A/N: Hey everyone ! I know, I know, I'm late with the next chapter...but well, I apologize. Here's the new chapter ! Enjoy, readers !

DISCLAIMER: Not mine.


There was a time when I craved attention and enjoyed it almost as much, much more than was appropriate for a guardian. Dimitri changed all of that. And now that my friends were looking at me like they wanted to cut me down and know what was wrong with me, I felt small and cornered. Believe me when I say I never want to feel like that again. It made me feel threatened...like that time when Dimitri imprisoned me...or the time when Isaiah held us hostage.

I straightened up. No one was ever going to make me feel like that again. I could take all of them with my one bare hand now. So I turned the smartass back on. "See something you like ?"

Recognition filled Dimitri's eyes and his face showed just how much he wanted to say something, but Adrian beat him to the punch.

"Oh little Dhampir, you don't realise just how much I like everything I see" he teased and the mood lightened a bit, but Lissa still seemed unconvinced. What was making her so suspicious ? More than that, why did she care ?

Lissa watched this interaction mutely. Maybe Tasha was right and the bond was only temporarily down, but this space in her head was new and unwanted. A pit formed in her stomach as she kept a steady gaze on her best friend.

The curves and contours of Rose's body started blurring together with the air of the room. She seemed to be dissipating into thin air and Lissa opened her mouth to scream, except it never made out. A heavy cloak of intense black surrounded Rose like a blanket. Small wisps of the inky shadows curled around her form, making her look like a dark angel. That was terrifying in itself, but what actually made Lissa step back then was Rose's face.

Her beautifully exotic features bled into an unearthly beauty fed by the air around her. Her chocolaty eyes turned a black so deep, their pupils were indiscernible. Her tan was gone and the paleness of her cheeks amplified the murder in her eyes. Hers was the face of death.

Then Lissa blinked, and the mirage was gone. Rose's face was back to normal and there was no shroud of darkness around her. That was when Lissa realised that she'd been seeing Rose's aura. She swallowed. Because that meant that Rose had a lot of darkness in her at the moment and she'd seen how it affected Rose. It was a marvel she was even standing here talking so casually with all of them.

I noticed some kind of recognition come into Lissa's eyes at that moment. It was like she'd discovered some secret and I wondered if she'd realised that the bond was gone permanently or the reason behind it. That wouldn't bode well for me.

"You don't have to stand in the corner, Rose." Lissa said then. "You never have before and you'll always be my friend before my guardian." She continued. I gave her a half-smile. If she wanted to play the nothing-ever-happened card here, I wasn't helping her.

"That may be the case in the past, Princess. But now that I've been officially assigned to you, I'll opt for doing my duty." And with that said, I simply walked off towards the door. "And since you already have Guardian Belikov inside, I'll just guard the door. Excuse me." I inclined my head and slipped out of the room.

No one followed me outside. Well, that was easy. But I shouldn't have been surprised. I was in a self-harming haze for nearly a month and none of them noticed. How appropriate 'Out of sight, Out of mind' sounded right about here.

Standing at the door, listening to the conversation going on inside, because let's face it, curiosity was probably my biggest mortal fault, I thought back to the past year and a half of my life.

Lissa was my biggest worry when we returned to the Academy. Then came Dimitri...the mentor I fell in love with and then came Mason, his death and then the attack at the Academy. The final straw that ripped apart every seam of my life and left me in shambles.

I remembered the feeling I got when Mason confirmed that Dimitri was Strigoi...the overwhelming grief, the deep sorrow. The realization that I'd once again lost someone precious to the one enemy who never seemed to be defeated. Then the disbelief when I actually saw Dimitri again...the emotional pain the first day...the mental haze the remaining days...then at last the death of the last part of my heart when I plunged the stake in his chest. There hadn't been anything worse than that, at least that's what I'd thought then.

I shook my head. Why was I even thinking back to those times ? Things had changed majorly now. Lissa was no longer the girl I thought I knew, Dimitri seemed to have fallen into worshipping her, Adrian was-although suspicious of what was going on with me-moving on for the most part, but most of all, I wasn't the girl I'd been then or even after Russia. I was no longer Rose Hathaway-the rebellious teenager who risked everything for the people she loved. She was weak. Now I was Rose Hathaway-the girl who learned not to give a damn, the girl who knew honour and the girl who was done letting people crush her under the name of love.

Straightening my shoulders, I focused on bringing my mind back to the task at hand. I needed answers, but there was no one I could turn to for help...or was there ?

My mind pushed the name to my conscience...the one man who would know if anything like this had happened before and where I could go to find the answers I sought. I smirked to myself. It was time to pay daddy dearest a visit.


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