Thirteen Years Later . . .
Rose Belikov walked around her house holding sobs back.
"Oh mom! Don't cry!" eighteen year old Bonnie Belikov exclaimed, panic in her hazel eyes as she tried to comfort her mother.
"B-b-but you're leaving me!" Rose sobbed, her shoulders shaking back and forth.
Dimitri Belikov rolled her his eyes as he brought his wife into a hug, "She'll be back on holidays, Rosa."
"Yeah!" Bonnie jumped in on the change to get her mom to stop crying.
She couldn't believe how dramatically things had changed once her mom had accepted Dimitri into their lives. At first it had been hard, mom wanted to go get a fix since she hadn't had one in nearly two days. Dimitri had to physically restrain her from running out of the apartment door. It took one year until mom had finally stopped her "blood problem" as the family now referred to it. Mom finally decided that it was safe enough for Bonnie to go to St. Vladimirs so Aunt Lissa enrolled Bonnie, Rhea, and Eric into the school. Bonnie learned how to control her extra strength with the help of her father, that is. Bonnie knew for a fact that if it wasn't for him, then she wouldn't be standing here, in front of her parents, saying goodbye as she went out to her first charge in Russia.
"D-don't forget to brush your teeth. And to c-c-call me!" Rose blabbered, wiping her nose with a tissue that Dimitri had handed her.
"Mom! I'm eighteen, I'm sure I can take care of myself." Bonnie muttered.
Dimitri rolled his eyes, "Never thought I'd see the day when Rose would cry."
Rose gaped at him and Bonnie stifled a laugh. Her dad knew how to get Rose off of Bonnie whenever he thought it was appropriate. She remembered when she was sixteen that mom wouldn't shut up about her using protection that Dimitri had just kissed her.
"Oh, and Rhea called." Dimitri reminded Bonnie before dragging her mother away.
Rhea. She was eighteen and also leaving the academy. Mom and Aunt Lissa said that Rhea and Bonnie's friendship was a lot like theirs.
Thinking of Rhea brought up Eric. He had turned out to be a jerk. Once shy, Eric Dragomir was now St. Vladimirs top wanted male. Rhea couldn't even stand her brother, he had such a large ego that Rhea had once stated "I felt it, Bon! I swear on grandma's money that I felt it slap me!" Rhea sometimes worried Bonnie. Thankfully, Rhea was a water user while Eric was a fire user like his father.
Uncle Christian and Aunt Lissa got a divorce when Rhea and Eric were fourteen. One of the new teachers, Avery Lazar, had been a spirit user without anyone knowing and made Aunt Lissa kiss another guy. She then made her forget so when rumor got around that Aunt Lissa had kissed another teacher, Uncle Christian investigated. It turned out to be true so he filed for divorce and half custody of the twins.
Rhea went ballistic and nearly killed Ms. Lazar if Bonnie hadn't held her back.
"Hey Bonnie!" warm arms engulfed Bonnie from behind and she screamed in shock.
She turned around to see Eric, "Ugh. It's you."
"I know." A new voice drawled. Bonnie turned around to see Rhea standing there with a disgusted look. Bonnie yanked herself out of Eric's grip and hugged Rhea instead.
"Where's Uncle Adrian?" Bonnie asked, looking around her friend's head.
Rhea rolled her eyes, "He got drunk again and Aunt Jill had to send Sony over to tell us."
Jill had married Adrian a year after Rose had came back and they soon had Sony who was named after her great aunt. Sonya and Mikhail moved to Washington three years ago where they had two kids, Hope and Faith.
"Bonnie! Come on, it's time to go." Dimitri said as he came down stairs with a red eyed Rose behind him.
Rose hugged Bonnie tightly, "Be safe. Will you?"
"Of course." She smiled, giving her mom a kiss on the cheek before following her dad out of the house.
"I love you!" Eric and Rhea yelled at the same time, waving and smiling like morons. Rose smiled at her retreating family members, folding her arms around her middle.
Life was good. And it changed just like she had planned.
The Strigoi watched the raven haired woman as she walked off the plane, smiling as she talked to a Moroi. Her charge, is what Yomie had told him.
This was Bonnie Belikov they were after. They needed to be careful. Daniel had been mad that the half-blood had lied to them. He was mad that he had even let her live and left her in that bloody police station.
"The charge is Kelly-Ann Lunar. Keep an eye on them."