Chapter one.

Dimitri's Point of View.

The strigoi in front of me dodged my attack and lunged forward with his right fist. I barely had enough time to block it before he came in contact with my nose. I quickly moved to the left and took the opportunity to stake him. My weapon hit its mark and lodged itself into the un-dead's chest.

After I watched the 'life' drain away from his eyes, I retracted my stake from his heart and put it back into my dusters inside pocket. It was safe enough for now: the fight was over.

I took in a deep breath and let it out, finally feeing all the various cuts, bruises, aches and pains throughout my body. Despite that fact, I took in my surroundings, seeing all the death and destruction covering the grounds. I started to head towards the Guardian building when another Guardian called out to me.

"Belikov! Have you heard about the elementary campus?"

"What do mean? What happened?" My reply was laced with confusion and a frown had made its way onto my face. The elementary campus was on the other side of the academy. It was also one of the least protected campuses. The older students had an additional layer of defence; the Novices were better train and more likely to be able to hold their own against the strigoi while the younger ones were more vulnerable to defeat.

"Apparently a novice and a fire-wielding moroi paired up and helped take out the strigoi." My colleague stated his answer in a voice paired with shock. I couldn't blame him; it was unheard of for a moroi to use offence magic in this era. However, knowing Tasha and her secret practices made me more open to the idea and the only moroi that I could think of that was a student here who could use that magic was her nephew: Christian Ozera. With that thought came the knowledge of all the novices he knew who pair up with him and allow him to fight. Only one name came to my mine: Rosemarie Hathaway.

Rose was the woman I had fallen in love with. She would always hold my heart and if anything happened to her I didn't know what I would do. She could be impulsive at times, leading to her to get into bad situations, though I knew she always had her heart in the right place.

Throughout the attack I was worried about her, even though I knew she was safe as she managed to warn the Guardians. I nodded to my informer and changed my course of direction. Whilst I made my way over to the lower grounds I kept my eyes peeled, searching for my love. As I drew closer to the area the smell of burnt flesh was starting to become quite clear and kept getting stronger the closer I got.

As I turned the corner, I saw the origins of the smell. Strigoi bodies were covered in burns and slightly peeling flesh. Once I stopped looking at the damage that had been caused, I searched for the culprits. Almost instantly I spotted the Ozera child. He was bent over with his hands on his knees, clearly weakened from the lack of nutrient and energy that his magic use had caused. The sweat that was giving him a light shine had stuck his back hair to his forehead and his dull eyes were a huge difference from his usual striking Ozera blue eyes.

As I slowly made my way towards him cautiously, I was scanning the area looking for Rose. When I was half way there I asked, "Mr. Ozera, where is Rose?" My accent became more noticeable when I said her name.

He looked up at me when I formally addressed him. He must have seen the worry in my eyes which had broken through my ever present Guardian mask, because he seemed slightly scared to utter an answer. After a few seconds he must have found the courage to speak, even if his voice was shaky. His words, however, gave me no relief.

"Guardian Belikov. I-I don't know where Rose is… She was here a minute ago."

I could tell he was upset by his lack of knowledge on his friends' whereabouts, so I turned to face out toward the tree line, ever searching for her among the other dhampirs out there. Though what I saw crushed my world completely.