Chapter 1

I am tainted. Its what the Alchemist call me. I was being chased by the Lost. Another term the Alchemists use. My race named them Strigoi. They were impure vampires, filled with evil intent and burning red eyes. Moroi, on the other hand, were the pure vampires. They possessed special powers over certain elements. They could control either earth, water, fire, or air. Unfortunately, I had no such power. If I did I would use them to kill the Strigoi, considering they wanted to kill me first. However using these elements in battle is strongly against the Court. Court believed that these powers could only be used in helping people. But using these powers with actually thinking about hurting someone? Unspeakable. The role of my race was to protect the Moroi since they couldn't use the powers as a weapon. The Court called us dhampirs while we called ourselves Guardians. I know, much cooler than dhampirs right? Though, in a weird sense, dhampirs were a mix of Moroi and humans. This leaved us with advance strength, incredible speed, and basically an all around perfect warrior. But back to the concept of Strigoi. Strigoi weren't always the impure vampires they are. In fact, they originally used to be either a Moroi or a dhampir. There was two ways to become Stigoi. You either killed while drinking blood, in other words turning by choice, and the other was a Strigoi killing a Moroi or dhampir by drinking their blood. This was the sole reason us dhampirs existed. We lived and breathed by a special code, They came first. Them being the Moroi. Oh! And I should also mention this too. Strigoi apparently also hold grudges too. Considering that I only killed maybe 5 or 6 of them 4 days ago, and they wanted still wanted revenge.

I heard a rustling noise in a nearby bush. Instantly my hand went to my coat pocket which held a stake infused with all of the elements. A very effective weapon against Strigoi. As I approached the bush, all of a sudden the rustling stopped. I pushed back the leaves to discover a rabbit trying to get back into his hole. My body relaxed. I was helping the rabbit when I felt big, strong arms encircle me. Too bad for this person I knew how to fight. Whoever it was obviously wanted to restrain me but I wouldn't let him do that.

Quickly, I grabbed the arms attempting to hold me, pushed myself off the ground, just to see my foot land in his face. No matter if he was Strigoi or human that must've hurt. He yelped clutching his face in pain. By this time I had already evaluated my attacker. Tall, well builded, big hands. And there was another thing I was absolutely sure of. He was a Strigoi.

With my speed, I bolted toward him. I swooped down tripping him over. This gave me the advantage I needed since I was only 5'7" and he was about 6'4". clearly surprised on the ground, the Strigoi tried to get up, but it was too late. With stake in hand, I impaled him in the one place I knew would cause inevitable death: his heart. I caught a glimpse of his face. At first I saw only anger and shock but he then turned his lips up and smiled crookedly at me. I retrieved my stake from his chest and stared at his limp body. Why would he be happy that I killed him? Maybe he was one that had turned unwillingly?

My mind flashed back to his grin. Weak, and crooked but it was definitely a smile. I walked away from the body not even bothering to deal with the remains. I knew the Alchemists would clean it up. After all, that was their job. Making sure regular humans didn't know about us. The Alchemists were regular humans themselves but they had a job of taking care of Strigoi bodies we left around so other humans didn't notice. But man, did the Alchemists hate us. We were never really positive as to why.

I looked up at the Montana sky. When is it going to be daylight again? Im getting tired of Strigoi attacking me.

I reached into my pocket and saw that the next town was Flaxville. Population: 72. Perfect. Mostly I had avoided large towns or cities in case of Strigoi and also I didn't fit in with the public. My clothes were ripped and dirty from fighting all the time, my straight, dark blond hair a very tangled mess, and I'm sure my blue eyes had gone gray already from not sleeping during nights. The less populated town, the better.

My feet ached with every step, I could feel my eyelids becoming heavier. No, I willed myself to keep walking. The next town is only 5 miles away. I absolutely had to get there. Once I did, I would find the cheapest motel and sleep for a day or two, I promised my body. My stomach growled as a response. Dammit. I forgot about food again. Unlike Moroi, us dhampirs needed food. Moroi could survive just on blood for a while, only a little food was needed.

