A/N: I don't own any of the characters they belong to Richelle Mead.

18 years old- The Dinner

The dinner came later on in the day; all of the guardians had to wear the protocol white and black dress outfits. Most of the royals were wearing evening wear, there was assigned seating so, I didn't get to sit with Ivan, but he was only a table down with some out of placed royals, well just two of them a young teenage boy and a woman. She was beautiful in a different sense, she had black hair and shiny blue eyes, but on her face was a long mark, from a Strigoi she was wearing a orange dress that hit the floor with small straps. Suddenly Ivan and the woman walked towards me. "Dimitri this is Tasha Ozera, she used to be a friend of Lea's before she died." Lea was Ivan's sister who was about 7 years older than us; she died a couple of years ago. I never got to meet her, but I heard a lot of nice things about her. Soon Ivan left Tasha and I, which was strange to say the very least, but we got along great, it was like we were friends forever. Soon the Queen walked out and started talking about her gratitude for the guardians, it was hard to concentrate on Queen Tatiana, and her voice was almost robotic: her words had no emotion or length. It was also hard to concentrate because there was a noise coming from one of the upper royal tables. As soon as the dance was over I went back to my room, dreaming of Tasha.

Two weeks later

Tasha and I became good friends, many royals were staring at us thinking that we were dating, but Tasha didn't care, she was already disapproved of because of her brother and sister-in-law's transformation. I like Tasha as a friend, but she was extremely clinging, if I talked to another female, even if they were a lot older or younger than I she'd flip. To be quite honest it bothered me that she didn't trust me, we weren't even going out. Ivan came out of the middle of nowhere, "So I heard that Tasha and you started to date this morning, it's great, I knew you'd find a good person to be with." Ivan said happily. I was stumped, I looked at him confused.

"We're not going out, who told you that we were?" I asked him still confused.

"Tasha," he said slowly waiting for me to react, it was apparent that he didn't want to get in the middle of this. It was understandable since the only people Tasha talked to was Ivan, myself and her nephew Christian, who stayed to himself, which worried Tasha to no end. I left Ivan without another word, as I walked through court I saw many royals looking at me with astonishment and horrified faces. I heard parts of some quiet conversations between many of the royals :

"He ruined himself…"

"…she might as well take them from the cradle, he only graduated, and she's 26 and…"

"… I mean talk about getting the job done with fringe benefits, they'll look..."

"…confused, I guess he never thought this would happen. I bet she'll want to have…"

"Donuts holes chocolate ones and a shake then maybe…"

"…she'll have him turn Strigoi with her it was bound to happen another guardian bites…"

"Cupcakes! You can't have them for lunch Rose, you need to have a balanced…"

"…budget for the court is in shambles as it already is, it won't be long before Victor will become…"

"…a witch, that's what Tasha is, I bet she put a curse on the poor kid, no one in their right minds would be…"

"…a part of the blood whore communes is what is making the guardian count so low that and the fact that Strigoi are getting…"

"…stronger, I mean look at him, he's only six months old, the doctor said that…"

"…the Ozera's should have been thrown out of court a while ago, they are unruly and…"

"…I heard he's from Russia, went to school with Ivan Zeklos, why are the royals so snobbish, their kids will make her…"

"…miserable, miserable circumstance, the Queen is not pleased, at Tasha not that…"

"…I don't give a damn about my vitamin count, I heard it means…"

"…that the Queen will try to break them apart, Tasha is begging the guardian headquarters, but I doubt these…"

"…makes your butt look like a bounce house, not that…"

"…there are rules in order for this not to happen, dhampirs should not get married or date each other or a Moroi, the queen could always…"

"…shut her pie hole, the old hag looked at me like I was a fricken science project, it's not my fault my mom is a badass…"

"…fight during trials, fought better than the whole school, I bet this is a publicity stunt to get onto the queen's new guards…" I couldn't take it anymore and I went to find Tasha, she was at her room crying.

"Why did you tell people that we were dating?" I asked trying to keep my voice calm.

"I just wanted to speed things up a little I really love you Dimitri." She caught my hand and pulled me onto the bed, kissing me hard. I didn't have the courage to hurt her by telling her the truth that I didn't love her, but for her sakes I decided to try to love her like she loves me. I figured that this would bite me in the ass soon enough.