Hello my good readers!

Rose Hall and the Death Mark is on fanfaction now! Hope you read and review! :D

Now here is Chapter Twenty Three and it's Christmas! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

But firstly, time to talk about other people's fanfactions for VA!

Shadow Gaurd written by DimitriBelikov101 : Takes place sometime in Shadow Kiss and Dimitri doesn't die! Shocks, heartbreak and a lot of funny moments that you don't want to miss!

Our Daughter Our Little Angel written by . : Dimitri left Rose in Shadow Kiss, but Rose soon realises she is pregnant with his baby! Only Adrian knows who the real father is...but soon enough the whole world will know once Dimitri returns! :D

Read these stories and I promise you won't regret it! :D

Chapter Twenty-Three:

"Merry Christmas," Dimitri mumbled as his face was buried in my hair. It was Christmas morning, the day I still loved and acted like a child on. I couldn't help it, I always loved Christmas, because mostly I spent it with Lissa and her family. Those days I lived for. I remembered that Rhea - Lissa's mother - gave me a camera when I twelve. I loved it and I loved Lissa's family. They did't care whether you were a dhampir or a Moroi, they treated you like any other person.

I giggled as I opened my eyes, "It's a very merry Christmas."

Dimitri chuckled as he bent down to me and kissed me passionately. Me being me, I wanted more and so hungryly attacked his lips. He groaned as he wrapped his fingers into my hair.

Suddenly the door slammed open, making both Dimitri and I jump apart from each other, to see my little brother at the door.

"Presents!" Scott yelled and then running away, down the stairs.

I couldn't help but laugh, neither could Dimitri. "I think we better get going down otherwise they're open them without us." Dimitri gave me another lingering kiss before we quickly got out of bed, got some clothes on and headed downstairs.

And there they were, Jill and Scott, sitting around the Christmas tree like you saw in a film.

I smiled at them as Dimitri and I sat down on the couch.

"Whose opening first?" I asked and Dimitri wrapped an arm over my shoulders.

"I am!" Both Jill and Scott shouted at the same time.

I quickly said something before this turned into an arguement. "Youngest first."

Jill gave an evil eye to Scott, "Dam you eight year olds."

Scott smiled brightly as he picked up a present. "To Scott," He read out, "Merry Christmas, love Santa." Scott was still at the stage where he still believed in Santa, so I had to wrap some of up in different wrapping paper and say that they were from Santa. Scott was smart, but not that smart.

He opened it up and gasped, "It's a Transformers puzzle!" And he really had a big thing for puzzles.

I smiled, "Make sure afterwards, you write a thank you letter to Santa." Jill did a low snort as Dimitri did a little chuckle.

Scott nodded, "I will."

"Okayy...I'm next!" Jill shouted proudly as she randomly grabbed a present. "To Jill, hope you're okay down there at Court, Love Mom." Jill smiled sadly. I had asked her whether she wanted to spend Christmas with her mother, but she said that this was more like her home. She opened it to find...

"An art book," Jill mumbled. "She knows I love to draw." She grabbed the other book in, "and a notebook."

Jill was crazy about art and poety (and fashion), she could spend hours doing it.

"Make sure -" I started to say but Jill cut me off.

"Don't worry, I'm calling her later." Jill replied, her face was brighter than the Christmas tree.

I nodded.

"You're turn sissy!" Scott called.

I looked at my presents, and like Jill, I choose one at random. I looked at the card and it read:

Dear Roza,

my son has spoken a lot about you and I already think of you as a daughter.

I cannot wait to meet your beautiful face myself.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Love, Olena Belikov xx

I laughed with a bright smile on my face as I turned to Dimitri, who had a smirk on his face.

"You're mom sent me a present?" I asked in disbelief.

He nodded, "Yes, she hasn't even met you yet and she already thinks of you as a daughter."

"You've told her about me?"

He chuckled, "Yes, why wouldn't I?" He kissed me on the top of my head and whispered in my ear, "I love you."

"I love you too." I whispered, but I was pretty sure Jill and Scott could hear us.

I opened up it up to find, "A cooking book."

Dimitri laughed from the expression on my face, "I told her you were a little bit behind cooking, so she got you one of her cooking books. To help."

I smiled, "I have to tell her thanks, I could really use this."

