Hope you guys are liking it so far. Do you think I got Dimitri's personality right?

Disclaimer - I don't own VA or it's characters, that privelage goes to Richelle Mead.


-Chapter 2-

We took them to the airport with out much hassle, for which I was thankful. But that was before I noticed the girls whispering.

"Separate them," I ordered to the other guardians. "Don't let them talk to each other," I warned to the guardian escorting Rose onto the Academy's private jet. "Five minutes together, and they'll come up with an escape plan." I never got the easy tasks.

I got a sharp look from Rose before she stormed off down the aisle of the plane, and knew instantly that they had been trying to escape.

I went to sit by Vasilisa, staying alert and sharp in case Rose did come up with an escape plan. But once we were in the air—and the chances of the girls escaping were at the minimum—I relaxed a little, I didn't want to scare Vasilisa by being so tensed up. That didn't stop her from being terrified though, her fear radiating off her like a bomb. I wanted to comfort her, but feared that would make things worse.

"Rose will make a great guardian someday," I said in an even voice, trying to calm her anyway. "You'll be lucky to have her around to protect you, she would make a great guardian anyway from what I've heard, but guarding her best friend will make her an even greater one. Trust me." And maybe a little something extra will help to, I added to myself.

Vasilisa shot me a terrified glance and when I looked over to her, I saw her facing straight ahead, fear ingrained onto her face. She clutched a water bottle tightly and that was when I realised that I had become slightly parched after the chase.

I reached forward to the floor to grab a bottle of my own. As soon as I leant down, I remembered that I had my shoulder-length dark hair pulled back, and that Vasilisa would have a clear view of my promise mark, a snake like line across the top of my neck that marked I was a guardian, and my molnija marks, six tiny lightening-crossed tattoos that marked each Strigoi I had killed. Six was a fairly large number for someone my age, but it earnt me respect among the guardians. But to Vasilisa, it would spike her fear even further, so I casually pulled myself back up, forgetting all about the water.

About half an hour out from Montana, I went to sit by Rose—in all my worry about the princess being alright, I had forgotten that Rose was the one who had faced the most injury tonight—and as soon as I did, she abundantly turned her head towards the window.

After several moments of pure silence between us, I spoke. "Were you really going to attack all of us?" I had wanted to know, because it was something I never thought capable of a novice.

After she didn't say anything, I had my answer.

"Doing that… protecting her like that—it was very brave." I paused for a moment, thinking that I shouldn't encourage her in case something much worse happened to her if she tried it ever again. "Stupid, but still brave. Why did you try it?"

She looked me levelly in the eye, brushing her long hair out of her face. "Because I'm her guardian." And she went back to staring out the window.

I took a second to think about that. Rose was still a novice, still training to become a guardian, Vasilisa's guardian. She had a serious understanding of Vasilisa's feelings, she knew how terrified Vasilisa was on that street, and that's why she tried to attack me. But once Vasilisa gave off a more calm feeling, Rose calmed. I wondered if it could really be like the old stories my grandmother had told me as a boy.

I stood up and returned to sit with Vasilisa until the end of the flight.

After we landed, the girls realised that they had no choice but to be driven back to the Academy, the entire trip was silent. When we reached the Academy's gates, it took only a moment for the two guardians on duty to realize that we weren't Strigoi and that we had finally brought back Princess Dragomir. They gave us small praise as we continued on through the gate.

I saw Rose looking around, remembering, and the way she looked at it… This school, like the one I had attended in Siberia, was very old and gothic, the Moroi loved to stay with tradition. And St. Vladimir's wasn't even as old as the one I had graduated from, but it still had the brick archways that reminding me of really old cathedrals and wrought iron gates enclosing small gardens all over the campus.

Montana did have loveliness to it that I enjoyed. It had a view too; there was space everywhere here. Wildly beautiful forests surrounding the edge of the entire campus, and the mountains you could see in the distance were marvelous. During the day, they were spectacular. Now, just on sunset—the start of the vampiric day—they had much more beauty.

I didn't pay attention to the surroundings for too long; I walked the girls across to the upper campus, and it didn't take long for Rose to break away from her place to come beside me.

"Hey, Comrade."

