I could not believe it. I'd found them. I'd actually found them.

Portland… I was right. The rest of the guardian crew had decided to pass off Portland, thinking it would just be a waste of time. But, I'd decided to give it a try, and they'd simply assigned me to go alone. They hadn't wanted so many guardians to go to a place that they were sure wouldn't be right.

Yes. Finally, after such a long search, I was seeing them with my own two eyes.

It wasn't completely easy tracking them down. It took a lot of wishful thinking on my part.

I remember how I'd first gotten lucky. I had seen a male dhampir walking across a high school campus. He had looked about my age, 24, with short, blond, curly hair. Maybe 6 "2.

I had been rather surprised to see a male dhampir on a human school property and had had to do a double take, as it was highly unlikely. Since he was there, I thought that maybe there was the possibility of there being more mythical creatures… such as a certain rebellious Rosemarie Hathaway and a Princess Vasilisa Dragomir.

I remember how this dhampir had walked across the school grounds. There were many buildings, but he had walked to the last one furthest to the right. I had watched the last of his retreating figure as he had entered the building.

This was where it had taken my great computer/hacker knowledge to crack the case. Since the last Dragomir was a huge priority in moroi society, they had given us guardians high-tech vans. Now, I was alone in my van, but I was still privileged with the asset of having a computer system in my van- like the super cool vans had in those awesome spy movies.

I wasn't one to break the rules. I always strived to be a respectable person. But, desperate times call for desperate measures. My job had consisted of breaking into the school security system. I had needed to track him… and the rest of the school. By breaking in, I knew that I would be able to see the same thing that their school cameras, which surrounded the whole school, saw.

At long last, I had finally managed to crack the code. But how I was flustered. I had been feeling quite agitated that it had taken me so long. I was disappointed with myself and felt as though I'd put my years of guardian training to shame. But, I had yet to begin my mission.

In the midst of mentally chastising myself, I hadn't even noticed the new information displayed on my computer screen. On the computer screen in my van furthest to the left, there had been inscribed seven letters- A, B, C, D, E, F and G. I had been completely confused by this at first.

It had taken me awhile to think of what the letters could possibly mean, when it had finally clicked.

I had considered something that I previously wasn't even thinking about. I had looked at the buildings on campus and had counted them.

There were seven.

I mentally high-fived myself. I had presumed that, since this building was furthest to the right, it was also named letter "G".

I had touched "G" on the screen.

Then, as soon as I'd pushed the button that had furthered me through this process of inspection, different settings had appeared on all six different computer screens in my van. There had been two settings per screen, therefore making twelve in total.

I recall seeing classes and hallways on all of the screens. Then, in one of the classrooms, I had seen him. He had been at the front of a class of about thirty students- obviously a teacher. Huh. Rather interesting. I had never seen a male dhampir become a teacher in a human school. Unusually odd.

I had studied the screen intently, focusing only on my main purpose: to find this Hathaway girl and the Princess Dragomir.

Luckily, these cameras had voice recording on them too. So, I had been able to hear him lecture the class. It was certainly math that he had been teaching.

You know, even though I wouldn't have expected him to be a teacher at all, math definitely wasn't what I'd had in mind. This dhampir looked unbelievably well-built for someone who hadn't trained all his life. I had kept questioning that.

Then, a few math formulae later, I had received the answer to my question. Some student in the front row's paper had fallen off his desk, and this teacher/dhampir had been kind enough to pick it up for him. As he bent over, I had noticed that special tattoo that covered a part of his neck: a Promise Mark.

I had become immensely curious now. Stay on task, Dimitri, I had had to remind myself.

An hour and fifteen minutes later, he had been walking out of the building the same way that he had walked in. I had regarded him walking quickly, yet gracefully, across the grounds, carrying his teacher bag and… a gym bag. My interrogations had kicked into full force once again.

I could no longer hear him through the camera system since he had been out of any building, and had had to see him with my own eyes, first hand.

I could not hear, but I had seen him let out a chuckle. Then, he had started sprinting across the campus, at a speed a little faster than a human's would be, but not too much for it to be obvious.

I had shifted into drive and had slowly followed his path, as I drove on the pavement. Finally, two more people had come into view. Two teenage girls had stood before him. One had been a dhampir and the other a moroi. I had had to close my mouth before my jaw hit the floor.

I had inspected them closely. They had looked awfully familiar. I knew that deep down inside I had already known why I had recognized them. Then, I had figured it out.

I had taken the two pictures that they'd given me before setting out on this mission, and had looked them over. In the pictures were the same girls that had been standing right in front of him. I had recognized Princess Vasilisa first. Then, I had noticed this troublesome girl that everyone always spoke about. The picture certainly didn't do her justice.

I had almost choked on my own surprise. I had been shocked to have found them. It had been almost too easy.

And now, here I was… watching them.

I was close enough, but yet not too close where they would notice, to hear.

This Rosemarie girl spoke to this male dhampir in a teasing way. "So, Jared, surprised to see me here on time? What can I say? There's a first for everything!" She laughed. Huh. So his name was Jared. No formalities there.

He rolled his eyes and responded, "I admit, Miss Hathaway, it is a surprise indeed. I thought you were completely incapable of ever being on time for anything. After all, you do show so when attending my math classes." He said this all teacher-like. The way he joked back to her… it sounded like they were almost… friends? Hmm… I wasn't sure if that was the right word.

