ʺForget it," I said. ʺI am not staying here.ʺ

I made it to the door in three steps and managed to undo the chain, but in seconds, Dimitri was out of his chair and had thrown me against the wall. Really, that was pretty slow reaction time. I would have expected him to stop me before Iʹd taken two steps.

ʺYou are staying here," he said evenly, hands gripping my wrists. ʺWhether you like it or not.ʺ

Last Sacrifice, Chapter 6


"So what, do you plan to keep me prisoner in this room until I cooperate?" She spat the words at him, full of fury.

He released her instantly, as though she had struck him. An icy realization came over her as she truly registered her own thoughtless words. His expression was pained. Stabbing him with a knife would likely have done less damage. He stepped away, muttering something in Russian with his eyes closed. She moved back into the room and sank onto the bed, horrified that she had inadvertently compared this to her captivity in Siberia.

Even so, she was still too angry to apologize. He was too distraught to speak.

"I didn't mean that," she said quietly, once the silence had grown unbearable. He looked at her, distressed. "I know you and the others are trying to keep me safe. What I don't understand is why I was totally excluded from everything. I've pulled off some pretty crazy plans in the past. I was responsible for finding a way to restore you, and it worked."

"What would you even do now? Where would you go? How would you help clear your name while staying out of danger?" His tone was neutral, hiding all emotion.

"I don't know," she hissed in frustration.

"Then why don't we rest? In the morning, if you can think of another plan, we can discuss it."

Having hurt him so badly was the only reason she didn't feel like running. "I'm too wired to sleep."

He looked at her levelly. "Let's take a walk."

She nodded in agreement and followed him from the room. They walked in silence along the long, dark road. Each of them was lost in their own thoughts.

"I'm going to check in on Lissa," she told Dimitri as they walked, just in case she didn't pay enough attention to her surroundings. He nodded in acknowledgment but said nothing.

When Rose returned to herself from Lissa's mind, she could see Dimitri watching her.

"How are things at Court?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure that everyone is going to be off the hook for my breakout except for us. Lissa just had her interrogation. Eddie is having his right now. Christian and Tasha are going to be interrogated later. My father already had his. But Lissa's interview pretty much pushed all the blame on you." She looked away, biting her lip.

"What's wrong?"

"They know about us."

"Hmm?"

She sighed. "Hans wanted to know why you would be so ready to help me. So, Lissa told them the truth, that we had been involved. Alberta was there, and she didn't seem surprised. Neither did Tasha. Hans and Steele were a bit alarmed."

He nodded, turning to walk back to the hotel. "How did Guardian Petrov know?"

"I'm not sure. I think she may have figured it out after… after the caves. My mom and Alto practically dragged me away. I kept screaming for you."

Silence enveloped them again, heavy and thick.

"I left school on my eighteenth birthday."

He stopped, looking at her in shock. He had known that she had left school, and later re-enrolled, but he had never known the details.

"Four months of my life I spent trying to either kill or save you. Now we're stuck together, and you hate me."

"I don't hate you," he said quietly.

"Right," she scoffed. "You kept shoving me out of your life and are only doing this because of your stupid vow to Lissa. You said you didn't want anything to do with me anymore."

Dimitri was looking at her, but it was too dark for Rose to make out the expression on his face. She turned away from him before he could see the tears which had formed in her eyes.

"Rose..." His voice was thick with emotion. "Being around you reminds me of everything that happened in Siberia. I can't forgive myself for what I did to you as a Strigoi. Even if you can forgive me."

"I do forgive you." She sounded like a small child, pleading.

He laughed bitterly. "No you don't, or you wouldn't have thrown it at me in the hotel."

Her mouth fell open, then snapped shut. Her words had been cruel and thoughtless. She hadn't meant to hurt him, but she had. "I didn't mean it to hurt you. I didn't even realize how my words could be taken until you pulled away. I do forgive you, for everything."

He sighed. "We should get back."

They walked back to the hotel in silence. She entered the room first, utterly weary. He followed, locking the door behind them.

"I'm going to shower," she said, not looking at him. She picked up the backpack Sydney had given her and walked to the bathroom.

Rose was too drained to care anymore. She stripped off her clothes, turned on the shower, and stepped inside. The heat of the water calmed her and soothed her aching muscles. She scrubbed herself clean, rinsed, and stepped out of the shower. When she was done, she toweled herself dry, changed into a tank top and shorts, and left the bathroom with the towel around her hair.

Dimitri was sitting on the only chair in the room when she emerged from the bathroom. His expression was unreadable. Dropping the backpack on the floor, she settled on the bed, taking out the paper Ambrose had given her. She was debating telling Dimitri about it.

He noticed the paper in her hands. "What's that?"

"A note from Tatiana." She held it out to him.

He walked to her and took the note from her. She watched him read it. His eyebrows rose in shock. "How do we know this can be believed?"

"Ambrose gave it to me at my hearing. I also talked to Tatiana's ghost. She nodded when I asked if it was real." Rose took a deep breath. "Dimitri, we should find this lost Dragomir. Lissa will only gain her Council seat if this child is found. This matters, and it's something we could do without endangering my life."

He sat beside her, reading the note over and over again. "I don't know..."

"Didn't you promise to help Lissa?" she snapped testily. "This would help her."

"We'll talk to Sydney about it in the morning."

"Thank you." Her voice was icy.

"Are you going to try running again?"

