A/N: This was just an idea that I had floating around my head as my other story 'My Best Mistake' draws closer to an end. I always wondered how different Dri's life will be if she had grown up with Adrian instead of being found when she was 15.

For those of you who have read 'My Best Mistake' I know there are different characters because Dri was meant to graduate the year above the rest of her friends (refer to Chapter 57) but they placed her in the freshman class in hopes that having her start from there will be easier on her in terms of her education but she has no leeway in this story, she will treated as everyone else and everyone's favourite Greek will definitely be in this story don't worry. There may also be a few differences throughout the story to make it different from my other one.

Disclaimer: I don't anything that comes from the wonderful work of Richelle Mead.

Chapter 1

Adrian POV

Adrian,

I don't know if you remember me but my name is Ashleigh Monroe and I was the girl you spent that wild summer in Melbourne Australia with. The summer began in 2011 and ended in 2012, I met you at the Upside Down Dog. Originally you said you were only staying for a week or two but something about me drew you in and you spent the rest of the summer in Melbourne.

If you are reading this then it means something has happened to me, what you are about to read was something I had hoped to tell you in person.

I'm writing this in July 2012 and I am currently six months pregnant, I don't request anything from you other than allowing you to have the knowledge that I was pregnant with your child, a girl in fact and I hope to name her Adrianna as well as giving her your last name instead of my with the hope that one day you can find her.

If no letters follow this one then it means something went wrong when I was giving birth to her but I had a will laid out stating what her name would be and what should happen to her as well as making sure the detective I hired to find you continued to look for you. I was told something could go wrong when it was time to give birth but I couldn't stop the pregnancy, it was too late by then.

I do hope you will take this knowledge and get to know your daughter, she deserves to know her father or even one of her mother's friends if that is all you can be to her.

I hope you do the right thing by her but I can understand if it is too late when you read this and she doesn't mean anything to you.

If this reaches you too late to do anything I am awfully sorry I couldn't find you sooner but I tried as hard as I could.

The memories I have of the summer we spent together were amazing and I wouldn't give them or my unborn daughter up for anything.

Adrian, you were my best mistake.

Love

Ashleigh

I sat there staring at the letter for who knows how long, I remembered that summer I spent in Australia, I had taken off not long after Rose and been let of the hook for the murder of my Great Aunt. It was too much, a family member being killed and the girl I believed I loved had cheated on me with her ex dead undead boyfriend.

What drew me in was how different but yet similar she was to Rose, I was hurting and she was able to make the pain go away. I had used compulsion on her to make her forget about my fangs when she did in fact see them, I made her believe I was human like her. I never once fed on her, in fact I made friends with other Moroi in the city and they helped me locate Feeders.

But if this letter was true and the child that Ashleigh mentioned was mine meant that I had a five year old daughter living somewhere in the world. Not just that, she was a dhampir, half human half Moroi. These days they were only conceived by the means of Moroi having sex with dhampirs and for some strange reason they come out half and half like if a Moroi had sex with a human.

Moroi is what I am, a vampire that needs to feed off humans drinking their blood to survive. I don't kill humans for the blood though, if I did it would make me a Strigoi. A Strigoi is everything evil in this world and there were many differences between us, the one mains being that Strigoi couldn't go out into the sun and that the Moroi could harness magic.

Moroi could control one of the five different elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit. Spirit is what I could control and it wasn't as straight forward as the other four, there were differences between each Spirit user and the side-effects of the magic were dangerous and if we weren't careful something could seriously go wrong.

Spirit was rare amongst Moroi but I wasn't alone, a close friend of mine Vasilisa Dragomir also known as Lissa or Queen to most of our kind was also a Spirit user and when we could we tried to work together in hopes of finding out what made us so different as well as finding others out there.

Dhampirs were made originally by Moroi and humans having children together but over the years it was just dhampirs and Moroi producing children and they came exactly half and half. Dhampirs received the good qualities from both species, they received the speed and strength from the humans while received good health and senses from the Moroi blood in their system.

Dhampirs were trained during their education so after graduation they could become Guardians that help protect the Moroi from the Strigoi since that was their favourite food source. Dhampirs were trained hard so they could even stand a chance against them and most of the time they did come out on top but not always and it was why our races were slowly being killed off by the Strigoi.