"Anyways, now that I have clearly bewildered you, let's move on to training? You know I am dying to show those dummies who's boss!" Training? What was she talking about? We, at the Academy, trained novices. There was no guardian training in a human school. I must have heard incorrectly, which was unlikely with my ears.

He put his arms around her shoulders and squeezed gently. Ugh. First my hearing, now my eyesight! What else could possibly go wrong?

Out of nowhere, I heard for the first time in the conversation the voice of Vasilisa. "Oh Rose, you are so hilarious. It's a good thing I have so much homework and nothing else better to do than watch." She smiled slightly.

They started moving further and further away from where I was parked. I had seconds to think of what to do next. I did the trickiest thing of all.

I got out of my van and started to follow.

They were walking all the way across school grounds until they made it all the way to the left. I followed.

Then, they started going deeper and deeper into the campus. I followed suit.

I hadn't realized, but in back of the school lay a forest. There was a fence circling around it, guarding it from the campus. It wasn't tall enough to the point where students couldn't go over, but it was tall enough to make students think, "Why bother?". To top things off, it had a Do Not Trespass sign going all around the fence, multiple times.

Nevertheless, they climbed over the fence with facility, due to their extra strength. Well, except for Vasilisa. It took effort from both this Jared guy and Miss Hathaway to pull her over the fence.

I rolled my eyes at their carelessness, even though nobody could see.

I went after them, once I thought there was a great enough distance between us. I made sure to stay behind the trees and out of view, and most out of earshot as possible.

They went deep into the forest… until I saw a clearing. It was large enough to be a running track. And, I guess in a way it was… for them.

The Princess took a seat on the ground and took some books out of her school bag; to begin doing what I thought was her homework.

Rose started running towards the clearing and began doing laps. She was fast. I hadn't expected that out of her. By the way she was running, it looked like she'd been training all along.

She managed to finish her laps quickly. Once they were done, Jared and Rose walked to the right of the clearing. There were a bunch of branches in the way, and I didn't think they would actually go through them. But they did.

This dhampir Jared-guy pushed the branches out of the way, only to reveal a cupboard. I stared dumbfounded. I could not even begin to believe what I was seeing. Why would a cupboard be in a forest?

Then, Jared pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the cupboard. They looked through it and obviously found what they needed, when they pulled gym mats out of the cupboard.

I watched amazed as they placed these gym mats on the ground in the clearing. They started doing stretches and making small talk about their individual days. I was fascinated by this relationship they were demonstrating for me to see, but what I tried to really focus on was how this really was turning out to look like a guardian training course.

What flabbergasted me further was when they took the dummies out of the cupboard, after they were done stretching. She grabbed a stake out of her own short-sleeved sweater pocket. Then, she began staking the dummies, one by one. Perfectly.

I stared speechless. There were no explanations for her graceful gestures… except for one: these past two years, he'd been training her.

Of course! He had been at some point a guardian. He had a Promise Mark!

After all this time, she'd been working just as hard- if not harder- as the novices at St. Vladamir's. Except that she'd had a full class-load of regular human classes as well, instead of having combat training included in her schedule.

I did not know what to say. Nothing made sense lately. All I could do was watch.

I watched her as she continued to stake dummies, and then as she went on to combat training, which she was also fabulous at. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. They were naturally drawn to her.

And the more I watched, the more I grew impressed. She was incredible. Ugh. I was so upset. She should have been at the Academy, preparing for graduation. She would have been at the top of her class.

An hour and a half later, her training session was over. As they started to pack up, I hastily ran out of the clearing, to the fence, which I climbed over once again, and back to my car before they could see me. From my car, I observed more.

The three of them were trailing slowly from the forest, undoubtedly taking their time. Jared walked both Rose and Vasilisa back to their dorm, which would have been "D".

I saw them walk inside after Jared gave Rose a hug goodbye. I knew that would be the last of them for the night.

Then, he walked off to his own place, which would have been in building "B". By the look of the people entering, it must have been the teacher building. I watched until I couldn't see him anymore.

After he was long gone, I continued to stare intently at her dorm building.

I knew that it was time to turn them in. I picked up my cell phone and dialed the Academy's number.

Ring , ring, ring, ring

You have to say something, Dimitri.

"Guardian Petrov," the other line picked up.

"Yes, Alberta, this is Dimitri Belikov," I answered nervously, unsure of what to say.

"Oh, Dimitri! Do you have any news? Did you find them?" Alberta sounded relieved.

I had to say it. I couldn't lie to her. I had to tell her to call off the search. I was going to.

"Ummm…," I stumbled out. "No." What? Where had that come from? Hence, I couldn't bring myself to regret my words. "I just called to check in."

"Oh. Well, okay. Nobody's found them yet. I hope that we'll find them soon," she said worriedly. I felt kind of bad for lying. Not bad enough to say something, though.

"I'm sure we will," I said, trying to make her feel better. I wanted to reassure her. Ugh. I was such a hypocrite.

"Yeah. Well, call when you have any news." I heard her sigh.

"Of course. I'll talk to you later, Alberta," I said carefully.

"Bye." That was her last word before she hung up.

She has no idea. But what she doesn't know won't kill her.