"What are they like?" I asked curiously as Dimitri and I walked to Oksana and Mark's place. The sun was just setting, but we were traveling further into town, not out, and Dimitri and I were both armed.

"I honestly don't know them that well," Dimitri confessed, holding my hand tightly in his. "They moved here five years ago, but I was away with Ivan most of the time. Then after Ivan died, I transferred to America. I can tell you she's Moroi, he's older and Dhampir. I think he was her Guardian, but they're married now and shadow-kissed."

"It's going to be weird meeting a bonded couple," I mused.

"You must have a lot of questions?"

"You have no idea, Comrade!"

The sun set just as we were walking up to their front path. Dimitri knocked and the door opened to reveal a Dhampir in his late forties or early fifties. He was obviously a Guardian, but there was something else about him, too. A softness that hinted he was also a family man.

"Dimitri! Good to see you again," he said, holding his hand out. "You must be Rose," he continued, leaning forward to give me a peck on one cheek and then the other. "Please come in. Oksana is so excited to meet you!"

He ushered us into a gorgeous cottage. It was small, but the whole space was perfect! Filled with handmade quilts and rustic furniture, the place screamed comfortable domesticity. Leading us through a small formal lounge, he brought us through to an open kitchen meals area and toward a woman in her late thirties.

"Dimitri," she greeted him with a smile, before holding out her arms and pulling me into a hug.

"Rose!" she smiled as if we were long lost friends and not perfect strangers.

"Oksana!" I replied, feeling an immediate affinity for the Moroi.

"It's the spirit," she explained, answering my unspoken question. "The shadow-kissed usually recognize Spirit in others."

I thought about Adrian and the connection I felt with him. It wasn't the romantic bond he hoped for, but there was certainly an understanding and closeness there that couldn't be explained in any other way.

"That makes sense," I replied, letting Oksana lead me over to the dining table, Dimitri following behind.

Oksana looked at Mark. I saw a shift of his features and realized they were talking in their heads.

"Your bond works both ways!" I gasped.

"Yours doesn't?" Mark asked in surprise.

"No. I can 'hear' Lissa, but she can't hear me."

"Well it did take us a while," Oksana comforted me, before laughing. "Well you might have a point," she added. Mark also chortled.

Dimitri was the only one in the room not clued in.

"I was thinking that it was bad enough me seeing Lissa's love life without her seeing ours," I explained to him.

"So you can read minds?" I asked Oksana, understanding why she was responding to my thoughts.

"Yes and no. If a thought is 'loud' enough, I can hear it unsought. If I want to consciously seek out thoughts, I have to concentrate. You really don't want your bond mate to know about your relationship with Dimitri?"

I sighed, explaining the situation between Dimitri and myself, including the age difference and the fact that he was still technically a teacher or mentor to me and could get in trouble. I'm not sure why, but I was not concerned about spelling out my concerns to Oksana. It's like I instinctively knew she could be trusted.

"Yes – we would never betray your secrets," Oksana replied absently as she served the meal of pasta with meat and mushrooms.

We started in on our heaped plates, making general chit chat for a little while.

"So tell me about your bond mate," Mark asked. He was quieter than Oksana, but he seemed curious about the bond Lissa and I shared.

It was hard to know what to say, so I started at the beginning - explaining how Lissa and I had been best friends since kindergarten, and how she saved me after the crash that killed her parents and brother. I also told them about taking Lissa on the run, Victor, and then more recently where we'd been separated.

"It must be difficult having a bond mate who is not your life partner," Mark mused.

"How so?"

"I mean it's easy for me with Oksana. She is my wife, my charge, and my bond mate. I can put her first in every situation without guilt. You could end up with a charge, a partner and a bond mate as three different people."

I'd never thought of it in quite that way, but as soon as he said it, I could appreciate the dilemma. If I guarded anyone other than Lissa, I'd be pulled by love, friendship and obligation in three different directions. It was bad enough I'd already had to decide between Dimitri and Lissa!

Dimitri draped a long arm around me, sensing my mental mood plummeting.

