Disclaimer:I know I know! Don't shoot me! Here it is and there isn't evan a cliff hanger this time. Aren't I nice?
Leo turned and around to look at the two people that had just appeared out of one of the massage rooms.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The first one smiled cruelly showing off a pair of fangs. "The competition."
RPOV
Well BEEP. That's the only thought going through my mind right now. I know what you're thinking. What in the world could get the famous Rose Hathaway to react that way? Well try being trapped in a small room with an evil Strigoi and his ...what? Assistant/ girlfriend?, and his spy. Mix in a mastermind plot to destroy all of the Royal Moroi in the world, add a dash of two seriously pissed off unexpected guests and let it sit for a spa day and there you have it. The perfect recipe for well BEEP. And I don't know about you, but I'm just about sick of it.
"The Strigoi are still at the front gate, we need to wrap this up quickly so we can warn them," Dimitri muttered next to me. Oh great! Add that to the ever growing list of problems that we have to deal with today!
"I don't know who you are, but I don't take kindly to uninvited guests," Leo said looking at the two drop in's.
"It doesn't matter what you take kindly too, because soon you are going to be nothing but a pile of dust on the pavement when I'm done with you," said the seriously peeved guardian as she readied her stake for attack like she knew how to use it. Well I had to get it from someone.
My mother caught my eye and a silent message was sent between us. Attack on my signal. She then looked at Dimitri and gave him the same look, but just as we were about to attack, Leo lets out this amused chuckle and all eyes turn to him.
"Oh forgive me, I'm sure that you all must be thinking the same thing right now, and that is what I was thinking just showing up all on my own with just Elly as back up with two famous Guardians and three well trained senior novices. And don't think that I've forgotten about the Moroi flamethrower over there," he said shooting Christian an evil look.
"So the question you should be asking me is, what's to stop you all from rushing me and ending this little get-together right now?" he said not sounding the least bit worried. Like he had an ace up his sleeve.
"Well let me let you in on a little secret," he said lowering his voice like it really was secret but still loud enough for us to hear. "I'm not alone."
And just like that, I heard a series of loud banging noises and feet running. Then from both ends of the room came a whole swarm of Strigoi. And now we're surrounded. Great. I looked back at Leo as he let out a rather cocky laugh.
"Did you think that I survived all of these decades by being stupid and unprepared? I knew that I would be walking in here out numbered so I decided to bring some friends along," he said gesturing around the room at his Strigoi minions.
"And just so you know the offer of joining me still stands Rose. I promise you a powerful position in my army and later in my government when we take over," Leo said actually looking hopeful; wow he really wanted me to join him. I was about to tell him where he could stick his offer, when someone beat me to it.
"There is no way in hell that she is joining you, you undead creep," said the first unexpected guest. Abe.
"Not that I don't appreciate the support, but I got this old man," I said looking over to where he was standing next to my mum. "Why are you even here anyway?" Though he looked far more capable off looking after himself in a fight then most Moroi, this was no place for him. He just gave me a smirk.
"Just coming along for the ride," he said like that answered everything.
"Well I don't see how it is any business of yours if she turns or not so let's get back on track shall we?" Leo said looking back at me.
"If you're upset about leaving your boyfriend behind then I will turn him too. I'm sure that he will come in very handy," Leo said, but instead of looking over at Adrian like everyone else was doing, he was looking Dimitri up and down, like he was inspecting a new weapon. Which he kind of was.
"Oh well as flattered as I am by your offer, I'm afraid that my girl wouldn't take to kindly to my change in diet," Adrian said keeping in character, he was better than I give him credit for.
"I wasn't talking to you. You're not her man," said Leo.
"Yes he is," I said hoping to throw him off of where he was headed, I really didn't need my mother finding out about Dimitri right now.
"No he's not," Leo said again.
"Yes he is," Jill said.
"No he's not," said Elly speaking for the fist time since walking into the room.
"You stay out of it," called Mia, Mason must have spilled the beans to her.
"But he isn't!" said Leo getting confused.
"Yes I am," said Adrian.
"Oh give it a rest lover boy he's not falling for it," said Mason.
"Not sure if this is the time or place for this guys," said Eddie.
"Time or place for what? What are they going on about Rose?" asked my mother.
"Nothing! Shouldn't you be ranting about your evil mastermind plan or something!" I shouted in exasperation at Leo.
"No I want to hear this," said Abe. Well I guess everyone just wanted to jump on this train of thought. "What is this Strigoi implying Rose?" he asked in a disapproving tone.
"The better question is why do you care?" I shot back, this was just getting ridiculous!
"Hello! About to destroy the entire Moroi race over here!" Leo said trying to get the attention back to him.
"I'll deal with you later!" my mother scolded him and gave him " the mum" look.
