It was a beautiful night when Christian died.

The moon was full and shining, not a cloud in the sky that sparkled with diamond-like stars, the wind whispering gently through the trees that surrounded the Academy. So quite, so serene. That didn't last long.

The Strigoi had attacked again, but this time, they were clumsy; a group of guardians travelling with some Moroi hoping to visit the school had seen them heading in the same direction. As they turned around and headed back the way they came, one of them called the school and forewarned them of the danger. So they were ready; the guardians, ironically enough, guarded the school buildings as a select few of them and the teachers rounded up all the Moroi students into the centre of the school, the hardest place to reach.

Unfortunately, Christian had been unable to sleep and had left his dorm for a nice long walk alone. So it wasn't until he heard a distant scream that he realised something was very wrong. He had sprinted back to see what was happening and halted, wide-eyed, at the sight of the full-on battle raging in front of the Academy's main entrance, Strigoi and Dhampir locked in combat as far as he could see.

A Strigoi roared in rage and pain, startling Christian out of his shocked state, as Rose Hathaway sank her stake deep into his torso, just missing his heart. He punched her and sent her crashing into the wall behind her. It was then that Christian acted; calling on his magic, he threw it out as far as he could. Twenty Strigois' instantly caught fight and burned, shrieking in agony. Rose was the first to recover and skewered her stake through the heart of the one she had been fighting. The other guardians did the same.

A female Strigoi flew at Christian; he incinerated her in less than five seconds, but she was quickly replaced with another. So quickly that he didn't have time to react, a hand around his throat shoving him to the grassy ground. As he struggled, the vampire suddenly grew still and collapsed on top of him, dead. Pushing the corpse away, he reached for Roses' outstretched hand and gratefully let her haul him up.

"Just like the first time, huh?" she asked, her dark eyes gleaming.

Christian gave her a somewhat grim, somewhat excited grin in response, before shoving her away just before a Strigoi's fangs could sink into her neck. Distracting her with his flames, Christian reached over and grabbed Roses' arm to help her up so she could finish her off.

The battle turned in the Dhampirs (and Christians) favour, all but ten or perhaps fifteen Strigoi of the forty-three who had attacked dead. Christian smiled, sweating with exertion, his blue eyes flashing, assured of their victory, he began to relax.

And that's when the vampires got clever.

Four of them lunged at Rose and Christian simultaneously. Rose stabbed one, Christian burned the other, but the focus that took left them unable to defend themselves against the final two, one of whom seized the Dhampir girl and the other the Moroi boy. A forearm slammed over Christian's throat and crushing pressure was applied, choking him. His capture grabbed both of his flailing hands in his own larger one, gripping him by the wrists to prevent him using his firepower. The one holding Rose had one arm clamped around her torso to still her arms, the other hand fumbling with her long hair to push it away from her neck.

A guardian, spotting what was going on, ran to their aid, scratching the tip of his stake over the Strigoi's arm, the pain causing him to release Rose. Another vampire jumped her almost immediately, forcing her to concentrate on her new opponent and leave her rescuer to the other Strigoi. Both of the night-time hunters were duly destroyed.

The two Dhampirs looked over just as Christian stopped struggling to get lose, his limbs growing still, eyelids sliding closed. The fire-user didn't even hear his friend screech his name before everything went dark.

XXXXX

Lissa sobbed on Rose's shoulder, her face soaking wet from her tears. Rose patted her back in comfort, trying desperately for her best friend's sake to hold in her own grief. Christian may not have been her boyfriend, but he was her friend and his death felt like an ice-cold hand had closed around her heart, squeezing all the warmth from her and making her numb to the outside world.

As she looked over at the Moroi's lifeless body, she saw that Adrian had walked over to where he lay and was gazing down at his face, expressionless.

'Why is he even here?' Rose thought, somewhat angered by Adrian's presence, even though the Spirit user had done no wrong, 'Christian didn't even like him . . .'

"It's my fault . . ." Lissa mumbled.

Rose looked at her sharply, though her voice was soft as she said, "No, it's not. Of course it's not."

"Yes, it is," Lissa wailed, staring up at the Dhampir as a fresh wave of tears coursed down her cheeks. "Yes, it is! If we were still together – if I hadn't been so stupid and pushed him away – he would've been inside with me instead of out there all alone, he wouldn't have been anywhere near the Strigoi, this wouldn't have happened to him, it's all my fault!"

Sensing the blonde's growing hysteria, Rose pulled her into a hug and rocked her gently back and forth, shushing her softly. As Lissa's shrill weeping died down to quiet snivelling, the dark-haired girl glanced at Adrian again. A frown touched her face as she saw that he had sat himself on a stool next to the younger Moroi's body and had placed a pale hand on his chest, over his heart.

'What the hell is he doing?' She thought.

A/N: Okay, this chapter is kind of dark, but the rest of it will be mainly humour - up to a certain point, anyway.