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Chapter 21

A Few Answers

Rose's Point Of View

"I'm really not the same...am I?" He said with such a pained look, I put my hand under his chin and lifted his face up to mine. "I thought I could ignore it, go on as though I really was the same person, but I can't, because I'm not."

"No...You're not." I said softly, "You're more. I can't even imagine what it must be like for you. I know you're feeling lost, unsure of yourself...but promise me that we'll work this out together, always." It was breaking my heart to see so much pain in his eyes. I'd seen it a few times since I got him back, and expected it really. He'd killed innocent people, lots of them, probably Moroi as well. But it still broke my heart to see the pain.

"Always." He said. I leant forward and kissed him.

Rose! Where are you? I thought you were going to meet me, I have something to show you... She sounded a little annoyed, then I realised how long we'd been out here.

Hang on Liss. We've had a little incident that I'll tell you about soon, but I need to eat first... I won't be long.

"What's wrong?" He asked with a worried expression.

I shook my head, "Lissa...and I'm still hungry." He giggled softly as he pulled me into his chest and buried his head in my hair. I could hear him breathing deep and it made me smile. He did this a lot lately, when he was feeling bad and I loved the thought that maybe, somehow, my scent gave him comfort. I know his scent not only drove me wild sometimes, but it always made me feel better, safer. He pulled back and went to look at me, but something caught his eye from behind me. I turned to see what he was looking at just as he spoke.

"Mr Doru. I didn't know you were here." Dimitri said. I smiled as I saw him,

"Robert!" I said as I got up from Dimitri's lap. "When did you get here? I thought you were still at the Academy." I saw his face change ever so slightly and then I shook my head as I realised what a silly statement that was. Everyone thought exactly what he wanted them to think. He could have been here for ages while everyone thought he was still at the school...

"I came here yesterday with Guardian Tanner." He said obviously knowing what I was thinking. I wondered why he came yesterday; Oksana had already seen into Tanners mind, we knew he told the truth as far as he knew it. "Don't think about it too much Rose."

"Hey... stay out of my head." I said with a half smile. "Why are you here?"

"I was taking a walk when I saw..." he glanced at Dimitri who was now standing beside me. "what happened." Dimitri stiffened a little but didn't say anything. "Don't worry, I won't say anything. I'm sorry I didn't say anything to you both before, but I didn't know if this would happen or not. As you know Rose, I've only ever done 'that' once before." We both knew what he was referring to; the reversal. "When I bought Claude back, it was ages before anyone noticed that there was something different with him and it was only subtle at first. The air would pick up sometimes, at other times it would settle down... but one day he got really mad at something... I can't remember what now, but when he did, the air around us suddenly turned into a tornado. It was only then that we realised that he was able to control the air element and as such, must have been closer to Moroi since being changed. I didn't know if it would happen to Dimitri too but I've been keeping an eye out for any signs since... the reversal, and nothing had happened that I could see, so I thought it must have been a once off thing with Guardian Beauchamp."

"Beauchamp?" I knew that name... I thought for a few seconds and then it hit me... Guardian Beauchamp was one of the guards in France that helped rescue Lissa and me. He was really quiet, I hadn't actually talked to him, but Dimitri said that he kept staring at him while the rescue plan was being devised. "That's the guardian..."

"Yeah," said Dimitri. "That answers a few questions doesn't it. Do you know any more that you haven't told us about?"

"Yes. It might take a while and it's probably better if we talk in private, away from hearing ears." Robert said while looking around the park. Just then my stomach grumbled and Dimitri & Robert both laughed. "Rose is hungry, go get her something to eat and I'll meet you both back at Oksana's room. She might like to hear this too." We nodded and said our goodbyes and then he walked off to our apartment building.

"Well, it might have been a little helpful if he'd told us this earlier." I said a little annoyed.

