You, Me, and the shadow chapter one.

RPOV

Something is happening to me. I can't precisely describe what I'm feeling. I just know that I feel like I'm changing. The only way I can think to describe it is like when you study evolution in science class.

We got taught about it in freshman year, how it took thousands of years for the moroi and dhampir to become what we are today. How before this, we were different, but no one knew how different. It's like I can feel my body changing, my mind is expanding, and I don't know what to do.

A little back story, I'm Rose, a dhampir, and for now, a novice at St Vlad's academy. I turn eighteen in two days, and I was supposed to graduate from St Vladimir academy in two months.

A lot has happened in the last three years since Lissa brought me back to life, and hardly any of it has been good. One wonderful thing though would be Dimitri. Ah, Dimitri, my mentor, guide, best friend, and now boyfriend, though that term is too menial for what he is to me. He is my everything, my soulmate.

We officially got together two weeks ago, but we have been unconditionally in love with each other since the second we laid eyes on each other. He means everything to me, but two weeks ago, I nearly lost him. There was an attack on St Vlad's, and it didn't go well.

Several people were taken by the strigoi to do God knows what with, to feed off them, to turn them. No one knew, but I couldn't stand by and just leave them to their fate. I organised a rescue mission to save them. Why anyone listened to me, I don't know, but they did. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I killed seventy percent of the attacking strigoi single-handed.

I don't even remember most of it. It was like something inside me took over, and I blacked out. I only came too after it was over and I was surrounded by over a hundred strigoi bodies completely decimated. Dimitri found me.

I can't describe the look he had on his face, it was a mix between awe, pride, and love, but I also saw the fear. It wasn't fear of me though, more like fear for me.

When we handed in our statements to Alberta Petrov, he obviously redacted the part about him finding me with flames in my hands, among other things. It was the rescue mission at the caves which made it worse. We were fighting, my back to his, and we were kicking ass, then he was gone.

Everyone else had already got out, and we were the last ones in there just finishing up. I turned to find Dimitri pinned to the wall by an ancient strigoi, I don't know what happened after seeing him like that, but Dimitri explained it to me after I snapped out of it.

DPOV – The Caves.

Roza and I were making our way to the entrance, fighting as we went. We were back to back and I wasn't focused properly. I was concerned for my Roza, something was going on with her, and I was worried.

As I take down the female strigoi in front of me, I feel like I've been hit by a truck from the side, and then the next thing I know, I am pinned. This strigoi is ancient. He clearly took advantage of my distracted state.

He was holding me by my neck, he would have probably lifted me off the ground, but I think that was even too much for him to do given my height. He was starting to lean forward to bite me, and I couldn't do anything except try to kick out because if I struggled too much, I knew my neck would snap.

I was focused on trying to escape when all I heard was a high pitch scream. It stunned not only me but the strigoi holding me. We both looked over his shoulder to see my Roza, my sweet, sweet Roza, shrouded in what looked like black smoke and shadow. Quite a few things floored me in that one glance at her. Her eyes were entirely black, her hands were ablaze with a blue flame, and her hair was flowing like it was being hit by a strong breeze that I could not feel.

The second I glanced at her, she was gone. She disappeared completely, I would say in the blink of an eye, but I know I didn't blink. The next thing I know, the strigoi is thrown off of me by something I cannot see. He screamed as if whatever threw him off caused him vast amounts of pain. He hit the opposite side of the cave so hard the cave wall cracked. I was frozen in place, I know that all of this happened in maybe three seconds, but it feels like hours.

Then she is there, right in front of me, facing the strigoi. It is like she is guarding my body like a shield. I can feel the power radiating off of her as she charges at the strigoi with an amount of speed I have never seen. Within a millisecond he is dead and burnt to ash.

She turned around to me, and all she said before extinguishing the flames and collapsing was "Comrade." I run to catch her before she hits the ground. The black smoke has gone and she looks just like my Roza again, the same Roza I held in my arms in the cabin less than 24 hours ago, the same Roza I fell in love with the first time I saw her.

