Dimitri
She was radiant. Beautiful really. Not – stunning. My heart beat in my throat as I watched her blush and she looked up at me threw her eyelashes. She led the way to the diner. Her hair definitely got longer; her waist smaller. We followed her in the diner as she waved at the cook and a waitress, then helped pull tables together for us all to sit down. I sat opposite Rose, Lissa and Janine sat on either side of her, everyone else were scattered around.
"Well, well, well. Isn't this a good-looking table." the waitress teased as she came over with a big smile. "Oh, Rose. It's just you!" Rose smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Terry!"
"Okay, okay!" The waitress –Terry – smiled. "What can I get you all to drink?" We passed on our drink request and Terry walked away with a smile.
"So, you're my mom, you're my boyfriend, who are you?" Rose asked looking towards Lissa who gave her a sad smile.
"I'm your best friend. We met on the first day of kindergarten when our teacher was being mean and you threw a book at her." Rose leaned back in the chair.
"I threw a book at a teacher?" Lissa nodded and smiled.
"There was a kid picking on our other friend Mason and you stood up to him. Mason and I became your friends straight away." Eddie reminisced. His smile also sad, not just for Rose not remembering but because she had to go through loosing Mason again.
"And where is Mason?" Rose asked looking around the table, clearly remembering that Lissa didn't introduce anyone named mason.
"He died when we were seventeen." Rose looked down at her hands, she did this when she was sorry about something but not knowing what to say. The old Rose is in there, just somewhere.
"We met in school; we didn't like each other very much. You broke my nose." Mia chimed in to try and make the tension less awkward. Rose's eyes widened as she looked at Mia, her mouth flying open.
"I'm so sorry!"
"We didn't like each other either. You met me when I was with Lissa, but don't worry, you didn't hurt me then."
Rose looked around the table, her eyes wide. Terry came back with our drinks and handed Rose a bottle. She took it with a smile.
"I wasn't a very nice person, was I?"
"No, not really." Mia replied. Rose looked down at her hands. This was my Roza, the one that came out when we were alone, when something was going on. The Rose of the outside world was a hard woman, who showed no mercy, who had to hide her true feelings or was just misunderstood by a larger population of people. "You're an amazing person, once people get to know you." Rose gave her a small smile.
"How do I know you then?" She looked at Alberta. Alberta gave her a small smile.
"I was your mentor at St Vladimir's Academy, it's where you went to school." Rose finally looked at Abe.
"I'm your father." Rose's cheeks started to turn a soft shade of pink. She looked down at her hands. She turned to Tasha. I stiffened and Leaned back in my chair.
"Oh, we don't like each other at all." Tasha said leaning back in her chair. "We did, and then you took Dimika from me." Rose looked between us, her eyes widening. The food came out before she could ask any other questions. That didn't stop Tasha though. "You were just out of high school when you slept with him. He was your teacher."
"What?"
"Yeah, then you moved in together when you came to Court."
"Court? Teacher?"
"Tasha." I warned.
"Oh, and then you go an cheat on him and get knocked up."
"What? I thought you were-"
"No honey, you see, it's physically impossible for two dhampirs to conceive. They need a Moroi or a Human."
"Dhampir's? Moroi?" Rose looked around the table confused.
"Oh, don't play coy, Rose. You know all about vampires, myself, Lissa, Christian, Mia and your father all drink blood. You, your mother, Dimitri and Alberta, protect us, die for us. But you ran away, disgracing dhampirs everywhere." Tasha leaned on the table when she finished. Rose, leaned back in her chair, her mouth open and hands shaking.
"You're all crazy!" She said as she got up from the chair. "Don't come near me again!" She spun around and left the diner. Terry and the cook looked at over at the table in confusion. I got up to follow. Tasha leaned over and grabbed my arm.
"Don't go after her, she's worthless." She was worthless. Rose, I mean. I shouldn't go after her. I closed my eyes and took my hand away, following Rose out the door. She was walking down the road fast, her hair down now, flying behind her. She ran her hands threw it was she walked away.
"Roza!" She turned to look at me and started to walk away faster. "Roza, please!" I caught up to her, grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. She snatched her arm away so fast, she stumbled and fell. I caught her before she hit the ground. She took in a deep breath but she didn't jump out of my arms. Instead when she was steady on her feet, she just held my arm and looked up at me. She was very close, very close, I had to look down to look at her. Her chest was moving fast.
"We've done this before, haven't we?" I smiled down at her.
"You nearly falling and me having to catch you? Once or twice." She gave me a small smile and slowly stepped away.
"Can you and your friend leave me alone?" She asked. "Vampires and Moroi and Dhampirs belong in stories. I can't have people around my daughter that think they're real. I'm sorry."
"Roza, it's all true. You know it is. St Vladimir's Academy is where you went to school – but it doesn't teach you normal, day to say human lessons. You learn to fight, to protect and when you finish high school, you're chosen to protect a Moroi."
"You do understand how crazy you sound, right?" She looked at me. "I mean come on! Next you're going to tell me that ghosts are real." She let out hysterical laugh. My face didn't change. "Are you serious?" She walked away.
"Roza, please!"
"Leave me alone!"
I watched as Rose walked away. I watched as my heart walked away. I let out a frustrated breath and walked back towards the diner. The others were standing outside, watching me as I walked back. Lissa opened her mouth, but I shook my head, walking back towards the hotel we were staying in. I didn't talk to anyone on the way back and when we got back to our rooms, I quickly opened the door and slammed it shut again before anyone could say anything. I lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
I'm going to lose her again. I can't lose her again; I don't think my heart would be able to take it. I'm so close to my Roza, I just want to reach out to her, take her in my arms again. Catching her while she fell, and holding her in my arms, it felt so natural, normal. As if nothing had changed and we were okay.
Tasha ruined that for me.
There was a soft knock on my door. I ignored it, not moving, but the knocking didn't stop and this time it was followed by a soft voice.
"Belikov?" I opened the door to see Janine and Abe standing outside my door, I allowed them to come in and closed the door after them.
"I was thinking, maybe we should just leave Rose alone." I turned to Janine, so did Abe.
"You abandoned her once, and you're going to do it again?"
"Dimitri, it looked like she was happy here and we ruined it." Janine sat down on the bed. She looked younger, defeated and so much like Rose. "She's probably better off not being in our world, it's safer." Abe walked towards her, put a hand on her back. She reached out for his hand. "Tell me I'm wrong." I looked into her eyes. The eyes that I was looking into were not the eyes of a women who was abandoning her child because it was the easiest thing to do.
I was looking into the eyes of a woman, who was ready to leave her daughter, and grand-daughter so they didn't have to live in a world of violence. She was doing it because she cared. The thing is, she was right.
"I have a daughter." I whisper and close my eyes. "I don't want her to grow up in a world of violence either." I sucked in a breath. "I'll talk to the others."
The others didn't take it very well, in fact no one, but Tasha took it well at all. Lissa was the worst.
"You're giving up on her? On your own kid?!"
"I'm not giving up on either of them! Lissa, she was happy here before we came. She was safe – my daughter is safe here! I don't want to have to raise my daughter in a world that teaches her to fight, so she can die protecting others. I don't want my daughter to have to watch those videos they show us when we're young. I need her to be safe!"
"She's my best friend." Lissa whispered, tears falling from her eyes.
"At least we know where she is." Lissa nodded.
"We leave in the morning."
