Hey, here's the second chapter, like I promised. I am not going to post the third chapter until tomorrow. My wrists ache from being at the computer too long. I also want to inform everyone that I will be going on vacation on Saturday for two weeks, then I plunge right into school... like I have to leave vacation early so I can go to school. Yea, I know. Anyways... I will try my very best not to leave you hanging. I put my other story on hold so I don't feel guilty about updating this one instead. I'm thinking that I will be awesome and give you two chapters tomorrow... I don't know for sure yet though. I think I owe it to you guys for starting this right before I go on vacation. So we will see.

And with that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!

ENJOY!

We had taken the two girls to the Academy's private jet pretty quietly. We all boarded the jet and prepared for take-off. That's when I noticed that the girls where sitting close together whispering. No way. That was not going to fly.

"Don't let them talk to each other," I said to the guard ten feet away from them. What? Was he blind? They were clearly concocting a plan to escape again. These girls where smart, we all had to keep that in mind. "Five minutes together, and they'll come up with an escape plan." Rosemarie gave me a haughty look that told me that they had been brewing a plan up to escape again. She looked away and stormed down the aisle. I had to suppress a grin. This girl was a piece of work. A beautiful piece of work, actually.

I closed my eyes tight for a few seconds. I shouldn't be thinking like that. It's completely inappropriate. It's wrong. I opened my eyes and went up front with the Princess. Vasilisa looked frightened. There must have been a reason that these two underage girls escaped the Academy. Rosemarie seemed so attuned to Vasilisa. It was like they shared the same mind, yet they were completely different. I wonder…. I wonder if they have a bond?

I suddenly heard a soft thud; I had dropped my water bottle on the floor. I leaned over and retrieved it. The Princess took in a heavy breath. I guessed she noticed my molnija marks. I had six. A Guardian received molnija marks when he or she kills a Strigoi. Six is considered quite a lot to most people; I could see Vasilisa stiffen slightly as I straightened up.

I sat up in the front of the jet until the flight was almost over; I wanted to ask Rosemarie some things. I walked back to where she was sitting and traded places with the Guardian that was already there. I sat down and she pointedly turned her head to the window, making it strikingly obvious that she was not in the mood to talk.

I sat there for a few moments before my curiosity got the better of me, "Where you really going to attack all of us?" I asked, it was a question that has been running through my head ever since she leapt at me.

She didn't answer. In fact, she didn't even respond at all.

"Doing that… protecting her like that- it was very brave." I said at last, I didn't know what exactly I wanted to say, but I wanted to say something. I paused, "Stupid, but brave. Why did you even try it?" I asked. Not really expecting an answer. Surprisingly, she turned her head and brushed her hair out of her face o look at my levelly.

"Because I'm her Guardian." She simply said, and turned back to the window. I didn't tell her that I was, in fact, the Princess's Guardian, officially. I let that sink in a bit before I got up and left. She was older than she seemed. She knew what she was responsible for and took it seriously. Vasilisa meant a lot to her, I could tell. I went back to the front of the jet for the remainder of the flight.

When we finally landed, we all shuffled into a large SUV, and made our way to the Academy. We stopped at the gate, "Hello Guardian Belikov, you finally rounded them up, huh?" the gate attendant said with a smirk. I politely smiled back a nodded at him. He opened the gates to let us in, I sighed a huge sigh of relief. We had finally brought Rosemarie Hathaway and Vasilisa Dragomir back to the Academy.

It was about sunset,-the start of the vampiric day- and the campus lay wrapped in shadows. The school wasn't as old as the ones in Europe, but it had been built in the same way. The building boasted elaborate, almost churchlike architecture, with high peaks, and stone carvings. Wrought iron gates enclosed small gardens and doorways here and there. We were on the secondary campus, which was divided into upper and lower level schools. As we walked into the main part of the upper school, Rosemarie broke from her Guardian and came up to me.

""Hey, Comrade." Comrade? Where the hell did that come from? I kept walking ignoring her.

"You want to talk now?" I said. I was being childish.

""Are you taking us to Kirova?" she asked, no respect.

"Headmistress Kirova," I corrected her. I say her glance at the Princess but didn't catch the look she gave Rosemarie.

"Headmistress. Whatever. She's still a self-righteous old bit-" her words faded as she realized where we were taking her- straight through the commons. There were about a dozen different ways to get to Headmistress Kirova's office, but we haven't spent almost a whole year looking for these two to not show off a little. It was good timing too- breakfast time. Everyone was in the dining hall, novice guardians, Dhampirs, and Moroi all sat laughing, socializing, and eating. When we entered all that stopped. Everyone stared at the two girls. They were quite famous for their "disappearance".

Their walk of shame ended at Headmistress Kirova's office. I knocked on her door and entered. Most of the Guardians dispersed to go do whatever they had to do; only Guardian Alberta Petrov and I stayed behind. We stood up behind everyone against the wall.

Headmistress Kirova opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by a deep, gentle voice coming from the corner.

"Vasilisa."

