A/N: Greetings lovely readers! I'm a little iffy on this chapter, I feel like it could have come out so much better. So if you do read it and leave a review, be kind? I've got family in town so I probably won't be able to update as much the next few days so I'll work on making Chapter 9 better than this one. Reviews are nice, but not mandatory.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, just Cooper.

Chapter 8

"Rose, Adrian! How wonderful it is to see you." Replied Tasha as she embraced the both of them individually in greeting. "I'm so sorry for the loss you've both received especially you Rose. I know how close you and Lissa were. My deepest condolences go out to both of you."

Rose smiled as best she could, "Thanks. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to speak at the funeral the other day."

"Don't worry I completely understand. Cooper's already here just make yourselves comfortable and dinner will be up shortly." Tasha escorted them into a small reception area were several people sat around talking to one another. There were a couple of people there who Rose wasn't familiar with but most of them were just Moroi's and their guardians. One Moroi called out Adrian's name and he excused himself to go speak with him, he didn't look older than 25 but she couldn't quite place him. Christian stood to greet her as she walked over to him. It seemed to Rose she'd never been hugged so much in all her life as she had the past few days, "It's so good to see you."Rose replied hugging him tightly back.

"It's good to see you too. I've been so busy the past few days with my aunt that now that I've settled down it's finally hit me why I'm here."

Rose noticed that his eyes were bloodshot from crying and wondered if her eyes looked like that as well? "I wake up sometimes and go to look for her in the bed beside mine but then I remember she's not there. It's the absolute worst feeling in the world. I'm just so used to her always being there, I feel like I've lost a part of myself."

"Do you think we'll move on?" He asked her soberly.

"You will for sure."

He looked at her surprised, "and you know this how?"

"I didn't mean that negatively, I meant it in a good way. You've taken up your aunt's fight, you'll find working a good distraction and overtime maybe you'll even find someone you love. Who knows, it may never be the same kind of love you had with Lissa but you'll find someone to share some semblance of a life with and continue the race. It's inevitable."

He sank back down in his chair, "maybe. You've put a lot of thought into that haven't you?"

"Remind me one day I have to tell you something."

Christian rolled his eyes, "Oh lord, you and Lissa weren't lesbians were you?"

She laughed taking the seat beside him as he sat back down. "You wish Ozera. Then maybe you could have watched or something while we made-out."

"Holy shit Rose, that's sick!"

Rose started laughing so hard she started to cry. "Oh God could you imagine? You'd have been there doing Lord only knows what to yourself watching us if we had been. You'd have probably set yourself on fire by accident because you wouldn't have been able to control yourself."

He joined in her laughter, "You're so stupid sometimes."

Rose was surprised at how seeing everyone like this was affecting her. Maybe she had needed to see some other people besides the four walls of her bedroom, but she still felt like such a buzz kill as she sat there watching Lissa walk around the room. Dinner was called to order not long after everyone had settled in. An array of sandwiches were brought out and put on display in front of them as well as several different soups. Rose opted for a roast beef sandwich and butternut squash soup. Adrian was still talking to some guy so she sat beside Christian instead of waiting for him.

"I've heard you've been spending all your time with Adrian and your new guardian while you've been here."

"Well obviously I'm going to be spending time with my guardian, he's my guardian." She took a sip of her soup, "do you have any idea how weird it is for me to say?"

He nodded as he doctored his sandwich to include nearly twice as much meat as it had originally including five strips of bacon. "One can imagine, but Adrian? I heard you even got in a fight defending him at the bar the other day."

"Who told you?" Rose asked leaning in to whisper.

"Don't worry it was one of my guardians who helped you, calm down."

"You've got guardians…as in plural. Well look who's moved up in the world."

He popped his collar, "I know right? You've still not answered my question and I refuse to let it go so you might as well own up to it."

She sighed heavily, "I wasn't defending Adrian. I was defending myself and Adrian just happened to be there with me at the time. Although in my defense if he hadn't been there I probably wouldn't have gotten in the fight in the first place so I guess he was the instigator."

