Rose's POV

I woke up slowly; no alarm or life threatening situation to rouse me. My body and mind took it's glorious time to rejoin the waking world. First I was aware of Dimitri's arm holding me close to his body in his sleep. I smiled and snuggled in closer to him, seeking warmth and comfort from him. The sun was setting, the last hours of daylight seeping into the bedroom, covering us in a lazy glow. His arm tightened around me, lulling me into a sense of peace. I could have stayed there all morning, too afraid to wake him up and resume any argument from last night. I leaned back slightly, being careful not to move too suddenly so that I could study Dimitri's face, so relaxed and peaceful in his sleep.

Looking at him now it's hard to imagine that I was screaming at him at the top of my lungs out of spite. It's hard to imagine that he could make me cry. Dimitri had said we weren't done talking, but I was ready to forget our fight ever happened. The more I thought about it, the more senseless the fight seemed. Yes, I lied to him, and I can see why he's hurt by that. But I had my reasons, and I tend not to question my motives once I've already made up my mind. I was too stubborn, and Dimitri… Well to be perfectly honest he was justified for being angry. He wouldn't have said some of the hurtful things last night if I hadn't been such a bitch to him.

The implications of what occurred yesterday dawned on me, we had just learned of magic that will shake our world to its core, which triggered our fight. The idea seemed too ridiculous to wrap my head around. Despite everything I grew up believing, despite my doubt in Oksana's words, two dhampirs were able to conceive.

Which, ultimately, meant that Dimitri and I could too.

"You're staring at me," Dimitri mumbled. Not asleep, apparently. He peeked open one eye before closing it again, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. I brushed my fingertips along his cheekbone lightly so that I didn't have to say anything. I didn't want to talk right now.

Dimitri shook his head lazily, "I don't want to get out of bed today." He opened his eyes fully to look at me and study me the same way I was studying him. I would never get tired of looking at him.

"But…" he mumbled. I sucked in a nervous breath, knowing that Dimitri would just rather rip off the band aid. He was more awake now; his contented laziness was replaced with sharp awareness. "Rose, we still need to talk. About... things."

Internally, I groaned, but I still nodded. He didn't call me Roza; that was not a good sign. His voice was soft, barely a whisper, yet it carried so much force. Steeling myself, I met his gaze and prepared for another fight. If we did end up fighting now, it would be incredibly awkward, since we were naked except for our towels, and still held each other in a half embrace. Here goes nothing, I thought.

"I said everything I wanted to say last night," I paused, waiting for the right words to form. "I also… said a lot of things I didn't want to last night." The apology was evident enough to me, but I knew Dimitri would want to hear it in words. I swallowed hard, taking in my pride and hoping that he could forgive me. "I'm really sorry Dimitri."

I bit my lip to let him know that I was done talking. He could say anything to me right now and I would do my best to hold my tongue, no matter how much it hurt me. But Dimitri was silent for a long time, a strange look on his face. His eyes held so much emotion, but didn't tell me anything about how he felt right now. I couldn't tell if the fire in his eyes was from passion or fury, and it was driving me crazy.

All I could do was sit there biting my lip, and count the heartbeats that pounded out like a war cry in the silence between us. Dimitri's gaze burned into me, making me feel more exposed than I already was. For someone who wanted to talk he wasn't doing a lot of talking. I felt myself cracking under the silence and his stare. He wanted to do this, he's messing with your head, I thought.

I finally broke my resolve to keep quiet, "Oh for Christ's sake will you just say something!" I hissed in frustration. I thought I would get Dimitri to laugh in that exasperated way he always did when I got frustrated, but he didn't. Instead, he sighed.

"Roza," he whispered, "Roza, Roza, Roza." He shook his head and brought me closer so that he could bring our faces close together, just a breath apart. As much as I loved getting a reaction out of him, it almost hurt to be this close and have to restrain myself from kissing him.

"I can't stand it when you keep things from me. I thought I was able to tell when you were lying to me, but I guess not…" He closed his eyes, his hand cupping my face. I focused on keeping my breath steady so that he wouldn't see how much I was hurt by my own doing.

