A Guardian's Promise

Chapter 8 - Still Guardians while on Holiday

"—and now here we are." I conclude. Olena was wiping away the last of her tears. I hadn't noticed she was crying.

"Are you okay Mama?" Dimitri asks her. I almost cried myself—I know, very rare—but I knew better than to actually do so. I had finished recounting our story, from just after our time in the cabin last year but removing or skimming over anything—especially those bits you wouldn't really tell your mother if you know what I am getting at.

"I'm okay." Olena sighs. Dimitri wraps his arms around his mother while she calms down. She says something in Russian to him, something that I wasn't supposed to hear I guess, seeing as it was in Russian. I am tempted to ask Dimitri what she said but decide against it considering the situation.

"Good morning." A new person enters the room. I turn towards the entryway and my eyes fall on a sleepy Viktoria, and my stomach turns. From what I heard last night, she must have had a fun night. I shake the thought, telling myself that hearing it wasn't nearly as bad as actually seeing it. There were definitely times that I was glad my bond with Lissa was gone. From on my lap, my phone buzzes with an incoming call. I glance down at the screen, hoping it was someone I could ignore. It was Christian. Wow. Think of the devil and he shall appear much? Easily ignorable. Except there was a thought pulsing through my head telling me I needed to answer it. He never called me unless it was something to do with Lissa. Something important.

"I have to take this call, sorry." I wince apologetically and leave the room. "Christian?" I ask, worry setting in.

"Rose. Thank god you answered. I didn't know when to call you, because I have no idea where you are, or what schedule you are running on, but I am glad you answered." He was rambling, though not nearly as bad as Adrian did when he had used too much spirit.

"Christian what's wrong?" I ask, my heart beating fast. He was acting incredibly strange, and very unlike the Christian I had grown to know and—let's face it—become friends with.

"It's Lissa. She has gone missing. She went to a meeting for the royal court earlier today and never—" I didn't hear the rest, as the hold on my phone loosens in shock, and it slips out of my hand, landing with a loud thump on the rug. Of course. As soon as Lissa is in the hands of another guardian, she goes missing. I start shaking. I never should have left her. I knew I couldn't trust those other two guardians. They needed to get fired—or worse, killed. If Lissa was killed, then they deserve that and much more. Then a strong pair of arms wraps around me.

"Roza, what's wrong?" Dimitri whispers. I can't find any words to say, no matter how many of them are running through my mind. He looks down and notices my phone, screen up, displaying a call with Christian. He squeezes me tighter and then let go, taking my phone with him out into the courtyard. I lower myself to the floor, still shaking, and try to listen to their conversation. No matter how much I didn't want to hear it, I had to know what was going on.

"Do you know what happened? Did she take anything with her?" Dimitri asks. He sounded flustered, but not as worked up as I was. It was all business with him. Guardians were supposed to stay calm in situations like these. Easy for them to say though, most guardians weren't guarding their best friend since kindergarten. Lissa was also a dear friend to him, but he had to stay calm, for mine and Christian's sake mostly. And I needed to calm down as well. I wasn't doing what I had been trained to do, and that was a problem. My feelings weren't important.

Slowing down my breathing, I repeat the saying, 'they come first' a few times in my head and stand up. Still shaking, I struggled for a second to keep my balance. My dhampir skills kicked in before I fell though, and I follow where Dimitri had left from. He was still talking to Christian.

Figures. I thought to myself. He notices me and wraps up the conversation.

"Well I think Rose has calmed down enough now to explain to her what is going on. If you find out anything else, please tell us. We barely have enough information to send people out searching for her just yet." He tells Christian. He waits for a second, obviously listening to Christian's response, and then ends the call, passing me my phone.

"What's going on?" I say, taking my phone and then watching him expectantly. He shakes his head and disappears inside. I watch him leave, speechless.

Did I do something wrong? Thoughts begin filling my head at a rapid rate. Again, my thoughts and feelings trumped what I was supposed to be doing. My own emotions shielded my tasks and common sense. Dimitri comes back out with a notebook and two pens. A brainstorm.

Of course. That was a completely rational guardian thing to do. I can't believe I never thought of that. Again, I cursed at myself for my stupidity.

"Rose." Dimitri scolds me. I immediately try to come up with some sort of retort, but my brain was surprisingly empty. It was rare to go on a rescue mission, but this was different. This was my best friend we were talking about here. Hell, it was the queen of our hidden society! I pull out a chair at the table and take a seat next to Dimitri.

"Okay so what do we know?" I ask, trying to channel my inner—and non-existent right now—guardian. Despite being rare, we had covered rescue missions and how to conduct them in theory with Stan.

"Not enough. We have to go back to court to sort some things out for ourselves."

"But Christian must have found something right?" I ask, secretly hoping that he had found enough out for me to work out. Dimitri flips open his notebook to an empty page and titles it. He then begins listing small details that Christian had picked up or knew himself.

Took phone but cannot contact it.

And then:

Disappeared from within the wards.

"What about the guardians at the gates? Has anyone checked the record of who has come in and out?" I ask. He nods and adds more.

Guards at the gates have record of an entrance around the time of her disappearance. The vehicle is not registered with court. Details of licence and owner missing.

Pieces began to fall together, and I had a theory forming. "Maybe they used compulsion on the guardians?" I mention. Normally visitors had to give the guards their licence, car registration and a few other details to prevent this exact thing occurring. Dimitri starts a new page titled 'Theories'. As he scrawls down my idea with his neat handwriting, I try and reach out to a part of my brain that had been only newly developed. The reasonable part. The part of my brain that came up with completely sane solutions to problems. The old impulsive Rose was rearing its ugly head right now, and although it may not be ugly in other circumstances, now just wasn't the right time.

Word Count: 1233