An hour before we landed in Court, Yeva hobbled her way over to me, with a mischievous smile playing on her lips. I know that smile, and it sort of frightens me. It's her smile saying that she knows something, and she is going to play with me over it. She sat in the empty seat next to me.

"Hello, Rose."

"Hello Yeva, are you going to play with me or just tell me?"

Her lips twitched. "Depends."

That was my answer. "Okay, is it over Dimitri?"

She didn't nod or say anything, just looked at me.

"Then is it dealing with me?"

She kept starring.

"Okay, when you feel like giving me a straight answer, then come and find me." I closed my eye

"Alright, since we only have an hour, I will tell you." I hid my pleased smile. "You are known throughout most of the world."

I sighed. This is news? Since when have I cared who knows me and who does not? "And I care why?"

Her lips turned into a frown. "Well, you certainly have a lot of admirers."

I opened my eyes, and sat up, instead of slouching. I was suddenly upset. "Let me guess, I have to live up to everyone's expectations. And if that is what you are going to say, then forget it. My name is Rose Hathaway, and I make my own reputation and expectations. I will do as I please." I said, crossing my arms. I hate how people suddenly expect me to be an ideal role model. I am Rose Hathaway, for goodness sakes! Everyone knows how bad of a role model I am; haven't they heard of my reckless reputation?

Yeva seemed shocked that I acted like that, which was the first time I actually shocked this old woman. "Of course not, Rose. You are meant for this. Not everyone would agree, but no one knows exactly how fate and destiny works out."

There it was again, that stupid word called 'destiny.' "Lissa is so angry with me. She thought I was leaving because of my ex-boyfriend."

"I know, I saw. She has yet to understand, but when you come back, and sees how successful you are, she will see that it was destiny that you were running towards, not running from a loser." She sounded like Dimitri, giving Zen lessons. For some reason, it was comforting instead of annoying.

"Hey!" I yelled in Adrian's defense. Why am I defending him? "Adrian is a good man. You don't know him like I do. He has a good heart, he just found someone better, is all." That last part hurt to admit. Sydney is better for him. She could provide a safe haven for him, I couldn't. I would most likely bring home death, if Adrian and I were to ever be together.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Go easy on her Rose."

I raised an eyebrow, wanting to know why I give her hell.

"You give her hell for not letting her give you the chance to explain. If you ask me, she deserves it, but she is being hard on herself."

I snorted. "Right. How would you know?"

She gave me a meaningful expression, her eyes shining for once. "Because any good friend would be; I know how protective you are of her. You being that protective of her means that you love her; chances are she loves you too, and she trusts you."

I sighed, and looked away. "I miss her so much, but I'm so angry that she wouldn't listen to me."

She reached over and put her hand on mine and squeezed. "I know, I can see it; just hear her out too. I am sure there is more to her side than you see."

I nodded, then she got up and walked away to go sit back to Olena.

The hours dragged on before we landed in Pennsylvania. The moment I stepped out of the airport, my nerves were everywhere. I quickly reached out to where Lissa was, and she was in her house, talking with the group. I didn't stay in her head long. I quickly popped back in mind and went straight to the others.

The Belikov's where sticking together; my gang was standing close to me, waiting for directions. I stoke to them in Russian. "She is at home, follow me. Olena, Yeva, Sonya, Karolina and Viktoria, I want you to stay out of sight. As I said, Dimitri doesn't know you are coming. I don't even know if they know I am coming, so let me give warm Dimitri up to your arrival." I still was a little nervous on how he would react to them. I wanted it to be a good surprise, not a bad one. This is his family, he needs to see them and be glad about it, not upset.

"I would like to walk there. After ten hours of sitting down, I need to loosen my muscles."

"Thank you!" Denis said, with relief. Everyone else looked relieved too.

"Yeah, I don't want to sit down for another minute." Zena agreed.

