Author's Note: Hello, my loves! I'm sorry about the long wait! I just love hearing what you have to say, it really helps push me onward! I just started a new job while trying to finish out the last days with my old one so my time to do anything is going to be cut down a bit until I finally leave my other job, so forgive me for my instability! Let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Warnings: Nothing really.

Word Count: 6,350

I tell him everything about Gillian. As we walk around the yard, with Dimitri gently touching my lower back to direct me when he thinks we are getting too far away, I tell him about my strange interactions with Gillian. How she was nothing like any of the other Strigoi I ever dealt with. How she was human but knew about Moroi and dhampir - which I know could have been attributed to the fact that she was now Strigoi, which is what she said but it felt different than that - and about how she saved Bentley's life after I almost botched my half-hearted attempt to save Asland's life.

Anything and everything that I could think of, that we talked about and how she acted, I told him about. I felt good about getting it off my chest, about being able to talk to someone about all the strange things going on in my life. Plus it doesn't hurt that Dimitri was such a good listener. I could tell him anything and everything and he wouldn't judge me or stop me until I'm done.

"She pretended not to know about Guardians at first, and then did a few minutes later?" Dimitri asks after I finally finished.

I think back by that night, realizing she had. I figured as she was human she wouldn't really know, and then she used dhampir and Moroi as if it was nothing and told me it was because she was Strigoi - which made sense - but why would she lie? What was the point in trying to pretend like she had no idea what we were when it was obvious that she did?

Oh, and she was dating a Moroi's sister.

When I told him that, he seemed even more curious and thoughtful. "So she wasn't being entirely honest..."

"No," I admit, surprised that I didn't put all of this together in the first place. "So why would she lie to me like that? Not that I should be surprised that she would, we are both Strigoi. But... it's still strange. What an odd thing to lie about."

Dimitri hums in agreement, eyebrows pulled together tightly, trying to wrap his mind around all of the information I've given him. I haven't told him everything that happened, but I did give him a lot more information than he had an hour ago. I could see his mind racing, see the connections being made, but I could also see the weariness and fatigue gnawing away at him. As he's trying to figure all of this out with me, he's having a hard time fighting his body's natural needs. He hasn't had a good night's sleep in weeks. His relief at seeing me seems to have brought the full force of these last few excruciating weeks to the forefront of his mind, nagging angrily about his lack of care for himself.

"Let's go back," I say, interlacing my fingers through his.

He looks down at me curiously, opening his mouth to say something - or ask something - but a yawn stops him from being able to utter a word. He turns away to hide it from me like it wasn't already too late.

"Dimitri, I would have to be blind not to be able to see how tired you are. Let's go back." I pull him back toward the glowing warehouse, aware that the sky is finally starting to lighten up. We still had time before the sun actually comes up over the horizon but it's time to turn back inside before this becomes dangerous. Now that I'm finally united with my love, the last thing I want to do is be turned into crispy burnt bacon in the sun. What a way to go.

"Is everyone going to be living in the attached apartment building?" I ask as Dimitri yawns again. Now that he's started he can't seem to stop.

He nods and once the yawn has passed, "But I'll be staying with you."

"Where am I staying?" I look up at him.

"Underground, in the facility. It was one of the ways Abe was able to get people to agree to help out. There is a sealed room down there that's held Strigoi before and was recently refurbished to get it back up to safety standers. We aren't going to take any chances. You aren't going to be in any danger of the sun while underground so it works out." He says the words smoothly, but I can see anger written across his face. He doesn't think that I should be locked away.

"You're going to stay in a cell with me?" I ask, finding this more amusing than he has. It doesn't surprise me that I'm going to be locked away at night while people are sleeping. It would probably be one of the few things that would help convince me to sleep near a Strigoi. Er, one that I didn't know. Or love, despite him being evil and wanting to turn me into one like him...

Dimitri looks angry at the word "cell".

