I apologise for any mistakes, I'm sick and my editing can't be trusted.

enjoy!

The light switched on and I hunched my shoulders. I didn't bother to turn around, quickly wiping my cheeks and then went back to wrapping my knuckles.

"They are looking for you," Dimitri started, taking slow steps towards me.

I pursed my lips and tugged the wrap tighter than I needed to. "Good for them, but I'm busy," I replied tersely.

"You're hiding."

I spun on my heel, "I'm not!"

Dimitri's eyes softened, "Rose, you are in the storage room in the dark," he pointed out. "Sounds like you're hiding." He came closer, eyes taking in my red eyes. It wouldn't be difficult to guess what I had been doing in here.

I hated crying over them when I was mad. They abandoned me. I was alone and thought I had lost them, I loved my parents so much and my grief had almost destroyed me.

"They left me," I spat, fists clenched at my side as I lifted tear-filled eyes up to Dimitri's. "How can I be happy to see them knowing that?"

His arms wrapped around me and I collapsed against him. Tears of anger and pain flowed down my cheeks as Dimitri held me close, his hand rubbed my back and he pressed his lips to the crown of my head.

It was funny how much I had been demanding my parents be here, fighting for someone to just call them so they could tell me the truth, but actually seeing them was like a knife in my chest. Everything I thought I had moved past came rushing back.

"I know you're hurt, but you can finally get all the answers you've been wanting," Dimitri tried. His arm slipped down to my waist when I pulled back to see his face; his touch was gentle as he wiped my tears. "Maybe they have a good reason."

"I don't think any reason will be good enough," I replied honestly. Nothing would be able to heal the damage. I sighed and rested my forehead on his chest, "I don't even want to be around them more than I have to."

"You'll have to talk to them eventually."

I grimaced, snaking my arms around his waist and burying my face in his chest. Dimitri chuckled, his fingers brushed my hair back from my face, trailing down to the back of my neck and massaging.

"You are all staying in the same apartment," he pointed out.

"Fuck," I hissed. I had forgotten that. The idea of living with my parents again felt wrong. I'd had my own place since I was eighteen and had grown used to it.

"It'll be okay, Roza."

I shook my head and looked up at him again, "No it isn't. I do not want to live with them."

His brow lifted, "Where else would you stay?"

I drew back, breaking his hold on me. Dimitri and I hadn't had the talk about exactly where we stood, but neither of us were just fooling around anymore. Dimitri told me he was committed and so was I.

I told myself that as I asked, "Could I stay with you?"

Dimitri went still. I watched his throat bobble when he swallowed, dropping his eyes and licking his lips. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

It felt like a bucket of cold water was dumped on my head. Guess I was wrong. I tried to keep my expression neutral as I stepped away from him, "Right. You have your family there." I tried to reason with myself. It made sense, there were already a bunch of people living there, and I would just be in the way. I told myself that was the reason.

"I think it's better if you stay with your family," he explained, dipping his head in hopes of catching my eyes.

My anger flared. "And I don't want to. Why can't you get that?"

"Rose–"

"I'm tired," I cut him off. My anger had returned and words were on the tip of my tongue that I didn't want to say. It wasn't Dimitri's fault, but his rejection made me embarrassed which only fed my emotions.

I shouldn't have asked. It was stupid to put that expectation on him. Even if he did have space for me, I shouldn't have assumed we were at that point in the relationship.

I had only told him I was committed yesterday and now I wanted to move in with him.

I was an idiot.

Dimitri sighed, his hand resting on my shoulder, "Rose, I just think that you need to talk to them. They came back to explain everything. You need to give them a chance."

"God, don't you get it!" I yelled, smacking his hand away from me, "They had their chance when you found me ages ago and didn't do anything. They had a chance to give me their reasons! Instead, they left me struggling to feed myself and living in a shitty apartment where I once had a drug dealer break the door down. They left me to be found by Strigoi and gave me no warning about any of it!"

"I'm not saying–"

"No. I know exactly what you're saying, Dimitri," I declared stubbornly, "and I'm telling you to shut up. You don't understand how I feel and if you are just going to keep telling me that I need to give them a chance, then you can fuck off!" I pushed past him, not waiting around for a response or for him to try to reason with me again. I didn't need someone else telling me what to do.

I stormed through the building, racing up the stairs, and with nowhere to really go, I ended up on the roof of the building. The door slammed shut behind me as I walked to the middle of the roof and let my head fall back. It wasn't sunny, instead, the sky was grey and the smell of rain was in the air. Of course, I couldn't even get a respite by having some sunlight.

I wanted to scream. I could up here and I doubted too many people would hear me over the sounds of the city. The street below was busy, people driving to work and starting their day. I planted my hands on the metal railing that ran around the edge of the building, gripping it tightly.

