APOV (ADRIAN)

It was weird being in the room while Rose was talking to Andre and obviously it wasn't a very pleasant talk. It took me all of breakfast and a little persuasion afterwards to get Rose to lighten up a bit.

About two hours later we were in our kitchen making drinks when a thought hits me. "Are you going to call the guardian's today?"

She looks up from her cup kind of surprised. "Uh, I guess, but I want to call Abe first. Let him know what's up." I nod my head in understanding. "This drink is really good by the way." She holds up the strawberry daiquiri I made her.

I smile mischievously at her. "Does that mean I get a kiss?"

She scrunches her face and gives me a once over. "I suppose its good enough for that."

"You suppose?" I walk over so I'm standing behind her.

She turns around to look at me. "Yes, I suppose." She smiles her man eater smile and I give her my cocky grin as she pulls me to her by my shirt.

"I love you," I say as I kiss her again.

"I love you too," she says before kissing me again.

We kiss for a little while longer until Rose pulls way looking over my shoulder. "Uh, you have got to be kidding me!" I look over my shoulder but there's nothing there. I turn back around and give Rose a questioning look. "Mason's here." I get a feeling of jealousy in the pit of my stomach but it vanishes quickly as I remember he's Rose's best friend that died right in front of her.

I turn around and look to where Rose is looking and then I smile. "Hi Mason." I give Rose a sidelong look before continuing. "I hope you're not here to ruin Rose's mood too."

Rose gives a small laugh before saying, "You got that right." Then she looks at me. "He said he's not and that Andre is a complete ass." She gives another small laugh. "Rhea, Andre's mom, basically grounded him. He's not a loud to leave the In-between until she says so."

I give a short laugh. "Serves him right."

Mason must be talking because Rose is looking very intently at where I assume Mason is. I turn away from them and head towards the cabinet beside the fridge and grab the bottle of Captain from it. I pour some into a glass. Then I turn to the fridge and grab a bottle of Coke from it pouring it into my cup with the Captain. I walk back to the island where Rose is sitting just as she finishes talking. "Thanks Mase, I'll be sure to be extra careful. Tell Rhea and Eric hi and I love them for me please." She waves bye and sighs turning around and grabbing her cup.

She takes a big gulp and looks at me over the top. "Can I help you?" She says laughing softly.

"What did he want?" I take a gulp from my cup. Man is this good.

Realization crosses her face. "Oh, he just wanted to say that Tasha attacked a human family the other day, and a lot of her Strogoi are branching off in different directions to find us. She heard we left court."

I reach across the island to where her phone lay. I hand it to her. "Call Abe and then call the guardians. You can't put it off any longer. Another family could end up getting hurt."

She sighs dialing a number into the phone. "Dad, yeah, hi."

"Put it on speaker," I whisper.

She pulls the phone away from her ear hitting the speaker button. "Rose, is everything alright? Ivashkov didn't hurt you did he?"

"No Abe, I would never hurt Rose. Her on the other hand." I say the last part quietly under my breath so Abe doesn't hear.

Rose shoots me a look at the comment. "No Dad everything's fine. Well, for the most part. Mason was just here."

"What did he have to say?" He pauses and then suddenly, "Wait, does Adrian…" He trails off not sure what to say.

"Yes, Adrian knows everything. So does Lissa."

I hear Abe let out an agitated sigh. "You let Vasilissa know!? I understand Ivashkov but did you have to tell Vasilissa?"

"I couldn't help it! She found out through the bond!" Rose says back just as agitated as her father. "Look, I just called to tell you that I'm getting the guardian's in on it. Too many people are dying because of this. Mason told me that Tasha attacked a human family. A human family Dad, and he said that all of Tasha's Strogoi are spreading out to find us."

I give Rose a reassuring smile and she smiles back softly. "Rose are you sure?"

"Dad I know what I want to do. I want the guardian's involved. This is too much for just you, me, and Dimitri."

