Chapter 44:

RPOV

I never liked needles, but I was slowly getting used to them. They had been prodding and poking me for two hours now. They had taken blood, urine, hair and God knows what else. They were currently taking me to the hospital chapel to see if I could enter. There were still six guardians on my tail.

After I safely entered the church they pulled out a stake.

"You mind?" One of the guardians asked. Mind what? Get staked and see if I die? But I guess he just wanted a small wound to see if it would burn. I sighed and took the stake from him. I put it on my other hand and pulled it down, making a small wound.

"Ouch."

All the guardians closed in around me. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, a stake in my hand actually hurts, who would have thought." I said sarcastically.

After that we moved out of the chapel. We walked across the hall in the hospital. I don't think anyone was supposed to be here. This had all been a bit hush hush.

"Hey lady, why do you have so many guardians around? Did you do something bad?"

There was a small Moroi boy standing in front of the line of guardians keeping the public 'safe' from me.

I crouched down and winked at the small boy.

"Nope. I am just that important, they can't leave me out of their sight or something might happen to me."

I saw the boy lit up in wonder.

"Are you a princess? I have never seen that many guards?"

I stood up and put my hand to my mouth.

"Well, I am married to someone who is related to the queen and my father is quite powerful, but no I am not a princess. I am just that much trouble to keep in line."

I winked at the closest guardian to me and he generally looked scared.

"Let's go Miss Hathaway, we are to escort you to guest housing while we wait for the test results."

I patted the boy on the head before walking away. I swear one of the guardians nearly had a fit. But the leader who had just spoken shot him down with one look.

"It's Mrs. Hathaway." I said for what felt like the millionth time.

"Oh?"

The head guardian turned around.

"Who is the unfortunate man, or woman? I am not judging."

"Unfortunate?"

"Well you did describe yourself as a lot of trouble and I imagined you were right. I heard you are Abe Mazur's daughter. That has to come with certain genetic baggage."

I smiled at him for that one. He had no idea.

"He is very capable of keeping me in check. Actually he is kind of the only one. Probably the reason I married him."

I thought I heard him murmur 'poor bastard' when we left the hospital to go to guest housing.

The head guardian opened a door in guest housing and I saw Dimitri and Adrian standing on the other side of the door. I didn't even have to think about it. I ran up to Dimitri and jumped in his arms. He lifted me up and buried his face in my hair. A saw a few guardians react as if I was going to hurt Dimitri, but they quickly realized I wasn't strangling him, just hugging him.

He put me down on the ground and looked at me. Stroking my hair and cupping my face.

"They didn't hurt you, did they?" He looked over at the guardians menacingly. If I answered yes he would have decked every last one of them. I just shook my head.

The head guardian came up towards us. Understanding was written on his face.

"So this is the unfortunate man. You don't do anything according to the rules do you?" He laughed taking in the situation.

I turned around but stayed safely in my lover's arms. I smirked at the man. He just shook his head but had a bit of a smile on his face too. I think I liked him. The others were so afraid of me turning out to be Strigoi, but he was seeing me as I was. Passionate, reckless, rebellious Rose Hathaway.

"I will be stationed inside the perimeters while the other guardians will be stationed outside. The testing will take a few days. You are to be confined to these quarters until the results come back."

I turned around to look at Dimitri and wiggled my eyes. A few days locked in a room with my husband, not a bad situation. Although the thought of actually not being able to leave was already making me slightly claustrophobic. Dimitri, knowing me as well as he does, whispered in my ear.

"Don't worry Roza, I'll distract you."

That sent goose bumps down my spine.

I sat down on the couch and looked at the three men standing in front of me.

"So who of you three is going to feed me?" I said while my stomach growled.

Adrian sat down next to me giving me a small peck on the cheek.

"I don't do manual labor."

Dimitri rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen. He came back only seconds later with a stack of large pizza boxes.

"Gods, I love you."

He smirked and sat on the other side of me.

"I swear if you two didn't have me you would both starve. Tomorrow after I have gotten supplies, I will cook you a home-made meal with vegetables and everything."

"Well, if you are half as good as your mother I will be looking forward to it. Even the vegetables."

He laughed and took a slice of pizza. So did I. With my mouth full of pizza I turned to Adrian.

