Rose POV

Eddie would help us. He cared about Christian, would do anything to bring him back away from the Strigoi and into the safety of the Court. Along with Eddie, I know that Mia would be right behind him and want to join in on the action. Mia had always loved fighting back, wether it had been against me in the past or if she truly believed in the cause. In all honesty, Mia and Eddie were exactly right for each other. They were alike in so many unique ways and yet I hadn't even noticed that until right now.

How the hell were we supposed ton find Christian? I still don't particularly know the answer to that question. It was and impossibly hard decision to go after someone who had been taken by Strigoi, not knowing where the hell they were or how to find them, let alone trying to get into the place where he was being held captive by, what I'm assuming, a whole bunch of Strigoi. How the hell were we going to get into that place? Yet again, I don't know the answer to my own question. However, what I do know is is that I'll do anything and everything within my power to find him. If I could at least find out where he was, then I would be able to at least form a plan on how to get in there and get him out of there so that he can return safely home. No one should have to go through what he's going through right now and it's totally fucked that he had to go through this yet again. When Strigoi in Spokane had taken us we had been in a group, but Christian was all alone and had no one to talk him throughout all of this.

It sounded like a good idea in my head but in reality I know that it was most likely not to go exactly to plan. None of the plans I usually make up do, and I doubt that this was going to make an exception to that rule. The plan I had in my head was not likely to go as well as I intended it to but I was still hopeful.

"Rose…" Adrian's voice had brought me back to the current situation that we had found ourselves in. He looked at me, worry and anxiety evident in his eyes. He was on edge. It was true that if he helped me in any way, he was going against his own Aunty and my Queen. Lord knows that I couldn't care less what that old hag thought about me or about rescuing Christian, but for Adrian's sake and for my own safety in the near future, I kept my mouth shut. "Rose, I don't think we should be bringing Eddie into this. I don't want another of our friend's to be getting hurt. We should sort out a plan of what we're going to do before at least dragging him or anyone else into it." There was a long pause that followed his statement. We were both thinking, about our own safety and the safety of our friends. "Rose…have you ever…I don't know stopped and thought about what might have happened to him already? I mean everyone knows his family history and- "

"This has nothing to do with his family, Adrian." I knew what Adrian was hinting at but I refused to acknowledge what would happen or what I would do if I lost Christian because some Strigoi kidnapped him and turned him. I could not go through that again. Not after Dimitri had been turned and then killed in front of me by Christian, which had resulted in saving my life and Lissa's.

"It does, maybe. We don't know anything for sure, Rose. What if he has been turned? What then? What if we find a Strigoi and he knows for sure that Christian has been turned into a Strigoi? What happens then? There is no way in hell that I'm going to allow you to go after Christian if there is even a slight chance that he has been turned." Right now was so not the time or place to lecture me about what I could and couldn't fucking do. I'm about to go crazy with stress and anxiety and Adrian was standing here lecturing me. All I need to know is if Christian is all right. If he's not than no amount of authority, compulsion or Guardians would be able to stop me from going to find Christian.

"That's not for you to decide, Adrian. I can do what ever I want, Adrian, its not always-" He cut me off and I knew that this could turn in to an ugly fight if I let it go that far.

"Has deciding for yourself gotten you far? Dimitri's dead, Lissa's not even your best friend really anymore, Christian has been taken by Strigoi and I'm about to lose my fucking plot if you try to go after him. I won't let you, Rose. I don't care what you say or do I won't let that happen. You're not risking yourself for him like that. I won't let you do this, Rose, not again. Not after last time." I knew what 'last time' he was referring to and I'd rather not have allowed the conversation to change like this. We had to help Christian.

I knew I shouldn't have retaliated against him but I didn't go so well with people telling me what to do. "Its not up to you, Adrian! None of this really concerns you at all. I thought you were going to try to help, but if telling me what I can and can't do is your form of fucking help, then forget about it. I don't want your help if you're going to be acting like this the whole time." I looked anywhere but at his face. His face was one of the things that was the most vulnerable about him. The many emotions that he felt were easily seen on his face if you tried hard enough. Originally, it was the thing that had drawn me to him, initially that is. Not the fact that it was good-looking but because of the expressions that were shown upon it.

"Rose, you're being ridiculous. You can't just go out here and start killing and torturing the first Strigoi you can latch your hands on to in hopes of them knowing something that's connected to someone that knows something about Christian. It's a stupid fucking plan and it is never going to work no matter how you try to spin it in your favour. It is never going to work." He took a deep breath, trying to regain himself I assumed, and continued to talk to me as if I was a six year old in need of a scolding. A six-year-old child that had no idea what they were doing or the consequences of her actions. "I want to help you but this is not the way to go about it, Rose. Just let me figure out a way to help you, leaving Eddie and any other friends you were thinking about, out of this and then we can go and find Christian and bring him back to Court. In the meantime try and stays put and not do anything stupid or dangerous. Please?" I didn't answer him back. I didn't even look at Adrian. This was not about creating a master plan that may or may not help us get Christian back. Lord knows none of our plans in the past have worked, so why start now?

