I was summoned by the royal council shortly after my breakdown with Dimitri. Perhaps you could call it a breakthrough, after that moment, we opened ourselves up to each other more than ever before. He told me about his darkest moments as a man and as a strigoi. His fears over seeing his family again. I told him about my lowest points when he was gone and how I recovered after the bridge. We were healing together and we talked about our hopes for our child and the future.
Dimitri and I walked through court for the first time since I was shot. I was still receiving judgemental looks from some moroi, but I also noticed supportive looks from other dhampir and moroi women giving Dimitri an appreciative look.
I observed another dhampir couple walking together holding hands and a Dhampir man and a moroi woman in a passionate embrace. Weird.
We arrived at the council chambers at our allocated appointment time. They left us waiting for over 45 minutes. They asked me to enter without Dimitri. The eleven delegates from each royal family excluding the Dragomir's sat at the royal council table. Lissa sat on the throne, raised above the royal council. She was composed, yet guarded. The look on her face, but I could see the signs of her nervous ticks.
"Guardian Hathaway, the council would like to publicly recognise your role in apprehending the queen's murderer." Ariana Szelsky spoke.
"Thank you Princess Szelsky."
"We would like to offer your pick of any pick of private guarding assignment or general court duties." She looked at me kindly. I looked at Lissa, she seemed very agitated, which indicated to me that guarding her was not an option.
"I assume that it does not include the royal guard?" I asked, keeping my facial expression neutral. Ariana looked directly at Nathan Ivashkov.
"That is correct." He replied.
If I ever had any qualms about not becoming Lissa's guardian, I could put those to rest. Despite everything that I did, I would never be good enough for this stuck up council.
"How long until I need to make this decision?" I asked. I kept my tone neutral, neither mad, nor elated. I was sure that the council thought that they were giving me a gift of the choice of an allocation, but really they were making it easier for me.
If there was one thing that this council knew, it would be that Lissa was the only charge I ever wanted.
"You can take your time." Ariana said to me kindly.
"Good, because I'll be on indefinite leave effective immediately." I said.
The Badica Princess looked at me perplexed. "Don't you need to start earning a living? You would have to vacate guardian housing."
"No, I don't need a living and I plan to purchase property. I will be devoting my time towards philanthropic endeavours." I said. The council looked shocked, I didn't think they were used to Dhampir being independently wealthy.
I continued, "And, I will be devoting time to raise my child." I placed a hand to my stomach for emphasis.
Nathan Ivashkov spluttered and Lissa had the slightest twitch of her lips into a grin.
"Oh, Congratulations," said Ariana Szelsky. As my mother had devoted twenty years of service to the Szelsky family, it was nice that she showed me kindness.
"Is that all?" I asked politely.
Lissa spoke. "You may leave."
I gave the council a quick bow and left while they sat there looking dumbfounded.
I gave Dimitri a quick kiss and a significant look as he was waiting to meet with the council. I whispered "I'm now on extended maternity leave, Comrade."
He raised a single eyebrow and entered the hall. In the end he had a similar experience, he was restored as a guardian, recognising him as a restored dhampir. They too offered him an allocation of his choosing which he accepted without committing to an allocation.
The message was clear, they didn't want the dhampir tramp and her strigoi lover to guard the queen.
It didn't take long for news of my pregnancy to make the rounds at court and yet again, I was the subject of gossip. Funnily enough, when I was walking around with Dimitri on my arm, their opinions didn't seem to matter. For the first time in a long time, I was happy.
My parents came over for dinner after I announced my indefinite leave to the council. We sat down at the table, Abe took my mothers hand, indicating that he would be speaking for both of them.
"Rosemarie, Your mother and I heard about the council's decision and have been talking about your future. We see big things are ahead for you both and we are wondering what your thoughts are. I can't tell you how difficult it was to see my little girl lying on the ground with a bullet in her chest. I worry about you being a guardian. I want you to live a long life, surrounded by your grandchildren."
I looked at Dimitri. I didn't have a foetus past my first trimester, let alone a whole gaggle of grandchildren. Dimitri looked back at me, his chocolate brown eyes looked at me with love and support.
"I have been thinking that I don't want to be a guardian." I paused, waiting for my mother to lose her mind. To my surprise, she looked relieved.
"Okay. What do you want to do?." Mum said as she digested my statement.
"We do not live in an ideal world, particularly if you are Dhampir. As a race, we are treated subservient to Moroi and we have no power as a race of people. In particular, Dhampir women have the worst lot in life. You can either end up in a commune with little support from the government or be an absent mother, neither are ideal options." I smiled at mum, to show that I understood the difficult position she would have been in while pregnant with me.
