I just discovered that the scene gaps that I used are not showing up on the app. I've gone through all the chapters to update. It must have seemed insane when I jumped scenes from one line to the next.

I don't have a beta, please let me know of any errors that you find.

Chapter 12

Abe left for court for a few days, I saw him briefly for a few minutes. I gave him a tight hug for a little too long. He scrutinised me with a look, like he knew something was up, like I'm carrying his grandchild… probably not. I tried to keep my face impassive and hope that he thought it was a squabble with Dimitri.

I longed to talk to Lissa, but this wasn't something that I wanted to tell her on the phone. I avoided talking to her because I knew she would pry as soon as I sounded weird.

I didn't know where I stood with Dimitri, but I knew that things needed to change. While I was sure that he still loved me and I wanted no-one else, I wanted better for our child. Our child deserved two equally devoted parents. Because I hear that raising a kid can be stressful and that's before you add the Hathaway genes.

I didn't want him to be with me because he fell into it or because I pushed too hard to make it happen. And I didn't want him to pretend with me for the sake of our child. I was also freaking out, I had a miracle child growing inside me, I didn't want to deal with it for a while. Besides, I wasn't going to settle for anything but unconditional love for my child.

I thought of doing the only thing I could think of, I pushed him away.

Dimitri was sitting on the couch reading one of his new books. Sydney had deliberately made herself scarce for this reason and went to a museum or something. Also, she needed to go do something for herself without being around "creatures of the night".

"Dimitri, can we talk?" I asked as I sat down next to him. He closed his book and turned to face me, he looked concerned and attentive.

"What's wrong?"

I looked at my hands in my lap. "This guardian with benefits thing doesn't work for me. It makes things too confusing and I don't think it is healthy for me in the long run."

I looked up to see Dimitri's guardian mask firmly in place. I searched him for some sign, any clue to how he was impacted by this, but I saw nothing.

"I'm going to sleep in the second twin bed in Sydney's room. I don't think its a good idea to keep forcing you to be intimate with me when you have made it clear that you don't feel that way for me"

"You never forced me to do anything" He said quietly.

"You never initiated it either. You still have things to process and I keep pushing. Either way, I don't want to end up hurt by this."

I walked off to Sydney's room and fell onto the spare bed. I cried silently into my pillow for half an hour before I fell asleep.

L POV

Lissa was sitting the the grand ballroom, holding Christians hand. Christian sat on one side of Lissa, and Adrian sat beside Christian. Eddie and Mia sat nearby too. None of them spoke, my friends were too awestruck by what was about to happen. There was so much to see and experience, and none of them had experienced an election before.

Lissa looked over to a royal Badica making a scene about non royal moroi taking up places. There was no assigned seating, she had no right to push people around. Her parents always talked to her about not taking her birthright and privilege for granted.

She had grown up alongside Rose and as a small child she didn't understand the differences between her and Rose. It was only recently that she had started to notice the hypocrisy that Dhampir women, particularly Rose, suffered compared to moroi women. Rose seemed resigned to the status quo, until she fell for Dimitri.

Lissa knew she was the problem too, she had been so fixated on her future, with Rose supporting her on the sidelines.

It seemed so easy for a dhampir to get accused for murder, with minimal investigation the finger was thrust at Rose. The murderer understood this, if it weren't for Dimitri having his entourage, Rose would have been headed for trial and an almost certain execution. The murderer was savvy, who understood political machinations and the inequality of Dhampir's.

The chaos in the room continued until one of the guardians declared the room to be at capacity. Lissa looked around the room and noticed a large proportion of non-royal moroi. A new leader was going to be chosen, and that was of interest to all Moroi

Shortly thereafter, the eleven Council members took their seats, and Adrian's father, Nathan Ivashkov, took the twelfth chair. She looked at the Dragomir seat, hoping that Rose could find her sibling, so she could start making a difference on the council.

The Court's herald yelled and called everyone to attention. He was someone who'd been chosen because of his remarkable voice, though I always wondered why they didn't just use a microphone in these situations. More old-world traditions, I supposed. That, and excellent acoustics.

