I didn't know why I was here exactly, but I didn't care much either. The gypsy lady had been right about Dimitri, and quite obviously right about me and Lissa, too.

Dimitri lost what was most valuable to him, which at the time he thought was me. Turns out that it wasn't me, but his soul. He was forced into eternal night, and now I was going to kill him.

After graduation Lissa would be living it up in the royal court having people weight on her hand and foot.

And as for me well, I had a much simpilar fate, I killed the undead, I killed strigoi. And right now, I was hunting one strigoi in particular: Dimitri. The man I loved-and still do love, for that matter.

It had been almost a month since I'd set out searching for Dimitri, and I still hadn't managed to get my hands on him. On my search I had managed to wipe out a hell of a lot of strgoi though, so at least I was getting better. The only thing that could screw me up now would be the delay I'd be facing when I saw him.

Every now and then a strigoi I was fighting would recognize me, and mention something about Dimitri. Once, I actually had a full on conversation. Usually I'd just find and kill as many as I could on my way to Russia, but this one caught my interest.

"Hey, you're Hathaway aren't you?" he straightened up, letting his guard down.

I took a swing at him with the stake, hoping to take him out nice and quick. But I missed and he grabbed me, holding his teeth to my throat. Damn, I thought he was giving me an opening. I struggled hopelessly, trying to free myself, failing miserably. Well, at least I took out all of his friends.

"Belikov said you were good, guess we should have listened to him. He thinks you're going to get him," he chuckled. "We told him 'she can't get you if we get her first', and so we've been looking for you. We'd just given up and come to rest, and so you stumble into to our humble little cave,"

"You know Dimitri?" talking back couldn't really hurt, seeing as he could snap my neck at any second. It wasn't very flattering to hear that I had strigoi actually searching for me, just as I was searching for them.

"Yeah, pity that. I recon he was looking forward to seeing you again. Always talks about you, he said he misses you." I didn't know why he was stalling, but I wasn't going to pass the chance up.

"Where is he? Why are there strigoi looking for me? What have I done to you to make uo come looking for me…?" I tried being persuasive, even know it was utterly pointless.

"Does it really matter? You're going to die now anyway, or I could take you to him…" he started, and I held my breath, praying that he'd risk it and give me the opportunity I needed. "I'll change you first though. Okay how about this. I'll give you two options, and you can pick one, okay? By the way I guess I should just mention how generous I'm being right now, I was told to kill you at sight."

I showed a great amount of self control by refraining from telling him to go fuck himself, and managed to nod once in agreement, and mumble out a question. "Who ordered you to kill me?"

"Mistress Nicole. She wants your head on a platterfor all of the damaged you've caused in our society." He frowned, contemplating what to do next. I almost cracked up laughing at the way he mentioned their 'society', almost as if they were civilized beings who were being hunted for no good reason. "Okay, so you can either become immortally awesome like me, or I can kill you right now. Okay, take your pick," The tone he used was cruel, and it actually gave me some very false hope.

Questions started bubbling in my mind. Could I be with Dimitri again if I became what he was? Would he still want me? Was this guy really giving me a chance? No. I couldn't. Dimitri would be so very disappointed in me for even having thought about going strigoi. I felt guilt swell up in my stomach around the same time I remembered that I had a lighter on me.

I had to stall.

"So if I go strigoi , I can be with Dimitri again?" I asked innocently while shoving my lose hand up into my bra where I kept the lighter hidden. I wasn't a smoker, but I always carried one with me to burn up the bodies of the strigoi I killed. I needed something that'd make the flame a lot bigge thougr, but what could I use?

"Yeah, if he still wants yo," he looked up and down my body, smirking lightly. "So you pick strigoi then? You want to be back with Belikov?" I felt his teeth graze along the side on my neck, and a shuddered rolled down my spine.

I needed a torch... I needed gas or- spray on deodorant! I pulled it out of my pocket, and got ready for the attack.

"Jam your stupid fucking offers up your stone cold ass you immortal prick!" I lighted up the lighter and faced the spray can at him, spraying at the same time. There was a longer streak of fire and the offending stigoi burst up in flames, writhing in pain.

"Fuck!" he screamed, rolling on the ground trying to extinguish himself.

