Chapter One

APOV

I swear my father lives to piss me off! I thought to myself as I threw my cell phone across the room and it shattered once it hit the wall. I left my room grabbing my charcoal coat and placed the cigarettes in my coat pocket. I needed some fresh air and a chance to cool off. I had just got back from a dinner party with a bunch of stuffy Royals. Some days I felt pity for those who kept themselves locked in there box thinking their lives were better than the dhampirs. So to drown out the misery they were putting me through I drank my fair share of alcohol tonight. And the call from my father wasn't helping me feel any better, hence the reason for going out side in below freezing weather to smoke.

Once outside I stood in the shadows of the porch that wrapped itself around the lodge. Taking out my cigarettes I leaned up against one of the poles and lit my first cigarette of the night. It was when I lit up a second cigarette I noticed a dhampir making her way up to the porch. She seemed a bit tired but for the most part she was pretty, even with the black eye.

"Hey, little dhampir." I said to her when she was about to walk pasts me.

She was looking me up and down as I took a drag from my cigarette, from her posture and the look on her face I could tell she was a feisty one, that thought made me want to smile.

"Yeah?" she asked me but I was to busy taking her in. From a distance I thought she was pretty but up close I realized that was an extreme understatement she was beautiful, even in her winter gear. She didn't seem to mind the way I looked at her, she almost seemed use to it, which I wouldn't doubt any moroi or dhampir man with good sense could see that she was beautiful.

"Just saying hi, that's all." She shrugged me off and begun to leave, I wasn't quite ready to be separated from her presence so I said the first thing that came to mind, "You smell good, you know."

She stopped walking and turned to face me, causing my smile to grow even wider.

"I... um, what?"

"You smell good." I repeated to her

"Are you joking? I've been sweating all day. I'm disgusting." she said to me in disbelief, but hell it caught her attention and she wasn't leaving so I rolled with it, not like I was lying in the first place. Her smell was intoxicating.

"Sweat isn't a bad thing," I said, leaning my head against the wall and looking upward thoughtfully.

"Some of the best things in life happen while sweating. Yeah, if you get too much of it and it gets old and stale, it turns pretty gross. But on a beautiful woman? Intoxicating. If you could smell things like a vampire does, you'd know what I'm talking about. Most people mess it all up and drown themselves in perfume. Perfume can be good...especially if you get one that goes with your chemistry. But you only need a hint. Mix about 20 percent of that with 80 percent of your own perspiration...mmm." I tilted my head to the side and looked at her. "Dead sexy."

"Well, thanks for the hygiene lesson," She said. "But I don't own any perfume," Whoa she don't own any perfume? Well I guess I would have to fix that. "and I'm going to go shower all this hot sweaty action off me. Sorry." I pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered one to her. I moved only a step closer to her, she screwed her nose up at me, but I let it go not really caring why. She declined the cigarettes so I just took one out for myself

"Bad habit," she told me, if only she knew about all my habits this would seem the least bit dangerous of them I thought to myself as I lit the cigarette.

"One of many," I told her. I inhaled deeply. "You here with St. Vlad's?" she couldn't been no older than 17, so I figured she had to be here with the school vacationing here.

"Yup."

"So you're going to be a guardian when you grow up."

"Obviously."

"How long until you grow up?" I asked. "I might need a guardian."

"I graduate in the spring. But I'm already spoken for. Sorry."

Feeling slight jealous of the lucky bastard that got her as his guardian I couldn't help but ask, "Yeah? Who is he?"

"She's Vasilisa Dragomir."

"Ah." I said with a grin on my face. "I knew you were trouble as soon as I saw you. You're Janine Hathaway's daughter."

"I'm Rose Hathaway," She corrected, not wanting to be defined by her mother. Hmm, I could relate to that. I didn't really wanted to be defined by my parents either.

"Nice to meet you, Rose Hathaway." I extended my hand toward her, she seemed a bit hesitant in taking but that didn't really phase me. "Adrian Ivashkov."

