Thank you to .x and Kris Ivashkov25 for the reviews and favourites. It is much appreciated. I would like more reviews next time though even if it is just "I really liked that chapter" or whatever, it'll make me feel better.

I also changed the rating from M to T for the story. I decided I'm not going to do any graphic scenes but then I might change my mind again, who knows?

So this is the pool/spa party. I hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Acadmey.

On my way back to my room, I started thinking about Adrian. I mean really think about him. I know we have to go our separate ways but I really wanted to stay friends with him, at least. I didn't have long until I graduated and became Lissa's guardian, maybe we'd live at Court and I'd see Adrian more then? Who knows what could happen. We really needed to discuss this, I was pretty sure he had feelings for me to. Yeah, we definitely needed to talk.

I was pretty sure we were going to Adrian's party so I texted everyone saying they needed to bring swimsuits, where this party was was becoming more and more unclear. Lissa was totally against us going in light of what had happened, but as Mason said, as awful as it is, we can't stop living because other's have died, no matter how hard it is sometimes.

I stood outside my door for minute taking deep calming breaths and slowly entered the room... and Lissa's interrogation began.

"What happened with you and Adrian? Why did he stay? Did you have sex with him? Please tell me you didn't. You can't have lost it to someone you barely know."

"Liss, slow down." I said, we sat down on the sofa in front of the TV and I told her everything. I even told her how confused I was about my feelings for him, not mentioning the Dimitri aspect of the equation.

"Rose, you have only known him a couple of days. I believe you when you say nothing happened but this 'connection' you talk about? Are you sure it isn't just one sided? Are you sure this isn't just a fling?" her voice was weary, this is what Christian had said when they found out I was going to the dinner with Adrian.

"I don't know, Liss. I mean I know nothing will happen between us, but there is something about him. Like at the dinner, when we were dancing, he said that too. That there was something about me that he liked. And when he held me just before we went to sleep, it felt...nice. Like it was natural for us to be together like that. He didn't even kiss me which means that he must think there is more to 'us' than a physical relationship, right? I can't explain it." I said, truthfully. I know I must have sounded like a lovesick teenager but surely Lissa knew what all this meant.

"That's how I feel with Christian." She said, pointedly.

"What does that mean?" I asked. Lissa loved Christian. You couldn't love someone you'd only known for a few days.

"I don't think you love him...yet. But like you said, with only a week left here I guess you'll never find out if anything would happen." She replied. Yeah, she was right. But what if I wanted more to happen? Surely me and Adrian would see each other again after this vacation right?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The meeting had broken out into a major argument. Monica Szelsky suggested sending dhampirs out to the 'front line' at sixteen instead of eighteen, Tasha had suggested hunting the Strigoi because we knew where they were and sending Moroi with them to fight. She then proceeded to set a guys chair on fire to prove her point and all hell had broken loose. This was the point we had decided to leave.

We parted ways to get ready for Adrian's party. It might sound stupid to have brought swimsuits on a winter break but this place was kitted out with a spa and swimming pools so we came prepared. Everyone turned up at around six with heavy winter clothes over our costumes. I was surprised to see Mia come in with Mason but he said that she needed a distraction.

Adrian turned up ten minutes late, surprise, surprise. We followed him out of the room and Adrian made a point of walking with me in a similar manner we had walking back from the dinner, his arms wrapped tightly around me, pulling me close so I wouldn't get cold. I noticed Christian had done the same to Lissa and that Eddie very much wanted to hold a shivering Jill. I also saw Mason's expression that was full of pure fury and jealously directed at Adrian. I sighed.

"You alright, little dhampir?" Adrian asked concerned.

"Yeah. Just a bit cold." I lied and his arms tightened around me, pulling me closer to his body.

The party as at some sort of underground, super elite royal spa. The whole thing looked like a giant cave, but was separated off into rooms. Looking from the entrance, I could see some hot mineral pools to my left and a massage area to the right. Directly in front of me there were Moroi standing around and talking as waiters carried around drinks and food on silver trays. You could tell these were über rich royals and I immediately felt out of place.

