Okay, so here's the deal. I don't own anything. If I did, Dimitri would not be with Rose, he would be with me. XD
I drop you into the story much the way that Richelle Mead drops you into Vampire Academy, so bear with me. Here's the deal. Dimitri was still turned, Rose did get captured by him, Abe was able to pool his resources and find Robert Doru without using Victor and I think Rober Doru was a wimp in SB so I changed him. He agreed to accompany Rose to changing Dimitri back, but I have a vision for Dimitri and this vision includes him being Shadow-Kissed so I changed that rule too. Let's see... I also am hooking Abe and Janine up. That doesn't really matter too much though...And that's about all I feel like telling you right now. ^.~
I've got the first five chapters written up for this and I'll update... I dunno probably biweekly unless my writing muse decides to kick it into gear. I'll post a chapter every time I finish a chapter so once five is finished I'll post two and start writing six. Just don't want to catch up with myself and if my muse takes off, I'll still have stuff to post. I have a vision for this story but I'm not sure how I'm getting there yet so bear with me. There will be fluff and filler chapters.
Anyway! On with the story! This from Broken Wing of a Broken Spirit!
Rose's Point of View : Chapter One.
I never thought that I would end up here. I stood across from the man that I had once loved with my stake gripped tight into my hand. This was perfect. Almost. Lissa was behind me, and I could feel through our bond that she was scared out of her mind.
"Now that wasn't very guardian-like, Roza." Dimitri said, glancing back at Lissa with those terrifying red eyes. I moved into his view.
"Let me help you, Dimitri." I said, wanting him to understand how much I loved him.
"The only way you could have helped me, Roza, was joining me. You made it quite clear that isn't what you want."
And he was right. I didn't want that. Strigoi were compassionless creatures. They didn't have the ability to love, to be kind, to be respectful. The Strigoi would kill each other off as soon as they'd kill a Moroi or really anything with blood in its veins. I didn't want to be that kind of creature. For years they'd been hunting Lissa. I was never going to join that hunt against her.
"Dimitri, we can still be together. I've found a way. Just let me help you. Please." I was begging, something I never thought I would do. That was how much I loved the man before me. "We don't have a lot of time. My mom and father will probably be here soon and they will kill you." I didn't know how far behind us they were, but I knew that my family was trying to find Lissa and I and we were just barely escaping them with each new town in Russia we went. Fighting on Dimitri's homeland was not a great idea. He knew it so well and Lissa and I, well, we were just lost ants.
"You never were a good liar, Roza." Dimitri said to me, taking a step forward. The nausea that coursed through me caused me to tighten my grip on the stake, but I stood my ground. Dimitri thought I was bluffing. Maybe he was forcing me to tell on myself in the past and really didn't know if I was lying or not. Or maybe he was cocky.
"Good thing I'm not lying this time." I quipped, motioning Lissa back with my other hand. I didn't sense any Strigoi around but the one standing in front of me. This wasn't my Dimitri. This wasn't the man that I loved. This was a Strigoi, just like the blond one that was after Lissa, just like Isaiah and Elaine. All this Dimitri wanted to do was kill; and I was his preferred target.
I was praying that the spirit user, the one that my father had managed to find, Robert Doru would hop out of the bushes now, but I knew that he would die if he did that just yet. I needed to make sure Dimitri couldn't move. I threw myself at him, interrupting whatever he was going to say, and struck with my stake, ending up hitting his arm instead of his heart like I was aiming. He knocked me away and for a moment, I thought I was going to hit the trees, but I, thankfully, fell short and hopped up to charge him again.
He looked like he was going to do the same thing so I acted like I was going to stake him again, and kicked his leg out from under him instead. He looked momentarily surprised, but it didn't keep him down for long. I saw him starting to recover, not fall like I'd hoped, so I took my hand that wasn't holding the stake and slammed it into his shoulder, successfully driving him into the ground. I took my stake and stabbed it into his shoulder, pushing it through until it was in the ground. Quickly, while he was distracted by the pain, I took out another one that was on my belt, I stabbed it through his other shoulder just as far. He couldn't touch them without causing himself more, unnecessary pain. 'Almost there, Rose' I thought to myself, sliding forward on his chest and holding his arms down.
