I had to put this out there….Doesn't Adrian on my profile have the most kissable looking lips…just saying'… :D Can I get a HE** Yeah! LOL

I own nothing……Richelle Mead owns VA and its Characters. Thanks for reading my story and reviewing..:D

I would like to give a special thanks to Vampire Chick 1318…I appreciate your kind words…Please enjoy! Terri


Chapter 29

ROSE'S POV

We finally arrived at our home. I was battered, bloodied, and in discomfort, but I could deal with it. I've been through a lot worse. Believe me. Adrian had insisted the Lissa come over to heal my injuries.

I hated having her do that; although it helped me with the physical injuries, it didn't help with the emotional ones that I would deal with later. I was weighing the pros with the cons of letting her do it. But, the interesting thing

was that Ethan seems to help with the darkness I absorbed from Lissa.

I informed Adrian that I was going to take a shower; and I was going to check the injuries I was dealing with before Lissa arrived.

He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me close to his body. "I could literally kill Guardian Nikolai for hitting you." He pressed his lips gently to mine; tracing his fingers along my bruised cheek.

I winced slightly at the pressure of his lips against mine. "Sorry, that hurts." I pouted at him.

"I will grab Lissa and get you healed up. I will also order in dinner; we have a lot to discuss" He gave me a dazzling smile. "I want those lips healed. And I am going to share a stiff drink with my future father in-law."

He winked at me while walking out of the room.

I turned on the shower; waiting for the hot water, and I took a peek at myself in the mirror. Yep! It wasn't a pretty sight; bruises on my cheek, lips were swollen, and I had a lump on the right side of my head.

It hurt like hell to touch my head. Suck it up Hathaway! Welcome back to the joys of being a Guardian, I thought to myself. I stepped in the hot water and felt the tension leave my sore muscles. My thoughts

kept going to the fight and how the outcome could have been differently. If Pavel hadn't intervened, I could be dead. Who would raise Ethan? I mean of course; Adrian would step to the plate and do the right thing.

But, I wanted to be the one to raise my baby, me and Adrian together. I didn't want Ethan to grow up without me, he had lost Dimitri already and that was enough to lose. I never questioned my future before, but now I

really have no choice. Everything in my life has changed so dramatically. I love Lissa; she is my sister, but Ethan is my son, my blood. I have so many things to consider.

I finished my shower; dried off quickly, threw my hair in a messy ponytail, and dressed in my comfy sweats. I walked out into the living room to see Adrian feeding Ethan, my dad, Pavel, Christian, and Lissa.

"Hey, chickie." I smiled at Lissa as I pulled her into a hug. "I haven't seen you for a couple days. How are your exams going?"

Lissa rolled her eyes. "Rose, like you really care about my exams. Look at you. Why didn't you tell me what was going on? Come here so I can fix you up." She took my hand, leading me to the couch.

Lissa put her hands on my cheeks, making me flinch slightly. "I am sorry." She gave me a small smile. I felt the warm feeling radiate through me with the emotions that came along with her use of spirit.

It felt so wonderful to Lissa when she healed, but it was different for me to deal with the residual effects.

I glanced over to see Adrian smiling at us. I knew he was watching our auras; he loved to watch us when Lissa was healing. It was just afterwards that bothered him. He didn't want me to be enraged with the darkness that followed.

"Adrian…Could you please bring Ethan to me? I want to try something. But, I need you to keep a careful watch on his aura as I try this. If you see any darkness seeping into him, please stop me immediately."

He walked across the room to where I was seated with Lissa and placed the baby in my arms. "Hey sweet-boy. How is momma's baby doing?" I kissed his forehead; inhaling his wonderful scent.

The softness of his skin and the sweet smell of hair soothed my instantly. The darkness I felt from Lissa was gone, evaporated.

"Baby..Did you notice anything?" I ask as I locked eyes with Adrian.

Adrian was smiling. "No, his aura is beautiful. I have never seen so many wonderful colors and yours is not nearly as black as it usually is. Actually, your aura is mostly reds, pinks, and just a shadow of black, like an outline.

Are you going to fill me in on your little experiment?"

"It just seems as though Ethan helps with the darkness I absorb from Lissa. But, I needed to be sure that it didn't affect him in a negative way." He had fallen asleep in my arms.

"I am going to put him down in his bed. Oh! And Dad, I will expect to get the full story from you when I come back out." I warned him as I walked into the nursery.

I came back out to find everyone seated at the dining room table; fixing their plates with the take-out food that Adrian had ordered. I took my seat next to Adrian, across the table from Lissa and Christian.

We made sure to give Abe the head of the table, since he would be doing most of the talking. He had a lot of explaining to do.

Pavel sat at the other end of the table, opposite my dad. I insisted he eat dinner with us. He was like a part of our family, a big part. He saved my life today. I could never thank him enough for making sure I got home to my little boy.

