Sorry guys! I had so much going on but here is the next chapter now!

Chapter 6 Pay Back

Rose's POV

My lunch break came after dreadful hours of classes. Lissa and I only shared Literature, Lunch, and Spanish together and sat next to each other when we could. Eddie and I sparred with each other every chance we had. He never dared to hold back, and I hated him for it too, but not as much as I would if he had held back.

I spotted Zoey as soon as I entered but before I could take another step, she, another girl with short blond hair, and Lissa walked (Lissa nearly ran) to me. The unknown girl nearly bouncing in place. She was so—country—looking. All her clothing screamed country girl from her tan cowboy boots to her button down, plaid shirt.

Until that point I did not recognize I was not one of the few girls with long hair, all them did. Everyone had thick, luscious hair styled to perfection. Most people at St. Vlads could not compete in the hot factor...not even Jesse. Dimitri put up a damn good fight though, and in my books he won.

"Hey, I'm Stevie Rae!" the girl said with a southern twang. Yup, definitely a country girl. "I was wonderin' when I was gonna meet ya! Z keeps talkin' about the unmarked vamps. I know Mia and Eddie but you're new here."

"Speaking of new" one of the annoying twins said from behind Zoey and Stevie Rae.

"When are you going to tell us that story?" finished the other twin. It was too much of a hassle to remember who was who.

I laughed, "If you really want to hear it, point me to the food. I'm starving." Everyone laughed, especially Lissa. She knew my eating habits a bit too well.

Eddie joined our group, along with Stark and Damien. Nearly everyone sat at a table before remembering the story that almost got me kicked out before I ran away.

It was a rainy night, or day depending on how you look at it. Lissa and I attended one of the royal parties. That included the usual: drinking, smoking, dancing, and a lot of kissing. Moroi men loved Dhampir women for their body making mine a prize.

Lissa and I decided to scare everyone with this prank.

"Meet us in the woods at 3pm." I told everyone and bribed them with either sex or alcohol.

Lissa and I placed twenty notes, all death threats, and made the first one the easiest to find stating "If you ever want to drink or have sex again, you have to find all of these notes" The group of Moroi's decided to find us, after a little scare. When everyone started to enter the woods separately, we made sure everyone was scared shitless by the fifth note. After the tenth note "you're wasting you time, the chainsaw is right around the corner 5. 4. 3. 2. 1." I made Mason wear a white mask, just like in Halloween, and chase them around with the chainsaw on. An hour later Christian joined forces with Mason using his fire powers to freak them out. Of course the other fire-users knew it was another fire-user but they were too freaked out to understand it.

Most of the time we staying inside the wards but the last five are outside the wards making the danger level higher than before. Eddie, Mason, myself, and a few other trouble making novices made sure the Moroi were in no danger. Lissa found a dead crow in the middle of the woods and I felt her magic bubble up and seize her. The crow started to twitch and soon it flew away. She brought the crow back to life. I ran to her and Christian saw me running towards Lissa. He followed. When I stopped in front of Lissa I started feeling nauseous. Before I could blink, four Strigoi surrounded us.

"Mas-!" A Strigoi back-handed me, cutting me off.

I got up at speeds that rivaled the Strigoi in front of Lissa and I. Christian froze a few feet behind us but quickly recovered and helped me fight the Strigoi with his massive fire power. We somehow took out two of the four Strigoi together before some guardians interceded us. Stan Alto pushed me to the ground and hovered over me with an evil glint in his eyes. Christian, Lissa, and I spent the next hour watching Kirova tapping one of her feet before diving into what I thought was her best lecture ever.

Later that night, Lissa and I continued to party after Kirova's major bitch fest. Ditching security was tougher than usual but with the help of Mason and Eddie, we escaped. Lissa and I ended up getting drunk and she, well, I don't know what came over her. She wanted to "make him pay". I wished she would stop hurting him, not physically hurting of course, Lissa would never do that, but she was controlling him. With compulsion. He held something in his hands, a bat, and I realized Lissa wanted to make him hit his head with it and kill himself. I could not let that happen. I pushed Lissa on the ground, breaking the eye connection and the compulsion. The bat flung into the window, completely smashing it into a gazillion pieces.

Before anyone could react, I wished so hard Lissa would let go of her anger. I saw a slight change in her, and a major change in me. Suddenly the uncontrollable rage seeped into me and I attacked the guy too. He never should have brought a feeder to a party! He never should have used her like that! He was going to pay! The teachers barged in just as I lunched towards Ralf. Before I could lay a finger on him, someone caught the back of my shirt and forced me to the ground. Damn them! In a split second I made up my mind: we were leaving the academy tomorrow. This place was not safe for us anymore, and now I knew I was going to be under house arrest—as if I was not before.