I moved so my legs were holding down his arms and sent a third stake I'd hidden in my boot into his thigh, repeating this with the stake I hid in my jacket. I'd stolen them all, two from my father's hired hands and one from my mother. 'This is going to work.' I thought excitedly, turning so I was holding him down again. "Robert!" I heard Lissa yell, but I could only see Dimitri's face, contorted with pain and his red eyes glaring up at me. They would be brown soon, if this worked. I saw Dimitri's eyes widen and could hear Robert behind me. His hand, pale and slightly wrinkled, slipped onto Dimitri's chest.
Dimitri glared at me with questions, but I simply held him in place. Robert's aura flared to life, and it must have been huge because Lissa was completely awestruck by it.
Then, before my eyes, I watched Dimitri's shirtless, deathly pale torso change back to the tanned skin he had when he was alive. His eyes flickered between the warm brown I remembered them being and the cold red that they were as a Strigoi. They showed emotions from gratitude to pure anger. I realized, only now, that he would be shadow-kissed and that this man, Robert Doru, would be the Moroi that he would be tied to, just as I was tied to Lissa. This would make it difficult, but he and I had already planned to only see each other on vacations anyway.
When I heard my name from Dimitri this time, it sounded so different, I knew that he was healed, even without the obvious things like his eyes and his skin and his warmth. I kissed him, finally enjoying the tenderness I'd wanted when he captured me three months ago.
"I'm sorry." I whispered to him, then I pulled out the stake in his left shoulder, followed by the stake in his right shoulder, and his cries of pain were killing me. Lissa was already setting to work healing his wounds before I was finished taking out the stakes in his legs. I automatically started to take the darkness from Lissa's aura as it arose. I barely even needed to think about it anymore. I only felt bad for Dimitri because he would be cursed as I was. Being connected to Lissa wasn't a bad thing, in fact, I thought it was amazing, but taking the darkness from her was hard and from what I heard, it caused my aura to be completely dark.
Once he was healed, I saw the grateful look on his face and he thanked Lissa and Robert, seeming to avoid my eyes. He stared at Robert for a long while and I thought he was trying to figure out the bond, then Robert nodded and I realized he'd asked Robert a question and I'd completely missed it. I stood and had a stake in my hand immediately. It wasn't a Strigoi, I knew that, but I didn't know who, or what, the sound I heard was and so I was ready to strike just in case.
And that was when my mother and father walked through the bushes, holding hands to my surprise, then I realized my mother was dragging him along. They must have seen something. I relaxed my grip on the stake and watched my mother walk toward me. Glancing at the stake in my hand, I laughed inwardly because it was hers. I held it out like a child surrendering candy, and was surprised when, instead of taking the stake, my mother slapped me. Abe immediately grabbed her hand and Dimitri was in front of me in a flash.
"Do you even know how worried I was about you, Rosemarie?" My mother yelled and caught me even more off guard than the slap had. She had never, in all of the time that I had seen her, showed this much emotion.
"I'm sorry mom. I had to." Dimitri's tall form reached around to pull me in front of him, but his protective arms never left my shoulders. I noticed Abe had my mom trapped too, though a little less gracefully. His arms were laced under hers and his fingers were interlocked behind her neck. I had no doubt my mom would be able to get out of this in no time, but I didn't think she really wanted to. "I found Robert and I did what I felt like I had to. And hey, now we've got two Strigoi detectors!" I said, trying to get her to calm down a little. I held out her stake again and Abe released her. She walked forward and took it from my hand, placing it on her belt and ripping me out of Dimitri's arms into what I could only assume was a hug.
Then she glared at Dimitri, though I figured her hatred of him wouldn't last long. For some reason, my thoughts flashed to Adrian and I wondered if he would move on to find someone else. Then, I had a great idea. "Dimitri." I said softly, turning to look at him and away from my mother. "We should go to your house. In Baia. Your grandmother knows that I'm on this quest, but I don't think she'll tell your family that you're alive again. It just doesn't strike me as something she'd do. She'll expect us to come there and surprise them." Dimitri laughed at my assessment of his scary grandmother, Yeva, and nodded.
