(RPOV)
"Love fades…mine has"
How could he say that to me? Did he not understand the things I went through for him? Or had he been lying to me all along? I felt my heart and soul shatter into millions of tiny little pieces as I sat there dumbfounded and looked at him.
"I should have either let you turn me, or left you as a strigoi. Because you are a hell of a lot more cruel now, than you ever were then. You want me away from you? You want me to leave you alone? Fine, I will grant you, your greatest wish. Just remember, you asked for it." I stood up and walked away, not giving him the satisfaction of looking back.
(DPOV)
"What in the fuck is your problem?!" Spiridon asked me.
"What are you talking about?"
"Do you have any idea the things that woman went through to save you?"
"She didn't save me, Vasilissa did."
"Yeah, that statement right there, shows how truly fucking stupid you are. Your precious little princess may have staked you. But how did she learn to stake? How did she know where your heart was? How did she know how to get past your ribs and everything else? How did she know to charm the stake with spirit in the first place? Did your precious princess chase down a fucking myth to change you back? Did your supposed savior go all the way to Russia to tell your family what happened? Did she go to Russia to free your soul? Did your glorious savior break Victor Dashkov out of prison to get the information needed to restore you? Did that savior, risk her life again and again and again to bring you back? Did she hunt down Robert Doru and force him to tell her how to return you? Did your precious Vasilissa do any of that? No, she didn't. She did what everyone else did, she forgot you existed. When Rose left school, on her fucking eighteenth birthday by the way, to find you and set your soul free. Just like she promised, do you know what your precious princess did? Well let me tell you what she did. She bitched Rose out calling her every name in the whole damn book, for loving you enough to care about what happened to you. Then she tried to compel Rose to forget about you and stay with her, to serve her as she said. It was Rose's place to care about no one but her, she was the person that mattered, not you, her. Now who do you really think saved your stupid ass? Well I will give you two guesses, and the first one doesn't count. It was all Rose, not your stupid supposed savior. Do you know why she is helping keep you and Rose apart? Well by all means let me enlighten you, she is doing it to punish Rose, she couldn't give two shits about either of you. You should see the look in her eyes when either of you says or does something to hurt Rose. Her eyes and face are filled with pure unadulterated joy, because of the pain it is causing Rose. Does that sound like a savior of any kind to you?"
I was stunned by everything Spiridon said. Could it be true? "No, none of that is true, Vasilissa saved me. I felt and saw her stake me."
"I said she staked you, didn't I? But everything else that was done was done by Rose. Was it your precious Vasilissa that kept Eddie Castile from killing you in Las Vegas? I could go on and on and on but it wouldn't do any damn good. You are only seeing what you want to. The way you think about and treat that woman, you do not deserve her or her love. I would give anything, any-fucking-thing, for a woman to love me just half as much as Rose loves you."
"Spiridon is right, you are a fucking idiot Belikov. Rose is the one that did everything but stake you." Mikhail said.
"How do either of you know this?"
"Because we helped her you idiot!" Spiridon screamed at me.
The door the church opened and Ben came running in. "What happened?!" He asked angrily.
"This genius here," Mikhail said while flinging his thumb in my direction. "Told Rose, and I am quoting here, "Love fades…mine has" can you believe that shit?"
"No, he didn't really tell her that. Please tell me, that after everything she went through to get him back, the bastard didn't tell her that."
"He did."
Ben turned to me, "you are a fucking imbecile Belikov." Then he turned to Spiridon and Mikhail, "did you tell him what she went through for him?"
"Some of it, but nowhere near half of it."
"And what did he say?"
"He didn't believe us." Mikhail said. Ben just rolled his eyes at me. "Why did you come running in here anyway?"
"I saw Rose run away from here, crying and upset. Only to be stopped by the supposed savior."
"Did she do it again?" Spiridon asked.
"Worse than the last time, she even told Rose that everyone would be better off if she would just leave or die."
All of our mouths fell open. Then they turned to me and Mikhail said, "that is your savior in all her glory Belikov. Think maybe you should go bow and scrape at her feet? Or I don't know maybe, kiss the ground she fucking walks on?"
"Why would she say something like that to my Roza?"
"Since when did she become your Roza again? And did you not hear me tell you she does it for the pure joy of hurting Rose? I can't even count the times Vasilissa has called Rose a slut, a bitch, and a bloodwhore. And so many other names I can't even remember them all."
All of this shocked me. I had never seen nor heard Lissa act that way. "Maybe it's the darkness." They all scoffed at me.
"I can't believe, that this fucker is making excuses for her. No stupid, it's not the darkness, because she has found a way to force that into Rose. If someone doesn't find a way to break that bond soon, she is going to end up killing Rose. Not that you would care apparently."
I got up and went towards my room, when I saw people running in the direction of Rose's room. I tried to find out what was going on, but no one would slow down long enough to answer me. So I followed them. When I got there a gurney was being wheeled out of Rose's room. And on the bed was my soulmate, with a hole in her chest, and her shirt soaked in blood.
