A/N: Can I just clear up, this is set in the first book of the Vampire Academy and I hope will be fully canon other than my OC, Emilia Faire. Please follow, favourite, whatever, but I'd really love it if you could review!
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters other than Emilia Faire. They all belong to Richelle Mead, along with a lot of the plot and settings.
Synopsis: Emilia Faire is so happy to have her two best friends back with her, but how will she handle Lissa's spirit, and the side effects it gives Rose? What about Victor Dashkov, does she risk her life for Lissa when it comes down to it? Or does she run away, scared stiff? Through a series of love, happiness and tears watch Emi grow closer to her two best friends.
Chapter One
"Oi! Faire!" I hear Mason Ashford calling me from behind, and my Dhampir improved hearing tells me that he's jogging up behind me.
"Yeah Ashford? Come to challenge me to take you down again? You know I'll win, I always do." I reply, starting off with our usual bantering.
The smile on Mason's face had nothing to do with him thinking he could beat me at last though, and his next words caught me off guard completely.
"Rose, and-and Lissa. They're back, Lia they're back!" What? Rose and Lissa? I didn't think they'd ever be back, Rose was too determined to leave. She was terrified, ranting about someone hurting Lissa, about people wanting to take her. I knew about spirit, and mostly agreed with Rose about getting her out of here. I told them to leave me here when they left, so I could tell people our agreed story to avoid too much questions. I hated not being with them, but it was for Lissa.
"Wha… Rose and Lissa? They shouldn't be back! No, no no no. It still isn't safe! Oh, sorry Mase, I mean, Rose didn't want to come back." Backtrack, backtrack, backtrack! "What I mean is Rose was fed up of Kirova. She wanted out, and refused to leave Lissa didn't she. Wanted to prove herself like any other novice."
"Yeah, but they're back! Li they're back!" Mason's face was shining with happiness, though he'd never tell Rose that. Mason was so happy to see her back, more time for him to lure her into his trap. But, I knew, as did a lot of the novice's that it wouldn't work out for them.
Suddenly, not that I didn't see it coming, Mason yanked my arm and set off sprinting to the training area, probably assuming Rose would go straight there. I kind of assumed she'd be expelled considering she took Lissa away, the last remaining Dragomir.
/
Everything went quiet.
Rose stopped walking and looked around. She caught my eye and smiled. Then she kept sweeping her eyes around the training area before seeing Mason.
"Hey, Mason, wipe the drool off your face. If you're going to think about me naked, do it on your own time." Rose smirked, everyone snorting while Mason smiled at her, obviously happy to see her the same as before. Sarcastic, and well… Rose.
"This is my time, Hathaway. I'm leading today's session." Mason hadn't stopped smiling.
"Oh yeah?" Rose smirked back. "Huh. Well, I guess this is a good time to think about me naked, then." Rose looked like she was dying to laugh, but it's Rose. This is her type of conversation, sarcastic and very funny to listen to. The whole class were sniggering now.
"It's always a good time to think about you naked," someone said making everyone full out laugh, giving up on holding it back now. I looked around trying to see who the tension-breaker was. Eddie Castile. A pretty good friend of mine lately. I used to have a crush on him, but it was never reciprocated, so it faded after a time.
I saw one of the guardians behind Rose shake his head and mutter something before turning around and walking off. Rose suddenly appeared next to me and I smiled.
"Hey, Rose, I missed you. How's Lissa?" I asked her, still smiling.
"I missed you too Li. How do you think Lissa is? I mean, I was looking out for her, it's impossible for her to be anything other than great!" She smirked, and I smiled back, fully trusting that Rose was telling the truth.
"Rose, why are you back? What happened? Is it over? Is the dang—" Rose widened her eyes at me, signalling for me to stop talking, so I shut up pretty quick. It was dangerous to talk about Lissa's magic with this much people around.
"Hey Mase, bet you missed me, right?" Rose laughed, and Mason grinned at her with a lopsided smile full of teeth.
"Yeah, Mase, bet you missed her," I said with a light-hearted wink at him. His whole face went bright red, and Rose laughed. "Oh yeah, hey Rose, how come you weren't expelled? I mean, Mason assumed you'd be back, but I didn't actually believe Kirova would let this go. What's your punishment then? No way could you have couldn't off that completely free." I said, having not stopped smiling since I heard Rose was back.
