Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring

"Hello," he answers the phone

I barely speak above a whisper because I am starting to cry, I never cry but I know that after this call he will never forgive me.

"It wasn't safe for Lissa at the academy anymore so I took her with me when I left the compound. I need you to let everyone know that the princess is safe with me but that we aren't coming back, we have decided to make it on our own." The tears are running down my face at this point.

"Roza," his voice too is at a whisper.

All I can say is, "I'm sorry."

"Roza don't do this, you are going to get yourself killed. How could you this." I know at this point that he is angry.

"Goodbye, forever Dimitri."

He starts yelling "No, this isn't over Roza, don't you dare hang up the phone. Tell me where you are, this can still be fixed. It isn't over Roza…"

I hang up the phone because I know that I had to do this and I can't let him convince me that everything is going to be okay because it wouldn't not if Liss and I went back to that place. I didn't have another choice, but I knew this was the end of us and that very thought brought me to my knees. In a phone booth in the middle of small town Montana, I start uncontrollable and hysterically sobbing.

I wake up in a cold sweat, It's been two years since that night but it didn't seem to matter because just about every night I dreamed about it. It made it feel like it was just yesterday, I wondered how long it would take me to get over the pain. I sighed there was no point in staying in bed, it's not like I was going to be able to go back to bed. So instead I get up and head to the shower. As soon as I get out I smell bacon, Lissa must be trying to cook again.

I walk into the conjoined living room, kitchen of our small apartment and sure enough as soon as Lissa sees me she smiles.

"Rose I really think that I am getting the hang of this cooking thing."

I laugh, "Hmm does that mean that you at least didn't burn it to ash this time."

"It wasn't ash last time," she said defensively which just makes me laugh more.

"Whatever you say Liss," I answer as I grab up a piece of bacon, and inspect it. Well it looked like bacon, so how bad could it really be I thought. As soon as I take I bite, I spit it out.

"What the hell is this, it doesn't even taste like bacon."

This time she was the one laughing, "that's because it's not bacon, well not exactly. It's this stuff called tofu, apparently it has no meat in it and is super healthy."

"Oh my lord Liss, what kind of blood sucking vampire decided to try tofu."

She starts to pout, "You know I don't like the V word."

"Yeah well we are going to be late for school, so will you feed the beastie so that we can go."

"Rose he is not a beast, he's a cat," Lissa says. I just roll my eyes, grab my bag and head into the hallway to make sure everything is safe.

Ugh first period Pre-Calculus nothing is worse than this and it is completely unuseful. So instead I grab out my personal guarding grade 12 textbook, I order our textbooks right before we leave the city we are staying in so that I can keep up with my curriculum.

As soon as school is out I meet Lissa in the gym. She does her homework, while I do a work out and then have basketball practice. After that we pick up something to eat from our favorite chinese restaurant, before we head to my prefered gym, which fortunately has an electronics room where she can hang out on the computer, while I take my MMA class.

As soon as we walk through the door,

"Rose, I like it here when do we have to leave," Lissa whispers. I would never say it but I was with her, I actually really liked Portland, Unfortunately we had been here for almost three months which meant that we would have to leave next week.

I sigh, "We have to pack up and leave before next week," I answer her.

She gave me a sad look, "Where are we headed next?"

"I don't know is there somewhere in particular that you would like to go?"

She smiles, "well I was thinking that we could head south towards New Mexico."

I laugh, "why do you want to go to New Mexico, the heat down south will just be uncomfortable?" Why doesn't she ever think these things through?
"Well," she says, "I was thinking that since it is winter the heat won't be so bad and I would really like to visit Mexico."

Hmm, well there were definitely less Moroi in Mexico. Plus when summer comes it would be easier to come up north because they would be searching for us here anymore. It wasn't a bad idea.

"Alright Liss, let's start packing tomorrow.

"Yay."

"but for tonight I am headed to bed."

"Okay," she says, but I can tell she is excited.

After a hot shower to relax my muscles, I curl up in bed and start to drift into sleep. this time though, weirdly enough I didn't have my usual dream, though this wasn't much better.

I was in a crowded little apartment filled with dozens of other teenage Dhampir, all of which were drinking. I grab a bottle of Tequila and start doing shots with Mason, Shane, and Eddie. Suddenly I hear a booming voice, "anyone not in their dorms in 15 minutes will be suspended."

I start laughing and look over to see my handsome Russian god here to break up the party.

I yell, "Stop being such a buzz kill, Dim… Guardian Belikov, all we are dooin is havvvin a little bit of fuuuunn, don't yoouu remember whaat thatt looooks a like." I am slurring my words but at the moment I don't care.

He grabs me by the arm, and waits for everyone to leave.

"Rose," oh crap he is pissed, he never calls me Rose when we are alone.

"What the hell were you thinking, being here? Getting this drunk you know better than doing something this stupid."

"Well it's rather simmple, I was bored and after all you did call me a chilld earlllier so I thouught I would stttart acting mooore like one."

"Rose, this behavior is completely inappropriate."

"Dooon't even start Dimitri."

He looks calmer, "Roza please let's talk about this tomorrow."

"There is nothing to talk about, yoouuu kept things frommmm me. Youuu lied to me and you broke your promise." my eyes started to tear up.

"So nooo Dimitri, I don't wanna talk to you, because weeee are on a breaak in cassse youuu don't remember."

That was the last thing I had said to Dimitri before I had left for good.

I woke with a start, surprised by the dream but pulled out of it because of the knocking at the door. Lissa and I didn't have any friends, nobody should be knocking at our door. Lissa walked out to the living room and I hissed,

"Get into the closet, and if anything should happen then you need to run, leave me here and go to New Mexico, Liss."

After she was hidden, I walked over to the door preparing myself for the worst. The door opened to reveal him.