I saw Adrian, Eddie, Mia and Christian standing in Rose's room crying hysterically. "What the fuck happened?!"
"You don't care anymore remember! Why don't you go find your so called savior?" Mia said.
I looked at Eddie, "What happened to my Roza?"
"She's not yours anymore!" Christian yelled at me.
Mikhail stepped inside the room, "what happened to Rose?" He asked.
"For some reason Tatiana was in here, aunt Tasha was trying to kill her, with Rose's gun, and Rose got between them and aunt Tasha shot her."
"What did the emergency personnel say?"
"That it would be a miracle if Rose lived throughout the night." That was all that was said, before the four of them headed to the hospital. I knew I wouldn't be welcome there, but I was going to go anyway.
Roza lived through the night, thank God. Adrian dream walked her and she asked him for her parents and my family. Saying that she wanted them at her funeral because she loved them all. So he called Abe and Abe called my family. A few days later they all arrived, the waiting room was filled with people wanting to see about Rose. Apparently Janien was too busy to come. God I hated that bitch. This is the third time her daughter was this near death, and she didn't even bother to show up.
When my family showed up Victoria said, "I knew the bitch lied about you being strigoi, just like she lied about Roland being Sonya's baby daddy. The good for nothing whore."
"Watch it Vika, you do not talk about my Roza like that! I was a strigoi until just recently. Roza brought me back, and I will not put up with you speaking about her like that. I will never again let anyone speak about her like that!"
"But Dimka…"
"No buts Victoria, Rose is my soulmate and I expect you to treat her accordingly."
"I agree with Dimka; you need to grow up Vika. Rose was telling the truth; Roland is Roslyn's father."
"Are you for real?" A stunned Vika asked my older sister Sonya.
"Yes, not only that, but when you turned your back he tried to seduce Rose. She knew you didn't need to be around people like him, so she got Zmey to make Roland leave you alone. She also got him to start sending child support and open a trust fund for Roslyn. Now would she have done any of that, if she didn't care, not only about us, but about Dimka?"
Vika looked sad, "no, I guess not. I shouldn't have said she didn't love Dimka."
"You actually said that to her?!" I demanded. She nodded her head. "How could you?! She quit school and came all the way to Russia, to tell all of you what happened to me and you treat her like that! I am so ashamed of you Victoria. But I am even more ashamed of myself."
"And you should be Dimka. They didn't tell you everything that woman went through for you. And she won't ever tell you, but you should know that she almost died over half a dozen times trying to save you." My babushka told me. I watched as Mikhail, Spiridon, Ben, Abe, Adrian, Christian, Mia and Eddie all nodded.
"Are the people here, all the ones who helped her restore me?"
"No, Oksana and Mark helped, they also helped save her life after the bridge. She gave up, when she thought she had killed you. She actually contemplated jumping off the same bridge, just minutes later. Hoping that at least in death you could be together. There are many more people who helped her along the way. The only thing your precious princess did, was stake you. And yet you worship her and shun our Roza. As I said, you should be ashamed of yourself."
Just then Queen Tatiana and her guardians walked in. "How is our Rose Abe?"
"She is stable but critical at the moment." I watched him look at our queen. "I can't lose my baby Tati."
She put her arms around him and said, "we will not lose her Abe. I have instructed that my personal medical staff attend her, night and day."
"But people will figure out why Tati."
"No they won't, and it doesn't matter anymore anyway. She's already eighteen, so she can take the throne herself at any time."
"WHAT?!" Everyone in the room, except babushka, screamed. Babushka just smiled and continued to knit.
Abe chuckled, "I guess we did keep it a pretty good secret after all."
Tatiana smiled and nodded, before answering, "I am not really the queen, I only held the position until Rose turned eighteen. She is my niece; Abe is my brother. Rose was queen when she was born, but since only someone over the age of eighteen can sit on the throne. Someone had to hold her place. And I, being the only woman in our family, that Abe trusted enough for the position, became the figure head, so to speak."
"Wait, are you saying that Rose Hathaway is not only my baby cousin, but also my…our true queen?" Adrian asked.
"Yes. It was the Ivashkov's turn on the throne, and with Abe being the oldest, that meant his daughter was to be queen."
"That's why all the trying to keep us apart?"
"Yes."
"So when she is better, I will retire and give her the throne…"
Just then Vasilissa walked in, "Dimitri, what are you doing here?"
"I have been here since Tasha shot Rose."
"Why?" I just looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
"What do you mean why?"
"You don't love her. I saved you, and you know it. Nobody cares if she lives or not." I turned and looked at Spiridon, Mikhail and Ben. They gave me an 'I told you so' look.
"I don't know what gave you the idea, that I don't love my Roza. But I love her more than life itself."
"No you don't. Did you not hear me?"
"Are you trying to compel me?"