"It's not a cell," he says slowly, trying to control his anger. He stews in his anger for a few minutes longer before letting out a long, drawn-out sigh as his shoulders slump and he looks over at me in the corner of my eye. He looks like he's trying to consider something but doesn't know how to say whatever is on his mind.

I have a feeling it has something to do with the cell not being a cell. I think that it probably very much is a cell and in his efforts to not make me feel like a monster that everyone both despises and fears he's backed into a corner that he can't escape. It is a cell. I know that without having seen it. Just from his expression and his insistence that it isn't a cell.

"Dimitri," I say, reaching out to touch his arm, "it's okay. If it's a cell or not, it's fine. I know that I'm dangerous, I'm a Strigoi." Dimitri opens his mouth to protest but I quickly go on to cut him off. "I know I'm different than you were when you were a Strigoi, but that doesn't mean that I'm not still dangerous. I am okay with sleeping in a cell. So long as I've got something to do if I can't sleep, and I'm not stuck in there for days on end."

Dimitri shakes his head. "Of course you won't. I will make sure of it."

I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his chest, smiling when his arms wrap around me and hold me close. His warmth wraps around me comfortingly. I can hear his heart beat strong in my ear and it's relaxing. If there wasn't the threat of burning up in the sun agonizing and painful, I would stay like this all day.

I open my eyes and spot some Guardians over by the warehouse that was watching us. I can see them speaking to one another, then looking over at us, as if waiting for me to soar through the air and descend onto them like a bat out of hell. I hope in their mental imagery I've got a cool billowing cape with a high collar. That would make it the perfect sell. Straight out of a movie.

"I think they are waiting for me to rip your throat out," I murmur, staring at the Guardians.

Dimitri shifts slightly before scoffing. "Let them stare." He runs his hands up and down my back soothingly. I could fall asleep in his arms right now if he'd let me. "Are you... thirsty?"

I don't look at him, I just hold onto him tightly. "No. I'm fine." A yawn escapes me before I can say anything more. I press closer together, making sure in the back of my mind that I don't squeeze his midsection too hard. I don't want to hurt him.

"Let's go," Dimitri says, yawning a bit himself. "I think... it's time that we both get a bit of rest. Sonya was right, tomorrow is going to be a big day."

We break apart and I lace my fingers through his once more as we slowly walk back to the warehouse. Now that the Guardians see us coming, they disperse trying to pretend that they weren't just blatantly staring at us. I appreciate them trying to not be caught blatantly staring. Dimitri doesn't even spare them a sideways glance as he leads me back inside. Pretty much everything has been set up around the room or taken down beneath the building to the underground facility. I'm sure everything is set up and prepared for tomorrow and whatever Sonya has planned for us.

Dimitri walks me across the room, waving a bit at some of the Guardians that glance up at us before we reach the elevator. We go down a level to see a long hallway with many different rooms. As we pass them by some are empty and dark, but others have some people walking around, talking, barely sparing a glance in our direction, while others stop and stare at us as we walk by. At the end of the hall is a regularly sized elevator. We step in and hit the bottom floor. Thankfully Dimitri knows were he's going so that he can lead the way.

I yawn again, in time with Dimitri's yawn. Once we both manage to stop a vicious circle of one of us yawning then triggering the other to yawn, we both laugh lightly at one another, leaning against each other in exhaustion.

We reach a small hallway that is about six feet in length before we reach a huge, metal door with a keypad next to it. Dimitri types in a code and the door slides open almost silently aside from a low hiss into another small space between two doors. We step in so that the door behind us closes and the next one's keypad lights up and Dimitri punches in another code. That door opens and it leads us down another portion of the hall where a few Guardians sit behind thick glass windows - although I doubt they are actually glass - setting up a security station as we walk through. Once we get to the last door at the end of the hall, Dimitri taps on the glass and one of the Guardian's looks up.

Dimitri nods to the door, stepping up to the keypad and pressing a few numbers. As soon as he pauses, the Guardian types a few times on the computer in front of him, before Dimitri finishes it up and the light over this huge metal door turns from red to green.

