It turns out that we were leaving until late the next day. I hadn't known when we were leaving so I hadn't planned anything. I woke up and took a shower. I didn't need to wash my hair, so it was a short shower. Afterwards, I took my time deciding what outfit I would wear. I usually didn't do stuff like that, and since I had the time, I wanted to. I also wanted to go out with a bang.

I decided I would wear a sundress around. It was weird, for me, but I didn't mind. I picked a white dress that was covered in slashes of colors. A little purple here, a little orange there. It all played out. I added a purple jacket on the top to give it a little "pop". I smiled at myself in the mirror and headed out.

I was making my way to Dimitri's room when I suddenly got a headache. It was so sudden that I had to stop and stay still. Everything was spinning. It wasn't fast spinning, it was more like…swaying. I didn't know what brought this on, but it actually kind of scared me. I'd just put my hand to my head when I heard a door in the hallway open.

"Rose?" Christian was standing at an angle. I couldn't answer. "Rose, are you okay?"

"I just…I need…" I couldn't finish. I dropped down on my butt. Hard.

"Stay right here. I'm gonna go get Dimitri." he said, and before I could say anything, he was off.

I could've sworn that I'd only closed my eyes a second, but when they opened, I was in Dimitri's room. I was in the middle of being put down from the feel of things. I saw Dimitri looming over me, and could feel the thick tension in the air. Someone else was here.

I looked to my side and saw Adrian. Why was he here? Dimitri hated him.

"Rose?"

I looked back up at that beautiful, wonderful man that I loved. I was surprised that I could speak. "Yes?" His eyes widened and I noticed that he wasn't looking at me when he'd spoken my name. He bent down at the sound of my voice and held my hand. "You weren't talking to me?"

"I was actually asking Adrian here a question. But I'm so happy to hear your voice. You scared me. What happened?" I knew he was upset, but his eyes couldn't meet mine. He kept looking over to the side, like he expected Adrian to do something.

It took a minute for me to think about what he'd asked me; I was too interested in the two of them working together. I finally focused and said, "I was coming to see you. My head started hurting. Everything started to…move, and then I was here. Oh, and Christian was there, too. What happened?"

The two of them exchanged a glance and then Dimitri told me. "Christian was coming to find me when he ran into…Ivashkov." His eyes narrowed just the slightest bit. "He came to you and brought you to my room, which was the closest room around. I'm sure he would've taken you to his room, were he given the opportunity."

"I thought you said that he brought me to your room. Why wasn't that an opportunity?"

"Because I ran into the two of you." he replied.

Adrian took this moment to get a word in. "And he might have killed me if you weren't in my arms, little Dhampir."

I wasn't as shocked at this as I should've been. I mean, I knew that I should have been upset that Dimitri might have hurt Adrian, but I also knew that that would be his natural reaction if he found me unconscious in Adrian's arms. If it were the other way around, I would've kicked Adrian's ass. Not that Adrian would ever help Dimitri if he were in my situation.

"Okay, well, I think I'm better now." I replied. I got up. Yes, I was fine. I didn't have a headache or anything. Dimitri laid his hands on my shoulders, wanting me to lay back down. "I'm fine. I don't feel bad at all." I smiled at him to let him know I was telling the truth.

He smiled back and instead of pushing me on the bed, he pulled me into his arms. I heard his sigh and felt his muscles relax at the same time. "I didn't know if I should bring you to the infirmary. I didn't because I knew you wouldn't want to be there. I don't know what happened and how it got fixed, but I am so thankful."

Adrian cleared his throat and we both turned to look at him. We didn't split apart, although I wanted to. I hated flaunting the fact that Dimitri and I were together in front of Adrian. I knew how much it pained him. And although I knew it hurt him, it didn't effect me in the slightest. I wouldn't move away from Dimitri. I couldn't.

When no one said anything for a minute Dimitri said, "What do you want, Ivashkov?"

Adrian raised an eyebrow and said, "You can thank me now, if you want. Or you can save it for later when we're in front of everyone. Then everyone will know that I can save your…girlfriend when you can't."

