Chapter 1:
I woke up and looked over to the other side of the bed and found a beautiful man asleep next to me. I grinned. I slowly and quietly got out of bed, not wanting to wake him up, but it didn't work. Once when I was sitting up, he woke up and wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back down and started smothering me in kissed.
I laughed. "Dimitri I have to go in early today." I said.
"Yeah? Well I don't." He said and continued kissing me.
I gently pushed myself out of his arms and glared at him. "I can't be late." I said. It has been almost a year since I have been Lissa's guardian and since Dimitri had been Christian's. Lissa had been doing very well as queen. She had changed a lot of rules. Lissa and I just got back from traveling the world. We were gone for about 6 months. Lissa had changed the rule where Morio should learn how to fight. Lissa had been giving speeches and I have been training Guardians and there Morio.
Six months. Six months without Dimitri. It was torture. I just got back last night at like 10:00 and there he was waiting for me in my room, on my bed with a big cute grin on his face. I remember running into his arms. HE picked me up and swung me around and then we kissed and kissed and kissed. Kissing him still sends me chills down my spine.
Today I had to guard Lissa at her court meeting. Her boyfriend Christian will be there too, but Dimitri doesn't have to guard him there.
"Roza, stay with me." He said, running his fingers through my hair.
I sighed. "I want to. I do, but I can't. You know that."
"I know." He said softly. "I've just missed you so much."
I put my hand on his cheek. "I miss you to, baby."
He pulled me down for one last kiss. This kiss was sweet, gentle and short. When he pulled back, I felt my lips tingle and he left me wanting more. "Go get dressed. I'll see you later." He whispered.
I crawled out of bed and hopped in the shower. When I got out of the shower I dried myself off and got dressed. I pulled my hair up in a pony tail and went back out to the bedroom.
Dimitri was in bed reading. He looked up from his book and checked me out head to toe. "You know, I love a woman in a uniform." He joked.
I giggled. "Really? I thought you loved women when they are out of there uniform." I said bringing back those famous Rose Hathaway comments.
HE smiled. "That's just you." HE said and winked.
I rolled my eyes and slipped my stake into my belt loop. Then I walked over to Dimitri and kissed him on the lips. "I love you." I said.
"I love you too. Be careful." He said and I left the room.
Lissa was really good at this Queen stuff. She might say that she hates it and doesn't want to be Queen, but I can tell that's she's lying. She doesn't like the fact that she has to boss everyone around and that there are people who never agree with what she wants. But she loves the fact that every time she does change a rule. The world seems easier. She is changing and improving life's and she loves that.
Right now there was an argument about how people were still disagreeing with the fact that Morio are learning how to fight.
"This is why we have guardians. We don't need to learn how to fight." Lord Ivashkov said.
I rolled my eyes. That was the only thing that he has been saying for the past couple of meetings. It was getting tired of this. He wasn't going to win.
"Look Lord Ivashkov, I understand what you are saying. But dhampirs are already so low in numbers and Morio and dhampirs combined are still lower than all the Strigio. I'm not saying that we should go out and fight side by side with our guardians, I'm just saying that if a Strigio find us and the guardians aren't around then we should know how to protect ourselves." Lissa said. I was leaning against the wall and I nodded my head in agreement.
"I agree with Queen Valissa, besides the rule has already been made and many people are already learning how to fight….or how to defend themselves would be a better way to put it. I think we should stop arguing about it." Arianna said.
"Hallelujah!" I said. Lissa looked over at me and laughed. Soon everyone else chimed in as well, except for those who are still not happy with the rule.
"Okay so now that that is settled, we should move onto the next topic." Lissa said.
Some people huff and puffed but everyone else nodded.
"Alright so as you know the Strigio numbers are still rather large and when Rose went to Russia she found a lot of good dhamphirs that are not guardians to anyone. They were just unpromised hunters. I think that we should have a couple of guardians track them down." Lissa said and she stopped to see how everyone's reaction was. They stared at her with wide eyes.
