A/N: Hope you all had a pleasant Christmas. I am planning on ending this story soon, so savour it while you can! Thank you for all the reviews and alerts you gave me :) I am trying to aim for 300 reviews before I finish, so could you please review if you read this?

Thank you xxx

Falling asleep instantly, I pondered Adrian's words. What the hell did he mean?

I woke up in the middle of the night. I was surprised, first of all because Adrian hadn't visited my dreams to tell me the thing he had done wrong and secondly because Dimitri wasn't with me. Adrian must have felt pretty bad, seeing as he was so het up about telling me. Had he used compulsion on me?

Unlikely. He wouldn't cross that line. And if he had, it would only be because I would have asked him, like the time I asked him to kiss me. The truth was that I had absolutely no idea what he had done. Focusing back on the fact that Dimitri had done a runner; I got out of bed and walked around our room. He wasn't in the shower, ergo not the bathroom either, nor was he in the main lounge part. I pulled on one of the supplied hotel dressing gowns and walked downstairs to the reception.

'Err… hello, I'm looking for my… umm… well he's called Dimitri? Dimitri Belikov? Did he come through here?' I asked, speaking slowly and carefully to the Russian receptionist. She smiled,

'Your husband? Yes, he told me to tell you to that he has gone out for a while. He'll be back soon…' she said, uncertainly. Speaking in a foreign tongue must have been something she was uncomfortable doing. I think she might have been mistaken with the whole 'husband' thing. I didn't remember being intimate with Dimitri when we booked our room, so I didn't know where she had gotten the idea that we were married from.

'He told you that we were married?' I asked, feeling a hot flush run through me at that impossible thought.

'No, I assumed. Unless you're brother and sister?' she asked, passing me the register. It said:

Дмитрий Беликов & РозаБеликовa - гостиничном номере 47

She pointed at the first two names and smiled,

'It says Dimitri Belikov and Roza Belikova. He told me to write that…' she grinned, 'You're… together?' she asked and I nodded.

'Mmm he's a little bit older than you, I see…' she said, no trace of disgust in her words. I nodded again,

'We're in love, but it's frowned upon back in America. He's Russian and we're having a vacation here.' I explained and she nodded, taking back the register.

'Yes, I know his grandmother,' she murmured and she looked up to smile at me again, 'she helped me once. She predicted the day I would meet my long-lost brother. He was in danger and because she told me, I managed to save him.'

'That's amazing… Yeva, you mean?'

'Yes… she has a gift…' she smiled at a memory and stood up.

'My name is Galina. Galina Porivay.' I flinched slightly at the fact that her name was the same as Dimitri's old mentor, whom he lived with when he was Strigoi. She held out her hand and I shook it,

'Rose. Rose… Belikova.' I winked and she laughed softly,

'What is your real name?' she grinned and I leant forward, whispering,

'Hathaway. Rose Hathaway.'

'The Rose Hathaway?' she exclaimed, her eyes widening and her jaw dropping. I noticed that she was a dhampir, like me. I nodded, blushing slightly at her recognition of me.

'You're famous here! You turned a Strigoi back to a dhampir…' she whispered and I nodded.

'I know. He's with me at the moment.' I grinned and her eyes widened again.

'Dimitri? He was the one?' she said, trying desperately to keep her voice down. I laughed and nodded.

'My bond-mate actually saved him. I helped though.' I admitted, wrapping my arms around myself to conserve my body-heat. She smiled and nodded,

'Vasilisa Dragomir. Yes, we know about her too. She is expected to be the next Queen.'

'Mmm I know,' I nodded and realised that I should probably be getting dressed, 'what time is it?'

'Around 7 o'clock in the morning.' Galina said and I thought about how different things were on a non-vampiric schedule. The light streaming through the windows had fooled my mind into thinking that it was the dead of night. No, it was the human daytime.

'Thanks… well, I'd better be getting dressed. I'll see you around, Galina.' I smiled and she grinned,

'Yeah, you and I should totally go for a coffee or something,' she called as I turned away. I nodded, smiling again and walking back to my room. Dressing in the nearest clothes I could find, I set out and left the hotel and began to wander the streets. I pulled up the hood of my black top, obscuring my face. In fact, it covered me so much that even my own lover didn't recognise me. Dimitri strode past me, his hands in his pockets and his head held high.

