Chapter 11:

RPOV

After about an hour in the car, I finally mustered up the courage to talk to Dimitri.

"Where are we going?"

"Abe has a plan."

That is all I got. I groaned and slumped back into the seat, crossing my arms over my chest. I knew Abe had a plan. He didn't strike me as a man that would leave this up to chance but still. I would like to know what the plan is. But I knew Dimitri either didn't know and had just gotten the need to know information or he wouldn't share. So we spend the next couple of hours in silence. I decided to take a nap. I didn't know when I would have the chance again.

I felt Dimitri's hand and my dream warped into something nice. His warm hands on my body, caressing me. I had been having vivid dreams of him lately. I blamed the pregnancy. All those hormones running through me. But my wonderful dream was disturbed by a not so gentle caress from Dimitri, and I realized he was just trying to wake me up.

"Wake up Rose, we are here."

I looked around and I saw a fast food joint. In front of the restaurant was a parking lot with a few cars. In front of one of the cars were two things I was happy to see. One being a bag of food and the other was the person holding the food. Sydney.

I got out of the car and I ran up to Sydney hugging her. She seemed kind of uncomfortable with that, but let me anyway.

When I finally let go, she handed me the bag of food.

"I thought you guys might be hungry."

I looked inside the bag.

"So where is Dimitri's food?" I asked only half joking.

Sydney looked shocked wondering if she miscalculated what Dhampirs eat. And I know how much she hates to miscalculate.

Dimitri rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag. He took out some of it and handed the rest back to me, securing his own meal. I did notice he didn't take half of it. He left the majority for me. I knew he must be hungry too, we had been on the road for a while, but I appreciated the gesture.

"Come one, we have a long road ahead of us."

Sydney opened up the trunk of her car and handed us both a bag. The bag was filled with fresh clothes. I saw Dimitri pull out a duster.

"Abe said it was mandatory."

I smiled. Dimitri was looking more and more like himself every day. I cringed at my own thoughts. It wasn't the same as before. He will never be the same, neither will I. But could we find a new us?

Dimitri got into the driver's seat of the car. Sydney seemed slightly offended by that but let it slide. She rode shotgun. Leaving me with the backseat. Just as well.

"So Sydney, Abe got you in on this too. What did you do?"

She groaned.

"I sold my soul to the devil and this was his payment."

I knew people meant that figuratively, but I sincerely doubted that in her case.

"What was worth so much that you asked Abe for help?"

She sighed, I don't think she wanted to talk about it but she answered anyway.

"He got me out of Russia."

I looked at her skeptically. That would seem like a small thing for Abe to do, helping a fugitive Dhampir escape execution seemed like a big favor to ask. I knew there was more to the story but decided to let it go. At least for now. I had bigger things on my mind. Like being around my former lover 24/7.

"So where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe."

Urgh. This was getting me nowhere. I let my head hit the headsupport in the back groaning as I did so. Letting everyone in the car now I wasn't happy about this.

We took off again, going somewhere safe.

After a few hours on the road I couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Can you at least tell me how long it will take for us to get there?"

I saw Dimitri tense behind the wheel.

"Rose, don't be a child. We will be there in a few hours."

By way of proving I was not a child I stuck my tongue out at him. I saw him roll his eyes. I let myself fall back into my seat again. It would be night time before we arrived.

When we finally did. I was thoroughly disappointed.

"Are we staying here for the night so we can move on tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.

"No Rose, Abe and I searched long and hard for a place and this is it. No one will ever look for you here." Sydney replied.

"No, because nobody in their right mind would want to be here."

Sydney rolled her eyes and I thought I saw a small smile threaten its way up on Dimitri's lips, but it was gone in an instance.

"Rose, this is the most inconspicuous motel we could find. It will do."

"For how long?"

"As long as it takes for your name to be cleared."

I looked at him with my hands on my hips.

"You and I both know, there is a real chance it will never be cleared. They don't actually have incentive to keep looking. They have their culprit, a low-life Dhampir with a bad reputation and a grudge against the queen."

"Your friends will keep looking and find whoever did this. And then you can go back, to Lissa and to Adrian."

Not that I didn't want to see Adrian again but why was he specifically mentioning him?

"Don't worry Rose, This is to keep you safe. That should be your main concern right now. Not if it was a luxurious place."

"I know it should but I can't just sit around and do nothing. I will go crazy. I should be helping them."

