Rose POV-
My father, Abe demanded to come to Turkey with me and Dimitri which meant my mother had to come too because she became his official guardian even though they are married and he shouldn't really have a guardian because he isn't a royal. We met up with other guardians and they told us about the information they gathered.
We knew what hotel they stayed in, we know what shops they went to so we went in to ask the shop owner some questions and asked for the CCTV cameras.
The owner said he couldn't remember them, at first he refused to show us the camera footage it wasn't until my dad used compulsion on him without the other guardians knowing that we got to see the camera footage. We couldn't find them on the footage however there was a lot of time where the camera turned off or where the footage was deleted or something. We had no leads and nothing to go on.
We tried to hack into the footage to retrieve any deleted footage with no luck. We even found all the cameras they would have passed to get to the shop from the hotel, again with no luck, no cameras seemed to have picked anything up, ever. My father disappeared off somewhere alone against my mother's wishes, he kept slipping her and going off, my mother panic a lot.
"Where the bloody hell has he gone? Why did he do that?" She kept on pacing from one side of the room to the other, no matter what anyone said to reassure her she couldn't stop panicking which is reasonable, I would be the same if something happened to Dimitri. Two hours after he disappeared, we were in their room and he just walked casually into the room like he didn't just disappear and looked pleased with himself. Then he saw the expression on my mother's face.
"What?" He asked so innocently. My mother snapped at him, me and Dimitri tried to sneak away to get out of their way.
Two days later he slipped past her again, she was pissed even more, "how dare he!" "What is he doing that I can't join him." He never told her where he disappeared to so we don't know where he is now. After an hour and a half Dimitri, my mum and I were in mine and Dimitri's room, he walked in.
"They took a train to Russia" he informed us with a massive grin on his face. We were all confused and asked how he knew this and all he said was that he just knew and refused to tell us how.
However, because it took us over a week to find out this information and looking through all the camera footage and so on, we had to get back to court. I am supposed to be the queen's guardian so I can't take any more time off. My mother and father came back to court with us and we left the information with other guardians for them to follow the trail under the queen's request.
Skylars POV-
I slept for most of the flight to France. Obviously, we went to Paris. Where else would we go? The bigger the city the more people there is to get lost in. Declan told us we are to stay in Paris for a week. He didn't tell us any more than that. The first thing we did once we landed was to go straight to the hotel. We always go straight to the hotel. Usually, that's fine but I've always wanted to visit Paris. There's so much I want to see and do. I'm glad we've got a week to enjoy everything. The first thing we visit is the Eiffel Tower, taking the elevator all the way to the top. Looking out over Paris from the top is amazing. The view is amazing. We spent all day up the top of the Eiffel Tower watching everything, hypnotised. The day after we visited the Louvre and walk along the champs-Elysees. During our week here we visited everything. The Arc De Triomphe, Norte Dame Cathedral, the Palace De Lo and we visited the Eiffel Tower again because we loved it so much. During our time at the human school we got taught french, we were all very young, Amelia didn't get to learn any french, however between Declan and I, we managed to know enough words to communicate enough with the locals. We threw ourselves into the experience of France, including trying traditional food, we tired snails and frog legs and so on. None of the food was half as bad as people imagine. Snails were slightly slimy and a little crunchy but they tasted alright and frog legs were like eating Turkey off a chicken leg. During our time in the hotel we managed to come across a moroi news channel, we saw a news report that had our faces, followed by queen Vasilisa saying something then pictures of Adrain and Sydney, then Dimitri and Rose and finally Neil Raymond's faces, even though we couldn't understand what was being said because it was all in french we knew what the news report said, the public has been told about our parentage.
We went out drinking a few times to local big clubs, looking for strigoi, we didn't find any, unfortunately, tonight is the last night before we move on so we are going drinking at a new club, that is on a roof with an open top.
We all decided to dress up a little more then usual, Declan told us eventually the reason why we stayed here for a week was to see if the guardians catch on to where we are. If we don't see them the chances are they have lost our trails, we have been more careful than usual, Oscar made us identify changing charms which we have been wearing whenever we leave our hotel room. We don't wear the charms at night because it's too dark for people to see properly, it's dark in the clubs too.