"Have we seriously switched topics from evil Strigoi trying to kill all of the Royal Moroi to Rose's love life?" Lissa asked in disbelief.
"What do you know?" Abe asked looking intently at Lissa.
"Hey leave her out of this!" Christian said standing in front of Lissa protectively. "It's not her fault that Rose told her all about her secret engagement with Belikov-" he said and then stopped, realizing what he just let slip.
"Her WHAT!" Abe and my mother called out in unison and outrage.
"And apparently this is now happening!" I cried out, truly done with life now.
"I trusted you! How could you do this? She's a child for heavens sake!" my mother shouted and for a minute I thought that she was going to attack Dimitri right now instead of the Strigoi.
"You bastard! I'll kill you and wear you as a skin jacket!" Abe threatened shouting at Dimitri.
"Why do you care!?" I asked for what must have been the tenth time. "You're always telling me what to do and who to be friends with and messing with my life! What about me is so special?" I asked totally forgetting about Leo now. Not the smartest thing in the world, but I needed answers and I knew that Dimitri was still on top of things.
"Answer me!"
"Rose now is not the time."
"Oh but now is an ok time to threaten Dimitri?" I asked good and mad now.
"You had better hope that the Strigoi get to you before I do," Abe growled. "How dare you touch my little girl!"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Your little WHAT!?" I asked not believing what I just heard. I refused to understand what he just said, no matter how much sense that it made. And how it explained how he just showed up and started acting like my father and telling me what to do. No matter how much we looked alike with our dark skin and hair and from the sounds of it, attitude. No, this just wasn't happening.
"Wow, did we need to buy tickets to this soap opera or did we sneak in for free? Because there is no way that we just got to see first hand Rose and cradle robber getting busted in front of her mum and finding out that this guy is her dad. Seriously you couldn't pay to see this kind of thing!" Adrian asked trying to defuse the tension with a joke.
"Well I certainly didn't expect this kind of welcome I can tell you that," Leo said dryly not knowing what to do now. "Yeah...so I'm just going to get on with my evil plot now if that's ok with everyone? So as I was saying I have planned for multiple outcomes and I assure you that nothing that you throw at me will catch me off balan-"
Just then Mia using her water magic, threw an entire shoe rack at Leo cutting him off mid word. I guess that she wasn't the only one that had had enough of all this craziness.
Taking the hint, Dimitri and I went back to back and attacked the Strigoi closest to us while my mother charged in and took on her own. I didn't need to look to know that Mason and Eddie were doing hand to hand combat against the ones near them, covering their girls while Mia used water to distract any Strigoi that got too close.
And just as I expected I soon felt the heat that came from Christian's fire magic, I looked over to see that he had made a protective ring around Lissa while shooting fire balls at random Strigoi. Only three of us had stakes, but between all of us we were holding our own.
At the back of my mind I was also trying not to let Dimitri and my parents...wow that felt weird to think..get too close to each other. I had enough to deal with right now.
Still back to back with Dimitri, I decided that this might be the only chance to talk to him before my parents try to kill him. And let me tell you, fighting and talking at the same time is not as easy as they make it look on TV.
"You realize (duck) that after this is over (block and stake) you're going to have to (side, step and stake) survive the wrath of my mum and alleged father (spin and change places with Dimitri) right?" I asked Dimitri as I kept fighting the Strigoi around me.
"Yes...I can't...say that I'm...looking ...forward to it." I hear him say from behind me.
"Not to mention (punch, block, punch) what the school (duck, spin) will say after they find (stake) out!"
"Would you two quit it with this whole Romeo mad Juliet syndrome for a minute and come help me with these blood thirsty Strigoi!" Christian shouted and Dimitri and I made our way over towards him. We had staked about half of the Strigoi in the room and I noticed that at some point that Mason and Eddie had managed to get there hands on some stakes. Since I had Dimitri's back up I guess that my mother brought spare stakes.
"The attack has started! We need to end this now!" Dimitri said listening to his earpiece while fighting (and who says men can't multitask?) Well that was annoying. But we were doing really good so far so we just kept at it. And before I knew it all of the Strigoi in the room were down for the count. All that was left was Leo. I came up to him, stake raised ready to end him.
"Now Rose I know that killing me right now seems like the best idea."
"You're right there," I said still walking towards him.
"But just think about what I could offer you! I'm very wealthy and also have many powerful Moroi friends. We could come to an arrangements!" he said walking backwards now and tripping over the shoes that Mia threw at him before.
I hesitated. I know that that was breaking Dimitri's rule number one...but Leo was in a secure room full of other people that could kick his ass. And that left me time to think. I glanced back at Dimitri.
"Why should we believe you?" Dimitri asked stepping beside me, giving me back up in case I needed it.
"What's to stop the people in power from killing me when you bring me back to Court? Either way my life is at risk," Leo said regaining his composure, I guess negotiating deals is more of his speed.