I smiled. "Okay. I want to shield the Belikov's from everyone's view. It looks like Lissa rented a house, and I noticed that there is a big window facing the road, giving any peeping Tom a good view of the whole kitchen. They are sitting at the table, and the table is right next to the window.

The nodded, and immediately formed a V shape. I was leading the way, so I was in front, making the line pointed. Tamara was on my right, then Larisa followed her, then Gabe. On my right, were Denis, then Lev and Zena. They fanned out, but stayed two feet apart and two feet back from the person in front of them. The Belikov's were in the middle, shielding from everyone's view. We walked there, and I noticed it was twilight in human time- looks like Lissa was either up early, or was up all night.

We walked the five miles from the Court airport, to Lissa's house and it took no time at all to reach her road. Her house created a dead end on the road, so anyone who stepped out into the street would see us approaching a house that was facing us. They could also see us approaching from afar. We were a hundred yards from the house, when a guy in the house with a dark brown hair stood up with tension and looked straight out at us. I saw Christian get up, and looked where Eddie's gaze went to us. Christian involuntarily took a few steps back. I held back a smile.

I could only imagine what we looked like; walking death. My hair fell out of the crown of braids I usually put it up in, so I took it out and brushed my hair before we got off the plain, and I also added a little bit of mascara and eyeliner to my eyes. I thought I looked hot. However, my friends wouldn't recognize me with my outfit on, and long hair that was down to my butt. I also suspected my body shape had changed. I wasn't as muscular or tough looking when I left. I wondered if I still looked beautiful…

I was pretty sure that with the V shape that my friends made, that we looked like a dangerous army, ready to be unleashed. I had a giddy feeling in the bid of my stomach. I wanted my friends to know my hang.

All too soon, we reached the house. We all stood on the green lawn in front of her house. Her house was white with red shudders and a red glass door. Someone went through a lot of trouble to build a wooden porch with a ruff over it, which had a long porch swing that looked like it was screwed into the wooden ruff, so it wouldn't fall down. She planted both night and day flowers, in which lined the house and gave it a homey feel. That little thing called homesickness came back. I took a deep breath and pushed it aside. I wasn't so sure where home was anymore. Was it here in the states, or back in Siberia?

No one had to go up and knock, because as soon as all of us came to a halt on her lawn, everyone that was inside was now on the wooden porch. Lissa and Christian, Jill and Emily stood in the middle, with Adrian and Sydney next to them. Eddie and Dimitri were on the ends, and in defensive positions.

"Hello Lissa." I said in English as kind as I could manage, and this time, I actually heard the tiny accent that Abe was referring to. Damn.

Lissa's eyes squinted. "Rose?" she asked breathlessly.

"The one and only!" I said, taking a step forward, and when I took that step forward, so did the rest of my gang.

"It's okay," I said in Russian, facing my gang. "Just close in the gap."

The nodded, and I turned back to everyone, of which, had shocked gazes.

"Rose!" Eddie said in excitement, coming over, lifting me off the ground with a hug and swinging me around in his arms. I laughed, more warmly than I have since before Dimitri was turned strigoi.

"I've missed you too, Eddie." I squeezed him back as hard as I could before he set me down.

"Ouch!" He said, and I think I actually hurt him.

"Sorry, new muscles."

I found Dimitri's gaze on me, and our gazes locked together. I immediately stopped laughing. My heart started pounding, and I was having a hard time breathing. All I could think about was him, that I have finally seen him again. I hardly noticed that Dimitri was taking steps towards me.

"Roza." He said, and his voice held so many emotions. Emotions I haven't seen in over a year and half: relief, love, disbelief, more love and relief, and longing. My body went into mush right then and there.

