Okay, so far, Rose finally came up with the idea to go to Russia to ask for Oksana's help. I know some people thought that it was about time, but i want this story to go on as long as i can make it, so i had to wait a little bit, cuz i really like the long stories, it just gives me something to do when i'm bored.

Well I hop you all enjoy. And PLEASE respond when your done..

Equipping – 37

"Okay Rose," was all she said until I stared at her to continue. "I'll help you." She didn't say anything else after that, she just drank her tea. Was that all, no questions or anything?

"Okay," I whispered. "So? We, or at least I, wanted it done as soon as possible, like now." Oksana drank the last of her tea and sat her cup down, smiling at me.

"I know Rose. But the problem is I don't have a stake."

"What? How do you not own a stake? Or at least you Mark?"

"We never really thought about it," Mark replied. "We haven't needed one." Dimitri looked as shocked as I did. There were always Strigoi roaming around here, or that's what I was told the last time I was here. That's why it was so hard to get here last time.

"Well we have some," Dimitri said. Well duh we had some, we were guardians, we had to be prepared. "Here, you can use mine." Dimitri gave Oksana his stake and sat back down beside me.

"I've never equipped a stake before," she said as she studied the stake. "I actually never thought about it."

"Well it should be exactly like the rings you do, shouldn't it?" I asked.

"It should be. But of course it'll be a little harder. I'm use to equipping smaller things." We were all quite as Oksana closed her eyes and concentrated on the stake. I saw her do the same things as Adrian when I watched him. She breathed deeply a few times, cleansing her thoughts, and then I could she her brows merge together as thought about spirit flowing into the stake.

We were probably quite for about ten minutes, but it felt like ten days. But she finally opened her eyes, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. It's way harder than jewelry. Or it could be that I knew you guys were staring at me the whole time. Thanks, no pressure." We all mumbled that we were sorry, but she just shook her head. "Hey, I'll try again in a little bit. But right now you guys should invite all your friends in, I bet they're hungry." She smiled as she got up and went into the kitchen to fix snacks.

"Well," Dimitri said as he got up and pulled me along. "I guess we'll be right back." I followed him out the door and to the bus where everyone was at.

And right when we walked on the bus, everyone jumped up and started asking questions.

"So what did she say?"

"Did she do it?"

"Can she do it?"

"Shut up!" I yelled. They all froze with their mouths wide open. "She said she'd do it. She tried but failed. And she said she'd try again after we invited everyone in for snacks. So," I said as I gestured to the door, waiting for everyone to get off.

"What about Lissa?" one of the extra guardians asked.

"We'll take her in." They all got off the bus as Dimitri and I followed behind with Lissa and into the house.

By the time that we all entered the house Oksana had already gotten a tray full of cheese and crackers. Adrian was already munching on the snacks by the time we had Lissa seated where she couldn't escape or hurt anyone.

"So this is the famous Lissa?" Oksana asked as she eyed Lissa up and down. I nodded but didn't say anything. "And you say she's been this way for about two months now?" I nodded again. "Hmm." She kept eyeing Lissa like she was an experiment.

"So do you think you can do it or not?" Christian asked kind of rudely.

"Christian," I shrieked.

"What? This is Lissa we're talking about. My Lissa."

"I know. But you don't have to be so rude about it."

Oksana just laughed. "It's okay Rose. You must be Christian," she said as she shook his hand. "I know how you feel. When my Mark almost died before I brought him back, I thought I had lost everything. And I'm going to try to do everything I can to save your Lissa."

"I'd appreciate that. It's been far too long since I've had Lissa by my side. I really do miss her, her old self that is." Christian sat back relaxed now, knowing that someone was trying to help his future wife. If she hadn't been kidnapped and turned Strigoi, they probably would have been married by now.

"Well, I guess while you guys are snacking, I'm going to go out into the garden and try to equip the stake again," Oksana said. "Maybe it'll be better surrounded by the nature and where it's quite." She headed outside as we all snacked on the crackers and cheese.

Two Hours Later…

It didn't take very long at all to finish off the snacks, especially with Christian eating because he was nervous about if Oksana could equip the stake or not. He really wants his girl back. I kept trying to tell him to have faith in her, but he never listens, so I just gave up.

After that, we just talked about all sorts of things. About how Mark kept up his garden, how Yeva's been doing, how Viktoria still doesn't know that Nikolai likes her, and how Karolina's son, Paul, has been up to. Everything seemed to being doing great here. There hadn't been any Strigoi attacks any time soon, which was definitely good.

After we ran out of topics to talk about, we just watched TV until Oksana finally came back into the room with the stake in her hand, with sweat beating down her forehead. We all looked up at her as she sat down on the couch. Nobody said anything as she wiped the sweat off of her head with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

After a few minutes of silence, she finally looked up at me and held the stake out. "Here," she said as she cleared her throat. "It took a while, but I finally got it. I hope I didn't make you guys wait so long."

"Not at all," Dimitri said, because to me, she did take forever, and he knew that. So I just smiled and took the stake, knowing right away that she did finally equip the stake, feeling spirit throughout it.

"So, when, and where exactly did you want to change her back?" Oksana asked as she settled into the couch and made herself comfortable.

"Actually," Christian said. "As soon as possible would be good. She's been like this for over a month now."

"Really?" Oksana asked, surprised. "A month? How'd you control her when she's like this?"

"At first she had a ring that had spirit equipped to it," Dimitri explained. "Then we just had her locked up in the dungeon. And right now she knows that it's sunlight out and what we could do to her."

"Only because we've threatened her so many times," Abe chuckled. Oksana laughed at that.

"Well I guess you can do it now. But I don't really know what happens, so I don't know what to do."

"Well of course she'll try to fight and run," I said. "But then when you stake her, there'll be a really bright li-"

"Wait?" Oksana interrupted me, pissing me off, which Dimitri knew and chuckled and pulled me to him. "What do you mean 'when I stake her'?"

"Well it doesn't work unless the person who equipped the stake stakes her," I explained to her. And as I came to the end of the sentence, I got quite as I forgot that part. How would she be able to stake Lissa? She's old, not to be rude. Lissa had trouble to stake Dimitri. Oksana made a worried expression as we all sat there in silence. So I continued explaining to her what would happen. "So when you stake her, there'll be a really bright light to indicate that the spirit has reached her heart. I don't know if we could do what we did with Dimitri, even though I didn't even plan it," I said as I glared at Christian, remembering that he and Lissa had planned to go ahead and save Dimitri without warning me first. Then Christian casted a fire circle around Dimitri so he wouldn't get away while Lissa had stake him, then got healed afterwards.

"So I have to stake her?" Oksana asked, still shocked to hear that part of the plan. I just nodded. "I don't think I can do that."

"But you have to," Christian almost screamed. "This is Lissa we're talking about. We've been trying for what feels like forever to save her. You're our last hope, and you already have the stake ready."

"Do I look strong enough to get a stake through someone? I don't think so. I've never even held a stake before today, and you want me to use one?"

"Well you don't have to save her this instant," Janine said before Christian could yell at her some more. "We could teach you some moves to insert a stake into somebody first."

"That could take forever," Christian groaned.

"Well you don't want her to end up killing Lissa, do you Christian?" I asked, even though she wouldn't be able to do that unless she hits the heart, but with the stake it would save her. But it's not like he should know that, it's not like he's a guardian and learned all that stuff.

"No," he whispered as he leaned back against the couch and got quite. That's what I thought.

"He's right though," Oksana said. "It could take forever to train me. I'm not really fit to fight or anything." I'd say.

"But we have to try," I said as I got up.

I'll try to update as soon as i can.