I took a bit of my food before asking the line of questions. "Dad, what the hell is going on with the family tree? You are a King? What about Tatiana? How did she become Queen?" My head was spinning with dozens of questions.

"Well Kiz. I didn't expect so many questions." My dad said with a small chuckle. "When the Moroi Society was first established; My descendants, The Ottoman Dynasty, The Imperial House of Osman, were the first and original Royal family.

We would continue to rule, governing and protecting our people, passing down our throne from one generation to the next. In the event someone in our family chose not to govern, we were able to appoint a person to rule on our behalf. .

I never had the desire to rule." He took a drink of his wine and continued with his story. We were all totally engrossed, not taking our eyes off of Abe.

"I had meet Tatiana at this time; we were both in our mid-twenties and started dating. Our families decided we would make a good match for marriage, and for carrying on a pure bloodline. I wasn't one who ever really wanted to play

by the rules as you see." He winked at me as he said the words.

I interrupted. "You mean it was like an arranged marriage?"

Abe took a deep breath and released it slowly before speaking. "No, it wasn't technically an arranged marriage. We had a choice in the matter. I had dated Tatiana for a couple years. Actually, don't be deceived by her previous behavior.

She wasn't always that way. At one time, Tatiana was a very loving, caring, and quite beautiful young woman. She was also an Ivashkov, which said a lot considering her lineage.

The Ivashkov bloodline was the second most pure in our line of Royal families. The Hanedani and Ivashkov clans were happy about our upcoming nuptials. We were bringing the two Royal families together, merging us in a larger ruling monarchy.

This marriage was of great importance because it also gave the Ivashkov descendants a chance at the throne; in the event there was no original Hanedani progeny to inherit the crown.

I never intended to hurt Tatiana or let our families down. But, sometimes our lives go into directions we never knew we wanted." I nodded my head to show that I agreed with him completely. My dad continued with his story.

"I was visiting a friend in Russia when I came across the most beautiful, sarcastic, amazingly strong woman I had ever met in my life." Adrian grabbed my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "She had this fiery red hair that matched her temper.

I pursued Janine for weeks; knowing that Tatiana was at home planning our upcoming wedding. I should have backed off, but I couldn't help myself. The heart wants what the heart wants." My dad let out a sharp laugh.

"Finally, Janine had agreed to honor me with a date. I knew after the first date, that I could no longer be with Tatiana. As time passed by and I hadn't returned home to her, she knew something was amiss.

I had been with Janine a couple months at this point; we were deeply in love with each other. I had never known such happiness existed." Abe stared off in the distance; as if he were recalling a fond memory, grinning at his thoughts.

I watched my dad speak of my mother with such a sparkle in his eyes. I wonder what truly happened between them. Hopefully, he would tell me the story sometime.

"I informed Janine that I had to return home for a week or so to handle some unfinished business, unbeknown to Janine, my unfinished business was Tatiana. When I finally arrived at home; I immediately broke the news to

Tatiana that I no longer wanted to marry her. Of Course, she was enraged; as were both our families. But, I wasn't going to change my mind. I had made my decision, Janine Hathaway was who I wanted.

You see Adrian, this is where you and I have a lot in common. You feel for your Rose the way I feel for my Janine. I can relate where you are coming from; with the choices that are put before you, and the

sacrifices you need to make in order to be with my daughter. I appreciate your love and loyalty to her. But, I am getting off my story. I had let the families down and naturally the Ivashkov family was especially enraged.

In order to save so kind of relationship within the Royal clans' I had agreed to appoint Tatiana the throne, only in agreement that she would govern fairly and just. I am sorry to say Adrian, your family is quite greedy when it comes to power

and wealth. At first, I couldn't understand why your father and Tatiana wouldn't want a union between you and Rosemarie. It secured your families place in the the line of the throne. But, now I see why. Rose is a dhampir and your family feels it would

ruin the bloodline because the two of you could only produce dhampir offspring."

"I didn't know about the throne…I swear. I don't care what they think, I love Rose and Ethan more than any cathedra or amount of money." Adrian spoke as if maybe we were assuming the worst of his intentions.

I turned to face him. "Adrian, you don't need to worry about that or explain yourself. I know you have nothing but the best intentions for me and Ethan. Don't ever feel that way, because I certainly do not. I trust you with everything I am."

I turned my attention to my dad. "Where did the name Mazur come from? I don't recognize it as any Royal name."

He took another drink of wine before answering. "Actually, You wouldn't. Mazur is my middle name. I used it so I wouldn't have to use my surname. The older Moroi are still quite aware of the Hanedani Royal surname. But, the younger

generation would not. Unless, they researched it. Which I doubt that is going to happen. We need a lot of changes to our Moroi/Dhampir Society." His eyes focused directly on my face; making me aware of the meaning of his statement.

