Authors Note: So again I own nothing, please review, and I hope you like it. I uploaded two chapters because I am going on vacation tomorrow and will be gone until Monday or Tuesday. Otherwise I will try to update daily.

Authors Lesson:Guess what? My advice is to review! 3

I thought for a moment, I was hoping in the back of my mind that he wouldn't have picked that up, but Andre was smarter than that so of course he would. I shifted my eyes away uncomfortably, I had since come up with a theory in my head that solved the rest of the sentence, but it was a bleak conception of what may actually exist. "I don't know. . . "I spoke carefully, praying he was too overly involved in his own thoughts to attempt to read mine.

I was grasping at straws today, and he noticed. Of course he noticed, again he was not dumb. "But you have a theory about who it is, correct?"

Letting out a sigh, I figured that I should start our engagement with truth, not lies. "I figure they came to turn you, only to realize there was a stronger pull for you here in me. Not enough to turn you against your morals anyway. So I figured that they were going to wait to turn both of us at once. But I am probably wrong. . ."

I saw the knowing and understanding look in his eyes that he thought I was right. I hated that look with a passion. He isn't supposed to be worried all about someone trying to turn him strigoi, he is supposed to be worried about his next outfit. Royal twenty year old guys should be worried about cologne, girls, and eventually spending their trust funds dry. NOT this. "I think you are right, I think that they want to turn us, all three of us."

I stared blankly at him, three? Who is the third person in his personal protection party? "Three?" I questioned, hoping that it was just a slip of the tongue in his exhausted state. But looking at him now, I knew it wasn't. For the first time today, I saw how much these issues were hurting him. His eye brows were furrowed together, looking out into the world at some invisible demon that wasn't there, his eyes had dark circles around them, his pupils were surrounded by a ring of red, spidering out from his crying that he must have done throughout the day, and his jaw, that was clenched as if to say that he was going to take on the world. All in all, he looked like he could take on an army, despite the fact he only specialized in wind.

"You, just because you specialized in fire doesn't make you untouchable. I worry about you. Lissa and I have the same guardians that you have, you are just as easily hurt as I am. Not to mention, it's my fault that you are unsafe. Which reminds me, how long has it been since you have fed?"

Hearing Lissa's name, I figured it out. He was stepping into the father role already. But he was right about one thing, I haven't fed yet today. All of the magic that I used was starting to show. I looked in the mirror that was against the wall, a picture frame of sorts, and saw how pale my face was, how sunken in my eyes were, and I knew that not feeding in a while probably made me look like I got hit by a truck.

Waving his hand and snapping once, Andre motioned to his guardian to come close. The one of his guardians that came over, Ivan, he mumbled softly about getting a feeder from on the Queen's Guards. Ivan nodded dutifully, despite the fact that he and Andre were relatively close, because there was a time to joke around with Andre and this was not the time.

Suddenly aware of how thirsty I was, I tried to focus my sight on the different parts of the room. Being unable to feel or to focus, it is a sensation that to describe to someone who doesn't know the sensation would be a task that is nearly impossible. But as the world started to slowly fade away, rings of black clouding layer by layer of my vision, I felt my body shake. Voices rang in my head, their voices changing in pitch with each syllable, and then their voices went silent, I saw the world for just one more second, and then it all went black. Wind hit my face, my hair blew from my face, and then I felt it; arms around me. I heard the strangely pitched voices once again, Andre's I think, yelling at people and thanking Dimitri for catching me. I heard shuffling, and then I felt the smooth walking of presumably Dimitri through hallways. I heard Andre yelling and running away, and then I heard words. They sounded vaguely like Russian, but for all I knew it could have been English but I was too far gone to notice. Then it all went black:

When I opened my eyes, I felt refreshed. I was in a garden, flowers blooming all around me and I was sitting on a bench. Looking down I noticed I was in a blue dress that fell just above the mid part of my thighs, small kitten heels of white leather, and a tube top dress that cinched to stay up.

I blinked to adjust to the light, and looked at the flowers. I didn't know why they were all around me, where I was, but I felt good so the immediate danger was gone. I called out into the open air, hoping to find someone, "Andre! Dimitri! Mikhail! Pavel!" Hearing no response, I yelled out to anyone in ear shot, "Hello? Anyone want to help me out here?"

That's when I heard it, the ruffle of grass and leaves, the sigh of a care free breathe, and sliding sounds of perfectly fitted jeans, and I knew that someone was there. I turned around quick, and immediately my nose was greeted with the smell of smoke from cigarettes and alcohol. My nose immediately scrunched up, the smell burned my nose and I was tempted to take a step back.

