Chapter 14:

RPOV

Dimitri walked with me to the edge of the campus. To my surprise he was leading us to the pond. I saw Christian and Lissa ice-skating on the pond. To my even bigger surprise Dimitri was not leading me towards the pond but to the cabin. Our cabin. Memories of that day came back to me and my breathing started to pick up. I looked at Dimitri and I saw he wasn't keeping a neutral face either. He stopped in front of the cabin and took a deep breath, he then opened the door.

The cabin looked better. It was cleaned and made comfy. The last time we were here it wasn't exactly bad either, which was strange for an outpost that hadn't been used in ages. I never gave it much thought. Last time we were here I had other things on my mind, and as I scanned the cabin, honestly they were still on my mind. Dimitri clarified.

"She prefers to stay here in this cabin when she is on campus instead of staying at guest housing."

It was then that my eyes lifted from the bed we had made love in to a woman standing in the cabin. She was beautiful. Long raven black hair and ice-blue eyes. The eyes reminded me of someone. But besides her striking blue eyes there was something else quite striking about her. She had a large scar running down her cheek. It almost looked like someone had taken a bite out of her. I realized only a moment later that is exactly what happened.

"Dimka!" She practically threw herself at Dimitri and engulfed him in a hug. He laughed and returned her hug. I had to ask.

"What is a Dimka?"

Dimitri chuckled.

"It short for Dimitri in Russian. Like Rose is short for Rosemarie."

"How do you get from Dimitri to Dimka?" Dimitri smiled but ignored the question.

"Rose this is Tasha, Tasha Ozera, Christian's aunt."

Now it made sense, she had the same eyes as Christian. She extended her hand to me.

"I won't hold it against you. It's nice to meet you." Tasha laughed, Dimitri sighed but I could see the amusement in his eyes. In that moment Christian and Lissa walked in hearing the last bit of conversation. Christian just glared at me.

We all sat down and Tasha started to make all of us some hot chocolate. I sat down in a chair instead of on the bed. I saw Dimitri do the same. Tasha came back with the hot chocolate and handed us all a cup. She sat down next to Dimitri.

"Here, a double just like you like it." She said to Dimitri as she handed him the cup.

I was trying hard not to be jealous, I mean she just handed him a cup of chocolate no big deal. But the way she said it was bugging me. How does she know how he likes his hot chocolate?

"So how do you know each other?" I tried asking in the most neutral tone and failing.

"Oh Dimka and I go way back. We went to school together in Russia. I was a few years ahead of him, but we were friends. Oh you should have seen him and Ivan. What a duo they made."

I saw something flash in Dimitri's eyes. I knew he still had a hard time accepting his old charge's death. He wasn't on duty at the time, but I also knew they had been close. I saw he was remembering the fun times they had, but I also could see the loneliness in his eyes. He was still missing his friend. I decided to steer the conversation in a different direction in true Rose Hathaway style.

"Did Strigoi do that to your face? How did you survive?"

I heard gasps from around the room and a Rose! from Lissa. Tasha however laughed.

"I like you, and yes Strigoi did do this. When Christian's parents turned they came back to the house to take Christian away. I stopped them long enough for guardians to arrive. Not without a cost though. I survived because I am a fire user and I had been able to keep them at a distance to stall for time. But I had never felt so helpless. After that I swore I would never feel that way again. I would not be a victim. I trained both physically and magically and now the next time a Strigoi decides to come after me he or she is in a lot of trouble."

She said the last part winking at me. I was astonished. I couldn't help but start to like her now. She wasn't just a Moroi fighting Strigoi, she was also fighting the system. And as a self-proclaimed rebel I could do nothing but applaud that.

Now I knew why Dimitri had wanted to have me meet her.

Conversation went on for a while and I learned fascinating stuff. Even though I thought she was sitting to close to Dimitri, I could not help but like her. She was standing tall in the face of adversity. Even though she is royal, apparently she has no guardians of her own, because of what happened with Christian's parents. I was silently wondering if Christian would be allowed guardians upon graduation. I don't think he was expecting it and I had a feeling Christian learned a lot from his aunt in the way of self-defense. His confrontation with the psi-hounds proved that.