It didn't take long after that for me to take off to Australia, I had only received the one letter which meant my daughter was being raised by someone other than myself or Ashleigh and I couldn't take that. It didn't matter if she was a dhampir, my wife and the love of my life Ellie was currently pregnant and I couldn't imagine that child being raised by anyone else.

It didn't matter what I was like when I was younger, I could never imagine myself leaving some girl to struggle with having to raise a dhampir child I would have helped and Ellie would have loved me even more for it.

Attached to the letter was an address in Melbourne, Australia and I assumed it was where Adrianna was. I hated leaving Ellie alone while she was pregnant but she understood why I had to do this, why I had to fly to Australia and claim Adrianna. I couldn't let Adrianna continue to grow up in Australia without me and worrying over what her life has been like.

I made it to Australia as quick as possible and it was with thanks to Lissa giving me permission to take one of the private jets. My two Guardians Shane and Alex came out with me, normally Alex was rostered in on the Courts schedule since I didn't need him around while I was living at Court while Shane was hand if I needed him but while Ellie had been pregnant and I wasn't needed at St Vladimir's where I was teaching Spirit to other Spirit users I had been spending more and more time at home with her and Shane had also been rostered in.

I'm glad that they were able to come with me and their shifts were able to be covered so we could do this, I wouldn't be allowed to head out to Australia by myself and it didn't matter if there weren't many records of Strigoi here or not.

When I got out of the car I starred at the house, it made me worry that this would be wrong. It was just a house, would I be uprooting Adrian from a home where she is cared and loved for by an amazing couple or would I be saving her from a horrible life?

I walked up and ran the doorbell and patiently waited for it to open. It opened and I could hear many children run around yelling and screaming, I was confused but standing in front of was what looked like a pleasant lady and she had a smile on her face.

"Hello can I help you?"

"Hello, I do hope so. I received word that I have a daughter and she was living here, my name is Adrian Ivashkov"

"Oh of course, of course come in I know who exactly you are talking about. I would recognise those eyes anywhere" that got me, I assumed Adrianna would have Ashleigh's eyes instead of mine. No dhampir being born of Ivashkov blood had come out with the bright emerald green eyes that we had as a trait amongst our family members. "By the way my name is Corrine Reyonalds" I nodded at her and followed her throughout the house while Shane and Alex stayed outside.

We eventually stopped in a room and a small girl was sitting in a bay window looking out it completely ignoring the rest of the other children and ignoring our presence. Without seeing her face I instantly recognised her hair colour as my own but it wasn't until I focused on her using Spirit and seeing her aura that I was shocked, the normal gold colour I associated with other Spirit users was in hers, it wasn't anywhere near as bright as Lissa's but it was still there and it was enough to concern me. The rest of her aura was normal, she maybe a little scared but I just hoped it wasn't because she wasn't safe here.

"Adrianna sweetie why aren't you playing with the other children" Corrine spoke and Adrianna shook her head before turning around and looking at us.

I looked at her taking in her large doe like eyes and couldn't believe it when they were the bright emerald green associated with the Ivashkov's, along with her gold aura and the emerald eyes I needed to work out why she was different. I had this strong urge to protect her, looking at her I had this feeling that she was mine. The hair colour and eyes helped as well seeing many facial features that I recognised that belonged to Ashleigh.

"I'm waiting for nonna and nonno to come find me, they've been gone for so long" my heart broke as her eyes welled up before looking back out the window.

Adrianna didn't say anything else and Corrine got my attention to follow her into the other room, we stopped in the kitchen as she put the kettle on.

"How long has she been here?" I questioned as I took a seat at the kitchen table

"Only a week, I was told her mother died during child birth and she was left in the care of her grandparents while I was told nothing about her father. A week ago her grandparents were on their way to pick her up from kindergarten when a drunk driver t-boned the car, I was told her grandmother died on the scene taking most of the force while her grandfather died not much later during surgery. Child services brought her here because most of the other children in here are around her age but she won't play with them, she keeps thinking her grandparents are going to come collect her"

"So she grew up with family until then?"

"Yes I believe so, I haven't been given much on her. That is all I know, why are you here now after five years?" I looked at her trying to work out how to even word this.

