Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy or House of Night.

Chapter 1 On the run

Rose's POV

I've been on the run for two years now with my best friend Lissa. She is a powerful Moroi princess that I sworn to protect ever since I can remember. When we first set out Lissa used compulsion on an older Moroi, no older than three years older actually, we came across the other day tipped us off about a guardians trail in return for my name. The compulsion did not work for some reason. Lissa thought it was from being so tired but I knew it wasn't that and I think she did too. That guy, I think his name was Adrian, was seriously crushing on me ever since we met. I didn't mind. I had a smoking body that all Moroi men desired to mess around with but a real relationship was normally out of the question. His flirts never did anything to me.

Today things got...weird. Adrian tipped us off again that they had our hiding place and were on their way. It wouldn't take them more than a few short hours for them to get to our location. We never told anyone where we were but we didn't have to. They gave us the information we needed and we used it to our advantage. But we were not always lucky. They only could contact us after they left which lowered our escape options.

I needed to protect Lissa at all costs even if that meant not having fun until we arrived in Oklahoma. Mia, a friend, lived in Tulsa in this school everyone referred to the House of Night. I snorted at the name but seriously I was not one to talk. Lissa and I ran away from St. Vladimir's Academy because she wanted to get far away from everyone and I was too eager to oblige. I could not stay contained in those walls under so much supervision, practically on house arrest. I mean sure, I may have broken curfew more times than I could count and broken a few heavily tinted windows from fighting and other plenty of other stuff but it was nothing. I was sure of that.

"Vasilisa?" A voice from the shadows whispered as we got off our last flight in Kansas. I froze at that voice. I belonged to her uncle, Victor.

I hated that man for trying to abuse her powers last year the last time we ran into him. I had to hold back a string of profanities that threatened to come up. Instead Lissa graciously tugged on my arm to remind me to keep moving. The guardians would be on out tail soon enough after they realized we slipped from them again.

Rose, don't. We need to move now! She shouted in my head. Did I mention we had a bond? The bond linked me to her because she brought be back from the dead when I died in the same car crash as the rest of her family. She was able to do that because of her element: Spirit. It took a lot out of her, to where she got depressed. As soon as I caught on to these I sucked the darkness out of her and in to me. I was not going to let those dark feelings invade her again. I hated her getting like that.

With one last murderous look, I let Lissa drag me away. Before long I was the one to drag her. Every day I made sure I ran three miles and I forced Lissa to do the same but she did not have the same stamina as I did, being half vampire half human. I was a Dhampir and she was a vampire, with a soul, known as Moroi. We never ran into Strigoi mainly due to moving around so much. Anyway, Dhampir's were naturally fit and were born to fight but Moroi well were not. I'm sure with the right amount of training they could but she never had training before we ran away. I let her walk and jog while I literally ran in circles around her the whole way. It was only recently that she began to run with me the whole way, not jog but an actual run. I was faster and stronger so I had to remind myself to keep pace with her. I had to guard her all the time. Nowhere was safe. Not for us. We knew the academy was looking for us, and the soulless vampires (Strigoi), and her boyfriend but he talked to her every day.

I finally stopped running when we caught our train. For the next five hours we had nothing to do but wait. Lissa fell asleep and I kept watch, like I was trained to do. As soon as the train stopped and Lissa and I were free of the station, we picked back up into our run.

When we crossed the border into Oklahoma I let out a small sigh of relief only Lissa was able to catch and we did not stop running, or slow down, until we reached s heavily populated shopping center with a Starbucks! I was never one for coffee but I did like their teas and pastries.

"Okay, we have about five hours 'til the sun will set," I told Lissa, "Text Mia and tell her to hurry up. Victor might have followed us here so we need to get new clothes and how do you feel about dying your hair?"

Every time we ran into an obstacle, I asked her the same question and always resulted in the same thing: a very horrid look. Her long blond beautiful hair was a dead giveaway for us and my natural chestnut hair was equally suspicious, though not as long yet. I never had time to get it cut since we were on the run and everyone suspected I still had my pixie short hair. Little did they know just how much I grown it out. I always made sure my hair was healthy and never had dead ends much like Lissa.

She gave my the same horrified look now, as I suspected she would. I did not need the bond for her to tell me how she felt about it. "No, let's just do some shopping." I nodded in agreement. The only things we had time to grab was our emergency bags packed with only two change of clothes and enough money to buy a car. Or well it used to be. We used a good chunk of that money and got jobs at the same place so I could watch over her so we did not have to dig too much into that money. We needed to save it for emergency like this...or worse.

We each got a nice selection of clothing from the numerous number of stores we saw. We were in the last one, a cosmetic store, when I realized just how long it's been since I actually wore make up and not just concealer. I decided to grab all the make up I desired and even a few different colors of nail polish including a gold color that some would call gaudy. Right before I got in line I saw a stand of hair products. It's been so long since I took the time to style it with stuff like this. I walked over and noticed there was a pretty hat, a light brown wig, and many hair ties and other accessories. All of this seemed so trivial when we were running for our lives but I picked up the wig, a couple of hair tie packets, and the hat before making my purchase.

Lissa seemed surprised by the additions but I shrugged and told her "later" with my eyes. She seemed to get the message as she let it go. Her phone chimed, with a nod she spoke through the bond. Mia is here. I nodded. With all our bags in our hands we all but ran into the awaiting car. Mia was driving much to my dismay. I never had the chance to drive! It made me so mad but I sighed and looked out the windows for signs of danger.

Finally, we pulled into the gates of the Gothic looking building and I nearly snorted. Yeah, they lived up to the suspicion of vampires alright.

