I know I haven't updated for a while, but it's because I've had writers block. It took me a while to think of something to happen in this chapter.

Chapter 6

I kissed him with every ounce of passion I had in my body, but I pulled away after a moment, remembering where we were. I noticed Abe from across the room and realised that I had to talk to him about the whole big-gold-aura-super-compulsion thing.

"I need to go and talk to my dad. I'll see you later?"

"Can't you just do it later? It can't be that important."

"I need to do it now," I explained, "before you distract me and I forget what I was supposed to yell at him about. Plus, you need to go spend some time with your family."

"Okay."

"I'll come find you when I'm done. Lissa already told me where their apartment is, so I'll look there first."

"Good. But if we're not there, we'll probably be in my room. You know where that is, right?" I nodded. He kissed me. "I love you, so much." I grinned. It was so nice to hear him say that again.

"I love you, too, so much." I kissed him once more before we walked in opposite directions; him to where his family were waiting and me to Abe.

I walked across the courtroom. Abe was leaning against the wall seeming quite pleased with himself.

"Hey, Old Man, what was that?"

"What was what?" he looked at me, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Don't play dumb, you asshole. You know exactly what I'm talking about." I glared at him for a moment; the courtroom was slowly emptying of people. There was only us and one or two others, now.

"I think we should go somewhere private and talk." He suggested. I shrugged and followed him to his room.

"So," I began as we made it to his room. "Are you going to answer my question?"

"That was compulsion. I'm a spirit user, but you probably already guessed that."

"And why did you not tell me? It's not like I'm a total spirit stranger! If anything, I'm the complete opposite! I wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for spirit!"

"I know that—"

"And you can hardly think you could hide it from me! I watched your aura earlier! It just, like, bl—"

"You saw my aura?" I nodded. "How? You're a dhampir."

"I saw through Lissa's head. I felt her shock at something, so I looked in to see what it was, and it was you! Your aura just blew up in a big blast of gold! And anyway, how did you disguise your aura? And why did you disguise your aura? Do you not trust us or something?"

"Of course I trust you. You're my daughter. I just wanted to stay under the radar, that's all. Think about it, if there's any spirit users out there that didn't know they'd specialised—if they saw me glowing like that, they'd want to know how I'm like them. And I don't want that Rose. Plus, don't you think it's more threatening for people to think I'm a fire user?"

"Yeah, I suppose so. It would be funny if someone asked you to burn up a Strigoi or something because you told them you were a fire user—and then you couldn't. What a way for the world to find out that Abe Mazur uses spirit—the most useless element there is. Besides when I die, that is." I corrected myself. "And that it can bring Strigoi back, that is. It would have been so much quicker if you'd staked Dimitri, you know? It took Lissa about five tries! And where were you—"

"Russia." He interrupted.

"Well, I was going to say, 'sitting on your ass, completely oblivious to the fact your daughter was in need of your help' but that works, too." He laughed. "I think I need to go, now. I told Dimitri I wouldn't be long; he's with his family, I think I need to apologise to Viktoria about Roland." (Rolan? Roland? I couldn't remember which it was.)

"Well, I think I should apologise, too. I was the one who had him taken away, not you."

"Okay. They're probably scared of you, you know?" I commented as we left for the Belikovs apartment.

"Most people are scared of me. But, Strigoi are scared of you, and I think that's a bit higher on the scariness hierarchy."

"Suppose so."

Just then, my mom stormed up to us, with a murderous look on her face.

"What do you think you're doing, young lady?" she yelled. I knew exactly what she meant, but I still answered in typical Rose style.

"I'm walking to the Belikov's apartment to see Dimitri and apologise to Viktoria."

"You know exactly what I mean. Don't play dumb with me, Rose."

"Well, Mom, I don't know what to tell you."

"I don't care. I stops now."

"That's not going to happen."

"Who else knows about it?"

I was a little shocked by this question—it was ever so slightly random—but I answered anyway. "Um…Lissa, Christian—I think—Alberta, Eddie, the Belikovs, everyone else I met in Russia…" I thought about it for a second if there was anyone else before adding, "and Abe."

"You knew about this?" she fumed, turning on Abe.

"No shit, Mom. What do you think I was doing in Russia? Chasing kittens?"

"I knew you were in Russia to kill Strigoi, but I didn't know it was because of…him!"

"Well, Mom, since Dimitri was turned not a week before I left the Academy, it was painfully obvious. And you were there! You were there when I wanted to go back for him! How could you have not realised? How? Alberta noticed! How can you be around so little that my teachers realised before you—my own mother!" I all but screamed at her. "How?" I whispered a moment later, after I had calmed down a bit.

"It ends now." She growled, before stalking off. I began walking again. Abe followed behind me.

"She'll come around soon, Kiz. Don't worry." He squeezed my shoulder, just as we arrived at the Belikovs. I knocked on the door.

The door swung open and I was practically tackled to the ground by an excited Viktoria.

"Ohmigod, Rose! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have yelled at you like that! You were right about Rolan, I should've listened to you. I missed you so much, Rose! You're still my sister." She yelled into my ear.

