Galina herself opened the front door of her mansion for me. "Do you have her? Do you? My God, Dimitri, are you sure she's still alive?"

I stopped to listen to her breathe. "I'm sure. Where can I put her down?"

"Marlen had a room prepared." My ex-mentor said, nodding towards her lover. "Oh, and Lucia took the liberty of buying some clothes for her. She's terribly fond of shopping, you know."

"I figured." Everyone was silent after that. Marlen led us to one of the bedrooms on the fourth floor.

"This is it." He said, motioning towards an industrial-looking door with a keypad installed on the wall beside it. "I have the codes written down – I'll give them to you later."

"Codes?" I asked. "As in, more than one?"

The door swung open to reveal another one, like we were in some kind of bank. Galina nodded. "Good thinking, Marlen."

He blinked. "Thank you."

Once again, a code was punched in – only this time, luxury lay behind the door. Marlen parted the sheets so I could set Rose down. She mumbled something, but was ignored.

"As you can see, this place is idiot-proof." Marlen said. "The mirrors cannot be taken down, the furniture has no joints and is made of the strongest materials, and the window is virtually impossible to break. Trust me, I tried."

Galina was not impressed. "And the point of this is…"

"Well, she has no way of improvising a weapon." He shrugged. "It wouldn't do anyone much harm, anyway – but she can't kill herself, either."

"Wonderful. I suppose we're all satisfied, then?" She looked at me. I nodded. "Then I think it would be best if we leave the child alone."

With that, we filed out of the room, and Rose was left to the last peaceful sleep she would have in a long time.

0O0

The next day, I opened the door to Rose's room and was kindly received with a chair in the stomach. I hadn't counted on such an amount of resistance so early in the morning.

So, instinctively, I shoved back.

Rose launched herself at me once more, but I was ready. The chair flew across the room.

Well. She's already making things interesting around here. Then again, she's Rose Hathaway. What did I expect?

That was when the kicks began – high and aimed towards my face. It was like fighting one of the Rockettes on crack.

"Rose. You're wasting time. Stop." I said, trying to sound as bored as I could.

As a response, she ripped the DVD player from the wall and sprinted at me, holding it high in the air. I promptly smashed it to the floor, catching her by the wrists.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Roza. Please stop."

She started to kick me again – this was really starting to become the mother of all domestic disputes. I sighed and slammed her against the wall as gently as I could.

"Stop fighting me," I whispered, knowing my hot breath was on her neck. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She squirmed, shoved me, and gasped, "You'll have to understand if I have a hard time believing that."

"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead." I dead-panned. "Now, if you're going to keep fighting, I'll have to tie you up. If you stop, I'll let you stay unrestrained."

"Aren't you afraid I'll escape?"

"No. I am not." Because, seriously, Rose Hathaway or not, one would need superpowers to get out of such deep shit.

We stood like that, staring into each other's eyes, for what seemed like an eternity. Apparently realizing she had no other choice, Rose relaxed.

"Okay."

For a moment, I thought she was lying. Then I determined that she had no way of hurting me, even if she was, and I let her go.

We stared again.

"Why did you come here?" I finally asked.

Rose blinked. "Because you hit me on the head and dragged me here."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." I was suddenly filled with burning curiosity. "Why are you here?"

"In Siberia?" She confirmed. "I came to find you."

"I came here to get away from you." I blurted.

Rose looked properly shocked. "Why? Because I might kill you?"

I raised an eyebrow and lied. "No." The 'you idiot' was left implied. "So we wouldn't be in this situation. Now we are, and the choice is inevitable."

"Well, you can let me go if you want to avoid it." Rose tried.

I turned around and made myself comfortable on the couch while she leaned against the wall. "Not possible anymore. Not after seeing you now…"

I let myself look her over, promising myself it was the last time.

Yes. I had missed her.

I tried to act coolly indifferent, like she was some sort of statue I was thinking of buying. "You're still as beautiful as I remember, Roza. Not that I should have expected anything different."