"Excuse me?" Dimitri let go of me. I knew that wasn't a good sign, so I pulled him back to me. He looked down at me and smiled. He pushed back some of my hair in a sign of understanding. He took a deep breath and breathed, "Thank you."

Adrian was obviously shocked. He'd wanted a fight, I realized. He loved when he could get a reaction out of Dimitri. I didn't like it when either of them attacked the other, but it was something I would have to deal with, at least for a little while. It kind of upset me that Adrian was willing to go so far to hurt Dimitri, but I pushed that aside.

"How exactly did you save me, Adrian?" I asked. It took a moment to stop glaring at Dimitri and look at me. There was a sweetness in his eyes that I wished I could return.

"Little Dhampir, I used spirit." he answered.

I gasped. "I… I didn't… I mean, you didn't bring me back from-"

I was cut off. "No way! You didn't die, Rose. You were exhausted. Who knew that spirit could help with something like that. I guess all the stress has been getting to you. I wonder how you would be if I didn't talk to Aunt Tatiana."

I'd forgotten all about the fact that Adrian had helped me out with my situation. I knew I had to thank him, but I really didn't want to do it in front of Dimitri. I was surprised to find that Dimitri had tensed in my arms, and shrugged out of them. He made his way over to Adrian.

"I really don't appreciate you telling the queen that Rose is pregnant." Dimitri said.

Suddenly, the look on Adrian's face wasn't smug. It was the total opposite. His face was the mask of pain, and I knew it was because Adrian hadn't known that I was pregnant.

"You mean, you and her are going to have a child?" Adrian asked. Dimitri smiled and wrapped an arm around me. "How? You know what, never mind. Goodbye, Rose. You have a nice trip." He slipped out of the door.

"Adrian!" I yelled, but he was gone. I turned to face Dimitri.

He smiled and went to grab my hands. I slapped his hands away. He frowned and said, "What's the matter, sweet?"

He almost got me with the use of that nickname. He almost never called me that, and when he did my heart did somersaults. I remembered what I was going to say at the last second and kept my poker face on.

"Why did you tell him that?" I shrieked.

"I thought he knew." He shrugged. This wasn't like my Dimitri.

"You should've known that I hadn't told him." I looked to the ground. I hadn't seen this side of Dimitri before. Of course, I knew that every man could get jealous, but Dimitri had never been like that before, and I…well, in my mind he was superman.

Dimitri didn't say anything for a long time. I closed my eyes, wondering what he was thinking. I was upset about what happened, but not so upset that I wasn't scared he would leave me. My heart started racing at the thought. I was about to speak up when there was a knock at the door.

Dimitri answered it. His room was dark because only one of the lights worked, but the hallway illuminated his face. I saw that he had his old mask on from when he'd mentored me. That couldn't be good. I didn't look to see who it was. He was deep in a conversation with them, and I found myself sitting on his bed.

This was the second time I'd been in his room. I didn't come here often, for reasons I didn't know. He'd only been to my room once or twice, and I knew why that was. My room was in one of the front hallways. Someone seeing him going in my room would raise suspicious. Maybe that's why he hadn't wanted me in his room.

I looked around at everything. There wasn't much to it, just looking at it once. But when you looked closer, there was warmth to it. He had two bookshelves. One was full of the normal western books he would always read, and the other was full of CD's. I walked over and pulled one out.

It was Apocalyptica, a band that consisted of classical mixed with rock music. It was something I expected him to listen to. I didn't spend any more time on the bookshelves and looked at his cabinets. There were little artworks from his sisters, signed, "To Dimka." They were cute little things made of clay. At that moment, I kind of wished I'd had siblings.

I finished looking at everything and went back to the bed. It was messy, but looked more comfortable than any other bed I'd ever seen. This was probably because I knew Dimitri slept there. He had dreams there. He relaxed there. I wasn't paying attention to the door anymore. I was lost in thought.

"You look peaceful." Dimitri said, scaring me. I jumped and noticed that I'd lowered myself to lay on the bed. I wanted to sleep in this bed so badly.

I sighed. I knew what I had to do. I looked at Dimitri and his face fell a little. "Dimitri-"

"I'm so sorry, Roza. I didn't know that it would hurt you like this. I…I honestly don't get why you're so upset." He smiled a little, and sat beside me.

