Hey guys! I am so glad I can post consistently, only that I wish I could do it more often, but I'll just continue to give the best I can

Irina C, the answer to that is: Rose was born a Moroi, but was raised as a dhampir. It will make sense later in the story, as her secrets will start to unfold

I do not know if I got right that swear in Russian, I am almost sure I butchered something, so don't pay too much attention to that :)

Have a nice week everyone and thanks for the nice words!

CHAPTER 2 - They put a crazy man in charge of my safety!

Rose's POV

So stupid! I have to turn around and pound my fist against the wall, otherwise, I might have smacked myself for how idiotic I was. How come didn't I see it? He was too good to be true! He was the right man at the right time for me and instead of questioning it, I thanked the universe for putting him in my way! Stupid me! When did the universe do anything remotely good for me?

But good thing that I wanted to take my anger on that wall because I see something that might help me tremendously in my soon escape attempt. Until then, I have to bullshit my way around. And I am an expert at that.

"Well, how can I trust you? One minute ago you were just an unpromised to me."

"It is not my problem if you trust me or not. I am not here to earn your trust. I am here to do my job."

"Which is?"

"To make sure you get back to the Zeklos residence. And that you don't run again."

"What makes you think you'd be able to do that?"

He shrugs. "I guess we'll live and we'll see."

Oh, his cockiness annoys me. If he thinks I am just a scared little girl, I am going to show him who he's messing with. As I said, it doesn't intimidate me that he's one foot taller than me. I'll kick his ass. Or I'll do my best.

Trying to assert some dominance as I work on my escape, I lean against the wall and take an unbothered stand. I only pray they don't pay too much attention to my hands.

"So, Belikov. I heard of you. The brain behind that great Strigoi operation from last week, right?"

The entire town was fussing with his name when I got here, but too bad no one bothered to assign a face to that name. It would have helped me if someone recognized him and rated him out.

"And the looks," I drop, just to see his reaction. If it flattered him, he didn't show it. "It seems you have them all. Too bad for you that you won't have me."

"Princess, we don't have time for this."

"I don't know about you, but I have all night at my disposal. If you're hurrying, you can leave."

"Princess," he becomes scolding.

As I wanted to tell him to shove that title deep up his ass, a man comes out of the door of the bar.

"Excuse me, I need you to move this car. I have to get those beer kegs inside."

And talking about beer kegs, there are six of them stacked right next to me on the little stone wall I am resting against. My purpose as I was verbally challenging Belikov was to try to pull out the little wooden wedge that is holding them stacked together, all while making sure they don't see my hand moving.

And now that this man got them distracted, I can finally remove it and watch the shit unfold.

I can't enjoy it for too long, as I need to run.

I get out of the way of the barrels as they start falling, and Belikov moves in time too, but he needed to go in the opposite direction than me. It will take him some time to get over the barrels and get to me, which gives me enough time to make myself scarce.

I'm glad that in their falling the barrels didn't hurt anyone, no cry of pain was heard, but they sure are an inconvenience as I heard plenty of swears as one of them broke and started splashing beer everywhere. And most important, they hit the car, and I can only hope they won't be able to use that to follow me around.

I'm glad I took my time walking around town when I arrived, as I know which route to take that will take me in the shortest time in the forest. I am not good with forests, but I know it's a good hiding spot if I get deep enough in it. Only that I will have to figure out the route out. But that will be a problem for later.

I don't get to make it into any forest.

Remember when I told you Belikov is one foot taller than me? Well, that means longer legs. He caught up with me in less than a minute or so. I didn't bother to look back to see if he was following me, but he made his presence felt when he jerked me back by my hand.

But of course, I am not going down without a fight. I know it's not nice, but I am a little desperate, so I try to shoot my knee into his groin. He catches onto that though, and in a swift movement, he turns me back around and putting an arm across my body, he tries to immobilize me, holding me tight against him.

"Let go of me right now!"

