"Rose, things wouldn't work between us."

I looked up into Dimitri's eyes. Dark and brooding, he looked tortured.

"Why not?" I asked. "Why can't we give it a try?"

He looked into my own eyes, instead of anywhere but me. "Because, you're seventeen years old. Your life should be about homework and clothes and boys."

"But it isn't," I argued. "My life is only about protecting Lissa, rodeo, and you."

He smiled softly. "That's what you say now, but someday you may change your mind. I wouldn't want you to regret anything."

Hot, angry tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. "Is it because we couldn't have kids? Because I'm not fully human?" I asked.

He shook his head. "That has nothing to do with it, Roza. You know that I don't care about that. Lissa might as well be my own sister, even though she's a vampire."

"Moroi," I corrected.

He shrugged. "It isn't because you're a dhampir. It isn't because we wouldn't be able to have children."

"Then why?" I asked. I was grasping at straws. If he didn't love me, fine. Whatever. I could live with that. He was making excuses. That was what I wasn't fine with. "Tell me Dimitri: do you love me?"

He hesitated, glancing around nervously.

That hesitation said everything to me.

I woke up, confused. Dimitri as a human? Me, liking rodeo? Had I eaten something strange before going to bed the night before?

I began to pack my bag, rushing around when I realized that the plane was supposed to leave in two hours.

I threw random clothing into a duffle bag before rushing to shower.

I brushed through my hair quickly, running too late to even bother blow-drying it.

I grabbed my bag, running out of the room and to the commons, where everyone had planned to meet.

"Rose!" Lissa called out.

I located her through the bond, finding her in a dark corner of the room. Christian was standing right next to her, as usual. I held back a snarky comment, as Lissa eyed me worriedly.

"What's wrong?" Lissa asked.

"Nothing's wrong," I hedged. "Why would something be wrong?"

"You just look exhausted," she explained.

"I just haven't been sleeping well lately," I excused.

"Well you're lucky you woke up in time!" she smiled at me cheerily. "They're about to load the planes."

"Great," I muttered.

The school always took private jets because it would be easier to transport us. Safer, too.

Right then, they began calling for seniors to load up on the first plane. Lissa, Christian, and I all immediately left our corner, excited for the escape from the academy.

As we boarded the plane, I noticed Dimitri and Tasha sitting next to each other. Stopping myself from hissing aloud, I turned away violently. I didn't know how I would be able to function if I kept running into them like this.

Lissa and Christian sat next to each other, immediately excluding me. I felt the weight of my loneliness press down upon me. Before Lissa and I had run away, I had had too many friends to count. None of them had been real friends, of course. Mostly, they had been royals who had wanted to get in with the Dragomir princess, and in turn, her best friend. Being the best friend of such a high up royal was an advantage to me, if I were to enter into the political scene after graduation.

Now, however, I didn't have any such friends. As fake as they were, they had filled up the empty space around us.

I pursed my lips, once again jealous that Christian had stolen my best friend away. I understood her feelings; I felt much the same way about Dimitri. As my only friend, though, it was lonely when she wanted to spend almost every waking moment with Christian. I hoped that it was just a honeymoon phase.

I looked around for a place to sit and found an empty seat next to Mason Ashford. I hadn't spoken to him much since the night of the dance, too busy with my reunion with Lissa.

"Hey, Ashford," I said saucily as I took a seat next to him.

"Hathaway," he nodded, grinning.

I smiled, forgetting the loneliness that had begun to eat me. At least Mason wanted me around.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Just about to go to this really cool ski lodge for free," he smart-mouthed. "Why are you on my flight? This is my space, Hathaway."

"Haven't you heard?" I asked. "I own this school. This is my space."

I noticed that his eyes took on a strange glow as our conversation went on. I felt like I was leading Mason on. I told myself not to feel guilty; I hadn't given him any indication that felt anything but friendship toward him. Except you went to the dance with him a nasty voice reminded me. He might think you're an item now.

I nearly scoffed at myself. The thing was, that little voice in my head was partially right. That could count as leading Mason on. Especially now, when I sat next to him on the plane.

He hasn't asked you on a real date, I reminded myself.

We continued to banter for the rest of the hour long flight. When we landed on the tarmac, he grinned at me once again. "So, I'll see you on the slopes?"

