Look! Two different updates within two days! #summerishere

Finally… I've updated this story. I was writing one in Christian's POV and then I wrote one in Alberta's POV, but I got SEVERE writer's block. Then, a couple weeks later, I was on the bus going to the opposite side of campus when inspiration struck – a Janine POV! I immediately began working on it on my iPhone and then transferred it to my computer to keep working on it. But alas, finals week hit and then I went to England for almost two weeks. But I am determined to keep up with this one and, hopefully, finish it before I leave for Beijing in a week and a half.

I'm working on other stuff too – for VA and for other categories – so keep a look out for those :) Thanks to everyone who has kept reviewing and kept my stories on their alert lists… My life has honestly been crazy and insane, and I feel incredibly bad for waiting so long to update.

Disclaimer: All recognizable content, including characters, plot lines and setting, is the work of Richelle Meade, the lovely woman who brought these characters to life through words and shared them with the world. This little plot bunny, however, is mine [insert evil laughter here].

Despite her insistent denial, Rose knows that in the end, she and I are exactly the same. Which is why as soon as I saw her interaction with Guardian Belikov in that gym when I went to St. Vladimir's, I knew she was in love with her mentor.

It wasn't hard. Rose had the same look in her eye I imagined I had upon first meeting Rose's father: hope-filled, lust-ridden and near-idolization neatly and unstably rolled into one eye twinkle. It was also in her body language – her muscles were relaxed while alone, but tensed whenever Guardian Belikov got too close to her. This could be confused with the with her preparing herself for another spar, but she only tensed when he got close enough to brush her skin or for her to get a whiff of his aftershave.

I stood in the doorway to the gym, leaning against the steel frame just inside the door. I knew these reactions well – it was the exact same way I used to act with her father when he was buzzing around me like an annoying bee trying to flatter me and convince me to give him a chance. I looked at Rose: the muscles tensing whenever he got too close to her, how her eyes seemed to get darker whenever Guardian Belikov did something particularly god-like (Yes. I did hear the nickname the novices and other guardians gave him – I silently agreed with them) and how she looked at him like he was a chocolate doughnut she wanted to take a bite out of.

I also noticed that, after their practice was over and he began to walk off the blue sparring mats towards the locker rooms, Rose seemed to just stand there, her arms hanging loosely by her sides, staring after him with a hopeful look on her face that became crestfallen when she noticed he didn't look back at her.

I watched Rose close her eyes and take a deep breath before turning herself and walking into the women's locker room. She looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and my motherly instincts were rearing their head. I knew I needed to comfort her and talk to her about her infatuation, so I pushed off from the wall and silently followed her into the locker room.

It'd been almost twenty years since I'd first met Abe Mazur.

I had graduated two years before from St. Christopher's in Ireland and had graduated with the knowledge that I was going to have a promising and successful career as a female guardian – the numbers of which had begun to dwindle – and booked a one-way ticket to the States without looking back.

The Moroi Court was everything I had imagined it to be – bustling with life and change and a certain sense of freedom. In Ireland, the population of Moroi and dhampirs was so small and we were held to the utmost standard when it came to discretion. Dhampir and Moroi settlements like mine had to adopt a human schedule in order to avoid detection. At Court, it was freeing to finally be myself for the first time in my short life.

Coming from a small school like St. Christopher's, it was easy to stand out from the rest of the students there. As soon as I began to show a promising career as an elite guardian, I was quickly put into more advanced classes and given individual attention from the combat instructors. My willingness to work hard and do whatever it took to learn resulted in perfect grades and glowing recommendations that I took to the guardian's office at Court.

Unfortunately Tatiana Ivaskhov, who had just been coronated, was making changes to the dhampir guardian system – making dhampirs more of a lower class and creating a sense of elitism among the royal Moroi and mild racism towards the dhampirs. My lord slowly became twisted with this ideology and began treating me like his slave. I had no freedom and was dragged everywhere while waiting on him hand and foot. But I never complained. I was where I had worked so hard to get, so I was going to tolerate the treatment. Until the night he hit me.

It was a routine delivery – I had brought him his nightly glass of rum and Coke and a ham and cheese sandwich with lettuce, tomato and mayo for his nightly snack. Drunk off his ass, he began to rant about dhampirs and how we were bringing down this society with our mere existence. Then, he turned to me and backhanded me across the face. I gracefully bowed and left, tears streaming down my face. Then, as soon as the door was closed and locked for the night, I took off. I ran across the court without really seeing where I was going and ducked into an alcove to cry. But, someone had already been in my alcove, trying to hide from some shopkeeper he had just swindled.

"Can I help you?" he asked, kindly.

The first thing that caught my attention had been his bright purple scarf. Then his gold hoop earrings and, though he was obviously Moroi and I could tell he was physically older than I was by at least five years, his skin was the color of the inside of a roasted almond. The flashy clothes he wore deepened the color of his skin. His eyes, however, were what kept my attention. They were the color of coffee – rich and strong – with flecks of gold and enclosed by almond-shaped, kohl-lined eyes and long lashes. His eyes looked old as well – they looked like they had seen terrible things, with their wizened aura. Nonetheless, I became speechless just looking at them.