My legs are useless as I try to stomp on his feet, I can only bend my arms and those are useless too, and my attempt of slamming the back of my head into his nose ends up with me only aimlessly shaking my head like an idiot. His grip around me only gets tighter.

"I don't suggest you put up any more resistance. I don't want to hurt you."

"What if you get hurt?"

He puffs in my ear, even if so lightly. But I fucking heard that! "It's highly improbable, Princess."

Fine. If he wants to play hard, I'll play hard.

During our talk, I managed to get my stake out and want to put it through his thigh, but for goodness' sake, he saw that too and snatches it from me before I get the chance to hit him.

"Where did you get that from?"

"You should ask the guardians at the entering porch. They're very inattentive with their stuff."

"I will. The second I get you there."

"Who says you-"

Getting a hold of my hand, he doesn't wait for my compliance, he just drags me toward the car. To another car, let's be correct. Not that I know where that came from, but from there emerge three more guardians. So Belikov and Pavel were only there to take me away.

Five guardians to retrieve me. I am somewhat flattered they thought they needed so much manpower to take me back.

"Get inside."

"Not going to happen."

"Princess, please don't make me force you inside the car. I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Why? Would that cost you dearly?" I know it will because hey, we come first, right?

"I think your little escapade will cost you dearly."

Oh, I'm used to punishments. I got them all the time during my training. And after all, what else could they take from me more than my freedom?

"What if I get myself hurt and blame it on you? How big of a punishment will you get?"

"I'm afraid I cannot satisfy that curiosity of yours. But knowing what you want to do, I can prevent you from getting hurt."

"What?"

He doesn't hesitate to tie my hands. With a zip tie! I am more than outraged.

"You cannot do this to me!"

"It's for your protection, your royal highness. I hope you can understand that."

Oh, that smirk on his face is the cutest, most infuriating thing I've ever seen. What I'd do to wipe that off!

My hands being taken away from me, I deflate and I have to give up on my escape plans for now. I resume to studying him with angry eyes as I'm forced to share the car with him.

"What?" he asks after a while since I've been staring at him.

"Nothing. I was just watching the grumpy guy who's here to keep an eye on me."

"If the funny ones aren't efficient enough…"

"Hey, Pavel has been nice to me!" only if he were in this car to hear my praising.

"It's not his job to be nice and funny."

"It wouldn't be bad for you to smile from time to time though. I mean, you won't die if you let go of that seriousness. Plus, your facial muscles might get atrophied."

"I'm not here to have fun."

"Yeah, I see, general borsch. You're here to make my life hell."

"I can feel it's going to be mutual. You've already made so hard a thing that was supposed to be simple."

"At least-"

"You could have gotten yourself killed, Princess. These two days and you… you wandered without protection and it could have ended so badly for you."

"I can take care of myself."

"Having a stake with you doesn't mean you're safe." He sighs and tempers his tone. "And it's not only about the Strigoi. Do you know how many people don't want this union?" is that supposed to scare me?

"Where can I find them? I would gladly go to them and let them do whatever. But since I came here, all I stumbled over are people who want this union."

Oh, the look he throws me. That look as in, I know better. And that annoys the shit out of me.

"Trust me, you don't want to meet those people."

"I didn't want to meet you either, but here we are."

He wanted to respond to that, but the car stops all of a sudden and he didn't get the chance. It was a little abrupt, but the driver ameliorated the discomfort of the stopping and I didn't get to hit my head against the headrest in front of me.

"We're there already?" I walked for an eternity to get here, and I don't think a car would be able to compensate that much.

Looking out the window, he seems concerned. We didn't get there. He looks me, straight in the eyes.

"Princess, I need you to stay in here. We'll go see what happened."

"But what happened?"

I don't get an answer to that. He and the other two guardians get out of the car, locking it after them, but I already opened my door before they locked it.

Do I listen to him? Of course not. I mean, if this isn't my chance to leave, then what is it?

