InsaneJournal

QUICK DISCLAIMER:
some dialogue borrowed from 'the turn and the flame' (by richelle mead). this is a part 2 of 2 of a drabble series meant to explain what happened the night christian's parents lucas and moira chose to become strigoi.

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It didn't take long for Natasha and Vinh to find Christian in the hydrangea bushes. He'd heard them coming and when Vinh pulled Christian out, Natasha had a hard time being angry with her nephew. Dialing Moira's phone number, Natasha explained the situation, hoping that it would quell Moira's rage. Of course, Tasha didn't know yet what had transpired, but they would learn soon enough.

Christian watched the fireworks with Tasha, in awe of how extravagant they were. Tasha explained that they were enhanced with fire magic. Since Christian had already displayed such talent with his own, she concluded he'd be a powerful fire user when he grew older. Their fun was cut short, however, as it began to rain. The trio ran back to their townhouse, blissfully ignorant as they changed into dry clothes and got ready to sleep for the day. Christian was tuckered out and it didn't take long for him to fall asleep. Vinh tucked him in before sliding off to have an affectionate, private moment with Tasha.

Lucas and Moira had put considerable distance between themselves and the Royal Court after they’d left Nolan and Ira’s bodies to be found. Moira was whining about the current living arrangements, insisting she and Lucas were meant to be in a swanky hotel room, not some stupid cave like animals.

“Silence, Moira. This is only for tonight and you know it. The sun will be up soon and we can't be caught in it or we'll never get Christian back with us,” chastised Lucas. “They won’t stay at the country house. Too much scrutiny. Instead they’ll move on to my uncle Ronald’s vacation home in Poughkeepsie - it’s close enough but still far away from Court. I expect news of us has spread, by now."

"As long as it's only tonight," Moira purred. "And then, we get our son back. It's going to be just you, me, and Christian. Forever."

"Forever," agreed Lucas. Any concerns he'd had for his mortality now were long-gone. Strigoi didn't need sleep, so waiting out the rest of the day in a cave was not ideal, but as he suspected, news of what he and Moira had done spread quickly. Guardians regularly patrolled the roads surrounding Court and when they saw the abandoned car, they knew these deaths had been foul play. with Lucas and Moira nowhere to be found, things looked grim.

Tasha and Vinh were interrupted by guardians bursting through the door, demanding to know where Lucas and Moira were, and if Tasha knew. The commotion had woken Christian, and soon they were taken back to the Palace for questioning.

When it was Tasha's turn for questioning, a group of novices visiting from Russia were passing through. Vinh introduced Tasha to one of them - a skilled guardian-to-be that went by the name Dimitri Belikov. He had a strong accent, but he spoke English very well.

Dimitri offered to sit by Christian and make sure nobody bothered him while Vinh and Tasha were inside the conference room with the other guardians, which Tasha accepted graciously. She couldn't begin to fathom how Christian was feeling - he seemed to be holding it together well enough, but she knew deep down her nephew didn't know how to process the fact his parents, for better or worse, were dead. She couldn't even fathom her own feelings. Everything was numb, almost to the point she felt nauseous.

As for Christian, all he could really do was stare blankly at the fancy marble flooring. He was alive, and safe - for now. But he was beginning to realize the severity of everything, including his own actions that night. Three people were dead. The guardians said his parents were Strigoi, and had chosen it, and he was old enough to know what that meant. Five people. Three dead, two missing Strigoi.

He'd lied to get his way, and now three people were dead - not even Strigoi. Just dead, though in comparison to being Strigoi, death was really not the worst fate. He was horrified with himself. When he told Dimitri what he'd done, Dimitri didn't laugh or smile. How could he? He wasn't angry, either, however.

"Lord Ozera..." Dimitri replied sadly with a shake of his head. "There's no way you could have known what was going to happen, tonight. Don't blame yourself for this, please. It isn't your fault. The important part is that you are alive and safe here, at the Court. And not with your parents."

"But I lied to them, Dimitri... I made Guardian Locke and Guardian Orr believe..."

"I know, Lord Ozera... You feel bad about it. I know you do, and that's more than what can be said for some other people I know. Remorse is a powerful thing, and it makes you a better person in the long run. But you can't let it consume you. You can't change what happened, but you can be better. You can do better."

Pulling a notepad off a nearby counter, Dimitri scrawled out a mailing address in Russia as well as his phone number.

"I want you to take this, Lord Ozera. Give it to your aunt Natasha. If you ever need to talk to somebody, I'm here for you. You've suffered a terrible tragedy, and coming out of it won't be easy for either of you. But you won't have any judgement from me, I promise - neither of you deserve to be judged for this. Not now, not ever. Promise me you'll keep in touch?"

Christian nodded and took the piece of paper from Dimitri, folding it in half before putting it in his coat pocket. "Thank you, Dimitri..."

