Disclaimer:
I do not own Vampire Academy or any characters pertaining to Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead does. :)

Tatiana looked at me once more. Then she looked at something on the left side of me. I was too busy staring at her to look at where she was looking. "Rose, the council has voted that you will have to guard Lord Ozera until further notice."

Christian and I nearly choked to death. But, I took what I received. "Thanks your, majesty."

The whole room cleared out except Adrian and Tatiana. Adrian kept on laughing and laughing. I shot him a dark glare. The whole room cleared out except Adrian and Tatiana. Adrian kept on laughing and laughing. I shot him a dark glare. "Adrian shut it!" The queen yelled at him.

Which made Adrian laugh harder. "Adrian, she said shut it!" I said, throwing him a dark glare.

He shut up immediately. It was funny enough that I started laughing. "Not intimidated of me but intimated by her. Quiet funny." Tatiana said, chuckling softly. Then she went on to the business. "Rose, are you content with your Moroi?"

I thought about it. "I am fine…for now."

Tatiana pondered my words. "In my will, my last request is that you become the faithful guardian of my nephew." She started smiling but I didn't have a clue as to why. "But I can see you are becoming his faithful wife and not his guardian."

Adrian came to stand next to me and hugged me from the waist, from behind, but it was kind of hard since he still held Angelo. "Yes, Aunt. Rose and I love each other. I plan on marrying her someday."

Tatiana just smiled and her eyes went down to Angelo, who was sleeping now. I wondered why he hadn't woken up with Adrian's laughs. "I can see you two already have a precious child."

Adrian laughed. "I wish he really was our biological son. But, no, he is adopted."

Tatiana looked at Adrian, shocked. "I would have never thought you would be that kind Adrian." She looked at us wonderingly. "You've changed."

He looked at me wonderingly. "It was all Rose's fault; she changed me."

"Love does change people." With that, she left.

Adrian started laughing again. "Christian? Your favorite person in this whole world."

"Hey! He is not that bad. I mean, yes, he can be annoying at times, but actually he is kind of cool."

That shut Adrian up. He grabbed my hand and led me outside to meet up with Christian and Lissa.

Christian and Lissa were talking close together, hands and fingers tangled together, their eyes meeting one another's. It was very sweet to watch.

A horrible cough took Angelo over. That was like cue for Adrian to take him inside and leave me alone with Christian. I hope Lissa tagged along with him. Adrian waved good bye and leaned down to kiss me. "Well, see you later. This baby needs some sleep." As planned, Lissa asked if she could go with him.

Christian spoke up randomly as they left. "So I guess you are stuck with me?" He was unsure. A lot could have happened while Adrian and I were alone with the queen. Maybe he thought I had chosen someone else to guard.

"Yes, and I couldn't be happier to guard any one else."

His expression was…priceless. "Why?"

I walked over to him and put a hand over his shoulder. "Christian, over the months, I realized that you are more like my brother than a friend."

"Rose—" He stopped. "Thank you, Rose. For accepting being my guardian." Out of nowhere, he hugged me. Such different behaviors for both of us. Before, we would have been spitting out jokes like no tomorrow. But not now.

"Rose!" Some called out. I turned around to see Alberta walking towards me. "Well, I better go find Lissa." Christian said and walked away.

"Yes, Alberta?"

"I have something for you." She handed me a letter.

"What's this for?" I asked, flipping the envelope over.

"Every mentor is asked to write a letter for their dhampir." That was all she said before leaving.

I opened the envelope and read the letter. I feared it was going to be another scam, like the ones Dimitri had been sending me. But, no; it wasn't.

