Hi Everyone, Well, here's the next installment, but I start work tomorrow, so I promise I will update as soon as I'm able.... Thank you all for your reviews.....you all know how much I love reading them.... Oh, and thanks for the idea Andrea!!! I may use it yet!!! hehehe

Chapter Ten.

Ready or not

Suddenly everyone was on their feet. Dimitri had me by my shoulders, Christian had Lissa, both trying to turn us away from each other but my eyes were locked with hers. The shock of the realisation had drawn me into Lissa's head, along with Oksana who had been with me. Lissa's emotions were so turbulent it took me a minute to get out. By this time my mother was now a few inches away from my face.

"She was a teacher?" Oksana had seen everything we'd thought of about.

"Rose, who was it?" asked mom.

I could hardly say the words.... I hadn't seen Sonya Karp since they took her away. I knew she'd gone Strigoi, but I thought Guardian Tanner had killed her. Apparently he'd taken nearly six months to find her and kill her before returning to St Vladimir's, well at least that's what he had said....

"It was Mrs Karp." Said Lissa from beside me, apparently I'd lost all ability to speak. I heard people gasp from around me, the nausea hadn't gone away; only increased, and so I turned out of Dimitri's grip and ran inside. Way too much had happened in the last few months.... If I wasn't going to go crazy from the side effects of spirit, then the events of my life certainly had my sanity in their sites....

"Roza." I heard from the other side of the bathroom door. I was sitting on the floor beside the toilet with my elbows on my raised knees, head in my hands. It felt like the universe was out to get me. What had I done that had been so bad.....that I deserved all this drama in my life? "Are you alright? Can I come in?" he asked. I just closed my eyes and tried to imagine I was a normal eighteen year old with a great life. Just click your heels three times and say 'I wish I was in Kansas.' I thought to myself. I didn't hear the door open, but I felt him sit down beside me. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him.

"I thought Tanner killed her." I whispered. "He said he killed her.... why would he say that if he didn't." He kissed the top of my head but said nothing; obviously he was thinking the same thing as I was. I sat up and looked into his eyes. "Do you think he told her we were coming here?"

"I'm not sure," he said, "but it looks that way to me." A lot was going through my mind, a lot of questions and he must have seen the turmoil in my eyes. "What are you thinking Roza? Talk to me." A single tear welled up and escaped.

"Why is this all happening Dimitri? I'm bringing a child into this......deadly world. What if I can't.....can't....protect our baby from....all this...." I couldn't say anymore, the lump in my throat stopped all the words. He pulled me in tighter

"You're not alone in this Rose. Do you not see how many people are here for you? Don't you realise the lengths I would go to, to protect you and our child?" I nodded as I looked at him.

"Yet they still got to me, and Lissa. I couldn't stop them and neither could anyone else." I closed my eyes and buried my face in his chest as I let the tears flow. He knew I was right, I saw it in his eyes.

"Roza, we will work this out." He said. I looked back up at him and noticed he was looking at the door; I turned and saw my mother there. "I'll let you two talk. Come on, hop off the cold floor." He kissed me softly on the lips and looked at me with determination and then helped me stand up. "Janine." He nodded with a smile.

"Dimitri." She said. I gave a brief laugh under my breath and shook my head at them, always guardians.... I followed Dimitri out of the bathroom and mom took me by the arm and led me to the large state room that was previously the operations room used to find us. "How are you feeling Rose?"

"I'm good I suppose, between Lissa and Oksana I'm all patched up." She nodded.

"And the baby, it's alright?"

"Yeah." I looked down in thought as she mentioned the baby. I didn't think I've ever felt this unsure of my ability to protect someone I loved before, and it scared the hell out of me.

"He was right Rosemarie." I looked up to her realising that she'd heard what I'd said about the baby. "Nothing will ever happen to you or your baby again. We will work this out. By the way, I rang Kirova after what you said outside; they've got Tanner in custody. He's adamant that he killed Sonya. She wants us to come back so that Oksana can see if he really believes that or if he's lying. Are you sure it was her?"

"Yeah. I knew there was something familiar about her at the house, but I really only saw her as she was walking away, but when Oksana described her, everything fitted. I did see her face before, but I always thought of her as dead, so I didn't recognise her at first. But it was definitely her." She nodded back to me.

"We'll have one more day here and then we'll head back. You & the Princess both need a bit more rest before flying." She looked like she wanted to say something else and then she lifted her hand to my face and sighed. "There was always a little doubt in my mind on how committed he was to you, and then when you said you were pregnant, I got worried that he wouldn't stick around, I know how much being a guardian; and his duty as one means to him. But I saw what he went through not knowing where you were and I saw just how deeply he loves you." I don't think my mother has ever talked about 'feelings' so much before. Then she pulled me to her in a hug and held me tight. It felt so good; so many years I wanted to be held like this by my mother, wondering what it would feel like. I'm glad I got the chance to experience this.

After lunch Dimitri and I went for a walk around the castle grounds, I'd pulled myself together after my little melt down. Guardian Mitchell followed with Adrian and Vikki. I sat down under a tree with Adrian as the other three decided on an impromptu training lesson. "Viktoria, you're arms are too low." He'd yell at her. She'd turn and glare at him like I used to and Adrian would laugh every time.

"No wonder you two get on so well little Dhampir." I just smiled and shook my head. "What, no response?"

"She has more self control than I did."

"Hmm, not as much as you would think....." He looked like the cat that swallowed the canary.... Just then Dimitri's voice yelled out.

"Viktoria! Pravilniy...... Nyet..." He often reverted to Russian when speaking to his sister, though I hated not knowing what he was saying.

"Dimka! Leave me alone!" she yelled, Mitchell used her distraction to his advantage. He dropped and swung his legs around catching her behind the knees and she went down. But she was quick; just like her brother. She must have seen him start to drop and as she went down she started to twist. Landing on her arms she swung her legs connecting with his stomach. It made me smile to see so much of Dimitri in her; I wondered how much they'd trained together in the past. I looked over to Adrian to make a comment about her fighting skills and I briefly saw the look on his face; but he looked down when he realised that I'd looked at him. I saw my opening....

"See something you like Dream boy?" I grinned.

"Always little Dhampir, especially when you're around." That deserved an elbow to the ribs. I shook my head in exasperation.

"You are so stubborn." I said, he smiled as he kept watching at the fight, not taking his eyes off Vikki.

"Not really Rose. I just like teasing you, plus....things are definitely looking up." He said with a smile on his face. I looked over to Vikki and then back at him and noticed something different.

"Not that I'm trying to get rid of you or anything, but why don't you take Vikki for a tour around the grounds?"

"No.....that doesn't sound like you're trying to get rid of me at all Rose."

"I'm not! I'd just like to talk to Dimitri alone for a while." Any excuse would do.... He looked at me trying to work out if I was lying or not and then turned to the others.

"Vikki, wanna go for a walk?" He probably said that at the wrong time and so she learned her second "Don't get distracted" lesson. Mitchell tackled her around the waist, flipping her over his shoulder. She landed with a thud which had all of us running to see if she was alright. After getting her breath back, and punching Adrian in the arm for distracting her, they walked off together.

The next day we lazed around till it was time to leave. There was a lot to get through when we got back. Lissa and I both went to see Dr La Ferve to make sure that we were fine to fly and then we got into the cars to go to the airport. This time we left in the daylight hours. Because Dad was coming back with us, I got to fly in his Concorde. It was amazing... and we got home in just over four hours.