next chapter guys :):)

thx unnz4 for yet another review (i seriously love you for always reviewing!)

as for my one-shot Our Lifechanging Decision... since i've already written the next two chapters for

My Friend My Mate My Lover... i decided to give it a try and go on with it... so in the next

couple of days i'll upload a new chapter to Our Lifechanging Decision :):)

now enjoy :):)

~chapter 35~

RPOV

When I left Zmey's office a minute later, I stared at the floor, causing me to bump into Denis. I stumbled backwards and felt his hands gripping my shoulders to keep me from falling.

"Whoa there. Not so fast."

"Sorry Denis, didn't mean to run into anyone."

"No worries Rose. So, you're staying with me. Wanna go or have you something else to do first?"

Suspiciously I looked up at the guy in front of me.

"How do you know I'll be staying with you? Where you eavesdropping?"

He had a mischievous smile on his lips when he answered me.

"No, actually Zmey told me before we came to get you. He said he might have someone who'd need our help for a while and asked if I'd take someone in. I asked my roommates and here we are now. Shall we go then?" he asked me while playing a gentleman, giving me his arm and waiting for me to take it. I pretty much ignored his arm, walked past him and to the front door.

"You know Denis, my boyfriend knows how to play with fire. You may take that arm and keep it to yourself."

I smirked to myself when I saw his reflection in one of the windows by the door. Denis took a moment to just stay there and stare at my back while I opened the door.

"Are we going or will you keep staring at my ass?"

'Gotcha' I thought when I saw his eyes wandering up to my face, still staring at me.

I smirked at him once again, probably the only thing that would let him snap out of his trance, since it looked like he hadn't heard the last of my sentences.

"Yeah. Sorry. Going. Now." Denis shook his head from side to side, having an awkward smile on his face.

When we were in the black SUV again and I had just buckled up myself he looked at me again.

"Sorry about that. I'm not really used to girls with your attitude. You're one of a kind."

"I know. And thanks. I think. I can't really say if that was a compliment or an insult."

"You obviously worry too much." he said chuckling. "It was a real honest to God compliment. Like I would be that stupid – insulting someone who doesn't even fear Abe Mazur."

We drove in silence for a bit until I cleared my throat.

"How did you get to know Zmey?"

I watched his reaction from the side, probably waiting for him to squirm in his seat. But no such thing.

"You know that I'm freelance. Me and my roommates. Though we're really good, even we need a helping hand from time to time. Zmey gave us information on Strigoi hide outs, money if we needed it really badly. And he was the one to introduce us to an Alchemist. Since you only learn about them when you have graduated, we obviously needed a little help there, after we left the bodies right were we'd killed them. In return for his help we would help him every now and then. That's how I know Zmey."

"How many roommates do you have?"

"Three."

"All guys?"

"No. Two guys, one girl. What's that now? Twenty questions."

I smiled broadly at him, making it no secret what I wanted.

"Think about it. I am about to stay with four people that I don't know, after a mobster told me to. So yes. Twenty questions it is, mate."

He thought for a moment, but still smiled at me.

"Alright then. Ask your questions. I'll answer them as good as I can."

"What are their names?"

"Tamara, she is nineteen and she does this job for a few years. Two, maybe three. The guys are Artur and Lev. They are doing this for a few months now."

I sat there processing the information when it clicked.

"Hold on. Have you just said Artur and Lev?"

He looked at me sideways and lightly shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, what about them?"

"You don't mean Artur and Lev, Kolya's friends, do you?"

Again a shrug of his shoulders.

"Their friends, yes. I know them because of Kolya, he introduced us."

"But you said he isn't talking to you since you left school. He's still talking to Artur and Lev. I've met them. We went shopping together. They had fun and everything."

"Will this go anywhere?"

"Yes. Of course it does. They dropped out of school, but he is still talking to them, even meets them when they visit Baia. Why isn't he talking to you? It's completely the same."
"It's not" he said, suddenly pretty serious. "Neither Artur nor Lev are Kolya's big brothers. None of them was his role-model and disappointed him. Sure he was angry with them, too, when they dropped out of school, but he coped. I am his brother, I was his idol, he pretty much always wanted to be like me. I was good in combat classes, other stuff was easy for me too. Eventually I'd realize that I wouldn't want to work for someone who has a stick up his ass, so I dropped out, came here. I've seen Kolya only twice since then – two christmas-family-meeting things. And he didn't talk to me then, so I stopped trying. Happy?"

I sat in silence again, only looking at the Dhampir at my side. Talking about his relationship to his younger brother sure wasn't easy for him and I made him talk about it.

"I'm sorry Denis. I shouldn't have been so nosy."

He shook his head in response, staring straight ahead.

"No, it's okay. It's not like it's anyone's fault but mine. I haven't tried really hard. I sure could have done better."

"You should try again. Talk to him, I mean. I'm pretty sure Kolya would like to have some contact to you."
"Than you are wrong."

Cue awkward silence.

"No, I'm not." I said, not feeling too sure of myself anymore. "He's your family. You're his family. That's more than enough reason to at least try it."

"Sounds like you are speaking from experience in that matter."

He eyed me suspiciously when I turned my gaze away from him and looked at the street before us.

"I'm a special case."

"Why are you a special case?"

"Because my mother let me be raised by my teachers since I was four and punched me in the face when I last saw her. And my father is some unknown Moroi living, or not living anymore, out there. So I'm a very special case."

