Collateral Damage

- TWENTY FIVE -

As I was pushed towards the basement I prepared myself to meet my daughter. I held my breath as I was pushed into the all too familiar basement. Memories of being locked in here with Christian and some of my friends flooded my mind. The way they used Eddie Castile, one of my old friends, turned my stomach.

The light flicked on and I immediately came face to face with my daughter. It was her. She was beautiful, I saw some of Dimitri's looks in her. "Matilda?" I said as more of a question. She had a black eye and fang marks on her neck.

"Who are you?" she said.

I contemplated for a second before a voice said, "Mother meet daughter." I spun around to be met with a mop of blonde hair and brown eyes. Melissa.

"Melissa let her go, she has nothing to do with this." I pleaded. I needed to know that my daughter would be safe.

"Oh, I intend to, Rose. But for future reference I am in charge here, and I will have you killed if you try anything." She said, the smirk never leaving her features. I watched in hatred as she left the basement and locked the door.

"Did they hurt you?" I asked walking over to the girl behind me. "Are you okay?"

"Who is he?" Matilda said, she didn't even blink. "Who is my father?"

"What did they say to you?" I asked as I took a seat on the mattress they had stuck on the floor.

"Just that he was dhampir, and that he was your teacher."

I ran my hands over my face, "It doesn't matter."

"No. I want to know." I shook my head. She really doesn't want to know.

"It's a long story." I replied hoping she would take the hint.

She didn't. "Good thing we're locked in a basement then."

I was silent for a second. "Vasilissa Dragomir was my best friend and we ran away together. We had been through so much, as you probably know her parents and brother were killed in a car accident," Matilda nodded, "Lissa and I were in the accident, I pretty much died and she bought me back with her spirit magic. That is called being shadow kissed. Eventually, we were bought back by Guardian Dimitri Belikov. I was given extra training sessions with him because I had fallen so far behind in my field work. I knew I liked him, a lot. Anyway, Lissa was kidnapped and I was put under a spell that made a feeling of lust come over me. When I realized that Lissa was missing I went to find Dimitri and things got heated. Nothing happened and we went and saved her. A few months later one of my other best friends died and it broke me. Dimitri was there for me through it all. After that I started seeing his ghost. It was because I was shadow kissed. Shadow kissed meant having an eternal connection to the dead, meaning I could see his ghost. Some other stuff happened and one night I had gotten into a fight. Dimitri took me back to his cabin and was cleaning my wounds. He told me he loved me and then we kissed. It wasn't our first kiss nor was it our first time professing our love for each other but this time was different. We ended up sleeping together, he took my virginity. Afterward we were walking through the courtyard together and the academy became under attack. Dimitri was turned strigoi and it broke my heart. By this time I was eighteen and I could leave the academy, so I did. I made a promise to myself that I would find him and kill him, it's what he would have wanted. I found him and he took me prisoner. Even as a strigoi he loved me, he wanted me to become strigoi and live with him forever. I put a stake through his heart, then I pushed him of the bridge that we were fighting on. When I got back to the academy a package had been posted to me, inside was the stake I used to kill Dimitri and a letter stating that the stake had fallen out and he had survived. He said he was coming for me and this time he was going to kill me. Lissa and Christian found a way to bring him back, so they did. We eventually turned him back and bought him back to the academy. He refused to see me and he wanted nothing to do with me. I told him that I loved him and he told me that love fades and that his love had. It broke my heart. I then later found out that he had taken up an offer to leave the academy. So in turn I left. I found out I was pregnant with you, I came to the conclusion that it was because I was shadow kissed, and that things are possible for me because I am different. So I gave you to the academy because I couldn't be the mother that you needed, and now here we are."

"Does Dimtri know that he is my father?" she said, sitting on the steps of the basement.

I shook my head, "The only person who knew was Adrian. He was in love with me when we were younger and he promised me that he would look after you and be the parent that you didn't have."

"You abandoned me, you left me."

"I did it to protect you." I replied.

"No, you did it to protect yourself. Dimitri didn't want you, so you didn't want me."

"That's not it." I said in disbelief.

"Admit it, you couldn't raise your ex's baby."

"YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! If I didn't care than why would I be here?" I said. She rolled her eyes and looked away from me.

Rose: 1. Matilda: 0.