"Please, Lord Ozera, call me Dimka if you like," the dhampir smiled, patting Christian on the shoulder gently. "Or Dima. Those are what my family and friends would call me in Russia."

A fleeting little smile surfaced on Christian's face. "You don't have to keep calling me Lord Ozera if we're friends, either, Dima. Just call me by my name."

Dimitri actually chuckled this time. "Fair enough. Christian, it is."

Christian's head turned as Tasha and Vinh resurfaced from the room. Tasha knelt down in front of Christian, pushing his black hair out of his face. Her thumb was smoothing over his cheek. For all intents and purposes, Tasha was his mother, now, young as she was. "Are you ready to go, sweetheart? We aren't staying here at Court, we're going to lay low for a while, but first we have to visit Uncle Ronald."

Christian nodded. "I'm ready," he replied quietly. He was feeling a little better thanks to Dimitri, and while he knew now what had happened wasn't his fault, he was still upset at everything else. "I just want to sleep. Talking to Dima helped a bit."

"Dima?" Tasha smiled, her eyes flickering over to Dimitri, who scratched his head awkwardly as he laughed a little.

"Yes, Lady Ozera. I told him he could call me Dimka or Dima if he wanted," he replied politely. "I also gave him my mailing address in Baia and my family's phone number. Even if I'm not there, my mother Olena or my grandmother Yeva would be happy to talk to him."

"That was very kind of you, Dima." Vinh replied with a grin. "I would go find the other novices. Thank you for taking over while we were in there. I'll take over from here, мой друг."

"Of course, Guardian Khuc," Dimitri smiled, bowing his head. Patting Christian's shoulder and nodding curtly at Natasha, Dimitri disappeared down the hallway and around the corner to find his entourage.

Tasha, Christian, and Vinh left the Palace and Tasha went off with Christian to Ronald's Court home, knocking on his door. When he answered, Tasha spoke. "Uncle, I want to go to your estate in Poughkeepsie."

Christian could see the shock in his Uncle's face - Tasha hadn't beat around the bush. The pair argued for a few minutes until Tasha finally got the upper hand - she had the voting power in her family, now that Lucas and Moira were dead. Christian hadn't been present for Ronald's dumb speech about how "Ozeras needed to look after one another", but he'd apparently been quick to turn his back on Tasha and Christian when they needed his help the most, and Tasha wasn't above using his words against him.

"If you want to hold on to any hope of being elected to the Ozera council seat, you will give me those keys, now," she demanded.

Defeated, Ronald turned over his keys to the estate. When Tasha and Christian were once again with Vinh, they were assigned another guardian named Jonas - half so they could each have their own protection, but half because Tasha was suspect and they were more concerned with keeping Christian safe. He wasn't old enough to protect himself if anything did happen, and he certainly wasn't old enough to drain anybody and become Strigoi, himself.

When they finally reached Ronald's estate, the place was covered in dust. Ronald hadn't been there in quite some time. Christian went off to have some alone time in the home theatre while Tasha finally gave in to her exhaustion and passed out on a sofa in the parlor. Jonas was outside patrolling, and Vinh was watching over Tasha as she slept.

When she was awake again, she was disoriented and panicked when she realized she didn't know where Christian was, but Vinh assured her he knew exactly where Christian was and that he just needed to process everything that'd happened. They were all dealing with the aftermath in their own ways, but the aftermath was about to get much worse.

A scream sounded outside, and instantly Vinh went into guardian mode. Lucas and Moira were here. Handing Tasha a gun, he told her to run and find Christian, and to use the gun if anything happened. She didn't want to leave him, but he urged her to seek Christian out and keep him safe. Jonas couldn't be helped - he was dead.

It was up to Vinh to keep them safe, and he knew very well this would be his last night alive. Facing one Strigoi by himself would be hard enough, but two of them? He needed to buy Tasha time, and he wasn't going to go out without a fight. He'd pledged his life to keeping Natasha and Christian Ozera safe, and that's exactly what he planned to do until his dying breath.

When Lucas appeared in the living room doorway, she froze. Everything about him was the same, except for his skin and his eyes. He was terrifying, and it took Vinh's voice to remind her that this wasn't her brother. Not anymore. Lucas Ozera was dead - this was a monster wearing his face. Moira crashed through the window, and Tasha had to force herself to run when she saw them both attack Vinh, at once. She was beyond terrified. It was only her and Christian, now.

Tasha ran for the stairs and yelled through the halls in a panic, trying to find Christian. When she saw him poke his head out, she pushed him into the room he'd taken up and closed the door.

"What's happening? They're here, aren't they?" Christian asked as Tasha shoved him into the room.

