Authors Note: Hey guys! So I have had this idea for awhile and today I thought I would go ahead and write it. This story takes place AFTER Last Sacrifice. I really hope you like it. You might have questions when you start reading it, but they get answered towards the end. :)

Shattered Souls
Chapter One
Frustration

Something I hated to admit was how much I payed attention to time. How I knew exactly how many months, how many weeks, days and even hours it had been since my life had changed. If anything, my memory was stronger then ever. I literally could remember every second of everyday. I could remember yesterday just as clearly as I could remember 10 months ago. I could remember smells, sights and voices that I hadn't seen or heard since 10 months ago. Was this a good thing? Was it good I could still see their faces, hear their voices and know their scents as if they were right in front of me? The answer was a big stinging No. I guess the only relief to remembering everything so well is that I wasn't hurt by it. Nope, I was not pained by the fact that my dhampir life was over. I wasn't pained that I would never speak to or see those I had once loved.

I did wish they would piss off from my thoughts though.

Being awakened was never part of my plans. As dhampirs, we hated Strigoi and would have rathered died then have become something as terrible, evil, twisted and dangerous as what I now am. Is life any easier? Well, not exactly, now that I had taken charge of the way things run around here things could become well... stressful. Is life better? Absoloutely. I was immortal, fearless and powerful. Killing had become second nature to me. It was easy. And it was fun.

Tonight was not any different from most nights. I was at one of the cities most popular nightclubs "The Crack of Dawn" It was a Friday night so the club was packed with humans when I walked in. I expected to walk in and feel like I was in heaven with the different smells of blood but instead the first thing I noticed was the sweet smell of sweat and alchol that felt almost overpowering to my already hightened senses. Groups of people were dancing to the loud music, their bodies grinding against one another. It was more packed then ever tonight so getting through the crowd and over to the bar was a challenge. And like always, I was not in a very patient mood.

"Move," I growled as I pushed through a group of teenagers who had obviously used fake I.D's to get into this place. When they didn't hear me, or chose not to, I pushed them out the way. One girl fell into the next who fell into the next who fell ontop of one of the teenage boys. I don't think he minded.

I was just a few feet from the bar when a young guy with dark hair walked infront of me. He had so much sweat dripping from his hair I would have thought he had just stepped out of a shower if it wasn't for the smell. He was taller then me, so I took a step back in case any of that disgusting sweat dripped onto my beautifully clean hair. On some people, a little bit of sweat isn't such a bad smell, it can be sexy even. On this guy, it wasn't just a little and it was disgusting.

I told him to move out of my way but he was that wasted, I was sure he hadn't even understood what the word 'move' meant.

"Hey there!" He slurred, a huge grin appearing on his face as he looked me up and down. I was wearing a tight lace black dress and high heeled boots. Needless to say though, I wasn't feeling very "flattered" by the way this guy was checking me out.

"Are you deaf?" I sneered. He laughed, and I really didn't like when people laughed at me when I wasn't joking.

"No need to get nasty, baby. Do you wanna dance?" He felt so confident in himself, I could tell.

Before I could answer he stepped closer to me and went to touch my arse. It would only take him a second to realise that that was a bad idea. Before he could cop a good feel I grabbed his hand and gave it a quick squeeze. A squeeze that instantly snapped every bone in his hand.

He screamed in agony, falling to the ground cradleing his hand.

I sighed and put my hands on my hips. "It's too bad this music is so loud, isn't it? No one can hear you."

It was true. Not a single person had seen this guy wrathing around on the ground in pain, and no-one could hear him over the loud thumping song.

I quickly became bored of watching him. I walked over to the bar and sat down on one of the black stools and ordered a drink.

I was having a shit day. First of all I had found out 10 of the Strigoi I was working with had been killed when they ran into guardians who had outnumbered them. It had been their own stupid faults, when word got out there was a Royal moroi family on vacation only a block away from where we were all staying, they teamed up and decided they were going to kill him. I could have told them Royals such as Prince Sebastion and his family would have at least 20 guardians on look out.