"We'll make it work, ангел," he promised, dropping a kiss onto my temple.

"It would be so much easier for you if you loved someone less… encumbered," I said apologetically.

Dimitri's mouth twitched. It was a long word for me!

"But a lot less fun," he teased me.

After that, Oksana wanted to hear about what Lissa could do with Spirit. I told her about the healing and compulsion, and about Adrian's ability to dream-walk.

"No fair! I've never been able to get the hang of that!" Oksana said with a pretty pout, referring to dream walking.

"It's pretty cool," I said with a laugh. "Although it can be annoying when you just want to sleep."

I could feel Dimitri stiffen beside me.

"He hasn't done it in ages," I comforted immediately, recognizing the direction of his thoughts.

Oksana explained that her talents were mostly mind reading, compulsion, some healing and making spirit charms. She explained charms could help mitigate the effects of spirit, essentially lessening the effect of darkness on my mind and body.

Mark tensed when she mentioned the darkness, as did I.

"Your bond mate should make these for you regularly. They take very little Spirit to produce, and the benefit is worth it in terms of protecting you."

"How often do you make one for Mark?" I asked.

"Whenever he needs one," she said simply.

Mark looked at me with a smile.

"Because we have a two-way bond, Oksana can see when darkness is troubling me, and she'll charm my wedding band again."

My eyes dropped to his ring finger - on his right hand as per Russian custom - to see a large, thick silver band he was toying with.

"If she's not using a lot of Spirit, every three or four months is enough. If she does a big healing or similar, then she'll top it up."

"And Lissa will be able to do this to help me?" I asked optimistically.

"It's easy to do," Oksana assured me. "If she has trouble getting the hang of it, I can talk her through it. But you'll need to tell her when you need one."

I sighed. Yet another thing tying me to Lissa. It's not that I resented it – I loved Lissa and she was more than my best friend, she was my sister – I just hated feeling that I was letting her down by loving Dimitri.

Dimitri, Eddie, Meredith and I walked into the Belikov house on Wednesday night, hot and tired after our usual run home from the gym, only to find Sonya and Karolina entertaining a visitor. Raisa Asimov!

Dimitri's eyes flicked to mine as soon as we walked in to see her sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee. He might have been unaware of her flirting at the fights on Saturday, but he'd had four days of groveling since then, so he was immediately on guard.

"Meredith? You want first shower or second?" Eddie asked, filling the silence.

Sonya looked up smiling sweetly.

"Meredith? You can use the bathroom Karolina and I share upstairs if you want? Then Eddie can use the one down here. Rose and Dimitri shower together anyway, so they can use their usual one upstairs."

"Why do you shower with Auntie Rose, Uncle Dimka?" Paul asked innocently.

Sonya smirked while Karolina shot my Russian love a warning look. Apparently, today was not the day for the birds and the bees!

"Um… we're saving water for the environment," he replied unconvincingly.

However Paul seemed pleased enough with that as an answer, while Sonya was sniggering and Eddie was outright laughing.

"Never took you two as environmentalists," he chortled when Karolina sent Paul out the back to help Yeva in the garden.

"We all need to play our part," I said sweetly, grabbing Dimitri's hand, nodding to Sonya, Karolina, and Raisa and leading my man upstairs. "Be back in a tick," I called out over my shoulder.

"Not if it's one of your usual showers, you won't!" Sonya retorted with a laugh.

While I wouldn't have been adverse to a little shower action, Dimitri was mortified by his sister's jokes about our bathroom activities so we were quickly done. Back in our bedroom, I asked whether we could just hang out up here, but Dimitri insisted it would be rude and we should at least put in an appearance downstairs.

"Why's she here anyway?" I asked.

"She was in Sonya's year at school. I guess she's visiting her."

I smiled sweetly, knowing there was no way in hell Raisa was here to visit her old school friend!

We changed into home clothes, me choosing a pair of skinny jeans and a top with a deep v-neck that showed off my cleavage nicely. Then we walked back downstairs, surprised to find we'd beaten both Eddie and Meredith back.

