Chapter 18:

Rose

I had texted Lissa when Dimitri was in the shower. I asked her if she could talk. I know she was stressing out about the vote. Now that most of my own issues were dealt with, I could focus on Lissa again.

She picked up and before I could even say hi, Lissa was screaming in the phone. "Rose! I don't know what to do anymore! It is horrible, everything is so very very horrible."

I wanted to check to see if Lissa was affected by the darkness but I caught myself. I had ended someone's life because I was drawing too much darkness out of her. I need to be more conservative from now on.

I also recognized that Lissa was being dramatic, sure she had a lot to think about and it wasn't an easy decision running for Queen or not, but things would get a lot more horrible from now on. Her boyfriend's aunt had killed the Queen and had probably attacked her too. The council she would be part of tried to kill me and Dimitri off and she had a half sibling out there that was proof her perfect and very dead father had cheated on his wife, her mother.

So no, things weren't very very horrible yet. But I didn't say any of that.

"Calm down Lissa, just talk to me."

I could hear her take a few deep breaths. "I don't know what to do. the other two candidates are…well."

She didn't say it out loud, not because someone might overhear, but because she was raised properly and the words I could hear her thinking through the bond weren't very flattering.

"But even if I wanted to- and I am not saying I want to- I still don't have a quorum and we won't get the law overturned in time for the vote!"

"Don't worry about the quorum law. I am working on it." I tried to reassure her.

I could feel her frown through the phone."What crazy plan have you concocted now? I thought you were Strigoi scouting."

I shrugged even if she couldn't see it. "I had some free time on my hands, besides, the mission is over. We are coming back to Court, so…if we aren't there when the voting starts, stall!"

"Rose, what have you done?" She sounded like a school teacher chastising a four year old.

"I will explain everything when I get back-hopefully in time. So for now, there is only one question remaining; Do you want to be Queen?"

It was silent for a long time. I checked the phone because maybe it had disconnected but it was still showing Lissa's caller ID. I could feel uncertainty through the bond. Duty and the Dragomir name were warring with the life she always wanted to have, going to college and…making a difference. She just didn't think she would make such a big difference at eighteen.

"Yes, I think I want to be Queen."

"Then go prepare a speech to win them over, I will do the rest."

Dimitri was done in the shower and wrapped his naked arms around mine. He pressed the rest of his naked body against my back as he kissed my neck. I leaned into him and closed my eyes. I couldn't fight the moan that escaped me as he suckled on the flesh in my neck.

"Rose?" oh right, I still had Lissa on the phone. "What am I hearing, it sounds like someone is… eating?" Dimitri chuckled and the bastard had no trouble staking his claim. "Sorry Princess, Rose and I are in the middle of some… debriefing after the mission. She works me very hard as team leader."

I elbowed him and Dimitri took a laughing step back while I had a squealing Lissa on the other end of the line. I put my hand over the phone, both blocking some of Lissa's sounds out as well as trying to stop Lissa from overhearing.

"Now I won't get rid of her for a while. She will want to know everything."

Dimitri laid down on the bed, his legs crossed at the ankles while he picked up one of his books. "I really wouldn't recommend that."

I groaned and walked away towards the living room, slamming the door and blocking Dimitri out. Then only when I noticed that Lissa had stopped squealing did I put the phone back to my ear.

"Rose, really? you and Dimitri? When? How?" At least she didn't ask,' how many times' or 'what positions'.

"Honestly, just now. Our last fight was brutal and we barely survived. I think both of us sort of wanted to live life to the fullest."

I had updated Lissa regularly on what was going on, she didn't accept anything else, but I hadn't told her about Sonya, or about Dimitri professing his love for me or about the suicide mission. I kept her in the dark just as much as Hans.

"Oh my God. So you are together."

"Yes."

"Like together together."

"Yes."

"As in a committed long term relationship."

"Yes! We haven't really figured the last part out yet, but Hans was positive both of us would get our positions back, hopefully somewhere at Court, so we can see each other often."

"I am so happy for you. I am glad you both came to your senses." I laughed, me too, Lissa me too.

