A/N: So so sorry its taken me so long to update, I've had a lot going on, among those things was that my dad was on leave from work, so I've been spending a lot of time with my parents and away from the computer. I hope you can forgive me for leaving you all hanging. I will post a new chapter of Nothing Left Lose soon as well. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, It's origins do partially lay in Last Sacrifice but I tried to change it in some ways and make it my own.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Asher. The chapter name 'Dog Days Are Over' belongs to Florence and The Machine – Awesome song, check it out.

The drive to Bennington had been a long one, it had felt like forever, we were all anxious to get there and find Sonya. We drove around endlessly looking for the yellow house with the picket fence, thankfully so far there weren't many yellow houses with white picket fences. The longer we drove around the more frustrated I grew, through the bond I found Lissa feeling anxious. I couldn't imagine being in her position, it was just this mysterious sibling, but the betrayal her father had committed. Every time I skimmed her brain I felt her upset. I had tried several times to tell her that it didn't effect who her father had been to her, but in reality it did, maybe his behaviour toward everyone hadn't changed but what had changed was her entire perception of him, he had lost that godly stature and admiration in her mind and she wasn't sure he'd ever been seen in the same light by her.

We drove for two more hours, thankful that it was really only the middle of the day, before we spot a beautiful cottage with a pale yellow exterior a stunning garden and an ever present white picket fence. None of the other houses in any of the streets we had driven through looked like this; it was isolated as it sat in the middle of a huge block of land at the end of a dead end street. The border of the national park sat behind the house and its land and every other house sat further down the street. We parked the car a fair distant away and made our way to the house, we walked around the property in silence, we all knew what was going to have to go down and we were all scared, Lissa and Dimitri seemed to be the most on edge. That's right, calm, cool Dimitri Belikov was actually worried and he was showing it. He almost seemed scared.

We circled the proper before forcing our way through the back gate; there was no way we could get away with breaking into someone's house in broad daylight. We approached the back door with silent footsteps, Asher picked the lock and we snuck in, we were really relying on the element of surprise. Searching the house we eventually found her sitting in the living room and Dimitri and I lunged for her gripping her arms as tight as we could, she struggled and thrashed against us but Dimitri and I were stronger as a unit then we were apart. Asher and Lissa stood in front of Sonya, his hands held hers as they pushed the stake into her chest, forcing it through her ribcage into her heart. The same amazing light shone through the room, through the bond I felt the wonderful feeling of Lissa's magic. Sonya stopped struggling and went limp in our hold as she broke down; I let her go as Dimitri led her to the bedroom we had found on the ground floor. This had been surprisingly uneventful and almost too easy. I sat on the couch with Lissa who was clearly exhausted from the huge amount of magic she had used. Asher stayed standing looking unsure of what to do.

"Lissa you need to feed" I frowned
"I'll be fine Rose" she answered as her mind said the opposite
"it's really no use saying that Lis" I shook my head and titled my neck toward her
"Fine" she leant in as that feeling of anticipation swept over me, she bit into my neck only taking a small amount of blood as Asher watched looking almost horrified. That feeling of pleasure that had swept over me ended almost as soon as she pulled away.

"Asher, this stays between us" I spoke seriously "I've done this before with Lissa when we were living in the human world. I'll recover soon enough. Will you lock up the house while I stay here?" I gave him a weak smile
"Sure" he reluctantly left the room as I turned back to Lissa.
"Lissa…this has been on my mind for a while." I frowned
"what happened when Dimitri and I spent the night together?" she questioned
"yup" I nodded popping the p
"Well, it's kind of silly…" she trailed off "I was trying to heal some of his emotional pain, I knew how much you both loved each other and I knew the only thing holding him back was regret and pain because of his actions. I thought if I could heal some of that he would come back to you…I didn't mean to be so harsh with you in the cafeteria or any other time, I just knew that every time he saw you he felt worse and he's as stubborn as you, so I wanted you to lay off and give him time. We tried for hours and then I fell asleep, Dimitri stayed to make sure I was okay, because even though It didn't work I still used a lot of magic" she explained as I felt my eyes well up with tears, I was feeling an immense amount of guilt for my own reaction to it in court.
"I'm so sorry for reacting the way I did, I should know better than that" I sighed
"Don't be sorry Rose, I shouldn't have treated you the way I did, no matter how much I wanted to protect Dimitri. What's done is done." She smiled and wrapped her arms around my shoulders as I returned the gesture.

I was woken up by Dimitri kissing my forehead "Roza…" he whispered
"what is it?" I mumbled opening my eyes slowly
"Sonya's ready to talk…" he smiled
"Are you okay? Is she okay?" I questioned as everything caught up with me
"I'm fine Roza and so is Sonya, it really helped that I understood what she was going through." He answered
"Okay." I got to my feet gently laying Lissa on the couch and followed him out of the room. Sonya was sitting at the kitchen table a small smile on her face.