"You bet, Ashford," I challenged.

We parted ways. I went with Lissa, since we were sharing a suite.

This place was huge!

It was the lap of luxury. The televisions were huge flat screens. The beds were filled with down and when I threw myself onto the one I had claimed as mine, it felt as if I had lain down on a cloud.

I sighed happily. Maybe this vacation was just what I needed.

"I'm going to meet up with Christian," Lissa informed me. "We're skiing. Do you want to come?"

I weighed my options. To lay in this heavenly bed, or get a little exercise?

I had been pretty restless as of late. It would be good to blow off some steam.

"Sure," I agreed.

"Well get dressed," she said.

I grabbed a huge red coat that was provided with the room, and searched for some boots.

"You know what would be fun?" I asked Liss as we bounded out of the room.

"What?" she asked. Through the bond, I could feel her approval of me being more cheery than I had been earlier this morning. This was the first time I had felt her acknowledge my listless and moodiness since I had started acting this way. I was surprised that she had noticed it, when she had failed to do so for the last few weeks.

Anger welled up in me once again. I tried to push it down, but to no avail. I definitely needed to go skiing.

She looked at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked irritated.

"What would be fun?" she asked pointedly.

"Um," I grappled. "Never mind. I don't remember." And I really didn't.

I felt her annoyance and confusion. "Sorry," I apologized hastily.

She didn't buy it, but I didn't blame her. I didn't mean it.

I sighed.

Lissa brightened, and I felt the light bulb in her head go off.

"Hey, why don't you go that dinner with me?"

"Dinner?" I asked. This was the first I'd heard about it.

"It's this dinner that the royals are throwing. I tried to get Christian to go with me, but he refuses."

Any joy I'd felt at being invited over Christian was squashed. Second choice again.

"Actually-"

"Please, Rose?" she pleaded.

I looked at her, feeling bad. She was my best friend. I should be happy to get any time with her

"Sure," I said. "But why are they throwing a party?"

"I suppose to forget about the Badicas," she guessed. "Plus, Priscilla Voda throws it every Christmas."

I nodded. We reached the lobby, where Christian was waiting for us, along with Mason.

I looked at Lissa questioningly. She wiggled her eyebrows.

She thought something was going on between Mason and I. I sighed again. She was so out of touch with me.

"Hey Pyro, Mase."

Lissa wiggled her eyebrows at my shortened name for Mason. I rolled my eyes, hoping she'd get the message.

First, we went down the bunny slope. While Christian and Lissa did okay with it, when we advanced to the next course, they had immense difficulty.

Mason and I, however, had no qualms about advancing to increasingly difficult trails. Eventually, we were both trying to outdo one another.

He came up with a stunt that was completely dangerous.

"I don't know, Mase," I hesitated.

"What are you, chicken?" he goaded.

"Fine!" I said, preparing myself.

"Stop, Rose!" Lissa called. "You're gonna break your neck."

That dark feeling welled up in me, and I smiled wildly. Now I definitely needed to do this crazy trick that Mason had challenged me to do.

And I did. With each trick, I performed flawlessly. When I finished, Lissa and Mason were cheering crazily at the top. "Go Rose!"

"Your turn, Mase!" I called up.

He smirked. "I'll do even better than you!" he called down to me.

And he did pretty well. That is, until his ski suddenly hit a patch of unexpected ice. His trick went awry. "Mason!" I called out, watching as he tumbled down the side of the mountain. I ran up to him, attempting to stop him.

I wished I could help. Fire couldn't help in a moment like this. Maybe water, or air could, but not fire. The gravity of the slope would keep him going, even with the melted snow.

Finally, he hit a tree stump. I ran up to him, trying to burn any snow under my feet in order to prevent slipping. The slope made it difficult enough, after all.

"Mason, are you okay?" I asked worriedly.

"I'm golden," he managed to grit out. I could tell he was in real pain, but I didn't think he was going to die.

A minute later, two lodge personnel arrived. "I can't believe you would try that!" the woman chastised. "And you, encouraging him!" she pointed at me.

I wanted to point out that it was his idea, but decided it wasn't the moment to defend myself.

"You both could have been killed!"

"I told you, Rose," Lissa said as she slid a little down the slope.

I rolled my eyes, turning my gaze back to Mason.

"Here," I held my hand out to him. "Why don't I at least help you up the slope?"

