A week later, Rose was full of excitement as we were putting away our training equipment. "Lissa told me earlier that she got permission for me to visit her dorm tonight! We are having a movie night," she explained. It was rare for the administration to permit students access to dorms they weren't residing in, especially for the vampiric "evenings". I was surprised the Princess had managed to convince them to allow Rose to visit

"A little bit of good behaviour goes a long way," I remarked. She laughed. She did that a lot around me these days. I couldn't let myself relax into it. Her laugh was dangerous. It was full of life and happiness. Hope. Knowing I was the reason for it made my heart skip a couple of beats. It made a warm feeling spread across my chest. I had told myself I would step aside, not let her come close. But she had crawled her way in without me even noticing. I couldn't bring myself to tear her out. And, if I was honest with myself, I didn't want to.

"I'm afraid it's too late for me, Comrade. If I start behaving well now, people will think I'm plotting something," she said as she waited for me by the doors while I turned off the lights. Her stance was relaxed, a beautiful satisfying smile spreading her plump lips. She reached over to the back of her head and released her hair from the high ponytail it was in, causing her long brown hair to fall over her shoulders down to the middle of her back in soft waves. She ran her fingers through her locks, willing them into a perfect position. I caught myself following their movements.

I shook my head, hoping it would look as if I'm exaggerating my "disappointment" at her. "You know what? You're probably right," I agreed. People were always at least a bit weary of her, I included. While I knew I could trust her, she did have some… interesting means of getting her point across or getting what she wanted.

"Are you allowed to go to the dance this Friday?" I asked. The academy held an Equinox dance this Friday, something Rose had been very keen on attending for weeks now. She had been afraid they wouldn't let her go based on her past actions and behaviour.

"I asked Alberta. Apparently, there are no issues with me attending as I've been behaving "accordingly"," she said cheerily, making quotation marks with her fingers. She was easy on her step, walking as if she could start dancing any at moment. We stepped out of the building, where we were swiftly met with the strong cold wind. Rose overexaggerated a sniff of the air.

"Can you smell it? Winter is on the way," she smiled. "I love spending winters in Montana. It gets super snowy." While she still appeared easy, I sensed an underlying sadness.

"Will you go home for the holidays?" l asked her.

"What, are you afraid you'll lose a training partner?" she teased. That's what we were at the end of the day. I may have been her mentor on paper and was mostly in charge of her progress, but it would be a lie if l said I haven't learned anything from Rose.

"Don't worry," she continued. "I don't really have one, a home, I mean. Mom lives wherever her charge does. She doesn't take holidays off. I used to stay with Dragomir's, but they are... you know, dead, now. So Lissa and I just stay here all of the time. It isn't that bad. Some of the other Novices stay too."

It wasn't uncommon for dhampirs to be completely abandoned by their families and instead be raised by the academies they attended. Some never knew anything about their parents. Another occasion was losing the dhampir half of the mix in battle. It was still taboo for a Moroi to take care of a dhampir child, even if it was theirs. Which is where the academies came in again.

I noticed her letting her father out of the conversation. l asked her about him, hoping I wasn't overstepping. She wasn't even fazed.

"Never met the dude. I just know I got all my pigment from him." That made sense. Her mother, Janine, was a stereotypical specimen of Scottish descent; she had quite a fair complexion, red hair and blue; which was the complete opposite of Rose's sun-kissed skin and dark features. She fell silent as we came closer to her dorm.

"Do you know your dad?" she asked after a bit. I internally frowned just at the thought of him. I did know him. Too well.

"Yeah, I saw him growing up. He fathered both me and my three sisters. So he was around a lot." We came to a stop near stairs that led to the main door of novice's dormitories.

"That sound's great and yet you don't seem to particularly like him," she noted. Damn her. For some reason, she could read me better than anybody I had ever met before.

"Well, he had this nasty little habit of getting drunk and beating up my mom," I replied sarcastically. Rose looked shocked; her mouth left ajar. Then her expression softened into a sad frown. "Please tell me you beat the shit out of him."

"I beat the shit out of him. As soon as I was big enough to do so."

"And how old is that?"

"Thirteen."

The shocked expression returned. She let out a breathy "ha" and glimpsed away from me, shaking her head in disbelief. A smile grew across her face as she looked back up at me. "You really are something else, aren't you, Dimitri?"

Her look was intense as if she was staring straight through my eyes, right into my soul. Seeing me. The intensity itself made me want to look away, but I couldn't. It was like a siren song, pulling me, willing me to submit and let myself go.

I finally tore my eyes away from hers. I quickly glanced back, but not catching her look. "You should do some homework before meeting with Vasilisa," I changed the subject. She let out an exaggerated groan, looking up at the sky. She shook her head, walking away from me and towards the short set of stairs. She stopped at the top and turned back. There was a playful glint in her eyes.