"My people will handle him," Abe said stepping forward and looking very in control. I wonder how long that will last? "That'll keep him alive and singing until we get all of the information out of him."
"And what happens to me after?" Leo asked not looking happy with the turn of events.
"You will be kept alive and fed but locked up for the rest of your undead life," Dimitri said. Personally I would have just taken death than imprisonment for life. I guess that's just because I couldn't survive being kept in a cage for the rest of my life. I needed to run free and kill Strigoi and be with Lissa and Dimitri.
I looked up into Dimitri's eyes and saw him looking down into mine. And I'm sure that we were both thinking the exact same thing.
"And now that that matter is solved we can get back to the more troubling matter of why a grown man is groping my daughter!" Abe shouted, snapping Dimitri and I out of the moment that we were sharing.
"Oh like you've been all honest since we met!" I shouted back at him and then looked at my mother. "And when exactly were you planning on telling me that he was my father? And why did he show up here pretending to be an investigator? Did you have contact with him this whole time?" I cried feeling betrayed and confused.
"Rose honey it wasn't like that. I...well Abe's business wasn't safe for you to be around so-"
"So you what? Just cut him out of my life and never even told me his name? Great idea mum!" I said with poisonous sarcasm in my voice.
"Rose your mother had her reasons. But right now we need to deal with this problem. Getting involved with Belikov is a mistake. I know he may seem kind and caring now, but -"
"How dare you?!" I shouted, Abe had no right to say that about Dimitri. Especially after only just telling me who he is. "You can't just show up after 18 years and then expect that you have the right to act like my father! You were never there for me as a child and thus lost your vote in what I do with my life!" I said taking Dimitri's hand, needing to be close to him right now.
"Rose you're young and you don't understand. He's just trying to get you to lower your guard! He's nothing more than a low life scum that likes playing with young girls and-"
"ENOUGH!" Lissa shouted and everyone turned to look at her.
"This has gone on long enough. You," she said pointing at Abe, "don't get to judge people that you don't even know."
"You," she pointed at my mum, "should have told Rose that you knew who her father was long ago so she could have made this choice her self."
"And you," she said pointing at me, "I know that a lot just happened, but don't you think that making Leo over there order all of his troops to stand down so we can take back control of this lodge is a little more important than your family drama?" Lissa asked with all the authority of a Princess used to giving orders and having people listen.
I took a deep breath. She was right. We needed to deal with the Strigoi first before we went into this madness. I looked expectingly at Dimitri who raised his hand up to his ear and started talking to the other guardians. They had the speaker rigged up so that Leo could make an announcement. Dimitri walked over to him and Leo spoke loud and strong.
"This is Count Leopold von Lichtenstein of the Southern Falls. I hear by order that all Strigoi stand down if you want to live. I repeat, stand down if you want to live."
A few minutes after the message was sent out someone was sent down to release the doors and we were free.
"Jack! You were the spy? Oh man I really liked you!" one of the Guardians said after we filled them in on who needed to be arrested and held for questioning. I went with Dimitri to the Guardian Station to see what the situation was. My mother and Abe, it was still weird thinking of him as my father, came with us but neither of them brought up what happened in the spa.
We found Alberta giving out orders and waited until she was done.
"What's the situation Guardian Petrov?" Dimitri asked formally.
"We have Leo and Jack in custody and a few Strigoi that willingly stood down. The rest were killed in the confusion or wanted to go down fighting. I want you and everyone in that spa room debriefed as soon as possible," she said looking me and my parents over.
"Of course," Dimitri said with a nod.
"But aside from that and a few injuries, it's over. We won."
DPOV
Abe Mazur's daughter. I thought as we walked out of Alberta's temporarily command room. I am not only dating, but engaged, to Abe Mazur's daughter! And not just his daughter, no, his underaged daughter! That I just spent almost two weeks alone with in an isolated cabin in the mountains! As Rose would put it, I'm screwed. I looked next to me where Rose was walking and had to resist the urge to wrap my arms around her. My poor Roza, having to go through all of this mess. As if an old Strigoi that doesn't understand sarcasm trying to recruit her and kill her best friend wasn't bad enough. She had to deal with the fact that her father had been watching her and not telling her who he was and her mother knowing who he was and having contact with him the whole time and STILL not telling her.
I just hope that they don't make too big of a deal out of us being together right now. Rose needed some time to take this all in.
"Rose we need to talk," Rose's mother said shouting daggers at me just like Abe was. Well there went that hope.
"Oh really? And how can I be sure that you won't just lie to me again? After all, I've been lied to my entire life so how would I know the difference?" Rose asked not at all in a civil tone. Not that I could blame her.
"Don't be childish Rose this is serious," Abe said still looking like he wanted to punch me.