"Of course you would have sooner or later, Charlotte had it out for you and wasn't going to stop until she got her hands on you," replied Adrian as he sat across from them.

"Yeah but I probably wouldn't have almost killed her if she had just done it on her own terms."

Adrian shrugged, and looked back to Christian. "Maybe but we'll never know. I was mildly concerned you'd find out Ozera. Have you told anyone?"

"No why would I?" He asked slightly annoyed.

"Just keep it that way okay?"

Christian laughed at Adrian around his sandwich, "Giving orders now Lord Ivashkov?"

"Lord Dragomir," he corrected. "But no just keeping the rumors at bay. I'm lobbying for Rose as I'm sure you're aware and the least amount of scandal would probably serve better for my cause."

Christian stiffened beside her, confused Rose tried to reach out to Adrian's thoughts as she had with Lissa's but nothing. "I knew you'd placed a request but I thought the Queen had declined your wishes again."

"You all are talking about me like I'm not even here."

"A common trend among men I'm afraid. Rose before you leave can I have a word with you?" asked Tasha as she walked up behind them.

"Sure thing," Lissa stood beside her, staring a hole in Tasha's face. Why was she so upset with Tasha it didn't make any sense to her.

The rest of the night went amazingly well. Christian and Adrian continued their 'my horse is bigger than your horse' show and Adrian had even set Christian on fire at one point. Christian had freaked out for a few seconds until he was finally able to get it under control at which point he set Adrian's jacket on fire. It had left behind little burn marks all over the sleeves, leaving it beyond repair. Rose found Tasha as instructed by the end of the night; she hadn't really seen Tasha other than the few times she'd popped over to see them but finding her was easy enough.

Tasha escorted Rose to what she imagined was her bedroom and gently cracked the door. "I'm going to make this brief Rose because I can tell you're tired. I know you've been through a lot lately and especially since I've found out a certain bit of information these past few weeks. You see it didn't settle with me when Dimitri turned me down so I spoke to someone who seemed very well acquainted with you and Dimitri and was able to help me in finding out a few things about you."

Rose's heart sank, "I don't know what you think you know, but there can't be anything that would be related to Dimitri and myself that would have stopped him from taking your offer."

"Nothing related to Dimitri and you? Don't play dumb Rose, I know about your relationship. I don't want to expose you but I need information other than what Christian can provide me. Adrian however knows more than he's letting on and I need you to spy on him for me."

Rose stood there stunned, "Over my dead body."

Tasha looked cruel for a few moments then smiled, "You shouldn't say things like that."

"Oh and why's that?" asked Rose sarcastically.

"It might happen one day."

"Seeing any ghosts lately Tasha?" Rose wasn't sure why she'd said it, but felt like someone had forced her to.

Tasha looked unsettled, but continued. "I thought you'd be a part of our revolution."

Rose smiled, "I thought I would too, guess just not yours. But it doesn't sound like it's yours anymore, and I'm guessing I know who you got your information from. How was Victor when you saw him? I mean seriously Tasha, there's got to be a better way to go about this. One that doesn't involve everyone dying or worse becoming strigoi that sounds good to me doesn't it you? Don't you want people to be happy or are you just that upset that you got rejected?"

Cooper poked his head around the corner opening the door slightly, "There you are! Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah I think we're done here. Have a safe flight home Tasha." Yeah to hell!

Christian stood at the door with her sweater. "Are you going to be around tomorrow?"

"Yeah why?"

"Let's hang out; I don't have any meetings planned since my aunt's going to be gone. I'll text you…or did your phone?" He couldn't finish.

"Yeah I've still got it."

Christian helped her into her sweater then kissed her on the cheek goodbye. Adrian's anger hit her like a bat to the back of the head as she turned to wait for him in the hallway. When Christian shut the door Adrian extended his hand to wrap around her shoulder, but Rose slapped his hand away. "Jerk!"

"You let him kiss you!" He hissed.