"Speaking of Dimitri, did you tell him yet?"

"No, I was going to call the guardian's and then tell him afterwards." Her voice growing even braver.

"That seems logical. I suppose you're right." He pauses. "About everything. Keep me posted Kiz." He says pride evident in his voice.

"I will. Have fun with Mom and the Belikova's. And tell them I said hi! Love you Old Man."

"I love you too Kiz."

Rose hangs up and gives me a nervous look. I grab ahold of her hand and rub reassuring circles on it with my thumb. "You'll be fine. The guardians will know what to do."

She nods and dials the number to the guardians at court. She doesn't put this one on speaker but she tells the guardian on the other end, Hans probably, everything. You can hear the sternness in both of their voices. They talk for about an hour. I on the other hand showered, and made lunch while she talked. When she hung up I set a plate with a hamburger and some fries on it in front of her. "Mmm, thanks!" She said as she popped one of the fries into her mouth.

I put the ketchup down in front of her plate. I walked over to Lissa's to get the food to make all of this. "You're welcome love. So what did the guardians have to say?"

She sighed and talked through a bite of her hamburger. "I talked to Hans. He told me that I should have told him sooner but he understands why I didn't. He also said that he's sending a group of guardian's to Tasha's headquarters. He told me that if it's possible he wants Dimitri and me to go along."

I shake my head at the last part. "I don't want you to go."

"Adrian, I know you don't but I have to. All of this is my fault and I can help the most with Mason on my side helping us find Tasha and them." She tries to sound reassuring but I know inside she doesn't want to leave either.

"You don't have to go. Just tell Belikov everything. He already knows most of it anyways. He can go himself." I'm pretty sure I sound pathetic but honestly I don't want her to go. She's who Tasha wants and her being there is way too dangerous.

"Adrian, you know I have to."

I sigh defeated. "I guess, but I'm not going to be very happy."

She kisses my lips and pulls away. "I know you won't." She smiles knowingly.

I brighten up at an idea that pops into my head. "What if I come with you? I could help!"

"How?" She says exasperated. "Adrian spirit can't fight a Strogoi. If I bring any Moroi with me it would be Christian but I wouldn't do that for two reasons. One He's a Moroi and two he needs to be here for Lissa."

I cross my arms. "Whatever. When are you guys leaving?"

She adverts her eyes from me. "As soon as possible."

"So?"

"Tomorrow morning around eight." She's still not looking at me.

I grab ahold of her chin softly turning her face towards mine. Slowly her eyes meet mine and I kiss her. "Well, we have tonight. We'll go by that and then tomorrow morning you'll leave me." Tears were forming in her eyes. "Hey, hey, it's okay. You'll be back before you know it. Tasha will be dead and we'll finally be at rest. Besides this'll give me enough time to catch back up on my classes." I wipe away a stray tear that fell from her eye. "It's going to be alright. I love you."

"I love you to Adrian." I kiss her forehead and stand up pulling her with me. I wrap my arm around her shoulder as I lead her towards the door.

"Now, we should probably tell Dimitri and everyone else." We head towards Mia and Eddie's room since that seems to be the hang out spot.

"You know, I never pictured you as someone who is so worried about school." She looks up at me as we walk down the hall.

"Me either Little Dhampir. Me either," I say shaking my head and laughing softly.

When we get there everyone is already there. Well that was easy enough I think before looking at Rose who has singled out Dimitri with a pained expression. "It'll be okay," I whisper into her ear. We're greeted with hellos from everyone but Rose is still staring at Dimitri. "Belikov," he looks up at me. "We need to have a talk. Mia can we use your room?" Mia nods and Dimitri stands up looking a little confused. The three of us head towards Mia's room.

DPOV

I walk out of Mia and Eddie's suite dazed. Rose told the guardians. We're leaving at eight tomorrow for Maine. Abe's okay with all of this. Andre is no longer a source for info. Only Rose and I are leaving.

