Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Richelle Mead is the author and owner of the Vampire Academy series. The original characters and plot are the property of the fanfiction author. The fanfiction author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Chapter 1 – Waiting
People scurried around the brightly lit room, setting up equipment and readying supplies. What seemed like an entire squadron of people in drab uniforms ran in and out of the room, each of them eerily silent as they carried out his orders. Some rolled equipment into position along the walls where it could be easily accessed. A few checked and stocked the small refrigerator and cabinets with supplies. Others dressed the table in the middle of the room with crisp white linen. A stack of smaller linens rested on a side table and yet another held neat rows of shiny silver utensils. Slowly, but surely they all finished what they were doing and went to stand at their stations – waiting.
It wouldn't be long now, thought the tall, dark-haired man. He nodded approvingly at his team. They were ready – nervous, but ready.
He knew they were scared, terrified even. Without a doubt, none of the people in the room except one, other than himself, had ever participated in an event quite as serious as this one. He trusted them all – every one of them – after all, he'd trained them well. Hell, he'd had to retrain some of them. Half of the seven people in the room were almost ruined by the half-assed, by-the-book training they'd received.
School was important – he was the first one to agree with that, but nothing replaced on-the-job training – being in the thick of it all; learning by example and from experience. Graduates today – they got very little actual training until they were assigned – it was all study and demonstration, and practicing in controlled environments – and some of them just couldn't take the pressure when they had to put what they'd learned into action in the real world. Those were the ones that never lasted long in this profession and he was glad of it. There was no place for the unpromised in this room.
He was their chief and he was one of the best in the country. He knew it – he'd been told it enumerable times, but even without the accolades of this colleagues and superiors, he would still know it deep down in his gut – he was brilliant at what he did. Some even called him a god. He snickered silently at the title. They thought he didn't know, but he knew everything. This was his domain and nothing much got past him.
He wasn't arrogant like some of you might think – it was just the truth. His entire life, he'd wanted to be what he was. He'd known from the age of five that this was what he was meant for and he'd worked harder than all of his classmates to become the best that he could possibly be. What he did – it was his life, his calling, and his hands were the tools that made him unbeatable, though many had tried.
People had sneered when he told them what he was going to do two years ago, when he resigned from his prestigious job in an east coast city, but sometimes you just had to put yourself and those you loved first. He'd followed her – his beautiful wife and the love of his life, and he didn't regret anything. He was where he was meant to be.
He sighed as he stood by the wall near the double doors, waiting for the phone to ring and give him the update he anticipated. He'd been called back into work thirty minutes ago. He'd been dancing in the middle of his living room, his arms securely around the body of his gorgeous brunette wife as she leaned against his strong chest. Candle light flickered around the cozy room, while country music played on the stereo. She hated the stuff, but listened to it for his sake and he'd fallen a little more in love with her because of it. Sometimes it was the small sacrifices that meant the most. He'd been nuzzling her fragrant hair and thinking of what they could be doing upstairs in their large king-sized bed, when the phone rang.
"Ignore it," she murmured hopefully.
He sighed. "You know I can't," he admonished gently.
"I know." She scowled and bent down to pick up the smart phone from the coffee table where her husband had left it two hours earlier, and handed it to him.
"Hello," he said distractedly, staring at his wife's lush, swaying hips clad in red silk and lace as she sauntered over to the blazing fireplace where the stereo lived and pressed a button, interrupting the romantic ballad crooning through the speakers.
His distraction faded instantly as he listened to the urgent voice on the other end of the phone call. He asked a few salient questions and hung up, already reaching for his car keys and wallet, stuffing them into his pockets.
"You have to go?" she said, knowing the answer already.
He nodded, taking her beautiful face in his hands and kissing her. "Happy anniversary," he said with a small smile.
"Ditto," she said with a trace of bite in her voice.
He half-smiled and stroked her long hair back from her face. "I'm sorry, but duty calls," he said with real regret.
She smiled a little sadly. "I know. I wouldn't love you as much as I did if you ignored your duty despite my begging you to ignore the phone."
"I'll make it up to you," he promised.
"I know – you always do," she agreed. All was forgiven.
He kissed her forehead and released her, his mind already urgently planning. He didn't have much time – perhaps thirty minutes before they arrived.
