"I know we haven't met yet, but my name isn't Lissa." A lightly Russian-accented voice commented back to me. I shook my head to try to shake myself out of Lissa's mind and was immediately met by pools of warm chocolate staring back at me.

I hadn't noticed him before. He was standing underneath the gazebo, leaning against one of the solid wood poles. He was tall, beyond Moroi tall, at least six foot seven. He had dark brown hair tied back at the nape of his week. But a few strands of hair had escaped and framed his handsome face and dear God, was he handsome. He was clearly Dhampir. Waves of muscles were evident even underneath the suit he wore. A suit that must have been tailored to his exact measurements because it fit him like a glove. A half-drunk glass of some dark liquid rested easily in his hand.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you it was rude to lurk?" I crossed my legs as I propped myself up with my hands.

"I was here first, technically you were the one lurking by not making your presence known."

"I was loud and talking to myself, you should have made your presence known." I fired back. He took a step down from the gazebo, he was still a few feet in front of me, a respectable distance in between us.

"You're right. How rude of me. Dimitri Belikov." He tilted his head to the left and gave me a small smile.

"Rose Hathaway." I smiled back at him.

"So, tell me, Rose Hathaway, what brings you out here instead of enjoying yourself inside?" His voice melted over me.

"I could ask you the same question." I uncrossed my legs and stood up. I had to see his face up close.

"Long flight." Short and simple. I was starting to like this man.

"From Russia, I assume?" I crossed my arms and walked closer to him. Small garden string lights had been hung around the gazebo and through different trees in the courtyard. There was more than enough light for my eyes to make out the lines and curves of his face.

"You'd assume correctly." He toasted me and took a small drink from his glass. His eyes were even warmer up close, there was a small five o'clock shadow crossing his neck and jaw, probably a result of the long flight that he spoke of. Even in these heels, I had to tilt my head back to look him in the eye.

"I've been hearing a lot of stories about a certain Lord from Russia."

"All hearsay, I'm sure." He answered too fast. He was here with Lord Zeklos. Bingo.

"Of course, but most hearsay is just as truthful as the truth itself." He raised an eyebrow up at me.

"You haven't answered my question." He knocked back his drink and sat it on the floor of the gazebo.

"Long flight." I mused. He shook his head and chuckled at me.

"Last time I checked the flight times from Royal Court to the Royal Court weren't that long."

"How is Lord Zeklos? I've not had the pleasure of meeting him, but I would like a debriefing on him. Since he will be spending ample amounts of time with my charge." He didn't seem surprised if anything he looked like he was bored.

"You'll learn that he can be moody." He thrust both of his hands into the pockets of his pants and leaned back against his original pole.

"Moody I can handle. Why aren't you in uniform, Guardian...?"

"Belikov." He answered.

"Right."

"Why aren't you?" Answering my questions with questions, that was a classic Rose Hathaway tactic. When I gave him no answer, he shook his head and simply answered.

"I'm not here on duty. My shift ended somewhere over the Atlantic." The smell of his cologne was overwhelming. If I had to guess, and I was normally a great guesser, he was one of the lead guardians on Lord Zeklos' team. Though why he was here in a suit that looked like it cost a half years wage was a bit puzzling.

"I'm here as a friend to Her Majesty. I would rather be in uniform." I trailed off as I took a moment to think of how I was dressed. A deep blood-red gown bejeweled with gems and stones from the top of the gown to the bottom. There were no slits or plunging neckline, despite Lissa's begging. She wanted to give the other royals something to talk about other than her. No, the dress was simple, the light material clung to my upper body but made a steep drop once it hit my hips. No big necklaces or jewels, but instead a tasteful pair of diamond studs were the only jewelry I wore. They had been Lissa's mothers. The dress had no sleeves, and the top of the dress looked like a M, covering, and pushing my breasts up until I thought I couldn't breathe in. It had a train, although it wasn't as long as Lissa's. The black, red bottom heels I had borrowed from her paired nicely with the dress.

