Chapter Two: Crime Lord

Rose's POV

"So how is Sonya?" I asked, stepping off the last stair, Dimitri close behind. We had gone to bed after I came home last night, and made sure to rise with the sun. Sonya had retreated into her bedroom early yesterday to 'wallow in her sorrows'.

We walked into the fully stocked kitchen. "She-"

"I'm fine, thank you very much." I jumped when she spoke from the living room doorway.

"Holy crap! I thought I was stealthy!" I exclaimed, trying to pry my grip from the stake my hand immediately flew to.

"Rose, I was stealthy as a Moroi. I'm pretty sure you remember that." She said matter-of-factly, stalking in to the small kitchen.

"Point taken." I shrugged.

"Dimitri right?" Sonya asked, pointing to Dimitri.

"Yes, and you are Sonya Karp." He answered.

"What do you two want?" Strigoi Sonya was definitely not one for pleasantries.

"Well-" I closed my eyes and focused on becoming my Strigoi self. When she gasped, I knew I had gotten it right. I opened my eyes to see Sonya slack jawed and Dimitri smiling. "As you can see, I am not a Dhampir anymore. Or a Moroi, Or a Strigoi."

"Then what the hell are you?" Sonya asked, studying my features intently.

I looked at Dimitri. "Huh. Hadn't really thought about it. We're just not normal."

"Roza, you were never normal."Dimitri chuckled.

"And what does this have to do with me?" She asked, her same I'm-a-Strigoi-who-doesn't- care look on.

"You were a spirit user when you turned." She stopped studying her feet, and her eyes shifted to me. I smiled, knowing I had her now. "I know you can't touch your magic now because, well," I waved my hand at her apparent Strigoi features. Her gaze narrowed. "But we needed to know if you knew any still sane and not dead spirit users."

"And why should I tell you?"

A deadly smile slid on to my face, and my voice turned cold. "Just because you are a Strigoi, doesn't make you the strongest. I could rip your head off before you had a chance to move." I caught her off guard with my sudden hostility and she took a step back.

"So," Dimitri started, "Are you going to tell us?"

**VA**

"That is going to make my life just that much harder." I stated, getting up from the living room couch to start pacing.

"Not going to happen. We are not doing something like that!" Dimitri told me.

I stopped pacing and whipped towards him. "Dimitri, it's our only solution! It's not like Sonya can bring us back!" He was at a loss for words.

"But I am going with you right?" Sonya asked from the armchair that she was sitting in.

"NO!" Dimitri and I turned and yelled at the same time.

She flopped back into the chair, a disgruntled look on her face. "I would be more assistance there than I am here." She mumbled.

"We can't take on that many guardians that will want to kill us." Dimitri started the argument again.

"Yah, well we can't take on that many politicians that want to know if I can be trusted." I said back, "I'd rather face the guardians."

"We have to find some other way. I refuse to break one of the most dangerous Moroi out of prison- a highly guarded prison none the less- just so the council will be placated!"

"Placated or not, I need to be on that council so I can bring peace to this twisted world." I said calmly, hoping to make him see reason.

"Can I please go with?" Sonya asked from her arm chair again.

We both turned toward her."NO!"

"Humph." She crossed her arms like a rebellious teen.

"We're not doing it!" Dimitri said, standing up and walking to me so he towered over my head.

"Yes we are." I said back, in a cold harsh tone. At this point we were both matched in strength, so it would be a pointless fight.

"No." He growled.

"Yes." I retorted.

We stared at each other. But before we could argue further, Dimitri grabbed me around the waist and pulled me up to him so our lips could meet. "Cheater," I stated as we broke apart, foreheads still resting peacefully together.

"It's your fault." He told me softly.

"How is this, my fault?" I asked, a trace of a smile in my low voice.

"You're too beautiful for your own good."

Sonya interrupted our pleasant moment. "Rose, this just seems wrong. I am your old teacher and watching you make-out with a man who is –what, five years your senior- is not what I would like to be doing right now." I laughed softly and Dimitri chuckled as he set me back on my feet.

I swear I heard Dimitri mutter, "seven" but I'm not really sure.

"Sorry, Ms. Karp. I swear I'll never do it again." I said in my best impression of a little school girl.

"I didn't say that I was your teacher. Just a previous one that did not want to witness you two tearing each other's clothes off."

Dimitri looked scandalized. He never did talk about his love life, and what he just did- in front of a person no less- was horrific. I laughed at him. "Now whose fault is it?"

**VA**

"Abe… I know that you are king now and this goes against everything that you stand for…" I kept trying to separate business from family, but I just couldn't help what came out of my mouth next. "But will you do it for your daughter who loves her daddy very much?" I think he even heard the puppy dog eyes drifting through the phone. Dimitri just stood in front of me in Sonya's garden, with a smile on his face, shaking his head.

Abe sighed over the cell phone that I held to my ear. He had caved, just as I suspected. I repressed the giggle that was close to escaping my lips. I so had him wrapped around my pinky. I winked at Dimitri, thinking I had him on my other pinky finger.

"Alright," Abe said, "But this can't be connected to me. And this will never happen again."

"Riiiiight," I rolled my eyes. "Keep tellin' yourself that Old Man. Once a Mafia Crime Lord always a Mafia Crime Lord."

"I wasn't a Crime Lord!" He told me sternly through the phone.

"What were you if not acutely involved in the underworld of drugs and weapons?" I asked him.

He scoffed. "I was more like a King."

"Can you say 'conceited'?"

"Conce-" he stopped abruptly. "Nope. Sorry to disappoint."

"Ugh. Useless." I chuckled. "So are you going to get everything for me or not?"

"Of course I will. If I was anything I was honest." I was about to say something like how honesty really didn't run in the family, but I heard the beep of the dial tone before I could.

I sighed, closed the phone, and slipped it in my pocket. Dimitri wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into a deep kiss in the middle of all the blooming flowers.

"So is he going to get it?" Dimitri asked when he pulled away.

"Yes." I pulled out of his embrace and looked him in the eyes. "We will have every single once of information on Viktor Dashkov and brother by the end of tomorrow."

Alright, there it is! I am sorry for the long wait. I hoped that you guys enjoyed it and thank you so much for all of the reviews for the last chapter. I just started costuming a play, so I cannot guarantee an update once a day, or every other day, but you will at least get one once a week. I don't care if one of my actors has to go on naked- I will get this story up!