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Chapter 37

DPOV

Playing at the park with Lily, I looked around at all our friends. They really were an amazing group of people and I was so glad that we had them in our lives. I wanted it to stay like this forever. I wanted to forget about going to Court, and just staying here with Roza and our baby girl; but I knew that Roza had to confront the Queen and get closure for everything she has been through.

I watched as Lilyana walked over to Rose and got comfortable in her lap. The sight of them two together like that was breathtaking. It looked so natural and it was a sight I cherished, because really, I never expected to see it. I had given up on the idea of children when I fell in love with Roza. I didn't think it was possible for us to have children, and I didn't want them with anyone else. As long as I had Roza in my life, I was happy to forget that side of things.

Suddenly, I heard Roza gasp and saw that Lily had her hand on Roza's cheek. It was obvious that she had shown something to Roza and the look of horror on her face told me it was something bad.

"Bad man Mama" said Lily.

"Yes baby, that's right. Dimitri, I need you to take everyone back to the house." Roza said in a quiet voice.

"What's going on Roza?" I tried to keep a calm look on my face, but inside, my heart was hammering.

"Please, don't ask questions. Just go. I will be right behind you."

I looked at her with what I was hoping was only concern; searching for the answer in her eyes, but she wouldn't look me in the eye. She looked down at Lily. "Baby, please don't show Papa that image until you are all safely back at the house ok." Ok now I was officially freaking out. What the hell was going on?

"Ok Mama." Lily nodded her little head. She quickly gave Roza a kiss on the cheek and came to my open arms. Roza gave me a quick kiss, and then took off to the Oval to tell everyone else, not giving me a chance to say another word.

"Ok everyone, I'm sorry I can't explain, but we need to get back to the house." I said as quietly as possible.

I could only imagine that there was Strigoi nearby and that's why Roza was freaking out. I was annoyed that she had passed Lily on to me, knowing that would be about the only thing that would stop me from following her. I had to keep Lily safe. But as soon as we got them back to the house and locked up, I would get straight back here. Without saying a word, even though I could tell they wanted to, Lissa, Janine, Alberta and Tasha all picked up some bags. We had been getting ready to leave anyway as it was getting dark, so thankfully, everything was already packed away.

As we started walking, we heard the boys coming up behind us.

"What the hell is going on?" asked Christian.

"I don't know. Lilyana just showed Roza something and then Roza freaked out. She told me to get everyone back to the house and took off before I could ask her anything else."

"And you just left her?" He asked accusingly.

"I am getting our daughter back to the safety of the house and then I am going back for her. She will be alone for no more than five minutes. So please, stop trying to argue here and get back to the house so I can go and find out what is going on!" I snapped, without another word, we all ran back to the house. Once inside, I took everyone down to the basement.

"Please, all of you stay here. I can only assume that Roza felt the presence of Strigoi. I am going back to her."

"Wait Papa, here." Lily said and reached up to touch my cheek. An image of a Strigoi flashed into my mind, he was fighting Roza. "Bad man Papa"

"Yes Lily, it is a bad man. That's the man with red eyes that your Aunty Okki has told you about. You stay here and you will be safe, ok." I said gently, trying not to scare her.

"Dimitri, it's Jamie Zeklos, not just any Strigoi." Lissa said. I froze on the spot.

"WHAT?" I yelled. I saw Lissa flinch. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. How do you know?"

"On the way back here, I talked very briefly through the bond. She told me it was Jamie Zeklos Dimitri. Please, you have to go and help her."

Without another word, I quickly gave Lily a kiss and handed her over to Janine. I tore out of the house, running back towards the pack and field. I heard footsteps following but I didn't turn around to see who it was. I had a feeling it was Eddie, and as the person came up beside me, I realized I was right. We came to the park and I stopped and looked around, trying to find where she was.

"Over there!"

Eddie pointing towards the end of the oval they were just playing cricket on. At the other end of the field, Roza was fighting the Strigoi, but it looked too close. They were both getting good hits in.

"Roza" I screamed. I was hoped that hearing someone else coming would distract the Strigoi, but not Roza. Neither of them paid any attention though and kept on fighting. We ran towards her. I watched as Roza went down with a scream and saw Zeklos move to stand over her. She was fighting, but she couldn't get up. Suddenly, as he spoke, she went still. I picked up my speed, hoping to get to her in time. I could see he was going to bite her. Out of nowhere, her hand moved up from the ground and plunged into his back. I knew the exact moment that she had hit the spot, because both bodies stopped moving.

"Oh god!" Eddie yelled beside me.

"Roza…Roza, were coming, hold on!" I yelled pushing my legs harder. After what felt like eternity, we were finally next to her. I pushed Zeklos off her and kneeled down beside her. She had so many bruises and she was covered in blood.

