I know it's been forever, but the end of this semester has been so busy! Luckily this coming week is the last of my first semester of college. I probably won't be able to update at all after this for the next week because I'll be studying like crazy for final exams, but once I'm on Christmas Break I fully intend to be updating more often and regularly. I'm sorry for any mistakes, I had to post this quickly. I tried to make this chapter a bit longer to make up for the long waits you all have had to go through recently. Thank you for those who continue to stick with me; it is very much appreciated. Enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I own the plot. Anything you recognize belongs to Richelle Mead.

From Last Chapter…

As I walked out into the living room with little Roza wrapped up against me, he looked up in time to see me nuzzle her lovingly. And he wasn't the only one that noticed; all of the Belikovs seemed to look up at the same time, but I only had eyes for the man on the floor across the room. Dimitri's face lit up at the homey sight and a breathtaking smile lit up his face. Smiling back at him, I could practically see how much he loved me written across every inch of his face.

Chapter 20

Dimitri began to rise, looking like he wanted nothing more than to share this moment with me. But before he could make his way over to me, Yeva was standing in front of me. She looked between little Roza and I as though she knew something that no one else did. Running her fingers lightly through Roza's hair, she looked up into my eyes. Yup, she definitely knew something. I could tell by the glint in her eyes.

"You will make such beautiful offspring," Yeva said quietly. I could feel my forehead wrinkle in confusion as I mulled over her statement.

"Yeva, you know that Dimitri and I can't…" I said just as quietly as her. "And if I can't have one with Dimitri, I wouldn't want to have one with anyone else." She glanced down at my stomach before winking, patting my cheek, and walking away. Sometimes that lady was really strange, no matter how much I had grown to love her.

But no matter how much it had been drilled into me that Dhampirs could not have children together, I couldn't help but picture mini Dimitris running around with a few of my features. I must've zoned out because suddenly Dimitri was in front of me.

"What did she say?" Dimitri asked.

"Nothing important." But I was beginning to think it was important. Because I wasn't an ordinary Dhampir, was I? What if when I had become shadow kissed, something had changed? What if Dimitri and I could actually have kids together? Was it actually a possibility for us after all?

"Rose, we need to talk to you," Oksana said. She and Mark looked extremely worried about something, which instantly made me wary. What was going on?

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Your aura is…well to say its black would be an understatement. I've never seen an aura so dark, not even Mark's. Rose, I think something's wrong."

"My aura has always been super dark."

"But this is…worse. I can't even describe it." I could sense Dimitri's worry without even looking over at him.

"Rose, have you been seeing ghosts lately?"

"Of course. I don't have my ring, remember?" I had been trying to block them out, but they were definitely still there. And by the looks of things, they weren't planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

"How progressed is it?" I instantly sensed where he was going with this.

"Mark, it's fine."

"What's fine?" he asked innocently. If I told him the truth about being able to talk to them, I knew he'd freak out, especially since he had explicitly told me to try to stop seeing them.

"Rose." The voice was right behind me, startling me enough that I jumped before spinning around to glare at him. "I need to talk to you," Mason said urgently.

"Can't this wait? I'm a little busy, Mase," I said, gesturing towards the people behind me. Mark sucked in a breath before spinning me around to face him.

"You can hear them now?" he asked. "Rose, you have to block them out. This isn't good for you."

"They're helping. I'm not going to turn that away."

"It's going to drive you insane! Literally!" I could tell we now had everyone's attention by the way all of the conversations in the room fell silent.

"Rose, it's important!" Mason urged.

"Alright, what is it?" I asked. He had moved up beside me, and Mark was eyeing the air warily. His ring was firmly on his finger, but he knew someone was there.

"I found out something and I needed to tell you right away."

"Okay, then tell me." He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He closed it and tried again, but still there was nothing but silence. "Mase, what's happening?"

"I can't tell you everything that I know, no matter how urgent it is or how much I want to. I can only give you enough information for you to try to figure it out on your own and possibly change things." He groaned in frustration, dropping his head into his hands.

