"What's wrong little dhampir?"

"Strigoi. Now get inside!" I yelled, pushing him behind me.

"No way! I will not leave you!" He protested, refusing to go inside. I felt the strigoi getting closer and closer already.

"You're a royal Moroi! They can't get you! It's my duty! Just go inside and get Connor! He'll help me! And do it quick!" I shouted, turning around to see him run inside in a flash. I sighed and got ready. I saw 3 sets of red eyes getting closer and closer and I felt nervous. Will I be able to stake them? Dimitri if only you were here. No, I can't get distracted. There's only 1 goal. To kill all of them and get back to Lissa alive.

"Oh what do we have here? A lonely dhampir in Mexico? Where's your charge?" The first one asked, he was a man, but he looked somehow new. With how he was looking around his surroundings and how he walked I just knew.

"Oh, I know you! You're Hathaway." The female strigoi said. Her blood red eyes piercing into mines.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" I retorted, glaring at them.

"Oh, feisty! I've heard a lot about you Rose Hathaway. Tales of your beauty don't do you justice." The third male strigoi said, licking his lips. It made me grimace, god knows what he's eaten. "It'll be a pleasure killing you."

"Hate to break it to you, but that's never going to happen."

"And why not?"

"Because you'll be the one dying!" I shouted, pouncing on top of him and staking his heart, and jumping behind the female who hissed at me. The other male strigoi seemed lost, looking at his now dead friend.

"You bitch! You killed him!" The female hissed at me with venom.

"Yeah I did! Just like I'm going to do with you!" I said, kicking her feet so that she would fall but unfortunately she jumped and pushed me over, pinning me onto the ground. I punched her face, flipping us over and cut her forehead with my stake before staking her chest, watching the life drain from her eyes. I jumped and turned back to see the last one, who quickly looked at both his friends and ran to me. He tackled me to the ground and landed a blow on my lower stomach but I stabbed his stomach with my stake causing him to howl in pain. I punched his face and pushed him off of me and stepped on his arms so that he couldn't get away and hit his chest with the stake, finally killing him. I was so out of energy that I slumped to the ground near him, pushing him away and trying to catch my breath.

"Oh my god! Rose! Are you okay?" I hear Lissa scream from behind me. I turn around and node weakly before falling down. "Christian, pick her up." I feel Christian's arms pick me up and I'm slightly surprised that he didn't argue back but I guess Christian was starting to care for me in a sisterly way even though we bicker most of the time. When we get to the lobby I see Adrian and Connor run to us.

"Little dhampir! Are you okay?" He said, stroking my hair affectionately. I smile weakly and nod, looking at Connor.

"There are 3 strigoi bodies out front. You better get rid of them before anyone sees." I say.

"Oh my god, she did that by herself?" I hear Christian say.

"Why are you so surprised Sparky? Didn't think I could handle it?" I retort back, raising my eyebrows at him, laughing meekly.

"Leave it to you to say something like that in this state." He says, rolling his eyes and chuckling. I see Mason and Eddie run up to us with worried looks on their faces. "Ah, finally! Here you take her." I hear Christian say as he hands me over to someone. I look up and see Mason looking down at me.

"Rose, are you okay?" I nod and look at Eddie who had the same look on his face as Mason. He came and held my hand, kissing the back of it and stroke my forehead softly.

"Little dhampir, are you sure you're okay?" I nod and the last thing I remember is Adrian's worried green eyes as I blacked out.

I woke up to a blinding light, probably Christian… again. I closed my eyes, not wanting to be blinded by this idiot's prank. "Sparky, if you don't put that away I'll break your arm." I warn. Subtle right? I open my eyes to see Christian grinning at me childishly, flashlight in hand. "Don't you know better than to annoy a dhampir who just killed 3 strigoi?" I tell him, sitting up. I look at him rolling his eyes at my comment and snorting, walking back to Lissa who was asleep. I looked around and saw Lissa asleep next to me and Christian sitting on a chair next to her side of the bed. I felt an arm on my stomach and saw Adrian kneeling down on the floor at my side of the bed. Oh Adrian. His head was on my lap and I brushed his hair off of his eyes and kissed his forehead. He opened his eyes and jumped when he saw that I was awake.

