sorry for the two weeks of waiting for an update... but it was ALEC'S 6th birthday last friday

and i'm momentarily doing physical therapy with baby MASON... so

every minute of my free time is used for mason's exercises so he finally gets his pretty little ass moving...

i'll try to update faster though :) the next chappy is already written, but i still have to get rid

of my writer's block... so watch out... i'll probably upload an one-shot before updating this story...

THANKS TO:

Vampswols4L

unnz4

Noonie

LOVE YOU GUYS

~chapter 34~

CPOV

'My love, I'm sorry, truly sorry, to let you know like this. You may have guessed it already, seeing the big guy walking around our house, I am leaving. I'm coming back! Of course I will come back. I am only away from you for an hour now and already miss you endlessly. But I had to go. You know that I promised Dimitri to save him and I will do that. Only... I can not do that when you come with me. I can't risk your life on behalf of that task. And if I proof to be a much worse Guardian than anybody ever thought of me – I leave my charge behind in order to actively seek out a Strigoi. Tell me about that insanity.

You are probably close to be at Pavel's throat, trying to get my location out of him. But he will not tell you – I made sure of that. All you need to know for now is that: I love you. Big time! I promise you, I'll come back to you and will explain everything to you as soon as this madness is over. Right now I have to do this, but you'll be safe with Pavel at your side. Don't come after me, don't look for me. I'll let you somehow know that I'm alright. Rose'

I read the letter again and again, still not really getting the entire meaning of it. She can't be gone. She wouldn't do that without me. I was still standing there, Pavel standing in front of me, cautiously watching my reaction.

"She really did it to keep you safe. You know that right?"

Absentmindedly I nodded, though I didn't really think so. If she wanted to keep me safe, why is she gone. We share a bond. Looking at it with some logic – isn't she the best person to keep me safe?

RPOV

I was sitting in the back of a black SUV on my way to the middle of nowhere. I didn't actually know where we were driving to, just who we were driving to.

Looking out the window, concentrating on the scenery rushing by, when I accidentally let my walls down and felt like run over by Chris' feelings. Guess he got the letter.

»Looking at it with some logic – isn't she the best person to keep me safe?«

Yup. Definitely got the letter. I groaned, bringing up my walls again, making one of the guys next to me turn and look at me.

"You alright girl?" I couldn't recall his name, but he looked worried. I forced a smile onto my lips and nodded at him.

"Yeah, just a little headache. Stared out there for far too long."

"Probably. We're nearly there. Then you can rest."

I nodded once more and turned to look out the window again.

I would need to work on that. Can't risk being pulled into his head while fighting a Strigoi – or Dimitri. Nor could I risk feeling him through the bond or let him talk to me through it – I would just go back, leaving Dimitri behind, no matter what I promised him. And Chris probably knows that, all the more reason for him to try breaking through my walls.

Fifteen to twenty minutes later we pulled up to a two story house, a Moroi already waiting for us at the top of the stairs. And he was actually smiling, making that guy all the scarier. I gout out of the car and went up the stairs.

"Hey there, little girl. I see you've pulled through with your plan. Never expected you to be a Guardian to leave your charge behind."

"Neither did I, old man. But this has to be done without him. I may have left him behind, but I still keep him safe. Pavel isn't there without any reason."

"You know that I don't lend my Guardians to anyone right?"

I gave him a 'duh'-look, making him smile again, fangs and all.

"Kind of expected that when you said to me – I may quote - 'I don't lend my Guardians to anyone, little girl'. So yeah, got it."

"You're not only a good fighter, you can listen too."

"Better not always count on that. Usually I am not really good at listening. I can't even pretend to listen, my teachers would always know when I wasn't listening."

"That" he said with a finger pointed at me "told me the little birdie, too"

"You know, Yuri has no real resemblance with a bird. Just imagine little Tweety with a russian accent – no. Just no."

That actually made him laugh – a real honest and loud laugh. Whether from being annoyed by me or by amusement, I couldn't decipher. Pretty sudden he stopped laughing and once more looked at me, being scary and all.

"Yuri is not my only little birdie" he told me, leaning closer to my ear. "But you are clever little girl. You already know that."

Cue smiling and nodding. How on earth would I know that. Who else could be that little birdie who could be enough of a freak to even talk to him? Well, I knew one or two people freaky enough to do just that, but they wouldn't. Sure they wouldn't.

"You look cold little girl. Shall we go inside?"

Like a switch being turned on I felt the coldness of the wind get to me, goosebumps on my arms and my breath clouding in front of my face.

"Yeah. I'm a bit cold. Thanks for reminding me."

He smirked at me, reminding me of someone who I couldn't remember. Somewhere I had seen these features before. But where? I shook my head, not needing those thoughts right then.

I followed the Moroi inside, first ignoring the guy from the car walking next to me, until he spoke to me.

