Collateral Damage

- FIFTEEN -

Rose's POV

Again I found myself wandering campus, early in the morning, instead of sleeping next to my boyfriend. It has been a hard day for everyone and I think it be best if I just took a breather from it all.

Walking past the St Vladimir statue, I wondered what Tilly thought about when she looked at him. When I was growing up I always thought about him as a myth whereas he was like a God to Lissa. "You're out late," Dimitri's voice was the most recognisable on the planet.

"I could say the same thing about you," I muttered keeping my back to him.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked taking his stance beside me.

"I was just wondering how someone who everyone claims to be the higher power can let so many bad things happen."

"If we knew the answer to that we would be millionaires," he whispered, the Russian in his accent was faint.

"Yes we would," I replied.

"Why are you out so late, anyway?" he asked and I smiled on the inside at the curiosity of this man.

"I couldn't sleep," I didn't want to dive too deep into the conversation. Especially because I wasn't ready to tell him the story yet.

"Me either, it's just been a really tuff time lately."

"I bet," I say as Dimitri and I walked side by side. I thought about telling him the entire truth, just to get it over with. Part of me knew that he would understand but the rest of me knew that he would flip out.

"You would have liked her, Matilda I mean." I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. I wanted to be held tight under the sheets while the man of my dreams whispered sweet nothings into my ear, but I knew Scott would be sound asleep.

"Everyone I speak to seems to love her."

"She is hard to dislike, she is compassionate and loving despite the hurt she has been through," he said as we continued to walk.

"Hurt?" I asked. I didn't want to pry but I had to know what he meant by that. But something told me that I didn't want to know.

"She was abandoned here as a baby a little while after I left, she had nothing but a letter from her mother and the clothes she was wearing. It was freezing out, it's a wonder she didn't catch hypothermia or get killed by strigoi." I knew she was okay, I stood in the bushes until a guardian came to investigate the crying, as soon as I knew she was in good hands I was out of there. "She brightened up every room she entered and charmed every person she met. She is like a daughter to me," I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in. Hearing Dimitri say those words was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

"Adrian loves her too," I whispered as we took a seat at one of the benches in the courtyard.

"Adrian loves her more than anyone, they were inseparable since the moment he laid eyes on her," Dimitri chuckled, "He did a background check on all of the guys she spoke to and he was always sitting at the back table during her dates, you should have seen how distraught he was when she went missing, he kept muttering things about breaking a promise. We all just brushed it off, we assumed he meant that he promised Tilly that he would look after her."

"We'll find her," I said, patting his arm, "Don't worry."

He nodded his head as if he didn't know what else to do. I didn't blame him, one of the most important people in his life is missing, but he is yet to find out that she is his daughter.

"Stan's body is being sent back here to be buried at the cemetery," Dimitri said.

"What happened to him?" I asked as I swept the dirt off the table top.

"He was out with the moroi, visiting family and I guess a strigoi got hungry." I knew it would have been hurting Dimitri. Stan was like a mentor to Dimitri, Stan was like a father to me."

"When will his funeral be?" I asked, wrapping my arms around me in an attempt to keep myself warm.

"Tomorrow evening, your welcome to be there, we leave here at 4am to get to the cemetery, a few of the guardians will stay but the people that knew him are attending."

"I'll be there."