I could never go back to living in the dark about this world, and I didn't want to, but there were times I missed the control I had. I understood how things worked and knew what I had to do. I could choose what I wanted to do.

But now… I was just along for the ride on the whim of others.

Dimitri was right that this was my chance to get answers, but I was too pissed off and scared to get them.

I groaned and dropped to the ground, pressing my back against the cement half-wall.

I shouldn't have yelled at him.

Once again, I managed to fuck up. I pulled my knees up and dropped my forehead to them. Dimitri was just trying to help but I pushed him away.

This was exactly why I didn't do serious relationships.

The longer I sat there, the heavier my eyelids became. With the cool breeze hitting the back of my neck and the familiar hum of the city, I was lulled to sleep.

Fingers brushed against my cheek, lightly tapping. I heard someone hum and then click their tongue. "It won't be long now, Rosemarie."

That voice sent chills down my spine and my eyes flew open, finding bright green eyes staring back at me. A red ring around the pupils.

I lunged forward and knocked them away from me.

"What the hell?" a different voice called out. I paused and looked back at the man I had just shoved and was shocked to see Adrian on the ground in a heap and a frown on his face. "I'm not waking you up again," he chilled as he stood up, dusting his back.

"Adrian?" I struggled to my feet, my body in pain from sleeping in a weird position. I rubbed my eyes and tried to shake off the leftover panic of my dream. "What are you doing up here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied. He shot me a look before he pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. It was only when I noticed how the fire lit up his face I realised how dark it was. The sun was still up but it had to be late afternoon by now.

"What's the time?"

"Late." He blew out a puff of smoke, "They are all looking for you. What is this? Your third time running off?"

I scowled, "I didn't run off."

"Disappearing and not telling anyone where you are is running off."

"I'm just sitting on the roof!"

Adrian chuckled, "I don't think that's any better, little dhampir." He took another long drag, then held the cigarette to me, "You look tense."

I flipped him off and turned away, I stretched my muscles and looked back out into the city. A storm was building on the horizon, flashes of lightning in the clouds. I breathed in the smell of the moisture in the air and brushed back my hair when the wind blew it about.

"Your aura is pretty dark," Adrian commented after a minute of silence. "I wonder if that has anything to do with why Dimitri's is also dimmed? If I had to explain it, I would say he looks like a kicked puppy."

I bite back telling him to get lost, but instead, turned back to him and crossed my arms. "How did you know I was up here?"

"I didn't." He finished his smoke and threw away the butt. "I got tired of watching everyone freaking out, so I came up here to smoke. And look what I find." He stopped, staring at me with a strange look on his face. "What were you dreaming about?"

Green eyes flashed in my mind. "About string cheese."

"You must really hate cheese. You were making some crazy colours."

I dropped my eyes, really hating this conversation now. "I should go back in there." I had another mess I had to clean up. It wasn't even my intention to disappear for that long, and now I had to explain it.

"I get not wanting to see your parents," Adrian hummed, surprising me momentarily. He shook his head at me, "I don't need to see aura to guess you were avoiding them. If it was my dad looking for me, I would hide too."

"Do you think I should give them a chance?"

He chuckled, "Only if you want answers. But I wouldn't blame you if you just tell them to fuck off. And then you and I could run off together, I'm thinking somewhere with a beach."

"In your dreams," I retorted with a roll of my eyes, then smirked. "I just want to tell them how much they fucked up."

"Do it."

I shot him a look, "Doesn't sound very productive in getting answers."

"Okay," he shrugged, "get your answers and then tell them. Holding on to all of that is doing nothing good for you." He waved his hand towards me and grimaced. "It's really dark. You know, I know some ways to release the stress," he told me with a wink and sinful grin.

"And I'm leaving," I lamented.

It was nice knowing that there was someone that understood my anger and wasn't pushing me to talk to my parents, and as great as it sounded to just ignore them, Dimitri was right. He was right and I told him to fuck off.

I wasn't sure where to head to reveal I hadn't run off, and after tossing up between my parent's apartments and Olena's, I decided I needed to talk to Dimitri first. I hoped he was there or that someone could contact him. I was surprised when the door opened and I was greeted by Abe instead.

My body refused to move, feet planted and limbs frozen. He was so close, I could see the grey hair peppering his hair around the temples and in his beard. His eyes were wide as they flicked across my face and then down my body before they came back up to meet mine again.

"Hey, kiz," Abe whispered, his tone strained as if he was trying to hold back tears. "You've grown," he marvelled and then his eyes became misty.

