RPOV

My fear was becoming crippling. My legs wouldn't stop shaking. Breathing was becoming impossible. I felt as though I was dying. Realization was starting to cloud my brain. I had forced my way through the entire courtroom and Dimitri was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't find anyone. I was lost in a sea of panic, being thrashed around by the chaos. So, I stopped. I closed my thoughts off and took a deep breath trying to find my center. I opened my senses and let myself hear the surrounding conversations.

"…have you seen my daughter?"

"Ellie? Where are you!?"

"…the Queen!" My eyes shot open begging to find the owner of the latter voice. A short mustached moroi stood shaking his head as he spoke to a horror-stricken brunette.

"Yeah, they just snatched her up. Killed almost every guardian in the process. Hundreds of strigoi. They just flocked to the palace." The woman started sobbing excessively. I could feel the room start to close in. The atmosphere was suffocating. How could I bear to lose both Dimitri and Lissa? I could feel the room start to spin. I couldn't tell if it was the lack of oxygen I seemed to be taking in or the sheer disgust of today's events. And then darkness took me and I felt myself fall.

DPOV

It took hours to calm Christian but eventually he found his footing. He brought himself to his feet with a new found determination on his face. "I will not live without her. I want a rescue mission set up by the end of the day. I want Lissa home immediately. I need you to grab every guardian at Court. I'll get the moroi under-control. We are going to have to find a safe house for those that are still alive. After you wrangle up the remaining guardians meet me at the conference room at my home and we will plan from there." I was dumbstruck by his new sense of leadership. I had always seen Christian as a meek man. I assumed his time as Lissa's husband would be spent hiding behind her and agreeing with everything she said. I never would have pictured him as any sort of leader. Perhaps a soldier, but never a commanding officer.

I nodded my ascent as he left the room. I had a task now. This would surely keep my mind occupied and keep it from drifting back to Rose. I knew internally that she was fine. I still felt her heart beating against mine. She was okay. Nothing could ever bring her down. But as I left the small back room chanting those words through my head, I found Rose as she fell to the floor. I rushed and caught her before her head hit the hardwood floor. She was unconscious. I couldn't help but feel the soring joy that crashed through me like a tidal wave the moment I felt her soft frame in my hands. She was still breathing, thank God. I picked her up in my arms and made my way towards the back of the room. I quickly found Mikhail and passed Rose to him and turned back to the loud room.

"Everyone silence!" My voice rang through the hall, clear and commanding. Quickly every voice hushed to a whisper. "I need every guardian at the Queen's home immediately to discuss the plan of action. Everyone else is to go home this instant and start to pack. We will be relocating all Moroi to safe houses." Surprisingly enough no one uttered a word as they started to shift towards the courtrooms exits. I placed Rose back in my arms and started towards Lissa's home.

RPOV

I could feel my eyelids start to flutter and cursed the light that greeted my sensitive pupils. I sat up quickly and regretted it as a throbbing ache coursed through my head. Suddenly a pair of hands was on me assessing for other injuries. Dimitri's soft words offered me solace as I lay back down. His soft eyes caressed my face and he peered at me with such an intense amount of relief and love.

"God, Roza. I was so worried about you." I couldn't tell if he was actually here. I grabbed onto the front of his shirt and yanked him down on top of me. His huge frame was too big for the couch I was laying on but he still threw everything into his kiss. It was breathtaking. We were both so desperate to climb into each other's skin and just hang on. I was so desperate to hold him that it physically hurt.

"I thought you were dead." I could start to feel our tears mixing as they ran down our cheeks. We lay on the couch clinging to each other for what must have been a lifetime. "Never fucking leave me again, Dimitri!"

"Never, Roza!" He started kissing me again and I fell into his passion.

"Ahem." Dimitri broke away quickly and stood up quickly grabbing his shirt from off the floor. "I'd like to start the meeting now, Dimitri."

"Yes Christian." Christian turned and strode out of the doorway. I was taken aback by his sudden dominance. Dimitri leaned down and kissed me quickly on the lips.

"What meeting?"

"It is a planning meeting. The strigoi have taken a few people prisoner and we plan to rescue them." He looked down at me sadness filling his face. "Lissa was one of those captured." Horror filled my entire body as images flooded my brain. Adrenaline started to take the place of all of the heat that fled my body.

"I am coming." I stood up facing him as watched as a small, sad smile hit his face.

"I assumed as much." He turned to walk to the door finally putting on his shirt. I starred at his back in dread.

"Dimitri you're bleeding." He turned back to me in shock.

"Huh?" I walked over to him and motioned for him to turn.

"Your back is bleeding." He turned quickly, suddenly confused.

"I didn't get hurt out there though." I lifted up the back of his shirt and sure enough there were ten little crescent cuts along his back bleeding. And then I looked down at my own bloody fingertips.

"Oh God." His body tensed beneath my gentle touch.

"What?"

"I think these are from me."

"What?" Dimitri grasped the back of his shirt holding it up and walked over to the mirror on the wall. I tried to read his expression as he stared at his reflection.

"I'm so sorry, Dimitri."

"Don't be. Scars from you are my favorite." He turned back and gave me a small smile. He kissed me lightly on the lips before taking my hand and pulling me into the hallway toward Lissa's conference room.