Dimitri held my hand and gave me a squeeze in support while I continued. "I grew up thinking that there were two options for dhampir: Guardian or Blood whore. I don't have to worry about money, but so many dhampir mothers must struggle. I want to provide support services to help elevate the lives of dhampir. We have inadequate maternity leave, no support for returning to work and little options if being a guardian is not an ideal career path."
"How are you going to finance this? Your trust fund?" Abe asked. I shook my head, initially that had been my plan, but Dimitri's funding solved that problem.
"I have a large sum of money that I locked away from strigoi control, that will be used to fund support services for dhampir. If we invest it properly we could fund this project for a long time." Dimitri answered.
"I was thinking that some of this money could be used to fund higher education for Dhampir students. I have been looking for an Obstetrician, and during my search I have not come across a single dhampir doctor. In fact, over ninety percent of medical staff at court are moroi. It's not just that, look at our legal system, they didn't do their due diligence investigating the queen's murder. Who knows what would have happened if Baba hadn't stepped in. We need people who are going to stand up and support dhampir rights."
"My sister Karolina was pregnant at 17 and left school early. At one point, she had an interest in completing her guardian training, but there was no way for her to return." Dimitri added.
Mum looked thoughtful. "That's true, it is very difficult to return to guardian duty. A lot of my female friends struggled to get back into guardian shape after having children. Also, daycare is very expensive making it difficult for Dhampir mothers to support their children."
"You could purchase property at court, it's a good investment as real estate at court rarely declines. Once you narrow down what services you want to provide I can help you develop a business plan and we can talk to financial advisors about how to get the most out of your 'Funding'. You could get a lot of push back from the moroi, especially if they think that they will lose guardians as a result."
"I can start with services for dhampir mothers such as a daycare and providing a training program to return guardians back to the field."
Abe smiled at me. "Good idea, sell it so that you are going to boost the numbers. You might even get funding from the Moroi government."
"What are your plans Dimitri?" My mother asked.
"I am only interested in a position that will allow me to support Roza. I will not be separated from her."
"Dimitri, do you have experience with investing large sums of money?" Abe asked. I didn't believe for a second that Abe didn't already know the answer to that question, but I didn't know where he was headed.
"Yes, I have a degree in Commerce with honours. I was Ivan's near guard at university and Ivan's father was grooming him to take over their multinational corporation. Naturally, Ivan delegated a lot of that work to me. As a strigoi, I built this fortune utilising what I learnt from my degree." Dimitri replied.
"You did well I imagine?" Abe probed.
"I feel more than equipped to assist Rose's project for a long time." Dimitri replied. Not only was my man totally gorgeous and a fighting badass, but he was intelligent and hard working. He was the sexy man of my dreams and the father of my child.
"I trust his opinions, Dimitri always walks into every situation fully prepared and analysing every angle." I looked lovingly at my man.
"I would like your opinion for some of my legitimate organisations. It would be local consulting work or could be done remotely from court. I would appreciate your perspective."
Dimitri and I shared a look, we seemed to communicate a great deal from the slightest change in our expression.
"I'll give it some thought." Dimitri said to my father. Abe nodded in response, but I got the impression that he had his mind set on Dimitri's future.
It didn't take long for the news of my pregnancy to make the rounds at court. I was sitting at the palace cafe waiting for Mia to join me when I spotted Camille Conta walking up to me. I inwardly groaned, waiting for the sling of insults to start.
"Hi Rose, you look beautiful, glowing even!" I stared at her, waiting for the jabs to start, but she just smiled at me.
"Thank you Camille," I said cautiously while I scrutinised her facial expression. I couldn't detect any hint of sarcasm.
"I heard you got engaged?" She asked me. I stared at her again for a long moment
"Yes, I did. Can we cut through the bullshit, are you being nice just to fuck with me?"
Camile laughed. "No, I'm being nice because I am having the best sex of my life and it is all thanks to you."
"You must be joking." I looked at her with incredulity, but my curiosity got the best of me. "How did I do this?"
"You don't know!" She chuckled at me. "You started a new trend. Ever since your hot-for-teacher sex marathon, the benefits of dhampir men have become apparent. Haven't you noticed more female moroi/male dhampir couples?"
I had noticed a few, as well as more dhampir couples being openly together at court, but I hadn't thought much of it. "Really? I just assumed people were talking shit about me as usual."
She smiled and nodded at me. "I am so sick of Moroi guys, royals in particular, they spend their time talking about themselves and how awesome they are. They are usually a dud in the sack, but Dhampir guys are built and can go all night."
