Chapter 1

It has been three weeks since the attack on the school, I have been spending time in my dorm room or in the clinic. Dimitri was given a sedative to keep him out for the first week after the attack, he had lost a lot of blood when the Strigoi attacked him in the caves. I went back in after him disobeying order's from my mother just to save him. I was lucky to get him out of there before they changed him and I still had my life. I remember Dr. Olendzki told me that he had lost a lot of blood and that she didn't know how he had survived at all.

I walked into the clinic and made my way to Dimitri's room. As I opened the door I noticed Dimitri sitting up reading a western book, he looked up at me when the door shut. "Rose, what are you doing here?" I smiled as I started walking towards the bed, "ever since the attack on the school I come here to be left alone, and I also find it easy to do my homework in here or in my dorm room." He gave a small smile, "Rose, why are you really here? I know that you have been here every day after what happened, Dr. Olendzki told me." I rolled my eyes, "she just thinks that when she comes in and see's me staring off into space that I'm not studying. Well just so you know after what happened it's hard to focus on homework and sometimes I just need some time to think about other things but every time that she came in here I had a book out doing my homework." I went around the bed and took a seat in a chair close to the window to do my homework just like I always do every day after school. Being in Dimitri's room helped me focus on my homework better than being in the library or in my dorm room, but not today.

We sat there in silence for a while, then Dimitri broke the silence, "Roza, I'm sorry but I'm worry about you. I know that you always need to have something to do and you sitting in here like the way Dr. Olendzki said you have just made me worry about you, because it's not like you to do that." I looked up from my book, "you shouldn't worry about me, Dimitri. Plus I know that you wouldn't want me to let grades slip because of what happened, so I come down here to stay out of trouble and keep my grades up." When I said that it brought a smile to his face, "I can not see you staying out of trouble, Rose. I would have expected them to tell me that you got kicked out of school. Now tell me about what happened." I closed my book and pulled the chair up to the bed, "well when I saw them take you down in the caves I turned to come back for you and my mom ordered me not to and well you know how I am about order's…" I laughed a little, "well I didn't listen to my mom and came back for you anyway and took down ATLEAST twenty strigoi but it could have been more that twenty. I even took out the one who was going to change you, after that I drug you out of the caves. I brought you back to the school myself, mainly because my mom and the rest of the guardians left me." He looked shocked at what I just told hem, "they never told me and I'm shocked that they didn't expel you for disobeying an order from your own mother." I tried not to laugh at him when he said that, "well what do you expect when a novice kill's more strigoi in a suicide mission and comes out alive with one other person who was appose to be dead, who could expel me after that." He looked away from me when I said this, "you should have left me behind, Rose, and you should have been expelled for coming back for me like you did and you are lucky to be alive." Just as he said that Dr. Olendzki came into the room.

After Dr. Olendzki checked in on Dimitri, she gave him the okay to have more visitors and left. I gave him a big smile, "now that you can have more visitors, I guess it's time for me to tell you on who's here." He did his one eyebrow thing, "Rose, please don't tell me that Lissa is coming because I do not want her to see me like this." I shook my head, "no it's not Lissa, your family is here they came after they were told on what happened to you. Your mother even had Viktoria transferred here and Karolina had your nephew Paul was transferred here to. Your mother, grandmother, Karolina and Sonya are staying in the guest rooms on campus and Viktoria and Paul are in the student dorms." I saw a flicker of anger in his eyes when I said that his whole family was here, "why are they here? How did they find out about what happened to me?" I was shocked that he would be asking these questions, "there here to see you, Dimitri. They came to be here with you after what happened to you, and I think that somebody from the school called them. I also think that it would be great for Paul to see you only because he looks up to you Dimitri." He looked away from me, "Rosa, please don't let them come to see me while I'm in here. I DO NOT like you to see me like this and I defiantly do not want my family to see me like this."

