Rose's P.O.V

Dimitri and I decided to take a minute to make ourselves as presentable as possible, given the amount of love marks we had left on each other. He was ready in under 30 minutes, but I took the time to wash my hair and apply some makeup to cover a prominent hickey on my neck. Dimitri had a thermal of coffee ready for me when I walked out the room and gives me a quick kiss before we make our way over to the royal wing.

The guardians standing duty outside the door, check our credentials before letting us in. They were new and I appreciated their strict abidance of protocol. Although, they knew we were royal guardians as well, the more vigilant they were, the safer Lissa and Christian were.

When we walk in, it's obvious that we were late to the party. Everyone was already gathered in the living room, but my eyes when straight to Abe. He was leaning back casually in the ottoman, legs propped up on the coffee table, deceptively looking like he didn't have a care in the world. This was when my father was the most dangerous because you never knew when he would strike.

"Ah, there you are. Belikov, if you're done taking liberties with my only daughter, we can get down to business," Abe says casually, his smile doing nothing to hide the dark glint in his eyes.

I feel, rather than see Dimitri wince at that. I just smile, knowing damn well that he would never hurt the father of his granddaughters. My mom would never let it happen either.

"Where are the girls?" Dimitri asks, looking around the room for them.

Christian nods in the direction of the bedrooms. "They're knocked out in our bed. I read them some of my emails and they knocked out in like 30 seconds."

We both frown at that. "Alexis has a concussion! She shouldn't be sleeping." I move towards the bedroom to go wake her up, but Lissa stops me.

"I obviously healed her concussion. Before you start on me, she needed to sleep and it took very little spirt. It's just lucky that I'm currently on a no medication cycle." Lissa went periods of time without her medication, so that her magic didn't grow weak, but whenever she felt herself getting bad again, she would go back on them.

"Yeah, Little Dhampir. Even if Lissa was on her medication, you should have woken me up so that I could heal her. I hate the idea of them in a hospital room."

Abe stands up now, his impatience evident in his posture. "The four of you are going to be taking a trip." He says, getting straight to the point.

I look incredulously at him. That wasn't something I had expected. "A trip? At a time like this. That's not going to happen."

"You leave tomorrow. Three weeks at Walt Disney World. I will of course be footing the bill and have arranged for you to stay at the castle. The girls will be thrilled." I could tell by his tone that he intended for this trip to be mandatory.

"I'm not joking, old man. We can't just leave at a drop of a hat."

"I've already hired private security for the trip. A dozen trained guardians for each of them. They'll be discreet of course."

My eyes bulge at that. Lissa doesn't even travel with that many guardians. "You can't be serious? Dimitri and I can protect them just fine, but that's not the point, we can't just.."

He cuts me off, his tone icy. "While I have no doubt in your fighting abilities, I doubt you can protect them from the entire court."

The noticeable flinch from Adrian, Lissa and Christian does not escape me and a feeling of dread creeps over me.

"What do you mean the entire court? You mean this trip isn't about Lorenzo?"

"Why would it be about Lorenzo? What has the boy done?"

"We'll get to that, but tell me what you meant."

"I think the queen should explain it to you. It is her court after all."

I turn to face Lissa, nausea growing in my stomach. She can't seem to meet my eyes, but I don't miss the guilt radiating through the bond. "What is he talking about, Lissa?"

"I didn't want to worry you! You already had so much on your plate and I didn't want to add to it. I'm handling it, you know I would never let anyone hurt them," She hastily explains, but I've had enough.

"I'm not going to ask again! What the fuck is going on." I yell.

Christian steps in front of her, shielding her from my rage. "There's been some speculation about Dimitri being the biological father. They want to run experiments on the twins."

"I will kill any moroi who touches…"

"It's not the moroi council, it's the guardians calling for the experiments."

The news stuns me into silence. Betrayal is the first emotion that creeps its way into my mind. I had expected such low handed tactics from the moroi, but not from my fellow guardians. We usually banded together against the injustices from the royal council, but now they were the ones calling for two innocent little girls to be treated like a couple of lab rats. I would never let it happen.

"If anyone touches them," Dimitri begins in low tone, malice dripping from every word. "I will tear them apart limb from limb. Guardian or not, I will end them. You can take that promise back to Hans and the council." He's looking at the royal guardians on duty, but they don't meet his eyes.

Adrian raises his hands in a placating gesture. "Let's not get arrested, alright. We're coming up with alternative solutions, but I'm sure you can understand why this is very important to dhampirs."

Christian nods in agreement. "We're not going to let it happen. I've already talked the Ozeras out of their vote by reminding them that we can't lose favor with the queen."

"There's already voting going on!" My fury reaching new levels. I turn to my mother and force myself to ask the question that I'm already dreading the answer to. "Did you know about this? Hans is a friend of yours isn't he?"

She looks indignant at my question, which makes me feel guilty for assuming the worst. "Of course not! Your father and I just found out today. They've been very careful about containing any information about this. Trust me, Hans is going to hear me."

"You could save us." This comes from a guardian to my right. The entire rooms spins to face him. Guardian Aldea. He was a young guardian, about a year older than me and usually very quiet. His audacity astounds me, but my fury was more powerful.

"I don't give a fuck." I snarl.

"You should! The council treats dhampirs like second class citizens and we have to let them because we need them to survive. If we could learn how to fix our reproduction issue, they lose that bargaining chip. They'll be forced to improve our conditions or risk losing their guardians."

