We left less than an hour after our meeting. I had said my quick goodbyes to Lissa, Christian and Adrian during that short time period. All of them wanted to come with me, but they most definitely weren't allowed on a trip like this. I assured Lissa I would keep tabs on her by slipping into her head whenever I had the chance. It gave us both a piece of mind, and I could still see how she was doing.

I usually grew tired or bored on plane rides, but tonight, I didn't feel any of that. There were too many things on my mind—things I couldn't stop thinking about. What if Nevaeh was being kidnapped for the properties in her blood? Like me, she was shadow-kissed and therefore possessed spirit in her body. Sebastian was out of jail too, and it wouldn't be long before he got a hold of her.

It still didn't really make sense. They could have just kidnapped me instead since my body was already 'activated' with strigoi venom. Maybe they took her because she was young and vulnerable. She obviously wasn't strong yet and didn't know how to fight or use her powers. She had pretty much just grown out of her toddler years and was a very easy target. The thought of Sebastian using her blood made me sick. I would never wish something like this on anyone, let alone a little girl. Until we got to the royal court, I could only hope nobody would hurt her.

"This is weird," Alberta said, looking down at a tablet that she had brought on the jet. Dimitri sat next to her, staring at the screen with an odd look.

"What's weird?" I asked, taking a seat on the other side of her on the leather couch. The tablet revealed a map with a blinking red dot. "That's the car Sanders used. He stopped somewhere in Missoula a few hours ago."

"Probably grabbed a different car," Dimitri muttered. "At least that's what guardians in the area were reporting. Nobody was in the car when they found it."

"Why would he drive for five hours in an academy vehicle if he knew there was a tracker on it? Why not just switch cars as soon as possible? He doesn't sound very smart, if you ask me," I pointed out.

"Here's what I think."

All three of us lifted our heads at the new voice. Abe had gotten up from his seat and now had his hand up on the overhead bins. "It sounds to me like he wanted you to know where he was going, but now that he's got guardians on his ass, he obviously can't use the car anymore."

"And what makes you think he'd want me to know his location?"

"To do exactly what we're doing," Abe said. "Track them down, rescue this little girl. They know you would. It's not that hard to see how much you care about her like you're her own mother. By using her as bait, they're luring you in. Well, Sebastian is. He wants his way with you again."

"In that case, should we leave her at the royal court? It's more than safe there, and the rest of us can still go out and find—"

"Absolutely not!" I interrupted Alberta mid-sentence. "Sebastian won't have his way with me because I won't let him. I'll kill him with my bare hands if I have to."

Abe shrugged, returning to his seat. "Do what you will. I'm just telling you my conspiracy."

For the rest of the ride, I was so restless that not even Dimitri could help me. Having him beside me had calmed me a little bit, but for the most part, I remained anxious and worried. When we finally landed, I was a little relieved to be able to step out and get a breath of fresh air. It was a little cold out, but it was exactly what I wanted.

I was the first person to reach the main doors of the court even though the guards didn't let me through. I was about to yell at them when Abe ensured them from behind me.

"She's with us," he told them. They nodded, eyeing me skeptically as they opened the doors. I ran inside, already heading straight for the hospital. It might have been rude of me not to greet anyone, but I was in such a rush and didn't want to waste too much time.

I could hear guardians calling my name from behind me, but I ignored them. It took me a while to find the hospital, but when I did, I stormed in and went to the receptionists.

"I'm looking for a patient—a prisoner. The only human who was on the bus to Tarasov Prison."

The only receptionist working was a blond moroi, and she was probably in her late thirties. "Um...Damian Morozov?"

"Yeah, whatever his last name was. I need to see him."

"And you are?" she asked.

"Rose Hathaway," I answered sharply. Her eyes went wide as she looked me over. She swallowed nervously when she realized who she was talking to and cleared her throat.

"Room 319," she said. "It's just down that hallway over there."

"Thanks," I said. I headed in the direction she was pointing, constantly checking the room numbers. Damian's room seemed to be farther back, and it took me a while to find it. There were two guardians standing outside his room.

