Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy.

DPOV

Where were they? I asked myself. We had spent two years searching for two teenage girls. Princess Vasilisa Dragomir and her friend Rosemarie Hathaway. Who would have ever thought that they would be so hard to find.

I sat in my room with my head in my hands, trying to think of places that they would go, but coming up blank.

A knock sounded at my door and I walked over to answer it. Alberta stood in front of me, looking absolutely gleeful. My hopes soared. Maybe we were finally going to get some good news.

"We found them," she confirmed before I could ask.

I smiled at her. "Where are they? When do we leave?" I asked, anxious to catch them and return to the Academy.

"Five minutes. They are living in Portland right now and luckily that is only an hour away from us."

"I'll be right there," I said. I shut the door and grabbed as many weapons as I could. You never knew what would happen and I always liked to be prepared.

We all piled into the car and set off toward Portland. All of us discussed strategy and exchanged ideas about how we should do this. They would certainly try to run, and we wanted to prevent them from escaping us at all costs.

We saw the house that they were living in, and parked the car far down the road so that they wouldn't see, and then we split up, trying to make escape for them impossible.

I kept watch across the street from the house with another guardian. It looked like they were sleeping, but a few minutes later I heard screaming coming from the room that they were in. I took a small step forward, ready to act if there was any danger.

"Liss," a voice said. "Liss, wake up."

The screaming finally stopped, but only to be replaced by soft whimpers. "Andre, oh God," I heard the Princess groan.

Andre was her brother. She must have been having a nightmare of the night that her parents and brother died.

I heard Rosemarie comforting Vasilisa while she cried about the dream that she had had. A light turned on and I took another step forward so that I could see what they were doing. I saw them sitting on the bed and Rosemarie had her arm around the princess, trying to soothe her.

"When did we last do a feeding?" Rosemarie asked Vasilisa, studying her face. My eyes widened as I realized that she had been giving her blood ever since they left. I had never heard of anything like that before.

I watched with interest and disgust as she flipped her hair back, exposing her neck. Vasilisa gazed at is hungrily for a second before moving closer and bringing her lips down to her neck, drinking her blood. It only lasted a minute and Rosemarie swayed dizzily as the Princess finished.

"You okay?" She asked Rosemarie.

"I... yeah," she replied. "I just need to sleep it off. I'm fine."

Vasilisa studied her for awhile and then announced that she was going to go and get her some food.

I heard Vasilisa walk down the stairs and into the kitchen. A few minutes later I watched as Rosemarie forced herself to sit up and come to the window.

She leaned against the windowsill and looked anxiously up and down the street until her eyes landed on me. Her eyes widened and I knew she understood what we were here for. I stepped back into the shadows, out of sight. It was show time. My partner followed me and we walked down the street a little bit, waiting for them to make their move. A few minutes later the door burst open and they came running out. Rosemarie kept stumbling, due to the bite she had just been given, and Vasilisa tried to hold her up.

I ran out of the trees and followed them as quietly as I could from across the street, but they didn't seem to hear me. They were too distracted by the other guardians who were running behind them. They froze for only a second and then took off running once again.

I picked up the pace and started sprinting until I was ahead of them. They were only ten feet away from the car that they were running to when I stepped into their path, blocking their way. Rosemarie pulled Vasilisa back, shielding her from me. She glanced around as the other guardians approached us, closing them in. She pulled Vasilisa closer to her and glared at me.

"Leave her alone. Don't touch her," Rosemarie said menacingly, trying her best to hide her fear.

I held out my hands in what I thought was a calming gesture and then took a cautious step forward. That must have been too close for her because she leaped at me.

I responded instantly, ready for everything she was about to do. Quickly, I brought my arm out and knocked her away from me easily. She had obviously not practiced since she left. She was about to fall, so I reached my arm out again, but this time to keep her upright.

She stood right in front of me and I noticed that her neck was bleeding from where the princess had bitten her. She didn't seem to understand why I was staring at her neck, but then comprehension flickered across her face and she touched the blood that was coming from her wound. She blushed in embarrassment and shook her hair so that it covered the bite mark. It was then that I noticed that she had beautiful hair. It was long and thick and looked black in the darkness.

I snapped out of my daze when she ripped her arm out of my grasp and backed toward Vasilisa again, tensing as if she was going to try to attack me again. This girl must be suicidal if she wanted to try that again.

"Rose, don't," Vasilisa murmured softly. So, she preferred to be called Rose. That name seemed to fit her perfectly. In Russian her name was Roza.

Rose eventually gave in to Vasilisa and gave up. I stepped forward carefully, not entirely sure that she had given up.

I bowed politely to Vasilisa and said, "My name is Dimitri Belikov. I've come to take you back to St. Vladimir's Academy, Princess."

They didn't say one word, but it was obvious that they were not at all happy about their situation. I wondered why they were so opposed to the Academy, but then I realized that it didn't matter. They were going back whether they liked it or not.