Chapter 1:
Rose's POV
We all turned to a new voice, a voice dark and angry. Mason stood in the doorway, framed in light, holding my dropped gun. Isaiah studied him for a few moments.
I watched as my last hopes fell away, as Mason emptied all of the gun's bullets into Isaiah, eliciting no response at all from the ancient strigoi.
"Get out!" I screamed. He was still in the sun, still safe.
But he didn't listen to me. He ran towards us, out of his protective light.
"Shit!" I heard a voice weakly yell from outside.
Isaiah shoved me into Elena before Mason was halfway to us. Swiftly, Isaiah blocked and seized hold of Mason, exactly as he'd done to me earlier.
But as quickly as Isaiah had seized Mason, he screeched a deafening scream. I looked up to find that Isaiah was engulfed in flames. He fell to the ground, rolling around frantically, but it was of no use. He screamed until he was no more than a charred body. My stomach twisted and I had to fight back the urge to puke. Sure, it had been my goal to kill these strigoi and to get out of here alive, but watching a strigoi die in actuality is a hundred times worse than it was in my fantasies. Killing strigoi isn't glorious, it's brutal and revolting. It is something that has to be done and no more.
Elena screamed as she foolishly released her hold on me to kneel over Isaiah.
"Get out!" Yelled Mason.
"No!" I yelled back frantically. What if Elena killed more innocents? I had to make sure she wasn't a threat to anyone else anymore.
"Rose, you need to get out of there!" Yelled another voice, oh god, it was Mia. She should not have come back here. "Christian passed out after incinerating Isaiah. You have no weapon, all you can do is run!" She yelled frantically.
Just as I realized she was right, Elena promptly got up and charged towards me.
"You will pay for this!" She snarled, her red eyes fuming with rage.
She sloppily lunged at me, and I was able to deflect her attack easily. However, as inexperienced as she may be, I am still weaponless.
Suddenly, the aquarium beside us exploded, and water began to suffocate Elena. She hopelessly pried at her face, trying to remove the water, but it was no avail. I looked back and saw Mia now working her magic on Elena. Why the hell is offensive magic not promoted heavily?
I picked up a glass shard before I could even think about what I was doing. I promptly shoved it into Elena's heart, just as I had done using a stake on dummies countless times in practice.
Elena screamed and passed out on the ground. She was surely not dead, but at least she was unconscious temporarily.
Searching around the room frantically, I found a decorative sword encased in a locked glass cabinet. Without even thinking about it, I kicked the glass until it shattered, and pulled the sword out.
I hastily rushed over towards Elena, sword in hand, probably looking like a maniac. But I didn't care. All I cared about was the pain that she had put my friends and I through. All I cared about were the innocents who lost their lives to her.
Pulling the sword up, I crashed it down against Elena's neck. I repeated the process over and over and over again. I barely even noticed the burn in my arms.
"Rose, she's dead!" whimpered Mia. "Rose, we have to go. Come on."
I only registered the noise in the back of my mind. My vision blurred as I began to stand up.
"Rose!" Mason yelled, rushing to my side.
"Mase," I moaned as I fell to the ground, my legs unable to hold me up anymore. I was breathing heavily and stars formed in my eyes.
"Rose, honey, please wake up." Begged a voice.
I groaned and opened my eyes, but immediately closed them back again after, needing to adjust to the light.
"Where is everyone?" I gasped, still unable to open my eyes.
"Everyone is ok," She replied reassuringly. With a startle I realized it was my mom. I opened my eyes and found myself in the school's infirmary. 'I'm really safe,' I thought to myself with a startle.
But as soon as I began processing everything, I was suffocated by memories of Spokane; Eddie slumped over from blood loss and the strong endorphins, Christian and Mia, deathly pale and weak, and Mason, only seconds away from death. And then I recounted the image of Isaiah's charred and unrecognizable body lying lifelessly, and Elena's head, lying separate from her body. It was all just too much. I couldn't control the tears that began to uncontrollably leak out of my eyes.
My mom wrapped her arms around me tightly, and rubbed my back soothingly.
"It's over, you are safe," She kept repeating as I cried my eyes out.
"Rose!" Squealed Lissa as she ran towards us. My mom hesitantly stepped away from me, and with one look at me, Lissa picked up where my mom had left off and pulled me into a hug. I hated feeling helpless like this. Through the bond, I could feel Lissa sending me soothing thoughts.
About an hour later, Dr. Olendsky told me that I was free to leave. I was thrilled to be leaving the infirmary, but I was upset that Dimitri hadn't come by to see me. He is probably too busy doing unspeakable things with Tasha. He's probably going to leave me.
I couldn't help but let loose another tear as I thought about Dimitri leaving, after everything. Sure, I had known before that him leaving was a possibility, but it all just seemed so much more real now. Wait, we are back at the academy. Tasha wouldn't be here. God dammit, maybe Dimitri is already gone.
"Mom, where is Dimitri?" I asked, unable to hold back the question.
"Guardian Belikov is on morning watch right now. Why?" She replied, curiosity lacing her features.
"I was just wondering," I replied evasively. I also let out a breath that I hadn't realized I had been holding. He hasn't left, yet.
"Come on Rose, you must be starving," said Lissa, grabbing my arm.
"I am," I replied. After not eating for days, I really was starving.
"Hold up!" exclaimed Dr. Olendsky. "I have printed out a strict meal plan for you for the next few days. You will get sick if you simply stuff your face with what looks good."
I groaned as I took the meal plan. Lissa then dragged me to lunch. I felt as if everyone's eyes were on me the moment I walked into the cafeteria. I could hear whispers, and the odd person even had the nerve to point at me as they gawked.
"Take a picture, it will last longer." I yelled to all of them. Most people turned away, embarrassed, but a lot of whispers still remained.
