Vampire Academy Book 6: Last Sacrifice

FAN FICTION

Author: justarookiewriter

Disclaimer: Vampire Academy was written by Richelle Mead. This is myversion of what will happen in the next book.

Request: Please leave feedback on my writing. I will read all criticism and will take it seriously in order to improve my writing.

Chapter 1:

I hardly ever cry, but at the moment I could not stop the tears from spilling over. I had to get it together. "I am a badass; I have taken on numerous Strigoi. I am volatile and unpredictable, I am not a damsel in distress that needs saving." I said this out loud to myself. But I could not shake the sorrow and helplessness that overtook me.

"Ahem." I heard someone clearing their throat behind me.

"Daddy is that…" I swallowed my words as I turned around and saw Dimitri. I didn't know what caught me by surprise the most. The fact that I was calling my estranged father Abe, daddy, or that Dimitri was standing outside the cell I was now being held captive. It was rather unsettling seeing him here. I was not sure what to say, my emotions were all tangled. I felt sad, lonely, angry, but when I looked at him warmth filled me.

"Rose, are you OK?" Instead of answering him I asked the first thing that came to mind.

"What are you doing here? Lissa and Adrian have tried to come see me, but they have not been able to get past the guardians. I am not allowed to have visitors other than my lawyer."

Princess Vasilissa Dragomir was my best friend and the Moroi I was supposed to be guarding. She was a royal and the last in the Dragomir line automatically giving her the princess title. Her entire family had perished in a car accident that was supposed to kill me too. Well, it did kill me, but Lissa brought me back from the dead with the healing power of Spirit. Adrian Ivashkov was another royal Moroi and coincidently another spirit user. Through their common magic element Adrian and Lissa became friends in the quest of mastering the magic powers of spirit. Until recently it was only believed that moroi could specialize in the use of water, fire, air or wind magic. Christian Ozera, Lissa's boyfriend used to feel threatened by Adrian as he and Lissa spent a lot of time together trying to learn each other's powers. Christian is conceited and is full of witty remarks, but is dedicated to Lissa and brings out a side of her that no one else can. He is also a royal moroi like Lissa and Adrian, and although he had been previously shunned by other moroi royals, has gained ground in popularity recently. He may not have been aware of it, but hanging out with Lissa has given him an extra polish and confidence. I guess the fear that he was going to go Strigoi was not as powerful as it had once been in the moroi community.

Strigoi are what we call "evil vampires". They will do anything in order to feed including killing their victims. They feed on human blood, but prefer the Moroi and Dhampir blood as it makes them stronger. Moroi are also vampires but they don't kill when they feed. They tend to use human feeders who willingly give themselves to get their necessary blood supply, but they don't solely live on human blood as they eat and drink everyday food. Moroi can turn into Strigoi by killing a human, dhampir or moroi when they feed. Strigoi can also "awaken" other strigoi by drinking their victim's blood and forcing them to drink their strigoi blood. This is what had happened to Dimitri. He had been turned Strigoi a little over 4 months ago and Lissa with the help of Christian and his aunt Tasha had healed him back into a dhampir. A dhampir is a half dhampir half moroi, at least now they are. Dhampirs originated from moroi and humans mating. Dhampirs are have half human and half moroi traits which make us fast and durable. That's what Dimitri and I are.

I looked at Dimitri trying to keep my emotions in check while I waited for him to answer. "I may not be a powerful royal moroi, but you forget that once I was a well respected and regarded guardian. I can still call on my old colleagues for favors." He answered dryly.

"What do you want Dimitri, you have made it clear that…" I faltered a little before I could finish my sentence "love fades." He did not look away his face did not betray whatever he felt inside. He remained stoic further driving the point that in deed his love had faded.

"Rose, I did not come here to argue, I came to see how you were doing and if I can do anything for you." He spoke in a soft tone, the kind you use to pacify a child. His face looked concerned for a second reminding me of the Dimitri I knew and fell in love with, but he shook that off and put on his mentor face.

"I'm …" I was going to say OK, my standard answer whenever someone was concerned about me. This is how it had always been. I never wanted to draw that kind of attention, the kind that made others worry. However, I knew that Dimitri would never buy that. He knew me too well. Instead I replied "I'm coping." He looked at me arching one eyebrow. God I still loved how he did that.

"OK, coping may not be really the right word, but what else can I say. Queen Tatiana is dead, and obviously I have been framed for her murder. I don't know how I am going to prove my innocence given the evidence against me and while I'm locked up in here there is nothing I can physically do…"

"Rose, I am going to help you". Dimitri started, but in my haste and what seemed to be a serious case of verbal diarrhea, I kept talking. "They are going to find me guilty at the full fledge trial and they are going to execute me."

"I will never allow that to happen." Dimitri shouted. His expression showed little doubt and he had a glint in his eyes. Almost like the thought of my death caused him pain.

At that point guardian Mikkael Tanner was running down the hall in our direction and asked, "Is everything OK? I heard shouting." Dimitri gave him a look that conveyed enough. Mikkael quickly followed with a nod and walked back to his post.

