When Rose is shot by Tasha Ozera in Last Sacrifice, both Lissa and Adrian use all of the Spirit they can wield to try and bring her back. In a shocking turn of events, Rose is not only healed, but somehow ends up somewhere she never could have imagined. Canon up until Time-Travel. Rated T for language. First multi-chapter fic.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"What was what about?" I asked innocently.

"Rose," she said meaningfully. It was hard to play dumb when your friend knew you could read her mind. I knew exactly what she was talking about. "You being a bitch to Tasha."

"I wasn't that much of a bitch."

"You were rude," she exclaimed, stepping out of the way of a bunch of

Moroi children who came tearing through the lobby. They were bundled up in

parkas, and a weary-looking Moroi ski instructor followed them.

I put my hands on my hips. "Look, I'm just grumpy, okay? Didn't get much sleep. Besides, I'm not like you. I don't have to be polite all the time."

Frostbite

-Richelle Mead

Bonds Of Time

Chapter Seventeen

Day N Nite

The door to the room creaked loudly as I walked in with the phone held to my ear. My father hadn't said a word since I told him my name, and I couldn't help but smile as I made him through my silence. Quiet as a mouse, I snuck into the bathroom and shut the door. The mirror taunted me with my horrid appearance. I grabbed my toothbrush and had a mouthful of burning bubbles when my father finally decided to speak.

"Your mother said that you wanted to speak to me." Abe said in a curt tone. "The phone is yours to use for whatever you like, but my number is never to be given out. Do you understand?"

"Yup," I spat into the sink, "So what are you up to, pops? Or should I call you 'daddy? No, never mind, that just sounds wrong. Too fluffy."

"I agree. It doesn't matter what you choose to call me." Abe sounded amused. "I've heard plenty of stories and rumors about you, little one."

"Well I've heard next to nothing about you." I responded dryly. "So tell me about yourself. What do you do for a living? Do you have any hobbies?"

Abe laughed heartily. "I don't think it'd be wise to go into what I do. Why don't you tell me why your mother has been so frantic lately."

"Oh, you know," I said dismissively, "ran away from school. Got captured. Another student almost succeeded in killing me. Then I had to kill her after she turned Strigoi."

"Death threats and killing." I could almost hear a sense of pride in his voice. "Seven Strigoi kills before you've even graduated. You must be my daughter."

"Don't sound too proud, old man. It wasn't like it was easy," I changed my tone. "I just didn't have any other choice."

There was someone screaming in the background, and I had to hide the phone under a towel so Lissa wouldn't hear it. "Rose, I'm afraid I have to cut our conversation short."

"Yeah, you need to gag whoever that is." I rolled my eyes as I brushed my hair. "Have fun doing whatever it is that you're doing. Call me back when you have time to talk, okay?"

"I will." He said and then hung up, leaving me standing there staring at the phone in disappointment.

"Shit!" I yelped when the time popped up on the screen.

I had less than ten minutes to get dressed and sneak down to Dimitri's room. I opened the door and tip toed to where my bag sat and dug through it. My hands grabbed the first clothes they came across in the dark room. My wet clothes hit the floor with a soggy thump. Dressed and more than ready, I left the room and locked the door behind me. The hallways were empty as I made my way to the second floor. Dimitri's door was open and I walked in without invitation.

"Sorry I'm a couple minutes late." I scrubbed my face with my palm. "Got stuck on the phone with a Russian mob boss."

Dimitri looked up from his book, probably hoping that I was just joking. "Mob boss?"

"Yeah," I flopped down on the bed beside him and put my hand on his chest, "so where were we?"

"You were going to explain why you've been avoiding me." Dimitri put his book on the bedside table and turned toward me.

My playful mood evaporated and all that was left was the urge to flee the room. "I haven't been avoiding you. Tasha just gives me the creeps."

"Tasha Ozera?" Dimitri let out a small laugh. "Is that what this is about? You're jealous?"

"Jealous!" My eyes widened as I stared at him in disbelief. "Far from it. There is no reason why I'd ever be jealous of her."

My tone must have gotten my point across because Dimitri's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Do you have any reason to justify feeling that way?"

Yes, she shot me in the fucking heart. "Nope, I just want to bash her face in every time I see her. Something feels off when she's around and I don't like it."

"And it has nothing to do with her friendship with me?" Dimitri clarified while he studied my face.

"Okay, so maybe I'm not too fond over how handsy she is with you." I admitted quickly.

"You've spent plenty of time with Ivashkov and I have not said a word." Dimitri said lowly.

I couldn't help it, I laughed. "Adrian? Please, he's like a goofy older brother."

"Really?" He looked like he believed me. "And he feels the same way about you?"