Dimitri moved so suddenly, I didn't have time to react when he brought his lips to mine. I was too shocked to hold on to him when he ended this kiss just as suddenly. I looked at him with surprise, did this mean I was forgiven?

"I need to know..." he said. His soft voice pulled me out of my small reverie, back into the disaster of reality. "I need to know that you aren't hiding anything else from me. I want you to be completely honest with me. I won't be lied to again." He didn't have to say what I knew he meant. He was giving me an ultimatum. I would have to come clean about everything and vow to never lie again, or he would leave me.

Just like last night, tears threatened to well up and stream down my face. I ducked my head to bury my face in his chest, all the while thinking of the awful things Dimitri doesn't know. I managed to hold back my sobs, only because I could feel Dimitri rubbing soothing circles in my back. All I know is that I can't lose Dimitri. I have walked through hell to save him, and I would walk through more if it meant keeping him by my side. Other than Lissa, he is the only person I have chosen to be a part of my family.

"Family…" I muttered into his shirt. Dimitri's hands stopped moving on my back, "hmm?"

I lifted my head and repeated myself, "Family. You're my family."

Dimitri nodded, "Roza, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. Don't make me lose you. You're my family."

I scooted closer to him and gripped his arm in panic, "You won't lose me. I haven't lied to you about anything else. The only thing is Randall. You know I diluted the story, but that was also for your sake. I didn't lie to you about what he did to me, but please don't make me go into details about it. Trust me, you don't want to know. The only thing I lied about was Oksana's theory. I promise. And I only did that because I thought it was the right thing to -"

Dimitri brought his lips to mine, effectively surprising me twice in one morning. My hands found themselves tangled in his hair, desperately holding him close. Dimitri answered back just as fiercely, one hand on my lower back, keeping me close, the other hand in my hair, pulling my head back to give him more access to my mouth. Without words, with just his lips, Dimitri was letting me know that I was forgiven, that he loved me. After a while, I felt myself starting to get out of breath, but I didn't want the kiss to end.

It was Dimitri who finally broke the kiss, pulling back to take a deep breath. There wasn't much that needed to be said after that, the argument had diffused, Dimitri and I would move on and face our next challenge as a team again. I leaned back as I did when I woke up to study his face, my fingers lightly brushing the stubble on his cheek.

Dimitri smirked, "You're staring again."

Me, being the inappropriate and improper Rose that I am, I opted for a joke, "I'm just deciding if you're attractive enough to reproduce with."

Dimitri laughed, a full out genuine laugh, and I felt relieved. "And what have you decided?" he asked playfully. I shrugged, "Well, you're not that great looking, but I guess I can make it work…"

Dimitri laughed again, "I'm not hot, huh?" he asked arrogantly. He rolled over so that I was below him, trapped me between his elbows. "No," I breathed, "not at all. You look like a troll."

Dimitri smiled, knowing the effect he had on me. He leaned down more onto me, bringing his lips to my neck, kissing lightly down to my collar bone. I gasped lightly, a fire starting to burn within me. "Say I'm hot," he commanded.

I laughed breathlessly. Two could play at this game. "No," I said defiantly. Dimitri smiled against my skin and pulled at the material of my towel, exposing my chest to him. He continued kissing and sucking my skin. "I'll get you to say I'm hot. In fact, I'll get you to say a lot of things before Lissa gets here."

Dimitri stood by the stove, flipping the omelettes he was making us for breakfast. I sat at the breakfast counter, leaning forward with my chin in my palm. "Can I just say that makeup sex is the best?" I asked pleasantly. Dimitri grinned, "It's definitely a nice way to wake up. Maybe we should start fighting more often?"

I giggled, "Okay but not about serious things. We can fight about what color to paint the bedroom or something." Dimitri raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong with the color it is now?"

Before I could respond I felt Lissa's presence through the bond, walking up to the suite's door. "One sec," I muttered and went to open the door for her. Thankfully Dimitri and I were fully clothed, bra and everything, or I wouldn't have let in her guardians. "Would you like an omelette?" Dimitri asked politely as Lissa sat next to me at the breakfast bar. "No thanks, I already ate."

