"Hey, Rose. There's food inside, I thought you guys might be hungry," she said and turned to walk back into the house. I stared after her as Mikhail went to open the trunk.

"Who is that?" Eddie asked me and eyed the door warily. Everyone seemed to tense once she made her presence known.

"An alchemist.," I shrugged and grabbed my bag from the back.

The four of us walked up the porch steps and through the front door. We quickly broke apart to do a sweep of the house and assess any security risks. After that we made a rough schedule for watches. Since none of us were familiar with the area, we decided to do shifts at night to make sure nothing had followed us here.

After that we turned to the food Sydney had mentioned earlier. She had found some place near here to get pizzas from, and in hardly any time we had each piled paper plates as high as possible. We dug into the food in a comfortable silence while Sydney just picked at the cheese on her one slice. I was curious about how she ended up here, and what she knew about the mission.

"So how'd you get roped into this, Syd?" I asked. Christian raised his eyebrows at me, questioning the familiar nickname I used.

"How do I get roped into everything?" She rolled her eyes playfully.

"Abe?" I questioned. She nodded slowly. The others were looking at us with a mix of curiosity and entertainment. Alchemists weren't exactly known for their friendliness, so it must strike everyone as a bit strange that we were having a casual conversation together.

"So how do you two know each other?" Mikhail asked.

"I met her in Russia," I said simply, ignoring the looks in my direction and instead focusing on my plate. Sydney scoffed.

"More like I had to track her around Russia because she was leaving a trail of strigoi bodies everywhere she went," she said, "I would wake up and have multiple fires to put out before lunch. I had to find her and make it stop."

"Hey! In my defense, I didn't even know what alchemists were! I was really shocked when I learned," I laughed and Sydney giggled along with me. I was happy she didn't seem to be too repulsed by our strange group. The others weren't so easy going with their laughter, and I knew why.

It was too easy for me to forget what happened in Russia before I found Dimitri. I also realized as my friends looked at me, Eddie and Christian with a sense of pride and Mikhail with some horror, that I hadn't exactly been forthcoming about what I had been doing when I was away from the Academy for those few months. Sure, I had told them bits and pieces, but it mostly centered around Dimitri. They didn't know how long I had to search for him, or who I had to kill in the process.

"I guess we know why you're leading our little group, Rose," Mikhail concluded. I looked at him surprised. Up until now I had thought that he was in charge, considering he was the oldest guardian. Eddie and I didn't even have any actual guardian experience, though we had found our fair share of trouble together.

"Wait, why am I the leader? And why are you guys all here?" I asked and looked around the room.

The rest of our dinner was spent with each of us going around in a circle and explaining why we were here. Although I didn't intend my question to hit so deep, the whole thing turned into a bonding experience for us. We didn't jump into each other's arms or sing songs or anything, but through each answer we all found some more understanding and respect for the members of our group.

Mikhail was here to get off of filing duty. He knew his punishment at Court would go on indefinitely, and this was an opportunity to actually use his training. He was also feeling trapped at Court, and I deeply resonated with the need for freedom. He mentioned missing Sonya, but he didn't elaborate on her condition as a strigoi. Our eyes met and I knew he was thinking about what Lissa had done for Dimitri. I thought he might be thinking he could find her in this time spent on the outside, but I didn't want to ask him in front of everyone.

Eddie was here because he was my friend. Well, not exactly. He was here because he was also facing a punishment for our little Vegas trip. Although he would have eventually been assigned a charge, a lot of people had withdrawn their bids for him, and he wouldn't exactly be up for the best gigs anymore. I felt some guilt for dragging him into the situation. He also talked about missing Mason, and how he felt that by joining the task force, he would be able to make it up to him in some small way. Mason had wanted to go on the offensive against strigoi, and Eddie wanted to honor that wish for our fallen friend.

Christian was perhaps the answer I was most interested in. He mentioned the same things he had as we were getting into the car, but he elaborated a little further. He really loved Lissa and thought that some time apart would help their relationship. She needed to figure out some Spirit stuff, and he wanted a chance to put his skills to the test. He wasn't sure when another opportunity like this would come along, so he jumped at the chance. He could only do so much inside the wards of Court.

Sydney went next, and she kept her explanation really simple. She was here because it was her duty to the Alchemists. Abe had pulled some of his strings and made sure it was her coming instead of an older, more experienced alchemist like Tatiana wanted. She did say that due to Christian joining us, it meant she would now be staying at the house with us instead of in the nearest town, which was roughly thirty minutes away. She was originally supposed to come by once a week with news and supplies, but now she would have to take Christian at least twice a week to the feeders. I vaguely wondered why Tatiana wouldn't trust us to get Christian back and forth, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it when Sydney wrapped up her story.

I had the pleasure of closing out our little group therapy session. I told them the basics. I was taken out of the running to be Lissa's guardian, and the Queen let me know it was this or essentially being exiled. I told them I still felt dedicated to the guardian mission, and being on the task force would help me protect people from the evil we'd discovered. Everyone except Sydney knew that this wasn't the whole truth, but I didn't need to explain to them Dimitri's part in everything. They knew as much as I was willing to share.