Meanwhile I was scurrying over to collect my stake so I could finish this off. Once I found it I spun around as the nauseous feeling started bubbling rapidly in my stomach, it was a signal. A warning signal that said: There's more.

"Shit," I hissed, bolting over to stake the burning fucker before his other buddies could find us. I was in no suchstate to continue fighting like this. I started retreating backwards, still facing the cave with my lighter, deodorant and stake.

The nausea rolled off around the same time the sun light decided to try and blind me.

"You seek answers that can be given by a young one who does not know that she knows them," she stated. Well that was a hell of a lot of help then wasn't it? "You can find the girl and she will know you. She will know him and where he is," she continued, re-catching my interest. "She can help you more than this though, but she knows not. This girl is like you, but has the power of the remaining remnants of your heart," that sounded pretty cool. "She has mastered beyond possible, but only in the dreams does she think it. Go now, and find her." She made that sound easy enough, but I still had one little issue.

"And where am I supposed to find this all mighty one?"

"She is the sister of the one you praise, but has had many changes. You will find her where you will find your heart." She said in a wise tone.

That didn't help me very much though. "So she's with Dimitri?" I was still trying to decode her stupid wise code things. "That doesn't really help me much…"

She sighed, irritated that I couldn't work out her code. "She's with Lissa! Jeez, kids today I tell ya. Now scram." She started shooing me off.

"Err, okay bye. Thanks lady…"

If she was with Lissa…that meant that she was at the academy. Great, one of the places that I didn't want to be.

***

I arrived at the gates, and it was Alberta who came to greet me.

"Rose? Rose is that really you?" she was sprinting towards me with her arms wide ready for a big reunion hug now, ugh. "Rose! It's you!" she squealed as she wrapped her arms around me.

"Yeah it's me, and I need to see someone here," I patted her on the back a few times until she eventually let go. When I saw her face, there were tears in her eyes.

"Of course! Who do you need to see, Rose?"

Now we'd hit a snag. "I…I don't know. She supposed to have awesome powers or something, and she's younger then I am."

Recognition seemed to slap her in the face. "You're looking for Alina?" her face was still happy, but it had a grim edge.

Well, I didn't know her but she sounded alright enough. Just one last thing to check. "I don't know what relation she has, but she's connected to Dimitri somehow. So can you take me to her?"

She grimaced and faltered for a few moments, seeming to be debating with herself. She nodded after several moments, and took my hand. It surprised me how much she'd changed.

I pursed my lips, trying to hold the question back, but failing miserably in the end. "How's Lissa holding up?" I blurted out, and she began smiling, but with a sadness in her eyes.

"She misses you very much, but I think she's doing okay. You should visit her while you're here, I'm sure that would make her feel better." Something in her tone told me Lissa was all but fine, so I let myself fall into her head.

She was happy, but yet so, so depressed. She was happy for what she had with Christian, and that Adrian and him had finally started getting along. But she was grieving over me like I had died or something, and she wasn't far off.

Inside I was all but dead; the one thing driving me on was my promise to kill the one thing keeping me alive. Dimitri.

I pulled back into my head as we entered the elementary campus. Why were we here? "Um, how old is she exactly?" it surprised me that it hadn't occurred to me earlier.

The question caught her off guard. "Err…that depends on which you mean. In ways she's very mature…and in other ways she makes preschoolers look mature. But she's turning fifteen in a few days…"

I gasped. I was putting all hope I had for finding Dimitri into a fifteen year old girl that makes five years olds look mature? "What?" I breathed, stumbling over my foot and having to catch my balance.

"But, she is only fifteen in age. In body you'd think she's around twenty or twenty-five, what with how bloody tell she is…not to mention the strength. In mind she's probably varies from five years old when she wants to. But on average she usually acts at about eighteen. And when she's being full on serious she'd out age me."

Sounded like the kid had a split personality. Great, I was entrusting my search in a fifteen year old who couldn't control her age.

"And…well there are some other things you should know," she paused and stopped walking, holding me with her and looking deep into my eyes. "This girl…she's different to anything any of us have ever seen, Rose. Her parents are…well dhampire and…strigoi. She was someone born out of a strigoi relationship, but somehow she came out different. She's a Moroi with the build strength endurance and speed as a dhampire… She's put the seniors here to shame with the skills she posses', and she's somehow specialized in two elements…," she looked at me, and let some of it sink in before she continued.

