January came in bitter and snowy, leaving most of us stranded in our houses for Christmas. We were lucky that our house was close enough to my parents that we could walk, but even then the twenty-minute walk felt like hours.

The end of the winter break meant I had more students. A handful of the students from the high school signed up for classes during the break and I was happy to see more faces. I could tell which ones were here because they wanted to be here, and ones that were here because their parents made them or their friends.

Tonight was quieter but I didn't mind. I had felt out of sorts all day. I wasn't sure what the cause of it was, but I couldn't shake it. Even painting wouldn't fix it.

I set the last of the brushes into the holder to dry when the main door opened.

"The class ended twenty minutes ago," I called out as I set the paints back on the shelf.

"I'm not here for no class, girl."

My lips pressed into a firm line and I turned around, gripping the scissors that we on the counter behind me.

"You have nerve coming here. I should have just taken care of you the night of my wedding," I bit out, "Better yet, I should just take you out now."

Randal smirked and laughed darkly. "What? Am I not allowed to go to my son's wedding?"

"Not when the last time you saw him was when he was pounding your face in," I snapped as I advanced on him. Randal looked smug, and for a split second, I saw Dimitri in his features.

"C'mon, my little boy was getting married to a pretty thing. I wasn't going to miss that."

My grip on the scissors was almost too tight and I could feel the blade digging into my hand.

"Yes, you were. He isn't your 'little boy' and he hasn't been for a very long time," I snarled, adjusting my hand on the blade.

Randal smirked again and crossed his arms over his chest, eyeballing one of the paintings I had done earlier in the day. I had set it out to dry and I moved, pulling the curtain so the drying works were hidden from view.

"I'm going to ask you once to leave," I stated.

Randal looked at me smugly and walked casually towards me, not hearing the real threat in my voice. I wasn't above stabbing the bastard. I breathed out a short breath from my nose when he stopped a foot or so away.

"Come on now, we're family," he said but I pulled the scissors out from behind my back. He looked at them and raised his brows, laughing at me.

"My son must not have explained to you what Ekons are; that won't kill me."

I grinned at him menacingly. "No. But you'll go down long enough," I said as I lunged at him, plunging the scissors into his chest. I wanted him to go down and flounder.

"I think there's something you should know about my family," I said as I crouched beside him, a smirk on my face. "My family lives to protect the lives of Ekons and their mates. My best friend is an Alchemist. Those scissors, and every pair of scissors in here, are made with special silver. Not charmed, but there is magic in them. Enough to paralyze you long enough for the Guardians to get here."

Randal's eyes were wide as he gaped at me, unable to make a sound as pain coursed through his body. I stood up with a sigh and picked up my phone, dialling a number I knew by heart. I pursed my lips as the phone rang and smiled when they answered.

"What do I owe this honour?"

"What? I can't call my favourite asshole?" I chuckled.

"What do you want?" Spiridon drawled, sounding less than happy to hear from me.

"I have an Ekon that's been helping the Strigoi. I figured that you would want in on some of the action."

Spiridon sighed and swore under his breath.

"Why aren't you calling your husband?"

I turned my back on Randal, not wanting to watch him anymore. "Because we need information. I can't have my husband killing his father."

Spiridon sighed. "I'll be there soon."

I wanted to say that I wasn't this person; I wasn't the kind of person to hurt someone else. But I'd be a bold-faced liar. Maybe fifteen-year-old me wouldn't do this, but I was a different person now. I had been kidnapped, attacked and watched my husband lie unresponsive for days.

I wasn't about to let this man walk away without feeling a fraction of the pain that he had caused me. My best friend is dead because of him.

I breathed deeply as I flexed my hand and licked my lips. Randal didn't look good, but we had barely gotten started.

"Do you really think that you're going to walk out of this without telling me what I want?" Spiridon asked, wiping the blade of his knife on Randal's pants. Randal narrowed his eyes at Spiridon before he slammed the blade into the soft spot in his knee.

I casually turned away so Randal would see me gag. I didn't care if it hurt him, but the whole motion made me gag.

"We both know you're not smart enough, or sober enough, to be doing this alone. We know that someone's got you on a short leash. So, do yourself a favour; tell us," Spiridon drawled almost sweetly.

I turned back and could feel a nudging in the back of my mind. Dimitri knew we were here in the bottom of the hub, but Christian and Stan were making sure he didn't come in. So he was in the room I was in when Baba interrogated Nathan.

Let me compel him.

Nice try, comrade. I'm not letting the two of you in the same room.

I could hear Dimitri sigh in my mind. We can get answers faster this way.

