The mountains were beautiful in the early morning light. I turned around when I heard the door open.

It was Dimitri.

My heart raced a little. "Hey," I said.

"Hi," he said back.

It was awkward. Things had never been awkward between us until the lust charm. Since then, our friendship hadn't been the same.

I shouldn't even be calling it a friendship. He was my student. I was his mentor.

"Are you okay?" Dimitri asked me.

I looked at him. How had he known that I had been bothered by my mother's comments?

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.

"You don't have to lie, Roza." His eyes were shining, worried.

Mostly, I saw that look when he was worrying about Lissa. He had worn that look a lot when her relationship with Christian had begun. He didn't wear it much anymore, though. He knew Christian and trusted him.

I couldn't believe he'd used that name on me again. Roza. It was beautiful. It made me feel like he cared.

However, I shouldn't have cared. I shouldn't have felt what I did.

He's your student, I reminded myself. He isn't legal. You will be guarding the princess together.

"Okay," I said. I tried to wear my mentor shoes. Give him some sort of crappy sage advice. I had nothing. "It sounds dumb. It's just that my mom has always been this big bad guardian. And I always wanted to just have her respect, you know? I thought once I was finally a guardian, we'd be equals."

"And she still just sees you as a kid," he surmised.

How could he read me so well?

"Roza, you shouldn't believe anything she says about you."

He had a look in his eyes. It wasn't lust filled as it had been the night that Lissa had been kidnapped, but softer. Fiery.

It burned me. The flames were licking at me as I fought with myself. I could not do this. I couldn't do this.

He's only two years younger, a nagging voice said in the back of my mind.

To hell with it.

I leaned towards him and kissed him.

It was the best kiss I'd ever experienced. Better than that time that I had kissed Adrian Ivashkov junior year. Better than even the lust charm kisses, though those had been pretty great too.

The kiss devoured me. I couldn't stop. I didn't want to stop.

Dimitri, I realized, was where my heart belonged.

Not with some random Moroi. Not with any guardians. Just Dimitri.

I woke up abruptly.

I was still in bed with Dimitri, I realized.

I laid there, trapped in his arms, and pondered my dream.

I hadn't had such a strange dream in a long time. Not since I'd first returned to the academy. I wondered what that was about.

I felt Dimitri stirring behind me and wondered how I could possibly feel the way I did. I hadn't thought it was possible to feel this way, about anyone or anything.

Lissa had always been the focus of my life, for some reason. I'd always felt the need to protect her, ever since I'd met her. It had gotten worse as we'd gotten older. Especially after her parents had died, when the bond had started.

I loved Lissa, I knew. She was my sister.

And Dimitri, I definitely didn't see him as a brother.

Before I'd met him, I'd always pictured a future with Lissa by my side. I'd figured that I'd eventually settle down with some guy that I'd met at a coffee shop or bar or something. A Moroi.

Now, however, I pictured Dimitri there. Well, he would always be there. He was my guardian.

It was moments like this, when I was in his arms, that made me sure that my feelings for Dimitri were here to stay.

I couldn't imagine life without him.

He muttered something in Russian, still asleep, I think.

I looked at the clock. It was three am. Classes were almost out.

I wondered how Lissa was.

I tuned into the bond.

Once I was in her head, I saw she was sitting in the feeders, waiting to get blood.

Christian Ozera walked in, and her heart immediately began to beat faster. "Hi, Christian," she said hesitantly.

"Hello, Princess," he said coldly.

"Why won't you ever talk to me anymore?" she asked. She was hurt. That was my fault. I'd lied to him about her feelings.

"You don't have to pretend anymore," he sneered.

She was taken aback. She had thought that maybe he would talk to her if she tried again.

She felt so alone. I could feel it. It sang through every pore in her body.

I wished I could make it better, but she had brought this upon herself.

At least she'd have her fake friends and her reputation.

The lady holding the clipboard finally called out her name.

I decided that I was bored with her life for now and slipped out of her head. If she'd known that I had been there, she would have thrown a hissy fit.

I was back in my own body again. Ten minutes had passed by.

Dimitri's grip tightened around me for a second before he groaned.

"Good morning," I told him.

I turned towards him, still in his arms.

He glanced over me at the clock.

"Don't you mean good afternoon?" he asked.

I nodded. "Hey, I need to go to the feeders. Do you want to do a workout session after and then hang out some more?"

"Sure," he answered. "But I have a shift after our required hour."

"A shift?" I asked. "For what? It's not nighttime."

