Gee, I've had a long break from writing! Very, very sorry about the delay, but recently, everyone would've been caught up in reading Spirit Bound! I can't wait for Last Sacrifice to finally be out~ no more waiting haha! Let's hope its the fairytale we all hope for. In other news, I've been receiving lots of notices from fanfiction telling me that people have been adding my story to their alert list - thanks! I hope that means I'll get more reviews too..? heh!

Anyway, in the meantime, whilst we wait for the DxR fairytale to happen in the real VA series, here's my version of the fairytale. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 9

Rose's Point of View

The next day, I didn't expect our evening runs to continue now that we know Strigoi are hunting us. Instead of leaving tomorrow, Tatiana wanted us to leave tonight, at midnight. Two Strigoi attacks in such a short period of time meant that the villa was no longer a safe place for us to be. Whilst they didn't manage to break the wards around the villa, they somehow managed to get past the wards at the New Years Eve ball. When Alberta broke the news to us, I wasn't surprised. She looked like she had aged in the space of the few days since the first attack. I told you Tatiana's inquisition would take a heavy toll on anyone.

It was reasonable for Tatiana to want her nephew and Lissa back at the Royal Court as soon as possible, or at least as far away from where we were as possible. Whilst she didn't care much about Christian, she also knew better than to risk a Royal Moroi life. I experienced a mix of utter disappointment and a brief sense of relief when I heard the news. To me, it meant cutting my time with Dimitri short, but it also meant that I was able to stop feeling guilty and even, hopefully, maybe, move on from him. Wishful thinking, but that's all I have at the moment.

Out of habit - okay I was harbouring some hope too - I tiptoed to the kitchen at 4.00 p.m. expecting not to see him there. But there he was, in the same position as he was every other morning, hovering over the kitchen sink, gazing out at the late afternoon sun. He turned and smiled at me as I walked in. The air was heavy with our unsaid feelings, wants, wishes and desires.

'It's unwise to go for a run today,' he stated the obvious soberly. I nodded, disappointed because I was about to be robbed of another day with him.

'Who's Alex?' I asked, wanting to avoid talking about our future.

Dimitri sighed and looked back out the window. He was silent for a few minutes, 'He was my best friend,'

I gasped at this disclosure. A thousand thoughts ran through my head – was that why he decided to let Alex go? How did he turn? Was Dimitri with him? What happened? Did Dimitri try to free his soul?

'We went to school together in Russia. We were the best in our class. When we sparred, sometimes, he would win; sometimes, I would. Naturally, we both dreamed of being the best Guardians we could ever be,' Dimitri said, as if reading my thoughts. He smiled wistfully at the memory, 'He had an incredible sense of humour. We were both polar opposites, he was blonde, I was dark. He was always superb with the ladies, and I was always a little socially awkward,'

Somehow, I could not imagine Dimitri not scoring with the ladies.

'When we graduated, we got assigned to our Morois – I was with Zeklos, and he went with Zeklos' cousin. It was the perfect arrangement. We trained together, fought side by side, and watched each other's back whilst protecting our Morois,' he paused for a second, 'Then he fell in love. She was a Dhampir, dedicated, strong, passionate. She was guarding Zeklos with me. Initially, I was jealous of Sasha, because I had never seen Alex so in tune with someone else aside from me. But I was happy for them. I admired her dedication to her work and to Alex. She was easy to get along with and shared the same sense of humour as Alex did. We quickly became close and she often turned to me for a shoulder to cry on when Alex was being obnoxious. Because it was so taboo, they kept it secret for a very long time. Only I knew about it, and I helped coordinate a lot of their meetings,'

The story Dimitri was telling me sounded incredibly familiar and I was keen to know more. I wondered if Dimitri realized the irony in Alex's story.

'Anyway, their relationship went on for some time until one day, Sasha's dad came and told her that he had gambled her hand away. Her dad had gambled away all his money and property and when he didn't have anything more to gamble, he gambled his only daughter's hand in marriage. He lost, obviously. To an old, balding Moroi who had an exquisite taste for Russian women,'

Dimitri must have seen the look of disgust on my face as I anticipated what would happen, because he said, 'I know it may be hard for you comprehend, Rose. Especially because you're such a strong-willed person and would never let anyone bend you into doing anything you wouldn't want but Sasha was different. She only had her dad, and whilst what he did was despicable, she had to forgive him. He was her only family. Naturally, Alex balked at the idea and begged her to elope with him, told her they would go live with the Humans. But she couldn't just leave her dad. He would be thrown into jail. Anyway, she left Alex, he was devastated but to be fair, so was she. I can't count the number of times I've seen him lose himself in alcohol after that, the number of nights he would come staggering to my door, yelling out for her. Naturally, he tried to forget her by being with other girls, only to break their hearts after,'

