I Do Not own VA or it's characters, Richelle Mead does...

Roses' POV

It had been a long night, Antonio had told us what happened to Isabella, and the message that had been gruesomely left for me, the fact she had been stabbed with a spirit infused knife to stop the darkness was even scarier. As far as we knew, nobody outside our group knew anything about it. We were proved wrong. This all happened because they wanted me to get their message, I know she's ok, but what if this is just the beginning of what's to come. This person is going to great lengths to see me dead. What the hell did I do?

Antonio has been out to it a lot this morning, I think things between him and Isabella are a bit tense at the moment, I know he's worrying about her, I even heard him arguing on the phone in Italian, when he noticed me listening he walked away. I had asked if everything is ok, he said yeah, and was something that could wait until we got back to court, so I let it drop.

Dimitri had contacted one his old guardian friends here in Arizona, and asked for some information on moroi families with the last name Lonesco, there were around 17 different addresses. We had narrowed it down to 9, when we excluded the married men; we were looking for a female with that maiden name. So we started searching these addresses.

We had been to 3 different addresses so far with the last name Lonesco and came up empty, but the last house we went too said they remember a girl named Kayla Lonesco, she said her son had gone to school with her, and had the same last name, everyone thought they were related. She had rang her son for us and he gave us her last known address. We weren't sure how old Kayla was, I assumed she would be younger than Lissa, so I asked how old her son was.

"He's 22, he's just finished studying to be a lawyer." She replied with pride in her eyes.

I could feel the shock coming from Lissa mixed with my own, this girl was older than what we thought.

As we pulled up to the address, It was decided that just Lissa and I would go, we didn't want to frighten her with this many people just in case it is who we were looking for.

I knocked on the door and a little girl answered, she had blonde ringlets and jade green eyes, you could almost mistake her for Lissa's daughter. Lissa stood there in shock, unable to speak,

"Hi, my name is Rose, is your mommy or daddy home?"

"Hello, my name is Lilly." She looked behind her and called for her mother. A tall moroi woman who looked similar to the little girl came walking up behind her; she stopped frozen when she caught sight of Lissa.

"Lilly, go back into the play room please." She said with a firm voice while keeping her eyes on Lissa. It was a while before any one said anything; the two were staring at each other.

"Liss?" I said through the bond. She cleared her throat.

"Umm, hi, my name is Lissa Dragomir and this is Rose, are you Kayla?" She asked.

"Yes, I know who you are Vasalissa, nice to meet you Rose, I think we should talk, come in."

She moved to the side so we could go in, she shut the door and we followed her down a hallway that took us into the living room. She pointed to the chairs,

"Take a seat." She sat down herself.

"You know who I am Vasalissa?" She asked looking at her.

"Sort of, we had the same father." Lissa said to her.

"Yes, that's right, I never knew him, but I knew of him. Both my parents were very young when I was conceived, they hardly knew each other, my mother tried raising me on her own, but she was so young herself, so my grandparents did. Your father knew about me, but he had come to an agreement with my grandparents that he would stay away so everyone could move on with their lives. As you know, he did. My mother did eventually too, but did not conceive any more children. When I was a teenager, I tracked down Eric, but when I saw his wife and 2 children with him, and saw how much he loved you all, I didn't want to destroy what you all had. So I kept my distance and didn't make contact. That's how I know who you are. I'm truly sorry for your loss Vasalissa, I know you lost them all, I was going to contact you after the accident, but I thought it would of added salt to your already open wounds. But I am curious, how did you find out about me?"

"I didn't, Rose found out after the Queen was murdered, and some files went missing of my ... our fathers from the alchemist's, Rose is the one that tracked you down."

"Did the queen's murder have anything to do with this?" She asked a bit worried. Lissa looked to me for answers.

"We're not sure." I answered. She looked to me, her eyes started changing, a look of recognition crossed her face and she gasped.

"You're the one that was accused of the Queens murder and now presumed dead!" She was shrieking now looking panicked.

"Rose what do we do?" Liss asked through the bond.

"If she doesn't calm down, you're going to have to use compulsion on her Liss."

I stood up and held my hands up in a surrendering manner, and tried talking,

"I was framed, I didn't kill her I swear, please calm down and let me explain."

She just sat there staring at me,

"Where do I start?" I asked no one in particular,

"From the beginning, if I'm not satisfied with your explanation, then I'm sorry, I will call the courts guardians and turn you in." She said in a firm clear voice.

So I told her everything, about the age decree, the night of the murder, Abe, the letter, Isabella, the attack at court and me speaking with the Queen. She sat there and took it all in, she would ask a question every now and then and I would answer them the best I could. Lissa answered the ones about the council.

"Ok" She said. "So this isn't a social visit then, you need me to help you get on the council right?"