"Just at the gate," he supplied. "You can come and observe everything if you want. I'm sure that Guardian Sizova would be okay with you being there."

"That would be cool," I said. "See where you work when you're not with me," I joked.

"Let me get changed. We can go to my room really quickly."

TRSTRSTRS

After we trained, I walked with Dimitri to the gates.

Guardian Sizova was there already, reading a magazine.

"So is this what guardians do when Moroi aren't around?" I asked Dimitri jokingly.

"The gate shift is generally one of the most boring, since not many people go in and out. Generally, we just hang out."

"Hang out?" I asked.

I didn't know that guardians hung out.

Guardian Sizova looked over at us confusedly.

"Guardian Sizova," Dimitri began. "This is Rose Hathaway, my charge."

"Oh, I've heard of you," Guardian Sizova snickered. "Willa Sizova, at your service." She held her hand out for me to shake. I did so. Ow, she had a strong grip.

Willa Sizova had a slight Russian accent, too. It wasn't nearly as strong as Dimitri's though, so I assumed that it was a secondhand accent from her mother.

She was pretty, for a guardian. Maybe it was because she was still kind of young. She wasn't leathery like Guardian Petrov was. She had dark blue eyes and medium brown hair. She was kind of average, as far as I could tell.

"Oh no," Dimitri joked. "Now that you've told her your first name, that's all she'll ever call you."

I grinned at them. "How old are you anyway, Willa?" I asked curiously.

Her eyes narrowed a little. "Twenty. Why?"

"Just wondering," I sang.

Dimitri shook his head. "You'll have to excuse her," he said. "She's…" he searched for a word. "She speaks her mind."

Willa just chortled. "I think we'll get along just fine."

TRSTRSTRS

Things after that day progressed pretty miserably. Lissa kept her word about never speaking to me again.

A few days after our shopping trip, Aaron had dumped Mia and immediately began dating Lissa.

Normally, I would blame it on compulsion. Aaron, though, was absolutely smitten with her. It was too bad she didn't feel the same way about him.

Dimitri and I worked up a routine. After dinner, I would hang out with him for a few hours in his room. Nothing ever happened. He'd help me with homework or we'd watch a western. He even convinced me that we could read one together.

I didn't read at all. I never had any inclinations to do so, but at Dimitri's insistence, I had become a huge fan of the book Shalako by Louis L'Amour. I'd never admit it to him, but that book was really good. I'd take the secret to the grave with me. I think Dimitri knew though, no matter how hard I tried to hide it.

After we hung out, I would go back to my dorm and go to sleep.

It was nice. It was simple. I loved spending so much time with Dimitri. It was the only bright spot in my life at the moment. It was what I looked forward to every day.

TRSTRSTRS

The day before the dance, I talked to Mason.

"Aren't you going?" he asked.

"Nope," I said. I hated to waste a good dress but what fun was a dance without any friends?

"Why not?" he persisted.

"It isn't my scene," I lied.

He just shook his head and went back to his notes.

The night of the dance, he showed up at my door.

"Come on, Rose. It's your last fall dance at St. Vlad's."

"Oh, alright," I consented. "But you'd better stick with me the whole night."

I didn't get to hang out with Dimitri tonight, anyway. He had an extra shift since so many guardians were required to chaperone the dance.

I showered and dressed quickly. I applied a little more makeup than usual and carefully placed the rose necklace from Victor around my neck.

Mason's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw me.

I wished I liked Mason. I couldn't help that Dimitri had captured my heart first. Now, every time I pictured someone whispering dirty things in my ear, he had a Russian accent.

"You look great," he finally managed.

"Thanks," I responded. "You look pretty sharp yourself."

We walked arm and arm through campus.

We came across Dimitri and Guardian Petrov on the way there.

She was looking at us in the way old people looked at young people who were being silly. Dimitri, though, was staring at me.

"Hi Guardian Petrov," I said. My voice was a little breathy. "Dimitri."

"Hello Miss Hathaway, Mason. I would have thought you would be at the dance already."

"You know girls," Mason joked. "Always got to look perfect."

"You do look nice, Miss Hathaway," Guardian Petrov smiled at me.

She began to walk away, Dimitri in tow. He shot one last look at me and my knees nearly buckled.

That look in his eyes…

"So I've got a surprise for you," Mason told me as we got closer to the commons.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You'll have to see when we get there," he said, wagging his finger at me.

I just laughed.

When we got to the dance, it was in full swing. The disco ball was out, the streamers were hanging, and the floor was covered in glitter.

