Last Sacrifice
Chapter 1
Funny how when you've faced death before, it still scares you the second time. Laying in my cell, staring at the stark, white ceiling I knew things weren't going to work in my favor, but then again they never do. Abe's words still rang in my head, They execute traitors. But they couldn't kill me, I, Rose Hathaway, was innocent, I didn't kill the queen. Those words kept bouncing around my head, but I knew that even if I knew I wasn't guilty, I was still going to have to convince the judge. As my mind began to imagine less pleasant scenarios, like getting executed, I actually began to welcome it. I wouldn't have to choose between Adrian Ivashkov(my boyfriend) and Dimitri Belikov(my… I don't know what he is now). Even from the grave though I knew I would still haunt Dimitri in more ways than one. As I started contemplating what I would do to him as a spirit, I was interrupted by one of the guards.
" Rose, there's someone here to see you." I turned around knowing in my heart who it was.
"Rose! Are you ok, are they treating you well?" my best friend Lissa Dragomir asked. With a huge grin on my face I looked up from my cot to answer when I saw who else was with her. My eyes narrowed. With a small shake of my head I asked, "Why'd you bring him here?" I put as much ice in my words as I could. Dimitri cut Lissa off as she was about to explain. "Rose, we need to talk. I came down with Lissa because without her," A small smile played on his lips, "I wouldn't be allowed down here. Being a former Strigoi and you being convicted of murdering the queen, it wouldn't be good to let criminals talk." I glanced between them and saw Lissa nod her head.
"Rose please listen to what he has to say. It's for your own good." with that she walked away toward the door and stood there arguing with the guardians to leave. I turned away from her and finally looked at him, expressionless. As always I noticed his eyes, deep brown but instead of being empty they looked crystal clear, like he had come to terms with something. "Rose, I'm sorry for acting this way but, it's not good for us to be around each other anymore. I know it's hurting you but this is the best thing for you right now, you need to move on." he looked at me his eyes betraying how sorry he was. As he got up to leave I said, "Wait Dimitri, as long as were apologizing now I have some things to be sorry for." He turned around and came back standing to face me. With a deep breath I gathered up all the anger I'd been feeling toward him and let it all out. "Dimitri," I began, "I'm sorry for trying to force myself on you when it's clear you've moved on, I'm sorry for traveling across the world to find you, I'm sorry for letting myself fall for you, I'm sorry I fell in love with your family, but what I'm most sorry for is not killing you in Russia. I had the chance and I hesitated. If I hadn't done that you could've died being a great guardian and me knowing you used to love me." I took a deep breath and looked at him his eyes betraying nothing. "But you're right, as long as were here now we should act just as co-workers. I hope we can still have a very shaky, but still there friendship. What do you say comrade?" I held my hand out through the bars. He looked at my hand and then at me, and with a grin on his face he said " We'll see Rose. We will see."
Chapter 2
After my talk with Dimitri I began to feel a lot better about this whole situation. In fact, I was even beginning to reconsider haunting him as a spirit! I was feeling better than I had in a long time but, of course it didn't last long. A few hours after Lissa and Dimitri left, Abe showed up looking as grim as ever.
"Rose, we need to start thinking about your case and if we don't win," he lowered his voice so only I could here it, "how we're going to get you out of here. I've been thinking that if the trial doesn't go so well, we can have Lissa use compulsion to disguise you and then we can fly you out to Russia. That way if they come after you my people will be able to protect you." Abe looked at me like he expected me to argue, to demand to leave now instead of wait. I looked at him knowing that he, Dimitri, Lissa, Eddie, and anyone else they dragged along, would protect me and get me out of here. I didn't answer for what felt like an eternity. Finally, I looked up, sighed, and answered. "Abe," I began, "I can't do that. I don't want to spend the rest of my life running like a criminal. We both know I didn't do it but what…" a thought made me cut myself off. I looked at him hard and determined. "Zmey," I said, "get me the hell out of here. I don't care how you do it, but get me out of here by tomorrow." with those words, he looked at me, smiled, got up, and left.
After he left, my tired brain began spinning around wondering, how's he going to do it? But not long after, I gave in to sleep and began to dream my occurring nightmare.
Sometimes a sharp knife would come down on my neck, other times they would poke me with a needle that released chemicals evaporating my blood, and other horrible ones. But in the midst of this, my dream slowly began to change, from my nightmares to a sandy beach with blue water. I was wearing a red shirt, jeans, and my nazar. I looked around and saw Adrian standing few yards away. He looked at me with a cheerful expression and said, "Get ready." with those two words the dream dissolved and released me back into my nightmare.