I am wearing a short white dress, that is mid-thigh that covers everything up but fits my body tightly. I am wearing my hair down in big curls. We wear pacific outfits so we look old enough so people don't question us. But if they do, we just use our compulsion.
Amelia is wearing a knee-length black dress that she has wore before and managed to salvage from a past strigoi fight. We never spend a lot of money on new clothing because even though we have a few thousand dollars we need to save it back so we can afford a place to live and to feed ourselves until we figure out a way of making more money.
Once we were all ready we left to go to the club with our identity changing charms.
We only had one or two drinks each, so we were just a little buzzed. We danced for a few hours then we decided to go home. We left the club and started walking towards our hotel, the streets are empty, slightly creepy, the street lights aren't working, the only light is from the moon, I don't know what it is but something has us all jumpy, straining our eyes to see around us. I can see what seems like movement but it's very slow, I am unsure if it is something moving or if it's just my imagination.
"Is there something over there?" I ask the others. We all stop and they look over to where I was pointing, straining our eyes.
"I can't see anything," Amelia says then there is the sound of movement behind us.
"Come on let's just get back to the hotel," Declan says. We all turn to carry on towards the hotel, however, we don't even manage to take a step before we are all knocked over. One by one we fall to the floor with two strigoi pinning us to the floor. We all struggle against them with no luck.
"Hello, children, did you miss me? It's lovely to see you four again!" The strigoi boss from Saint Petersburg says with a massive grin on his face. I don't recognise any of the strigoi so they are all new and are all men. We struggle again with no luck. These strigoi must be old, a few centuries old, the older the strigoi the stronger they are.
"You can have some fun lads but don't kill them, I want them" after saying that he turns and walks away, once he is out of view I see the strigoi on top of Amelia sink his teeth into her neck, both of them taking blood from either side of her neck, the endorphins, making her relax instantly, giving no fight. The strigoi on top of Oscar followed, causing me and Declan to scream and fight against our strigoi harder again with no luck. Both of Declan's strigoi sink their teeth in, one on his neck and one on his wrist, he kept fighting for a minute or two but it was helpless, they were still unable to keep him pinned down, I tried to get him to keep fighting, telling him not to give in and he looked over to me. The look in his eyes, I have never seen him look so hopeless, he's given up and he's scared. I have never seen Declan scared. It scared me seeing him like that.
I turned back to my strigoi and I could see their faces getting closer to my skin, one aiming for my bare leg under my dress and the other aiming for my neck. I felt the bite on my leg before the strigoi managed to get to my neck. That was all it took, I screamed so, so loud. I have never screamed this loud before. I went temporarily blind when this gold light came out my mouth along with my scream like the gold light followed with the sound particles. I concentrated on fighting the strigoi off me. They were blinded by the golden light so I was able to get myself free from under them.
I jumped up to my feet slightly unbalanced due to the endorphins in my bloodstream from the bite. The fact that his bite has affected me makes me angrier, so I scream again turning towards them, throwing myself at them. I snapped one of their necks, which doesn't kill them but makes them unable to fight for a while and due to my angry I don't even think twice before sinking my teeth into the other strigoi's neck, sucking the one who bit my blood in some sort of screwed up revenge. Once I sucked all his blood, I found my stake out and staked both strigoi. I jumped to my feet and got instantly tackled down by another two strigoi, turns out these strigoi men were not alone. I got my fist ready to punch the one closest to my fist, but instead of making contact with his skin my fist set on fire, setting the strigoi closest on fire too. The other strigoi and I stopped and watched as he had a slow and painful death. How the hell am I doing this? What's going on? I remembered my fist looked down and saw it was still on fire, panicking I shook my fist until the fire was gone, then looked at my hand it was completely fine.
I turned up and looked at the other strigoi on top of my siblings, they all froze and were looking at me. They all drank too much of my sibling's blood all three were unconscious, unaware of anything going on. The strigoi on top of me turned back to fight me, I screamed in his face but he isn't stronger then me so I managed to get him off me and I jumped to my feet. He followed onto his feet but before he could do anything I reached down getting my stake and stabbed him in the heart.
I turned around and saw the boss strigoi watching, he looked surprised. I wanted to go over to him but I was unable to because all six of the strigoi that was on top of my siblings turned, jumping up and are now running towards me. I instantly threw my stake at one of the strigoi killing him instantly, grabbed my other stake out and ran towards the strigoi I staked to get my stake.
