Chapter 4

Dimitri leaned away suddenly and I frowned up at him. He looked at me and said

"I love you Rose"

"I love you too," and I leaned up to kiss him.

"I've been thinking a lot lately about us and the future," he said.

"Oh, exactly what about?" I asked

"About this," and he pulled out a little black velvet box. I gasped as he opened the little box to reveal what was inside.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, will you marry me?" It took me a while to get my voice box to work but I eventually whispered,

"Yes."

"Thank you Roza, I love you," and Dimitri slid the simple gold ring with a small diamond onto my finger where it will stay for the rest of our lives together. He kissed me softly at first but then it built up to become passionate. I heard cheers and whistle from behind me and turned to see that my friends had never really lefts us alone but stayed to watch Dimitri propose. All I could do was smile and then Lissa came running as fast as she could possibly go to hug me and the rest of my friends came slowly behind her. Congratulations were said to us by everyone except Adrian who went up to Dimitri to shake his hand and we all went quiet.

"Take care of her will you."

"Always." Said Dimitri calmly and left Adrian to come join me again at the door to go to bed.

As we sat in bed, my mind was spinning with thoughts from last night. I was now engaged to be married. I suddenly had a thought and turned over to look at Dimitri in his big brown eyes and said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"When exactly did you ask Abe if you could marry me?"

"On the camping trip when you and you're mother went to find fire wood." That took me by surprise. It hadn't even been a day since we went camping and he had planned and proposed all in one day.

"When are you going to tell your family that we're getting married?" I asked.

"Huh. I hadn't thought about that," he sighed.

"Maybe we should call her when we get up although it will be about 10 pm over there," I said.

"Doesn't matter. She'll pick up the phone anyway and she won't put it down again when she finds out its me. Gosh I've missed all of them and my home." This made me think about where to get married.

"Dimitri, I think we should get married in Baia, that way all of your family can be there and we can travel Russia after for our honeymoon if you want. I could even show you where me and Sydney found strigoi." This made his face light up like the sun and he quickly agreed without hesitation as I thought he would. I was glad he was happy and now that I think about it, so am I.

Later that day, when I called Olena to tell her the good news, she cried and thanked me when I told her Dimitri was changed back and that she couldn't wait to see him. She went quiet when I said he was here and that she could talk to him. I handed over the phone and the conversation took place in Russian, but I had a feeling he was apologizing for leaving them and turning strigoi. All of a sudden I heard a scream on the other end of the line. He must have told her we were getting married, except when I looked at his face, it was filled with horror. He said something quickly and hung up. When he turned to look at me he was crying. I knew it was bad because he had never shed a tear in front of me before. He walked over to where I was standing in the doorway and he hugged me so hard I thought I was going to combust. When he lifted his face from my shoulder he said.

"Rose we have to go to Baia immediately."

"Okay but we need to pack some clothes, call Lissa and tell her what's happening and book some flights. But before we do all that you need to tell me what happened."

"My mother is being transported to the hospital as we speak, for complaints of chest pains. I took that as ma bad sign because I knew enough to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack when I see them.