But I had to some planning to do before running away. I wanted my marks before I ran away and the day after next, I got them. The night after the ceremony, Lissa and I ran away with a tiny idea what we were going to do.

Lissa brought me back to the present. I still had no idea what I was going to say, I sure as hell was not going to give them the truth!

"Alright, I think I will start with the human game of Slender-man." Eddie and Damien gasped, obviously knowing what it is. "Eddie you remember that, right?"

"Yeah, Stan was pissed! Oh man, I don't think he would've cared if the entire school had a snowball fight and included him in it!" I laughed.

"What's so wrong with snowball fights?" Zoey asked.

Eddie and I exchanged shrugs. "We don't know."

"It's not like we would fill them with glass shards or razor blades." I said, making Eddie laugh.

"Well if you're in a bad mood you might-"

I slapped Eddie in his head. Everyone cracked up in laughter. I caught sight of Aphrodite walk in, haughty, with three of the fakest friends I have seen. I rolled my eyes at her friends. She probably does not know what a real friend is. Nevertheless, I continued laughing with everyone else.

"Story time!" Stevie Rae bounced.

"Fine," I sighed.

"She had probation before this happened and Stan's an ass" Eddie helpfully said.

"I just want to rip his balls off." I mumbled. "Anyway, Mason wanted to help-" I trailed off.

Dimitri walked in the room, in full hot glory. I was surprised he did not follow me here as well. Maybe he thought I deserved a break? He exchanged a few words to a guardian and the guardian left, leaving Dimitri to watch me once again.

Most eyes at our table followed my gaze and I looked away before anyone could giggle and shot into the truth about the human Slender-Man—minus the Strigoi ending. Before I could launch into the lecture before the party that got busted (I refused to tell them about the breakdown), the bell rang. I looked around as everyone began filing out.

Everyone parted their ways, Zoey, Lissa, Eddie, and I went to Spanish while everyone else went to whatever class they had next. Everything was pretty normal until Stan's class. The room was filled with the warriors and guardians in training a like. Much like at St. Vlads, the guardians stood in the back of each room watching for possible dangers and the warriors guarded the exterior. Mia and Lissa had a guardian following them all times and right now, so did I. Belikov never let me out of his sight save for bathroom breaks. So, of course, Dimitri stood in the back of the room with two other guardians.

"Ah Rosemarie Hathaway!" Stan cheered as I took my first step into the room for Guardian Combat Techniques with Eddie. "Nobody told me we had a special guest!" He grabbed my arm when I tried passing him.

"Get your grimy hands off me!" I hissed. How dare he think he can lay a hand on me?

Anger sparked in his eyes, clearly my comment (demand) pissed him off. Good. "Now Miss Hathaway, I thought you were giving the class a lecture today. My mistake, I assume."

"Are you-" He could not be suggesting what I think he is. That would just be too cruel. Please, please, do not let him be suggesting that!

"Why yes, I am very sure."

He released my arm and immediately stepped out of the way of the podium. Meanwhile blocking all escape options, leaving my only choice being the podium. He really was the cruelest person I knew. I gave him a haughty look before stepping to my doom.

"Please tell the class, how did you manage that daring escape?" He challenged.

"Easy. Security sucks." That earned me a few chuckles from my old classmates and wide eyes and gasps from my new ones. "After we slipped past our dorm matrons it was almost too easy." I refused to rat out the person who hide us in their trunk.

Stan jumped in my face, so close I felt his breathing and smelt the lingering coffee in his breath. Disgusting. He was far too close. Breathe Rose you can get through this. I looked away from his beady dark eyes and focused on the wall in the back of the room.

"How did you keep her safe? How did you keep us away from her? What-"

Was he trying to get knocked out? Really, what was his fucking problem? I tried tuning him out to no avail. But he pushed until my small temper got the best of me.

"I kept her safe! I had to! Nobody else could keep her safe, don't you see that? I did what I had to do!" I screamed in his face.

The room was dead silent, so silent the only thing I heard was Stan's breathing and mine. Were the Marked students afraid of Stan? I nearly scoffed at the thought immediately. Dhampirs of St. Vlads knew too well what Stan was all about. He was just an ass in charge. Stan narrowed his eyes until they lit up with what had to be a very evil idea. Oh boy, I did it now.