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the dorms. Dimitri had cancelled todays training session in order to talk to Tasha and have me meet her. They were going shopping together later. Even though she said she could take care of herself, she accepted Dimitri's suggestion of him going with her as a guardian a little too soon for my liking.

Their shopping trip had another nasty surprise in the morning. Instead of Dimitri waiting for me in the gym it was my mother. At least I wasn't late this time.

"Where is Dimitri?"

"Guardian Belikov escorted Lady Ozera last night on a shopping trip. He came back only a few hours ago. I told him I would take your morning training so he could get some rest."

If only she knew how much me and guardian Belikov were on first name basis.

"I would like to see the progress you made since coming back. You had a lot of catching up to do. But I did hear about you taking down that girl that turned on campus. I guess guardian Belikov is a good teacher."

Okay, no Rose is also an excellent student?

"Fine, what do you want me to do first? Guardian Belikov usually has me running laps first."

She contemplated this, but she settled on a quick warm up instead. Next we went on to sparring.

"I would like to see you in action. Normal rules apply. Outside of the ring is a point, and connecting is a point."

Dimitri actually never sparred with me for official rules. We both thought that it was ridiculous. In normal combat you don't have points, or rings, you just take down the other guy before he takes you down. We did use the ring once as an exercise for small spaces sometimes though.

"Fine."

We circled each other and I was looking at my mother the way I was looking at all the other students in my class. I was looking for tells. My mother was fast and agile like me. I mostly fought opponents bigger than me, and sparring with Dimitri had certainly prepared me for that. I had to use my speed and agility to go against his superior strength and reach. But with my mother it was different. She was even smaller than me. We had to same kind of fighting style, I wasn't used to that. I imagined because of my age I would be faster, but she would be more experienced. Therefore I looked at her carefully, I had to be able to predict her movements. But when the first fist collided with my shoulder I knew that strategy went out the window. My mother had no tells. I could only react when the punch or kick was already in motion and hope I was fast enough to counter.

As it turned out I was only fast enough to block most of her advances instead of taking over the assault and turning defense into offense. But at least she wasn't getting many hits in as well. Punch, block. Kick, block. It went on for a little while. I did start to see a pattern emerging in my mother. Although I could not predict her movements based on tells, I did notice she had favorite combinations. I just had to hold out long enough until I could predict her next move. I had not been advancing on my mother so she had not seen any of my combinations or favorite moves yet, giving me the advantage even though the blocking was starting to tire me out.

"Come on Rose, you can't win a fight with just blocking."

Actually it was a valid strategy. If I could hold out long enough for one good punch and make it count it was better and more energy efficient then trying to land small hits. Also blocking costs less energy than attacking and if I was getting tired my mother would certainly be. She would make a mistake soon. And there it was, she slipped. She had used that combination twice now and I was ready for her. I dodged the first punch and I knew she was coming in with a kick, I blocked the kick with my leg and placed in on the ground giving me the footing to throw a good punch just like Dimitri had taught me.

My fist collided with her chest and I heard it crack. My mother flew backwards and fell out of the ring. She was winded and I could see her clutching her chest. I imagine I broke a rib or two. I had won the match but I was not as happy about it as I would like. The punch was too hard and my mother was paying for it. I guess I still had a lot to learn about control.

I immediately left the ring and went down to my mother's side.

"Oh God mom, I am so sorry. Are you okay?"

I tried to reach out and help her up, but my mother just slapped my hand away. She very slowly got up. She winched. Yes definitely a broken rib.

"Mom, let me take you to the infirmary and have Dr. Olendski take a look."

"I am fine Rose." She said through gritted teeth. "I guess guardian Belikov's training has paid off. You are good." I know it cost her a lot to say that. Although she was still putting most of the credit on Dimitri. Of course she had to ruin it.

"Just image how good you could have been if you hadn't made that stupid decision of running away with the princess. Always so reckless"

Actually I would have been worse. I would have had more training but less battle experience. Also I doubt I would have had private training sessions with Dimitri. And learning from the best meant I was becoming the best. I was surprised though. I usually gave it my all with Dimitri, and although I was winning occasionally, most of the time he still fought me off with ease. But I had taken down my mother. I guess Dimitri was better than my mother. That pleasant thought was however not enough to override what she had said. Not only could she not even compliment me without it having a backlash, she also blamed me for taking Lissa away. I followed her. I kept her safe. I made sure Victor didn't get her.

