To say that the Guardians wanted to take Kate was untrue, they were forced to take the brunette girl with them if they wanted to bring the Princess back to the Academy, as it was abundantly clear that Princess Vasilisa was not leaving without the brunette, nor that the Kate would let them approach the Princess in the first place, at least not without taking most, if not all of them, down kicking and punching first.

And to say that Kate went willingly was a bold lie, she took her time doing everything.

Even getting in and out of the car, it was comical, at least for the girls, to see all of the Guardians exhaling through their noses and adverting their eyes in order not to get annoyed, she also stood close to Lissa and nearly hit any person who dared be withing arms reach of them.

The Guardians should've known that allowing the two girls to sit together in the SUV was a bad idea, but in all honesty, they were surprised when they sat quietly and reached into the multi-coloured backpack, only for it to start purring. It also surprised them when Kate grabbed an ipod from one of the duffel bags, and a pair of earpods, handing one to Lissa while putting the other in her own ear.

Unfortunately, the peace of the car ride dissipated when they boarded the private plane back to the Academy, the Leader of the Guardians, Dimitri Belikov, made the brunette mentally admit that he was pretty smart, as when he'd taken one look at the two of them whispering and ordered them separated.

"Don't let them talk to each other," he warned the guardian who escorted me to the back of the plane. "Five minutes together, and they'll come up with an escape plan."

True enough Lissa and Kate had been planning their escape, Kate ended up shooting the experienced guardian a haughty look and before she stormed off down the aisle, and once they were in the air, the odds of escape dropped further.

Even supposing a miracle occurred and Kate did manage to take out all ten guardians, without exposing herself, the two would sort of have a problem in getting off the plane. And despite having the ability to read each other's minds the two girls avoided it at all costs, knowing that most times it happened it was without control, and they hadn't been training their mind reading ability.

Sure, Kate figured they might have parachutes aboard somewhere, but in the unlikely event neither of them being able to operate one, there was still that little issue of survival, seeing as they'd probably land somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

So no they weren't getting off that plane until it landed in backwoods Montana. Meaning that the human version of a protective doberman would have to think of something then, something that involved getting past the Academy's magical wards and ten times as many guardians, at least from what Lissa had told her, but yeah.

No problem.

Even though Lissa sat at the front with the Russian guy, her fear sang back to Kate, pounding inside her head like a hammer, through the strange bond. They couldn't take Lissa back to the Academy. The brunette wondered if Dimitri might have hesitated if he could feel what she did and if he knew what she knew. Probably not. He didn't care, he was on a mission and the Dhampir don't stray from their mission, at least, according to what Lissa told her and what little could remember from her childhood.

Having been in the air long enough, and the breakfast she had had demanding her to get up before she let the contents out in her seat, Kate got up and rushed to the bathroom, ignoring the protests of the Guardian that had been sitting next to her, she swiftly got inside, locked the door before falling on her knees over the toilet bowl.

The banging on the door mixed with the shouts and calls for the brunette somewhat drowned her expelling of the contents in her stomach, once done she stood up and cleansed her mouth as much as she could, her vibrant eyes locking with her features in the bathroom mirror, she looked strangely pale, perhaps from the indisposition she was feeling, or perhaps it was her fear of being in closed spaces while flying miles and miles and miles above the ground.

She should've really never watch 100 Ways to Die.

As it was, Kate could feel Lissa's emotions grew so strong that for a moment, she had the disorienting sensation of sitting in the blonde's seat, that she was in her skin even.

It happened sometimes, and without much warning, she'd pull Kate right into her head, but it also happened the other way around, and usually it only happened when the other was having a nightmare. Dimitri's tall frame sat beside Kate, and her hand, Lissa's hand, gripped a bottle of water.

The Leader leaned forward to pick up something, revealing six tiny symbols tattooed on the back of his neck: molnija marks. They looked like two streaks of jagged lightning crossing in an X symbol. One for each Strigoi he'd killed. Above them was a twisting line, sort of like a snake, that marked him as a guardian. The promise mark.

Blinking, Kate fought against Lissa and shifted back into her own head with a grimace. Both girls hated when that happened, feeling each other's emotions was one thing, and being dragged into a nightmare was another, but slipping into each other's minds was something they both despised. Neither of two could control it, it was another effect of the bond, a bond neither of them fully understood.

Sure legends existed about psychic links between Guardians and their Moroi, but they were just simply that, legends, tall tales of dead Dhampirs and Moroi of Old.

Just then the door was forced opened from outside and Dimitri stood there, an annoyed expression etched across his features, that soon vanished when he saw Kate's pale and sick like own features.

"Maybe I should have mentioned I don't do well on air planes." she laughed weakly, the need to be sick quickly returning.

The Guardians that stood by the door shivered and one instantly left, but all of them stepped back to allow the girl to walk out of the bathroom, concern then flooded the bond between the brunette and the blonde but the weak teenager ignored it as she flopped onto her seat.

Dimitri sat beside her this time, his dark eyes on her, taking in her state, as if debating if she was a threat in that moment. Without saying anything to her yet, he handed her a water bottle and a few pills, which Kate would usually turn away but she was to weak and sick to move, her brain warning her not to move or else more would come out.

"If I'd known that were were going to be flying, I would've brought my own medication." Kate told him in a haughty yet clipped tone, her slender fingers grabbing the items that he was extending towards her, and expertly taking two sickness pills, which always left her drowsy.

"Were you really going to attack all of us?" Dimitri inquired after many minutes of silence, which was what he was met with, silence, but he didn't know if it was because of the sickness or because she really just didn't want to talk to him, perhaps it was her fighting her sickness.

"Doing that...protecting her like that, it was very brave. Stupid, but still brave. Why did you even try it? Especially when you've had no training at all." Dimitri tried again, this time Kate reacted, she glanced over at him, brushing her soft brown hair out of her face so she could look him levelly in the eye.

It shocked Dimitri for a moment, the seriousness in her eyes, the calm yet protective demeanour. He'd seen it all before, in himself, in his sisters, it was a Dhampir trait that burned brightly and helped in other Dhampir's being identified.

"Because I'm her best friend and I've made sure nothing happened to her, for two years while you and the bad guys searched for her." Kate answered before looking back towards the window.

A soft smile grew on Dimitri's lips as he stared at Kate, despite the fact that he knew that other Dhampirs, other Guardians were looking at him and that he wasn't know for smiling. "You remind me of my sister, Viktoria. Fearless and reckless but with a heart of gold." Dimitri told her, confession personal information he hadn't even told any of the other Guardians.

"And you remind me of Kit, annoying and persistant, which a need to be taken down a few pegs." Kate snapped at him in a groggy tone, showing how the sickness pills were starting to work.

Dimitri watched as Kate's world went black and her head fell back and to the side, her eyes closed, her lips parted as she began to breathe softly, and her expression, unburdened. She landed on his shoulder and while Dimitri knew that he had a job to do, they were miles in the air, and the only actually threat the Guardians saw was now dead asleep on his shoulder.