"Then just tell me what you can. I'll muddle through it the best that I can." He brought his head up and looked me dead in the eyes. His seriousness slightly worried me. He was usually so much more easygoing.

"You know who the person in charge of the attack is. You've been pretty close to them at one point in time, but things changed…"

"How did they change?" He opened his mouth to answer but nothing came out. "It's ok Mase, don't stress out about it."

"How can I not? Knowing this changes everything that you've believed in for so long and I can't even tell you!" The anger in his eyes made me a bit wary, but I tried my best not to show it. If he was this urgent about whatever it was that he knew then something was seriously wrong.

"One other thing, Rose. The things that come the easiest may also be the most dangerous," he said. He reached out and grabbed my shoulders, drawing me closer to him. I gasped, my eyes widening as his did the same. How could he touch me? He seemed to regain control of himself before I did, shaking me gently. "You must remember what I've told."

"But what has come the easiest? Recently, there's been a lot of that going around." My mind instantly thought of Tasha, Ion, and Dimitri.

He tried in vain to answer my question before saying, "I can't tell you, but you must keep it in mind. Please Rose, promise me you will think about it."

"I will, but I don't know what you're talking about."

"You must try to decipher it."

"I will try my best," I said uncertainly.

"That's all I can ask," he said, before glancing down at his hands on my arms.

"How is this possible? Just because I've killed so many Striogi that I'm that much closer to death itself?"

"I'm not completely sure…I've never been able to touch anyone before. But if I had to guess, that would be my explanation." He gave me a small smile before leaning in and pressing a kiss to my forehead. He glanced over my shoulder, apparently looking at Dimitri. "You can trust him, Rose. He truly loves you. I hope you both will be very happy."

"Thanks, Mase." And before I could say anything else he had faded into thin air. I turned back around to see Mark's mouth hanging open and Dimitri and Oksana glancing uneasily between us.

"How did you-? How did he-?" Mark stuttered.

"If I knew, I'd tell you."

"What happened?" Oksana asked.

"Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have something I need to do," I said, reaching over and grabbing Dimitri's hand. His eyes met mine and I could practically see the fire burning in them.

"Wait, before you go," Oksana said. I halted in my escape in time to see her reach into her pocket. "I made you another ring, but it's not nearly as strong as the last one."

"Thank you," I said, touched by how much she was willing to help me. "But doesn't all this spirit use take a toll on you both?"

"We've kind of figured out how to balance all the darkness, but of course we've had years of practice." I nodded, glancing over at Lissa where she now sat with Adrian, Eddie, and Mia. Almost as if she could sense me gaze, she lifted her eyes and met mine. I could tell she wanted to talk and I knew I should give her the chance.

Turning back to Dimitri, I said, "It might be a bit longer." He looked over my shoulder, probably seeing Lissa walking towards us.

"I'll be waiting," he said. Kissing my cheek, he left my side to join his family on the other side of the room. No matter how much he did that, I didn't think my heart would ever stop jumping for joy.

"Sorry, I know you two probably want to spend some time together," Lissa said from behind me.

"It can wait a little while longer," I answered. I led the way to one of the bedrooms and shut the door behind us.

"Rose…I know I tried to make excuses the last time. I admit that."

"Do you?" I asked, trying my best not to be sarcastic and failing.

"Yes. But I'm going to come clean now."

"Okay, let's hear it."

"When you left me to go after Dimitri, it made me feel insecure. I didn't lie when I said I was afraid you'd leave to be with him again, but it was more than that. I was so jealous over the fact that you'd willingly do so much just in order to get him back. Even risk letting our worst enemy out of prison, someone who had tortured me. And when Dimitri came back and didn't want to see or speak to you, I was secretly happy. I know a lot of what I felt was darkness, but it only acts upon emotions that are already present…and I was so jealous of your relationship with him. I don't know why, because as you said, I had Christian. I guess I'd just had you to myself for so long that I didn't want to risk losing that." Her jade eyes filled with tears as she continued to admit everything she'd done. "And when he wanted to be around me all the time, I thought it would be just punishment for everything you'd put me through. I know it sounds horrible and I was so awful to you. I'm so sorry, you have no idea how sorry. When you left, all I wanted to do was go after you, but I knew you'd protect Christian and would refuse to see me."