"There's no need for that," the woman said. "We've got a snowmobile on the way."

I nodded. It would be easier on all of us, especially Mason. Instead of limping his way up the huge slope, he would get a free ride.

TRSTRSTRS

It turned out that Mason had only sprained his ankle. It had been a pretty bad sprain, though, so he was given some crutches and pain medication.

"This'll put me out of training for a month," he complained to me. "It's all your fault, woman."

I laughed at him, feeling bad that I had beaten a novice who was as good as he was. "Want me to kiss it better?" I joked.

His eyes widened and I remembered his crush on me. I was tempted to really kiss him. I was also tempted to run away. My indecision glued me to the spot I'd been walking through. He noticed I'd stopped and turned to look.

"Rose?" he asked.

I smiled my man-eater smile at him. Maybe I could like Mason. He was sweet, and funny. And maybe if I'd never met Dimitri, he would even be sexy.

"Let's get you up to your room, Mase," I said.

He gulped.

As he slowly crutched his way up the stairs, I warred with myself. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to see if he could elicit any response similar to the response Dimitri elicited. I wanted to see if he could maybe make me forget about Dimitri.

Dimitri was all I thought about anymore, and I was sick of it. Maybe kissing Mason would make me forget about him.

The problem was, I felt like I was being unfaithful to the very man I was trying to get off my mind.

When we got to his door, Mason awkwardly pulled his key out of his pocket. I stood there, waiting for him to say goodbye.

He finally did. He stared at me for a moment. "Well… see ya, Hathaway."

I moved closer to him. "See you, Ashford."

And that was when I kissed him.

He made a surprised sound. I smiled the barest bit.

Finally, he kissed me back.

It was nothing like Dimitri, but it was pleasant. He wasn't as slobbery as Jesse, for sure. There wasn't a fire running through me, but I could deal with that.

I pulled away and smiled at him.

"What was that?" he asked, out of breath. It wasn't much of an exertion, so I didn't understand why he was breathless. Maybe it was from the crutches.

"That, was a kiss," I told him. "But if you didn't know that, there's no help for you," I put on a mysterious smile and walked away.

Maybe that could give me an edge. As I turned around, I ran into someone.

A very solid someone.

That body felt familiar.

I looked up to find Dimitri with a strange look on his face.

Had he seen the kiss between Mason and me?

Dear God, I hoped not.

But one look at his eyes confirmed that he'd seen it, alright. And God, did I feel guilty. I should not have felt guilty, considering Dimitri was the one that kept pushing me away. Especially not when Dimitri was going to abandon me to be Tasha's guardian.

I wanted to cry under his gaze. Instead, I stood a little straighter, searching for a witty remark.

"Long time no see, Comrade," I managed.

"Rose…" he began.

"Don't, Dimitri," I interrupted. I looked behind me to see Mason staring. I couldn't have this conversation in front of him, not when we'd just kissed. Mason might figure out that something was going on between Dimitri and me.

It was then that I did one of the hardest things I'd done in recent months (and I'd done a lot of difficult things), I walked away from him.

TRSTRSTRS

When I got back to my room, I was in a towering rage.

I was angry. I was angry with Lissa. I was angry with Dimitri. I was angry with Mason. But most of all, I was angry with myself.

I couldn't believe I'd done something as rash as kiss Mason. I couldn't believe I had been stupid enough not to check my surroundings.

Part of me felt as if I should have sensed Dimitri in the vicinity, but that was silly. It was ridiculous.

I picked up the vase of flowers set on the vanity next to my bed. It was heavy in my hand, but I was fine with that. I threw all my body weight into chucking the vase at the wall. It hit the wall with a satisfying crash, the broken pieces clinking against the granite floors. The water swooshed, and the flowers fell, almost in slow motion, to the ground.

I felt bad about the flowers. But not bad enough to pick them up.

I conjured a fire ball, letting it idle in my hand, using up my energy.

Someone knocked on the door.

I extinguished the flame immediately. Someone must have heard the noise. Annoyed, I opened the door. And there stood not someone who worked for the resort, but a tall, green-eyed Moroi. A royal Moroi. One I recognized from tabloids and politics in general. Adrian Ivashkov.

I did not have the patience for this.

"Wow, you have the most delicious scent," he told me.