"And you think I'm trouble," she muttered. Laughed at that, so she had heard about me, or my family. Either way I can only imagine what rumors she knew. Our money seemed to get us our way very often and not to mention my Great Aunt was the Queen, but even so with or without her being Queen we were one of the most powerful Moroi families.

"Handy, huh? Each of our reputations precedes us."

She shook her head. "You don't know anything about me. And I only know of your family. I don't know anything about you."

"Want to?" I asked her tauntingly.

She seemed like she was about to take up the offer but someone begun to approach us.

"Hey, Mia." Oh so she knew this girl, probably another St. Vlad's kid.

She glanced between the two of us.

"Another guy?" she asked. From her tone, it had me thinking Rose knew her way around. She seemed like a flirt but she definitely wasn't the type to throw herself all over just any guy. But I was amused none the less.

Clearly this annoyed Rose but she decided to play nice. "Mia, this is Adrian Ivashkov."

I turned on the same charm I'd used on Rose and shook her hand. "Always a pleasure to meet a friend of Rose's, especially a pretty one."

"We aren't friends," Rose told me, dropping the politeness facade.

"Rose only hangs out with guys and psychopaths," said Mia said to me clearly these two had no love for each other.

"Well," I said cheerfully," since I'm both a psychopath and a guy, that would explain why we're such good friends."

"You and I aren't friends either," She told me.

I laughed. "Always playing hard to get, huh?"

"She's not that hard to get," said Mia, clearly didn't like the fact that I was giving my attention to Rose, but I could careless, Mia was cute but Rose I just had a pull towards her. "Just ask half the guys at our school."

"Yeah," Rose shot back, "and you can ask the other half about Mia. If you can do a favor for her, she'll do lots of favors for you." Yeah these girls definitely had a history, I would have to ask her about that.

A flicker of embarrassment passed over Mia's face, but she held her ground.

"Well," she said, "at least I don't do them for free."

I made some cat noises. These girls were ready to go at each other, this could get ugly and very entertaining. But Rose seemed to be done with the girl.

"Are you done?"She asked. "It's past your bedtime, and the grown-ups would like to talk now." Mia's youthful looks were probably a very big sore point for her, clearly one Rose like to use against her at any given moment.

"Sure," she said crisply. Her cheeks turned pink, intensifying her porcelain-doll appearance. "I have better things to do anyway." She turned toward the door, then paused with her hand resting on it. She glanced toward me. "Her mom gave her that black eye, you know."

She went inside. The fancy glass doors swung shut behind her.

We stood in silence for a brief moment before I took out another cigarette and lit it, not resisting the urge I had to ask. "Your mom?"

"Shut up."

"You're one of those people who either has soul mates or mortal enemies, aren't you? No in-between. You and Vasilisa are probably like sisters, huh?"

"I guess."

"How is she?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

I shrugged, trying to seem casual about it. "I don't know. I mean, I know you guys ran away...and there was that stuff with her family and Victor Dashkov..."

She stiffen at my mentioning Victor Dashkov, what did that bastard to them to cause that kind of reaction "So?"

"Dunno. Just figured it might be a lot for her to, you know, handle." I said to her, which is true but I heard some pretty interesting things about Vasilisa, not that I want to use Rose to get Vasilisa but I need to meet her. Before she could say anything because I was sure it revolved around her wanting to leave and I wasn't quite done with her company. She was appealing to me and not only in conversation. "Would you like to hang out a bit, we can go get drinks or go up to my room?"

She seemed to think about, and fate must've been on my side that night. "Yeah, but give me a chance to clean up first. You may like the smell but I feel gross. So what room am I looking for?"

RPOV

What did I get myself into, I thought to myself as I got dressed in a royal blue sweater dress Lissa got for me on one of her shopping trips that I couldn't go on. I found a pair of black flats, I was in no mood for heels. I put some make up on nothing to dramatic and straightened my hair. When I figured I was presentable enough I begun to leave just as Lissa was coming into the room Christian behind her.