Hearing her finally be so open and honest about what she had felt was so nice after wondering why she had been so cold towards me. It showed just how much she had changed and grown up even in just the amount of time I'd been back in the US. More than that though, it earned my respect. If she could be so bold and honest after doing something so wrong to a good friend, I knew she had the makings of a good queen. True, I really didn't agree with what she had done, but at least now I understood where she had been coming from. And although we weren't best friends like we once had been, we were on the road to overcoming what had once been between us.

"That's why when Dimitri asked to take time off to go find you, I bought the plane ticket and rental vehicle."

"You did what?" I asked.

"I wanted him to go…to bring you back. I knew that he was the only one of us that could do it. I wanted to go with him so badly, but I knew you wouldn't listen to me, not after how I'd treated both you and Christian." Knowing that she had been a part of Dimitri's attempt to find me brought me up short. I honestly didn't know what to think of this new information.

"And what about Christian?" I asked.

"What about him?" I could sense her slight resistance on the subject, but she wanted to make things right between us and I knew she wouldn't withhold information for that reason.

"Do you still have feelings for him?"

"That's like asking if a fish lives in water," she said, hanging her head.

"Have you thought about how you're going to win him back?" Her head snapped back up in surprise.

"Win him back? All he does is ridicule me. I don't think winning him back is possible."

"Oh, I wouldn't give up completely," I said. I made my way to the door, feeling as though we had made at least a bit of headway with our situation. "And the only reason that he ridicules you is because he's trying to force himself to find negative things about you in order to get rid of the feelings he still has for you."

"He still has feelings…for me?"

"What, did you think they just disappeared? He just doesn't want to get hurt again. Show him that won't happen and you might have a shot." I could see the hope in her eyes as she took in everything I had said. Hey, if I had to suffer through making amends with those I'd left behind, Christian should have to do it too.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some unfinished business I have to attend to." Swinging the door open, I hit someone hard enough to make them stumble backwards and swear. I peeked around to see Christian rubbing his forehead.

"Now didn't you ever learn not to eavesdrop?"

"I must've missed that lesson," he muttered, still rubbing the sore spot. "What did she want?"

"To make amends," I said. He scoffed before taking in my serious expression.

"And you let her?" he asked incredulously.

"She's not the person she used to be, Christian. In fact, I think you should give her a chance yourself."

"Right, and get hurt again. No thank you, I'll leave that to you." I rolled my eyes at his stubbornness. It was then that Lissa decided to make her appearance back into the living room. I really hoped she hadn't heard what Christian had said.

Meeting the chocolate brown eyes that had been on me since the moment I'd opened the door, I made my way over to the man they belonged to. Silently taking his hand in mine, I began pulling him toward the hallway. I'm sure everyone registered the fact that we were leaving together, but no one made any comments which surprised me. Of course, those would probably come in the morning.

As soon as we entered his room, Dimitri had me pressed up against the door he'd just closed, effectively sealing out the world and leaving only the two of us. We kissed and kissed, Dimitri lifting me up as I wrapped my legs around his waist. He tried to carefully carry me over to the bed, probably trying his best to make it as perfect as he could, but our constant kissing seemed to distract him enough to make him a bit wobbly. Wobbly enough in fact that we both toppled onto the bed in a heap, not at all the coordinated moves we used during sparring or any other kind of training. I giggled while Dimitri seemed a little put out by his loss of balance, but I honestly couldn't care less. All I knew was that I wanted him so badly, maybe even more so than I had the very first time. I guess that's what two years of celibacy would do to you. Oh well, that wouldn't be lasting much longer.