My inability to do anything other than ogle the poor man gave him time to assess my face – and subsequently discover the developing bruise just under my eye. He suddenly looked angry and demanded to know who had hurt me.

Snapping out of my daze, I didn't speak. It wasn't proper for a guardian – especially a female – to speak out against her guardian… But somehow, the mysterious stranger knew. He cradled my face and told me to go report the incident to the Head Guardian while he 'visited' my Moroi charge. I should have felt scared, but he was so careful with me and obviously willing to help that I couldn't help but feel safe.

The look he gave me (the look I can still vividly remember even after all these years) as he walked away to do something he has still never told me about… and my reaction…. I could clearly see those expressions on the faces of my daughter and her mentor.

Rose and I walked into the locker room. Thinking she was still alone, Rose stripped her sweat-soaked athletic tank top and started tearing off the tape around her knuckles. I decided to speak up.

"I don't think you should train with Dimitri anymore."

She jumped violently – the water bottle went flying when she accidentally swiped it turning to face the intruder – namely, me.

Rose had an incredulous, rage-filled look upon her face – the same one I got whenever I knew my mother was going to lecture me. What goes around, comes back around, I supposed.

"Why the hell not? And where the hell do you get off thinking you actually have a say in what I can and cannot do?" Rose asked.

I hesitated. I didn't want to tell her about my suspicions about her and her mentor – which were becoming more and more correct with each moment. "I'm not trying to tell you what to do, Rose. I'm trying to help you. You're becoming reliant on him – I just watched you spar. You're anticipating his movements which makes things easy for you. Your… familiarity… with him is making him go easier on you which in turn is making you weaker."

I could swear the room dropped about twenty degrees. Rose looked thunderous, and when Rose looked thunderous, things – usually fists – went flying. I guess Rose figured she couldn't hit me, despite how much I knew she wanted to, because she knew things would spiral into an ugly spar. This time, probably for the first time in her life, she let fly words like arrows to my heart – dipped in hate and sharpened by anger.

"Mom. I'm almost eighteen. You signed away any right you had to be my parent thirteen years ago. The Academy is my parent – and they've done such a GREAT job raising me so far. Actually, Alberta's been the mother that I've never had," Rose yelled. "I don't need you coming in now to tell me what to do because the only reason I ever hear from you is when you're yelling at me. You won't send me a word on my birthday, but you'll take time out of your busy schedule to write two sentences criticizing me after I had disappeared for two years. Tell me, mom, how long was it before you realized – or cared – that I was gone? Did you even try to find me yourself?"

I was silent. Rationally, I knew she was right – I had signed away my rights to have a say in what she did when I chose my career over my daughter – who took my silence as confirmation. Angrily, Rose snapped up her discarded tank, water bottle and gym bag before stalking out of the locker room and signaling her departure by slamming the metal door.

I sat on the wooden bench in the empty room, the echo of the slamming door still in my ear. I did care about her… more than she would ever know. I had to distance myself from her because if I died in the field, I didn't want her to turn her back on guardiancy. That was something I might have done if being a guardian had taken my mother from me.

Rose and I are the same – no one who's seen us in action could deny our familial relationship. Everything she's done in her life have been things I would have readily done in my youth – even sneak a royal Moroi out of the academy to protect her. Our temperaments are exactly the same as well – quick to anger and hard to forgive – and I'm sure it caused many of Rose's teachers over the years to curse my name. Now, it also seemed we had the same taste in men.

Tall, broody, older and dangerous when they wanted to be with typically sweet and caring natures – the Hathaway women could not resist.

I had fallen for Abe Mazur – a 26-year-old mobster – when I was just 19 and now it seemed my 17-year-old daughter had fallen for her 24-year-old mentor and future guarding partner to the Princess Dragomir. To be honest, I really did like Dimitri – I knew he was a wonderful man who took his life and his job seriously. The irony of it all was if I had to pick a perfect man for my daughter, I would pick exactly like Dimitri. He was stoic, serious and logical where Rose was emotional, a little crazy and reckless. However, if talk from the other guardians was to be believed, since he came back from picking up the two girls, it seems Rose brings out the best in him. And based on how quickly Rose caught up – and surpassed – her peers, he seemed to bring out the best in her.

The looks they'd given each other and the way they acted around each other reminded me of how Abe and I used to be together. I worried for my daughter because I didn't want her to get hurt like I did, but she was right – I had signed away my right to her life a long time ago. Meddling in her life will only serve to drive us further apart and I already destroyed whatever chance at a normal relationship we could have had.

So, I'll stay silent and observe from the background. But if she gets hurt… Well, a mother will do whatever she must to protect her childen.

As is my usual modus operandi, NO FLAMES and only CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. :) Hope you enjoy!