"I'm sorry, didn't you just accuse me of being a child a few minutes ago in the spa room? Wasn't that your main problem with me being with Dimitri?" Rose asked in a fake innocent voice that couldn't have fooled a ten year old. Abe was getting angrier by the minute and Rose's tone wasn't helping. But she did have a lot to take in, they should have know better than to ambush her right now.
"Rose, I know that being a Guardian means that you have to grow up young, but the fact is that you are young. And getting involved with someone much older than you is going to set you down the wrong path," Rose's mother said trying to sound calm. Set her down the wrong path? I was her mentor! It's my job to help her go down the right path! I was the reason that she was surpassing all of the senior novices and most of the Guardians at the Academy! How could they think that I was a bad influence on Rose?
"Oh for the love of- he's only seven years older than me! There's like five years between you two!" Rose said, but I think it was a guess because there really wasn't a way for Rose to find out Abe's age. But I would agree that Abe definitely looked a few years older than Janine, and judging by their silence, she was right.
"And set me down the wrong path? I'm sorry mother but didn't you get pregnant with me when you were 17 by a Moroi that you had a fling with and never saw again? Isn't that how it works with us Dhampir girls? We either become blood whores and pop out a bunch of kids and get looked down upon. Or become Guardians and never have a life of our own.
"Well forgive me but I want to do my job and have someone to come home to at the end of the day. And just because he's a little older than me doesn't mean that he's not a good man! I mean you don't even know him!" Rose shouted at her father. "And before you found out about us, you actually liked him!" Rose was shouted at her mother. She was getting to the end of her speech and looking red faced and upset. But she still looked breathtakingly beautiful.
"And how do you know that this is for real? Abe asked not backing down. " He is 24, he might have pulled a similar stunt with another poor girl back in Russia and left her when he got bored! I pulled up his family history, I know what his father did-"
"Yes I know! I was listening when you told Dimitri that you wanted him to stay away from me," Rose said not sounding impressed.
"How were you listening? I told him that in his roo-" Abe stopped realizing were this was going.
"Yes I was in his room and I know that Dimitri would never get involved with one of his students if it wasn't truly love. And because Dimitri would never lie to me. He loves me!" Rose shouted and I saw a tear fall from her eyes.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Just because I started dating their daughter suddenly I turn into the bad guy? I am very well respected by Guardians twice my age and had never pulled a stunt like this before. Did they think that I would really throw my life away if I didn't truly love Rose?
"Please tell me that you haven't slept with him Rose," Abe said still shocked from hearing that Rose was in my room after curfew. I had to clench my fist to make sure that I didn't do anything stupid.
Did he think that I would just use my Roza for sex like that! I loved her more than anything! It wasn't just her body! I mean it's not that I haven't noticed how good she looks and if she didn't want to wait until we got married then the truth is that I probably would have already made love to her. But it would have been about love!
"Excuse me DAD, but you don't have a right to know how far we've gone because up until last week you couldn't have even picked me out of a line up!" Rose was getting upset again. Oh to hell with it! I thought and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.
"So you have?" Janine asked in shock and outrage.
"What do you care? You probably believe the rumors from around school that I'm a blood whore anyway," Rose said crossing her arms but leaning onto me for support.
"On come on Rose don't tell me you believe him when he says that he loves you! For all you know he could just be using you for sex!" Abe shouted.
That's it!
"Look!" I said in a firm tone that wasn't insulting but made them shut up and listen. "I know that right now I'm worse than the spawn of Satan to you. But the truth is that I love Rose more than my own life. She is the kindest, sweetest, most selfless person that I have ever met. She's brave and strong and would do anything for a friend. I'm madly in love with Rose and we're going to get married so I can happily spend the rest of our lives together proving that to her every single day! I would like your blessing in this matter but I can live without it," I said looking them both in the eye.
Abe still looked like he wanted to kill me but maybe not in such a painful way. Janine looked like she wanted to run me threw with a stake right now and be done with it. I decided to cut my losses and run.
"Now if you will excuse us, Rose has had a very stressful day and needs rest. I'm going to take her to her room so she can have a nap before the debriefing. I know that the last thing that you want right now is to do me a favor but if you could keep this business between us and out of the debriefing I would appreciate it. I don't care much about my reputation, but it would reflect badly on Rose if this were to get out," I said a bit more respectful and wrapped the arm that was around Rose's shoulder around her waist and let her back to her room. I didn't hear anything from her parents but I wasn't stupid enough to think that this was over. No, I knew I was in for it and soon. But right now the only thing that mattered to me was making my Roza more comfortable.
See,a nice and long one without a cliff hanger:)
so this story is coming to a close:( but don't despair! Soon I will start work on my new story "Back to the future" the sequel to "blast from the past" you should read it (hint hint)