Sneaking out of the car, I see that the tire in the front is deflated. So it can mean there's someone wanting to rob us. I mean, that is the safest option I can think of and of course that is what I hope happened. Probably some rogues seeing the expensive ride we have, nothing too bad.

I don't think twice before running the other way from the commotion, and thank god, I am close to a forest now. I can hide there until they decide to give up on searching for me.

I tried to be stealthy in my escape, but soon enough, I hear a noise behind me. I take a look back to see how close they are. This time I am not letting him catch up to me.

But I see no Russian on my tracks. Nor other guardians.

Taking a look past the forest, to the people I left behind, I see that there was no robbery going on, but that Strigois were attacking us. To my bad luck, one of them is coming toward me.

I'm fucked!

Through my panic, I try to approach the best strategy I've learned. Run. And as I already have an advance, I continue to do it, and I try to be fast, but with my hands tied I cannot get as aerodynamic as I wish I could.

Eventually, that creature catches up to me. And not only that. He catches me too.

With an arm around my neck, he handles me like I'd weigh nothing more than a pillow, and he starts dragging me further away into the forest. Just like earlier with Belikov, I struggle, but with too little oxygen getting to my brain is hard to make smart decisions.

One good decision would have been to use my stake but it is now resting in someone else's pocket!

I think we got to the spot he wants to end my life in, because he pins me against a tree and unravels his fangs. This image is so familiar to me that my chest starts to hurt. The red circle in his eyes, the lack of any emotion behind those, the long, sharp nails that dig into my flesh as he tries to keep my head pinned, and oh, and that fetid smell coming out of his mouth.

Well, if this is my end, at least I died a free woman.

But as he tilts my head to one side and prepares to bite me, something whooshes past my ear, from behind me, and it seems to be the thing that pushes him back, away from me. The moon reflects its light on that object, and I see it's a stake. It reached its destination, but did I mention that I was so fucking close to getting hit too? Only a centimeter to the left, and it would have been my head that was bleeding now, not the Strigoi's cheek.

Looking toward the direction that came from, I see Belikov running toward us from between the bushes. And even though I know that running toward him wouldn't mean I get to be free, at least it means I'll be alive. So I want to do that.

But the Strigoi didn't get hit fatally, and taking advantage of his heightened abilities, he gets a hold of me, before I get to move too far from him. His fangs to my neck now, make the guardian stop a couple of steps away from us.

"Let go of her."

Wow, who would have thought that general borsch's voice could get any colder than when he was speaking to me?

"I am the one with the upper hand here, dhampir. I have your precious charge."

He smiles. He smiles?!

"Are you?"

How on earth does he think he is the advantaged one here? He's crazy! They put a crazy man in charge of my safety!

"I am only going to tell you this one more time. Let go of her."

"What if I don't?"

To be honest, I am really curious about the answer to that question, but I don't sit around and wait for it. I take matters into my own hands and do what I wasn't capable to do to Belikov earlier. I elbow the Strigoi with as much force as I am capable of, making him bend at the middle.

Being given the impulse, the guardian, who seems to have been born with stakes in his hands and that manages to get them out of nowhere, throws another of those, and this time, it was so much closer to my face! I am starting to think I am his main target, not the Strigoi.

The metal struck the man's neck I guess, I didn't take the time to look as I was hurrying to duck out of the stake's way, but I hear him hissing and choking on what I can only guess is blood.

The good thing is that I am free and I move down, out of Belikov's way as he plunges with another stake, this time piercing through the Strigoi's chest, killing him.

With the job done, he approaches me and extends a hand to help me up, but I use mine to push his away.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?! You could have killed me! Twice!"

"Didn't you express that wish just earlier? To be killed?"

"I um…" little bastard. How can I respond to that? I did say that thing.

"Don't worry, Princess. If I had that intention, you wouldn't be breathing now."

"That's not a comforting thought."