Before I got to the strigoi another dashed into me, I staked him as fast as I could, continuing towards the strigoi with my stake. Then I heard a strigoi behind me, I span around as fast as I could, unsure where this strigoi came from and stabbed him before he got a hold of me. I turned to continue towards my goal, I could see the four strigoi in front of me had a shocked expression on their faces. I could also see the boss in the corner of my eye turn and run. I am almost at my goal. However, between me and my stake is another strigoi, I skid past him on my knees and grabbed my stake out of the strigoi's heart. I stood turning back to the strigoi I skidded past and stabbed him with my stake in the heart, I could see another strigoi behind him. Seriously where are all these strigoi coming from. Without another thought I threw my stake at him and ran towards him, to managed to get to my stake before the other strigoi caught up. I turned to face them but I could only see two of the three. I will find him later.
I ran towards the strigoi before I got to him the third strigoi ran into me causing me to drop both of my staked great! I turned and punched him in the face. I punched him so hard he fell backwards onto his ass. Before I managed to pick my stakes up the two strigoi have gotten a hold of me, one is pinning my arms behind my head and the other is reaching towards my neck. I concentrate, not knowing how to do it, I wanted to create fire around my hands so the strigoi behind me would let go but I failed. The strigoi managed to sink his teeth into my neck, however instead of my body being flooded with endorphins I felt instant pain, which made me scream, luckily the golden light came out again and the strigoi instantly took a step back, I reached my leg up and kicked the strigoi behind me in the groin, making him let go, I turned and punched him, only after my fist made contact I noticed my fist was now covered by fire. Seriously, I don't need the fire now. I reached down and grabbed both of my stakes, staking the strigoi that's on fire, after I was sure he has died I turned back to the other two strigoi, throwing my stake at the one furthest away and I stepped to the strigoi I blinded with my scream, stabbing my stake in his heart killing him. I pulled my stake out and ran to the other strigoi, grabbing my stake out, jumping back up as fast as I could and I started turning looking for my next victim, unfortunately now the fire is gone I can't see very far, after a few seconds I realised there isn't any more strigoi coming. I turned to my siblings, all three are now sitting up.
"What the fuck just happened Skylar?" Declan asked getting up to his feet.
"You just killed twelve strigoi, how?" Amelia asks.
"That was fire. You just used fire against the strigoi, how did you do that?" Oscar asked.
Their shocked expression said a lot. I couldn't explain what just happened because I don't know what just happened. I don't know what just happened. What was the gold light? How did I just use fire? What the hell is going on? Questions span around in my head so much I passed out.
I woke up in the next morning in our hotel room, alone. I was hungry so I slowly got up and headed out the room to the kitchen. The other three looked at me, watching me making food and watched me eating. It was only after I finished eating and cleaned my plate they started speaking.
"Skylar, what happened last night?" Declan asked.
"I honestly don't know, but" I stopped myself.
"But what?" Amelia asked suspiciously.
"I... I... Ummm"
"You what?" Declan asked confused.
"I drank strigoi blood, in Saint Petersburg" I mumbled, so quietly they didn't hear.
"What was that?" Oscar asked.
"I drank strigoi blood, in Saint Petersburg, and then again last night, I think that has something to do with the fact that I was able to use fire last night, also that golden light thing," I said worriedly. They didn't exactly say anything but their faces explained it all, they looked disgusted.
"What golden light?" Declan asked.
"When I screamed a bright gold light came out and blinded the strigoi, making it easier for me to stab them or get them off me" I explained. No one said anything else and dropped it.
After the conversation, we all showered and threw the clothes we were wearing last night in a trash bag. Before we leave we take a walk along Le Maris and get crepes to eat from a street food vendor.
"Okay, we are leaving Paris today, because we cannot see any guardians or alchemists or anything else it's time we go to our final destination. England. We are going to be moving around the country every few months, it's not very likely they will find us there, we will be staying in England until guardians find us. Then we will move onto another country after making sure we've lost them again." He decided to ignore the strigoi incident from last night.
We then went to the docks between France and England found a storage fairy and used compulsion to get free travel onboard to cross to England.
