Chapter 1
"Is that her?" Vanessa and I looked at each other, then back to the person who was driving. I nodded, she had the same dark long hair as me but hers was pinned up. On the back of her neck were so many mol ninja marks that I stopped counting. "Guardian Hathaway?" I was surprised that I made the words come out of my mouth. "Yes?" she had a strong voice too. "Is it true that last year, you helped with the strigoi invasion?" she hesitated. "It is" and of course my brilliant reply was "oh." After many silent minutes, we made it to the front gates of the academy. "We have Princess Vanessa Ivashkov, and her guardian." The man raised an eyebrow at her and said "she doesn't have an assigned guardian." Guardian Hathaway smiled "no but she does have a novice." He smiled back at her. "I should have expected to hear that from you Rosemarie."
Walking through the academy was not fun in anyway shape or form, all it is, is a hell hole. I looked toward Vanessa, whose expression said the same thing "I really wish we wouldn't have agreed to come here" she smiled" but if we didn't we wouldn't have met her" she looked at rose. I sighed in agreement, guardian Hathaway was a legend, and she's only a year older than us and has killed many strigoi. We entered the main building and walked over to the registration desk. A woman looked at me and Vanessa and smiled "ah, Princess Vanessa. Here's your schedule." She turned to me "your full name?" I stuttered, "Br- Hathaway" I heard a sharp intake of breath from behind me, and I knew it was rosemary. Hell, she heard. "Here's your schedule dear" I quietly thanked the lady and turned, guardian Hathaway was walking towards me. "I couldn't help but over hearing, did you say your last name was Hathaway?" I looked towards Vanessa, and then turned back to rosemary." Yes" she looked confused. "Um, what a weird coincidence." I sighed, might as well get it over with "actually, it's not a coincidence, we're sort of related."
She looked at me in shock "what do you mean were related? That's not possible. I don't have any siblings." I smiled "no you don't. Your mother is my aunt." She still looked confused. "my mother and your mother are sisters." She crumpled her forehead. "Then why haven't I heard of her?" she was obviously questioning my sanity. "My mother decided that she didn't want to become a guardian, and instead wanted to care for me." I continued. "Your mother had always been embarrassed because of her." She sighed. "That sounds like my mom" I nodded. She had a look of concentration on her face. "where have you been living?" great, hear goes another exciting story. "When we," I gestured to Vanessa and myself. "Were five, Vanessa's mother and father were in a car accident. They- they didn't make it." In the corner of my eye, I saw one tear escape Vanessa. I wanted to comfort her, but instead I went on. "We have known each other since shortly after we were born, so when lord Szelsky offered to take care of Vanessa –"she interrupted. "Wait- what, slow down I don't understand." I took a deep breath. "Lord Szelsky was great friends with Vanessa's parents, but when he offered to take Vanessa, well, I wasn't too happy." Vanessa chuckled. "That's a bit of an understatement, she started yelling and screaming, I think I even heard her cuss at him." I shook my head. "Anyway, your mother was there when I, uh, got upset. So she told lord Szelsky that we were related, and he said we could live with them." Vanessa smiled. "Brenna was so glad she was practically dancing around." I rolled my eyes. "Stop exaggerating." Rose smiled. "You sound a lot like me." We both laughed.
We turned to the sound of footsteps, it was princess dragomir. I almost stopped breathing. I had heard so much about her, from the fact that she had lost her parents and brother the same way Vanessa had. To the amazing fact that she could bring people back to life, as she had done to my cousin.
"Rose. There you are. I've been looking all over for you." We were in a stunned silence. "We have to get ready to go to the party -" she finally noticed us and laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't notice you there." I was too shocked to speak. So Rose said "lissa this is Princess Vanessa ivashkov..." She turned to me and smiled "and this is my cousin brenna" Lissa smiled at us. "I didn't know u had a cousin." Rose chuckled "neither did I until five minutes ago" she looked at me, as if wanting me to say something. "Um, yeah, we just got here" she nodded "oh, well where are you from?" Vanessa answered this time "originally, Idaho. But my parents passed and we were living with lord szelsky." She sighed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I know how it is losing family" the look on vasilisa's face said she really did understand. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here." Vanessa smiled shyly and nodded. "Thank you, I will." I'd been so silent the whole time that my voice cracked. "w-we better get going nessa, it was nice to meet you princess." She smiled, "please, call me lissa." Wow. Rose stepped toward me and smiled. "so I'll see you again soon?" I nodded "yeah, I'd love to talk more." We said our goodbyes and headed toward the moroi dorms. "You know, you really don't have to walk me to my dorm." I laughed, "Who said I had too? I just wanted to make sure you're alright." She smiled sadly. "Yeah I'm fine, just kind of nervous for tomorrow." Tomorrow we started our classes, great. "It will be okay nessa." By the look on her face I could tell she believed me, I hope I deserved the trust. "I better get going, I'll see you tomorrow." We hugged and I set off to find my new room. Walking down the hallway of the novice dorms, I really had to admit that it was kind of cool. It was different from mine and my mom's two bedroom house. When I got to room number 412 I fished for the key in my pocket and went in.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped in the room was the big window that was opened. Moroi naturally had an aversion to sunlight, and dhampirs didn't, well at least the normal ones. I squinted and went over to the window to shut the blinds. I dug through the boxes around my room until I found my favorite silk pajamas, when I was looking for them I found a picture of Vanessa and me, but on the right side of it part of the picture was cut out. I sighed. "I miss you so much Caleb."
I woke up to a gut wrenching pain in my stomach. I jumped out of bed and changed.
Oh god, Vanessa!!!!
I dug through my top drawer in my dresser until I found the athame that was hidden there. I bolted out of my room and down the hall. Damnit! The hall matron was coming towards me, I made my decision fast. I tried running past him at normal speed, but his dhampir reflexes were too fast. He caught my elbow and jerked me to a halt. "Where do you think you're going?" I glared at him. "My friend needs me!" he glared right back. "I see what's going on. Is there a party going on? You know that's against the rules" I growled, I could feel Vanessa screaming somewhere deep inside of me. I had to get there now."My friends in trouble! She's hurt and she needs me!" he still looked at me as if I was lying. "Okay, what's her name? I'll call her dorm matron." I started to protest but then changed my mind. I needed a distraction. "Vanessa, Vanessa Ivashkov." He pulled out his phone, as he turned to talk to the person he called, I ran using all the extra speed that I was gifted with. I smiled as the guardian tried to catch up to me.
Vanessa? Its me, I'm coming just hold on!
The only response I got was more screaming. I have to hurry. I ran into the moroi girl's dorm and past the dorm matron. Damn. I'm glad I'm fast. As I got to Vanessa's room I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I could hear the dorm matron getting closer. I looked down the hall and was glad that nobody was there to see this. I stared at the door, concentrating as hard as I could, and chuckled when it clicked open. Guess the powers are useful.