We ate the rest of our meal in silence and decided afterwards to check out where we'd be living and put our bags in our respective rooms. Sydney let me know with the change of plans that we'd have to share a room. She had been remarkably calm through dinner, but I could see more clearly now that she wasn't exactly comfortable living in a house full of evil creatures. I was thankful she didn't voice her feelings as I grabbed my bags and let her walk with me up the stairs. She had already claimed one bed, and I put my stuff on the other across the room from her. Our room wasn't huge, but it was plenty big for the two of us. We each had a dresser and a desk in addition to our twin beds, and it vaguely reminded me of the dorm rooms Lissa had shown me on the Lehigh website.

Sydney left me to do some unpacking. It didn't take me long with my meager possessions and soon I went to check out the rest of the upstairs. Thankfully Sydney and I would have our own bathroom. I was shocked to see how luxurious it looked. It had a claw foot tub as well as a shower, with double vanities for us to get ready on.

The next room I saw was the boys'. They had bunk beds on one side and a lofted twin on the other. It definitely looked like a college dorm, and I laughed as I saw Sparky hunched over on the top bunk. The room was bigger than ours, and all the furniture had a similar look. It seemed Mikhail had taken the bottom bunk, and Eddie was on the single lofted.

They also shared a bathroom, but it was smaller than ours. The boys had no tub and one vanity. I felt bad and asked if they wanted to switch, but they insisted we keep the bigger bathroom. I accepted and asked if they were okay with having our first meeting in a few hours, after we had all gotten some rest. I offered to take a watch shift to make everyone more comfortable, even though a strigoi attack was unlikely in the daytime.

From there I made my way downstairs. Sydney was sitting on one of the couches, feet on the coffee table, flipping through a magazine. When she saw me she immediately straightened up and put the magazine down. She looked at me with wide eyes, almost like she thought she was in trouble.

"Relax, Syd. I'm not the boss of you," I told her, trying to get her to calm down.

"I know that," she snapped, taking a deep breath, "I wasn't sure what you guys liked, but I started us off with some groceries. You can make a list for next time."

She followed me into the kitchen. I surveyed the contents of the fridge before I moved on to the pantry. Sydney must have remembered how much I could eat, because they were both filled completely with a variety of foods. I couldn't imagine what she thought she'd missed, it seemed like she had covered all possible bases with her choices.

"I'm going to do a quick sweep of the basement before I go to do a perimeter check," I told her and made my way down another flight of steps. I wasn't expecting much, so I was surprised to see a makeshift gym in the basement. There were two weight benches, two treadmills, and a punching bag. There was also plenty of room for us to spar. I was excited, knowing we would be able to keep up on our training. I wasn't sure how much time we would have in between our missions.

From there I made my way out the back door. It had several locks and it was made of sturdier wood than most back doors. I wondered when the house had been outfitted with all of our things. Tatiana must have had this planned for a while. I couldn't imagine securing a house in the middle of nowhere was a task that only took a couple of days to throw together.

The view from the backyard was gorgeous. The house was nestled into a wooded area, and the wildlife behind us was breathtaking. I hadn't been excited when I heard we were coming to West Virginia, and I still wasn't pleased being so far from civilization, but things could be worse. The view reminded me of a conversation I had had with Dimitri as we made our way to the Badica house for my qualifier.

We had spoken about what it would be like to live in a cabin, away from the world. My heart clenched at the thought. I realized it might not be so easy to escape my thoughts of him out here with little to do. I sighed and walked around the house a few times, checking the perimeter and our surroundings. I would feel slightly better if we could get some wards put up, but with our location and secret status, I didn't think that would be possible. I wondered if Sydney had some kind of similar alchemist magic.

As if she could hear my thoughts, Sydney soon joined me outside. We walked together in silence for a little while, and I was glad she was able to relax a bit around me. I know it couldn't be easy for her to be here.

"So why are you really here, Rose?" She asked. I sighed, knowing she would find out sooner or later. Might as well get it all out now.

"I'll give you the short version. You know that person I was trying to find in Russia? I thought I had killed him there, freed his soul from being strigoi. Turns out I didn't, and he came after me. Only instead of killing him this time, Lissa found a way to turn him back with Spirit. So now he's dhampir again," I took a deep breath. Sydney narrowed her eyes at me, sensing I had left something out.

"He was your boyfriend?" She asked finally. I laughed.

"Something like that. When he came back, he wasn't in love with me anymore. And I'm still in love with him. I just couldn't stay there anymore. Not when he was Lissa's guardian," I explained. It looked like Sydney had a lot more to say, but instead she just told me that the Alchemists had heard about the restoration. We stayed quiet for a few more laps around the house before she let me know she had an envelope for me, one from court.

I took a deep breath before we decided to head instead. I steeled myself for whatever instructions I was about to be given.