Dear Rose,

From the very moment I was assigned to be your mentor and trainer, I always wanted to live to see this moment, the day when you would get assigned to a Moroi. Everyone doubted you, but I always believed and will always believe in you. You are a fast learner, you aren't afraid at trying different things, you grew up good, you grew up strong, you are free as the wind, you are pure and sweet, although, you let nobody see that side of you, and you are someone that anyone can just fall in love with, not because of your outer beauty but of your inner beauty, a beauty that makes pure beauty look ugly. Beauty might fade, but I know your beauty will never fade. You have this way of loving, this way that no thousand, no million words can describe. You just love, and people love right back. Sometimes I felt as if I would die if I didn't have your love. Day by day, I admired everything you did. Although I pretended like I hated it, I used to get a thrill when you called me "comrade." Weather I lived to see this moment or not, I wanted to wish you good luck in the years ahead being a guardian. They are hard, and you just need all the luck you can get. But, I know you can handle them. I always knew you had the potential to be the best and I knew you grew up to be the best. And I know, I just know, that you got assigned to someone you wanted to guard. Its been a pleasure having you as my student and as a friend I could rely on. I wish I could go back to the day when I first met you. And, don't forget, you are never alone. I could be alive or dead, but you will always have your faithful Russian to watch over you. I hope that when you grow old and watch your kids grow up, I hope that you still remember me. Half of life's luck isn't luck, its just believing in yourself and jumping in there and doing it! Something else about life, you feel ready to go, but you are never really quite ready to go. You go, my Rose!

Sincerely,

Guardian Dimitri Belikov

P.S. It feels good when your Moroi calls you guardian, doesn't it?

As I read the last part, I was in tears. What perfect timing this letter had. The words written in this letter made me remember the good times Dimitri and I used to have. It used to be about him and me. I wished for my life to be like it had been. . .

I wiped the tears and walked back to the room.

A week later

The queen wanted Adrian and I to be present to her funeral so were going to be present. And since I was assigned to Christian, he had to tag along. Lissa came along, but she didn't attend the funeral ceremony, and Christian didn't want her to go her because of the depressing mood the funeral was going to have. Lissa and Christian were still celebrating over the fact that Lissa and him were going to be parents again. Adrian and I were really happy for them.

Adrian was devastated when he heard that the queen had died. I mean I would have been too, if I had liked her. Her last days she had been good to me, but that wouldn't make up the bad times she had given me.

"Adrian, are you okay, sweetheart?" I asked, helping him into his black shirt.

He nodded and started buttoning up his shirt. He had bag under his eyes; that explained why he had tossed and turned last night. I could understand how he felt; loosing someone close to you was hard. I had lost Dimitri.

I nodded back at him, letting him have his space. I hated when people bothered me when I was upset, so I knew he felt the same way. Before I could take on step out the door, he grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him. He hugged me so close, it was a huge effort even to breath. But, it felt good being held by him. His head rested on my chest. "Are you sure you are well?"

He nodded once again. "I feel much better when you are in my arms." As if to prove himself, he crushed me harder against him. This time it felt as if I was going to have a stroke from lack of air. He leaned in so that his lips were directly at my ear lobe. "Thanks so much for being here for me, Rose."

"No problem, babe. You know I will always be here for you." That statement was so true that it became a fact for me. Adrian and I fit perfectly together and there was no reason why we shouldn't be together. Well, unless the world didn't want us to be together, we wouldn't be together.

He pulled away. I let a huge breath and my head started pounded because I didn't have oxygen for a while. He wrapped his arms around me waist, letting them rest on the small of my back. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips, but the evil me, made it much longer than intended. When I pulled away, we were both breathing with difficulty, inhaling as much oxygen as we could. "Thanks, my beauty."

I smiled. "I am really not that pretty." I said, sitting my ass down on the bed watching as he finished dressing. It was a sexy scene. As he dressed, I checked myself out. I was wearing a backless dress, with a halter like top front. It was black and came above the knees. The dress was made out of black silk, but over it, it had a black veil like material. Over the collar, it had small stones. It had a little slit between my boobs. The dress made me look hotter than I was.

He looked at me, but his eyes were on the mirror, staring into mine. "No, you aren't pretty." He turned back around, fixing his tie, his eyes fixated on mine, his legs moving towards me. He started coming closer; I had to open my legs, my knees parting so that he could come much closer. Just inches from my lips, he whispered, "No, you aren't pretty, you are beautiful." And then, he kissed me again.

I smiled against his lips. He really did know me so well. He knew how to make me speechless and he knew when I wanted him more. And, he knew that I wanted more than just a kiss right now. He pushed me down on the bad, my legs still entangled around his waist. My lip gloss was staining his lips, but he couldn't care less at that moment. His hands went to my exposed back.

Like always, everyone had to stop us before we did anything.