Adrian led us towards the mineral pools, where we quickly discarded our outdoor clothes and started to climb into the pools. I ignored the stares I got from Adrian and Mason as I stripped to my swimsuit. Christian sat on one of the ridges that acted like seats with Lissa on his lap. Mason sat near Mia and they started to talk, maybe Mason and Mia could get together. Eddie sat with Jill and me and Adrian took up a similar position to Lissa and Christian.

"What happened at the meeting this afternoon? I heard Natasha Ozera made quite a stir." Adrian said.

"So did Monica Szelsky." Christian quickly defended his aunt.

"Hey, just repeating what I heard."

"Yeah, Tasha suggested using offensive magic and hunting down Strigoi. Attack or be attacked sort of thing." Jill said, I noticed she had moved a little closer to Eddie.

"But then Monica Szelsky suggested sending dhampirs out at sixteen, which is far more dangerous than offensive magic." Mia said, this shocked me, I thought she'd be the last person to want to use offensive magic and get her hands dirty. Then I remembered Strigoi killed her mom that would change a person.

"But offensive magic is illegal." Adrian said.

"You'd want to send children out to fight Strigoi? You know that would mean that I would already be a guardian living in constant danger. Would you want that?" I asked

"No, I wouldn't want that, but what you're suggesting is narrow minded, lazy royals changing a constitution that has stood for years. If there is a way for royals to do less work than they already do, believe me, they'll do it. Even if it risks dhampirs." I'd never have thought Adrian to be the insightful one. I bet it wouldn't last.

"Then maybe royals need a new leader to make the change." I said, realising then that was exactly what Victor Dashkov had wanted when he had kidnapped Lissa. I needed therapy.

"Rose, that's treasonous." Lissa pointed out.

"Maybe it is. But maybe that is what we need." I shrugged my shoulders and took a drink from the tray a waitress who was walking around.

"But then Tasha was right, we do need to go to the Strigoi. We can't just carry on being sitting targets. They need to know that we are not going to be pushed around and be part of their sick game." Mason said passionately.

"Yeah, I'd love to go hunt down the Strigoi who have done this." Eddie agreed. Mia just nodded along with tears in her eyes.

"And what happens if they get the numbers wrong? What happens if there are too many and guardians get killed? That just gets us back to square one with stronger Strigoi and more of them." I said. When did I get so responsible? I took a large sip of my drink.

"Yeah, but how many could you take out? What if there are less? We could kick some serious ass." Mason replied.

"Mason, when did you get so stupid?" I said, "We can't go off on some vigilante mission because there are Strigoi in Spokane."

"They're in Spokane?" he asked. Shit, I did not just say that.

"Forget I said anything." I practically begged. I would have to keep an eye on Mason until we got back to school.

"They know where they are and they won't do anything!" Eddie practically shouted.

"Shhh." I hissed. "It isn't that easy. They need permission from the Moroi as well as the guardians. Hell, they actually need guardians. You can't leave Moroi unprotected."

"Fuck the Moroi. We need to do this!"

"I thought we were doing this for them? Isn't that our job, to protect them? What you're suggesting is suicide, Mason!" I yelled straight back, drawing attention from the Moroi out in the other room.

"Hey, hey, hey, shall we stop this now? We're meant to be having fun." Jill said, sitting on Eddie's lap effectively distracting him from the argument.

I got out of the pool and walked away. It was hard to do but I couldn't listen to Mason's idiotic suggestions. Adrian followed me.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To get another drink." I said over my shoulder and continued walking.

"You're going the wrong way then." He grabbed my arm and turned me around, leading me to a small room, just off the massage room.

Adrian headed over to a table full of bottles and poured me a shot of something. After downing it I realised it was vodka. I held my glass out for another one. He poured me some more and I downed that one too. I decided then that was enough and sat down leaning against the wall.

"You look really sexy, you know." Adrian said, drinking the vodka straight out of the bottle. Why did he drink so much? As well as the smoking I was starting to realise that Adrian had a lot of bad habits. But then he told me that when we met.