"Hmm, you too kiddies have fun. And I'll see you later, what ever you do make sure it isn't in my bed." I said feigning disgust. Lissa blushed a deep red as I left the room laughing.

I started to make my way to Adrian's room, his family practically owned the entire wing. Which isn't surprising they were practically swimming in money and two Olympic size pools wouldn't be enough to hold all their money, hell three of them wouldn't be enough.

But it wasn't the money that drawn me to Adrian, sure I knew when I first saw him he had money but that wasn't what made me stay on the porch talking to him. Hell I hated the smell of clove cigarettes and still couldn't seem to pull myself away from him. It wasn't even the fact that he was pain-stakingly beautiful that made me want to stay. He just had a lure about him that drew me in probably the reason I couldn't find an excuse to back out of meeting him at his room.

When I got to his door I begun to raise my hand to knock on his door but he opened it before I could.

"Hey little dhampir, I was starting to think you bailed out on me." He said to me as he let me in. "You look beautiful."

I blushed, "Thank you."

"Anytime."

I thought my room with Lissa was big, I was mistaken. This room was three times the size and very well laid out. Ivashkov's always had the best.

"Wow, this is a nice room."

"Thanks." Adrian said as he handed me a drink, from the smell of it I could tell it was tequila and from the look of Adrian I could tell he already had a few of them.

"Do you have any good habits?" I asked him before I downed my tequila.

"I do but they aren't no where as appealing as my bad ones." he told me with a smirk on his face and his voice alluring.

"So what are you doing here at the lodge, you don't look like you ski?" I asked him taking another shot of tequila.

"Two reasons, my father pulled me along with him, for a vacation of sorts and because I actually can ski and snow board. I'll just have to show you tomorrow how very skilled I am."

All night we, well more so he drank tequila I was done after my third shot anymore and I would have a massive headache in the morning, my tolerance was low and I had no intention of getting drunk with an Ivashkov or any moroi for that matter. But as he drank we talked, Adrian wasn't that bad of a guy though his reputation made him seem like a womanizer. And in a way I guess you could say he was but it was hard to see, he was nothing but nice, respectful even.

The more we talked the closer Adrian seemed to get to me. I didn't really notice at first since I was mesmerized by his emerald green eyes. Though more than half the bottle was empty of tequila I could tell Adrian was far from drunk, slightly buzzed but definitely not drunk. When he was close enough that our faces were almost touching I could feel electric pull between us. And then he kissed me, if felt as though my world just exploded. It was a simple kiss that started to build but it was enough for me to get lost in it. All previous thoughts were lost it was just Adrian and me.

He moved me on to his lap as he deepened the kiss. We the need for air became unbearable I broke from the kiss and thankfully his lips did not leave my body they just moved to my neck. For a moment I panicked and moved away from him.

"What's the matter little dhampir?" Adrian said mw as he moved my hair from my face.

"I'm not a blood whore." I told him as I got up from the couch.

"What?" Adrian asked me slightly confused and amused.

"I said I wasn't a blood whore."

"I never expected you were." Adrian said as he pulled me into his arms. "I didn't invite you here tonight thinking you were. If I was in need I would go to the feeders."

I studied him for a moment trying to find a lie in his words, I found none.

"Sorry, I just panicked when you were on my neck."

"It's alright little dhampir. It's late, so I guess I'll walk you to your room."

I was about to thank him when I remembered Lissa and Christian beginning in the same room and from what I was feeling through the bond I knew he hadn't left yet.

"Uhmm...if you don't mind can I crash here. My roommate is with her boyfriend."

Adrian laughed at that. "Sure."

"Thanks, I'll just take the couch."

"Nah you can have the bed. And seeing how you don't have any pajamas I'll give you one of my tee-shirts."

I was about to protest but from the look on his face I knew I wasn't going to win.

He led me to his bedroom like the rest of the room it was impressive. He handed me a tee-shirt and kissed me on the side of my head and was about to leave the room.