I smiled, while I lacked experience with moroi men, I couldn't see anyone being a better lover than Dimitri. "True, I can't imagine being with a moroi man." I said.
Camille looked at me in confusion. "You had to get pregnant somehow."
Dimitri and I had agreed that we would not answer questions about parentage. I had heard a lot of rumours that it was Adrian's child, but as far as we were concerned it was none of their business. "Of course, I mean I couldn't imagine being with anyone else after Dimitri."
"I don't blame you, he is a total snack. You better watch out, half the ladies at court are gunning for him." I tried not to laugh, a few months ago she was one of them. Mia arrived at the cafe, stopping short seeing Camille and I sitting together. Camille said goodbye and left.
"Did hell freeze over? Why were you two so… buddy/buddy." She said as she sat down at the table. I didn't know why she was so surprised, Mia had been a nemesis at one time too.
"Said the girl whose nose I broke after she spread malicious rumours about me at school."
"Touché.. But we did survive a near death experience and saved each other's lives." That was true, Spokane had a profound impact on Me, Mia, Eddie and Christian. Our lives were forever changed, Mia became motivated into training in offensive magic.
"Well, as it turns out, Camille just needed a good lay." I said, Mia spluttered, resulting in iced coffee spraying from her nose.
Mia and I talked about my plans for my project. She had another year of school left, but she was interested in getting involved with the added benefit of full time employment when she graduated.
Lissa had been busy in preparation for her coronation and selecting her staff over the past two weeks. She and I hadn't had the opportunity to talk about plans for the future or the fact that I didn't plan to work as a guardian. I missed the closeness that the bond provided, which meant that I no longer had access to her thoughts.
Lissa, Jill and I were sitting in her parlour having afternoon tea. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, she had a mischievous grin on her lips. Initially I lamented the loss of the bond, but then I realised the bond had made our friendship lazy. Clearly, if we wanted to be close again, we needed to communicate. I started first.
"Lissa... I don't think I want to work as a guardian indefinitely, especially if you guarding you is not an option." I had said this looking at my cup of tea rather than in her face. I snuck a look at her and was surprised to see her smiling widely. Taking that as encouragement I pushed on. "Being in my situation, I have looked into maternity leave and female dhampirs don't get a lot of support. Childcare isn't cheap and if you want guardian numbers to increase, wouldn't the support of female dhampirs assist with that?! I'm thinking of opening a centre to support dhampir women with childcare, financial support and even getting them back into shape after pregnancy."
I looked over to Jill and Lissa, they looked shocked and a little impressed. "Liss, what are you thinking?"
She looked at Jill with a grin. "Rose, that sounds like an amazing project, I'm so proud of you! That might work with what I was going to propose to you. I have a lot of decisions to make about my support staff. I had been thinking about your situation as a guardian."
I grimaced."Um.. ok." She means me not being able to be her guardian. Does she want me to be a maid or something?
"I want you to be my royal advisor."
What? I stared at her in disbelief. "Isn't that usually a position for moroi royalty?"
"I don't really care what a position is usually for. Pricilla Voda was Tatiana's best friend, why can't I make my best friend one of my advisors. Besides, The Dragomir family had a meeting over it, the decision was unanimous."
Jill nodded her support, but I rolled my eyes at both of them. Or, you could say that I rolled my eyes at the entire Dragomir family council.
"What about my project? And my baby? I don't know if I would have the time for the role as an advisor. Would I have to attend council meetings?" My mind was reeling, the prospect of a dhampir royal advisor was practically unheard of, Lissa would upset a lot of people.
"The role will pay you handsomely and will give you priority access to me. You would only require to attend daily briefings, in the morning or the afternoon… Whatever suits your schedule. Also, the baby needs to come along three times a week… as an absolute minimum."
"So let me get this straight, you want to pay me to hang out with you every day under the guise of being an advisor."
Jill giggled. "Well, yes, she does. But, it is important to get a dhampir's perspective."
"Jill's right, we need more voices to have a say than just royal ones and, it would include paid maternity leave." Lissa added.
"You know that I don't really need the money, it turns out that I am a trust fund baby too."
Neither of them looked surprised. "Of course you are, how else would you buy property at Court!" Said Jill. I was surprised that Jill knew about this, the two sisters seemed to be growing closer than I thought.
"Anyway, what do you say, Rose?" Lissa asked. She looked at me with her 'Disney princess' eyes, her jade eyes were sparkling and looked huge. I knew she didn't want me to reject the offer and I would be an idiot not to.
"Of course Lissa." She and Jill did an identical happy dance. The more time they spent together, the more similar they became.
AN:
Next chapter might be the last chapter, followed by an Epilogue. Sorry, I have had a bit of writers block.