"Rose, come on look at me." Adrian tried to make me look up at his face by forcing my chin up, but I didn't even budge an inch much to his dismay. It was one of the perks of being a Dhampir. I was barely moving at all for that matter. I was letting Adrian's words sink into me. What plan could the amazing Adrian Ivashkov come up with that would be so fucking grand and divine that it would surpass any plans of my own. I mean, I know my plan is pretty fucking horrible and not well thought out at all, but at least I was trying to help Christian as fast as I could. Time was not something we had when it come to Strigoi capturing royal Moroi. Adrian was just standing there, looking anxious and worried, like he was the one that I should be depending on to make all the important issues.

"Adrian, I get that you think that you can make these decisions for me since I'm so incapable of thinking for myself-"

"That's not what I'm saying, Rose." Adrian interjected as he ran a hand through his silky hair. I had finally looked up from the t-shirt on the floor that I had been staring at for the entirety of the conversation and saw for the first time how utterly worn out and tired Adrian really was. It was hard not to notice the black, dull bags under his eyes or the redness that seemed to surround his pupils. I felt bad about his lack of sleep and wondered how much was my fault. I gnawed on my bottom lip as I contemplated the idea.

"Just let me finish, Adrian. I know that you think that my decisions are being heavily influenced by my friendship with Christian, and that might be true, but I know enough about Strigoi to understand that they are all connected in one way or another. When I spent all those months in Russia with Dimitri, it was obvious that they all had some connection with each other. That is how I'm so fucking sure that any Strigoi that we capture will know something about Christian, even if its small pieces of information it will help us get to him faster." I did not particularly like bringing up those few months that I had spent with Dimitri, as familiar emotions started to stir up in my chest the moment that I said his name. These were emotions that I didn't want to have to deal with right now and this was definitely not the time to reminisce about the past.

Adrian however, had taken no notice to my conflicted emotions and was just nodding his head. Yeah, because that was going to fucking help us to get to Christian wasn't it.

I tried hard to keep my mouth shut and not say anything for a dozen minuted when I had finally chose to speak up. "What are we going to do then? I mean, I know you don't like this, but I think that we need Eddie to help us since it'll be just you and me and you know you're not exactly strong enough to take on a Strigoi." I whispered with a shrug, not really caring if he heard and took and offence to my statement or not.

"Oh, gees. Thanks, Rose, for that boost of confidence, I really appreciate it." Sarcasm wasn't appreciated either, Adrian. Ugh, I absolutely hated not knowing how we were going to help find Christian. How did people expect me to just sit here and not do anything when Christian was in trouble? What the fuck was Tasha doing about this shit? Did she not fucking care about Christian now just because the Queen didn't think he was important enough to rescue?

"Whatever. Anyway, what the fuck are we going to do? Because if you don't come up with a plan in the next few minutes I'm just going to go outside of the Court and torture the first Strigoi I can see." I was throwing his words back in his face and he knew it. He looked at me like I had grown three heads but I didn't care. I wanted shit to hurry up so that we could go and help Christian.

"Ok, well, it does involve Eddie if we go along with your plan. We'll go out and find a Strigoi…. only if we know that he's high up on the Strigoi hierarchy or whatever the fuck you want to call it. Only then are we going to torture the information out of them okay?" Adrian stared at me while I processed his words. We were really going to go along with my plan? I never actually expected Adrian to give in to me. Especially since he had flipped about it a mere five minutes ago.

"Rose…" I slowly nodded my head. I was excited that we were finally getting a plan together and would be leaving the Court so that we would be able to help Christian. On the other hand though this plan would involve bringing Eddie into it and possibly even Mia and I hated risking their lives.

This plan, along with Adrian, Mia and Eddie's help could actually work. All we had to do no was ask Eddie if he wanted in or not and I was fairly certain of what his answer would be.

Later in the day, when Adrian had let me finally convince him to go to bed, I made my way over to where Eddie was staying. It was a dorm-like room that was on the other side of the building. Adrian had let me break the plan to him alone because he was too tired to function anymore. It was started to worry how much sleep he had lost because of the war and now with Christian gone.

I knocked on Eddie's door and waited patiently, unusual for me, on the other side of his door when he opened it. I smiled up at him and gave him a hug. I was a lot more at home with Eddie than I was with a lot of the other guys that I hung out with, and with Adrian it was quite awkward given our past relationship status.

"Hey, Rose. What are you doing here so late in the afternoon?"

"I came to ask you a really important question, and its okay if you say no, I'll completely understand." Not really, why the hell shouldn't he help his friends if Adrian is. Adrian isn't Christian's most favourite person on the world but yet he's still willing to risk his life.

"Shoot then. Whatever it is, you know I'll help you, Rose." God, I hope that's true because if Eddie didn't help us we were screwed. We had no one else to turn to that would help us or even sympathize with us for going against the Queen's decisions.

I told him the plan, even told him that we needed him because Adrian wasn't capable of defending himself. He laughed, of course, like I had expected him to, and I was glad that he found something amusing so soon after the fight with the Strigoi.

"I'll help you Rose, but only if you leave Mia out of this. She shouldn't be a part of something like this. She's Moroi; she can't handle herself like we can. Even Adrian has some knowledge of self -defence but Mia has basically none so I don't want her to come." I nodded, agreeing with him, as I knew that water was not always efficient against Strigoi, although it had helped save my life in Spokane.

"We'll leave tonight. Pack some things that you'll need and I'll go tell Adrian."