I slap his hand out of my way once more, and get up on my own, even though I have to fight a little with my blouse to put it in place, because hey, I still have my hands tied.

"Do you think you could make good use of a knife and cut this?" instead of answering my request, he is staring at me, and well, he seems pissed. Did he even hear me? "What?"

"I told you to stay in the car."

"And what made you think I would listen?"

He sighs. "Let's go."

"Again, I am not going anywhere with you."

Given the chance to be only with him, I get the thought I could get rid of him. One opponent is better than five.

"And what are you going exactly?"

"I am going back home." Eventually.

"Where is that?"

"Turkey."

He dares smile. That fucking mocking smile! "To Turkey? All by yourself?"

"And what makes you think I am not capable of that?"

"I didn't say that."

"But you thought it. For your information, I am not a damsel in distress. I can read a fucking map." Most of the time. Okay, five times out of ten, on a good day, but whatever! "I could make my way back to Turkey on fucking foot if I wanted to." Turkey and Russia aren't what someone would call too far apart. Of course, that depends on where in Russia I am, precisely.

He nods. "That is good to know. I'll make sure to never leave a map around you." I want to point to him that phones were invented, but he doesn't give me the chance to speak. "But maybe some other time. Now I am taking you back to the Zeklos residence."

Getting a hold of the plastic on my hands, he starts pulling me toward the place I fled some minutes ago. They've been efficient, as I was almost getting killed. But that's on me, right? When we get back, they already changed the tire and put the Strigoi corpses away, for the sun to find them.

He tells me to get in the car and I refuse once again. To be a nuisance is my last resort.

"If I have to tell you again, I won't be this nice."

"Oh, so the first time you did it, that's what you call nice?"

I am pissed at myself for not recognizing the shit I was getting myself into, and what other better way to let it out than on him?

"Princes. Get inside. I think I have been more than civil with you until now. Please don't make me pick you up and put you in the car."

"You wouldn't dare." The look in his eyes tells me he would.

"If I untie you, will you get inside?" he now tries to negotiate with me.

For now, this is the only compromise I can get because looking at the ones around me, they would happily tie me up and put me in the trunk of the car.

I know I acted unafraid and mighty in front of the Strigoi, or so I wanted to appear to be, but now when I think about it, chills go down my spine. Meeting a Strigoi, no matter how many times it happened to me before, was never a good experience. I could have died. He wanted to bleed me dry. And truth is, despite what I said earlier, I don't want to die.

I cannot stop my body from reacting to that immense fear I still feel, and I try not to let him see that I'm trembling as he's sitting next to me. But my hands just cannot stop shaking and the best way I think of to make it cease is to hide them under my thighs.

He takes off his duster and puts it around my shoulders. It's a gesture I'd find nice, but the thought of keeping my self-esteem intact gets the best of me.

"I am not cold." I try to shake the duster off, but he makes sure it stays in place.

"Still, you're trembling."

He saw that. Let him think I'm cold and not scared from earlier. Or maybe he's considerate enough not to point that out, which I can appreciate.

"It smells like beer."

"You're complaining to yourself about that?"

I smile. "But you must agree it was a good idea. Quite effective, I might say." All he does is shake his head. "What's your name?" he looks at me, frowning. "I mean, not the formal Belikov."

"Don't worry, you'll see it on my cleaner's bill."

No matter how hard I want to show him I'm pissed, I cannot suppress a smile.

After a long ride made in complete silence as he refused to engage in any conversation with me, no matter what subject I approached, we finally make it back to that piece of shit's house.

At the main entrance, Belikov goes to speak to some other guardian, whispering to each other, then he comes back to me.

"I shall take you to your room, Princess. The Lord will meet you for dinner, and you… you might want to get changed before that."

"Why would I? Do you think I would want to make myself pretty for that man?"

