Okay so this is my first attempt at writing a Vampire Academy fanfic so here it is...

Chapter 1

I was here after what felt like forever. I was in Russia now. For the first few days Adrian didn't visit in my dreams but then he appeared again and he almost seemed shy. It was kinda cute. He thought that I needed space from everything and he heard about Lisa's reluctance to let me go. Anger flared when I thought about how she wanted me to stay by her still. She knew that I loved Dimitri now and yet she couldn't understand why I needed to do this for him.

We both knew that she would do this had it been for Christian who had been turned Strigoi but her selfishness just wouldn't let me go. It was always about her, it's always what she needs and wants but never me. Only Dimitri and occasionally my mother ever put me first. Sometimes I wondered whether Lisa ever knew how I felt at all. I mean, just because she was Moroi and she was a Royal didn't mean that she had to take that attitude with me. It wasn't fair; she couldn't even let my wishes be the priority just this once. I had never asked her for anything.

Blinking I shook the ugly thoughts away and pushed the dark cloud threatening to crush me. It was happening quite a lot recently since I arrived here in Russia. Every now and then if I thought about things for too long I would start hating. Damn something was going wrong with my head.

Looking around I tried to recognise the settings around me. Finding a run down house was a lot harder than I realised. Sighing I sat on a trunk of a cut down tree and rested. I'd been walking for a while now and sleep was beginning to catch up with me. Suddenly I felt the odd suppression of my mind and my senses became alert. Darting my eyes around me I looked for any movement.

"Hi," a girl around my age smiled cheerily. She was hanging upside down and her twin tails dangled. She had black hair with red streaks. She wore sunglasses which was odd considering how there wasn't really any sunlight in the woods. She had a buttoned up trench coat and ragged jeans.

"Isn't that dangerous?" I asked cautiously.

"Not if you know what trees are stable and which ones aren't. You look lost, need any help?"

"I'm fine," I told her bluntly. "What're you doing dangling off a tree?"

"It's what I do, I like scaring the shit out of people then help them after," she grinned. "Only you didn't get scared, you really are a fighter."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean you don't just take shit and accept it. You do things your own way; you do things the way you think is right. Hence you're not asking for help and you're here on your own in Russia. I wonder how long you decide to go on like this…"

"I don't know what you're talking about kid." I grunted. Besides, I didn't know whether anyone spoke English so I couldn't ask for help. I kept looking for the Strigoi I could sense but I couldn't see anyone other than us two. Looking at her again I couldn't see any features that would indicate Strigoi but then again most of her was covered up.

"Look," she flipped and landed a few feet ahead of me. "I may like dangling from a tree but I have things I gotta do. So are you coming or are you waiting for a Strigoi to jump you? Just to say, they ain't gonna do that, not on my turf. They might stop you but they won't attack unless they consider you a threat. And," she ran over and suddenly wrapped her arms around me. "Now they'll know you're not. Follow me if you want, if not town's that way." She pointed behind me and started walking.

I sat there for a few more moments just staring at her retrieving form. I couldn't really understand what she meant but I had nothing to lose following her so I did but I kept my distance. One thing that surprised me, she knew about Strigoi. I thought about the possibility of her being a guardian but she looked too young. Then she mentioned about Strigoi not attacking on her turf. I thought about what that could mean but I came up with nothing.

I wasn't sure how long we walked for but when we got out of the forest I was shocked and felt like fainting. In front of me stood the run down house that I had been looking for. I stared at her quizzically as she leapt over the fence with ease. She turned around and gestured for me to follow her. Slowly I forced myself forward. One moment she was looking at me impatiently, the next she was next to me.

"He isn't here so let's go," she tugged my arm making me walk faster. I was too shocked to have done anything. I realised that this momentary lack of composure could've cost me my life but she didn't take advantage of me. The only thing she did was drag me into the house.

"Who isn't here?" there was no way she could know that I was looking for someone. I mean no one knew that I was looking for him except for Lisa. Well, Adrian knew now because she'd told him. When we asked me to confirm that it was true, he told me I was crazy. That he didn't know this was what he had in mind when he lent me the money. He had thought that I was merely trying to get away from everyone for a while. He also said that had he known that was my intention from the beginning he never would've lent me the money but we both knew that I could've gotten around that. We both knew that I was going to leave anyway.

"Dimi."

"Dimi?"

"You're looking for him aren't you? There's no way I got the wrong person…" She started circling me and then a smile spread across her face when she lifted my hair up showing my molnija marks. "You are Roza."

