So here is chapter 10. Sorry I didn't update yesterday as I had planned. I really meant to but just never got arround to it. I stayed up tonight just to get this posted since I owed everyone a chapter. Sorry I am slow at updating. I hope you will continue to read and review this story :)

I have another one-shot (possible change to a story) that I posted a few days ago. It is called The Gift and it's about a Gift that Dimitri and Rose are given for all they have done. I think it is my personal favorite of all the things I have written so I hope you will check it out as well...you can find the link on my profile.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and/or added me to your alerts or favorites! You guys are way awesome! Totally the greatest readers ever! Also, thanks for the ideas on the Abe/Dimitri relationship... I think I know how I am going to bring him into this. He will make an appearance in the next chapter or two.

Sorry for the long author's note! I own nothing as always and of course it is unbeta'd...all mistakes are of my own making!

Stop Being a Coward!

Chapter 10

Dimitri had been travelling for the better part of two days. He was just so close to home, another hour by car and he would arrive in Baia. It was kind of laughable how no one dared to drive the long road to Baia, everyone being scared to make the trip. There were hardly ever ambushes on the road but people were frightened nonetheless.

He felt perfectly safe as he drove the rented car over the familiar paths. He not only knew the area like he knew himself but he knew that no Strigoi would be anywhere near here, even in the nighttime. They all stayed closer to Novosibirsk.

He thought about Rose the entire way home. Somehow leaving her to go to Russia felt too much like leaving home. He had never really considered America as anything other than a temporary domicile but something at meeting Rose made it a place he would give anything to stay. Even being so close to his birthplace couldn't make him feel better about being away from her. But he knew he had to do this. The next time he was here, Rose would be beside him.

He knew that he would bring Rose here someday. He was sad that he hadn't been with her the first time she had met this family. From what Rose had told him, they had gotten along very well and he knew that she was prefect in every way for him, his equal.

As the hour past on the way to his family's home, his thoughts drifted back to a conversation he had had with Yeva right before he left for America.

***Flashback***

"Babushka you wanted to see me?" Dimitri asked as he stepped into the room his grandmother was sitting in. She had the crazy look in her eye and he knew whatever she was about to say would be important.

He had just gotten up to pack his few remaining belongings. He would leave for America in just under four hours and he had wanted to make sure everything was in order. His mother had come into his room and told him that his grandmother needed to see him, it was urgent.

"She will heal your soul." Yeva had exclaimed as she took her grandson's face between her hands.

Dimitri was confused, "who?"

"Your love."

"What are you talking about Babushka?"

"She will help heal you. Heart, mind and body. You must be open to it. Don't push her away. Your ultimate happiness rests in the hands of a child."

Again, Dimitri was confused. Physically he was fine, at the top of his game. His heart was broken at the loss of his best friend and charge, Ivan, but he knew that nothing could ever heal that void.

"A child is my love?" Dimitri laughed, he wasn't going to the states for love, it was a job. And he certainly wasn't planning on becoming a pedophile.

"Though still a child to most, she will be your equal Dimka, your other half. Don't close your heart to her love."

"Babushka, I am going to America for work. I have been assigned as one of the guards to the last Dragomir Princess. I won't have time to meet anyone, even if I wanted to."

Yeva simply waived him off with a knowing smile, "You don't have a choice in who you love. You must accept her love or be eternally damned. She is your life, your salvation."

"What do you mean my salvation?" Dimitri asked, seriously wondering what the heck his grandmother was talking about. She had always given him these crazy riddles. This seemed to give him more information that most of her 'visions' but he was still clueless. How could a girl be his salvation?

"I don't know Dimka. I have told you all I have seen. I just know that you must go to America and prepare. Your fate awaits you there."

Dimitri just nodded and went back to finish packing. Sometimes his grandmother scared him. Sometimes he didn't believe the things she told him. Yet somehow they always came true.

***End Flashback***

Dimitri had actually forgotten that conversation until almost this moment. How could he have not realized it before? His grandmother was right, of course she was right. When was she ever wrong? Rose was his salvation in so many ways. She had healed his heart, mind, and body over and over again. She had helped his heart move on from the loss of Ivan as well as filled him with hope.

