I dragged myself through the door of my hotel room and flopped onto the bed, exhausted. Laura had dragged me around Seattle all day! She wanted to show me all the tourist spots but I was subtly keeping an eye out for anyone that looked like Lissa, I know it was a hopeless stupid idea, but a part of me thought that if I just looked for a girl or boy either a little older or younger than me, I would find them. Laura had barely left me alone the past two weeks, she constantly wanted to do things together and was acting like we had been best friends our whole lives and, well, she was starting to grow on me. Although she did do dome pretty weird things, she was always asking me why I was in Seattle, which I guess is understandable, I just told her I was looking for someone but the weird part is that she kept pushing to know what the persons name was and where I thought they were. The truth was that I didn't know either but I wasn't about to admit that.

Today we went to an aquarium, I had really enjoyed it, but it had also made me sad because it brought back memories of when Lissa and I were out on our own.

I sighed as I thought of Liss. I missed her so much and I couldn't help thinking that I was repeating what I'd done in Russia again by leaving her and doing this on my own. It was a stupid thought because Lissa couldn't leave the royal court and come with me; I couldn't help feeling guilty though.

I opened up the bond and allowed myself to feel her emotions. I had earlier closed my mind off to Liss and just allowed enough so that I could feel that she was alright, but now I opened myself up completely.

It was around 9.30PM now so it was morning in the vampiric day and I allowed myself to get sucked into her head.

Lissa was in one of the large court meeting chambers. She was being questioned by some guardians and the 11 members of the council were there too. Other than that, no one else was present. They were questioning everyone because they wanted to know where I was and they had assumed that Lissa would know – her being my best friend and all - of course she didn't know, only Abe did. We purposely hadn't told anyone so that when they were questioned, they truly wouldn't know where I was.

Two guardians stepped up to the front where Lissa was sitting at a wooden desk; I recognized them as two of the guardians that had been guarding Dimitri when I was arrested. Everyone went quiet and then the meeting started.

"Princess Vasilisa, do you feel bad about lying for someone who killed the leader of the vampire world? You know what kind of chaos could happen now!"

"Good morning to you too Guardian Roberts, Guardian Smith, always a pleasure. As for Rose, you don't know what you're talking about, I know for a fact that she didn't kill Titania Ivashkov; I can make an official statement if you would like? And as far as what I know about Rose's whereabouts… I honestly don't. Know. Anything! You and I both know that she didn't tell me, she's smarter than that, as she said in her hearing, she's very crafty, leaving her stake in the body, not really Rose's style.
Both of you are guardians and you have to admit that it was very sloppily done, Rose would never do it like this, yes all the evidence points to Rose but think about it, do you honestly think she did it, it's too obvious. She didn't hate the queen she just didn't agree with some of her actions"

Man, I missed her so much… even in a situation like this she was acting like a true Princess; she had also learnt a few things off me. She was giving them some information but at the same time she was giving them nothing.

"What about your… bond?"

It was Guardian Smith asking the questions now.

"I've already told you… it only goes one way I can't feel Rose or make sure she's okay like she can with me."

"Princess, this is a serious issue – we need you to be honest with us. Do You. Know. Where. Rosemarie. Hathaway Is?"

"NO! For the last time no. I don't, and its killing me, don't you think I would have called her by now if I did? I know that your monitoring the phone lines and constantly on the lookout, I would give up anything to have my best friend back here with me but I know it's better for her away from here where she is safe from all of you!
What kind of savages do you think you are? Putting someone to death! Honestly, sure they did it one hundred years ago but this is the twenty-first century, we don't do that kind of thing. Yes it's a serious crime but really, all of you are just looking for someone to blame, and Rose was just the most convenient option. If you want my honest opinion, I think that you are all hiding behind Rose and letting her take the blame for a crime that everyone in this room knows she didn't commit because you're too busy thinking about yourselves and how quickly you can get everything back to the way it used to be. Well you know what; maybe things are better this way. Tatiana Ivashkov was a one of the moroi's greatest rulers and I looked up to her but everyone knows that she tended to cling to the old ways.
She was addressing the moroi council now.
The moroi need to look at themselves and really think about what they're doing, you are all destroying our world! Sending novices out at such a young age, that is a very bad decision. But you know what, you seem to be fine with making damphir's guardians at a younger age but you won't even consider teaching moroi how to fight or use magic offensively. If you ask me, your all a bunch of hypocrite's who are happy to sit on their royal thrones and watch the world as we know it slowly get destroyed. So, if that's all you need from me, I would like to go now"

She got up and left, not looking back. I was never more proud to call that girl my best friend than that exact moment. I pulled myself out of her head and was surprised to find tears shining in my eyes. Just as Lissa had left I had seen that everyone had started talking and I swear that some of the guardians were nodding in approval. It was nice to know that people's perspectives were starting to change, about the age law, moroi fighting and, well… me.

I sighed and crawled into the covers of my bed, still wearing my clothes from earlier, too exhausted to change into anything else.

I made a decision. I wasn't going to wait around for fate to step in or take its course with Lissa's sibling anymore; they may be my only chance to set everything – well most things right. Starting tomorrow I was going to begin my search and I knew exactly where to start.

I picked up my phone off my bedside table and dialed the number I now knew of by heart. I didn't know what time it would be wherever she was but I knew she would answer.

"Hello… Rose? What are you doing its like 2am here? Is something wrong?"

"Hey… sorry I called so late and yeah, something is wrong… a lot of things are wrong but I might be able to fix a few of them, so I need to ask a really big favor…"

Dun dun duuuun! :) SO, who do you think she called? :)

Please Please PLEASE R&R because it really inspires me to write more!

Thanks (:

Issie x