Alberta's POV

After my little unexpected talk with Belikov, and I say that name with a lot of distaste I couldn't help but doubt that Belikov wouldn't listen to my warning, he was just too

stubborn, that's why I thought him and Rose were such a good match.

I just don't understand what's going though his brain sometimes, he's so hot and cold.

Throughout the day I carried on with the new ideas to increase security at the academy with all the paper work that needed to be done, before the decision was going to be

finalised.

To be honest I thought this new pairing idea would be great, that way the students didn't have to graduate early and they could stay within the safety of the wards, while getting

on the job training and one to one trainings, I didn't see how Hans or the Queen were going to object.

And I know it isn't going to be a long term solution but for now it will do for now.

Also while being under this intense pressure to make the academy safer because of the strigoi numbers increasing, about a month ago I had a call from Guardian Hans Croft, the

head guardian at court.

He had said to me he wanted Rose to graduate early.

Now this made me angry to say the least I was fuming. What made it worse was that he went on about how she was amazing and killed them strigoi in Spokane with blunt

swords, which was amazing.

But he didn't see her afterwards he didn't see the aftermath. She was a mess, a hollow shell of herself barely recognisable mentally and physically and wasn't ready to be

fighting so soon after but did he care? No. He just saw she had amazing fighting skills and she would be a great asset to us, but he doesn't realise she needed time to recover,

especially after Belikov leaving, but of course I wasn't going to tell him about that, and so we argued. A lot.

I must admit I see why he is head guardian, he's very forceful, but I stood my ground. No way was she ready to become a guardian mentally; she's been through a lot.

For that phone call we talked for a few hours, but nothing was solved, he's just stubborn. Of course he had listened to my point of view but at the end of the day he thought he

was right and so no one was going to change his mind, so I had said leave it with me and we will come to an arrangement.

Since then I had come up with the idea of having rose graduate early, because Hans wouldn't accept anything less, however I had insisted that for her well being she would stay

at the academy until graduation and she could help me with a few things as well as patrolling the area.

That way she graduates like Hans wants, but doesn't have to leave the school so she can recover from her trauma before having to face some more. Hans had accepted this idea

and left it with me to organise.

As if I didn't have enough to do.

While preparing for Rose to graduate, at first she had to be tested, but Rose couldn't know she was being tested because she-nor anyone else was allowed to know.

For this Hans had arranged guardians from around the world to be flown in and test Rose with all different types of fighting techniques, sparing, staking, and observation. I just

told her they were new guardians coming in to train her as I wasn't always going to be there and it would be better if she fights with different people.

Of course we knew Rose could survive in the 'real world' but she had to be tested fairly.

Very few people knew about Rose's graduation, and we needed to keep it that way, I didn't want it leaking out to Belikov.

However I had informed Guardian Hathaway on the recent news, as well as the Queen, and Guardian Celeste. So only five people knew about it, I thought it would be far safer

that way.

After the two week trial period for Rose, I was glad to hear she passed with flying colours, but I already knew she would, she has a lot of talent.

Then over the past weeks the arrangements for Rose's graduation ceremony I left Guardian Celeste to arrange, I just had too much on my plate with all the meetings to combat

the rising number of strigoi, but thankfully she gladly agreed to do it.

I think secretly all the Guardians love Rose they just refuse to admit it, but she affects everyone in this place, one way or another, you just can't help but lover her.

It's now been about a month since that phone call, and about a week since it was officially confirmed the Rose passed her tests; Guardian Celeste has been keeping me updated

on the progress she has been making with her graduation arrangements, she's now just adding the finishing touches.

Now, I'm attempting to try and make some arrangements with the whole new security plan, however I don't feel in the mood, I'm all keyed up about this phone call from Belikov

and I just can't seem to put my head down to do anything. 'God' I thought angrily 'now I know why Rose has been so upset, that man just seems to know how to get under your

skin'.

