I sat in my seat on the posh plane gazing at the piece of paper that sat in my hand. Actually, it didn't even deserve the name paper; it was a fine stationary that I knew I would probably never have been able to afford. The stationary had been folded and unfolded many times, it was worn and the edges were torn ever so slightly. This paper had been carted all over the world and had stayed by my side through all my travels. This piece of paper had been written by someone who had once loved me. I knew the thought was completely selfish, but I hoped he still did. I knew it wasn't fair to up and leave Adrian when our relationship was going so well and then expect him to wait while I traipsed across the world, but a small part in the back of my brain really hoped he had.

"Rose?" a bleary voice beside me said. Lissa looked from her curled position in her chair where she had been sleeping. "What's up?" I knew my best friend would realize something was bothering me.

"Nothing," I said softly, "Go on back to sleep. We'll be landing soon." I smiled gently as she snuggled back down beside me. I looked over to the seat across the aisle where Christian Ozera laid spread out across two seats. I silently thanked Abe for setting us up with such great accommodations.

I took a moment to contemplate the last few months' happenings. Lissa had agreed to come with me this time, actually, she had insisted. And along with her came the baggage of Christian. But I really didn't mind having him around after remembering how badass we were in the Strigoi attack against the school. We made a perfect team. After springing Victor Dashkov from jail and finding his brother, Robert Doru (who really was a nutcase, for the record), we attempted to get as many answers from him as possible. Again my selfishness, I wanted to find Robert in order to satiate my own theories that he could help us find way to wield Lissa's spirit powers to turn Dimitri back to life. Unfortunately, Robert had been a lost cause. We found him and asked the questions we needed to no avail, or so we thought. For weeks we were holed up in Dinaric Alps in a small cabin with this crazy man. During this time, even though we couldn't get the specific information we needed, Lissa was able to learn from the ancient Spirit user.

But in a roundabout way we did accomplish what we came to do. That was the amazing part, the surreal element to our journey. While Lissa and Christian sat and listened to the old geezer spew stories about his past accomplishments, I had done some snooping. I stumbled upon a book, more of a journal, that held stories Robert had written. I soon realized while I was reading the book that the dates were set in Robert's earlier years of life, before he had succumbed to the darkness that Spirit brought forth. I secretly placed the journal in my pack in hopes that I could smuggle the book back to a sanctuary.

The next morning, I abruptly told Christian and Lissa we needed to head back to Sarajevo where we could catch a flight to Madrid, and then on to the States. It took some convincing but I finally managed to get the two to agree with my plan. We headed out as soon as possible and we traveled from the remote mountain top to Podgorica. From there we rented a car and traveled to Sarajevo. When we got to Saraejvo, we put together some of our savings to rent a room. I used the phone to then call in the favor of the plane from my own father, Abe Mazur, or Zmey as I liked to call him. Abe had sent his private jet for us and the intended plan had been to fly from Sarajevo to Madrid, but unfortunately a storm had blown in and we were being forced to land in Rome. In my haste, I had made Christian and Lissa travel around in the day time which naturally depleted their energy, and thus they had now passed out on the plane.

I glanced behind me momentarily and saw Mikhail, Lissa's other guardian, sitting towards the back of the plane. A pang of guilt shot through me. It wasn't that we didn't trust Mikhail, but we decided it would be better to leave him in the dark about our plot to runaway and break Victor Dashkov free of jail. Understandably, we thought he might turn us in for breaking a convicted felon out of jail, especially one we helped put into jail in the first place. We traveled to London over the summer under the guise of taking a senior trip, where we promptly made our mistake. But the first person we saw when we got on the plane in Sarajevo was the imposing form of Mikhail. He gave all of us a lecture like none I had ever heard. His Russian accent came through a lot more when he was upset. And with that thought, I felt a sharp stab to my heart. The comparison to Mikhail and Dimitri was obvious. Mikhail was from town called Tyumen, Russia where he was raised by his mother and grandmother. Mikhail stood at about 6'2" with messy brown hair. I knew that the queen had had a hand in placing Mikhail as my guardian but I couldn't decide if it was because she wanted to use this Dimitri look-a-like to tempt me away from Adrian, or if he were placed with Lissa just to be a constant reminder of the once love of my life. Either way, I knew Queen Bitch had bad intentions.

I unfolded the paper that Lissa had first caught me with and read over it for probably the thousandth time.

Little Dhampir,

This is my official date proposal. First among the numerous reasons you should join me on a date would be the fact that I'm drop dead gorgeous and if we ever decided to have children they would be the most beautiful children and we would make the most handsome family. It's fact. I would also like to mention that due to the fact that I'm ungodly wealthy I can make any of your wildest dreams come true. Every week I will perform romantic surprises, like picnics, roses, and trips to Paris. But none of these because they are, in fact, not surprises. I promise to quit smoking and drinking unless is completely necessary. I will completely support your harebrained, half-planned escapades, even if it may cost us our lives-

That was when I had to cease reading. Adrian had been crazy over me for a while, and I had hardly given him the time of day. And finally when I had given him a chance, I up and ran away again, this time taking Lissa and Christian. I had abandoned Adrian once again and I didn't know if he would be able to forgive me, or if he had even waited for me. And honestly, I didn't blame him if he had moved on. I began imagining scenarios of Adrian and various super models I had seen in the magazines skiing in the Alps. Or maybe he would take them to a sensual spa getaway.

BAM!

The flash of lightening and clap of thunder awoke both Lissa and Christian. "What the hell? Are we almost there?" The later grumbled.

"Aw," I mocked sympathy, "Did the wittle boy get scared by the lightening?" Lissa giggled beside me.

"I'm glad that even in this crazy life, you two remain a constant in my life. Always bickering." Lissa got up from beside me and snuggled next to Christian. He wrapped an arm around her comfortably. I was about to make a witty comment when the pilot's voice came over the loudspeaker.

"We'll be landing soon, so please fasten your seatbelts and put your chairs in the upright position." We followed the disembodied voices commands and it wasn't long before I felt the familiar pressure in my ears as we descended.

On the trip from Robert's home to Sarajevo, I had told the two of the diary I had stolen and let them look it over, but I knew that we had a lot to talk about then. I desperately wanted to about the notebook with my friends, but I knew we would have to be alone. Unfortunately, Mikhail wouldn't leave Lissa's side easily. He was nothing if not thorough. I knew that after this ordeal he knew that bad things always happened when he left us to plot alone.

Soon enough we were on the ground and unloading from the plane, not that there was much to unload, a duffel bag each for the three of us. We were greeted in the air port by a driver, who I supposed Abe had set us up with to take us to our hotel, also another favor from Abe. I was going to owe him so much after this fiasco. When we got to the car, I wasn't the least bit surprised to find two people sitting in the back already. Christian's guards glared at us and I knew they were just as pissed at us as Mikhail. This was going to be a long ride.

Please leave me some nice reviews :] (And by nice, I mean honest. I really want to know what you think.)