AN: I hope everyone is enjoying the story! I have a bad habit of rushing my stories so im trying to set everything up as well as possible and I hope the pacing feels right. I currently have 8 chapters written but am still revising and trying to make everything flow correctly. And don't worry this will be a steamy story when we get there. ;) I own nothing.

CHAPTER THREE

"Oh my god, Rose! This is incredible but . . . wow, I'm going to miss you so much!" Lissa hugs me excitedly, but by how tight she's holding me I also know she's scared and feeling unsure about the whole thing.

"I know, Liss, I'm gonna miss you, too, but I promise we'll call everyday and it'll be over before you know it. And with this opportunity, I'll be your guardian for sure!"

Lissa laughs through her sniffles.

"Rose," She says as seriously as she can through her soft tears, "You know I don't like to pull this card but . . . do you know who my father is?" She laughs and wipes her eyes. "There's no way you would ever not be my guardian!"

I giggle with her because, honestly, it's so true. Her father is the head of the Dragomir line, a Prince of a very small but very important family. There's little in this world he couldn't make happen for his only daughter.

Lissa wraps me up in another big hug that's surprisingly strong for someone so dainty. She may be much taller than me, standing at 5'10'', all of it legs, but compared to my shortness I am all curves and muscle, while she is supermodel thin.

"I wish I could go with you!"

I hug her back just as tight, but to my utter shame and guilt . . . a huge part of me doesn't feel the same. I hate that I feel this way but . . . ugh, i'm such a bad friend.

I love Lissa so much, but everything in our lives has always been about her. She's literal Royalty for god sakes!

She's always been an incredible friend to me, and I would die to protect her but . . . for the first time ever this will be all about me. My moment, my time to break free of being Rose - Lissa's Dhampire Shadow and instead be Rose . . . just Rose. A fucking badass.

I can't wait for highschool to be over and us to go off to college, the one Lissa wants, and be independent adults that can do whatever the hell we want! But this experience will be all mine, my last chance to be the whole damn moment, not just a footnote.

"Me too, Liss." I hug her tighter and let myself tear up, but just a little.

After we get all of our tears out of our system, she helps me pack and the simple carry on I planned on taking ends up being three suitcases filled with practically my whole life!

"Liss, I don't need all this stuff! Just my training clothes and my laptop."

Lissa rolls her eyes and zips up a duffle filled with dresses and heels that she's bought me over the years that I never get to wear.

"Rose, I love you, but that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Do you know what's in Russia?"

I give her a bitchy, defiant look.

"Polar bears and Babushkas?"

Despite herself she cracks a smile.

"And. Super. Hot. Boys! You will take sexy clothes and make up and you will experience the best St. Basils has to offer!"

"As much as I would love to, I'm not going to have time for that! I'm going to be competing with people I didn't grow up kicking the asses of, I'm going to need to be on my A game if I want to win."

Lissa grabs my hands and stops me from unpacking the lingerie she's trying to sneak in.

"Listen here, lady! You will take nice things, you will do something other than be an ass kicking machine and you will report back to me with all the juicy details at least five times a week!"

We glare at each other for a second until I crack.

"Fine! But condense down to one suitcase and duffle!"

She narrows her eyes at me and huffs.

"Fine, but you're taking my suitcase!"

"Aw shi-"

Too late she's already speeding out the door to get her suitcase that practically comes up to my shoulder and can hold an entire school marching band equipment.


"Damn, Rose, taking your whole fucking dorm?"

I shift my head to glare at Meredith. Like I said earlier, I have respect for Meredith, she didn't deserve what happened to her with Jesse, but damn does she also get on my nerves. That little quip wasn't a 'we're close friends and can take playful jabs at each other'. It was 'I'm threatened by you and feel the need to act like a bitch constantly'.

I look at the private jet currently being filled up on the tarmac and then back to her with my patented don't fuck with me face; my arm resting on the obscenely huge hot pink hardshell suitcase Lissa forced upon me.

"You barely made it onto this flight, Meredith, don't fucking forget that."

My ice cold voice and even colder words makes her sneer and walk off, her normal sized suitcase rolling behind her.

Don't get me wrong, she made it into the top five, but only by one tenth of a point. I placed in the top spot, 6 points above Mikhail, the toughest male in our grade. This is going to be as dog eat dog as it gets and we both know deep down she's not going to make it.