She had also saved his soul from the depths of limbo. She might not have been the person yielding the stake that save his life but she was the reason it had happened. It had taken him a while to see that. Only when Eddie had come by his cell one day to tell him of all that Rose had done.

Eddie had told him more than anyone else bothered to. Before that, he had see Lissa as his savior, as the person who had brought him back to life. While in actuality she might have physically done it but Rose had gone to the ends of the earth to complete her mission. Even after Dimitri had taunted her as Strigoi, Rose hadn't give up hope that she could save him. He really had no clue what all she had done for him until Eddie had shown up that day and told him. At the time, he had already pledged his loyalty to Lissa and broken Rose's heart. It was a blind decision that he had made, not having all the information before him. Eddie had obviously known how distraught Rose was and went to tell him of her deeds. She really was his equal, more than equal to be honest, she completely surpassed him.

His thoughts swirled in his head as he realized he had finally reached Baia. Passing through the town, he had seen that little had changed. There was a new store on the corner beside the market. It looked to be a clothing store or something. Practically everything else looked just how he had left it besides the occasional painting of one of the houses as he pulled through the residential area on the way to his mother's house.

His windows were tented so he knew no one could see in. As he pulled up in front of the familiar two-story home he paused. No one was outside in the yard but you could tell the house was full. The front door stood open behind a screen door and the curtains were drawn apart to let light in. He saw people sitting in the family room in the front and could hear their talk and laughter within.

They still thought he was dead. Where he came from, there was no turning Strigoi. You were either alive as Moroi, dhampir, or human. You weren't in a state caught between life and death. You were either alive or dead. The term undead had no meaning as it didn't exist.

Dimitri took a deep breath as he stepped out of the car and headed towards the house. He rang the doorbell as obviously no one had heard the arrival of his rental car.

A woman in her mid fifties walked towards the door. Her back was turned as she was still speaking in Russian to one of the people in the living room. His mother must be mad at one of the girls, usually only reverting to her native tongue when someone had upset her. He wondered what could have changed in the few minutes since he had heard the laughter.

She turned around and looked out the screened glass for the first time and immediately froze in her tracks. A soft whisper escaped her lips as she looked in confusion towards Dimitri, "Dimka?" She shook her head at the sight before her. A look of confusion was soon masked by a look of fear. A sound between a cry and a scream escaped her lips.

Dimitri immediately understood the look in her eyes, the fear in her yell. She was scared he was Strigoi. The shade from the house made it impossible to see his eyes and no doubt left his skin a pasty, sickly white of the undead.

"Mama." Dimitri called out, stepping back from the porch and into the sun. "It's okay, mama. I am alive. I am me."

Karolina, Sonya, and Viktoria had run to the door behind Olena along with another dhampir man that Dimitri didn't recognize.

Dimitri took in the looks of his sisters; they were all frozen in fear as they looked out of the door. The dhampir man seemed confused as he looked out behind them. He was a foot taller than Karolina and protectively stepped in front of the four women.

The dhampir man instantly crouched into a fighting stance, protecting the women behind him.

"It's me, Dimka." Dimitri yelled into the house, holding up his hands in an effort to diffuse the tension, to show he wasn't a threat.

Olena must have heard the plea in his voice as she pushed through the others and ran out the door. She immediately threw herself into Dimitri's arms and began crying. "Dimka," was the prayer that escaped her lips as the tears racked her body.

The other women and the dhampir man walked out behind her. Soon, Sonya, Karolina, and Viktoria had thrown themselves at Dimitri, all trying to find a place to hug him over the others.

Dimitri smiled at the love his family put into their cries of joy. He did not realize that tears had started silently running down his own cheeks until his mother wiped them away. Being here, being with his family was just what he needed. His heart healed a little bit more as his he took in the faces around him.

Well there we have Dimitri's family or most of them anyway. What'd ya think? Please review!

Also...have you ever read any of the stuff on fictionpress. com? It is a sister-site to fanfiction. net. It's all original stuff though, not based on a movie, book or TV show. I find so many awesome things there and wish I would have known about it sooner...just found it a couple months ago...anyways, if you haven't checked it out you should! Thanks again :)