"How do you know these things?" I snapped and pulled away from her. "Who are you and what are you?"

"Oh come on Roza, you can't be stupid and smart at the same time. What're your instincts telling you?"

"They're telling me that you're dead."

"They're right."

"So give me ten reasons why I shouldn't kill you right now Strigoi?"

"I can't give you ten but I can think of a few. You won't win; I can beat you with my eyes closed. I'm supposed to train you. And you have no hope of seeing Dimi unless I train you. You have potential Roza, I can sense that. You will become the world's best guardian some day or one of the best of us but right now, you're torn and you're still just a little bud waiting to bloom. You're getting there and I'm just here to help speed up the process."

"Just who the hell is Dimi and how do you know me?"

"Oh yeah, he hates that name so there's no way any would know about it. You are Dimitri Belikov's lover right?" she clocked her head to the side. "You're not a virgin; that much I'm sure of."

"That's none of your business Strigoi now tell me where he is."

"Can't."

"Can't or won't."

"Both, Dimi moves around a lot. See he's still trying to understand a few things and he was shocked to hell to see me those few weeks ago. He never did hear about what happened to me so it took a bit of explaining. When we caught up with one another he told me about you while trying to control his thirst. We dealt with that and he moved on. He knew you'd be here though. He'd left you enough information about his life to be able to anticipate his movements so you've made a start. You've found the house. Now it's time for the much harder part, the training and waiting."

"You've completely lost me."

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Um…" I thought about it and I actually couldn't even remember.

"Then let's eat!" she grinned enthusiastically and reached out to me. My hand immediately went for the silver stake but as soon as it was out of the sheath it flew out of my hands. My eyes followed it as if floated and sat on the side table harmlessly. "I'd prefer it if that didn't touch me."

"What did you do?"

"I might answer that question some other time. And I wasn't planning on eating you either, you're not my type," she made a face and grabbed my arm and tugged me into the kitchen which was downstairs. Despite the run down look from the outside, the interior looked well take care of. There was a large marble work counter in the centre with a lot of sharp looking knives and cooking utensils. I was cautious of her movements and sat down as she dug around in the fridge. "So when did you decide to leave that hell hole?"

"What?"

"You know; that school that they train guardians in. When did you decide to leave?"

"A couple of weeks ago."

"You've done quite well in getting here then," she smiled. I watched in awe as her hair moved with her movement. The black strands were beautiful and seemed to shine slightly depending on the light. Her smile widened when she noticed I kept my eyes on her hair. "Even the dead want to keep their looks Roza. I might be dead but I'm still a girl. You look a little roughed up." I scoffed at her understatement. I haven't had a decent bath or pampering of any sort for what felt like years. "There's a bathroom down the end of the hall to use later."

"Thanks." I said uncertainly. She wasn't acting like a Strigoi at all. I mean, I knew that Strigoi could act to get what they wanted, that they could act as nice as they wanted to get their prey but she was just plain out of line. She actually seemed nice and she really didn't seem like she had any intentions of harming me.

Looking up at her face again I noticed she took her shades off and her eyes were mesmerising. Her irises were a vibrant violet colour with a red rim. I noticed that she was using make-up to cover her paleness. A small spot where she must've accidentally wiped showed almost white skin. She was patient with my assessing simply sitting on the counter and swinging her legs. She reminded me of a small child and the fact that she was a Strigoi just messed everything up.

"So I hope you like steak Roza coz that's all I have tonight I'm afraid."

"Oh yeah that's fine thanks." I smiled nervously.

"Spit it out, there's something you want to say right?" I recoiled and thought about the words carefully.

"Why are you doing all of this?"

"Coz I feel like it and I had nothing to do anyway. And I owe Dimi and I really wanted to meet the girl who stole his heart. I mean come on, you're the only one who can render that man speechless and make him fall over himself trying to save you. I wanted to meet the girl he talked so much about. You're the only girl he actually has to control himself around because you always put him to the test apparently."

"What'd you mean?"

"You can see through him and not many people can do that. Not to mention you set him on edge."

"Set him on edge?"

"I'll let him explain it," she smirked and there was a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "So you see. I wanted to meet the person who's so important to him."

"How do you know him?"

"He's my younger cousin."

"Younger?"

"I'm older than you think."

"I can tell." I snorted. "So why aren't you killing me?"

"I don't feel like it."

"You're a Strigoi."

"You say that as if that means anything."

"But it does. Strigois kill, they hunt and they feed on blood."

"I do do that."

"Then why aren't you killing me?"

