A/N: Thank you all for reading this :) I hope you enjoy this new chapter. I can't stress this enough but I LOVE reviews so please leave me a line or something :)

I darted down the hallway, ankle high boots clicking on the soft linoleum towards the banquet hall. I was running late, Lissa and every single one of the Royal would have arrived by now. Prince Badica was probably already whispering things in Lissa's ear about how incompetent I was. She had a vendetta against me since I made her family look like a bunch of fools last Christmas when their daughter thought she should be queen instead of Lissa. It didn't turn out well. I wasn't really worried about Lissa turning on me because of a few words from some hoity Royal but I could feel Lissa's worry. After all I was never late for Guardian stuff. Never. She probably thought this had something to do with the new she gave me the night before. She'd be a tiny bit right.

Andrerws and Morris watched me run down the hallway from thier post outside the banquet door. Morris had been working here for years and it was beginning to show. He looked weathered and grey, I am not looking forward to the day he leaves. He was the perfect Guardian around here. Hardley ever seen or heard, for the first few years there was this saying. If you saw Morris you better run or fight. He didn't talk much so I didnt know him that well but I felt like we were made of the same cloth. The thought stuff. Andrews on the other hand was completely different. We had bets around the Dhampir's on how long he would last being a Guardian. He was cocky but at the same time when it came to the big stuff he could never make a decision himself. He harassed all of the women around, there were so few of us that it was funny, we compared techniques. He had only harassed me the one time but it was enough. It wasn't hard to decline his offer of showing me the "Horizontal Tango." He was a year behind me at the acadamy and no doubt heard everything that went around my junoir year, so to him I wasn't just badass Rose, I was a whore. I could see in his eyes, everytime I passed, that he wanted to conquer me. Like I was some fucking sand box he could piss in and no one would come near. Boys.

As I passed the two of them, I saw that same look in his eyes. Thankfully he'd be stuck at the door all night and I could avoid his creepy eyes undressing me from across the room.

Lissa looked regal, like a real Queen. Sometimes I forgot who we were, our titles and such, but seeing her like this there was no forgetting it. She was Queen. Her white dress, sparkled in the lighting, like the first snowfall in the mountains. A soft delicate lace spread up from her sweetheart neckline and swooped across her shoulders in a cinderella-esqe way. Next to her Christian looked pitiful and awkward. His suit was a faded black that really stood out next to the pure whiteness of Lissa's dress. The red tie around his neck was not properly tied;. I chuckled to myself, if the other Royals had any say about it, Christian would be out of Lissa's life just by how he dressed himself.

"Hathaway." Christian sneered at me as I took my place at Lissa's elbow.

"Ozera." I grunted with a smirk. We had this hatred but respect for each other. We respected what we each meant to Lissa with the knowledge that the other was more uncontrollable. Oh what a fantasy world we lived in.

"Children." Lissa's voice soft with playfulness as a group of Zeklos sauntered their way up to Lissa. Jesse batted his long eyelashes my way, no doubt hoping to finish what we started in junior year. I could not control the roll of my eyes as I remembered it. If he seriously thought anything would happen now, 6 years later, he was obviously more delusional then I was.

The party began to wind down fairly late, at 6 a.m still more then half of the royals were still schmoozing up with Lissa. Luckily Jason, Lissa's new Gaurdian after Dimitri left, came up and offered me a break from all the Royal bull shit I couldn't stand. They were all so fake and pretty. Seriously, why couldn't you say what you meant even if it was a bit ugly?

"You're New hair really suits you Roza." his smell hit me before his voice did. Dimitri was here tonight, but of course he was. I'm sure Lord Tarus was here somewhere trying to find a moment to push Lissa into that Law he wants passed. I turned slowly, not really wanting to have to face him when I was already so worn from tonight's activities. Pleasantries were not my thing. Hot Damn! He was even sexier then when he left. A soft pink scar cut jagged across his eyebrow, it was tiny really, I doubted anyone but me would notice it. But I always noticed everything about him. Like the way his grey eyes seemed dull and lifeless or the little five o'clock shadow that was covering his cheeks and jaw. Somebody forgot to shave when coming down for dinner.

"Yeah I decided it was time to get rid of the useless things in my life." I remarked trying to come off as calm and indifferent but the tone was harsh. Edgy, like my hair. "I've got to get back to Lissa. It was real nice seeing you again comrade." His hand shot out quick as lightning grabbing my bare forearm. Damn I had forgotten how fast he was, it almost scared me.

"Jason has everything under control," He said waving his fingers over at the man. It suddenly occurred to me that Jason hadn't being nice when he gave me a chance to walk away. This had been a set up. An anger swelled inside me that I found hard to control. It pulsed inside my chest each moment that I held it back and got worse until I felt like I couldn't breath. Instead of punching Dimitri in the face, or at least trying to, I yanked myself out of his grip.

"I wont abandon her, her last guardian already did that." I wanted to believe my sharp tongue stunned him into letting me walk away but I knew better. I didn't really care at that moment what it had been just that it had happened, and now I had to deal with someone else.

When I took my place next to Lissa again Jason started to walk away, I gripped his arm hard. I could feel his bones under my finger tips and it was all I could do not to snap them in anger.

"If you ever set me up like that again. I will do more then just break some bones." I muttered low enough for Lissa not to hear. The last thing she needed was to know her Guardians didn't see eye to eye on anything. She had a busy week coming up.

Finally the Banquet ended, everyone had left and Jason and I had walked Lissa back to her room. He didn't dare look at me crossly after my warning a few hours ago. I literally could not stand in these damn boots a moment longer, I slipped them off and ran towards me room. excited to be free to go to sleep. As long as Adrian stayed out of my dreams tonight. A few feet from the door of my room and arm snaked around me pressing against my mouth and nose. I could not breathe and every effort I made to free myself resulted in less breath for me. The world was turning cold and black when a burst of air rushed into my system. I fell the my knees, The man I assumed who had grabbed my lay on the floor. His leg broken at an odd angle, his bone was sticking out of his skin. Dimitri's grey eyes beckoned down at me, my head was spinning with what had just happened. The lack of oxygen to my brain just could not computer what was going on.

"Roza, run."