Moira and Lucas kicked in the door with little effort and Tasha muttered to Christian, standing defensively between him and the two Strigoi closing in on them. "Those aren't your parents," she muttered quietly to him.

"Of course we are, and we want to be with our son." Moira countered, slowly advancing in on the pair. Her red eyes flickered towards Christian and he winced.

Tasha was pulling Christian towards the French doors, and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He'd never seen a Strigoi before - only in the videos they'd watched at school. Seeing them in a video where they were contained and couldn't hurt you was one thing. Seeing one in the flesh was something that terrified you to the core, and it was a difficult feeling to shake, that dread and fear.

"I'll die before I'll let you kill him..." she snarled at Moira. Lucas was close behind, his eyes zeroed in on Tasha and Christian. There was blood all over his mouth and chin - Jonas and Vinh's blood. Christian clung even harder to Tasha once his father spoke.

"We don't want to kill him. We want him to join us. You can too, but that's your choice. It makes no difference to us. With or without your consent, we're leaving with Christian."

"You want to turn him? Keep him nine forever?" Tasha cried.

"We want to keep him," Moira spoke. "Keep him until he's of age, and then we'll Awaken him."

These really weren't his parents. While Christian had mostly calmed down earlier, all his anxiety came flooding right back and he couldn't keep it at bay anymore. His eyes welled with tears and he blinked as the drops of water ran down his cheeks. He wanted this to be over. He wanted them gone.

"There's nowhere else you can go." Lucas warned Tasha. They were cornered now, and Christian hid his face in Tasha's side, shaking his head as Moira tried to sweet-talk him into coming with her willingly.

Before he knew it, he and Tasha were on the balcony and Tasha was threatening to pull them both off and jump. There was no way they'd survive a fall from that height, but death was far better than becoming one of them. In the moment, it was a risk Tasha was more than willing to take, if she had to.

Everything in the next few seconds was a blur. Christian didn't even have time to process as Lucas crashed into his sister and Christian was yanked away from Tasha. Her screams and his own filled the room as they were separated and he knew Tasha was in unbearable pain judging by the sound of hers. Moira had a firm grip on her son, her arm secured around his shoulders. He saw the immense amount of blood when Lucas pulled away from Tasha, and it was gruesome. Her cheek had been all but torn off by her brother's bite as he pinned her in the doorway of the balcony.

Moments later, he saw his father's jacket catch fire - Tasha had used what little concentration and energy she had to try and ward him off of her. Fire was most lethal to the Strigoi, and Moira was too distracted by the thought of losing her mate to keep a hold on Christian any longer. While Moira was trying to get Lucas's burning jacket off of him without risking burning herself, Christian bolted for Tasha. She had tried gesturing for him to run away to safety, but he wasn't going to and clung to her.

"I won't leave you!" he protested. Tasha looked awful, and he could only imagine how much pain she was in. Her hand was pressed to her cheek, desperately trying to keep her maimed face together. One way or another, he was going to at least try to help. He watched as Tasha tried to conjure another flame - and he saw as a massive one shot straight for the Strigoi he once called his mother... and missed. The rug caught instead, and while Christian knew his own magic wasn't the greatest, he still tried to redirect it towards Moira. It almost worked, but it wasn't quite enough. He didn't have enough control to do anything significant, yet. Tasha pat his shoulder and pulled him towards the balcony again. They couldn't get out through the regular door, the fire was getting too big for them to pass. Their only option was to jump.

That was until Christian spotted them - the guardians. Ronald must have tipped the guardians off to where Tasha and Christian had gone, because several of them poured in along with Janine Hathaway. Each of them had a shiny silver stake, and Tasha turned him away from the scene. She didn't even bother covering his eyes, he had turned his head in the opposite direction as soon as he saw the guardians closing in on his parents.

He could hear someone shouting from below, and looked to see that some more people were carrying a massive ladder towards the balcony.

Things in the room had gone silent, except for the crackling of burning wood –
Christian knew that Lucas and Moira had been put down.
It was over. His parents were dead. Truly dead.

Now, the priority was getting off this balcony. They helped him down first, and then took extra care to help his aunt down to the ground level of Ronald's estate. While they took Natasha off immediately to a hospital for emergency surgery on her face, Christian was temporarily taken back to Court. He wanted to stay at the hospital with Tasha, but was told being stuck at the hospital was no place for a child.

Christian was given a few choices - he could either go to the school near the Court, be homeschooled by Tasha in Minneapolis once she was better, or be sent to St. Vladimir's Academy in Montana. Ultimately, it was a difficult choice for him, but he'd chosen Montana. He already knew it wouldn't be easy to be away from his aunt, but he didn't want to be a burden on her, and especially didn't want to be anywhere near Court. St. Vlad's felt like the best choice he had.

"It's okay, Aunt Tasha. I can handle whatever happens."