A/N – Only three reviews for the last chapter? Yet they were super encouraging so I'll let it slide… FOR NOW!
This chapter is dedicated to Nellyrose1994, Do'B and YelloBubbles!
Lissa's P.O.V
Everyone finally got settled down, we tricked the guardians into thinking there was no threat, we stopped Christian's nervous breakdown with the T.V, I got Natalie to beat it and Andre is now sleeping soundly on the couch.
Sadly the damage was more than expected. With the chandelier laying hopelessly on the ground and shards of glass everywhere. Luckily only the living room was effected and none of the bedrooms upstairs or any rooms down here. Except for the kitchen.
"Should we call the maid service?" Christian asked while running his fingers through his hair.
"Sure, yet if they ask anything lie your asses off." Viktoria said while looking at the chandelier. "Maybe we can say a tornado came."
Adrian scoffed. "A tornado, that's a bit over the top. No one's gonna believe that." Adrian said, surprisingly being the voice of reason. "A tornado in the middle of summer, yeah right." And there goes the voice of reason.
"We need to figure out why Rose didn't respond to our calling." I said which surprised everyone. They were so focused on the damage of the house they forgot.
Except Dimitri. He was in the corner, looking around but in his eyes I could tell he wasn't actually paying attention to anything. His mind was somewhere else. Dimitri looked over at me when I said that and by looking at his aura and his eyes I could tell he's hiding something. I'll have to question him about that later.
"Maybe she wasn't in a talkative mood." Christian said, slumping on the couch, careful not to wake Andre. I shook my head.
"No, that's not it. It must be another reason." I said, and then a thought occurred to me. "We need to talk to Aurelia Tudor; she's the girl I spoke to about Rose's death." I was supposed to meet with her to finish our talk yet I got side tracked and forgot, maybe she didn't contact me because she didn't want to really talk about her bond mate's death. I quickly went to my cell phone and dialed Aurelia's number.
It rang for several seconds before going to voice mail.
"She's not answering." I said closing my phone and I sighed. "We should just go to her house."
"I thought you said she lived in Romania." Adrian pointed out.
"Well I hope she's still at court." I said and went to get my purse when I came back down everyone was still hanging around.
"Who wants to go to Aurelia?" I asked and looked around. No one answered. It was almost like everyone was pretending not to hear me.
Christian suddenly found the blank wall interesting, Adrian was whistling nonchalantly and Viktoria was picking at a loose thread on her shirt. I got my answer.
"Dimitri, can you escort me to Aurelia's?" I asked nicely. He looked around then nodded. I knew he would do it, plus we needed to talk and I couldn't wait. Sadly we won't be alone when this chat happens; we'll be accompanied by all my guardians.
We went through the crowded hallway, Dimitri stayed next to me at all times. In the elevator seven of my other guardians came in. I stayed in the middle of the sea of people. I didn't bother to mention I was slightly claustrophobic, I'll be ignored anyway. They'll just tell me 'it's for my safety'.
Once we reached the lobby the circle the guardians casted around me got tighter. Other guardians came through the second elevator and we had to wait till the rest came to actually move. Damn tight security. The two guardians in front of me had a small cap, just enough for me to see around. I could see Gabriella talking to the lobby lady.
"Gabriella." I call out to my advisor; she turns her head to look at me and smiles. I usher her over. My guardians recognize her as a safe friend and let her into the tiny circle.
"Do you know where Aurelia Tudor lives? Is she even still in Court, America?" I asked Gabriella.
"I believe she scheduled a plane back to Romania three weeks ago" Gabriella said. Luck wasn't on my side. "But I also think that she didn't board, so she should still be around." Gabriella said and pulled out her cell phone, which was like her tiny assistant that she was always on.
"She's staying at the crappy hotel at the back of court." Gabriella said.
"Take us to Semen's hotel." I told my guardians. "And I wanna walk, enjoy the moonlight." I said as all of us went out side, the crowd following me.
Semen's hotel was mostly used for non-royals who stayed at court so it wasn't as fancy as the place or Royal guest housing. Me and my guardians then left the palace. They all tensed up ready for an attack. Dimitri was a little far away, not really escorting me liked planned. I looked around at my guardians and the wall they created around me. I sighed and ducked out between the guardians in front of me.
"Your Majesty, you must no be so out in the open, you're vulnerable to attacks." One of my guardians said.