"Thank you." I have to admit, I did look pretty hot. My costume was cut low at the front with a knot detail with matching bottoms, which were cut high at the sides showing off more of my legs. I decided to get this one in a deep green, but that was only because they had sold out of black ones. "You look pretty sexy yourself." I winked, making my voice low and seductive, the Rose Hathaway flirty nature coming through. It was true, he did look incredibly sexy. He was fairly toned and musclely for a Moroi, nothing like Dimitri's physique but he was still sexy.

He sat down beside me and I pulled myself up so I could straddle his waist. "Well aren't we eager." He whispered in my ear, putting his hands on my hips and I wrapped mine around his neck, pulling myself closer to him.

I could see the lust in his eyes and I tilted my head down and I finally kissed those perfect lips, like I'd wanted to the other night. And what a kiss! I thought it didn't get any better than kissing Dimitri, but I was wrong. In that brief kiss there was heat and passion, like with Dimitri, but there was something else to. There was a sweetness to it that I had never experienced before. And I had kissed a lot of guys.

I pulled back only for Adrian to lace his fingers through my hair and pull me back down again into a more passionate kiss. I felt his tongue run along my lower lip and I opened my mouth giving him the access he wanted. I tightened my grip on his neck and deepened the kiss even further. It was a good job we were alone. Our tongues danced with each other, both of us fighting for dominance.

"Hey, Rose you...oh." I heard Mason say walking through the door. I quickly pulled away from Adrian and stood up. "Wow, you know what Rose? I thought you had class, or at least some self respect. But no, you had to throw yourself at the first royal prick you could, just like you did with Zeklos!" he shouted.

"You have no say in who I'm with Mason Ashford. If I want to be with Adrian then that is my choice, not yours!"

How dare he! Yeah, I know he had a crush on me but that didn't mean he had any say in my life.

"I came here to apologise to you for how I acted but I'm not gonna bother. You obviously don't care. Just carry on acting the slut like you always do."

Wow, that hurt. "Don't you dare talk to her like that!" Adrian shouted, getting up and getting right up in Mason's face. He was just as tall as Mason but he was nowhere near as strong, I just hope they didn't start throwing punches. "Rose, is anything but a slut. But then you wouldn't know that because she doesn't love you and you just pine after her like a little lost puppy." Adrian continued. I'd never heard anyone so angry before. Not even Dimitri was that angry when he caught me with Jesse.

"You think just because you're royal, women are gonna fall at your feet but I'll tell you something, Ivashkov. When you get bored of her I'll be the one who will be there for her, then we'll see who gets the last laugh."

"Hey, guys come on. I know I'm amazing and everything but there's no need to fight over me." I laughed, hoping I wouldn't have to drag Mason away from Adrian.

"Whatever, Rose. When you're done acting like cheap blood whore, come back to your real friends." Mason snarled, backing away.

"Fuck you, Mason. You say Adrian will treat me badly but you're the one throwing insults. Adrian is twice the man you'll ever be and you're too fucking arrogant to admit it." I shouted at him as he walked away, I wanted to follow him and carry on but Adrian grabbed my wrist pulling me back. "Let me go!" I struggled against him but he just tightened his grip.

"You don't want to do something you'll regret. I know you're angry but he's still your friend." He whispered in my ear. "A very infuriating, extremely irritating friend, but still."

I giggled. I turned back to face Adrian. I wrapped my arms around his neck again and kissed him again. I seriously think I was developing feelings for him. I know I shouldn't be but he was just so sweet and perfect and loving, how could I not?

"Rose? Are you ok?" I heard Lissa, behind me. Couldn't everyone just leave me alone? "I just saw Mason. What the hell happened? Oh." I turned from Adrian but Lissa could still put two and two together.

"Mason just needed putting in his place." Adrian smirked and I elbowed him the ribs.

"Well, err we're gonna go. It's getting late and I'm sure you and Mason can work things out in the morning." She took my hand from Adrian's and gasped.

"What? What happened?"

"Oh, my God." Lissa whispered.

"I know, right." Adrian replied. I looked between both of them; their eyes were alight with amazement.