"She specialized in fire, which was nothing out of the ordinary. But she has somehow also specialized in spirit, Rose…and the things she does are uncanny. But over all she's just like you in away." She finished smiling, but I could see something hiding in her eyes.

"Shit," I muttered, to stunned to choke out anything else. "Is that even possible? I mean come on! As if any Moroi could specialize in two elements…" and be as fast and strong as a dhampire. It was unheard of! Not to mention this Moroi had a strigoi parent.

"That's not all…she's more like you then you in lots of ways. She's also…shadow kissed. But not by Lissa, by…Adrian,"

I couldn't keep it in. "Bullshit!" I squeaked out with next to no breath. That's not possible, Adrian wasn't skilled enough yet. Well, he could be but that was a hell of a lot of improvement over the past month.

"No, she is. But what she does different is that she can send Adrian back thoughts and emotions…she's really nothing we've ever seen before. One last thing," she started, but before she could continue she was interrupted by an opening door.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there, oh hey guardian Alberta, what's up?" said the girl that had almost knocked Alberta out with the door.

She had slightly wavy long brown hair, and she didn't look like she belonged here in the elementary campus at all. She appeared to be a very, very pale dhampire, but judging by the description I was just given, I could easily say that this must have been her, this was Alina… and Alina looked like the female version of Dimitri.

She turned to say something, and we locked eyes in some sort of weird recognition show down. Looking at her made my empty heart ache like it was being burned with acid, and her name escaped me lips.

At the same moment she said "R-Rose? Rose H-Hathaway?" well, at least she knew me.

I turned on Alberta with a murderous glare, ripping over to whisper into her ear. "She's a Belikov, isn't she?" I hissed into her ear.

"No…she's his half sister. They have the same father. And she was raised by them, she's a Royal Rose, her name is Aleniana Jennifer…Ozera. Christian's mother was her mother, which means she half related to him, too. She was raised by the Ivashkov's though, so Adrian is sort of a brotherly figure to her. But she never loved anyone more then she loved her 'uncle' Dimitri."

She interrupted our whispering with, "You're Rose Hathaway. The one who's going to kill my uncle…" she sounded very accusing when she said this, her eyes narrowing and my temper flared.

"What do you think I should do then!? He would have wanted to die if he became strigoi, he told me! This is all I can do for him now so keep your mouth shut!" my legs gave out an I shriveled up on the ground, curling into a defensive ball as tears spurted out on my eyes and dry sobs choked out on my throat.

And then I blacked out…

I woke up in the all-too-familiar school clinic. Even though I'd been gone for a month now, I still remembered this place perfectly.

But something was different, nothing seemed very real…and I had a killer headache.

I just met Dimitri's little sister. And she didn't want me to kill him.

"You're awake!" A familiar voice squealed, and my heart ached again. The voice shouldn't have been familiar, seeing as I'd heard it only once before.

Alina stood up and came to stand by me, placing a hand to my forehead. It tingled a bit, and when the tingling stopped my headache calmed itself down. She'd just healed me.

"You're Dimitri's little sister…" I stated to obvious, but she nodded anyway. "I…" I didn't know what else to say, so I cut straight to the point. "I need your help. And I know you're going to want to help me."

I explained her everything in detail, and she waited, listening patiently.

"And so I need you to show me where he is so I can kill him like he'd want me too," I finished up and waited for her to say something. But she said nothing so I asked, "So, can you help me?"

She smiled, but shook her head. I was opened my mouth to protest but she held a finger up to silence me.

"I will help, but we will not kill him" I began to protest again, but she cut me off once more. "Listen! We don't need to kill him, because I can bring him back." She let me absorb that for a minute.

I was dumb-struck. "W…How? But he's not dead," yet I added in grudgingly.

She grinned smugly but also sadly. "I know, and that's exactly my point. If he really is strigoi, I can bring him back; I can give him back his soul."

I was overflowing with emotions now, most of which were excitement. "You can? How? So you're going to help? And you know where he is?" she just kept nodding and nodding until I stopped.