From the corner of my eye I saw him opening his mouth, but closing it again right away. For the rest of the drive – five or ten minutes – we stayed silent, probably way too awkward to think about anything else to talk about.

Imagine our relief when Denis parked the car in front of an apartment building and got out of the car as soon as he stopped the engine. I followed him on the heels, watching him when he opened the door. As soon as we stepped into his flat we were surrounded by his roomies. Artur and Lev were surprised to see me with Denis but were happy to see me again.

Turned out Tamara didn't speak a very good English. She said 'hi' and 'nice to meet you' before switching back to Russian. Denis took her aside to tell her what exactly was going on, whereas Artur and Lev turned to look at me expectantly.

"As nice as it is to see you again Rose, but what are you doing here?"

"Listen to Denis, he's telling Tamara." Both shook their heads.

"Nope, you tell us. Go on."

I rolled my eyes at them but gave in.

"Alright. To put it simple – I'm here to find Dimitri."

They both started laughing, making me stare at them in shock.

"What are you laughing about? What is so funny about looking for Dimitri?"

"You serious?" Lev asked, but both sobered up then.

"When you are looking for Dimitri, than why are you here? Shouldn't you still be in Baia and go visit the Belikov's?"

Then it dawned on me – they hadn't been there when Dimitri was taken. And they sure weren't at his funeral.

"My god, nobody's told you."

They looked at each other before looking at me again.

"What has nobody told us?"

"Dimitri has been taken last week."

Again the guys looked at me like I'd gone crazy.

"You're kidding. Say you're kidding."

My chin fell when I looked from one to the other.

"Seriously? You think I would make jokes about this? Think guys, think about it really hard and tell me if I'd joke about it."

Like good little boys they shook their heads, bowing them in what looked like shame. Just then Denis and Tamara returned from the kitchen.

Tamara came straight to me, sat down next to me and hugged me, whispering something to me in Russian. When she let go of me, Artur translated what she had just said.

"She says she is sorry for your loss. We told her about you and the Belikov's when we came back. So she knows that the two of you have been friends."

We all sat in silence, staring at nothing.

"You said you're looking for Dimitri. What makes you think that he is in Novosibirsk?"

I looked at Denis, thinking about his question and how to answer it.

"I don't know if he is here. I'm here because of Zmey. And since I'll stay with you for the next few weeks, I thought about hunting with you or well. Zmey told me to go with you. I am fully trained. I've been in two battles and killed Strigoi before I even graduated. I could be a good addition to your team."

The boys told Tamara about my offer and they discussed it, leaving me somewhat out of the loop. When they turned back to me they were smiling and had a funny glint in their eyes.

"You stay. You go hunting with us. You'll be a member of this group for as long as you need to be."

Denis looked at me, smiling all the time, just like the others did.

"Okay, but I have a few conditions to do this. First. You two" I said looking at Artur and Lev, "under no circumstances, not even under torture, are you allowed to tell someone, anyone, in Baia that I am here. Even better. As far as it concerns you – all of you – you haven't seen me. When we are on a hunt, in a club or whatever, my name is Marie."

All of them nodded eagerly, even Tamara after Denis translated what I had said.

"Second. For me to find Dimitri we may have to break a few rules. We may have to feed some Strigoi with the information, that I am looking for him. Which means we may have to let some of them go. This may sound crazy but it needs to be done. I honestly don't know any other way to ever find him."

They looked like they were about to protest, but thought better of it.

"Third. Whatever you may witness when we're on a hunt. Whatever I will do, whatever very creepy thing I may do – promise you won't freak out about it. You may think it's arrogant of me to say that – but I have something special going on and because of that it may happen that I'm acting weird. Got that?"

"Yeah, got the weird part. But what do you mean by weird?" Lev asked me, hitting a nerve.

"Sorry, can't really describe it and it's a long story meant for another time. But when this happens, if it happens, you will know it. Can you promise me, not to freak out when anything weird goes on with me?"

Slowly they began nodding, one by one – Tamara must have gotten at least the weird thing.

The guys still stared at me when Tamara took my hand and pulled me from the couch. I asked her where we were going and she pointed at a door down the little hall.

"My room. You need clothes. We go hunting tonight" she told me with a thick Russian accent. Looking up at her, taking in her build I realized she had curves like me, nearly the same proportions, so her clothes would probably fit me with no big trouble.

"Have you brought nothing?"

"No. All I have is this" I said, taking out my phone. "It was kind of a hasty departure."

She nodded opening the door to her room and walking over to her dresser. She rummaged through it, came up with some things, put them back again and finally found the perfect outfit. Black skinny jeans, combat boots and a white muscle shirt. My earlier impression proofed to be right – Tamara's stuff fitted like a second skin.

She got dressed in nearly the same outfit, though her clothes were blood red.

When we came out of her room and went back into the living room area we rendered the guys speechless. All three of them were staring at us like they'd never seen a woman in tight clothes before.

"You guys should shut your mouths or you'll catch flies."
They looked up at me with dazed eyes. I went over to the door, put on my leather jacket and took the commando, since Tamara and I were the only people with a brain anymore.

"You better get going or I'll have all the action to myself."

In a flash the guys were at my side and followed my lead.

"Let's go hunt some Strigoi."

review my lovely honey-bunnies :):)

usual disclaimer applies :):)