Dimitri POV

I waited outside the Breville Hotel with Christian and Adrian, waiting for Alberta to arrive. It was half past ten, which meant we had half an hour until Nathan and Abe's meeting. Of course, Abe wasn't going to be there but Nathan didn't know that.
A black van pulled up along side us and the side door opened. Twenty or so of Court's guardians poured in to the street, Alberta leading them. "Belikov."
"Alberta."
"She's in there?" She asked. She had her guardian mask on but there was no hiding the concern in her eyes. Alberta had always liked Roza for being such an independent young woman and had come to think of her as a daughter.
"Yes."
"You're sure?"
"This is where the meeting was set up for." I said.
"That doesn't mean that this is where she's being held." Alberta pointed out.I nodded but didn't want to admit that she could be right. Roza had to be here. The next voice that I heard was Janene's as she called my name.
"Belikov! What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded. "You left me behind! I'm her mother. I have every right to be here."
"I didn't want you to have to see... that."
She nodded but still frowned. "You could have told me that you'd found her."
"I didn't want to compromise the task."
"Are you saying that I would compromise it?"
"She's your daughter." I said calmly. "You're first priority would be getting to her."
"No. My first priority is getting my hands on the son of a bitch that did that to her." She said, her eyes fierce. The woman was ready for a war and I was sure that she was going to get one. "Besides, you're here. Are you telling me that your first priority isn't getting to her?"
"Yes. That's why those two are here." I said, nodding to Christian and Adrian. "I'll be right beside you and the son of a bitch."
She gave me a small smile and nodded. "I knew there was a reason that I let you be with her."

We turned to Alberta, trusting her to have a plan. She pulled out a piece of paper, blue prints for the hotel, and laid them on the bonnet of the van. "Okay. There are three exits to the building, one at the front, one at the back and one through the basement. You all know where you need to be and what you need to be doing. Belikov, you're with Janene and myself. You two," she said to Christian and Adrian. "I know why you're here but in all honesty, you're a liabilty. I'm going to have to ask you to wait in the van with Mr Mazur."
"But I can help." Christian said.
Alberta looked at him for a moment and shook her head.
"The Queen commanded me to be here."
"The Queen is also your fiancée and the best friend of the victim. The Queen's judgement is compromised in this situation, mine is not."
"I'm going to tell her that you said that." Christian glared at her.
"And she'll thank me for keeping you alive long enough to do so. You're not coming." She said firmly. "In the van with Mazur. Now."
They went to the side of the van, mumbling to each other and then stopped. Adrian came back with a grin. "Mazur isn't in the van."
"What?"
"The van. It's empty." He said.
"God dammit." She turned to the guardians again and sighed. "We have a moroi in the field. Ibrahim Mazur. Retrive him before he hurts himself."
The guardians nodded and then we were in motion. Everyone took their positions as Alberta handed me an ear piece so that I could hear what she could hear.
"Was that your idea?" I asked Janene.
She looked up at me, feigning innocence just like Roza did. "I would never risk the life of a Moroi over that of a guardian." She said with such sureness that I almost believed her.
"Neither would I." I said in the same tone. It was part of the job description. Guardians died in the line of duty all the time in order to protect the moroi. But to save Roza, Janene and I would have sacrificed every moroi.
Janene looked down at her phone for a moment and smiled. "Come with me." She said, taking her ear piece out and walking down a corridor.
I followed behind her. "Where are we going?"
"To the son of a bitch that hurt our girl." She said quietly, not wanting to alert anyone to our presence.
"Should we tell Alberta?"
"I think we deserve a head start. Don't you?" She asked, her eyes glittering with lust for the fight ahead.
"I couldn't agree more." I said and followed behind her. "There's something that you should know. Roza didn't leave Court by choice. She was taken. Which means that-"
"Someone took her." She stopped and spun around to face me. "Someone in Court took her."
I nodded, knowing that she understood. Someone, either a moroi or a dhampir had taken her. As soon as we got back to Court it would be my personal mission to find the person that had taken my Roza from me and given her to the monster that had hurt her.
"Does the Queen know?"
"When I left she didn't know anything other than we'd found her. She's been struggling with darkness." I said.
"I'll make sure that she knows when we return." Janene said and carried on walking.
A couple of minutes later, we met Abe standing outside I door. He had his ear pressed to the door, listening.
"Why aren't you in there?" Janene asked.
"I was waiting for you." He said.

