Sorry it took so long, there were multiple components I was putting together and it's a little longer than my other chapters. I hope it was worth the wait. Enjoy!
Chapter 39: Rose
Pavel POV
Abe, Janine and I were sitting in one of Abe's many sitting rooms in Turkey. Abe and Janine were enjoying a lazy breakfast; however, I had been up for hours and was on my second cup of coffee.
"Abe are you sure that you want to do this?" Pavel asked.
"Yes, Janine and I discussed it and we believe it is appropriate." Abe responded and Janine nodded her head.
"I don't agree, I think It is to soon in her training. She hasn't even started weapons training and she has only had about a handful of classes with stake training." I said.
"If she had stayed with us instead of going to the Academy, she would have gone through this already." Abe said.
"Yes, but she hasn't been with you Abe and there are a lot of threats out there right now, too many for her do be put through this right now." I started to say something else but I was interrupted by Abe.
Abe held his hand up and said "The decision has already been made and the plan is already in place."
I stood up and turned to Janine and said "You are responsible for standing between Abe and Dimitri when this happens. This is your choice, not mine." And then I stormed out of Abe's study slamming the door behind me.
I realized that if a normal guardian had spoken to their charge like that then it would be grounds for termination, but Abe and I have a long history together and this was probably the second time we have disagreed on something.
I stormed out of the building to workout before my daily briefing with the on-duty guardians. I needed to work off some of this anger.
A week earlier
Rose POV
This week had probably been one of the best weeks since leaving St. Vladimir. Lissa was slowly coming around to forgiving herself for the thoughts that Robert had put in her head. Dimitri kept reminding me to give her time, just like I needed after the lust charm when she was kidnapped.
I was so happy to have Eddie here, he seemed to be adjusting well and I loved how our team had taken to him. They were really looking out for him as some had been in his position or known guardians that had not made it out alive after being kidnapped by strigoi.
Vika and I were growing closer and closer as sisters, I did my best to make sure Lissa was included when I could and tried to not make her jealous.
Our team was in the gym from 7am to 12pm, then lunch and then Vika, Eddie and I had class with our tutor from 1pm to 3pm and then back to the gym from 3pm to 6pm. With the more intense training, Eddie, Vika and I were exhausted and I hate to admit that I had fallen asleep more than once at the dinner table.
Dimitri was in his element, he loved teaching us novices, but also loved helping the guardians rise through the ranks of blast and blood masters.
I was getting antsy to explore Istanbul, it was slightly frustrating knowing it was just outside the walls of the compound. Baba and Pavel promised that soon we would venture out for a day trip but they were following up on security issues first.
And speaking of security, we hadn't heard nor seen Tasha or Guardian Andrew since Baia, but since they were now strigoi it was difficult to get information on there whereabouts. As for Adrian, no one had experienced any dream walking nor had we seen him or the royal guardians. But Baba heard through sources that he had not returned to Court, so that was unnerving.
Dimitri and I were great, it was awesome to be a couple out in the open and I watched him slowly open up more and more. Vika had commented that he was becoming more and more like he was before Ivan was killed. I guess I hadn't realized how many walls he had put up in order to protect himself. I knew that he was always more open with me, but I was enjoying his more public playful side.
On Thursday and Vika, Eddie and I had started stake training this week. We spent our mornings on endurance and weight training and then the afternoon sparring or some type of weapons training. This afternoon we were going to learn how to fight with sticks.
Guardian Brown taught the basics of using sticks and along with the novices, the guardians from our team were learning. Guardian Brown had us split into groups of two and to slowly fight using the hits we had learned. He emphasized to put to much power behind the hits until we had some muscle memory.
Dimitri and I partnered up and so did Matt and Vika. Guardian Brown was walking around correcting people on their technique. I was having a hard time with Dimitri, maybe because he was taller than I was but I had a hard time blocking him and I was getting more frustrated with myself.
Guardian Brown came over to us and watched Dimitri and I for a while. He finally stopped us and said "Rose, come with me."
I made questioning eyes at Dimitri and he nodded, so I followed him and he led me over to a balance beam. For an older retired guardian, he eloquently stood up on the beam. I, however was not so eloquent as he was.
Once we were facing each other he would call out a move for me to do and block me. That when pretty well, but then he said "I will call out the move and you will block me. Ready?"
"Yes" I nodded.