"Little dhampir? You're finally awake! Oh my god I'm so happy you're alive!" He exclaims, pulling me into a tight hug.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Ivashkov." I say, chuckling and looking to see Lissa waking up.

"Rose!" She squeaks, pulling me into a tight embrace. I wince from the low blow on my stomach. "Oh sorry." She says, pulling back from the embrace. "Oh, I better call Mason and Eddie here. They've been worried sick! Guardian Johnson too. He's been patrolling the hallway non-stop. He even staked out here making sure we didn't have anymore strigoi lurking around. Well, that's good. I'm glad Lissa's safe when I was gone. Speaking off, how long was I out.

"Oh yeah, how long was I out for?" I asked, rubbing my head which hurt.

"3 days." Christian said, saying as if it was totally normal.

"3 days? I thought I was just out for an hour or something!" I said, frowning.

"Yeah, you had us in for quite a scare little dhampir." Adrian said, nuzzling my neck causing me to giggle. "And as promised, here is the proposal." He said. I gave a questioning look and remembered. Right, the dating proposal. Adrian actually managed to do it.

"For someone who hates homework so much, you sure did this pretty fast. Eager are we?" I say teasingly, smirking at him.

"You have no idea." He said, kissing me passionately. I hear someone cough, causing us to break the kiss embarrassingly. I look up to see Mason, who wasn't all to happy with what he saw and Eddie who just smiled at me.

"Good to see you alive and up Rosie!" Eddie said, sitting next to me on the bed.

"Yeah, you were out for pretty long." Mason said, already brightening up. I laughed and stood up to stretch my limbs.

"Well, I'm starving." I tell them, which they just gave me incredulous looks. "What? Hey, I haven't eaten for 3 days! You guys would be starving too! And besides, you guys didn't take on 3 strigoi so stop it with the looks." I retort back, shooting a glare at everyone. Everyone shakes their head and chuckles where eras Lissa giggles softly. I glare at them and Adrian's the first on to get up on his feet.

"Okay little dhampir, let's get you some food." He says, putting his hand on my waist protectively and kissing my forehead. I grin and him and kiss his cheek.

"Thanks." I tell him, shooting a glare at everyone else as we go down to the cafe downstairs. I didn't want to go outside and risk seeing anymore strigoi so I decided it would be safer if we stayed in the hotel where Connor, Mason and Eddie are near. I ate pancakes and bacon with a side of yoghurt while Adrian has pancakes. "So, I guess we have to leave today huh?" I ask him, slightly disappointed that I wasted my holiday with being passed out. Adrian smiles sadly and nods, taking a bite from his pancakes.

"Yeah, the academy sent a plane to get us. Lissa and the other's actually already packed. We're leaving in an hour." He tells me sadly. An hour? Ugh, great. I nod sadly and finish my food and walk up to my room with Adrian to find it empty. I look at Adrian, who seemed calm and unfazed. "Lissa and the others are already on their way to airport. Come on, I already packed your bags so let's go." He said, pulling my suitcase with his bags too. For a Moroi, Adrian was pretty strong and muscular. Suddenly I heard my phone ring and I picked it up.

"Rose?" I heard Lissa's voice on the end of the line.

"Hey Liss."

"Where are you?"

"At the hotel."

"What! The plane's about to lift off!"

"What? Um okay! Shit, what are we going to do? Uh, here talk to Adrian." I tell her panicked, handing the phone to Adrian who stopped in his tracks. He looked at me, furrowing his eyebrows but smiling weirdly and took the phone.

"Hello, cousin. Yeah, I know. It's okay. I have it all planned. Yes." I hear him say, before he walked away, still talking to Lissa on the phone. He finally came back with a satisfied smirk on his face and handed me back my phone.

"So?" I ask him, hating the suspense.

"Calm down little dhampir. I have a plane too remember? We're not stranded or anything." He says, kissing my nose. I smile and lean back onto his chest, walking towards the car outside the hotel. I sit next to Adrian and lay my head on his chest, his fingers playing with strands of my hair all the way to the airport. When we got to the airplane, Adrian sat next to me and drifted to sleep, probably exhausted with all the commotion that has been going on. I smiled and kissed his forehead, and sat back and just watched him. Not creepy at all Rose, I thought to myself. I finally realised that I did like Adrian, a lot at that. He was so brave, caring, selfless and daring. Sure he's cocky, arrogant and annoying at times, but I loved that about him. Love. Have I really moved on from Dimitri? I'm not so sure. Maybe I did. Maybe I could love Adrian. But I was sure as hell not going to tell Adrian that now. I heard him murmur my name silently and I smiled, happy to know that he was dreaming about me. I decided to see his dating proposal so I opened the piece of paper and read it, looking at Adrian to make sure he was asleep.

