Chapter 36: Operation Kill the Queen

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy.

And so starts the drama…. Don't hate me! Please!

Jesse POV

This is it. Today we were invading the Royal Court. I was more than a little on edge. The last three attempts had failed. This was our last shot at overthrowing the monarchy. If tonight didn't end things for them then surely it would be the end of us.

We were a small army. It had been decided that only us Moroi would actually go into battle. I had never liked the idea of working with Strigoi. It was worse that cooperating with the Dhampirs. Both were low lifes that deserved to die slow painful deaths.

We would slip in undetected by using spirit infused charms that would disguise our identity. We would be taking the form of non-royal Moroi that would get by undetected. Today was the day the Royal Council was convening to revote on the implementation of the use of defensive magic by Moroi. If everything went well the council would vote against it and after the rest were dismissed Dragomir and Hathaway would be taken care of.

Our plan was practically full proof this time. Hathaway would have to be a genius to foil this plan.

"Zeklos, everything is ready to go. Tell the others we leave in ten minutes." She handed me the ring that contained my disguise. I slipped it on and regarded myself in the mirror. It was amazing what Spirit could do. For once in my life I was regretting being born an air user. I knew that the side effects of Spirit were a lot to handle, but it seemed to be proving its worthiness against the threat of going mad one day.

I roused the others from their slumber and one by one they put on their disguises. One thing was for sure. Today was a day that would be remembered throughout the Moroi world as the day Guardian Rose Hathaway, advisor to her royal majesty went insane and killed the Queen. Dragomir would be dead, Hathaway would be executed shortly after for her murder and a new Queen of our choice would be put on the throne. The wouldn't know what'd hit them until it was too late.

DPOV

"Calm down Roza, it's just a convention of the Royal Council. Nothing to fret over," I told my wife as she paced around our bedroom.

"Come to bed." I pulled the covered aside trying to entice her to join me. I've never before had trouble getting her into bed, but tonight she was completely on edge.

"I'll be there in a minute," She stated, a far off look on her face. I sensed that she was trying to get a read on Lissa's emotions.

"How can she be so damn calm about this?" She cried in exasperation pulling herself back into her own head.

She looked away again and I could tell they were having an internal conversation. Rose mustn't have liked what Lissa was saying because her face contorted into a grimace.

"I'm going to check on Alisa and I'll be right back," She said pulling on her robe and fluffy slippers. I nodded knowing full well she was just stalling for time. She didn't want to lie awake in bed worrying all night. She returned several minutes later clicking on the baby monitor before slipping off her robe and slippers and climbing into bed next to me.

I pulled her towards me so that we were facing one another. I could feel the tension radiating off her in waves.

"Everything is going to be fine Roza. What has you so keyed up?" I looked into her troubled eyes.

"I don't know," She confessed softly. "I just have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach like something bad is going to happen," She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth.

I put my hands on her shoulders. "Roza whatever happens I will be there for you and Lissa. I promise I will never ever let anything bad happen to you ever again," I promised myself after the last time that I would never let her out of my sight again and I wouldn't. People were through screwing with my family. I would not allow it. The next person to even look at her or Lissa or our daughter the wrong way was going to end up six feet under.

"Now who's all keyed up?" She asked a slight smile playing on her lips.

"Let's get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day," I told her.

The next morning was slightly rushed. We nearly didn't make it out of the house on time. Alisa picked today of all days to throw a fit when we tried leaving the house. Viktoria and Pavel were staying behind to babysit while the rest of us were at the council meeting.

Once we arrived there was the usual half hour of lag time where the Royals mingled and chatted over coffee and sweet rolls. Rose seemed to have calmed down and was talking with some non-royal Moroi in the corner of the room. I did a quick scan of the premises and everything seemed to be business as usual. Shortly thereafter Lissa called the meeting to order. Christian stood his ground for wanting to continue with the defensive magic program, there was the question and answer session and then the council was put to a vote.

What came as a huge shock to most of us was that even with Lissa's double vote, Adrian and Christian's votes the council voted to repeal their prior decision and cancel all Moroi defensive magic programs.