"But," she said, and I held my breath, waiting to here her conditions. "I know four people who are coming with us." She grinned.

Those last words of her seemed to be some sort of signal for the others to trot in the door. Adrian, Christian, Eddy and Lissa all stepped through the door grinning like they'd won the lottery.

"Rose!" they all squealed in the same moment, and the tears started forming in my eyes.

Lissa was crying too, and I could swear that I saw something sparkle on Christian's cheek, but he was quick to dispose of it.

Lissa all but tackled me on to the bed I'd just gotten up from, and she started sobbing with me.

"I missed you so - so much!" she cried through broken sobs of joy. The emotions filing through the bond were all very bright, and varied from happiness to astonishment. Apparently she and the others hadn't expected to see me again.

"I missed you too, Liss. You couldn't imagine how much…" I peered up over Lissa's shoulder to see Eddy, Christian and Adrian beaming down at me. "I missed you both too," I smirked up at them. "Even you, Christian." He chuckled and Lissa let go of me.

"How have you been? Did you find Dimitri? How many strigoi have you killed? Do you miss the academy?" the questions started rolling in.

"I've been…well we won't go there. No I didn't find Dimitri, but I often found strigoi who talked about him that knew me. Apparently he still remembers and talks about me. I don't know how many I've killed now and surprisingly yes, I do miss the academy, more then you could ever imagine."

We sat there content and catching up with each other for about two hours before we got kicked out of the sick bay. As we walked through the school I got eyed everywhere, but no-one came up to say anything.I spotted out Ralf and Jesse, and they both turned and ran when they saw me. We all had a good laugh at that.

"Well, I hate to be the one to bust up the reunion and all… but you guys have got to get packing, cause I'm not aloud to stay on campus after six, and it's already five forty-five," I mumbled, feeling bad about dragging us along. "Which doesn't really give us much time to get ready…"

They grinned at me with a look that told me that they thought I was a bit behind.

"Don't worry; I got them to get ready before." Alina said, smugness radiating out of her.

"Well then, tell us where we're we've got to go and I'll go organize you guys leaving while you collect your bags." My voice was light again.

"You won't like this, Rose. But we're going to Spokane." Alina said.

I could feel my face harden, and I didn't trust my voice so I nodded and turned to escape. Of all the places he could have been…he picked Spokane. The place I killed my first strigoi, and the place one of my best friends was murdered.

After I finished sorting out leaving, they all showed up with decent sized bags. The school was lending as a black SUV, and so we piled all of out belonging into the back.

"Road trip," Eddy chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. I envied him right then, because I knew how much it hurt him going back to Spokane as well. Mason – the friend that had been killed there – was Eddy's best friend, and this would be twice as hard for him as it would be for me.

We all laughed along with him.

***

Once we arrived at out destination, we booked rooms at a crappy little hotel and dumped out bags.

"We should rest first, or we won't have the energy for the fight that's waiting." I stated as another wave of faint nausea crept over me. "There's going to be a lot more strigoi there then just Dimitri. But I can handle them so don't worry."

They all started at me with incredulous eyes.

"Erm Rose, Adrian, Alina, and Lissa have all got super compulsion. All the strigoi will be doing is staring at imaginary objects, utterly horrified while Alina grants him his soul,"

Well, that was a slap in the face. I'd been expecting a huge ass fight that would endanger all of our lives… "Oh…well…hey then let's roll!" I clapped my hands enthusiastically, jumping up and strutting over towards the door I'd just come in through.

They all laughed at me, but I let it slide.

I couldn't believe that not only would I see Dimitri again, or that I wouldn't have to kill him, but that I was going to get him back. Finally, finally I would see his sweet smile, and all of that love and devotion in his eyes.

I was going to have a reason to exist again.

***

It surprised me a little when we rolled to a stop in front of the same house that Mason had been murdered in, but the surprise didn't last long.

I knew I wouldn't really be doing anything, but I was still gripping my stake tighter and tighter with each wave of nausea.

"There's got to be at least ten in there, are you sure you can handle this?" they glared at me like I'd offended their pride, and Eddy chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes then…"

I didn't feel right letting Alina go in first, because she was the youngest. But oddly ironically enough, she was definitely the most deadly among us.