I knew Dimitri understood. He didn't like inaction as much as I did. But we both knew we didn't have a choice. Not right now. Defeated we headed into the motel. Sydney was getting two rooms. She was to take one and I and Dimitri were to take the other. I protested but neither of them would budge. I didn't want to sleep in the same room as Dimitri. Well I did want to. I wanted it real bad. That was the problem. I knew one thing from being so close to him the last day. I needed him. I wanted him. But I knew he was lost to me. I needed to get over him, and sleeping in the same room was not helping.

We walked into our room and I was even more disappointed. It looked taken straight out of an eighties movie. And one bed. How are we going to do this? But I already saw he was putting his stuff in the chair. At least I was getting the bed.

"I need a shower."

I didn't wait for a response before heading into the bathroom with my stuff.

I undressed and I stepped in the shower, letting the warm water calm me down. I contemplated to use the shower head for something else but I didn't actually want to relieve some tention when Dimitri was in the next room.

The warm water was nice on my skin but after a few minutes I was starting to get dizzy. The warmness of the shower had filled the room and made the air hard to breath. I sat down and turned the shower off. The twins were really starting to affect me now. I was starting to feel less like myself every day. I rubbed my stomach.

"Just let mommy get through this, okay, then you can do whatever you want to me."

I didn't think they heard me as another wave of dizziness hit me. I think I spent a good ten minutes on the floor of the shower, naked and cold but the dizziness finally passed. I dried and got dressed in the new clothes Sydney brought. Luckily they weren't that tight. I hoped Dimitri wouldn't notice anything.

I exited the bathroom and saw him sitting in his chair, reading a western novel. His legs were crossed at the ankles and his overall appearance was relaxed. A smile crept its way on my face no matter how much I tried to stop it. All I wanted was to snuggle up with him in his chair while he read that stupid book. I imagined it a hundred times after he was turned.

Dimitri looked at me and raised an eyebrow. Busted. I blushed and wiped the smile off my face. I climbed on the bed and dug under the covers. I turned away from him and I prepared myself to go to sleep.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight Roza."

I tried very hard not to let my heart leap at him calling me Roza as I fell asleep. The first peaceful sleep in a long time.

APOV

I had been working on my aunt non-stop. She was getting better whereas I was definitely getting worse. I didn't know how Lissa did the healing so easily. But then again, it cost her a lot of energy to read aura's, well it was as a second nature for me.

But my efforts were paying off. They had taken her out of the medically induced coma a few hours ago. But she still had not woken up. I had been sitting beside her bed for a while now, willing her to wake up.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew the room was swarming with medical personal. They were checking her vitals and sticking her with needles. The doctor was shining some light into her eyes, which were open. She was awake.

"Get that blasted light out of my face you baphoon."

Yup my aunt was awake and seeming herself although her voice sounded very hoarse.

It took them a good ten minutes of checking her before they finally left us alone again.

"Adrian, boy, what happened?"

I checked her myself to see if I could see more damage than only her wound.

"You don't remember?"

"I remember someone standing over me and then pain and then nothing."

"Someone tried to kill you auntie."

Her eyes widened a bit before she composed herself.

"Well that was not unexpected. I knew there would be a lot of criticism on the new law. Who tried to kill me?"

"You don't know?"

"I remember a woman I think, dark hair, but I couldn't see anything else."

I groaned, not only could she not confirm it wasn't Rose, her description of the culprit actually pointed in her direction.

"They arrested Rose."

"For what?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"For your attempted murder."

This time she did not hide her surprise very well.

"It was her stake that was used to wound you and only her fingerprints were on it. Adding the fact she did not have an alibi for the night you were hurt and she had motive, she is the prime suspect in your case."

"Well that is just silly. Why would she use her own stake? No, I may not like her, but Rose is neither stupid nor a murderer. Arrange a meeting with her maybe I can help her get out of jail to await trial before we can find some real evidence."

I guiltily looked down.

"Well she isn't in jail anymore. We kind of took care of that already."

She looked at me like a mother would her two year old child when they took a cookie form the cookie char when they weren't supposed to.

"Honestly."

I decided to own it and gave her my Adrian-style wide smile.

"I need to talk to her. Can you do that walk thingy you do?"

"You want to dream walk Rose?"

She nodded.

"You need to be asleep for me to connect you two. So does Rose."

She closed her eyes and I think it took her a whole minute to fall asleep. She must be tired. I tried sensing if Rose was asleep and I could feel the familiar tug of her mind. I decided to connect with Rose first and bring Tatiana in next.