She started to wake up less than a minute after dropping. "Roza, wake up detka, please Malaya." Her eyes began to open. She looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes of hers like she was waking up from a dream. She looked at me for a second before I saw panic hit her. She ran her hand over my face and started saying, "Comrade, oh my god, what happened? Are you OK? Where did he go? How did I get here?"

I had to stop her because she was making herself hysterical "Roza detka, what do you remember? What is the last thing you saw?" She started to sit up and looked down, trying to think. "I saw you; you were pinned to the wall. I don't know what happened, I screamed, and it's like something took over me. I don't remember anything after that, then I woke up here. Why what happened?"

I looked her over, and I knew she was telling the truth, not that I doubted her. She would never and could never lie to me. I did that to her for long enough, and it nearly killed me. I told her what had happened, which just made her panic more. She started crying and rocking back and forth. "What is happening to me Dimitri? Do you think it's something to do with the darkness?"

I hadn't even thought of that. Shit. "I don't know Malaya. All I do know is that you looked just like you did when I found you surrounded by all those bodies a few hours ago. We will figure this out, but we can't tell anyone, OK detka, we need to keep this between us until we know what is happening but thank you Roza. Thank you for saving me" I kissed her hard and she grabbed my hair, moaning into my mouth.

This is everything I have always wanted, SHE is everything I've wanted, and no matter what, I refuse to live without her. I don't even think I could.

RPOV

While we were kissing on the floor of the cave, we were interrupted by my mother. She froze when she saw us, but surprisingly her first instinct was to make sure I was OK. She did throw in there that we would be discussing this later.

That was two weeks ago, and since then, I have felt like I'm changing. The day after the caves I was in the gym with Dimitri using the punching bag. I hit it so hard it snapped from the chain and it flew to the ground bursting into flames. Dimitri put it out and got rid of it so no one would know.

A few days after, I was running late to meet up with him. Without even thinking about it, I was standing in front of him at the doors to the gym. He ended up jumping, falling on his ass. It was funny as hell, but still, I don't know how I did it, and I told him the same thing.

Since then, he has been upping my workouts and laps to see if other things were changing, and they were. My general lap time had improved by about three hundred percent. My stamina had improved. The amount I could bench had gone up, and every time I hit a new goal, Dimitri would grab me and give me an earth-shattering kiss, so there were definitely some incentives.

The only thing is Dimitri has improved too, and we can't figure out why. Some of the things happening to me could be attributed to me being different due to me being shadow kissed and everything, but with Dimitri, who knows. We haven't figured that out yet. We started looking into it in the library since the whole school has been on lockdown anyway. It has been relatively easy to sneak around.

What we found was shocking. There is a lot of information on Anna, St Vladimir's shadow kissed guardian. It explained some things like the increase in stamina and speed, as well as my apparent newfound aptitude for theory and strategy. But there is nothing in those books about changing form or having powers of any kind. So, we still don't know what is really happening.

As I said, I turn eighteen in two days, well, more like in around thirty-four hours, not like I'm counting or anything. We have been doing a lot of talking over the last two weeks and have come up with some life-changing decisions. We know that we could never live without each other, but there are too many unknowns about whether or not we would be allowed to stay together here.

Not only that but my relationship with Liss has gone up in flames, in a colossal way. Since everything that happened just before the attack with her going crazy at Jesse. Me taking her darkness, and me subsequently losing control. After the attack, I tried to see her, but she basically told me to fuck off and do my job. When I inquired what she deemed my job to be she just said.

"You're a dhampir. Go do what dhampir are good at doing and die attempting to kill strigoi because God forbid you ever actually manage to kill another one. Those two you killed before were just lucky timing. You even fucked that up by getting Mason killed."

Obviously, she wasn't aware of my part in the attack and rescue mission. Still, after that, I knew that our relationship was done. Even if it was just darkness and she did say sorry, I am still done. Darkness doesn't put the words there. It just makes you reveal what you already think anyway. I should know I have done it enough.

So, Dimitri and I have decided to leave. We are leaving at a minute after midnight on my eighteenth birthday, and we don't plan on looking back. We did speak to my mum after the caves, and surprisingly she understood. She said that after everything she saw of me during the attack and how many strigoi I managed to kill. In her eyes, I was already a full guardian. Meaning that I was an adult who could make her own choices.