I snorted really loud. "Yea right old man! You've got the wrong chic."

"Rose, I was the last legitmate blood descendant in line to rule under my family name, until you came along. A dhampir has never ruled over a Moroi society, nor is it written in our laws that you can't.

You and Ethan are legally and rightfully the next blood heirs in line to inherit the throne. You have a chance to make a real change. You see first hand the injustice that you and Adrian have lived with for the last few months. Don't you

want to correct that?" Abe knew he was using the best angle he could and it was working.

"I would never want to let anyone down. Honestly, who would take me serious?" I ask my dad; wanting him to prove me differently.

My dad gazed at me with the utmost entrustment. "Rosemarie, I think you could do whatever you set your mind to achieve. I have so much faith in you and your beliefs. I know you can do this. I will give you time to think on it; Meanwhile, I'm going

to assume my given position and take the seat for the duration of Tatiana's trial. But, after that, I will need your decision."

I nodded my head somberly. "Okay…I will think about it. But, I don't know if I can promise you anything."

Christian cleared his throat; trying to gather everyone's attention. "What is going to happen to Tatiana? When will she have her trial?" His eyes swimming with curiosity.

"Yea. I mean, she wouldn't be able to get away with trying to murder Rose and Ethan, will she?" I felt the fear rising in Lissa as I reached across the table taking her hand into mine.

Abe gave a slight smile at Lissa. "No! She won't get away with it. We had a great deal of witnesses assembled to hear her confession."

"Abe? How is it that you knew what was going to happen?" Adrian looked at my dad with complete awe.

"Well, after Rose was attacked and she had recovered from her injuries; Guardian Sergei came to me, confessing everything that had happened. I was fully aware of what and who had attacked Rose. I needed the confession to be played out

precisely and with no mistakes or interruptions." Abe stated matter of factually.

Adrian spoke again. "That is why you made me wait for you…You knew that Rose may have needed to fight Guardian Nikolai, but Guardian Sergei was there to intervene if it got to be too much."

"Yes and no. Pavel was the one to help Rose in the end. Sergei was there to make sure that the battle between Rose and Nikolai was fair; with no other Guardians being commanded by the Queen to intercept. It was very difficult for me to

leave Rose out there on her own. But, I had to trust in her. I told you Adrian, she is stronger than you know. The most difficult part was sitting on this information for weeks; waiting for Rose to realize her attackers, and I couldn't do anything

about it. Not without destroying my plans for Tatiana." My dad shook his head; the thoughts of me being hurt, haunting him.

"I would like to get her trial started within the next few weeks. There really isn't much of a case in her defense. It is basically cut and dry." Abe stating the obvious points of the case.

"What will happen to her? I mean her punishment?" I ask my father; actually feeling fear for Tatiana's life, and I didn't understand why.

"Let's just wait until the trial and all the facts are laid before us; we will go from there. No need to worry on it right now, Kiz."

Adrian gave me a sideward glance and gave me a crooked grin. "What?" I ask; grinning back at him.

"We need to talk about something more pleasant. With that said, Rose and I have an announcement to make." Adrian's eyes danced with excitement; everyone staring at him with their full attention. "Rose has agreed to honor me by becoming

my wife on April 21st."

Everyone had big, genuine smiles on their faces. They knew it was a long, hard road for Adrian and myself; we deserved some peace and happiness. My Dad poured wine into everyone's goblets, including Pavel, who tried to refuse.

"I would like to propose a toast to Rose and Adrian. Adrian, Thank God, you have the courage to do, what I had not, so many years ago. My daughter is a wonderful woman who deserves all the happiness a man is capable of giving her;

Make me proud, Son. May you have a long and happy life together."

He raised his goblets as everyone spoke in unison; clicking glasses. "Congratulations, Rose and Adrian."

My face was flushed with embarrassment, unusual for me. "Lissa, You are my sister and I love you. Would you please be my Maid of Honor? You better say yes…I can't get married without you beside me." Tears flowing from both of us.

Lissa came around the table; wrapping her arms around me. "I would be honored to be your maid." We both started laughing; hugging tighter.

Adrian turned his attention from me and Lissa; to Pavel. "I wanted to Thank You. You saved the life of the woman I love. You guard her father everyday; willing to die for him and asking for nothing in return. You're a good man, Guardian Pavel.

I can never repay you for the sacrifices you make to guard my loved ones. But, I want you to know that I consider you to be one of our family. However, I would be honored if you would be my best man?"

Everyone stared at Guardian Pavel anticipating his response; not sure what he would say. "Hmm..Lord Ivashkov."

"Adrian…please call me Adrian."

"A..Adrian. I am flattered by your request. I..umm..accept your invitation to be your best man. Thank You." Pavel glanced up at us; completely uncomfortable with the attention he was receiving.

