Chapter 10

Author's Note: I'm sorry if any spacing is funny. I have been struggling to post this chapter. I finally found some crazy way to post it that is not the usual. The doc manager keeps saying that there is an internal error or something wrong with this file. Ugh! Anywaysssss enjoy!

Present Day:

I stared at myself in the mirror, once Lissa put the finishing touches on my hair and makeup for the Christmas ball. She stood next to me and stared at my reflection in the mirror, letting out a tiny squeal and gushing about how no one will be able to take their eyes off of me.

Wearing my signature black color that flaunted my curves, I put on the appearance of a sultry, forbidden princess. It was one of those dream princess dresses that no one could ever resist. The top half was a matte halter top, with the center of it plunging down to reveal a bit of cleavage, as well as the top part of my abs. The dress cinched in at the waistline, but then proceeded to poof out in tulle that had hints of sparkles. It was definitely too much for a guardian that wasn't even close to royalty, but it was too hard to resist.

Lissa had pulled back my wavy hair in a low messy bun, with some curls pulled out to frame my face. The bun was just high enough to reveal my promise mark, molnijas, and my zvezda, as I saw Lissa's gaze looking towards it. "Where is your ninth mark? The one for the Strigoi who killed Guardian Thomas," She asked.

I turned around to look at her. "Remember one of my molnijas was a mistake? I just counteracted that by not getting the one for Guardian Thomas."

"A mistake?" She asked, but then soon realized what I was talking about.

After I had returned from Russia, I thought that I had killed Strigoi Dimitri. Sydney had assembled the paperwork proof for me, so I went and received my molnija mark. During that entire ceremony I had cried, mostly for the love I knew I would never have. Well, turns out Dimitri survived my attempt to end his suffering and now that he was restored, the molnija mark even served more useless.

"I'm happy you now don't need to think about that," whispered Lissa.

I nodded at her and then quickly looked at her dress hanging out in the entrance to her huge closet. Lissa's dress was absolutely beautiful and sophisticated. It was a deep purple, with the top half being long-sleeved and covered in lace. She went with the typical A-line frame, which suited her long stature. She was going to look stunning, especially during the proposal.

"You look beautiful, Liss," I said, after she put on her dress. She turned around and smiled at me, before adjusting her half-up-half-down do. Lissa truly looked like a princess, especially with her small tiara. "Christian won't be able to take his eyes off of you.

She smiled at me. "I'm sure there will be plenty of people who won't be able to take their eyes off of me. You deserve to find someone that completes you. I don't want you to be completely alone your entire life."

At one point, I did have someone that once completed me. I doubt that I would be able to find another person like that again. Fate was taking me on a different direction, independent of romance and commitment. I was content with how my life was now and could get over the fact that I wouldn't have that great love again. Yes, I wanted it, but I knew it was not possible.

Christian soon arrived at the door to pick up Lissa. Lissa ran into her bathroom to grab her lipstick for touch ups and I walked over to the door to open it. Christian stood in his required tuxedo, actually looked very cleaned up. Although, his facial expression did not suit his overall appearance. He was grimacing, with a slight frown in his appearance. His lack of eye contact with me, suggested that he was nervous about proposing.

"She'll say yes," I whispered to him.

He looked up at me and I gave him an encouraging smile. His face immediately looked less stressed. Lissa soon emerged in the doorway and I could have sworn Christian was about to drop his mouth open at her appearance. He struggled to find words for Lissa, but eventually was able to stutter out that she looked beautiful. He even managed to tell me that I looked very cleaned up for once. I guess that was a compliment?

As Lissa locked up her door, we began walking down the hallway. Lissa and Christian walked ahead with her arm looped through his. I was nearly sickened by the look he gave her, especially that I was the third wheel. As we approached the end of the hallway, I saw Adrian standing there looking very cleaned up in his tux.

"Little Dhampir," He said, completely ignoring Lissa and Christian. He reached out his hand to her and immediately brought it up to kiss it. "I know we aren't together, but I still think you deserve to have someone take you as their date."

"I told him to meet us here," said Lissa.

"Thank you," I said to both of them, before turning to Adrian and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Adrian hated dances, especially when it involved cleaning up his appearance.