The knock on the door made Adrian's intense kisses loose intensity. But, he still kissed me. It was me who pulled away but it seemed that he didn't want me away; he wanted me close. "I think we should stop." I said, not because I wanted to, but because I felt weird having sex after Adrian had lost someone too meaningful to him. I wanted to keep going, but it just felt too weird.

He was up and was walking to the door. I, on the other hand, was fixing my dress and hair and breath, which was halted a little. I looked in the mirror, tying the dress Adrian and untied. "Okay, we'll be there." He said to someone. He closed the door and came back to me to tie the dress I was struggling with.

"Thanks," I said, when he was done. I looked back to him, his sad frown back on his face. I tried to summon some words to explain why I had stopped. "I'm sorry—I wanted to…I mean—

He stopped my babble with one finger to my lips. "It's ok. If you aren't ready…I will never pressure you into something you don't want to or aren't ready for."

"It's not because I am not ready. Your Aunt recently died and I thought it would be disrespectful for us to, you know. . .?"

He nodded, slipping his arms around me again. His lips claimed mine. "I know what you mean."

"Yeah," I said, pulling away, and going over to the nightstand to get some more lips gloss.

There it was again, Adrian's sad face. He didn't say anything as we made our way through Royal Court. I snaked a hand around his waist. "You have me," I reminded him. He gave me a painful smile, I could see it teetering, trying to turn into a frown. Seeing him all said and upset made me want to cry.

"Tatiana Ivashkov, you will always be in our hearts." The priest said throwing more holy water into the top of the coffin. Adrian put a hand over the smooth surface, as they started lowering it into the ground. His tears started flowing down and so were mine. Everyone was crying. Everywhere you looked, you saw tears. A huge lump in my throat made me cry even harder. Even Fire-Flame was crying.

After the funeral was over, I led Adrian back to the room, since he looked to weak. Christian went to his room to see Lissa. Adrian unfastened his tie, threw his shirt on the ground, slipped out of his black slack, and went to go lay down on the bed. He hadn't said a word; he just kept on tearing apart with tears. I went over to the closet and slipped into my white sleeping gown. He needed me, I felt it in the air, so I was going to be there for him.

I slipped into bed with and hugged him. It must have taken him a great effort to stop crying. He just clung to him and I clung back. A while must have passed because the next thing I knew, I was dreaming. I must have slept with death on my mind because I dreamt a horrible dream….

The dark, moonless night matched my mood perfectly well. They were both glum. I heard a laugh from beyond the forest. I turned around and saw nothing but trees and darkness. My eyes couldn't get adjusted to too much black. But, I knew where I was. This was the exact same tree where Dimitri and I had shared our last kiss. I remembered because he had marked it with his initials and mine on the bark of the tree.

I looked over to my left and there he was. Adrian.

I leaned myself against where the tree held the initials were because I didn't want Adrian to see them. "Hello, my love." He said, stepping closer to me and grabbing my hand to kiss it. He looked into my eyes and devoted every ounce of love he had for me.

I smiled but I couldn't speak. At all. I couldn't even open my mouth. I could only make gestures. I raised my hand to my lips. He understood what I was trying to say. He smiled, adoringly. His lips were on mine briefly before he spoke again. "Did you miss me, love?"

I nodded. I waved a hand into the air. I knew it meant "too much" in my sign language.

There was movement behind Adrian. Red eyes, pale face was what all I saw. He edged closer to me and his dark, red gaze hypnotized me. It was then that I regained my voice. "Hello, my dear. You are back soon." I pushed Adrian away and walked over to Dimitri.

Dimitri threw a glance over at Adrian. With speed only a real vampire would have, Dimitri grabbed Adrian and pushed him against a branch that was poking out. Adrian gasped as the spike made contact with his heart. It looked like Dimitri had staked Adrian. I smiled in joy. Dimitri turned back to me, commenting on my statement.

"I told you I would be back soon. . ." He said, showing his fangs and giving me his cruel smile.

I woke up with a piercing scream.

What was this dream trying to tell me? Was it telling me to be careful? Or was it warning me that I would be loosing Adrian soon and there would be nothing I could do to stop it? Well, whatever it was trying to tell me, I knew enough. This was going to happen. And soon. Very, very soon. . .

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