Okay, guys, this is Tasha time! Watch her fired up and in action! Hehe…
Roza was asleep when we landed. Ivashkov and Eddie were ahead of us, already leaving. I was just about to kiss Rose's cheek to wake her up when there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned my head to see: Tasha.
"Dimka."
"Don't call me that," I said brusquely.
"How have you been lately? Happy with your life? I'm not."
"Well, that's too bad for you."
"No, I'm not happy with your life."
"What?"
"You should have chosen me, not that bitch of a teenager."
I backed up. "Never call my Roza-"
"A bitch," Rose finished for me. She was standing up behind me.
"You think you could beat me in a fight, little one? I think not."
I saw Rose hesitate. It was true, she probably couldn't. Tasha might have been a moroi but she was still strong and could use fire magic actively.
"How about this. You and me fight, and the winner gets Dimka."
"You're on, wannabe."
"Rose!" I looked at her in astonishment. She gave me a stern but reassuring glance.
"Don't worry, I'll win." She looked at Tasha. "Tonight, eight o'clock."
"Outside the bar in Baia."
"Which one?"
Tasha laughed. "Such an inexperienced child. I really don't see how you can like her, my love."
I almost spat when I saw Vasilisa and Christian Ozera come rushing back to us. Christian's eyes widened.
"Aunt Tasha?"
"Oh, dear Christian, won't you come and see the fight tonight? It will be interesting." With that, she walked off the plane and into the airport.
I stared at Christian and he looked back at me in confusion. "What is she talking about? What fight?"
"Tasha and I are going to fight for Dimitri," she explained.
"Isn't it his fault choice though?"
"Not anymore, apparently," I said sullenly.
We left the plane with the princess almost crying. We went through the airport in silence, me thinking about how Tasha was going to hurt the baby when she fought Rose. I had to stop it.
"Roza, you can't do this. With everything going on… you just can't."
"I have to. I can't lose my dignity or you. She's just going to keep coming back after you." She was right about that. Maybe it was the only way…
Never. It was never the only way. "Rose."
She didn't look at me. She had made up her mind. We walked to the parking lot and there, waiting in a black Mercedes was my family.
I ran as fast as I could to the car, leaving the rest of them in the dust. I opened the door and pulled Viktoria out of the car and hugged her so hard, I swear, if I held on any longer she would have choked to death. It was Karolina's turn next, and she basically had to push herself off of me for me to release her. I did this to everyone including Sonya, my mother (Olena) and even my grandmother (Yeva).
Rose was just running up to us as I finished.
"Jeez, Dimitri, you've so been holding out on me," she wheezed. I laughed.
"Rose, this is Viktoria, Karolina, Sonya, Olena, and Yeva." I motioned to each one as I said their name, and they all smiled in turn, except for Yeva who kept her face expressionless.
Olena stepped forward. "Wow, Dimitri, when you said you were bringing a girl, you didn't say that girl was the daughter of the world famous Janine Hathaway."
Rose looked at her. "How do you know my mother?"
"Oh, her and I go way back. We went to school together. I would recognize her kin anywhere."
"Oh."
"And I kind of have an announcement," I said happily.
"Kind of?" Rose said and looked at me.
"Well, I know it's kind of… impossible, but I got Rose pregnant and now we're getting married."
They all stared at me in shock except Rose, Adrian, Eddie, Lissa and Christian who had just caught up.
"Wha-?" Olena looked at me like I was crazy. "What are you talking about?"
"Well… I kind of maybe turned strigoi for, like, a couple months…"
They all stared at me like I was an idiot.
"It's kind of a long story and maybe this isn't really the best time and place for it… we should get home first."
When we were saying who got to go in which cars, nobody in my family really wanted to go with me. Viktoria volunteered since she used to be the closest to me and the rest of our little gang got in the back except Lissa who got in the other car with my family. I let Christian sit in the front with Viktoria and Adrian sat on the end, Eddie sat next to him, Rose sat next to Eddie and me. To tell you the truth, it wasn't a four seat backseat car, but we all fit, sort of. Rose kind of had to sit on my lap a little bit.