"Dimitri." I said my voice shook, and it was full of longing. I never took my eyes off of him, and he didn't take his eye off of me. I looked him over, his beautiful face, his dark, warm brown eyes, his lips that had the power to make me weak in the knees whenever he kissed me, his strong jaw line, that could be so carefree, but also very stern when needed be. I could tell that he was looking me over too, noticing the change in me, and noticing what had stayed the same. I could almost cry, but I didn't want to ruin this moment, because this moment, was something so private, and so very special, that anyone would pay with hell if they interrupted it.

My voice caused a reaction in him to make his steps quicken. He quickly closed the space between us, so that he stood right in front of me, no room between our bodies, his eyes gazing into mine, his fingers in my hair, and his other hand on the small of my back, pulling me closer to him. My gaze slid down to his lips, and I unconsciously licked mine.

"Dimitri." I whispered his name.

That was it for his self control, he lowered his head to meet my lips, and I quickly stood on my tippy toes, not wanting to wait another second longer and I met his lips. They were gentle, warm and welcoming. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me (if we could be any closer together by now). His tongue traced my lower lip, and then danced with mine. His aftershave clouded my mind, making me dizzy. I was sure that if it wasn't for his hold on my waste, I would have fallen over. He kissed my lips, being gentle and sweet. He then lifted his lips to my forehead, kissed it, then put his forehead on mine and closed his eyes, and I did the same.

"I'm glad your back home, Roza. I've missed you so much." The tone of his voice made my heart swell. He missed me. I wanted to cry so bad, because I was so happy.

I kept standing there, forehead to forehead for a moment longer, then pulled away and looked him in the eyes. "I want you to meet my family, and some other people that I love that wanted to come and see you."

A strange look crossed his face when I said 'my family', but it was gone quickly. He smiled and nodded, still not taking his eyes off me. I think he had a hard time believing that I was really here, and I had a hard time myself. After all this time, I am finally in his arms, feeling safe and warm.

"Before I introduce you to them, I want to ask you something." I paused for a moment, looking Dimitri over. "Besides me, who else do you miss?"

His eyes and lips turned into a sad smile. "My family."

I gave a sad smile in return, trying to not give away that they are here with me. I took his hand. "Do you wish you could see them?" He nodded, but his eyes asked me why I was asking him this. I looked over to my gang and in Russian I said "move." And just like that, in that quick speed that I had trained them to have, they moved, and I felt Dimitri freeze on spot, seeing his family for the first time in-well, I don't know how many years.

At first I thought he was afraid to see them, until his expression changed and he took long strides to Olena. Her son was in her arms in a blink of an eye. She hugged him tightly, and she cried out loud. She whispered words to him, and cried again.

Dimitri went to Yeva, and was in her arms as quickly as he was in Olena's. To my udder surprise, I saw Yeva with tears coming down her face, and she sobbed as well, not in sadness, but in joy. I don't know why I was so surprised to see Yeva crying. Maybe it was because of her tough exterior. She was always a tough person to crack, but I guess when it's someone you love, it doesn't matter how tough you are, you are vulnerable no matter what.

Then Dimitri let go and turned to his sisters, which, all at once came to Dimitri, hugging him so fiercely that they all fell to the ground.

I had tears of my own coming down. I was so glad to of witness this reunion. It was a happy reuniting of a family, and to see that happy, and to feel it the happiness, was unbelievably wonderful. A tap on my shoulder brought me somewhat back to my own surroundings. I was so caught up in Dimitri's reunion, I wasn't paying attention to anyone but them.

Eddie was beside me, smiling hugely. "So, the hard ass bitch is back, huh? And let me guess, deadlier than ever?"

I laughed. "Damn straight. I think I can take you now."

He arched his eyebrows and smiled, which was contagious, because I smiled back. "Rose, you could have always of taken me down."

Jill and Emily came over and gave me a hug.

"We were wondering if you would ever come back." Jill said. "I was so worried."

I gave her a sad smile. "I'm fine. How are you liking being a princess?"

To my surprise, they both smiled. "You wouldn't believe how much good she has done, Rose." Emily said, with pride in her voice. "I think the Dragomire clan has become a big influence again, and many look up to both Lissa and Jill for help and as role models."