"I'm not really allowed to do this but you guys can share my room. I don't have a room mate yet. Either you do or you don't. There never really is any way you can predict it." she said shrugging her shoulders. I sighed, knowing she was right.

My breathing stopped as we passed a large oak tree near the east wall—wait, how did I know it was the east wall? I mentally shook off my surprise and kept looking for danger. For all I knew a bunch of guardians were inside the building ready to pounce at us and I was ready to protect Lissa. I always would be ready.

"Please be quiet, we don't need anyone knowing you are here. I mean everyone is asleep but normally people start waking up in an hour since class start in three hours." So that meant classes started at 8 pm where at St. Vlads we started a half hour earlier.

"That is not fair!" I yelled in a hushed voice. "Why do you guys start later than we do? Not cool."

"Calm down we have classes a half hour later. Are you staying trained?"

"Somewhat. Why? You want to fight?" She may be friend but there was a time when I hated her and that was before we ran away.

"No" Mia shook her head and laughed, "there is a gym here, it reminds me of the on at Vlads. Fully equipped too. And there are some people that love sparring. I'm sure even you could pick up a few tricks before you have to leave."

"Oh uh, I guess so. I haven't really sparred in a while though."

"Like that matters? You can kick major ass. Okay so you beating Darius will be hard but he is like a freaking mountain! Nobody can beat him!"

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrows. I really wanted to raise one but I could never pull it off unless I wanted to look like a complete fool.

"No, he's taken. But there are a lot of eye candy here. You'll see!" she grinned mysteriously.

I wasn't sure I liked what she implied but I would like a break from all this guarding. I needed to take a break and relax for one hour. But how can I when she is the last Dragomir? A royal in the Moroi community? I reminded myself. Her blood was far too precious to have anyone touch her.

"Come on, I'll get the rest of your bags and I'll just say they are mine. They think I went shopping." She winked.

"You know Mia? I think I'm starting to like you." I quickly said.

Lissa and I fell silent as we followed her across campus and into the dorms. The dorms were quite different from the ones at St. Vlads.

"Rose, do you think they know where we are?" Asked Lissa once Mia left to get the rest of our things.

"No" I lied, they had to know we were not in Portland hours ago and I would bet they would check the closest airports (which is why I asked the driver in the taxi an hour north before finding the next airport.) and booked the first flight out and contacted who we knew out in Oklahoma. "They know we escaped them by now, I don't doubt that. But I do not think they know we are here. Hell I don't even know where here is!"

"Oh come on, you have to admit there is a lot of civilization around here."

I shrugged, "It might not be in Montana but I'd rather be in New York. They would never find us there!"

New York was one of the Strigoi strong holds. It was nearly impossible to defend a Moroi or get out alive if you were a Dhampir. No guardian would dare go in there. The only chance we had would be if the Moroi would get off their ass and start using their magic offensively! Christian, Lissa fire-using boyfriend, proved how much it helped once.

"Rose! We can't-" there was someone at the door, cutting off our conversation. I pushed Lissa behind me and looked through the peep-hole. A man stood their, alone. Was he Mia's boyfriend? Oh god, Mia never told me she had a boyfriend! Not one covered in tattoos and well handsome. I motioned for Lissa to take a look and pulled her far away from the door so I could whisper to her.

"Should I answer it Liss?"

"Mia said not to." I groaned.

"I don't care, he's hot." Lissa had just enough time to roll her eyes before a new rustling by the door caught our attention.

I looked through the hole again and Mia joined the guy. She did not seem happy about him being there nor did he look like he was in to her. They exchanged some words neither looking happy. I wondered what was going on with them but I figured she would tell us whatever she wanted us to know...but I had to pry. A lot.

I backed away and sat on the bed facing Lissa before the door could slam into me and give away my spying.

"Uh Rose, Lissa, this is Darius, he wanted to meet you." Mia looked extremely unhappy about this.

"It's cool Mia" I said taking in this man. The unanswered question came out before I had the chance to stop it "is he your boyfriend?"

Darius looked horrified, Mia laughed. "Hell no," her laughter continued "He and Aphrodite are together."

"Who's Aphrodite?" I asked.

Mia glanced at Darius, "You'll see."

My mouth opened to complain but Lissa's words stopped me Let it go. I sighed, knowing she was right but damn it was hard to keep my mouth shut.

"Will you be staying on campus? I need to inform the Sons of Erebus and the High Priestess of your stay."

Oh so that's why this man is here. "None of your business." I spat. I was about to add "what the fuck is a High Priestess?" when Darius interrupted me.

His eyes darkened with anger "You are no student, teacher or guard here, that makes it my business."

Be nice! Lissa screamed through the bond. "I guess so. Sure, we are staying for a little bit."

"Then you should enroll in some classes while your stay. Mia bring them to Neferet's office in an hour so we can get them settled in. Show them around in the mean time."

Much to my surprise, she nodded. Darius left after that, much to everyone's relief.

"I don't like him" I said breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"He's not so bad, but yeah I'm not a fan either."

Mia told us all about the school as we roamed the grounds. Lissa looked uncomfortable and the bond confirmed as much. Lissa is an Orthodox Christian and they believed in Paganism here with all the status, one being their goddess Nyx the goddess of the night. I snorted at that. Mia did not believe in their ways. It was actually funny to see her here so calm.

"Wait so how did you get here?"

"That oh uh yeah, the queen found out about this place and sent me here for research."

"Research for what?"

"A different race of vampires." I gave her a curious look. Their was only three races: Strigoi, Moroi, and Dhampir's. "Their Marked."