Dimitri looked at me with those brown eyes and with a serious look continued in a lower voice "Rosa…" He had called me Rosa, something he did when he felt particularly affectionate towards me and it made my heart a little lighter. But again his face gave no signs of such fondness. I felt a knot in my throat and I had to swallow several times in order to make it go away. I put my hands on the bars of my jail cell and my face was a few inches away from his. I let my gaze fall to the floor I was flooded by overwhelming sadness. Dimitri put a finger under my chin and pulled my face slowly up so that I would meet his gaze. My skin tingled where he touched me.

"I once promised that I would never abandon you, and I will keep my promise." I remember Dimitri telling me this when I was seeing Mason's ghost and then again when I was "catching" Lissa's madness. When I didn't reply he continued.

"Rose, you need to let me help you. We have to figure out a way to prove your innocence. I know you did not kill the queen. It is not in your nature to be so…"

"Stupid" I supplied.

"I was going to say malicious. I know you can be reckless and quick to react, but I know you and I know you want to save everyone even if you don't like them. I am proof of that. You could have killed me when I was a strigoi, but you let me go."

Remembering when I had tried to kill Dimitri on a bridge in Russia sent shivers down my spine and I could not suppress a shudder. It was a knee-jerk reaction from the memories of watching his body falling down to the dark water and the numbness I felt when I thought I had sent him to his final death. I looked up at Dimitri's face and he looked away for a moment as if ashamed. I guessed he must have assumed that my shiver was a sign of disgust for what he had done to me and others while he was a strigoi. I was not going to correct him He had already turned me down several times and I was not going to loose what little dignity I had left. "I did try to kill you twice, once in Russia and then later in Las Vegas." I was not going to let him know that I had sabotaged Eddie in Vegas in order to give Dimitri a way of escape.

He composed himself and continued "We are going to prove that you are not associated with the queen's murder."

"Why should I let you help me when you would not see me after Lissa had turned you back into a dhampir?" Again, my words seemed to hit a sore spot because Dimitri closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Rose, I won't let you do this on your own, I am going to prove you did not kill the queen. Help me help you."

I stepped away from the bars, dug my hands in my pockets and lowered my head as a way of protest. In my pocket I felt the folded up letter from the queen that Ambrose had given me. The queen knew that something was coming and had written to inform me that Lissa had a sibling due to her fathers' wondering eye.

I might not be able to prove my innocence, but I knew I could do something to help my situation. Now that there was no queen I was certain that the court would give my judgment via vote of the 12 royal families. The only trouble was that currently there were only 11 members in the Royal Council. None of these 11 would come to my rescue. I needed Lissa to be part of the council. Lissa was the last Dragomir therefore she had no one to appoint her to council, but if I could find Lissa's sibling, she could take her righteous place among the family leaders.

My head was quickly concocting a plan on how I was going to bust out of prison. I had liberated Victor Dashkov from Tarasov, a high security prison in Alaska. Breaking out from here would prove to be just a difficult, but with my friends help maybe I could do it. Eddie Castile, another dhampir like me, had helped with Victor's jailbreak and I was going to need his help again. I just hoped he would still consider helping me. He was pretty upset with me. You would think it was because we liberated Victor Dashkov who was in prison for kidnapping and torturing Lissa. Instead the reason he was so angry with me was because we had let a strigoi go when he could have killed him. That strigoi had been Dimitri.

With my mind made up I asked Dimitri "Can I trust you and will you help me no questions asked." I asked with a wild grin on my face.

"Rose, what are you going to do?" He asked wearily.

"You are asking questions, Can I trust you? Will you help me?"

"You know you can trust me and yes, I will help you. I will follow you anywhere and protect you no matter how outlandish your plan." Dimitri answered. I remembered how earlier today he had fought a small army of the queen's royal guardians on his own in order to keep them from taking me. It was incredible how God like he could be and I had no doubt he meant what he said.

"I need you to be here with Adrian and Eddie tomorrow before sunrise." Although it would be light out, it would be nighttime for the vampire world. There would be less witnesses and it would make it easier for us to maneuver in the human world.

"OK, I will do that." He did not ask how and he did not point out the obvious dilemma. They were not allowing me any visitors. Instead he continued "What will we do once I bring them to you?"

Just then I heard guardian Tanner talking to someone and I could differentiate two sets of footsteps coming in our direction. Abrahim Mazur was being escorted by guardian Tanner. His expression was grim.

"Abe, what have you found out?" Dimitri looked confused and I could not tell why.

Abe looked at me and said "Rose, I think we should talk in private."

I turned to Dimitri "Remember what I said, Adrian will know the rest." At least I hoped he would know the rest. I had not yet gone to sleep and I was hoping Adrian would visit my dreams tonight.

He nodded to my father and said "Mr. Mazur, are you Roses' lawyer?

"Yes." He replied. "Your family must be delighted that you are back to your former dhampir self." I wondered how well my father knew Dimitris' family. My father knew several people in Russia, I was certain he knew several women in the dhampir commune where Dimitri once lived, but I did not know what his level of acquaintance was with his family.