"What techniques did you use?" He asked brightly.

"My—techniques?" I asked cautiously. Where was her going with this?

"Surely you had to have some techniques since you broke out to "protect" the last Dragomir and kept her hidden from everyone in this world. Seeing as both of you are still alive proves you had some methods. Did you go outside during daylight?"

"Sometimes," I admitted.

"Sometimes? I do believe when you are guarding a Moroi solo, that is exactly what you do—oh wait you would not know that since you've been on the run for two years!" he announced joyously.

So that's his angle huh? Make me look unworthy? Well, two can play that game.

"Asshole," I muttered under my breath.

"What did you just call me?"

"An Asshole" I said loud enough everyone heard.

His eye twitch. Good, he finally gets a tiny taste of his own medicine. "Watch your mouth, Hathaway. You are already maxed out on punishments but see me after class. I think I can find the perfect punishment for you that doesn't end with you being expelled."

"Oh I see-"

"If you ran into a Strigoi, would you have survived? After sparring with your classmates and losing do you really think you could take on fully grown Strigoi and be alive?"

"I already killed two before we-"

"Yes, yes I know. But you did not stake them. Fire killed them, if Christian was not there you and her would be dead!" he shot back impatiently.

"I kept her alive, didn't I?" I said, trying not to let this asshole break my self-control again—not that I had much to begin with.

"Because you got lucky. If you came across a Strigoi they would break that pretty little neck of yours before you knew what was going on. They are faster, stronger, and their senses? Are better than anything you can imagine. Fighting a Strigoi is like fighting an army of mutant Dhampirs on crack. You and the last Dragomir could have died."

"But we didn't," My earlier sarcastic mood became sullen.

"Because you got lucky." He said as if he won the match.

Stan let me sit down while he lectured the class until the bell rang. Dimitri stayed in his spot, not allowing me out of his sight. I felt uneasy under his gaze but when I looked back half way through class, his eyes were looking at everything and nothing just like a guardian should. I tuned out Stan for the rest of the class too, knowing I really should have paid attention. I already lost so much time. Eddie would surely help me catch up to speed if I had the time. I gave a sigh of relief as the bell rang and started to exit the room with the crowd of students. Stan called my name, forcing me to stay in the room. Nobody spoke again until only Dimitri, Stan, and I remained in the room.

"Guardian Belikov, there is no need for you to say around. I am capable of handling Miss Hathaway if she tries to escape again."

"No disrespect sir but I have my orders and I am not leaving Hathaway without direct orders from Guardian Petrov." Ah there he goes again: my knight in shining armor.

Stan's eye twitched before he regained his composure."Fine. Rose, you have a choice of two punishments unless you want to be expelled and I know you will not like either option. You can clean out the Chapel and help set it up for the full moon ritual until you are relieved or you can give the dark daughters your blood for their ritual. They cut you and you bleed into the cup. They won't feed from you. The choice is yours."

Stan Alto found the only way to render me speechless.

Dimitri's POV

...the choice is yours," Guardian Alto said.

Rose was speechless, something I knew did not happen to her. She always has a witty comeback for everything. I figured it was time to intervene and help Rose out just a little. Stan really was an ass. What the hell was he thinking? He should never have offered her blood for the ritual. It was inappropriate. What happened to him that made him such an asshole?

"Sir, I do not think that is an acceptable punishment. She is not allowed to give up her blood." I stepped in before Rose could say anything.

"That is not up to you." Stan said.

He really was starting to get on my nerves. In a snap decision, I made up Rose's mind for her. There was no way I just going to sit around while these vampyres took her precious blood.

"She will clean the chapel but she will not give blood."

Something shone in Stan's eyes that frightened me. Why was he looking at me like that? "Why do you care? You just met this girl yesterday and you fought to keep her enrolled and now you know what's best for her?"

I was taken back by the question but I did not hesitate answering."No, I don't, but giving blood... she should not have to give blood."

"Well it's not your choice. Rose, what do you want to do?"

I begged and pleaded with my eyes, wishing she would understand. Our eyes met and neither of us looked away for almost thirty seconds and I thought she understood what I tried conveying to her. I did not realize I was holding my breath until I heard her decision.

"I guess the chapel."

I wanted to smile but held it back although I think Rose saw through my mask when she looked away.

"Right after your warrior training you go to the chapel. The ritual is in a week and they need your help. Belikov, see to it she is there on time. If she is late, it will be on you."