"Dickheads" I muttered to myself. We were now dramatically down on numbers for our plan. You see, for months I had been planning an attack that would change all things as the vampire world knew it. I wanted lines to finally be set that it wasn't the Royal Moroi or guardians running the show. It was us - well - particularly me. I wanted to bring the Royal court down. And by down I mean, killed, gone. Forever. But I wasn't stupid enough to think I could do that on my own. I needed numbers. I needed an army of strigoi behind me. Losing 10 good fighters was a huge blow to my plan.

It was extremely hard to get strigoi to work together. We all hold too much hatred to everything and everyone around us, even our own kind. I was not overally thrilled about working with them all either and if I thought I could I would take the whole court down on my own. But that just wasn't possible.

"Mind if I sit?" A cool voice brought me out of my heated thoughts. I was about to tell them to fuck off and sit somewhere else, when I realised who it was. I rolled my eyes as he sat before I could answer.

"What are you doing here, Leo?" I asked coldly.

He didn't react to my tone of voice, he never did. "What do you think?" his voice was also cold, even more so then mine. Like always, I was less then happy to see Leo. Leo was a tall man with dark hair and just like all Strigoi Leo had pale skin, red eyes and he was dressed to perfection, neat and tidy. Leo was always relaxed, too relaxed in a way that was creepy and absoloutly terrifying to not just humans, but other Strigoi. Leo would have been about 30 when he was changed, but he had lived for over 200 years as a Strigoi. He was also the Strigoi who awakened me.

Even to me, Leo was scary. He was unbelievably powerful and strong. He was never happy, but never mad. I had only once ever seen Leo get angry. And it wasn't something I wanted to see again. Leo hadn't awakened many before me, in fact I had no idea who else Leo had ever awakened. Strigoi don't usually stay close to those who changed them, but Leo liked to stay close to me. Not in a I-care-about-you way more in a don't-forget-who-gave-you-this-life way. He wanted me to feel privledged that someone as great and almighty as himself had chosen to awaken me. Why he had chosen me though, I still had no idea.

"Would you like a drink, buddy?" The bartender asked Leo.

Leo was studying me in a way that sent shivers down my spine, and not in a good way. I always made it important to never let him see how intimidated I got. Even after 10 months of knowing Leo, I felt like I would know more about a complete stranger then him.

He took so long to reply to the bartender I wondered if he was even going to. But finally without blinking he turned to him.

The bartender seemed like an alright guy. He looked in his late thirties and had tattoos all down his arm. I could have a good guess that he got those tattoo's to look like a "tough guy" when it was quite obvious with the soft look on his face, he was anything but.

After catching Leo's eye contact the man immediatly stepped back, it wasn't even because of his red eyes because I knew in the light a human had no way of seeing exactly what color anyone's eyes were. No, it was just the reaction everyone had to Leo. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

"No." Leo said. "As I am not techniqually alive, I don't drink. Well, I don't drink alchol, that is." He said in that dead, emotionless tone he always held. He then turned his attention to me and my drink. "Hmm. Neither does she, which makes me wonder why you have one, Rose?"

The bartenders eyes widened in shock. Wordlessly he let out a breath and walked away shakily taking an order from a different customer. Obviously, the human bartender didn't believe Leo, but just speaking to him had him all shaken up.

"It's all an illusion," I replyed to Leo, smirking. Like I said, I don't like Leo knowing how intimadating I find him.

He said nothing else.

After some silence my eyes narrowed and I spoke up, "I asked you a question, Leo."

"I replied, Rose."

I gritted my teeth. "Yeah, with another questio-"

"Which you never answered." His dark eyes were emotionless as he stared at me, daring me to continue.

I felt like screaming at him that he wasn't being fair, but Leo didn't have to be fair, I realised. He got his own way whether you liked it or not. And I most certainly did not like it.

I glared at him. "What, are you spying?"

"I actually have some news." He said calmly.

Now you tell me.

"What news?"

Leo always liked to take his time before answering a question, and it annoyed the shit out of me. He glanced away watching the bartender pour a lady a drink. "I was speaking to Jason earlier after he had gotten back from-" he paused. "You know who Jason is, right?"