"Oh my god, he's a friend. If I were European we'd have probably kissed on the lips when we said goodbye and it wouldn't have been a big deal."

"You're not European though."

Cooper couldn't help but laugh. "No one was talking to you Guardian so shut up."

Rose couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Don't tell him to shut up."

"Oh I'm sorry Rose, did I upset you again?" Replied Adrian sarcastically.

"What the hell is wrong with you Ivashkov?"

"Why are you so mad Rose? Calm down Jesus."

She couldn't though, with everything that had just happened with Tasha she felt uneasy and threatened. Rose wanted to go back in there and beat the crap out of her but that would be stupid so she kept fighting with him, "Was it that stupid kiss you're mad over."

"I said calm down!" Rose had never seen him so mad over something so trivial as a kiss on the cheek.

"Why, maybe I don't want to, did you ever think of that? I don't have to do everything you tell me to do you know!"

He pushed her against the wall, "Chill the fuck down I'm serious Rose."

She pushed him off of her "You calm down!"

"I can't because you won't." Adrian seemed to be pleading with her now but it had no effect on her.

"You won't so why should I? I mean seriously Adrian do you just want me to kiss you too? Are you that jealous just like that stupid bitch?"

"Rose, really stop it."

"No I won't stop!" Rose practically jumped at him wrapping her hand around the back of neck pulling him down to her as she kissed him. "Stay with me tonight?" she whispered against his lips. Rose was finally starting to gain control over her emotions but she still felt threatened.

Adrian looked at her confused, "you weren't mad were you?"

"No Lord Dragomir. Rose had been threatened," replied Cooper.

"By who?"

"Tasha Ozera sir."

He looked back to Rose, "Is this true?"

Rose looked around cautiously, "Can we just go back to my room or somewhere I don't want to talk about this here."

"Our room has been moved Ms. Hathaway."

She looked confused, "Where did they move our room to?"

"It's beside mine now," replied Adrian with a smirk.

Rose sighed, "Only you would do something like that, I swear."

The three of them entered into Rose's suite. Cooper went straight into business mode which was funny because Rose hadn't even noticed he'd been paying much attention to anything other than the other guardians at the party. "I was able to record the entire conversation between them if you give me a second I can pull it up." He sat a small device on the table and started pushing buttons.

"You recorded me?" She asked appalled.

Cooper didn't even look up as he replied, "Tasha looked suspicious all night. Didn't you notice how her attention never really shifted from you all night?"

"No, I thought she was deep in conversation about using offensive magic with those other Moroi's." Rose felt guilty for not having paid more attention, almost like when she'd let Dimitri down.

"I had a little but I hadn't thought anything of it," replied Adrian. "I just assumed she was looking out for Christian since he looked pretty rough."

Adrian sat across from Cooper in one of the arm chairs and watched intently as Cooper worked the tiny machine in front of them. Cooper started talking about how he'd ordered it from some magazine from Czechoslovakia and that technically it was illegal in the United States to use.

Rose couldn't help but laugh, "You two geek out, I've heard this already."

As Rose walked into the bedroom she felt a hand much too rough to be Adrian's grab her arm. "Rose, can I have a word?"

"Yeah sure come in. What is it?" She asked Cooper as he stood in front of the door.

"I looked into the wards like you asked me to. They were all fine, I even had several of the other guardians look into it as well as several Moroi's. If you're seeing Lissa's ghost it must be related to something other than the wards because they're all in place."

Rose felt funny, almost like she was about to get a headache but it went away as soon as it came, "well thank you for looking into that for me. I'm sure it's nothing, just stress related."

"Maybe," and with that he excused himself.

Rose wasn't going to think about this right now, there were too many other things to worry about than why she was seeing ghosts. Right now, all she was going to worry about was what night gown she was going to wear and what it would be like to have Adrian sleep with her instead of just dream walking.

There were so many nightgowns in front of her now that she didn't know which to pick. Opting for a longer, red silk gown she had gotten Rose decided it was time to test the sheets. Lying down had been a bad idea though, because she was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.