I do feel a little bad for embarrassing her but I've learned her attitude doesn't go away so mine won't either, I will always win the 'Who Can Be a Bigger Bitch' contest.

"Cold, Hathaway, cold." I turn to look at Eddie now standing where Meredith was.

"Yeah, I know . . . she just brings it out in me."

Mason comes up too and slings an arm around my shoulder making me tense a little bit.

"Chicks, man, their claws are always out."

I slap his arm away as Eddie chuckles.

"Shut up and take my suitcase, it's not going to roll itself."

Mason does the human military stand at attention thing and salutes.

"Sir, yes, sir! Uh, I mean ma'am!"

I can't help but laugh as his perfect posture turns into that of Igor from Frankenstien, and he pretends to struggle with the monstrosity, sound effects and all.

It's moments like this I wish I could return his feelings for me but I just know it's not in the cards for us.

Hopefully Lissa is right and there's a cute Russian boy that can make me feel something.

Once all us Novices are all settled in, Alberta boards the jet, her usually serious face, even more super serious. She stands in front of us not saying anything for what feels like forever. And then cracks a smile, making the rest of us feel like we're receiving a special gift. Or at least that's how I feel. The littlest slip in the stoic Guardian mask from any of them is a huge public display, and yes I see this side of her in private but so rarely when anyone else is around.

"Each and every one of you should be very proud of yourselves. You've all worked hard to be here and deserve this incredible opportunity-." I see her glance at me in particular and I can feel my face flush.

Me and Bert have always had a special bond seeing as she's my moms best friend and has always treated me like her own daughter when she can. She couldn't be seen giving me special attention but she's always been there, guiding me. She made sure I had as much gym time as I needed to work on my MMA and she was the one that noticed I have a natural affinity for languages and because of her I can speak fluently in five and get by in another three.

"-and I know you will make our school proud. Our world has never done anything like this but with guardian numbers dwindling the monarchs are trying to incentivize Novices and see what the best of you have to offer. I highly advise you all to get to know your opponents and start getting used to politicking. You've probably always thought that politics is only for the Moroi but trust me it is not. Some of there people may be your future colleagues or even bosses, you want to make a good impression and show that you are strong here," Alberta points to her bicep, "and even stronger here." She points to her temple.

We all nod our heads, our faces naturally slipping into guardian masks, the seriousness once again seeping into the journey we're about to embark on.

"We'll be stopping at Court in New York before making our way to Siberia, Queen Tatianna will meet with you all to congratulate you. You are expected to act professional and courtesy. Got it, Rose?"

"Hey!" Guardian mask broken as everyone laughs at me, Alberta included.

I roll my eyes but don't say anymore. I am a hothead. There's no doubt about it, no sense in protesting it too much.

Plus to be fair the Queen and I haven't always seen eye to eye.

The Dragmoirs are the smallest house of the 12 royal lines but their history is long and proud, something Lissa's father Eric has worked hard to uphold and in doing so the Queen holds no opinion besides her own, higher than Erics.

Being Lissa's best friend and shadow I've had the unfortunate and unpleasant chance to be in the Queen's presence twice. Once when I was five and dropped ice cream on her very expensive and very white rug and then tried to blame her poodles for shitting on it. In those exact words mind you. And again at 13 when during a Ball, I really didn't want to fucking go to, she commented on my "growing bosom" (ew) and made a comment basically insinuating I'll be perfect blood whore material, so I pointed out a wart growing on her cheek. While her insult was at least somewhat thinly veiled mine in all my 13 year old couthness was just "Hey, lady, get that wart removed, this isn't OZ."

I haven't been invited back since.

Until now. Kinda. Maybe she won't remember me.

About four hours later and after a very restless nap, we're landing at Court in upstate New York and I'm close to shitting my pants. Not much scares me but out of all the enemies I could have made at five years old it had to be a fucking queen. I was born cursed I tell ya.

"Alright everybody, disembark." Alberta calls out. "Leave your luggage here, we'll only be staying a couple hours, to gas up and speak with the Queen. If you need to purchase anything we'll also be stopping at the shops for about an hour."

Thank god, I wanna stock up on snacks, who the hell knows what the Russians eat.

After making sure we all look presentable, Alberta loads us into two black SUVs that take us straight to Queen Tatianna's palace.

I haven't been back to court since that lame Ball and as I'm looking around I see not much has changed. There's a homey kinda cottage chic feel to Court. Wide cobblestone roads, an assortment of architectural displays but mostly leaning towards Eastern Russian and English countryside style. The shops have an old town feel and the homes no matter how large are mostly straight out of any Cottage Core dream. Not my particular style but still objectively nice.