"Ha, Vladimir, no, not scot-free. Kirova put me on probation. One step out of line, and I'm out," Rose chuckled. "I'm banned from all social activities, other than dinner and you know, stuff needed for me to survive. Oh, and I have extra training sessions from some Guardian before and after classes. I'm only still here because of that Guardian guy. They didn't want to waste me and I'm not surprised really." She grinned, and Mason's face lit up like a Christmas tree when he heard Rose needed training sessions. I knew why immediately.
Rose was suddenly crowded, people asking where and why she went, and her offering them infuriatingly vague taunts.
Then a Guardian broke up the chatter, chastising Mason for neglecting his duties to the rest of them. Mason, without wiping the smile off his face, gave us all a bunch of exercises to do. The confusion on Rose's face was comical.
"Come on, Hathaway," Mason grinned, taking hold of Rose's arm. "You can be my partner. Let's see what you've been doing all this time."
I looked at Eddie and he nodded. I walked over to him and flashed him an even wider smile than was already on my face, but it was back to normal in 0.5 seconds.
"Hey Eddie. How many times do you think Mason will take Rose down?" I sniggered.
"It has to be under 30, right?" Eddie smiled at me, "I mean, she's a pretty good fighter, she can't have lost that much technique?"
"Is that your bet? I reckon it'll be over 40 at the least. Bet you a fiver?"
Eddie bobbed his head at me and I took it for an agreement, then he shouted to Rose, "Hey Rose! Don't let him get you to the mat too often, I've got a fiver on you!" Then we set off our training. Eddie and I were usually pretty well matched, but today I was so busy looking at Rose and chortling at how hopeless her fighting back was, that Eddie got me to the mat without much of a fight. I mean, I got him down a few times, but only when Rose was sat on the mat in too much pain to move.
When the hour was over, Eddie immediately ran over to Rose and Mason, me close behind, so I heard him asking Rose how much times she went down.
"Only around 20," She said, with a perfect poker face. I smiled at her, obviously disbelieving. "Okay, maybe 25," my eyebrows flew up. "Fine 30. And that's as high as I'm going." Mason snorted behind me, and I looked at him for confirmation of the truth.
"She's lying through her teeth as you can see, by the fact she can barely move. It was at least 50 times."
"YES! Eddie Castile, I beat you in a bet." I grinned like the Cheshire cat.
"Rose!" Eddie groaned, and Rose grinned wickedly, before turning on Mason.
"I hate you." She told him, rubbing her thigh, and I laughed internally thinking about the bruises she would have tomorrow. I'm cruel.
"You'd hate me more if I held back." Mason pointed out, albeit truthfully, but I did feel bad for Rose, she isn't used to losing.
"Yeah, that's true." Rose shrugged, then started walking along with us in our group, and let everyone else put the equipment away.
"You actually did okay." Mason said grudgingly. I laughed, despite wanting to stay quiet, because I loved listening to Rose and Mason talk, it was definitely one of the highlights of having Rose back. Mason had still been funny, but their duo was positively side-splitting.
"What? I just had my ass handed to me." Rose said, looking quite confused actually.
"Well, of course you did. It's been two years. But hey, you're still walking. That's something." He grinned mockingly.
"Did I mention I hate you?" Mason exhibited a quick smile. "Hey, by the way, do you know who you're having the training sessions with?
"That tall guy. Dimitri." Mason stopped walking as if in shock, and so did Eddie and I.
"You're putting in extra time with Belikov?" Mason asked, almost incredulous.
"Yeah, so what?" Rose asked, looking a bit flustered.
"So the man is a god."
"Exaggerate much?" Rose said, smiling.
"No, Rose, he's right. I mean, he's all quiet and antisocial usually, but when he fights… wow. If you think you're hurting now, you're going to be dead when he's done with you. Plus, have you seen the man?" I whistled, like, the guy is hot. "Rose he is just… woah. And you've got extra sessions with him? You're so lucky!" I cringed at how girly I sounded, gushing over some guy.
Rose looked peeved. She elbowed me, and I winked before we all started walking again, off to second period. Another class Rose was way behind in, the essentials of being a bodyguard. It's required for all seniors.
