"Come on, angel, it's time to wake up," I said, nudging my three year old daughter in a hopeless attempt to wake her.

"No," she grumbled in her sweet little voice, under the duvet.

"Kady, do we have to do this every morning?" I sighed, gently pulling the covers away from her, while she tried tugging it up towards her.

"Nooo," she whined. Weren't three year olds supposed to be lively and bouncing up and down like they were high around this time? Yeah, my Kady was more like me on that front.

"Kady," I said in a stern voice, "it's getting late. You have to get dressed, have breakfast, then I have to take you to the nursery and then I have work. So come on, chop, chop," I clapped my hands. She grumbled again and this time got up in a seating position while rubbing her eyes with her tiny fists. She was so adorable, watching her never got old. She had gorgeous curly brown hair that reached below her shoulders. Her hair wasn't as dark a brown as mine. In fact, it was the same dark shade of brown as Dimitri's. As were those beautiful dark brown eyes. Everything else was me. She had the same round face as mine, the same pink lips, the same nose, the same facial expressions. Her personality was very much like mine as well, although every now and then I'd see hints of Dimitri too. In those few precious moments I'd try my best not to let the tears leak out of my eyes and crush her petite body towards mine. However, this wasn't one of those moments. Sigh.

As she finished rubbing her eyes, she just stared ahead of her, trying to get used to keeping her eyes open. I could tell because she kept blinking. I resisted the urge to laugh. I went over to her wardrobe and got out a white long sleeved top and jean dungarees. I don't know why, I just loved her in dungarees. Once I got her dressed, and she did a bit more grumbling, we went over to Lissa's apartment. We never knocked, we'd just walk in. This was virtually our home. At Lissa's everyday we would have breakfast and dinner and hang out. In our apartment we pretty much just slept and showered. Kady even had her own room with a bed and toys in Lissa's apartment. The toys were kind of a waste of space really because Kady preferred to go to the gym with me or have someone read to her. I guess she'd inherited that from her father…well, if you could inherit stuff like that. I always made sure to read her a bedtime story at night from the day she was born. She was so used to this routine that she couldn't fall asleep at night without me reading to her. She was more into action and adventure stories then pansy old Cinderella and Disney crap. Oh, how I loved my daughter!

"Hello, princess," smiled Christian. He loved Kady to bits, who didn't? She was a charmer.

"Hey, Chrissie!" Kady replied at the same time as I said "Hey, Sparky!" Kady and I looked at each other and giggled. Christian let out an exasperated sigh at my immaturity and Kady calling him 'Chrissie'. Ever since she learnt to talk she would call him the oh-so masculine name that was 'Chrissie'. At first it was because she couldn't pronounce his full name, and though she could now it was more of a nickname she had for him. Nevertheless, Christian came over towards us, Kady sitting on my hip, and leaned in to give Kady a kiss on her forehead, then he grabbed her and flung her into the air. She squealed in joy and giggled manically as Christian caught her gracefully.

I walked over to the kitchen area of the room. It was one huge room with the kitchen to the left and a massive dark wooden dinning table past that. On the right was the living area with massive comfy dark brown leather couches, which faced the 60 inch wall mounted plasma. At the moment it was playing 'Sponge Bob Square Pants' - I had noticed Sparky had a weird obsession with that show. He was seated on the couch, legs stretched onto the, again, dark wooden coffee table, Kady perched on his lap. They really had the dark wooden theme going on, no doubt influenced by Sparky. On the far side of the room was a floor to ceiling window/sliding door opening into the balcony. They had a tremendous view of the city lights, which was really the court, which was in itself a miniature vampire town. At the other end of the room to the right was a wide hallway, which led to the separate bedrooms.

I looked at my watch - great, it was 7:50 already and I had to be down at the daily 8:00am (pm in the human world - we ran on a nocturnal schedule) guard meeting. I wasn't going to have time to eat breakfast, drop off Kady and be on time for the meeting. I searched for the doughnuts, food on the go was best right now.

"Yo, Christian, could you please take Kady to the nursery for me? I'm gonna be late for the meeting." I asked as I poured coffee into my travel mug.

"Sure thing, Hathaway," he replied, not taking his eyes off the TV.

"You're gonna have to give Kady her breakfast too before dropping her off," I said talking quickly and twisting the cap on the mug.

"Cool," was the only response. I shook my head, wondering if he'd actually heard me. I rushed over to the couch standing directly in front of him, effectively blocking his view of the TV.

"Mommy," Kady whined, just as Christian grumbled, "Rose," in the same tone, trying to angle his head so he could see past me.

"Christian? Did you even hear a word I've been saying?" I asked crossly, my hands on my hips.

"Yeah. Make Kady breakfast and drop her off at the nursery," he said proudly.

"Yeah. Now! You can make breakfast while you watch your damn show." Both Kady and Christian gasped. Christian gasped at me cursing his show, while Kady gasped because I had said 'damn'. I rarely used bad words in front of her. "Oh, sorry, angel. Mommy's just stressed right now-" "-and mean," Christian muttered, but I ignored and continued, "-I'm gonna be late for work. Be a good girl, okay?"

