Chapter One

For the first time in my life, I was putting myself before Lissa. I could feel her emotions; sadness, hurt, worry. Come back to me Rose, you're the only family I've got.

She knew that one would get to me, but I couldn't look back, I was leaving this all behind.

Don't look back.

Don't look back.

Dimitri needed me. The further away from Lissa, the easier each step became. Besides, I told myself, it's not like I'm never going to see my best friend again. Though deep down, I knew that it was a reality that I was probably never going to see her again. Thinking about this, I couldn't help but take one last look at Lissa. She was much farther away now, but I could still make out her face. She saw me and that little moment of weakness. The next thing I knew, she was outside of the gate. She must have used compulsion on the guard. Without realizing what I was doing, I started running back to her. She started running towards me too. We finally met and I embraced her into a hug. I was crying now.

"You have to understand Liss, you have to," I sobbed.

"Shhh. Rose, just stay here… with me and Christian and-"

"No. Lissa I have to do this for me. There's no way out of it."

She didn't say anything else. I gave her one last squeeze and took my own path, instead of following in Lissa's. It would be a couple of hours until I reached the interstate, but thanks to Dimitri's physical training I was pretty sure I could handle it. With all of the walking time, I couldn't help but think of him. His long brown hair, his dark eyes, and his long leather coat. I would have given anything at that moment to be wrapped up in that coat. I thought about his addiction to the old west cowboy novels and all the annoying 80's music. Now, my life seemed meaningless, but I had to kill Dimitri. I had to save him from himself and all the horrible things he might do.

I had to kill my other half, my soul mate. He was the only man I wanted to wake up next to for the rest of my life, and I'm pretty sure he had felt the same way about me too. Yeah, my life's pretty screwed up. It was going to be a continuous effort to keep Lissa out of my head; she could take care of herself in the meantime.

My legs were becoming numb in the early spring weather. The chilly night was starting to take a toll on me, but I kept pushing myself. I could hear the interstate off in the distance. My guess was that it was a mile or so away. I wanted to get out of the cold so I sprinted towards the interstate with every last bit of strength that I had left. Minutes later, I finally reached my destination. I bent over and rested my hands on my knees to catch my breath. Before I even had a chance to stick my thumb out a silver Honda CRV pulled up next to me. A thankful expression filled my face. I opened the car door and sank into the passenger seat, not even bothering to look at the driver.

"Thanks," I sighed.

"No problem," a guy's voice answered. "Nice tats by the way."

Huh? Oh, I had forgotten that I'd put my hair up this morning leaving my marks exposed.

"What do they mean?" he asked.

"Nothing, I just thought they looked cool," I lied.

He didn't say anything. After my body relaxed from the walk, I turned my head to look at him. He had curly blond hair that was cut short and muscles that shone through his sweater. The car seemed too small for him since his head nearly hit the ceiling. He looked to be a year or so older than me (definitely still in his teens), and like he took regular trips to a tanning bed. In my reckless days, I probably would have flirted with him. He noticed me looking at him.

"My name's Charlie," he said.

"Rose," I mumbled. I could tell he was trying to start a conversation.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you hitchhiking?"

"How do you know that I was hitchhiking?" I said in my usual snarky tone.

"Lucky guess," he mused. "That and the fact that you got into the car. So where are you headed?" Thankfully, he forgot about the hitchhiking question.

"Missoula," I muttered.

"I'm headed that way myself, going to the west coast. I was just visiting family here in Montana." So that's why he was so tan; he probably lived on a beach somewhere in California.

"It's still gonna be a couple of hours until we get to Missoula though," Charlie said.

He finally stopped talking. Hopefully he wouldn't ask any more-"So why are you headed to Missoula?"

If he were an older man, I probably would have replied somewhat politely, but in my opinion he was only a teenager that liked to hear himself talk. I was thankful for the ride, but he was overdoing it.

"You remind me of my therapist," I muttered, "you ask way too many questions."

"You go to a therapist?"

"Anger issues," I replied.

"So I see," he smirked. "You never answered either of my questions."

"It's personal."

"Just making sure you're not a psycho hitchhiker serial killer."

"Around here, you've got more to worry about than psycho hitchhikers," I said enjoying my own private joke.

I tuned him out and rested my head on the cold window. I couldn't fall asleep; even though this gut seemed harmless I couldn't trust him. I notice Charlie reach for the radio dial and turn it to an 80's station, and immediately think of Dimitri: the way I knew him.

His hands wrapped around my waist, and then one of them slid down the back of my thigh and pulled it up so that it nearly wrapped around him. At the same time, we both pulled back briefly, still oh so close. Everything in the world rested in that moment.

"We can't…" he told me.

"I know," I agreed.

Then his mouth was on mine again, and this time, I knew there would be no turning back.

A tear runs down my cheek, but I swipe it away before Charlie notices. He did however notice me move my hand taking that to mean I was awake (I guess he thought I was asleep when I was resting my head against the window) and unsurprisingly, thought it was a good time to strike up a conversation.

"So how old are you?" He wondered.

"You're not gonna hit on me, are you? Cuz I get enough of that already."

He chuckled. "That doesn't surprise me. No I'm not hitting on you. You just look to young to be hitchhiking. Are you running away?"

I put on my fiercest expression and tried to look him straight in the eye, but he was focused on the road.

"I'm an adult. I can take care of myself." It was funny how confident I could make myself sound when I was hurt so badly. It was also weird how Charlie acted around me.

"Why do you act like such a gentleman? Most guys would be trying to grope me by now."

This made him laugh. "Well, I grew up around women, so I'm more respectful."

It sounded like something Dimitri would say. I bit my lip. Aside from the questioning, Charlie was staring to seem kind of okay.