"Lissa, Tovarisch, Li-ssa," she stressed. I just shook my head trying to keep a smile off my face.

"Have a nice evening, Rose," I told her. She smiled wide.

"You too, Dimitri."


"Night" shifts were mostly peaceful. The autumn sun felt nice on my face. Nobody was really around at this time. The only issue was that I'd get less sleep on days like these, especially with meeting up with Rose before her class as well. Though that didn't affect me as much. Just seeing her rejuvenated me, and gave me the energy to start off the day. Lately, I started running with her at the start of our meetings. It didn't come as a surprise to see Rose was quite a competitive person. Her - and who am I kidding, mine too – endurance and speed grew whenever we ran together. We mostly did so in silence, but it was a comfortable one. No pressure to start a small talk that would lead nowhere. We just enjoyed each other's presence. With occasional jab from Rose's side.

"There's a disturbance reported in the male Moroi dormitory." A call coming from the line cut off my thoughts. Coincidentally, I was just walking two minutes away from that building.

"On it," I reported back.

"Thanks, Belikov. Respond if you need backup," thanked Emil, who was responsible for night calls tonight. I suspected it was just some rowdy Royals having a party, which usually didn't need more than one Guardian to solve. Kids would get drunk and knock over a chair or two, and suddenly need a grown-up to clean after them.

Like on cue, a crash came from the second floor of the building as I came closer. I sped up, deciding to call in for additional help anyway. Emil let me know they were on their way. I ran up the stairs, where I was met with screaming and a panicked Lissa. She was shaking and fidgeting with her hands from anxiety.

"Princess!" I called as I came closer to her. She looked up at me with tears obscuring her green eyes. Christian was standing next to her, trying to calm her down by running his hand up and down her shoulders and upper arms.

"It's not her fault. I didn't mean to…" she trailed off, making zero sense. Her? Did she mean Rose? They were supposed to stay in together tonight, what were they even doing here? Had Rose lied to me?

I heard more guardians coming up behind me. I leaned down to her.

"Where's Rose?"

My question was answered by more screaming and crashing.

"You fucking piece of shit!"

Christian pointed the way, and I took off. "Rose!" I called out. I stopped at the doorway of the room where the commotion was coming from.

I was taken aback.

It was trashed. Completely. Several items were smashed to pieces, like the lamp that used to reside on the desk. Which was currently knocked over, spilling copious amounts of papers and notebooks on the floor. Rose stood in the middle of the mess, shaking from the visceral rage she must have been feeling. She was holding a Moroi boy by his collar. He looked dishevelled; his lip had been split open and there was currently blood gushing out of it. She threw him across the room.

"Rose!"

She snapped her head my way. I almost didn't recognise her. Her mouth was pulled into a grimace, her eyes wild. She was looking at me, but I didn't think she actually saw me.

"What!? This fucking shithead went out of the line!"

"What the hell is happening here?" came a stern voice from behind me. Stan and a couple of other guardians finally caught up.

Rose didn't care about them, or me. She turned back towards the Moroi. She didn't get far though, as I grabbed her from behind. What followed was immediate shouting on her part, which I ignored. The others moved out of my way as I backed to the door.

"Something is wrong. Talk to Vasilisa and the others, I'll take care of her."

I dragged her into the communal bathroom, which was harder than necessary as she continued to violently trash in my arms all the way there. The room was, thank God, empty. She threw her head back, hitting me in the chin. The sudden pain made me drop her down. She quickly stood up and launched herself towards the exit. I stepped in front of the door, blocking her escape.

"What happened?" I asked, knowing there was a slim chance she would even respond. I was right.

She didn't listen to me. Instead, she attacked me, screaming. I blocked her punch. More followed. She was fast and merciless. I was reminded of the time I watched her fight Eddie, the day I decided I wanted to become her mentor. But this was worse. It was as if something possessed her, making her even more violent than she was already rumoured to be.

"Stop, please, Rose, this isn't you," I pleaded. This wasn't funny or infuriating. It scared me. This non-verbal beast throwing her fists at me. I was barely fast enough to dodge out of her way. I didn't want to hurt her. This wasn't sparring. We weren't in a gym with safety equipment, making sure nobody could get hurt too much. If I'd made a wrong move, I could seriously injure her. So for now my plan was to continue dodging until she ran out of energy. And I did so.

Until she hit her target.

I was too slow to duck, and she landed a punch to my face.

Bullseye.

It was as if somebody had thrown cold water over her. Her hands fell down from her tense stance, dangling next to her body like a ragdoll. She froze, staring at me, her heaving chest slowing down. She took a few steps backwards, putting space between us until she hit the sink with her back. Her hands wound behind her, frantically gripping the rim.

I leaned back against the door.