"ID please," one of them ordered, holding a hand out. I sighed, giving him my driver's license. After a few moments, he cocked his head towards the room, silently allowing me to go inside.

There was a curtain in front of Damian's bed where he slept. I realized he had just recently been treated for his injuries which probably wouldn't have been that bad if it were anyone else. Damian was a human though, so every injury was twice as bad on his body. He definitely had a concussion, and there seemed to be a gash of some sort in his right thigh. I pulled his orange shirt up, revealing a large bandage on his abdomen.

He was unconscious, but his breathing was normal and unbothered. I touched his shoulder and shook him, but he didn't budge. I shook him harder, but all I got in response was a snore. I heard footsteps from down the hall and turned to see Dimitri and Abe walking around the corner.

I had to act fast, because if I didn't get Damian to wake up, my plan could fall apart. I needed his help. Instead of shaking him again, I slapped him. His eyes fluttered open as a loud smacking noise echoed in the room. He reached up to grab his cheek, but his hands were both restrained to the hospital bed. I realized I probably shouldn't have slapped him so hard if he had a concussion.

"Rose?" Damian gasped, blinking a few times. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Busting you out. Sort of. Once I have permission." Good luck with that.

"What?"

"Don't ask questions. Nevaeh has been kidnapped, and I need your help," I told him.

"She what?!"

"It's a long story. Since you might be the only other person who might know where she's being taken, you're probably going to have to come with us."

"Does it look like I'm in a state to help you?" he asked. "I'm surprised I didn't just die on the bus!"

I rolled my eyes and lifted my sleeve, but before I could bite into my skin, I saw the earlier bandages. I was already starting to regret what I'd done to my wrists and shoved my sleeve back down. Instead, I bit the side of my hand until enough blood was coming out.

Damian already started to protest. "Oh, hell no. Don't you dare. Don't—" I ignored him though as I shoved my hand against his mouth. I knew it must have been disgusting for him, but he needed to heal.

"Just drink," I ordered. He did as I asked, nearly coughing in the process. He didn't take much, but it was enough for the healing properties in my blood to kick into his system. When I pulled away, he looked at me like I was hanging a baby upside down.

"You're welcome," I spat. Dimitri walked into the room in that moment.

"Jesus Christ, Rose! You can't just—" he shut up the moment he saw Damian whose mouth was now slightly messy. His eyes went dark, but before he could let his hatred take over, I pulled him to the side.

"We need him," I said quietly. "He knew Sebastian's locations. He probably knows his people's locations too."

"Rose, I still don't know how I feel about this. How do you know he won't just try to escape?"

"He won't. There are over ten guardians on the plane, and he's restrained. I'll compel him if I have to." I didn't really expect Dimitri to agree with me on this right away, but he was just as determined to save Nevaeh's life. Deep down, he knew I was right, but I didn't blame him for having his doubts.

"And how do you plan on convincing the royal court officers to let him out?" Dimitri asked. I shifted my gaze onto Abe who had been inconspicuously watching us.

"Old man...just how good are you are getting what you want?"


Needless to say, Abe had somehow gotten the head officers to listen to him. He knew a lot of them, but it had still taken a lot of effort even with his skills. Once we got Damian out, he was ordered to be taken back to court immediately after everything was under control. The royal court had already alerted other guardians from other states which meant we weren't the only ones on the lookout.

Our next stop was Spokane. I hated that place now. It held heartbreaking memories, but we didn't really have much of a choice. We were going to be staying in a guardian institution for a little while.

Damian sat at the back of the jet with his hands still restrained in front of him. He was still a little injured, but he seemed to be getting better as the first hour passed. When nobody was paying attention, I walked over and propped myself up on my knees on the seat in front of him.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"I feel like everyone on this plane wants to kill me," he said.

I sighed. "You're not wrong. Well, almost everyone. I don't want to kill you."

Damian raised his eyebrows. "You don't?"

"No," I admitted. "I don't really like you, but killing you wouldn't make me feel better."

"I'm pretty sure you're not even supposed to be talking to me right now."

