I spent the rest of that evening round Lissa and Christian's house. I called Eddie and Adrian over to tell them all the news, that I'd be going on a mission to St Vlads, and with Dimitri of all people.

"Ooh, alone time with the cradle robber, that will be tough for you!" Adrian joked as he placed a reassuring hand on my arm.

"Cut it out. You know it's not like that, it'll be awful." I said while glancing around at my friends.

"It'll be nice to go back to The Academy though Rose. Alberta will be pleased to see you and you can piss Stan off just like old times." Eddie said encouragingly. I loved that he always found something positive in a shitty situation; he always managed to lift the mood in a room.

I excused myself from their company soon after we had eaten dinner, saying that I needed to pack, which wouldn't be easy considering I had no idea how long I'd be there for. Surely it couldn't be more than a month?

Lissa had offered to come to my house and help me back but I politely declined her offer. Don't get me wrong, I would miss her like crazy, but I couldn't deal with her optimism in that moment, I just wanted to be alone with my many swirling thoughts.

After a tear-filled goodbye by my friends, I packed my bags and soon fell asleep.

Before I knew it my alarm was blaring violently in my face and it was 5AM.

I hauled myself out of bed, which took more effort than I'd like to admit, and zombie-walked into the shower, stripping off my pyjamas as I went.

The shower woke me up a bit and I felt refreshed when I stepped out and dried myself off. I dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans and a burgundy top. I figured I didn't have to dress in my Guardian uniform as I'd surely be travelling for most of the day. I grabbed an apple on my way out of the house and locked the door as I went.

I tugged my suitcase across the Court grounds until the airstrip was finally in sight.

Hans and Dimitri were waiting by a very fancy looking private jet when I finally reached the airstrip.

"Morning Rose." Hans greeted me. I had to admit I was pretty pleased with the fact that we were on first name terms now.

"Morning." I replied while completely blanking the Russian standing to my right.

"Keep me updated on your progress and I can relay any information onto Her Majesty. If you need anything, I'll help you sort it. But other than that, be safe and don't rip each other's heads off." He said with a humorous smile.

"I'll keep you updated on what's going on, but I can't make any promises about the head ripping off thing." I said with a smirk of my own before shaking his hand and walking up the steps to the jet and lugging my suitcase up behind me.

Dimitri and Hans exchanged a few words which I couldn't hear before the Russian followed me onto the sleek-looking jet.

I shoved my suitcase into one of the overhead lockers and looked around at my surroundings. There were soft, plush carpets under my Converse, the seats were very comfy looking and leather, there was what looked like a bar at the other end of the jet, and a door which must lead to the cockpit where the pilot was currently preparing to takeoff. There were 8 seats in total, 4 on each side of the aisle; they were in pairs facing each other.

I sat down on the seat closest to me and put my feet up on the little table in front of it, I suppose I may as well get comfy, I'd be in here for a while.

Myself, Dimitri and the two pilots were the only people on the jet.

I avoided looking at Dimitri as he shuffled around the plane, until I couldn't avoid looking at him any longer when he sat down in the seat opposite me. I rolled my eyes; of course he'd sit right in my line of sight.

He was wearing his traditional duster and had a western novel in his hand. He glanced at me once before opening the book and settling down to read it.

This was clearly going to be a boring journey.

One of the pilots spoke on the overhead speaker and told us we'd be taking off soon.

Once we were up in the air and the seatbelt sign was off I got up from my seat and went to the bar in search of a drink. I pulled out a bottle of water from the mini fridge and sat back in my seat.

We sat in somewhat uncomfortable silence for some time until Dimitri's smooth voice broke the silence. "Where did you get all those Molnija marks from?" He asked hesitantly. I glanced up and saw him gazing carefully at me. How had he seen them?

"I saw them at the party the other day." He said as if reading my mind.

I cleared my throat before speaking, not really knowing how to explain. "Um, soon after you... left, I didn't really know what to do with myself in my free time, and so on my days work off I used to go outside of the wards and hunt. I went out a lot at Lehigh too, there's always Strigoi hanging around Universities."

"Wow. How did you track all your kills?" He asked out of pure curiosity.

"An Alchemist friend of mine would go and clear up and officially count them." Sydney and I had become a lot closer over the years after I first met her in Russia.

He simply nodded and went back to reading his book, clearly the conversation was over.

I leant my head back against the seat and tried to relax; the dull throbbing in my head was becoming more and more persistent as time went on.

I pulled out the packet of pain killers from my pocket and popped two in my mouth before taking a swig of the water.

I sat back in my seat and rubbed at my temples. "Do you still get the headaches when you fly?" Dimitri asked, curiosity clearly getting the better of him. I glanced up and saw him looking up at me again; I tried to ignore the swirl of emotion that twisted in my gut whenever our eyes met.

