Hey thanks everyone for taking the time to read and/or review. I hope you guys are liking it so far.

-Val

Chapter 8

"Hey Dimitri," called Alberta as she walked towards me.

"Yes?" I answered.

"I just wanted to talk to you in regards to the incident that happened with Lissa. I don't know why but I got the feeling that they were both hiding something from us."

"Yeah, me too," I agreed with her.

"Do you have any idea what it is?" she asked.

"No," I answered, "But I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the reason they left."

"You really think so?" asked Alberta.

"Absolutely, Rose would never endanger the Liss—I mean Princess Vasilisa unless she felt it was necessary."

"Oh, well then you should really get it out of Rose."

"Yes, but that's a lot easier said than done, she's a little hard-headed."

"Yeah but she trusts you and she looks up to you. If anyone can get her to talk, it's you," Alberta told me.

I didn't really like the thought of trying to conspire against Rose, using our relationship to my advantage –but I hated not knowing what was going on more so I responded, "Yes, I'll try."

"Oh and by the way, Rose had a decent day today in group training. I think she's starting to get a lot better. Keep up the good work." With that, Alberta walked away.

That made me happy –maybe she had taken my jerk comment seriously, hit harder. I had a feeling it had more to do though with being ticked off about the fox incident though.

Later that day, I learned of some events, unfortunate events, I should say, regarding Rose, Lissa, Ralf and Christian Ozera, a royal Moroi whose parents had turned Strigoi on purpose. The students were basically buzzing over the situation. Apparently, Christian Ozera had used his element fire against Ralf when he was teasing Lissa and Rose. No one really knew why he of all people would even get involved with something like that. Probably to try to get in good with Rose, I thought, then immediately chastised myself for thinking that. Christian was the nephew of a good friend of mine, Tasha. She and I had dated during high school and I felt bad about saying that over her nephew. Besides, he did it to protect Rose, and I would have loved to see it happen because that Moroi Ralf was a complete idiot.

When I was guarding class, I noticed Ralf and Jesse whispering to each other and decided to go try and listen. Sometimes it's better to hear things from the source. Besides, I was sure now their interest in Rose had faded and I couldn't help but feel happy about it. The happiness didn't last very long though.

"Ralf, what the hell man, why'd you go say that stuff to Rose?" Jesse asked Ralf. I guess Jesse cared more about his love escapades than his friendship.

"Are you serious?" exclaimed Ralf, "You saw what that bitch caused?"

"She didn't do anything, Ozera did," answered Jesse, "Besides, you made fun of Lissa about the fox thing, and you know how close they are."

"Yeah, but it was a dare, and I wasn't going to back out," replied Ralf, revealing just how pathetic he was.

"Well you should've. You might have just ruined things for me and Rose," answered Jesse.

"Are you delusional? There's nothing going on between you and Rose and you know it," replied Ralf. And there won't ever be, I thought silently to myself.

"Oh really, you doubt me my friend?" asked Jesse confidently. That really irritated me.

"Yeah. Rose isn't the same anymore. Her and Lissa aren't into the party scene," replied Ralf. I hadn't known Rose then but I had heard that both girls had a reputation for being party girls.

"They may not be into partying, but Rose is definitely into me. If not, then why did she agree to go 'study' later?" asked Jesse, pronouncing study like it was a code word for something else. I had to try very hard to keep myself composed, Jesse and Ralf hadn't seen me standing there, but I don't think it worked caused suddenly Ralf looked up at me. How was Rose even supposed to meet him when she couldn't leave her room?

"Isn't she on lockdown?" asked Ralf, as if reading my last thought.

"Yeah, so? It's not like she's ever good," replied Jesse. This was really pissing me off. I understood that I could never have Rose, and if there was a nice, respectable guy that she liked, I supposed I'd try to accept it, but Jesse didn't care about Rose at all, he just wanted her for her body.

"You think you guys will actually hook up?" asked Ralf. No, I thought to myself, but I sort of started my thoughts. What if she did?

"After tonight, there won't be much Rose and I haven't done," remarked Jesse. I wanted to walk up and fling him across the room. I wanted to go grab Roza and take her away with me –keep her for myself. Never have any other man lay eyes on someone so beautiful. Have her be mine forever. There was no way in hell I'd allow some retard Moroi to take advantage of Roza.

I guess Ralf must have caught me glaring at them then because he quickly said to Jesse, "Hey Jesse, shh," as he pointed up with his eyes towards me.

Jesse turned around but I put on my most absent minded look, like I hadn't overheard anything. Inside, I was fuming. There was absolutely no way Jesse was going to take advantage of Rose.