'Hello to you too, Comrade…' I muttered, grinning. He turned around, a puzzled expression colouring his features. He looked closer at me and smiled, recognising me,

'Sorry, I didn't know you were awake…' he said, approaching me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I smiled, leaning up to kiss him. He responded, brushing his soft lips against mine gently.

'What were you doing?' I asked, playing with the hem of his shirt. He raised an eyebrow,

'I bought you something… I wanted to tell you later, but now seems like a pretty good time…' he explained, pulling a small box out of his pocket. It was covered with black velvet and reminded me of a jewellery case. My heart suddenly leapt in my chest and the realisation that Dimitri had got me what seemed to be quite an expensive present dawned on me. Neither of us had that much money, what he was doing was possible the sweetest thing anyone could do for me. I smiled as he handed the box to me. It wasn't the size of a ring box, so he wasn't proposing. And what shocked me the most was that I didn't feel upset about that. I realised that a marriage between us wouldn't make us any closer, it was just two rings and a ceremony. No, we didn't need that. We were already bonded. Not like Lissa and I, but Dimitri and I were bonded with love. Everlasting love.

I opened the box and smiled. It wasn't a ring, like I'd thought, it was a diamond necklace. My jaw dropped as I examined it. The main part was a small white diamond with smaller red jewels surrounding it. It was simple and it's simplicity was what made it so beautiful.

'Oh my God… thank you, Dimitri, thank you so much…' I managed to say before he kissed me soft and slow, with a passion that blew my mind. I responded, kissing him back as fiercely. We broke apart eventually and he pulled me close.

'That's okay… I just really wanted to buy you something… to show how much you mean to me…' he smiled and I grinned back, I was in a state of euphoria.

Later on, we returned to the hotel and back to our room. Dimitri announced that he was taking me out for dinner, so I dressed in a black knee-length dress, with the necklace that Dimitri had given me. I departed the hotel, winking at Galina at the front desk, with Dimitri and he led me to a large restaurant down the road. It was beautiful, the elaborate wallpaper proved as much.

We were seated at a small table, which was simply decorated by a rose in a vase. I smiled at that. I noticed that every table had a single flower decorating it. In fact, it was almost ironic how we got the table with a rose.

'You look beautiful, Roza…' Dimitri murmured, taking my hand and kissing my cheek gently. I blushed and a warm feeling spread through me at his touch.

'Thank you…' I replied, gripping onto his hand like a lifeline. He smiled and we continued our night in pleasant bliss.

Two courses and a glass of wine later, I brought a new topic of conversation up. The weird message Adrian had conveyed to me.

'He visited me last night. He kept apologising for something. And he said I didn't mean to hurt anyone' I explained, frowning in concern. Dimitri shrugged, looking interested, but totally bewildered by Adrian's words, as was I. Then a glint of shock resounded in Dimitri's eyes and I grabbed his hand.

'What? What is it?' I asked, knowing for certain that Dimitri realised what Adrian meant.

'I… I… I'll tell you at the hotel… but I do know what he was talking about…' Dimitri whispered, looking away. I nodded, rubbing circles into his hand. He smiled weakly at the contact and I leaned over the table and kissed his cheek.

While we walked home, the bright moon coloured our path for us. Dimitri held onto my hand tightly and I stuck close with him, to give him reassurance. We entered our hotel room and I removed my heels, slinging them into a corner. I lay on our bed, the ruffles on the back of my dress spread around me as I relaxed. Dimitri came and sat on the other side of the bed and I reached up to his face, smoothing out his frown. He leaned down and kissed down the side of my face to my neck. I smiled in pleasure, pushing him back and sitting up.

'Tell me what you know, Dimitri. What did Adrian mean?' I asked, leaning into him. He stroked my hair and murmured,

'I don't want you to hate him… but…' he paused, 'Adrian was the one who shot me…' he sighed, laying his head on mine.

A/N: Pardon the long wait for the next chapter, but I recently developed quite a bad cough and I've been pretty ill. I'm just getting ready to go to a New Year's Eve party, so I thought I'd update quickly. Please review, I'd really like to see a lot of reviews in my Inbox tomorrow :)

Happy New Year!

BelikovsRoza1697