I nodded when the door opened, I turned and saw Dimitri's family walking in. I heard him moan a little and pulled me close to him and whispered, "Rose, go find out if Dr. Olendzki told them that I was awake." I nodded again and as I was getting up I saw Paul was here to, "come on Paul let's go see when your uncle can get out of here." As I walked past Paul I put my hand on his shoulder and turned him around guiding him back out and I made sure that the door was shut before I asked, "why are you out of your dorm and shouldn't you be working on your homework?" Paul looked up at me, "I'm out because I wanted to see my uncle and I'm done with my homework." I smiled a little, "Paul, I know how this school hands out homework and with the recent attack on this school there giving out more homework than ever so don't try to lie to me." He turned away from me and started to walk away and I called out to him, "Paul you know it's going to take an adult to get you back into your dorm right." He stopped and turned around, "can you get me back in so that I can get my books? I want to come back, so that uncle can help me with it." I thought about it for about a minute, "I can but let me run it by your uncle first." I turned and went back in and asked Dimitri, when I returned I saw somebody bulling Paul.

"Is there a problem here," I asked as I walked up to them. The bully looked up at me, "no ma'am, there is no problem here," then he looked back a Paul, "I will deal with you later and like I said I do not care if your uncle is Dimitri Belikov," and then he turned and walked off. I looked at Paul, "okay who was that because I can have something done about him." He just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know and I don't care, I was going to ask uncle to do something about it when he get's better but if you think that you can do something about it then I won't have to ask uncle to." I smiled and started walking towards the door knowing that Paul would follow, "I will do something about it right after I take you back to your dorm tonight." I looked over at Paul and noticed that he was confused, "don't worry, Paul, I won't tell your uncle about it so there's no need to worry about it and we are going to get your books and coming straight back here so that your uncle can help you."

After a few minutes of silence we were at elementary school campus and if we were lucky there wouldn't be anybody sitting at the desk, but with my luck there was somebody sitting there. "I brought Paul back to get some school book's because his uncle Guardian Belikov is wanting to look over his work," the person sitting at the desk nodded. After we were out of ear shot Paul said, "wow, that was easy for you to do. Can you teach me on how you did that." Some how I kept a straight face, "your uncle would kill me if I taught on how to do that. Now where is your room so that we can get your books and get out of here?" I followed Paul to his room as he grabbed his books I asked, "so who was that kid that was bothering you?" He didn't look at me, "I don't know his name all I do know is that he's in middle school and that he's scared of Rosemarie Hathaway." I laughed, "well the next time that he bother's you tell him that if he does not want to have Rosemarie Hathaway breathing down his neck then back off." He looked even more confused than before, "don't worry, Paul, I'm Rosemarie Hathaway so looks like I can offer you protection from this bully without having to talk to anybody. If he bothers you again then come to be about it, okay." He started to smile and nodded after I said that, once he had all of his books in his back pack, we started back to the clinic.

When we got back I took my normal seat by the window and started on my homework again, while Dimitri was helping Paul with what he needed help with on his homework and when Paul was sitting next to me working by himself Dimitri was talking to his mother, grandmother and sister's in Russian. When it was close to curfew I walked Paul back to his dorm, even though that I knew that I would be out past curfew myself, but we got stopped in the middle school campus by Alberta. "Rose, what are you doing bring him back this close to curfew?" I knew that I was going to be in a lot of trouble for saying this but I didn't care, "I was just wanting to make sure that Paul didn't have any type of trouble getting back into his dorm." I didn't know on what Alberta thought about that but I knew that what I had just said would make it's way back to Dimitri. "His mother could have brought him back." I just stared at her for a few seconds, "well seeing as he has a bully here on the middle school campus, who I might add is scared of me, I thought that I would bring him back myself and not worry his family about it." To my surprise Alberta nodded, "if you are not able to stop this bully yourself Rose then come to me about it." I nodded as Alberta finally let us pass. "Rose why did you do that for me. I didn't want you to get in trouble because of me." I looked down at him, "don't worry about it Paul, I can take care of myself. I mean your uncle taught me a lot of what I know, so you shouldn't worry about it, and plus trouble is my middle name."