Anyway I pushed through my bad mood and carried on with my work, it's what we guardians have to do, we put our feelings aside because 'they come first'.

First things first I needed to call Guardian Croft and let him in on the new plan and see if he agrees. Then we can move from there.

I reached for the phone that is was sitting on my desk and selected Guardian Croft's number out of the phone book, and then pressed the call button.

As I waited for Hans to answer, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous, although we kept in contact fairly recently to update each other, I was unsure to what he would think.

"Guardian Croft" he answered fairly monotone, most guardians do these days. "Hello Guardian Croft, its Guardian Petrov here" I said in a friendly tone, myself and Croft have

become quite close over the recent weeks, but none the less I was still nervous about telling him my proposal. Then I heard him laugh "oh hello Alberta how are you?" he asked

"yes I'm very thanks, and yourself?" "Yes I'm doing well thanks, so what do I owe this pleasure? Is it about Rosemarie Hathaway? Guardian Belikov? Or do you have a

suggestion about the strigoi attacks?" he asked.

Wait! Belikov? What's he got to do with it? I panicked slightly I understand why he thought of the other two but why Belikov? And so I tried tried to make myself sound cool and

collected when I next spoke, so Hans wouldn't know something was up.

"Yes I'm calling about how we could increase the security on the academy, may I ask why you thought I would be calling you up about Guardian Belikov?" I was curious why

would he ask about him? He is long gone, as far as I'm concerned, nothing to do with this academy, so why would Hans bring him up now? I seemed strange and out of the

ordinary, especially for him.

"Oh really? That's brilliant I knew you would come up with something, oh and it's nothing he just called a few hours ago and I was surprised to hear that he hadn't been told

about Miss Hathaway's graduation, that's all especially seems it's a few day's away" I was shocked to say the least. He knew that's why he had called me earlier, Hans had told

him and he wanted more information, perhaps maybe permission to come? I'm not sure, but I'm sure he knows he is not welcome to come after our little 'chat'.

"Alberta? Are you there?" Hans asked me

"Yes I am, sorry about that. This new proposal I have, I suggest we have all the novices classes cancelled, then have each novice pair up with a guardian and they can each

guard together, then each novice can have a one to one training session with their guardian two hours a day, so they can still keep up their fitness." I paused slightly "This way

we can keep up protection, have novices trained in being in a real life working environment and they don't miss out on any training sessions" I finished breathlessly.

I wanted to steer clear of any conversation about Belikov, I was going to sort this problem out on my own, I wasn't sure how yet, but I knew I wasn't going to involve anyone

because I couldn't risk them finding out about Rose and Belikov, for her sake not his.

Silence, that's what came after, and you could literally hear the wheels turning inside his head, but I just waited patiently, I knew no good came of rushing him.

After what seemed like five hours, but in reality was only about five minutes Hans said "I knew you were good Alberta but not this good. This is an excellent idea I will inform the

Queen as soon as possible, and I want you to start making the plans right away, as I'm sure the queen will not object, but I have no doubt she will want to fly you out to discuss

it in more detail later on" he said proudly.

"Yes thank you Croft but it was the work of my whole team not just myself but none the less I will start to prepare things and I will keep you informed, speak to you soon" I said

then hung up, not waiting for an answer.

This is so typical I'm on the verge of solving problems and then life throws another hurdle for me to jump, and I couldn't help but feel very agitated and angry.

Belikov he's really starting to get on my nerves, now I'm going to have to find a solution to this on my own as well as starting to plan the new guardian/novice pairings.

Ergh life is a serious bitch. But I have no time to wallow in self pity because right now I need to go and get an update from Guardian Celeste about Rose's graduation, after all it

is the day after tomorrow and so everything needs to be prepared. No in fact everything needs to be perfect, she deserves this after everything she's been through and there is

no way in hell that he is going to spoil this for her.

And so with that I left the office, hoping that I could find the strength to figure this all out, before it's too late.

I would not want to be in Belikov's shoes at the moment.