That was when we heard a scream. I barely had time to tell Abe to move before I kicked the door open, my stake drawn and my eyes alert. Nathan had his arms around Roza and his lips pressed to her neck. At first glance they looked as if they were in a lover's embrace but then I saw the thin line of red that was running down Roza's collarbone, the fear in her eyes as they locked on mine. Relief washed over her beautiful face for a moment and then she closed her eyes, finally letting go.
Nathan's eyes flicked up to us and he let her go, dropping her to the floor. I forced myself to stay where I was, fighting the urge to rush to her side. He growled low in his throat but then smiled at me, his teeth red from Roza's blood. "Belikov. How nice to see you again, though I must say you certainly look different."
I didn't answer him, knowing that he was buying his time. I flicked my eyes over to Janene but she wasn't looking at me. Her eyes were fixed on Nathan, her hand clutching her stake in a tight fist. The look she was giving him would have been enough to scare most people, probably some strigoi too, but if Nathan was scared he didn't show it. He regarded her with smugness that made me clench my jaw.
"Zmey. You brought friends." He said.
"They're here to ensure that Rose gets home." Abe said.
Nathan nodded but I could see in his eyes that he had no intention of letting her go. I wondered for a moment why we were engaging with him. Guardian protocol dictated that we were to never interact with strigoi. Those that had been moroi before they were awakened still had powerful compulsion skills. Nathan didn't have them but that didn't mean that there weren't more strigoi lurking around. Humans were also a threat because we'd taken an oath to never harm them unless it was absolutely necessary and stigoi usually kept humans around as pets and feeders. Nathan was stalling for time and we were allowing him to do it. "Did you like my message, Zmey?"
"How could you do that to her?" Janene asked, not giving Abe a chance to answer. "She's just a girl."
"She's so much more than that, and we all know it. Rosie is special." Nathan said as he looked down at her. "She's more than any of you know."
Yeva's words came back to me suddenly. When Roza had been poisoned, she'd said something similar. She'd said that if Roza died then the world would change and that I didn't know how important she was. Had Yeva known that this was going to happen to her? And if she had, why hadn't she warned me?
I pushed the thoughts of my grandmother aside and focused on the scene in front of me. Roza on the floor, Nathan gloating, Abe staring at his daughter with guilt and sadness, Janene itching to wrap her fingers around Nathan's throat.
"How?" I asked, trying to buy myself more time. "How is she more?"
"When I'd first heard the stories of Rosie, I'd thought that it was all an exaggeration but as I got to know her... It's all true. The bond with the Dragomir girl-"
"The girls lost the bond." Janene said. "If you're planning on using it to get to Vasilisa then-"
"No. I have much bigger things in mind. Killing the Queen doesn't serve my interests." He said. "Rosie is unique. There has never been another dhampir like her. She is stronger than most. She surrounds herself in spirits and doesn't even realise that she's doing it. It's an amazing thing to watch."
"If you don't want to use her to get to the Queen, why do you want her?" Janene asked.
"Belikov understands." He grinned at me and raised an eyebrow. "She's quite an experience."
I roared and lunge at him, no longer able to keep myself calm. I saw Janene and Abe rush to Roza in my peripheral vision and then gave my all to Nathan. Every ounce of anger and frustration, every primal urge to protect what was mine. The world around me faded away to nothing. The only things that existed in that moment were myself and the evil creature that I was fighting. I lashed out at him, dragging my stake across his face. It wouldn't kill him, but it wouldn't heal properly either.
Someone else joined the fight then and from the flash of red hair, I knew that it was Janene. If she was with me then i knew that Roza was all right, at least for now, and I let myself relax a little. Janene and I worked in perfect unison, much like Roza and I always had, and we quickly had him cornered. I took a small step back, giving Janene the room to do what needed to be done. As much I would have loved to be the one to end him, I knew that it was something that Janene needed to do. However, instead of ramming her stake through his heart, she dropped it to the ground. Instead, she hit him. And hit him. And hit him. She was working him over when Alberta's voice boomed through the room.
"Hathaway! Stand down." She yelled, but Janene hadn't heard her because she was so focused on the task at hand.