"Yes," I smiled at him. "He actually tried to warn me about you last night. Said that you were scary."

The corner of his lips twitched before he became suddenly serious. "You told him?"

"No, he just figured it out." I said honestly. "He's pretty good about reading people. Don't worry, he's not going to tell anybody."

"I don't know what to tell you about Tasha." He shook his head.

Dimitri's hair had come free from its tie, a piece of it was hanging to the side of his face and I ran my fingers through it. "Don't worry about it. I'll handle it. As long as I keep my distance, she'll be safe. But if she tries anything shady, I'm whooping that ass."

"She's a good person, Rose." Dimitri shook his head as he pulled me closer to him. "But if you feel that strongly about her, I won't bring it up again."

"So where did we leave off earlier?" Dimitri asked with a grin as he leaned down to kiss me, making me forget everything else.

Hours later I walked on shaky legs back to my room. The concept of sleep was sounding almost as good as a nice long shower, maybe better. But when I got back to the third floor, I found that I would get neither. Lissa's distress was pouring through the bond and when I checked in on her, it was to find her in the middle of a nightmare. This one starred Victor, as he tortured Christian, and Lissa's imagination was exaggerating the gruesomeness of that day.

I ran the last few feet to our room and flung open the door. Without pausing to shut it, I took off towards the bed where Lissa was tossing and turning fitfully. She was still struggling as I pulled her into a hug and held her tightly while trying to wake her up. Through the bond I searched out and found the dark blot of negativity and quickly pulled it to myself. Lissa's sobs subsided and she slowly came back to reality.

She pulled herself away and looked up at me with tear filled eyes. "You saw, didn't you?"

"Yeah," I sat there on the edge of the bed tugging at the sleeve of my shirt, "you okay?"

"I'll be alright." She said tiredly. "Where have you been? I waited up for you."

"Sorry," I winced, "I was with Adrian for most of the night and ended up crashing in his room."

Lissa gave me a long look. "But Adrian said that you two were just friends."

"We are just friends, two friends that got too shitfaced to find their own rooms. I promise that we stayed fully clothed the entire time." I held up my hand and nodded seriously.

Lissa smiled and shook her head. "I've missed you, Rose."

"I've missed you, too." I elbowed her in the side playfully. "How about you tell flamer to leave you alone tonight, and you and I can just hang here and chill like old times."

"Really?" Lissa looked shocked. "You'd want to do that."

"Hells yeah," I wrapped my arm around her neck and roughed up her hair.

That night, just as promised, Lissa and I stayed in our room, watching movies and eating popcorn. I was trying to get up the nerve to talk to her about Dimitri, but every time I'd go to say it, the words stuck in my mouth. That is until we were watching one of those comic book movie adaptations, and Lissa started going on and on over the hot hammer toting guy that I blurted it out, surprising even myself.

"I'm secretly dating Dimitri." I slapped a hand over my mouth and looked away.

Lissa gave a little squeak of surprise. "I knew it! I win the bet! Christian so owes me twenty dollars!"

"Say what now?" I looked at her with both brows furrowed.

"That night after that scum bag and his friends attacked you, Christian and I saw you and Dimitri cuddled up on the couch together. I told him that there was something between you two. But he said that you were probably just scared and didn't want to be alone."

"You're not angry?" I asked quietly.

"No, Rose," she grabbed my hand and squeezed it, "you've seemed happier. Since we've been back at the Academy, you've just looked lost. But when he's around, you look happy. I'm thrilled for you."

"I'm sorry," I said honestly, "I've wanted to tell you for so long."

"But you've told me now." Lissa smiled at me. "Now tell me everything. I want details."

And so we talked for a couple more hours about my secret relationship with Dimitri. It felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders that there was one less thing I was hiding from my best friend. My mother showed up at our door an hour into us watching a scary movie, saying that her roommate was snoring and asked if she could crash on our couch. Neither Lissa or I had a problem with it and both scooted over so she could sit between us. By the end of the thriller, Lissa and I were jumping at any sound that we heard.

"You girls," my mother shook her head, "there's nothing to be frightened of here."

The words had barely left her mouth when something hit the balcony door and my mother jumped a foot in the air and let out a gasp. Lissa and I both looked at each other in shock and then at my mother who stood stock still in the middle of the room, then Lissa and I both burst out laughing.

"Your face!" I gasped out as I contorted my face to mimic the way Janine's had looked.

"What on earth was that?" My mother growled as she opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the dark balcony.

Seconds later she was hit full in the face by a massive snowball. "Those little shits!"

Lissa and I both fell over holding our sides as my mom pulled on her coat and boots. "They will rue the day they messed with me."