"Mmm, but at least we might get a few answers now. Come on," he said with a half smile, "Both my babies are hungry." We walked towards the cafe now and the closer I got, the more my stomach grumbled... I was starving... But I couldn't help but smile as the recent event in the park played in my mind. Not that a crispy Adrian was all that funny... well, maybe just a little, but it made me think of my new nickname for him... "What are you thinking about now...?" he said seeing me smile. I looked up at him and couldn't help but giggle...

"I know what happened before isn't funny," I really started laughing again as 'crispy Adrian' popped back in my mind... "I just got a mental picture in my head of...Adrian...a little crispy around the edges..." As much as he didn't like Adrian at this moment in time, he was a little taken back with my comment... "and I also thought how appropriate your new nickname is..."

"What nickname?" he asked confused...

"Oh Hot Stuff...," I said placing my hand over my heart in mock hurt... "Thou dost wound me that you do not hang on my every word..." I tried saying it in an English accent, but it didn't come out very well, so I jogged off laughing; Dimitri just followed shaking his head. I finally got my Lasagne, which I was eternally grateful for, I didn't realise just how hungry I was until I started eating. Lissa interrupted me again mid mouthful...

Are you finished yet? She asked.

Well, you tell me... you can take a look for yourself you know.

But you told me not to... I smiled and I could feel her confusion at what to do...

Thank you Lissa. I'm still eating, but I won't be long. Oh, by the way, can you and Christian meet us in Oksana's room in about ten minutes?

Yeah, what's going on? Is it to do with the 'incident' you mentioned before?

Yeah, it does. Robert should be there when you get there too.

Robert? What's he doing here and what does he have to do with it all?

You'll see, just be there in ten. I'll tell you everything soon.

Alright, see you then.

I looked back to Dimitri who had his 'Now what are you two talking about' face on... "I asked her to be there too. I'd only have to explain it all again later on anyway, so she may as well hear it firsthand." He smiled and nodded in agreement. We finished up and then made our way back up to the apartment. We walked out of the elevator and turned to walk up our wing of the floor, as we turned the corner we saw Vikki and Adrian at his door, kissing... I felt Dimitri stiffen beside us and I gripped his arm hard.

"Calm down... She told you this would happen." I whispered to him. As we got to Oksana's door, we heard some of the conversation.

"Oh, you'll know." Adrian said smiling, I was happy for them, they both looked really happy.

"Two hours," she said. "I'll be waiting." She said this really quietly but I knew if I'd heard, Dimitri would have heard too... I knew what was going on; Adrian was obviously going to visit her later on...in her dreams. Then she kissed him again, that's when I opened the door without knocking. When they broke apart, Adrian looked up at us; Dimitri was starting to heat up again, so I pushed him through the door before things got out of hand. I shook my head at Adrian thinking of what the next few months were going to be like... "Guardian Referee Rose Hathaway..." Ugh

"Ah, bye... thanks for the talk." Vikki said loudly, obviously wanting to be heard by Dimitri...

"No problems." Said Adrian. Vikki walked to her apartment, which was opposite Oksana's and turned to look at me, she gave me a quick glance but looked into the room at Dimitri. She then opened the door and went inside. I looked in Oksana's room and saw Dimitri just barely containing himself. I quickly looked back to Adrian who shrugged his shoulders and closed his door. YUP! Referee Hathaway at your service... I thought to myself... I sighed as I walked into the apartment to one very pissed off Russian and five very confused friends. I walked up to Dimitri and put my hand on his face, he wasn't as hot so I led him over to the sofas.

"Okay," I said, "Well, where to start... Robert knows why we're here already, so I'm going to have to give you all a quick rundown. Lissa knows part of this, but not the newest little revelation." I gave her a quick glance and could see that she really wanted to know, but she was respecting my wish for her not to go peeking around. "Do you want to tell them?" I asked Dimitri but he just shook his head. "Um... starting at the beginning... Before we left for France, Dr Olendsky took some blood from both of us to see if there were any answers as to how we were able to conceive. Well, when we got back, we got answers. When Dimitri was turned, it did more than alter his appearance and...personality." I glanced to look at him but he was looking at the ground in thought. "It also changed his DNA, when we were able to bring his soul back; it was brought back to a changed body. Dimitri is now nearly all Moroi genetically." I looked into the faces of some very shocked friends.