She pressed her lips together, annoyed and silent.

I decided to be a good host. "You can sit down."

"I'm fine over here."

I nodded. "Is there anything else you want?"

"For you to let me go?"

"No, Roza." I held back a smile. "I meant, do you need anything here? Different food? Books? Entertainment?"

She was horrified. "You make it sound like some sort of luxury hotel!"

I shrugged. "It is, to a certain extent. I can speak to Galina, and she'll get you anything you wish."

"Galina?"

A smile. "Galina is my old instructor, back from when I was in school."

"She's Strigoi?"

"Yes. She was awakened several years ago, in a fight in Prague. She's relatively young for a Strigoi, but she's risen in power. All of this is hers." I said grandly.

"And you live with her?" Rose's voice went from slightly high-pitched to tween-girl squeaky.

She was jealous of Galina, of all people.

Mentioning Lucia is probably not the best idea.

"I work for her. She was another reason I returned here when I was awakened. I knew she was Strigoi, and I wanted her guidance." I lied.

"And you wanted to get away from me. That was the other reason, right?" Rose prompted.

I nodded, not wanting to talk more about the subject.

She caught on quickly. "Where are we? We're far from Novosibirsk, right?"

"Yes. Galina's estate is outside the city."

"How far?"

I smiled again. "I know what you're doing, and I'm not going to give you that sort of information."

"Then what are you doing?" Rose demanded. "Why are you holding me here? Kill me or let me go. And if you're going to just lock me up and torture me with mind games or whatever, then I really would rather you kill me."

And though the words were bold, I had no doubt she meant them. Good thing the mirrors were in the walls.

Feeling a little like the Godfather, I began pacing and said, "Brave words. I almost believe you."

Rose lifted her chin rather haughtily. "They're true. I came here to kill you. And if I can't do that, then I'd rather die."

I was silent for a moment. "You failed, you know. On the street."

"Yeah. I kind of figured that out when I woke up here."

Suddenly, I stood in front of her, close enough to be invading her personal space. "I'm a little disappointed. You're so good, Rose. So very, very good. You and your friends going around and taking down Strigoi caused quite a stir, you know. Some Strigoi were even afraid."

Her eyes flashed. "But not you?"

"When I heard it was you… hmm." There was no way I was going to tell her I was fucking terrified. "No. I was curious. Wary. If anyone could have killed me, it would have been you. But like I said, you hesitated. It was your ultimate test of my lessons, and you failed."

Rose gave me no reaction, but promised, "I won't hesitate next time."

"There won't be a next time." I assured her. "And anyway, as disappointed as I am in you, I'm still glad to be alive, of course."

"You aren't alive. You're dead. Unnatural." She answered fiercely. "You told me a long time ago you'd rather die than be like this. That's why I'm going to kill you."

"You're only saying that because you don't know any better. I didn't either, back then."

She let out an impatient huff. "Look, I meant what I said. I'm not playing your game. If I can't get out of here, then just kill me, okay?"

Unable to resist any longer, I ran my fingers down her cheek. She choked a little.

"Killing you…" I murmured, tasting the idea. "Well, it's not that simple. There's a third option. I could awaken you."

I heard Rose stop breathing, whispering weakly, "No… no."

"You don't know what it's like." I began. "It's… amazing. Transcendent. All your senses are alive; the world is more alive –"

She frowned. "Yeah, but you're dead."

"Am I?" I placed her hand on my chest so quickly, her eyes widened. "My heart beats. I'm breathing."

"Yeah, but… It's not really being alive. It's… it's dark magic reanimating you. It's an illusion of life." Rose protested.

"It's better than life." I took her face in my hands, oh-so-carefully. "It's like being a god, Rose. Strength. Speed. Able to perceive the world in ways you could never imagine. And… immortality. We could be together forever."