"Good to know. Do you think you could let your sister breathe for just a second?" I asked, hugging her back. "And maybe spare my hearing?" everyone behind her laughed a bit at that.

"Sorry." She said as she pulled away. Something behind my head caught her attention. "Rose, why is Abe Mazur with you?" she whispered.

"I wanted to apologise for what happened with Rolan. It was as much my fault as it was Rose's."

"And also," I cut in before he could continue, "it turns out he's my dad."

She gasped as I told her. "You were in the court room today weren't you? Adrian told everyone then."

"No, actually I wasn't there for most of it. I left just after you walked in. I couldn't believe that the last thing I'd said to you was that I hated you."

"Oh, well, it's all in the past. Let's just get on with now." She pulled me inside the room.

"Apology accepted!" she yelled as Abe closed the door behind us. "How did you find out he was your father?" she asked as I sat down on the couch beside Dimitri. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and I curled into his side.

"My mom told me when I got back to the academy. He'd given me his scarf since I didn't have anything to wear. All I had was a little green dress and a hoodie. I did have the ring Mark gave me and all that jewellery," I added, looking up at Dimitri. He stiffened. "He scraped me up some clothes and gave me a scarf and coat to keep warm. "You know, I kept everything you gave me." I felt his arms wrap around my waist, tightly.

He leaned down to brush his lips against my cheek. I felt his breath trembling against my skin. "I'm, so, so sorry for what I did to you. You will never know how sorry I am. I can never make it up to you." He breathed into my ear.

I spoke just as quietly as he had, looking into his eyes. "It's alright. You weren't yourself. I forgive you, even if you can't forgive yourself. Don't worry about it. I'm fine now. You're with me, and you're back to how you were." He opened his mouth to argue, but I just placed my hand over it. "We'll discuss it later." I turned back to his family.

"What was all that about?" Viktoria asked. Dimitri looked twice as depressed as he did before.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." I said before Dimitri got the chance to speak.

"Okay…" she trailed off. "So, you graduated, then?" she said, switching subjects ever so inconspicuously…note the sarcasm.

"Yeah. But, according to Abe, they gave me a harder trial than everyone else. I thought that was quite unfair, but apparently, since I've killed Strigoi, I'm better than everyone else." Every set of eyes in the room turned to me. "What? I was trying my hand at being modest!" they continued to stare at me. "Okay. I'm a kick-ass guardian. They gave me a harder trial than everyone else because I'm so scary. Although, I do think they should've given Eddie one more like mine; I mean he's almost as good as me…" I trailed off. "Okay. I'm the best in the class by far. So what?"

"Rose, since you were taught by one of the best guardians there is," Karolina shot Dimitri a look that made him blush, "and then killed countless Strigoi before you graduated, dropped out of school, killed more—"

"Terrified a few." Dimitri put in.

"That, too—and came out of it all alive and went back to complete your senior year, it isn't really shocking that they gave you a harder trial."

"Barely." I mumbled.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Barely." I repeated, slightly louder. "I was almost dead when I was found. Oksana had to heal me. I can't be that amazing."

Dimitri leaned into my hair. And here we are again. By trying to get off the subject, we ended up right back there. "I'm so sorry." He said again. I felt something wet on my head. I looked up to see Dimitri crying. His family didn't know what to do; I've only seen him cry once before—when he was turned back into a dhampir. I wiped away the tears.

"I'm sorry. We won't talk about it again, I promise." I kissed him and wrapped my arms around his neck. I could've cried just then, seeing him like that, but I kept strong. He clung to me like his life depended on it.

"I love you, I love you, I love you." He repeated it over and over for hours. Eventually he passed out—very un-Dimitri like, but it's true. He lay on my shoulder, his face buried in my hair. His hold on me relaxed, and I shifted so he could lay down as much as possible. In the end, his head ended up in my lap. I stroked his hair as he slept.

"I feel like we're missing something here." Viktoria, as usual, was the one to break the silence. "First off: I don't think I've ever seen Dimka cry before, so it must be bad. And second: since when does he just fall asleep in the middle of the day?" she whisper-shouted.

"I think he fell asleep trying to get away from the memories. His body shut down, blocking them from his conscious mind." I barely whispered the words, trying not to wake him, but I think they heard.

"And what memories are they?"

"When he was a Strigoi, he did some—things—and it's kinda hard to talk about."

"And earlier on, when he was talking about what he did to you…what was it?" she seemed almost hesitant to ask. "Is that what he was crying about?" I nodded. I looked at his face, to check he was, indeed, sleeping soundly. He was.

"Well, when I left you, I went with Denis and the other unpromised ones. I wasn't entirely truthful when I told you I was in Russia to tell you about Dimitri; I was there to hunt him down…and kill him. We'd always said that if one of us turned Strigoi, the other would kill them—and that's what I was doing. Abe made me promise to leave Baia, so I went to Novosibirsk with Denis. We fought Strigoi for two weeks together. I tortured each Strigoi I found until I was convinced they didn't know him. Then I let Denis stake them.