Stan Alto, AKA Stan, or Guardian Alto is a grump, who always looked very annoyed. Somehow, the second he walked into the class and saw Rose, the look went from resting irritated, to outright incensed.
"What's this? No one told me we had a guest speaker here today. Rose Hathaway. What a privilege! How very generous of you to take time out of your busy schedule and share your knowledge with us." Stan said, stood next to Rose and I's desk. Rose's cheeks burned bright red, and I almost stood up and told him to bugger off. And obviously, so did Rose. But surprisingly, she said nothing, but her face looked positively livid.
"Well, come on, come on. Don't sit there! Come up to the front so you can help me lecture the class."
Rose sank lower into her seat. "You don't really mean—" Rose said, before being cut off seeing Stan's fake smile.
"I mean exactly what I say, Hathaway. Go to the front of the class." The whole room went completely silent. Stan was a pretty terrifying guy, and everyone who'd heard of him associated him with the words severe and grim. No one was laughing.
Rose stood up and took long strides to the front of the room, and turned round to face us all. We made eye contact, and I gave her a sympathetic nod and smile. She just smirked back.
"So, Hathaway," Stan said, falsely jovial, sauntering casually up to her. "Enlighten us about your protective techniques."
"My… techniques?" Rose halted, looking as if she was ready to go on a long rant about unfairness, but she just went quiet, but her face showed how much was left unspoken.
"Of course. Because presumably you must have had some sort of plan the rest of us couldn't understand when you took an underage Moroi royal out of the Academy and exposed her to constant Strigoi threats." I could tell there was a sense of Déjà vu in her head.
"We never ran into any Strigoi," Rose said crisply.
"Obviously," Stan snorted. "I already figured that out, seeing as how you're still alive." Rose didn't retort.
"So what'd you do? How'd you make sure she stayed safe? Did you avoid going out at night?"
"Sometimes." Rose replied shortly.
"Sometimes," Stan's voice rose in pitch, and I had to admit, it made Rose sound completely idiotic. "Well then, I suppose you slept during the day and stayed on guard at night."
"Er… no." Rose countered awkwardly
"No? But that's one of the first things mentioned in the chapter on solo guarding. Oh wait, you wouldn't know that because you weren't here."
"I watched the area whenever we went out," She said, obviously getting defensive.
"Oh? Well that's something. Did you use Carnegie's Quadrant Surveillance Method or the Rotational Survey?"
Rose didn't reply.
"Ah. I'm guessing you used the Hathaway Glance-Around-When-You-Remember-To Method."
"No!" Rose was angry. "That's not true. I watched her. She's still alive, isn't she?"
"Because you got lucky. He practically hissed in her face. I was sat there, shell-shocked at Stan's audacity.
"Strigoi aren't lurking around every corner out there," this conversation was flying faster than bullets. "It's not like what we've been taught. It's safer than you guys make it sound."
"Safer? Safer? We are at war with the Strigoi!" Stan was full out shouting now. He was right up close to Rose. Weirdly close. "One of them could walk right up to you and snap your pretty little neck before you even noticed him – and he'd barely break a sweat doing it. You might have more speed and strength than a Moroi or a human, but you are nothing, nothing, compared to a Strigoi. They are deadly, and they are powerful. And do you know what makes them more powerful?" My heart was beating fast, fluttering violently against my chest as he spoke. It was almost riveting listening, as much as I hated the man. And hated to imagine that happening to Rose, or Lissa. Or Eddie, or Mason. And suddenly it felt like I'd be sick, imagining Mason getting killed by Strigoi. But why so bad when I thought of Mason…
His hair looking like it's been dipped in red paint, his mouth slightly parted, his skin pallid, and his eyes… his usually sparkling eyes, completely… empty. Soulless. I gagged, and my hands shook. Mason… Mason dead. Mason killed by Strigoi. Bleugh. Saint Vladimir, I almost prayed that I wasn't actually thinking this. I didn't like Mason Ashford, not like that. I couldn't, he was practically in love with Rose. Nonononono.
Emilia, Rose, just watch Rose and Stan again. Watch. Rose. And. Stan.
"Moroi blood." Rose whispered.
"What was that? I didn't catch it."
Rose spun round to face him. "Moroi blood! Moroi blood makes them stronger."
