Vampire Academy: Spirited Offspring

Important Decisions

ROSE POV

Lissa's guardians flitted her away soon after I told them of my gut instinct on the Strigoi army.

While there still wasn't any solid proof, they didn't want the queens life to be at any risk.

After she'd left though, the days were rather quiet.

-

"Pleeeassseee Dimitri." I begged for what seemed like the millionth time.

"What do you want from the store, Roza? I can get it for you." He said.

"I want to interact with people." I told him, flopping down dramatically onto the couch. Well as dramatically as I could with my stomach like this.

"Rose. I don't feel safe with that, not after the Strigoi attack. That was only two weeks ago!" He told me.

"Dimitri, I'll be fine. I swear! Sydney goes out in public, and Adrian! They've gone out to dinner!" I said complaining.

"They bring Eddie." He told me.

"I'm my own Eddie!" I said back, trying to stop myself from yelling. I really didn't want to argue with Dimitri but my attitude wasn't the best today.

"Roza, please. Not today." He asked.

"When?" I crossed my arms. "In three more months when this sucker pops out?"

He sighed, walking into the kitchen. I followed him.

"Maybe we could do something Dimitri, you can protect me." I told him, though it was hard to admit I needed protecting.

"We're too notable, Rose. We're not exactly subtle people." He said and this time I sighed. He had a reasonable point.

Too bad he hadn't married a reasonable person.

"Dimitri! I'm going to lose my mind!" I told him.

The phone rang.

"Do you want me to get that, Roza?" He asked.

I swore under my breath and went and got the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Rose! How are you? Sorry I haven't called sooner, I've been so busy! You should see Prim, by the way, we should video chat!" It was Lissa.

"I'm good. Has Christian taught Prim to shoot fire from her wrists yet?" I asked.

"Not yet. But-" she began and I interupted her.

"I won't be impressed until he does. My kid, once it pops out, is going to be an awesome fighter. Moroi or dhampir." I said and Lissa laughed.

"That's great and all Rose." She said, still laughing.

"So why'd you call, what do you need?" I asked.

"Just to talk. Something weird happened the other day and I just wanted to gossip."

"Ok. Hit me with it." I said, setting back onto the couch with the phone. Dimitri came over, seeing I was distracted and a little calmer.

"Aaron's at court." She said.

"Aaron. Aaron Drozdov?" I asked shocked.

"Yep, showed up out of nowhere. And he's acting really weird. Came to me, asking for a job at court and saying I owed him and stuff." Lissa said sounding a little miffed.

"That's ridiculous, you don't owe him anything! You dated him over five years ago!"

"Yeah, it was a little weird. But I gave him a job, he doesn't look like he's doing too good. And he looked desperate." She told me.

"Yeah. That is weird. Keep an eye on him."

"Rose, you're suspicious of everyone. He's just a little rough right now, I'm pretty sure he just wanted a good paying job." She assured me.

"Yeah. That makes sense." I told her but my gut was telling me otherwise. Or maybe I was hungry.

I was always hungry it seemed.

Me and Lissa chatted a little longer, and set up a time to video chat so I could see Prim.

Once I hung up, I went to find Dimitri who had left the room. He was over by the bookshelf, looking at the golden embroidered books he'd read as a child.

I'd come to argue more about going out, but he looked so peaceful I couldn't bring myself to do it. I sat down next to him.

"Roza, what do you thinks going to happen after the baby's born?" He asked softly.

"I'm going to stop having crazy dreams. I'll probably be a little less moody too, but I am Rose Hathaway so I'll have to keep some of the moodiness."

He laughed.

"Do you think we'll go back to court right away? Or stay here? I don't know what I want. I want to have our child grow up here, like I did. I want him or her to read this books, to speak Russian, to learn to bake bread, but we also have responsibilities at court... I just don't know." He said and I froze, a little miffed.

Not that I hadn't thought about this topic, but neither of us had put it into words. What life would we choose for our child?

But the answer was obvious at least to me.

I thought about my life, in the States, at Court, at the academy. I hadn't had a miserable life but I'd always resented my mother for not giving me a normal childhood.

I thought of Dimitri's family, how he'd grown up always knowing he was loved. How he was just as good of a Guardian as me, that the only difference was how we'd grown up.

And I knew what I wanted for our child, I wanted them to have a family.

Dimitri's finger touched under my eye, shocking me from my thoughts.

When he pulled it away it was wet.

"What's wrong, Roza?" He asked.

"How long do you think your mother will let us stay here?" I asked.

"As long as we want, Roza. You know that."

"Then we stay. We raise our child here. We teach them to bake bread, they speak Russian, they read those beautiful golden embroidered books, they have a normal childhood. And once they're older, once they've have had their childhood..." I cut off, my throat tightening. I knew this was the right decision, but stating it was hard.

It meant I wouldn't be able to be at Lissa's side for years.

It'd been bad enough leaving for nine months.

"Roza, I know how hard this is. But, thank you. I love you." Dimitri said looking into my eyes.

I kissed his cheek.

"I know Dimitri." I said, and then added one more thing. "5."

"5 what?"

"5 years. Once the kid is 5, we go back to court. We show our child to the world, and then we work like hell to protect them. That's all I can handle is 5 years." I said, expecting him to argue with me but he laughed.

"I wouldn't ask anymore of you." He said pulling me in for a kiss.

When we broke away from each other, I opened my mouth to speak.

"Now, about going out in public..."

Dimitri groaned.