When Spirit Shows It's Thorns- Saving Comrade

This will pick up just after Chapter 16 of 'Spirit Bound'. I do not own the original characters or story, but was wondering what the story would be like with a different turn of events.

To recap the end of chapter 16:

Not just a miracle. A fairy tale.

Lissa and Dimitri were both on the floor. Their clothes were burned and singed. Angry red and pink patches marked her beautiful skin from where the fire had hit hardest. Her hands and wrists were particularly bad. I could see spots of blood where the flames had actually burned some of her skin away. Third-degree burns, if I was recalling my physiology classes correctly. Yet she seemed to feel no pain, nor did the burns affect her hands' movement.

She was stroking Dimitri's hair.

While she sat in some semblance of an upright position, he was in an ungainly sprawl. His head rested in her lap, and she was running her fingers through his hair in a gentle, repetitive motion-like one does to comfort a child or even an animal. Her face, even marred with the fire's terrible damage, was radiant and filled with compassion. Dimitri had called me an avenging angel, but she was an angel of mercy as she gazed down at him and crooned soothing, nonsense words.

With the state of his clothes and what I'd seen in the fire, I'd expected him to be burned to a crisp-some sort of blackened, skeletal nightmare. Yet when he shifted his head, giving me my first full view of his face, I saw that he was completely unharmed. No burns marked his skin-skin that was as warm and tanned as it had been the first day I'd met him. I caught only a glimpse of his eyes before he buried his face against Lissa's knee. I saw endless depths of brown, the depths I'd fallen into so many times. No red rings.

Dimitri... was not a Strigoi.

And he was weeping.

Spirit Bound…Richelle Mead

I stood frozen not knowing what to do. Lissa and Dimitri were alive! Through the bond I could feel she was just trying to send calmness into Dimitri. His tears were heart wrenching, yet there were still a handful of Strigoi that needed to be dealt with. With a sweeping glance around the room, I decided that the remaining Guardians had the Strigoi under control and ran toward Lissa and tossed myself on the ground. Wrapping my arms around Dimitri and looking up at Lissa. I thanked her over and over through the tears that were now falling down my face.

I was holding on to Dimitri tightly with my head against his chest. I could hear his heart beat and ragged breathing as his weeping became sobbing and caused his body to shudder over and over in my arms. He still had his head buried in her lap. He brought one arm around and was holding my hair loosely fisted in his hand. His other arm was wrapped around Lissa's waist.

The three of us were wrapped in our own bubble, Lissa and I trying to comfort Dimitri as his sobbing wretched through his body with what seemed like no chance of stopping. I didn't even realize the silence that had surrounded us until I heard Christian yelling, "Stay back." I moved my head just enough to see Christian standing in front of us holding balls of fire in his hands. "Do not come any closer," he screamed again. It was then I noticed the Guardians beyond him trying to approach the four of us. Lissa must have noticed too as we both screamed for them stop. "He's not Strigoi," we both began to say over and over.

"You don't understand," Christian began. "Lissa was able to turn him back to Dhampire using spirit. Please, do not kill Dimitri. Spirit can turn Strigoi back to their former selves. Just stay back. Don't harm them."

"That is a fairy tale, boy. Move out of the way. We don't want you getting hurt." I heard a Guardian say in warning.

"It's not. Look at him! Look at his eyes." Lissa demanded. "Dimitri, look at them. Let them see your eyes. Please Dimitri. Let them see you are not Strigoi. Please. Please let them see you. For me, for Rose, you have to let them see you." Lissa began too coo in Dimitri's ear.

"Comrade, let them see your face." I whispered as I stroked his cheek. Dimitri moved his face just enough to look into my eyes. My breath hitched at my second glance into the brown depths of his gaze.

"Rose, how can you look at me?" He whispered in a raspy breath. "I can't look at anyone. Please Rose, you all should leave? Let them have me. I have hurt so many. I can't bear it. Just let them take me and do what they will."

"No, Comrade. I'm never leaving you. I just got you back." I whispered moving my face from his chest to kiss his lips. He moved his face away and back into Lissa's knees.

"I can't, Roza. I remember. I remember what I did to you and I can't. I just can't." Dimitri once again whispered. His words dying as another sob shook through his body. I began to shower his cheeks with kisses. "That wasn't you, Dimitri. Not the real you, anyways," I said as I slipped my hand gently between his other cheek and Lissa's knee. "Look at me, Comrade. I love you and I need you to look at me." I begged as I gently coaxed him to turn his face toward me once again.

I heard a rush of footsteps and then felt a blast of heat as Christian placed a line of fire between the Guardians and us. "I said to stay back." He yelled at them once again. It must have worked as the footsteps halted and the Guardians began to yell at Christian once again. I tuned them out and turned my attentions back to Dimitri, trusting Christian to give Lissa and I the time we needed.

"Dimitri, please." I begged again. "If you love me, If you have ever loved me, truly loved me, look at me, just this once. I won't ever ask you again, but I need you to look at me and listen. They want to kill you, Comrade. You have to let them see you." I whispered as tears began to fall from my eyes once again.

"I can't, Rose." He half whispered, half growled at me. "Let them kill me, I deserve nothing more after what I have done."

"No!" I yelled as my breath left me and I began to cry harder. "I love you, Dimitri. I couldn't take it if I lost you again." I was able to sputter out between sobs. "Please Dimitri."

"If he was still Strigoi, don't you think he would have killed us by now?" I heard Christian pleading with the Guardians. "Look at him. Is his skin chalky pale? No, it isn't. His eyes, they aren't red anymore. Lissa healed him with spirit. She turned him back Dhampire."

Dimitri moved his face to look at Christian, giving some of the Guardians a view of his face. I heard a collective gasp between them and moved my eyes in their direction. "That's it, Comrade. Let's get you up so you can look at them all." I softly whispered and took his hand from my hair and entwined our fingers. Using my other hand I pulled his face gently from Lissa's lap. Lissa placed her hands behind his shoulders and we assisted Dimitri in sitting up. Looking into his face, I noticed his eyes were closed. I leaned over and softly brushed my lips against his. "For me, please," I whispered against them. As I pulled away a few inches from his lips, Dimitri opened his eyes looking into mine. In them I saw so much pain. His once beautiful dark pools where brimming with so much torture, it cut through me. "Oh, Comrade," I sighed as I crushed my lips against his. I gave everything of me in the kiss, trying to make him feel how much I loved him. Dimitri sat still as a statue and so I just kept kissing his lips. Moving from them to his cheeks, his nose, his eyes, and finally moving back to his lips, I kissed him with so much force we nearly toppled us back into Lissa's lap. I felt his hesitation and after what felt like a life time, his arms encircled me and he softened his lips against mine and began returning my kiss. His hand began caressing my cheek as I heard him whisper, "Roza," and once again he took my lips but this time the kiss was intense, almost to the point of painful.

Pulling away from me, Dimitri looked into my eyes with so much sorrow and guilt. He ran his thumb across my bottom lip as his knuckles caressed my cheek. Moving his hand into my hair, he gently ran them through the fallen strands of my pony tail. Just as I leaned in to take his mouth with mine again, his hands came to rest on my shoulders as he held me in place. Looking from me to the Guardians, he rose to his feet.

"I won't fight you. I'll go willingly, I promise." He said as he took a tentative step forward.