I hung up with Lissa after divulging a few intimate details just to shut her up. She had argued I had seen Christian plenty of times, so it was only right that she knew some stuff about Dimitri. And she wasn't wrong. Except I hadn't actually wanted to know any of that stuff from Christian where Lissa seemed quite eager to learn about Dimitri's sexual exploits.

I went back to the bedroom and sat down next to Dimitri who was engrossed in his western novel. Unfortunately he had put on some pants. "How long do you think we need to wait? Do you think they can convince them to come to Court. Maybe I should have gone with them."

He grabbed my hand and put it in his lap and gently rubbed circles on it, but his eyes never left the page and he never said anything.

"I know, I should just let Sonya handle it. She is family and Mia can also be very charming if she wants to be. I should just trust them."

Still just drawing circles on my hand, slowly massaging it, occasionally he moved towards my fingers, before moving back to the palm. He let go for a minute to flip the page and then went back to his ministrations.

"But what if they don't want to come, there is a reason they have never come forward. If you are not used to the world of Moroi politics, it can look very daunting."

Another page was flipped as he moved up towards my wrist and lower arm.

"But I know we can help them. I might not be an expert in Court decorum, but I know that we have enough friends in the vicinity to make sure they are okay."

He was taking my other hand now, repeating the same process.

"Of course, it might be that they don't want to come for more personal reasons. I mean they probably knew they had a surviving sibling but Lissa didn't. I don't know how she will take it, and neither do they. They might be afraid of Lissa's reaction."

Another page down. Dimitri was a fast reader.

"But even though Lissa might not receive them with open arms, Lissa isn't one to hold the sins of someone else against them. It might be an adjustment, but I think in the end Lissa would feel glad she isn't alone anymore."

Dimitri let go of my hand and put the book down, he turned slightly to look at me. "Feel better now?"

I sheepishly nodded. "Yeah, thanks." I laughed as he picked the book back up and I snuggled into him, just content being with him. "I guess you have taken back the mantle of zen master again."

He pretended to read, but I could see the smile pulling at his lips.

Dimitri

It was in the middle of the night when we heard a knock on the hotel door. Mikhail had let us know they were coming back and he listed an ETA so we were up and dressed. Well, I was up and dressed. Rose was dressed and half asleep on my lap as she pretended to watch tv.

The knock woke her up and she practically jumped off of me. "I am up, I am up." Right. I walked to the door but before I opened it I touched the side of my mouth. "You have a little…"

Rose wiped away the drool when I opened up the door. There were Mikhail, Sonya and Mia with two more people. A very lean woman and an equally lean girl with big green eyes and messy curls. She seemed familiar. But I couldn't quite place her.

"Jill?" I heard Rose from behind me. "Oh my God, what are you doing…here." Rose seemed to have finally caught on to why Jill was here. She was Lissa's sibling.

Rose walked over to Jill and hugged her. "It is going to be okay, Jill."

I moved towards Mia and leaned into the much smaller Moroi. "What is going on? Who is she?"

She leaned back, whispering as she did. "That is Jill Mastrano, She went to St. Vladimirs. Jill wanted to learn some offensive magic from Christian and Lissa got extremely jealous of her. It is what broke Christian and Lissa up, among other things."

Oh, so the drama wasn't so much that she was a long lost Princess, but that her sibling had been jealous of her. Sounded to me like they were already acting like siblings. I think I remember her now. We ran into her when we were delivering books to the elementary campus. She had been a blabbering nervous girl.

"I swear Rose, I never knew." Jill said. Obviously it had been a shock to Jill learning she was a Dragomir.

The lean woman beside Sonya- which I assumed was her mother- stepped forward. "I never meant for Jill to find out. I didn't want her at Court. It is one big viper pit. I had seen how it affected Eric after his father died. I didn't want that kind of life for Jill. I still don't"

This seemed to make Jill angry. "Yes, well, it isn't your decision anymore, Mother. I might not have ever wanted to be a Princess, but coming forward now means Lissa can get her vote and our world will be better for it."

