Chapter 4

Once I got to my room, I allowed myself to cry a little more, over Breaking Adrains Heart, over loosing a peice of me, small, but still, and over the fact that i love him, but I love Dimitri. I Cut off all my barriers once I was done and felt Lissa coming. She wanted to know everything, from me and Dimitri to me and Adrain. I wasn't going to lie to her, ever again if possible, so I Braced myself to tell the story.

I was at the door before she knocked. A smile played on her lips, but after seeing me she decided it wasn't best. "Oh, gosh Rose, what happened?" she asked. "Last night, when everyone but Dimitri left, we.. talked. And he admitted that he still loved me. Well, duh, I jnew that but, we, er... we had sex. Adrain was so puffed up today because he say the change that was apparently radiating off Dimitri when he looked at me. So when we left, I broke up with him of course, but I didn't expect it to hurt..so much. But he told me he'd always wait for me, and that it didn't get better than me. And my selfish self let him get away with saying that. Im horrible,Lissa." Her frown depened. "Rose, your not horrible. You deserve to be happy. He knows that, and I know he wants that more than anything. And its not selfish for you to still love him, thats going to happen. I mean, its his choice wether or not to spend his time waiting for you. Don't keep beating yourself up." She pulled me in to hug me. I Hugged her back. She stepped away and continued," Oh, and Congrats I guess on busting it out of Dimitri! I guess we can be one big happy family again. I can't wait to find my brother with my happy family too. I wonder what he's like...And where he's at.." I thought for a second then stated,"Well, I guess we'll just have to have another trip to Vegas and work at it from there. You know, maybe this time since we wont be worrying about saving a strigoi and a prison bust out, We can have some fun! I mean with my extra sense to tell when a strigois by, i can direct twenty percent of my attention to A game of poker..." I joked around about it, but I was serious. If they were strigoi anywhere near, I would be able to tell in an instant, so I might as well get someting out of this trip. Lissa shook her head but didn't say anything else. We plopped up on my bed and turned on my tv. "You know, It feels weird, because its so normal for us to sit around and watch bad tv. And its been way too long since anythings been normal. I miss it." Lissa pointed out. Yeah, it is kind of strange, now that I think about it. I smiled remembering when We first arrived back at the acedemy, and when our biggest concern was the rumors Mia was spreading. Yeah, I missed that too. "Yeah, but lets not get used to it. From what I'm thinking, things won't stay normal for long." I said, meaning my words. Through the bond I felt her consider that, then put it to the back of her mind. She wanted to focus on the here and now for this second, and I counld't blame her.

Around an hour later, I looked over and Lissa was asleep. I sighed, and gently picked her up to turn her aroun and slide her under the covers, she was acually very light, so I did it without waking her. I slid in on the other side of the queen bed, and I think i was alseep before my head hit the pillow. I guess Since I didn't sleep all that much last night, It made since.

The next day flew by, without incedent. Lissa went to her room to pack, and I packed up all my stuff, too. Bbringing everything from a couple nice dresses to sweats, not knowing what this trip would cal for. I headed over to Lissa near bead time, with my stuff. I was staying with her tonight that way we could get an earlier leave in the was just leaving, and I thanked god I had my guards up and that I didn't arrive to early. I told him if he was a minute late we were leaving him, and He replied with a snort and said "do you think you could all survive without my sarcasm and awesome ability to burn anyone, well, anything? Of course you can't." He walked off, and I right as I was about to kick him in the butt I heard Lissa in my head saying behave. I shook it off and made myself at home in her room, much nicer than mine.

The morning, on the other hand, was hectic. We explained to a few why we were leaving and where we were going, using our cover up story. From what everybody though, Lissa decided she wanted to travel around while everything was still crazy and her guardians, Me and Dimirti (That was also a lie, if they had any since they would relize that there was no way Dimitri would be assigned to her for no reason) would obviously come with her, along with her bouyfirend. Adrain was still coming, and his reason was because to continue spirits practice with Lissa and If they found any other spirit users, he could work with them too. No one really cared, so We got on a jet to go to an airport about an hour away form Vegas. But setting that up was complicated, because we also had to book a hotel, and get a rental car. Every last hotel we called was booked, and most of the cars we in use. We ended up calling abe, who knew the real truth, and he got us a five star hotel right next to the place where we first found out about Lissas dads affairs. He also got us an awesome car, from the way Dimitri, Christian, and Adrains face lit up when they heard that part. Lissa and me didn't care, as long as it had air, and wheels. When we finnaly took off, it was three hours later than planned, and I was exausted. I sat with Dimitri while Lissa sat with Christain. Adrain had made himself at homen a chair near the front, where there was conviently a mini fridge with some champaingne in it. Me and Dimirti held hands, and I fell asleep On his shoulder while thinking about the problems up ahead like what to look for in Lissa brother other than the tall, slim build that a Moroi always had. I dreamed about gambling, of course. Me and Lissa had taken home alot of money. And of course the dream ended right at the good part when I felt the plane land in a jold. I looked over and Dimitri was still asleep. It was dark out, so We had to be on Alert. I woke him, and he quickly Snapped up., ready for action. I was too, but in the corner of my eye, I took him in and admired the way his hair was a bit out of place from sleeping. I smiled, and when We got out of the plane, I felt a little relief that I felt none of the nausea.