Prior supporters like Princess Ozera, Prince Anthony Badica, Seltzky, and Dashkov voted against us along with the rest who were previously opposed leaving the vote 9 to 4 with Dragomir, Ivashkov, and Lissa's being the only votes in support of continuation f the program. I could feel the rage flair up inside Rose as the final vote was counted.

The next few seconds would be forever ingrained in my mind. Before I could anticipate her reaction Rose sprang from her seat and lunged at the Queen.

"You bitch, you did this. Its all your fault. You changed their minds. You probably compelled them to vote against us just so you wouldn't look like the bad guy," Rose screamed. My heart leapt into my throat as she drew her stake and with Lissa in a headlock positioned it directly over her heart.

"Rose, what are you doing?" Cried Lissa. "You know I would never do that. I believe in us and our program. What's wrong with you?" Fear shown clearly on Lissa's face. Her eyes pleaded with me to do something.

"Roza, put the stake down. This isn't you." I tried reasoning with her in as calm and steady a voice as I could manage. I didn't have a clue as to why she was doing this. Usually I could feel it in her when the darkness became too much. Lissa had just given her a healing yesterday.

"I can't, she deserves to die. She's made a mockery of us. She gave us hope at a new life and then took it away. She's playing us can't you see it?" Her eyes were wild and I could feel her conflicting emotions as they ripped through her.

The Royal Guard had assembled, but halted not wanting to risk any sudden movement that would tip Rose over the edge. Christian and Adrian just stared at Rose in disbelief. Abe and Janine had come down from their seats in the crowd, but didn't dare approach her while she had her stake to Lissa's chest.

"Roza, it is the darkness talking. You don't want to hurt her. She's your best friend, your bond mate, the God mother of our daughter. If you hurt her you won't be able to forgive yourself," I pleaded with her.

"NO! She just pretends. She's evil. Someone has to get rid of her," Rose insisted her anger rising by the second. I heard the Royal Guardians take their stance. I whipped around in horror at the sounds of at least thirty guns being cocked. The entire Royal Guard was poised to shoot, sniper rifles in their hands all targeted on my wife.

"Your majesty get out of the way we're going to shoot her," Guardian Rustikov's voice rang out through the crowd.

"No you can't shoot her. Please something is wrong with her. She doesn't mean it," Lissa pleaded.

"We cannot risk your safety your majesty," Was his reply.

I had to act quickly if I was going to save my wife. I had no idea what was going on, but someone was compelling her.

I looked around for support, but failed to locate Ivashkov or Christian who had been standing close only moments ago. I couldn't fathom that Christian would leave while Lissa was in peril. Something was wrong. Horror washed over me as I realized what was happening. This was it. The attack was on and it was do or die. I did what I thought was best and threw myself at Rose and Lissa knocking them to the ground. Lissa screamed bloody murder, but was virtually unharmed.

With great difficulty I managed to pry the stake from Rose's hand and release Lissa from her grip. Lissa ran to Guardian Rustikov for protection. Rose was fighting me like a woman possessed. It was the worst I'd ever seen her. It was even worse than the time in the cabin.

I grunted as she hit me hard in the side cracking at least two of my ribs in the process. I was trying to take her down without actually hurting her, but it was proving too difficult a task. She was in some sort of compulsion induced rage and man was she strong.

"Roza I don't want to hurt you. Please snap out of this!" I pleaded with her desperation lacing my voice.

"Why are you defending her? You are my husband. You are supposed to be on my side," She accused throwing another hard punch at me as we circled. I doubled over in pain blood spewing from my mouth as I coughed violently.

"Let me help you," I gasped. "Roza please for our daughter." I lunged at her with renewed strength as I realized I needed to stop her for our daughter's sake. She needed her mother safe and sane. I finally managed to pin her down. She trashed uncontrollably under me in an effort to evade my grasp.

"Let me go!" She shouted clawing at me viciously with her fingernails. I managed to pin her hands up over her head holding her wrists tightly.

"Rose please stop!" Cried Lissa frantically trying to escape Guardian Rustikov who was holding her back.

"She needs to die," Cried Rose nearly throwing me off her.