Dimitri's POV-
Once we got back to court we went to Lissa straight away to inform her of the progress we made in person. She looked disappointed, she wants them back as much as the rest of us. She doesn't like to see how upset Rose, Adrain and Sydney are. I think she's noticed that I've got my mask up a lot more than usual. Rose on the other hand is okay with crying in front of others. Especially in front of Lissa. I hated seeing Rose upset but there isn't much I can do, that angers me. I am worried about my daughters and Oscar and Declan but after my fight against Skylar, I believe they can look after themselves. I will leave them to talk for a while, I'll go and unpack Roses and my bags, which we left in the car. Walking towards the car, guardian stone walked and started walking in step with me.
"Dimitri, there are some people here that have come to see you and Rose, umm, you may not want to keep them waiting for long, should I send them into the main hall?" He seemed nervous whilst saying this, that isn't like him. I don't know who was here to see us but I nodded at him and turned to go back to where I left Rose and Lissa. Once I entered I bowed like usual, I always bowed even though I knew Lissa didn't like it, but she is my queen I have to show her respect. Everyone bowed apart from Rose, she did bow when other people were around or when we were in public but alone she never did.
"Dimitri how many times do I have to tell you, you don't need to bow when we are in private" I knew she was going to say something.
"Sorry Lissa, Rose guardian Stone has just informed me that we have a few visitors, they are waiting for us in the main hall"
"Okay, I guess we should get going, I'll come and see you after," Rose said looking at Lissa.
"Am I allowed to join you?" Lissa asked looking at Rose, then both looking at me.
"I'm unsure of who our guests are but of course you can come" Lissa jumped up got herself more suitable, put her crown on, sorted out her hair and heading towards the door, I rush forward to open the door. One of her guardians walked out of the door first took a look around and welcomed Lissa out, Lissa came out followed by Rose and another of Lissa guards and I followed after. As we are inside court, inside the palace Lissa only needs two guardians to follow her everywhere. Us four guardians are in our usual black and white attire with red cufflinks, Lissa is wearing an expensive-looking long burgundy fluffed out at the bottom ball gown. On the way, we bump into Christian and he decides to come with us, good. I am Christians guardian and even though he is in court, which means he should be safe and because he's the queen's husband he has two other guardians, I prefer to know where he is and be able to defend him if the need arises even though I know he can defend himself. He became a lord through the marriage with Lissa, even though he isn't the oldest in his family, since he married the queen the surviving members of his family have been trying to cosy up to him, so they have a better standing with the queen, he's having none of it.
Once we entered the main hall everyone turned to face us. My entire family is here. My babushka, my mother, my three sisters, Karolina, with Paul and Zoya. Sonya with Katya and Viktoria with her children, Kylo her little boy and Sylvie her little girl. There are two others with them but I cannot see them because the second we enter the room they all bow down on one knee, that's when I remember Lissa.
"Raise" Lissa demanded, they all complied. That's when I saw who the other two were, Mark and Oksana. I looked over at Rose who was looking at me with her eyebrows raised.
"I am sorry Dimitri, I will leave if you want me to" Lissa turned to me and said.
"No it's okay, Mark and Oksana are here, I know you always wanted to meet them," I said gesturing towards them. They must have seen my action because they came over instantly, slightly bowing.
"Hello queen Vasilisa, lord Ozera, it nice to finally meet you two. Rose we have missed you, you should have come to visit us" Oksana greeted hugging Rose.
"Sorry Oksana, so much has happened and then Lissa became the queen and I am her guardian and now with everything going on, I'm sorry" I could see my family was impatient to talk to me.
"Hello Oksana and Mark, it's lovely to see you, we need to have a catch-up, but first I better go talk to my family" Oksana and Mark nodded in agreement and I walked over to my family. Leaving Lissa, Christian, Rose, Oksana and Mark to all talk.
As soon as I got over to my family I saw a fist reaching out for me, I ducked only just managing to dodge it. Looking towards where the fist came from I saw it was my mum.
"You never told me you had children! I was a grandmother to two more children and you never told me!" I could see the anger in her eyes, so that explains why they are here. I didn't even think about why they were here.