"So how was everything with you? Did they put alien probes in your ass too?"

Dimitri turned his head as if asking if I was serious. No, of course not. I waved him off. Sending him back to his pizza. Dimitri, despite being the health nut he was, did enjoy his pizza.

"Naa, they asked me a lot of questions, that is all."

He paused a bit, trying to collect his thoughts.

"Rose I am sorry for what my father said about you. He was out of line."

"Oh please I am used to it. And you don't need to apologize for him. YOU didn't do anything wrong. I am sorry he said those things about you too. Are you okay?"

I didn't grow up with my father but I did have a judgmental mother. So I knew what it was like trying to win the approval of a critical parent. But deep down I knew my mother loved me and wanted the best for me. I didn't know if Nathan Ivashkov had the same intentions. He was more concerned with Adrian not embarrassing him.

"Yeah well, my father is a dick, what else is new." Adrian smiled, but there was no humor behind it.

I noticed the head guardian was still standing there. Looking at us.

"Do you want some pizza. We always order more than enough. There is pepperoni and some pizza with vegetables."

I scrounged up my nose and Dimitri noticed this. Of course he was eating the pizza with bell peppers on them.

"What exactly is wrong with bell pepper on your pizza?"

"It is a pizza comrade. It isn't supposed to have vegetables on it."

He rolled his eyes.

"Neither is it supposed to have brownies on them, but that hasn't stopped you before."

Dimitri knew what I was doing. I was picking a fight with him and he was fueling me on. We were always at our best when we were bickering or sparring. Just that little bit of fire to fuel other things. Between getting ready for court and the plane right we hadn't had much time for fighting, or other things, well except the quickie in the car.

"Brownies and pizza are similar; both are comfort foods, so they work well together. Pizza with vegetables is just wrong."

"Pizza is originally from Italy where they have many kinds, with many different vegetables. You silly Americans just load your pizza with only meat because the thought of eating anything healthy might actually give you a heart attack."

"Well you Russians only eat potatoes and vegetables and game because you can't find a decent civilized meal anywhere."

"Don't you dare critique my mother's cooking. You love my mother's cooking."

"I do love your mother's cooking."

I had to admit. And that little pause in our little bit of staged bickering was enough for Dimitri's mouth to find mine. He pulled me close and kissed me passionately. My hands around his neck. I hadn't seen Dimitri being so openly affectionate. I mean we pretty much ignored Adrian whenever he was around. I think secretly Dimitri linked 'claiming' his girl in front of Adrian. Sort of setting up his territory. But I wondered if Dimitri remembered there was a stranger in the room as well.

"Okay, blinding me. Blinding me!"

And now we will never know.

We let go of each other and I gave Adrian a foul look. Although I really didn't know what we looked like to him when we were making out. Adrian always says our aura's shine when we are around each other, but to what extent? Are we really blinding Adrian? Dimitri has to get into his head while we are making out to check, but that means Dimitri first would have to learn how to control that.

The day's struggles caught up to me fast and after the pizza, I crashed. I let my head rest in the crook of Dimitri's neck and I fell asleep almost instantly after he started running his hands through my hair.

DPOV

I hadn't heard any witty comments from Rose in a while and I saw she was asleep in my arms. This has been a long day. I gently picked her up in my arms and carried her to the bedroom. I softly laid her down on the bed. I took her shoes off and covered her with a blanket. She stirred a little when my hands let go of her. I ran my hands over her hair again and whispered.

"I'll be joining you in a little bit. Just get some rest."

She settled down after that. Whether she actually heard me was anybody's guess.

Adrian walked past me and put his hands on my shoulder.

"I think I am calling it a night as well." I knew he wasn't tired per se, but he wanted the privacy of his own room to empty the bottle of booze not so expertly hidden behind him. I couldn't blame him. I knew Adrian was talking big to Rose, saying it didn't bother him, but it did. Hell, it bothered me. But there was nothing we could do about it. All we could do is make sure Adrian understood he had family and friends who did like him for him.

I walked back into the living room and saw the guardian looking out the window, no doubt scanning the perimeter. I poured myself a small glass of Vodka. Although I didn't need it as much as Adrian did, it did help me stun the bond and the darkness a little. And tonight I had a feeling I would need it.

