Rose POV

Love fades. Mine has. Love fades. Mine has. Love fades. M- I had to stop. Those earth shattering words just keep replaying in my mind. I want with my entire person to deny it, but how could I? He made it clear just half an hour ago. Now, in my room with my red, puffy eyes shoved into a pillow I finally decided that I had finished my grief- its not like I was some loner, I have Adrian, my beautiful, lovely, if not slightly crazy, Adrian. And all this sulking would achieve nothing.

So I gathered myself up, took a nice hot shower and put on a cute check dress that Lissa and I had bought shopping a couple of days before; Its top half pinching in my waist before flaring down to just above my knees. Adrian invited me to dinner earlier and that was an offer I intended to take him up on, after pushing my hair back into a messy silk bun and deciding that my face had returned to its original colour enough to not bother with make up, except some light eyeliner, I left the room in search of a wonderful man who had never let me down.

Halfway down the main courtyard I found him walking toward me with heart melting adoration in his eyes. And for a second, just for a second, I forgot all about Dimitri Belikov.

"Little Dampir" he murmurs as he swept me up in an embrace and smothered my neck with soft warm kisses.

I laughed. "What's gotten into you?" hooking my arms behind his neck and pulling myself upward to plant a peck on his lips.

"You," he replied sweetly. "you got into my head, I don't know how but I intend to find out, we are supposed to be the ones with compulsion" he grinned.

He took my hand and we starting strolling in my original direction. Swinging our arms and laughing at everything and nothing. I took the time to look at him, he was perfect, wonderful, he was making such an effort to be a better person for me, to be with me, he made sacrifices for me and tried, really tried to be someone who he thought that I deserved.

"So, dinner tonight?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows like a minx.

"Sure, as long as we wait until later, the day is still young" Not to mention that I was still involuntarily feeling a little bit ill from my sobbing episode.

It made me feel safe and unusually happy, like all was right in the world- if only for this moment. We were surrounded by Dampirs on duty and I knew that I was safe to slip into an unguarded mood, unworried and carefree.

We were still walking when the stars were at their brightest, the moon was large and perfectly circular and Adrian looked at me.

"Dinner?"

"Soon." I agreed readily.

"Aw come on, give a guy a break, I'm starving! We will end up having to fight for a table at this rate." He chuckled.

"You meanI will have to fight for a table." I smiled.

"Hey, I am quite the expert at Adrian-Fu."

I barked a laugh. "Riiight…"

He turned on me, prodding in my waist at either side so it tickled like mad, I hit out, punching him in the arm while he tried to pick me up and swing me toward him, but instead I swept my foot into his legs and he fell to the ground, me pinning him to the ground while we both shook with laughter.

"I see what you did there!" I beamed down at him, taking in our suggestive position, before relaxing onto the grass beside him. Feeling warm inside not for the first time on this lovely day, I might even go as far to say that it cancelled out the agony of earlier events.

But then. Oh, and there always has to be a 'but'. My stomach lurched, and not from the crying- that was long gone. This was the terrible, familiar lurch that could only mean one thing.

I leapt to my feet in a heartbeat and snatched up the stake which my flared dress allowed me to strap to my thigh and spun 180 degrees to catch the Strigoi dropping down behind me right in the chest. I didn't recognise him, an elderly looking man but not your average 'lets take the grand-kids to the baseball park' old man, he had those horrible red eyes, malicious expression and unnaturally white skin but thankfully no tell tale blood in sight.

I looked around with an expression of pure fury- that he was here, that he was here at that moment- I forgot to be scared, he just threatened the lives of me and Adrian, of everyone on campus, and no doubt there were more of them.

There were not any more Strigoi in sight, but what I did notice was everyone on the street, even the guardians on duty, staring at me with a look of utter shock and urgency, no doubt they expected nothing less than that in a place as 'safe' as this. I also noticed Dimitri, if only for a moment when I realised his identity as one Dampirs standing guard. Knowing him, no-one told him he should do it, but he wanting to retain a small sense of normality. I noticed two of his escorts standing nearby, but their eyes were not on him, they were fixed on me, matching expressions with Dimitri and every other guard there, the surprise and readiness, and… awe? Whatever, I didn't have time to read into that because that two second sweep of the surroundings was all I needed to recover before I yelled at the top of my lungs: "STRIGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI!"

Dimitri POV

As I stood against the marble building I saw Roza and Ivashkov idly wander by me again, looking heartbreakingly in love. What happened to the look of despair on her face earlier today? Did Adrian truly mean as much to her as I did? Has he made her forget me so easily? She hadn't even noticed me here, when she would usually glance at me as soon as she was in the same vicinity as me, a trait we both seem to have for each other, or, did.

I was so worked up that by the time I saw that damned Ivashkov suddenly moved toward her with a sly look I was ready to throw his body across this cobbled street and into the nearest window, my lips hinting at a smile as I imagined him crippled with a broken bone or two, he wouldn't be such a pretty boy then.

But I think there was also a mutual annoyance within the Dampirs here that Rose was not with Vasilisa. She wanted to prove herself worthy, yet here she is wasting her time with a male Moroi. Not an encouraging trait for a female Dampir to have. I couldn't bear it any longer; she was pinning him down in their play fight almost exactly as she did with me that day back at the Academy, when she beat the not-so-Strigoi me in an intense moment of skill and passion.

