Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Vampire Academy in any way, shape, or form ... All legal ownership goes to Richelle Mead.

Prologue

Dimitri stared at his father's grave. No grief, remorse, or sadness pulsed through him like it should of if a child were to lose their father.

Alexandre Belikov

Loving Father

Faithful Husband

He chuckled humorlessly. Loving and faithful couldn't have been farther from the truth. A loving father doesn't beat his daughters and neglect them. A faithful husband doesn't sleep with several different women when his wife won't "put out".

He sighed as he thought of his mother. She worked night shifts at the local hospital to pay for food and bills. But Dimitri knew she was struggling. With three daughters, a son, two grandchildren, her mother as well as herself it was difficult to provide for all of them. It was hard but Dimitri knew she wouldn't change it for the world. Neither would he. He loved being surrounded by his family and happiness was the reward he got from it. Sure they may bicker every now and then, but at the end of the day they were family and would do whatever it took to protect one another. But that didn't change the complication of their money issues.

Karolina needed to pay off college students loans and Sonya was still in college. Dimitri knew he needed to go search for a job since he'd lost his last one. He sighed again, he seemed to be doing it a lot lately.

He looked back at his father's grave and a sick smile rose to his lips when he thought of the day he'd nearly beat him to death. The only thing he regretted from that day was that he'd lost control and his mother had witnessed it.

He remembered busting his knuckles as he held his fathers shirt and decked him repeatedly in his temple, jaw, and nose.

He remembered kicking his father's ribcage and hearing a satisfying crack as his ribs gave in.

He remembered holding his father by the neck up against the wall and kneeing him in the gut repeatedly till he retched.

He remembered dropping him to the floor and spitting his blood out from the punch his father had managed to land to his jaw.

He remembered throwing him out of their house and onto the snow covered sidewalk.

He remembered all of it and his only regret was his mother witnessing him lose control. He wish he'd killed his father; he would have sat in jail cell, yeah, but at least he would have known his family would be safe from that man forever. His eyes were glazed over with battle lust but he blinked and kicked a rock that slammed into his father's tombstone, chipping a piece off the edge.

Dimitri sighed again before he spat on the ground and felt the weight of what his father had put his family through leave his conscience. He turned, his hands digging into the pockets of his dark brown, leather duster as he walked off in search of a new job.

The thought of Abe Mazur came to mind and he got into his car before speeding off the make a meeting with the intimidating man he'd known since he was a child.

Long time no see (for this story at least). After scanning through this the other day ... or week, I've decided that I'm going to revise chapters and correct any grammar mistakes, make a few small changes here and there as well as add maybe some new/more detail.

~ Hannah