'It was a few weeks after she had left when he started to turn bitter, to question the inequality of the Moroi-Dhampir arrangement. Was I alarmed? Of course I was. But it wasn't like we never discussed it before. We always had philosophical debates and discussions about it, but it was never this serious, not the way Alex started to talk about it. One night, he started talking about how ironic it was that the only way he and Sasha would ever be together was if they were both Strigoi. I was alarmed, but he laughed it off. Though concerned, I never thought too much about it and Alex never brought it up again. Until Zeklos died by his hand,'

My eyes were wide with horror. The thought of crossing over to becoming Strigoi had never once crossed my mind, despite my intense longing to be with Dimitri. I tried to imagine what it was like for Dimitri – to lose not only his Moroi charge, but also to lose his best friend to the darkness. I realized that it was another reason stopping him from being with me. How can he, when he's tortured with memories of his best friend turning Strigoi for love?

'I don't know why Zeklos. It still puzzles me to this day. Alex probably started to become jealous of the growing friendship between Zeklos and I. I was at home when I received the news, Victoria was very sick and I had to see her. It was hard to process the news but I had to contact Sasha – I knew that was where Alex would be heading next. When I got to hers, the Moroi she was married to was dead and Alex had left me a note. He must have known that was where I would go. He told me Sasha had converted and that I should join them. We can be a family again, he wrote,' Dimitri paused and I silently processed everything that he had told me. His eyes gazed off in the distance, shining with conflict, regret and sorrow. I reached out to hold his hand and squeezed it gently. He looked down at our intertwined fingers and smiled sadly, 'When he isn't hunting Moroi, he's hunting me,'

My eyes widened with realization, 'So … today … he was after… you?'

He nodded. 'But… you said they were after Lissa,' I said, confused at what was actually happening.

'There were a number of attacks he staged on Tasha, thinking that was the only way to get me to turn – if Tasha turned, Alex hoped that I would turn too. For love, apparently. Like him,'

My heart squeezed painfully at what he was saying. He loved Tasha, but it still didn't answer my question. 'But…' he started, before pausing again. I looked at him expectantly, 'But, now he knows it's you,' his voice was barely audible. I thought I misheard him, but he repeated himself, looking into my eyes, 'He knows it's you. He's after you but I couldn't tell everyone that, so I told them he's after Lissa…,'

'How did you…'

He pulled a letter out of his jeans pocket and opened it. The handwriting was hurried but neat.

D, after all this time, you're still in love with her? Sasha said that you'd always love her; but I thought otherwise, especially after seeing how you left the Academy with that Moroi chick. I could never understand why you did that. I always thought getting with a Moroi was stupid, what do they know about our lives? They're pampered idiots who don't know how good they have it to have Dhampirs dedicate their lives to them. Anyway, looks like Sasha was right, not that I mind. By the way, good taste D. Beautiful Guardians are rare. I approve. I saw the way you look at her. Stop denying yourself. You're doing it only because she's a Dhampir. Join us, and you won't ever have to worry about all that Dhampir-Moroi bullshit anymore. We'll be one big happy family, including your Roza.

Sasha and I miss you. Alex

I blushed after I finished reading the note. It revealed more about Dimitri's feelings towards me than he had ever overtly expressed. Trepidation started to fill me as I thought about a group of Strigoi hunting me down, but I quickly calmed myself. I've killed Strigoi before. Alex tried to take us today, but failed. I had nothing to worry about.

'I received it yesterday, shortly after we returned,' Dimitri said, as I handed him back the letter, 'Somehow, he's been tracking me and he sends me notes all the time. I'm so sorry. I should've known better than to agree to go running with you. I shouldn't have risked your life and your safety,'

I looked at him angrily, 'I can handle myself against Strigoi – it's not the first time I've fought them. Stop patronizing me. I may not be as fast and as good as you are, but hell; I think I am pretty damn close,'

'You are good, Rose,' Dimitri said as he leaned towards me, 'You're fast becoming one of the best Guardians I've ever had the good fortune to come across, to train. But, it would kill me, if you were ever hurt in any way,'

I looked into his eyes, understanding what he was trying to say, 'That's why he's coming after me,'

He nodded.

'That's another reason why we can never be together,' I choked, fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill over. I always knew that our relationship was complicated, that it was very likely that we were not meant to be, but I didn't need another reason to keep him away from me.