Dating Proposal from the Sexy, Green-eyed Adrian Ivashkov to my beautiful little dhampir, Rose Hathaway

Dear my beautiful little dhampir, I am from Romania and I come from a very powerful and wealthy royal family, which you probably don't care about. As you know, I have fallen for your charms and feisty attitude from the first night where we met. When you told me that you would consider me as your boyfriend, I felt like the happiest man in the world. But there was one condition, I had to write this letter or dating proposal, as you said, for you to go out with me. So here goes nothing…

I know you think I'm a drunken womaniser who goes through girls like every stereotypical rich royal Moroi asshole does. And I was, but you made me change. I never truly believed in the idea of love but I think now, having to meet you, I found love and it's you. You're my first love and hopefully my last one too. The first day we met, you were all sweaty, in a parka and you had a black eye, but nonetheless you looked beautiful. Like a goddess incarnate. I knew you didn't like me when we first met but I kept on trying, trying to convince you that I cared for you and wanted to get to know you, not just wanting to get in your pants. I was there when he, you know who, left you and I picked up the pieces and brought you back together. I was there, knowing that you, little dhampir, the person who I'm in love with, cried over someone else. I was hurting but seeing you happy was my only goal. And when you locked yourself in your room, I was a mess, knowing I couldn't get to you or see how you were doing. Little dhampir, you mean so much to me. You may think I only like you for your looks, you being beautiful and sexy, which you are, but it's more than that. I fell in love with all of you, your looks and your personality. I love your badass personality, your witty and sarcastic remarks and your snarky attitude even though inside you're the most selfless, brave and caring person that I have ever met. I love you more than life itself little dhampir. I would cross the fiery pits of hell just to get you a cup of water if it meant having to do that. You make me happy and you're the light and happiness for me in this godforsaken fucked up world. You are the only thing that makes me sane. And once again, I love you, if you haven't caught that yet.

Anyways, here are some of the reasons why you should agree to go out with me:

I love you I'm incredibly sexy I'll quit smoking for you unless the darkness gets overwhelming I'll quit drinking so much I love you a lot I'll shower you with kisses and love every time we see each other I'll treat you like you're the only girl in the world I only have eyes for you and I will never cheat on you. Ha, I'll never even look at another girl in that way ever again as long as I'm with you. I'm good in bed ;) I love you so much I'll give you random surprises and gifts I'll take you out on romantic dates Did I mention that I love you? Like a lot?

I LOVE YOU ROSEMARIE HATHAWAY! NEVER FORGET! I hope you're pleased with what you read, and please say yes. Once again, I love you little dhampir.

Forever yours (And I mean FOREVER),

Adrian Ivashkov.

By the end of that I looked over at Adrian and it was all clear now. I actually did love him. He was so nice to me and he truly does love me. And I love him. I love Adrian. Wow, I think I could repeat it hundreds of times but it'll still seem weird to me. Shit, I think he heard me sniffling because he's waking up. I quickly put the note away, acting normal.

"Little dhampir? What's wrong?" He said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and now leaning forwards observing me.

"Nothing." I said, sniffling and shaking my head, smiling lightly.

"You can't actually think that I'll believe you." He said seriously. I laugh softly and walked over to straddle his lap, my feet on each side of him and I snaked my arms around his neck and snuggled into his chest. "Little dhampir? Is everything alright?" He asks, making me look up and rub my red nose.

"It is now." I tell him softly, kissing him on the lips passionately. It was just like our first kiss. So full of passion and love, love that I didn't see was there. Adrian was a bit stunned at first, but as always, melted into the kiss and kissed me back, with the passion and love that reflected mine. His grazed my bottom lip, asking for permission, and I opened my mouth and we just kissed until we were out of breath. "I love you Adrian Ivashkov." I whisper, kissing him chastely.