We could just go home right now
Or maybe we could stick around
For just one more drink, oh yeah

I'm not sure how, but Hide and Seek turned into Tag.

And by Tag, I mean Paul quit a few minutes in and watched as Dimitri and I chased each other around the backyard. He probably had enough energy to beat either of us, but I think he wanted to see his uncle in action. And let me just say the yard wasn't the best place for a game of Tag, but we made it work. Each dodge and dash was retaliated, and every punch thrown and every kick, well, kicked was returned with greater force than the one before it. We knew each other

"Paul!" someone shouted from the house. My guess was that it was Karolina, but I didn't dare glance in her direction. "Go wash up for dinner!"

"Can I wait until someone wins? Please? Please, Mama?" Paul asked from the bench on which he was sitting. "I can't just leave. I want to know who wins!"

"Fine, but as soon as they're finished, go wash up," she said with a groan. A few seconds later, the door shut, and I assumed she returned inside the house.

Paul grinned like the Cheshire Cat, giving Dimitri and me his undivided attention. He thought the world of his guardian uncle and of any guardian or soon-to-be guardian.

Dimitri had me pinned before Karolina left the doorway.

Initially, I wanted to fight him off, but as a result of my colliding with the ground, there was a tingling pain in my lower back. Yet I was more concerned with the feel of every contour of his muscles and his hot breath on my neck as he nipped at my skin to finalize his victory.

I felt my body arch upward, and I did nothing to fight myself. I needed this. I needed him. I was fairly sure I hadn't yet relieved my sexual frustration from the night of the lust charm—despite how, well, involved Dimitri and I had been since the attack. The lust never seemed to dissipate.

"Dead," Dimitri whispered. He then turned his head and spoke in a leveled voice, "Go wash up, Paul. The sooner you do, the sooner you get to eat Babushka's apple cake." Paul's expression became impish, and he soon sprinted toward the house.

"Apple cake?" I hummed.

"The most delicious dessert you'll ever devour," Dimitri replied. "Especially Babushka's."

Get another bottle out
Let's shoot the shit
Sit back down

At the end of the day, I was exhausted enough that I collapsed face-first on the bed. Within seconds, the spot next to me sunk in, and a large hand was moving in soothing circles on my back. I repositioned myself so that the area between my shoulder blades received the most attention.

"Roza," Dimitri murmured. Too comfortable to move too much, I turned my head on its side to acknowledge him. He switched to using both hands now, focusing on my neck and shoulders, and continued speaking, "I know you're comfortable here—I am, too—but we can't stay here any longer. We'll only be putting everyone else in danger if we do."

"Where can we go?" I asked, frowning.

"That's up to your father and his guardians."

I scoffed. "Why?"

"He's funding this mission, Rose," he said, his tone a little frustrated. "Also, while we've been here with my family, they've been scouting some of the nearby larger cities. While you were playing games with Paul, Z—Abe called and informed me that they've found a coven around Novosibirsk."

"So?" I went to rise into a sitting position, but his massaging hands had other ideas and kept me down. Grumbling, I lay once again. "That doesn't necessarily mean she's with them. What kind of evidence does the old man have?" I heard him sigh heavily in response—and if I had been looking at him, his eyes likely would have been closed. "Is his proof reason enough to challenge a coven?"

"If I know my sister and if she is anything like me, she would choose somewhere she knows and is attached to as a dwelling place. Baia itself is too small and far too conspicuous for anyone who has her knowledge, but Novosibirsk is relatively close and much larger." His hands ceased movement, and seconds later, I heard a soft thump and the comforter sink in again. One of his fingers lightly trailed the length of my arm. "Ever since Christmastime, covens have been on the rise all over the world. With one being so close, I have little doubt Vika's a part of it."

With a heavy sinking feeling of suspicion in my gut, I rolled onto my side and looked down at him. "What aren't you telling me?"

"What are you—" His hand lightly encircled my wrist, and his gaze may as well have pierced my soul. His question was left unspoken, but I understood it loud and clear.

"You always have your reasons for excluding me from knowing pertinent information, Dimitri," I said. "I know you far too well to be oblivious to when you're treating me like a child."

"I'm not, though," he said, voice rather small. "Treating you like a child, I mean."

"But you're keeping something from me."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I trust you—" his other hand reached up and cupped my cheek "—but I know you as well as you know me. I know you'll react irrationally if I do tell you." I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn't think of a rebuttal. Dammit. He tapped his thumb to my nose and laughed. "And you can't disagree."

I stuck my tongue out at him and turned my head away from him. He laughed again.

"Don't be petty, Roza," he mock-chastised. "Zmey isn't a horrible person, nor is he a bad father. He hasn't physically been by your side, but he has been there. He's always funded a lot of what you've done, and if what Janine says is true, his funding our trip is all on his own accord. "

"How do you—" I smacked his hand away. "My school records! For months, you've known who my father is! You've known his identity this entire time and never told me!"