"Hello Rose" she spoke quietly
"Hi…" I sat down across from her, I wanted to know about everything but I didn't want to push her
"Thank you for planning this Rose; I didn't know what I was doing when I made the decision to turn. I was so paranoid and afraid, I will forever be in yours and everyone else's debt."
"There's only one thing I want from you" I sighed
"what is that dear?" she smiled fondly
"I want to know who Eric Dragomir's money was really going to…" I was annoyingly blunt with that question, but I was pretty anxious
"I will write down the address for you…but I can't tell you who it is." She reluctantly conceded it was enough for me.

Sonya, Dimitri, Lissa, Asher and I left her cottage, locking it up tight. New plans had been made; Sonya would travel with us as we tried to find the murderer and clear Lissa's, Dimitri's and Abe's names, we were also one drive away from Lissa's sibling.

There was yet another long drive which was pure torture. We parked across the street from the house and Sonya left us, she knocked on the door as the four of us stayed in the car watching intently. I felt my mouth hit the floor as Jill Mastrano's mother, Emily answered the door, the two of them exchanged a few words before they hugged and Emily led Sonya inside.

We spent two hours in the car before Sonya approached with a sad looking Emily looking out the front door behind her. I didn't know the full story but I could tell this was an inevitable day she'd been dreading. I felt Lissa's anxiety spike, she almost seemed worried about what Jill would think about her – even though they'd already met, she was scared, upset, and kind of happy. She was in emotional turmoil. I squeezed her hand trying to reassure her whilst sending calming thoughts her way. Sonya smiled and leant down to speak into the open window.
"Emily would like to invite you in"

I was surprised at this, she was going to let a 'murderer' into her house and tell her daughter that said murderer was her long lost sister. This was going to be awkward. We all got out of the car following her lead as Emily watched as we approached stepping aside to let the five of us in. As we entered the small boutique like hallway with a teak side table and an old fashion coatrack, the walls covered in light blue floral wallpaper. I looked up to see Jill bound down the stairs stopping at the bottom step to take in the sight in front of her.

"Rose, Lissa, Guardian Belikov" she nodded politely toward us "what are you guys doing here?"
"I think its best that you and you're mother and Princess Vasilisa have a discussion" Dimitri spoke before her mother could.
"Am I in trouble?" she questioned sounding a little frantic
"You're not in trouble Jill; I just need to speak to you…" Emily trailed off
"Okay" she finally said after considering it for a moment.

I shoved Lissa forward to follow Jill and Emily as they stepped into another room

"I'll be with you the whole time" I whispered.

She followed silently shutting the door behind her; I slipped into her mind with ease. Lissa watched as Emily sat down beside her daughter, placing her hand on her daughter's knee. Emily began to speak quietly as a single tear rolled down her face.
"Jill, I've never told you who your biological father is for a reason and I'm afraid that the day has come where you must know, and this is going to change your life drastically" she spoke calmly even though both Lissa and I could hear the pain in her voice. It was almost as if both Jill and Emily had forgotten Lissa was in the room.
"When I was a dancer in Vegas, I met a man; he was charming, gorgeous, friendly, and respectful. I could tell he was well respected by both Moroi and Dhampir's. He did something most Moroi didn't, he spoke to me, I was a lowly dancer in most people's eyes but to him I was special. We did something that neither of us was proud of, but there was one beautiful thing came out of it and that's you." She sighed pausing for a moment "Jill, your father was Eric Dragomir. That's why everything changes. That makes Princess Vasilisa your half-sister…that makes you royal." She trailed off, as if she needed to explain the finer points of it. Jill sat there in complete silence; her expression was hard to read as she processed things.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Jill finally spoke breaking the silence
"I wanted you to live the best life possible and I thought keeping that from you would be the best thing because it kept Erics standings in society high and it meant that you could live a normal Moroi life. I also didn't want to cause scandal amongst the Royals by revealing you as his daughter, simply because there would be a huge spot light on you and even some criticism. I didn't want that for you, at least not until you were old enough to handle it. In fact I would have waited a couple more years before telling you. " she explained looking worried about her daughters reaction.
"Thank you Mom" Jill said taking the three of us by surprise "I think I can handle the spot light now, if I have to but thank you for keeping me safe and keeping me out of trouble" her jade eyes shone of a mixture of sadness, excitement and shock.

The three of them spent a lot of time talking as Lissa slowly became more comfortable with idea that Jill was her sister, she was still upset with her father but she knew holding a grudge wouldn't prove anything and in my mind it certainly wouldn't help her get over things.

Abe called once we were back at the hotel to tell us he had a small but significant clue to add to the mix in regard to Lissa's case. The carried residue that could only come from a rubber glove, the fine powder that sat on the outside of the gloves had etched onto the stake. It raised an important question for the council. Why would Lissa kill the queen using her own stake while wearing gloves when her finger prints were already on it?

I could tell that this had given Lissa a little bit more hope for clearing her name. It was just hard to find evidence when not even Abe could get to court.