As the sun rose I felt a calmness wash over me. The fight was over. For now at least. Watching the sunrise made me think about how I got into this mess in the first place. It seemed like it was just two years ago I was at St. Valentina, training to be a guardian. I was #1 in my class. Guardian Darya was my teacher/ parental figure. Since my mother was a bloodwhore she gave me away to St. Valentina in hopes of a better future for me. But I remember living with her when I was very young. Young, handsome Moroi would come visit her most often. Never the same man each night. And each night I saw fresh bite marks in her neck like the feeders would have. With a different man almost every night, I wasn't actually sure what my name was but it didn't matter who my dad was. I would take my mother's last name and live with pride knowing that she gave me away for a better future.

I began to get nauseous. Oh lord. Not this again, not now. The image hit me like a ton of bricks, the usual. Suddenly, I was in a different academy for Moroi, and Dhampirs. An academy similar to St. Valentina.

"No! Please-please stop this! Why? Why are you doing this?"

"I'm sorry Vasilisa. This must be done for the good of Court."

"No!"

And then I was back on the road I was walking and the nausea was gone. Fuck! That's the 7th time i've had that nausea feeling! And those voices? Who are they? I rubbed my temple as I knew there would be a headache coming on which wasn't uncommon after these visions. Dammit! I slammed my fist against a nearby tree and the whole thing shook. I sighed in distraught.

I should just keep walking. I think I remember my mom saying something about there being another academy around here in Montana. St. Vladmir or something like that. Walking takes too long. I need a car or something so I can find this place faster and stop whatever i've been seeing lately in my head.

I noticed an upcoming sign saying that there was only 1 more mile until I hit Flaxville. I sucked up the pain in my feet and using the last bit of energy I had left in my body, I ran. At first it seemed impossible but then I felt the surge of adrenaline in my veins and I kept on running. Once I reached Flaxville, I ran to the nearest motel.

"Hello and welcome to Flaxville motel. How may I help you?" the slightly unkempt motel manager said.

"Hi. I would like a room please. One bed, and one bathroom." I uttered. I was out of breath and sweaty from running. By the way the motel manager was looking at me, my shirt was ripped open near my chest just enough for a tease and the sweat made my bra stick out much more than I intended.

"Name please. And that would be $25. Employee discount." the sleazy manager simply winked at me, expecting something that would never ever happen in my life and especially not with this greasy guy. Swallowing my vomit that reached my mouth, I put on my best smile and leaned over the table a little. Slightly flaunting my C-cup bra.

"Thank you so much! The name is Veronika. Veronika Stepan." I handed him the money, trying to use as little physical interaction as possible. I swear, this guy isn't gonna have any teeth left if he tries to come to my room later.

"Here's your room key." Another wink. Grinning at me, he gave me the key. What in the world did I just do... I snatched the key out of his hands and quickly walked to my room, giving the sleazy manager less time to check out my ass.

In my room, I instantly tore off my clothes and jumped in the bath. Ahh. Warm water. When I was drying my body, I caught a glimpse of myself in the dirty mirror. My straight, blond hair had grown out to from its original position of my shoulders to my mid-back. My bangs grew from being just above my eyebrows to my nose. And since my hair was straight, that made it look somewhat like an "emo" hairstlye, which was the new trend of hair. I kept looking at my now pale, bony body, which used to be, what I would like to say, normal. I should start eating more. I poked my stomach, now hard muscle from small amounts of eating and constant encounters with strigoi. Without taking another glance in the mirror, I left the bathroom. On the bed was my backpack and my old cut up clothes. I reached into my bag and pulled out fresh jean shorts and a tank top. In my bag, was still some skinny jeans and a hoodie. I considered wearing the skinny jeans but decided against it since it was the middle of summer and most likely would be another raging 90 degrees.

Laying on my bed in my (hopefully clean) motel bathrobe, I thought of the strigoi that I had staked earlier. My mind always replaying that same smile. I've staked a lot of strigoi, none of which have I gotten my molnija marks for, but none of them smile when they died by my hand. Most spout some bullshit about getting revenge, but never of them have ever looked that happy. Remembering the strigoi's smile, I shuddered. My body shook with fear. I scolded myself. Now isn't the time to be scared! I've fought many strigoi, many of them explaining to me how they were going to kill me, and now I get frightened about a strigoi that simply smiled at me? I'm the granddaughter of the Great Guardian Nickolai Stepan! Nothing can beat me! However, no matter what I said to myself I couldn't get my fear to subside. Finally, sleep hit me and I fell into a dreamless sleep. Or so I thought.