Hey Loyal Readers! I'm sorry that it has been so long. My hard drive crashed and I haven't been able to finish this chapter let alone post it. Thanks for sticking with my story. Enjoy! ~RDL


The first thing that I saw was the sky. A beautiful sunset filled with oranges, pinks, purples, blues and even some greens. It was magnificent! I looked all around me. A white sand beach, a perfectly blue ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see, maybe farther. The scene around me was beautiful, and the only thing that ruined it was when I saw what I was wearing. A red bikini that on the top was strapless and the bottoms had silver metal circles that rested right in between my hips. How was I not surprised?

"Adrian?" I said. I turned around. It felt as if I was alone, but I could not be. This had all the makings of a spirit dream. "Adrian? Sonya? Lissa? Anyone here?" I started to get a little frantic, but just as the scene started to change Adrian appeared. We were now in the quad at St. Vladimir's Academy where I used to go to school.

"Hello Little Dhampir," he said with his usual trademark smirk. "I hear that you got invited to the Guardian Games."

"Yeah I did how did you – never mind, Lissa told you didn't she?" I shook my head. You could count on Lissa to rant off things that people were not supposed to know when she was mad. I am sure that tomorrow I would be receiving the usual "I am sorry for screwing blank up" chocolate. Even when I was not upset about what she did she still sent it. "So what exactly did she tell you about it?"

"Just that you got invited and that she was mad that she could not go because she was the queen and she had to do her duty."

"Well that and the fact that I refuse to put her in danger." Wow I sounded mean; it was like I didn't even care at all.

"Put her in danger? How would she be in danger?" So I gave him the whole lot. Everything about where it is, what we have to do, Dimitri being my partner, how we had to pick a moroi to go with us, everything.

"Wow. That sounds really hard." He paused. "I will go with you if you want. I will be your moroi."

"Adrian no offence but I don't think that spirit will be much of a help in the games." I was trying not to hurt him again. We just got over all of that.

"Rose," oh no, I got the Rose instead of my nickname. He was totally serious now. "You are forgetting that spirit users have all of the elements. And before you say that I'm not that strong in the other ones, shut up and watch this."

I immediately shut up and watched in awe as a bright orange wall of fire rose up between us. I went to touch it to see if it hurt. But when I did my hand went through it and I felt no pain. "Okay now I'm impressed. Christian used to say that having it not burn was harder than if it did."

"It is harder, and I can do both, but I did not want to hurt a pretty thing like you Little Dhampir." He must really want to go.

"Adrian so far I only know that you can use two elements, not five." As soon as I said that the water from the fountain was poured over my head. Then a warm wind blew through my hair and over my body and before I knew it, I was dry again. You couldn't even tell that he had poured water on me a few moments ago. "Okay that was cool."

"I know it was. But I still have on element left to show you: earth." I watched as he pulled out a silver locket and placed it around my neck. "But I'll show you that later."

"Adrian, this had better not be a lust charm!" I blushed as I yelled at him, yet again remembering the last time that had happened. He just laughed and shook his head. I decided to take it as a no. "I promise I'll talk to Dimitri about this," I motioned around us wildly. "Later, but I think he would agree with us that five elements are going to be better than one."

He smiled and gave me a hug. "You're waking up Little Dhampir." He whispered in my ear as he kept me in a tight hug. "I promise I will see you soon." Then the dream faded like a cloud in the sun.

I woke up snuggled into Dimitri's side in the same position I had fallen asleep in except that now he had both of his arms wrapped around my body. I looked up to his face. He looked so innocent when he was sleep, as if nothing had or ever would harm him.

"Good Morning Dimitri."

"Dobrym utrom Roza," he said sleepily. I had finally caught onto some of the things he said in Russian over the past few months (after my stay in Russia with his family.) He kept his eyes closed but I knew he would know exactly what I was doing, so I just continued to look at the face of the man I loved.

"You're staring," he mumbled with a slight smile.

"I'm gazing," I must have had a ten thousand kilowatt grin plastered on my face. This was just one of those moments where I could tell he was teasing me.

"It's creepy," he said with his eyes still closed.

"It's romantic," I said wrapping my arms around him. He snuck a peek at my face through one eye and quickly pulled a pillow over his face. "Hey!" I said as I pulled the pillow off his face and kissed him. After a few minutes I pulled away and rolled back onto my side of the bed and started to tell him about what had happened in the dream. I propped myself on one elbow just so I could gauge his reaction better.

"I talked to Adrian," I said gingerly. I knew that he did not like it when Adrian "visited" my dreams. He thought it was an invasion of my privacy – and I couldn't really disagree – but I didn't need Dimitri getting mad at him if we were going to bring him with us to the games. "After everything we talked about, I think he would be a better choice to bring with us to the games rather than Christian."

