I have no excuse for not updating in so long, I just suck. Sorry. But I do have good news . . .

I got a beta! Hip Hip HUUURAY! I've been rereading my work and the amount of spelling mistakes is just atrocious so with the help of my wonderful friend VA GYPSY ya'll wont have to suffer anymore! Love ya, sis! I encourage everyone to go check out Gypsy's Story Running to Nowhere, it's a really good read!

This chapter is going to be short and for that I apologize but this was all that wanted to be written. But if you bare with me, I have really great ideas for this story, but it will progress slower than my other stories.

ROSE

I released my group soon after my conversation with Ambrose. I hope it doesn't show, but I feel a painful pang in my chest watching him leave, alone with hunched shoulders and a grim look on his tired face. He's a cute kid. I can already tell when he gets over this awkward stage he'll be handsome one day. If he survives that long.

Doesn't change the fact that there is something that kid is not 'fessing up to, something bad eating away at him, crippling him. I subconsciously roll my eyes at myself; of course he didn't open up to you, he doesn't know you, dumbass.

A small, dark part of me, that I'm not at all proud of, is kinda . . . indifferent to his pain. I'm a believer in natural selection. The weak die; the strong live.

The dark part of me can't help but think, only you can let yourself be crippled. My pain didn't stop me; I didn't let it. So why should anyone else need to be babied.

Then I remember the Moroi and the fact that I willingly defend them night and day, and my whole dark perspective is thrashed.

But not completely, gone.

I do take a small amount of solace in the fact that there is a bigger, more humane part of me that is appalled with the ruthless logic I'm capable of.

At least I'm not a complete monster. Just a little damaged.

After the mini sparring matches with my students, my senses are on high alert, so the sexy Russian doesn't startle me this time. Now that I'm paying attention, I can tell that even though he's huge, he barely makes a sound as he walks.

Barely.

"I hope you're able to break though to him, Guardian Hathaway." He says softly, his voice so impossibly deep and wonderfully accented. He halts about five feet behind me, to which I take great notice of the safe distance. He didn't get too close to me for our other chat either.

I turn, once again, shocked and a little uncomfortable with his size. If he were to ever turn Strigoi, God speed the poor bastard that crosses his path.

"I hope so, too." I agree. "Have any idea what his deal is?"

He looks at me impassively for the most part, but I didn't miss his left eye twitch a little bit.

"It's not gossip, Comrade," A flash of surprise lights up his eyes momentarily, obviously not expecting me to catch onto his feelings. "If I'm going to have even a remote chance of helping him a fraction of what he needs, I'll need to understand him better."

He quickly drowns the spark in his eyes, making them instantly look dull.

Too bad; they're really pretty when they're filled with life.

I follow suit and put on the best mask I can.

"We don't know much about his past, just that he was orphaned at ten. He doesn't pay attention in class, in any of his classes, and keeps himself secluded from the other students as much as possible. He doesn't seem to care about anything." From the way Ambrose carried himself today, his attitude doesn't surprise me, but the unmistakably forced robotics of Comrade's voice does.

"You've tried to work with him before." I deduce.

His thick eyebrow pounces back up, almost like it has a mind of it's own.

"I didn't say that." He rumbles, his accent reaching deeper. Have I frustrated the sexy man?

Clipboard in hand, I turn and walk away without another glance.

Yes, you did.

I'm not positive, but I think I got to him. Walking away I couldn't help but feel kinda cool. Until I realized I didn't get his name, again.

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