Just a warning that there is a part of the chapter that is hella sad. Character death.

You all are probably gonna hate me after this, but I promise, I'm not going to be cruel forever.

The weeks that followed our wedding were perfect. We took a short trip to Hawaii and got to swim with dolphins. We did some hiking and exploring, much to my excitement. We spent most of our days outside or in the water, but I was in complete heaven. I was also thrilled that Dimitri was barely bothered by the sun. He needed to apply sunscreen more often to prevent irritation, but other than that, it was as if he was human. It was nice to be away from everything. The island had a lower risk for Strigoi, and we were able to really let loose and relax on our honeymoon.

But the night after we got home, I was woken by the shrill ringing of my phone. I groped around my nightstand and found it, spotting Adrian's name on the screen. I was wide awake now.

"Is it time?" I asked thickly but excitedly, rousing Dimitri.

"I'm sorry to wake you, but we have a situation," Adrian said solemnly, my heart sinking in my chest.

"What's wrong?"

Adrian took a long shuttering breath, and I heard him sob quietly, my hand coming up to my chest. I already knew something terrible had happened.

"Syd thought something was wrong with the baby, she hadn't felt it move most of the day. We were on our way to the hospital and were t-boned. When we got here, there was no heartbeat," Adrian said once he pulled himself together. I gripped Dimitri's hand as tears rolled down my cheeks.

"Oh Adrian," I whispered.

"I know that it's a lot to ask, but can you come? Sydney is just silent, and I know that I can't exactly understand what she's feeling, but you do."

I didn't understand to the same extent, but I understood to a degree. In my third year I found out I was pregnant but a few weeks later I miscarried. I was upset but I couldn't fathom what Sydney was going through. I had always wondered if my miscarriage was because I was still human, but Dimitri cleared that up a few weeks ago.

"Of course. We'll be there shortly," I said as I hung up and climbed out of bed. I heaved a sigh and wiped my face, looking at Dimitri.

"Jackson has no heartbeat," I whispered even though he would have heard the conversation. Dimitri rested his hand on my arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly. I wiped my face again and nodded.

"I'm fine," I whispered as I got dressed, pulling my hair into a bun. Dimitri got dressed too and we got in the car, both of us silent as we drove, our hands clasped tightly together. When we got to the hospital we ran into Delia and she pointed us in the right direction. We were silent in the elevator, and I rested my head on his shoulder, barely keeping my eyes open. I knew that the minute we walked onto the maternity floor, I was going to be wired, and my only priority was going to be Sydney and Adrian.

When the doors opened Adrian was pacing in the hall, his eyes red. I stepped out and hugged him tightly, letting him hold onto me as long as he needed. When he pulled away Dimitri stepped up and I went in search of Sydney's room, finding it after a few moments.

I frowned as I looked at her. She was so tiny before she got pregnant, but she was all belly during it. But she had her knees pulled up the best she could and looked out the window at the mesmerizing snow. I walked in and set my purse on the chair and then sat on the end of her bed, reaching for her hand.

She looked up at me and I couldn't see any life in her eyes. Her usually vibrant eyes were dead and hollow, looking at me but looking through me.

"Oh honey," I said leaning over and wrapping my arms around her. She wrapped her arm around me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"I haven't even cried. I just feel numb," she whispered. I nodded and let her hold onto me. I rested my head against hers and rocked her slowly, rubbing my hand over her back.

"Is there anything I can get you?" I whispered.

Sydney shook her head. "No, I've been induced. We're just waiting at this point. I know that it's the middle of the night, but will you stay until it's over? I want you here."

"Of course," I whispered.

"And when it's over can you call Dalton?"

I nodded my head. "Anything you need, I'll take care of it," I whispered. Sydney pulled back and blew a breath from her lips, closing her eyes. She laid down and curled onto her side, whispering that she wanted to try and sleep. I kissed her head and got up, smoothing her hair gently as I left the room. Adrian was being comforted by Dimitri in the hall and I sat down next to them, gripping his hand.

"This isn't anything you did," I whispered. Dimitri met my eyes and nodded.

"How is it that you both said the exact same thing to me?" Adrian asked with a wet chuckle.

"Because it's what I thought," I said quietly, "There isn't anything you could have done to stop this."

Adrian closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "I should probably go check on Syd."