He started and again I was having a hard time blocking and when he hit me it hurt much more than Dimitri's hits. I started getting more and more frustrated and I knew I was getting sloppier.
"Rose, you need to focus, people out there, won't care if your tired or frustrated. They are just going to keep coming at you."
"How do you expect me to learn when I am trying to balance at the same time." I said a little sarcastically.
"Well then, think of how much better you will be on the ground." Guardian Brown smirked right back at me.
He continued his assault on me and I could sense Dimitri uneasiness about watching me get beaten up. Guardian Brown kept going and I finally calmed myself down and took some deep breaths and start blocking him better.
After what seemed to be like hours, he finally stopped and said "God job, Rose." And he jumped down and started working with other groups. I went back to Dimitri and I could see the love in his eyes and knew he wanted to scoop me off my feet but I also knew he wanted to maintain a little professional atmosphere.
By the time I finished I had bruises everywhere. Dimitri suggested sharing a nice hot shower before dinner. So, we could save water, I don't think that was going to happen since the shower was probably twice as long. Not that it matter to me, I loved my naked Russian God in the shower with me.
It was on Thursday nights that Baba and Mom had suggested that we would get together once a week for dinner like normal families. But Baba said he needed to attend to some business with the humans in town, so we rescheduled for Sunday night.
I wasn't too upset because I was exhausted after all the training this week. I made it through dinner but when we went up to the 5th floor to relax and watch a little tv, I am not sure how much I saw past the opening credits.
I was vaguely aware of Dimitri carrying me to bed and changing my clothes, but after that I was dead to the world.
I started to hear some rustling as I was becoming more aware of my surroundings as the noise was waking me up and that's when I felt the hand over my mouth and multiple people grabbing me. I started struggling against the hands that were grabbing at me and picking me up. I was able to get my left leg free and I kicked with all my might. I hit someone as I heard a gush of air leave the body of the person I hit.
I could now appreciate that the intruders had flashlights or head lights but they were all wearing masks so I was unable to recognize anyone. I felt a prick in my thigh and just before I was lost to the darkness, I saw the worst image I could possibly imagine. Dimitri on the floor, not moving with blood trickling down his temple.
DPOV
I started to come out of a fog, my head was killing me and I realized I was on the floor of our bedroom. ROZA! I jumped up, turned on the light on the nightstand and saw that she was not in our bed. I ran to the bathroom, the office, the kitchen and the living area. Nothing!
I ran downstairs to the second door and started banging on doors and as everyone's door opened, I started ordering them around. I sent two people down to check on the guardians watching the doors, and then I sent others to the 3rd and 4th floor as well as the basement to look for Rose.
Matt, Vika, Celeste, Yuri and Eddie were instantly at my side asking what happened.
"Rose, she's gone, I can't find her. I remember a hand on my mouth, a prick and someone hit me with something. Roza and I were sleeping and I don't know how long I was out." I spat out.
"Dimka, you're bleeding." Vika said.
"Vika, I'm fine, we need to find Roza, I don't know where she is."
"Where's her phone?" Yuri asked.
I took off running up three flights of stairs to our room with the others hot on my trail. I got my phone which was plugged into the charger right next to Roza's. Shit! I tried calling Pavel, no answer, Abe no answer, Janine no answer.
Vika picked up Roza's phone and activated the emergency alarm. My phone started alarming and I quickly silenced it.
I called the control room to see what was going on and they said someone was on their way over. The rest of our team gathered on the fifth floor, including the two guarding the doors and they had similar stories of feeling a prick and then being knocked out.
Something about this just didn't feel right.
Abe and Janine appeared at the bedroom door and suggested that we talk on the 4th floor. They were both to calm for this to be due to someone outside of Abe's control.
"No, what the fuck is going on?" I demanded. "Where is Pavel?"
"Pavel, has taken a few days off and before we get into details, just know that he was not in favor of this." Abe said.
My patience was wearing thin, Rose was always curious where my limit was and we were shortly approaching it.
"Rose is safe, she is being held in an undisclosed location with twenty of my guardians. This was a test for everyone, first to test Rose's security, to see if it was possible to kidnap her from her guarded and warded home. And second, to test Rose's ability to survive a kidnapping." Abe explained.
My eyes narrowed at Abe as all I saw was red, just as I was about to charge Abe, I felt Matt, Yuri and Eddie, plus a few other guardians holding me back. As I struggled against everyone, any and every swear word in Russian and English left my mouth, putting Roza's love of swearing to shame.