"Well, I am calling her later, you could talk to her then..." He trailed off, not so sure.

My smile became wider, "I would love to!"

I gave Dimitri a quick peck on the lips before he picked up a present from his area.

He read out the card, "Dear my handsome Dimitri," I giggled to myself a bit. "I hope you enjoy your small present from me, love your Roza." He opened the small present to find a little box, he opened it up and confusion crossed his face. He looked up to me and said, "Roza?"

I smiled, "Get it out."

He picked out the key out of the small box, "What is this?"

I looked towards Jill and Scott, who were grinning like idoits. I had talked about this before I wrapped it up, because if they didn't agree then I wasn't going to do it. But they loved the idea and they couldn't wait to see Dimitri's face.

"Well, since you spend most of your time here, I" Jill coughed, "and the kids were wondering if you wanted to...you know...move in with us?"

For a while I couldn't tell what he was thinking, only knew that he was in shock.

"Dimitri..." I was getting a bit worried now, thinking that he would say no and that he didn't want to be with me anymore.

But suddenly all of those thoughts went away when his lips were full on mine.

I heard kissing noises from Jill and "eww" from Scott.

When both I and Dimitri broke away from our kiss he muttered the world that made my world spin, "Yes."

After an hour of opening presents, the fun was finally over. My gift from Dimitri was a necklace that belonged to his grandmother (who aka is still alive) and she told him to give it to the woman he truly loved. My heart stopped when he told me that and I couldn't stop smiling.

As I was washing up after breakfast, as Jill and Scott played on the Wii (Not even bothering to help I may add), Dimitri wrapped his strong arms around my waist, pulling me to his chest.

"I can't wait until I offically move in with you," He whispered in my ear with that sexy tone of his.

I smirked, "Well, there is another present I have for you." I told him as I turned towards him, done with the washing up.

"What's that?"

I bit my lip as I looked around the empty kitchen and leaned into his ear and whispered something tasteful to him.

When I was done, I leaned away to see his expression and it was priceless. It was lust mixed with stillness. He stared at me as he swallowed, hard.

"Well," Dimitri started as his hands moved down, "I certinally can't wait until tonight." He started to kiss my neck, making me moan quietly.

Just before this could continue any more, my cell started to ring.

Dimitri growled.

I unwillingly stepped away from Dimitri and answered my cell, "Hathaway."

"Ivashkov," I narrowed my eyebrows and Adrian laughed through the phone. "I'm sorry, I've always wanted to do that."

"Adrian, it's Christmas and I was just making out with my Russian god, what the hell do you want?" I asked and I heard Dimitri chuckle behind me.

Adrian laughed too, his laughs echoing wherever he was. "Tell the Russian I send my apologizes, but I need you to come over to the address I'm going to text you."

"Why?"

"So I can give you my Christmas present." Adrian stated, like we were talking about the next Harry Potter film.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, "Why can't you just give it to me while we're at Liss's?"

"Because...It's too big to give it to you physically, I'll see you here in a second." Adrian then hung up, quickly sending a text with the address.

I groaned in annoyance as I turned towards Dimitri, "Adrian wants to give me my present at this address, I shouldn't be out for too long."

Dimitri smiled, "Don't worry," He said as he gave me a lingering kiss, "We'll finish this tonight with your Christmas present."

The address that Adrian sent me wasn't that far away from the house, but was a 20 minute walk. Once I finally got there, it was an old closed cafe. I walked in as the door was open.

"Adrian?" I called, looking around.

"Here," Adrian appeared from behind the old, dusty till.

I put my hands on my hips, "Why the hell have you dragged me out just to go to an old cafe?"

Adrian just smiled as he walked around the cafe, "What do you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"Of this? The cafe?" He continued to ask.

I looked around, "I don't know. It's old, but with some work it could look good again, why?"

"Well my feisty best friend," He opened his arms out wide, "I brought this place."

I smiled, "Wow, really?" He nodded, "That's great...but why?"

Adrian sighed, "Well, sometime after Christmas, I'm going to tell Mia everything. And my family too. So while their either upset or raging, I need something to think about, to focas on, so I saw this and brought it."

I gave him a small smile, "I'm proud of you Adrian...even though this has gone on for too long, I'm proud you're going to put a stop to it."

