Hey guyz! I'M BACK! I'm so sorry I haven't UDed this story in forever but to make it up to you, there's a little SPOILER ALERT for the next chapter of this story.
As for the editor conest thingy, I would like to congratulate my new beta/editor, Ryan (lilmissryry)! Good work to everyone who participated and you guyz are awesome! I want to thank Ryan for editing this chapter and everyone go check out her stories because she's a very talented girl!
On another note, I also want to thank Katerina for posting my chapter while I was away. She did an great job and now she has made an account on fanfiction with her 3 bestfriends, Vanessa, Camilla, and Victoria! But anyways, they made one of those "write to cast and they'll write back" stories so support and review because I think it's an awesome story! They're account is TeamDimitriBelikov and the story is called VA Fan Mail. Remember to review!
Without further ado, here's chapter 41! QUICK NOTE: This chapter will be Part 1 of 2...yay!
Everyone at the table was silent. I searched everyone's faces, but nobody seemed to know what to do. My eyes stopped on Christian. He was completely frozen at Dimitri's words. Tasha was his aunt and I couldn't blame him if he felt a little disappointed, because she was the closest thing he had to a family. It would be like losing his parents all over again. But who was I kidding? Tasha, to me, was a bitch in every way that had tried to hurt CC and my unborn baby!
"How can you be sure that Tasha's coming here?" Mia asked quietly, not looking up.
"Isn't it obvious?" I said wearily. "I mean, she just won't stop coming back, and I'm sure she wants revenge on us because we sent her to prison."
"But we just can't kill her," Christian chimed in defensively. "I know she did bad things, but she's still my aunt and you guys' friend. Maybe if we can just give her time-"
I cut him off. "First of all, Dimitri clarified that killing her would be our last plan if she doesn't give in. And secondly, whose side are you on, Fire Boy? Seriously, you still don't think she's an ass for what she did to me?"Dimitri reached over and squeezed my hand, silently telling me to calm glared at me.
"That's not what I'm saying, Rose. What I'm saying is that Tasha came for one thing and one thing only, and that's Dimitri. She got furious when he said he loved you and not her, and I think she just needs to cool off. If she comes here, don't fight her or anything unless you really, really have to."
"Oh yeah, because that's such a good plan!" I said sarcastically. "Don't fight her while she does all of the damage to us! Yeah, and in the meantime, why don't we invite her for some tea while she plans with her 'oh-so-friendly' Strigoi? I think that you forget that the last time the hag came here, she brought that evil Strigoi Gabriel and tried to hurt CC and Dimitri!" I felt so mad after my whole argument that I wanted to punch someone in the face. Preferably Stan, if he were even at Court.
Christian clenched his fists. For a moment, I felt like we were the only two people here while everyone else listened to our conversation, amused. "Rose," Christian warned. "I think you need to calm down. All I'm saying is that you have to be the bigger person here and settle this without using any violence at all."
"Oh yeah?" I challenged. "And how are we supposed to make her listen without violence?"
He sighed and shook his head. "Violence is never the answer, Rose. But it is if you don't have anything on your mind anymore and you're helpless. And trust me, I'm not on 'Team Tasha' here. I still love her, but she made a really big mistake. I'm on your team, Rose. I just don't want to see the closest person I have to family die."
I closed my eyes and let out a sigh I had been holding in for a while. Trying to calm myself down, I sat back down in my chair and crossed my arms in defeat. Being the badass I was, I couldn't believe myself. But he was right. Christian just wanted us to try everything we could to stop Tasha before killing her. I understood, but I couldn't believe that I, Rosemarie Hathaway Belikov, had said no to killing someone. That was definitely an accomplishment. Once I opened my eyes, I saw everyone staring at me, amused.
"What?" I asked.
"Are you done with your 'Rose-tantrum', little dhampir?" Adrian teased.
I rolled my eyes, then faced Christian. "Sorry, Pyro. I guess I was just a little stressed over what Tasha did to us, mixed with the pregnancy hormones."
Christian smirked, then leaned back on his chair, satisfied. "Don't worry about it."
After that, we all started to discuss our plans for when Tasha came.
"There's possibly a big chance that Tasha's going to come with an army full of Strigoi," Dimitri explained, giving CC another bottle of milk.
"How can she do that?" Aleyna asked, toying with some chow-mein with her chopsticks. "I mean, how can she do that, without being turned into a Strigoi?"
"The last time she came, she attacked us with a Strigoi named Gabriel," I told her. "Then he reminded her about something along the lines of how she'd promised he would get a whole bunch of Moroi and dhampirs if he didn't turn her."
Aleyna's eyes widened, and she quickly went back to eating her food.
"Anyways," Dimitri continued, "Eddie and I will be posted outside, along with Adrian's and Christian's guardians. We'll be watching from where no one can see us, and knowing Tasha, she'll be heading for our house-"
"Whoa whoa whoa, comrade!" I interrupted. "Hold up. What about me? Don't tell me you're going to make me miss out on all the fun!"
Dimitri looked at me with soft eyes, and said, "I'm sorry, Roza. It's just too dangerous. I don't want you to hurt yourself again from fighting. Maybe you should just stay inside with all the Moroi."
Christian dropped his fork and looked up. "Wait! You can't just let us Moroi stay inside while you guys get all the action! We're useful! I mean, Rose and I defeated a whole army of Strigoi; I'm sure fire can be useful here. And Mia has water, so I don't know - she can freeze some of it and throw shards of ice at them to slow them down. And Adrian and Lissa have spirit, and Aleyna has. . . ."