"Who would have thought? Zmey likes you." The smile vanished from his lips when I turned to look at him.

"What? What the hell is a zmey?"

"Sorry. Thought you knew, since you're here and don't seem to be afraid of him. Zmey is what he is called over here. It means serpant."

He was serious judging by the look on his face.

"So much for not being a mobster." I said under my breath, barely audible for even my own ears to hear.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing. Doesn't matter. Listen... what's your name again?" I asked him, coming to a halt in front of the door that Mazur guy had just walked through.

"Denis. You may know my brother Nikolai. You sure have met him when you stayed with the Belikovs, haven't you?"

"You're Kolya's brother? He never said he had a brother" I said, feeling somewhat ashamed of not recognizing his features.

"Yeah. We're not exactly on speaking terms since I've dropped out of school to hunt down Strigoi."

He smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head, uncomfortably clearing his throat.

"Whatever. Mister Mazur doesn't like to wait."

He shooed me into the room, closing the door behind me like he wanted to trap a stray dog. I stared at the door for a moment longer, probably hoping it would open again if I just wanted it strong enough.

"You can sit down, you know."

So I sat in front of his desk, feeling like I was in Kirova's office again.

"Pavel told me a bit of what you want, but not everything. Not even close. Tell me. What is it that you want from me?"

I looked at him, not sure about this anymore. All of a sudden I felt like a little girl, confessing to her father that she had majorly screwed up.

"You told us to ask Mark and Oksana about the healing the other day. So we did. Well, actually I did most of the talking that day, not Chris. They told us about the Moroi they had heard it from, turns out I actually know his brother. And I'm the reason that he will be in prison for the rest of his life. Now I need to find that man, Robert Doru is his name, and hopefully get the information how to restore a Strigoi back to life. His brother, Victor Dashkov is most likely the one only way to find Robert Doru."

"And you want me to..:" he answered, leaving the end of his sentence open for me to fill in.

"I need a possibility to get to America, money for the plane, find a place to hide and all that. You also could help me finding Dimitri. I doubt that he's left Russia. But Russia is a huge country and I need resources and I have a strong feeling you can organize these resources."

"And why on earth should I help you? What can you possibly give me in order to earn my help?"

At that I was a bit taken aback, not only because of the harshness behind his words, but because of his angry look, penetrating me like he knew all my secrets.

"As far as I'm concerned I should tell Denis to get you back to your charge and make sure that you stay there."

"I'd find my way out again. I'm good with sneaking out. Wasn't gone from school for two years with no reason, Zmey. I'd find a way to go after these bastards and find Dimitri. I only thought it would be better if you'd help me. You, who wants to make that little birdie of yours happy. If I'm right. And in order to keep dear birdie happy you need to know where I am, how I freaking get around, possibly even how many Strigoi I'll kill on my way. You actually have no other choice than helping me, Zmey."

I saw a spark of surprise in his brown eyes before he smiled at me again.

"You are quite a young woman. You know how to give orders and you sure know how to convince people of your will. If I wouldn't know better I'd say you are compelling people to do your will. You must have one hell of parents girl."

I stared at him. Where the hell did that come from? I cleared my throat uncomfortably.

"Yeah. Well. I wouldn't know since I've never got to know my father and my mother preferred to punch me in the face the last time we met. So yeah. One hell of a mother and one ass of a father. You may understand where the attitude comes from. Can we go back to business now?"

He looked at me for a long moment, thinking about his next words. For all I knew then he could have been thinking about which way would be the less dirty to get rid of me. Only me. Only I could be so reckless as to stand up to a man like him.

In the end he let out an exhausted breath but didn't take his eyes off of me. And I could have sworn that I saw a flash of hurt in those brown orbs.

"I'll help you. Got me with the birdie. At least one person who'd kill me if they'd ever learn that I wouldn't help you. I can't send you back to this Ozera boy for the time being can I?"

I shook my head at him, praying that my fear of what was to come wouldn't show on my face.

"Thought so. I'll need a bit of time to get all of that organized. I'd say two, maybe three weeks. If you can wait that long and don't wander off by yourself, I'd say you stay with Denis and his group. They hunt Strigoi as you probably already know, maybe you can find some clues as to where to find Belikov."

"Two, maybe three weeks? You serious? That's less time than I thought you would need to organize these things."

He got up from behind his desk, made me get up from my chair and took my hand.

"Two weeks from now on I'll get in contact with you. And then you won't be Rosemarie Hathaway any longer. You'll be a new person."

I turned to go when one last question came to my mind.

"If I'm staying close by... where the hell are we?"
He looked at me, eyes filled with amusement at my question.

"We're in Novosibirsk."

disclaimer... not mine... well the plot is... but you are smart my lovely honey-bunnies... you know what i mean :):)