I turned and saw Alberta and a few of the other guardians had been captured, their wrists bound as they were led in to the room by strigoi and humans.
"Janene." I laid my hand on her shoulder. "Stop."
"No. The son of a bitch deserves it." She cried.
"Yes, he does." I agreed but she needed to stop. The strigoi that were holding Alberta and the others wouldn't think twice about ripping their throats out to save Nathan. I wasn't prepared to lose them.
The strigoi that was holding Alberta stepped forward, dragging her with him. "Step away from the master or she will be the first to die."
I put my hand on Janene's elbow and pulled her away from Nathan gently. We stood a few feet away from him, close enough that I could get to him when I had the chance but far enough away that we weren't an immediate threat.
The strigoi nodded to the others and they came towards us. Two went to Abe and Roza, pulling Abe away from her. They picked Roza up as if she were a bride about to be carried through the threshold and took her to the edge of the room. They were surprisingly gentle with her. The two that came towards Janene and I attempted to take my stake from me, but I grabbed hold of one of them and launched him across the room.
"Master. We have them all. What would you like me to do with them?" The strigoi asked.
"Nothing, yet." He smiled down at Janene and winked at her. "You should have staked me when you had the chance."
Janene spat in his face but he just laughed at her. "Give me my daughter." She demanded.
"Why would I do that?" Nathan asked. "You abandoned her in an academy for most of her life. The fondest memory that she has of you is when you used to brush her hair and sing your version of 'Daisy' to her. The rest of her childhood and teenage years is full of resentment for the mother that never loved her enough to be with her. You always put your job before your own blood."
"Rose understands now that she's older. She make the same decisions that I do every day."
"I doubt that Rosie would abandon her own child the way that you abandoned her." Nathan said. He looked over to the strigoi that held the guardians. "Take them to the basement. I'll deal with them when I've finished here."
The strigoi nodded and marched the guardians out of the room, leaving Nathan with Janene, Abe, Roza and myself. The one that was holding Roza put her down gently on one of the tables and left as well.
"I used to be just like you." He said to Janene. "I was dumped in an academy and raised on the dhampir motto. 'They come first'. The 'they' that came first for me was Rosie's father. I was his man, his second in command. The one that solved his problems and made his enemies disappear. I thought that that would have earned me some respect, all those years of service. Of course, it didn't. When the strigoi came to kill him, he offered me up to them instead."
"It wasn't like that." Abe said quietly. "You knew the risks of the job when you took it."
"Yes, but I never knew that you were so... hated. It's amazing, how many people would offer you up like you did me. Those that would give me the one thing that would bring you to your knees."
"Who? Who gave you my daughter?" Abe demanded.
"It's irrelevant now. You won't be seeing them again." He said and then turned to me. "I'll make you a deal, Belikov. You're so fixated on what's write and wrong, dark and light, evil and pure. I will give you all of the guardians that you came with and will let you leave with them. You and Ms Hathaway may leave with them. All that i ask is you give Mazur to me."
"What about Roza?" I asked.
"Rosie is mine now." He said simply. "She will remain with me and if- ah!" He cried as an invisible wind forced him across the room.

"Rose doesn't belong to anyone." Adrian said from the doorway. Christian stood beside him, a fireball in his hand.
I never though that I'd be so happy to see Adrian Ivashkov. I'd forgotten that spirit users had good control over all of the elements as well as the spirit. Most moroi only specialised in one element but spirit users could wield all of them will considerable skill. Christian left Adrian's side and rushed over to Roza. He put his fingers to the side of her neck that hadn't been bitten, checking for a pulse. His shoulders relaxed when he found one. He took his jacket off and laid it over her before coming to stand with Janene and I.
"She's cold but she's fine." He said before forming another fireball in his hand.
"Did you really think that I would kill my Rosie?" He asked, his eyes fixed on mine. "She's so very special. And her blood is like the nectar of the Gods. I've never tasted anything like it. You know what I'm talking about, Belikov, you've tasted the darkness in her soul."
I wanted to tell him that there was nothing dark about Roza's soul but there was no point in arguing with him. He gazed over at my Roza and, if strigoi were capable of love, I would have sworn that he loved her. It was insane but there was a look in his eyes. And then there was pain.
In my shoulder there was a fire spreading, radiating down my arm. I looked down and saw a hole in the right shoulder of my duster. I'd been shot.
"Get down." Adrian called a moment before another shot was fired. It hit my arm and then everyone was in action.
Christian threw a fireball somewhere behind me and Adrian came to me, his hands outstretched. Abe threw himself over Roza's body and Janene rushed to my side. Adrian healed me quickly, warmth spreading through my body as the wounds closed and the pain faded away to nothing.
When I looked up, Nathan was gone. I turned, searching the room but he was nowhere to be seen. The only person left was a girl with rainbow hair trapped in a circle of Christian's fire.