"Goodnight little dhampir." he said than closed the door behind him.

I took off my dress and got into his tee-shirt which fell down to the middle of my thigh than as soon as I hit the pillow I was out and I dreamed of none other, than Adrian Ivashkov himself.

When I woke in the morning I put my dress back on and went into the living room. I found Adrian sprawled out on his couch. He looked peaceful in his sleep and as always he looked beautiful. I bent down and begun to move his hair from off his face brushing it back lightly. His eyes opened and a smile spread across his face.

"I could get use to waking up like this." He said still smiling at me than he pulled me into his arms. This time he removed the hair from my face and pushed it back behind my ear. "Good morning little dhampir."

"Good morning." I said blushing when he kissed my lips. It wasn't anything like yesterdays kiss, this one was just quick and gentle.

"After we get cleaned up do you want to go get some breakfast?" he said as he set up and pulled me into his lap.

"Yeah I think I would like that." I gave him a quick peck on the lips and left his room with a smile on my face.

As I turned the corner I inwardly groaned when I saw Dimitri. I was hoping I could pass him without notice but luck was not with me.

"What are you doing down here, Rose?" He asked me.

"Just passing through." I said to him I was about to keep moving but Dimitri had other plans.

"Whose room are you coming from?" he asked me, apparently seeing through my lie but I wasn't going to show it.

"No ones. I was just passing through. If you don't mind Comrade I am hungry and I have to head back to my room before I go to the dining hall."

I could see his eyes narrow, still apparently not believing me but I could careless. I kept walking till I got to my room. Thankfully when I got there, there was no sign of Christian though Lissa was still asleep. I decided to let her sleep and I picked out my clothes a pair of skinny jeans and a black v-neck sweater. Than I went into the shower. Once I got out I only had ten minutes to spare before Adrian came knocking on my door. I quickly brushed my teeth and pulled my hair into a low ponytail than I slipped on my clothes. As I finished tying my shoes there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and smiled when I saw him standing there. His hair was stylishly messy as always and he wore dark denim jeans and a form fitting shirt. He was beautiful.

"Hey little dhampir, you ready?"

"Yeah, just let me leave Lissa a note, so she won't worry."

"Alright."

I quickly wrote the note and left it on the night stand beside Lissa than I left the room. As I closed the door behind me Adrian wrapped an arm around my waist and gave me quick peck on the lips than he begun to lead me to the dining hall.

Since he hadn't smoked or drank yet I got a chance to smell his real scent without anything tainting it. And it was beautiful. Made me pout a little to know that in a couple hours or so he would be masking it with clove cigarettes and alcohol.

"Why the long face, little dhampir?" he asked me as me walked into to the dining hall, that was surprisingly empty there was only about ten other people in here.

"Just thinking." I told him as I grabbed a tray and started to load it up with food.

"About what?" He asked me as he begun to fill his tray up as while.

"Well this is probably going to sound very petty to you but I was thinking about how you were going to drown out your smell when you started your smoking and drinking."

"So you like the way I smell?" He asked giving me a crooked smile as we set down. I felt myself blush.

"If I could little dhampir I wouldn't drink and smoke but it helps keep the darkness away."

I must've looked at him weird because he bust out laughing. It was one of the most beautiful sounds I heard but it was directed at me so I was slightly irritated not that I would show it or tell him that. After he was done he explained to me what he meant.

"I'm I spirit user little dhampir."

APOV

She didn't say anything for a moment she just stared at me in disbelief.

"That's why you asked about Lissa?" She finally said to me.

"Yes and no. I had heard about the things she could do before it got all hushed up and I was eager to meet her, hence another reason I came here knowing your school was going to be here. And the other part was because I know Dashkov did some pretty foul things to her and you. And I was curious as to how she and yourself were taking the added stress, since I'm guessing you are shadow-kissed."

