A Guardian's Promise

Chapter 1 - "I don't have feelings for you anymore."

*This has been edited from what it first was*

"Rose," Dimitri says softly, yet giving up patience. "I don't have feelings for you anymore. I have told you that so many times, yet you won't listen." Noticing Dimitri outside my window had given me some hope. Hope that had only turned out to be his guardian duties. Still, maybe he had changed.

"I tried," I muttered under my breath. I begin to sulk off back towards the door in which I had come in from, full of hope, yet what a change of mood I was in now. Dimitri must have heard that, whether clearly or not, but whatever it was, he grabbed my wrist. The familiar, burning passion I had, and still have, as I have recently come around to noticing, started up again. Maybe he thought about it. Maybe he wanted me, unlike what he said moments ago. Not wanted me. I could never let him say that to me again. When Dimitri became strigoi, not by choice, I found him. I was going out to kill him, but I hesitated. He kept me 'hostage' as such, and he told me he wanted me to turn strigoi and join him just because he wanted me. He never said he wanted me to turn because he loved me but that's because strigoi couldn't see beauty, or even love I suppose. Still, it hurt. He wanted my power, not any romance. Besides that, I had made it clear that turning Strigoi was far off any intentions of mine. Now he was back, as a dhampir like before. He was just as god-like and strong, and if possible, being strigoi made him that much stronger.

"What did you just say?" Dimitri asks, snapping me back to reality. His expression is soft, yet still like he wouldn't give in.

I shake my head. "Nothing."

Moroi and dhampirs could hear well, just as Dimitri's expression tells me. "It wasn't nothing Rose." He didn't believe me, but the tone in his voice made me believe that maybe he really did move on. Maybe he doesn't like me anymore. I use as much of my guardian instinct and training as possible, and eventually, with great difficulty, get out of his grasp and run back to my room in the guest quarters of court.

"Rose!" Someone was shaking me awake. I jump up quickly and begin to grab my stake next to me until I hear laughter. Not just anyone's laugh. It was Dimitri. I blush and sit back down on my bed. Then everything comes back to me. That was all just a dream. Well, not quite a dream. It had happened but that situation hadn't occurred. Not quite like that.

Now, none of that matters. Dimitri and I were together, and I have nothing to worry about. Except for Lissa, my assignment. Vasilisa Dragomir. Queen Vasilisa. She and I had been very close, as we shared a unique bond, caused by spirit. Spirit was the fifth element, the rarest element that Moroi could possess control over. Currently, we only know of six living Moroi, including Lissa that use spirit. Dimitri touches my arm lightly, pulling me back to reality.

"You scared me." I say, faking a vulnerable expression. It was true though, I have been really on edge since the attack on Lissa's illegitimate sister, Jill. I don't want to repeat it, because of my disbelief of moroi doing things like that to each other when they were already in a vulnerable position against strigoi.

"What was going on?" Dimitri asks me, studying my face for any clues. I love Dimitri, and I can tell he cares about me, but I can't tell him what that dream was about. I am trying to get him to see that I can defend myself as much as him because I can't let him protect me over his charge, Christian Ozera, also known as Lissa's boyfriend. The fact that they are together, means Dimitri and I are together a lot. Great, but could also present another problem. So, I can't tell him anything like that. No matter how much I wanted to.

"Nothing. I don't know what you are talking about." I say with as much persuasion as I can manage.

"It's clearly not." He says, his face set into a hard and blank expression as if he doesn't believe me. I used to confide in him so much that he must know that I was lying.