Once the door opens we are in a huge, wide open room with a large box in the center of the room with a huge device sitting next to the box with a huge pipe that leads into the box. Through the walls of the box made up of some sort of clear material, I can see a nice, comfy looking bed that definitely wasn't in there before, with a bookcase and a small tv along with a small bedside table and lamp. There was even a small, circular curtesy rug on the concrete floor.

"Looks very homely," I say, giving him a sideways glance.

Dimitri grunts a bit, probably seeing it as a five for five cage, rather than a fifteen by fifteen foot one. I don't think that ten feet make much of a difference to him, but it does to me. The fact that there is a nice looking bed, a bookstand filled with books and a television is about a thousand steps up from when I was imprisoned at Court for the death of the late queen Tatiana Ivashkov.

Dimitri turns off the lights of the room, dropping us into darkness, but with our enhanced Dhampir senses - er, his Dhampir senses, my Strigoi senses - we are able to see enough to walk across the room to the only door leading into the box. There is a keypad with glowing numbers. He types in another long, complex code before a red light over the door turns green and a buzzing noise opens the door. Dimitri holds the door open for me. I slip inside and walk right over to the bed, clicking the lamp on to illuminate the darkness a bit more before looking over my shoulder to see Dimitri stepping in and closing the door behind himself.

He's looking down at his phone, texting away with one hand before looking up at me, holding the phone up and wiggling it around. "I'm telling Sonya that we are back and retiring for the night."

As much as I would love to switch on the tv and relax with Dimitri, but we are both exhausted. We need to sleep. Especially him. This light isn't flattering and his face has lost all color. I lean down and untie my boots and kick them off onto the rug. Dimitri pulls off his long duster, placing it carefully on the bookshelf behind the tv before walking over to the other side of the bed to sit, leaning down to take his own shoes off. He slips his sweater off over his head and drops it on the floor next to the bed half-hazardously.

I roll my eyes. "The ground isn't good enough for your duster?" I ask, rhetorically, a smile on my lips.

Dimitri snorts, giving me a playful stare over his shoulder. The playful glint in his eyes takes my breath away. He's so devastatingly beautiful. "Come now, Roza, you know I wouldn't want it wrinkled."

I roll my eyes again, not so secretly loving this simple, easy conversation about his silly obsession with the duster. No man is perfect but Dimitri Belikov is damn near close - John Wayne idolizing, duster wearing, wild west cowboy notwithstanding. But for me, he's perfect.

I shrug off my jacket and drop it onto the floor before crawling into the bed, pulling the covers up over me more out of habit rather than because I'm cold. Dimitri plucks at his t-shirt a bit as if contemplating taking it off before realizing that we were probably going to be interrupted in the morning and he wasn't about public displays or being so completely vulnerable. He'd sleep shirtless in our room behind a door, not here, in a box, where anyone can just walk in and see us. Not that we are doing anything nefarious or sexual, but he's still a lot more private than I am. Not that I want to show off to a bunch of random people my body. It's nice to see that we are on the same page still.

Any of the fun stuff has to wait until we are alone, behind actual walls. Oh, and when I'm not a Strigoi. If he can play hard to get, so can I.

I open my arms up, looking into his dark brown eyes. "It's time to rest, comrade."

Dimitri doesn't protest. He crawls over me, reaching out with his long arms to turn the lamp off before lowering his head to my chest as the darkness wraps around us. We shift a bit until I'm laying down with him on my chest, arms wrapped around my waist. He lays between my legs almost covering my entire body with his own. Last time I didn't pull my legs out from under him while he slept on me my legs went numb during the night and I fell out of the bed the following morning thinking my legs would fall off of my body. Admittedly, I had a bit of a panic attack. I run one hand up and down his back while the other one slides through his soft hair.