"You want a drink, babe?" I asked Dimitri as he flopped onto a sofa in the adjoining living room with one of his ubiquitous westerns.

"I'm good," he said, grabbing me around the waist and pulling me on top of him for a quick kiss. One thing led to another, and I was giggling as I backed away from him, waggling my finger reprovingly. I was gratified to see Raisa notice our affection, and that Dimitri had instigated it.

"Hi Rose," she greeted as I wandered into the adjoining kitchen, preparing a hot chocolate for myself.

"Hi Raisa," I said pleasantly. Dimitri had made it crystal clear he was with me. I didn't need to be a bitch. In fact, it would be so much better if I wasn't! Nursing my cup, I joined Karo, Sonya, and Raisa at the table.

"Raisa and I were at St. Basil's together," Sonya said pleasantly, and I immediately picked up on the tension in her voice.

"She was just telling us all about her wonderful allocation. And she's made three kills since she graduated," Karolina enthused. Again the words were polite enough; it was the tone that was off.

"Oh it's not that glamorous," Raisa smiled. "It's not like I kill Strigoi for fun…"

She was speaking loudly, and I had to wonder if it were to attract Dimitri's attention.

"No of course not," I assured her, nodding seriously.

For the next five minutes, I got a blow-by-blow account of her three kills.

"You're going to be a Guardian - you'll discover all this," she said condescendingly.

I smiled sweetly. I'd had my hair in a low bun the day we'd met. She didn't know I was marked!

"Rose has already killed Strigoi. Actually, she protected the town from one on Saturday night on her way home after the fight," Karolina said.

"Your first?" Raisa asked with a forced smile.

"Hardly!" Sonya scoffed. "This will be her tenth molnija and she has a zvezda, too."

"You've fought in battle?" Raisa asked with raised eyebrows. The zvezda was an uncommon mark, and it was an honor to bear one.

"The battle of St. Vlad's," I said sipping my hot chocolate.

Nothing more was said, so I deftly changed the topic.

"You had a call today?" I asked Sonya leadingly.

She sighed, but there was a pretty smile on her face.

"He'll call at eight tonight," she replied.

"Well I figured there was a man on the scene," Raisa joked, dropping her eyes to Sonya's just-there baby bump.

I could see shame and uncertainty flicker in Sonya's eyes, and suddenly I hated the bleached blonde bitch sitting at Olena's kitchen table.

"You know him. Sonya and Kirill are together," Karolina jumped in.

"Kirill from Dimitri's year?" Raisa asked.

"That's right," I replied before Sonya had a chance. "He owns a chain of electronics stores in Omsk. Sonya's here while he's having their new unit renovated. You should see it! He's having the place gutted," I described enthusiastically. "Brand new kitchen, bathroom… new everything. And the latest gadget of every sort imaginable!"

"He wants everything perfect before the baby arrives," Sonya said with a loving smile.

"You should see the place! It's huge and is going to look amazing!"

"Are you talking about Kirill and Sonya's new place?" Eddie asked, coming to sit beside me at the table.

"Yes. Just telling Sonya's friend Raisa about it."

"It's going to be something else," Eddie confirmed. "Sonya's done a great job choosing the fixtures for it, and Kirill wants nothing but the best for his girl!"

"I can't believe she asked Sonya who fathered her baby!" Olena growled indignantly, listening as the young people recounted Raisa's ill-fated visit.

"Good on you for telling her the question was in poor taste," Dimitri commented to Eddie, giving the younger Dhampir a respectful nod.

"At least she left not long after that," I said gleefully, shooting my Russian God a satisfied glance. Raisa had only been there to see Dimitri. Once she knew he and I were an item, she'd become quite rude to Sonya who she'd ostensibly come to visit.

"So when is Kirill due back?" Meredith asked Sonya, noticing she was uncomfortable with all the talk about her baby's biological father.

"This time next week. He wants my opinion on more about the flat," she explained. "A fortnight after that, he'd like Mama, Babushka and I to travel to Omsk for the day to direct the last of the work."

