I spent the entire night in a hurried frenzy. I never got to go back and check on Adrian. Somehow, I never noticed it before, but it must have started when he started dating Rose. He stopped drinking as much and stopped smoking altogether, which I thought was pretty impressive. But now, in all his stress, he had started up smoking again and was constantly drinking, trying to rid himself of the pain.
I felt conflicted as to what I had to do next. It was Rose's stake, we had no choice. The evidence was overwhelming, we had to arrest her, but I knew she couldn't have done it. Adrian said he was with her the whole time and I believed him, even though it went against my gut feeling.
All the guardians fanned out asking around to see if anyone knew where Rose had gone. I sat down and focused. I just focused on her mind, her aura, searching for her using the weird side effect bond I now shared with every Shadow-Kissed guardian and Spirit users.
I saw her sitting in a cafe. There was Dimitri. They were talking. They looked...happy. I hated ruining it for them, but if she had murdered Tatiana, I'd get to the bottom of it.
I got up, found Hans and informed him of their location. He put together a group and sent us to the cafe; I was among them.
***************************************************************************
When we arrived we exchanged a few words with the guardians who were guarding Dimitri, they had backed off a little so that Rose could have her privacy with Dimitri. When they learned of the seriousness of our task, they let us through and agreed to help.
"Rosemarie Hathaway, you are under arrest," Hans started
I don't even know what happened. One minute Dimitri was sitting, calming talking to Rose and the next, he was throwing guardians into tables and through doors.
"Dimka, please," I begged, trying to make him stop.
"If you had something to do with this," he started warningly in Russian.
"No, not this time. I didn't!" I exclaimed.
He didn't look like he believed me.
"Dimitri, please, please stop!" begged Rose, trying to hold him back with all her strength, "Please, it's not helping to convince everyone that you're not a Strigoi anymore!"
That last statement made him stop, but he eyed me suspiciously.
"On what charge!" he demanded.
"Murder," replied Hans, "Of her Royal Majesty, Queen Tatiana Ivashkov."
Rose's eyes widened in disbelief, but she allowed the guardians to handcuff her and take her away.
"I'm sorry Rose. I'll get to the bottom of this," I whispered in her ear as I led her away.