I rolled my eyes. "I suppose not. I'll figure out what to do with you when we land. For now, just sit tight and don't talk to anyone."


As soon as we landed, our team had been called into the institution. It was about the size of a police station, and there were rooms inside where we could stay in and sleep. I wasn't sure how I really felt about it as I really wanted to just jump into action, but I had to respect the fact that everyone else needed sleep. Plus, we didn't have a set plan yet. Damian and I had an idea of where to look and who to talk to, but we hadn't discussed it with anyone else just yet.

Everyone was given a room to stay in. The bedrooms definitely weren't as nice as a hotel, but they were clean and would be enough. I didn't even unpack my bag and headed straight to the bed, thinking the whole situation over again.

I laid there in bed, tossing and turning for what felt like hours until I threw the blanket off in frustration. I didn't know what was up with me. It was without question that the stress was keeping me up, but a part of me also suspected it could have been some kind of underlying fear in the back of my mind.

I left my room and headed to the one Dimitri was staying in. I knocked, hoping he wasn't paired with anyone else. The door flew open, revealing Dimitri who only wore a pair of grey sweatpants. My eyes darted to his naked chest.

"Rose?" he said. I peeked inside, seeing a lamp that was turned on along with a table full of paper work that he must have been working on.

"I didn't realize you were busy. I'm sorry if I bothered you."

"No-no, you didn't. What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can't sleep," I answered honestly. Dimitri pulled me inside, shutting the door behind him. I walked over to the desk where he had been sitting, taking a look at what I originally thought was just paperwork. Instead, I found the horrible pictures of me. Dimitri had taken my laptop with him as well, but he hadn't watched any videos yet.

"I'm trying to find faces," he explained, looking down at the pictures. "I offered to help your father identify anyone else who hurt you. I'm just using the pictures that have other people in the background."

"You've been up this whole time just for this?" I asked. There were probably over a hundred pictures in here. To go through all of them must have taken him a while.

Dimitri nodded and sat down. "Anything to help catch these guys. It's been hard though. The way these guys treated you makes me want to burn them to death."

I sighed. "You and me both. It was a lot worse when it was happening, but I'll never be able to live it down. It replays in my head when I sleep."

"Is that why you came here?" Dimitri asked, rubbing a hand up my back. I looked down at him and nodded, trying to hide my inner shame. I knew I could go to Dimitri for anything, but I still felt a little ashamed for not handling this on my own.

"I feel better around you," I admitted. "I just hate that I didn't handle it myself. I'm training to be a damn guardian, and I still go to you like a needy little girl."

"Roza, you do realize it's okay to ask for help, right? That's what you should be doing at a time like this. Sometimes, when you try to handle everything yourself, it scares me. The last time you tried to do that, you ended up in the hospital." Dimitri reached up, gently running his fingers over my bandaged arms. I realized I was only wearing a tank top, making the bandages clearly visible. Even the memory of me hurting myself—which had only been one night ago—made me flinch.

I locked my eyes with Dimitri's, brushing some of his hair back. "I wasn't thinking clearly. I won't do it again."

"I know," he said, placing his hand on mine. "You should get into bed. I'll probably be up for a little bit longer, but I'll join you later."

"Actually, I was thinking of helping out with this too," I said, flipping through the pictures.

"If you really want to, I won't stop you, but these images could trigger you," Dimitri warned. "The videos too. We still have to go through those."

"I think I'll be okay. I can't be afraid of them forever. Besides..." I sat on Dimitri's lap, surprising him. "I'm with you now."

"I'm glad you are," he said, wrapping an arm securely around my waist. He opened the second envelope and pulled the rest of the pictures out, setting them down on the table. "Let's see if we can find anything."


Looking through the pictures was difficult, but I managed to get through them. Dimitri and I actually had some luck finding pictures with other faces in the back. I didn't remember all of their names, but I recognized their faces. It brought back horrible memories, all of which I still clearly remembered up to certain points. I had been drugged during most of my encounters with those people, so that explained it.

