I'M SORRY THAT IT WAS THE SAME CHAPTER FIRST BEFORE, BUT I FIXED IT! YAY!

Chapter 5

"No." He growled.

We turned around to see him standing there. I'd thought his voice was terrifying, but as I turned to him, even though I had tears streaming relentlessly down my face, his face beat it by miles. It was one of the most terrifying things I'd seen outside of movies—same for his voice. But I could see the pain there; the pain he never shows anyone.

But the scariest thing was how he seemed to grow.

He was so angry, he seemed to have grown; he was already the tallest person in the room. The stormy expression on his face seemed to deepen as guardians were looking between themselves, unsure whether they should restrain him or not.

Or whether he was changing back, right in front of their eyes.

He still had tears streaming down his face as he took a step forwards. The guardians either side of me let go. They reached inside each inside pocket on their jackets, pulling out a gun and a stake each. The other guardians in the room quickly followed suit—even Eddie, Mom, and Alberta.

It wasn't until that moment I truly learned why Mason had called him a god. As I watched, his eyes seemed to flash red, for just a fraction of a second, and that was all they needed. The guardians by me released the safety, and everyone else advanced.

"Oh, no, no." He was whispering now. He shook his head at the guardians and took another step forward. "Buria." He breathed. And that was their cue.

They all leapt forwards t once, and he dispatched of them more easily than he had in the café. Every single person who tried to take him down ended up somewhere towards the sides of the room. The Royal Guard burst in through the doors and surrounded him, guns cocked. He raised an eyebrow at them.

He looked around himself, at each of the twelve guardians surrounding him. He looked to the guy that seemed to be the leader. Everyone in the room had their eyes on him.

"Boo!" The guy pulled the trigger. My heart stopped beating, and then…"Too slow," He said. "Nisam Strigoi. Nisam dhampir. Ja sam u sredini. Ja sam brži, i Ja sam Jači od tebe. Ja mogu da vidim bolje ..." he took a step forward, and smiled a slow, sly smile. "... I Ja mogu da miris bolje."

I don't know what he said to the guy, but the guy almost pissed himself. He smiled a mocking smile, and, quicker than the eye can follow, he had the gun out of the guy's hand. He held it up to the guy in point blank range. "Run." The guy backed off slowly, before spinning and sprinting away as fast as he could.

I stepped forwards. His eyes flashed back to me from the guy running away from him. I took another step towards him. He lowered the gun.

"Dimitri," I whispered, "stop. Please." His hands trembled. "For me." He shook his head.

"They're going to take you away." He breathed. He met my eyes.

"Please, Dimitri." I lay a hand on his arm. I kept my eyes firmly locked on his. We both still had tears streaming down our faces. I ran my hand down his arm to his hand. I felt him hand the gun to me, and I threw it down on the floor behind me. The guardians were still afraid to approach him, but they'd put their guns down.

"Thank you." He leaned down and touched his forehead to mine. I closed my eyes, and laced our fingers together. "Thank you."

"I did it for you." He whispered. All eyes were on us. They were waiting for him to lash out again…but he didn't. Far from it, actually. He began to sob, and dropped to the floor. I knelt by him and held him in my arms. "I did it for you. I did everything for you."

"I know. Thank you." He sat up to look me in the eye.

"I love you." He said.

"I love you, too." And then he kissed me. In front of everyone. But I couldn't care less, because I was in the arms of my Russian God. I wound my arms around his neck, and everything felt just perfect.

That is, until we heard someone clear their throat beside us. We broke apart to see my mom, Kirova, and Iris Kane staring at us.

"I knew it." Iris said. "I knew there was something going on. And you both denied it. But you were lying, weren't you."

"I never denied it. Neither did Dimitri." I said. She was fuming. "Well, not today, at least."

"Care to explain, Rosemarie?" my mother asked. I saw Abe walk up behind her.

"Not now, Janine. Later."

"There won't be a later, Abe." He shook his head.

"Can we talk about this just a little bit more?" he asked the judge, who had come to gather around Dimitri and I, along with everyone else. He had his arms wrapped around my waist, and I had my head resting on his chest. This could be the last time we'd see each other. The judge shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Mr Mazur. We can't." Abe seemed to focus on her for a second.

"Paula, please. Just five more minutes." His voice had a hypnotic tone to it. I frowned and felt a bolt of shock coming from Lissa. I slipped into her head for just a moment, and couldn't believe what I saw. Abe's aura was lit up gold. He was actually compelling the judge.

Abe was a Spirit user.

Paula's eyes glazed over and she nodded her head.

"Back to your seats, people!" she yelled over the babble that had arose when Dimitri and I had kissed earlier. It died down and people moved back to where they were sitting before.

"Did he…?" Dimitri asked warily, as though he didn't really want to know the answer.

"Yeah. He did."

"Is he…?"

"Apparently so."

"Right."

We moved back to our places. I sat beside my dad and whispered to him, "What was that?" through my teeth.

"That was compulsion, dear."

"I know that, asshole. I meant what was the whole big gold aura thing." His eyes widened. "Why did you not tell me you were a spirit user?"

"That's not important right now." He stood up. "What's important now is that it's going to get you off the hook."

He faced the council. "Rose is innocent," he spoke in the eerily hypnotic voice all Moroi use when compelling, "she didn't do it. Let her go."

He repeated the word over and over again, and I watched as, one by one, the council fell subject to his compulsion. I felt Lissa's shock as his aura flared up gold once again, and then she started to channel her own compulsion. She started to whisper along with him, and as soon as Adrian realised what was going on, he joined in, too.

They got up and stood by him at the front. They were speaking in unison now, repeating it over and over, until they had each and every one of the council under the compulsion—including the judge.

"Rose is innocent; she didn't do it. Let her go." They repeated one last time, and I looked around to see they'd also compelled the whole audience to forget what they'd done. Lissa turned to the judge.

"Hold another vote. Now." She said sternly.

"Badica."

"Not Guilty."

"Conta?"

"Not Guilty."

"Dashkov?"

"Not Guilty."

"Drozdov?"

"Not Guilty."

"Lazar?"

"Not Guilty."

"Ozera?"

"Not Guilty."

"Szelsky?"

"Not Guilty."

"Tarus?"

"Not Guilty."

"Voda?

"Not Guilty."

"Zeklos?"

"Not Guilty."

"Ivashkov?"

"Not guilty."

Her compulsion dropped.

"I now announce that Rosemarie Hathaway is innocent of the High Treason she has been recently accused of." The hammer thing slammed down, and nearly the whole room erupted in cheers.

I felt someone come up behind me and I turned to see who it was. Dimitri looked at me with so much love I thought my heart would burst.

"I love you, Roza."

"I love you, too, Comrade." He groaned and kissed me.

This could be my happy ending. But knowing my life. It won't stay that way too long.