"Then we found one who knew him. I let him go and said to him to tell Dimitri Rose Hathaway was looking for him. He passed on the message, and the next day, Dimitri hunted me down. He knocked me out and took me to where he was living: in a mansion with Galina, his ex-mentor. He kept me locked up for about a week. He fed from me twice a day, so I couldn't fight back. He tried to convince me to turn Strigoi and be with him forever—I always said no, of course.

"Then, one day Adrian came to my dream. I was happy—for once—to see him. He pointed out what a mess my neck was, and when I woke up, I went to see for myself. And then, after that, I tricked him into not biting me anymore. I would ask him questions about being Strigoi, and make it sound like I was honestly considering it. I'd pretend to be asleep so he wouldn't feed from me. I was just trying to build my strength so I could escape.

"I feared I had no time left, so I broke a chair and made a wooden stake out of the leg. The maid-type person who would always bring me food and clothes came in, and I attacked her. I got her to tell me the code to the doors. I knocked her out and put her in the bath tub. When he came back, I staked him.

"I found my stake and ran." I didn't feel the need to mention my fight with Galina, Marlen and Nathan. "He chased me. We fought on a bridge. I threatened to jump off, but he caught me. We were both half-hanging off the railing, so I took the opportunity and staked him. I walked away. I collapsed under a tree. I passed out until an old couple came past me. They gave me a lift and I called the Alchemists and they came and took me to a hotel-type place. When I woke up, Abe was there, with Mark and Oksana." I looked up at them. I was crying by now.

"It turned out I hadn't actually gotten the stake in deep enough and he'd survived it. He sent me the stake back to St. Vladimir's with a note telling me he was waiting for me to come out of the wards. He was still obsessed with turning me. Lissa and I went to Las Vegas for a weekend, and he was there, waiting for us. That was when Eddie found out about us. I couldn't bring myself to kill him. We got away, and then, when Lissa visited Lehigh for her eighteenth, he was there, too. He took her as bait. Christian, too. When I got there, we fought. Christian and Lissa tried to join in. Christian surrounded him in a ring of fire.

"It turns out Lissa had managed to charm a stake with spirit. She staked him. He was brought back. It was the only other time I've seen him cry." I let out a small laugh. "And the craziest thing about it isn't even that he was restored from being a Strigoi. It was the fact that Victor Dashkov was the one who helped us find the cure."

"What? You mean that guy who escaped from Prison?" I don't know who spoke; my attention was focused on Yeva.

"Did you know Oksana and Mark knew a guy who had done it before?" she nodded. "His name's Robert Doru. He's Victor Dashkov's brother."

"And I ask again: You mean that guy who escaped from Prison?" Ah, so it was Viktoria. I gave her a sly smile.

"Who do you think broke him out?" there were a few gasps. "I had to; it was the only way to save him. If it wasn't for Victor, Dimitri would be dead right now. I was literally seconds from staking him when Lissa did. And yet, after everything he did to me, I still loved him—I still do. I don't blame him for what he did. It wasn't his fault." I wiped away the tears. "Well, yeah. That's what's up with him. He doesn't entirely believe me when I say it wasn't his fault; that I don't blame him—but the fact that he's here is enough for me."

"Wow, you went through a lot to save him."

"Yeah, I did, but Lissa got the hard part. She had to make charms for me and her to seem human, make look entirely different, and then charm a stake—which isn't easy with all the other elements in it. She's only just gotten the hang of charming thing; just a month ago, she made one that burned me. And then, on top of all that, she had to learn to use a stake and then get it into his chest," we all cringed at the way I worded that last part, "and he was surrounded by fire; she had burns all over her face and arms. But, really, I couldn't be more grateful. She gave me back everything I needed in life. Hey, does anyone have the time?" Olena checked her watch.

"Um, nine fifteen." Shit. More time had passed than I'd realised.

"Well, I need to go, now. I need to see Lissa and Adrian before I go to bed." I looked down at Dimitri; he'd stretched out as much as he could on the small couch. His legs were actually on the floor. He was still holding onto my waist. "Um…" I spoke my thoughts aloud. "This could be a little tricky without waking him up." I leaned down to whisper in his ear. "Dimitri." I ran a hand through his hair. I felt his hands loosen around my waist. "Wake up."

"Roza," he groaned, only half awake.

"I have to go now. And I think you would be more comfortable in a bed." He released his hold on me so I could stand up. I don't think he was entirely awake, still, as he just flopped straight back down on the couch. I kneeled down in front of him. I kissed his cheek. "I love you." I whispered before standing. "Bye," I called to everyone. I had no doubts that Dimitri was asleep again before I'd left the room.

I read Last Sacrifice—finally. My copy hasn't come yet, so I had to borrow a friend's copy.

I can promise you, that from now on, this will not be the exact same as in the book. It will be different. But there were ideas in the book that I was expecting to happen and was planning on putting in my story. So they will still be there.

Well, it was amazing and I can't wait for mine to come in the post.

Please Review!