I don't even get these thoughts through my head and more thoughts form about everything here in California. There's only three Dhampirs but there's six Moroi and one human. Sydney, how is she going to be with vampires that she isn't close to like Rose and I. She barely knows everyone else and we're leaving her by herself. How is she going to take it? What will she do if something happens to me? Will she miss me if I'm gone?

Whoa! Where did those last couple thoughts come from?

I reach mine and Sydney's suite and I head in to my bedroom and start packing some of my clothes. I thought this might get my mind off of everything but I just keep thinking about everything. I'm brought out of my thoughts by a knock on my bedroom door. I look up to see Sydney standing there. "Hey." She gives me a small smile and waves slightly.

I smile back at her and sit down on my bed. "Hey."

She walks over to the bed and sits beside me. "Rose told me. I figured you might want someone to talk to." I was looking at my hands but I look up at her when she lays her hand on my shoulder. I'm caught by surprise again when I see how different she looks from when we were on the run. I mean she was cute then but now she's beautiful. She has light brown hair that stops just under her shoulders and she has the clearest blue eyes. Instead of having on a sophisticated suit like last time she has on normal teenage apparel. She's wearing a navy blue strapless shirt that still has the sophisticated feeling to it. The shirt stops right above the waistline of her white shorts. She has on a pair of glossy nude color heels that make her about five inches taller also sophisticated looking but I'm not sure how she can walk in them. Or how she made it in here without me hearing her walking. Sydney has her signature gold cross necklace hanging around her neck and gold diamond earrings. She looks like a normal teenager but she has a sophisticated air around her (Outfit on profile). I'm brought back to the conversation when she gives my shoulder a slight shake. "Dimitri, are you okay?"

I shake my head to clear my thoughts. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just this trip, well mission, I mean I should be ready for anything but I was not ready to leave here after only being here one night."

She moves her hand from my shoulder to my hand and squeezes it in reassurance. "If you are anything like what Rose told me you will be back here before you know it." I look away when she brings up Rose. "Hey, I mean it. No matter what went down between you two Rose always holds you on a higher bar than she holds anyone else. I can see it in her eyes, the pride she still feels for you."

I turn my head back to Sydney. "But you didn't see the hurt I cause and the disapproval that was there one night. She doesn't hold me as high as she used to."

"Whatever happened is in the past and Rose does still hold you up high. I know she does and if she doesn't she's stupid." I can hear the pride in Sydney's voice and it's just like how Rose sounded when she would talk about me. It broke my heart to think of Rose but it doesn't hurt as much as it used to. The pain seems to be there less and less the more time I spend with Sydney.

"Thanks." I smile softly at her and she smiles back. I wrap my arms around her in a hug and she sits still for a second or two before wrapping her arms around me to hug me back. "You don't know how much that means." When I pull back she just smiles again and I just can't get how beautiful she is and her smiles just makes her more so.

I snap out of my trance and stand up holding my hand out to help her up. "How about I make us some lunch?"

She seems to snap out of whatever she was thinking about and takes my hand. "I would love that." We head out of the room and I wrap my one arm around her shoulders and give her a half of a hug.

"Thanks again."

"No problem." She says sitting down at the island when we reach the kitchen. "So, what are you making?"

I open the fridge doors. "How about we make a pizza?" I pull out a pizza kit from the freezer turning around to look at her.

"We?" She says shocked.

"Yes, we, trust me, it'll be good." She gives the box an odd look before looking up at me.

"I guess so." With that we set to work on the pizza.

After we made the pizza we just sat on the couch and watched more episodes of 16 and Pregnant. We just laughed and ate and had fun, everything I won't be able to do until I get back from Maine. After a couple hours of watching TV we met up with everyone else and we all decided to go out for dinner as a goodbye type of dinner for Rose and me. We went to some Italian place with really good food. After that everyone split up into couples and they all had things planned for the night. Since Sydney and I aren't a couple we just came back to the suite. We had watched TV again this time watching something about Werewolves. I think it was called Teenwolf or something like that. I'm not much of a TV person but whatever.

