Darkness Bound

Summary: Takes place after Shadow Kiss (oblivious of Blood Promise ;D) Just when Rose thinks she's finally found Dimitri, her world is turned upside down again. After meeting Dimitri's friends and family, her search for him becomes more complicated than ever. The investigation deepens, and Rose stumbles across a startling discovery: "What do mean, Mason was wrong?"

A/N: Wasn't that just the most horrendous summary you've ever seen in your life? Wow. I'm amazed at how much the summary sucked .. And like a said, I'm ignoring Blood Promise completely :), so the names are different. And Hell yeah, Dimitri ain't Strigoi! Anyway, yeah…I started writing this around idk…February, 2009? It's just been lying around, and I figured that I should at least get half the story done before posting it. That's epic-failed. I'm putting it up anyway. By the way, I'm really not trying to rip off Spirit Bound's title. I just noticed that like two minutes ago….And without further ado…The Prologue!

~Prologue~

Rhonda shuffled her tarot cards uneasily, there was no mistaking it. The man who she had just preformed a reading for; she couldn't believe how long it took her to figure out that he was Zoya's grandson. Should she call Zoya? Rhonda defiantely owed it to her, afterall, she had learned to do Tarot reading from her. But to tell her that her only grandson was to suffer such a fate, it would be too cruel.

A knock on the door startled her out of her reverie, the Dragomir princess stuck her head in, "Excuse me, but can you please tell me what element you specialized in?"

Rhonda found that to be a strange question. But then again, if she had answered truthfully, it would be equally as strange. Though it was true that she had specialized in air, she always had a low concentration of power in the other three elements, and her mastery of air wasn't exactly what one would call stellar. Then again, all those who could tell the future were had somewhat of the same condition, some not able to specialize at all. There would be no point in telling the princess though, what would she care? Vasilisa would probably just blow it off and think her a freak.

"Air, why?" she asked, summoning up a breeze to hide her half lie.

The princess sighed, "Nothing, thank you," before closing the door.

Somehow, in between the princess' question and her sudden departure, Rhonda made her choice. After all, she'd rather just call Zoya rather than having her fellow seer figure it out herself. Picking up the phone, she dialed slowly, just in case she chickened out at the last moment.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three.

And just when the finger on the "end call" button twitched to hang up, a voice sounded over the line. "Алло?"

The was no turning back now. Rhonda tentatively began, "Hello, Zoya? It's me Rhonda, your student?"

The woman on the other end immediately transitioned from Russian to slightly accented English, "Ah, Rhonda, how have you been? It's been a while since we last spoke,"

"Listen, I met your grandson today," Uneasiness dripped from every word.

"Oh, you did? How is Dimitri?"

"Fine. For now. I looked at the cards, and the outlook isn't too bright," There was a sharp intake of breath over the line, but when Zoya spoke, she wasn't panicked.

"Well," Zoya said calmly, "I guess we'll just have to alter the future,"

Mason found his flickering form in the snowy landscape of Siberia, listening to the wind howl but not really feeling its sting against his skin. This, apparently, is where the Strigoi had gone.

But where were they?

Looking left and right he saw that there not only were no Strigoi, there were no living creatures whatsoever. They had certainly chosen a place out of the way of humanity. Letting himself drift across the landscape, he searched for any sign of the living, well, the undead.

He neared some caves nearly buried in snow. They couldn't have gone far-

There.

A lone figure stood in front of the caves, clad in a duster and pale purple scarf. His gut feeling was that it was a Strigoi, for some reason, spirits seemed to have an inclination against the Strigoi, and always could tell the living from the not-quite-dead.

He floated right to the figure, thinking that since no one else could see him, this one would be no exception. Indeed, the Strigoi's red eyes stared right through him. Looking the vampire closely in the face, Mason tested his memory for faces.

He was not happy with the result.

Belikov? Mason groped for an alternative in his head, but there was none. It had to be. This strigoi was none other than Guardian Dimitri Belikov. Had he been captured by the Strigoi and turned?

Oh man, oh man, oh man. Not good. What am I going to tell Rose? She'll go into hysterics! She'll try to kill him! She'll get herself killed! Christ, why do I always get stuck in situations like this? Mason was almost in hysterics himself. What was he supposed to do? Lie?

"Mason! Mason, I NEED you! Mason!"

Rose's voice suddenly seemed to boom through the empty landscape, and Mason almost sighed, he hadn't expected her to demand information before he could come up with something!

Letting himself fade out of Siberia, he let Rose's will pull him to her. She was in the on-campus church, a look of wild desperation on her face. Her eyes were red, and she looked like she hadn't eaten or slept in days.

"Mason," she sounded like she was already in hysterics, "is Dimitri dead?"

A bolt of pain shot through Mason's un-beating heart. He had almost nodded, but he couldn't. He couldn't lie to Rose. Not when it mattered this much.

Hesitating, he shook his head slowly.

Now he saw a burst of hope, "is he alive?"

It took all his will to shake his head again. I'm sorry Rose. I'm so, so sorry.

It was as if her world had shattered to pieces in the instant that she understood the weight, the meaning, of his responses.

"Mason…is Dimitri…a strigoi?"

Averting his gaze, Mason nodded, a pained expression on his face.

"Looks like your time here is up, Mase, you deserve to be on the other side," Rose looked up at him, smiling grimly.

Mason merely smiled back, he'd miss Rose, but he was tired of wandering Earth, not being seen or heard. Closing his eyes, he prepared to see the "heaven" or "hell" he'd always been told about.

Instead, he once again found himself in front of the caves in Siberia.

Belikov was there again, but this time, he didn't stare through Mason.

He was leering right at him.

What a sinister, wicked sneer. As if to say, I've got you now. Finally, Mason noticed something that would change everything. This was definitely not Dimitri Belikov.

Oh, God. This would everything. Heaven could wait, he needed to get back to Rose-

The Strigoi doppelganger's smile widened, finally speaking in a light soprano voice, "Back to your girl? I'm sorry to say you won't be there to see her," With a cold laugh, the strigoi waved her hand, and Mason felt himself being willed away. He began to cross the border to the "other side." Struggling in vain to stabilize his increasingly flickering figure, his voice sounded in the human world with stunning clarity.

Rose! You're in danger!

The Strigoi smirked at the empty space where Mason had been and suddenly a bone-chillingly wicked laugh echoed through the desolate space.

Well, that's the prologue ^^; chapter one will be up in a few days! Sorry for any mistakes, I'm terrible at spelling grammar and stuff of the like.

Please review if its not too much trouble! Flames will be used soley for my entertainment.