I smiled back at him, knowing that our little argument was over. "I really don't know what it is, but I feel like I can't do that to Adrian. I don't want to hurt him…not on purpose." I explained.

"Oh." he breathed. He let out a small laugh. "I thought you felt something for him. I didn't know what to say when you got defensive about this. Roza, if you don't want me to mess with Adrian like that anymore, then I won't. It will take a lot of the fun out of things, but I won't."

"Thank you." I winked at him. He took my hand and helped me off the bed. "Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

For breakfast, we had pancakes. It was something that I didn't enjoy often because of the syrup. It was too sticky and sweet. I did like it on my pancakes, but couldn't stand it on anything else.

Dimitri would sneak kisses when no one was looking. It was like a little game we were playing throughout breakfast. It was fun knowing that if we got caught we might be in trouble. I didn't mind that Dimitri's lips tasted like syrup, and actually decided that I liked syrup…when it was on his lips.

Lissa and Christian joined us for breakfast. Christian let Lissa know about my incident this morning and she'd been searching for me. She pulled me into a hug and asked me if I was okay when she saw me.

"Yeah, I'm good. I still don't really know what happened, but I feel fine now." I gave her a giant smile to show how good I was.

She laughed. "Rose, you are crazy! You always think you're fine. Now, you know that you…should always…go get checked…out… Are these blueberry?" she asked, losing interest in me and finding the pancakes. I left her to her blueberries and went to Dimitri.

"I'm done eating and I'm gonna go pack a little more. I'll see you in a little bit. Just come by my room if you want to talk." I said to Dimitri. I looked around and gave him one more peck on the cheek, giggling because we weren't caught.

I was whistling as I made my way down the hallway. I would've sung, being as happy as I was, but I knew that all it would do was make dogs howl. No, singing was not one of my talents, but I sure could whistle.

I was using my hands and feet to make beats behind my whistling when something had me up against a wall.

"Rosemarie Hathaway!"

Oh, God, no! Please, no, no, no!

"Hello, mother." I replied.

"What are you thinking? Are you crazy?" she yelled.

I was so confused. I hadn't told her a thing, and I didn't think anyone else had. "What are you talking about, mom?"

"What am I talking about?" This was typical behavior for my mom. She always over dramatized things. "I am talking about forgetting about graduation to do a job for the queen! I know you'll make a lot of money, but what about afterwards?"

Oh, so the queen had told my mom I was doing a job for her for the extra pay? I could handle that. I suddenly wondered if the queen had told my mom where I was going. I hoped she wouldn't decide to check in on me. It would just be great for her to burst in the door seeing me sitting on a couch, my stomach the size of a watermelon.

"Mom, I know what I'm doing. Alberta has already told me I will be done with the job and back in time to graduate. Everything is planned out." I told her. Alberta was the head guardian at St. Vladimir's. She had become one of my closest friends here, even though she was a teacher. I hadn't actually talked to her yet, but I knew she would let me graduate. Especially if the queen told her to.

Then again, who knew if I would even have had the baby by the time we're supposed to graduate. Ugh…

"Rose, I… Never mind. We'll continue this discussion later. I have to go for now." she said, and turned without another word.

I shook her off and started towards my room again. The hallways in St. Vlad's were all the same. Every carpet was a dark red, almost the color of blood. It had a bit of a pink tint to it. The walls were tan and red, with a white stripe going down the wall every few feet. They lined the walls with paintings of flowers, nature, and calming scenes.

There were other hallways that had other paintings. It really depended on who was housed there. I noticed something a few weeks ago that wasn't noticeable unless you paid close attention: they housed the students according to Moroi or Dhampir, girl or boy, and element. That's why in some of the hallways there were pictures of volcanoes, where there are paintings of trees in others.

My hallway was decorated with pictures of…well, shiny things. Jewelry, cars, etc. I guess they didn't know what symbolized as Dhampir. I shrugged to myself and opened my door. I packed the last of my things while listening to my stereo. A couple of times someone next door would bang on the wall, but I ignored them.