I turned to Abe and, surprising myself again, I walked over to him and hugged him tightly. "Thank you. I wouldn't be here without you." I told him and, after a moment, I felt his arms wrap around me too.
"Don't mention it, Rose. I only want you to be safe, and this was the way to keep you safe from both him," I saw Abe glare at Dimitri too. Jesus, these people. "and from yourself." He finished, looking at me with serious eyes.
"Take us to Baia?" I asked, motioning to the entire group around us. With a laugh, Abe agreed and I couldn't help but laugh too. Everyone else was out of the joke. Baia was the same town that my father had blackmailed me out of three and a half months or so ago and now he was going to take me back into the city limits himself.
Of course, I wasn't giving him enough credit. He also took me to Baia because I kept saying Belikov, Dimitri's last name. Then, as if my father sensed the positive thoughts about him, he turned to Dimitri and said, "I'll be keeping my eye on you Guardian Belikova." I groaned, walking over to Lissa and taking her into a tight hug.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Mister Mazur." Dimitri said respectfully. I groaned a little louder and buried my head in Lissa's shoulder. I could feel her amusement at the situation trickle through the bond and laughed with her. Dimitri was alive. I could finally believe that my Dimitri was alive again.
"Thank you, Vasilisa." I said, trying to convey how grateful I was to her by using her given name. "I owe you so much." I could feel tears prickling my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
That is, until Lissa hugged me again and said, "No, Rosemarie." There was a slight giggle from both of us and then she continued. "This is me paying you back for all of the times you helped me." I felt the tears soak into the shoulder of her shirt and felt the laughing sob rack my body. "You're my best friend, Rose. I love you. I'll do anything for you."
"I love you too, Liss." I said back, my voice thick with the emotion I was so outwardly displaying. I got control of myself and turned to Robert, a man that I barely knew. "And thank you, Robert. We wouldn't have been able to do this without you." The man stepped forward and hugged me too and told me he was repaying Lissa and I for his brother.
With my father's ungraceful cough, we all decided to get moving.
After crossing through about three miles of pure forest, we emerged onto the road that I could only assume was some kind of freeway and there was a large, Hummer looking vehicle on the shoulder. I groaned inwardly. My knee-cap-breaking father would drive something as extravagant as a Hummer. Without pausing, like most of my family and friends did, I walked with my father and got into the car. He was used to it and I wasn't surprised by it, therefore, we saw no reason to stop and admire it.
"Dad?" The word felt awkward on my mouth, likely from disuse, but I still felt it was the appropriate name to call him now. "Thank you. Really. For finding Robert for me, for helping Lissa and I find Dimitri, and for being there for mom." I hadn't meant to get so serious on him, so I tossed on at the end, "But I still think you're Zmey," and laughed a little. It was the name that Dimitri's sister had given him while I was staying with his family. Abe laughed with me and told me he understood as my mother's hand hit the door handle and she hopped up next to Abe. Dimitri got in next to me and Lissa sat on my other side with Robert, talking animatedly about Spirit.
I felt Dimitri's hair brush my shoulder as he leaned down to talk to me. "Thank you, Roza. While I still think you would have enjoyed being Strigoi with me, I love you too much to take away all of your light. Thank you for loving me that much as well." His words, strangely, were comforting. I knew that he was my Dimitri again, but the Strigoi senses were still better than a Dhampir's and I knew he would have liked to retain them, if only to protect me.
"You aren't fully free of death, or darkness, or being a Strigoi, are you?" I asked, allowing my fears to take over every other part of my emotions as I leaned into him. "You can feel what Robert's feeling. You feel like you have to protect him, don't you?" I asked him, knowing the answer before I heard him say it.
"Yes, Roza. I am shadow-kissed now. And I still feel the Strigoi emotions, but no. I am not going to go back." Dimitri answered my question before I even had to ask it. Yes. He was definitely the man I fell in love with. I nestled myself between his arm and his chest and closed my eyes, enjoying his closeness. "I love you Roza. I'm sorry that I didn't say it earlier and I'm so sorry for trying to kill you. And all of the threats." He sounded so sincere, although it was fairly laughable that I was about to forgive my ex-boyfriend of sorts for trying to kill me. Better yet, it was my plan to get him alone and get back together with him the right way.