After Dimitri woke up everything seem to fly by and he was out of the clinic the week after he woke up and Paul hadn't had any more run-in's with the bully. I was happy that things were getting back to normal but I knew better than to relax, but for now I felt like I could relax as much as I could. But I did start back running three miles every morning before school and after school so that I would show Dimitri that I hadn't forgotten my training. I knew that once he got the okay to start his normal duties again then we would start the extra training sessions, I even got Viktoria to run with me.

Viktoria and me were running one morning before school when I saw a guardian coming down with his hand on Paul's shoulder. I headed towards the guardian, "what happened?" I saw a flash of shock on the guardian's face, "he was found fighting somebody from the middle school campus and Alberta told me to bring him to you so that you could teach him on how to control his temper." I laughed at that, "so I'm going to be like his mentor, that's a shock." I heard Viktoria walking up behind me, "think you for bring him to me." I nodded at the guardian and he walked off. "What's going on, Rose? Why is Paul here?" I turned around to her, "nothing is going on, Viktoria. But it would be great if you go and get Dimitri." Viktoria nodded and went off to get Dimitri and once she was out of ear shot I turned my attain back to Paul, "what did you to get put with me. I mean I am the one who causes all the trouble around here and now your getting put with me so that means it had to be something real bad if Alberta thought that you could learn something from me." Paul looked down at the ground, "the bully started it and I just fought back." I shook my head, "Paul I told you to come to me if that bully started messing with you again, but I guess you must have done some damage to him for Alberta to have put you with me and I'm not even a guardian, yet. Well I guess you should start running laps and I can finish mine and your uncle should be here when I finish my laps."

Just like I said Dimitri showed up when I finished my laps and I walked up to him, "Alberta told a guardian to bring him to me. He got into a fight with some kid in middle school, I think I know who the kid is, but when I found out that Alberta wanted me to deal with Paul I though that you should know." Dimitri just stood there watching Paul run, "there's something that your not telling me, Rose." I nodded, "Paul has been bullied by a middle school kid and I think that the bully tried to start something with him and Paul took it to far. I hate to say it but I think that he may have taken it further than what I would have." Dimitri stood there taking everything in, after a few minutes he said, "how do you plan to deal with this?" I turned around and watched Paul, "that's what I was hoping you could help me with. I never had to do something like this. You of all people should know that I'm the one that should be getting in trouble and you having to get me out of it, but now I'm the one getting Paul out of trouble." I didn't look over at Dimitri because Paul was watching us to see if we wanted him to stop, "Rose, you should have came to me or Karolina about it. You shouldn't have tried to deal with this and I wish that you wouldn't have got involved." I glanced over at him, "well after I came and asked you if you didn't mind helping Paul with his homework, I saw him getting bullied, so it was kind of something that I felt that I had to help him with. I never thought that he would take it as far as he did, and I told him that he should come to me if the bully started messing with him again but as you can see he didn't."

We stood there until Paul got done with his laps, when Paul made it to us he asked, "uncle when are you going to be able to help me learn on how to fight?" I looked over at Dimitri to see if I could tell on what he was thinking, but as usual I couldn't. "I am not your mentor, Rose is. I do not think that she will have time though with me being her mentor and I will be starting her training up again after school today." I smiled but that gave me an idea, "Good it's been a two month's since I've been able to train with you, Dimitri, but wouldn't Paul learn more by watching us in the training sessions? I mean I would have to ask Alberta about that but he is your nephew." Paul looked like he was going to start squealing like a little girl when I asked Dimitri that. "Please, uncle I want to learn." Dimitri looked unfazed by Paul's begging, "it's fine by me as long as you listen to me and Rose but only if it's ok by Alberta." Paul gave a Dimitri a big hug and it made me smile, "you know Paul, I haven't asked Alberta about it, yet, so you may not be able to sit in on the training sessions." Paul looked at me, "Rose, if you are anything like my uncle then she will say yes to me sitting in, and plus uncle will be there to so she's got to say yes." I heard Dimitri laugh a little at that and all I could do is shake my head. Paul was looking at us so I had to say something else to make him stop looking at us, "how about we go to find Alberta now and ask her, but then you," I looked at Paul, "will have to go back to your campus because school will be starting soon."

