RPOV

It's been hours since practice ended, and my mouth ached from what happened. Dimitri cancelled our morning practice, thank God. I don't think I could face him, not after what I did. Just thinking about it sent chills up my spine. What had happened to me back there? It seemed like I lost all self-control, what little control I had. I always found myself having a difficult time keeping myself calm around Dimitri.

He's so irresistable, though, I thought miserably. He completes me in a way no other guy's been able to. He understands me. I looked at my alarm clock; the glowing numbers showed 1:15 AM. I groaned.

I fell asleep around two in the morning. When I got to Stan's class (twenty minutes late, might I add), I got a whole lecture from Stan on how I should be more grateful he's allowing me to stay in his class and how I should be lucky he hasn't called Kirova in. I drowned him out halfway through his first sentence. I was too distracted by Dimitri to even care about what Stan was saying. Me and Dimitri's eyes met and we couldn't seem to pull away. I felt a slight tug on my chest, as if someone were pulling me to him. Distracted by the tug, I broke eye contact and rubbed my chest absently.

After Stan's lecture was done, he started class. The tug only seemed to get more intense as the class progressed. I would give Dimitri brief looks, and I could see he was having the same thing happen to him. I rested my chin on my hands, trying to pay attention to the crap Stan was saying, and trying to ignore the now painful pull in my chest.

Once class ended, I went to go find Lissa. She was in the feeders. Over the time we've been back at the Academy, she's gotten closer to Christian Ozera, and has even contemplated going on date with him.

"Are you sure you're okay with that?" I asked hesitantly. "His parents turned Strigoi, Liss, and were going to change him too."

"Just cause his parents were Strigoi doesn't mean he's going to be one," Lissa defended. "I really like him, Rose!"

I sighed. There's no getting through to Lissa when her mind's set on something.

"I'm going to the church, Liss," I said. "Sorry."

"Is something up, Rose?" she asked. "You've been acting really weird and distant lately."

I shook my head. "Just overworked," I mumbled. I gave Liss a quick hug and headed to the Academy's church.

"Hey there, Rose," Father Andrew greeted. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Um, yeah," I said nervously. "Do you have any books on shadow-kissed dhampirs or anything?"

After a few minutes, Father Andrew dug up a book on old saints and handed it to me. I opened the book and started skimming through it. When I saw a part written about a dhampir girl named Rosemarie Hughes, I stopped.

There was a picture of her that looked just like me. She was alive around the 1700s, but committed suicide with her dhampir lover, Dimitri Tatarinov. Dimitri Tatarinov was seven years older than the Hughes girl. They were both assigned to protect a Vasilisa Dragomir, and Vasilisa was engaged to a man named Christian. But after Dimitri Tatarinov and Rosemarie Hughes committed suicide, Vasilisa went into a depression and left Christian, Christian turned Strigoi and was killed my guardians, and Vasilisa died of pneumonia six months later. A whole chain of deaths.

All because two dhampirs were in love.

My mind spun. My heart pounded. My mouth went dry.

My Roza, a voice in my head whispered. It was a deep masculine voice. I love you. I miss you.

"Dimitri?" I whispered. I looked around the church, it was just me. Father Andrew had gone to some other part of the church to do some business. I looked back down at the book, at the picture of this Rosemarie Hughes.

Without knocking, I went into Father Andrew's room and shoved the book at him.

"Her," I said. "She looks like me. Why does she look like me?"

Father Andrew looked at the picture than looked at me. He grunted.

"I've heard about their story," he said. "But there's an even deeper one nobody knows about."

"What's that?" I growled.

"Rosemarie Hughes, besides being shadow-kissed, was also a very special kind of dhampir," he explained. "She was taught that dhampirs were colleagues, and she should only fall in love with Moroi men, but when Dimitri Tatarinov came into her life, everything changed."

"Why?" I pressed.

Father Andrew closed the book. "Dimitri Tatarinov and Rosemarie Hughes were destined to meet each other, and when they did, they had a special prophecy to complete. But it involved Rosemarie getting pregnant and it also involved Strigoi. If Rosemarie got pregnant, her child, when it was old enough, would be the ultimate Strigoi fighter. But the law got in the way of the prophecy—and the two dhampir's fears. Because Rosemarie was shadow-kissed, she was able to get pregnant by other dhampirs. Dimitri thought that if Strigoi found out she was pregnant, they'd kill her, so they decided to not fulfill the prophecy." Father Andrew looked at me. "When they killed themselves, it was said that their souls would be lost forever and Strigoi would eventually kill off dhampirs and Moroi. And it seems like that part is true. But the souls of Dimitri Tatarinov and Rosemarie Hughes still live."

"Really?" I asked.

Father Andrew nodded. "Yes. The souls live in you and guardian Belikov."

QUICKY A/N: LET'S ASSUME THAT ROSE HAS KNOWN ABOUT SPIRIT AND BEING SHADOW-KISSED FOR A LONG TIME, OKAY?

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YOURS TRULY,

~SMITHY