My breathing was becoming shallow with the pain. My heart rate had reached more than one hundred and eighty, and the damn headache was there. I was on the floor, writhing in pain. What the fuck was happening to me?

Oksana walked through the door quickly, and when she saw where I was, she ran faster and knelt by my side. From her hand, she pressed a cold, hard object to the temples of the head and the pain faded quickly. I gasped for breath, clutching the object to my head like it was the one thing that could save my life. I would never let it go.

She lifted my neck slightly to place a necklace around my throat, with another hard thing hanging from it. The pain was almost completely gone now, and she sat there with her hands in her lap, watching me. All I needed to do now was catch my breath.

"Rose, how do you feel?" Oksana asked.

I sat up, using my free hand to pull myself up. Oksana's hands hovered over me, looking for someway to help, slightly shaking.

"Fine, now." I told her. "What was that?"

She didn't shrug, but she didn't know.

She pushed me down gently with her hand. "I'm going to try and remove the charms, okay? Tell me as soon as the pain comes back."

I nodded, and she unclasped my hand from the pendant. No pain. She took the necklace chain off before removing the pendant. I started to cough up my guts, and my headache started to come back, but I could tell it wasn't as severe as before.

She quickly gave me the charm back. "I want you to keep this on for a couple of days, Rose. And please, don't go sneaking into Lissa's head, especially when Christian's around. Or anyone else. Please?"

I nodded as she helped me up.

"Fuck," I gasped. "Nothing compares to that."

I took a couple of breaths.

"Fuck!"

Yeva had been standing in the doorway, apparently, because even though I had just even though the worst pain of my life, she had clipped me over the head again.

"Swearing is disgusting and inappropriate." She told me harshly. "You will not do it in this household."

Fuck.

"Do you know how your friend is?" Oksana asked.

"You just told me not to do it!"

"This is the only circumstance for now. How is she?"

I closed my eyes and let my head slip into hers.

As was breathing deeply on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Yeah, she had gone through it. I sighed in relief that she was okay.

I slipped back out of hers and into mine again.

"She's fine. She got the headache too, but it was only half of what I got."

Oksana seemed relieved.

"We will have to go through what you did later tomorrow. For now, have some dinner. Be comfortable. And please-"

"No going into Lissa's head until further notice. I got it."

She smiled when she handed me the other object. "You should be fine with one, but just in case, take this one too. Take it everywhere you go."

I nodded. "Thank you."

She smiled.

What the fuck was happening to me? God, I was sick of this now.

It took a while for them to get here, the guests that I didn't know. They were all quite young, but not sixteen young.

Twenty four young.

After meeting so many people here, and not seeing them again, the faces blur together, and all I could think of when I saw them was Dimitri.

He made his choice.

All the time, that voice was still in my head, but it was always counteracted.

He had fought for me.

"Roza? Roza?"

I shook my head and squinted, snapping out of my zone out. I had been staring at the four of them. My bad.

Olena smiled when she saw I had come back to my senses.

"Rose, this is Denis," Olena pointed to a tall man with short, sexy black hair and a winning smile. "Sergei," she pointed to a tall man, shorter than Denis, with dark brown, longish hair. Like Adrian, his smile was always pulled into a semi smirk. "Eduard," she pointed to the shortest guy of the four, his striking blue eyes capturing all my attention. "And Yakov." The last one, the tallest of the three, with muscles bigger than I have ever seen without going overboard.

I smiled genuinely. "Hey."

Olena paid attention to me, pausing to choose her words carefully. "Roza, these are Dimitri's academy friends."

It was a blow to the stomach. All the air I had breathed in came out in a cough of surprise. The men laughed.

"This is the little girl who stole Dimka's heart? How much did he change when he moved to America?" Denis asked in disbelief, shaking his head as if he was disappointed.

Suddenly, my throat dried up and I sized myself to him. "Who are you calling little? I have done more when I was in school than any other Dhampir in history, and you're calling me little? And yes, if it wasn't for Dimitri, I would have died."

Denis smiled. "Ah, never mind. First impressions are always wrong, in my opinion."

"You're the one in trouble with the Court?" Sergei asked in a deep voice.

I was instantly on defense. "I didn't do it!"

Sergei took a step back. "Yep, definitely Dimitri's."

I rolled my eyes.