I had to admire that Abe never flinched once as I was raging against him. It definitely takes guts to show no fear when a 6'7" 250lb guardian is threatening you with bodily harm.
One of Abe's guardians that had accompanied him started walking toward me with a syringe. "Don't" I yelled as I pointed to the syringe and I stopped fighting against everyone that was holding me back.
"Where is she Abe?" I demanded.
"She's safe, I have twenty guardians with her." Abe said.
I sighed "Abe, how stupid can you be. Did you forget that Rose left a heavily guarded and warded school with the last Dragomir Princess and remained on the run with no outside help while over fifty guardians attempted to find them. And she has been climbing in and out of her and Lissa's third floor windows since she was eight."
Eddie, Celeste and Yuri all nodded agreeing with the information I relayed to Abe. I watched the blood drain from Abe's face as he realized the mistake he made.
"And she killed two strigoi with a dull sword, how hard do you think twenty guardians are going to be especially if she takes some darkness from Lissa. Now call whomever, make sure they have eyes on her and let me talk with her and tell her we are coming to get her." I demanded.
Abe took his phone out and before he could call anyone, it started ringing. Abe answered and placed it on speaker "I'm sorry sir, but she's gone. She was able to fight off the two guards and then climb out of a third story window on to the roof."
Abe started speaking in Turkish and based on the reactions of some of the guardians, I wondered if Roza's love of swearing was genetic.
"Fuck, get every guardian you have to the third floor, get maps and get Pavel." I demanded.
I went into our closet to get changed into my fighting clothes, it was nighttime and my Roza was in a city where she didn't speak the language or know her way around. Just seeing Roza's clothes was like a dagger to my heart, I knew I loved her but I guess I didn't know how much until she was ripped out of my arms.
It was at this point that I remembered that Roza was in her pjs, I started grabbing clothes, so that each search party would have at least pants and a shirt for her.
I ran down to the third floor where everyone was gathering. I gave Vika the clothes I had grabbed for Roza and asked her to sort them out for each team.
Thankfully, by the time I had reached the 3rd floor, the guardians had separated themselves into four teams consisting of those who spoke Turkish and knew the area, plus guardians that Roza knew so that she would feel safe if approached.
Celest and Yuri would accompany one team and Vika and Matt were going to accompany another team. I was going to take Eddie with me, one because he knows Roza, probably better than I do, second he is a hell of a fighter but I was a little concerned about him given his history should we encounter strigoi. And since it was about 1am, there was a good chance we would run into them.
Once we knew where she was taken to, we split the city into grids to search. There was no way to predict which direction she would go, given her unfamiliarity of the city. We were just packing up to leave when Christian and Lissa burst through the door.
"Where's Rose, she took my darkness" Lissa spitted out.
This situation was getting worse by the second, Rose obviously needed Lissa's darkness to fight but the amount of darkness that she had taken would determine how easy or hard it would be to get her back here.
"Lissa, can you please stay here with Rose's parents and when we find her, we will call you if she needs healing." I stated.
"Why? Where is she?" Lissa asked.
"Her parents can tell you that." I said as I walked out of the room and down to the cars to find the love of my life. The team that was coming with me jumped in the first SUV and headed to the gates of the compound.
Just as we reached the gates, the driver slammed the brakes almost sending me through the windshield and the SUV behind us narrowly missed rear-ending us. Before I could get out any words to yell at the guardian driving, I saw her in the headlights.
RPOV
As I started coming around, I took inventory of what I could sense about my surroundings before I let my captures know I was awake. I was freezing, not that it was surprising because I was only in lightweight pj shorts and top. I could hear water trickling from somewhere, but it was also echoing, so I surmised that I was in a large open room, maybe a warehouse.
I could hear two of my captors talking and I was happy that at least it wasn't Adrian's or Tasha's voices that I heard. I realized I was sitting in a chair with my hands behind my back tied with rope, not zip ties like the strigois in Spokane. Which made me think that I was either dealing with humans and dhampirs or inexperienced strigois.
I stayed still for a few more minutes, but I realized that I had reached the limit of what I was going to learn from my other senses so I decided it was time to open my eyes. I was right, I was in an empty warehouse that was barely lit, but I could make out two men that I had heard talking.