I nodded, not trusting my voice. What was his problem? I heard all the guardians talk about Rose's body before and things they wished they could do and it never bothered me. Not until I met her. When Stan got in her face like that? I just wanted to slap that smirk off his face and tell him to fuck off and not to talk to her like that or get that close to her again.

Stan's question played in my head like a loop. Why do I care so much about Rose? I only just met her yet I knew she was different. I did everything I could to keep her here and safe and yeah I only just met her! What was happening to me? There had to be a rational explanation as to why I cared so much for her. I just had to find it.

Rose walked out without being properly dismissed, ending my inner turmoil. I had a lot of work to do with her. I followed her only into the next hallway before tugging on her arm, forcing her to stop.

"You have to wait to be dismissed before leaving like that."

She cocked her head to the side, giving me a look that screamed "what the fuck".

"It was clear the lecture was over. And what the hell was that! I can speak for myself, you know." What was she talking about? "If I wanted to do the blood thing you wouldn't let me?" Oh. "Is that right?" she lowered her voice so only I could hear, making the air around us freeze. "I fed Lissa to keep her safe. You know that."

"I do, but you do not need to give up your blood to get out of trouble."

"I wouldn't. I would have picked the cleaning over giving blood like that." She made a disgusted face, reminding me about the blood whore comment she made.

"Glad to see we agree on something." I said keeping my voice hard. "Come on, we have training to get-"

"Rose!" Eddie called running across the yard. I swear if he kept her from training, she would never hear the end of it.

Rose's head shot is the direction of his voice just in time to see me clinch my fists. "Can't talk now, training." She gave her infamous Hathaway eye roll.

"It'll be quick, I promise."

She looked at me for possible approval, I nodded giving her what she wanted. I was curious as to what she would do with this privilege. "Fine, walk with us then."

Hearing that made me smile. She was not going to let him distract her from her training which meant she was serious. I made the right decision. I had to stick with this undisciplined, trouble making girl.

"Lissa got invited to the Dark Daughters ceremony." Rose stopped walking, her eyes wide with surprise. I knew Lissa meant everything to Rose so I gave her this moment.

"What!? No, she's not even Marked! How can she-"

"Anyone can be a part of it. There are no rules against different races being part of them."

The shock was clear on her face though she tried hiding it well behind that sarcastic façade. I let them talk a few moments before pushing the now stilled movement forward. During the short walk to the field, Eddie tried to cheer her up though. She laughed at his jokes and made it sound natural but I knew something was off. My feeling was confirmed when he walked away and her face fell.

Should I do anything? I debated comforting her myself until we got to the edge of the field and track.

"Stan's such an ass" she said before I could say anything.

"I don't agree with what he said to you but it was true. Rose, do you really believe you were prepared to protect her?" I've been dying to know the answer to that myself.

"I killed two Strigoi before I left. If I had to, I could've done it again. I kept her safe the whole time, even when the academy couldn't."

I took in her words but somehow I knew she knew what the truth was even though her attitude expressed otherwise. "I looked in your files, you were top in your class and I'd really like to help you get back there." I rested a hand on her shoulder and leaned down so we are eye level. Don't say anything stupid, Dimitri! "Let me help you."

"I thought that is what I signed up for comrade." She gave a real-non bullshit smile.

Rose's POV

"Let me help you" Dimitri said, looking deep into my soul. I could not escape him.

"I thought that is what I signed up for, comrade," I gave him a real smile unlike the ones I gave Eddie.

I feared I ruined the moment with my comment but that was asking for one of my famous Rose Hathaway quips. But when Dimitri gave my a half-smile, I knew we are fine.

My Warrior training was different and unlike anything I ever faced before. Most of it was learning about the Marked vampyres and everything with them but they did some training with me as they saw fit.

I smiled as Dimitri entered the gym, ten minutes before our training began. As soon Darius left, Dimitri asked me many questions on my training while I was away. When he finished he demonstrated the stretches he wanted me to do.

"Come on comrade, can't we just start tomorrow?" I asked during the warm up stretches.

He laughed at me until he realized I was serious. They did not give me a warm and fuzzy mentor. "Oh," his face fell, "you're serious."

"Of course I am! I hurt like hell and the little sleep I did get I was pulled into Lissa's head."

"You will feel a hundred times worse tomorrow so better to start training now." Yup, he certainly was not a warm and fuzzy mentor. Why did I have to get stuck with this hot hard ass?

Instead of letting me fight, he forced me to run my usual three miles, lift weights, and other body toning exercises we had embedded in us since I can remember. Dimitri sat on the sidelines reading a western novel I was sure going to give him hell for tomorrow.