I twisted the ring on my finger a few times as I explained. "It still hurts, but not as bad as before. I took two painkillers before I left this morning and just taken a few more. I also got this ring from Oksana, she charmed it for me and Lissa topped it up with Spirit a few days ago for me." Dimitri sat up straighter and put his book down as he glanced at my hand.

He hesitantly stood up and sat on the seat to my left, so he was right beside me. His scent washed over me and I felt my insides turn to goo.

I saw him hesitate for a long time before he took my hand into his and lifted it so he could study the ring. I felt the calluses of his hand rub against my own and I felt the typical little shocks run all the way up my arm and into the pit of my stomach.

"What are you doing?" I asked incredulously. Every single one of my instincts was telling me to yank my hand away from him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

"I'm sorry." He muttered under his breath as he studied the ring carefully, although he didn't sound sorry at all. "I thought I recognised it, Mama and Babushka have similar ones, it's a Russian design." He explained. "You say Oksana gave you this?" He asked as he finally looked up at me.

"Yes. While I was in Russia. She charmed it for me to help with the darkness. She and Mark helped me a lot, actually." I explained softly.

"That was very nice of her." He said simply.

He finally let go of my hand and we sat in silence for a moment longer before he spoke again. "You haven't asked me if I've spoken to my family, I thought you'd be curious to know."

"I would be curious, but I already know. I talk to Olena and Vika a lot; we have a phone call almost every week." I said while inspecting my fingernails, as if the conversation we were having was no big deal.

He sat up straight and looked directly at me. "What? You talk to them? How did I not know that?" I couldn't tell if he was angry or just simply shocked. If he wasn't angry then, he probably would be now.

"I asked them not to tell you."I stated simply while glancing at his eyes again.

"Why would you do that?" He asked carefully.

"Does it matter?" I knew if I told him it would just cause an argument.

"Yes it matters!" He growled. My God that voice, that masculine growl.

"I asked them not to tell you because at the time I didn't like to think about you at all, it just hurt too much, okay? And I knew you wanted nothing to do with me either, so I figured it would be easier for you if you didn't know." I said quietly, looking anywhere but at him.

"Rose." He said, his voice was low. I didn't look at him.

"Roza." He pleaded.

I took a deep breath and turned to look at him. The emotion I saw churning around in his eyes almost made me gasp. There was so much going on in those deep, bottomless eyes. He looked desperate.

"Rose, it's not that I didn't want anything to do with you, I just couldn't do it to you." He stated.

"Stop it. Stop talking. We're not talking about this now." I said sharply.

"Why, because you know you can't walk away from me when we're forty thousand feet in the air?" He asked.

"Yes, that's exactly why." I stated simply while settling into my seat and turning away from him.

I heard him move slightly in his seat as he looked out of the window and sunk deeper into the leather. I rolled my eyes and suppressed a sigh as I realised he wasn't going back to his seat any time soon and I had to sit next to him for the duration of the journey.

I stared into space for some time until I felt my eyes become heavy with sleep. I rested the fist of my hand against my head as I closed my eyes and drifted off.

I awoke what felt like minutes later but was probably more like hours.

I was warm, too warm. And a prominent masculine scent was wrapped around me as well as a heavy, leather clad arm.

I opened my eyes and shifted my head slowly so I could glance at Dimitri's face.

As I suspected, he was fast asleep. We must have moved closer together during our sleep as I was not almost fully sitting in his lap and his arm was wrapped protectively around me.

A few of his silky strands of hair were framing his face and his breathing was deep and even.

I could not tear my eyes away.

It had been so long, I wasn't sure I could recall a time where I had seen him look so very peaceful.

I felt his arm tighten around me ever so slightly and had no idea what to do with myself.

My body was like a live wire. I felt electrified. Every nerve ending in my body was on high alert.

"It's rude to stare, Roza." His lips turned up into a grin.

Suddenly the realisation of the situation dawned on me and I had no idea why the fuck I was letting this happen.

Before I could think too much about it I shot up and out of my seat. I stood in the aisle for a moment as I tried to calm my erratic breathing.

"Asshole. Absolute asshole." I growled as I sat in a seat on the other side of the aisle without looking at him.

The pilot's grainy voice spoke through the overhead speaker alerting us to the fact that the seatbelt sign had been turned back on and we would be descending soon to St Vlad's private airstrip.

I watched out the window as my old home came into sight, I could recognise it from up here.

So much had happened at The Academy, so much I was willing to forget.

I had no idea how I was supposed to make it through this mission with Dimitri by my side.

I would go in, get whatever it is that The Queen wanted and then go back to Court. It would be easy, I was sure.

It's a shame really; that nothing is ever as easy as I think it's going to be.

There we have Chapter 11! Thank you so much for all of your support, I appreciate every single one of you who have read, followed, favourited and reviewed this story. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you thought, thank you so much for reading!