Chapter 1 ''Mistakes''
POV: Lissa
I feel my heart pound in my chest, when I see a dark shadow appear out of nowhere. It moves closer to me. I'm in total shock. I know I should be running or something, but I just keep standing there.
The shadow becomes a silhouette of a man. I can't see his face, but he is tall, broad-shouldered and casually dressed. He looks familiar, but I still can't quite recognise him.
He moves even closer. ''Lissa, nice to see you again''
''Who are you? Who let you in here?'' I say. My hands become numb. Shit, I really don't need a panic attack right now. I clench my hands into fists, to prevent them from shaking.
"My time for revenge has come.'' The man moves closer to me and he's now a few feet away. The moonlight, coming through the window on the far left wall, shines on his face. Suddenly I recognise him. I hold my breath.
Nathan.
I try to contain my posture, but my knees feel too weak to hold me up and I feel like I can faint any moment. ''No, this can't be..'' I say quietly. I swallow hard and say louder this time ''I thought you were dead. I saw Rose kill you. I saw it..- '' I tried to keep my voice steady but I failed.
''You two left too quickly, you see. Never leave a Strigoi body, until you're sure it's dead. I thought Rose would have learned that lesson by now.'' Nathan says with a smirk on his face.
I glare at him, but soon enough I get too terrified to look at him any longer. I suddenly think about Christian. Back when he wasn't turned, when his body was still full of life. It's all Nathan's fault, because Christian got turned by him.
Nathan intentionally went for me, but Christian sacrificed his life for me and he got bit instead.
The memory hurts and I am on the verge of tears. Tears of grief, anger. I swallow and blink the tears away. He can't see me cry, I don't want to look weak.
My Christian is gone, because of him. He, who had turned Dimitri and now Christian.
I was going to let Moroi work together with the damphirs to make the cities safer. Nathan didn't want this to happen, so he followed me, Christian, Rose and our other guardians. We were in a truck heading towards Adrian in Palm Springs. We were going to talk about the tattoos that were supposed to prevent Strigoi from turning more innocents. On our way a group of Strigoi attacked us, knocking out all of our guardians, except Rose. Nathan started toward me and said he was going to turn me, but Christian set him on fire and the Strigoi started toward him and turned him. Rose staked him with a silver stake in his chest, but is was already too late. Christian was already turned. I fell to my knees beside Christian, but Rose grabbed my arms and pulled me up. ''He is going to awake soon. If we don't get out of here, we'll all be dead'' We started to run. We went to Court, told Dimitri about the attack and grabbed our stuff as quickly as possible. We took the first plane to Russia and decided to stay at Dimitri's old home in Siberia.
Rose was still at the house with Dimitri. I wanted to clear my head and went to a nearby church. Rose insisted on going with me, but I wanted to go alone. I needed to go alone. I don't want her to dedicate her whole life to me. I thought I could take care of it on my own.
But apparently I can't, because here I am, standing in front of a Strigoi who wants to kill. My life really sucks.
I start to back away, but Nathan grabs my arms and leans closer toward me and looks me right in the eye. I can see the red ring around his pupil and I shudder. He has the terrible smell of decay, blood and cologne.
''Where do you think you're going? '' he says. His grip is so tight it hurts.
''Let me go!'' I scream. I feel powerless.
I try to think of something that will help me escape this place.
Suddenly I think about compelling him, but I don't think I'm able to compel a Strigoi.
''Look, your highness, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. You can go with me and keep your mouth shut or I can make you go with me. I assure you, it won't be pleasant.''
I keep trying to break myself free from his grip, but I know it's useless. He a Strigoi and I'm a Moroi. I don't stand a chance. But still, somewhere in me, I know I can't go with him. I have to do anything to get away.
I kick him in his balls, but it just feels like I'm kicking an iron bar. The only thing I have accomplished is that my foot hurts now.
He smiles and says ''I assume you want it the hard way then'' He throws me against the wall and the impact knocks the breath out of me. My vision turns blurry and fades away, until I see nothing but black.