"She said that she was going to try a sleep," I said softly. Adrian nodded and stood up, excusing himself to the washroom. I slid into the chair beside Dimitri and rested my head on his shoulder with a sigh.

"I would give anything to take this pain from them," I said tiredly. Dimitri wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kissed my head.

"Me too, Roza. Me too," he whispered. I watched a nurse go into the room Sydney was in and sighed, standing up and stretching.

"It's going to be a long night, I'm going to find coffee," I said quietly. But a part of me just wanted to be off the floor with crying babies while one of my closest friends was about to lose hers.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, looking at the bottom of my now-empty cup. We had been here for hours. I thought holding Sydney's hand was going to be the hardest part, but I was wrong. Hearing her sob as she held her stillborn son was the hardest part. It was unavoidable, a knot in the umbilical cord. Her son was supposed to be in the safest place possible, but this happened.

"Couldn't they have put her on a floor away from babies?" I grumbled to Dimitri, my feet in his lap.

"It's cruel," Dimitri whispered. I agreed with him wholeheartedly. It was cruel to keep her up here with all the new moms and babies, but I guess this was the easiest place for the nurses and doctors. How stupid!

I pulled my feet off his lap and rubbed my face. "I'm going to see if they need anything," I whispered. Dimitri nodded and I poked my head into the room, giving them both a tight smile.

"Can you get you two a coffee or tea?" I asked quietly. Sydney was asleep and Adrian looked up from he had his head resting next to her.

"A coffee would be great. Maybe a peppermint tea for Syd?" Adrian asked. I nodded and left, grabbing my wallet and heading downstairs to the coffee cart. I took my time, grabbed something to eat as well and headed back upstairs. I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of glass and grimaced. I looked as exhausted as I felt. But now wasn't the time to dwell on that so I put it aside. I rubbed my lips together and sighed when I stepped off the elevator, yawning to myself as I rounded the corner, stopping dead in my tracks.

Sydney's parents, Lilian and Andrew, were standing by Sydney's bed while her brother hovered near her. I felt my blood boil the minute I took in the tears on Sydney's face.

"You shouldn't be upset; God has saved you from bringing a monster into this world," Lilian said, but she didn't get to say much before I pulled her away from Sydney's bed.

"If you don't get out right now, I will strangle you with my bare hands!" I snarled at her, my eyes narrowing.

"How dare you come into this room and say such vile things! You are a cruel, vicious woman, and if you don't leave right now, I will be more than happy to show you exactly what I think of you," I continued as I moved Lilian. I had never been a fan of Sydney's mother, but my blood was boiling for her.

"You're just as filthy as she is! Whoring up with a creature like that-"

I slapped her harder than I meant to, but I felt deep satisfaction seeing the mark rise on her cheek.

"Leave!" I hissed, "I will not tell you again!"

Lilian looked between me and Sydney, but Sydney refused to look at her mother. Adrian and Dimitri both placed themselves directly in front of Sydney, blocking her from sight.

"As far as I'm concerned, my parents are dead," Sydney said after a moment, "Any parent who prays for the death of their grandchild has no business in my life."

I stepped into Lilian's line of sight and jutted my chin out in a gesture for her to leave. Lilian gathered her things and left before I walked out behind her, heading straight for the nurse station.

"That woman is not to be allowed back on this floor," I said in a low voice.

The nurse looked at me with slightly raised brows and nodded. "After hearing that conversation, we already put her on a no-access list."

"Thank you," I said quietly and went back into Sydney's room. Adrian was sitting on the bed with Sydney, his hand rubbing her shoulder, but she sat like a statue. I looked at Dimitri and shook my head tiredly.

"You two should head home," Adrian said as Dalton moved to sit on the other side of the bed with Sydney. I glanced at Sydney and nodded tiredly.

"I'll check on you later, okay?" I said quietly. Sydney turned her head and nodded, sniffing quietly.

"Okay. Thank you for making her leave," she whispered." I nodded and Dimitri and I left, heading for the car. I sighed and closed the door a little more aggressively than necessary and I cringed.

"They must have walked in right as I left," I mumbled.

"It's a good thing you weren't there, I might have ended up visiting my wife in prison."

"Why?" I asked.

Dimitri put his seatbelt on and sighed. "Lilian all but said that she had prayed for the baby to die if Sydney didn't abort. And that if Sydney had remained 'pure' until marriage, her child would go to heaven. It took everything in me from letting Adrian throttle her," Dimitri said.