"Roza, baby, come on, open your eyes for me." I pleaded, gently trying to wake her. Thankfully, she was breathing, although it was shallow and erratic. "She is unconscious. We need to get her back to the house. Drag that Strigoi into the bush can you?"

"Yeah, no problems." Eddie replied as he got to work moving the body away so that hopefully no one would find it till the alchemists could dispose of it. As I waited, I inspected Roza's body to see what kind of injuries she had. I didn't want to cause any further injuries by moving her. Within minutes he was back next to me.

"How's she doing?" he asked.

"Not good, her breathing is getting worse. She has some cracked ribs and it sounds like it has punctured her lung. Holy mother of god!" She had a rib sticking out from her skin. Eddie saw it as well, I could tell by the intake of breath. "We can't move her like this. It's too dangerous. Can you run back and get Lissa?" He nodded and took off.

"It's ok Roza, it's all over. I am here. Please baby, open your eyes for me?"

I whispered, leaning in close to her. I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms, but I didn't want to move her. On top of the cracked ribs, she also had a dislocated shoulder and her wrist looked broken as well. She had scratches all over her arms and chest, obviously where the Strigoi had blocked and scratched. She had a black eye and bruising on her cheek and forehead. Just then, Roza groaned and started to move.

"Shh, lay still. Don't move; Lissa is on her way."

She shook her head and tried to talk, but no words came out. She was obviously freaking out because I said Lissa was on her way. "It's ok Roza. He is gone. You killed him." I watched as she lost consciousness again.

I held on to her hand, mumbling in Russian, waiting for Eddie and Lissa to come back. I kept a close watch on the tree line though; ready to pounce if anymore Strigoi happened to come out. A few times Roza gained consciousness again, but it was only for a second or two at a time. Eventually, after what felt like hours, but was really only ten minutes at the moment; Eddie returned with Lissa, Christian and Adrian hot on his heels. They all skidded to a stop when they saw Roza's limp body lying on the ground.

"Oh my god is she ok?" Lissa cried, eyeing the rib sticking out.

"She will be. She has gained consciousness a few times, but never for long. I don't want to move her in case she has anymore broken bones or internal bleeding. We need to try and heal that rib before we even attempt to move her."

"Of course." She kneeled down next to Rose, placing her hand just above her ribs. We watched in fascination as the rib began to heal itself; first by going back into place, then the skin began to cover it and the bleeding stopped. I know I had seen Lissa heal Rose a number of times, but it still amazed me every time. Once she was finished with her ribs, she put her hand over her lungs. Adrian placed his hand over Roza's arm, healing some of the scratches on them.

"Thank you, both of you." I said stopping them from doing anymore. "That should be enough. We can get her back home now and have Oksana do a more thorough healing"

"Do you not think we are capable enough?" Snapped Adrian.

"I know you are both very capable. But Lissa needs to limit her usage so that Roza doesn't have a repeat performance from the darkness; at least until we know what affect the charm is having. And after seeing how it affects Lissa and Roza, I'm sure that Roza doesn't want you having to deal with it on your own Adrian. Lissa and Oksana have someone to take the darkness from them, but you, you have to deal with it all on your own." I snapped back.

"You're right. I'm sorry Dimitri; I didn't think of it like that." He said backing away from Roza.

I picked Roza up bridal style and held her close. Her body was still limp and seeing her like this scared the life out of me. Her arms fell slack from her body and her head rolled back. I'm sure that to anyone looking at us, I was carrying a dead body. I pulled her arms in close and held her head up with my arm, the same way I would hold a baby. The walk back to the house was done in silence. As we got closer, I turned to Lissa.

"Could you please make sure Janine keeps Lily away? I don't want her seeing Roza like this."

"Of course Dimitri." She ran off ahead of us with Christian right behind her.

"She'll be ok." Adrian patted a hand on my shoulder. I nodded but didn't say a thing.

Once we were inside the house, I took her straight into her bedroom and laid her down on her bed. Oksana came into the room just minutes later.

"Oh my!" She said seeing all the blood on Roza's shirt.

"The stomach wound is healed. It's just her shoulder, face and legs" I said moving out of the way.

"Ok, thank you." She began to heal Roza. Once she was finished, she quietly slipped out of the room. I pulled a chair up to the side of the bed and sat down next to her, holding her hand while I waited for her to wake up.

RPOV

I came back around to find myself lying on a bed. I turned my head to the side and saw Lissa sleeping on the couch with her head on Christian's lap, Adrian and Eddie asleep in sitting positions, leaning their heads against the couch. I looked to my other side and saw Dimitri sitting next to me. He had my hand enclosed with both of his, resting his hand on them. He had silent tears falling on his cheeks.