Now I'm in my room just making sure I have everything packed. "You're still packing?" I look up to see Sydney walking into my room. She sits down on my bed and leans up against the headboard. "How much stuff are you packing?"

"I'm just double checking everything. I don't want to leave any of my stakes behind." I stop and think about that. "Actually, I'm going to leave one behind and I'm going to put it in your room." I dig through my bag and pull out a stake tossing it onto the bed.

Sydney looks at the stake by her feet then up at me. "You don't have to do that. What if you need it?"

"I'll be fine." I close my bags and lay them on the floor. Once they're on the floor I sit on the bed next to Sydney with my head also against the headboard. "You should probably go put on some pajamas I mean it is like eleven o'clock and all." I changed from my jeans and shirt when we got home around 8 but Sydney stayed in her shorts and tank top with her heels.

"Trying to kick me out? Okay then, I just figured I spend the day with one of the only people I really know who by the way is leaving me stranded with a bunch of Creatures from the Night!" She stands up and heads toward the door.

"If you decide to come back over grouch bring a book because I'm going to read." I yell as I hear the click from her shoes soften the closer to her room she gets.

She come back over about fifteen minutes later wearing a pair of dark grey loose, cropped Abercrombie comfy pants with a pink shirt that hangs off her shoulder that I think is from Victoria's Secret because it says Pink and Rose use to wear that stuff to practices and I asked her about it one day. The shirt has quarter length sleeves but since it's hanging off one shoulder the one sleeve is longer. She also has on a grey pair of Uggs (outfit on profile). Her hair is pulls back into a loose ponytail and there are stray pieces falling out of the holder. I know this is wrong but I can't help but think she is absolutely gorgeous.

She sits down on the bed and opens up the book that's in her hands. I set my book down on my lap and look at her. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

She looks up from her book confused. "I guess not."

"Okay, what happened to all of your suits? I'm almost positive you didn't own any of that before. It looks like you just took the tags off of everything." She looks down at herself.

"That's because I did. Abe told me to not bring any suits and I figured I could try and lighten up some this summer. I took my sister Zoey shopping and I had her help me get all new clothes. Trust me I never want to do that ever again. At least get a new wardrobe."

I shake my head laughing. "You are definitely not like Rose in that department. She could spend hours days even in a mall shopping for all new outfits. Trust me, going with her is awful, well unless you're Adrian who can buy her anything she wants and doesn't mind shopping yourself." I say the last part a little bitterly.

"Well, either way, I'm not going with Rose." We both laugh and after a few minutes we fall silent. I pick my book up to start reading it again until Sydney starts talking. "How bad does it hurt?"

I look at her confused. "What?"

"How bad does it hurt?" She says setting her book down on the bed and crossing her legs Indian style. "How bad does it hurt to look at Rose and know that she loves Adrian? How bad does it hurt to see them happy together?" She seems nervous for my answer maybe, I'm not sure.

"It used to hurt so much I couldn't even stand to be in the same room as them for more than ten minutes but I've come around. I don't want to beat the crap out of Adrian every time I see him touch Rose. The pain I feel now is so much easier to handle than the pain I felt when it first went down." She looks at me and there's concern shining in her eyes. "But every day it hurts a little less and every day I move on a little more."

She wraps her arms around me and I'm surprised. "I'm sorry."

I wrap my arms around her hugging her back. "It's okay; it's not your fault."

After we pull away from each other we fall silent and decide that we should probably just go to sleep because we have to get up early. "Goodnight, Dimitri!" Sydney says quietly as she walks to her own room.

"Night," I say back before crawling under the blankets and fall asleep.

I was dreaming of being home with Mama, and Vika, Karolina, and Sonya, and Paul and babushka when suddenly my dream shifts and now I'm standing in the kitchen in the suit. "Belikov." I turn around and see Adrian standing there.