They both seemed to notice that I had woken up, but neither of them paid any attention to that, in fact they just kept carrying on their conversation. That was odd, you would think they would either alert whoever was in charge or at the very least come over and address me.
I didn't waste any time and I started to work on the rope holding my hands bound behind my back. It wasn't very tight, so after a minute or two I was able to get my hands out. The whole time that I was working on the rope, I was scanning the warehouse for a weapon and a way to escape.
I couldn't really find any weapons I could use other than the rope I had and maybe the chair I was sitting on. As for exits, there was only one door that I could find and I was assuming that it was being guarded from the outside. And I noticed a small window up towards the ceiling. It was probably about two to three stories high, doable for me since I have been climbing in and out of Lissa's and my rooms since forever.
Now that I had my escape route, I figured it was time to take on my captors. I stood up from the chair with the rope behind me and they immediately looked at me, but there was no sense of urgency to stop me from doing anything.
"Now Rose, just sit back down and everything will be fine." The first captor said.
"Yeah, right" I responded as I ran towards my captors. The first one started running at me and I took a move from Dimitri and I hit him square in the chest, which sent him flying. Fortunately for me, he flew back into the second captor, giving me enough time to get to the wall under the window and start climbing.
I could hear them yelling, but I paid no attention to them, I just wanted out. I got to the window and as I crawled through, I was met with a smiling Ivan sitting on the edge of the roof.
"Ivan, what are you doing here?"
"I am here to make sure you get home. When I saw them take you, I followed you here?" Ivan said.
"How did you know I was taken?"
"I can tell when those I care about have intense feelings. I felt Dimitri being the scardest I have ever felt him be, even more scared then when he sensed I was being killed." Ivan explained.
"Where's Dimitri, is he with you? I asked.
"No, why would he be with me?" Ivan carefully asked.
"Because when they took me before they drugged me, I saw Dimitri on the floor with blood on his head." I was crying so hard that I was having a hard time speaking as I was gasping for air at the same time.
Ivan came over to me and got as close as he could and said "Rose, I don't think Dimitri is dead, if he was I am sure he would be here and would haunt you for the rest of your life."
I appreciated that Ivan was trying to make light of the situation, but I just needed to see Dimitri for myself to make sure he was okay. Before I could say anything, Mason appeared on the roof right next to a ladder.
"Mason" I yelled.
"Hey Rose, God, I miss you, but we got to get you out of here before Adrian or Tasha find you." Mason said.
"Yeah, come Rose you need to climb down this fire escape and we will meet you at the bottom. Mason and I will guide you back to your father's compound, but there are strigoi in the area. I don't think Tasha is aware that you are out here but if one strigoi finds you it might get back to her." Ivan said.
"Okay" I said as I climbed down the fire escape, once I got to the bottom and was outside the warehouse, Mason and Ivan were waiting for me.
"How far away is my father's compound?"
"About five miles, I hope Dimitri makes you run, like he tried to get me to run, then it should be no problem for you." Ivan smirked at me.
I looked down at my feet apparently someone had given me sneakers and a jacket as I was still in my pjs, oddest kidnappers ever. I followed Ivan and Mason to the gate of the warehouse, they were somehow able to distract the guardian at the gate and I was able to slip under without detection.
"Run down this street and take a left at the end" Ivan said.
I followed his instructions and ran down the street and turned left, I found Mason at the end of that street.
"Lie flat against this wall, I will tell you when the coast is clear." Mason instructed and I waited for him to direct me next.
"When I say run you are going to go right on this street, there are a few humans at the corner, kind of shady looking, with handguns I believe. If you run quietly and stay on this side of the road, they shouldn't notice you until after you pass and I'm hoping they won't follow you. I'll run with you and Ivan will be at the intersection where we will turn right."
Abe POV
I could see the fear in Dimitri's eyes, but I had to stand my ground, if Rose had been with us by now, she would have been through this kidnapping exercise just like all royal moroi and royal humans. We would probably have to put Lissa through this training at some point. With her family dying when she was fifteen, they were probably planning already but didn't have the chance to do it.
My phone started ringing, I quickly answered as it was from one of the guardians staying with Rose until Dimitri could get to her. "Abe" I answered.
"Mr. Mazur, uh, she's gone. I don't know how she did it but she escaped." The guardian on the other end mumbled.