Dimitri steps forward. "That also gives a lot of moroi incentive to make the twins disappear."

"Risks are always a possibility in the face of change."

Before anyone can react, Dimitri has him pinned to the wall by the throat. I was taken aback by his lack of self-control. The rest of the royal guard rushes forward, but I leap to his defense. Shoving aside the nearest guardian, I move to dispatch the ones closest to me. Without removing his hand from his throat, Dimitri kicks back a guardian coming at his back.

"Stop! Stop it right now," Lissa demands, a bit of compulsion laced in her words. No one stops, the noise from the fight overpowering the sound of her voice. I see my mother and Eddie trying to pull Dimitri off of Aldea.

"Daddy!" Anastasia's scream breaking through the haze of the fight. I turn in horror and see the girls standing in the hallway. They're clinging to each other and look terrified at what was unfolding before them. "Don't do that! Please!"

Dimitri releases Aldea and takes a step back. He opens his arms to them and they run to him without hesitation.

Aldea rubs his throat and tries to regain his ability to breathe. He straightens and meets Dimitri's eyes without flinching. "My best friend died last week for a Badica lord that didn't even remember his name. Do you want your girls to be raised in that kind of society?"

"I know you're one of the few guardians who knows what is going on with the girls, so you can understand if we chose to prioritize that over putting the weight of an entire society on their shoulders." I keep my voice civil for sake of the girls.

Before he could respond, Lissa moves forward to stand next to me. Her posture is regal and authoritative, she has stepped into her role as queen. "I think I've heard enough. Guardian Hathaway and Guardian Belikov have spoken and you can tell the guardian council that Lord Ozera and I stand with them. You can also explain to them why I relieved you of your duties as a member of the queen's guard." She gestures to the door, her message clear.

"You can leave on your own or I can escort you there myself and explain to Guardian Hans what took place in the presence of the queen after Guardian Belikov chose, rightfully I might add, to defend his children," Christian crosses his arms. "The choice is yours."

Aldea knew he had made a tremendous mistake. While, I understood everything that he had explained to me, I couldn't sacrifice my daughters to the guardians. Dimitri was right about it giving moroi incentive to dispose of the twins and I didn't doubt for a second that some members of the moroi council would try and have them killed. What was two more dhampir lives to them? It would be an easy decision for them to make.

"I apologize, Your Majesty. I'll take my leave of you," Aldea bows to her and Christian before leaving the room with his head held high. The room is silent for a moment as he leaves.

Abe's laughter breaks the silence. He has returned to his casual position on the ottoman. "This is why I don't come to court."

Alexis turns angrily in Dimitri's arms to glare at her dad. "Why were you fighting?" She demands to know.

Dimitri grimaces at the question. "Guardian Aldea said something that I didn't like and I reacted without thinking. I'm sorry you had to see that."

She shrugs, her anger disappearing at the explanation. "I do that all the time. Can we have breakfast now?"

I can't help but laugh at her one-track mind. She really was my miniature. "Yes, go get dressed. We're all going out for breakfast. Your grandpa is paying." I smile at Abe, who seems unbothered by me volunteering his money. They both cry out in excitement and hurry back to their rooms to get dressed.

"This has all been very interesting, but I need confirmation from you both that I have reached the right conclusion." His face takes on a terrifying quality. "You thought the reason for the security detail was Lorenzo, so I can only assume he's been the one abusing my granddaughter."

I nod in confirmation and wait for the room to explode again. Everyone looks like they want to, but are reminded that the girls are only one room over. This wasn't the time to discuss it.

"Then the trip serves two purposes. It gets you all out of court for a while and establishes an air tight alibi. Make sure to take lots of pictures with time stamps."

Lissa cringes at that. "I really hope we're not discussing the murder of a human. I am still the queen, you know. There will be hell to pay with the Alchemists if they find out I had anything to do with this."

"Half of them are in my pocket, so I doubt they'll be particularly troubled by the mysterious disappearance of a pedophile."

I was torn between what I wanted to do and what I knew was right. My mind tells me to turn him over to the proper authorities and allow justice to run its course, but my heart cried out for my own brand of justice that would end with a stake in his heart.

"We can't do that, Abe. If we turn him over to the police, he'll get put away and you know how they treat his kind in prison." Dimitri argues.

Abe scoffs at that. "The sentencing for these crimes are a joke in the human world. He'll probably only get ten years and be in the prime of his life when he gets out. What if he comes after them?"

"You know I would never let him get near them."

"What about all the other little girls he'll meet, who won't have the good fortune of having Dimitri Belikov as a father. He needs to be put down like the rapid dog he is."

Before anyone else could answer, the girls come running out dressed in matching t shirts and jean shorts. They were bursting with excitement for breakfast and I knew it was because family meals had become their favorite activity.

Anastasia hugs Abe around the middle. "Can we go to the place that serves ice cream on the pancakes please. Please, please, please grandpa!" She looks up at him and gives him her best pleading eyes.

"Of course, my darling. Anything for you." He leans down so that she can place a kiss on his cheek When he straightens, his eyes meet mine and the message is clear. This conversation wasn't over.

Hi guys! Sorry that the chapter is a little late, I was just having trouble introducing this new dynamic to the story. I hope you liked it! The next chapter will be up Monday and I'm still updating the rest of the story, so thank you again for your continued patience.