Hi guys! This is my first story so pleeeease R&R! I would love any type of feedback! I hope you enjoy it! Also if you have any stories that you would like see come to life but don't have the time to write them or something just message me and I would love to try and write them for you! And if you have a story that you wrote and want me to check it out totally tell me and I will! I'm really passionate about writing and books, especially the Vampire Academy! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Academy or any of its characters...Although I do wish I owned Dimitri ;)
Downfall
The caves were a good twenty-minute run from the academy and my legs ached more, and more with each step. The Academy had gone under a Strigoi attack, and seven other guardians and I were on our way back from a rescue mission. I don't know if you would qualify it as successful, considering we had left with thirteen guardians and only returned with seven. Nevertheless, it did not matter. They come first.
"The gates! Up ahead!" I guess Stan found it necessary to alert us of the obvious, massive gates looming ahead of us. I heard Dimitri scoff next to me. I glanced up at his smirking, drop dead gorgeous lips.
"What?" I asked innocently, which just got more of a smile out of him. I lived for those smiles that light up his face; he made me feel like a giddy thirteen-year-old when I broke through his hard exterior. He only answered my question with a quick dart of his eyes towards a gasping for air, noodled legged Stan. I giggled and stopped abruptly when I noticed the gates only a few feet from me. Maybe I did need Stan to point out the obvious, especially when I had my Russian god distracting me.
Once we were all inside the safety of the gates wards, Alberta took no hesitation in reminding us all that we had not come back with everyone we had originally left with.
"I need volunteers to collect bodies tomorrow. We will need to leave at dawn, no need to waste time - we still might be able to save a few," she added gravely. I could tell by the looks on everyone's faces that they doubted there would be anyone left to save.
I shifted my weight towards Dimitri and whispered, "Is it true? Can we still save them?" He looked down at me, pensive.
"I…I don't know Roza." Doubt dripped off his words, but I could not let that stop me from hoping, hoping to save at least one guardian that had given up their life to save a Moroi. Dimitri sensed what I was going to do before I even had the chance to launch my hand into the air.
"Rose, no-"
"I want to help." Alberta looked at Dimitri's malaise expression and me curiously.
"I believe you've been through enough these past couple of days, Miss Hathaway. You do not need to see guardians in – in a state of such decimation." No, I have not just proved myself far beyond my years, to be stripped down to a seventeen-year-old novice, again.
"I agree, Guardian Petrov. Rose does not need to be subjected to seeing her superior's dead." Ouch. I had gathered from Dimitri's earlier attempt at masking my volunteering hand that he didn't want me going back to the caves but I definitely didn't expect him to openly try to stop me. However, before I could get my arguments about this stupidity out, my mother beat me to it.
"I see no reason, or proof as to why Rose cannot be subjected to such decimation," was that sarcasm I heard in my mother's voice? "All she has done in the past twenty fours is prove that she is more than capable of handling anything an official guardian can." I was astonished. Janine has been known to be terse, and she was especially known for not coming to my side to help my case.
Alberta looked doubtful. I could see her deciding if keeping a student safe was worth going against the arguments of Rose and Janine Hathaway. Our steely looks paid off when Alberta finally sighed in resignation. "Fine, she can go. However, if anything happens to her, or because of her, more punishments will be put in place." I didn't know that the Academy could even come up with more punishments, but I wouldn't put it past Kirova to cut off my food supply.
"Thank you", I smiled. "You won't regret it." Alberta answered with an annoyed look.
I looked up at Dimitri as were walking back to the main campus; the others were too occupied with tomorrow's mission of collecting dead bodies to pay attention to Dimitri and I's stolen whispers.
"You shouldn't go tomorrow. It's too dangerous."
"Comrade, all the Strigoi are gone. We're just collecting bodies" and hopefully saving a few, I didn't add.
"You need to rest; you're not an official guardian yet. Why rush the demanding life, you'll be graduating in a few months." Why was he acting this way?
"Do you think I can't handle it? Am I not prepared?"
"Of course not, Roz-" I cut him off before he could finish defending himself.
"I'm going back to my room to rest."
"Rose, please." I did not look back as I stormed off to my room.
Just as I was stepping into a long needed shower, I felt her agony slam into me, hard. Lissa. I doubled over from the sudden emotions coursing through me, I
tried to get a mental grip on her. But her thoughts were shifting from one thing to another so quickly that I couldn't grasp anything – except…No! Christian!I
had forgotten about him in the heat of battle, I was supposed to be protecting him! He hadn't been among the lucky few who had escaped and made it back to
the safety of the academy. I had been so preoccupied with Dimitri and getting back to safety that Christian had totally left my mind. I had failed him. Now he
was dead – or maybe not... Alberta had said that a few could have miraculously pulled through and still be alive. But even as I clung to that string of a hope
another string of doubt thread its way through my brain. Reminding me of the way Dimitri had looked at me with such sadness and doubt. He hadn't forgotten
about Christian, he knew. That's why he was acting so strange about me going back to the caves. He didn't think I couldn't handle seeing my dead superiors,
he thought I couldn't handle seeing Christian. He knew that Christian was dead, and it was because of me.