After a few days' rest, we were back at the hub. Alberta and a few others were swooning over Noah. My mom looked proud like a pig in shit as she showed off her grandson, holding him in her arms while Baba was in the basement with Dimitri and a few others.

"How are you feeling?" Alberta asked.

I nodded and stretched out on the couch. "Good. I guess I was lucky that I was out for the last duration of dilation," I said with a slight chuckle, "But I'm glad I wasn't doing it alone."

I looked at Emily as she sat on the other couch, a small smile on her face.

"But you're loving motherhood so far?" Emily asked with a raised brow.

I nodded and smiled as Mom handed Noah back to me.

"Oh, I love it!" I said in a softer voice, kissing Noah's face as he cuddled him to my chest. "Even though I'm already exhausted, it helps to have a husband who doesn't sleep."

A few people chuckled. "Oh, I don't doubt that," Alberta laughed as she got up, offering to get me another tea.

"How have things been with Ellison?" I asked Emily in a whisper. She sighed heavily and shrugged.

"Slow, but we had a good long talk last night. He's adjusting to being an Ekon and we had a good heart-to-heart. Ellen will always be his 'mother' of sorts, and I can accept that. I just want to be in his life, now that it's safe."

"Is it though? Safe?" I asked worriedly. It was something that had plagued my mind since the first night with Noah. It had kept me away for hours before Dimitri brought Noah up on the bed and made me hold him kangaroo style to calm myself.

"It's safe," Emily whispered softly, "Dimitri is making sure of that now."

I raised a brow at her. "What do you mean?"

Mom cleared her throat and got comfortable on the couch beside me, handing me a towel from the diaper bag when Noah spit up a little.

"I think that this conversation can wait until later, Rosemarie," Mom said softly, "Let's just enjoy the company for now."

I looked at the two of them skeptically. "You two are up to something."

Mom smirked at me and shrugged. "Aren't we always?"

I stretched with a quiet groan as I walked into our bedroom, smirking at my husband.

"You know, if you're trying to start the work for number two, I think I might be persuaded," I laughed as I climbed onto the bed.

Dimitri looked up from his book and smiled at me.

"I wasn't, but good to know," Dimitri laughed.

I smiled at him and ran my hand over his forearm. "So."

"So?"

"I know that the whole situation has been tense, but do you think you're ready to tell me what happened in the hub that day?" I asked softly, slipping my fingers between his. Dimitri let out a slow breath and opened his arm to me as he set his book on the nightstand. I curled up next to him and rested my head on his shoulder.

"There was a reason why we didn't want you coming downstairs," Dimitri admitted and I nodded and waited.

"We were questioning Tasha."

"I thought she was killed during the raid at the house," I said quietly.

Dimitri shook his head and tucked some hair behind my ear. "No. We told you that because we didn't want you to feel any added stress. You were a new mother and we all wanted you to able to bask in that after the birth you had," Dimitri explained. I furrowed my brows and nodded.

"It would have been nice to have been told," I said and our bond filled with understanding.

"I know, but your life with me had already been flooded with bad interactions overshadowing the good. I didn't want to overshadow the joy of our son. I didn't want to do that to you, so we decided to keep it quiet for now."

I nodded. "And?"

"She's dead now," Dimitri said bluntly.

I nodded and breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank God."

"We got the last of the information we needed out of her and took care of her," he said and I sat up.

"What kind of information?"

"The kind that we needed to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. The Gathering has all but been destroyed. There aren't enough members alive to keep it going, and those that are still alive are being hunted."

"I didn't know that we could hunt Strigoi," I said with a slight chuckle.

Dimitri nodded. "There is something else too."

"Oh?"

"Tasha wasn't the only person we took from the house."

I crossed my legs and tilted my head, waiting for him to continue. He seemed excited and nervous about the information he was about to share.

"Do you remember when Sonya was taking and then Mikhail?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Sonya lured him out."

"And you remember that Adrian has different abilities than I do?"

"Yeah, the auras and stuff," I said with a sharp nod of my head.

"Lissa is much like Adrian. Except, Lissa is a very skilled healer. Between Adrian and Lissa, they had poured through lore books and old transcripts. There is a church that holds a lot of Ekon legends, and they found that some wielders of Spirit could restore someone."

"I don't understand."

"Adrian and Lissa turned Sonya and Mikhail back," Dimitri said with a small smile, "That was part of why we didn't want anyone downstairs. We didn't want to overwhelm the two."

I sat back and stared at our duvet. I was bewildered by the information. I could barely wrap my head around it, but in a way, I wasn't all that surprised. It wasn't completely far-fetched for someone to be able to do that, especially with how powerful Adrian was. I never knew that Lissa had developed abilities, but she had been on the other side of the world for the last few months, only returning a few nights before I had Noah.

"That's kind of amazing," I said with a smile, "Do you think they'll be okay?"

Dimitri rubbed my back with a nod. "I do. Sonya was asking about you when I left earlier today. I think that maybe if you're comfortable and up for it, we could bring Noah to see her? I think it might help her," he said.

I nodded. "If you think it'll help, of course. I remember she loved children before she was turned."

Dimitri nodded and we both looked at the bassinet when Noah squawked, but he stayed asleep, turning his head with a quiet sigh. I smiled at Noah and felt my heart swell. I had heard that loving a child was different than loving someone else. It wasn't a right-away connection, but in the last month, I started to love him even more.