"For your information mother," my tone dangerously low. "Lissa was the one that left because she felt hunted and I went with her to protect her. And it turns out, she was right. And if you had been around long enough to actually get to know me, you would know that I would never endanger Lissa like that." I was nearly screaming at the end of the sentence.

I stormed out of the gym and went to my room to calm down and pack for the rest of my school day. Only my mother could get under my skin like that. I had to calm down. Think happy thoughts. Butterflies, unicorns, shirtless Dimitri. Okay the last one worked, I wasn't angry anymore. Now I had a new problem.

DPOV

I woke up at a decent hour. I was grateful to guardian Hathaway for taking over morning training with Rose, although maybe I should have just cancelled the training instead. I was wondering how that training went. I knew Rose and I knew her thoughts about her mother. Although I did not know Janine personally I had seen enough to know where Rose got her temper from. She just hid it better. I would have liked to be a fly on that wall. But as I lay in my bed I did appreciate the sleep in.

The trip to the mall had been interesting to say the least. At first it was nice, familiar. We spend a good amount catching up. On the way back however things had gotten a little awkward.

Tasha had asked me to be her guardian. And although that would have been okay, maybe even what Rose and I needed to get out of this situation, it was the things she didn't ask that had me wondering if she wanted more than that.

Tasha and I had dated very briefly. We had both decided back then it wasn't going to work. Now I was wondering if I had been the only one that supported that decision. I knew Tasha did not need a guardian. She was capable of taking care of herself. The only reason she would ask is so she could spend more time with me and give me a more relaxed life. And as sweet as that was I knew exactly what she expected from my newly found free time.

I knew I had to turn her down. I could not choose to be with Tasha, even if she was a possible solution for me and Rose. Another charge would mean I wouldn't have to choose between Vasilisa and Rose if the situation called for it. But a guardian has no choice in who he gets reassigned to. I could be send back to Russia. At least with Tasha I knew she would be staying near Christian and Christian would be staying near Vasilisa. If Tasha only wanted me to be her guardian it would have been perfect. But I can't lead her on like that. It is not fair to her. Or to Rose for that matter. Rose is very observant; she knows what Tasha would want from me. That would not be a good situation.

But how do I tell her no? I don't want to lose her as a friend. And that was why I made the very stupid decision of saying I would think about it. Also what can I come up with as a logical reason? I want to stay with the princess, only to transfer away from her after graduation. Or, no Tasha I can't be with you, I am completely I love with my 17 year old student and have fucked her on the same bed you are sleeping in now. Yeah that would go over well.

At least I have time to come up with something. As long as word doesn't reach back to Rose. But I doubt Tasha would want anybody knowing until it was official. I knew even if Tasha is royal, she would have a hard time getting this approved.

After lying in bed for another 20 minutes I got up and took a shower to clear my head. After that I went down to the guardian's canteen to get some breakfast. I saw Janine sitting at a table. She did not look comfortable. I decided to sit next to her and see what happened in morning training. At least I wasn't informed of funeral arrangements for Rose and Janine was sitting here, so all in all a good outcome I thought.

Well that was until she explained to me what happened. Rose had obviously broken a rib or two. I could see it by the way she was sitting and was struggling to breath. But Janine was as stubborn as her daughter and refused to see a doctor. She managed to compliment me on Rose's training, I wondered if she had complimented Rose too. A bit of praise from her mother would go a long way. But I doubt that had been the outcome of this morning's events.

She asked me about my trip and I actually told her what happened. Janine was a respectable guardian and a smart woman. She also saw Tasha's ulterior motive. But when she asked if I would take the offering I choked.

"I can't, Just possibility isn't enough to make a happy family, even if it is my only chance. Besides, Tasha is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, she doesn't need a guardian. I feel my services can be put to better use elsewhere."

For instance, protecting your daughter from insanity slowly creeping into her. I knew the argument was slightly self-absorbed. I basically stated that a highly trained guardian such as myself shouldn't be in a comfortable situation where he doesn't have anything to do. But it was the best I could come up with.