"You look very tempting, Little Dhampir," He murmured to me. "The dress really brings off your curves, making me want to rip that dress off of you."

I blushed at his comment, as we continued walking towards the grand ballroom at Court. As we approached the dance, I could hear the classical music grow in sound. This ball was nothing from the parties we threw at St. Vlad's.

We were arriving at this dance, at least an hour late. It wasn't necessarily intentional to be that late, but we always knew that it was totally lame to show up to a dance right on time.

Christian and Lissa went ahead, since Lissa needed to talk to members of all the royal families. I also knew that Christian wanted to give Lissa plenty of romantic dances to help set the stage for an upcoming proposal. I watched them descend the stairs down to the room, as I stood back with Adrian. I didn't want to take Lissa's entrance moment from her.

He gave me one of his gorgeous smiles and ran a hand down my arm, to reach my hand. Giving it a light squeeze he said to me, "Ready to bring out the jealous bitches and make Belikov wish he never hurt you?"

"I don't care about that," I said, brushing off his comment. He stared at me with those piercing green eyes, indicating that he knew I was lying. "Okay, maybe I want a few eyes on me and it would be nice to make a statement to Dimitri."

"I knew that is why you picked that dress. You look completely irresistible in it."

I kind of wished that he would call me beautiful instead of sexy. Ignoring that thought, I looped my arm around his and we began walking down to the ballroom. As expected, a few heads turned towards me. There were so many modestly dressed Moroi, with high neckline dresses with little to no cleavage showing. I knew they envied my traditional dress with a spin to flaunt my genetically blessed curves.

Ignoring the envious looks from the female Moroi and the hungry looks from the males, I inconspicuously looked in the crowd wondering if I would see Dimitri. There was no sign of him and I wasn't overly surprised. He wasn't one to be social in a dance environment, even with alcohol on the scene. Not letting it disappoint me, I held my head out high as we stepped into the dance floor.

"Look at her dress, what a slut," I heard a Moroi say to her husband. The husband nodded his head in agreement, but his expression said otherwise. I was confident that he was a fan of my dress.

"Let's get to the champagne, Little Dhampir," said Adrian, guiding me over to one of the waiters that stood on the side. Adrian grabbed two glasses off of the tray, with the waiter giving me a look.

"Excuse me, Miss, but are you of legal age to consume alcohol?"

Adrian quickly spoke, before I could think of something to say. "Lighten up, Gunther, it is the holidays. Besides, who is to say that both of these aren't for me?" He winked at Gunther, before quickly dragging me away.

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at him. Adrian handed me the glass of champagne, then clinked his glass against mine. "You are lucky that your aunt is Queen," I said to him.

Adrian laughed and took a sip of champagne. "You're also lucky that I tend to be highly charismatic and would do perfectly fine without Aunt Tatiana."

I took a long sip of the champagne, enjoying the sweetness of it. I didn't know the last time I could be at such a public event and not have to worry about how many drinks I could have. Lissa was in a perfectly safe environment surrounded by guardians and I knew I didn't have anything to worry about. Especially with the incoming sunrise.

Adrian and I chatted for quite some time, with me constantly looking over at Lissa and Christian. Lissa was smiling and laughing with a few royal family members, with Christian right next to her partaking in the conversation. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Tasha Ozera break away from the crowd to walk over to me and Adrian.

"Rose and Adrian, so happy to see both of you here and together," She said, with her face beaming. I had to admit that Tasha looked stunning, all things considered. Somehow the scars on her face started to suit her and I hardly noticed that they were there.

"How have you been doing, Tasha?" I asked. I was lucky to find a way to avoid her this morning. Even though Dimitri and I weren't really anything, I still wasn't a huge fan of her. The fact that she was desperately trying to get Dimitri away from me a couple of years ago still irked me. Especially when she was convincing Dimitri to be with her so they could have kids.

I shuddered at the thought of that.

"Great, thank you. I'm sad that you couldn't come by this morning and had to work."

Adrian gave me a curious glance, very well knowing that I did not have to work this morning. He knew that I had joined him this morning for the usual hook up. Hell, in order to get out of seeing Tasha I convinced Lissa to lie to her. I gave Adrian a sideways glance to not ask any questions.