"I have not spoken to them yet, I am not sure what they will say." I was surprised by this, but I wanted to get on to talking with my father.

"Dimitri, contact them. Look, I don't want to be rude, but I need to speak with my dad." There it was again, that look of surprise. And this time Abe's accompanied it.

"Zmey is your father?" He said with shock. "Well, that explains a lot about your personality." With that he turned around and said that he would see me tomorrow.

I turned to face my father and he still had a look of shock himself. "You called me dad." Abe said with a small smile. "I am glad. It is much more becoming than old man." His face quickly changed and showed the severity of the situation. "The mess you are in is quite deep. I had a briefing with the opposing council and the amount of evidence they have pointing towards you is great. I have not figured out what to do yet, but I will guarantee you that no one will touch you. I will make sure of that."

"Rose, I need you to tell me whatever else you can about where you were yesterday."

"I was around court in the afternoon. I walked in the parks, admiring the gardens and statues." I was not going to tell him that I was mulling over what Dimitri had told me… I have given up on you. Love fades. Mine has.

"Was anyone else with you? Did anyone else at all see you walking? We need an alibi." He countered

"No, I wanted to be alone and I avoided all contact."

"This is less than ideal… We already know we can't use Adrian as an alibi as the murder happened before he …" I think he was going to say spent the night, but he stopped his words mid-sentence. I was glad. I did not want to talk to my father about boys spending the night or my sex life in general.

"What can I do dad, until you figure out what to do?"

"Short of making you disappear, until we can prove your innocence I am not sure what else we can do." Well, at least I was in the right track. Disappearing was most definitely in my plans.

We spoke a little bit more about his defense strategy and informed me that they would more likely than not keep me in the court's jail until my trial date was set just like they did with Victor Dashkov. We said our goodbyes and to my surprise he gave me a light kiss on the forehead much like a caring father would give his daughter. He then turned around and walked away.

I thought that in all my despair I would be unable to fall asleep, but I was surprised that I was taken over by the bliss of sleep. A few seconds later I saw myself out in one of the court gardens that I had visited the previous days and was mesmerized by its beauty. The sky was free from clouds and the wonderfully sunny rays felt heavenly on my skin. I soon felt the tug of one of Adrian's dreams coming on. He looked a little tired, a little weary but just as handsome as I had ever seen him. He was wearing checkered blue shorts and a nice white polo shirt. I could see they were brand name and it looked as if he was on a golf outing. Well, except for his bare feet which he sometimes sported in these dreams. I had never been so happy to see him.

"Adrian, I am so glad you came, I really have been looking forward to this moment."

"Rose, how are you I have been so worried about you? Lissa and I tried to see you but the guardians would not let us in." He said all this in a rushed stream.

"Wow, this is the first time you have called me Rose inside these dreams. Whatever happened to you calling me your little dhampir?" I asked.

"Well, this is the first time you said to me you were glad to see me in one of these dreams." He said with a small smile.

"Why did you bring me to this garden? Did you see me visiting it yesterday?"

"No, but yesterday was not the first time you have visited this garden." Damn it! I thought maybe he would have seen me and that he could have been my alibi after all. I quickly remembered that earlier that day we had an argument because I had not attended the get together at his house after I had told his mother I would go. He had told me he was going to go to sleep.

"I brought you here once before when I was telling you about my family tree."

"I remember, this was your grandmothers' garden." I said as I looked around and took in how beautiful and big it was.

"Adrian, I miss you already and I am happy that things progressed with us as far as they did." I thought to myself again how love really did grow.

"Me too my little dhampir, but I think we should talk about what we can do to remedy your situation. If you mention last night again I can't be responsible for my actions."

You could always count on Adrian to be a flirt and live in the moment. I could not escape what was going on in the real world or the fact that I was still in jail, but I could enjoy myself a little bit in our dream world. So I walked over to Adrian, draped my arms around his neck and whispered in his ear. "I do really appreciate you coming to see me tonight. Now, just give me one big kiss."

Adrian hesitantly and ever so gently put his lips on mine. We savored the moment as if were our first kiss. His passion grew and I could feel his kiss deepen and become more urgent. I could feel a hunger growing inside me and kissing him was the only thing that sated it. Too soon however, Adrian pulled away and smiled down at me. He kissed me lightly on the nose and gave me an expecting look.

"What?" I asked him, "Did you not like the kiss?"

"I loved the kiss but…" his face grew serious. "We need to address the issue. You are in jail and we need to prove your innocence." With that, I started to let him know what he was to do tomorrow morning.

After a good hour of plotting Adrian looked me deep in the eyes. "Good night Rose, get whatever rest you can tomorrow proves to be an exciting day. I will see you tomorrow."

Adrian left me with a new found hope and a few seconds after he stepped out of my dreams I fell into a deep sleep.

I hope you enjoyed Chapter 1. Look for Chapter 2 by August 9th.

Be my critic. Let me know what you think!

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