"If you didn't realise I'm American and I was in Australia trying to get away from my problems at home, I met Ashleigh and we didn't think anything would come out of it but Adrianna is here. I didn't know about Adrianna existing until a few days ago when a letter turned up. Ashleigh and I didn't really talk much about ourselves except our names"

"That is fair enough to believe, I'm assuming you are here to collect her?" I nodded at her not knowing how this would go. "There are two possibilities, a DNA test to prove that you are her father and you can take her no questions asked or the other one will be you go through the proper adoption channels to take her just like everyone else who comes here to adopt children"

In the end I went with the DNA, if she wasn't my actual daughter then she wouldn't be of use in my community. She would be abused as a human and a feeder and I didn't want that for anyone.

In the end Adrianna turned out to be mine and it didn't take long for Corrine to let her come with me but all she questioned was if I was taking her to see nonna and nonno and I didn't even know how to explain that they were dead and weren't coming back. How do you tell a five year old that her grandparents are dead?

"No, no plane" Adrianna pulled her hand out of mine and stopped walking.

Up until this point she had easily come with me, I think she assumed I was taking her to see her grandparents instead of a foreign country. I looked at her and she was shaking her head, I was at a complete loss of what to say.

"Adrianna do you know who I am?" I kneeled down so we were eye level, Shane looked at me and I knew what he was saying, we had to be on the plane soon to head back.

She nodded at me. "Corrine said you were my daddy and you were taking me home"

"Yes I'm taking you to my home"

"No, nonna and nonno"

"I'm sorry but somethings happened to them and they can't look after to you anymore, I'm here to take you home with me"

"What do you mean they can't look after me?" her eyes welled up before she hung her head and again I was at a loss, I hated this feeling and knew I didn't want to see my next child cry like this.

"They were badly injured, I promise you will be safe with me and you will be loved" she nodded before walking to where Shane and Alex were standing.

Adrianna hadn't questioned who they were, she assumed they were family. I understood that she was in a foster home and had seen a couple of the children be adopted and knew that some of them come and went and it was only a week she was there.

I watched as Adrianna got on the plane before curling up in one of the seats and looking out the window not saying anything. I hoped I could this flight to talk to her but it didn't take long for her to fall asleep and I had lost the chance.

Adrianna had been at Court for a month and most of the time she had stayed silent, I still hadn't told her the truth about who she was and who I was since I didn't know how and Lissa was as much at a loss as what I was about her aura.

"I honestly don't know Adrian, I haven't seen anything like it" Lissa spoke, we were both standing in the kitchen looking out the window where Adrianna was playing with Rose and Dimitri.

I don't know if it was because Rose and Dimitri were both dhampirs and she felt something different with them then she did compared to the rest of us but she seemed to be more at ease with Rose and Dimitri and I knew the two of them were using Adrianna as a way to fill the void of them not being able to have their own child.

We tried to help them along the way with the use of Spirit but nothing seemed to work and in the end none of us could deal with the pain of them being unsuccessful so we stopped trying to help Rose fall pregnant, we all agreed it was better that way in the end.

"It doesn't make sense, I'm worried for what it means for her"

"Adrian, she is healthy maybe it is nothing. Maybe it is just the Spirit from you coming through, for now we need focus on telling her the truth before something happens to scare her" I nodded at Lissa knowing she was right.

I needed to tell Adrianna that vampires were real and she was half one and what her future entailed for her considering in a couple of months she would be heading to one of the academies for her education.

I followed Lissa outside with the idea of telling her everything now. "Adrianna" I called out and she turned around to face me with a large grin on her face, I was glad to see her happy like this and I didn't want to think about how all of this was going change her. "Come sit down, we need to talk" she nodded before running over and taking a seat at the table with Lissa and I was thankful when Rose and Dimitri came over knowing they would be off help being dhampirs themselves.

15 years later

Adrianna POV

Before junior year was let out we were asked to describe our lives and what we enjoyed about it the most, I didn't even know where to begin that question. I didn't know what the teacher expected me to say, my life wasn't perfect in fact it was so far from perfect that I didn't even know what perfect was but let me back up a bit.

My name is Adrianna Ivashkov and I'm a dhampir, half vampire half human and before you even begin to question no I don't drink blood.

