Chapter 1
"You can't keep me here!" I screamed. I struggled against my restraints, causing the ropes to scratch against my arms. They had tied me to a chair and taken my stake out of my boot, being careful to not touch it since the silver surface would burn their skin on contact.
"And what are you going to do about it?" Dominique snarled, clearly annoyed.
That made me go quiet. What was I going to do? I hadn't really thought about that. All I knew was that I needed to escape and get back to Eric. I needed to find him and make sure he was ok.
"Exactly," he said. "Now be a good little Dhampir and stay quiet. The boss will be here soon."
Damn, I thought to myself. How did this all happen? And what was that horrible creature, or as this one calls it "the boss", going to do with me? And why does everyone call him boss? Was he going to kill me? No, I couldn't let that happen. I'd sworn to protect Eric, and that's what I'd do.
3 hours earlier
"Is the sun bothering you too much?" I asked my Moroi charge, Eric Ivashkov. We were walking around his favorite mall, him shopping and me carefully watching everything, looking for any threats or signs of Strigoi.
"No, it'd take more than this to wear me out," he smiled.
I took a second to sneak a glance at him, and saw that magnificent smile that I had grown fond of. Usually fangs creeped me out, but on him they didn't bother me at all. I had been protecting him for the last 3 months since I graduated from the academy. I was only 17, having always been younger than everyone else in my class. Eric was 18, and over time I had grown attached to him.
Stay focused, I reminded myself. No daydreaming on the job. That could get us both killed.
As I tuned back in to my surroundings, I automatically knew I had made a mistake. Something was wrong. We had wandered off to an abandoned part of the mall, and all of a sudden we were surrounded by three strigoi. I grabbed by stake and pushed Eric behind me. He was frozen in fear. One of them, appearing to be the leader, lunged forward and tried to grab me, probably sensing me as the threat. But he had underestimated how fast I was, and when he got close enough, I scratched him across the face with my stake, leaving a deep cut. Most strigoi would have screamed in pain, but he only grunted and continued his pursuit. He yelled some command in a language I couldn't figure out right then to the other two, and they went on either side of me. Meanwhile, the leader went around me, and all at once they lunged at us, two at me and the leader at Eric. I dodged the first one's hit to my stomach, and quickly plunged my stake into her heart, pulling it out just in time to dodge the other one attempting to reach for my neck. I heard a scream behind me, and turned around to see the leader strigoi starting to drag Eric away. I ran up behind him and tried to stake him, but he sensed me coming and turned just in time to slam his arm into my chest, sending me flying into a nearby wall. He was stronger than any strigoi I'd ever come across. But I had been trained for this since I was young. So I got up without being fazed and ran back over to him, jumping onto his back which surprised him enough that he let go of Eric and tried to get me off of him. He flipped me off of his back with grace that I thought should be impossible for a strigoi, and I landed between Eric and the two remaining strigoi.
"Run!" I yelled at Eric, and he fled without hesitation. The leader studied me, probably deciding if I was worth the trouble. Apparently deciding I was, he lunged at me, pinning me to the ground. I tried every maneuver I'd ever learned to try and free myself, but he didn't budge at all and only coldly smiled down at me in amusement.
"Someone probably heard all that noise, so the cops will probably be here soon boss," the strigoi told the one in charge.
"Don't you think I know that Dominique?" the boss snarled, looking up finally. "Let's just grab her and get out of here."
As I continued to struggle, the boss tossed me over his shoulder as though I weighed nothing and walked casually over to the exit door while I pounded on his back. I had stuck my stake in my boot before I had jumped on his back, so it was useless to me now as I vainly struggled to free myself. Next thing I knew, I was outside in the cool night's fresh air, and being tossed into the back of a black van. I saw the other strigoi, Dominique, dragging the dead strigoi's body along and tossing the body behind a dumpster so that in the morning the body would incinerate. The van doors slammed behind me, and as much as I pounded and kicked them, they wouldn't open.
The van lurched forward as the strigoi drove at speeds that were most likely illegal. A thick glass wall separated the front portion of the van from the back where I was being kept. However, I still screamed as loudly as I could, hoping that someone would hear. Although, I knew it was probably pointless since this van was most likely sound proof. I didn't even want to know how many people had been locked in here, especially considering the recent looking blood smears along the walls. That's when I noticed the limp body thrown in the corner. It was a human girl, about my age. I crawled over to her, and felt her pulse. She was alive, but just barely. There was blood coming from her head, like someone had hit her head against a wall. Then I noticed the bite mark on her neck, and noticed that a chuck of it had been ripped out. I doubted she would survive very long in this condition without some kind of medical attention.
The drive took at least 3 hours, and when the van finally stopped, I was ready to attack. The back doors opened, and I leapt out to pounce on whoever I saw first. Except, when I looked around, I didn't see anyone. Then, Dominique jumped off from the roof of the van and landed on me, knocking me to the ground.
"Have Fred take the unconscious one to the others, and take this one inside to my room," the boss told Dominique.
Wait others? As in more strigoi? For all I knew, I could be about to enter a nest of evil, blood-thirsty, undead vampires just in time for dessert. I didn't want to die this young, especially since I had only earned four molnija marks so far, well five counting the one at the mall.
That was when I felt a sharp pain all of a sudden in the back of the head. The last thing I remember before passing out was seeing a huge blue three-story house, surrounded by a tall maze in every direction. Then everything went black.
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