My neighbors were pricks. I know that sounds horrible, but they are. Only thirty percent of the guardian population were girls, and the ones that lived near me were only here because their parents made them come. I was here because I wanted to be. Well, that, and I didn't have anywhere else to go.

My mom took guarding seriously, as you could see earlier. When she had me, she dumped me on the school and didn't look back. I had no respect for her, until recently. She came back and helped with the Strigoi battle. It still didn't make up for what she did to me, but it helped me see what she left me for.

My dad was non-existent. I heard her speak of him a few times, but had never met him. Ever. So, in my opinion, I had no dad.

So, when everyone else would go home for the summer, or go on vacations with their family, I was stuck here by myself. The only time I got to do anything was when I got to stay with Lissa's family. My first years at St. Vlad's, I'd only known that there was St. Vlad's. It wasn't until my sixth year, Jr. High for us, that I got to leave. And it was amazing. It was also where I got my idea to take Lissa away.

That was a long story. I took her because I felt she was in danger. That's the short version of the story.

There was a knock at my door, pulling me out of my reminiscence. I answered the door to see a smiling Lissa. She practically pounced on me.

"Uh, hey, Liss. What's up?" I asked, with her arms around my neck.

"Rose, we get to go away! You're going to be okay! And so is Dimitri. I'm so happy! Oh, oh, I'm sorry." She pulled away from me, after seeing that she was turning me purple. I smiled at her to let her know that I was fine. I needed a second to get my voice back.

"Since we're leaving today, maybe you should start packing." I told her.

"Already done!" She leapt onto my bed with the grace of a lion. I had no idea how she, or Dimitri, did that, but it seemed like I was the only one who would never find out the secret.

I tilted my head in confusion. "When did you hear about this, Liss?"

"Just this morning. I went straight back to my room and started packing when I was told. You had no idea how happy I was. And then I told Christian, who already heard. Apparently, the queen was saving me for last. Why didn't you tell me?"

She was speaking so fast that I almost didn't hear the last question. "Lissa, have you had any coffee, or sugar? I think you might be high on something." I laughed. She laughed, too, and relaxed on my bed.

"Rose, we're so close to freedom." She was looking at the ceiling. I could tell how excited she was. She had a smile of contentment on her face. I decided to take this opportunity to scare the crap out of her.

I leaped onto the bed right next to her. What I hadn't expected was her reaction mixed with the motion of the bed when I hopped on it - ungracefully, by the way - to make her fly sideways off the bed.

I burst into uncontrollable laughter. I could hear Lissa saying something, but I was too busy laughing. It was a movie moment. Her reaction was so girly. I kept replaying it in my head and laughing harder each time. I finally sobered and looked at Lissa.

"Not funny."

That made me start laughing again, and she got up and went to the door.

"Aw, Liss…don't….take it so…personally. It was just….so…funny!" I said, between giggles.

"I'm glad you think so. I'm going to leave now." She was embarrassed, I could tell.

I leapt off the bed, almost fell, and got to the door just as she walked out. I opened the door and looked both directions. Once I saw her I ran to her and made her stop. "Lissa, I was just joking. I'm sorry if it upset you. Now, can we go outside and do something fun?" I smiled at her. I was high off the laughter.

She pursed her lips and looked to the ceiling. "Well, I don't know… I was planning on going to our going away party…but…"

"Going away party? What? When?" I was almost bouncing. She laughed at me this time.

"Come on. That's why I came to your room. To tell you about the party. Now, let's go!" She took my hand and we ran off.

People were dodging us and moving out of the way. I hit a couple of people, but just laughed. We started zigzagging through the hallway. It was like we were dancing to no music. I was having so much fun, that we didn't even stop in the cafeteria. We turned the opposite way and slid down one of the tiled foyers.

I laughed and laughed. I finally had to stop because I couldn't breathe from the running and laughing at the same time. Lissa grabbed my hand and made me run to the cafeteria.

We were still laughing when we went through the doors.

My laughter and good mood disappeared instantly. What I saw made my heart drop to the floor. I wouldn't be laughing any time soon.

Standing across the room was my Dimitri - with a woman draped around him.