"Are you telling me that my daughter escaped the warehouse with twenty of my guardians and she is now wandering the city where she had no knowledge of, in the middle of the night with human, moroi and strigoi enemies hunting her down?" I screamed into my phone in Turkish.
"Yes sir"
"You better take all the guardians there and go out and bring her back now" I yelled and slammed the phone on the table.
Rose POV
I continued following Mason and Ivan's directions and Mason stayed with me as Ivan would disappear and then reappear. The next time we reached Ivan, he looked paler than his transparent ghostly figure already looked.
"What is it Ivan?" I asked. Mason seemed to be mirroring Ivan's panic.
"We attracted the attention of three strigoi, there is one that got in front of us and there are two coming up from behind. We are about half a mile from the gates of your father's compound but we won't be able to make it without running into the strigoi." Ivan said sounding panicked.
"Rose do you have a stake on you?" Mason asked as he was looking around us to see if there was anything that could be used to fight off a strigoi.
"No" I said, but for some unknown reason, I decided to feel around my jacket hoping that I had one. Unfortunately, I did not.
"Rose" I heard someone say. I turned and felt a wave of relief. "Pavel" I yelled back as I saw Pavel running towards me with two other guardians.
"Rose, I'm so sorry" Pavel started but I cut him off. "No time to explain but there is one strigoi in front of us and two coming up from behind us." I said.
"How do you know" Pavel asked as he and the other guardians gathered closer to me pulling out their stakes and surveying the surrounding area. "I'll tell you later but do you have a second stake?" I asked. Pavel reached into his jacket and produced another stake and handed it to me.
We continued forward as we kept a watch out and entered a courtyard. "He's here" Ivan said.
"Well what do we have here?" The strigoi asked and he looked at the four of us and was licking his lips and fangs. He appeared to be a dhampir in his previous life.
"Three guardians and a novice who seems to look a lot like Abe Mazur. I hear there are a lot of bounties on your head, alive and dead from the human and moroi world. Plus, I hear Tasha Ozera and, oops I have already said too much. It's definitely going to be hard not to drink your blood."
"So, I see it's true that the great Rose Hathaway is alive and with her parents, I thought it was just an urban legend." A strigoi behind us commented and we realized we hand been joined by the two other strigoi.
"Rose, take Lissa's darkness now." Pavel ordered as he and the two other guardians immediately surrounded me giving me the few minutes, I needed to take her darkness. I closed my eyes and reached through the bond to find Lissa's darkness. I opened my eyes and saw that Pavel was fighting the first strigoi that was previously dhampir probably a trained guardian. The other two guardians were both fighting the strigoi who had spoken to us and appeared to be formerly a moroi. But he appeared strong and was taking the two guardians together to keep him away.
The third strigoi was a girl who appeared to be around my age and built similar to me and might have previously been a novice. She was watching the fight intently; I could tell that she was looking for a way to break into the fight to get to me. So, I didn't let her down and I went on the offensive and attacked her.
I punched her square in the face and it didn't even seem to phase her, she back handed me and I flew into a tree, hitting my head pretty hard. I was out of it for a couple of seconds but then I stood back up and charged her again. This time letting all the darkness flow thru me. I was just punching and kicking at her, she was returning the same hits but I really only felt a few of them.
I felt like I was doing more damage to her than she was to me. I was causing so much damage, her body was having a hard time healing her. I could hear the others fighting behind me, but I couldn't take the time to look at them.
I finally got her on the ground and we rolled around but I was finally able to get on top of her and pin her down and stake her. I watch the moment that she realized she was dying and she almost seemed grateful.
I stood up pulling the stake out of her and I looked around. Pavel was still fighting the strigoi he started with and I noticed he had taken some bad hits, but he was holding his ground.
I turned to find the other two guardians and unfortunately one of them was on the ground presumably dead as it looked like his head was snapped. The other guardian was struggling with the strigoi and did not look like he was going to be able to hold out much longer.
I took advantaged of the fact that the strigoi's back was to me and I jumped onto his back and started to pull his arms back and as he was reaching back trying to get to me allowing the guardian to stake him in the heart. The strigoi collapsed with me on him and then the guardian collapsed.
I went over to him and saw that he was pretty bloody but I could not find out where it was coming from.
"Go help Pavel" he said and when I hesitated, he continued "Go, it's okay."