"Err, guys? This is getting a bit weird."

"We were going!" Lissa said all of a sudden and quickly pulled me away. I dragged Adrian with me. What the hell!

Everyone was waiting by the doorway that we came in. Jill handed me my coat and jeans and I quickly put them on along with my Uggs. There was an awkward silence within our group as we made our way back to our rooms, obviously everyone knew about the Mason/Adrian argument.

Mason and Eddie's room was the first we passed and I wasn't surprised to see Eddie give Jill a quick kiss on the check. Christian's room was next to their room and we left Christian and Lissa there. I heard through the bond that she'd be staying with him again. Mia and Jill headed off down the corridor that led to the one of the other dorms leaving Adrian and me.

When we arrived back at my room I unlocked the door and turned to give Adrian a kiss goodbye. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me lightly and pulled away.

"See you tomorrow, little dhampir." He smiled and walked away.

I retreated back into my room and tried to figure out everything. Again. Why couldn't life be simple?

Dimitri said that the meeting after the Drozdov attack was going to change everything. That was true. No one had stopped talking about offensive magic or lowering the dhampir graduation age. This could seriously change how we did things either way. Having sixteen year old guardian was beyond ridiculous. But as Adrian had said, royals will do anything to lessen their 'workload'.

On top of that, there was Mason. He was one of my best friends and it's nice that he's looking out for me, calling me a cheap blood whore however, completely changed that. How dare he do that and then shout at Adrian? No, there was no way I was going to forgive him for this. No way on this earth.

Then there was Adrian. Tomorrow we need to sort this out. I need to know where I stand with him. Are we having a fling or is there something more? Do we want it to be something more? Do we want different things? He can't be with me forever, we don't have that chance, I was destined to be a guardian, and I didn't have time for a normal life. I had to always put my life in front of Lissa's. I couldn't be with anyone, let alone a royal Moroi like Adrian. This was mine and Dimitri's problem too.

I quickly got ready for bed and climbed in, my head spinning with all these different things. I vowed that tomorrow I would talk to Adrian seriously. I just hoped I could deal with whatever was to come my way.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

I woke up late that morning and I still felt tired. I put it down to the fact that I dreamed about Adrian again, having one of those confusing dreams like I did after I met him.

I dressed quickly in skinny jeans, a t shirt and Uggs putting my big coat on. I had to be quiet because Lissa was asleep. Her and Christian had an argument last night so she came back here. I didn't 'see' the argument but judging from Lissa's thoughts afterwards I'm glad I didn't.

This morning I'd decided that I was going to see Mason. I had decided that everything that was said was in the heat of the moment and I was going to be the bigger person, for once.

I knocked on Mason's door but got no answer. I knocked again and still nothing. I tried the door to find it was open so I walked in. I expected Mason and Eddie to still be asleep but there beds were empty, it looked like they hadn't even been slept in. Now I was worried.

I went to Christian's room that was just next door and asked him if he'd seen them leave early that morning.

"No, I didn't see them. Why what's wrong?"

"I don't know I just have a bad feeling that's all. " Mason wouldn't be so stupid to go to Spokane would he?

"Look, why don't you ask Ryan in the room next door to Mason. He might have seen something." Christian said.

I beat so hard on Ryan's door that it is a wonder that I didn't break it off its hinges.

"Rose. What the hell?"

"Have you seen Mason and Eddie?" I asked

"Yeah, those two and Mia Rinaldi left early hours of the morning. I thought I heard them say something about Strigoi but I didn't think anything of it."

Shit. I thanked Ryan and told Christian what I knew. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

"We're going after them. You'll need to compel the guardians so we can get out and get them back."

"Rose, shouldn't we just tell the guardians?"

"No! They'll find out it was me who told them and then I'll get in trouble and so will Dimitri. No, we have to get them back before they get killed."

And so Christian and I made our way out of the ski lodge and to Spokane. I just prayed to God that they didn't find any Strigoi...

Sooooo what did you think? I couldn't resist putting in a Mason/Adrian argument, what did you think?

Remember to review, mes amis!