Dimitri propped himself up with his elbow, and his broad frame made me feel microscopic and regret my choice of words and actions. His expression was unreadable, absurdly stern, and his voice sounded like a dagger of ice repeatedly piercing my heart. "I've known because I've been your instructor this entire time. Per your mother's request, no one has been able to tell you until you were eighteen, but then the Strigoi uprising began; she informed the academy that your father would be visiting and that she would take care of introductions."

I wanted to yell, to scream, to punch someone—yet Dimitri was the only one around, and he had done nothing wrong; he had only followed orders. Defeated, I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, trying to find patterns and force my anger aside.

"I respect your mother too much to disobey her orders; I couldn't tell you." One of his hands caressed my cheek again, and his tone lightened. "Every moment you didn't know, I hated myself a little more. To keep something so important from you—" He shook his head and brought his other hand up to cradle my face in his hands. "I am the worst excuse for a lover, boyfriend, mate—whatever I am to you, but I will make this up to you somehow. I promise."

"Don't," I said.

An argument brewed with the change of emotions in his eyes, and while I knew at the time that I should have allowed him to speak, my need to prove myself overpowered any reason to let him speak. I kissed his lips in hope of silencing him; he responded after a few seconds of my lips roughly moving his. My hands glided down the fabric of his shirt, and my fingers soon coiled around the shirt's hem.

Dimitri mimicked my actions and then took control.

Once an item of clothing was removed, his attention was appointed to the skin he had most recently exposed, and like the night of the lust charm, his lips brushed my skin as soft as he whispered, "Roza." As if my name were a prayer—as if every inch of exposed flesh were a bead on a rosary.

Here's to us

We were a tangled heap of limbs, flesh, and sheets.

Dimitri brushed some hair behind my ears, slowly guiding his calloused fingers along my cheekbone. I could sense an oncoming declaration of love or something similar, and I wanted to beat him to it.

"Before you say anything, remember we're not in a Nicholas Sparks novel," I said quietly, quickly stroking his hand when it reached my chin. "And considering I've traveled to Siberia for you and I'm already in your bed, you don't need to butter me up with anything." He laughed whole-heartedly in response, and I grinned mischievously. "I don't want you to emasculate yourself like one of those corny characters." I could practically hear his eyes roll in response; otherwise, he didn't acknowledge my dig.

His arms slid around me in a warming embrace, his long fingers curling around my shoulder. He kissed the top of my head before resting his chin there. We sat in silence for a few moments and enjoyed each other's company. We were the only ones who mattered.

Our solace wouldn't last, though; it never did.

Here's to love

"They come first," Lissa's voice echoed into nothingness. The soft sound startled me out of my slumber. I suddenly became aware of Dimitri and I spooning with his arms wrapped securely around my waist. I wasn't

"They come first," her voice echoed, and then I was sucked into Lissa's mind.

Someone had blindfolded her, but she was rather calm. I hoped this wasn't some kink with Christian—I'd be pretty pissed if it was. I didn't want Fire Boy to blemish the night I just had with Dimitri. But Lissa simply sat there. She thought only about where she was—with no panic or anticipation. So maybe it wasn't Christian.

"Vasilisa Dragomir," a cold voice sounded somewhere ahead of Lissa. Heels clicked against the floor, growing louder with each step, and came to a rest when their owner stood behind Lissa. "You were invited here today—" the blindfold loosened "—to be one of the elite—" the blindfold fell "—royals of St. Vladimir's."

Lissa surveyed the room, noticing a lineup of student royals from the secondary campus. She recognized most of them, including one of Christian's estranged Ozera cousins.

Also among them was Aaron Drozdov, her ex-boyfriend who she essentially left for Christian—and who seemed to have made a full recovery since the night Dimitri and I found him in the woods. Lissa avoided eye contact with him. Jesse Zeklos was there, too, a fact that made my stomach churn a bit. He was smirking in amusement towards Lissa, and she rolled her eyes. Jesse meant next to nothing to her since she and I returned to St. Vladimir's.

The heels sounded again, lulling Lissa out of her observation of the royal lineup. She turned to face the heels' owner. There stood bitch-at-first-sight Avery Lazar smirking much like Jesse was, arrogance radiating off of her.

Whatever these "elite" royals—

And much like the other day, I was forced out of Lissa's mind prematurely and most certainly not by Lissa—she hadn't noticed I was there. The unusual force made me dizzy, made my head ache, and made my vision go in and out of focus, so I was rather glad that I was already at rest and not standing. I shut my eyes and rested against Dimitri's slumbering form. I'd talk to him about what I'd seen before breakfast.

A/N: I am incredibly sorry for not updating this in so long and for uploading such a short chapter (mostly just to give you all at least something to read), but life has been quite demanding the past couple years. I hold office positions in a few clubs and organizations at uni, and I also recently became an aunt and have been focusing on helping my family with that. Alas, I will try to update faster, but I can't guarantee anything at all. My schedule refuses to take a break.