Rose Hathaway

I was still upset with Lissa over the whole Christian Ozera thing, but it did give me an idea. It had me willingly knocking on Kirova's door the next day.

With my mother shadowing me, I marched to Kirova's office after my last class. The door was open so I didn't bother with knocking. She raised her eyes from the paperwork she had been reading over, looking very annoyed to see me.

"Oh hey, Kiro….Ms. Kirova, does the ban on my social life extend to attending church?"

"What are you getting at Hathaway?" She sighed in resignation.

"Can I attend church on Sundays? I didn't know if it would be considered a social event or not. I was hoping it wouldn't be because it would be unfair to deny me my religious needs."

She removed her glasses, allowing them to dangle from the chain around her neck, and narrowed her eyes at me. "I did not know you were a religious person, Miss Hathaway."

"Lissa made me attend while we were away and I found Jesus." I told her, trying to morph my face into one of innocence.

"Doesn't your mother practice Atheism?" She scoffed at me.

"Actually, Ellen, I am Catholic but choose to not attend services." Janine said finally walking through the door.

"Plus my dad is most likely Muslim or even a Buddhist for all I know. So, even if she was an Atheist, I'm old enough to choose my own path. I chose Jesus; please don't take him away from me too?" I saw my mother choke on her own breath in my peripheral vision.

Kirova sounded like a frog was trying to escape her throat. "Very well Ms. Hathaway, you may attend Sunday services."

I was surprised at how quickly I had won Kirova over. I happily skipped behind my mother to the gym. My happiness died two days later when I was reminded just how boring church could be. The only good thing was I did get to sit by Lissa. I spent most of the service looking around at all the people. Christian was sitting across the aisle from us looking very holy. My mother, thinking this was part of some sort of plan to rebel was lurking in the shadows in the back. There was a set of new faces I had only seen in passing.

I was happy to study them. Their faces similar in features, you could tell they were brother and sister. They both were beautiful with their dark brown hair and chestnut eyes. They didn't seem to notice I was watching them, so I continued staring for a while. I found the boy much more interesting than the girl. Although his face was clean shaven, his hair fell to his chin, framing his face. His eyes were slightly narrow, but not in a squinty way. His face was masculine with a chiseled chin and perfectly pointed nose. He was hot, hotter than Jesse Zeklos by far.

I noticed that like me, he did not take communion. As a matter of fact, I think like me he wasn't really even listening to the sermon. His eyes flickered to mine as if he knew I was studying him. I quickly turned around and staring at my hands in my lap, I tuned in and out to the rest of service.

The priest was going on about St Vladimir and how he was full of spirit. "He was so filled with Spirit that people would flock to his side to listen to his teachings. Even with claims in the old texts that he could heal the sick, he was often mocked by people calling him confused and misguided." Great in another word St Vladimir was just some insane Moroi. "And it was Shadow-kissed Anna that was always found at his side."

Shadow-kissed, I had heard that before but I couldn't place it. The words resonated with me and I hoped that the priest would talk more on the subject. Instead he had finished the sermon and had moved on to the last part of the service. After the last prayer was said and we were excused to leave, I told Lissa to wait for me and made my way to the front of the church.

The priest greeted me with a small smile as he asked if he could help me. I questioned why Anna was always called Shadow-kissed. He assumed it was a title given to her because of her personality, as was custom with the times.

"So who was she exactly?" I asked him. He furrowed his brows in annoyance, claiming he had spoken about her often. After a few more questions he grew more disapproving and asked me to wait for a moment. He disappeared into the attic and returned moments later with a book on Moroi Saints. I took the book, scowling, and walked away.

I caught up to Lissa just inside the doorway. She was talking happily with Aaron. I walked over and she turned in my direction, pulling me into their conversation. "Rose, you'll never believe what I've found out. Do you remember Xander and Abby Badica? Their Guardian wants to resign and marry another Guardian. Can you believe it?"

Oh, finally, some scandalous gossip. This is what I lived for. "You're kidding, they're going to what, abandon their charges and run off to get hitched?"

