Disclaimer: All characters and plots and awesomeness are owned by Richelle Mead.

Summary: The second half of Chapter 17 of Blood Promise in Dimitri's POV. Canon.

Thanks to my lovely, wonderful, bad-ass beta, ohayou :3

One of the dhampirs is looking for you. She said her name was Rose Hathaway.

Those words kept replaying in my head as I saw her from afar. Rose was truly here. When I thought I had left her, safe from me inside the gates of St. Vladimir's, here she was, a few strides away from me, deep in conversation with a deranged woman. Rose certainly knew how to choose her company, just like joining the rogue dhampirs picking off Strigoi at night.

Reckless, brash and impulsive. That was how I knew her as my student. But I did not forget how skilled she has become, bringing down many Strigoi before she has officially turned eighteen.

Eighteen.

By that age, she should have graduated from school and from being my student. By that age, we would have been free to pursue our illicit relationship.

By that time… she should have been mine.

But fate had other plans.

I was different now. One of the undead, the mortal enemy of Moroi and dhampir alike. Rose will see me as a monster that she should hate, or fear… and destroy. Yes, that would be very her, or else why would she come to Russia? She came for me, but not to join me, surely not.

It was to free me. To destroy me.

Reckless Rose. Even now, as I watched her, she was totally unaware that the environment she was in was too open, hard to defend. And she was too distracted with the old woman singing and dancing wildly in front of her to notice that I was nearing her. This was almost too easy.

"Sorry I have to go…" Rose said, her tone a little wry and impatient. I suppressed a smile. I have almost forgotten how short her patience was.

So was mine. I had to have her now. No dhampir or Strigoi can stop me from this—I have waited too long, deprived myself of the one thing I truly wanted.

Roza.

Just as I was about to leap on them, the old woman sensed me. She froze on her words, making Rose confused.

But not for long.

She spun around with an agility that I did not expect from her, and the moonlight glinted upon her silver stake. Her reflexes had grown considerably since the last time I saw her. I couldn't help it now—a smile broke on my lips. To see her again when I thought I would spend eternity without her face….

Such fierce eyes. Her eyes never feared anyone, and there was a powerful decisiveness in her actions: she really did mean business. I was too careless in my approach, too eager to see her—I knew I was in danger from her. Rose is a powerful dhampir already, and I shouldn't have underestimated her.

Look at her face. Look at her eyes for the last time before she destroys you. Perhaps it was true; death was freedom after all, for a monster like she saw me now.

Her stake was about to go straight to my heart. No escape. Our gazes met for a second, and it was at that moment I knew she was not strong enough to kill me. Whatever she saw in my face was enough to make her hesitate.

It was enough time for me as well.

"Rose…" I heard her small gasp when I uttered her name. "You forgot my first lesson: don't hesitate."

Before she could reply or escape from me, I delivered a hard blow to the side of her head, enough to knock her senseless. Her eyes widened with shock… and then she fell limp on into my arms. The stake rolled uselessly on the ground from her hands. I would make sure she did not touch a stake again.

I cradled her on my arms. I know I should move now, escape from this scene, or at the very least, destroy her as she tried to destroy me. That was the natural order of things now. And for the last months from being awakened, I knew it was the truth. Eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed.

But as I saw her face, I knew none of this could happen. I cannot kill her, but I cannot let her go. Not now.

Her long, dark hair had fallen to her face, obscuring her features. I gingerly brushed them away, deliberately trailing my fingers on her lower lip. It seemed an eternity ago when we had kissed. How can she be so powerful and ruthless, but also be vulnerable and innocent at the same time? Such power she held over me, even in this afterlife. I was consumed with a need I did not know before—no, tried to deny before.

We would be together, Rose and I. She will be made to understand that joining me is the only option she has. There will be no other way for her, or for me.

No one can save us both now.

A taste of things to come.

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xo

Anya

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