Title: The Tale of The Missing Queen?

Author: Magan

Description: Vampires, Dhampir's, and Humans are suddenly dying. Evidence points to vampires. Queen Vasilisa decides to step in and calls a town meeting when the Royal Families are in an uproar, but then all hell breaks loose.

Disclaimer1: I don't own these characters.

Disclaimer2: I'm borrowing an idea from The Vampire Diaries, but it is central to the story, so I won't give it away. Only fans of VD will know what story it is.

Disclaimer3: There's mention of of a previous story that I wrote, A New Beginning.

Chapter 1

It had been awhile since my friends and I had to go on the run, but lately with all the mass killings, it was looking more and more like we were going to have to leave soon. My instincts had been telling me something was coming soon. Call it a premonition, intuition, whatever, I don't know. All I knew it was going to be bad.

Everyone told me I was being paranoid, but I didn't care. It's better to be safe than sorry. Right? So I upped the number of Guardians here at court to protect our queen and my best friend Lissa. She called a special meeting for all the royal families here at court to reassure everyone that everything in our power was being done to protect us.

We gathered in the Queen Tatiana dining room. It was one of the smaller dining rooms the court had. Everything was rebuilt after the big attack a few years ago. It was new and different and we had upped our protection.

On the far wall there were eight perfectly aligned windows that looked out upon a large lake. It was very picturesque like a Norman Rockwell painting. The walls were painted in a soft glowing gold color. A large painting of former Queen Tatiana, hung next to the front entrance. On the other side of that, was a large mural of court as it had been before it was destroyed in the battle in the last battle.

At the back of the room, a bar had been set up. Many of the royals were already there waiting for drinks to be served.

For this particular get together, Lissa wanted a large round table in the middle of the room. It was a simple table made of oak. Rumor has it; the table once belonged to a Moroi who had once been one of The Knights of The Round Table. Yeah, I'm not so sure I believe that.

Ahead of me and Dimitri, Lissa and Christian had walked in confidently. Lissa was wearing a pink dress suit, her hair in a loose bun with wispy hair framing her face. Christian was in a black suit looking stylish.

All at once, everyone stopped to greet their queen and Lord Ozera as she walked by her. Lissa and Christian made their way to their seats at the large oak table.

I am so nervous.Lissa thought.

You will do fine!

I hope so!

On the outside, Lissa was so calm and posed; she was a natural at this, but the inside, she was a bundle of nerves.

Turning towards me, Lissa gave me a quick smile as a way for saying thank you for that.

As I took my place behind Lissa, the meeting was slowly starting to come to order. I glanced over at Dimitri and he was standing behind Christian as were all the other guardians, who had were assign their Moroi's.

"All right..." Lissa finally spoke. "This meeting will come to order…We are well aware of the mass murders taking place outside Court and the schools. We're all on edge understandably. It has put us on high alert. We're doing everything that we can to stop this. It's going to take some time and we're going to need a little help from Moroi's." She paused to look at the royals before beginning again. "I realize that some of you maybe against using your magic to fight, but this…This is exactly what we need to protect ourselves. We can't expect our Guardian's to take up the slack. We lose too many of them when Strogoi attack us on the outside. We have to be on guard 100% or this will not work!" She glanced over at Christian and he gave her a wink as a way of giving her confidence to go on.

As guardian's we have to keep an eye on everything. No stone unturned as they say. If we falter just a little, then we lose our Moroi.

This meeting was drawing on and on.

Tell me about it, but it will be over soon! Then we can get the hell out of here and go shopping. Have a girls' day.

That sounded so tempting. When was the last time we had a girls' night out?

A couple of weeks ago!

That long? Wow! And no, we're not leaving court. We will do everything here.

We never really had to leave court. There were many different things to do. We could go shopping, having dinners, go to the theaters, you name it; we had it here. Having all those outlets here made the Moroi feel a little less scared and more likely to go on their lives without necessarily leaving the compound. Any meetings we had were usually conducted via Skype or by fan.

Tuning into the meeting once again, I heard a few Moroi agree with Lissa's stance, while others had fought her tooth and nail over it. It was like that since she had become Queen. It brought me back to the time Christians' aunt was raising the very same issues of protection; many of the Moroi had objected then too. Some Moroi are to stuck on the old ways. I think it was just because they were scared.

We're all scared, but we can't sit back and do nothing!Lissa thought.

A small pop went off to the western side of the building that caught my attention.

It's nothing. A car backfiring.Lissa dismissed my concerns.

It could be; we weren't far from the highway. Then I heard it again, this time, it was a lot closer.

That's not nothing!

I heard the load pop again when I glanced at Dimitri. He was in guardian mode, I could tell. He was looking everywhere for whatever little attacks that might happen. I saw him lean in and whisper something to Christian. No doubt Dimitri was alerting him of what was going on.

"What was that?" One of the Moroi had asked his voice shaky. He glanced over at Lissa, but she was just starring off into space.

"I don't know…" Another Moroi had asked. He glanced up at his guardian. "What is going on?"

"We should go!" The Guardian urged the Moroi to leave.

I heard over my ear piece that Strogoi were at Court.

"Oh my god!" A female had overheard it and screamed.

All hell was breaking loose!

Lissa, I think we should go!

A moment later, another guardian came over our ear pieces to say that we had casualties.

Dammit!

Lissa did not reply to my plea. So I leaned forward and said, "Come on, we have to go!"

Still nothing there was no reply. It was as if she were under a spell. I quickly did a sweep around the room to see if anyone was using compulsion on her. It didn't appear to be anyone that I could see using their powers on her.

Lis!The door to our connection was snapped closed, forcing me out completely.