Taking it as our cue, Lissa and I put on our coats and boots and chased my mother out of the lodge and into the snow covered grounds. Janine still had melted snow in her hair as she quietly approached one of the guys that had been throwing snowballs. She reached down and picked up a handful of snow and dropped it onto the guys head. He spun around in shock, shaking his hair out.

"Christian!" Lissa gasped. "How could you!"

"I thought it was Rose!" He yelped as he took in my mother's icy hair and even icier look.

"Really, now?" I stalked up to him. "So you wanted to hit me with a snowball? Me? Oh, it's on Sparky."

It was an all out war between the four of us. My mother showed off her stealth and speed as she snuck up on us before we realized it. I admired her even more as I saw something that I hadn't even in my dream. She was laughing and playing around without having her guard up. It was really something I would never forget. At one point during the snowball fight, I looked up to see a very tall shadow standing in front of the huge bay windows. The long duster gave away said shadows owner. But what surprised me was that standing next to him, watching us, was a slightly shorter person who was smoking a cigarette. I shook my head and went back to the fight as I was pelted in the back again by Lissa.

Half an hour later my mother stopped moving and pressed a hand to her earpiece, and then grabbed my arm. "Rose, there's an emergency! Gather every free guardian you can find and have them meet me in the conference room. Hurry." She was in Guardian Hathaway mode and I wasn't going to argue with her.

I turned around and ran back into the lodge and through the hallways, telling every guardian and novice I came across where to meet and to tell anyone they could come across. The Drozdov attack didn't happen for another week or two in my dream, but considering how much I had changed, I didn't want to take any chances with innocent lives at stake. The entire lodge had been searched and still there was no sign of Dimitri. Adrian said that he had went back inside not long after I had spotted them on the balcony, but I had yet to find him. I was on the last and fourth floor when I heard something that froze me in my tracks. Tasha's low sultry voice carried halfway down the hallway. It sounded like she was directing a low budget porno movie and I feared what I'd find.

"Now take off your shirt," Tasha commanded, "Get on the bed."

The door was cracked open, so I had to resort to knocking on the door frame to avoid seeing any of Ozera's bits. But there was no way to avoid not seeing him lying there.

"Eh hum…" I cleared my throat and tried and failed to shield my eyes, "Guardian Belikov, you're needed immediately. Something has come up."

"Go see what she wants." Tasha whispered the order to him.

"I'll be right out." Dimitri replied quickly.

I shut the door and waited impatiently in the hallway, mentally berating my stupid right instincts. Hell, Dimitri was a good lucking single guy with a reputation that most guardians never achieved. Who the hell wouldn't want him by their side? But the thought of that stupid bitch freaking compelling him to sleep with her was beyond sickening. There was no way to prove it though. Trying to report her would be useless. No one would believe my word over hers. My stomach turned at the thought of the two of them together.

Dimitri exited the room a few seconds later with Tasha close on his heels. I had to restrain myself from taking a swing at the smug looking bitch. Dimitri must have sensed my dilemma, because he quickly fell into step behind me, putting himself between Tasha and I. Which I'm not going to say was a wise choice. I kind of wanted to take a swing at him too. But there were more important things to think about.

We walked in tense silence to my mother's makeshift war base and quickly filed into our assigned areas. I was with the other novices, while Dimitri, of course was with the other guardians at the front row. It was a drastic change from my dream where only guardians had been allowed to attend. But considering the commotion that we must have stirred up, it was no wonder that there were over two hundred people in the room. Straight across from us novices, sat the Moroi who had a say in whatever plans the guardians made. A few more stragglers darted into the room and took their places before my mother began her speech.

"We've received information that leads us to believe that the Strigoi are planning another massive attack."

The Moroi began whispering furiously and all of the guardians and students seemed to lean forward at once in rapt attention. I sat up straight in my chair, carefully surveying the crowd to judge their reactions.

"How did you come about this information?" A rather old and scruffy looking Moroi man asked loudly.

"Where is the attack to be?" Another royal exclaimed in panic.

"Are we safe here?" A young woman looked around in fright.

"Please," Janine said firmly, "bear with me until I can give you all the details. Questions can be asked after we've done everything in our power to prevent this attack from becoming something worse."

The Moroi looked outraged at basically being told to shut the hell up, but they bit their tongues and sat back down.

"An acquaintance of mine has been tracking the Strigoi's feeding pattern in North America. We have reason to believe that they are part of the same group that attacked the Badica Estate this past fall. They are now on the path to Northern California where another group of Moroi are living."

Janine took a deep breath and then continued with a desperate yet determined air. "The Drozdov's have been notified and are fortifying their defenses as we speak, but as they only have five guardians on hand and fourteen Moroi to protect, their chances are not looking good. The Drozdov Guardians were waiting for secure transport to arrive when I last spoke to them, but something has happened and I can no longer reach them."

