"Rose… I'm leaving and there is nothing that you can do about it. Tasha is a great woman and I need to be with her. I love her. This thing that we had was just a fantasy. I'm sorry for using you, I truly am. Please accept my apology and I hope that you achieve your dream of being the princess's guardian. Good day, Guardian Hathaway." With those final words, Dimitri walked out of the gym and out of my life. Forever.

"Rose! Rose let's go!" Mia shook my arm violently. I looked up at her with a scowl on my face and sleep in my eyes. Her blonde curls bounced with every movement and her blue eyes blazed with anticipation. "We have to go. Lissa's waiting for us out by the bus and we gotta get outta here."

I rolled off of the bed and followed her out of the room and down the hall. I almost fell asleep in the elevator, but the jolting and jumping of the steel box kept that from happening. When we got to the lobby, Lissa was waiting for us as clean and sweet as ever. She laughed at my grungy look and Mia's frog pajamas.

"Wow. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the two of you had just woken up," she laughed. Mia and I exchanged a look and then glared at Lissa. She had woken us up too damn early to get on the road. Morning people. "You can sleep on the bus. Lord knows that it will take forever to get back to Amarillo."

Amarillo. Home as it were now. Mia, Lissa, and I moved there together after we graduated from St. Vladimir's. We moved away from Moroi society because of issues. After Dimitri left me our senior year, I pretty much shut down for a bit. Mia and Lissa cornered me one day and I spilled the beans on what we had between us. Lissa then told us that Christian had broken up with her because of Court life and the fact that it was looming on the horizon after graduation. She begged me to be her unofficial guardian and I obliged. We both decided that the farther from Court we got the better. Mia tagged along because she hated Court just as much as I did and she planned on living a life where she wasn't looked down upon because of her unroyal statues. So we packed up and headed to Amarillo and had been there for the past three years.

While on the road to Texas, we stopped at a karaoke bar to have fun and get a little tipsy for the hell of it. I ended up singing some old country song that I remembered from my days with Dimitri and found that I was really good at it. Mia and Lissa ended up just as good. We then decided that a band wouldn't be that bad of a gig if we could figure out what to do. So, after about seven months of practice, Lissa and I were naturals at the guitar and Mia had the violin and keys. We just had to come up with a name.

Standing outside of the bus somewhere in Kansas, I smiled. TARNISHED ANGELS were printed in bold black in a script that looked somewhat gothic with a touch of Southern hospitality in there. It looked pretty good if I do say so myself. Mia came up with the name with the explanation that since we all had a rough ending with guys, we were broken and tarnished. She then went on to say that in battles before we left, I had been called an angel of war and Lissa that angel of grace and mercy. We had joked and said that Mia was the angel of dolls and girls, but in all actuality, she was the angel of patience. She was there when Liss and I went under by our effed up love lives.

I boarded the bus and fell into my top bunk that was towards the back. Mia fell into hers that was across the aisle and fell asleep instantly. I could hear Jackie, our drummer talking to her boyfriend and telling him that we were heading home as she sat at the tiny table. Lawson, the bass guitarist, was standing outside the bus smoking and waiting on his brother, Patrick, the manager, financial advisor, and bus driver, to get a move on. Lissa was leaning against the door that cut our bus in half. One half had the table, driver's seat, and mini kitchen, and the other had the beds, bathroom, and a tiny cupboard of a closet.

After about ten more minutes of lounging around on my bunk, I heard the engine rev and felt the bus jolt forward as we pulled out and headed home. We had about a good four plus hours of driving and I knew that I was going to need some sleep. I rolled off of my back and onto my side. My hands slipped under my pillow and met a familiar piece of paper. I pulled out a letter and a picture. I opened the letter and read what was inside of it.

Rose,

I love you. There is no words that come close to how much a love and care about you and thinking of the right ones to say would be a waste of time because I know that it cannot be done. What happened in the cabin was amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love you, Roza, with all my heart.

Yours in mind, body, and soul,

Dimitri

The picture in my hands was one of my favorites of us, and the only one that I hadn't burned or tore up. It was taken right before the cabin incident and after Victor's trial. We were in the gym and I had finally pinned Dimitri under me. Our faces were close to each other and we both had huge smiles on our faces. Lissa came to watch my progress in practice and took a picture of my victory.

I stroked the picture before returning it and the letter back were it belongs. It had served its purpose of why I'm here and how far I had come for the day. I sat up and flipped through the notebook of song lyrics that Mia, Lissa, and I had written over the past month of so. There were a lot of songs written specifically for me, but there was a new one that involved all three of us. It sounded super good when we tried it last week.

I looked down at Lissa who was sitting on the floor. "Hey, when Mia gets up do you wanna practice this new song? I think that the gang needs to hear it so we can get prepared for it when we play at the homecoming concert tomorrow night." I lifted up the notebook and pointed to the song, Hell on Heels so that she could see.

"Sure. We know the lyrics and I have the guitar parts down, but Jackie and Lawson need to know what to do," she nodded.

We fell into a comfortable silence after that. The only noise that came up was the engine of the bus, Jackie talking on the phone, and Mia rolling over and breathing evenly. I took out a pen from my purse that was at the foot of my bunk and started to doodle my many tattoos on the cover. Molnija marks, Promise marks, the battle star, the rose with a stake behind it that was on my left foot, and the newest addition: a heart with wings that resided on the inside of my left arm. The heart was no ordinary heart though. It was a broken heart with a crack starting at the top and ending halfway. Lissa, Mia, and I had all gotten tattoos together. Lissa's was a set of wings and a halo on the back of her right shoulder. Mia's was a set of wings with water droplets dripping from them and a puddle underneath on her left hip right under her ribs.

I kept doodling until I heard Lissa talk. "Morning Princess!"

"Don't 'morning princess' me. I'm not a morning person and you waking us up at the butt crack of dawn makes it worse," Mia grumbled. I laughed out loud from my bed. I had noticed over the years that we had picked up a Southern accent. Mia's wasn't as bad as mine, but when she got worked up and mad it was clear as day.

"You wanna get home, don't you?" Lissa asked. She stood up from the floor to see Mia better.

"Yeah, but not when you're yellin' in my ear to get up!"

"Okay, okay, that's enough," I laughed. Mia's scowl turned to me. "We have a song to rehearse for, so let's rally the troops and get a move on." I hopped down from my bunk and went to the table with Jackie. Mia and Lissa followed, Lissa's guitar in her hands. Lissa started to play and we began.

I don't own VA nor do i own the Pistol Annies or Miranda Lambert songs that i will use later on! R&R please!