Revenge.

That was all I wanted at that point. When Mason had told Eddie and I about the Strigoi being in Spokane, that was all I needed to hear. They had killed my mother and many other innocents not that long back and I wanted nothing more than to see them dead – or well more dead than they already were. I didn't even know if they were the same ones that had done the deed but it was close enough and they had to pay for what they did. I would never see my mother again, I would never be able to ring her up when I needed to talk to someone, to visit her at the Drozdov house on the holidays.

Never. And it was their fault. They had to pay.

We'd made our way out of the resort and finally into the city – walking the streets to find the tunnels with some kind of hope or something between us all of finding and killing these Strigoi. Mason had come to find Eddie a few hours earlier to tell him the news that Rose had told him, I learnt the news by default because I was there and insisted I go along. They were hesitant about taking a Moroi along to something like this – but I can put up a pretty good argument to get what I want when I want it and I wanted my revenge, even if I had to be strigoi bait to get it.

When we found the tunnels – by heart was racing. I was scared out of my mind but it was the adrenaline of my anger towards them that kept me focused. I just wanted to find them and when we came out empty handed I was left feeling deflated of that energy. The three of us slowly made our way back to the shopping centre and sat down at the food court, slowly picking at our food when sudden voices snapped her out of her daze.

"Rose? What are you doing here?" jerked Eddie.

"Are you out of your mind?" Rose yelled. A few people nearby gave us surprised looks. "Do you know how much trouble you're in? How much trouble you've gotten us in?"

Christian was with them too – I wasn't sure if that surprised me or not, he was always one that didn't really care about breaking the rules, but she wasn't sure that strigoi hunting was in that category. She listened them banter for just a minute before something Rose said hit a nerve.

"It isn't pointless." I responded harshly, it was far from pointless. Someone had to do something and everyone else was sitting around doing nothing.

More banter more idiotic statements. Did she not get it? Did she not remember what the Dhampir race was trained to do? How dare Rose Hathaway stand there and call us childish when she was the one that had told Mason the information to begin with!

"It isn't childish," I cried out. "They killed my mother. And the guardians weren't doing anything. Even their information is bad. There weren't any Strigoi in the tunnels. Probably none in the whole city."

That only brought out more bantering, and honestly at that point Rose threatening to dob us into the School Guardian's was a low blow – but we knew they'd be down here as fast as possible and would have us on lockdown for the rest of the winter break. Part of me was angry with Rose over this, she was still the one that told us about it all, she was the one that was usually reckless and always up for plans like this. It'd work, it had to work. Mason and Eddie were two of the best in their classes and with Rose here now and Christian with his fire magic – they could be unstoppable right?

I sent a desperate look over to Mason when he caved into Rose. I knew he would in the end – he was so in love with her and she couldn't even see it. He deserved better than that, so much better. But we couldn't go on without him and it didn't look like he was going to change his mind again. I wanted to shake him out of it at that point and tell him that we needed to just forget about them and keep going, but if Rose Hathaway was anything, she was determined.

We all stood around and I kept quiet while Mason and Christian talked Rose into going down into the tunnels again, we had the time for it and if there was a chance I could get one more shot at revenge, then I wanted it. When she finally agreed I started eagerly walking with Eddie and Mason to guide them to the entrance we had found and slowly made our way through the janitorial closet again and through the back door, the small was still just as unpleasant the second time around and I found myself trying hard not to breathe through my nose.

I followed Rose down the corridor and stopped when I noticed her staring at letters on the wall I had spotted earlier in the night.

"It's probably a janitor thing," I said. "Or maybe some gang did it."

She responded with a simple "Probably." and just stood there staring at it as if it would give the answers of the universe if she stared hard enough. I was close to giving her a smart ass comment when she finally spoke.

"We have to get out of here," Rose spoke. "Right now." Her voice was giving away something that I figured was fear and that was enough to get all of our attention onto her and making plans to get out of there. I was still angry that we didn't get to kill any strigoi – I wanted that revenge and I would get it one way or another. But the way Rose spoke then and how the others reacted to her was enough for me to push that aside for now and to move along quickly to get out of there.

We finally made our way out and walked in silence as we made our way back to the station, the mood was flat and we were going to have to leave there without our kill. We were all that distracted that we didn't even notice that we had no clue where we had come out of the tunnels. We stopped for a bit and I had to stop myself from snapping remarks back at Rose because she was giving everyone attitude, I really wasn't in the mood for it at that point and if Mason hadn't started guiding us along another path, I would have ended up saying a lot of things.

We were walking along and I was crossing a road when suddenly all I heard was car tyres squealing and suddenly I was slammed up against a wall by Rose and the others had done the same. It has hurt a lot and I was about to speak when I opened my eyes properly and seen what was going on. The van that had near hit me had stopped and three big men climbed out and the three Dhampir's in the group went into protection mode.

I moved closer to Christian, the both of us just standing there not knowing what to do. I had been watching Rose and the guy she was sparring with when I was grabbed by another, and before I knew it there was a cold hardness pressed to the back of my neck and Rose was screaming orders to stop. Oh god I am going to die out here, fuck! I sent a look over to the others that showed everyone the pure fear that I was thinking at that moment. I didn't care if I looked weak or scared because I sure as hell was.

Rose was speaking then, asking the man that was holding me hostage what he wanted and he pressed the gun harder into my neck. A whimper escaped from my lips and I had to do everything in my power to not try anything stupid. I knew right there and then that if any one of us stepped out of line that the bullet in that gun was going to kill me and then possibly the rest of the bullets for the others and I couldn't risk that. I think it helped a little that I was that scared, I was frozen.

"I want you to get inside. And don't start anything. You do, and she's gone." Was all I heard from behind me.