The rest of the car ride, Dimitri and I quietly listened to everyone else's conversations, spending our time in that comfortable silence that we'd shared so often before. I must have fallen asleep somewhere in the three hour car ride because Dimitri was running his hand up and down my arm and whispering my name to wake me up as we entered Baia's city limits.
"Dad!" I said excitedly, feeling the urge to make some big huge plan. I must have scared him because I felt the car drift a little and then move back into the center of the lane.
"Jesus, Rose, what?" He said, though I could see his small smile from my place in the back seat.
"Dad, we have to pretend we don't know where Dimitri is. I want to surprise his family. Will you say that I told you I was coming here and you decided to accompany me to keep me out of trouble? They still don't know that you're my dad." I started my explanation of what I planned to do to surprise the Belikova family. My father smiled and pulled into a parking lot, apparently liking the sound of my plan. I could feel Dimitri smiling, though I didn't know exactly what it was about. It could have been how much energy I woke up with, it could have been the excitement to surprise his family, it could have been my father and I bonding, it could have been anything really.
"Alright, I'm with you so far. I'll have my guardians meet me here. They're at the little town you and Sydney stayed at when I first met you." While Abe made his quick phone call, I turned my attention to everyone else in the car. "Liss, you can probably come with me, if you want to. Robert, mom, Dimitri, I want you guys to wait in the park. I'm pretty sure Karolina doesn't work on Fridays. Wait, it is Friday, right?" I paused, and My mother's nod prompted me to continue before anyone could get a word in. "So you guys get out and follow Dimitri to the park, okay?" Dimitri nodded and immediately got out. He must have known I wasn't going to have it any other way. My father got off the phone and ushered all of the uninvited party out of the car and into the warm sunny day.
"Alright, Abe." I said, crawling over the center console and jumping into the passenger's seat. "Lead the way. We'll just tell the Belikovs that you sent your little bodyguards on an errand." I said, and obediently, Abe drove toward the Belikov house again. "Now, Lissa. This guy sitting next to me, he's a mobster. He does all kinds of illegal stuff all the time. I've affectionately come to call him 'Zmey'. It's snake in Russian. You've gotta act like you don't trust this guy, okay?" I briefed Lissa and listened to my father laugh at my little synopsis of him.
"Got it." Liss said with a confident face. She wanted to laugh, I could tell without using the bond, but it didn't matter. She was a fantastic actress.
We pulled up to the Belikov house and I hopped out of the car, opening Lissa's door for her and waiting for her to get out. I walked with her up to the front door and lifted my hand to knock on the door. Three knocks and a minute or two later, Olena Belikova, Dimitri's mom, answered the door. As soon as she saw who I was, I felt myself wrapped up in her strong, motherly arms. "Hello, Olena." I said lightly, hugging the woman back briefly and leaned back to introduce Lissa to her. Olena wrapped Liss up in a hug, which she was surprised by, but I could feel that Liss felt the same way about Dimitri's mother as I had when I lived here.
"Is everyone home?" I asked Olena lightly, walking in after her with Lissa and Abe on my heels. She walked us straight to the kitchen, of course.
"Karolina should be home in fifteen minutes, why?" Olena answered, taking out a few pans and opening the refrigerator.
While I knew not to argue Olena when she wanted to feed someone, Lissa did not. So naturally, she automatically said, "Oh, Miss Belikov, you don't need to worry about us. We aren't that hungry."
"Nonsense." Olena answered, and her thick Russian accent and her tone of voice said she wasn't going to change her mind. "Roza, you'll eat whatever I make, won't you?" She asked me, putting me in the spotlight. Luckily, I loved Olena.
"You bet!" I answered happily, noting that she was pulling out the ingredients to the little Russian pancake things that I loved so much. What were they called? Blani? Blini? Yes. Blini. That was it. "But Olena, I was wondering if everyone wanted to go on a picnic with Abe, Lissa, and I. We were going to go to that park in the center of town. We really wanted to see you."
