I sat down in the large, oversized leather seat in our private jet and stretched my legs to the seat across from me. I put my hood up and my ear buds in, getting comfy and ready to sleep when I saw a very tall and large figure in my peripheral vision. Dimitri.

"Princess Hathaway, we have to talk."

I sighed, "Told you not to call me princess."

He shrugged and walked in front of me, knocking my legs off of the seat as he sat on the seat beside it. I glared at him and linked my fingers together, "I don't know what you want me to say. I'm seventeen; I just wanted to have some fun."

"Fun? Drinking underage and sleeping with someone is dangerous, you can make huge mistakes," he stated and sat forward, his elbows on his knees.

I rolled my eyes, "Belikov, seriously? I'm not an idiot. Protection is key, no glove no love, blah blah blah. Besides, Aleksander and I didn't do anything to that extreme – not that it's your business."

"I'm supposed to keep you safe and with you always getting into trouble and sneaking out without me knowing, it's getting really hard to do."

"I can't be restrained Dimitri! That's all that I ask for, is to not lock me up or keep me from doing shit," I said and sat up straight, crossing my legs. "If someone tells me not to do something, I have to do it—it's who I am."

"Well that's going to be a problem for both of us, because I've decided to put you under strict house arrest."

"What!" I said and jumped up, looking down at him.

"Rose, sit down, we're about to take off."

"No! Screw this!" I stomped my foot just as the tires began rolling, making me fall on, of course, Dimitri.

I gasped and he did too, my body crushed against his, not being able to move as the plane kept elevating. We looked at each other intensely and my heart started beating a million miles an hour until finally we straightened out and I jumped off of him, liking the way his body felt against mine way too much.

I sat in my seat and shakily buckled my seat, looking everywhere but at him. I fidgeted with my hands before finally realizing my iPod was still playing and blaring on the seat beside me. I grabbed it and slid the ear buds back into my ears and sighed, putting my hood on again and closing my eyes – Dimitri and I would finish our conversation later, there was no way I was going to confront him after that.

I woke up from my nap, seeing Dimitri asleep too – I guess he thought there wasn't really a big threat inside a plane. I leaned over the empty seat and looked out the window, I could see the mountains and green, glad that we were declining. I sat back and kept my earbuds in, looking over at Dimitri and biting my bottom lip.

What was it with him…? He was so infuriating and such a douche bag, but dear Lord was he sexy. With his long brown hair and scruffy face that I found somewhat attractive on only him and his stupid cowboy duster that he somehow pulled off. My heart started to race as I thought about how it had felt being pressed against him and I bit my bottom lip. Just a few seconds later I realized what I was thinking and kicked myself in the ass, what the hell Rose, it's fucking Dimitri we're talking about here! I rolled my eyes, sighed very loudly and threw my head back. Which of course woke Dimitri up, he looked at me oddly and I closed my eyes, frustrated with myself and my body for being so attracted to Dimitri.

Fortunately, we were getting lower and lower to the ground and I took a deep breath as I felt the wheels pop out and hit the concrete. My hands unclenched the seat's arms and I exhaled quietly, nodding at Dimitri as I started to walk out of the plane.

Lissa and I got into the SUV with Alberta and Dimitri in the front, I was not looking forward to my 'punishment' that Dimitri and I didn't get to talk about.

I knew the time was getting closer and closer so I ignored my thoughts and chatted with Lissa about everything, except I didn't give her any details about my night with Aleksander, I felt like that would've freaked her out beyond mention—all she needed to know was that we did stuff more than make out and nothing else. Unfortunately, after finding her half-naked boyfriend in my bed I now knew what they did. That made me grin, but once I saw the gates of St. Vlad's it completely disappeared from my face. I grabbed my suitcases and bags and walked up to my room, getting a text from Mason that everyone missed Lissa and I and they were planning to come up to my room as soon as I got settled in.