I figured we'd both want to rush it now that we finally had the opportunity to be together, but Dimitri had other ideas. Being just as loving as our very first time, he gently lifted himself off me enough to remove my shirt. Kissing all over the newly-uncovered flesh, I felt my body come alive. He had always been the only one to ignite these feelings in me and to relive them, to get a second chance, was a miracle in itself. In that moment, I thanked God for letting us both live long enough to experience this with each other once again and prayed that we'd make it through the upcoming battle in order to allow us to have more time. Whether or not he heard, I'll never know, but it suddenly didn't matter when Dimitri took off his own shirt.

I was entranced by the beauty of his tan chest. Running my fingers over the soft skin on his belly, I felt his muscles jump in response. He leaned back down and placed a soft kiss on my collarbone. These little gestures seemed to be the most beautiful things in the world to me. Barely lifting his head, his brown eyes met mine. Amazingly we didn't need to speak in that moment to express how much we loved each other; it seemed to be clear in the level of emotions coursing through us. I reached up and gently brushed a lock of hair from his forehead before wrapping my arms around him and trying to pull him as close to me as possible.

As we continued removing each other's clothing, our speed never increased. We knew where all this was leading, yet we couldn't bring ourselves to rush the moment. While we didn't like to think about it, we never knew if this would be our last time together like this. Being on the brink of war made things so much more uncertain and we had to appreciate what we had now while we still had it.

Afterward, we simply laid in each other's arms. The sun slanted through his closed curtains as I went over every touch and kiss I had just experienced. The room was filled with a peaceful silence that neither of us seemed willing to break. I don't know how long it took, but we must have both fallen asleep, for the next thing I knew the room was dark and I was opening my eyes and seeing Dimitri sprawled on the bed beside me, one of his arms holding me tightly against his side. I leaned up over him to try to see the clock on the bedside table next to him and his eyes immediately sprang open.

"Good morning," I whispered.

"Good morning," he returned, one of his beautiful smiles lighting up his face. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"A little sore, but nothing I can't handle," I answered truthfully. He leaned up and kissed me before glancing at the clock himself. He swore in Russian before remembering I could understand him and giving me a small smile.

"As much as I hate to say it, we should really start getting up and around. We have the first Moroi training in a couple of hours." I stretched, letting the blankets fall down to my waist before remembering that I was completely naked. Raising my eyes ever so slowly to meet Dimitri's, I noticed his gaze riveted on me. He swallowed uneasily and a small smirk flashed across my lips.

"I should probably take a shower," I said, getting up from the bed. Dimitri's eyes followed me as I walked into the bathroom. Leaving the door just barely open, I turned on the water before peeking out into the bedroom. Dimitri was in the same position that I'd left him in, still staring at the door hungrily.

"Well are you coming or did you want to stink all day?" Without any more invitation, Dimitri vaulted from the bed and ran into the bathroom, making me giggle as he hurriedly shut the door behind him.

An hour later, we finally managed to arrive back at the suite. Apparently it was our home base, as everyone was talking and eating with each other. As soon as we entered the room, Adrian wolf whistled obnoxiously. Of course Eddie, Lev, and Denis had to join in, but I just rolled my eyes at their antics and laced my fingers with Dimitri's.

"You're all just jealous," I said, making them all laugh and make jokes at my expense. But nothing was going to bring me down this morning, especially as I made my way to the kitchen area and saw Olena had made black bread. I swear I could've kissed her in that moment as I began wolfing a piece down. Dimitri just chuckled and reached for one himself.

As time passed and it got closer to our first time training Moroi, I could sense the tension in the room. If this didn't work, some of them might give up any hope of working together with Dhampirs. I was a bit nervous myself, especially since I'd apparently been voted the leader of this whole thing. Of course, it had been me to bring it up, so I suppose it was only fair.

"Should we all start heading down there?" Eddie asked.