I looked over to where the voice came from and noticed that it was Prince Victor Dashkov. With a great deal of effort, he rose from the corner chair and the Princess sprang up and ran to him, throwing her arms around his frail body. "Uncle." She whispered. He smiled and gently patted her back. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you safe, Vasilisa." He looked over to Rosemarie. "And you too, Rose." She nodded at him; it looked like she was trying to hide her shock. Shock from what, I don't know. Headmistress Kirova let them have a few moments before drawing the Princess back to her seat. Ahhh, time for the lecture. I was actually looking forward to this; it would be kind of comical to watch. Vasilisa's lecture wasn't what I thought it would be, but that was kind of expected, I spaced out a few times during hers, I know I wasn't the only one though, Rose-as she liked to be called, apparently- was looking out the window looking every bit as spacey as she probably was.

"You, Miss Hathaway, broke the most sacred promise among our kind: the promise of a guardian to protect a Moroi. It is a great trust. A trust that you violated by selfishly taking the Princess away from here. The Strigoi would love to finish off the Dragomirs; you nearly enabled them to do it." She said, her voice cold, showing just how much she actually disliked Rose.

"Rose didn't kidnap me." Vasilisa spoke timidly, it was plainly clear that she was nervous. Rose just looked bored. "I wanted to go. Don't blame her." Ahhh. Even more evidence as to how close these two actually are. There is no doubt in my mind that these two girls have a bond.

Headmistress Kirova tsked at them both and paced the office, hands folded behind her narrow back.

"Miss Dragomir, you could have been the one to orchestrate the entire plan for all I know, but it was still her responsibility to make sure you didn't carry it out. If shed done her duty, she would have kept you safe."

That's when Rose snapped.

"I did do my duty!" she shouted, jumping up from her chair. Alberta and I both flinched, but made no move to restrain her, that was until she became violent... Which was very much possible. "I did keep her safe! I kept her safe when none of you"- she made a sweeping gesture around the room-"could do it. I took her away to protect her. I did what I had to do. You certainly weren't going to." Rose and the Princess definitely knew something that we did not, otherwise what she just said would have made a lot more sense.

Kirova stared at her, probably trying to figure out what she was talking about. "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's something you aren't telling us?" Rose bit her lip. It was bluntly obvious to me, I don't know how Kirova could miss this, but they were definitely keeping something a secret.

"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 right before your disappearance."

"No, that's not-" Kirova cut her off.

"And that only makes my decision that much easier. As a Moroi, the Princess must continue on 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 just stared at her.

"I… what?"

Vasilisa stood up beside her. "You can't do that! She's my Guardian." She said.

"She is no such thing, particularly because 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, and she will leave." Rose looked at her with disbelief, even I though that she was being a little bit harsh.

"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?" she hissed, Headmistress Kirova's eyes narrowed at the bite in that last word. When Rose spoke again, her voice went right to my spine, chilling me. "Or maybe you'll try to send me off to be a blood whore. Try that, and we'll be gone by the end of the day." I didn't doubt that for one minute, actually. They were very capable of breaking out of here again.

"Miss Hathaway, you are out of line." Kirova hissed at her, she was absolutely seething now. If nobody spoke up for her, she would be gone, either by her own way or my Kirova, and I couldn't let that happen. We couldn't let a bond like that go to waste, there hasn't been a bond like this in over centuries.

"They have a bond." I said, stepping forward. My voice broke the tension in the room and everybody turned to look at me. I looked straight at Rose, looked into her beautiful eyes… no, no, no. Stop it. Not here, not now, not EVER! "Rose knows what Vasilisa is feeling. Don't you?" I asked her, composing myself before anyone could notice my slip up

It was a change to see Headmistress Kirova of guard; she glanced between me and the girls. "No… that's impossible. That hasn't happened in centuries."

"It's obvious," I said. "I suspected as soon as I started watching them." The room stayed quiet and Rose turned from me, only proving my suspicions.

"This is a gift," murmured Victor from his corner. "A rare and wonderful thing."

"The best Guardians always had a bond," I added, "in the stories.

"Headmistress Kirova's outrage returned. "Stories that are centuries old," she exclaimed. "Surely you aren't suggesting that we let her stay at the Academy after everything she's done?"

I shrugged, "She might be wild and disrespectful, but if she has potential-" Rose cut me off.

"Wild and disrespectful?" she yelled. "Who the hell are you anyways? Outsourced help?" Ouch. What had I said? Oh yeah, that she as disrespectful.

"Guardian Belikov is the Princess's Guardian now," said Kirova a bit smugly, "Her sanctioned Guardian."

"You got cheap foreign labor to protect Lissa?" Double ouch. Couldn't she see that I was trying to help her? Didn't she want to stay here? What was with this girl? No. More like what was with me? Why did I care if she were to stay here or not? It's not like she particularly fond of me, and I to her. Actually she is starting to annoy me. Greatly so. But I think she felt bad for saying that, the look in her eyes said she did. She still was getting on my nerves, but I couldn't let anything happen to her… I mean the bond. I couldn't let them be separated; this bond was something that needed to be taken seriously. It was a gift, like Prince Victor Dashkov had said earlier. That is why I am helping her. The bond. I am helping her because she is bonded with the Princess.