Stan nodded, and stepped back. "Yes. It does. It makes them stronger and harder to destroy. They'll kill and drink from a human or Dhampir, but they want Moroi blood more than anything else. They seek it. They've turned to the dark side to gain immortality, and they want to do whatever they can to keep that immortality. Desperate Strigoi have attacked Moroi in public. Groups of Strigoi have raided academies exactly like this one. There are Strigoi who have lived for thousands of years and fed off generations of Moroi. They're almost impossible to kill. And that is why Moroi numbers are dropping. They aren't strong enough – even with guardians – to protect themselves. Some Moroi don't even see the point of running anymore and are simply turning Strigoi by choice. And as the Moroi disappear.."
"So do the Dhampirs," Rose finished off his tirade for him. I was still watching Stan in awe, my mind off Mason for the minute.
"Well, it looks like you learned something after all. Now we'll have to see if you can learn enough to pass this class and qualify for your field experience next semester.
Rose came and sat back down, and I gave her an understanding smile as she gave out a huge sigh, presumably, of relief. I started thinking about the field experience. I figured Rose was too. No classes for half a semester, hanging out with Moroi students every day and all day, staged attacks, it was pretty important, and usually a lot of fun too. I don't know who I wanted for my Moroi. I'm not on bad terms with anyone really, but Mia Rinaldi was a very annoying little doll. I had a feeling the second Rose met her, she'd hate her. Especially because she was now Aaron Drozdov's new girlfriend after Lissa.
/
I walked off to lunch with Mason, trying to ignore the rush of feelings I got when I looked at him. How did this come on so quick? I mean, I've never thought about him like this before?
Oh wait…
I linked arms with Mason, laughing and thinking about how deep blue his eyes are and how appealing his laugh sounds. I pull him along, excited to be this close with him. At least Rose is gone so she won't take him away.
I jog along next to Mason, giggling at his compliment on my speed and endurance, and saying he was pretty good too. Eddie ran past us before turning round and winking at me while jogging backwards, then spinning back round faster than lightning.
Oh Mason… why are you so hung up on Rose?
Then, ahead of us I see Rose and Guardian Belikov talking, Rose looking fully cowed and Belikov looking like her was giving her a lecture. Good luck Rose, I laughed in my head.
Mason and I joined Eddie in the hall, before going to grab some food, leaving Rose to her conversation with Belikov.
We had food, and walked back out of the hall we'd gone to, going in the direction of Rose's dorm. We saw Rose talking with Prince Dashkov, before seeing him start coughing, it seized over him, racking his body with violent fits of shaking. He had Sandovsky's Syndrome, which ruined the lungs while it almost killed someone. I saw one of his guardians step forward and say something, causing Victor to nod and reply, before turning and saying something to Rose. After he spoke, her face showed signs of guilt and shame, which made me pretty curious, I have to admit.
Rose left, and walked inside, not seeing us waiting, so we just awkwardly followed after her, thinking we'd talk to her at some point this lunch period. But as we were walking behind her, we saw her significantly pick up the pace. Being me, and knowing about Lissa, I panicked and ran up next to her, heart in my throat. That's a way to show how scared I was for Lissa and about Lissa. The second Rose just picks up her pace I fill with anxiety and alarm.
"Lissa. Something happened, something's wrong." She said, not waiting for me to ask. I saw Lissa right in front of Rose 0.1 milliseconds before Rose almost walked straight in to her.
Lissa was talking to Aaron and Mia. No wonder she was anxious. Rose and I just caught the end of their conversation that hadn't been interrupted, as none of them had seen us.
Mia leaned right forward into Lissa's face, with the latter looking completely speechless.
"It looks to me like it came from a garage sale. I thought a precious Dragomir would have standards." The words Dragomir was oozing with disdain. Rose and I moved in on Mia at the exact same time, we both jerked her back and practically threw her in almost the exact same movements, and with her being the same weight as a feather, she flew back at least 6 feet before landing on her butt. Serves the little doll right.
"She does have standards," Rose said, scathingly.
"Which is why you're done talking to her." I said forcefully, before linking my arm into Lissa's before walking off with my head held high, and giving Lissa hand a squeeze of support, which she smiled at gratefully.
I was glad to have my best friends back.