"Rose...you might want to look at this."

"Hm?" I dropped whatever I was looking at and leaned back to see what Dimitri had his eye on. He had another picture, but this one was different from all others. It was a picture of me and Damian. We weren't being intimate, but he was hugging me, and it looked like I had been crying in his arms. I was only wearing some skimpy bra, and my bare skin had red scratches and bruises all over. I tried to remember when this had even happened, but the memory wouldn't come up.

"I don't remember this," I whispered. "I must have been drunk or something. Or drugged."

"Did he always do that with you?" Dimitri asked. Although this was the least gruesome picture in the pile, seeing us like that probably made him uncomfortable. Honestly, it made me uncomfortable too.

I shook my head and put the picture down. "No. Not really."

"Alright," Dimitri said hesitantly, still thinking about the strange picture. "Uh, let's look at the videos."

I took a deep breath and opened up my laptop. The fact that Dimitri had it with him told me he must have somehow known my password. I logged in, and the screen loaded, revealing the video I'd last been watching. It was still paused.

"We don't have to do this, Roza. If this is too much, you just have to tell me." Dimitri's fingers brushed my bandaged arms again. I knew he was worried about me, but I couldn't be afraid any longer. The videos were even worse than the pictures and I had to face them without freaking out.

"I'll be okay," I whispered, giving Dimitri's hand a firm squeeze. Working up the courage, I let the video play but kept the volume down. Whoever filmed the video was mostly focussing on me which didn't really give us a view of anyone else. There was no luck, so I switched to the next video. The setting was different, but the footage was almost the same as the last. This time, my body was on the floor, and I was fully unconscious. I could literally sense Dimitri getting furious behind me and squeezed his hand again in an attempt to calm him down.

Luckily, this video had faces. One of them was Damian, but the others were strigoi. I froze, realizing this was Eric's club. It had been my first night with the strigoi. It was also the same night where I had crashed the van.

"I remember this night," I said out loud. I watched in horror as someone's leg struck out, kicking me in the groin. That explained why I had been experiencing horrible pelvic pain that night. They did more horrible things to me—things I was sure Dimitri and I would have rather not seen—but the footage at least showed faces. In the video, Damian had walked into the room, going rigid when he saw my body.

"What the hell are you doing? She's unconscious, for fuck's sake," he said angrily.

"We're just having some fun," one of the men yelled. "She's nothing but a little play toy, anyways."

Damian ignored him and picked my limp body up. "She's not a toy, she's a person. It's bad enough you're using her for sex and feeding."

The other man laughed. "Aren't you the one who brought her in here?"

"I'm following orders," Damian snapped. "Not that it makes any of this easy. This is all wrong."

"Pathetic," someone muttered in the background. "This is why you don't let pussies get involved in the business."

The video ended, so I switched to the next one. For the next half hour, we watched the videos, screenshotting as many faces as we could find. I had to fast forward most of the time as the majority of the footage showed things that I didn't want to watch. Some of the videos were long, and I couldn't stand to see myself in those horrible situations. Eventually, we had stop. I was still trying to recover from what I'd just seen and hardly noticed Dimitri picking me up. He sat down on the bed and cradled me in his arms, letting me rest my head against his chest.

"That was...a lot," I whispered, dragging a finger along his bare chest.

"It was for me too. You did well, Roza. You faced something that you thought you couldn't handle. You should be proud of yourself," Dimitri said.

"I don't know. A lot of those assholes hurt my pride, but I guess you could call it progress."

"It is," Dimitri stressed. He tipped my chin up. "Nobody said this would be easy. Baby steps, okay?"

I smiled up at him. "Okay, Comrade."

Dimitri kissed the top of my head and gave my body a tight squeeze. "Good girl."

I smiled at the little nickname he occasionally gave me before crawling underneath the bed covers. Dimitri crawled in next to me, bringing the comforter up to our chins. Our feet touched, and I moved closer to him until our faces were just inches apart. I wanted to kiss him so badly, and I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he wanted that too.