I felt bad for whoever had to clean that up.

I saw Lissa across the room, talking with Aaron and her "friends." She was wearing the dress we'd bought at Dillard's.

"Okay, so my surprise is this way," Mason said. We began to walk towards a corner where Jesse and Ralf were standing.

"Oh no," I said. "I can't be seen with them unless I have an ax or something."

He guffawed. "Trust me, you'll like this," he assured.

"Hey guys," Mason said to them as a hello. "Can you tell Rose what you told me?"

They both sighed and looked depressed.

"We lied," they said.

"Really?" I asked acerbically. "I never would have guessed that!"

"What else, boys?" Mase asked.

"Mia slept with us."

"Both of you?" I asked, confused.

They nodded. Ew. Who would want to sleep with Ralf?

"At the same time?" I asked.

"No!" Jesse nearly shouted. Ralf looked like he wouldn't have minded.

"Wait," I began to piece things together. "This happened while she was still with Aaron."

Mason nodded.

"God, Mia must really hate me to sleep with Ralf," I said aloud, unable to keep my thoughts contained.

Ralf only looked mildly insulted, while Mason guffawed.

"So you guys are going to tell everybody what happened, right?" Mason asked them.

They gulped. "Can we wait until Monday?" Jesse asked.

"Go ahead," Mason allowed generously.

As we walked away, he said, "Might as well allow them some freedom before their reputations come crashing down."

I nodded in agreement.

"But," Mason grinned devilishly. "We can tell everyone now!"

"Yes!" I crowed.

We did just that. Everything was going swimmingly until I felt Lissa's stress spike.

I began to walk over, noticing that Mia was standing near her.

"I know why you were in the clinic!" Mia told her. "You're crazy. You and your slutty friend-"

I grabbed Mia's arm, yanking her away from Lissa easily. "Hi, slutty friend here! Leave her alone!"

She glared at me, her doll-like face becoming, if possible, even more furious and evil.

"Why does it matter to you?" Mia asked. "She dropped you. She hates you. You don't have anymore friends! And she's just as messed up as you are! I got a hold of her records! I know that she-"

She was about to tell everyone Lissa's secret. I couldn't help it. On impulse, I punched her.

Man, that thing gushed like Mount Vesuvius must have. I was proud of it. My punches had never been that strong. I'd have to thank Dimitri later!

Guardians swarmed around me.

Lissa ran off as I was surrounded by dhampirs attempting to tear me away from the dance.

I saw Christian as they rushed me out. "Christian! Go after her!"

He glared at me. "Why would I do that?"

"You're good for her!" I shouted. "I lied! She's going to need someone to be there for her!"

He nodded and rushed out of the room.

They continued to drag me to my dorm. I didn't resist.

I paced in my room, worrying about Mia's effect on Lissa. As I was thinking about her, I was pulled into her head.

She too was pacing. She froze when she saw Christian walk into the attic.

"What are you doing here?" she asked bitterly. "I thought you weren't talking to me."

His eyes were soft when he looked at her. It wasn't pity, but I could tell that he wished she'd not be so hard on everyone.

They talked for a few minutes, and Lissa began to feel gradually better.

Well, until a group of guardians invaded the attic and clocked Christian over the back of the head.

I think I screamed.

They didn't hit Lissa over the head. Instead, they just grabbed her and ran.

I needed to go to Dimitri. He could help. But how would I get out?

Finally, I decided that my only option was to escape through the window.

I looked down, not worried at all for some reason. All I knew was that I needed to get to Dimitri.

I saw a series of vines that traveled all the way to the ground. How convenient.

I needed to use all the training that Dimitri had given me. He'd never taught me how to climb ropes, but maybe my newfound strength would help my endeavor.

I shimmied down the vines carefully, slowly.

From there, I ran to the guardian dorms. I didn't care that it was broad daylight. I didn't care that anyone could see me. The only thought in my head was Dimitri.

When I got to his room, I pounded on the door.

I heard some shuffling on the other side before he opened the door. He was a little groggy, and his hair was wet. Dimitri had been getting ready for bed.

"Rose?" he asked, confused.

"Something's wrong," I attempted to say. I couldn't think of anything else except that his chest was oh-so incredibly bare.

I was filled with the need to kiss him. I couldn't reach his face, so instead, I dove for his chest.

I kissed it a little hungrily. "Rose, wha-?" he attempted. He grabbed my wrists. An electric current ran through us. Dimitri.

