CHAPTER 1

I was on the plane back to Court with Ethan. We were almost there, and it had been a long flight from Moscow. We were going back for an event, Hans had invited me and he wanted me to come, since I was his equal in Russia. So, it was only fair that he invite me as well. This was an important event at Court, only the royals and high-up dhampirs would be attending.

When we landed, we gathered our luggage and headed to housing.

"Come on, it's this way," I told Ethan. I, of course, remembered the way. When we got there, we got assigned two rooms next to each other.

"Rose, I can see that you aren't very happy to be back. Are you sure that you want to do this?" Ethan asked me, concern in his eyes. He knew what had happened, because I had told him the whole story. Being my best friend, he was only looking out for me.

"Ethan, this is nothing that I can't handle. I'll be fine, don't worry about me," I told him, "Although we should start getting ready because the event it tonight. I'll see you in an hour down at the reception."

"Ok, see you then."

We both headed into our rooms and got ready. As the dhampir boss of Russia, I didn't have to wear a guardian outfit. Instead, I quickly showered and put on a red dress. It was very pretty and came up to the knees, but good for a royal event.

An hour later I met up with Ethan down in the reception, he was wearing a nice tuxedo.

"Happy, cuz?" he asked me in his Scottish accent. Since he was Scottish and my mom was as well, he frequently called me cuz.

We got to the ballroom and entered. Well, here goes nothing. I was pretty sure that Lissa and all of the ex-friends would be attending, NOT something that I was looking forward to. So, as soon as we entered, I took Ethan's arm and directed him towards the table where we would be having dinner, which would start in a few minutes. Ethan, being a Voda, sometimes acted like a royal, especially around the other royals, but he did it on purpose, just for the fun of it. The table that we had been assigned to held a few seats, and in one of them was Wade Voda, someone I had known back at the Academy. Great, I thought. He wasn't my favorite person on earth, he had blamed me for destruction in his room about 7 years ago. Wow...7 years. It's been so long since I've been here. Sitting down, I caught a glimpse of Christian in the distance.
He saw me and made his way towards me.

Giving me a hug, he told me, "Wow Rose, it's been a year since I've seen you. And you have not changed one bit." Christian came to visit me a few times when I was in Moscow, and we had actually became friends. "Ethan, hey, what's up?"
"Hey Christian, nice to see you. I've been good, how bout you? Well, one can only be good while being best friend with. There's an advantage to having your best friend be in charge of assignments in the biggest country in the world," Ethan said, and then he winked at me. He wasn't trying to flirt with me, because our friendship was purely platonic. However, some people sometimes got the wrong impression.

So, Christian sat down and started chatting with us about what had been going on for the past year. Christian, much to Tasha's dismay, had not gone to college but traveled the world instead. He spent six months with me in Russia, and we had gotten pretty close. He had come in the summer, it is Russia after all, and we had gone on a road trip for 2 months through the country. It was lots of fun and I would cherish those memories. For the past year he had been in Australia and then Japan. He was going to be spending a two week vacation at Court, while we were here. Tasha had wanted to see him.

"So...where's Tasha? I mean, have you seen her since you got here?" I asked Christian.
"If you mean, have you seen THEM, no I haven't." Christian told me, with a bit of resentment in his voice. Lissa and Adrian had remained close to Tasha, because Dimitri was Lissa's guardian and he had always been good friends. From what I heard, Adrian and Dimitri had become good friends too. I looked back at this with a bit of regret, but I couldn't come back on the past.

Christian, probably sensing what I was thinking about, gave me a sympathetic look and say, "Hey Rose, we can totally ignore them tonight and set the night on fire." He said this with a smirk.

So, we set down for dinner and then it was time to mingle. Oh, how I love this part of the dinner. In Moscow, I had to attend many of these meetings and they were always a bore for me. What they sometimes didn't realize was that I was 22, not 55. So we walked around the room and talked to people. By we, I meant me and Ethan. He was my rock throughout all of this, my best friend. We were sort of a package deal. When the time came...I had to go say hi to Tasha. Unfortunately for me, she was with Dimitri, Viktoria, Adrian, and...Lissa. Oh, great. Just my night. Christian was giving me this look that said, Kill me now. He didn't like them any more than I did after all that had happened.

So, Ethan and I made our way other there and, when I got there, I said, "Hi Tasha. Nice to see you." Obviously not sensing the coldness in my words, she hugged me.

"Rose, it's been too long. How are you? I've heard so many stories about you, how you're doing really well in Russia. And who is this?" She said, while looking at Ethan.

"Ethan Voda," he said, while holding out his hand for her to shake it. She shook his hand and said that it was nice to him. I think it's time to say that Ethan had a bad reputation. It was probably worse than Adrian's reputation. Oh well...they didn't have to listen to what everyone said.

The others had been staring at us in silence, not daring to say a word. Hesitant, I said, "Hello. It's...been a while." This earned me a snort from Christian and weird looks from everyone else. I stepped forward and hugged Eddie, who was Lissa's other guardian. He seemed happy to see me; after all, we had been pretty good friends back in the day.

Lissa stepped forward and hugged me, but she didn't say anything. I followed suit and hugged Adrian, but I didn't dare approach the Belikovs. Viktoria probably hated me and Dimitri's love for me had "faded." No way was I going to hug them and pretend to be happy to see me.

"Well...I'm pretty tired, from the plane and all. I think I'm going to head back to my room," I told everyone, trying to find a way out of this awkward silence.

Christian, being Christian, said, "Sure sis. I mean, we all know how much you love awkward silence. Remember last year? You didn't know what to say that you would rather have hung out with your Strigoi-lover friends," giving me a wink as he said this. My Strigoi'-loving friends were hunters I had met four years ago, and they were..."pro-Strigoi." They were a different story for a different time. I gave him a glare and said, "Вы не были последними, чтобы пообщаться с ними." No one here really knew how to speak Russian and I told him this in a really hushed tone. He had only wanted to hang out with them because he'd had a crush on Svetlana. That...didn't work out very well.

"It was..nice seeing you. I'm sure that I'll see you guys sometime around before I leave. Good night." I told them, no trace of friendliness in my tone. "Tasha, nice seeing you too. Christian, come to my room tomorrow, we have to do something. After all, not gonna leave me with him all day," meaning Ethan. Ethan faked being hurt and said his goodbyes before leaving to go outside. He was probably going to smoke.

"I'll call you tomorrow morning and we'll go get breakfast. Night sis," Christian told me before hugging me and going back to the table.

I stared at those that were still there and said, "well...Um...bye everyone." I gave them a little wave and turned around.

Meeting Ethan outside, we walked back to housing together and I went to sleep. What a day...I thought, Can't wait to get back home in Moscow.