"Yes, but it freed me up the rest of the night," I said, taking another sip of my champagne. Ugh, this was awkward.

"Your dress certainly caused a lot of heads to turn," She said, with her tongue clicking slightly. Of course, she had to poke at me somehow because she wouldn't be Tasha Ozera if she didn't. I always found her jealously very amusing, especially when she was comparing herself to me.

I glanced around the room and saw Eddie standing against the wall, his eyes intently standing the room. It must suck having to spend your Christmas dance staring and doing little to no socialization. All of the guardians did not have to dress up in their usual uniform tonight, but instead could wear their own formal attire. Queen Tatiana and Guardian Steele felt that as long as the guardians were capable of fighting and had their silver stakes on them, then it would be fine.

"Sorry, Tasha, I need to go talk to someone quick." I politely excused myself from Adrian and Tasha, quickly downing the rest of my champagne. On the way over, I handed the empty glass to a waiter.

I approached Eddie, knowing that it would be in my best interest to apologize for over reacting last night. I knew Eddie wasn't intentionally trying to hurt me and cause a rise out of me. For a while I had even thought that he knew Dimitri was watching and wanted me to self-implode. I had admitted to myself that I was being ridiculous.

"Hey," I said, joining him against the wall.

"Hey yourself," He replied, with his eyes briefly meeting mine. "You look great, especially with the number of heads you made turn."

I laughed. "That wasn't necessarily my intention, but I don't mind the eyes being on me every once in a while. Sometimes it is boring hiding in the background."

Eddie smirked. "I know, Hathaway. I still remember your arrival at the senior equinox dance."

I rolled my eyes at him and gave him a light punch in the arm.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to say those things and I promise I did not know that Dimitri was in the room," Eddie said sincerely.

I nodded my head. "It was pretty shitty, but I can overlook that." I gave him a crooked grin. "Did I at least give you a few bruises for my revenge?"

"Yes," He said, slightly irritated.

"Then I guess you learned your lesson."

We both laughed a bit, then I stared out on the dance floor. Christian and Lissa were now dancing pretty close together, gazing into each other's eyes lovingly. My eye managed to come across Jill, who was laughing happily with her parents. I had never seen Jill look so put together in my entire life. Her hair was in a beautiful up-do and her makeup was done to make her look more sophisticated. She even seemed to have an extra added elegance to her. The more I stared at her, I realized that she truly was a Dragomir. Jill was more than capable of standing near Lissa's side in the future.

Adrian soon made his way over to me, after escaping a lengthy conversation with Tasha. He looked a bit annoyed coming over, but shook that expression off his face. "I think you owe me a dance after leaving me to talk to her," He said, secretly pointing over to Tasha who was near the food.

I laughed and told Eddie goodbye, before letting Adrian take me towards the dance floor. He pulled me into his arms as we began dancing amongst the crowd. In the distance I could see Tatiana smiling and talking to other Moroi, including Adrian's parents. Turning my glance back to Adrian, I stared up at him.

"You're a good dancer, Little Dhampir," Adrian softly spoke to me.

"You aren't so bad yourself," I replied.

Adrian gave me a quick spin, before pulling me back to his chest. Looking around the room, I saw Christian and Lissa talking. He whispered something in her ear and I immediately knew he was off to propose to her. Lissa was grinning and feeling very swept away by Christian tonight. Christian wasn't much for the social scene, but had improved substantially since him and Lissa first started dating. He knew that if he was going to be Lissa's husband, he needed to make a good impression.

"You're smiling," Adrian noted. "Who are you smiling at?"

I continued smiling, as I looked up at him. "Can you keep a secret?"

"For you, I can do anything."

"Christian is going to propose to Lissa. He showed me the ring yesterday and he told me he would be doing it at the ball."

Adrian's eyes widened. He was surprised that they were getting engaged since Lissa was so young, but he knew that they were soulmates. Adrian had gotten better at analyzing auras and they said Christian and Lissa's complemented each other. Their differences were able to balance and form a perfect pair.

Adrian cleared his throat, sensing that bit of jealously and sadness with Lissa getting engaged. "I'm sure you will find someone. Even if it isn't me or Belikov."

"I don't think I'm meant to be with anyone," I admitted.