There is something about me that my dad can't work out, my aura. Spirit users don't tend to have the same abilities within controlling the element, dad's best ability seems to be dream walking and aura reading even though I don't think he uses either of them anymore whereas the Queen's best ability is her healing but both of them can read auras and what stumps them about mine is the gold that is present. Everyone has their own individual aura, the gold like colour is usually only present in Spirit users but some reason it is in mine. Dad has stated that it is nowhere as bright or large as the Queens and she shares the same thing comparing mine to dads. Dad says that even though there is other colours present and take over my aura the gold is still visible in the back.

Now aside from the fact that I am a dhampir I am different among my people, my last name isn't something you hear among dhampirs. The Ivashkov's are a part of the Moroi royal families, you see my dad left his friends and family behind after his ex-girlfriend broke his heart and met my mother. They didn't plan on having me but yet here I am anyway.

My mother is completely human, something that doesn't happen anymore. Centuries ago the Moroi and dhampirs had to distance themselves from the humans because they were expecting too much from us.

So aside from me having a royal last name, a human mother I also have something else that stands out. My incredibly bright emerald green eyes, something I inherited from my father which also happens to be something that is only seen in the Moroi Ivashkov's.

My mother died while giving birth to me and I was left with my grandparents and had no idea as to who my father was. When I was five my grandparents were killed in a car crash by a drunk driver, I was placed in a foster home for a about a week and it was then that my father turned up. All that was needed was a DNA test to prove I was his and then he took me to America where he lived and introduced me into the world that I then proceeded to grow up in.

My dad had married a women named Ellie and she was the best replacement for a mother anyone could have asked for and I had two incredibly annoying brothers in the world called Matthew and Nathaniel or Nate as he preferred.

You may think my world is full of adventures and mystery but it really isn't, I attend high school just like everyone else with a slight difference. My education involved training me to be able to one day to become a Guardian to help defend the Moroi population from the Strigoi, even though the Strigoi happily fed from humans they preferred Moroi and dhampir. Strigoi were incredibly strong and fast and we needed the training to be able to even come close to them.

It didn't matter if the Moroi could harness magic, they still weren't strong enough to compete against the Strigoi and it's where we came in. We gave our lives to protect theirs, we have this saying 'They come first'. Even though I grew up in this world I'm unsure about that, if they were my friends then I would die protecting them but a complete stranger I wasn't too sure about.

Senior year was starting tomorrow and I was currently breaking curfew by sitting out in a clearing enjoying the sun, soon enough the weather will start to change and I won't be able to keep enjoying the heat like this.

"Ivashkov" I groaned at hearing the Greek accent that belonged to my incredibly hot mentor.

Nikolaus Anastas started at St Vladimir's at the beginning of sophomore year and was still here, every single one of the girls in my now senior class would want nothing but be able to have sex with him and I was definitely included in that but there was something different about him almost like he was harbouring a secret. I only ever seemed to see him talking to a couple of the other Guardians close to his age, Guardian Tanner and Guardian Todd.

During junior year we get assigned mentor's to help us through the last of our education to make sure we make it graduation because they need as many Guardians out in the world as possible. Anastas was my mentor while Guardian Todd happened to mentor one of my best friends Damon Henderson while Guardian Tanner mentored the other one Brianna Grayson.

Brianna and I became best friends once I joined in their classes, I can't even remember what brought us together for all I know it could have been the long similar names we were both meant to suffer with but either way we got on incredibly well straight away and we latched onto Damon when we were all 12, he had transferred from one of the academies in England and we wanted him as our friend just for his accent.

Damon turned out to be just like Bri and I and it was that that solidified our friendship and then when we moved up to the senior campus that was when we all became best friends due to our partying and behavioural issues.

"Anastas" I flashed him a smile as I stretched out my legs, a fair number of the male novices in my senior class have made comments on my legs in the past and I used it to my advantage and right now I had caught him eyeing them causing my smile to turn into a smirk.

"You're breaking curfew"

"Oh I didn't realise, I thought that all starts once classes begin, you know tomorrow?" I smiled innocently at him hoping he will believe but he never did, he always saw through my lies and I didn't understand how he did.