I woke up the next morning confused at what Adrian had said. I sighed knowing that this wasn't the first time, and definitely wouldn't be the last, when Adrian Ivashkov had made absolutely no sense at all. As I lay there trying to figure out what he meant, I heard a door break. I bolted upright ready for action, when Eddie, Lissa, and Dimitri came crashing in. Dimitri and Eddie began fighting the guardians while Lissa came over and unlocked my cell. As we headed toward the door, a guardian tried to grab me. As Lissa was about to compel him, I jumped up and punched him in the face as harder then I had ever hit anyone before. The next thing I notice is that Dimitri and Eddie where still fighting off guards. Suddenly, Eddie noticed us by the door and gave a guardian one last punch before grabbing Dimitri's arm and running with us out the door. As we're walking toward nowhere, Dimitri grabs my arms and pins them behind my back. I didn't know what was going on, and I didn't care I began kicking and struggling to get free. Dimitri held on tight to my arms and leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Rose! Stop struggling that much. We're taking you to Abe's car! We just had to make it look real." and that's when it hit me, Abe had planned this whole thing and had done what I asked him, again. I stopped struggling hard when we got to the car. Adrian jumped out, saw Dimitri holding my arms, and gave him a look I had never once seen him use, the territorial back off look. I got frustrated and hoped I wouldn't do anything Rose-ish. "Rose, I know you're going to hate this but," Lissa hesitated, "you're going to have to get in the trunk."
Chapter 3
Before I got in the trunk Lissa asked me a very important question, "Rose, where are we going?" I thought about it for a minute until I finally looked at her and said, "Las Vegas!" she looked at me then popped open the trunk. I reluctantly climbed in. When the car started and we started moving, I heard them start talking so, I went inside Lissa's head.
"Any idea where we're going?" Eddie asked.
"Las Vegas." Lissa replied.
"Really even after…" he broke off.
"Yea, Rose says that's where she wants to go so, I trust her." I could tell that both Lissa and Eddie were nervous about going to Las Vegas after what happened with her uncle Victor Dashkov. Dimitri shifted beside Lissa to look at her. "What do you mean? What happened…" he broke off. The last time we went to Las Vegas we had Victor Dashkov and had to meet his brother Robert. But worse than that, Dimitri had shown up and tried to kill me, along with everyone else. He must have remembered that and assumed that's why we didn't want to go. I sighed, if only he knew the real reason. Just then, Adrian slammed on the brakes, sending me flying across the trunk into the wall. I swore out loud, which was apparently loud enough for them to hear. Rose, are you ok? Adrian hit the wrong peddle I guess. Hit the wall twice if you're ok. I moved over to the wall and hit it twice. My arm hurt from where I slammed into the wall. After what felt like an eternity I woke up to darkness. It took me a few minutes to remember where I was. Instead of listening to the engine and staring at nothing, I went into Lissa's head to see what they were doing.
She had just woken up to see Dimitri looking at her. "What are you looking at?" she asked hesitantly. He just shook his head.
"I was thinking about Rose." when he said that my heart skipped a beat. "She must hate being in there. Lissa? Can I ask you something?" she looked at him curiously.
"Yes."
"What do you think I should do about Rose? I still love her, but I hurt her so much. We were in the church and I said some really hurtful things. I don't know if she can forgive me, but I need her Lissa. Its like, she makes the world seem manageable after everything that's happened. I don't know any better way to explain it." Lissa looked at him with compassionate eyes. She knew I felt the same way, or at least I used to. After all the times he had hurt me, I just couldn't take anymore. I couldn't listen or look at him through her eyes anymore. I had to get out. I got out of her head and gasped. I felt stiff and sore after hours in the car. "Guys," I yelled, "let me out of here!" after a few minutes they car stopped and the trunk opened. I jumped out, stumbled, and fell into Dimitri. He opened his mouth to talk but I turned away. "Alright guys I'm going to stretch and get some food, then we're heading to Searchlight, Nevada. It's right outside Vegas so lets start." they looked at me with the world wide WTH look. I looked at them and walked away to find food. How could I go there and find Lissa's long lost sibling? If they where dhampir would they feel the need to protect her? So many questions would be answered later, but for now the important question was what to order.