"That's wonderful!" I said, happily.

"I wish you were here to guard her, though." Emily said, her tone leaning on the bitterside. Her face had gone hard, lips flattened in a straight line.

Regret washed through me. "Emily, if I knew for a second that the royals would hurt her in any way, I wouldn't have thought twice about going. I would have stayed. But I know Lissa, Adrian, Christian and even Eddie, would protect her from any rumors or harm. She was more than safe with them."

Emily's face was still hard, but softened. "Well, at least you put some thought into it."

Anger sparked in me. "What does that mean? You think I abandon everyone?"

"No." Her voice taking a defensive tone. "I know you care about them, but you should have stayed. We were under the impression you were going to stay here and help us through this."

"That was my plan as well, but things change."

Lissa strolled over, Emily and I's fight forgotten. She put her hands on my face and looked me over from head to toe. Finally she met my eyes, and she had on an expression that I couldn't make out. "You have changed…a lot."

I took a step back, my gang moved over, allowing me to enter into position. They hadn't moved from the V position. I then reached behind me, and took out my sword. When I did that, everyone's breath had caught in their throat and their faces were a mixture of awe, shock and realization.

Sydney sucked in another breath. "That sword…I heard stories about it."

"What stories?"

She walked over to me, and Adrian moved with her like a shadow, ready to fight anyone who might harm her. For some reason, my gut told me that he was somewhat dangerous now, and not to underestimate him anymore. Could he have taken comeback fighting lessons?

She came up and looked at my sword, but never touched it. Adrian looked at it too. "I can't read Russian very well." He said

I felt a familiar presents behind me, and I quickly translated, pointing to the words as a distraction. "'When fire meets fire, when panthers meet the lions.'" I quickly flipped my sword over, and continued, but my gaze went off of the sword this time, and onto Eddie's face. "'In memory of Guardian Mason Ashford.'" Eddie gave me a sad smile, walked over to me and gave me another hug, but this one was to comfort me.

After a moment I took a step back, and turned to my gang, then back to my friends. "Everyone, I want you to meet my gang. They have become my family, and I know you would grow to love them as much as I do." I walked over to where Gabe was at. I noticed, that as I walked, Dimitri stayed by me, never leaving my side.

"This is Gaberil, his Russian nickname is Ganya," I made a sour face and looked at Gabe, who smiled, knowing my distaste. "But I call him Gabe. Eddie," I looked to him, "you two would be the best of friends. He reminds me of you a lot." I walked over to Larisa. "This is Larisa, make sure she gets her beauty sleep, otherwise you unleashed a Hell's Angel." I smiled in humor, and I saw Denis and Lev smile in humor as well. I walked over to Tamara. "This is Tamara. She is a trustworthy person and is a great person to talk to about anything. She also knows how to have fun. She helped me with learning Russian, so she is fabulous at teaching." I looked at Lissa, and said "Lissa, you two would be great friends as well." I walked over to Denis, and quickly whispered to him. "Do you want them to know you speak English?"

He looked at me with a twinkle in the eye. "No." He said in Russian.

I smiled and continued on. "This is Denis. He is my second in command; he is wise, a fast learner, and a great person to have around." I moved on to Lev, and asked him if he wanted them to know he spoke English as well, his answer was the opposite of Denis's, he didn't really care. "This is Lev. He's another great person to have around. He can be extraordinarily funny when he wants to be."

"I am also very good looking, and good at kicking ass, especially since Rose had trained us."

Everyone laughed, and Dimitri looked down on me, smiling like he was very proud of me, and my heart swelled at that fact. He leaned down and kissed me on the lips, which I quickly melted into. I think he only meant it to be a feather-light kiss, but I guess his hormones had other plans. I reminded myself that we were in front of the people we loved, so we had to stop. I was also in the middle of introducing everyone to everyone. I took a step back, and went over to Zena. "This is Zinaida, but we call her Zena for short. She is a force to be reckoned with when you piss her off, so don't piss her off. She is much like me and Larisa, our bite is much worse than our bark. She is also creative, funny, and can charm her way out of pretty much anything."