"I thought I could go too," Eddie suggested. "If I can be of assistance, and if it's ok with you Dimitri?" he quickly added.

Sonya nodded eagerly, and my man considered it for a moment.

"You've all been working hard. It's a week or so before we go to St. Basil's, but a day off won't hurt. Did you want to go too, Meredith?"

"I'll see how I feel closer to the time, but a day at home with a book sounds pretty good," she laughed.

"Did you want to go to Omsk ?" I asked my man.

"No. If we're all going to take the day off, I want to take you to a lake near here. We used to go there when I was a child."

He didn't say any more, but I could tell from his eyes this was a special place for Dimitri, so I smiled and nodded, letting him know I understood and that there was nowhere else I'd rather be.

I was lying in bed with Dimitri, about to go to sleep, when I was sucked into Lissa's head. I got her strong feelings from time to time, and I always had a general sense of her wellbeing, but this was the first time since I'd come to Russia I'd been pulled into her mind.

She was in the bathroom and I could see her wetbag in front of her, complete with the razor blades.

"No, Lissa, no!" I mentally begged.

Where the hell had this come from?! She'd been calm! Happy! How did it turn from that to her locking herself in the bathroom unbeknownst to Christian or Tasha?!

I braced myself, ready to pull out of her head to call Christian or Tasha when I stopped. Lissa's emotions were all over the shop, but she hadn't reached for the razor; she'd pulled a long white and pink stick out of her beauty kit.

A test. A pregnancy test!

I mentally sighed, not entirely sure if it were out of relief or fear. All I knew is my sister, and bond mate, was scared out of her mind because she thought she might be pregnant.

Now I knew the problem, I mentally rummaged through her consciousness. She was four days late. Apparently she and Sparky had been using condoms, but there'd been a slip up a few weeks back. She'd thought nothing of it at the time as she believed she was out of her fertile period – and Moroi were notoriously problematic when it came to reproducing – so she had not been too concerned. But now she was late, and she was freaking out.

"It will be ok," I said in my head, feeling like the ultimate voyeur as I read the test instructions through Lissa's eyes, witnessing as she recapped the test and set a one-hundred and twenty-second stopwatch on her phone.

Completely submerged in her thoughts, now, I knew Christian and Tasha were downstairs watching a movie, and Lissa had slipped upstairs to test while they were none the wiser. It was 8.30 pm here, which meant it was 10.30am there. We were both about to go to bed, but Dimitri and I were in bed early as we'd be up at the crack of dawn to train.

Please please please please, I heard through Lissa's mind. I want a baby – his baby. Just not yet!

My heart broke for her. Lissa was so scared and felt so alone. She loved Christian with all her heart, but she wasn't ready to be a mother yet, and she was worried about how Christian would react if she were pregnant.

Thankfully two minutes came around before she had a chance to stress about that prospect any further. I could feel her holding her breath as her phone pipped and she turned the test over to reveal the test panel.

Negative.

Oh, thank God! I heard through her inner dialogue. And then she lost it, breaking down in tears. While it had been her biggest fear, she'd also been a little hopeful. A part of her, even if it were small, had been excited at the idea of bearing Christian's child. And now she was feeling completely lost.

"Oh, thank God!" I murmured, dragging myself out of her mind.

I sat up in bed, switching on the bedside light beside me. Dimitri turned to face me. He'd still been up finishing off his most recent Western.

"Roza? What's wrong? You look upset?" he asked, placing his book facedown on the quilt, staring at me in consternation.

"I need to ring Lissa. Now!" I said, reaching for my phone and dialing.

"What's wrong?" Dimitri asked in alarm.

I looked at him and waved my hand in a 'don't worry' gesture. The phone rang on the other side of the globe, and Lissa picked it up.

"It's ok. I got sucked in, and I saw it all. Tell me everything," I soothed, siphoning every bit of darkness out of my sister as I listened to her stilted voice and hiccups as she outlined all her hopes, worries and fears.

"I'm here, Liss," I comforted her, doing the same thing I'd done for as long as I could remember. "I'll always be here. It's going to be ok."