I kissed his chest again, and he let me. He pulled away, struggling with something.

"Rose, we can't-"

"I thought… I thought you… Don't you think I'm pretty?" I asked.

Whatever had come over him was gone.

"Of course I do. You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me."

I pulled him down by his hair, consumed by his passionate words.

I kissed him on the lips for the first time.

Fireworks went off. The hallelujah chorus played.

He responded back, kissing me hungrily.

He lifted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

Then, he took me to the bed.

We kissed for what felt like hours, but what I assumed was only minutes. I laid on my side, playing with his hair. "Wow," I said, looking at his molnijas. "Did you really kill six Strigoi?"

He nodded, a haunted look taking over his face for a few moments. "What's that like?"

He looked at me seriously. "It's something I have to do. I'd rather not, but they're evil creatures. It's just a waste of life, you know? They all used to be dhampir, Moroi, or human at some point."

"That's why you go to church every Sunday," I realized. "Because you feel bad about it."

He looked shocked. "How do you figure these things out about me?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe we were just meant to be," I suggested. The need to kiss him filled me once again.

As I nibbled on his neck, his hands roamed my body. He began to pull my dress off, chanting my name like a prayer, Roza, Roza, Roza.

The cold air hit my body, but it didn't deter me.

"You… you got rid of that dress fast," I commented between kisses. "I thought you liked it."

"I love it," he told me seriously. "But it looks even better off!"

I giggled, blushing.

I'd never been naked around a boy before. Sure, I had had my shirt and bra off with Jesse, but it wasn't the same.

For the first time ever, I felt self-conscious of my body. I blushed again, and he seemed to sense it.

"You're beautiful," Dimitri assured me as he laced kisses down my middle.

Butterflies were dancing around my belly. Butterflies that were spreading fire throughout my insides.

He was straddling me, hands in my hair, on my arms, on my stomach, on my hips. It seemed like they were everywhere, and I didn't even wonder how he did it.

I tugged on his hair, bringing his lips back to mine. It felt like I was home.

After a few more minutes of kissing, his lips found their way to my breast. It was the same one that he had walked in on Jesse sucking on.

"I.. hated… seeing him… doing this to you," Dimitri said.

To be honest, I regretted the moment I'd allowed Jesse to do so. Dimitri's mouth worked wonders on me, ten times hotter than Jesse's had ever been.

"Maybe you should have been doing it from the start," I moaned, arching into him.

Dimitri's eyes were asking a question as they stared into mine.

I was ready. I was ready to give up my virginity.

He must have seen the decision on my face, because his movements suddenly had more fire, more passion than they had before. I hadn't thought it was possible. He was so beautiful.

I was glad that I had waited for Dimitri, waited for the right moment.

Dimitri unclasped the rose necklace, and as soon as he removed it, I felt as if I was waking up.

"What… what happened?" I asked. I was a little out of breath, a little dizzy.

"I… don't know," he said. For the first time, I realized how much more pronounced his accent had become.

He blinked.

He touched me again, and a voice said kiss him

I tried to, but he got up from the bed.

"Hey, what are you-? Come back!"

He looked like he really wanted to. Instead of doing as I'd requested, he went over to the window. And opened it. He chucked the necklace out the window.

Instead of the waking up sensation, I was suddenly awake. Startlingly, painfully so. It was as if I'd been drenched in cold water.

"Oh, God," I whimpered. "Lissa… she's been kidnapped!" I told him.

"What?" he asked, shocked. He immediately began to look for clothes.

He threw me the sweatshirt that I'd worn a few weeks ago. I pulled on my dress and then the sweatshirt on top of it.

I looked around for my bra and underwear as he pulled on a pair of black guardian slacks and a white button down shirt.

I pulled my underwear up my body and bit my lip. "Come on," he said gently. "We have to tell the other guardians."

I nodded and left with him, barefoot. I realized that I had come looking for him barefoot, too.

When we got to the guardian building, everyone looked shocked to see me. An uproar began, but Dimitri managed to quiet them.

"Princess Dragomir has been kidnapped!" he told them calmly.

If possible, even more shouting began.

Guardian Petrov walked calmly towards Dimitri, her face deadly serious. "How do you know this, Guardian Belikov?"

"Rose here has a psychic bond with the princess," he revealed.

She turned to me so quickly that I thought she might have gotten whiplash.

"Is this true?" she asked.

I nodded.

She immediately began barking orders at the guardians. Soon enough, Kirova was there.

She ordered for Christian to be retrieved from the attic.