Her words were barely audible. This was what she had always wanted, and I was dangling it in front of her like it was a hook. "No… We can't be."

"We could." I promised. My finger carved a path down from her chin to her carotid artery. "I could do it quickly. There'd be no pain. It'd be done before you even knew it."

Her eyes darkened. Lips parted, about to whisper in agreement.

The door burst open. I whirled around trapped Rose between myself and the wall protectively. Nathan strode in like he owned the fucking place, his faithful, dog-like servant after him. Inna, she was called.

"What the hell is going on? You're keeping some pet up here?" My douche of a creator spat.

"It's none of your concern, Nathan." I said, because, well, it wasn't. "Galina gave me permission."

"Her? She was at the school in Montana… We fought… I would have tasted her blood if that fire-using Moroi brat hadn't been around." He taunted, apparently having forgotten that we'd already had this fucking conversation.

I tried to remain civil. "This doesn't have anything to do with you."

"Are you kidding? She can lead us to the Dragomir girl!" He said, far too excited for the situation. "If we finish that line off, our names will be legendary. How long are you going to keep her?"

I growled, impatient. "Get out. That's not a request."

"She's valuable. If you're going to keep her around as some blood whore plaything, at least share. Then, we'll get the information and finish her."

The bastard clearly didn't recall how close I'd come to killing him a couple of days ago. I decided to take it upon me to remind him. "Get out of here. If you lay a hand on her, I will destroy you. I will rip your head off with my bare hands and watch it burn in the sun."

He bared his fangs. "Galina won't allow you to play house with this girl. Even you don't have that much favor."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't make me tell you to leave again. I'm not in a patient mood today."

Nathan glared at me. I glared back. There was glaring.

Finally, he moved to the door. "This isn't over. I'm talking to Galina."

Threatening to tell mommy, are we? Such maturity!

I stepped away from Rose and looked at Inna, who did not understand a word of English and was looking extremely confused. Thank God, or her unwavering love for what had to be the greatest asshole on Earth would've caused me some trouble.

"You can put that down." I told her, the Russian words rolling off my tongue familiarly.

The young woman obeyed, raising the lid to show Rose some pizza and a brownie – I had taken special care to remember food she loved enough to be tempted into eating.

I turned towards her. "Lunch. Not poisoned."

She shook her head. "I'm not going to eat."

My eyebrow rose – I'd probably ordered the wrong kind of food. Figured. "Do you want something else?"

"I don't want anything else because I'm not going to eat anything at all. If you aren't going to kill me, then I'll do it myself."

"By starving to death?" I chuckled. "I'll awaken you long before then."

"Why aren't you just doing it now?" She asked.

I shrugged. "Because I'd rather wait for you to be willing."

It was the truth. Whether I admitted it to myself or not, I owed Nathan something. Rose was not going to have to face that. Hopefully.

"You're going to be waiting a long time." She promised.

I laughed, feeling kind of melodramatic. "We'll see."

And that's when I decided to invade her personal space again and kiss her.

It was heaven. Not that we'd gone without a kiss for so long – in the Academy days, we'd held out much longer. But I'd missed her. More than I ever could've imagined. I'd found that I needed her.

I'd also found out I wanted her.

I made myself pull away and gestured to the servant, who was staring at her feet awkwardly. "This is Inna. She works for Galina too and will check in on you. If you need anything, let her know. She doesn't speak English, but she'll figure it out."

There was no answer. I began to leave.

"Where are you going?" Rose asked.

"I have things to do." Mainly, the boss's daughter. Gotta keep her happy, you know. "Besides, you need time to think."

"There's nothing to think about."

I smiled.


Okay, guys, guess what? I found a mysterious reader on Facebook (cuz I googled myself and her comment reccommending this on the Official VA Movie popped up). McKenzie F? Are you there? Well, I'm glad you like this enough to tell your friends =)

Whew! This chapter was long, so review! Because if I can write crap that's 7 Word pages long, you can write 100 words. Thanks!