Dimitri nodded stiffly. Then, with sorrow in his eyes, he leaned in to kiss me softly on my lips. It wasn't passionate, nor urgent. It didn't feel like any of the kisses we had shared before. It was light, soft, barely touching my lips. It felt like goodbye. And for the thousandth time, my heart broke.

I can't believe you didn't tell me!

I pulled away from Dimitri and spun around quickly. Lissa was standing at the entrance to the kitchen. Her feelings of betrayal and anger seeped through our bond, but I could feel that she was trying to control them. Did she hear our conversation? I panicked, Lissa didn't need to have another reason to worry about me.

'What's going on?' Lissa whispered. Dimitri wore his stoic Guardian face, whilst my mind raced for an excuse. She must have misinterpreted it, it was the sun playing on our faces, I had something in my eye… Anything.

'Don't give me bullshit, Rose. I saw you kissing Dimitri,' Lissa second-guessed my intention. I stared at her, and opened my mouth to give an excuse but decided to give in. I pulled her into the kitchen and closed the door behind her.

'Shh!' I whispered urgently.

'I'm alone, if you're wondering,' she said. I could feel her anger start to rise as she stared at me accusingly. Turning towards Dimitri, she ranted, 'You again! I don't care if you're the best Guardian in the world, I don't care if Rose thinks you're some kind of Russian God incarnate…'

I groaned inwardly. Oh, Lissa! Dimitri didn't need to know that. He seemed amused at this information.

'I don't care if you're Tasha's Guardian, boyfriend, I don't know what you are anymore… You do not mess around with my best friend, if you're only going to break her heart. You hear that?'

Dimitri raised an eyebrow at her. He was amused. I could tell. Hell, I was surprised at Lissa's sudden outburst. It wasn't like her to be confrontational.

'And do not raise your eyebrow at me like that. I'm not Rose, it's not going to work,' Lissa snapped.

Dimitri looked even more amused at this additional information and I silently wished the kitchen floor would open up and swallow me. I was so embarrassed.

Lissa spun around and turned to me, 'You need to stop kissing him! For crying out loud, Rose! Self-preservation, remember? Is this what you've been doing every morning?'

I whimpered my reply. I wasn't used to this Lissa. I was usually the one doing the yelling, not the other way round.

She rolled her eyes, clearly exasperated at the both of us. Turning to Dimitri, she said, 'You seriously need to stop messing with her head. Is this all she's worth to you? This is like the Academy all over again – dark corners, stolen kisses, sneaking behind everyone's back. We're leaving today. What are you going to do? Go back to Tasha, and I have to pick up the pieces with Rose,'

'Shh!' I hissed at Lissa. Geez, Dimitri didn't have to know that. 'I'll be okay, Liss. Don't worry about me,'

'Seriously, Rose. That's what you say all the time. And even though our bond doesn't work both ways, I still know how you're feeling. I thought it was weird that you've been keeping to your room more than usual over the last week and you're always off in your own little world, smiling to yourself when you think no one's looking. Why do you offer him your heart to break over and over again?'

She was my best friend, but I could seriously kill her then. I was blushing furiously.

'Lissa!' I said, a little louder than I had expected, and lowering my tone slightly said, 'Do you need to bring this up? Now? Seriously?' I nodded my head at Dimitri, as subtly as possible.

She stared at me angrily. 'I'm just trying to help,' she was hurt, I could feel it. And I felt guilty for hurting her. Damn it.

'Forget it,' I mumbled, 'It will be over soon, anyway'

'And you promise you'll seriously give Adrian a chance when we arrive in Australia?' she insisted. I nodded, silently – once Dimitri leaves with Tasha, we will stay out of each other's way; he will move on with her, and I will start dating Adrian seriously. I smiled at Dimitri apologetically. His face was unreadable, as usual. I'm sure he would agree that it would be the best for both of us.

'And will you promise to leave her alone?' Lissa turned and looked pointedly at Dimitri. Dimitri remained silent, staring out of the window. 'You can't share a bed with another woman, while you lust over Rose,' Lissa insisted. I winced at what she said and how she had diminished what Dimitri and I had to something as basal as lust. Dimitri winced as well, though he tried to make it look inconspicuous.

I saw him nod slowly, and that was all the confirmation I need. I don't know why I was disappointed. I should have known better. I felt an incredible need to be alone then, so I turned and walked out of the kitchen, out of his life, once again.

'Rose…' I heard him call out, but I just kept walking. I had heard enough.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Because I haven't updated in so long, I'm going to upload the next chapter in a few minutes, so at least you're not left on a cliffie. :) Please review, pretty please! Thanks! x