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Straight to the point, Little Fireball?" he asked curiously. I ground my teeth. His eyes were amused.

"I said, what are you doing here?"

"Well," he drug out. "I heard a crashing sound. And the upstanding citizen that I am, came to check on whoever may need assistance."

That was the biggest load of crap I'd heard in a while.

I raised both my eyebrows, still unable to master just one. "Are you sure about that?"

"Why else would I intrude on this suite?" he asked innocently.

"Because you're a womanizer," I told him.

"Oh, you wound me so, Little Fireball."

"How do you know my element was fire?" I asked suspiciously.

"I know lots of things about lots of people," he evaded. "You're the daughter of the renowned scientist Janine Hathaway. Your return was noted in the tabloids, did you know that? They did a whole bio on both you and Vasilisa."

"Lissa," I corrected automatically.

He smiled, showing his fangs. "Right. Speaking of her, where is she?"

And that was when I understood. He wasn't after me. Thank God. No, this time, someone wanted Lissa's attention. Well, too bad she was already practically married to Christian.

"She's gone," I replied acerbically. "And don't bother her, either. Bye."

I slammed the door on his face. "That's not very nice," he called through the door.

I ignored him, feeling my anger recede a little.

TRSTRSTRS

The next morning, I awoke to a knock on the door.

Cursing, I noticed Lissa was already gone. It had better not be that Adrian Ivashkov, I thought grumpily.

I opened the door to find a delivery man. "Miss Rosemarie Hathaway?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Sign here for your package."

A package for me?

I signed and he handed me the box. It was heavy, and I almost dropped it.

"Have a good day, Miss Hathaway."

I ignored him, instead closing the door to see what was in my package. I found a pair of scissors and began to hack at the packing tape.

Finally, I got it open. What I found inside shocked me.

It was full of perfumes. All morning, I looked through them, sniffing them and trying them on. By the time I'd gotten through them all, my nose hurt.

I sneezed a few times, a headache coming on steadily.

When I'd been going the perfumes, I'd figured out the sender.

Adrian Ivashkov. Damn him for waking me up. I knew, even in my subconscious, that it had been him to do it.

It was his opening statement about me smelling good that had given it away.

I boxed up all but one perfume, which I wasn't able to part with. Amor Amor.

I took them to the Ivashkov wing and followed the smell of liquor.

Adrian Ivashkov opened the door. Behind him stood Lissa.

"Liss?" I asked, confused.

"Rose?"

"Now, now, ladies," Adrian said. "No need to fight over me."

I shot him a scathing look.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her. That seemed to always be the question I asked lately.

"I could ask you the same thing," a voice said from behind me. The voice sent shivers down my spine. Dimitri.

"I was just giving Adrian here his box of perfumes," I explained to both Lissa and Dimitri. "But what about you, Lissa?"

She didn't answer me, which was just as well.

"You know the rules about students being in the opposite sex's rooms, Lord Ivashkov," Dimitri said stiffly. If I didn't know better, I would say that Dimitri was jealous.

"Well, I'm not a student," Adrian argued.

Dimitri's eyes narrowed. "You should still respect the rules of St. Vladimir's. Young girls don't belong in your room."

"You aren't anyone to lecture me about young girls, Cradle Robber," Adrian shot out. I gaped at him. How did he know?

"Don't call him that," I defended. My defense of him shocked even me, but Adrian didn't look shocked. Instead, he just laughed.

It was a crazy sort of laugh. "You call these girls young, when one is marked with death and the other is marked with life! You shouldn't be worried about them. You should be worried about you, dhampir. Worry about you, and worry about me. We're the ones who are young."

He kept laughing, and Lissa and I shot each other looks. Adrian had just jumped on the crazy train. Actually, he'd probably always been on it.

"Let's go," Dimitri gently grabbed my arm.

"Just because I defended you doesn't mean you can touch me," I complained. He withdrew from me as if I'd burned him, and really I might as well have. My remark hurt me, even.

"Don't do this here," he whispered, looking pointedly at Lissa.

I knew he was right, of course. Not that I would admit that.

"Don't do what here, Dimitri?" I made my voice louder on purpose.

He shook his head, while Lissa looked on curiously.

"You're being childish, Rose."

"I'm being childish? You know what's childish, Dimka? Not telling me about your little deal with Tasha."