"I think that now that everything has calmed down, I think it's time," I said as I toyed with the string on my pants.

"Time?"

"To complete the bond, so to speak? Fully?" I said with slight hesitation, looking up at him with a small smile.

"Yeah?"

I nodded. "I mean, we have the time for me to get adjusted, and I can still breastfeed and all that still, I just won't need to sleep. And I think it's time."

Dimitri shifted on the bed so he was facing me, a nervous but excited look on his face. It was something that we had talked at length about but never found the right time. With all the craziness of the Gathering, I never felt like I would have enough to time adjust and I'd be a hindrance. But now, we had all the time for me to be adjusted.

"What will it feel like?" I asked as I shifted on the bed, glancing over at Noah in the bassinet.

"It will feel like going to sleep and when you wake up, you'll be immortal. The pain will go away, your body will heal, and you'll feel as if you were brand new," Dimitri said gently, holding my hand.

I took a deep breath and looked at Noah again.

"And we'll still be able to have more if we wanted?"

"Yes," Dimitri said with a smile, "But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Noah is only a month old."

I laughed and nodded. "Okay. I'm ready," I whispered, climbing closer to him and pulling my hair over one shoulder. Dimitri stroked my cheek with the back of his hand with a soft smile.

Dimitri lifted his wrist to his mouth and bit down on the skin, breaking the skin enough to bleed. I took a slow breath and held his arm in my hands, bringing my mouth down to suck on the wound. I didn't need a lot, I just needed enough.

Once Dimitri whispered it was enough I pulled back and lipped my lips, smiling meekly at him. Dimitri tangled his hand into the back of my hair and pulled me into his lap, pressing a sound kiss to my mouth. When I pulled away I rubbed the tip of my nose against his and then tilted my neck to the side.

My eyes caught Noah again and I sighed as Dimitri's fangs broke the skin.

I will spend the rest of my life protecting you, I thought to myself as the high started to take over, my eyes fluttering closed.

Lissa snapped her fingers in my face. I blinked and looked at her, blinking a few times.

"What?"

"I said what are you wearing tonight?"

I stared at Lissa for a moment and swallowed. "Oh. Um.. my plunge shirt and leather skirt," I said after a moment, looking back in my locker. I leaned against the side of it with a sigh.

Did that just happen?

"Are you okay?" Lissa asked quietly in alarm. I looked at her again and closed my locker.

"Yeah. Um, I have to go check something. Um, I'll see you in a bit," I said before stepping around her and heading for the stairs. I wasn't sure where I was going but I knew that there was one person that could tell me if I was right. If what I saw was real.

I couldn't go find Christian because he'd think I was nuts, but there was someone else I could go to. I made it back to my trigonometry class and opened the door, getting a nasty glare from Mr. Alto.

"There is a thing called knocking," he snapped and I closed the door, walking briskly towards the desk.

"I need you to take me to hub," I said quietly, slightly out of breath from running.

Mr. Alto's head cocked to the side. "What did you say?"

"Please? And I need to see Dimitri."

Mr. Alto shook his head and the door opened behind me, Alberta standing in the doorway.

"Will you take me to the hub?" I asked.

Alberta had a look of shock on her face. "What?"

"The hub? You know, where we all hang out and don't need to pretend that we all aren't part of an ancient race of vampires?"

Alberta looked at Alto and then closed the door, coming to stand in front of me and resting her hands on my shoulders.

"He told you?"

"I saw it. Like Malcolm does."

Alberta blinked in surprise and nodded. "Okay. I'll take you."

My knee bounced nervously as I waited. Alberta had promised that she would call Dimitri and that she would get him here.

It was funny being n a place I hadn't actually been to before, but I knew that what I knew wasn't part of a daydream. I knew that it was all real, I knew that I had seen my future, and how every inch of it played out until I turned.

The door opened and I turned in my seat, smiling softly when Dimitri walked through the door. He took a pair of sunglasses off his face, slipping them into the inside pocket of his duster. He spotted me after a moment and gave me a gentle smile.

"Rose."

Hearing him say my name was like feeling something snap into place. The feelings I had for him were there. My vision may have been in my head, but the feelings I felt carried back. I knew he felt the bond snap into place at the same time that I did. I stood up and walked towards him, slipping my arms around his waist and resting my head against his chest. He returned my embrace warmly and when I pulled back, he raised his brow at me.

"I'm a seer," I said, "Do you know what that means?"

Dimitri nodded after a moment. "Yes."

"I saw it. Our lives play over the next…six or seven years."

The door opened again and another person walked through. Malcolm.

I smiled at him as well and looked up at Dimitri.

"I see that you figured it all out," Malcolm said with a smile.

"You knew that I would see it?"

He nodded. "You know what's going to happen. It's not often that you have the opportunity to change things. But some things will always happen."

"Like what?" I asked quietly.

"Like Noah. Noah always happens, regardless of how you change the future," Malcolm said before clapping Dimitri on the shoulder.

"Your mate is going to be remarkable. And you don't need to worry about explaining it all to her. She already knows."

Dimitri looked back down at me with a look of confusion, but I just smiled up at him.

"I promise comrade, we have a good life ahead of us," I mused, already excited to do it all over again, just in person this time. I knew that there were things that needed to change in our lives, things that I could prevent. Lives I could say.

And this time around, I wasn't going to make the same mistakes.

Epilogue is next!