"I have to go check in with Headmistress Kirova and run some errands; we will talk about your punishment tonight," Dimitri said as he passed by me while I opened my door. I nodded and didn't look at him – now that I got a lot of fresh air I realized how weird this all was.

I set my suitcases and bags on the bed and unzipped them, putting my random stuff back where they belonged and threw my dirty laundry from the weekend in the laundry basket. Lissa and everyone else were planning to come up to my room in a few minutes and I needed as much free space as I could get.

Ten minutes later, as if on cue, Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Jill, Mason, and Mia walked in. my eyes felt like they were going to pop out when I saw that the last two people to come in were holding hands. Mason and Mia! Since when did this freaking happen?

Mason must've seen my face and he chuckled, "Shocking?"

I nodded and smiled a little, surprisingly, I wasn't jealous, "Very, did this happen while we were gone?"

Mia nodded with the brightest smile I'd ever seen her have, "He asked me to be his girlfriend Friday night!"

"That's sooo cute!" I heard my best friend say, I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"Yeah, what she said," I replied with an eye roll.

Mason smirked and he nodded, "I know cute isn't in your vocabulary."

I shrugged, "I don't have many words in my vocabulary any way."

That made everyone laugh, which made everyone get into a better mood, which started our little party. Aleksander was staying at Court until tomorrow morning—he wanted to finish all his mother's arrangements and he had a dinner tonight with Queen Tatiana. At least that's what his text read when I got off the plane.

They talked about how the first mass was, which Lissa and I strategically planned to miss by booking our flight during that time, and how boring Headmistress Kirova's speech was. Eddie had brought a movie, which I'm pretty sure was some type of bloody/gore-filled movie, and put it in my DVD player. Everyone settled into whatever they could, my bed, the floor, the couch, some random chairs—I didn't mind though, I liked having the gang here. Aleksander was missing though… He kind of was a part of the gang now, and my life. I closed my eyes tight as I thought of Aleksander kissing me, then he changed to Dimitri, and my heart beat went a lot faster. What was with me?

Lissa placed her hand on mine and she asked if I was okay. I nodded and heard a knock at the door. "Pizza! Someone wanna get that?"

Jill got up and opened the door, it was the pizza guy so she paid and closed the door. The pizza was gone in less than a minute, everyone with at least two slices on their plates. When the movie was over, everyone's stomachs were full and their minds were on blood and guts—good thing we were all vampire or vampire-related, or it would've be really hard to eat while watching.

It was getting lighter and later and Dimitri still hadn't come by, but of course once everyone left he knocked on my door and opened it before I got the chance to even get off my bed.

"You should really lock your door, Rose," he said and closed it.

"I really don't think a locked door will stop a Strigoi from getting into my room, Belikov," I said, laying back on my bed, my head propped up.

Dimitri sat on the couch across from my bed, the same one I woke up to the first time I saw him—déjà vu much?

"So my punishment… What's the verdict Belikov?"

"You will be under house arrest, strict house arrest where you go straight from here to training with me, to class, to training with your fellow Fire users, to dinner, and back here," he said, crossing his fingers together.

"Seriously?" I sat up. "It's my senior year!"

"Rose, you snuck out to go drink, illegally!" he said sternly and leaned forward. "I will take you off of house arrest when I believe that you have learned your lesson."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, which means no freedom for the rest of the school year."

"This conversation is over," he said and stood up quickly. "I will see you tomorrow morning for training."

I nodded and saluted him mockingly, he sighed deeply as if he was tired of me and it ripped every inch of playfulness from my face for some reason.

I looked down as he closed my door and fidgeted with my hands. He's your mentor, Rose. Not some guy in your class. Now Aleksander… He'd be good for you. He already adores you! I sighed and laid back, closing my eyes and seeing Dimitri's face over and over again. No matter how bad he infuriated me, there was something about him that attracted me to him more than anyone I'd ever been attracted to. I was so screwed.