"I'm sorry I hurt you today..." I whisper, hoping that by my speaking about hurting him, that he wouldn't realize he was sharing a bed with a Strigoi and get up and run out of the room. I certainly didn't know the code to get in and out. But I still felt bad about hurting his hands earlier, even though I didn't mean to.

Dimitri breaths slowly, deeply against me. I lean forward and peer through the darkness at his face to see it completely smoothed out with sleep. Even in the darkness, I can see his face completely slack and expressionless. I gently run my fingers through his hair listening to the sound of him breathing as he slips deeper and deeper into slumber. Days and days of inadequate sleep has finally caught up with him. He was already asleep before I even spoke. I can't fault him. He looks like hell.

I'm just relieved he sees me enough to be able to fall asleep at my side. Dhampir or Strigoi, no matter what we are, somehow we can fall asleep in the arms of the other without a lot of problems. We both are a real mess.

I wrap my arms around him tight and hold him to me, letting my eyes drift closed as sleep takes me.

"Rose?"

I open my eyes, groaning softly, shifting a bit. It's a bit harder to move with this heavy weight on my chest, but it is not unwelcome. It's warm and safe and familiar to me. And I haven't had this good of sleep in a long time.

Dimitri, my mind supplies to me. The weight on me is Dimitri.

I wrap my arms around him tighter, not wanting to let him go. I just got him back. We finally are together again. I don't want to separate from him for even a second. I'm so relieved that he's here with me. If I wasn't conscious enough to know that it wasn't, I'd like to imagine that these last few weeks were nothing but a bad dream. But I know that I can't pretend that I'm not what I am.

"Rose?"

I force my eyes open to see Sonya standing in the doorway into the cell with a few Guardians standing behind her with flashlights pointed around the room but not at us. I recognize Mikhail amongst them. I wave my hand at them before slowly sliding out from under Dimitri. He's been through hell these last few weeks and hasn't been sleeping well, or at all some days I'm sure, so I'm going to let him catch up as much as he can. From months of sleeping in the same bed as him, I've learned how to sneak in and out from late shift or early shift without waking him up. It's probably not necessary seeing as he hasn't been well rested for a while and is probably sleeping like a rock, but I want to give him as much time as I can.

He deserves that much at least.

I'm sure I look odd, slithering out from under him like a snake but I feel a stab of pride that he didn't so much as shift as I was doing so. I was getting good at this. Once I'm free I take a moment to grin proudly to myself and smooth down my shirt as it rode up to my chest.

I lean down and kiss the back of his head once I'm safely out from under him before shoving my feet into boots and throwing on my jacket and sneaking across the room to Sonya and the door, waiting for her to back up all the way out and a few steps back before I crossed the threshold and out. She looks exasperated but I think she sensed me not wanting to wake Dimitri and her standing there arguing with me about me not wanting to run lovingly into her Moroi arms was just not important enough to wake Dimitri.

At least we can agree on that.

Once myself and two Guardians leave the space between the two security doors and out into the regular hallway, I am greeted with the displeased look on Sonya Karps's face. Her arms crossed over a thin chest and leaning on one hip.

I stop and stare at her once the doors hiss closed behind us. "You've got the disappointed mother thing down, Sonya."

"My entire career has just about everything to do with kids, Rose. Teenagers primarily," Sonya says easily, a faint smile on her lips, probably remembering her time as a teacher. The kids - myself included - may not have understood what was happening with her and called her less than favorable names - like assholes, myself included - but she seemed to be very passionate about her work and about her job. "So, mastering the look of annoyance and disappointment at ne'erdowells comes second nature."

"Ne'erdowells," I echo, "holy shit. That was a nice way of calling us teenage assholes and bitches."

Sonya's smile grows a bit more, eyes shining with mirth. "You all weren't so bad. I can deal with a few names and strange looks, if anything, you were most cruel to each other."