"Just ignore it," Urged Lissa. "For once, the gossip isn't bad. They are all worshipping you. You're like a hero."
"Me?" I asked, dumbstruck. It had been my fault that nearly all of us had been killed.
"Of course you," giggled Lissa. I ended up eating lunch at an isolated table with only Lissa. I was not in the mood to talk to people.
Later that night, I headed towards the locker room to get ready for my training with Dimitri. I found him curled up reading a Western novel in a supply room.
"I thought you might come by," he said. "But we aren't practicing today."
"If we aren't practicing, then why didn't you tell me that the practice is cancelled beforehand?" I asked angrily. I hated that Tasha had shoved this wedge between us. Even if we couldn't be together, I loved being able to at least be friendly with Dimitri. He was truly an amazing person.
"I didn't see you today." He replied, as if it were the most obvious reason in the world.
"But now that I'm here, let's practice. Dr. Olendsky said that I'm good to go."
"Sit down Rose," he replied. "I actually wanted to talk to you."
"About what?" I asked.
He shook his head at me. "You already know the answer." He replied lightly, but he took a breath and his facial expression turned deathly serious. But what surprised me most was that his guardian mask wasn't on. Looking into his beautiful brown eyes, I could see that he was upset.
"Rose, no one gets over their first kills easily." He began. "I can't believe you had to go through all of that. I'm just… I feel like I have failed you as a mentor for having allowed you to get yourself into that kind of situation."
"Dimitri, everything was my fault!" I replied. "I told Mason that there were strigoi in Spokane, and I chased after him with Christian without letting anyone know, and, I'm just so sorry Dimitri!" I cried, tears threatening to spill over again. I hated letting Dimitri down, and let's face it: I fucked up big time.
Dimitri lightly grabbed my hand. His long and powerful fingers rubbing soothing circles into my palm, I built up the courage to look up into his eyes.
"Roza, you made some bad decisions, but Mason and the others all did as well. You can't take all of the blame for this. I just want to make sure that you are ok, or well, as ok as you can be." He sighed as he tightened his grip on my hand. "Rose, when I saw you lying on the ground unconscious, in a pool of blood that I only later found out belonged to Elena, I was devastated. I thought you were dead. It felt like my heart had been ripped from me and smashed into the ground one thousand times over."
"I'm sorry," I cried, tears openly flowing from my eyes once more. "I should go," I said quickly, not wanting him to see me completely break down.
"Just wait Roza, I told her no." He said, just as I had let go of his hand.
I gave him a confused glance.
"I told Tasha no. I couldn't return her feelings for me because my heart belongs to someone else."
"But you seemed so into her. And you kept going on about how young I act." I replied.
"You are young in many ways Roza, but at the same time, you understand more than some guardians will in their entire lives. You understand me more than anyone ever has before. That day… You were right, about how I fight to stay in control. It scares me that you can figure that out about me while others who have been around me for years have not even come close to the same realization."
"But you conversed so easily with her," I told him, needing to make sure that he was sure of his decision to stay.
"It's just so hard sometimes with you Roza. It's like you can read me like a book, none of my secrets are secret around you. It makes me vulnerable. Tasha is simply a friend which is why it is so much easier at times to chat with her. And then you can factor in that I can't tell you half the things that I want to say to you. Roza, you drive me crazy sometimes. But I thought that being with Tasha would help me forget about you."
I had been doing the same thing, trying to forget about Dimitri by dating Mason. "But she couldn't."
"Yes. And, so… that's a problem."
"God dammit Dimitri," I yelled standing up. He seemed shocked by my outburst. "Why does it have to be a problem that I love you?" I exclaimed.
His eyes widened the moment that I told him that I loved him. 'Good one Rose,' I scolded myself. Now it was only going to be that much worse when he went into one of his Zen life lessons. And then we would ignore each other again, just like we always do whenever we get closest.
"You're a coward Dimitri!" I exclaimed. "So what if you're vulnerable? You think that I don't feel the same way?" I demanded angrily. "This is all just so stupid! I love you! Can't you see that us working together as a guardian pair is already impossible? If you feel the way about me that I feel about you, then staying away from each other is just idiotic, because I will still always mean more to you than any other moroi could."
I was breathing heavily by the time I had finished my little rant. Dimitri thought he was vulnerable, well he doesn't even understand the feeling compared to what I am feeling now. Standing there, I was nearly shaking with anticipation, awaiting Dimitri's response.
He openly stared at me, a tortured look in his eye.
"And in any case, we aren't Lissa's guardians yet." I added softly, making eye contact with him.
And then he did the last thing that I thought he would do. He kissed me. It was tentative at first, his lips moving on mine lightly and slowly, still unbelieving of what they were doing. But the kiss quickly deepened and I moaned as I wrapped my arms around him. He lifted one hand up to lightly cup my cheek and I nearly melted into him. I don't understand how he has this much of an effect on me. As the kiss continued, I could sense through Dimitri's moans and body language that his self-control was completely non-existent at the moment. I was no longer kissing Guardian Belikov, or the Russian god, or my mentor. No, I was kissing Dimitri, the man who understood and loved me more than anyone ever had before. Well, assuming he loves me at least.
"I love you Roza," he sighed as he broke the kiss. "I can't stay away from you any longer. I won't let anything bad happen to you, and I will love you for as long as you want me too."
I smiled brightly, as I wrapped my arms around him in a hug. Pulling back, I gazed into his brown eyes which were clearly filled with joy, and leaned in to kiss him again. Almost immediately, the kiss deepened and I found Dimitri's tongue begging for entrance which I happily granted. I don't really know how much time went by, but we were suddenly pulled apart when the door to the supply room was opened.
It was Mason.