"They come first." He muttered as he walked over to where I had been sitting and in one graceful move sat down.

"So, Rose Hathaway, how is the new queen?" There was nothing in his voice that told me that he didn't really care about the answer. But somehow, I knew that he was just making pleasant conversation. I watched as a spider worked its way up and down a web that it was making in the corner between the pole and the roof as he spoke.

"Lord Zeklos has heard wonderful things, hopefully, he'll get what he's after."

"And what is that, exactly?" I left the spider to its building and returned my attention to Dimitri. He cocked his head to the side for a moment then looked at me again.

"Oh, I see." In an instant, his face switched, and his guardian mask was in place. All emotion, any sign of him being relaxed or content was gone. This face was stone and void of anything other than indifference.

"Your name wasn't on file with the other guardians that are working on this case…so, now you're fishing for information." That was a gut punch.

"Are you even one of the queens' guards?" Who the fuck was this guy?

"I get that English is probably your second language, so I'll say this slowly. Fuck. You. And. Fuck. Off." I gathered my dress in my hands and made my walk out of the courtyard.

The only good thing about being moved into the palace at court is that I was always within walking distance of my room. A long day on duty, heated council meetings, Lissa's meltdowns, anything that was thrown at me I could deal with, then go straight to my room. And after the Dimitri Beli-whatever encounter I made a B line for my room to get out of this damn dress and get a head start on the after-party. A buzz on my phone notified me that my updated work schedule had just been sent out by Hans.

Prick. I thought as I threw my phone on the bed and fumbled with the zipper.

After about six minutes of cussing and pulling I was finally free of the dress, corset, shoes, and earrings. The dress was a gift from Lissa, and it would probably need a good dry cleaning. Dirt from the courtyard rimmed the bottom edges of the dress and I saw a few spots here and there that were probably from drinks or sweat. I left the dress and all the other garments laying on the floor and flopped back on the bed. I had forgone a bra tonight, so I was left in just my seamless black underwear.

This was by far the nicest room I had ever had. It was spacious, with a little kitchenette off the side of the room. A reasonable living space before the bedroom technically started. I even had enough room for a queen size bed. Even with my newfound accommodations, the room itself was still bare. A few pictures hung around the mirror on top of my dresser, a single yellow coffee cup was sat on the counter, and my gym bag was thrown on top of the coffee table that was in the living area.

I rolled over onto my belly, grabbed one of the pillows from the head of the bed, and crossed my arms around it. Looking around the room I wondered who had lived in here before me. These were the queens' quarters, so these rooms were stationed and saved for the guardian teams dedicated to the queen or king. My room wasn't that close to Lissa's, but it was the closest one to her door. For safety reasons that they built this wing with three halls that met with the queen's chamber in the middle. The two halls that had the queens' chambers in the middle of them were lined with guardians in each room while the hall that had Lissa's room at the end of it had meeting halls, sitting rooms, and more common places for the queen and staff to roam. Adrian was one of the few royals that stayed in the queen's wing when he visited. There were a few handful of rooms in the wing that few left vacant in case we had visitors, or Tasha or Adrian stopped by. Although I never understood why Adrian even stayed here the few nights that he did. He had his own apartment at court. As if I wasn't in enough of a bad mood already, I grabbed my phone and opened the email from Hans.

Shift in guardian roles.

J. Cole to day shift, R. Hathaway to night shift.

6:00AM-6:00PM - 6:00PM-6:00AM

R. Hathaway Block Schedule

Monday: off

Tuesday: 6:00 AM-6:00 PM

Wednesday: 6:00 AM-6:00 PM

Thursday: 6:00 AM-6:00 PM

Friday: 6:00 AM-6:00 PM

Saturday: 6:00 AM-6:00 PM

Sunday: off

Changes are effective until further notice.