Headmistress Kirova threw her hands up in exasperation and turned to face me. "You see? Completely undisciplined! All the psychic bonds and very raw potential in the world can't make up for that. A Guardian without discipline is worse than no Guardian at all." Now that just wasn't true. Yes, Discipline is very important in the profession, but having an undisciplined Guardian is better than leaving some Moroi completely defenseless against the Strigoi.

"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." She said.

"No, I wont," Rose jumped in, only to be ignored. I wonder if Headmistress Kirova even heard her speak.

"Then give her extra training sessions." I said, this was ridiculous. How hard was this going to be? Headmistress Kirova and I kept on discussing who this was going to work, Rose Vasilisa and Prince Victor just sat and watched us, I don't know why I was being so persistent about this.

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

"I stopped talking for a second, she couldn't be serious. "Well, that's not what I-" the Headmistress crossed her arms in satisfaction.

"Yes. That's what I thought." She said, with a smug smile playing on her lips. I frowned. I don't know if I could handle mentoring Rose. She was a definite pain in the ass, and she definitely could use a filter on that mouth of hers. But strangely, I knew how to fix these things. And I wanted to. Which scared me. I made sure my face didn't display anything that was going on in my head. I looked over to the two girls sitting in front of me. They had big pleading eyes that just begged me to do as they pleased. I couldn't say no to them. It was absolutely impossible. Rose's eyes especially. They were like little pools of melted chocolate. These girls were runaways. They had broken out of a high-security school and swiped half of the Princess's inheritance. Clearly they needed help. They were running away from something, something horrible enough to have to leave the Academy. That's when I made my choice. If nobody else here can see what is going on then I have to help them, they can't do it by themselves. I sighed and looked over to Kirova.

"Yes," I said finally. "I can mentor Rose. I'll give her extra sessions along with her normal ones." I knew that I would regret this. I just knew it, but I couldn't say no to them. To her.

"And then what?" retorted Kirova angrily, she wanted Rose out. "She goes unpunished?"

"Find some other way to punish her," Yea, my intelligent response. "Guardian numbers have gone down too much to risk losing another. A girl, in particular." A comment Rose earlier came to mind, about her getting sent off to be a blood whore. Those communities weren't what everyone makes them out to be. I didn't understand what was so wrong about it, I grew up in one of those communities, I had not so much appreciated the Moroi men, but I had been quite happy.

Victor suddenly spoke from his corner, "I'm inclined to agree with Guardian Belikov. Sending Rose away would be a shame, a waste of talent."

The headmistress stared out her window, it was completely black outside. When she turned back around the Princess began to speak. "Please, Ms. Kirova. Let Rose stay." She said in a hypnotizing voice, I blinked a couple of times I was suddenly wary. Was the Princess trying to use compulsion on the Headmistress to let Rose stay? Could she actually do that? No Moroi had enough power in compulsion to use it on another Moroi. I don't know whether it worked or now, but finally, Kirova sighed.

""If Miss Hathaway stays, here's how it will be." She turned to look Rose in the eyes. "Your continued enrollment at St. Vladimir's is strictly probationary. Step out of line once, and your gone. You will attend all classes and required trainings for novices your age. You will also train with Guardian Belikov every spare moment you have- before and after classes. Other than that, you are banned from all social activities, except meals, and will stay in your dorm. Fail to comply with any of this, and you will be sent… away." Rose barked out a laugh.

"Banned from all social activities? Are you trying to keep us apart?" she leaned into Vasilisa. "Afraid we'll run away again?"

"I'm taking precautions. As I'm sure you'll recall, you were never properly punished for destroying school property. You have a lot to make up for." Kirova pursed her lips. "You are being offered a very generous deal. I suggest you don't let your attitude endanger it." I was with Kirova with that one. Rose needed to watch that attitude of hers. I had a feeling it has gotten her in a lot of trouble before, and no doubt will get her into heaps of trouble in the future.

Rose started to say something, then she caught my eye. I gave her a look that said, you are being an idiot. This is a very generous offer, do not screw it up. She looked away from me and seemed to be contemplating something. She exhaled loudly and glanced back up to the headmistress.

"Fine. I accept."

Whoo... that was a long one... like almost 3,500 words. That's crazy! And now you see why my wrists are all achey. So like I said before, I will not be posting the third chapter until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest. I don't know about the fourth chapter yet, it depends on how long they both are. And, as stated before, I will be gone starting Saturday for two weeks. I know its brutal, Then i go straight to school. So I will do my best.

Please don't forget to review, just press the little button. It's calling for you. Let me know what you liked, what you didn't, what you wanna see.. all that stuff... Please, as many authors do, I accept criticism, just don't go bitching me out.

Thanks again.

Much love,

~Brittany3

Oh, P.S. I DON'T OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT THE THOUGHTS THAT I PUT IN HIS HEAD. EVERYTHING ELSE GOES TO RICHELLE MEAD, THE AUTHOR OF THE VAMPIRE ACADEMY NOVELS