"Yes, mommy," she replied sweetly, hugging and kissing me on the cheek. I kissed her on the forehead.

"Bye, angel."

"Bye, mommy."

"Christian. Kitchen. Now."

"Fine," he sighed in surrender, placing Kady on the couch and going over to the kitchen and searching through the cupboards.

"Where's Lissa?"

"She left earlier. Wedding stuff," he said vaguely. Oh, had I not mentioned….yeah so Christian and Lissa are getting married in a month. Lissa wanted a summer wedding, even though she hardly went out in the sun so it didn't really make much sense. Christian seemed like he was hiding something, he was definitely avoiding my eye.

Glancing at my watch again, 7:54; I really didn't have time to worry over his antics. "Whatever, I'll see you later. Drop her off at the nursery by nine."

"Got it."

"Bye, angel," I said one more time and blowing her a kiss, before I left the apartment. I'll admit, being around Kady at times made me soft, but when it came to my job no one messed with me.

Despite taking nearly a year out of guarding and having a baby in my teens (even though I was 18 when I gave birth, everyone still saw me as a teenager back then) I was able to hold a well respected title. Me and my mom, the Hathaway Guardians, were never to be messed with and no one ever held it against me that I had a baby at 18 and still kept up my guardian duties alongside my parent duties. Well, at least the dhampirs didn't. You would still get the odd bitchy comments from the moroi population at court, but having two best friends who were royals, Vasilissa Dragomir and Adrian Ivashkov - and well Ozera if you wanted to include him - had its advantages. Anyone who said a bad word against me, my best friends would take it as a personal insult towards them and gun that person down. Not literally of course, though that would've been fun, but you get my drift.

I made it just in time for the meeting and took my place at the grand meeting table next to Eddie Castille, who'd been assigned as Christian's guardian. We were both able to greet each other with a quick hey before the meeting officially started. The court was so big that it was split into two departments: the east and the west. We were positioned in the east side of the court, our leader being Guardian Rainer. He was around 34 years old, very well respected. He was strict and guardian-esque, of course, but he was one of those leaders you could joke around with and work alongside with at the same time. The east department had a fun friendly vibe going on. We all took our duty to the moroi population very seriously. However, that didn't mean we were always these stoic figures in the background. When we were all together we'd piss around and have a laugh. Even in these meetings we'd crack jokes and make fun of the boss. It was a very light hearted atmosphere. The east wing also did weekly training sessions in the gym on Fridays. In actuality they were sparring competitions where we would see who could pin down whom the fastest. I was reining champion, much to the chagrin of many of the males in this wing. They were sore losers but we still loved each other. We were one big happy family, I thought cheesily, though I'd never voice that thought out aloud.

After the meeting was over, I moved on to my typical guarding duties. Today I was placed at the border of the court. As I've said, the court was massive and extremely well protected with wards placed every week and hundreds of guardians. I was assigned as Lissa's guardian, but I didn't have to be by her side 24/7.

I grabbed a chicken salad after my shift, ate it quickly and made my way over to the court gyms. If you thought the gym at the academy was big, you had to take a look at this gym. It was ma-hassive. It was heaven. The workout machines were completely up to date and high tech. Tonnes of plasma screen TVs were plastered across the walls playing different TV shows, movies and music videos. The second floor was really a huge balcony that circled around the entire gym looking down onto the first. It held the weights section and several running machines and again plasma screens lined the walls. Every corner of the great gym held magnificent black speakers creating a surround sound effect. In the middle and far right of the gym was the sparring area. On Fridays, all the guardians off duty would assemble at the spar area and we'd watch a pair spar, while cheering and jeering, with music playing full blast on the surround sound speakers. I itched to kick some ass every Friday. The adrenaline rush from the fight and all the guards surrounding you spurring you on felt so good!

So, despite the awesomeness that was the gym I walked straight past the plasma screen TVs and workout machines, crossed through the sparring section until I came to the chunky gothic style double doors at the centre of the wall. It was almost eleven feet high and required a hell of a lot of energy to pull it open. I pulled on the handle of one of the doors with both hands gritting my teeth. It opened a few inches and I was able to squeeze through. I then closed the door, which was minutely easier and walked onto the vast field. I walked a few yards, stopped and then looked behind me. I squinted at the left corner of the gym. Why had I not used the automatic doors?

I fell into a lazy jog on the running tracks out on the field. I personally preferred the outside tracks then the running machines. I had my earphones shoved into my ears, music on full blast. The wind brushing across my face felt so good. It was out on the tracks running when I felt the most relaxed, along with when I held my little angel in my arms. However, the most relaxing thing about running on the tracks was when I closed my eyes I could imagine him running by my side. I could smell his delectable scent, his intoxicating aftershave mingled with his heavenly natural scent. It was here on the tracks that I would reminisce on our short-lived time together. Us sparring. Us in the weights room. Us laughing at a silly joke I would make, looking into each others eyes that spoke more than words itself. Us in the cabin. And everyday when I went on my daily runs on the track that memory would bring a sole, lonely tear to slide down my face. Everyday.