"Adrian?" I ask. It takes a second before a thought hits me. "Is this a…" I trail off as he nods his head.

"Yeah, a spirit dream. Listen I don't have much time but I wanted to tell you something before you leave in the morning."

I give him a strange look. What could he possibly want to tell me? "Okay…"

He takes a deep breath and then exhales as if he's about to say something that's really hard to say. "Keep her safe." He looks at me with begging eyes. At first I don't know who she is but then I realize it's Rose. "She's all I have, and if I lose her I don't know what I'll do. Will you just please keep her safe?"

At first I'm stunned but I shake that off and compose my thoughts. Keep Rose safe, that's what I've always done. "Of course, I know she chose you but I still can't lose her like that either. At least if she's with you I still get to see her."

He sighs in relief. "Thanks man, it really means a lot."

"No problem." And just like that the dream ends and I'm woken up by an alarm clock. I open my eyes slowly dreading what's about to come but also ecstatic that after this mission is over Rose will be safe.

Once I'm out of the shower I get dressed and I can smell coffee brewing. I walk out to the kitchen and Sydney is standing there pouring coffee into two coffee mugs. She looks up when I drop my bags. "Hey, I figured you could use some coffee before your trip." She hands me a cup.

I look at the time, 7:30. That gives us ten minutes to get to the airport but when I look at Sydney a depressing thought comes to my mind. "Aren't you coming?" She has on the clothes she wore to bed last night and her Ugg boots.

"Yeah I'm coming. I'm going like this though."

I raise one of my eyebrows at her. "So the oh so sophisticated Sydney Sage is not changing into something more dressy before she leaves the suit?" I tease as I drink the rest of my coffee. I set the cup in the sink and pick up my bags.

Sydney sets her empty cup in the sink and opens the door for me. "I figured I could live on the wild side." She says smiling.

"Ahhh," I say as we make our way to Rose's suit.

We're there for about five minutes before everyone piles into our two rental cars. We reach the airport and the private jet from court is already there waiting for us. Rose looks at me. "Ready Comrade?" She gives me a small smile.

I give a sight nod and a small smile back. We say our good byes. I hug Sydney and tell her to call me if she needs anything. I also hug Vika, Mia, Jill, and Lissa. I say bye to the boys but when I say bye to Adrian I say something different than everyone else. "I'm keeping Rose safe for you. I need you to do the same for me. I need you to keep Sydney safe. She's not comfortable with any of you and the two people she was comfortable with are leaving her." I whisper it so no one else hears.

He gives a slight nod before whispering back. "Will do Cradle Robber." He winks and then he starts laughing as he looks from me to Sydney. "Will do."

I roll my eyes at him then turn to Rose. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," she says.

We board the plane after she gives Adrian one last kiss and hug.

We're quiet for most of the way but when we're almost there Rose turns to me and says, "I'm sorry for dragging you into this Comrade?"

"It's okay. I'd do anything to keep you safe."

She gives me a nervous glance. "Even after everything?"

I smile at her. "Even after everything."

She gives me a huge smile and I think that's the end of the conversation until she says something that shocks me to my core. "You and Sydney huh?"

I look at her wide eyed. "What?"

"I see the way you two are and the way you look at each other. You may not know it yet but you guys are falling for each other and what you said to Adrian proves it."

My eyes widen even more. "You heard that?"

She nods. "Yeah and by the way, I don't need to be protected I can protect myself."

"Yeah, right," I scuff my mind still on something she said earlier.

You may not know it yet but you guys are falling for each other.

Was I really falling for Sydney Sage not only someone seven years younger than me again but also a human?

A/N: So, what did you think? Is Dimitri falling for Sydney and is Sydney falling for Dimitri? We're gonna be getting into some action now. Rose and Dimitri are on their way to Maine what do you want to happen while they're their? Either with those two or everyone else back in California. I hope you guys liked it and don't forget to review!