Actually if Lissa had her quorum, it could lead to Lissa becoming Queen. And Jill would have to be on the Council when she was older as the official Dragomir Princess. Not to mention Jill would be the only thing keeping Lissa on the throne. That might prove to be very dangerous for her. Jill was one brave girl.

"I know this is daunting, but I'll protect you Jill. We all will." Rose gestured around the room.

"But if we are going to make a difference, we need to move to Court now. They will start the vote tomorrow." I looked down at my watch, seeing it was past midnight. "Well, today."

Luckily it was the Moroi day, so we had until the next night to get back to Court. If I drove, we would make it in time, probably have some time to spare too.

There was only one problem, our vehicle. Although we had a very nice guardian issued SUV it still only has five seats. But… it did have a sizable trunk.

Once we were all packed into the car Rose looked at me like she wanted to kill me. "I hate you." Mia was next to her and if looks could kill I would have been dead, very very dead.

"No, you don't. You love me."

"Well, I hate that I am small and you are big." I laughed as I closed the trunk. I was driving, Mikhail in the passenger seat. Sonya, Jill and her mother were in the backseat. technically Jill could have fitted into the trunk, but she was a Princess now, you can't put a Princess in the trunk. Which is exactly what I had said to Rose and Mia when they had protested. Also this was standard guardian protocol. Guardians in the front and Guardians in the back. And for arguments sake, Mia was a guardian in this case. She had earned that title - at least in this instance.

We made our way back to Court. It was a long drive, but we got there late in the afternoon. Court was still quiet. Rose had been texting like crazy, getting everyone together. I hoped Hans was included in one of those texts. We will need protection for Jill.

We got out of the car in the Guardian's garage. Once Rose got out, she stretched rather dramatically. I know she spent a while in an uncomfortable back seat, but I doubt she would have been okay with being left behind, so this really was the only option.

"I asked everyone to meet us at the Dragomir house." Rose said as we walked in that direction. Mia, Mikhail and Sonya also followed, together with Jill's mother and Jill. Sonya was there because she wanted to support her cousin. Mikhail wasn't going to leave Sonya, ever, and I think Mia just wanted to watch the drama.

"Everyone?" I asked as I walked beside her.

She nodded. "Including Tasha. I texted Hans that we were back. He wanted me to make sure Tasha doesn't suspect anything. They are still gathering evidence. If she finds out before they can find anything definitive, she could make a run for it."

I really didn't know how we had gotten here. How had my once good friend turned into a murderer that I had to lie to so she could get arrested. And it wasn't just Tasha that would be affected either. Christian would bear the brunt of this.

We got to the Dragomir house where Lissa was already up and in her best attire. It was still a few hours before she had to give her speech but she was dressed and by the looks of it, practicing her speech as curling rolls cooled down on her head. When Lissa saw us, she was so excited she ran to Rose, stopped halfway, pulled the rollers out and then ran the rest of the way. Rose laughed but caught her best friend.

Once she was done hugging her best friend, she acknowledged me. "Guardian Belikov. I hear you are to be reinstated permanently. Congratulations." I inclined my head in thanks. She greeted Mikhail and Mia and thanked them for their role in the mission and helping keep us alive. She was already acting like a Queen, all she was missing was the crown.

When she saw the last few people behind me, she was a bit confused. "Miss Karp?"

"Hello Lissa. It is good to see you again. Rose has been filling me in on how you have been doing."

Lissa looked towards Rose and she was pissed. "Funny, Rose hasn't said anything to me about you."

Sonya moved towards Lissa and took her hands. "Don't blame Rose, I was restored quite suddenly and I was a mess at first, as you can imagine. I needed time to figure things out. So I asked Rose to keep my secret for just a little bit. I am sure you understand." Sonya hadn't asked that of Rose at all. She was just trying to keep Lissa calm- and guilting her into letting it go. "Now that I am back, I am looking forward to working with you Princess. I am sure we can learn a lot from each other."

Sonya stepped back and beckoned Jill forward. "Also I would like to introduce you to someone."

Lissa's voice was a little harsh, even though she tried to cover it up as best as she could.

"We have met."

"You haven't. Not properly. Vasilisa Dragomir, this is Jillian Mastrano-Dragomir. Your sister."