"Earth," she answered. We all looked surprised. There weren't that many earth users. Who knew that sweet Aleyna would be one?
Christian clapped his hands and cried out, "Perfect! We have most of the elements, so why not put us to use?"All of the Moroi seemed to agree. All at once, they began arguing, wanting to fight. I looked at Dimitri and Eddie. They seemed to disapprove. But Christian had made a point; the Moroi would be of good minutes after hearing their arguing, I decided to end it.
I turned to Dimitri. "I think I agree with them. Some of the Moroi can stay inside and some can be positioned outside, so we'll all be protected."
Dimitri shook his head disapprovingly. "Roza, it will be too dangerous. Our job is to protect the Moroi, and we practically have all the royal Moroi here. We can't. And you can't fight either, Roza. Tasha has only one target, and that's you."
Eddie, on the other hand, thankfully agreed with me, and after about an hour, Dimitri did too. We all had a plan on our hands. We would start tonight. Dimitri, Eddie, Aleyna, Mia, and Jimmy and Henry (Adrian's two guardians) would stay hidden outside and would hold back as many Strigoi as possible. They would be up in the trees around our house, and Aleyna would throw a big-enough rock at the window to tell us when the Strigoi were approaching so that we would be ready if some made their way inside the house. Everyone that was outside would be fighting off the Strigoi, and the idea was to let Tasha inside the house to make her way up to where me, Lissa, Adrian, Christian, and his two guardians were. Christian and his guardians would be fending off any other Strigoi, while lucky me would be talking Tasha out of this whole thing. Lissa and Adrian would be there to hold her down, but only if they had to. Everything would be fine, but the only thing I wasn't okay with was that I didn't get to fight and kick some Strigoi ass. Dimitri had told me that I had to stay safe with Lissa, Adrian, CC, and our baby. I could fight only if I really needed to. I had to give up fighting this battle for the safety of our children. Everything was all planned out and ready. We headed back to our house where we got in our positions. I kissed Dimitri, and then followed Lissa, Christian, his two guardians, Adrian, and CC upstairs.
"What's happening, mommy?" CC asked as we all entered mine and Dimitri's bedroom. Christian's guardians, Samuel and Jane, were stationed outside the door, just to be safe.
"Nothing to worry about, CC," I told her, kissing her dark brown hair. I laid her down on our bed and told her to go to sleep. Without another word, she fell into a deep sleep. I turned around and discovered Adrian, Lissa, and Christian were plopped down on the floor.
"This is so unfair!" Lissa whined. "I mean, I'm useful! I could fight!" Adrian seemed to think this was funny and snickered. Lissa glared at him and leaned back on the foot of the bed.
"Hey, if I stay here, you stay here," I said, sitting down beside her.
"Not to mention you're the last Dragomir and you're pregnant and you're the future queen." Christian emphasized the and's.
She raised her eyebrow. "So what? Can't I at least heal people?"
"Nope." Christian shook his head. "You and the baby need all the strength you can get. Let Adrian do it."
Adrian's eyebrows furrowed. "Yes, because I volunteered and would love to heal people when I'm not even a pro at healing Lissa."
I rolled my eyes. "Adrian, come on," I said. "It'll only be if someone gets hurt."
Adrian magically pulled a bottle of Russian vodka from inside his jacket and took a swig. I crinkled my nose at the smell. I had only tasted Russian vodka once, and it was about ten million times stronger than regular vodka.
"Ugh," I complained. "How can you drink that stuff?"
Adrian grinned. "There's a secret to drinking this, little dhampir. Chug it all down at once and it'll taste like nothing. Wanna try?"
"Uh, I don't think so," I said, rubbing my round stomach with one hand and motioning to it with the other. "I'm preggo, remember?"
"Right," Adrian said, taking another big sip.
Hours passed, and I finally dared myself to look at the clock. It was three in the morning, vampire-time, which meant that we would all be asleep if we weren't waiting for the action to come.I looked around the room. Everyone's eyes were nearly closed, or on the verge of shutting. Lissa's head was leaning against my shoulder and I could tell she was still awake from her ragged breathing. Christian was perched against the wall, arms crossed, looking as though her were squinting really hard to keep himself awake, which he probably was. And Adrian. ..well, Adrian was knocked out. Enough said.
"You guys should go to sleep," I said to Lissa and Christian, stifling a yawn. "I'll wake you up if there's any news or if I hear the signal."
Lissa didn't need any more convincing. I felt her head plop against my shoulder, and in less than a second her breathing was steady.
Pyro, on the other hand, didn't take my offer, and he straightened up a bit, obviously hoping it would be enough to keep himself awake.
"Really, Sparky," I said groggily. "Go to sleep and save your energy for when they come."
He shook his head. Damn, he was getting on my nerves. First that whole Tasha thing, and now this?
"Just do it!" I snapped.
"I'm fine, Rose," he shot back. "Look, why don't you go to sleep and I keep guard?"
"No way am I going to sleep," I said.
"Fine," he said, amused. "Why don't we have a contest? Whoever stays up the longest wins."
"We might be in the middle of a deadly battle and you want to play a game? Really?" I asked incredulously.
Christian rolled his eyes. "It'll help pass time, Hathaway. Trust me."
"Fine. You're on," I challenged.
SPOILER ALERT FOR NEXT CHAPTER: I know you guys don't like that Tasha won't be killed, but SHE WILL. But not by Rose. Tasha will be killed by someone that you'll least expect!