Mr Ivashkov spoke "In the absence of our beloved queen …" He paused looking down mournfully to offer a moment of respect before continuing."

She could feel Adrian sniff next to her, Lissa grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze in support.

"And in the wake of this terrible tragedy, I will be moderating the upcoming trials and elections."

Lissa listened attentively as Nathan talked about the tradition of the elections and thought about the generations of Dragomir's who had run and even sat on the moroi throne. Then the nominations got underway.

"Each family, if they choose, may have one nominee for the crown who will take the tests all monarchs have endured since the beginning of time. The only exclusion is the Ivashkovs, since back-to-back monarchs from the same family aren't allowed. For candidacy, three nominations are required from Moroi of royal blood and proper age."

Lissa knew that if a house wanted to be successful, each house needed to nominate one candidate, otherwise they would weaken their position and look indecisive.

Nathan nodded and gestured grandly to the audience. "Let the nominations begin."

A Szelsky noble nominated Princess Ariana, the motion was seconded and the final nomination came from Guardian Hathaway's charge, Ariana's brother.

With three nominations, Nathan declared, "Princess Ariana Szelsky is entered as a candidate." He scrawled something on a piece of paper in front of him, his motions full of flourish. "Continue."

From the limited interaction that Lissa had with Princess Szelsky, she liked her. After that, the nominations came in rapid succession. Many were princes and princesses, but others were respected—and still high-ranking—members of the families.

After Ronald Ozera was nominated, Christian leaned towards Lissa. "He's not one of Aunt Tasha's 'ideal' candidates. But she admits he's not a moron." Ronald Ozera was politically savvy, but not someone Lissa considered trustworthy.

Rufus Taurus was nominated to Daniela Ivashkov's delight. "I don't like him," said Adrian, making a face. "He's always telling me to do something useful with my life." Lissa didn't want to argue with Adrian, but he could certainly use some direction.

Lissa analysed the candidates, most were princes and princesses, but some were not. From Lissa's limited knowledge of the senior royals at court, Rufus Taurus and Ariana Szelsky were the strongest candidates.

"Well," declared Nathan, "that concludes—"

"I nominate Princess Vasilisa Dragomir."

Lissa's head jerked to the left, and saw Tasha Ozera standing in the crowd. She'd stood and spoken the words loudly and confidently, glancing around with those ice-blue eyes as if daring anyone to disagree. She noticed Tasha giving Ronald Ozera a smirk. Lissa held her breath, noticing the room was silent.

Nathan stood with his mouth open for a few seconds and then got his mouth working. "That's not—"

Beside Lissa, Christian suddenly stood up. "I second the nomination."And before Christian had even sat down, Adrian was on his feet. "I confirm the nomination."

"That is not a legal nomination. Due to its current Council standing, the Dragomir line is regrettably not eligible to present a candidate." Nathan said.

"Monarch nominees don't need a Council position or quorum to run for the throne." Tasha interjected.

"That makes no sense," said Nathan. There were mutters of agreement.

"Check the law books, Nate—I mean, Lord Ivashkov." Lissa was surprised to see Rose's parents standing together against the wall of the ballroom.

"Nominees have no requirements concerning how many people are in their family," continued Abe jovially. "They only need three royal nominations to be confirmed."

Nathan gestured angrily toward where Adrian and Christian sat. "They aren't from her family!"

"They don't need to be," countered Abe. "They just need to be from a royal family. They are. Her candidacy is within the law—so long as the princess accepts."

Lissa stood up and grinned. "I accept the nomination."

Rose had laid on the couch, watching the events unfold through Lissa's eyes. She wanted to see Lissa get nominated and I wanted to not be in my head for a while given my recent discovery. How to tell him? Was he going to believe me?

"Rose?" asked Dimitri. I had a feeling this wasn't the first time he'd tried to get my attention.

"Hey," I said. I blinked a couple of times, settling myself back into this reality.

She quickly sent Lissa a text: Nice work Liss

"You called the Strigoi?"