I sigh, thinking back to my wonderful time at St. Vladamir's Academy. Being stared at and center of the rumor mill, oh, and that fun time when everyone was calling me a blood whore? That was fun, great times. I will cherish the time I spent at St. Vladamir's, but no one will ever catch me wishing to go back. Not that being in the real world doesn't almost completely suck, but anything is really a step up for St. Vladamir. Or, well, almost anything.

"You aren't going to hurt me," Sonya says, pulling me back from my thoughts. I stare at her and sigh.

"I don't want to," I tell her, feeling like a broken record. I glance at the two Guardians next to me. They are both from Court. I recognize them. I daresay they are friends of mine. For what it is worth, I'm glad that they are here. More people I know and trust. They wouldn't want me to be a monster, so they won't let me do anything I may regret. I know that they are weary and forcing the stone face because they have no proof that I won't suddenly go crazy and start ripping people apart. I am glad to see them.

Sonya lets out a sigh as well. I feel like that's going to become a common occurrence between the two of us. We both stare at one another in the quiet hallway. It was us, four Guardians and Mikhail, who was standing off to the side, watching me with curiosity and a bit of weariness. At least he's not openly hostile. I'm not sure what Sonya had to of said to him to make him relax a bit, but he's not as wound up today as he was yesterday. It's almost like he's seeing me in a different light. He's not comfortable and confident with me retaining myself somehow like Dimitri or blinded with faith like Sonya. Mikhail is at least still practical with honest curiosity and weariness.

"What's on the agenda for today, Sonya?" I ask after a few minutes of silence.

Sonya blinks a few times, rubbing at her forehead. "Oh, yes. We are going to start at the very base level. Simple stuff. Nothing really experimental. Come." She waves her hand for me to follow before taking me to the hall with the many rooms and going into one of them. Things were moved around into a somewhat organized state but it's obvious that it's half done. Not everything as even plugged in.

There is a medical table set up in the middle of the room. Sonya nods for me to go sit on it while she grabs some things around the room to get ready for the day. There is a few Moroi around the room and a few more Guardians all watching carefully hidden in plain sight stationary around us. Those with Sonya and I find places amongst them against the walls to stay out of the way.

In a different life, I would have been there. I would have been up against the wall with my fellows. I would be with them, speculating whether this entire thing was some sort of Strigoi ploy or if there was really an ability within Spirit that would change the effects of someone who turns Strigoi. We already know that it can change someone back to what they were before but we don't know what happens if they were affected before they turned. Maybe nothing, maybe me. I guess that's what Sonya is going to try and figure out.

I sit on the table and listen quietly as one of the other Moroi bring over little plastic nodes that she put on a table next to me and instructed me on where to put them and how to make them stick to my skin. I had to shrug off my jacket off and push it somewhere behind me. I put the ones on my chest and temples while another Moroi, this one a man, puts them on my back. Being quick and efficient before moving back and away from me.

These little nodes transmit my temperature and heart rate to a monitor that the Moroi gather around and study. They ask me questions about my life. Simple things to try and get me to relax, I guess. My name, my age, who my parents are, what they are, who my best friend is, what I was born as, where I went to school, what was my favorite subject, etc. Things that were meaningless but all things I could answer that weren't invasive and helped me settle down a bit. I wasn't upset, just a bit anxious.

I wanted everything to somehow come out positive. I wanted them to get as accurate information as they could. I did everything they asked as soon as they asked it and I tried hard to relax.

We had probably been here for about an hour before the door is thrown open and Dimitri steps in face drawn in panic and fear. His eyes locate mine immediately and his entire body relaxes. I could see a flicker of anger in his eyes as he tries to calm himself down.

"I'm sorry," I say, already knowing why he's upset. "I just wanted you to sleep."

"You should have woke me up," Dimitri says, crossing the room and over to my side. He looks me up and down, before glancing at the monitor next to me. It was all nonsense to me, but he seemed to understand what he was seeing, mumbling something about "BP being average..." before looking over at me. "Are you okay?"

I nod. "Of course I'm okay."

"How are you feeling, Rose?" Sonya asks, glancing at the monitor and then me.

