Tasha POV
Dimitri had finally returned from his absence, in the arms of that little tramp. It was bad enough that she had opened her whorish legs for him, but the entire population at court knew too.
It frustrated me to no end that he didn't appreciate the lengths that I had gone to for him. I had offered him a life that most Dhampir men would kill for, but he wanted to stay guarding the princess. If he became my guardian it would only be a matter of time before we become a couple and had a family.
I had been battling with Tatiana for years, that old hag had once told me to do my job and make more royal babies. With her on the throne, there would never be a chance for a moroi magic program and our people would die, starting with the Dhampirs with the age law. James and I plotted how to make the queen see sense, but we knew drastic measures were in order.
I had to get Rose out of the way, and she made it so simple, she had a habit of shooting her mouth off and saying stupid things… Her crude criticism of the queen in a public forum was an opportunity that I simply couldn't ignore, anyone in my place would have taken advantage her stupidity.
In the matter of minutes I had crafted the perfect plan to remove the obstructions to my two greatest desires, Dimitri and my program for Moroi offensive magic.
Dimitri and I could usher in a new era, showing the people what the pairing of a moroi and a Dhampir could achieve. The queen and the idiots on the royal council never had any foresight, they wanted to cower behind dhampir's rather than take our place on the battlefield. I felt that two pawns were nothing to the benefit for the greater good of our people and I would get the man that I deserved.
Rose had an inflated opinion of herself, she always seemed to think that she deserved more than she should. She thought that she was Vasilisa's equal… Hilarious, that trampy dhampir was not equal to the last dragomir! I knew that she was just a petulant, slutty little school girl who waved her twat under Dimitri's nose.
They had no future, what could she offer him once the haze of new relationship sex had subsided. He would realise eventually that he wanted a family, something that she couldn't give him.
I didn't have time for him to come to that realisation, I had a biological clock that was ticking, especially if we were to have that large family that he always wanted. Being his senior by three years, it was prudent to get started sooner than later. Dimka would thank me later when we had our family sitting beside us and he had a true relationship built on the foundation of friendship. After all, he was my last chance for happiness and I wasn't going to let him go.
I had tried other relationships, but they never compared to him. Ethan Moore was a disappointment, the type of man I was attracted to would never betray their guardian principles for me. But he folded like a piece of paper to my requests which did prove to be useful as he gave me the access I needed to enter the queens chambers.
Initially I had engaged in relations with Ethan to distract myself from the loss of Dimitri. When Dimitri was restored, it became very clear who the other woman in his life was, Rose Hathaway.
The little temptress was nothing but trouble for Dimka, threatening his career while offering nothing of what he really desired… a family. I could give him a life he could only have dreamed of, including a family of his own, but he turned me down because of that little bitch.
After I left Christian and Lissa's place, I knew that I had to move quickly. Dimitri would craft a plan for the following evening, which meant that I only had tonight to enter the queens quarters and destroy the cameras and hard-drive.
James would have been useful in this situation, he had a particular set of skills, but Eddie had seen an end to him. Ethan would have to do regarding access to the palace quarters, he was getting harder to manage after the death of the queen.
Ethan had been devoted to me, which was nice for a while, until I noticed that he was a poor substitute for him. He was easy to control, all I had to do was open my legs or my mouth for him and he would do whatever I asked. After the queen was murdered, he started to suspect me, so I had to compel him.
I keep picturing the blood on my hands from the staking, James had provided a change of clothes and a route out of the palace undetected. I incinerated my clothing and scattered the ashes in the grounds of court. At the time I thought that the only evidence that remained was Rose's stake, now I had to deal with this video business.
I had tried to keep my connection to Ethan quiet, unfortunately Abe Mazur spilled the beans to my nephew and his friends. I needed to be careful because Rose's friends had continued to investigate the regicide.
From what I could tell, my nephew and his friends had not been able to find anything that tied me to the murder, which would give me the opportunity to steal evidence from underneath their noses. This was why I had continued to keep Ethan on the hook, his access to the palace.
"Ethan, When are you working today, I want to see you" I purred in the phone.
"I'm working tonight love, do you want to meet me when I finish my shift?"
"I can't have to help Lissa prepare for the election tomorrow. It's been too long since you were between my thighs. I need you baby, right now. What if I meet you for your break?" I cooed. Ethan was the opposite of Dimitri, he would easily bend the rules to make me happy. Dimitri was too noble for that.
Ethan agreed to let me see him, so I made my preparations. I would have to see a feeder to prepare myself for compulsion or the use of fire magic. As long as there was no evidence remaining, my perfect murder would go undetected.