We didn't have to look long, "Alberta, can I talk to you for a minute," I asked walking up to her, she turned around and nodded, "Rose, what is so important that you have to talk to me right now?" I looked over at Paul, "I was told that you sent him to me earlier…" she put her hand up, "Rose, I want you to be his mentor I thought you already knew that." I nodded, "I do, but as you know that I still have training sessions with Dimitri. But I just wanted to ask if it would be okay Paul sat in on the training sessions with me and Dimitri?" She looked over at Dimitri and Paul than back at me, "it don't matter to me if he does or not like I said before you are his mentor, now. But remember this you are the only student mentor at this school and you will not be able to be Lissa's guardian until after Paul graduates." I nodded again, "I understand, think you for your time Alberta." I turned and went back too Paul and Dimitri, "well Paul, Alberta said that I am your mentor and she really did not care if you sat in on the training sessions," I looked over at Dimitri and said, "so looks like I will be here until Paul graduates, will you take care of Lissa for me after me and her graduate?" He nodded, "you know that I will take care of Lissa, just like I know that you will take care of Paul."

Just then Lissa came walking up with three doughnuts in her hand, "hey, I brought you these because school is about to start in ten minutes." I took the doughnuts "think's Lissa," then looked back at Dimitri, "can you take him to class for me?" He nodded again like usual, "yeah, and then I can find out on what's been going on." I gave Dimitri a smile, "think you, Dimitri and I owe you for this." Lissa and me started walking towards the high school campus, "Lissa, I won't be able to be your guardian until Paul graduates." I felt confusion coming through the bond and before she could say anything I said, "Alberta made me Paul's mentor so I have to stay here until he graduates, he got into a fight with a middle school kid this morning and more than likely did some damage to the kid so they think that I can help Paul with whatever. But I did ask Dimitri to take care of you until I can be your guardian." I could tell that Lissa was still confused about what I just told her, "Rose, how can you be a mentor when your still a student? Why did you ask Dimitri to take care of me until you can be my guardian?" I should have seen that coming, "Lissa, I trust Dimitri with my life and he is your only appointed guardian right now and since I trust him with my life then I know he will keep you safe. As for the reason why they made me Paul's mentor I have no answer to that one." We walked the rest of the way in silence and parted way's when we had to go into separate buildings.

After classes I was on my way to get Paul when I ran into Karolina, "Rose, there's no need to hurry. Dimitri's already got Paul down at the gym, but he never gave me a reason why he wanted Paul there. Then with my brother it will be a miracle if anybody is able to find out why he does things." I shrugged my shoulders and then nodded, "think you for letting me know that Paul was with your brother, Karolina." I turned and walked away before she could ask me anything. When I got to the gym I saw that Dimitri was showing Paul some basic things and as I was looking around to see who was here I noticed that Lissa and Christian was here to watching Dimitri and Paul. I made my way to a bathroom to change into my training clothes, when I came back out Dimitri looked up, "are you ready to start?" I laughed, "the question is are you ready, comrade?" As we started I could tell that Dimitri wasn't back to normal completely, but it still was hard for me to get a good hit in.

We were half way done with training when Dimitri fell onto me, I was taken by surprise and didn't have time to brace myself. I rolled him off of me, "Lissa get Paul out of here, Christian come help me get him to the clinic." They both jumped into action, when Christian got over to me we both put an arm over our shoulder to help Dimitri walk to the clinic. Half way to the clinic Dimitri fell again, "Christian go and tell the Dr. Olendzki that I'm bring Dimitri in and to be ready at the door." He looked at me not wanting to leave me, "don't worry about me, Christian, just go." When I said that he took off for the clinic and I bent down to help Dimitri up again, but he shoved me away. "Dimitri, let me help you get to the clinic, something is wrong with you." He was trying to stand on his own, I stood up and luckily that I did because I was able to catch him when he fell again. This time he didn't push me away, he let me help him the rest of the way to the clinic. When we got to the clinic I told Dr. Olendzki on what happened after I finished she told me to go on back to my dorm because there was nothing else that I could do. I didn't get that much sleep that night mainly because I was worried about Dimitri.