Lissa didn't start talking until Dimitri sat down with our plates and we started eating. "Yesterday you asked me how long it took to get this to work, and how I did it." I stuffed my face with breakfast and nodded to encourage Lissa to talk more. "I found them right after Thanksgiving, so about two months ago." Lissa held up a plain silver ring, similar to the one Oksana gave me in Russia. "This is infused with healing magic. I gave one each to Taylor and Wade to wear during… well, you know. That was our first attempt. We gave Taylor a pregnancy test after two weeks that turned up negative. I thought maybe there wasn't enough healing magic in the rings. We needed to find a way to get more spirit into their systems, Wade suggested injuring himself, so that I could heal him. He thought if the healing came straight from the spirit user and not from a ring then it would work."

I held up my hand to stop her and finished chewing my egg, "You've healed me a million times, even brought me back from death. That should be more than enough spirit, so why haven't I gotten pregnant yet? I mean, Dimitri and I have unprotected sex all the time." Dimitri almost spit out whatever was in his mouth and coughed several times, feeling awkward at my blatant sex comment in front of Lissa and her guardians.

Lissa ignored Dimitri's discomfort. "I considered that. You can't be the only Shadow Kissed dhampir who has unprotected sex, we would have heard stories of mystery babies by now. So I asked for Sonya's help, since she knows more about spirit than me. Dr Franke gave Wade small incisions which I would heal. Sonya observed his aura when I healed him; she said there was a spike in his aura when I healed him, but the magic started leaving his system almost immediately. When we told the couple this, Wade said we simply needed to get more magic into him before it faded away."

Lissa shook her head at the memory, looking sheepish, "Wade had a lot of faith in my abilities. He showed up to the clinic with a broken arm, he told me he broke it himself so that more spirit would be in his system. As soon as I healed him he ran back to his hotel room to have sex with Taylor." Lissa chuckled, "He didn't want to waste any time or lose any magic."

Laughter bubbled up in me, "That's enthusiastic of him," I commented. Lissa grinned, "Yes, I'm not sure this would have worked without his… persistence. Anway, more time passes and Taylor's still not pregnant. I started to think you were right, that it wasn't possible at all. Sonya observing their auras was the most useful information we had, but there wasn't much we could do about the fading healing magic. I thought that it would work if... if one of them was turned."

There was a clatter as Dimitri dropped his fork, "No. You didn't."

Lissa shook her head vehemently, "Of course not. It was just a thought. When I transformed you, Dimitri, your aura was filled with spirit, you had enough healing magic pumping through your veins that you could have been shot in the heart and lived. Only, it all faded away when the court had you in the jail cell for days. But, if you and Rose were together right after your transformation, I'm pretty sure she would have gotten pregnant. The same goes for you, Rose. If you had been with anyone right after the car accident, you would probably have gotten pregnant then."

I swallowed a large chunk of omelette, "I get it. Now tell me how Taylor and Wade got the bun in the oven." Lissa looked down at her hands nervously, "Before I tell you this, you have to understand that Wade doesn't know much about spirit either, or the side effects, so don't be angry with him. He was just trying to get this experiment to work."

Lissa looked up at me and Dimitri hesitantly. I put down my fork and turned all of my attention to Lissa now, nodding for her to continue. She took a deep breath. "Wade stabbed himself in the sternum with a kitchen knife. Taylor called me, and he was already unconscious by the time I got to the clinic. She said he did it so that I could get more magic into him. I healed him, and he went back home less than five minutes later. That was two weeks ago yesterday…"

She pursed her lips, waiting for some kind of response. I looked at Dimitri to say something, since I couldn't form a sentence at the moment. Instead of giving me answers, Lissa's story left me with more questions.

"How did Rose not catch on to this earlier? If you were using that much spirit, she would feel it," Dimitri finally said. I shook my head slowly, I hadn't even considered that. Lissa looked pained as she thought of what to say. "Well, I, uh, compelled Rose to ignore the bond and think that everything was normal." I raised my eyebrows at her. "Oh?" was all I could say.