"Actually, I was thinking I'd talk to my team first."

"About how to train them? Rose, don't you think we all should be included if that's the case?"

"That's not what it's about," I answered.

"Then can't it wait?"

"No Eddie, it can't. We'll be along shortly." Everyone began siphoning out of the room after that, Dimitri included after he gave me a quick peck on the lips, until it was only me and my team left. I made eye contact with each of them, except Christian who seemed pretty quiet and out of sorts this morning. Almost as if he was avoiding me…

"What is it Rose?" Denis asked.

"Nothing," I said, walking into what was supposed to be my shared bedroom with Christian. "I just wanted to give them a head start so we could make an entrance."

"You always were one for the dramatic," Lev said cheerfully. I pulled my leather jacket out of my suitcase and put it on, making me feel like a piece of Russia, what I had come to think of as home, was with me.

Reentering the room, I said, "This is one of our most important moments, boys. This is our time, our chance to show the academy and the world just what we're made of. Just how badass we all are. And I need your help with this training…I wouldn't be anything if it weren't for all of you."

"We love you, Rose," Artur said. "We'll always be behind you in everything you do." Denis and Lev nodded their absolute agreement but Christian still hadn't said anything.

"What about you?" I asked.

He remained silent for a few moments before saying, "Well, you know me. I've been watching out for you for two years. I don't think now's the time to stop." As they all followed my lead by putting on their jackets, I approached Christian.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"Are you?"

"Of course," I replied, not even hesitating. "I've never been better." He searched my eyes, checking to make sure I was telling the truth. Apparently finding what he was looking for, he nodded.

"If he hurts you again, I'll skin him alive." I laughed, knowing all the while that he was being completely serious. Maybe I should warn Dimitri to look out for his hide…literally.

We walked across campus, probably looking about as badass as we had on that very first day back at St. Vlad's. Upon throwing open the gym doors and letting the moonlight outline us once again. The murmuring in the gym immediately fell silent as we walked to the center of the floor. We split the Moroi into groups, based on their element, and assigned them to different guardians to train them. Although I really wanted a group of my own, it was decided that I should roam around and help the Moroi that we having the most trouble.

We exercised them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays were used for elemental work. We were nice enough to give them Sundays off. Tasha was instrumental in coming up with ways to use and enhance each element and I was definitely glad that she was there. After the first week of practices, Moroi started complaining about the workload, but Lissa again spoke up and defended the need for them to be treated harshly. In that moment, as she preached for fairness between our kind, I noticed Christian looking at her as though she were the only thing he wanted in life. But just as quickly as it had come, he had slammed his barriers back into place and turned away. Honestly, he could be so infuriatingly stubborn.

One Sunday afternoon as we all hung out in the suite, we started asking Ion all he knew about the threat to the academy as he sat with Viktoria cuddled up against his side on a couch. A lot of it was just rehashing what he had already said, such as how he'd never seen the man in charge and he'd only gotten his orders from Sonya. I began thinking of ways we could possibly defeat such a vast army with a leader that was kept under lock and key. The protective wards had all been placed in the empty center rooms of all dorm buildings, but we had to have a battle strategy as well.

As I snuggled up against Dimitri's chest on the couch and he played with my fingers, and Adrian leaned up against the arm of it, it suddenly came to me.

"That's it!" I said. I sat up so quickly that Adrian lost his balance and fell to the floor. Lev, who had hit it off with him in almost record time, laughed until he himself fell off the chair he had been sitting in. But everyone else's attention was on me.

"What is it?" Mom asked as Dimitri searched my eyes.

"I have a plan," I said, knowing that everyone would instantly know what I meant. They all leaned closer and even Adrian and Lev quit their fooling around. "Here's what we have to do…"

Whew! That chapter was extra long, so I hope you all liked it. Like I said, it will probably be about a week or so before I'm out of my study lockdown, but I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. It will be the start of all the action, so be sure to stay tuned!