The way he eyes me tells me I should take a look at myself too. Fuck, blood. It's on both of us, but as he hit the Strigoi's neck, a lot of his blood ended up on me. In the darkness outside, I didn't see it.

He waits for me at the door until I get cleaned and changed. I make it my goal to wear nothing flattering. I'm trying to be as unlike a princess as I possibly can. As opposite to attractive as I possibly can.

When I'm done, Belikov accompanies me inside the house, and this is the first time I've been allowed to get in here. I mean, my intrusion here before I left was the first time I saw some of the lower floor of the house, but now it's the formal shit.

I know what is coming for me the moment I sit in my chair in the dining room. I didn't expect to hear the great Anton Zeklos go on a rampage way before facing me, but hey, the man is pissed. And I cannot be happier about it.

Belikov is standing close to me, hands behind his back, holding that perfect guardian position I always loathed. But I'm sure he'd easily break it if I'd want to leave.

"That was not irresponsible! It was straight-up stupid! How is that close to any royalty behavior? How could Yilmaz leave that brat on our heads? He said she'll behave! But she is embarrassing us! What if she had been spotted at the bar? Did anyone recognize her out there? Or anywhere she has been?"

"I don't think so, sir," a man I don't recognize the voice of answers.

He doesn't have an accent, and I am guessing that the only reason the conversation between them isn't taking place in Russian is because he doesn't understand it. Well, neither do I, and I'm sure the Lord took the chance to throw some swears at me in that colorful language of his, when I pissed him off earlier the week.

"Hey, Belikov, what does suka poga- na- poga- naya means?"

Turning my head to eye him, I see the surprise on his face at me saying those words.

"I cannot answer you that." that's all the confirmation I need to know it's bad.

"Still! The Strigoi didn't have a hard time finding her! How could that ignorant girl even flee from here?! It's not like she's any genius mastermind." But I kind of was, wasn't I?

"My Lord, if the Princess hears-"

"Let her hear! I couldn't care less about that girl's feelings. She has been disrespecting us in every possible way since she came here! She has been here for two weeks and hasn't spoken anything but Turkish to us. The only one she spoke to was Pavel and god knows what a good thing that was."

Oh, he's so pissed I didn't answer him when he came to my room to try to talk some sense into me. Poor Lord, I gave more attention to a guardian than to him.

The two men finally enter the dining room. Still, when Zeklos sees me there, he doesn't stop his rant. He continues to speak to my face as I continue to eye him hatefully.

"If she wants to not get her feelings hurt, then she should tell me so. In English! I don't care about her feelings. What she has done is unforgivable and she should be punished for it, not treated like royalty in this house. She should be thankful I am not sending her out on the streets. She wouldn't last a single day out there. She'd end up cleaning toilets or becoming a whore! For what she did, she should be thankful I am letting her eat tonight."

I know Belikov is eyeing me, I feel his stare on me, and I look at him before I do what I have in mind.

To my relief, there is no pity in his glance. Instead, he is eyeing me, with a little of an "I told you you'll get in trouble" attitude. Or maybe he's looking for a reaction from me, wanting to see if I'm feeling hurt, but I couldn't care less. My so-called father has said way worse to me. I'm immune already.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to let this little shit talk to me like that.

I get up so that I could be on the same level as Zeklos.

"I do know English. I speak it fluently, and I understand it perfectly." Not that this would be a surprise to him.

"Then why didn't you say anything since you came here?"

"I refuse to speak to you."

"Still, you're doing it now."

"Then I shall remedy that right away."

"Suit yourself. But don't expect anyone to understand you unless you speak in the right language."

Like I even want to be understood. And even if I'd try to plead for my cause, no one would give a damn.

After he says that, I see an idea popping into his mind. I don't think it's a genius one, but let's see what he has come up with.

He calls for everyone in the house, guardians and servants, and tells them to not respond to me unless I speak in English. He even encourages them to talk to me in Russian, so that I would get a piece of my own medicine. As I said. Not a genius idea.