When he got there, he looked woozy. Nevertheless, everybody began to bombard him with questions. "How many Strigoi were there?" "How did they get on campus?" "How did they get on church grounds?"

"They weren't Strigoi," I told them.

"What?" a guardian I didn't know asked.

"They were guardians," I told them.

Kirova eyed me suspiciously. "You're telling me a group of privately retained guardians attacked Princess Dragomir and Lord Ozera?"

"It's true," Christian finally spoke up. "They were guardians."

Kirova gasped and held a hand to her chest.

I checked up on Lissa through the bond, finding it incredibly easy with the amount of terror that was pouring into me.

"They belong to Victor Dashkov," I told them.

"Prince Victor Dashkov?" someone asked with a snort.

"Yes," I whined. "Come on, you have to hurry. They're getting further away. They're on… Eighty-three. Headed south."

"Eighty-three already? How long ago did they leave? Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Guardian Petrov asked.

I turned to look at Dimitri nervously. I didn't know what to say, for once. I didn't have a lie that could cover up what had happened between us.

His eyes made contact with mine for a second before he told them, "A compulsion spell. A compulsion spell he placed on that necklace he gave her. It made her attack me."

Kirova looked at him. "No one can use that kind of compulsion," she argued. "No one's done that in ages."

"Well, somebody did," Dimitri asserted. "By the time I'd restrained her and taken the necklace, a lot of time had passed." His face was deadly serious, too. It was perfectly controlled, a feat only a guardian could surely pull off in such conditions.

Restrained me? That was one way to put what we'd been doing, I thought. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the images of the two of us, so close to making love.

No one questioned his story. They immediately began to act, piling into school SUVs and vans.

"I need to come," I told Dimitri.

"It isn't safe," he said firmly.

"But I'm the only one who knows where they're going and I'll know where they'll be," I argued.

He frowned, and I knew I had won this argument. I was the only one who could tell them where they were taking Lissa.

I was in the passenger seat, Dimitri driving the leading SUV.

"They're still on eighty-three," I told him. "But their turn is coming. They aren't speeding; they don't want to be pulled over."

Dimitri sped up. He didn't care about getting pulled over. We couldn't afford to get too far behind them.

He explained to me quietly that there had been a charm on the necklace. A lust charm. I'd never heard of such a thing, but when I asked, he just explained that it was a type of magic that earth users practiced.

Was fire only good for one thing?

What had it all meant? Had those moments meant anything to him? They sure had meant a lot to me.

About twenty minutes later, I said, "There!" A few guardians jumped.

As we turned onto the gravel road, I tuned back into Lissa's mind.

"They're turning again," I narrated.

We followed them down a lot of roads I'd never known existed. Finally, Victor's van came to a stop.

"They're outside a small cabin. They're taking her-"

"Why are you doing this? What's going on?" Lissa asked them angrily.

"Come child," Victor motioned towards the cabin.

A guardian pushed Lissa through the front door that another guardian had opened for Victor. She was pushed into a leather chair. She shivered, goose flesh covering her arms. It was cold here.

"Do you think I'd seriously hurt you?" Victor asked her.

She ignored him. "What did you do to Christian? Is he dead?"

Victor looked shocked and hurt by her accusation. "The Ozera boy? I didn't mean for that to happen. We'd hoped to catch you alone, to convince others you'd run away again. We made sure those rumors were circulated."

We? I thought back to where those stories had surfaced from this week. Natalie.

"Now?" he sighed. "I doubt anyone will trace it back to us. Rose will be a problem. We'd intended to… dispatch her, leading others to think she'd run away, too. The debacle at the dance made that impossible, but I had another plan in place. It will keep her pretty busy, until probably tomorrow. We'll have to contend with her eventually."

He loved to talk just as much as his daughter, explaining his evil scheme. He'd probably been expecting Dimitri and I to be too busy getting it on all night. He hadn't counted on Dimitri figuring the spell.

"Why?" Lissa asked again. "Why are you doing all this?"

His jade eyes that looked just like Lissa's widened faux-innocently. "I'm surprised you even have to ask, my dear. I need you to heal me."

Hey, guys. So it's really close to the end of the story arc of the first book in the original world. It will not, however, be the end of TRS. I'm actually a few chapters ahead, so as a gift, I decided to update early.

I also wanted to let you all know that there is a blog dedicated to TRS, if you wanted to check it out. I don't know if anyone really likes it enough, but it's on tumblr. The URL is theredstringseries dot tumblr dot com.

Please tell me what you thought!