"I'm sorry," came a shaking apology. Her eyes welled up with tears. "I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry-" She quieted down into sobs when I came closer and took her arms into my hands. I lead her back against the wall, where we sank down to the floor. She leaned into me, shaking in my embrace, and mumbling apologies. I gently shushed her.

"Are you alright?" I asked. I let go of her with one of my hands and put a strand of hair that laid in front of her face behind her ear. She let out a laugh and cried out more. I tightened my grip, resting the same hand behind her neck, caressing her long hair. She was back. Broken down, but back. I could work with that. "Please tell me what happened," I begged.

"It's Spirit." I could barely recognise the words when she murmured them into my chest. She pulled back; I let her go. She straightened her back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling.

"I didn't lie; we weren't supposed to be here," she began, reminding me of hers and Lissa's plans for tonight. This sure as hell didn't look like a movie night in. "Then she got invited to this "Royal" party and I tagged along. It was fine, even Christian came out of his den. We were having fun," she stressed.

She took a deep, but shaky breath.

"Then that shithead brought a feeder. They started feeding off her and doing other insane shit. Lissa got so angry."

"She got angry?" I asked, surprised. Anger wasn't an emotion I'd associate with the Princess. Rose on the other hand…

She nodded. "I mean I was pissed too. But she was beyond furious. Shit like that throws her off, people being abused. Understandably." I nodded, encouraging her to continue. She did. "She, she started compelling him to do things. Like taking a bat and trashing his room."

Her words amplified my shock. Compulsion was already highly illegal, but besides that, nobody was good enough at controlling it to do stuff like that.

"It's a part of Spirit," she said as if she could read my thoughts. "I haven't told you everything about it. But to be fair, I've told you more than anybody else. So here it goes, everything Lissa can do because of her specialization." She paused for a moment. "Healing, being amazing at compulsion," she counted with her fingers as she went down the list. "Reviving people or animals from the dead. There's apparently more a Spirit user can do, like telepathy, seeing auras or even telekinesis, but she doesn't seem to possess those powers. Yet, at least."

"Reviving people from the dead," I echoed. "How did you figure that one out?"

She finally looked my way, with nervous eyes. Her glance graced the blackness forming around my left eye, before looking away in shame. Then it hit me.

"The bond. That's how it's formed."

She waited for a moment, then nodded. "I died with her family. She didn't even notice what she did. We only figured everything out after when we started seeing the side effects."

Thinking about Rose dying, being dead, made my chest tighten. It wasn't a pleasant thought in the least. And the fact that she was connected to something, which drove her to insanity like today's… I didn't like this in the least.

"You already know that I feel her emotions and sometimes go into her head. That's not all. I can hear her thoughts, not always, but when she explicitly calls out to me. It only works one way; she can't feel or hear me. Another thing is, I can take these bad emotions from her. So she isn't suffering."

I let out a dry laugh. She snapped her head to me. "Oh, so that she isn't suffering. That makes it so much better," I said sarcastically. She looked at me bewildered.

"They come first," she repeated the old guardian mantra.

"Fuck that." Her eyes widened at my abrasion. "That's too much. You deserve better too."

She shrugged, still looking up at me in wonder. "It's not like I can change it. She saved my life."

I shook my head looking away from her. "No, no, you cannot go on that way. You didn't see yourself tonight, Rose. I was so-" scared, terrified of losing her, of her losing herself. I looked at her. "We'll find a way. See what all affects your bond, find a way to lessen this… whatever it is, on both of you."

She silently nodded. Her cheeks reddened with heat. Her lips were parted slightly, and lord, I had to stop focusing on them. "But first of all, you'll explain everything to Alberta. Tail between your legs. This," I stressed, gesturing my hand to the other side of the bathroom door, "could easily warrant you an expulsion. We need to prevent that from happening. I'll back you up. You'll take any punishment they give you. Are we clear?"

She violently nodded. "Yessir."

"Good." I slumped against the wall. I sighed. Damn, what a night! I felt Rose lean closer and relax against me. Her head came to rest on my shoulder. I was painfully aware of it. It gave me great comfort, but that feeling was worrisome. Caring about her came too easy to me. But it felt as if nobody else did, even her closest friend. She had been fighting all alone all this time, storing her worries and problems away, as if they didn't matter. So many people had failed her or haunted her, like the escapee Dashkov. I couldn't do the same. At that moment I promised myself that I would look after her. That was a dangerous feat in itself. She shouldn't be my priority; that was Lissa's role.

When had my life started turning around Rosemary Hathaway?

Probably around the time you arrived here, Dimitri, I thought to myself.

"Ugh," she made a sound, breaking my internal torment. I hummed in question.

"We are currently sitting on the floor of a male bathroom," she said in disgust. I let out a laugh, coming deep from my chest. She gave me a flabbergasted look but broke a moment later and started laughing as well. It was all going to be ok. She will be ok.

I'd make sure of that.