"Thanks."

"And," I continued, "Why am I here?"

"Well that's the great part," Adrian dramatically paused.

"Adrian, spit it out already!"

Adrian laughed, "How would you, Miss Rosemarie Kayla Hathaway, be my partner for this business?"

My eyes widened in shock. "What? You want me to help you run this place?"

"Of course, why not?"

"Because I wouldn't know how to run children into a playground."

"Oh come on Rose! You're the head Guardian of Lissa's guardians, if you can do that, then you can do this."

I bit my lip, "I don't know Adrian..."

Adrian came over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. "Rose, you are my best friend and I know you can do this."

I sighed again and closed my eyes. "Okay..."

"YES!" Adrian yelled as he pulled me into a bear hug.

"Jill! Scott! Hurry up or I'll get your asses down here myself!" I shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

Dimitri chuckled.

I snapped my head towards him, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just that...you remind me of my mother just a moment ago." Dimitri stated, his charming smile lit up his face.

"Oh great," I moaned. "I'm almost nineteen and I already remind someone of their own mother. I feel like I'm thirty."

Dimitri laughed again as he wrapped his arms around me, "Don't think of it as a bad thing, I don't. To be honest I find it quite...a turn on."

I couldn't help but burst into laughter, "How could me acting like a mother be a turn on for you?"

He just shrugged his shoulders, "It just is," he said quietly as he kissed me on the forehead.

"Okay! Okay! I'm ready to go!" Jill ran down the stairs, wearing a dark purple printed top, white shorts and black tights with black boots. Her light brown hair was put up in a high messy pony tail and like always she was wearing dark make-up.

I sighed, "And people say I take a long time to get ready."

Jill rolled her eyes, "Hey, at least I'm taking a long time like Scott, who the hell knows what he's doing in there."

I raised my eyebrows, "I'll see what's taking him so long." I said, leaving Dimitri's embrace and heading upstairs.

I got up to Scott's bedroom door and knocked lightly, "Scott? Are you okay in there?" No answer, "Scott?" No answer again. "Scott, I'm coming in."

Slowly opening the door, I found Scott sitting on his bed, crossed legged and in tears. I saw that he was holding a photo in his small hands as I closed the door behind me. As I carefully sat on the bed next to Scott, I saw what the photo was and mentally slapped myself.

As well as it being Christmas, it was also the day when Scott's mother was murdered.

"Oh Scott," I breathed as I gently wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Scott stiffed, "I know I didn't know her...I was only eight months old when it happened, but..." More tears ran down his cheeks, staring at the picture of his mother.

"But she was you're mother," I finished off for him. "And it's okay to be upset, even if you didn't know her."

Scott wipped some of his tears, "But I wouldn't know what she would think of me right now..."

I pushed my lips together, "You know, I never met your mother either Scott, but from Dad told me. She loved you to pieces and do you know what she said about you all the time."

Now Scotted looked up to me, with the same grey eyes as his mother. He shook his head, "No."

"She always used to say, from what Dad told me, "Our son is going to change the world."" I told him with a smile, "And couldn't agree with her more."

Scott stiffed again and looked back to the picture, "You know Rosie, I know your my big sister, but you've always been like a Mom to me...Is that bad to say."

It was only now that I realised that I was crying too, "No, it isn't. I think Jane would have wanted to taken that role for you."

Scott sadly smiled at me as he leaned his head on my chest, "Thanks...Mom."

I couldn't stop crying right now as I ran my hands through his short light brown hair.

After the talk between Scott and I, we quickly cleaned up and we were all out of the door in ten minutes. Dimitri could tell something was up and I promised I'd tell him later. All the way to Lissa's house Scott wouldn't let go of my hand, but he did start calling me Rosie again, which I was fine with. I think what happened would be between us.

"Merry Christmas!" Claire shouted as we walked through the door, everyone was here. Adrian, Mia, Eddie, Mason, Claire, Christian, Lissa and -

"Tatiana?" I asked confused.

Tatiana was with Adrian and Mia in the living room, holding a glass of wine in her hand. She smirked at my confusion. "Watch it Rosemarie, any wider flies could get in."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, still in confusion.

"Well, since I had nothing better to do, Adrian kindly invited me to this dinner, unless you don't want me here."