Lissa shook her head yes as Aaron looked shyly at his feet. "Well, that's kind of stupid." I told them, although a part of me really loved how the Guardians were rebelling against our customs. I didn't fully like the way they were going about it. They were going against everything I had been trained to believe.

Aaron was still unsettled with me being apart of the conversation and excused himself to join his other friends. Lissa and I left a few minutes later only to get a few feet from the door before an odd sliding sound came from above us. I looked up just in time to see a small avalanche of slush to fall directly on Lissa. Her hair and clothes were soaked through.

I quickly forced her out of her jacket, replacing it with mine. The slickness of the pleather had repelled what little of the slush had splashed on me. Eyeing the crowd that stood around us, I could see Aaron's little doll girl laughing. With a growl I stormed in her direction.

"Nice shirt, did it come from a homeless shelter?" Mia asked as I approached. "Actually, it's so ugly a homeless person would probably burn it before even wearing it."

"I'm sure you would just love to burn it except you can't control fire can you? Your element is water and interesting enough a bunch just fell on us.

"I have no clue what you are talking about." She said, blinking her wide blue eyes innocently.

"Yes, I'm sure you don't. I wonder how Kirova would feel about the situation though."

"Why would Kirova care?" She flinched backwards.

"Isn't it against the rules to use magic to attack others?" I smiled back at her.

"You can't blame me for an act of God." She huffed, setting the group into laughter once again. I could feel my anger rising.

"No, Rose, leave it alone, please?" Lissa said as her hand came down on my raised fist. "Come on, your mom's waiting for us." I gave in and giving Bitch Doll one last dirty look, followed Lissa over to my mom. Coming up with an excuse about needing to get a few forgotten items from my old dorm, I left my mother to escort Lissa around campus before she could stop me.

I had just entered the commons when Mason stepped away from the wall. "I see Kirova threatening complete expulsion can't keep you away from cat fights. What was it about anyways?"

"Cat fight? There was no such thing!"

"You had your claws out and ready to strike. Have you no respect for holy ground?"

"Really, this from the heathen who wouldn't step foot into a church?" I snorted. Locating an empty table tucked away in the corner, I pulled Mason with me. Sitting down, I placed the book on the table and began to leaf through it.

"Hey, don't you need to get to your dorm?"

"Nah, I live in guest housing with my mother so she can babysit me at night. Plus there are so many people in here right now; it'll take them a while to find me."

"It's your life or rather your death." He shrugged.

"At least I'll die happy that I was able to have a solid two minutes of a social life. I hate not being able to do anything and it's only been a week."

"You're not the only one. We missed you last night. We raided the Royal party and played pool. Eddie was raking in the cash!"

"It's cruel to rub salt on open wounds, Mase. Keep the details of your glamorous social life to yourself."

I continued to leaf through the book as Mason and I jested back and forth. Giving up I turned to the back and found the page number I needed.

And with Vladimir always is Anna, the daughter of Fyodor. Their love is as chaste and pure as that of brother and sister, and many times she has defended him from Strigoi who seek to destroy him and his holiness. Likewise, it is she who comforts him when the spirit becomes too much to bear and Satan's darkness tries to smother him and weaken his own health and body. This too she defends against, for they have been bound together ever since he saved her life as a child. It is a sign of God's love that He has sent the blessed Vladimir a Guardian such as her, one who is shadow-kissed and always knows what is in his heart and mind.

I growled and threw the book closed. "It doesn't actually say what shadow-kissed is."

"Maybe they were kissing in the shadows" Mason said wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"I doubt it. Vladimir was a saint." I laughed

"Yeah right, the brother sister thing is to throw you off. Keep reading, it says they were bound together. Its code for his…"

"Stop, they were just close friends most likely." I read quickly through the text again. Bound together….as in a bond? Yes, they had a bond. She always knew what was in his heart and mind, just like I knew what was in Lissa's. "Okay, this is going nowhere. I'm going to get out of here before I get caught."

I left Mason sitting at the table and headed off to guest housing. I knew there was a stash of chips and chocolate in the kitchen and they were calling my name.