Rosemarie Hathaway
Word that I was now dating Adrian got around faster than the fact that I wasn't a Strigoi anymore and that I'm being allowed to be Lissa's guardian. There was only one problem. Dimitri was also one of Lissa's guardian. Eddie was very helpful by staying with me or Dimitri while one of us would scout, leaving neither of us alone with each other. Since we were at court there only had to be 2 guardians on her at all times, the only other guardians besides Eddie, Dimitri, and me were Paul, Xavier, and Serena. I knew Serena from one of the times I had used the bond with Lissa. My shifts with Paul always ended at night, Adrian usually drove me back to my room but tonight his mother needed him. When I was walking past an alley I heard a small exhale of breath, after looking around I didn't notice anything unusual. Suddenly I felt sick, it was the sick when there were Strigoi around. Then a male Strigoi jumped at me from on top of a dumpster, he looked familiar, then I realized when I had seen him.
Wes smiled, "Rose... I found you!" "What are you doing here Wes?" I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, maybe he was still afraid of me, I had a reputation as a Dhampir as well as a Strigoi. Glancing at me, "I need to make you a Strigoi again..." "WHAT!" I couldn't keep the shock, horror, and regret from my outburst, he didn't seem to notice as he stalked towards me. "You're the only one who can organize us effectively so we can kill important Moroi, also Quin somehow became your replacement." Someone else behind me said, "hurry up, kill her." He shook his head, at that moment I pulled out my stake. Feinting an attack towards his heart then slashing important tendons on both his arms, then I kick his knee and it gives way. He looked up at me, he was on his knees and both his arms hung uselessly at his side, dripping blood. I study him for a moment, he was Wes, a human who probably had a life before he was a Strigoi. Then I plunge the stake into his heart, he smiled at me, a crazed smile before his head lolled onto his shoulder and his corpse collapsed. I was about to turn around when someone stabbed me with a long knife, they missed the heart that they were aiming for, assessing the way it became more difficult to breathe, they must've punctured one of my lungs. I whip around to face the second surprise that night.
"Tasha!?" I choked, blood spilling from my mouth, I tried to ignore the taste of iron as she said. "Hello Rose." "Why?" She looked sad but determined, "there are a lot of reasons but it's mainly because of Tatiana and Dimitri." "You think I killed Tatiana?" She shakes her head, "no, because I did," my eyes widen, "I needed you gone because of Dimitri." Then I realized, just because Dimitri had moved on from her doesn't mean she had moved on from him, "you still like him." "You were the only thing preventing Dimitri from becoming my guardian." She kept talking but it was hard to focus on what she was saying, darkness edged my vision. This was how I was going to atone for what I did, death, it was almost too merciful. My eyes closed.
Everything was blurry, it was hard to keep my eyes open, telling from the position I was in with Tasha I hadn't been out for very long. I tried to focus on what she was saying to keep me from blacking out again. I quickly realized that she was talking to someone else. "Dimka, you wouldn't understand, I did this for you." She protested, Dimka... Dimitri? "Tasha, what have you done?" Dimitri's voice was hard, there were footsteps, I opened my eyes enough to watch them drag Tasha away. One of them said, "Natasha Ozera, you are charged with the murder of former Queen Tatiana." Dimitri had picked me up and was carrying me somewhere, "Dimitri?" "Roza, stay with me," he pleaded, concern shaping his features. "All right comrade," I mumble, "all right..." before I succumbed to the dark once more.
The bedroom where I woke up was Lissa's. "Rose, how do you feel?" Lissa asked, "Fine, where am I? What happened?" "Tasha attacked you, Dimitri was supposed to meet with her about something and when she didn't turn up in time, he scouted the areas nearby. He brought 2 guardians with him because he thought there might've been a Strigoi attack..." "How did Wes find me?" I interrupt, I never told him about where I was from when I was a Strigoi. Lissa frowned, "Wes..." understanding dawned on her face, "oh, the Strigoi, how did you kno...nevermind," she mumbled. Taking a deep breath she explained, "Tasha met him somehow and she made a deal with him that he would kill you and she wouldn't kill him." This shocked me, Tasha Ozera, Christian's parents were the ones responsible for the scar on her face and she was the one who most fervently worked for Moroi to learn how to defend themselves. My only conclusion was that she really must've loved Dimitri and he turned her down for me, did he really forgive me? Could I forgive myself for what I had done? "When Dimitri found you, he had the guards arrest her and bring her back to court while he brought you here, so I could heal you."
The light from the hallway dimmed, standing in the doorway was Dimitri Belikov. He had his guardian mask on, but conflicting emotions crossed his face. Hope, sadness, concern, even love. I took a shaky breath, "thank you Dimitri," I didn't call him guardian Belikov like I did before but I didn't call him comrade either. Lissa sensed the tension in the room and said, "I have to call Christian," and left. Dimitri walked forward, "Roza..." "how can you do this?" I whispered, interrupting his sentence. Confusion flooded his expression, "...do what?" "how can you..." I breath, hesitant, "talk to me, after what I did to you?" "You were a Strigoi, you weren't you" he answered. But when I was a Strigoi I had felt like it was me, everything I felt was what I had to do, or what I wanted to. I had dismissed everything my friends had said about Strigoi being evil then because they hadn't understood what it was like. The first time in a long time, I hoped, could Dimitri forgive everything I had done? As if he could read my mind he said, "how can I blame you when you were a Strigoi," "how can you forgive me," I wondered out loud. "I can't forgive you because there's nothing to forgive, you weren't in control of your actions." I kissed him, he pushed me on the bed, I had forgotten what it was like to be with him. How he made me feel alive, how we understood each other in a way no one else could.
A week later Dimitri and I were sitting in a pub for the anniversary of when we met, it was for blood whores but it would guarantee that no one we knew would be there. Or so we thought. We were at a table near the entrance so we noticed when Daniella Ishakov came in, while she had a dress on, she had an only business expression on her face. Dimitri had never seen her before but he could tell from my reaction that something was wrong, she was walking past our table so he grabbed me and put his lips on my neck. She must've thought that he was a Moroi sucking my blood because she made a noise of disgust. I watched her walk to another table and talk to someone, after a few moments she walked away and turned to leave. That's when she noticed me, then she saw Dimitri. Screeching, "I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT HE WOULD TIRE OF YOU AFTER A WHILE, INSTEAD IT WAS YOU WHO CHEATED ON HIM, I'LL DOUBT HE'LL LIKE YOU SO MUCH ONCE I'VE TOLD HIM!" Then she left, the bartender was looking at us with an odd expression on his face. Dimitri and I left. Guilt washing over me for betraying Adrian, I said I would give him a chance. Dimitri said, "you need to choose between Adrian and me, I'm not going to take the girlfriend of a Moroi." He walked away, imagining the feel of the bond between me and Lissa filling with disapproval and surprise once she hears.