"I'm vulnerable everywhere, you can guard me without suffocating me." I said and walked over to Dimitri. My guardians can't leave me, yet I'm Queen and they must obey me. They lined behind me and some in front and on the side. I was still sort of boxed in but I had way more room.
"Dimitri you have something you wanna say?" I asked him. He shrugged.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Lissa." I smiled; he was using my regular name which I took as a good thing.
"Don't lie, Dimitri. I could compel you if you don't tell the truth." I said in a teasing voice, yet I was dead serious. He gave me a half smile which was a mixture between dreamy hot guy and shy cool guy.
I can see why Rose loved him.
He wasn't my type though; I go for the tough, skinny pale guys – like my Christian.
"Extreme measures?" He asked. I shrugged.
"Extreme measures for extreme thoughts. Now, no changing the subject, what's on your mind?" Then the cool exterior of Dimitri changed and his face hardened. A quick peek at his aura I could tell that he was grieving – no surprise yet there was also something else.
Hope and confusion.
I can see why he's confused, we all are. Yet why hope? What's to hope for?
We walked for a while longer before he talked.
"Ever had something so obvious that you miss it?" He asked me. I thought about it for a few moments.
"Well if I missed it, I wouldn't remember it." I told him. He nodded.
"I guess that'll be true," He said. "The things that happened with…everything. It points to somewhere – or should I say someone."
"Britt, that someone is Britt." I told him. He shook his head.
"Lately, I've been questioning Britt. She might not seem like it, but I believe she's just a regular teenage girl." My eyes widened I had to command my feet to moving and not stop to slap some sense into Dimitri.
"Dimitri, all evidence leads to Britt; she's the one who get kicks out of stealing dead bodies." I said bitterly feeling it towards Britt and Dimitri.
How dare he stand up for her? She took someone that we both valued and loved.
"We're not sure she did anything." He pointed out. "It may be suspicious, Lissa but remember you have no –"
"No proof!" I exclaimed knowing what he's gonna say. I could feel my cheeks heat up with anger. "Well Dimitri, if you think you know so much answer this. Who took Rose?" I asked with my arms crossed over my chest. I didn't realize we were already at the hotel and my guardians were waiting for me – including Gabriella.
"I don't think anyone took Rose." He said.
"Well do you think she just got up and walked away?" I asked tauntingly.
He gave me a pointed look and said "You don't want me to answer that." I sighed and looked back at the hotel. I really need to talk to Aurelia and this will have to wait.
"We'll finish this later." I told him before walking into the hotel. Even though it was for non-royals everything at court still had to be 'pretty'. This hotel was about as good as a three star hotel.
I looked over at the sleepy receptionist who was flipping through a magazine. Her eyes were bugged out when she saw that the empty lobby just obtained more people than it can handle. One of those people being the Queen – me.
"What room is Aurelia Tudor in?" I asked. It was a little rude of me but the conversation with Dimitri just pissed me off and I wasn't gonna bother playing nice. It took a few moments to regain her composure before looking at the guest list.
"Aurelia Tudor is no longer in the hotel and if she is, it's not reported." She said. I raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
"Well my boss, the man who owns the hotel, doesn't really come here to check on everything. And the few workers here really don't do anything so some people take that to their advantage and stay a few days for free. As long as boss man doesn't know about it and we don't have to do more work its okay with us." She explained. Even though this is a three star hotel, its still ran like a cheap motel.
"What room was she in then?" I asked her.
"104, right down the hall." She said and reached behind her and pulled out a key and placed it in my palm.
Some of my guardians walked ahead of me and some behind, Dimitri walked next to me with Gabriella on the side. As we went further down the hall a foul stench was in the air. I wrinkled my noise and several of the guardians made comments on how it smelt. I could tell some of my guardians were jokesters others were sticks in the mud. My original guardians were always joking around and playing pranks on each other. Even in this large crowd I couldn't pin point my guardians, they were mixed up faces in the crowd.
We reached 104 and it seemed to be the base of smell. My guardians all shared a look before taking the keys and opening the door. Five of them went in and I went behind them.
The room looked fine, everything was in order. It was clean and neat, with suitcases next to the door, as if someone was ready to leave. Then I went into the bedroom…
There laid Aurelia Tudor's bloody dead body.
A/N – Come on guys, review, review, review!