A nice 60-hour work week to start off with my new shitty assignment. Tossing my phone back on the bed I ran my hands through my hair. Today was Saturday, so at least I had the next two days off. I shouldn't have let it get me this angry, I shouldn't let it affect me this much, but that anger boiled inside of me. I hated not being in the loop about things that I needed to know about. There was no reason, no real reason that Lissa shouldn't have told me. There was a small part of me that wanted to be a bitch and tell Christian out of spite. But then I took a few deep breaths, I felt that anger, that darkness rising inside of me. Lissa was still on medication to try to suppress her magic, but I had a feeling that she had stopped taking them. Probably in preparation for Lord Zeklos' arrival. I grabbed the small, silver ring that had been charmed for me off my nightstand and placed it on my thumb. It was Adrian's idea to start charming silver after a nasty attack that happened shortly after graduation left me with a gaping wound on my thigh and Mason his first kill, Adrian had charmed me the ring after Lissa healed me. He thought if the wards could be charmed then why couldn't a simple piece of metal? I had noticed that it helped with the darkness. There was a calming presence around me once I put it on and it supposedly lightened my dark aura as well.

My mood was ruined, I was mad and hurt. Adrian's party didn't sound all that fun now. I glanced at the clock; it was a little after 9 pm. The sun had started to come up and the ball would be ending in about an hour or so. Adrian's party wouldn't start for a few more hours at least. A sudden yawn made tears come to my eyes and a stretched my body as I took comfort in the bed's soft covers. Crossing my feet, I slammed my head face down into the pillow and screamed. All the frustration that had built up inside of me tonight was let out in the screams I flooded the pillow with. One after another, I poured myself into those screams, and had I not held the pillow so tightly against my face it would have been louder than a muffled cry.

Mason and Eddie were on duty tonight, along with a handful of other guardians that I hung out with. There was something lonely about guardian life that I didn't expect. My life and daily routine revolved around Lissa's. If she had to go shopping for an event, I had to go. If she needed to attend a meeting for her role at court, I had to go. But that lack of personal reason and connection was starting to make my life feel a tad bit hollow. Dragging myself off the bed I fumbled in one of my dresser drawers for a loose-fitting t-shirt and pulled it over my head. Grabbing a brush, I combed through my hair and winched at the few tangles I encountered. I removed my makeup, brushed my teeth, and then flopped back down into the bed. I had taken a whole fifteen minutes. I pulled the covers up to my chin, put my phone on charge, and clicked off the lamp that was on my bedside table.

Laying there in the darkness, my mind started to drift to the man I had met tonight. Racking my brain for information, I tried to connect a few dots.

Lord Zeklos, an alleged spirit user, travels halfway across the world to meet with the newly crowned queen, Lissa. This Moroi wants to institute spirit into the curriculum of the schools and has it taught as a legitimate form of magic alongside of the other four elements. He was also in favor of teaching the Moroi to fight alongside their guardians. He probably had at least three or four guardians traveling with him. Dimitri had said that his shift ended, and he was there off duty. They wouldn't leave him without a guardian even at the royal court. There were likely two guardians with him based off the fact that he was a royal.

Dimitri.

The attraction I had towards him quickly faded after our conversation. His hotness was irrelevant now. I had never disliked someone so much after just one conversation. His words left a sour taste in my mouth and a permanent frown on my face when I thought of him. But I couldn't deny that he was still one of the most handsome men I had ever met.

Deliciously handsome asshole.

I worried that this use of spirit with Lord Zeklos would be hard for Lissa and me. It always took its toll, and I knew that Lissa had to fight the temptation to not use her magic whenever she was off her medicine. The itch was still there even with the pills, but without them, it was almost unbearable. I had felt that desire, that burning need flood over into me from her a time or two before. It made my throat burn, my mouth dry, and would make me sweat. I couldn't fathom how intense it was before the bond had formed and Lissa had no outlet for the magic and the darkness.

Tomorrow I would find Lissa and get the filled-in on everything that had been hidden from me.