"Lissa!" I was frantic now that I couldn't get back to her mentally. "Dammit! We have to go."

Suddenly I saw a guardian flying through the air. Holly shit!

All at once, everyone started to scramble around; it was becoming chaotic to stay. The guardians were rushing to get their Royals out of the room and into the safe room, but some were frozen in fear. I needed to deal with Lissa. I couldn't reach her telepathically, nor could I answer her verbally. She wouldn't even move at all.

"What's wrong?" Christian finally looked over at us, worried.

"I don't know!" I felt helpless, but I wasn't getting up.

When I glanced up, I Strogoi had rushed in.

"Christian…Dimitri!" I looked for both of them and when I spotted them I said, "Get out of here!"

"Not going anywhere without her!" Christian turned to Lissa, "Baby, get up!" He coaxed, trying to pull Lissa up to stand. "Come with me!" But she didn't budge.

Another explosion rocked the whole room. It was close. What the hell was with these Strogoi? They sure liked their explosions.

I felt bad for Christian. He did not want to leave Lissa behind. I didn't want to leave her either.

"Don't worry." Dimitri placed his hand on Christian's shoulder. "Rose will get her out of here."

There was another explosion, knocking us around. Damn, it was getting even closer.

"We've got to go." Dimitri gave me a quick glance. "Be careful!"

I nodded, then whispered, "Go!"

Dimitri replied with a nod of his own and then placed his hand on Christian's shoulder once again. "Come on!"

"Lissa..." Christian said one last time before Dimitri pulled him out the back door.

Still, there was no movement from her.

"Lissa!" I tried again to no avail.

I was so scared and I knew there was nothing that I could to help her, but I wouldn't give up.

"I have to stay and wait for him." She finally spoke.

Who did she mean? Christian? "Lissa, Christian is in the safe room. He's waiting. We have to go. Let's go. Let's not make him wait."

"He's here!"

I had a feeling she didn't mean Christian.

"Who is here?" I followed her gaze, everyone was trying to exit, but they didn't have a chance with Strogoi stopping them.

"Lissa, come on." I yanked her up and pulled her towards the back door.

"I have to go to him!" Lissa wrenched herself away.

"Lissa!" I reached for her again and she slipped through my fingers.

She started heading foray.

"Where are you going?"

"He's coming for me. I have to go!"

Who the hell was coming for her? I wondered and I looked up and saw a man coming towards us, slow and determined, and had his eyes only one Lissa.

The man was taller than Dimitri and built like him. He had long dark, silky hair hanging around his face and was very good looking, but at the same time scary as hell. Was he Moroi? No! Pale skin told me he was Strogoi, but there was something royal about him. I didn't know who he was and I knew most of the Royal's by name. I had to know them all; it was a requirement for being the Queen's Guardian.

The Strogoi looked so confident dressed in his black Armani suit.

"Lissa! We have to go."

Taking a quick glance at the war zone, I saw how horrible it had gotten in just a moments time. The Strogoi had taken over once again. Blood was shed. It was everywhere. Bodies of guardians and Moroi strewed all over. The Royal and the Guardians had been decimated yet again. A few had of the Royals had the good sense to head for the hills.

If I had to guess, the Strogoi knew there were going to be a meeting here today with all the Royals. That meant that we had a leak somewhere and this was a planned attack, well thought out plan.

My instincts were screaming at me RUN! RUN NOW! Dimitri's lessons coming back to me. Sometimes you just got to run like hell!

There was no time. I just grabbed Lissa and tossed her over my shoulder and ran like hell!

"She's mine! You can't have her!" The Strogoi bellowed at me.

I didn't have the guts or the wits to give him a reply. My only concern was getting the hell out of here and protecting Lissa. But I didn't get very far, I felt myself flying through the air. I tried my best to hold on to Lissa, but we hit the wall hard. My head smacked against it and I was seeing stars. I had a head injury. I knew that from experience. I had had many over the years.

Warm liquid slid down my face and into my eyes. It was my blood. It was bad. I could tell when I tried to get up, but the room seemed to move all around me. I had to close my eyes to stop it from moving.

"Lissa!" I yelled whipping the blood out of my face.

I blinked a few times to clear my vision when Lissa finally looked at me. Really looked at me. Whatever trance she had been in, she'd finally come out of.

"Rose!" She crawled over to me.

I'd noticed that her hair was out of place, but she still managed to look pretty. Me, I knew I must have looked like hell.

"Oh god, your head." The look on her face told me that I must have had a deeper than I thought.

Lissa placed her hand on my head and I felt the warmth radiate from her. It felt good. Felt like the wound was healing, but it suddenly changed. It felt cold and hard.

What are you doing?

"Lissa..."

I was weaker, unable to move. Frozen. She was draining me.

"STOP!" I managed to say, though it came out more like a whimper.

Lissa stopped, blinked a few times, and looked at me as if she were appalled at what she had done.

"Oh my god, what have I done to you?"

Fighting through whatever she was going through, Lissa tried to heal me once again. Her warmth went right through me, but it wasn't enough. I saw blackness and passed out. I hope that Dimitri or whoever would fine me. Find Lissa and take her away from here.

"Rose, get up!" I thought I heard Lissa say.

My eyes were forced open, though I barely had the strength to move. Lissa must be compelling me to do so. I saw the Moroi, no Strogoi coming for us. I thought he was handsome before, but up close, I was wrong. He was pure evil.

"Please don't hurt us!" I heard Lissa say. "NO! NO! Don't! Leave me alone! ROSE! HELP ME! Christian! Help! Dimitri!" She screamed, then I was out again, too weak to do anything.

Was she dead?

I knew I had to get up; I had to go, but how? I couldn't move.

TBC