I walked over to where Lissa was at, and gave her a big hug. "I've missed you, Lissa." My voice cracked when I said her name. Her arms encircled me, and she tightly squeezed me. I pulled back and faced my gang. "Everyone," I addressed them in Russian. "This is my bond mate, Lissa. She is also my best friend, and practically a sister to me. Be nice to her, welcome her. She is the nicest person you will ever meet on the face of this earth. She will go out of her way to just make you smile." Tamara smiled, and I could tell that she was going to become friends with Lissa quickly.

"Hello," Lissa said, in Russian. I remembered that she took Russian back in the Academy. "I'm not very good speaking Russian, but with help, I can become better." I could see Tamara's smile grow even more at the knowledge of Lissa knowing a little bit of Russian. My hopes swelled too.

I moved over to Jill and Emily. "This is Jill," I said. With my body still facing my gnag, I putting my arm around Jill's body, in a half embrace. "She is Lissa's long lost sister." I quickly wondered how things between Jill and Lissa were going. I walked to Emily's right side, but didn't touch her. "This is Emily, she is Jill's mother." I said as kindly as I could.

I moved over to Adrian and Sydney. "This is Adrian and his girlfriend Sydney. They are friends of mine. Sydney is human and an Alchemist." I looked at Sydney, and her face was friendly, yet impassive.

I moved over to Eddie. "This is Eddie Castile." Everyone's eyes showed reorganization, and Eddie noticed. That was pretty much all I had to say about him, because my gang heard the story about our past, and how we have become even better friends.

Eddie bent his head down and spoke in my ear. "I take it that they have heard of me."

I smiled at him. "All good, I assure you." I said. His smile widened.

"Gabe and you would get along great," if it wasn't for the language barrier. Then I returned back to Russian and pivoted to Dimitri.

He smiled down at me, with that rare smile of his, and it warmed my heart. His next words he said in Russian, and for the first time, I heard him speak in Russian with me knowing the language. Now there is nothing he could say to me in Russian that I wouldn't understand. Ha! "My name is Dimitri Belikov, and I'm in love with Rose."

My heart jumped and almost stopped when he said that. I couldn't contain myself. My lips crushed his before he realized what I was doing, before I realized what I was doing. I felt him smile, but he didn't pull back, but he did make sure I lessoned up on how urgent I was…because suddenly, I wanted to be alone with him.

He pulled back and gave a smile and moved to face my gang of a family, moving the hand that went to my waste when we kissed, to my hand. "With your permission, I would like to date her."

That stunned me, and I am very sure it shocked my gang as well. Usually men would ask for the father's permission. Maybe he has yet to speak to my father; I shuddered at what Abe would say to him. I looked at Dimitri questioningly and he smiled genuinely at me. "You said that they were your family, so I am asking them." He told me in Russian.

I smiled at him (man, have I been doing a lot of smiling!), touched that he cared so much about that acceptance, and squeezed his hand. We turned to look at them and I had a smile playing on my lips. I felt like a teenager, asking and waiting for my sibling's approval to date an older guy. I felt ridiculous, but I didn't care. I was with Dimitri, the only man I had ever loved.

Tamara smiled warmly. "Treat her well. She loves you. She talked a lot about you." I tried to hide the fact that I was blushing. Thanks Tamara, I thought.

Larisa snorted. "Right, 'a lot' is an understatement. She talked about him all the time; practically drooled over him."

"Larisa!" I complained, (that last part was a lie- I never drooled while talking about him) and she smirked at me. Dimitri looked down at me, and I saw something in his eyes that made my heart sing.