"Hey there, Lilly," said the smoke trap of a guy. He was wearing stone washed jeans and a button up shirt that a light green color, that matched perfectly to his eyes. His hair was styled to look care-free, but no doubt had he spent at least an hour on it. I could tell by his laid back personality, his eyes, his devil-may-care attitude that he was royal, my guess Ivanshkov.

"Hello. So you know me, but I have no idea who you are, an Ivanshkov I guess."

A small smile pricked at the end of his lips, "You'd be right, my name is Adrian."

I thought about it for a moment, score for me! I starred up and down him, he was tall. Well compared to me at least, very similar to the height of Andre. I smiled a bit toward him, Adrian Ivanshkov, aside from being another royal, was the Queen's favorite relation. He was her great-nephew, but she wouldn't love him and favor him more if he was her own son. Adrian was also known for having a lot of money, huge trust fund, and about three steps away from having more money than the treasury itself. Then I stopped dead, Adrian Ivanshkov! He was in the letter that the Dragomirs had left to Andre!

I guess that my smile had inadvertently fallen, because the pained look that crossed Adrian's face was directed toward me and he spoke in a tone that was almost cooing, "Is everything okay, Mini-Mob?"

I was about to point out why my face had changed, when he said the word Mini-Mob. "What is that? Mini-Mob, I mean? Last time I checked I am not my father, nor do I participate in his . . . questionable political tactics." I spoke with a mild disdain, though in reality I was fairly amused. Most people didn't have the gall to bring up my father and his business, but this twenty or twenty-one year old pampered guy figured he could get away with it.

"Oh don't try and hide the amusement, I can read you like a book. I can read you like a book with your own personal personality light." Adrian said with a mild smirk and a wink. What was the wink supposed to mean? I had no idea, and kind of didn't want to know. It seemed a little flirty, but I figure he may be like that naturally, if the rumors about the play-boy royal were true. The majority of the time the rumors were mostly wrong, but they did come from a snippet of the truth and that was probably it this time.

I shrugged my shoulders at his comment, "So what if I'm amused, my dad is amused as he watches someone's knee caps break in. What is the difference, it's sardonic amusement . . . wait that word, if you don't know, means that it is so unfunny that it is humorous. Understand?" I said with a playful smirk on my face, I love tormenting pretty boy royals when they think all of the girls swoon over them and forget that they know that they know nothing. It's kind of a hobby of sorts.

"Thanks, I was just about to ask that question. Honestly, I have a wicked hangover and that is way too big a word for me to deal with this early in the morning," He said, raising his eyebrows and daring me to play his little game of sarcasm tag. I had to admit that he was cute, in a way that was, well, yah he was just hot. There was no use denying it. I may be in love with Andre, but I can still look at hot guys if I want to.

I smirked myself, throwing a bit of my flirty flair into it as I did. I turned on my heels, certain that he would follow my lead and trail me, "So Ade, where are we actually?" I turned my head back toward him with a smile and instead of a normal expression he had a cocky smile. I turned back to face him, confused, "What's with the asinine smirk?"

He laughs a laugh that was actually kind of nice, "You are such a player Lillian! You're engaged!" I could tell he was joking, but there was an edge of truth to his words, here I was checking him out while I had just said yes to Andre's proposal. "Don't worry, there is no problem with looking," He smirked again, "But I have been known to touch things that I shouldn't." He finished with a wink, just to let me know that he was still on my side. He noticed my sobering and decided to change the subject, "We are in my great-aunt's private garden, just off of the palace grounds. This is where she likes to go to calm down."

I looked at him rather quizzically, not really sure how he expected me to react, "So, um, how did I get here in the first place?" I mean, the exact place was kind of important, but knowing how I came to the place is something of importance as well.

Adrian let out an uneasy laugh, shifting his eyes slightly away from my glance, "That's the thing. . . I um. . . " He sat down and motioned for me to do the same thing. He looked, well, nervous. "Why don't you answer me this, what are the Moroi elements?"

I looked at him blankly, as if this was a dumb question. I smiled awkwardly, "Is this supposed to be. . ." The look he shot me was somewhere between 'humor me' and 'just answer the damn question,' so I started, "Well the four main elements are fire, water, wind, and earth." I raised my eyebrows as if to ask what the point of asking that was.

He shifted uncomfortably in front of me, sighed, and started, "Not every person specializes. . . I never did." My eyes shot open a bit wider in disbelief, every Moroi specializes that I have ever heard of by the age of 14 or 15, Adrian was messing with me. I was about to open my mouth when he spoke again, "I never specialized, but I have these fun little talents, such as amazing compulsion, seeing and feeling people's emotions, or walking and controlling people's dream."

I stopped dead and starred, "WHAT?"