"I'm fine," I say again, reaching out to grab onto Dimitri's hands. "You needed sleep, Dimitri. I'm sorry I didn't wake you." I reach up and touch the dark spots under his eyes. It wasn't as much extra for him as I was hoping for, and it didn't do as much good as I was hoping for, but I definitely didn't hurt him. His eyes are sharper, more alert than they were yesterday.

"I know," Dimitri says, pulling his hand back into a ponytail at the back of his neck with a few loose strands around his chin. "I know you were just... thank you. Thank you, I just didn't expect to wake up without you there."

Feeling bad about scaring him, I give his hands a squeeze. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to let you get a little bit more sleep, is all."

Dimitri nods, looking down at our hands for a moment, collecting himself as his shoulders droop a bit in relief. "I didn't mean to panic. It's not your fault. Thank you for being so considerate of my needs."

I reach out and lightly touch his cheek, running the pad of my thumb under his eye, along the darkened spot there. "You should really go and get some more sleep, Dimitri. I'll be right here."

Dimitri was shaking his head before I even finished. "I've slept enough, thank you."

I click my tongue, rubbing under his eyes with both of my thumbs, cupping his face. "I don't need super sight to see how tired you are, Dimitri."

Dimitri grabs onto my wrists and looks down into my eyes with this solid, hard stare that told me no matter what I said, he wasn't going to leave my side and that I should just accept it. "I'm alright, Roza."

In the corner of my eye, I see the Moroi scribbling away at something on their clipboards while Sonya is staring at us with a hard look on her face. It's a look I've seen before. When she was looking at my aura when we were in the car on our way to upturn Jill Mastrano by revealing her parentage. When she saw how my aura looked when I was in a Spirit Dream with Adrian compared to just when I'm around Dimitri. I wonder if there was something in Dimitri's aura that was interesting to her. She had said that we glow like the sun when we are together.

What if he no longer feels that way for me and his aura is a reflection of that? The evil little voice in the back of my head whispers. I force the thought away. I can't be thinking like that. Not now.

"Alright, Rose," Sonya says, looking deeply pleased by something, marking something on her own clipboard before setting it down and gesturing me across the room where a treadmill is waiting for me. I follow carefully as to not shake off the nodes. "Don't worry," she says, catching my slow walking, "they won't come off unless we pull."

"Oh," I say, feeling a bit silly before stepping onto the treadmill and looking over at the red-haired woman as she sets up monitors around me.

"Okay, this is going to be an easy one, Rose. I just want you to run at the fastest setting you are comfortable with and go for as long as you can before you get tired, alright?" I nod and press a few buttons to get the machine started.

And that was my day. Training class. All day, all I did was run on a treadmill until they told me to stop, then went to lift weights and perform other physical activities until they told me to stop. Now, it's not like I wasn't exhausted by the day, because I was, but I was able to go so much longer than I was normally able to. It was a bit odd to compare the two. I remember doing these activities as a dhampir and growing tired after so much time on the treadmill at a certain speed or doing this many reps at once, or this number of jumping jacks, curl-ups and pull-ups. I still grew tired after a while, but where I could probably do around ten to fifteen pull-ups at one time before I needed to take a break, I did almost twice that before I started to break a sweat.

After we were done, Abe came walking in like he owned the place with a bag of blood in his hand. My mouth watered at the sight and I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I snatched it out of his hand and started drinking greedily, slurping the bag clean until there wasn't anything left in a matter of seconds. I didn't miss how Dimitri looked away, a hard look on his face as I drank. I felt bad almost immediately.

"It's okay, Rose," Sonya says, catching my look. "It's natural. It's how you eat now. Don't feel bad."