Olena smiled widely and was thrilled at the prospect of making a picnic and immediately, I hopped up to help her. Liss tried to help too, but I literally shoved her back into her chair. I'd had a little more practice than her with making food with Olena. It was a hard task to pick up for a couple of tries, then it somehow, miraculously, had gotten easy. And I must not have ever forgotten it because I was still keeping perfect pace with her now.
"How's Viktoria?" I asked quietly, going about assembling some Russian sandwich thing. I remembered the last time we had seen each other; she wasn't too pleased with me because of what I did to stop her from becoming one of the stereotypical Blood Whores. It wasn't exactly the most graceful way to end their relationship, but I mean, the guy hit on me as soon as Viktoria was distracted by her friend. I had to do something.
"She is good. Doing better now that she and Nikolai have started dating." Olena answered, and my heart lifted. The boy was practically obsessed with Viktoria and I was glad that Viktoria had someone who truly cared about her, not her body and blood.
"Yeah, thanks for what you did, Rose." I heard Viktoria's voice coming from the doorframe and immediately dropped what I was doing to run over and embrace the girl.
"I'm so sorry I didn't handle it more gracefully." I said quietly to her, holding her close still. She was returning the hug still when she accepted my apology and thanked me again. I assumed that meant Sonya had told her about the little Moroi-whore. I couldn't recall his name and didn't want to. She'd forgiven me, which was all that mattered.
I saw a very pregnant Sonya standing behind her and carefully embraced the woman as well before going back to help Olena again. "What's all this for?" Viktoria asked, taking a seat next to Abe. Apparently she hadn't seen Lissa yet.
"Lissa, Abe, and I are going to take you all on a picnic in the back in town." I answered, motioning to the pale Moroi who was sitting at the table. It was like Viktoria had been when she and I met.
"Oh my god! You're Vasilisa Dragomir! You're the one that Rose told us so much about! You're even more beautiful than I pictured you!" Viktoria fawned over Lissa and I could feel the poor girl's embarrassment through the bond, but she already liked Viktoria, I could tell. Sonya introduced herself as well to Lissa and they all sat and talked while Olena and I silently finished up with the picnic.
As soon as we finished, I heard the front door open and heard Paul running through, making his way for the kitchen. I sensed him see me and felt him slam into my back. I pretended to be caught off guard and fell to the ground dramatically. "No! No! Please don't stake me Paul!" I cried, laughing as the boy straddled me and held a stick over my heart.
"Okay." Paul answered, laughing too and crawling off of me. "But only because you asked so nicely. Don't go off and tell your other Strigoi friends about it." The boy said seriously, and I saluted him and picked him up, spinning him around in the air.
"You're pretty strong, kid. I'll have to be sure to train you. Your Uncle Dimka would have liked to train you too." I told him, setting him down and ruffling his hair. Karolina stood in the doorway and watched Paul, her son, and I interact with a smile on her face. It was one of those smiles that said "Yeah, you'll be a great mother some day." But I didn't want to believe that so I walked up to her and hugged her, being careful of the baby in her arms.
"Hi Karolina, how have you and little Zoya been?" I asked, smiling down at the baby girl, who was now able to rest comfortably on her mother's hip.
"We've been good, Roza. How about you? How is your quest going?" Karolina asked, and I could feel the room grow quiet.
"I've been fine. Lissa and I are getting ready to finish my quest now. I just couldn't pass by Baia without seeing you all." I answered, and it was technically the truth too. Karolina kissed my forehead, something I thought was very Olena-like, and walked me over to Lissa. I introduced the two and Lissa grew fond of Karolina quickly.
After a few minutes of catching up and Lissa telling her story, we set out to Abe's Hummer, cramming all of us, even Paul and Zoya, into a seat and heading down to the park. I was anxious, I realized, about how the family would react to seeing their son and brother in sunlight. Would they be as excited as I was?
I like reviews~! But flames are icky. Constructive criticism? Ideas for the story?
Broken Wing of a Broken Spirit