I waved my hands, "No! No! Of course I do, I just thought you might be having some royal dinner."

She snorted, "I rather not, all royals talk about is dhampir this, guardian this, Strigoi this...They are the most boring people I have ever talked to."

I laughed, "Well, you are queen."

"True and also I wanted to thank you." Tatiana told me.

I narrowed my eyebrows, "Thank me for what?" I asked.

She nodded somewhere to the right. It was then I noticed that Adrian, Mia, Dimitri, Scott and Jill were no longer with us, as Mia was talking to Claire, Adrian and Scott were playing on some board game, Dimitri was talking to Mason and Eddie and Jill -

I smiled as I saw Lissa and Jill talking. I could sense though the bond that Lissa was nervous but had a whole weight lifted off of her shoulders. I was proud of them, putting their differences aside and getting to know each other.

"For that," Tatiana stated. "The most important thing in life is family, blood family or not, you've got to accept them before it's too late."

I smiled, "Agreed."

Tatiana turned back to me, "So I hear you and Adrian are opening up a cafe."

Everyone was around the dinner table, laughing, eating, drinking wine and having a good time.

"So," Lissa started, sitting at the head of the table. "What are you two going to name the cafe?"

"We've thought about it," Adrian started.

"But couldn't agree on anything." I told everyone, thinking back to our first fight over what to call the cafe.

"So when we open the cafe, we're going to leave it to the customers and we'll pick from the names that they give us." Adrian explained to everyone.

"And whoever wins will have free drinks for a whole year." I finished, everyone nodding along, agreeing.

"Sounds like a great idea guys," Mason said deep in thought. "I just thought of two - NO wait, make that three." I laughed.

"Well," Jill said, sounding a bit tired. "I think Liss, you have offically killed me with this food."

Lissa laughed, "Thanks."

"Agreed, I don't think I can eat anymore." I said, pushing my plate away.

"Whoa," Eddie started. "Hathaway not being able to finish a meal, I think she maybe seriously ill."

"Shut up!" I shouted at him.

We all laughed and Lissa got up from the table, "Okay, everyone ready for pudding? We have chocolate cake, cheese cake or ice cream."

"Ice cream" Jill.

"Cheese cake" Tatiana.

"Ice cream" Scott.

"Chocolate cake" Claire.

"Same" Mason.

"Cheese cake" Dimitri.

"Chocolate cake" Fireboy.

"Ice cream" Eddie

"Cheese cake" Mia.

"Cheese cake" Adrian.

"Nothing for me," Me.

Everyone just looked at me.

I rolled my eyes, "Fine, just a little bit of chocolate cake please."

"Hey, you know what would be a great idea?" Lissa said as her and I started getting the plates, "We have pudding in the living room whilst watching a movie."

"That sounds great," Mia agreed.

"I'm picking the movie!" Jill shouted, jumping up and running into the living room, Scott following quickly behind her.

As soon as everyone got their puddings, they all gathered into the living room. Since we all had to make room on the couches, I had to sit on Dimitri's lap, which I really didn't mind. Jill and Scott sat on the floor just in front of Dimitri and I, and we sat next to Lissa, Christan, Mia and Adrian sitting on the arm rest. On the other couch was sitting a pregnant Claire with Tatiana and Mason and Eddie were sitting on the floor as well.

The TV scene was blank but it was on.

"Jill, are you sure you got a DVD on?" I asked, staring at the blank scene.

Jill nodded, "Yeah, I think you just got to press the play button to get it started."

"Everyone ready?" Lissa asked and we all nodded and Jill pressed the play button.

The movie showed with a bedroom, it was a bedroom painted with light blue walls and a simple bed. There was a bookself but there was hardly any books in it.

No one was in the film and it started to make me think that this was some kind of horror film and something would jump out at us.

But then...

Two men came into the room, in an hot make-out session in front of the camera and the bed just behind them. At first I didn't think much of it but my eyes widened as I realised who it was.

It was Adrian and George.

DUH DUH DUH! I am so evil sometimes, making my readers wait until the next chapter ;D But next chapter everything will be in messness! So what did you think of this chapter? The great moments before the big reveal? Sorry it took me a while to upload but I had a bit of writters block...

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D