We checked in our two rooms, Me with Lissa and Dimitri with Christian and Adrain. Christian ofcourse had some snarky comments about having to sleep with adrain, but Dimitri said he wouldn't hear of it, that he would sllep on the couch or floor. I couldn't help but admire him again, this time because of his kindness. Me and Lissa didnt care ofcourse so we took the room with one bed. It was only nine, so we decided we would go over to the other hotel and try looking around for a possible ex mistress of Lissas dad. We didn't notify the boys of this, and when Adrain saw us leaving Lissa had to tell him to shut up and leave us be. He agreed, but was peeved about it. We finnaly departed, and walked in the casino like lobby in style, definately looking like one of the girls who came to flirt and play the games.

Luck was with us today, thank god. I recognized the guy we talked to last time, he was even around the bar area again. He seemed to have forgotten me from last time, but he knew who I was. "Your that Hathaway girl! And The Dragimor Princess! What brings you two here?" He eyed us both. I Replied, " A few months ago, I was here with another friend. You told us some stories, stories about Eric Dragimor. Do you think you could tell us again, And maybe who his...mistresses were?" I wans't planning on wasting time, because I knew the boys would show up sometime or another. "Oh, that was you. Yeah, I guess I could tell ya a few things." He hesitated, then continued a little akwardly,"He used to come down here, to this hotel alot. We'd have a couple drinks, gamble a little. Every time he was here, he found a new woman. Of course they were a few day flings, and none of them were even dhammpirs or humans. They were all show girls, and most of them still work here. She showed up on day to quit, because she was leaving because she was getting big in the belly. That was about eighteen years or so befror the accident. Last I heard of her, she has her a house somewhere in-" Thats when It happened. The nausea hit me. I grabbed Lissa's arm and put her protectively behind me. The man cut off, wondering what on eath could we be doing. I scanned through the casino, looking for the strigoi. I Seen Dimitri first, though. At first, my stomach dropped, remembering the last time we battle strigoi together. He was turned. But then I snapped out of it, and once he seen me, I noticed that he had put his guard on. He moved Adrain and Christain with him to where I was standing. The Nausea was getting stronger, so I knew the thing had to be getting closer. I spotted him. He had a human woman clinging to his side, and he was dragging her toward the exit. There was only one, so Dinitri nodded and I eased away, trying to not look like I was following him.

As soon as he left the hotel, he dragged her around back. I waited for him to ease around the side, then I stated running after him. He had dropped the girl and was prepared for an attack the second I rounded the corner. I didn't hesitate. I puleed out my stake, and we started at it. He managed to get one blow on me, but I honestly think he was stupid. Right when he moved away, I struck my stake straight into his heart. I Yanked it out and lid it back into my jacket. After I made sure he was dead, I remembered the girl. She was drunk, so I puled out a phone I had gotten just in case this happened, and called Sidney, the achlemist I knew. She answered on the first ring, "Hello?" 'Sidney, its rose. Hey, Can you call some one up in Vegas to come get this body, and redo this girls memory?" "Ok, of course. Please tell me your not on another reckless misson..?" Same old Sidney. "No, not really. Me and Lissa are doing something. " I gave her the hotels name and told her where the body was, and waited for a guy to show. I left once I knew he was here, And When I got back to Lissa , She looked ready to shout with joy. "Good job, Rose. Now lets get to sleep and pack our bags. We're going to Michigan, to look for a woman who could be In Rome!" I expected a goose chase, but Rome? This was going to be Fun, Even If we were looking for someone.

The guy was talkiong to a woman, so I figurred it was time to go. With my Guard still up, I led us all out of the Hotel, back to our own. Lissa chatted exciteedly about how she hopped we would find her brother somewhere soon. I did, too, but that didn't mean I still didn't want to go to Rome...