He shook his head. "I doubt it. Any guy would be lucky to have you in their life."

"Thanks Adrian. You always know how to make me feel better," I murmured, resting my head against his chest. I quickly felt excitement radiate through the bond and I knew I would be sucked in to Lissa's head. "Just keep dancing with me, I'm being pulled in to Lissa's mind."

Lissa and Christian were standing on an empty balcony that overlooked the wooded area at the Court. He was standing right in front of her, holding both of her hands and intently looking at her. Christian could be such a hopeless romantic, especially since he timed the proposal with the sunrise. If I was around, I would have the perfect comment for him.

I tried pulling back from her mind, wanting to honor Christian's request at giving them privacy, but Lissa's strong feelings kept pulling me in. Lissa and I never understood why the bond didn't just pull me in when she was having strong feelings of danger or sadness. But I guess when being shadow-kissed was a thing, you didn't really get to dictate the rules.

"Liss, there is something that I have been meaning to ask you," Christian said, looking intently in Lissa's eyes.

"What is it?" asked Lissa.

Just then Christian got down on one knee, still holding her hands. He looked attentively up at her with every ounce of worry going away from him. "I know we haven't been together for a long time, but I think time does not matter for us. You complete me and make me a better person. You are everything that I would ever want: kind, smart, caring, and beautiful. I ask myself every day how we got so lucky to find each other and every day I know I do not want to be with anyone else. Vasilisa Sabina Rhea Dragomir, will you do the honor of becoming my wife?" He opened up the ring box and Lissa gasped at the beautiful sight of it.

Lissa immediately started crying of pure happiness. "Yes, Christian of course I will," She said. Before he could even slip the ring on her finger, she immediately pulled him into a passionate kiss.

On that cue, I was able to force myself out of Lissa's head. As I snapped back to reality, I saw that I was still dancing with Adrian. He gazed down at me, as I lifted my head from his chest. "Everything okay, Little Dhampir?"

"She's the happiest she has ever been," I said. I was soon interrupted by Lissa's thoughts pouring into my head. She wanted to see me as soon as possible to tell me the great news. "I'm going to go find, Lissa. Try not to get yourself in too much trouble." I smiled at him.

"I'll try not to, but it looks like that the open bar is calling my name."

I rolled my eyes and parted ways from him. On my way out, I skimmed the crowd to see if Dimitri was anywhere to be seen. There was no sight of him. Sighing, I lifted my dress and made my way up the stairs to congratulate Lissa and Christian on their happily ever after. Why did fate have it so I didn't get a fairytale ending?

Lissa was beyond excited when she saw me and immediately asked me to be her maid of honor; of course, I agreed. Christian was beaming with happiness and pride. Who would have thought that the dark Moroi would marry the Princess?

Afterwards, I decided to return to my room, not even bothering to head back to the dance. Mostly because Adrian had mysteriously disappeared from the area. I assumed he was off to smoke and drink with a few of his fellow Moroi. Dances weren't really his atmosphere, but I was happy that I got to spend a bit of time with him.

I began walking down the main hallway, that was decked out in Christmas decorations, to grab my clothes I left at Lissa's before heading back to my room. The Court sure loved going above and beyond for Christmas, especially since it took days to even set out all of the decorations. I was mesmerized at the decorations and my own thoughts, that I didn't even notice that Dimitri was walking down the hallway, until I heard him call out my name.

Wow, was all I could think when I saw him standing there. He was dressed in a tuxedo, with his hair pulled back into a neat pony tail. He looked so handsome, I couldn't help but admit this. The way he looked at me in return, I had a feeling he might have felt the same way about me.

"Thought you weren't going to make an appearance," I said casually.

"I thought about you when I went to read a Western," Dimitri shyly admitted. "Then I realized that I should at least make an appearance if this is my first and last Christmas at Court."

I smiled at him. "Never thought I would see you in anything willingly outside of your duster. I did not even know that you owned a tuxedo."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Rose, I own more than guardian clothes and my duster."

"Yeah, but I have never seen you in anything else," I pointed out.

Dimitri admitted I had a point and we stood there in silence. I saw his eyes glance up and down my dress and I wondered what he was thinking at this moment. Did he still find me attractive? Did he think I looked nice in this dress? Shaking away those thoughts, I met his gaze again.