I looked across the room to where Mia and Aaron sat. Mia was looking from my mother to the Guardians she spoke to with the utmost regard. Aaron was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, if the twitching limbs and lip chewing were anything to go by. Though, how could I blame either of them. Had someone I cared for been on the verge of being attacked by monsters, I highly doubt I'd have the composure to sit still and wait patiently for someone to form a rescue plan.

"As the closest group of able Guardians, I would like to ask for any that are willing to volunteer. We have no idea how many there are, but I've been told to expect at least twenty or more Strigoi to show up after nightfall. It is a two hour flight to the airport nearest their estate and another three hours by car. The sun has just started to rise so time is not a luxury we have. I will be waiting by the gates in thirty minutes, any help will be greatly appreciated."

Shouts and murmurs rang throughout the room as Moroi demanded that either their guardians left immediately to help, or that they stayed behind to protect the larger group at the resort.

I didn't need to stick around and wait for this shit to play out. I already knew how it would end. The Moroi would vote that the Drozdovs were a lost cause and that they needed the guardians here. Those with ties to that family would say that the guardians needed to go on a rescue mission to save one of the other royal families. It would go back and forth while nothing was being done to help.

The hallway was crammed full of people waiting to hear what was going on and I had to push and shove my way back to the stairs. I needed to get back to my room and start preparing for the next battle. Because there was no way in hell that I'd be left behind for this one.

Lissa gave me a quick hug as she handed me my messenger bag. "Be careful, Rose."

"Love you, Lissa." I hugged her back. "Stay here. Stay safe."

"I will." She said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

Twenty minutes later, I'd snuck onto the plane of doom with naught but my old lady get up and a huge pair of sunglasses, all provided to me by Madame Conta not locking the door to her suite. The wig itched like mad and I couldn't help but dig my nails under it and scratch the hell out of my poor noggin.

"Madame Conta's purple wig would have suited you better at this moment." Adrian informed me with a smug smirk as I straightened the itchy fake blond monstrosity that sat on my head. "Or better yet, the cougar red."

"What are you doing here?" My fierce whisper was louder than I had hoped and a few boarding Guardians turned to see what was going on. "You're supposed to be at the resort under armed guard indulging in vats of liquor and ogling girls by the hot tub."

"And you, little Dhampir, are supposed to be getting a manicure with the Princess." He laughed at me. "It looks as though we're both a little off course."

"You're taking up a seat meant for a trained Guardian!" I hissed at him. "You're only one more Moroi to protect. We don't need that where we're going."

"But you aren't a trained Guardian." He retaliated with a sly grin. "And look around, Rosie, out of fifty Guardians only twelve board a plane that can hold one hundred."

I looked around the cabin and found that, to my own dismay, he was right. The front of the cabin had a few Guardians scattered throughout. Twelve in all, counting my mother and not counting myself.

"There aren't enough of us." I realized. "We'll be slaughtered."

"Not if I can help it." Adrian stated with an air of knowing something that I didn't, as he pulled out a thin sleek silver laptop out of his bag. "Human technology is a wondrous thing. Sometimes brains are better than brawn."

"Says someone who has neither." I retorted as I crossed my arms and leaned back to spy on what he was doing.

The plane lifted into the air just as the sun started to rise, if my calculations were correct, we wouldn't land until nine thirty in the morning. And we wouldn't get to the Drozdovs until after one in the afternoon. Even if there was no threat whatsoever, we would only have a few short hours to evacuate everyone and get back to the plane before sunset.

It was downright painful for me as I watched Dimitri take his seat. He shouldn't have been there. He should have been at the lodge guarding Lissa where it was safe. I didn't really care about what had happened between him and Tasha. It wasn't his fault if he was compelled. But it still hurt.

"How hard is it for a non-spirit user to compel a dhampir ?" I asked Adrian.

"It's possible if they're extremely weak willed or if you're compelling them to do something that they'd want to do already, and it would last a few minutes tops." Adrian stated mechanically as he typed. "Why?"

"No reason," I replied as I put my head against the glass and tried to get some sleep.

The tears remained unshed and hidden behind the dark shades as my eyes stayed on the sunrise. Some days my life sucked, and then there were days like this where nothing went as planned. It was only too bad for me that there was a piece of the story that I was missing.

End Chapter Seventeen

Thoughts? Comments? Let me know. I always reply and love to hear what you have to say.

Also, I'd like to take a vote on whether or not to change the rating of this story to M. I'd hate to offend or lose any readers over a rating change. Let me know what you think.

Special thanks to Caden29 for her wonderful editing skills! ::Hands over homemade double chocolate chunk cookies::