"I don't," I lie, but Dimitri's face is already downturned in shame. I know he's trying, but this has to be reminding him strongly of his time as a Strigoi. Perhaps a part of him wishes that he could have been like I am, somehow still retaining a piece of myself and able to ignore the temptation of Moroi and dhampir around me. Sure, Dimitri didn't kill me when I was with him, but it had to of been a constant battle within himself. It's not with me and I almost feel bad about that. Not that I want to constantly be fighting my instincts to hunt and kill all those that I love, but this is the closest I've ever been to how Dimitri felt when he was a Strigoi.

But unlike him, I somehow have it easy. Or, at least, easier than he did.

"How did she do today?" Abe asks, looking over at Sonya.

"Good," Sonya says easily, and I can see the honesty written across her face. "She did so much better than I expected, which I'm thankful for."

"Any ideas as to why she's so different?" Abe asks, folding his hands neatly in front of himself.

Sonya hesitates, considering something deeply for a moment as Mikhail steps up next to her as the other Moroi pile together to go over the day's discoveries and log them for further analysis in one of the many computers in this building. Sonya smiles at Mikhail for a moment as if she forgot that he was there like he hadn't been present in the room the entire time. He hadn't moved from the wall all day, unlike Dimitri who hadn't left my side for a moment.

"Well, I do have something..." Sonya says slowly, crossing her arms over her chest. "I think that whatever it is that is making Rose different from a regular Strigoi has to do with Spirit, which is what we all already guessed, but I think it's more deeply tied to magic now than it was when she turned. I think that Rose is somehow changing now, as we speak, slowly but surely. It's all simply conjecture at the moment, but if we run some more tests, we might be able to figure out more in the days to come."

"What do you mean, changing?" Mikhail asks.

Sonya hesitates again. "I don't know how to explain. It's definitely Spirit, that much I can tell. Spirit is changing you, Rose, but it's not happening all at once. I think it is multiple different little things that are helping it along, but the strongest push is coming from Spirit."

Dimitri and I share confused looks as Abe asks, "How do you know?"

This time Sonya doesn't hesitate, "I know it the same way I know that Rose won't hurt me. Because she's still Rose. And while there are a lot of oddities about her that might be able to explain away, there is one indisputable fact about her that proves she is unlike any other Strigoi that I have ever come across."

"And that is?" I ask, skeptical about how she can be so certain.

"Because you have an aura, Rose, no Strigoi I've come across has one. And yours is significantly more powerful today than it was yesterday. And it's bright as the sun right now," she says, smiling.

There is a pregnant silence that follows her words. No one knows what to say to that, we all simply stare at her like she's crazy Karp all over again. But as the words start to finally sink in, a shiver of anticipation and wonder washes over me and I can't help the shaking in my hands at the prospect of that meaning what I think that it means.

"Because I'm with Dimitri?" I guess, realizing that might be one of the few things that would make my aura do that - assuming she isn't pulling my leg about me still having an aura - other than maybe a cheeseburger. At Abe's curious look sent my way, I explain, "Sonya told me that when Dimitri and I were together our aura's grew brighter than they regularly were."

Abe nods slowly but I'm not sure he really understands, but he doesn't ask for more clarification on that, instead, he looks back over at Sonya, "And Strigoi don't usually have auras?"

Sonya shakes her head. "No, they don't. That, coupled with a heartbeat and significantly high body temperature - 89.1, which is high for a Strigoi - I think it's safe to say if Rose isn't technically alive if she keeps on progressing like I think she has, she will be soon."

For the Reviewers:

1. Brenda-I: Thank you..? :3

2. ginabowman2005: I think so too, that's why I added some more in this chapter and while it's mostly happy, there are tense undertones that are starting to rear their ugly head. Thank you so much, I am so glad that you liked it so far! I hope you continue to enjoy!

3. Guest: Oh yeah, Sonya is one smart cookie. I am sorry that it took me a while! As I said, I'm starting a new job and the hours are kind hectic at the moment, but I promise to try and keep up the best that I can! :D I have touched very briefly on how he's doing but it's going to get more and more attention as time goes on. I agree that he would probably fall apart worse than she did, and she basically walked into death without really considering what it might really be. Thank you so much!