"No, no, no. I will give in on us learning how to fight, but not this. You already said it. We are low on numbers, why send more guardians to find these unpromised ones when we don't even know where they are? More guardians are going to get killed, don't you think?" Lord Ivashkov said.
"I agree, that's why we will find out where these unpromised guardians are and then have some guardians go and get them…or maybe even we will call the unpromised guardians to us, so we don't have to waste are guardians if that's possible. The point that I'm trying to make, is that we still have some Morio that don't have a guardian. I don't care if they are ten or eighty. Everyone needs to be protected. That is one of the reasons why we are learning how to fight. So if it comes down to it we can defend ourselves." Lissa explained.
"Those guardians are unpromised for a reason." Someone yelled.
"Yes, I understand that, but they are talented and they can help us. I'm just going to lay that thought out there and ya'll can think about it. We need more guardians one way or another. The Strigio are in fear right now, because of these changes. We need to be prepared for anything that comes at us." She said back and took a breath. We may not have the bond anymore, but I could tell that she was getting stressed.
"Does anyone have any other suggestions, maybe?" I joined in. I did that a lot when Lissa needed help. Most of the time guardians weren't suppose to talk at these things, but I changed that rule. Lissa and I thought that we should have a say. I wished Dimitri were here. He would help me on this and we would probably be quietly making jokes about how Lord Ivashkov won't shut up. I smiled at the thought.
"I do." We heard someone say softly. We all turned are heads and saw who had spoken. It was Jill. She was usually quiet at these meetings.
"Yes." Lissa said, telling her to go on.
"Well, maybe some of the guardians that you have down there working at front desks and stuff should be well…..protecting us again." She said.
"Yeah! Like Mikhail." I yelled.
"I second that motion." Eddie agreed.
"I don't. They are in there for a reason." Lord Ivashkov yelled hopping out of his chair.
"Oh, shut up. I am sick and tired of you arguing against everything. You aren't going to win. So just shut the hell and go complain to someone who actually cares." I said to him.
"Rose, that was uncalled for." Hans said.
"What? Someone had to shut him up sooner or later. I mean, come on it was getting on everyone's nerve." I replied.
"People listen to me because I am rational unlike you dumb ass friend over here that was able to compel everyone to vote for her." Lord Ivashkov said.
I raised my eyebrows. Oh no he didn't. No one dishes on Lissa like that, unless they want to go through me. I slammed my hands on the table and leaned over the table to get in his face. "Listen you little grumpy jealous old man, you-"
I was interrupted by Hans. "That is enough. Everyone has a right to speak their mind Rose."
"Yeah well last time I checked calling the Queen a dumb ass was a little more than speaking there mind." I replied to him.
"Okay everyone settle down. I think we are going to go ahead and dismiss this meeting. We will continue this at are next meeting and there will be no name calling or insults, agreed?" Lissa said.
"Agreed." Everyone said at once.
"Good, meeting adjourned." She said and I walked her back to her room. When everyone was out of sight I said, "Can you believe him?"
"Yes I can, I have been seeing that coming for a while, and actually I was expecting worse. Rose, I'm Queen now; I can handle little things like that. I have to be able to or else I will look weak. This isn't like school were you always stood up for me. I can handle these things….without bringing attention to myself. So please let me." She said.
I groaned. "Fine." I said. "Where do you wanna go?" I asked.
She giggled, "Where do you think? I want to go see my man."
"Ugh." I said.
"You're man will be there too." She pointed out.
I smiled. "You're right. Let's run there." I said.
She laughed. "Come one tell me the details, what happened last night?"
"I'm pretty sure that it's the exact same thing that went on with you and Christian."
"Probably." She said.
I laughed.
"Little dhampir." I heard someone say behind me. I stopped. I didn't even have to turn around to see who it was. I knew it was Adrian just because of the name he called me. I haven't seen him in about a year and last time I saw him we had gotten into a fight that left me speechless.
I turned around. "Adrian." I said and nodded to him. I didn't like what I saw. He was with four guardians and a murderer. The murderer was Tasha Ozera.