"What?" he asked. "What does that have to do with anything? Not that that is any of your business, by the way. Princess, can I talk to Rose alone?"

Lissa nodded timidly, and I cursed her for leaving me alone with him.

"That's Adrian Ivashkov," Dimitri stated.

"Yeah, so?"

"That's the second time I've seen you with him." Dimitri had seen him at my door the night before?

"So? We hang out sometimes," I lied. After all, I'd just met the lunatic the night before.

"Do you hang out in his room often?" he asked.

Thinking back to just moments before, I retorted, "What happens between Adrian and I isn't any of your business."

"I'm your guardian," Dimitri pointed out. "Everything you do is my business."

"Well, not for long," my voice held acid in it. "Since you're going to leave me for Tash."

He blinked. I guess he decided to ignore my barb, because the next thing he said was, "Hanging out in the bedroom of someone… like him is not safe."

He wanted to lecture me about safe? He was a guardian. He was willing to lay his life down for any Moroi. That wasn't safe.

"What I do with my personal life doesn't concern you," I narrowed my eyes, hoping to be intimidating. During this argument, my heart was starting to ache. "Speaking of personal lives, I suppose you were visiting Tasha?"

"Actually, I was visiting your mother."

"What, are you going to hook up with her too?"

"No," he explained. "I was discussing some of the side effects of spirit with her."

"Wait," I said, realizing something. "My mom's here?"

"You didn't know that?" he asked, confused. Clearly, Dimitri still didn't get how strained the relationship I had with my mother was.

"No," I said. I couldn't believe she hadn't told me that she would be following us to the resort.

"Oh, Roza," he said softly. All the anger and tension dissolved from his body, and he immediately moved to envelope me in a hug.

It was the first sort of contact I'd had from him in a long time, and despite my anger, I welcomed it with open arms.

I burrowed my face in his chest, listening to his heart. It was beating fast, as if he had just run a race. As we stood there silently, though, it slowed down to a normal pace.

I felt a tear leak out of my eye.

I had been under so much stress lately. I shouldn't have been, because life was the same as it had been just weeks ago. The only differences I could find were a lack of both Dimitri and Lissa.

I wouldn't be able to bear it if Dimitri left with Tasha. I didn't know what I would do. If it happened, I didn't think I would be able to work with her. Not on offensive magic, and not politically. I wouldn't be able to deal with seeing their family grow.

"Please don't leave," I whispered. I couldn't believe that I was begging him, giving in. Especially when I'd resolved to try with Mason.

Dimitri shushed me, leading me towards his room.

When we got there, he laid me down on the bed and covered me with the duvet.

I fell asleep there, with him laying down beside me, his arms around me once again.

TRSTRSTRS

I awoke to strong arms wrapped around me. I snuggled into Dimitri's body, wondering how even when we'd been fighting, we'd gravitated back to this position.

I felt content for the first time in weeks. It was as if all was right in the world.

That is, until I remembered everything that had been going on the last few weeks. The attack on the basically ignoring me for Christian. Tasha making Dimitri an offer.

That last one gave me a start. How could Dimitri hold me in his arms if he was falling for Tasha?

I threw the thought out of my mind, preferring to revel in the peace he brought me.

I heard Dimitri's phone start to vibrate on the nightstand, and he immediately began to stir. I cursed whoever was calling, ruining our moment.

He unwound his arms around me, giving me an apologetic look.

"Belikov," he answered.

"What?"

"Another attack?"

"The wards were broken again?"

He sighed sadly and angrily.

"I'll be to the meeting room in a few minutes." He hung up.

"Sorry, Roza," he apologized. "It seems there has been another attack. They're calling all the guardians not on duty to meet and discuss."

I wanted to protest, but knew that no amount of arguing would keep him from the job.

"I'll be here when you get back," I told him.

He nodded, grabbing clothes and heading into the en-suite bathroom to change. As if I hadn't seen him almost naked before.

"We'll talk when I get back," he promised as he walked out the door.

With that, I let myself fall back into the pillows.

Sorry again, guys, for the late update. This one was months late, and the next one probably won't be for a while. Soccer season just ended, and I thought I should try to get this one out before finals bogged me down again. I know Rose seems much more affected by darkness than usual, and there's a reason for that, I promise. Please tell me what you thought!