A/N: I'm so sorry for not updating sooner! I've been busy with this and that, and you've heard this excuse millions of times so I'll spare you from the monotony of late updaters making up excuses. But yeah, I'm really sorry. :(

Oh, and I have a weird disclaimer today. You get a RheaPOV today! Time to see inside her mind. *cue mystical music* I wrote the disclaimer a while ago, when the update was supposed to come, but I didn't finish the chapter. I seemed weirder than normal that day… maybe it was because of the no school/ Thanksgiving Break thing. I don't know.

Disclaimer: I own Vampire Academy! Mwahaha! *sees Dimitri and Rose come over with angry expressions. Nervously smiles.* Hey guys, what are you doing? Are you angry? What? At me? Oh, uh… *Dimitri prepares to beat my face in* OKAY, I DON'T OWN VA! *Dimitri relaxes and leaves with Rose.* Sheesh, that was close. Overreaction much?

Chapter Ten

RheaPOV

Rose flushed red. "Spasibo za kompliment , ya dumayu (Thanks for the compliment, I guess)," she muttered, before leaving.

"Dude, what did you say to her?" Tanya asked. "She turned as red as a fire engine!"

"I said, 'I'm sure that Papa won't mind sleeping on the floor in a room with a beautiful lady like you,'" Alex mumbled. Dylan looked appalled while Mason and Andre wolf-whistled and Tanya smirked. I was really surprised.

"You do know that your dad and Rose used to go out, right?" I asked timidly, "That wasn't the most appropriate comment to make."

"I know, I wasn't thinking," Alex replied sheepishly. "I also forgot that she understood Russian."

Dylan laughed. "You know how your dad used to mentor Aunt Rose?" he asked. Alex nodded. "Well," Dylan continued, "apparently Guardian Belikov used to mutter a lot in Russian, and Aunt Rose used to beg him to teach her how to swear in Russian so that she could swear at Headmistress Kirova and Guardian Alto without getting in trouble, but he always refused. So apparently, after he went to guard your mom-"

"Tasha isn't my mother," Alex interjected.

"Whatever," Dylan said. "Anyways, after he went to guard Tasha, Mom told me that Aunt Rose started a Russian course online. Apparently, her exact words were, 'Well, the Russian God isn't here to stop me from learning to swear in a foreign language, and I might as well become bilingual while I'm at it.'"

The whole table erupted in laughter. I smiled. I'd heard this story from my parents a lot. Aunt Rose never really talked about it, though. We've only heard stories about Guardian Belikov through Mom (because he was supposed to be her guardian), Dad (because he guards his aunt), Aunt Mia (I don't know why), Uncle Eddie (I have no idea either), and Aunt Jill (she used to worship him or something). Uncle Adrian didn't talk about him too much (he apparently didn't like Guardian Belikov because they were rivals for Rose's love; funny how neither of them got her) and Aunt Sydney didn't even know him. She met Rose while she was Strigoi-hunting in Russia, a year after Guardian Belikov left.

Our little 'group' had the funniest and coolest stories. Like Rose's gap year between graduating and going to guard Lissa. Or the first attack on St. Vlad's when all of our parents were students except for Uncle Adrian and Aunt Sydney, and how Rose and Dad teamed up and took down more Strigoi than anyone else, and then how Rose rescued Guardian Belikov, Uncle Eddie, and a bunch of other captured Moroi and dhampirs afterwards single-handedly, and how Mom and Uncle Adrian managed to heal them all.

"Rose seems pretty amazing," Alex noted.

"She is!" I exclaimed suddenly. Aunt Rose used to help me manage and control my darkness. She helped me not feel insane. "Aunt Rose is the world's best guardian!"

"Maybe not the best," Tanya said to many protests. "But definitely one of the best," she corrected.

"I guess…" I admitted. "But who's better than her?"

"Maybe John Marx," Dylan said.

"Guardian Marx? He guards a Zeklos lord or something, right? Is it Dane or Jesse?" Andre asked. "Isn't he like, Guardian Belikov's age?"

"Yeah. He guards Dane Zeklos, you know, the decent one. You guys know Caden Zeklos, right? Dane's his dad. Apparently Guardian Marx is really nice. His scores from his time at a guardian academy were rivaling Rose's. I'd pay a lot of money to see those two spar," I smirked. It felt kind of funny. I didn't smirk much.

The others laughed at my attempt at a smirk. Everyone said that I took after my mother, only I had the ice-blue Ozera eyes instead of the Dragomir jade-green like my mom and Andre, and my mother was not known for being devious. That was Aunt Rose's job.

"Next time Caden's dad visits, we can ask Guardian Marx to spar with Aunt Rose!" Tanya exclaimed.

"Yeah, but the thing is, Caden's dad doesn't visit. Caden goes home to Massachusetts to visit his family, remember? Last year Uncle Eddie had to escort Caden to the airport, remember?" Andre pointed out.

"Why doesn't Dane Zeklos ever visit St. Vladimir?" Alex asked, confused.

"His older brother, Jesse Zeklos, that asshole, tortured our mom with magic and then Aunt Rose kind of beat him up and Dane is ashamed," Andre said. I grimaced. That was one of the not-so-awesome stories our families had. Mom had been tortured with magic countless times- twice when she was seventeen, three times the year before Andre and I were born, and five after our birth.

"Oh. Well, Caden seems nice. He was in my Moroi Culture and my Algebra classes. We sit next to each other in Algebra," Alex said.

"Caden is nice. So are his mom and his dad, according to the adults. We haven't actually met Dane Zeklos. Our parents have seen him at events and stuff, though. Apparently, he got the good genes and Jesse got the asshole ones," Dylan said loudly, "And he apparently passed those genes to his poor excuses for kids."

Heads from the tables around ours turned and I was suddenly so glad that Anton Zeklos (Jesse's oldest son who's our age) and his brother, Kyle, didn't sit near our table. Though it was true. Anton and Kyle were both assho- meanies. Anton always makes the dirtiest jokes and he always teases the non-royals and dhampirs, calling the dhampir girls bloodwhores and such. Kyle, though only ten, was following his brother's footsteps and was also insulting those they thought were of "lower rank" than themselves.

B-bas- gah, I can't say it. Not even in my brain. Well, I guess that for now, meanies should suffice.

A/N: Well, sort of a useless chapter. As you can tell, Rhea is just like her mom, cute and innocent. Next update should come up sooner, I hope… :-/

~42