I slouched forward and rested my elbows on the breakfast bar. Dimitri placed a soothing hand on my back and spoke for me again, "Why didn't you just tell Rose? Why go through so much trouble to keep it from her?" Lissa leaned forward to place a hand over mine and squeeze comfortingly. "I knew Rose wouldn't approve of me using spirit for this. Especially when Wade started injuring himself. I also kept it secret so that Rose wouldn't get her hopes up," Lissa squeezed my hand again.

I glanced at Dimitri to gage his reaction. A dark shadow crosses his features at the mention of even more secrets.

I glared at Lissa, "You're right. I wouldn't have approved of you healing Wade left and right. Especially if he's some weird masochist. I especially don't approve of you compelling me." Lissa shook her head, "Wade's not a masochist. Like I said earlier, he just doesn't know much about the dangers of spirit and had too much faith in my abilities."

I gritted my teeth, "Okay. Fine. You didn't really care about the financial cost of the novice equipment, did you? You were just worried about the test result. And the darkness was building up because you've been compelling me for two months while healing broken arms and stab wounds. How are you feeling?" My question sounded more like a challenge. I was quickly getting a sharp edge to my voice, but I didn't care.

Lissa sighed and took her hand off of mine, "I knew what I was doing Rose. I didn't do all of the healings, Sonya helped a lot with spirit, and I had Christian. I wasn't in danger. And I was doing this for you. You should be more grateful," she informed me.

I tensed and literally bit back my reply. My teeth sank into my tongue to keep me from yelling at Lissa the same way I yelled at Dimitri last night. I looked over at my gorgeous boyfriend, "Any questions?" I asked tersely. I needed to stay quiet right now or I might explode, Dimitri would have to do most of the talking. Dimitri flicked his gaze over to Lissa, scrutinizing her. "How do you plan to make people believe you?"

Lissa nodded eagerly, happy with the new course of the conversation. "I planned this all with Dr Franke and his assistants. They kept records of every meeting I had with the Hernandez couple. Everything that was said and done is recorded and with multiple witnesses who are willing to support the couple if they're doubted by Court."

My confusion was enough to cloud my darker emotions for the moment. "Why would it matter if the Court doubted them?" I asked. Lissa gave me an are-you-serious look, "I did this so that you and Dimitri could have a kid, one day. No rush!" she quickly added on when she looked at my incredulous face. "But, Rose, the Court needs to believe it's possible for dhampirs to have children with each other for them to accept your children as legitimate heirs to the throne."

My mind was slowly turning to mush. All of it made sense, but was hard to wrap my head around at the same time. "And with a child with two dhampir parents already made public, it would be easier for the public to accept our child," Dimitri said excitedly. Great, Lissa had officially won him over.

I was still bothered by the situation. "Don't you think the Hernandez child is going to be under a lot of speculation. People will want to study him. He could become a lab rat…" Dimitri sighed next to me but Lissa beamed, obviously hoping that I would bring the topic up.

"I already thought that through. I've had two months to plan this, and everything is ready to go public. The records we have are enough to prove that the dhampir-plus-dhampir conception worked, whether people like it or not. And Wade and Taylor have already agreed to stay at Court so that the pregnancy can be closely monitored by our doctors, and spirit users. I'm not quite sure how the public will feel about this though, so I'm having two guards accompany Taylor at all times during the pregnancy, and after she gives birth. The guards will stay with her until I believe that she and the baby aren't in any danger.

"From there on, the child will be examined by multiple doctors other than Dr Franke, and results of blood tests will be made public. The child will have a biannual exam for the first five years of life, and those exams will also be public. After the child turns five, though, any doctor visits or physical information will be confidential just like any other patient. I think that if we smother people with information about the child's health, and make sure his records stay public, people will be more likely to accept him, and they won't have questions of their own."

Dimitri and I nodded along the entire time, entranced with this bulletproof plan. Well, at least I couldn't see a flaw with it, but then again, I was likely to believe anything Lissa said. Everything was falling into place. Well, almost. I still had to deal with the heaping amount of spirit Lissa was hiding from me.

"So what does this mean for us?" I asked, looking at neither Dimitri nor Lissa.

Dimitri let out an incredulous breath, "For us? What does it mean for all the dhampirs?"