale ivory skin. It wasn't the same kind of pale that I was, but it looked pretty pale nonetheless.

Their conversation cut off as we entered the room though. Kirova looked past the mystery girl and straight at me.

"Ahh, Vasilisa, how nice to see you." Funny, Alice had said almost the same thing.

I nodded, smiling politely. "Nice to see you too."

Kirova stepped out from behind her desk and motioned to the many chairs round her office. "Please, have a seat."

I nodded again and took a seat in the chair closest to me. Everyone else remained standing.

I crossed my legs and put my serious face on. "You wanted to see me?"

She nodded and smiled, looking genuinely pleased. "Yes, I did. You see Vasilisa--" I silently wished for her to stop calling me that. "--I have rather good news."

I waited.

Kirova cleared her throat before continuing. "It has come Queen Tatiana's attention that you declined having a second guardian when they were first being assigned."

I nodded. It was true. I told them that until they found someone as good as Rose, I would just have Eddie.

"Well, the Queen searched long and hard to find someone suitable to be your new guardian. And now we've finally found someone fitting." She gestured to the black-haired girl who I just realized was now turned around and looking at me.

I felt my jaw fall slack, but I didn't hurry to correct it. It wasn't enough that Kirova had just told me that I was assigned another guardian. No, to add on to that, I noticed something about the black-haired girl that we had in common we had exactly the same eyes. She looked almost like…

"Vasilisa, this is your new guardian: Addaline Dashkov."

I felt my eyes bulge. Dashkov. Like Victor Dashkov. Did that mean…I was related to this girl? But…I couldn't be!

She was a dhampir.