I spend the next day walking around the perimeter with Henry on my tail. He's determined, I'll give him that, but it's ridiculous. A Moroi can't become a guardian. That's not how it works. Henry is living some unrealistic illusion that not even Vivian had told him that that wasn't how it worked. Moroi didn't fight; they didn't become guardians like dhampirs did. And even as Henry quietly strolls behind me with his hands behind his back, - perhaps that's how he thinks guardians walk - I find it hard to get up the courage to shoo him away. Instead, I let him walk gallantly with me, sometimes even letting him walk beside me as I walked a third time around the perimeter. But most of the time I just let him hang back and stay out of the way. I don't need distractions from eight year-old boys with improbable dreams. My frustration becomes even greater when Alexis decides to follow Henry. It's visible that Alexis looks up to Henry. With Alexis being so young, she needs a role model. Most kids do, and I just happen to be Henry's. I look back at my follower, my lost puppy that won't seem to go away, and give him a tight-lipped smile. Alexis walks beside Henry, a huge smile plastered on her face. Very silly of them to do this sort of them.

"Beautiful morning." I turn to see Julius fall in step with me, his arm only inches from mine. His blue-green eyes stare up at the cloudless sky. I notice how pale his skin is, and the dark spots below his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I turn to make sure I'm inaudible to Henry and Alexis. It wouldn't be good for them to know that I'm at crossroads with their cousin. They'd probably be too young to understand anyway.

"Well, you did tell me that if I wanted to see you, I had to come out of the library." Julius announces proudly. "And so here I am, talking to you. Does that explain why I'm here?"

It's true. I had told him I wasn't coming to visit him anymore, and that he had to get out of the library. I scowl at my stupidity that lured one of the stranger, unpredictable guys to stroll along the yard with me.

"Whatever." I let myself heave a heavy sigh.

"Are you giving guardian lessons?" Julius motions to my two tiny follows.

"No, Henry's just learning the knots to being a guardian." I explain. "It's crazy, huh?"

"What's crazy?"

"The fact that a Moroi boy wants to become a guardian." I say.

"Not all that crazy." Julius says. "We all have wild dreams. . . and children have colorful imaginations."

"If you say so." I say, stopping to survey the pond, making sure that nothing is out of place.

Henry strides up to me and raises his hand above his eyebrow in a salute. "Guardian Henry Conta reporting for duty." He drops his hand and smiles up at me.

I start walking again, Julius walking beside me and Henry and Alexis further behind.

"See?" I look over at Julius. "He's on cloud nine or something."

Julius frowns. "Do you not support my cousin's dream?"

I groan and say, "your cousin needs to be introduced to reality. The Moroi don't fight."

"Wouldn't you like them to though?" Julius asks coolly.

I ponder that thought for a long time. Beside me, Julius says nothing. He only observes me with those striking eyes of his that I can't seem to look into. Could Moroi really have the possibility to fight alongside their guardians? It had been like that once before, but now the Moroi only wanted security and protection. Most of them didn't want to fight the Strigoi and endanger their lives. And another thought, why was I talking to Julius Conta? Hadn't I promised myself multiple times that I wouldn't come anywhere near the creep? I looked back at our conversation, thinking about how I hadn't been thinking about running away from him. Instead, we had had a normal conversation about Henry. . . . .

Was it possible that Julius wasn't all that creepy? That he wasn't the entire problem that I felt uneasiness around him? Or maybe it was, who knew.

"What were we talking about again?" I ask, pushing aside any thoughts of that queerness that I felt around him, about the uneasiness in my stomach.

Julius laughs and says, "nothing important, Rosemarie."

I wince. "Please, don't talk me that."

Julius frowns and runs his finger through his dark hair. I notice that his shiny brown hair is as dark as I thought it was in the library. It wasn't the darkness that the library usually had; his hair was just normally that dark color. "Why not? I like Rosemarie."

I wince again. "I prefer to be called Rose."

"I 'prefer' to call you Rosemarie," he says.

"Why?" I really need to fix that untamed curiosity that I have. Especially when I'm around Julius. I already know too much about him. If I stop with the questioning now, I will be able to ignore him while I'm guardian here. But if I keep getting to know him, we'll become friends of some sort, and then there will be no way to reverse that.