Proud of himself, he bends toward his advisor and whispers something to him.

But I need to have the last word. It's in my blood, I can't help it.

"Great." I change my repertoire to Turkish. If he is playing this game, so can I. I can do it so much better.

"What?" oh, I love it to piss him off further.

"I don't give a flying fuck about your opinion of me. I didn't even want to be here. I don't want to have anything to do with your royalty shit and you can bet your wrinkly ass I am not marrying that son of yours. Oh, and with the first occasion I get, I'm out of here. If you think what I did today was the end of it, you're fooling yourself. Prepare yourself for much more embarrassment, because I am not done with it."

I love to see him getting angrier and angrier with every word I'm saying. See that? It's called winning.

"Dimitri, what did she say?" the Lord demands, furious.

What?! I didn't take into account his presence and neither if he speaks my language. He cannot, right? He knows Turkish? Please, god, tell me this is not true.

I eye him, a little afraid. Okay, not that little. If he translates that, I'm fucked for good. Maybe they'll find an even smaller room to lock me into. Maybe they'll start feeding me old bread or something.

There's the littlest glimpse of a smile in the corner of Belikov's mouth, and that is the confirmation I needed to know he understood everything I said. I guess this is his chance to pay me back for soaking his duster in beer and all the shit I put him through earlier.

"To sum it up, she said that she will try to do better. That she is sorry she has been so stubborn and hard to deal with, but it's hard for her to adapt in such a short time to so many things."

I am at a loss for words, and I don't bother to stop my jaw from dropping. Belikov delivered that lie so well! Hell, I should take classes from him.

"Well, maybe you would adapt if you weren't so rigid and selfish, girl. Your father warned me about you, but I didn't-"

"That man is not my father!"

"Here it is, now you're interrupting me! I didn't think you could be this bad-mannered, but there you are. I'll have to discuss this with you father."

"I told you-"

"I bet that if your mother would have still been alive, she would have been so disappointed in you." He turns his back on me, even though I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind. "I'm not in the mood for dinner anymore," he informs his little minion, as he leaves the room.

Oh, how I hate that man. I hate everyone!

I drop into my chair and curse everyone in my mind.

Some minutes later, the servants come out of the kitchen with the food, and seeing it, I realize that after such an adventurous evening, I'm hungry as fuck. And to hell if I am letting that bastard ruin my pleasure. One thing about this house is that the cook is amazing. Too bad it's not enough to compensate for everything else.

Seeing that I start to fill my plate, Belikov takes a seat too, on the chair across the table. If he did that on purpose, it's going to work. Like that, he can eye me all he wants and yes, I have lots of reasons to not want to look up.

But to my surprise, there is no staring. He pulls out a plate and serves himself from the goodies on the table. Interesting. I didn't know guardians are allowed to do that in this house. I mean, it is not unheard of, but Zeklos seems like the kind of man who is amped up against fraternization between the species.

As their job is done, the little people around leave and we remain alone in the room. I'm hardly swallowing my food now, and it is all thanks to his presence here. There is still no staring coming from him, and to my surprise, that is so much more torture for me than if he'd do it.

When I had enough of that tension, I eye him until he lifts his eyes and looks back at me. Like that, without notice, we're caught up in a staring contest. I swear I won't give in. Even if the brow of his eyes is so dark and that look in his eyes starts to intimidate me, I stand my ground.

I am not going to ask him the obvious. He stayed because he has some things to hear from me. So I decide to be done with it as fast as possible.

But that doesn't come out as easily as I planned it to. As I open my mouth, I find myself stumbling through words.

"So… Dimitri, huh?" he nods, not making my life easier by providing me with even a word. "And um… you… how… do you… you know Turkish?"

"I do."

"How come?"

"I've spent a year there with Prince Zeklos for his studies. It became a necessity around town."

"Oh, so I guess should watch my mouth around him too, don't I?" He doesn't say anything in response, and the pressure to say the next words gets unbearable. "I um… thank you," I barely whisper in the end.