I picked 8am as a time to enter, a majority of the population would be asleep, but it wasn't too late in the night that my walking around would be suspicious.
They had lightened security as there was no reigning monarch currently occupying the Royal chambers. Ethan was patrolling the queens chambers and multiple parlours that Tatiana used to entertain various guests.
I met up with Ethan in the palace stairway. After fellating him, I used his post orgasm state to weaken his resolve to my compulsion. He moved the cameras to create a blind zone, which would not catch me entering the queens chambers. I instructed him to prevent people from entering the chambers and implanted a false memory of my leaving after our interlude.
Careful to avoid the cameras, I made my way into the chambers and set to work looking for Tatiana's hidden monitoring system. I turned on a small lamp on the beside of the chambers, careful not to turn on the overhead lights. After ten minutes of searching, I was yet to find anything, so I started tapping the walls and floors for hidden compartments.
"Looking for something" My skin turned cold at the sound of the little bitch's voice. I slowly turned to see Rose looking smug.
"Of course I am, I want to know who killed Tatiana, to help Vasilisa and you." Even I couldn't make that sound believable, she knew I hated her as much as she hated me. "I had a friend who was able to let me in, I wanted to bring the information to you all instead of a break in. You are a little reckless sweetie, you tend to get yourself into a lot of trouble and I wanted to prevent that."
R POV
"I'm sure you did Tasha, I didn't know that we were such close friends we should catch up, just us girls." I said in a patronising tone.
She was a smart woman, and a smart woman would leave to avoid incriminating herself further. She looked like she was weighing her options, glancing around the room for various exit points, but she still didn't leave. She was must have been dying to tell me what a bitch I am.
"What would you like to talk to me about Rose?"
"well.. I doubt this conversation will pass the Bechdel test, but I thought you could you answer a few questions. It's not every day that a girl gets framed for murder. I'm sure you are dying to tell someone how you figured things out and set a plan in motion."
"I don't know what you are talking about Rose, I came here to help you"
"Bullshit. You killed Tatiana and tried to frame me for it."
"What on earth are you saying, Rose?" She exclaimed, looking at me with shock and hurt, give her that oscar. "Are you out of your mind?"
"No, I'm not, but I think you might be. Lets face it, for the past two months you have looked like you are about to explode with jealousy. Scorched palm prints were found where you sat during the court case, did it burn you up inside to hear that Dimitri finds me insatiable?"
She started to create a white hot ball of fire, ready to throw at me. Good. This was just how I wanted her, ready to say something stupid.
I continued "I even heard that you burned his room down while we were away… That's messed up. Did you really burn down his apartment? That's next level, even for you"
"I ..I was sleep walking, I woke up to see the building in flames." So she has admitted to the fire, but still not enough.
"Christian never mentioned that you had a sleepwalking condition, how strange… It's like your subconscious feels guilty about something. Hmm I wonder what about" I tapped my head and pretended to think while I saw the rage flare in her eyes.
"I didn't know that you were that close to my nephew" She snaps.
"I went to battle with him, nothing builds trust greater than that." I would never want to admit that to Christian's face. "So please enlighten me how we got from you putting your hand up for me to be your guardian to me being framed for murder?"
"How can you say this Rose. I never, never believed you killed her—and I've fought for you on that. Why are you doing this? Are you playing on the Strigoi taint in our family? I thought you were above that kind of prejudice."
I paled for a second, not feeling so sure of myself. "What I'm saying has nothing to do with Strigoi. I almost wish it did. You hated Tatiana for her age law and refusal to let Moroi fight. Did you know that she conducted a trial of moroi fighting in secret"
Tasha looked shocked and let the fire in her hand wink out, so I pressed my advantage.
"Let me tell you what I know… While Dimitri and I were, um reconnecting, a janitor recalled meeting a man who enquired about my whereabouts on the night of the queens murder. He identified this same man to be the one who attacked Lissa. There's no record of his existence—at least not with the guardians. But the Alchemists know who he is. They saw him at one of their facilities acting as someone's bodyguard. The man who attacked Lissa, he was your bodyguard. You were seen together at an alchemist facility, he was in your employ."
"Rose, I can't even believe this is happening, but if James—that was his name—did whatever you're talking about, then he acted alone. He always had radical ideas. I knew that when I hired him as outside protection, but I never thought he was capable of murder. Why would I attack Lissa?"
"Because no-one was supposed to die, you didn't know that Eddie would be there, especially as you orchestrated a plan to keep him away." Dimitri had crept into the room silently and had now stepped into the light. "It was meant to garner sympathy for Lissa, to help her with the election. Then she would be a powerful ally for you to help reach your goals"
"Dimka, not you too," Tasha looked devastated, like she had been stabbed through the heart. He gave her his coldest stare
"And that's why I took the fall" I said while I studied her face. "When did you find out about us?"