"I didn't catch your name."

"Guardian Williams, John."

"Well, John. How did you come to babysit Rose?"

He laughed.

"I actually thought I was being assigned a very important mission and volunteered. The queen herself came into the guardian's headquarters asking people for a dangerous but highly important mission. She didn't mention we would be guarding a teenage girl. And a handful at that. Honestly I can see you love her, but man, you do not have an easy job."

I laughed again, handing him a shot glass too. He was a little hesitant to grab it, him being on duty, but in the end he took it.

"Well one can't hurt. And I do think I deserved it."

"Was she that bad today?" I asked with a smile on my face. If you didn't know how to handle her, Rose can be a bit much.

"She wasn't that bad. But I could see she was holding back a lot. I think it was for our benefit that she didn't go all out. I appreciated that. The boys still think she is dangerous, actually so do I. but in a completely different manner."

I liked this man. He wasn't judging Rose, he was seeing her as a person. He was seeing her as Rose Hathaway and for good or bad, that is who she is.

"Now, tell me, how did you end up marrying your student?"

I looked at him a bit shocked. He knew about that?

Seeing my confusion he clarified.

"She kept insisting today, she was Mrs. Hathaway. And I have read her file. It mentions you."

"That is a big file, have you had enough time to look through it?"

"Actually I read it two weeks ago, when they mentioned Rose in signing the new law."

Now I was really confused.

"What new law. And what has it to do with Rose?"

"You don't know? Two weeks ago, the council signed a new law saying novices graduate at sixteen now. To boost our numbers. Rose was used as an example for the pro-camp, saying they were ready earlier because an unpromised novice already had three molnija and a zwesda. Word got around what she was able to do on the campus raid."

"They what?.. She died during that raid, well the rescue mission after but still. They used her memory to condemn children to die the same way?"

Oh I was furious. If Rose found out about this she was going to blow a gasket.

"Calm down. I don't agree with it and there are already people trying to get the law revoked. But yeah. As it is now Dhampirs will graduate at sixteen. The Dhampir community is outraged but there isn't anything we can do about it. We have no power."

I tried really hard not to break anything but I did end up crushing my glass. The glass cut my hand and the alcohol in the glass stung. Well, at least it was sanitized already. I needed to calm down. I knew I couldn't afford for the darkness to sink in now. I had enough rage on my own. This was ridiculous. Dhampirs, my sister, would graduate before they were ready. They were condemning these kids to death. Yes, it boosted our numbers for maybe a few years. Then an entire generation would be dead and numbers would plummet. They were signing ours and their own extinction. But they didn't care, as long as they could sit in their fancy cars and their fancy houses not doing a damn thing. I wondered if Adrian knew about this? Probably not. He may be a snob in everything else, but he didn't see us as disposable like his father did. Neither did Lissa or Christian.

I sat back down on the couch, no longer feeling outraged, but suddenly exhausted. I couldn't understand how people could look at us that way. As simple disposable things. John placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I know man, I know. But at least there is hope if Rose is really a Dhampir again. We have another way of fighting back."

I sighed.

"She really is, you know, a Dhampir again. But with the amount of spirit users we have and the toll it takes on them to bring somebody back, this isn't the answer. It is a miracle and one I thank God for everyday because it brought me my Roza back, but we can't use this for everyone."

He nodded.

"Tell me about her. I read her file but I would like to hear it from you. I have a feeling Rose is going to be a big player in this game."

So I told him about Rose, about her life at the academy, about running away from the academy with Lissa, her undying devotion to Lissa and how I see her. Why I fell in love with her. I told him about her transformation and about how traumatized she was afterwards.

"So how did you get her back to this fire-cracker?"

I smirked at him.

"I beat it out of her."

He was looking at me funny. Until he realized I wasn't joking.

"It has been a long day. I am calling it a night."

He nodded and I took my clothes off and slid in bed with Rose. I wrapped my arms around her and I felt her relax against me. I needed her. In our own little world everything was alright. Here all the damn politics had no place.

The next morning I was woken up abruptly by Rose yelling from the kitchen.

"She did what? That Bitch!"

And I knew she knew.