Dimitri took initiative and cupped the side of my face before sealing our lips together. Our kiss was soft at first, but a part of me wanted more than that. Don't get me wrong, I loved it when Dimitri was gentle with his kisses, but I craved more. I missed the way he used to kiss me like his body depended on it. I remembered the way he had devoured my body in the cabin. Even with all his gentleness, he had been in control. His dominance that night had turned me on to a whole other level, and I would never forget it. I understood why he wasn't doing that now, but a much deeper part of me still craved that.

Was I screwed up in the head for wanting him to take control again? Considering what I had gone through just a few months ago, I would have expected the opposite, but what Dimitri and I had was different. We had a love so deep that no matter what our roles were between each other, Dimitri would always consider me his equal. We had a deeper understanding of trust that I had never experienced with anyone else before. I never felt afraid or unsure around him.

"Dimitri," I breathed, breaking our kiss.

"Roza? Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, pulling away.

I chuckled. "Yes, I'm fine. It's just...I want you to touch me."

"Okay..." Dimitri looked confused for a moment as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pressed our bodies closer together.

"No, I mean like, touch me." This time, I grabbed his hand and placed his palm over my breast. Dimitri swallowed as he was caught off guard. It had been a while since touching me in places like that and he hadn't expected me to initiate it. Fortunately, he didn't pull away.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Please," I whispered, attaching our lips once more. Dimitri responded, propping himself up on his elbow as he kissed me. Our bodies shuffled, and suddenly, he was half-on top of me, using his other hand to massage my breast as his leg tangled with mine. I moaned against his mouth, and he moved again until he was completely on top of me with his arms by my head.

"You're so precious, Roza," Dimitri whispered in my ear. "I'll protect you with my life, even if it's the last thing I do." His words were dangerous but promising. He would choose to protect me over the life of a moroi if he had to. It went against the idea that we had to put a moroi's life before our own, but I knew without a doubt that he would protect me in a heartbeat over anyone else. Deep down in my heart, I knew with a surety that I would do the same for him.

His mouth moved from my ear, trailing kisses down to my neck. His breath was warm against my skin, and I nearly squealed when he started sucking on the same spot for several seconds. I had a feeling it would leave a mark even if it was faint.

"Oh god," I breathed, wrapping my legs around his waist. I used my legs to press his hips into mine, and his mouth broke away from my neck as he let out a soft moan. I took the opportunity to rub myself against him and was pleased to feel the hard bulge forming in his sweatpants.

"Someone's getting excited," I mentioned with a smile. Dimitri chuckled and gave my lips another small, tender kiss.

"It's really hard not to when I'm being intimate with you," he admitted. He pulled back, staring down at me as he caressed the side of my face. "We don't have to go further, Roza. Believe me, I want you right now—more than anything—but I'm not going to push you."

I bit my lip. I'd be lying to myself if I said I wasn't craving sex. I yearned for it, and I wanted to experience it with Dimitri all over again. I wanted to feel his hands on me while he brought my body to its peak of pleasure. I wanted to feel our minds connect, to hear him whisper my name like I was the center of his world.

But even then, I couldn't rush myself. I did want sex, but I wasn't sure how ready my body was. Maybe it was because of what I had been through or the fact that there was still too much going on in my mind. I didn't want to disappoint Dimitri either. Our first time had been so nice together, and a part of me feared he wouldn't enjoy things as much.

"Are you sure?" I asked him. Dimitri nodded.

"Of course. Remember, it's me, and your health comes first. There's no pressure here."

I reached up, brushing the hair away from his face which hung down in soft waves. "I love you, you know that?"

Dimitri chuckled and pressed a kiss against my forehead. "I love you too, Roza."

I snuggled closer until Dimitri wrapped his arms tightly around me and my head was resting comfortably on his chest. I smiled to myself, knowing there was nothing else in this world that could make me feel warmer than Dimitri's arms. With his heart beating steadily against my ear, I finally drifted into a peaceful sleep.


Yesss I know it got a little heated towards the end, but I had to throw some Romitri in there while I figure the rest of the story out. Leave your thoughts below :)