I said nothing and kept walking; my brow furrowed just the slightest bit. Where had she come up with 'Comrade'? It had to be that satirical Rose Hathaway nature I had heard so much about. "You want to talk now?" I finally said.

"Are you taking us to Kirova?"

"Headmistress Kirova," I corrected, for the pure purpose of hoping to annoy her. It almost made me smile.

"Headmistress. Whatever. She's still a self-righteous old bit—"

Her ramblings faded as we walked through the big set of double doors that led straight into the commons. There were a dozen other possible routes to take to Kirova's office—Rose knew that as well as I did—but this was just too much fun to miss.

Because it was breakfast time. Every dhampir novice and Moroi in the room stopped their chatter and clinking of cutlery on plates and bowls. And the hundred sets of eyes all turned their attention to the two girls on either side of me.

I began to regret my decision to bring them through here, thinking it would be punishment enough for them, but as we walked through and I saw Vasilisa try to hide herself from her classmates, ashamed, and I realized what a huge mistake I had made. Rose on the other side of me was defiantly staring down anyone she could lay eyes on and I would have shaken my head at her, but decided it best to keep my guardian face.

I felt relief for the girls when we made it into Headmistress Kirova's office—most of the guardians left us while myself and Alberta, captain of the school's guardians, remained behind—but when I saw the look on her face, my hardness on the girls seemed like I had given them lollipops or even a million dollars for running away. Once Kirova opened her mouth, I hardened, knowing the worst of it was coming.

My lip upturned just the tiniest bit as Kirova opened her mouth, but something in me began to feel sorry for the girls as they were about to endure Kirova's wrath, they were just a couple of teenagers after all. No. Rose may have been young and stupid when they left, but she understood what it meant to be a guardian, and Vasilisa was the last of the Dragomir line, not an Ivashkov.

Just a Kirova was about to start, Prince Victor Dashkov spoke from the corner. I had noticed his presence, but thought he might have at least waited until Kirova was finished before speaking up, royal or not.

"Vasilisa," he whispered as he struggled to rise himself from the chair he was sitting in. Vasilisa got up herself and wrapped her arms around him, perhaps a little too tightly.

I had straightened myself up just a little more. It was just a natural reaction I had around royals, but with Victor it was something different.

I had met Victor upon my arrival to St. Vladimir's a few months ago. He was the one who had had me reassigned here after my last charge had… well, he had helped me out, but I didn't trust him. He had always put me on edge whenever I was around him.

He told me he had got me sent to the Academy specifically because he wanted me to be the one to bring the princess back. But he never seemed too concerned for Rose. Whenever it came up about what to do with her, he would wave it off, telling me to do what needed to be done, and I wondered if he had even wanted be to bring her back. And if not, why didn't he want me to bring back the best possible guardian for Vasilisa? No one would make a better guardian for the last Dragomir princess than her best friend and possibly the person she had an extra connection with. He always had an eagerness to have Vasilisa—and only Vasilisa—back.

"Uncle," Vasilisa whispered. Royals liked to use family terms like this loosely among each other, mostly the ones they were closest to though.

He managed a smile as he patted her back. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you safe, Vasilisa." He glanced at Rose. "And you too, Rose." My back stiffened even further. The fact Vasilisa had called him uncle—although Moroi royals loosely used family terms anyway—had made me think that maybe this was why he wanted her back so bad, but that still didn't explain to me why he had never seemed to mind if Rose didn't come back. Either way, I pushed it to the back of my mind, I would have to keep an eye on Victor though; I just couldn't voice my suspicions about such a high class royal until I knew for sure there was something going on with him.

I looked at Rose; she was horrified by the way the prince looked. He had a rare disease that would stop him from rising to be king. Shame really. But as Rose looked at his extra pale, withered body and shaking hands, she felt sorry for him. I did too, though—slightly.

After a few more moments, Kirova pushed Vasilisa back to her seat.

And the lecture began.

I had witnessed a few of Kirova's lectures on other students, and even plenty towards myself after my few failed attempts at bringing the princess back, but this one was pure gold. I paid attention for a short while though; it only covered everything I knew Rose probably knew better than most guardians and novices: lack of responsibility, reckless behavior, self centeredness… etc. When the rant shifted more specifically to Rose, I listened more carefully.