I looked at her with pure malice. "Your trip to Russia was a little obvious, but I knew for sure when he was restored and your reaction."
"So you made plans to get rid of me, now that Dimitri was back, you set your sights on him again. The recent proposals to the queen prove that."
"James knew that I had feeling for Dimitri, I think he liked me a little too much." She kept trying to deflect, but I could see that Dimitri's appearance had thrown her off. She reminded me of how I felt when Dimitri was turned, like my heart had been ripped from my chest.
"I've always believed you were innocent Rose. If James is the one responsible for this, then I'm more than happy to tell you whatever I know to clear Rose's name."
I stared hard at her, it was so easy to blame the dead man. So, so easy. That way Christian wouldn't have to be damaged by association. But could I really trust that Tasha wouldn't try to kill me, to get me out of the way from Dimitri. I had our baby to think of, who would always be at risk of harm from Tasha.
"James couldn't have staked Tatiana, he had an injured hand. It takes both hands for a Moroi to stake someone. I've seen it happen twice now." Tasha stayed silent, she looked around the room, starting to eyeball her exit points again.
I held up a hard-drive "And this shows you stabbing the queen, I'll bet it was messier than you though when you finally got your hands dirty."
Tasha stared down at her hands. she started wiping them on her pants, like they were dirty. They were red raw and peeling, and with her excessive rubbing there were small spots of blood.
"It was very messy. The plan seemed so simple, so methodical, it was a stroke of genius, removing two thorns in my side" she glared at me. "You became an annoying roadblock, a bug that needed to be squashed. Once you were gone, he would get over it and turn to me."
Finally! She admitted it. Got you bitch.
"Did you really think that once you got rid of me he would throw himself in your arms after the love of his life was executed for murder?" Dimitri moved closer towards me, he tried to subtly position himself between me and Tasha.
"I could give him everything, a comfortable lifestyle, a family and all the love in the world.
"This is what you still do not understand. You will never have him because he is not a possession or something that you own. Even if he never met me… It was never going to be you. I suggest that you read this." I threw a book at her feet, it was 'He's not that into you'.
"Also, did you really think that guardians missed a recording system" I dropped the hard-drive on the floor and stomped on it.
"I should have killed you instead of the queen." Tasha roared as Dimitri stepped in front of me while her eyes were blazing.
A contingent of royal guardians stalked into the room, advancing towards Tasha. They were followed by Hans Croft, Ariana Szelsky and Nathan Ivashkov and another guardian who had Ethan Moore in cuffs.
D POV
Tasha looked mad with rage as the guardians advanced towards Tasha. I stood in front of Rose, not wanting Tasha to try anything to harm her. A massive wall of fire erupted from her hands between her and the guardians.
Abe stepped forward with a smirk on his face while I pulled Rose back with me. We had done our job, Tasha had confessed her crime with royal council witnesses. Abe made a gesture towards the roof, suddenly water went everywhere. He had ripped off the metal valves off the emergency fire system, dousing the wall of fire.
In the confusion, she kicked the first few guardians that approached her. The palace guardians were the best of the best, but they seemed hesitant to harm a royal moroi, even a guilty one. From my periphery I could see Rose step forward her guardian instincts made her want to leap into the fray.
Time seemed to stand still, I saw Tasha grabbing the gun from a guardians holster and Rose was a few steps ahead of me. She cocked the gun, aiming for Rose in the struggle— So I jumped.
Pain shot past me as I felt a bullet rip through the side of my arm. I fell to the floor and saw that Tasha was down on the floor with a wicked grin on her face. I turned to see Rosa on the ground behind me, covered in blood that was bubbling from her chest.
I scrambled over to her and placed my hands on her chest, trying to stop the blood from leaving her body, she was very pale. "Rozaaaaa"
I couldn't breathe, I had failed the love of my life and her precious life force was spilling out of her. She looked at me, eyes full of love and then she went slack and her eyes rolled back into her head.
Someone pushed me out of the way while a few guardians applied a coagulation dressing and gauze to her wound. I couldn't keep my eyes off her while she became paler and paler.
AN: The next chapter won't be too far along, mid may at the latest after my exam. In the meantime, i'll release my third chapter of Bound by Desire before I try to complete Reputation after my exam. A lot of content has been written, but there is a lot to tie up. Tasha is not always talking about Dimitri when she refers to him, those who have read the turn and the flame will know.