"Nope, it begins the moment you step foot on the grounds. Come on let's get you back to your dorm"

"Aw but I'm enjoying the sun and first and second period is cancelled in the morning"

"Yes because there is a whole school assembly, surely you know the Queen is addressing you and the rest of the students"

Yes our Queen, Vasilisa Dragomir or Lissa as I refer to her. She is incredibly close with my father therefor making the two of our families incredibly close, her Guardian was the famous Rose Hathaway while Lissa's husband Christian Ozera had Dimitri Belikov as his own Guardian. Rose and Dimitri were married but didn't have any children since dhampirs cannot have children together for some strange genetic reason. Both Rose and Dimitri were the two people I trusted the most in the world, whenever I had concerns or was arguing with my dad I went to them. Dad and I had clashing personalities and we were regularly arguing, in fact during the summer I spent more time at Rose and Dimitri's then I did at my own home.

"Yes I did know the Queen is addressing us tomorrow, something about a new year and a fresh start and she can't wait to see all the seniors at Court the following summer" I rolled my eyes having already heard the speech.

Everyone who was an adult in my life at Court wanted me to try and behave this year but it wouldn't happen. I was too busy partying and breaking rules to even consider staying out of the trouble, the only thing that kept me out of a huge amount of trouble with everyone was the fact that I was the top of my class and word was that there was a huge gap between me and who was in second but I didn't let it get to my head, I still trained as hard as ever because some people believed that me having a human mother was a disadvantage and I wanted to prove them wrong.

"Are you even planning on staying at out of trouble this year, it is your senior year" I grinned at him as he sat down beside me, him sitting down beside me was always a good sign.

"Where is the fun in that?"

"Just no more parties close to the boundaries"

"Aw is this you showing you care?" I titled my head and smiled at him, half surprised that he cared and half remembering our last party.

The party was huge, it was like this massive blow out between the juniors before senior year started. I think nearly everyone in the junior class was in attendance, even some of the nerdier students but it was amazing and nobody cared. The one thing that didn't help was its location, it was in this huge clearing by the boundaries that was usually out of bounds to the students. It got busted up by the Guardians and the following morning Brianna, Damon and I were forced to run laps on the track while incredibly hung over.

I watched as Anastas shook his head at me with a small smile on his face, our student mentor relationship was a lot better than some of the other students and I was grateful since it allowed us to have moments like this. I knew there was a risk of getting to close to a mentor and I grew up watching Rose and Dimitri to this day still deal with problems from a small group of people about how their relationship started.

"I care enough to make sure you don't get in a lot of trouble and get expelled, your family wouldn't be happy about that" a dark look crossed my face as I turned away from him and I heard him let out a sigh.

There had been a couple of moments when the two of us and my dad and had been requested to the Headmistresses' office for whatever I had been in trouble for at the time. Normally when I was in trouble Alberta either handled it or as of last year passed my punishment onto Anastas to deal with.

The rare occasions I had been in the Headmistresses' office it always led to dad and I arguing on the way out, I hated that he was a teacher at my school it meant he heard everything little thing I did wrong, if I talked back to a teacher in class he heard, if I was late to class he heard, if I skipped a class he heard. Hell there were moments when I was busted making out with another student dad heard and chewed me out for it.

Yes I am grateful that my dad turned up when he did because who knows what my life could have been like had I grown up in foster care for the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong I love my dad and wouldn't want anything to happen to him but there were moments I wish I had a bit more space like the rest of my friends.

"Right my family…." I muttered softly

"No matter how much you and your dad fight I'm sure he loves you" I looked over at him, I didn't know what to say in reply.

It was rare when we had moments like this and when we did it was odd, I didn't know what to expect or say. I always made jokes about him caring, we both knew nothing would ever happen between us because it wasn't allowed he was a teacher and I was a student but when it was like these, it seemed like he cared and I didn't understand why or how?

"Shouldn't I be going back to my dorm?" I stood up and looked at him hoping he would help me sneak back in.

When he caught me out here I didn't usually get in trouble, it was only when other Guardians caught me out of my dorm after curfew. "Yes you should, come on" he stood up and led the way back to the dorm.

A/N: Please review and let me know what you all think and as to if I should continue writing this or not.