"No, not now." She lay back on the bed, spreading her wet hair on the towel. "If we're going to look into this note in the morning, we might as well stay here until we can plan something."

He stood, chuckling a little.

She turned to look at him. "What's so funny?"

"An hour ago you were ready to recklessly run off, and now you're content to stay here."

She glared tiredly. "I didn't want to feel useless. If we're looking for Lissa's brother or sister, then I won't feel useless."

"You don't think that being safely away from Court is helping?"

"It's not the same thing as looking for clues at Court."

"No, it's not, but you would be dead in a week if you were still at Court."

She held his firm gaze in silence. He was right. She hated that he was right. Hated that he was reasonable. Hated that she was stuck in a room with him for some indefinite amount of time.

"What happens if they never find the killer? Sydney will have to go back to New Orleans some time. I'm sure if we can find Lissa's sibling that she could get the kid to court without our help. What happens to us? How long do we sit in this hotel waiting for a break? And are you really going to sleep on the floor the entire time?"

There was wry humor in her tone as she asked the last question. He smiled faintly. "I don't know. We can work on those plans as the days go by. And, if you don't run away, I could sleep on the bed during the day."

She laughed. "So you're not going to sleep tonight?"

He settled in the chair again. "No, I want to stay on guard. We should be safe, but I don't want to take any chances."

"That's a good idea."

She watched him as he sat in the chair. He had a look of concentration on his face. He didn't seem as haunted by the past as he had been since being restored.

"Why did you endanger yourself for me?"

He looked at her. "Hmm?"

She shifted onto her stomach. "We went through hell and back to restore you, and now you're stuck here with me. You're a wanted criminal. You could have been free."

"Was I free? They locked me in a cell. They interrogated me over and over again. I'm certain they considered executing me. I might have been a prisoner forever. And you... Rose the idea of you being stuck in a cell and awaiting death... do you really think I would have just sat by and let them kill you?"

She bit her lip, stunned by the passion in his voice. She made her tone bitter to cover up her emotions. "I don't know. It's been hard to tell how you feel about me lately. You shoved me away, and then you defended me."

"I've been through a lot in the past few weeks." His bitterness rivaled hers. "I'm still coming to terms with everything. I want to look at you and not remember everything I did to you in Siberia. Everything I wanted to do to you. I don't know how you can look at me and possibly forgive me."

"Because I love..." She bit off her words. Sitting up, she looked away from him. "I held onto the memories of the person you were before you were Strigoi. The man who loved me. Nothing else mattered to me except your love."

She could hear him shifting in his chair. She didn't turn toward him. He had hurt her, crushed her, in the chapel at court. He had said that he didn't love her anymore.

Tears were in her eyes as she spoke again. "But obviously I was wrong to believe in your love."

She heard him stand. In a moment, he knelt in front of her, taking her hands in his. "I'm sorry."

Tears dripped off her nose, onto her lap, and she swallowed down the emotions welling in her throat. "For what?"

"I'm sorry for hurting you. What I said to you in the chapel was cruel. I needed space. I wanted you to live a happy life away from me."

"Happy?"

"You're dating Adrian. I figured that you were better off without me."

She laughed hollowly. "I barely paid attention to him while I was trying to get you back. And now? I'm stuck with you until whenever we can find Tatiana's killer. He can visit me in my dreams and relay messages to and from Court, but am I really with him? We were basically broken up until..." She stopped, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter."

He still held her hands. His fingers were warm and strong, and he didn't let her go. She didn't want him to let her go. Their fingers laced together and squeezed.

"I never wanted to hurt you," he said. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier."

They looked at one another. Cautious affection shone in their eyes. Rose realized that she wasn't angry with him anymore. She forgave him for everything. She loved him. And she thought that he might still love her too, in spite of his harshness toward her since his restoration.

"I forgive you for all of it," she said. "I don't hold any of it against you. Not anything you did as a Strigoi and nothing since you were restored. I love you."

His grasp on her hands tightened. He didn't look away from her. "I don't know how you can love me after everything I've done to you."

"Because I've always loved you and I always will. Even if you don't."

He looked down. She saw a flash of something pass across his face, but it was so quick that she couldn't say what it was. Guilt? Regret? Longing? She slid closer to him. Her legs were on either side of his body. She wriggled one hand out of his grasp and touched his cheek, gently tilting his face toward hers. They were very close.

She didn't quite understand the look in his eyes, but it felt familiar. She moved her other hand out of his and placed it on the other side of his face. He seemed to relax into her touch.

"Do you love me?"

"Yes," he whispered. "I do love you. I always have. I always will."

Crying out in joy, she kissed him, sliding entirely off the bed in the process. She was straddling his lap, pressed between him and the bed. Her hands slid into his hair as she pressed herself to him, kissing him with abandon. He wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her to him. His other hand tangled in her wet hair.

Her fingers trailed down his chest, pulling at his shirt. Dimitri stopped kissing her. He rested his forehead against hers and caught her hands in his. "No, Rose, we can't."

She looked at him in startled confusion. "What, why?"

"You're dating Adrian."

She opened her mouth and closed it a few times, but couldn't form a reply.

His fingers gently stroked her cheek. "We have time," he whispered. "I'm not going anywhere."

Forcing herself to breathe slowly, Rose nodded. "Neither am I."

Slowly, deliberately, they separated. In the morning, they would make plans. For now, they would rest. And in the future, they would have each other again.