Viktoria started up the car and it vibrated to life.
"Okay, now tell me what happened," she insisted.
I motioned for Rose to start.
"Uh, well, in St. Vladimir's, there was a strigoi raid. Before that, Dimitri and I kind of, declared our love to each other-"
Christian snickered and Adrian sighed. Eddie stayed emotionless.
"And when we were walking around that day, I, uh, saw a strigoi behind Dimitri. Soon, it turned into a full fledged strigoi battle. Christian and I sort of destroyed them all… with the help of some others, of course." They gave each other a high-five from across seats. "But, when we realized some were taken, we had to launch a rescue team to the place where the strigoi were staying. Dimitri went in and when he was coming out… well, a strigoi caught him." She took a deep breath and I squeezed her hand. I continued for her.
"Viktoria, have you ever heard of Spirit magic?"
She paused for a moment then nodded.
"Well, while I was a strigoi in Canada, Rose came up with a brilliant idea. See, Vasilisa, the moroi girl who went in the car with everybody else, yeah, well, she's a Spirit user. And so Rose, being her best friend and connected to her for life by a bond, thought of the idea of using spirit to revive strigoi. Meanwhile, I met an old friend of theirs in a restaurant. She calmed me down and brought me back to America to find Rose. So when Rose came back to America to tell Lissa and everybody she ran into Adrian first and while they were at Court, I came in - breaking all the wards - and crashed their party. Rose told Adrian what to do, and he told Vasilisa who then performed spirit on me, turning me back to normal."
"That's kind of the day that he probably got me pregnant," Rose added. "When he turned back, he came to the hotel I was staying at and… we kind of declared our love to each other… again."
We all laughed except Rose who in no way thought any of this was funny. Even Viktoria let out a chuckle.
"Then what?"
I shook my head.
"Oh, come on. I know there's more. Just spit it out."
I sighed. "Alright. Well, after that, Rose and I went to Durango, Colorado and found a… well, a breed of vampires. There was one moroi pretending to be her father. He had created this breed of half-moroi, half-dhampir. He called them Tahti. They captured Rose and when I came to rescue her, well, they had kind of caused her serious brain damage. When Vasilisa had tried to heal her and it didn't work, I thought she was gone for good. When the doctor declared that she was pregnant, I thought she had gotten pregnant with Adrian's baby, over here," I said as I motioned to him and he grimaced. "But, as it happens, it is possible for two dhampirs to have a baby. Surprise, surprise. They've been hiding it."
"Seriously?" Viktoria asked.
"Seriously," everybody in the car except Adrian responded at the same time.
"So when we thought Rose was out for good, we didn't know how she was going to be able to have the baby. We thought of putting it in Vasilisa so she could keep it and take care of it on her own. They were going to put Rose to sleep." I shuddered at the words. Roza squeezed my hand. "But soon after we decided to make that decision, she woke up from her coma and told me that the baby was mine. We then went to Court to confront the new king, Marcus Ivashkov, and he admitted that it was possible for two dhampirs to conceive a child. Now, a month later, we're here," I finished.
"Wow."
"Yeah, definitely."
The rest of the time in the car, Viktoria talked about what was happening with the family. I listened with interest while Roza dozed in and out of sleep on my shoulder. When we got home, I woke her gently and we all walked into the house. It was just as I remembered it. The bookshelf in the corner, the kitchen to the left, even my chair which I would sit in and read for hours on end every night. Roza stared in awe as we walked in and I took her upstairs. I showed her my room which she was almost too tired to look at so I tucked her in under my covers and told her I'd be right back. I kissed her forehead and she unconsciously smiled.
All of Rose's friends were already upstairs and in bed when I went down to see my family. Viktoria was almost done with my story when I walked down. She continued until she was done and all my family stared at me in amazement.
"Seriously?" Karolina asked.
I sighed. "Do we have any bread?" I made my way to the kitchen. I dug up the bread box from under the microwave and took out a piece. I chewed on it while my family came into the room and stared at me. It was going to be a long day.