"Well Kiz…I guess we have a wedding to plan. I don't want you to spare any expense. I will pay for the everything; you plan it, and I will write the checks. It's not everyday your only daughter gets married."

Lissa's eyes lit up. "Oh my god Rose! I can't wait! We've got so much to do and plan; we've only got about 4 months to get everything together."

She gave a naughty smile; I have never seen that look on Lissa's face before. "What about the bachelorette party?"

I let out a loud laugh. "Jesus, Liss. I have no idea. Isn't that supposed to be your part of the deal?" I was shaking my head; still laughing at her expression.

"Why don't we have a joint Bachelor/Bachelorette party? Maybe go away somewhere; a rented beach house, or something along those lines?" Lissa could barely contain her excitement.

My Dad started laughing at Lissa too. "Rose, just use our home in the Grand Cayman Islands. I will send you with Guardians and nannies for Ethan, so you can thoroughly enjoy yourselves."

I raised my eyebrows. "Our home?"

Abe shook his head. "Of course. You are my daughter; what's mine is yours. So, Lissa start the planning. I am going to Royal offices and get the official charges drawn up for Tatiana. And Rosemarie, I will need you to stop by tomorrow to

sign on the complaint. Give my grandson a kiss good-night for me." He leaned down; kissing my forehead before he and Pavel walked out the door.

Lissa and Christian turned to us; saying their good-byes. "We have so much to do! I can't wait to get started." Lissa said as she hugged me good-night.

Adrian reached out to touch Christian's arm. "Hey Chris…I know you don't necessarily like me, but I was hoping maybe you would be one of my groomsmen? If you want too, of course."

Christian had the oddest expression on his face; a mixture of shock, surprise, and gratefulness. "Adrian…First of all, I don't dislike you. You have really proven yourself to me and others. I've misjudged you; I would be honored to stand with you when

you marry Princess Hathaway." He let out the most outrageous laugh.

I glared at him; while punching his arm really hard. "Go home, Flamer." We said our good-nights; closing the door behind them as they left.

Adrian pulled me to the couch as I cuddled in his lap. "What a day? Are you feeling alright baby?"

I nodded my head; resting it under his chin. "I am better now. I've been thinking Adrian; I am not quite sure where to start the conversation."

I felt him take a sharp intake of air. "You haven't changed your mind about the wedding."

I chuckled at his need to always assume the worst; his silly insecurities . "Jesus, no. I don't know if I want to be a Guardian anymore. I thought about today and how close I came to being killed by Guardian Nikolai. I want to be here for you,

Ethan, and our future children. I couldn't bear to leave any of you alone."

Adrian placed his fingers under my chin; urging my face upward to meet his eyes. "Did I hear you correctly…You are willing to have my children?" His beautiful green eyes sparkled like emeralds.

I was shocked that he would think otherwise. "Absolutely! I can't wait to give you a child. Not today, of course. But, someday. I love you Adrian." I pressed my lips to his; giving him the most gentle, love filled kiss I could possibly give him.

He pulled back from our embrace; holding my gaze. "Rose, I really had hoped you would give up being a Guardian. It wasn't my place to suggest it. But, it scares the hell out of me to see you being hit like that. I don't want anyone hitting or

hurting my wife in any shape or form. With that said, I will always support you in your decisions, no matter what."

"Thanks Woogie!" I kissed him again.

I felt him smile against my lips. "Don't start Princess."

I laughed and changed the subject. "Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties in the Grand Caymans. Wow!"

Adrian got a huge smile on his face. "Hell yea! You think Pavel and Christian will get me a stripper? A real Mamacita."

I smacked his arm. "What's that stripper got that I don't?"

He gave me that sexy, smug look. "Not a damn thing. But, it's been a while; maybe you could give me a show to refresh my memories."

I raised my eyebrows; giving him a slow, sultry smile as I started to remove my clothes, one article of clothing at a time. Slowly, I started to slide the strap of my bra off my shoulders; stopping while turning my back to him. I stood before him in

just my bra and panties and I knew I was driving him absolutely insane as I peeked over my shoulder to catch a glance of his gorgeous face.

"Mr. Ivashkov?" I ask in the most seductive purr.

"Yea?" He bite his bottom lip; grinning.

"If you want to see the rest of the show….you need to meet me in the shower." I took off running in the direction of our bathroom.

"You don't have to tell me twice…..You're in trouble, Princess." As he came running behind me.


Some of you had questions about Abe..Well, I hope this cleared some of that up…I elaborated on Abe the way I

felt he could have been represented…not necessarily the way he truly is in Vampire Academy. I hope you enjoy my

ideas about Abe's story.

If you like the chapter …please..please..review…:D

Thanks Again,

Terri