"Yes, but please, I would like nothing more than to get to know you, I don't want this visit to be just about me getting on the council, that is your decision to make and I would like to see you again even if you decide to not support me on this." Lissa said.

"Let me think about this for a while, give me a day or two to process all this, but I would like you to come back tomorrow so we could get to know each other a bit better though if that's alright? "

"I would like that, what time?" Lissa asked.

"How about we have lunch together?" She said looking at Lissa.

"I would like that."

"Sorry Rose, do you mind if I come alone?" Liss said through the bond. I gave her a look that said we would discuss it later.

We said our goodbye's and arranged to bring Lissa back here tomorrow and made our way back out the car where all the guys gave us a look of relief.

"Thank god! I thought Rose might have got you lost or worse! "Said Christian. I smacked the back of his head.

"So, what happened? You were in there for a while." Asked Dimitri. Lissa's face was beaming.

"Yep, that was her!" She squealed like a little kid at Christmas.

We said we would tell them everything when we got back to hotel, we were all hungry, well I was anyway.

After we ate dinner we all stayed sitting around the table and listened to Lissa talk about her sister, she told them what happened, and that she had recognized me. She told them that she wanted her to join her for lunch tomorrow so they could get to know each other better. Christian objected to her going on her own, because she had only just met her, Dimitri did too.

"I'm not some little kid that needs babysitting, she's my sister!" She was exclaiming.

"If you all remember I have staked a strigoi!" She was pointing at Dimitri.

I spoke up next,

"That hardly makes you qualified to protect yourself Liss if anything is to happen." Her anger spiked.

"Calm down Liss, I'm not saying that anything will happen, we just want to make sure your safe, we only just met her today, I would feel better knowing that we took the right precautions." I said to her.

"I'm not completely defenceless Rose" She said, she was still angry and continued,

"I staked him didn't I?"

"Yes you did Lissa." I said looking down at my hands in my lap.

"I'm going tomorrow on my own, I don't need your protection."

She was glaring at me when she said this; her feelings coming through the bond were telling me that she really felt that way, that she doesn't need me to protect her.

Maybe she's right, maybe I need her more than she needs me, she has Dimitri and Pavel now, maybe she doesn't need me at all. I wanted my alone time to think, so I disappeared into the shadows and walked out onto the balcony. I could hear Christian talking to Lissa.

"Why did you say that to her Liss?"

"I know, I really didn't mean it to sound like that, but..."

"But what Liss?" Christian asked.

"But why does everything have to be about what Rose wants?" She said very quietly, I wasn't even sure I heard right.

"Liss? Do you hear yourself?" Christian asked.

"I know it's selfish, but what about me? I know she thinks I'm not capable of looking after myself, and she always tells me what's best for me. But what about what I think?"

I had no idea she felt like this, she must have been blocking it from me. I was wondering when she actually started feeling this way. I was shocked...

Christian got up from his seat and looked down at her.

"I'm shocked Lissa, I know Rose and I aren't the closest, but everything she does is for you, she's always thinking about you, And you..." He said pointing to Dimitri,

"Are no different to her," pointing to Lissa,

"Both of you don't give her credit for what she did for both of you, she had risked her life numerous times and apparently still is, for you. And you act like this isn't about what you want Lissa? You wouldn't even know you had a sister if it wasn't for Rose! She has always put your life before her own. I'm embarrassed right now to be standing in the same room as you!"

And he walked out onto the balcony where I was, trying to calm down his breathing.

I wasn't sure what to do, tell him thank you or butt the hell out? But if I showed myself I think he would be angry at me for hiding and hearing what he said. Never in a million years did I ever think that Christian Ozera would say nice things about ME.

Someone followed him out though after a few minutes, it was Dimitri.

"I'm sorry Christian. I'm sure Lissa didn't mean anything by it, she doesn't like feeling vulnerable." He said to him.

"Don't make excuses for her Belikov, she was perfectly clear in her wordings and meant every word she said, you people are really blind sometimes."

"What do you mean?" Dimitri asked.

"I don't need spirit powers to be able to see what's going on around here, Rose is doing all this for Lissa, it's no different for what she did for you and look how that turned out. You're all pushing her out of your lives one by one, and for what? For your own selfish reasons. She went to hell and back for you and you rejected her, now Lissa is headed in the same direction, do you all hate her that much?" He asked him.

"I don't hate her, I ..."

"You what Belikov? Don't tell me you love her, because if this is what you think love is, you have a huge lesson to learn my friend, you don't push your loved ones away like you have done, and Lissa is doing it right now." Christian is amazing me right now, I have never seen this side of him.

"It's complicated..." Dimitri said.

"No, it's not, it's either love, or it's not.. plain and simple.." He walked back inside and went into his bedroom walking past Lissa. Dimitri sighed and leaned against the railing.

"plain and simple, and never fades..." he whispered...

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