I rubbed my hands over my face. "It's a good thing I wasn't there. I probably would have killed her," I muttered, "The woman is vile. She has no idea what Sydney is going through. She just held her dead son and signed his death certificate. They should never have shown up," I said tiredly and pulled my hair out of the scrunchie.

Dimitri rubbed his hand over my thigh softly. "They're horrible people. Sydney needs to heal from this, not be beaten down further," he whispered. I nodded and rested my head against the window.

"Let's go home. I just want to sleep," I whispered.

The further the Guardians investigated Adrian and Sydney's car accident, the sicker I felt. We thought that the Strigoi that were hunting down mates had scattered, but it turned out that they had just gotten better at hiding what they were doing.

The worst part for us was that Mikhail was no longer considered missing, but turned.

My heart broke a little bit. We had all secretly hoped that he was dead the last few years when we hadn't been able to find him. None of us wanted to entertain the idea that he had been turned. But seeing the still frame of both him and Sonya, it sent a shiver down my spine. Having both of them on their side was dangerous for all of us.

Dimitri was on edge again about it all, double-checking the lock on our door at night even though it wouldn't stop a Strigoi. He didn't like the idea of me being alone at night or going anywhere alone. He drove me to my teaching classes and lingered in the back of the room working on his own sketches while I taught and then drove me home.

One of the older ladies in my class asked if I felt it was overbearing, but I simply stated that if it made him happy to sit at the back of my class after being mugged, I let him do it. One person thought that it was controlling, but I turned around and said in the same breath that we went out for dinner after every class and that he usually was sketching along with the rest of them.

The odd night I'd go and sit in the back of his classes. It wasn't hard to do with how full his classes were lately, nobody noticed that someone new was there.

But tonight, we stayed snuggled up inside after setting up our Christmas decorations. I always loved decorating my tree, and each year Dimitri bought a new decoration. This year, it was two glass rings intertwined with our wedding date printed in gold on one of the bands.

We were cuddled up when both our phones went off, the daunting chime that always made my stomach drop each time. Dimitri stretched out and grabbed his phone, grimacing at it and putting his phone back on the table.

"It's not a big enough breach for us to go to the hub," Dimitri said soothingly, kissing my forehead. I nodded and snuggled into his chest, sighing quietly.

"I feel like there are more alerts than usual," I whispered.

"There have been more. I don't like it. I have a bad feeling in my gut," Dimitri whispered, holding me tighter to his chest. I bit my lip and rubbed my feet together. I didn't like feeling on edge like this, and the second-hand edge was worse. I could feel Dimitri's agitation and it made me antsy.

After a little while longer of cuddling, I got up to finish my painting. I needed to do something with my hands and we couldn't spar here. Plus, most of our stuff was packed up for our move.

We purchased a cute little house on the edge of the city. It was a good starter home for us, and it had a yard with a pool. It had room for my art supplies while having room for us to work out and spar in the basement.

I tucked my shirt up under my bra and pulled my hair up, popping my headphones in as I finished the smaller details. I had planned on having this finished and ready for the new house so that I could hand it in the front hallway.

I had a few other paintings that would work too, but I liked this one better. It was our go-to summer place, and I wanted to have it as a front piece of our home. As I painted I stopped a few times to listen over my earbuds, but I went back to painting. But after a loud thud in the living room, I jumped up and grabbed the old bat I kept in the back of the closet and headed out into the living room.

I was faced with two Strigoi in the living room. I swung the bat at the first Strigoi and dove for my purse when I knocked him to the ground. I pulled my stake out of my purse and turned in time to stake him, pushing him off of me and scrambled to my feet, pressing my stake against the back of the Strigoi's neck to get him off Dimitri.

Hold him down. I have an idea.

Once Dimitri was able to push him off he pinned the Strigoi down and I held the stake to his neck, wincing as he screamed as the skin burned.

"Who sent you?!"

The Strigoi thrashed under Dimitri's grasp but I kept pressing the stake to his skin.

"Tell me!"

"He said that you two would be easy to take down!"

"Who!?"

"Randal! He said that you'd be easy to take down and said to attack you here and not at the hub!"

I gritted my teeth and looked up at Dimitri, whose eyes were steely and dark.

Like I said, I promise Syd and Adrian will get their happy ending. I promise!