After that meeting, she decided to tell me about my father. My royal father. My father, Prince Ibrahim Josiah Mazur Badica, has apparently been keeping tabs on me since I was born, but due to some unsavoury business rivals and threats made before I was born, he chose to stay anonymous until I was old enough, hence why my mother told me now.

Apparently, they have remained in a secret relationship all my life. She stayed away from me because his enemies were watching her, and they wanted me safe. She apologised for what happened with her hitting me over the Christmas break, but she did say that she blacked out and didn't actually remember doing it or even planning on doing it. After further discussion, it turns out Tasha compelled her just before entering the gym.

Another reason why I hate that bitch, one of many reasons. But finding out about my dad was a massive thing because I am actually next in line for the throne, being the oldest female in the Badica line. The Badicas are a royal family that acknowledges and accept their dhampir relatives, which means I will be Queen someday. That will be fun to tell people when the time comes.

I have spoken with Abe three times over the last two weeks and we are flying to Russia in thirty-six hours to one of his houses there. He has said he needs to discuss something important with us as soon as we arrive. I don't know what about but going to Russia means that Dimitri can go home, and he is thrilled beyond belief.

Yesterday, he told me that he could not wait to introduce his future bride to his family, which made me incredibly happy. He was planning our future already, and we have only been official for two weeks. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. "Roza, how are you Malaya Moya?" I was sat outside the chapel in the sunlight when he walked up to me with his arms out, ready for a cuddle.

I wrapped my arms around him and leaned up for a kiss. I wasn't worried. Most of the campus has gone home for another week, so the school can rebuild after the initial attack. It's daytime anyway so there is no one around. "I'm fine baby, have you just finished your shift?" He took a step back from me, still with his arms wrapped around me and looked down at me, "Yes, everything is quiet out by the wards. Are you ready for bed? There are only hours left now before our life really begins."

I couldn't help the massive grin that appeared on my face as he said that. He was practically vibrating with excitement. He had been for five days now since the plans were finalised. All the other guardians think he lost his mind in the caves, but that is just because they have never seen him smile.

"I can't wait baby. Did you finish packing up your room this morning? I finished mine whilst you were on your rounds" we started walking to my dorm room, avoiding any windows just in case, "Yes, all done, sent off the boxes to the address Abe gave you. They should arrive just before us on Friday."

He has been staying in my room since the caves. We didn't see any point in staying apart now after everything that happened.

It was nice seeing him like this. Like he was an actual twenty-four-year-old guy in love. Not having to be afraid of being discovered or sent away, we finally felt like the freedom we both dreamed about was close.

"Yeah, I sent mine off with Alberta this morning as well. They probably got shipped together. I can't wait to get away from this place. I want to be free. Free to be with you, doing whatever we want to do, at least until I am required back at court."

We reached my dorm and he opened the door for me, always a gentleman. As soon as we got inside, he was on me. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and kissed my neck gently. I couldn't help tilting my head to the side to give him a better angle. As soon as I did that, he knew he had me.

He turned me around and whispered to me, "I can't wait to experience the world with you detka. I can't wait to show you where I grew up, and I can't wait to ask you to be mine."

"I already am yours comrade. You have my heart, my body, my very soul. What else could I possibly have?" he bent down so his lips were just brushing against mine and whispered, "You can have my last name Malaya. When you are ready, you can have the last thing I could offer you."

I felt a tear run down my cheek as I attacked his lips with my own in a fierce kiss, he lifted me off the ground and I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist. I pulled back and said, "I am ready now, and when you do ask, then my answer is already yes. Just make sure you do it in front of your mama. She would kill you if she weren't there."

After having only two conversations with her, I knew that. He let out a breathy laugh and did a fake shudder saying, "Well, we can't have that now can we?" He carried me to the bed, and let's just say, the extra stamina we both seem to have now definitely had its benefits.

Translations

Detka - baby

Milaya Moya - my dearest/Honey