"…the most sacred promise among our kind: the promise of a guardian to protect a Moroi. It is a great trust…" I stopped listening when she continued about putting the last Dragomir in danger of Strigoi.

Vasilisa argued for Rose, trying to convince Kirova that it was her idea; and I wondered. If the princess felt she needed to get away out of fear, Rose had to have known how deep that fear went…

When Rose started yelling, things got interesting.

"I did do my duty!" she shouted, jumping from her chair. I flinched forward—as did Alberta—but since Rose wasn't throwing hits to anyone just yet, I kept back. "I did keep her safe! I kept her safe when none of you"—she swept the room, and I noticed Prince Victor raise his eyebrows and straighten up, but looking interested in her words, not shocked—"could do it. I took her away to protect her. I did what I had to do. You certainly weren't going to." That was an interesting point.

Vasilisa looked like she was trying to force Rose to be calm without words or gestures, and if my suspicions were correct, she wouldn't need them.

"Miss Hathaway, forgive me if I fail to see the logic of how taking her out of a heavily guarded, magically secured environment is protecting her. Unless there is something you aren't telling us?"

I watched Rose carefully, looking for any sign that she knew more than she was telling. She bit her lip. I then decided to try and find out what it was that Rose wasn't saying.

"I see. Well, then. By my estimation, the only reason you left—aside from the novelty of it, no doubt—was to avoid the consequences of that horrible, destructive stunt you pulled just before your disappearance."

"No, that's not—" She definitely had something else to hide.

"And that only makes my decision that much easier. As a Moroi, the princess must continue her education here at the Academy for her own safety, but we have no such obligations to you. You will be sent away as soon as possible."

Rose's argumentative attitude dried up. "I… what?"

Vasilisa stood up. "You can't do that! She's my guardian."

"She is no such thing, particularly since she isn't even a guardian at all. She's still a novice."

"But my parents—"

"I know what your parents wanted, God rest their souls, but things have changed. Miss Hathaway is expendable. She doesn't deserve to be a guardian, she will leave." Kirova calling Rose expendable hit a nerve. All novices should be given the opportunity to become guardians. But just as I was about to speak up, Rose came back to Earth.

"Where are you going to send me? To my mom in Nepal? Did she even know I was gone? Or maybe you'll send me off to my father?"

Kirova's eyes narrowed harshly at the edge in Rose's last word. So Rose didn't know who her father was? I felt a twinge of guilt for this, but then I remembered my father, and how I would have been better off not knowing who he was; maybe Rose was lucky, like most other dhampir's were.

"Or maybe you're going to try to send me off to be a blood whore. Try that and we'll be gone by the end of the day." Rose's words were so cold I saw Vasilisa looked a bit scared of her. I knew that a commune was the only option for Rose, she'd said it herself; she had nowhere else to go. I knew personally that not all dhampir communes were filled of nothing but blood whores—as much as I hated using that term, there was no other alternative description—but Rose was young, she was too valuable as guardian to let go.

"Miss Hathaway," Kirova hissed out, "you are out of line." Kirova's tone made it clear that if expelled, she would be left to fend for herself, and where else would she go but a commune. I knew I had to speak up, tell Kirova and everyone else in the room of my suspicions concerning the girls. Rose was not expendable.

"They have a bond." My voice broke the heavy tension that filled the room, and Kirova looked at me in surprise, but more like she hadn't known I was in the room, at least I knew I was doing my job right. When everyone turned to look at me—including Victor, who looked a little too eager about what I had just said—I wished I hadn't said anything. But I looked at Rose and as she looked back at me, something inside me switched, and I really knew that she had to stay, not just for Vasilisa. "Rose knows what Vasilisa is feeling, don't you."

Now Kirova was shocked by what I had actually said. "No… that's impossible. That hasn't happened for centuries."

"It's obvious," I told her. "I suspected as soon as I started watching them." I just hadn't realised it until a while after that.

Rose finally looked away, unresponsive.

"That is a gift," Victor murmured from the corner. "A rare and wonderful thing."

I quickly eyed Victor—he still had that face on that made me feel uncomfortable about his real intentions. "The best guardians always had that bond," I added, reinforcing that Rose was the best choice to guard Vasilisa. "In the stories." They were just myths after all; but apparently not.