"I said it before, I don't fee like it. If you expect me to be a killer who kills anyone I see you've got another thing coming Roza," she shook her head.

"But why aren't you? Are you just hiding it so that you can enjoy the thrill of betrayal? Of luring me in then killing me later?"

"If I did that Dimi would tear my head off," she grinned.

"But it's in your character! This doesn't make any sense."

"It shouldn't. That's why you've got a lot to learn Roza. I refuse to start the lessons tonight, you need rest and to clear your head. We'll start when you're ready but I will not explain anything until you are prepared to accept a new concept." There was a finality in her tone and for once I didn't see her as a little bouncy girl, I saw her as someone with power. Someone who could crush me in less than a second. I shut my mouth before I said something that would make her lose her temper.

"Do you dance?" she asked.

"What?"

"Do you dance?"

"Depends what kind you mean, not ballroom."

"How about just letting music flow and take charge?"

"Like discos yeah."

"Good."

"Why?"

"You'll see later," she smiled and went back to cooking.

"When was the last time you saw Dimitri?"

"Last week, he sensed that you were in Russia and took off like there was no tomorrow."

I felt my chest clench and tears threatened to fall.

"Oh I didn't mean that he didn't want to see you," she added hastily. "Well he didn't but he did. It's really complicated you see. He hasn't quite got the control yet so he didn't want you to be near him in case he lost it. That's what I'm here for, I'm going to train you until he's satisfied that you can hold yourself against him in case he did lose it."

"There's a lot I don't understand."

"I know, that's what he said too. He was so frustrated since it was almost like he was back in school. It was so funny trying to explain things to him and man was he difficult. He kept going on about how there was no other way. That he would have to set things up to train you so that you could kill him. For the first couple of days he refused to believe that there was another option but then I managed to drill the whole 'The only way a Strigoi can live is killing Morois and humans' belief out of him. I wonder how long it'll take for you to accept it."

"Who knows? Only time will tell."

"Hey you actually made a smart comment, I'm impressed," she laughed and I flipped her.

The guardian side of me was still screaming at me to try and kill her even if I died trying but the younger teenager side of me wanted to trust her. I started having a mental argument with myself and it was starting to drive me crazy. Then a sudden wash of calmness fell over me and I revelled in it. I hadn't felt like this since, well since before returning to the academy. But if I didn't return to the academy I never would've known Dimitri and that I knew was something neither of us wished to change.

"You must be really hungry," she smiled and set the plate in front of me. I noticed how rare her steak was but didn't comment. She was a Strigoi after all and I supposed despite what she was going to explain to me in the course of our meeting, there were still some things that couldn't be changed. "Okay, you have two choices, you can either sleep in the room at the back that leads to the garden or you can have the front room that leads to the forest."

"Um… Can I stay in the one with the forest please?"

"Good choice. Oh and if you see Strigoi in this house, please refrain from trying to stab them. I don't think they'd like that very much and they might break your arm by accident to disable you."

"I thought you said they wouldn't touch me."

"It's hardly fair if you are about to stab them in the chest with a stake is it?"

"I guess not…"

"Exactly, even if they act like jerks, just flip them off or even better try to match them with insults. It amuses them and it'll make them like you and accept you even more."

"Do I want them accepting me?"

"It might not be a bad thing to have some people to trust here in Russia Roza. The people you think you can trust might end up being the people who will betray you the most. Make sure you're careful if you decide to go out there on your own again. People become corrupt when it comes to control and power and I would advise you not to run with the Guardians here."

"Why not?"

"Just trust me, there are very few who actually do their jobs around here."

"But Dimitri came from here!" I protested.

"Things have changed since he left, just be careful is all I'm saying. I'm not saying that guardians are bad, I'm just saying that you need to be careful what you say around them. Word travels fast here back to main headquarters. Am I right in saying that you don't want certain people to know where you are at the moment? Especially that Dragomir girl?"

I nodded.

"Just watch out."

Her words were imprinted in my mind for the whole night and I couldn't stop thinking about how close I seem to be to reaching Dimitri and yet so close. I ran through the conversation that I had and finally realised I didn't know her name. it seemed to completely slip both our minds since we never did have an introduction, just a very strange meeting. Sitting up I stared into the forest watched a few Strigois walking down the path leading to the front door. Then somewhere along the night I fell asleep.

Okay so there are some new concepts that Rose is going to have to deal with from now on. I mean, she's never heard of friendly Strigois before. It's supposed to be impossible so is there hope yet for Dimitri? Plz RxR