Chapter 15:

I sat there for a few more moments. Taking in the scenery before me, and the remaining perfume that stirred in the air from where Rose sat. It was high noon before I decided to head back inside.

I had almost made it to my room when I ran into Tasha. With a mumbled “sorry” she sidestepped me and started to walk away. Sympathetically I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “Tasha.”

She turned around, her eyes mortified as she started at me. “Yes?”

I sighed and let go of her shoulder, running a hand through my long hair. “About…earlier…”

Tasha stopped me with a shake of her head. “Don’t Dimitri… I understand. You’re in love with someone else.”

I looked at her dumfounded. How could she have possibly found out? I knew I kept my love for Rose well hidden. The shock on my face must have said otherwise. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. Rose. I thought I could change that. But seeing the way she watches you when I’m around, I knew it would never work. It’s obvious she makes you happy.” She gave me a small sad smile. “Something I can’t.”

I wanted to say something to comfort her. But really what was there to say? So instead I nodded. She nodded back and turned to walk away. But not before she smiled back at me, tears filling her eyes. “Good luck Belikov.”

After that I walked in a dream like state back to my room. Not really noticing anything around me. Until I ran into Janine.

I would have nodded to her and walked on but something flashed in her eyes. Something I couldn’t avoid. Fear, true fear. I caught hold of her arm, “what’s wrong?” For a moment I thought she found something more about the Drozdovs attack. But her response wasn’t at all what I expected.

“Rose is missing.”

I was in action before she could say anything else. My first instinct was to call the guardian Council and tell them that we had a missing novice. But knowing them, they would go ballistic. And then expel Rose when she was caught.

So instead of calling them I went to my first source. Mason.

We walked to Mason’s room, fast, practically knocking over people in the process. When I reached his door it took all of my self control to not knock it down. Shane answered after an agonizing minute. “Hey.” He said surprised, his hair ruffled from sleeping.

“Is Mason here?”

He looked back and forth between Janine and me, confused. “Funny. Rose came by earlier today asking the same thing.”

I grabbed his shirt. “Did she say where she was going?”

His eyes widened in shock. “No, she left after I told her Mason was throwing stuff in a bag earlier…dude,” he looked down at my clenched hand holding his shirt. “Could you let go of me?”

I dropped him. “When did he leave?” If Mason was headed somewhere, then Rose would be with him too.

Shane rubbed his chest where my hand had clutched his shirt. “This morning.”

I left Shane without asking anymore questions. I was one step closer from finding Rose.

Janine and I looked at each other once the door shut in our faces. If Mason and Rose weren’t here. What about Lissa?

Janine picked up her phone and made a couple of calls. Then she looked back at me, frustration in her voice. “You have no idea where they headed off to? No idea at all.”

I thought about that for a moment. There was nothing I could have told Rose… Spokane. That was where I had told her Strigoi had been spotted. She and Mason were a thing now. And she and Mason both wanted revenge on the Strigoi…shit…

I told Janine everything I told Rose. And when I was finished I felt like a child caught with my hand in the cookie jar before dinner. “You said what?” All five feet of fury came out at me then.

I looked at her sheepishly. “I trusted her---“

Janine laughed at that. A dry and heartless laugh that sounded alien. “You trusted Rose? Out of all people to trust…” She shook her head and picked up her phone again. Calling what I assumed the mall. When they reported there hadn’t been any sightings that left the bus stations and cabs.

A man reported at the bus station that he hadn’t seen anyone come by with the identity of Mason or Rose. My heart sank at that.

I picked up my phone then as we both traveled through the lodge. I knew the guardian posts. And if what Shane said was correct then the guardians guarding the northern gate must have had sightings of them.

 “Guardian Alan? This is Dimitri Belikov. I’m calling to ask if you had any sightings of Rose Hathaway, and Mason Ashford?”

Background noise came through the phone. “Yeah, I saw them. Rose actually not too long ago.”

My heart sank even more. “What do you mean?”

He sounded bored. “Rose came by asking if I had seen Mason and I told her I did. When she asked where he was I reported back no, and that I had let him and Eddie Castile and the Rinaldi girl out through the north gate and didn’t see them after that.”