The last time I saw him was the night of the fire. I had asked if I could spend the night at my friend's house, it was the reason why I wasn't there when the fire happened. Something told me that there was something wrong and I snuck out of Lacy's house early in the morning and discovered the flashing lights of the firetruck and the burnt remains of my life.

And then I knew I had to leave…

For a moment, all of the anger left me and I was overwhelmed by how much I missed my father. I think Abe was as surprised as me when I threw my arms around him and pressed my face to his shoulder. I could feel the soft material of his scarf, it was deep red and almost shimmered in the light.

His arms moved quickly to return the embrace and I sob from the familiarity of the hug.

I never thought I would be able to hold my dad like this again.

"I've missed you so much," he murmured, squeezing me tighter. When he drew back after a minute, his eyes were rimmed red but a large smile was on his face. "I need to call your mother, they are looking for you."

The overwhelming feelings that had taken over me were pushed down and I withdrew from him, arms crossed over my chest. I swallowed and looked past him, "Yeah. I just needed some time. What are you doing here?"

Abe's expression was pinched, his smile faltered when I pulled away. "I was catching up on everything." He waved his hand behind him and pushed the door all the way open. I could peer around him and see Yeva and Olena at the kitchen table; Olena was talking on the phone, eyes meeting mine with a relieved smile.

She hung up and called to us, "I've told them to come back. They didn't get too far, so it won't be long."

When Olena offered me something to drink, I felt deja vu from being in here the day earlier. "How did you get here so soon?" I asked Abe, remaining on my feet and with some distance between us. Hugging him was a moment of weakness and now I was determined to keep my guard up.

"We took a last-minute flight, only took ten hours to fly over," Abe explained. His eyes didn't leave me and neither did the look of joy on his face. It was diminished but I could clearly tell he was happy to see me.

"So you weren't far from here?"

"We were in Rome when we got the call."

All I could picture was him and my mother sitting in a cafe, drinking wine and sharing a meal, living their blissful life without me.

I looked away from him and focused on the pile of books on the table instead—the ones I was reading that morning. Abe followed my eye line, "I saw you found our notes."

My anger flared, "I wouldn't have had to go searching for it if you cared enough to tell me the truth."

His expression became grim, "You're right."

"Are you going to tell me now?" I demanded.

"Let's wait for your mother to come back."

I released a slow breath, my nails digging into my arms, "Fine."

We didn't have to wait long, I could hear the pounding of footsteps before the door was thrown open and Janine barged in followed by Alberta and Dimitri. I looked past the others and just focused on Dimitri and opened my mouth to apologise to him, only to be cut off.

"What were you thinking!" Janine screeched and marched towards me with her finger pointed at my face. "You just run off? Do you think this is just all a game?"

While my reunion with Abe made me realise how much I missed them, Janine reminded me how much I hated them. "I didn't run off, I just needed some space," I spat, matching Janine's glare with one of my own.

"Where did you go?" Dimitri asked, his voice pulled my attention back to him and for a second I saw the swirl of emotions in his eyes—Concern, guilt, and hurt.

I wondered if I had already messed our relationship up before it even started. "I was on the roof," I explained. "I fell asleep and Adrian found me."

Janine scoffed, "We came all this way and you throw a tantrum."

"Yeah, you really put in all the effort for me!" I yelled back. I was starting to think that giving them a chance was a big mistake. "Sorry that I ruined your holiday. I guess it's childish of me to want to know you aren't dead."

"You think we were on holiday? You don't know anything about what we have been doing!"

"I'm fucking aware of that because no one tells me anything!"

"That's enough!" Abe silenced us.

Both of us were breathing heavily, daggers in our eyes and scowls on our faces. My mother and I were so much alike, our arguments could easily turn into full-blown screaming matches that Abe would have to play mediator. If I wasn't so pissed off, I might find some comfort in the familiarity.

"It's been a long day for everyone, let's just sit and talk about this," Abe advised. He pulled a chair out for Janine, inclining his head to it. Her eyes flicked to mine and an expression shifted over her face, gone in a second, and then she was back to that same blank face I was used to.

The others watched silently, everyone slowly taking their seats at the table. I noticed Dimitri hesitate near me, he pulled a seat out for me and waited. There was a question in his eyes, but he gave me a slight smile that made me realise he wasn't going to force me. A small show of support.

Abe noticed my reluctance. "Rose, please," he implored and I gave in.

I took the offered chair, feeling myself relax a little when Dimitri sat beside me. My hand reached for his under the table, relief washed over me that he didn't pull away. Warm fingers intertwined with mine and squeezed.

"Okay," I started, taking a breath to steady myself. I looked up at my parents and reminded myself that I just wanted answers. "Tell me everything."

Next chapter will be giving some of the answers you guys have all been waiting for :)