Dimitri POV

"Are you even one of the queens' guards?" I asked her. I was normally more reserved with my information than this. Had I given information to a stranger?

"I get that English is probably your second language, so I'll say this slowly. Fuck. You. And. Fuck. Off." She gathered her dress in her hands and stormed out of the courtyard. A sanctioned guardian with a temper. Deadly match. I had been truthful with her; I hadn't seen her name in the files that we were provided. There was a J. Cole, M. Ashford, L. Thomas, and a few other names but no Rose Hathaway.

She was undeniably beautiful. She had a wildness in her like a mountain cat. And I was determined to get to know her more. Picking up the glass that I had sat down, I made my way back into the ballroom.

Ivan was chatting with a few members of the royal court but not the queen herself. I assumed he would save that for the end of the night. We had been late arriving, but the party was still in full swing. I made my way through the crowd of people and took my place by his side. He smiled wide and slapped my shoulder and squeezed it.

"Dimitri!" Ivan smiled wide, he had made himself at home I saw, there was evidence of a few drinks in him already.

"My dearest friends, allow me the immense pleasure of introducing you to the head of my guard, Dimitri Belikov." Ivan raised a glass, and they all toasted me.

"Hello." I greeted them. He was doing this on purpose. He knew I didn't want or like this kind of attention.

"This poor bastard has worked himself to death, I had to threaten him to take the night off. But doesn't he look smashing in this suit? My best wingman." He laughed and threw back his drink.

"Thank you, Lord Zeklos. May I have a word with you?" I rarely used his formal title, but we were in public and at the royal court.

"So formal," he tsked, "Excuse us." Ivan and I walked off to the side as the eyes of the group that he had been talking to followed us.

"What is it?" Ivan was in his element here. He loved a party, loved working the crowd, and loved the attention that he was able to command from these people. He did his job well, better than most.

"I have our lodges. I met with Guardian Hans and was given room keys and clearance to enter. We'll be staying in the queen's quarters. The queen herself will be meeting with us tomorrow morning, a place will be picked, and I'll escort you there. Don't have too much fun." I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him a minute to think.

"What if she can't handle what I have to tell her? It is rather blasphemous." Ivan was serious now. He wasn't the face he put on for the crowd, he was the man and friend I knew and loved. And he was scared. He needed answers, he needed this to work out.

"Then you should probably work on getting some proof." I offered my response as I patted him on the shoulder and left him to mingle with the crowd.

Rose POV

I didn't sleep much last night. I kept tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable. I let out a deep sigh as I pulled the covers over my head. A rapid knock on my door busted through the silence of the room.

"Rose!" Adrian had an annoying short hangover period.

"Rose I made myself a copy of your room key." He sang "I'm coming in. I'm only announcing it because I'm a gentleman."

"Go away!" I yelled. He opened the door.

"No way, you left me hanging last night. What happened?" He shut the door behind him. Making himself at home as he started making a pot of coffee. Once he was satisfied with his work, he made his way over to my bed and plopped down on the side.

"Good morning, sunshine." He was ridiculous.

"Why are you here?" I sat up in the bed and rubbed my eyes.

"Why didn't you come to the party last night?" He stood up and pulled the covers to the side and slid in. I moved over to make room for him and sighed.

"I've been demoted." I played with the fringe of a loose tread on the cover and told him about the conversation with Hans and Lissa. I left out meeting Dimitri last night, that didn't seem to be important enough to retell. After I was finished, I looked over at him and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Are you insane? That's not a demotion! If anything, that is a promotion. You still get to guard Lissa, but it'll be during the day, while she sleeps, while everyone sleeps. What will you have to do other than make sure she doesn't die in her sleep?"

"Adrian that's not the point. I don't care to switch from days to nights, I've worked those before. But I've been kept out of the loop on everything. Had it not been for you who knows when I would've found out about this? Using spirit, even to learn more about it could be dangerous for both of us. I don't like feeling like I've been replaced. This whole thing could've been handled better, and you know it. She hasn't even told Christian about it yet. Well, she may have told him by now. But as of last night, whenever I confronted her about it, she hadn't." I pushed the covers to the side and went to grab a cup of coffee, Adrian knew how I liked it fixed and after that first sip, I smiled and closed my eyes.