He was the first to speak, after he cleared his throat. "Did I come too late? It looks like you are leaving."

"Well, Lissa just got engaged to Christian, so I thought I needed to give her space. Eddie is guarding and Adrian has decided to go smoke and drink with some other Moroi. I didn't want to be the girl alone and dressed up," I admitted.

"Any man would be lucky to even get a chance to dance with you."

My heart beat fluttered a little bit at that comment.

"I brought you something, like I promised," Dimitri told me. Taking out a box from inside his tuxedo jacket. He placed the box in my hands and I stared down at it, before looked back up at him.

"Dimitri, you really did not need to get me anything. I did not even think about getting anything for you, since we aren't really friends," I shyly said. I felt my face start burning, knowing that it was starting to turn red from embarrassment. I absolutely hated when people would give me a gift and I had nothing in return for them.

"I do not need anything from you, nor do I deserve it," He sternly said. "This isn't a Christmas present, but a very belated graduation present. When I was restored and able to go through my belongings back in my room at the Academy I came across this. I remember I had this plan to give it to you in private after you received your promise mark."

Emotion started sweeping through me rapidly, thinking about the time when we were so close to having our happily ever after. The time when we were completely in love and were going to go against all odds to make it work. I always wanted to see Dimitri's face after I completed my final test and after I received my promise mark. I needed to see the pride radiating from his face, especially with the amount of growth I had quickly gone through that senior year.

"I really do not need it. You have another student that you can give this to, why don't you save it?" I said, trying to push the box back into his hands. It was hard for me to find the will to accept the gift, especially with the intended sentiment behind it.

"No, this was meant for you." There was so much firmness in his voice, as he gently pushed back the gift.

"But why?" I said, concealing my emotion.

"When I started my position back at the Academy this past year, I was very curious about your performance during your test. I requested the video from Alberta wanting to know how your hard work paid off. As I watched, I couldn't help but feel so proud of you. You were even stronger than I ever imagined and I wanted more than anything to have been there in person."

I saw the pain through his eyes, when he remembered he started remembering his dark past. Tears started brimming in my eyes, knowing I could mask the emotion any longer. "I stood there before I went in, thinking about everything you would say to me. You would tell me not to underestimate the test and don't be too predictable. You would tell me to not be overconfident and just keep my focus intact on the task."

Dimitri's eyes stared into mine and I saw emotion spreading across his face. "I would have said all of those things, Roza," He softly said. "Why don't you open your gift?"

I nodded and took off the ribbon, then gently lifted off the top of the box. Inside was a note on the top, written in Dimitri's handwriting.

Rose,

From when we first started training you were always eager to have your own silver stake. I thought it would only be fitting that I would be the first one to give you your own silver stake. Congratulations. I will always be so proud of you.

Dimitri

I moved the note away, then stared at the silver stake in the package. It looked so beautiful with it completely unused. The shininess of it was absolutely stunning and as I lifted it out of the box, I stared at disbelief at the top of the stake. Rosemarie Hathaway was engraved on the top of it. Clutching it in my hands, my eyes were welling with tears.

"Dimitri, I can't possibly accept this. After everything that happened between us I – "

"This stake was always meant for you, regardless of what happened in the past," He softly said.

I was so touched by this gift, I gazed down at it. How could I possibly respond to this gesture? I was lost for words in this moment. Gazing up into his eyes, I took a few steps towards him. The slight bit of anger I still had around him was completely gone, as I stared into his deep brown eyes. I felt warm and fuzzy; the same way I used to feel around Dimitri.

We were completely mesmerized in each other's looks. I couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like to kiss him again. I knew it was crazy for me to think that, especially when I still hadn't completely forgiven him. But I knew, with a doubt, that I was still very much attracted to him. Dimitri looked at me, then down at my lips. Did he want to kiss me?

"You look absolutely beautiful, Rose," He whispered to me.

Our lip started getting dangerously close and I didn't know if I should pull away or cave in. A part of me craved to feel his lips against mine again and I did not know if this was part of the sentimental gift that brought me back to the past or truly something I wanted. What did he want? What did I want?

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed. As always review! Thanks for the support :)