I turned around and saw Pavel still fighting and he was looking pretty bloody. He also looked like he was pretty tired. I went over to Pavel and when he saw me, I saw a little relief in his features and he also appeared to have gained more strength to carry on.
Pavel and I started assaulting the strigoi together, we seemed to be in sync with each other like Dimitri and I could anticipate each other. I still had some darkness and I knew my punches and kicks were causing more harm than Pavel's. The strigoi took notice and turned his attention towards me.
As the strigoi and I were going at it, Pavel managed to get to the back of the strigoi and stab him thru hist heart and I watched him crumble at my feet. I looked at Pavel as he fell to his knees and took out his stake out of the strigoi's body.
Ivan appeared at my side and said "Rose, you and Pavel need to leave now, there are more strigoi coming this way."
"Wait, what about the other guardian?" I asked.
"It's too late for him" Mason said.
"Come on, Pavel, we have to go there are more on their way" I said.
Pavel was still on his knees and said "No, you go, I will just slow you down."
"No" I screamed at him while tears where threatening to spill over. I yanked on his arm to pull him up and I told him that Mason and Ivan said we needed to go because strigoi were on the way.
Pavel was leaning heavily on me but we managed to keep up a fast walking pace. Ivan and Mason were with us and encouraging us along the way. Ivan kept disappearing and then reappearing, I was guessing he was going back and forth, keeping an eye on where the strigois were.
We finally made it to the gates of Baba's compound and the gates were opening and several SUVs were lined up ready to leave. The first one came to a screeching halt and the passenger door opened and as soon as the person had taken a few steps, I recognized the figure the headlights were illuminating.
Pavel and I had made it trough the gate and Pavel dropped to the ground and then I screamed "Dimitri" as I ran to him. Dimitri started running towards me and once I was about an arm's length away, I jumped into his arms.
He caught me and whispered "Roza" in my ear as he held me tightly. I wrapped my legs around him as he pulled back to look at me. "Are you okay Roza?" he asked as he looked at my face and noticed the scratches to the right side of my forehead.
"I'm in one piece, Comrade" I said.
"How did you make it back here?" he asked as he continued to take in my injuries.
"Ivan and Mason" I said and Dimitri gave me a look that at I could only describe as being happy and maybe proud that his novice girlfriend made it back alive and his best friend had played a role in it.
Dimitri attempted to put me down on my feet and thankfully he still kept a strong hold on me because my legs gave out and would not support my weight.
"Whoa, I got you Roza, what do you need? Infirmary or Lissa?" Dimitri asked as he leaned down and swept my legs up.
"Both" I managed to get out before I went limp in Dimitri's arms.
DPOV
Rose went limp in my arms and her color did not look good. "Get Lissa to the infirmary" I yelled to no one in particular as I jumped back into the SUV with Roza in my arms as the guardian sped off to the infirmary.
I got out of the SUV with Roza and ran into the infirmary, thankfully someone had alerted them ahead of time so they were ready with a stretcher. I placed her on the stretcher and stepped back slightly to let the doctor examine her, but I kept a hold of her hand.
The doctor started looking at her head and was shining a light in her eyes while other started cutting off her clothes. Thankfully, they worked around me because it would have taken them knocking me out to get me out of the room.
Lissa ran into the room and screamed "Rose" as she pushed her way through everyone. I was never happier that Lissa was a Princess, she made no excuses and just barged on in.
She went to Rose's head and placed her hands on her and begun healing her. Christian had followed behind Lissa probably ready to catch her after she healed Rose. "Get a feeder" I yelled out again to no one in particular.
"Got one" I heard Celeste yell back. While the team we were building worked well together, I was thankful for Celeste as she knew me but she also knew Lissa and could anticipate what was needed. That was what we needed for Roza's protection. I felt we spent valuable time familiarizing ourselves with the surrounding city and dividing up the guardians into search groups.
But part of that was my fault, I had looked at the surrounding city but I had not memorized it. When this was over, we would all be memorizing all of the cities surrounding Abe's compounds and getting them all set up for Roza and the team.
A small squeeze on my hand brought me back to the events at hand.
"Lissa?" Rose quietly squeaked out.
"I'm hear Rose." Lissa answered.
"Go heal Pavel" Roza whispered.
"No" Lissa started to cry.