He didn't visibly react to the word, but I knew he hated hearing it. "Yes. I got a hold of Boris's contact."

Sydney wrapped her arms around herself. "Crazy conversation. Some of it was in English. It was even scarier than before."

I shivered involuntarily, glad that I'd missed it. "But did you find out anything?"

"Boris gave me the name of a Strigoi who knows Sonya and probably knows where she is," Dimitri said. "It's actually someone I've met. But phone calls only go so far with Strigoi. There's no way to contact him—except to go in person. Boris only had his address."

"Where is it?" I asked."Lexington, Kentucky."

"Oh for God's sake," I moaned. "Why not the Bahamas? Or the Corn Palace?"

Dimitri tried to hide a smile. It might have been at my expense, but if I'd lightened his mood, I was grateful. "If we leave right now, we can reach him before morning."

"And we'll probably have to fight Strigoi," added Dimitri.

I jumped to my feet. "How soon can we go?"

"Do we need to wait for Abe to get back?" Sydney asked.

"Well… I have my credit card, we could hire a car, heck we could hire a charter plane if we want"

"I think we should hire a car, i'll book it." Sydney said as she reached for my credit card. I felt like she didn't trust me to pick a car, but I knew how she was with motor vehicles… obsessed.

L POV

We walked back to my apartments with Christian, Eddie, Adrian, Tasha, Abe and Janine. I tried to project an aura of calm and grace as I walked past onlookers.

"What did we do!" I asked.

"Cause chaos" Abe replied with a grin.

"Remember, we are doing this to give you access, if they think you have some influence, then you are more likely to get help from other council members or hear something about the investigation." Christian soothed me by wrapping my arms around my shoulders.

Janine stepped forward to me. "Now that you are a candidate, one of us is going to try to stay near you at all times."

"Why?"

"Because we know there's someone out there who isn't afraid to kill to get what they want," said Tasha. She nodded toward Eddie and my mom.

"These two and Mikhail are really the only guardians we can trust."

"Are you sure?" Abe gave Tasha a sly look. Tasha started wringing her hands repetitively.

"I'm surprised you didn't get your special guardian 'friend' on board."

"What special friend?" demanded Christian, instantly picking up on the insinuation. Tasha, to my astonishment, flushed.

"Just a guy I know."

"Who follows you with puppy-dog eyes," continued Abe. "What's his name? Evan?"

"Ethan," she corrected."

"Leave her alone," Janine warned Abe. "We don't have time for it. Ethan's a good guy, but the fewer people who know about this, the better. Since Mikhail has a permanent post, Eddie and I will do security."

Abe, Janine and Tasha left. Tasha stated that she wanted to talk to political contacts for me and start polling people. Abe and Janine looked awfully close. I decided to ignore that on Roses behalf, knowing the idea of her parents hooking up was gross to her.

I turned to Eddie, Adrian and Christian. "Ok, lets get back to the investigation. Rose wanted to keep it close, we don't share this with anyone else."

"Dimitri and I went through the footage of the palace, we have identified people that Rose knows from the day of the queens death." Eddie continued. "We are assuming that Rose knows this person well, hence the list. We also tried to think of all the people who might have an axe to grind with Rose, but that isn't a short list"

Christian snorted "That's our Rose, a ray of sunshine followed by swear words and death threats."

"Have you looked into surveillance to Rose's apartment or spoken to staff in the apartments?" Adrian asked.

I stared at him, embarrassed that I hadn't thought of that.

Eddie chuckled "Surveillance in Dhampir accommodations, unlikely, but I can check if external cameras have a view of the building and canvas the building, particularly the dhampir's on the floor"

"I'll come with you, you might need a more persuasion" I offered Eddie. I didn't like using my compulsion, but I would do anything for Rose.

I know, its a little short. Next one will be longer.

I've mapped out the story, we are just past half way. 13 is finished and 14 has been started.

How do you guys write? Sometimes scenes pop into my head e.g. the court scene that started this whole story. I have a general direction and a few key scenes written and I work towards it.

I love your reviews, they are too kind.