"Actually no-"

"Anyway," he cut me off before I could answer. I bit my tounge. Bastard. "He was telling me about some news that he found out from sources at Royal Court."

I straightened up. I really hoped that they hadn't somehow found out about our plan to attack next month. "And who were these 'sources' from?"

Leo was examining my drink like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Queen Vasilissa Dragomir."

I got a weird sickly feeling within my chest. Lissa...

I knew Lissa, and everyone else was still living at the Royal Court. If I was being honest to myself me planning this attack there had a lot to do with them. I wanted them gone. Lissa, Christian, my mother, my father, Adrian and... Dimitri. I didn't dare to think about Dimitri, it brought many unwelcomed feelings. I wanted. them. gone. I wasn't sure why I felt such a strong hatred to them, maybe it was the feeling I got everytime I heard their name or everytime a memory of my time with them as a Dhampir hit me in the face and made me feel weak. If I was to kill them, surely all that would stop.

When I turned back to Leo he had stopped looking at my drink and was instead looking at me. I knew he found enjoyment in seeing me squirm when the names of people from my dhampir life were mentioned. Leo was good at reading me. He was my creator, after all. The day Dimitri, Christian and I took Lissa to the mall so she could chose the right outfit to wear on her first day as Queen. He was there, lurking in the shadows. I had thought he was making an attack for Lissa, but no, he was making an attack for me. He showed me life as a Strigoi. He was there, watching me as I made my first kill. And although now I loved my life as a Strigoi.

For some reason, I still hated him for it.

And right now, his staring was really getting to me. "Would you fucking stop with the staring already?" I hissed, showing my fangs. I thought I saw anger boil in his eyes but it left as quickly as it came. Because Leo had been a Strigoi for so long, it was hard to tell what he had been in his previous life. He had never told me, of course. But by the way he liked to hide any emotion I guessed he was once a Dhampir. I continued "What did 'the Queen' say?"

The corner of Leo's mouth twitched in cruel amusement. "They are sending him again Rose. Somebody told them you were still... alive."

The glass I was holding I must have gripped too tightly because it smashed, splashing my full drink everywhere and sending pieces of glass all over the table and floor. My hand was cut from the glass and red blood was slowly pouring from it. From the corner of my eye, I saw Leo smirk, stand and silently walk away.

"Jesus! Are you alright?" The bartender asked me, looking at my bleeding hand he rushed off to get a cloth, by the time he got back my hand had completely healed. The man looked completely puzzled. "Um... Uh.."

I stood up to leave. I had originally planned to take this bartender out in the alleyway and drain him dry but thought since he had been so nice, I would let him live out his precious little life. I winked at him. "Thanks for the drink."

When I got outside my mind got the better of me and I started to panic. When Leo said him, I knew he meant Dimitri. This wasn't the first time Dimitri had tried to find me, either. It had been less then a week after I was turned I had heard he was on a crazed search to find me. It was like the roles had been seriously reversed when I thought back to when Dimitri had been a Strigoi when I was still in high school, and I had set out to kill him. This time was different though, after Dimitri the vampire world knows it's possible to reverse the effects of being Strigoi. Dimitri and Lissa know this better then anyone else, they know it can be done and they had tried their hardest for two months to find me. They never did. After months of searching I had told a Strigoi I knew to relay the message, that I had been killed. They stopped looking for me after that, obviously believing it.

Familiar anger built up in me and I punched the street light pole next to me, causing a dint. This had ruined my plan of attacking the court. I felt mad, stressed and maybe even a little... worried. I had to now make sure I was never caught of guard, because if I was Dimitri and Lissa could change me. I could be a sad, hopeless Dhampir again. I couldnt let that happen.

I knew what I had to do. Destroying the court would have to wait. If I wanted to ensure my safety I would have to fight back. I was going to find Dimitri and Lissa before they found me.

And this time, I knew I wouldn't hesitate.

A/N: Any good? Everyone says this but PLEASE REVIEW I need to know if I should continue?