"I can't believe you! Why didn't you tell me, why didn't you tell your sisters!" Viktoria shouted. Everyone else apart from babushka said something along those lines, they were all angry with me and Rose but mainly me. "I'm sorry, I was doing it for my children's safety. Only a few people knew about it, only Rose, Adrain, Sydney, Eddie and myself knew who Skylar, Amelia and Declan's parents were. Adrain and Sydney knew because they adopted them from us, and Eddie only knew because he was their guardian and a very close friend, we needed someone to help keep their identity a secret"
"Yeah and instead of telling us we find out on a news broadcast!" Viktoria shouted punching my chest. Which I didn't try to dodge, I deserve it, I should have told them.
"Well, it isn't something I can just phone you up to say. 'Hey so guess what, I and Rose have two daughters. Yeah, it's supposed to be impossible for two dhampirs to have children but you know it was also impossible for a strigoi to be restored or for someone to be brought back to life, shadow kissed, and the ability of spirit existing. Anyways, one is 12 and one is 10 they ran away with Adrain and Sydney Ivashkovs son and Declan who is another child from two dhampirs. All four of the children grew up together because the Ivashkovs adopted them, so our children would be safe. So other moroi and dhampirs don't test them or do experiments on them'" I'm not usually sarcastic but how else was I meant to tell them. I could see what I said anger them but they all seemed to understand what I meant. It wasn't like me to talk to anyone like that, I think it's the stress of everything, not knowing where my children are is a lot harder for me then I let people know.
"Okay, okay, we see what you mean, it must have been difficult for you, and now with them being away, not knowing where they are. I am sorry for acting this way" Karolina said trying to defuse the situation. "Sorry, I didn't mean to come across so rude and irritated, I should have told you before you found out that way"
"It wasn't the best way to find out but we understand why you did it," Sonya said.
"Mother why haven't you said anything?" My mum asked babushka.
"Did you already know?" Rose came up behind me and asked suspiciously. "Sorry for keeping it from you all" Rose said towards the rest of my family.
"It's okay Rose, Dimitri has explained why you kept it a secret," Victoria said greeting Rose in a hug, followed by the rest of my family greeting Rose in a hug, everyone expects babushka, she likes Rose but isn't much of a hugger. After everyone greeted Rose then hugged me apologising for the way they spoke. I could see that Lissa and Christian have been joined by the rest of the gang, Adrian, Sydney, Eddie, Jill, Janine and Abe all now talking to Mark and Oksana. Mark and Oksana hugged Abe, greeting him like an old friend. Rose and my family spoke a little more, then Abe and Sydney came over followed by Adrain and Janine
"Ah the Belikovs, how lovely to see you all again!" Abe greeted cheerfully, hugging my mother.
"Misses Belikov" Sydney greeted politely shaking my mother's hand.
"This is Adrain Ivashkov and my mother Janine" Rose introduced them to my family.
"Lovely to meet you Mrs Mazur" I am not surprised that my mother knows about their marriage.
"Sir Ivashkov, Sydney, thank you for looking after my grandchildren" my mother thanked them for turning her attention to them. We all talked for a while until Rose said,
"Right, we forgot what we were talking about before I came over. Yeva you knew about us having children, didn't you? You saw it in one of your vision?" Rose still doesn't believe what Yeva 'sees' but still asked curiously.
"Yes, I knew, I've seen lots of visions of your children. Of all four of them. One thing I will tell you, you don't find them anytime soon"
"Great, what does that mean?" Rose asks, Abe gives her a look.
"You will be reunited, eventually but not anytime soon, and you won't find them" babushka continues.
"What do you mean by we won't find them?" Rose asks.
"I am not sure," babushka says in a way that seems too convincing like she does know but she doesn't want to say.
My family stays for three days and then go back to Russia. It was nice to see them all and catch up. I know Lissa loved Oksana and Mark, they have commented on coming and visiting again soon. Oksana learnt to dream walk whilst she was here, picking it up much, much faster then Lissa did in school and has promised to keep in touch with us because she has never met any of the children she can't try to visit them in their dreams. It's been an entire month now since they left the academy and we are nowhere near finding them. I highly doubt they are in Russia anymore.
I am going to take a short break as I have explained in past chapters. I hope this chapter has made up for this. I have worked very hard on this chapter. It also longer than a normal chapter would be. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things are changing. Don't worry I won't keep you waiting for long. Thank you! See you soon. I also want to thank Peggy because she gave me the idea of the conversation with Dimitri's family.This weeks quote is another famous one, from Albert Einstein.'Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid'