If you didn't know, I redid chapter 9 a little bit. Not by much, just about like two paragraphs.

This chapter is only about Dimitri and Rose. Rose is all depressed and thinks it's her fault,
but who wouldn't think that if you were in her place? Poor Rose...

R&R, PLEASE!

Back To Court

We all reloaded the plane, with Dimitri having to carry me, and another guardian helping Christian, who still hadn't stopped crying. I ran out of tears hours ago, now I'm just sitting, staring into space, shocked that she's gone. I just had to keep believing that she wasn't dead. If she was a Strigoi, I could possibly handle that, since we know how to change them back, but if she was dead, I'd never be the same.

No matter what Dimitri did or said, which believe me, he tried a lot of things, I never said a word, or moved an inch, I might as well have been dead.

Sometime during the flight, someone had bandaged the bite mark on my neck. I never even realized it 'cause I couldn't feel a thing. It was like my heart was ripped out and my brain wasn't functioning right. All that I noticed was that Dimitri was squeezing my hand, trying to make me respond.

When we were almost back to the airport, Christian finally stopped crying, probably running out of tears, finally. But as we landed, he slowly started up again.

Once the wheels touched the ground, and the attendants and guardians started unloading, Adrian and Eddie helped Christian out of the plane. Once everyone was off, Dimitri turned back to me, still holding my hand. "Roza," he whispered, acting like if he talked to loud, I'd go crazy. "We have to get off the plane now. We need to get some food into you and get you to bed." He slowly got up, trying not to move me much until he had to, and then picked me up like I was a little baby. Moving for the first time since we left Seattle, I wrapped my arms tight around his neck, and began crying my eyes out, again. "Shh shh now. I know, just let it all out," he said as he petted my hair.

He held me tighter as we got off the plane and I started shivering. I snuggled my face into his shoulder as the wind hit my face and took my breathe away. When we were inside, he sat me down on a couch as he ordered someone to get me a cold glass of water. "Roza, will you please talk to me?" he begged. "Say something, anything. You're starting to worry me." I looked up into his shining brown eyes, looking through my tears, seeing how worried he really was, and really wanting to say something, but nothing would come out.

The guardian came back with my glass of water as Dimitri sat beside me and gripped my hand. I slowly rose my shaking hand up and took a sip of water, clearing my throat and making me winch as I remembered the bite on my neck. Dimitri instantly squeezed my hand and pulled me to him, making me spill a little bit of water. "I'll never let another one of those disgusting creatures near you," he said as he held my face in his hand.

After I drank all my water, Dimitri picked me back up and carried me to our room. He sat me on my couch with a blanket as he made hot water for a bath. Once he was done, he helped me into the tub. While I sat there, just staring at the blank wall, I heard Dimitri wrestling around in the kitchen with some pots and pans. I slowly started washing off as I smelled chicken. Wonder what he's fixing this time!

After washing my hair and drying off, I put my pajamas on and crawled into bed. But right as I got under the sheets, Dimitri grabbed my wrist and pulled me back up, making me groan. "You still have to eat sleepy head." I tried to shoe him away, and almost got back under the covers as he grabbed me by the waist, but not to hard, and carried me to the kitchen. "Just sit down Roza." I groaned again as I sat down while he went over to the stove and grabbed a big pot. "Here, eat this," he said as he spooned out some hot chicken dumplings in a bowl for me. He fixed himself a bowl and sat beside me with a bag of crackers. "Eat, and then you can go to sleep."

I took slow bits, trying not to burn my mouth when I realized that I was actually starving. As I started taking bigger bits, I heard Dimitri chuckle. I glared up at him with a noddle half hanging from my mouth, which just made him chuckle more. "What?" I yelled, throwing my spoon down.

"Finally! She speaks," Dimitri laughed. I glared at him more, but he doesn't stop laughing. So I just got up and marched into my room and under the covers. "I'm sorry Rose. I didn't mean it. I know you'll talk when you're good and ready. I know this is hard on you." I grab the sheets while he tried to pull them off. "Fine," he said as he stomped out of the room and slammed the door. I release the sheets and peak out from under them when Dimitri jumps right on top of me.

"Aww," I squeal. "You trickster." I try pulling the covers back over me, but he grabs them first and throws them over both of us. "What do you want?" I asked as I tried not to look in his eyes, knowing that I'd give in to them.

"You, of course," he said as he grabbed my face and turned it so I was looking at him. But I closed my eyes before I met his gaze. "Roza. Please talk to me. I can help you," he begged again. But I just shook my head, keeping my eyes closed. "Well I'm here when you need me." He let go of my face and moved his hand to my belly. "You know, you'll need to talk to me to let your stress out. You can't be stressed, for the baby's sake." He moved his head down to my stomach and kissed my belly lightly.

I moved one of my hands to his head, and the other one to his hand still on my stomach. "I know," I whispered. "But I don't know where to start. Everything's such a mess. Everyone's scared and don't know what to do. Lissa's gone, so we don't have a queen to sort all this out. How could I have let this happen?" I start crying again, not evening trying to hide it. Dimitri squeezed my hand and wiped away my tears.

"It wasn't your fault. They somehow planned all this. We'll get her back, I promise."

"It is my fault. I shouldn't have left her. And how can you promise?" I yelled. "We don't know where she is. She's probably not even in Seattle anymore. How will we find her?"

"It is not your fault. It's the guardians that were with her. They didn't know how to do their jobs. And I already made sure to give them hell about it. And I know you probably will too."

"Your damn right! I would kill them too if I could."

"I know you would. And I know we'll find Lissa."

"How are you so sure?" I asked so quietly, thinking that maybe he didn't hear me with how long he waited to answer.

"Well how did you find me when I was a Strigoi?" he finally asked.

"That was different. I knew where you'd go, back home. But her home is here, and she doesn't have any other family other than Jill, which is here. So I don't know where she'd go," I finished with a whisper.

"Yeah, I know. But that's not what I meant. You did go to my home, but I wasn't there, remember? Do you remember how you actually got to me?" he asked with a small grin.

"Not rea- Oh yeah," I whispered as I remembered back to when I was in Novosibirsk, Russia, not far from his home town in Siberia, looking for him when he was a Strigoi. I had been looking for him to release him of being Strigoi, to kill him. But that was before we knew how to turn them back. I had been with his family, trying to comfort them about their 'loss'. But then when I stopped his sister, Viktoria, from being with a guy named Rolan, she got mad at me and I left with a small group of teenagers that were eager it kill some Strigoi. So we then headed to Novosibirsk, one of the largest towns in Russia, hoping to track down some Strigoi. When we finally had found some, I had made the teenagers hold them down as I questioned them about Dimitri. And of course, I got what I had wanted.

"I know that look," Dimitri said, kissing my lips slightly. "You remember. And that's how we'll do it this time too. They won't kill her. They know, or think, that she's the last of her family, so they'll want to keep her. I remember when I was Strigoi, that's what they wanted, was her," he finished off with a sad look in his eyes as he remembered back to when he was Strigoi. He had murdered a lot of people and tortured me by keeping me locked up and biting me for his own good, hoping to change my mind and become like him. But that was the past, and I have forgiven him.

"But where do we start?" I asked the obvious question. "Other than Seattle, I don't know where to go." I kissed him as we both thought about where they would take Lissa. It wasn't long before I rolled on top of him, laying in his arms, and fell asleep, dreaming of the monster Lissa probably had become.