I could see all the other on duty guards looking exasperated at their public display of affection when, without warning, a body too fast to be friendly, too palid to be Moroi, too snarling to be described as anything but a monster, shot into view from a rooftop near Rose. She was oblivious, no-one had time to warn her and in a stomach dropping moment, a moment when life lost all meaning, I thought Rose was about to die.

Then she leapt upwards and twisted around, in her adorable dress, the flaring bottom swirling and in a rapid movement of black and white my Roza held her stake lodged in the heart of that bastard, his expression of triumph fading to fear before he finally released the spirit of the Moroi that once inhabited that body.

There was a silence, in that moment where only I realised how Rose knew to rise and defend herself, but not even me guessing at the speed and agility she possessed in order to do so. I could see that every other person in the vicinity were thinking the same thing- This woman is a Goddess.

Then she looked around, briefly meeting my eyes with almost no recognition, too sweeping to take note of me properly-which hurt me for no good reason- and she stood, her expression one of aggressive defiance, the moonlight hitting her, highlighting her every feature, her sharp defined face, her slender arms and slim body, her stunning hair matching the night sky in a beautiful mess at the back of her head. She looked like a foreign temptation. She had the grace of a Greek deity, the elegance of an Egyptian cat. She looked like a heroine, a princess, a standard-bearer. She was breathtaking.

And in what can only be described as a warrior cry she blasted "STRIGOI!" so I had no doubt that every guard within half a mile would have heard her.

It was a blur from then on, the gathering of everyone, the splitting up of people into secure buildings while the Dampir fighters swept though the campus, searching every nook and cranny for a hint of more Strigoi. Just as I set out I saw Rose hug Lissa goodbye before she ran off on her own mission of search and kill. I was appalled, she should be with Lissa! Not because I thought that the princess would not be protected enough, but because Roza should be too. I was being stupid, I tried to tell myself, just five minutes ago I was thinking about how Rose should be working, and here she is, the idol of an assailant setting off for battle and all I can think is the fact she should be cowering with the Moroi.

I knew as soon as the first men found Strigoi, a grunt and noise of a struggle was all I needed to make a beeline for the area. There were two of them, attacking one Moroi, I was just about to take the first one down from behind when it burst into flames and crumpled to the floor in front of me, to reveal her killer. Christian Ozera.

I smiled grimly at him, nodding before I bounded off as he took down the next Strigoi who, after seeing what became of his companion attempted to escape only to catch fire before he took his second step.

The Strigoi just kept coming, an echo of what happened at the Academy, but no-one knew how they were getting in. I ran to a particularly busy battle when I had finished with my sixth area only to find the corpses of countless Strigoi and four Dampirs and I winced to see a dead Moroi in the mix. There was only one Dampir left standing, nine Strigoi surrounding her as she fought with a wild rage, taking them down, with impossible, astonishing finesse. Her skin was coated in sweat, her dress split up the seam to the top of her thigh, to reveal not only her dark lace underwear but more worryingly three slashes across her leg, as if someone has scratched deep into her flesh with their nails. But she endured with a magnificent dexterity, simply bounding out of a place which seconds later was pounced upon by the savages around her, and swiping with the speed usually reserved for a cougar defending her cubs, and I soon realised why- the house she stood in front of held a little Moroi girl whimpering at the second floor window, a small familiar face watching down upon her courageous saviour.

I jumped in. While Roza was doing great, I would destroy as many as I could before they could lay another hand on her. I poised my stake and took out the first one, so engrossed with her attack on my Rose that she failed to acknowledge the deadly threat behind her. Me.

We had worked our way down to five before Rose took note that it was me fighting with her, no doubt her relief was just so great to have help that she didn't mind who it was. But she glimpsed me while I was in the middle of a tricky battle with a more experienced Strigoi, just as I slew him, I saw her look at me with such horror that I wondered if I had somehow turned back into the kind of monster that I was currently fighting. Rose was fighting her own struggle, but a moment after she expressed that glance of despair she leapt from her own vantage point toward me, and I assumed she would kill me there and then, if I were a Strigoi, she'd know it would be what I'd want, yet I felt fine.

Then she lashed out beside me, where unbeknown to me, a Strigoi had a gun aimed at my head. I did a double-take, this kind of weapon, any weapon, was so very rare with these creatures of the night. I was so distracted with my own brawl, and hers that I had failed to realise the immediate danger, a danger now aimed at Rose.

A gunshot went off. Those moments would haunt me forever. Rose crying out and gasping for breath, that terrifying crack as her head smacked off the sidewalk,the pool of blood spilling out beneath her, the tears running from her eyes- it was torturous to see and do nothing about, nothing! I would have killed that damned bitch. I would have happily torn her heart out where she stood, I would have taken Roza to the nearest infirmary and stayed with her until every ounce of pain was naturally gone from her body, and even after that. But in a twisted moment of retribution, I saw the remaining three Strigoi enter the house and I knew I had to follow, and with a bitter vehemence I liberated three souls in two minutes, before they had a chance to lay a hand on the innocent upstairs.

Lifting the girl in my arms I took her to the nearest guarded building while taking the almost hysterical note that my Roza and that final Strigoi were nowhere to be seen.

I've uploaded this story before on another site when I was younger, but I wanted to put it up here, written a little better, I hope you guys like it!