"But you don't look like the pictures." Yakov was next to talk.

My neck snapped up. "Pictures?"

Denis and Sergei had both rammed him in the ribs with their elbows.

"Never mind." Yakov choked out.

"What pictures?"

Olena sighed. "Dimitri sent me a couple of photo's of you and him, and I let them see them."

She was still flinching at the sound of her son's name, which looked like she was having a seizure where she stood in this conversation.

My mouth was in the shape of an 'o'.

Yeva walked into the room from the kitchen, presenting us with a roast chicken. She set it in the middle of the table before Olena stepped in and carved it.

"Denis, Sergei, Eduard and Yakov all work as combat instructors at the academy now." Olena told me. "They're the only one who knows about this…situation at the moment. The only four people you can trust when all goes wrong."

"When?" I questioned.

She shrugged. "I like to be prepared for the worst, so we can live the best."

That actually made a lot of sense to me, like preparing for a fight. Carrying your stake around can have a massive difference to your mood.

We ate dinner in chatter, mostly from the guys. They talked about what they have been doing since they graduated, and I was very interested. I knew when they were talking about 'jobs' that they were glamorizing it, just like the rest of the guardians would. It is the only way to sleep at day.

Olena and Yeva walked into the kitchen with our dirty dishes after dinner, and I was left in privacy with the guys.

"So how have you been, Roza?" Denis asked me.

I shrugged. "I'm running for my life, again."

"And how's Dimitri?"

My head shot up. "Dimitri? You don't know? He's…"

"Alive." Denis told me in a bored tone, though it wasn't impolite.

"He's dead." I argued. "I killed him."

Denis shook his head as the gang watched us. "No, I don't think so. We only got a call from him yesterday asking if you were here." Well this was interesting.

"Really?"

Denis nodded. "Yep. Of course, Mazur would have our necks if we told him you were."

"Yeah," Eduard chimed in for the first time. "We sent him on a wild goose trail in Texas."

"So he's looking for me? Why? Did he say?"

Denis studied me suspiciously. "You are his lady love, are you not? I'm sure if Alex was in your situation, I'd be looking for her twenty four seven."

The thing that sucked about Dimitri not loving me was that I couldn't dig for as much information as I could.

"Why?" he asked. "Is something going on?"

Well, they were to trust, right? "He doesn't love me anymore; no matter how many times people say he is."

All four guys frowned.

"That's why you flinch every time some one says his name, right?" Sergei guessed.

I nodded. "After he was turned back, he said his love had faded. It wasn't there anymore."

"Well he sounded pretty anxious on the phone, if that helps." Denis offered. "I just can't believe it was Dimitri who did this. He was voted less likely to love, but we all knew once he had it, he wouldn't let go."

"Well that's changed," I said softly. I took a deep breath and counted in my head. "And I have to focus."

The all nodded. "Welcome to the club, Roza."

Lying in Dimitri's bed, the smell was gone. This could just be anyone else's room now. There was no snuggling in arms anymore. No whispers in my ear. With his sense, everything else died. I grew weak and tired of pretending. I had to go back to the court. I had to see what was going on, and without slipping into Lissa's head again, I didn't know what else there was.

Screw it, I was going to see her. Despite the consequences.

I closed my eyes and slipped into Lissa's thoughts. I winced, ready for the pain, or the slap, but neither came after a moment, and I relaxed in relief. When I came out, though, that might change.

Dimitri sighed and shut his phone off.

"Texas? What were they thinking! I've searched everywhere! Of course they wouldn't know where she is. No one else does!"

He heaved himself down onto his bed, placing his head in his hands.

Lissa had been there for support, since he needed a lot of that from her lately. She crawled up beside him and placed a hand on his back in a friendly gesture.

"It'll be okay. Maybe we shouldn't be looking as hard as we are. There's a reason why we don't know where she is."

He sighed. "Maybe. I just wish I could tell her how sorry I am. I was such a jerk, and I'm still disgusted in myself for what I've done."

"You still love her?" Lissa asked.

I tensed. This would decide it. If he loved me, if was lying, I could die happy.

But I would never know what he said. I was dragged back to my own world by Olena shaking me.

"Rose! ROSE!"

I blinked. "Whoa! What?"

She gulped. "There's someone inside."

Nausea rolled over me.

"Stay here. Strigoi."