"But he doesn't feed." Said Oksana. "So how much Moroi DNA does he have?"

"About 95 percent," I said. "The doctor seems to think that the parts he doesn't have are the parts that deal with the feeding side of things. And now for the part that you don't know about." I said looking at Lissa. "Ever since the reversal, I've noticed that at different times, Dimitri's skin would get hot, like a fever, but then it would go back to a normal temperature and he never got sick. I only noticed it a few times, but never thought a lot about it. Until tonight... We were just outside in the park...when he saw something that got him quite upset, really upset, his skin got all hot again, the hottest it's ever been and we found out that he can now control fire. Obviously, along with the extra Moroi DNA; he's now a fire user." I looked at the face of my friends who all sat with their eyes unblinking and mouths open. Dimitri & I looked at each other and then back at the others.

"Excellent!" said Christian... everyone jumped at the suddenness of his voice. "That is so cool! Now I've got someone other than Abe to work with..." I laughed under my breath...

Rose... Are you alright with this?

Yes, I'm fine Liss... I have the man I love sitting beside me and he loves me, I don't really care what his DNA is...

"I've seen you in the sun like before, so obviously that doesn't hurt you as it would Moroi," said Mark, "you're still strong like before, you don't look any different than before, it's like you're the first in a new breed of vampire."

"Not the first," said Robert from the corner of the room. He got up from where he was sitting and joined us on the sofas. "He's the second, another Dhampir was taken many years ago in Europe; I helped bring him back. You see, I knew there was something different about me from when I was quite young, I was able to use spirit at a much earlier age than even Lissa here. My mother thought I was 'touched in the head' as she'd put it, and I spent many years 'talking' to doctors and such, then when I told her that I spoke to the dead, she really did think I was insane. I was in Europe years ago; before I'd mastered the ability to turn the darkness of spirit into something physical and I was feeling rather...messed up, crazy...at this particular time and one day I was caught without a guardian." I couldn't believe what he was saying... before I could ask the question that had formed in my head, he continued. "I had walked into some back alleys in Paris where a strigoi found me, when he attacked, my instincts kicked into action. I held him frozen with spirit and in a state of panic, I found myself entering the 'in between' world that I'd often been to in my life. While there I happened to see the soul of the strigoi that I just froze. I was able to converse with his spirit and together we wanted to see if we could get his soul back to his body. Well, I got his soul back in but we didn't know anything was different about him until he had a fling with another Dhampir. At first we all thought she had lied about the baby being his, but I compelled her into telling me the truth, which was that she'd only ever been with him. Then a few months later, we'd noticed that funny things were happening with the air around him, especially when he got upset. One day he got really upset and caused a tornado."

"When you said that he'd fathered a child... how long ago and what became of the child?" I asked.

"The child was a girl and she is a year older than you Rose." He took a deep breath and looking directly into my eyes he said something I hadn't expected. "You've even met her."

"What? When...when did I meet her?" I asked. He smiled at me and then at Dimitri.

"In France, and you'll meet her again here soon too. She's going to go to St Vladimir's when school starts up again, but before that, she'll stay here with me so that we can work together with the other spirit users. Her name is Yelena Zahkov, do you remember her?" I did remember her actually... she was a really tall, blonde haired, blue eye Moroi that was at the castle resort after Lissa and I were rescued. She was really quiet and shy, almost withdrawn. And now I knew that she was the daughter of two Dhampirs; one of who used to be strigoi.

"Yeah, I do remember her. When is she coming here?" I asked.

"She should be here within the week, Guardian Montague will be ringing me when he finalises the arrangements."

"Does she know who her father is? What he used to be?" Asked Dimitri.

"Yes, she knows everything. Although she was brought up by her mother, she's not all that close to her father.