"I agree it could've been handled better. But Rose, she was probably scared. Of multiple things. Don't hold this against her. How many things have you hidden from her because you thought it was in her best interest?"

"I've literally never done that." I took another drink of my coffee.

"Would you like a cup?" I offered.

"God no, that stuff will kill you." He took a flask out of his pants pocket and took a swing.

"Should've known," I murmured.

"Listen, all I'm saying is this: She's 20 years old. One of the youngest queens in our written history. She is a spirit user, an element that we know basically nothing about, and up until a few years ago thought that she wasn't going to be able to declare any magic. She has the royals and court breathing down her neck already about an age law for the dhampirs. She knows how much you worry about her and how much you take off her plate so that she won't be overwhelmed. Maybe she wanted to try to do something for you and give you some slack." He shrugged his shoulders and kicked off his shoes.

"It's too early in the morning for you to be this wise and this drunk. When did you stop drinking last night?"

"Who said I stopped?" I rejoined him on the bed and rested my coffee cup against my knee.

"I hate when you make sense." I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked over at him.

"I know." He took another drink and stood up.

"As much as I love the idea of being in a bed with you, I didn't come here for a social visit. The queen requests your presence for breakfast. And I've come to talk terms of peace for how you're going to make it up to me for missing my party." He went to my closet and started going through my clothes.

"You probably didn't even notice I was gone." I rolled my eyes as I caught a pair of jeans he threw in my direction.

"Oh, how wrong you are. I had a condom set out just for you." He threw me a short sleeve shirt and went to the dresser.

"Do you have it now?" I asked. That stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Don't play with me, Rose. I'll down you on this bed right now." I laughed as I grabbed the clothes and walked over to him. I kissed him on the cheek and rested my hand on his face.

"Her Majesty awaits." I ushered him out the door and got ready to meet Lissa.

I found Lissa in one of the small dining nooks of the queen's quarters. She picked the smallest and most remote place that they offered. It was some way of holding onto the life that she had before she became queen I thought.

"You summoned me?" I pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. The table itself wasn't what you would think a queen's breakfast table should look like. I had images of rows and rows of food and pastries in my head with golden forks and plates. Instead, Lissa had a box of cereal and a carton of milk. A basic glass bowl rested in her hands as she crossed her legs and sat in the large chair. Her hair was wrapped up in a bun, and her silk pajamas were creased from sleep. They were a light blue, almost white from all the washes they had been through.

"I did not summon you," she said in between bites. "I told you we would talk and that's what we're doing. Are you hungry?" she asked already knowing the answer.

"The usual?" she nodded to one of the staff that was standing by the wall waiting to retrieve anything she may have asked for.

Drumming my fingers on the table for a few seconds before I started, "Why didn't you tell me?" Lissa sat her bowl down on the table and uncrossed her legs. She moved closer to where I was and let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry. But I didn't tell you because I didn't think that you'd approve. If it makes you feel better, I still haven't told Christian."

"Lissa…"

"I know! I know! I'm not handling this very well. Look, here's what happened. Last week I received a letter from Lord Zeklos stating that he knew more about what spirit was capable of. He has some books and some first-handwritten accounts from Vladimir himself that have been passed down in his family. He wants to meet with me and get something together, kind of like a case study. He's offered himself as a test subject. I've talked to him once saying that he was welcomed here, that we would do whatever we could to help him. But I think I may be in over my head. I think I let my curiosity about spirit affect my judgment." I could feel through the bond that she was second-guessing herself. And having me question her last night about this only added to that doubt.

"So, what's going to happen? You and he are just going to be guinea pigs for a bunch of scientists?" One of the staff came and sat my breakfast down in front of me, I thanked him as he backed up and took his place once again against the wall. I dug into the eggs first.