I looked from Lissa's wide eyes to Janine and Abe's worried ones. I was at a lost of what to do here. Threatening treason against the Queen would be enough to warrant killing her on the spot. If not here then she'd surely be tried and executed shortly after.

"Please tell the Royal Guard to stand down," I begged Lissa. Immediately she gave the command for them to hold their fire and put away their weapons. Rustikov began to argue.

"You will call off the Guardians. Rose is harmless. There is nothing to worry about." Lissa compelled him. He seemed to be trying to resist her compulsion.

"Oh for the love of God just knock him out," Called Abe. Janine looked back and forth between Rustikov and her daughter.

"I can't believe I am doing this," She mumbled before pulling back her fist and knocking Rustikov out cold. Abe smiled at her knowingly. She may be a stickler for the rules, but a mother's love always wins out.

The rest of the Guardian's obeyed Lissa's command and disbursed.

"I don't know how much longer I can hold her," I told Lissa. Her strength had not waned in the least and she was still flailing about beneath me. I was injured and even if I wasn't she'd become far stronger than me. I didn't know how or when that had happened. It may have been the spell, but I suspected that most of it was her.

"Where's Adrian? He could make her sleep," Suggested Janine.

Rose continued screaming like a banshee for me to release her.

"I don't know where he is or Christian for that matter. They were here and then they were gone. Lissa, I think someone compelled her, someone with strong compulsion skills, possibly a spirit user. Who was that Moroi she was speaking with before the meeting began?"

"I don't know. I've never seen her before. There were others I didn't recognize as well. We need to find her and any others that were not recognized and haul them in for questioning." She said.

"This feels like it was a planned attempt at your assassination," I told her.

She gasped. "You mean using Rose to kill me?"

"Exactly."

"That is a brilliant idea," Abe commented.

We all glared at him. "You misunderstand me," he continued. "Who is the one person that no one would ever expect to bring harm to the Queen? The only person who could get close enough to do any damage would be Rose. No one would ever suspect that she'd try to kill her best friend and bondmate. It was a brilliant plan. Jesse Zeklos is not resourceful enough to come up with a plan like this on his own nor is he capable of the compulsion skills necessary to accomplish it. He must have accomplices outside of the Royal Court and I highly doubt that Sarkozy is the brains of this operation either. There is someone we are missing."

What Abe said made a lot of sense. No one would have suspected Rose to turn on Lissa. Lissa would be dead and Rose would be executed for her murder one way or another. I guess they didn't figure on us stopping it in time.

Rose was beginning to struggle again and in my weakened state I was starting to lose my grip on her.

I sighed heavily. "Forgive me my Roza," I begged her before cracking her hard across the jaw knocking her out in an instant.

I looked at the purpled bruise forming where I'd just hit her and felt instant remorse. I'd never struck her outside of practice before. It hurt me to do it.

"It had to be done Belikov. She would have wanted it this way," Janine said reassuring me that I'd done the right thing.

"You did well son," Commented Abe.

"Then how come I feel so lousy?"

"What are we going to do with her?" Abe brought up a good question.

"Lock her in the dungeon. It's the only place that will hold her." Suggested Lissa warily.

"I hate to admit it, but she is right. Let's go quickly." I threw Rose over my shoulder and began walking towards the dungeon.

I apologized to her several more times even though I knew she could not hear me. I lay her gently on the bed, kissed her cheek softly then closed the door behind me.

Once she was safely locked up we decided it best that we seek out the whereabouts of Lord Ivashkov and Christian before doing anything else.

"Dimitri you're hurt," Commented Lissa as we walked back towards our house. I wanted to check on Alisa and make sure Viktoria and Pavel were informed of the threat.

"I'll be fine," I told her.

"Let me heal you."

I sighed, but stopped for a moment to allow her to heal my ribs.

"Thank you," I told her.

"She'll forgive you, you know," Lissa said sensing my distress at having knocked out and locked up the love of my life.

"I know. It still hurts though," I replied.

She nodded as we continued to walk towards home.

Poor Rose, she always seems to end up on the wrong side of the jail cell. I know you all hate me right now. Trust me, you know I have a plan. Next up we hear from Adrian! Where did he and Christian diappear to? Review or they might just have run off to make out!