"How-"

"The accident you two were involved in. I did a little research after finding out Vasilisa was a spirit user like myself and according to all the evidence you should be dead."

"So I'm guessing you befriended me so you can meet Lissa?" She asked I could see hurt in eyes she tried to hide it in her voice by sounding pissed.

"No, meeting you last night, was completely fate. I befriended you for you Rose. There is no alternative-motive here. Whether you chose to introduce me to Vasilisa or not is entirely up to you."

She searched my face for a moment and when she found what she was looking for she relaxed a little than she spoke to me. "So you can heal people like Lissa can?"

"Uhmm, no. I see peoples auras and can go into their dreams."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"That's pretty cool." she said as she begun to eat her food.

We talked, ate, and laughed for the next twenty minutes when Vasilisa came to sit by Rose. There was a boy with here, from his eyes I could tell he was an Ozera.

Something seemed to flash in the Ozera boys eye's. And his arm around Vasilisa seemed to tighten. She looked up at him puzzled than followed his gazed to me.

"Lissa this is-"

"We know who he is Rose. Do you?" the Ozera boy asked her, if didn't know better I would say he was a bit protective of Rose, brotherly so.

Rose looked between the two of us. I just held an amused look on my face to try and hide my annoyance with the boy. "Adrian Ivashkov"

"No Rose I think he is referring to my reputation as a Womanizer" I said the last part rolling my eyes. Though true, I couldn't bring myself to think of doing that to Rose. If I've learned anything since I met her last night it was that she was different from all the other woman I had ever met.

"It's nice to see you care Christian, but I am perfectly aware of who Adrian is." she said to him I had expected her to be somewhat pissed at him but she was completely calm.

"As long as you know." Christian warned her before he set down pulling Lissa close to him.

"Lissa as I was saying this is Adrian, he has been waiting to meet you."

Lissa stuck her hand out for me to shake I did.

"Why so eager to meet me?"

"Because like you cousin I am a spirit user."

Lissa's eyes widen when I told her. Than a smiled spread across her face.

"I was starting to think I was alone in the Spirit department."

"Au contraire cousin. Rose hear tells me you can heal people."

"I can heal just about any living creature. Though I've been trying not to do so lately. The side effect are a bit...overwhelming." She told me there was a hint of ashamed in her eyes but it passed. "Can you heal as well?"

"No, I see aura's and I am a dream-walker."

"Dream-walker?"

"He can go into peoples dreams." Rose told Lissa with a smile.

"That is cool."

The three of us talked for a about ten minutes the Ozera kid stayed silent most of the time as he played in Lissa's hair and kissed her in her hair. She didn't seem to mind it, at first you would think she wasn't aware of it, but she was very much aware of if, she welcomed it. The dining hall had begun to empty when two other people joined us. Apparently they had been looking for my three companions. Rose introduced them to me. Mason Ashford, who I knew immediately had a crush on Rose. And Eddie Castile his best friend, both dhampirs and from the looks of them they would make kick-ass Guardians.

"So anyone up for round two?" Mason asked, I was lost but the others seemed to know what he was talking about.

"Mase didn't you almost break you ankle skiing yesterday. I think you should let it rest today." Rose told him as I absentmindedly took her hand from across the table. The conversation had turned dull so I started tracing patterns in her hand. She didn't mind it a bit. But I saw the color in Mason's Aura change so abruptly I stopped tracing the patterns on her hand. I thought this kid had a crush on her, but I was wrong. He was in love with her and jealously shot through him when he saw me touching her.

"Adrian what's wrong?" Rose asked me, concern all over her face.

"Nothing, I think I need to get some fresh air."

She pouted a bit knowing I was going to go smoke, "If there was another way little dhampir I wouldn't mess with the cancer sticks." I whispered in her ear than kissed her on her cheek. Again jealously shot through Mason, stronger than the last. I said goodbye to everyone than left to smoke my cigarettes. Hopefully they would dull out the auras enough so I could at least stay sober long enough to show Rose I actually know how to ski.