Duty. I knew what my duty was. From a young age I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my mother and become a guardian. I trained every day and worked to the best of my ability to become what I had always wanted to achieve.

After leaving the academy at the top of my year I was awarded with the honour of becoming a guardian for Ibrahim Mazur the last of his line and future king of the Moroi. I knew what I needed to do. They come first, it was the guardian code, and I knew that meant no matter what happened I had to protect him. He was my charge and that was my job.

I was trained to be his shadow. Seen but not heard but, he never treated me that way. We became friends. He trusted me and had faith that I would protect him and in return he gave me luxuries most guardians never see in their lifetime. Over the years we grew closer and I started developing feelings for him but I never let him see it. As a guardian we learnt to keep a hold over out emotions and hide our expressions behind a mask. Most of the time it worked but even I couldn't prevent the little slip-ups where my mask would fall and he could look into my soul. He made me laugh, he was good at making me laugh and although I suspect he knew of my feelings and that he might have felt the same nothing more than simple flirting happened between us. We both knew of our laws and duty to our races but that all changed the night of the Ivashkov ball.

I went with him as his guardian and his guest as a reward for the years that I had been with him for. For the first time in my life I wore a ball gown making me forget for a moment that I was a dhampir and not a royalty. He bought the dress, a stunning midnight blue floor length ball gown with matching stilettoes with silver snowflakes on them. I looked so royal that I was almost too scared to touch the fabric of the dress. The ball was just like anymore and even though I was a guest I still watched our surroundings, it was a guardian habit. On the way back to court there was an ambush. The strigoi surrounded us I fought off as many as I could but it was no use there were too many. They knocked me out and took us hostage. When I woke up we were tied up in cold metal chairs in a grey room with no windows and only one door. I was still in the dress and shoes but my stake and my gun were missing. The strigoi visited regularly to try to cornice Abe to join them and become strigoi. They tortured me by biting me and drinking my blood until I was so out of it from the endorphins I thought we were in a room made of clouds. After a while they left me alone afraid that if they drank any more I would die and they would have no leverage with Abe. Thanks to my dhampir blood I managed to sober up quickly just enough to come up with a plan. My arms were tied to the chair but my legs were still free and the next time the strigoi came into feed from me I kicked him with my stiletto staking him with the heel. It wasn't made of charmed silver so he wouldn't die but he did get knocked on conscious. Quickly I took off my shoes so one stayed in him to keep him down long enough for me to take the knife from his belt with my toes and give it to Abe to cut me free. It worked perfectly and once we were both free I took my other heel and the knife as a weapon. I would have preferred my stake or gun but I would work with what I could get. We made it out without any more strigoi run in's and called the guardians back at court. The hostage situation was a wakeup call for us and once we got back to court we couldn't hold our feelings any longer.

We stayed secret for as long as we could but when I fell pregnant we knew we had to become public. I decided to resign as his guardian and instead become his wife. As we suspected most people weren't happy with the news that the future king was with a dhampir and that she was holding the only heir to his family name. Technically he couldn't become king without another member of his family and now that I was pregnant that meant that in nine short months he could be king and people didn't like that. For centuries Moroi and Dhampir's have followed the system and stuck to the ancient rules and laws. This was something new that threatened they way the system worked and that scared people. Dhampir lives have always been sacrificed to protect the Moroi. We were the protectors because our species relied on the Moroi to survive scene somewhere through our mixed genetics someone decided to change something making it impossible for a dhampir and a dhampir to have children with each other. The only way for dhampir's to be made is by a Moroi and a dhampir or Moroi and a human having a child but Moroi and human procreation hasn't happened in centuries. Now days we tend to keep to ourselves and keep the humans out of our world. The Moroi have 13 royal families that switch leaders through a series of tests and ends with vote from all the royal Moroi. Abe was the exception. Abe's family was the smallest with only three people holding it.

Abe's mother died during childbirth and his father, tormented with grief fell into depression until he ended up taking his own life leaving a child of only six-months to hold the title of prince. Queen Alina was a close friend of Abe's mother and adopted Abe bring him up into the roll of crown prince. He learnt the ways of the royals quickly and a few years' later people decided that he would become the next king. He learnt everything a future king would need to know and there was no tarnish his flawless reputation. That was before he fell in love with a dhampir. Until he fell in love with me. There has never been a dhampir royal. We weren't exactly what most people saw as worthy. We kept them alive, killed strigoi and had kids that would do exactly the same. But this changed everything. The child I was carrying was going to be born of royal blood, and unlike other dhampir's with royal blood, my child was going to be the only one who can carry the Mazur name.

Months past and my beautiful daughter was born. Rosemarie Hathaway Mazur. She was everything I could have asked for. She was entirely Abe from head to toe. Same brown eyes and dark hair that gave her that same foreign look as her father. I treasured every moment I had with her but unfortunately it didn't last long. After two months people starts to riot. They sent death threats and letters and there was nothing we could do. They wanted our daughter but I wasn't going to let them touch her.

As the sun started to peer over the mountains signalling early sunrise we fled. We got as far away from court as we could without travelling on a plane knowing they could track our passports. We drove to Portland and with out fake ID's and secret credit card set up to Abe's bank account we bought an apartment above an art gallery where we knew it would be safe. For one year we stayed there and watched our daughter grow.

Blood was a difficulty but I managed to pull some strings and get some of my old novice friends to send feeders over ever once in a while. It worked out okay. I was happy just being with my little family. Even if it wasn't much it was mine. But nothing lasts forever.