Denis and Lev shrugged, but Gabe, well, he put his index and middle finger next to his eyes and moved his wrist back and forth from him to Dimitri a few times. "I will be watching you two; take care of her- she doesn't deserve any heartache." I heard laughter from behind me, and I smiled inside, thinking it was funny myself.

I thought Dimitri would role his eyes (I sure did), but he surprised me by taking it seriously, and nodded to Gabe.

Zena, I thought she would be just like Denis and Lev and shrug, but she stood there, not looking at Dimitri, but at me. "You deserve it, but be careful, love can hurt." Boy was that anther understatement. It can do more than just hurt… but I won't get into that. I will just enjoy the moment.

We turned to Dimitri's family. Viktoria was looking at us like we were idiots because we weren't together in the first place. "Like you need our permission!" Vikotria said in English, coming up to me and hugging us both. "You are already a sister to me, I told you that before. But if it means so much to you, yes, date my brother, love my brother."

I laughed, and I looked at the others. They all nodded in agreement and so did Olena, who walked up to us and gave us both a hug. She looked at Dimitri, "I'm glad you finally found someone to love, Dimka." He smiled and kissed her son on the cheek. "You have chosen well. I love her."

I looked at Dimitri, and he was radiating in happiness. I never so him in such high spirits, and I have never seen him so…lovable, so carefree. I liked this part of Dimitri. I wanted to see more of that, and I wanted to see it all the time. He looked at me, and I smiled because his smile is contagious.

"Are you hungry?" He asked me, with a twinkle in his eye.

I laughed. "Like you have to ask."

I turned to my gang. "Go," Gabe said, and the others nodded with big smiles on their faces. However, there was a part of me that didn't want to go. This would be our first separation from each other. It was like Lissa-I wanted to protect them as much as they wanted to protect me. They were my family as well as friends, just like Lissa, Eddie and Dimitri. "We will be here when you get back."

An idea came to my mind; something that will let them get to know each other, and work together. "You guys want to play laser tag with the others?" I asked my gang.

Their faces lit up. "Now that's an idea!" Lev said in excitement.

"Lissa, take them to play laser tag." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a hundred dollars. "Take them to do whatever they want until the money runs out. They deserve to have fun, they have earned it. Plus, they will protect you, I trained them myself." I quickly decided that the hundred dollars won't be enough, so I dug back into my leather pants pocket, and pulled out the queen's card that I carried on me all the time. "Here, take this if it won't be enough." I then turned to the Belikov's.

"You going?" I asked them in English.

To my surprise, they all nodded. I half expected Yeva and Olena to decline; I was happy to see that, that was not the case. "You guys will have to translate the Russian into English for them. They don't know much, if any. Lissa is the only one that knows."

Lev and Denis snickered at that, but smiled.

Lissa rolled her eyes. "I would love to take them. Coming Eddie?" She sasked, turning her beautiful head towards Eddie.

Eddie's fist pumped in the air twice. "Hell yea!"

I laughed again. It was wonderful to be back, and not to be so on edge. You never really notice how on edge you are until you are with people you trust, and can put your guard down. I trust the people that are around me right now.

Dimitri guided me away from the house, to a Honda Civic. "Where are we going?" I asked, excited. He opened the door, but we both just stood there.

"Wherever you want."

It thought about that for a moment, and to be honest, a shower sounded fantastic after my long day of travel.

I gave him a cheapish look. "Mind if we go to my hotel room? I need a shower horribly. I feel disgusting."

Only when his face showed shock, did I comprehend that my words could have two different meanings. Oh God, now he thinks I'm a whore. "Of course, I could meet you somewhere when I am finished."

He laughed out right. "Oh, Rose. You're such an innocent woman."

I blushed at that. Really, I need to start thinking before I say something. "I didn't mean-"

He laughed out right then, and kissed me on the lips. "Oh, how I love you." He said, chuckling at the end.