"Don't do anything stupid," Dimitri raised his hands in the air, palms flat as he took a step towards me as if I were a wild mare needing taming. As he took his second step toward me, I threw a right hook at him, aiming at his face. With his exceptional speed he caught my cool wrist before I could my fist could cause any damage. I struggled against his iron clad grip but secretly bathed in the warmness of his touch. I had forgotten what it felt like to be touched by him. "Like that.." He sighed.

"I'm not one of your novices anymore," I said looking up at his ridiculously tall stature. "When you bark, I don't follow." I clenched my other fist watching as his eyes darted from my face to peer down at my free clenched hand. It was the perfect distraction. Raising my right foot in the air, I kicked out at his left knee with such force, he buckled fell to floor. Using my strength against his, I reached up and wrapping my hand around his forearm and twisted it whilst side stepping behind him performing the sleeper hold choke.

"I won't hurt you if you back down." He said through spluttered breaths. Before I knew what was happening he was on his feet, I was off of mine and hanging loosely around the back of his neck. He threw himself back across the room, knocking me hard into the wall. Even with the force of impact, I didn't lose my grip on him and so he threw himself back against the wall again, delivering a hard blow to my back and head.

"You're such a dick," I reached around and felt the wet patch on the back of my head. "Well that's just fantastic, thank you so much." The sarcasm was laced through my voice as I held pressure to my head to stop the bleeding. It wouldn't take long, cuts and bruises seemed to heal quicker since I had been turned. The downside was it made it harder to curb my continuous thirst, as I felt like with the loss of blood I needed to feed as soon as possible in order to refill the blood bank that was my body.

Dimitri turned around and looked at me. He took a couple of steps back and gazed at me, thoughtfully. "You still look the same." He muttered quietly to himself, his brow furrowing with this acknowledgment. His gaze returned to my face and as our eyes met, the softness that had just encased his distinctive features disappeared immediately. "But you're not the same." His words were harsh and pointed, his words were used to make a point.

And he was right. I wasn't the same. Physically I was stronger, emotionally I was absent and mentally, well I was a little more bitchy. "Haven't you ever heard the expression, if it walks like a duck, comrade?" I frowned and pulled my hand away from the back of my head. My palm was covered in blood but the wound had already healed. One of the perks of being the 'undead.' I tilted my head and examined him closely as a thought entered my mind, "How did you find us?" I asked, though the question was for the both of us.

Abe would have undoubtedly disposed of the car to protect me and also not to implicate himself. We had travelled for hours without any signs of tracker and through the bond I instantly felt Lissa, she was sleeping peacefully for the first time in months. "That traitorous bastard," I hissed through clenched teeth, the points of my fangs bearing down on the inside of my gums. As I moved away from the wall to storm upstairs to give Mr Ozera a piece of my mind, Dimitri once again stood his ground and blocked my only escape route. I glared up at him, "You might want to move."

"And you might want to remember who you're talking to." He shot back. His six foot seven, lean muscled frame would have been intimidating to anyone else. "I came here to recover the princess and take her back to the academy." His words were cutting deep, he wasn't here for me at all. Just for her.

"Then why are you here?" I asked and looked around the makeshift room that I had called my home for the past couple of months. "Why aren't you upstairs with a team, hauling her ass out of bed and into some a black mini van to take her back St. Vladmirs?" Shrugging my shoulders and frowning from confusion, I asked again hoping to get a clear cut answer from him for a change. "Why are you here?" With me, I asked myself.

"I-" Dimitri paused contemplating his words. Maybe he was going to be his usual stoic self and quote some Buddha crap at me but instead his features softened once more and his impassive expression turned sad. "I wanted to see for myself," He sighed deeply, "I needed to see for myself." Backing away from the door he walked over to the bed and examined in before turning his attention to the bedside table where I had stashed my ipod and a lip balm. "Your taught that once they change there is no going back, that they are dead inside." He turned and looked over his shoulder at me. "I think this, in my head I know it to be right."

He was looking at me, pleading with me slightly to reassure him that I was something different, someone different. "I hate to break this to you comrade but life is a little more complicated than the Moroi council paint it as. I'm no longer part of that cosy little black and white world, where we think we know the definitive answer of right and wrong." I mentally kicked myself for sharing so much, I hadn't let anyone see this side of me since I had changed. "But you don't want me to tell you that." I stepped closer to him, daring him to make his move and strengthening my own inner resolve that I was no longer the Rose Hathaway whom he loved. "You want me to tell you that like all the other strigoi out there, I hunt, I feed and I like it."

His nostrils flared and his dark eyes gleamed with anger. "You enjoy it?" His voice was dripping with disdain.

"I do," I admitted unashamedly. "The thrill of the hunt...it's like nothing I've ever felt before." Something he could never understand. He was a carbon copy of every guardian produced, living in their little judgmental world.

"And that's what makes you just like them." His voice and glance was so disparaging, I wanted to punch it right out of him. Self righteous asshole. "To take an innocent life.." Dimitri's expression turned sad momentarily and I knew he was picturing the old me, the seventeen year old naive girl he had fallen in love with taking an innocent's life. He was confusing her with me.

"Get off the white horse cowboy, nobody's that innocent."

Dimitri's brow furrowed and whatever inner dilemma he was fighting, it was settled. He struck out at me, his hand reaching out to grab ahold of my throat. Quickly side stepping his forceful strike, I grasped his elbow with my left hand and reached up and grabbing ahold of his shoulder with my right hand. Dimitri mirrored my move, grasping ahold of my shoulder with his right hand and my elbow with his left, trying to gain control. Stepping closed to him, I placed my foot in between his legs, causing him to straighten slightly. Pivoting to stand beside him, I kicked up behind me, forcing Dimitri to twist his body, losing the center of his balance. Continuing to twist his body, I throw my arms forward, throwing Dimitri away from me and to the floor.

"Recognize that one?" I asked cockily. It was a russian martial arts/wrestling move Dimitri had taught me at the end of one of our training sessions; he had taught me the move more for my amusement than actual training.

Dimitri was back on his feet in the blink of an eye, charging me. He wrapped his hands around my biceps and threw me hard against the wall once more, pinning my body down. Baring fangs, I growled at him. "Always so over confident, your biggest weakness."

"Yeah?" I asked and looked up into his soul coal black eyes. "Well I know what yours is.." That was the thing about being a Strigoi, while your physical abilities were heightened so were your emotions. With a surge of passion and need, I broke free of his grasp, pushing his arms aside and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his face down to meet mine.

Dimitri paused an inch from my face and then moved in, pressing his lips hard and fast against mine.