I pursed my lips and then turned to look at the mirrored window. I gave a simple nod of my head and then the door opened a few moments later.

I looked at Dimitri with a firm look, letting him know that the only reason he was in here was because we needed information. And while I was enjoying the beating I gave him and watching Spiridon make him suffer, we needed to know. Compulsion would give us exactly what we asked.

Spiridon looked away from Randall and sighed.

"Awe. Now he's here to take away all my fun," Spiridon moaned as he stood up, kicking Randal in the side of the knee for good measure. Spiridon moved and stood beside me, close enough that he could pull Dimitri away if he started swinging. We'd let Dimitri get his if he still wanted to afterwards. But we could still use him.

Randal lifted his head and tried to hold in the howl of pain, glaring at Dimitri but the pain was clear on his face.

"Boy."

"Randal," Dimitri bit out as took the chair that Spiridon vacated. I came to stand right behind Dimitri and rested my hands on his shoulders, squeezing gently to give him some grounding.

"I remember when your mother was a good girl like that," Randal said, but I let the punch Dimitri gave him slide. It was warranted. Nobody got to speak about my mother-in-law like that, not to mention, he didn't get to speak about her period.

Randal groaned and I smirked in satisfaction at how crooked his nose was now.

"I don't recall ever being a 'good girl'. I just know what the meaning of love is. Being a loving spouse is easy, but you wouldn't know that," I said with a scowl, resting my hands on Dimitri's shoulders again. I took a deep breath and pushed all the calming thoughts and emotions into Dimitri. He needed to be calm for this, and I would help him do this.

"Who are you working with?" Dimitri asked. He was calm and it was terrifying to hear how dead and void of emotion his voice was. Randal pressed his lips into a tight line. Dimitri sighed and leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"You and I both know how powerful I am with compulsion. I'm giving you one opportunity to tell me before I force you.

Randal was silent and his eyes moved up to me, his jaw ticking as he ground his teeth together. I could feel the pull in my mind, the building of the compulsion before Dimitri released it on Randal. The release made me feel queasy, so much power was being released into the room. I glanced at Spiridon and could see that even he was having a hard time against the compulsion. It wasn't so much that he felt compelled, but the intensity was almost dominating.

I remembered once Dimitri snapping at Tasha and feeling the need to be submissive, to become small. I could only imagine what Spiridon felt being an Ekon and not Dimitri's mate.

Randal tried to fight it but eventually succumbed to it.

"Natasha Ozera has been on the inside."

I stiffened. "What?"

Dimitri's body tensed. "Why?"

"She thinks that mates make Ekons weak. She thought enough killings would make others block out the need for a bond mate; to ignore the pull to a specific mate."

My hands gripped Dimitri's shoulders tightly and I gritted my teeth. My vision about Christian finally made sense, and Natasha's attitude was clear. She knew that we were getting too close to finding things out.

"When did she start doing this?" Dimitri demanded. I could see that Randal was trying to fight the compulsion, but I knew that he wouldn't be able to. I had a hard time resisting Dimitri's compulsion, something that we had been practicing.

"Shortly before you come into the picture."

"A few years ago?"

"No, shortly after you were born," Randal said robotically. I felt a stone drop into the pit of my stomach. How many people did she hurt because of her inability to take no for an answer?

"How long has Natasha known that you had found your mate?"

"I didn't hide it from anyone, I had just simply stated that I wanted to wait until you were older," Dimitri said darkly. I sighed and shook my head, forcing myself to loosen my fingers from Dimitri's shoulders.

"Go to sleep. You won't remember any of this," Dimitri said bluntly, and even standing behind Dimitri I could hear the intensity of the compulsion. Randal's eyes rolled back into his head before they closed, his head hanging limp. Dimitri stood up and gripped my hand firmly but still gently and pulled me from the room. I followed him out of the room and into the small meeting room down the hall.

As soon as we were into the room, Dimitri pulled me into his arms, holding to his chest in an almost bone-crushing grip. I knew that things were getting worse, but to know how close we were to the person causing all of this destruction; it was hard to comprehend.

"I'm so sorry," Dimitri whispered but I just shook my head. I knew that this wasn't his fault, despite knowing he felt it was.

"I know, comrade," I whispered and hugged him tightly. I knew that he felt he put me in danger by being my mate, but there was nothing he could have done. Natasha was at fault for this.

"Was he under compulsion?"

Dimitri and I both tensed, turning to look at Christian who was sitting near the back of the room.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"I wanted to see what information you were able to get out of Randal. I came in when he said that my aunt was helping him. Was he under compulsion?"