"What for?"

I'm relieved that he doesn't make me repeat myself, but I still squint my eyes at him. Of course, he's going to gloat about it by making me explain it.

"You know what I'm doing that for. It's the reason you stayed here, right? You could have said… a lot of things. But you didn't. So just take my appreciation and don't push it."

"Try to remember I did that later, will you?"

"What? Why?"

"You'll see soon enough."

When I want to ask for more explanations, a servant comes and tells us that the Lord is waiting for us in the salon.

I guess Belikov saw the ugliness with which I was eyeing the servant, because he doesn't waste much time until he talks.

"What's with the stare?"

I won't hesitate either to spill the news. I hate pieces of shit and I'll let everyone know when there's one around.

"Nothing much. Just that, as he was stupid enough to actually think I didn't speak English, he thought he was free to say some things about me to his friend while I was in the same room."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary. He described in quite some detail what he'd do to me against a wall." you know, like all men do, little pieces of shit.

He gets up in an instant and calls that servant's name. Well, I guess he meant it earlier when he implied he could be less nice than I have already seen. The tone he just used, sent shivers down my spine. Hell, I didn't even catch that man's name, that alarmed I got by his reaction.

When he comes back, Belikov goes to him and tells him something, whispering. He's scolding him, I figure. After all, I've been scolded like that all my life.

But if he thought that would impress me, he's wrong. It's the opposite, in fact. I am fucking angry at him and I cannot keep my mouth shut as we're heading toward that damned salon.

"What was that? What exactly did you think you were doing?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I don't need you to fight for my honor, Belikov. I told you that only because I was mad at him and I wanted more people to know what a piece of shit he is, not because I was waiting, like a damsel in distress, for you to do something about it. For your information, I can break his nose, just as well as you could."

I pick up the pace and enter the salon. Still, he is behind me, and as we're the only ones in there, he finds it safe to continue our argument.

"It is inadmissible for him to do such a thing. He cannot talk about you that way. You're his future queen. He needs to show respect."

I turn around and laugh in his face.

"Yeah? A queen, you say? And what is that worth, huh? What is that worth when the Lord of the house talks that way about me? When he says I am good only for becoming a whore or whatever? Why wouldn't his servants treat me the same? What's stopping you? And why wouldn't all the people of the Dominion act that way soon enough? What am I worth to anyone, after all? They see me as nothing but a piece of meat and they think they can just marry me at their own will, and you're talking to me about respect?! How many kings had a woman by their side that actually meant something, huh? Tell me! The only one who will be respected will be Zeklos Jr. I'll just be his royal whore."

I see the full spectrum of emotions on his face, and it takes him some seconds to find his words, time in which he opens and closes his mouth a couple of times. But when he seems to have got a grasp of an idea, the Lord gets inside the room and he needs to be quiet as he follows the old Moroi to the front of the room.

So, let's count. There is me, Belikov, Zeklos, Pavel, and the other three guardians that came after me today. Besides Pavel, I haven't seen the other faces around here. It's an interesting combination. Let's see how this shitshow ends.

"I guess we all know why we're here."

"I don't." hey, I'm taking any chance to interrupt his speech.

"Funny, as you're the main reason we're here."

"Oh, then it's my pleasure."

If he could, he'd kill me on the spot, I know it. The feeling is mutual.

"As I said. You have proven to be a lot more than we bargained for." again, it is my pleasure to make his life hard, and by extent, my dear father's. "But there is a solving to all problems." I wonder what that is. "From this moment on, guardian Belikov will be the personal guard of Rose."

"I beg your fucking pardon?"

He continues to speak like I don't even exist in the room.

"He will keep an eye on her at all times. Very closely. He'll be with you everywhere and at all times, to make things clear. So that no unpleasant events will arise again. After all, we don't want you to get hurt, don't we?"