Hey, guys. Sorry the updates have been slow. Depressed Rose is kind of hard to write and I want to make sure I do her justice. Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are seriously great. Cheers!

Update: Apologies to the reader who was offended I said Bethlehem was in Israel. I was sticking with first century geography and didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. Hopefully Dimitri can smooth everything over for me. Thanks for reading!

ROSE

I woke feeling terrible. And also, strangely good. Which I guess it what happens when you combat your depression by getting drunk with your best friend and end up with a terrible hangover. But I felt more like me than I had in a long time. Then I threw up.

Lissa wasn't around, so I cleaned up a little and let myself out. I didn't really know what to do. Our vampiric day was just beginning, but I had nowhere to be. I still wasn't allowed to be part of Lissa's protection. The fact that I had been removed didn't upset me nearly as much as the fact that I hadn't fought it even a little.

Since losing my job, I'd been haunting the lab. But I had no desire to go back to sitting around and hearing how useless my blood was. So instead I just went home. I was more than a little disappointed when I got there and Dimitri was nowhere to be found. Maybe he had better things to do than babysit me all day, but didn't he care where I had been all night?

I found myself getting a little irritated. Maybe it had taken her over a week, but Lissa had finally hunted me down and done something with me. Dimitri apparently thought it was fine to avoid me until I snapped out of my little "poor me I turned Strigoi and killed a lot of people" phase. Maybe he only wanted me when I was the fun girlfriend.

I sat down and turned my ring around and around on my finger. I'd avoided getting engaged for long enough that when Dimitri finally got me to commit, we hadn't actually pursued getting married. I thought that he hadn't forced me to set a date because he was still basking in the victory of getting me engaged. But maybe he was having second thoughts of his own.

Some part of me knew that this wasn't really true. I knew that Dimitri loved me and if I said, "Hey, let's get married tomorrow," he'd be all for it. But I was angry, and I was sad, and I still felt sick from my binge drinking the night before. So instead of trying to sort through all of my confusing feelings, I brushed my teeth and crawled back into bed.

I woke up when something bounced off the bed beside me. I opened my eyes to see a silver stake lying on the mattress. I sat up enough to see Dimitri standing at the foot of our bed before I groaned and fell back against my pillow.

"I'm sick."

"No, you're not," he told me. "You're hung over."

"Potato potahto," I muttered as I buried my head under the pillow.

"Get up, Rose. We have things to do."

"I don't wanna."

"Too bad." He reached down and ripped the pillow away from me. "We're going hunting."

Really? I weighed that in my mind for a moment. Spend another day avoiding everybody and drowning in my own guilt, or go kill a couple of undead monsters? Tough choice there. I bounded out of bed with more energy than I'd had since my restoration. "Give me five minutes."

It wasn't quite five minutes, but after a quick shower I felt ready to go. I also felt so clean I had to stop and wonder when the last time was I showered. No wonder Dimitri wasn't fighting my "no touch" policy.

I stewed about that as we drove out of Court. There was no doubt in my mind that my drinking session with Lissa was somehow connected to this outing. How pathetic was I? My fiance was only doing something with me because my best friend used her queenly powers to order him to. Screw that.

"You don't have to do this," I told him.

"Do what?" he asked, eyes on the road.

"Go hunting with me. Obviously you don't want to."

He did look over at me then, but only for a second. "Why wouldn't I want to?"

"Because you don't want to do anything with me. You haven't touched me since I've been Strigoi."

"You told me you didn't want-"

"I never said that!" I exploded. "I told you not to touch me, but I never said I didn't want you to."

He groaned. "Are all women this confusing?"

"It's pretty damn simple, Comrade. I just went on a killing spree that set records for newly turned Strigoi. For any Strigoi. I shouldn't get to come home to my dream job and my best friend and my gorgeous fiance. But I did and I can't enjoy it because I don't deserve any of it!"

"That's not true," he protested.

"If it's not true then why won't you even look at me?"

"I'm driving!" he snapped.

"And have you been driving for the past 8 days?"

He slammed on the brakes so hard that I had to brace myself against the dashboard. He wrenched the wheel to the right, bringing us to a sliding stop on the shoulder. Before I could process what was happening he had his seat belt off and was lunging at me.

I was pinned under him at an awkward angle as he kissed me. My seat belt was digging into my side, the door handle was digging into my spine and my neck was not meant to bend the way it currently was. I was in heaven.

I ran my fingers up into his hair to pull him closer to me. I felt like I was being devoured and I was happy to let him. I'm pretty sure we might have ended up moving things to the backseat right there on the side of the road, but then I arched up into him and something popped. I couldn't hold back a little cry.

Dimitri instantly levered himself off of me, his face concerned. "What was that?"

I closed my eyes and focused on breathing through the pain. "I think it was my vertebrae."

"I'm sorry." I had no doubt he meant it, but I could hear the chuckle in his voice. He reached out to brush my cheek. "Still think I don't want you?"

"Even though I may be paralyzed as well as depressed now?" I asked.

"No matter what." He chuckled. I wiggled my toes just to make sure I still could. "We're almost there," he told me as he put the car back in gear and started forward again.

"Almost where?"

"Bethlehem."

"What is this, like a spiritual journey for my soul? Pretty sure we're not in Israel, Comrade."

"Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. And the other Bethlehem's in Palestine." he told me. We shared a little look, both glad to be back in our familiar rhythm. "They have a Strigoi problem."

"Palestine does?"

I flashed a grin at him as he rolled his eyes. "They have a Strigoi problem here," he clarified.

"Not for long." I took my stake out and twirled it between my fingers, eager for the fight to start. I was done lying around moping. It was time to kick some ass.