My alarm clock buzzed deafeningly, pulling me out of my dreamy haze and

causing me to bolt upright in my bed. Consequently, I hit my head on the bunk above me.

Ugh, I was never gonna get used to that. Of course, I loved being able to share a room with Lissa at the Royal Court, acting as her official guardian, but the size restrictions were really getting on my nerves.

After our graduation from the academy, Lissa had made it her goal to only use compultion in dire situations. Since booking a larger room wasn't considered "dire", we were stuck with a crappy 9 by 10. I would have thought that the Dragomir princess would have ranked priority over some random Conta when it came to matters such as boarding. Unfortunately, that random Conta happened to be the daughter of one of the wealthiest royal Moroi which was all management cared about. The people in charge of that stuff were scrambling to get us someplace better though, so that was good.

"Turn it off"

Lissa moaned sleepily from above me. Remembering the alarm, I fumbled frantically in the darkness until I found the annoying thing and banged repeatedly on it until it shut up. Then I gazed blurrily at the time. 5 PM. Fabulous. One downside to being a royal court guardian was the ridiculously early exercise schedule. Sure, it wasn't necessary for me to get up in the afternoon to run my ass off. But Dimitri was bound to be there. So, for him, I agreed to it. Grudgingly.

It took us a while to get to the state of relative peace we were at now. The chaos that erupted after we announced our little romance still made me shutter, the worst of it coming from my mother Janine. But after the initial reactions, people had finally come to accept us. Of course Dimitri was reprimanded for his actions, there was no avoiding that. But, fortunately, he was able to get a job guarding some official at the court with me which was all I could have asked for. A gentle knocking came from the door.

"Rose, you ready yet?"

Doug, my new guarding partner, called. He was going to take over guarding duty during my run.

"Gimme a sec"

I mumbled as I stumbled out of bed. In the darkness, I quickly pulled on my black sweats and aqua tank. I hastily brushed my hair back into a quick ponytail before shoving my silver stake from under my pillow into my gym back and racing out the door. The guardian's track was not too far from the dorms, so it took no time at all to zip over. When I got to the track, a few guardians were already stretching. Of course Dimitri was already there, grinning his sweet half smile at me. God, how I loved that smile. I eagerly jogged over to him.

"Hey you" I said as he fiercely embraced me.

"Hey" he murmured into my hair. He smelled so good.

How was your evening?" he asked.

"Fine, Lissa and I went over to Christian's place and watched a movie. Would've been better with you there though. What did you do?"

He gave an exasperated sigh.

"Sat through another meeting with advisor Conta. Life as a Strigoi doesn't seem as bad anymore in comparison."

"Hey!"

"The working part of my life, I mean."

We both just stood there for a minute, locked in each other's eyes. And then, suddenly, his arms encircled me tightly and he pressed his lips down on mine. He did this with enough force that I would have fallen right on my butt if he hadn't been holding me so securely. After what felt like an eternity of kissing, our lips regretfully parted and both of us were breathing deeply.

"What was that for?" I panted.

This wasn't his usual style. So gentle, so slow.

"I really missed you last night" he panted back.

We stood there for a little longer before we had to break apart and start stretching. During what little time we spent together, we had never so publicly displayed our affections beyond the occasional peck on the cheek. It was strange, not normal. The kiss was not like the other kisses we had shared. This one had an ulterior motive. I knew Dimitri, he rarely changed his ways and this wasn't him. Yeah, something was up. But I wasn't sure what. I looked at Dimitri as we finished up our stretches. He met my gaze.

"What?"

"Something's going on that you're not telling me" I accused. He looked confused.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

But a certain gleam in his eyes contradicted his claim. I gave him one more suspicious glare but decided not to push it. He'd get around to telling me eventually, and I was trying my hand at the whole patience thing.