She walked with her husband to the foyer and helped him on with his coat. Opening the door, she looked out into the dark, snowy night and shivered slightly as a cold breeze blew through the wide opening.
"Do you need me?" she asked.
He thought for a moment and then nodded decisively. "Yes, I think I might," he told her, before filling her in briefly on what he knew, which wasn't much. After promising to follow as soon as she could, he ran through the falling snow to the black SUV parked in the drive. There was an identical one in the garage that she would drive and he was grateful that he'd put chains on her tires earlier that day. Winter had come early to this part of the country as it often did.
Ten minutes later, he strode into the small, but imposing building that was lit up like a Christmas tree, as it always was. The roads were slushy with melting snow and ice, and he was glad they were arriving by helicopter. Staff began scurrying and calling out to each other as he ran into his office and dumped his belongings onto the large desk in front of the window. Pulling a clean uniform from his small closet, he began hurriedly stripping his clothes.
"ETA?" he barked as he strode out of his office into the thick of things.
"Twenty minutes," responded a harried voice.
That ETA was fifteen minutes ago and now they were ready. The phone rang on the wall by the mans head and he answered it calmly. After announcing himself, he listened intently for a few moments, committing everything he was told to memory. He asked a few pertinent questions and looked at his watch.
"We're ready for you," he said, hanging up.
He clapped his hands to catch his team's attention, though it was unnecessary. They were waiting for his commands. "Okay, everyone, listen up. They are five minutes out and approaching from the west."
"You come with me," he said to two of his most experienced and trusted team members. "The rest of you wait here. Let's go!" he ordered as he ran from the room.
He could hear the sound of the chopper as it approached the building and he skidded to a stop just outside the automatic sliding doors as he watched the large red machine hover over the snow covered lawn – it doubled as a landing pad in times of emergency.
The door of the helicopter slid open as the blades slowed and he and his team ran forward. A man in a dark uniform jumped out and reached into the belly to help another man deliver their precious cargo.
"How is she?" he yelled as he looked down at her. She looked to be about 18 years old.
"Not good," the elder of the two men said. "We nearly lost her twice."
The flight paramedic reeled off vital statistics, as the five of them hurried into the small regional hospital, surrounding the girl on a gurney who was fighting for her life. Some of the stats hadn't changed from five minutes ago when the medic relayed them to the trauma surgeon over the phone, but some were worse.
Her injuries were horrific and she was covered in blood-soaked bandages that didn't do anything to staunch the flow from wounds too numerous to count. It was a miracle she was still alive. He knew that if she survived, her life would never be the same.
The team raced along the brightly lit hallway and into the prepped trauma room.
"One, two, three," someone said, and they all worked as one unit to move the young woman from the gurney to the linen covered trauma bed. Immediately, the medical staff began hooking her up to machines, while others changed bags of fluids and checked vital signs. The doctor called out instructions and orders for tests as he approached her, while the paramedics answered his rapid-fire questions.
"What's her name, do you know?" the doctor asked, just as the heart monitor began to whine its high pitched warning sound that no medical professional ever wanted to hear.
"She's crashing!" yelled the senior ER nurse.
"Rosa. She said her name was Rosa," the doctor heard as he went to work trying to save her.
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A/N: Please review.
I don't know how long this story will be. I kind of know where I want to go with it and I can tell you that it is a vampire/human story, but my Rosa/Rose is probably not going to be the badass guardian to Lissa that most people write about. This is a Rosa that had to put herself first through no fault of her own. Dimitri will be in the story as will other VA characters, but Rose's chosen career as a guardian is over. She may be a dhampir who heals quickly, but even dhampirs aren't invincible. Even for them, there is a middle ground between fully able bodied and dead if their injuries are severe enough and they don't have a spirit user around to heal them.
To readers of my other stories, I have not abandoned them, but I haven't been quite been myself this past year. I haven't wanted to write at all, and it's been really hard to break the habit once I fell into it. Instead, I've been working on my family tree in my free time and now I'm getting the writing bug back. I hope that after I write a few chapters of this new story, that I will be in a better frame of mind to begin writing again for my other stories, especially Wrecked with Bella. I know I owe you all a chapter and thank you to those of you who have PM'd me to ask how I was. I'm sorry I haven't responded, but I haven't even logged onto FFN since posting earlier this year.