I looked at Dimitri with a sad frown before looking at Christian. My brows were pinched and I hated having to tell him that he was. I hated telling him that his own aunt helped cause the accident that Lissa and I were in, I hated telling him that his aunt almost killed his mate, myself and him. I hated that I had to tell him that the only living family he had left was a bigger monster than a Strigoi.

By the look on Christian's face, he wasn't going to make me say the words out loud. He knew by the look on my face that it was the truth. His face fell and he sank further into his chair, resting his elbow on the table and his head in his hand. I squeezed Dimitri's arm and made my way to Christian, sitting in the chair across from him and bit my lip.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. Christian opened his eyes and nodded at me.

"It's not your fault everyone in my family is crazy," Christian whispered quite solemnly. I reached for his other hand and squeezed it.

"Not everyone," I said quietly with a small smile. I knew it wasn't the same, but in a way, we were family. I thought of Christian as the annoying older brother I never had, and I knew that I was someone he would go to when he couldn't go to Liss.

"I know. Just the only blood."

"Blood doesn't make you family," I whispered to him, reiterating something he had said to me during Dimitri and me's brief break up.

Christian sighed and nodded. "You're right."

I nodded and tried to make light of the situation for his sake. "How did that taste?"

"Like vomit," he said dryly but cracked a smirk.

"Good, I was starting to get worried that you were going to turn into a wallowing sap," I said bluntly and stood up. It was best not to let Christian wallow in his mind or worries, or he would start to spin and spiral.

Christian nodded and stood up, nodding his head sharply at Dimitri.

"We won't let Tasha get away with what she has done," Dimitri said briskly, his arms crossed over his chest. "I won't let her get away with what she has done to all of us. We've lost so many people."

Christian nodded in agreeance. "I can't forgive her for what she's done. She almost killed you and Lissa, she targeted people I cared about. I didn't think she was capable of something like this."

Dimitri nodded in understanding. "We never want to believe the ones we love are capable of something so horrible," Dimitri said quietly. I knew that it was hard for him too. Natasha was his friend since childhood, he had grown up with her.

"I think we need to rest before we take this further," I said, "We've all had a long day and we need clear minds before we let anyone else know."

Dimitri nodded and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into his side and kissing the side of my head.

"I think that's best," Dimitri said quietly. I nodded and pulled out of his arms to find Spiridon lingering in the hallway.

"We're going to tell everyone else in the morning if you're able to stay or come back in the morning. I doubt you'd want to be away from Iris right now," I said quietly.

"Iris is upstairs. We have some friends in town that said we could stay there if we needed to," Spiridon said, "And you're right. I don't want to be very far from her. She's pregnant."

I gave him a genuine smile and squeezed his smile. "I'm so happy for you two! Congratulations!"

Spiridon gave me a tight-lipped smile. He was never one for genuine expression unless it was directed at Iris.

"Thank you. We haven't told many people yet," he said leadingly and I nodded in understanding. I would keep it to myself, aside from Dimitri because when I slept, I wasn't able to keep much from him asleep. I smiled at him as he walked by and leaned into Dimitri when he came out.

"Ready to go home?" I asked quietly, not wanting to admit just how exhausted I was feeling. Dimitri nodded and slipped his hand into mine as we headed upstairs. I found my coat and put it on quickly, zipping it up so that we could get out of there and home as soon as possible.

My eyes were barely open as we walked into the house. I set my keys on the table in the wake way and kicked my shoes off, not bothering with putting them into the closet or my coat, just hanging it on the handle. Dimitri left it there and I knew that he was mentally exhausted too.

I shed my clothes as I headed for the bathroom, turning the shower on to quickly wash the day away. When I came back out, Dimitri was waiting for me in bed, my favourite bunny pyjamas sitting on the end of the bed with some underwear. I smiled at him and dried myself off and got dressed. I climbed under the blankets and rolled onto my back, scooting back into his side while slipping one of his arms under my neck.

"This sucks," I sighed.

Dimitri grunted a chuckle and wrapped his arm around my neck, pulling me towards him and kissing my head.

"I think you said it perfectly," Dimitri said with a sigh. I nodded and sighed, closing my eyes and positioned the pillow.

"Do you think this craziness will ever be over?" I asked quietly, "I hate this."

Dimitri's fingers drew lazily over my shoulder. "I hope so, Roza. I don't feel safe starting a family until this is taken care of," he whispered. I wanted to start a family soon, but I had to agree with him. I didn't feel safe bringing a baby into this world until we knew the situation was taken care of. I couldn't risk an innocent life or put a baby in harm's way.

"Me too," I whispered and gripped his arm that was around me, kissing it gently.

I'm back! Let me know what you think!