I held back the anger in my voice as I gritted my teeth. “You let all three of them through the north gate? Why?”

“Because they asked me.”

He didn’t find that at all wrong. And it was then I realized that he had been compelled. I called the other watchman that was with Alan and he reported the same thing. Shit…

When I called the current guardian at the northern gate; and he reported that he’d had seen Christian earlier today, that was after some girl had knocked him out with a Maglite. I instantly knew that girl had to be Rose. No one would have had the courage to do that to another guardian.

The only question was why Rose needed Christian. A Moroi at that. Unless…of course. Compulsion. Rose wouldn’t have brought Christian without a reason.

I relayed Janine on the conversation with the guardians. And soon we found ourselves knocking on our next resort: Lissa. If Christian was involved she had to know something.

She answered her eyes sleepy, and her hair a mess. We obviously just woke her up. She stiffiled a yawn before greeting us with what I assumed to be a hello.

She gestured to her room, letting us in. I waited until Janine shut the door before going into questioning. “Where is she?” I asked trying to keep my tone light.

She sat on the bed, looking up at us, face masked of confusion. “What’s wrong?”

Janine asked in a business like tone. “Where’s Rose?”

Lissa looked at us even more confused. “I thought she’d be with you guys, or at least Mason.” She furrowed her brow looking down at her feet.

 “They’re missing Lissa along with Eddie, Mia, and Christian. Where is she?” I asked in a guardian like tone.

Lissa’s confusion turned into worry and fear, along with a hint of pain. “I…I don’t know. I haven’t seen her all day.”

This made me stand up straighter, my muscles going stiff. Janine looked at me evenly. “Last I saw her she was at the banquet.”

Lissa nodded as if she were agreeing. “Yeah… me too.”

Janine and Lissa both turned to me then, hope flickering in their eyes. Janine almost whispered, “Belikov?”

I didn’t want either of them to know about the roof. But they had to know, it might get us somewhere. No matter how much I wanted to keep my love for Rose a secret. I knew this was important. Rose’s, and possibly Christian’s, life depended on it.

I sighed. “Last I saw her she was on the roof. I went up there to make sure she was alright, and then she left, she had to talk to Mason.”

Janine shook her head. “And no one has seen her since then?”’

We all shook our heads. And I knew Lissa would hate me for this, but her bond was our last hope.

Janine noticed this as well because at the same time we looked at Lissa. She had to know something. Something that could help us find them. “I know you want to protect them, but we need to know where they are.”

Lissa remained sitting on the bed while we stared her down. “I told you I don’t know. I don’t know what happened.”

Her face twisted into frustration and fear. She shifted anxiously under our gaze. Janine’s voice came out from behind me, she was all business again. “I can’t believe they wouldn’t have told you where they were going.” Her words were flat, but there was a hint of worry in them too. “Especially with your…bond.”

“It only works one way,” Lissa said sadly. “You know that.”

I knelt down so I could be at Lissa’s height and look her in the eye. I had to do that to look at anyone in the eye. “Are you sure there’s nothing? Nothing at all you can tell us? They’re nowhere in town. The man at the bus station didn’t see them…though we’re pretty sure that’s where they must have gone. We need something, anything to go on.”

Lissa gritted her teeth and glared. “Don’t you think if I knew, I’d tell you? You don’t think I’m worried about them too? I have no idea where they are. None. And why’d they even leave…it doesn’t make any sense either. Especially why they’d go with Mia, of all people.”

It wasn’t like we could just go out there and find the novices and Moroi. We needed further information before we got the okay with the Guardian and Moroi government. And every minute of it was agonizing. I just wanted Rose back, safe.

I sighed and leaned back on my heels. I believed her. Rose wouldn’t have involved Lissa if it were dangerous. And knowing Rose, everything she did was deadly.

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Dude this was the hardest chapter I had ever written. One minute I think I have all the missing people down, and then bam! another one I had missed. I hope this chapter was good enough for you guys. And I hope you liked it! Tell me how I did! I want honest reviews, I'll change it if it's not good enough

<3LittleDhampir18