Hey! Just finished Blood Ties - it was amazing. If you haven't read it…read it. Is amazing but with the cliff hanger it gets a bit complicated, anyway if you're wondering who her mother is you will get a hint in this chapter.


"How could you have slipped from your charge" I tease.

"I didn't, he let me go," he replies calmly.

"Oh." this left me with no witty comeback.

"You've grown," he comments.

"Of course, I would still grow even if I haven't seen you in three years." I resist rolling my eyes and face him squarely.

"I have a duty. Speaking about duty, I heard you got caught," he said with disapproval in his voice.

My silent answer is to look down ashamedly at my feet. I can just about stand disapproval from my teachers but from my father…that was something else.

"Who told you?" I question hoping it wasn't Kira.

"Alberta," his reply was short and crisp .

Of course it would be her that told. "It wasn't that strong, it barely affected me," I reason, with no doubt he heard about the alcohol.

A small smile plays on his lips but then it was gone. "I expected better from you."

And with that I let all my anger out at him

"I don't know why everyone expects me to be like you! I might be your daughter but I am me. You expect me to be a god, perfect - but I'm not. I am a fifteen year old girl who just likes to have some fun. I'm not a guardian yet!" I yell my accent now matches his.

"You're a dhampir you have a duty to learn and protect." His eyes were cold.

"Is that why you took me from Baia, my home, so I wouldn't become a blood whore; so I won't damage your reputation? I was happy! I had family that loved me! No you just had to throw me in here," I scream. I know that I am stooping low, criticizing my own family.

"That is why we're nothing like. I know how to control my anger and not get distracted."

It felt like all the air was taken from me. He has taken everything I worked up for in a couple of sentences, I felt resent burning in me, as well as tears. The worst thing is he doesn't realise how it affects me.

I weigh up my options, walking away would come as defeat and crying humiliation, so I decide to lash out, but before I can yell, I hear a new voice.

"Hey, Comrade." We both turn and look to see Rose Hathaway strolling up. I give her a polite nod. She might not be me my favourite person but I have a great deal of respect for her.

I realise lashing out will make me look like a fool so I say curtly, "Guardian Belikov, Guardian Hathaway." With a polite nod, I turn around and walk away.

When I'm out of viewing distance, I sprint away from the buildings. I stop when I reach a pond frozen over with ice and a hut. A fire is still burning but the guardian is gone. Glad for the lack of company, I lean against a tree and let the angry tears flow.

"That stupid bastard he doesn't have the right to tell me what I am," I think angrily to myself. This has only been the fifth time I have cried. The first was when I was six.

I sit there in a class room looking outside the window. It's a beautiful night and I just want to go outside and play. I look at Anoushka we both have the same idea. About climbing the old oak tree we had been planning it for weeks but the weather hadn't been right.

"Lenya," Anoushka hisses into my ear.

"What!" She turns her head into the direction were the teacher is looking straight at me along with headmistress Kivora.

"Lenya come to the office with me now," her sharp voice calls out.

Guiltily I get up and follow her. To my surprise, when I enter I find my father is there as well.

"What have I done to get my father into this? Well, I'm about to find out," I think to myself.

"With great regret, I have to tell you that your great grandmother is dead." She actually looks sad. I try to stop the information sinking in. I mummer a Russian prayer and on the verge of tears I turn towards Dimitri.

I don't know what I am expecting a hug or some source of sympathy but all I get is a sad look in his eyes.

I say an almost silent thank you and walk out. I sit on that I just climbed.

"What did she die from?" I ask my father who is standing under the tree.

"Old age," he replies sadly.

"No." I shake my head and salty drops come down from my eyes "She died from a broken heart."

"She was old she fulfilled her life." His words don't comfort me.

"Then why did she die six months after I left?" I cry.

"I-"His reply is cut short.

"You killed her," I say. "YOU killed her." I scream at him, "If you didn't take me away she would have been alive," I shout. "YOU KILLED HER." I run off to a pond and curl into a ball and cry.

My memory is cut short when I hear a voice.

"I've never seen you cry before," I turn round to see James.

"What do you want?" I say harshly.

"Just wanted to see if you are okay that's all, no need to be so cold," he says with shock in his voice; he is about to go away when I call back to him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."

"Bad day…I mean I could hear you from the commons."

I cringe "Were we that loud that everyone heard us?"

"No, only those who wanted to hear it. You were our evening's entertainment Belikov."

"You're not that bad Zeklos." I say smiling.

"Neither are you but I will still beat you in training."

I let at a small laugh. "Can't wait for that day to come."

"Bet you can't wait," and with that he walks off, "…bet you can't wait."

"James, wait, how could you have slipped out?"

"A royal slipped out causing a commotion."

"Oh that explains everything," I sigh.

He gives an exasperated nod and walks away before he is from hearing distance he calls back, "and I think you're going to be as good as your father, maybe even better."

I sit there smiling for awhile but when Dmitri's comments start to ring in my ears again it wipes the smile off my face. Instead of crying I decide to take out my feelings on the tree.

After a while once I got in to the swing of things my actions are cut off by a comment.

"If you weren't so young I'd employ you for myself. I think we should bring back the age restriction."

"Your majesty, "I say politely since the voice belonged to Prince Christian. "But I think employing me would bring more harm than good."

"It would seem so, from hearing the fight." God, had everyone heard it? Then it struck me.

"You're the royal that slipped out."

"Yep, caused quite a commotion, exactly planned."

His gaze is focused on me not in a perverted way but in a studying way that still freaks me out.

"Your eyes aren't from your father, are they?" His comment made me feel self-conscious.

"No, I got them from my mother."

"Do you know who your mother is?"

"No," I lie, "she left me in the care of my father's family "

"You remind me of someone that let me down. Please don't let me down, Lenya." With that ominous message he disappeared.

"Wow that was weird," I quietly say to myself. I decide to go back to the dorm and get a good night's rest.

Christian's POV

"You caused quite a commotion there," Lissa's voice calls out.

"It was necessary," I reply back keeping a sense mystery around me.

"Too much nostalgia."

"Yea," I reply not really listening to her, lost in my own thoughts.

"I get that too. Whenever I walk down through the commons it reminds me when Rose and I came back. Anyway, goodnight and don't think about it too much." She switches off the light and we are plunged into darkness.

I lie there on the bed thinking about the events in my head.

Walking down the aisle acknowledging people when I saw her in the corner of my eye, when I look there she is, sitting tall and proud but when I clear my vision all I see is Lenya Belikov,

I shiver and pull the covers tighter around me because when I looked at her…

I saw Natasha Ozera.


Hope that gave answers to your questions, please review also please can you do a character description of Emma (Lenya's roommate). Thanks :P