"Everyone calls you Rose, right?" Julius stares at me. I nod, confirming the question. "Okay. Everyone calls you Rose, not Rosemarie. I like to call you Rosemarie because. . . . . because I want to be different from the others."

I feel something in my stomach. More uneasiness? I'm not sure what it is. "Trust me, you're already different." I cover up that feeling by making a joke, which I know is wrong when Julius is telling me something so serious.

Julius shrugs off the joke. I don't know whether he takes it as a compliment or an insult, but I regret it.

All four of us reach the front door. Henry stands beside me with a stern expression on his face.

"What?" I ask him with furrowed eyebrows.

"What's next, Boss?"

"Um," I exchange looks with Julius, "lunch."

Henry frowns. "Well, that's. . . is this all guardians do?"

"No."

"Then off we go!"

I stare at Henry as he leads Alexis into the house.

I pick at the sandwich in front of me, that uneasiness in my stomach won't let the food settle in my stomach. I look up to see Julius staring at me intensely. For a moment our eyes hold, but he quickly breaks the connection and plays with his fumbling fingers.

"Aren't you hungry?" I ask him, taking a tiny bite of my turkey sandwich.

Julius concentrates on the polished dining room table. "Yes."

"Why don't you go eat?" I ask.

"It would be rude to leave you by yourself."

"Trust me, I'll be fine."

"So will I." He murmurs.

I turn my attention from Julius to the dining room around me. The other day when I had explored the house, I hadn't taken in all the details and pretty decorations that filled each room. Like every other room, the dining room had white walls, and a long window that showed off gorgeous blue Primroses. Paintings of old Moroi queens and kings and bowls of fruit lined the wall, neatly placed so that each one had its deserved amount of space. I surveyed the one painting where a strawberry had been perfectly shaped. I can't draw worth a crap, which is why it interests me that painters can capture the realistic features of fruit. . .

"Do you like art?" Julius asks, flicking a stolen cracker at me.

"Sort of." I say. "And don't play with my food." I put the salty cracker in my mouth and chomp down on it.

"Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Claude Monet. All very famous artists." Julius says, eyeing me the entire time.

"Is there ever a time you're not using that wisdom and intelligence?"

"What can I say?" Julius says. "I'm brilliant."

"Can I, like, turn you off or something?"

"Hm, I'm not a wind-up toy, Rosemarie." He says with a wink.

"Do you even have an off button?"

Julius ponders that for a moment. "Depends on what you mean by 'off'."

"It means that I can shut you up for an hour or two."

Julius shrugs and gives me one of those winning smiles. "Anything for you, Rosemarie."

I catch myself staring at him and mentally chastise myself for gazing. It's not because Julius is handsome, but that in the few times I've talked to him - and this being the first time I've actually hung out with him - I realize he is very open to anything, to any topic or subject. Though I haven't tested the limits of his openness. The fact that he flirts like it's completely normal and talks about books and art and crap like that just shows that I could talk to him about more than just light topics. Maybe. . .

I notice that Julius is staring at me. Well, behind me actually. I turn my head slightly and look at a door near the kitchen. I assume that's where a feeder is or something. I glance over at Julius and see his longing to go. I push my plate into the middle of the table and clear my throat.

"All done." I announce, standing and dropping my napkin on the table.

Julius looks up at me questioningly.

"You can go now." I say, not knowing whether to mention that he should probably go visit that room. Julius doesn't hesitate, and I don't stop him as he walks past me.

As he walks by, I hear him say something in the faintest whisper: "Goodbye, Rosemarie."

As soon as he's gone, that uneasy feeling drops out of my stomach and vanishes. It's not long after that I hear a door shut behind me. Pictures flash in my mind of Julius standing over some girl, punctures in her neck and blood drizzling from his mouth. A shiver runs down my spine and I push away the haunting pictures. I turn to see Vivian staring at me with a weird look on her face.

"Oh!" I place a hand on my chest. "You scared me."

Vivian looks at where Julius had just disappeared, to me. "I'm, um, sorry."

She glances between the closed door and me again.

I raise an eyebrow. "Is there something you need?"

"Oh! Oh, yes!' Vivian says, looking relieved as if she just remembered something important. She holds up a powdery white envelope.

"Your mother sent you a letter."

My heart drops.