Kirova became outraged again. "Stories that are centuries old," she cried. "Surely you aren't suggesting we let her stay at the Academy after everything she's done?"

I shrugged, trying to make it seem like I cared a lot less than I actually did "She might be wild ad disrespectful, but if she has potential—"

"Wild and disrespectful?" Rose interrupted. "Who the hell are you anyway? Outsourced help?"

"Guardian Belikov is the princess's guardian now," Kirova said harshly. This was the first I had heard of this, but I kept a surprised look off my face for now. "Her sanctioned guardian."

"You got cheap foreign labor to protect Lissa?"

I stood there, wondering if I was making the right decision. Maybe it was a waste of time keeping Rose here. Well I certainly didn't want to help her any further than getting her to stay here.

Kirova threw up her hands. "You see? Completely undisciplined! All the psychic bond and very raw potential in the world can't make up for that. A guardian without discipline is worse than no guardian." As much as I agreed with that statement, I wasn't about to admit it.

"So teach her discipline. Classes just started. Put her back in and get her training again."

"Impossible. She'll still be hopelessly behind her peers." I could have sworn it was almost like Kirova was under some sort of spell, a spell that was trying to make her send Rose away, but she had to have no other alternative, spell or no.

"Then give her extra training sessions," I said. No one could argue that she needed them anyway.

"Who's going to put in the extra time? Kirova demanded. "You?"

I stopped. No! I hadn't wanted this. I just wanted Vasilisa, who was apparently my charge now too, to have a good guardian. Kirova thought I was the best choice, but I had to disagree. "Well that's not what I—"

She crossed her arms, satisfied. "Yes. That's what I thought."

I frowned. My gaze flicked over to the girls. There I saw their big pleading eyes, and I fought hard to remember they were reckless runaways. And when I looked at Rose…

"Yes," I said finally, but it wasn't what I wanted. But realizing that I did have the extra time to help Rose and that I strongly agreed all novices should have the chance to become a guardian, I had no choice. "I can mentor Rose. I'll give her extra sessions along with her normal ones."

"And then what?" Kirova retorted. "She goes unpunished?" She really wanted Rose to leave it seemed. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Victor have a look of triumph on his face. Clearly he was behind wanting Rose to leave. But why?

"Find some other way to punish her." I wasn't about to let Rose leave just because she was a little reckless. And I certainly wasn't about to let her leave if Victor wanted her to. That would Vasilisa in even more risk. "Guardian numbers have gone down too much to risk losing another. A girl in particular." It always looked suspicious when a girl Moroi was being followed by two men—both of which were older than her most of the time.

Victor spoke next. "I'm inclined to agree with Guardian Belikov. Sending Rose away would be a shame, a waste of talent." I eyed him briefly. He wasn't fooling me, I read his face so easily, it was like someone had burned I'm up to something across his forehead.

Kirova stared thoughtfully out the tinted window into the black night.

"Please Ms. Kirova. Let Rose stay." Vasilisa said when Kirova turned around and she met Vasilisa's eyes.

That was strange. Anyone would swear Vasilisa was actually trying to use compulsion on Kirova. No, I told myself. That was stupid to think.

Finally, Kirova sighed. "If Miss Hathaway stays, here's how it will be." She face Rose. "Your continued enrollment at St. Vladimir's is strictly probationary. Step out of line once, and you're gone. You will attend all classes and required training for novice's your age. You will also train with Guardian Belikov in every spare moment you have—before and after classes. Other than that, you are banned from all social activities, except meals, and you will stay in your dorm. Fail to comply with any of this. And you will be sent… away."

Rose gave out a harsh laugh. "Banned from all social activities? Are you trying to keep us apart? Afraid we'll run away again?"

Yes, I saw written all over Kirova's face. "I'm taking precautions. As I'm sure you recall, you were never properly punished for destroying school property. You have a lot to make up for." Her lips tightened even further. "You are being offered a very generous deal. I suggest you don't let your attitude endanger it."

Rose started to protest, but caught my eye. I tried to tell her she was an idiot if she tried to argue, and that I believe she could get through this, for Vasilisa. But I didn't think she got it.

After several moments, she exhaled heavily, looking back up to Kirova.

"Fine. I accept."