He took a few deep breaths clearly trying to calm his self. After almost five minutes he looked less stressed and upset and more at peace. "Why do you think that? Wouldn't an elemental moroi be of more help to us in a physical competition? The only advantage he could really give to us is that if one of us got hurt he could heal us instead of us having to forfeit."

"That's not necessarily true," I thought back to the wall of fire. "Adrian has been working with the other moroi to help strengthen his elemental magic. I saw him use it; he is good, really good. I think that having five elements would be better than one." I decided not to tell him that I had not seen him use earth but I was still worried about how he was going to show me. My hand immediately shot up to my neck to feel the circle pendant with diamonds embedded into it that he had out on me in the dream.

"You might be right," he paused and looked thoughtful. He was just about to speak again when his phone rang. "Belikov," he waited for the other person to speak. Clearly it was a business call. I just hoped that he did not have to go on duty yet, we needed to figure out who we were going to choose. "Okay. I will get her ready and then we will be on our way. It's probably going to be a few hours before we get there just so you know. Okay that sounds good, thank you." He hung up and looked at me. I could not quite tell if he was happy about the call or upset. When he realized I was studying his face for a reaction he slipped on his static guardian mask but still had a light and happy tone to his voice. "Come on, I want to take you somewhere."

"Where are we going?"

"Can you please just wait for the surprise this time?"

"I don't like surprises. Why can't you just tell me where we're going?"

"Because," he said smiling. "We are going to see Lissa and she does not want you to know. And to be honest, I do not want you to either. It is supposed to be a surprise."

"Fine," I said with my head held high. "But I hope you do not think you won, because you didn't."

"Roza, just close your eyes and trust me." He said with a smile.

"I already trust you. I trust you absolutely."

"Good then let's board the plane." He said slightly dragging me towards the huge private jet that had Royal Guard written on the side.

"I thought you said we were going to see Lissa?" I said confused.

"We are. She left an hour ago with the rest of her guardians and now she should be settling in at the academy."

"The academy?" I said with a small tilt of my head and a smirk. "As in St. Vladimir's, the same place where I was practically raised and we had to hide our relationship? Kirova and Alberta are going to flip when they find out we're together." By now my small smirk had grown into a full-fledged grin.

"Yes, she was going to tell you when we got there but I don't see the harm in telling you now." Just as he finished the plane lifted off the runway with a jolt and we were in the air.

"What else do you have to tell me? It's not about Jill right? We can't have her in danger. Not after what happened last time." The rebels had tried to revolt against the government because they knew that if Jill died, Lissa would lose the throne because she would have no other living relatives. Some moroi were still not too keen about the idea of them having to fight alongside their guardians now; about one third of them still thought they should be able to hide behind the dhampirs.

"No she's fine. The Alchemists are prepping for the mission. But that's not what she wanted to tell you."

"Then what is it?"

"We're moving back into the academy. As we speak the rest of our stuff is being packed up and shipped to the academy right behind us. It will all be there by the time that we finish our paperwork."

"Wait, why are we going back? Lissa is queen; she has to be at Court for her 'Royal Duties'."

"It will be okay, she has everything worked out. Calm down this will be fine; she planned this all out weeks ago. I helped her do it."

"Do what? What is she doing that I'm not allowed to know about? If our stuff is being brought there then that means that we're staying there permanently. I need to know what is going on Dimitri; I need to keep her safe because in a few weeks' time, you and I will be on our way to Romania for the Guardian Games; the two best guardians in the United States, if not the entire world. I don't trust her with anyone but Eddie, you or me."

"Rose she'll be fine. There's a rumor going around that Eddie will be reinstated as her guardian just under you. That way he will be first in command when you're gone."

"Where did you hear that?" I said with a slight raise in the pitch of my voice. Last I had heard Eddie was being put on probation from his guardianship.

"A very reliable source," he said with a smile. I wasn't really in the mood for games. We were still ten minutes away from Montana and I was still panicked over not having Lissa by my side.

"So what are we going to do there? Just work shifts around the gates? Wait, where will we live, I mean the guardian apartments are big but not big enough for the two of us."

"I know. I thought of that when I saw how much stuff you had the first time. We will be living in the cabin."

"The cabin, as in our cabin." The only thing that could make today better is if Liss had Chinese food waiting for us at touch down.

"Yes Roza, our cabin." The plane jerked as it touched the ground and three minutes later we were stopped on the academy's landing strip. "Come on, maybe Alberta will have spots for us to be teachers; that way you won't be too board here."

As soon as the door opened I practically flew out the door an headed for the gym.


There's Chapter three! Sorry if it dragged for a little bit, but this chapter was purely informational. I promise to have the next chapter up by Sunday!

Please Review. I take all comments to heart!

Thanks ~RDL