Until you come to The Palace. While the rest of court has some subtlety to it even though it still reeks of old money, The Palace, is in your face 'I have more wealth than god and I want you to know it.'

Once arrived, we step out of the SUVs and stand there taking in the absolute breathtaking view of the castle our bitch Queen calls home.

"I hear King Dashkovs castle is twice the size of this." Eddie whispers, his face still just as gobsmacked as the rest of us.

Mason gives an incredulous pssh, but doesn't say anymore, too enthralled as well.

The sight doesn't impress me for long since i've already seen it and as we walk through the freaking maze that The Palace is I can't help but think of what Eddie said.

Why would one person need all of this let alone even more?

Our secret world of Vampires has three Monarchs.

Queen Tatianna Ivashkov rules all of North and South America, Africa and Australia. King Victor Dashkov and King Ivan Zelkos rule the rest but Russia and England being their respective home bases if you will.

King Zelkos is a young Moroi having just taken power about two years ago, and the cousin to Jesse Zelkos, the bane of mine and Meredith's existence. If he's anything like his cousin I want to steer very clear of him and his posh British accent. King Dashkov is another matter, the whole Moroi world rather pitties him. He's only 60, what could be just half of his life span, but suffers from Sandovsky Syndrome, a rare but extremely deadly disease that eats away at the organs. There's no cure and the gossip has been that his condition has worsened so he's begun preparing his daughter Natalie to take over. Not that she'll inherit his throne. In our world any Prince or Princess from the 12 Royal families can compete in a grueling set of challenges to see who is the best fit for the throne as long as they have at least two in their line.

Lissa told me her father is prepared to put his hat in for the Russian Kingdom when the time comes. He'd prefer to have the American Territories but Queen Tatianna doesn't seem to be ready to step down anytime soon and Eric Dragmirs Ambitions can't wait that long.

I'm brought out of my mental musing as we approach the west wing of the castle which I've heard referred to as the War Rooms by Lissa's dad. A large ballroom size space where all the Royal families and the upper ranks of guardians convene to go over . . . whatever the hell it is they talk about. Just like the rest of the castle everything is in tones of cream, gold and varying shades of red; antique art and decor is spread all around and a huge, easily fifty foot table stands in the middle of the room. The whole place looks exactly how you'd expect a queen to live. Decadent and . . . wasteful.

"Rose!"

A huge grin erupts on my face as Eric Dragomir appears from what looks like a servants entrance. Not caring about formalities we rush to one another and embrace in a bear hug.

"Ah, Rose, it's been too long." Eric laughs.

Just like most Moroi, The Dragomir Prince is tall and lean, with the same platinum blonde hair as Lissa and striking green eyes, but a few more laugh lines.

"That's your fault, dude."

He laughs again, stepping back and squeezing my shoulder.

I can feel everyone's eyes on us but ignore it.

Eric may not be my father but he always treated me as one of his own. Everyone recognized very early on the good fortune of me and Lissa forming the bond we did, as I've always been the most capable and dedicated to protecting my Moroi even at five years old.

The first time I met the Dragomir family was during the winter break of Kindergarten, my mother couldn't leave her charge and I was going to spend the holiday alone at the academy. When Eric and Rhea came to pick Lissa and her older brother Andre up from school, Lissa begged them to let me come. After some persuasion, meaning little girl tears and begging, they called my mom and got permission. That was the first time I'd ever been to Aspen and despite the fact that Rhea had been reluctant for some reason, I weaseled my way into the family pretty quickly. Hehe

"Too right you are, Rosemarie." He concedes. "Words cannot describe how proud I am of you, sweetheart. You've worked so hard your whole life, I could not wish for a better Guardian for my daughter. Not that that's all you are but . . ."

I smile softly and blush a little at his praise. "Don't worry, I know what you mean. You've always made me feel like family and I could never repay you for that. Especially since I haven't always been the easiest to deal with."

We laugh and tears brim my eyes.

"You, my dear, have kept things Interesting! My kids were too dull!"

Ha! More like better at hiding their mischief.

We're interrupted by the entrance of the Queen and her gaggle of court attendants and Guardians.

I rush back over to stand besides Mason at full attention to be presented to the Queen.

Let's see if the third time's the charm.

AN: Please, please review!