The hospital room made way for my grandmothers garden. A familiar place I took Rose to very often in her dreams. She appeared before me and when she saw me she ran over to me and hugged me.

"That bad huh Little Dhampir?"

She let go and groaned.

"I think we said two sentences to each other. I don't know how to tell him Adrian. I can't just blurt it out. What if he doesn't want them? What if he comes back to me only because of them?"

I touched her cheek and brushed some of her hair out of her face. She looked tired.

"You don't have to do everything at once little Dhampir, just get settled in first and then find a good time to talk to him, maybe start with some small talk instead of immediately say 'Oh by the way I am carrying your demon spawn."

She glared at me and put her hands on her hips.

"Who are you calling demon spawn."

I smiled. Nothing gets Rose out of a depressed mood better than being angry.

"Anyway, good news, my aunt is awake and she wants to talk to you. That is actually why I am here."

"Well if she can talk to me here, she isn't actually awake, now is she."

I rolled my eyes. Rose took things so literally some days.

I focused on my aunt and felt her mind enter mine, she appeared in front of us.

She actually fluffed her dress I put her in and stroked in down with her hands. She ran her hand through her hair making sure not a single strand was out of place.

"Well I will never get used to that."

Rose looked a bit uncomfortable and looked down at her feet.

"Now what is this nonsense I hear about you trying to kill me Rosemarie."

Rose looked up surprised.

"You don't believe I tried to kill you?"

"No, I always thought that if you killed me, you would poison me and stand over my body while I withered away." Her tone held no amusement just facts.

"Huh, funny I always thought, one day I couldn't take it anymore and strangle you on the spot." Rose had matched her tone. If either of them had been joking it would have been funny. But they weren't It wasn't that my aunt didn't believe Rose would hurt her but that she simply wouldn't have done it that way. And the fact that Rose also imaged strangling my aunt was not helping matters. To me they both seemed eerily comfortable discussing my aunt's murder by one of my best friends.

"Ladies, Ladies, please can we get down to business."

"Right, right. I actually didn't call you here to talk about my almost untimely demise. I need you, while you are out there, to find Lissa's brother or sister and get her the Dragomir vote. I know you hate me for that law, but believe me I did not have a choice. Some of the royals measures where a lot worse. But if Lissa is on the council she will make a change. That is why I want her to succeed me, but she cannot do that without the quorum."

Rose's mouth was hanging open, so was mine. I had long suspected my aunt wanted Lissa to succeed her. But the whole sibling thing was news to me. Apparently it was that way for Rose to.

"Lissa has a sibling?"

"Yes, her father had an affair with a dancer in Las Vegas after his father died. I don't know more than that. But I need you to find out."

"Wait auntie, Rose needs to stay put and stay safe. She needs to keep her head down and…"

"I'll do it."

I threw my hands up in the air. Why did I even bother?

"Anything else I can go on? A secret sibling by a Las Vegas dancer isn't much."

"I knew he had set up a bank account for her, for the child, maybe there is a paper trail."

Rose nodded. I was just staring at the both of them. Going back and forth. They were discussing all of this rather calmly. Like one wasn't accused of trying to murder the other, or that usually they ended up screaming at each other. But I guess both of them are just powerful women in their own right. Somewhere I knew they respected each other. They just didn't like each other. My aunt embodying regal calmness and calculated decision making and Rose being passionate, headstrong and impulsive.

"Do you Ladies, need me for anything or should I just set up the tea and biscuits and be on my way."

Rose looked at me for a moment.

"You can do that? Leave us I mean, don't you have to be present here?"

"I mean I do, but I can extend the space so I can at least give you two some privacy."

"Huh." She replied very eloquently.

"That will not be necessary Adrian. I believe Rosemarie and I have concluded our business. I will try to arrange a safe return to court or at least stop them from using deadly force when pursuing you."

"Thanks."

"Now Adrian, I would like to go back to more peaceful dreams, if you don't mind."

I did as I was told and disconnected with my aunt.

"Be careful Rose."

She smiled at me.

"Aren't I always."

When I disconnected with Rose I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. No, No she wasn't. She was actually very impulsive and had little regard for her own safety as long as she accomplished what she wanted to accomplish. I guess she was a little more careful now that she was pregnant but not by much.

I just hoped Dimitri would be able to keep her under control. He always was the only one who could do it in the past.