We kicked the door down and were overwhelmed by the shadows that leapt from the room. In the front room alone there were nine strigoi, and I could tell that more of them were hidden else where.

They were surprised to see us, and they all got ready to jump us. As the first one made a leap they all froze, staring at space with horror struck expressions. Lissa chuckled, and I patted her on the back.

While they stood there helpless, I and Eddy shifted around staking each of them effortlessly. "This is actually too easy," I muttered as another two strigoi ran at us and froze. "I've been killing these things the hard way for weeks, it feels wrong to only have to strut around and stab them where's the fun?"

"Yeah, but hey it's easy at least." Eddy agreed. I nodded with him.

I was growing more anxious with every strigoi we staked. The nausea was fading each time, but we still hadn't found Dimitri.

When the nausea disappeared completely, we all started at the bodies on the ground, totally dumb-found.

"There's none left," I was almost in tears already. I turned on Alina, "You said he was here!" I screamed, falling to the ground and letting the tears escape.

"It doesn't make any sense," she murmured, clearly stressing out with confusion. "He's still here! I just…"

"Wait!" I threw myself onto my feet – literally- and started running towards the stairs that lead to the basement at full speed, stake in hand. The others were close behind me, alert and ready.

I kicked every door down, investigated every room right up until we came to the cell that we were held in…

We all fell silent as I stuck my ear to the door, listening for any sign of life. I heard a very light noise that sounded almost like a sob, and then I bust the door open, leaving a large dent in the metal.

Nobody else moved once we saw what was inside…

The walls were red from blood, and the room was almost completely empty.

Almost.

In the centre of the room was a single chair. On that chair sat a blood stained man wearing a leather cote that looked like a duster. His arms and legs and neck were all tied to the chair, and the chair appeared to be made of metal.

"Just kill me! If your back there is no more reason to fight! Kill me now, do I-" he began to yell; sounding very, very upset and pissed off. He cut short mid sentence when he flipped his eyes open though.

"D…Dimitri…" I breathed, hurling myself a cross the room towards him.

"Roza!" he called, struggling to free his arms.

Tearing were flowing from both his eyes and mine, and when I reached him I tore off the metal that was binding him, half impressed that I just tore through chains for him. "You're alive!" I sobbed, locking my arms around him and refusing to let go.

His arms wrapped around my waist like iron chains as he pulled me down to him. "You came for me," he breathed, the way he said it made it sound like he had doubted that I would for a moment. "When they said you were here I almost died. And then when you walked in, I-" he sucked in some air so he could continue. "I thought I'd lost you, I thought you were killed.

He grabbed my face almost roughly and stared into my eyes, not once blinking. After several long wonderful moments he whispered "I love you Roza, Now and forever." Then he crushed his lips to mine, and in that second, I felt like everything in the world was right again, like nothing could ever go wrong ever again.

I'd actually forgotten that we had company.

They cleared there throats mimicking-ly in almost the same moment, and it was followed by low laughter. About a minute later I and Dimitri managed to tear ourselves apart, only to embrace each other once more.

"I thought I'd lost you," I whispered into his ear, trying not to cry again. "I was coming to kill you, I thought you were turned…"

"Roza," he purred seductively into my ear while stroking my hair. "I was changed at first, but I didn't move. I just sat and wished I were dead," he kissed my ear before continuing. "I don't know what happened, but somehow I changed back. All I did was sit and pray for you and somehow, I was given you back." I felt a tear splash on my collarbone, and noticed that he was crying again. "You came back for me," he sobbed into my hair, and then we began to kiss again.

"Rose…Rose…wake up Rose…" a little nagging voice started to whisper in my ear, and I suspected it was a ghost.

I started swinging an arm around in the air, but I didn't open my eyes. "Piss off, I am awake," I roared at them.

"She's still a bitch, so that hasn't change…" the little nagging voice said again, but this time I recognized it. Christian.

I opened my eyes and turned around to smack him in the head, but I found myself in the school clinic once more, and by turning around I'd almost thrown myself off the bed.

How the fuck did I get here?

Something slapped me in the face hard. It wasn't a physical slapping, it was a mental one.

It was all just a dream…