"I honestly don't know what I've agreed to." she rubbed her temples and rested her elbows on the table.

"Rose, I tried to do one thing by myself without involving the whole damn world and I feel like I've already messed it up." Tears came to her eyes as she spoke.

"What if they find out that this isn't even an actual element? That I really am just a freak and can't declare magic? Wouldn't the royals have a field day with that one? Queen Vasilisa Dragomir Can't Declare a Magic So She Invents One." she waved her hand in the air with each word, reading aloud a future headline in the papers.

"Lissa…Lissa they aren't going to think anything like that." I reassured her. I grabbed her hand and held it.

"They already do, Rose." She wiped away a tear that had escaped.

"You need to tell Christian, the only thing that you've done wrong was keep this from us. Especially if you don't know what you're getting into. I hate that I won't be there while you're doing this." She looked even more guilty.

"Oh, Lissa, you didn't."

"I didn't want you there because I was worried that if something happened while we were working, you'd suck the darkness away. I hate that I can't stop it from feeding into you, but I can try to stop you from willingly taking it." There it was the real reason she didn't tell me or want me around during the day.

"I'm not mad at you." I took another bite and moved to the bacon that was placed on my plate.

"I wish you would've told me about it, and then I wouldn't have been blind-sighted when Hans told me my shifts were changing and that Cole was taking over." Lissa moved her bowl in front of her and started pushing around the leftover cereal that was quickly becoming soggy from the milk.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. I pulled a tight smile over my lips, as much as I wanted to be mad at her I couldn't be. Not when what she did was out of love and protection. Not out of spite or being sneaky, but because she legitimately wanted to protect me. That didn't apply to Christian though.

"It's okay, but…Lissa, why are you hiding it from Christian?" I pushed the empty plate forward and rested on my elbows.

"Lord Zeklos is quite…handsome. You know how he gets, and we've been fighting so much since we all moved here, and I had to quit college. I didn't want this to be something else for us to fight over. It's like he has a problem with everything that I do." She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. Wrapping her arms around her shins she gave a soft laugh as she said, "Sometimes I think he regrets being with me."

"You know that's not true. Christian has only ever received rude and bad comments while out in public. He probably doesn't want to give anyone any more ammo to throw at him. Out of all of us, he is the most antisocial."

"I'm so tired of fighting. I don't know how to tell him."

"When are you meeting with Lord Zeklos?" I tried to change the subject. I could feel how unhappy and guilty she was about hiding it from Christian.

"In about 2 hours. I talked to him briefly at the ball last night, he is very charming." She perked up at this.

"So, tell me, what does this very handsome, very charming Lord look like?" A string of excitement ran through her as she spoke.

"His first name is Ivan. He's tall and a lot more muscular than any other royal I've seen. He has this shaggy blonde hair that he wears like Adrian's. I'm sure that he and Adrian will grow to hate each other. Ocean blue eyes, chiseled jaw. Jesse is handsome but his distant cousin blows him out of the water." Lissa giggled as she spoke about him.

"He's eager to get started. I think I could learn more from him than just about spirit. The way he worked the royals, he had them eating out of his hands last night. I wish you were there to see it. Where did you go anyways?" If she thought this Ivan man was handsome wait until I told her about Dimitri. But despite wanting to one-up her on the hottie findings, there was something that told me not to talk about him, not just yet.

"I got pissed and went and yelled at Hans, he was an ass, so I got even more upset and just went to my room. A rather boring nightcap than what was originally planned."

"I'm sorry I ruined your night."

"You didn't," I reassured her.

"But don't keep anything else from me. I'm serious Lissa. Even if you think that I'll get mad or that I won't approve. You may be my charge, but you don't have a right to go around and change my schedule like that. I'll endure one week of this shift change, but after this week everything goes back to normal. Deal?" I stood up and pushed my chair back in.

"Deal." She nodded and smiled.