"Hey" I said quietly. His head shot up.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Like I've been asleep for a year." I replied; he chuckled.

"Not a year Roza, but definitely a while." I frowned.

"How long this time?"

"Eight hours."

Holy shit. No wonder everyone around us is asleep.

"Where is Lily?" I needed to see my little girl, hold her in my arms.

"She is in her bed. She fell asleep in here, but I took her to her bed so she could get some decent sleep. Every time someone spoke, she would wake up hoping it was you." He said with a smile.

"She must have been so scared that I wasn't going to wake up."

"At first yes. We explained to her that you had been hurt and you were sleeping it off. She seemed to accept that."

"How bad was it?" I asked remembering how many hits he landed on me and the pain from my ribs. I could only hope that Lily didn't see me straight after. I'm sure I had blood and dirt all over me. I would have looked a mess.

"Pretty bad. But don't worry; Lily didn't see you like that. We made sure you were healed and cleaned up before we let her in."

"Thank God for that. Thank you!" I squeezed his hand. "Did I…did you…did he get away?"

"No Roza. You got him. You don't remember staking him?"

"I do, but I didn't know if it was enough. I heard you coming. I knew I had to get it in far enough that it would hold him off me until you got closer, but then I just didn't have any more energy left."

"You got him Roza. It was enough. By the time I got to you, he was gone." Dimitri said pulling me into his arms. "I am so glad you are ok. Seeing you on the ground with him over you like that, he's lucky you got in first."

"I'm just glad the bastards dead. He was training with someone for two years, just so he could get me. Payback for kicking his ass"

"Well it's over now." He said kissing me sweetly.

The kiss soon intensified but we were interrupted too soon by someone clearing their throat.

"Go away." I mumbled while never removing my lips from Dimitri's.

"I'd say get a room, but you're already in it." Laughed Christian.

"That's right. You are invading my space. If you don't like what you see, then you can leave." I glared at him. He just laughed even more.

"Oh Rose, it's good to see you awake and yourself again. You know, you really need to stop doing this to us." He said with a smirk. I know he was only joking around with me, the same way Christian always does, but today it was annoying me. Maybe because he was interrupting my time with Dimitri.

"Yeah because I really love getting my ass kicked don't I," I snapped. "You think I enjoy this shit? Waking up with tubes and needles sticking into me?"

"Gee someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed didn't they?" He remarked, Lissa whacked him on the arm and looked at Dimitri. Not at me, at Dimitri. That just made me more furious.

Before I could say anything to Lissa though, she got up and walked out of the room. I looked back to Dimitri to get some kind of idea on what was happening, but his face showed nothing. His guardian mask was on but I couldn't understand why.

"You wanna explain what that was all about?" I asked him.

"What was what about?"

"Don't act dumb with me Dimi…" I was cut off as Lissa, Oksana and my mother walked in the door.

"Rose, it's good to see you awake. How are you feeling sweetheart?" Asked my mum.

"I will be better if people would stop interrupting my time with Dimitri" I said with a scowl. I'm sure I looked like a spoilt teenager, but in that moment I didn't care. Dimitri didn't say anything; he just rubbed my arm discreetly telling me to calm down.

Without saying anything, Oksana leaned over and put her hand just above my heart. Immediately I felt the annoyance fade and I realised that she was healing the darkness. I felt guilty about the way I had spoken to everyone. Once she was finished, I looked over to Christian.

"I'm sorry for talking to you like that Christian."

"It's ok Rosie. If anything, I enjoyed the little banter, it's been a while." He smiled. I tried to get up as soon as he said the name Rosie, but I was held firmly down by strong arms.

"You really have a death wish don't you Sparky?" I said, but I was laughing so he knew I was just joking around with him.

"Rose, do you feel up to a little visitor? Someone is very anxious to see you." Oksana asked.

"Of course. Where is my little cherub?"

"I'm right here Mama." Lily ran into the room. She jumped up onto the bed and threw her arms around my neck. "Are you ok Mama?"

"I am fine baby. Even better now that you are here with me." I said tickling her. She giggled and giggled until I stopped. "What time is it?"

"Time for me to head to the airport." Adrian said. "I'm glad you woke up before I had to leave Lil Dhampir."

"So am I. How are you getting to the airport? Do you need a lift?"

"Cal is going to take me. He has some things to do in town so he'll drop me off on the way." He said walking over to the bed. "You be safe ok and I will see you in three days."

"You have a safe flight and can you please dream walk me to let me know how it's going?"

"Of course Lil Dhampir." He leaned down to hug me. "I'll see you all in a few days." He finished as he walked out of the door.