Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update but I was floated… my brother is having a Bar- Mitzvah next week and I had to write speeches to the event, my grandpa is celebrating 80 and I had to write a song about him. And Passover is on Monday and I had to help cleaning the whole house. I'm surprised I even had time to write this chapter… well enjoy… =]

I came to the meadow and sat next to Dimitri's body and held his hand. I tried not to think what will happen if he won't wake up… I kept remembering Robert saying there are three options, he'll live as a dhampair, he will be a strigoi and the third… he didn't say it out loud but it was obvious…

I clenched his arm in remember of the third option, and in return I felt a slight pressure on my palm, where Dimitri's hand rested.

"Oh my gosh Dimitri?!" I knelled on him.

"Rose?" he opened his eyes.

"Oh my god" I started hyperventilating "you are alive… You are here… god…" I felt the tears again.

"Roza" he sat and hugged me. "Don't cry, I'm here now"

"You are now… but… I needed you and you weren't here and…" I started sobbing. I mean sobbing. I'm not the sobbing kind… damn I hate this stupid darkness, I finally have him back and it ruins the moment completely…

"I'm here now…" I could here the pain in his voice for not being there for me. "And I'm so sorry, you have no idea how sorry I am. I love you Roza, I'm sorry""

"It's… it's not your fault… I love you too" I buried myself in him so I was on his lap now.

"I'm sorry Rose, about all the things I did… at Galina's, the bridge, the mind games, the feeding… oh god the feeding…" he cursed in Russian "I'm so so sorry Rose" he sounded like he was about to cry.

"It wasn't your fault." I was now angry, fucking darkness. "It wasn't you who did it, it was the strigoi you. Not guardian Dimitri Belikov! It was a dark soulless creature, who is now gone, for good. And you are back…" I wiped the tears "you are back here with me."

"Why would you want me after what I put you through?!"

"love means never have to say you're sorry, and I think I just told you it wasn't you who did it so there is nothing to forgive for?!" I didn't wait for his answer, so many feelings were in me. And the strongest one was the love for him and the attraction. I crushed my lips to his. He responded passionately. The kiss was full with love and attraction and need… need to be with each other… I now understood that was what I missed when he kissed me as a strigoi. The missing part in it.

Dimitri pushed my back to the grass and was all over me. The kiss started developing to more when we heard a squeal from behind us. Dimitri immediately stood, embarrassed, I sat smiling at the person who came.

"Oh my gosh!!! I did it!!! Rose it worked!!! Oh my god!!!" She ran to us, "Dimitri!!!"

"Princess" Dimitri started, "I'm so sorry for everything I've done… you have no idea how remorseful and grateful for what you did."

"Oh Dimitri its fine… it wasn't your fault at all"

"See???"

"Any way, Dimitri, you are family now. You would've done the same for me if it was reversed. And please, for crying out loud, call me Lissa. I thought we passed it a long time ago" she smiled.

"I told you to stop it…" I started "can you please stop it?"

"Rose, it's not that simple, I've killed people"

"So did I"

He gave me the stop- fooling- look. "You know it's not the same… I killed innocent ones"

"It's the cycle of life." I repeated what he said when he tried to convince me to turn into a strigoi. He noticed it and started saying something but Lissa stopped him.

"Whatever, Dimitri, stop it. You are forgiven for everything the strigoi you did, alright? Can we go back to the car? I'm getting cold here"

"How did you get here?" Dimitri asked

"What do you mean? By car, you saw us…" I laced my hand in his.

"No I mean Lissa how did you get here alone?"

"oh, Janine escorted me here and she said I'll be safe here with two fully trained guardians and she came back to the car to let Eddie set some sleep" and she wanted me to make sure you won't do anything she wouldn't want to see Lissa said through the bond. I smiled… it was obvious she would do something like that…

"Let's go" I grabbed Dimitri's arm. We went to the car quickly. My mom saw us coming out of the forest. She smiled wildly when she saw me and Dimitri walking hand in hand.

"Good to have you back guardian Belikov"

"Good to be back, guardian Hathaway. I'm so sorry for everything I've done… please forgive me"

"There is nothing to forgive for, call me Janine"

"Oh, guardian Belikov, good to see you… not strigoi."

"Thank you Lord Ozera. Please forgive me for what I did…"

"Christian and that fine. I've seen worse" he looked down, thinking about his parents.

"Can you please stop beating yourself up?!" he was really annoying me…

"Guardian Belikov" Eddie woke up. "Good to see you"

"Thank you guardian Castile and I'm sorry for…"

"Cut it out I heard you in the first time. Call me Eddie"

"And please call me Dimitri"

"Okay now when we all met each other again" I started "where are we going to go now?"

"I saw a sign to a safe inn not so far away"

"Lissa I saw it too, its eight hour driving" Eddie said.

"Well, I think we all need to get some rest, and we'll also have a day off" my mom agreed with Lissa.

"And we don't really have anywhere else to go…" Christian agreed, "But what is a safe inn?"

"an inn which has wards and four guardians all the time" mom explained "its more a hotel than an inn but that how its called"

"Alright than, we're going to the safe inn?" I said

"Yeah, let's go" my mom said and led us to the car.

Mom drove and Eddie sat next to her. On the middle bench sat Lissa and Christian and on the third, Dimitri and I sat.

I snuggled closer to him, I was still exhausted from the healing and the darkness and I really needed to sleep. Plus, it will be the first night in a long time I won't dream of sleeping next to him, I actually will… the thought brought a smile to my lips.

"Go to sleep Roza" Dimitri kissed me lightly, "I'll be here…"

"I know" I fell asleep within seconds.

I woke up from light movement from Dimitri.

"You woke up" he noted

"Yeah…" I stretched and noticed we were alone. "We made it?"

"Yeah we're at the inn, your mom is renting us a room right now"

"Oh" I didn't know what that meant exactly, renting a room for the entire group or renting a room for only the two of us? "Let's go."

We just came out of the car and my mom came.

"Good, you woke up. Now, there is a guardian room for me and Eddie and two rooms with a couple beds. Lissa and Christian in one you're on the second?"

I looked at Dimitri for confirmation, he nodded. "Thank you Janine"

Mom made a face and left to talk to the reception about the guardians and I started saying something to Dimitri when a familiar voice talked to me.

"Rose, tell me it's not what I think it is" Mark said from behind me, I turned around and looked at him, and boy, he was pissed…

I hoped you like it! I hope I'll get to update soon but if not than happy Passover for who celebrates it and for who doesn't, well than happy Monday!