"Yes, you have healed me enough, go heal him some and then feed and when your better, you can heal me more." My Roza squeaked out. As much as I wanted her completely healed, it made me love her even more watching her care for those she loved. Lissa left the room with Christian; she did look a little bit paler and was appearing to lean on Christian even more.
I made eye contact with Celeste and she nodded, we had worked so close together guarding the princess that she knew I wanted her to follow Lissa even though she already had her guardians with her. But Celeste would know what Lissa needed and made sure there was enough feeders for her.
"Comrade?" My Roza called out.
"I'm right here" I said as I squeezed her hand. The people that had been in the room had to started to thin out and it was only the doctor and two other helpers. I moved up towards Roza's head as the doctor continued to examine her.
"Are you okay Comrade?" Roza asked as she brought her other hand to my face and she caressed the side of my forehead which I'm positive I was supporting a huge bruise.
"Roza, don't cry" I said as I used my other hand to wipe away her tears.
"I thought you were dead when I saw you on the floor with blood dripping down your head." Roza cried harder.
"I'm sorry, my love, I should have protected you better." I said an inch from her face as I caressed the side of her face. Not that it mattered, but I had noticed that the doctor had finished her assessment of Roza and had given us some privacy.
"No, it wasn't your fault, but what the hell happened?"
"I don't know all the details but your parents had twenty guards kidnap you. It was supposed to be a test of your security, but also a test of your ability to survive a kidnapping. At some level I understand what they were trying to achieve, but I think it was ill conceived, but let's not worry about that right now. Let's get you well first"
"Stay with me?" Roza asked.
"Wild horses couldn't pull me away" I said with a smirk.
"You and your western's." My love chuckled. I was silently thanking whatever forces brought her back to me.
"It was Ivan. And Mason. They both helped me get back to you, plus Pavel and the two other guardians. I didn't even know their names and they died trying to protect me." She cried.
"Shh, Roza, relax for now. We'll figure everything out tomorrow."
Just then the doctor came back and asked "Rose how are you feeling since the Princess healed some of your injuries?"
"Better, just really sore and really tired, cold and hungry." Roza said and I chuckled at her being hungry.
"Okay, you have no broken bones and your head injuries seem to be healed. I have some pain medicine for you. Julie can you grab some warm blankets."
I watched as the doctor gave Rose the pain medicine she seemed to relax and when Julie came back and placed the warm blankets she started to moan. I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts from my mind that her moans were conjuring up.
"Now, Guardian Belikov, let's have a look at your head." The doctor said to me.
"I'm fine" I tried to wave her off.
"Comrade, please let her make sure you are okay."
"Sit!" the doctor said.
"Yes ma'am" I said and I sat down in the chair they had brought in for me but I continued my hold on to Roza's hand. She looked into my eyes with her flashlight and did a few other tests and felt around my head.
"Alright, you probably have a slight concussion. I'm not sure what they were thinking but I have like five guardians in here with concussions. Sorry, Rose, I didn't mean to insult anyone."
"Insult away" Roza said.
"Anyways, you will all be staying here over night for neuro checks. Just let me know if you need anything, we have the chefs working on some food for everyone."
"Thank you" I said to the doctor as she walked out the door.
"Rest Roza, I'll be right here."
"Mmm, alright" Roza said already halfway asleep.
I pulled the chair as close to Roza's stretcher, I was still holding her hand an I rested my other arm on the stretcher and laid my head on my arm and I placed my forehead against hers and just drank her in.
About a half and hour later, Abe and Janine stood in the doorway. I raised my head up but didn't let go of Roza.
"How is she?" Abe asked.
"She's better, Lissa healed her some, but then she demanded that Lissa go heal Pavel, then feed and rest."
"What does she know?" Abe asked.
"I told her that it was supposed to be a training exercise to test the team and her to see everyone's ability in an attempted kidnapping."
Abe nodded and Janine asked "Is she really mad at us?"
"She was really upset about the two guardians that died and I told her to try not to think about it tonight that we would work through it tomorrow. She didn't even mention either of you which might be worse than her expressing any emotions right now" I pondered.
"Okay, if she wakes up, can you tell her that we love her and we are sorry this happened and we are here when she is ready? And we are here for her when she is ready?" Janine asked.
"I will when she is wakes up and she seems up to it."
"Thank you." Abe said as he put his arm around Janine and guided her out.
I went back to placing my forehead against her and gently kissing her face anywhere I could reach.
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