Chapter One

"What did I do to make you stop loving me?" I cried as I saw him walking away to her.

"Oh please, the great Rose doesn't cry. It is beneath you don't you think?" He, the love of my life, claimed as he walked away from me. Yet I felt I saw, for just a moment, a flash of regret.

I shook my head. Impossible. The love of my life is now leaving me to be with a Moroi, basically a good vampire, who could give him everything he wanted. So instead of being a total cow about it I decided to show him how controlled I can be. I held my head up, wiped the tears from my face and put on my guardian mask. Well if he can do it certainly I can also. I began to weaken when I walked towards them, seeing him hold her hands in a way that made my heart fill with rage and ache at the thought of them touching so intimately. However the look he gave me, the look my Russian god gave me made my heart turn to stone and crumble inside of me. He knew damn well what I was feeling. It wasn't even 24 hours since we had been in the cabin.

That cabin, the lies he must have mustered to tell me. For what? So he could get me in his bed and use me as a play thing. He knew all along that he was going to leave. How could he leave me here? We had already agreed to be together when I left school. We knew we would work something out. He filled me with a hope he was going to just take away. He was nothing more than an arrogant, callous asshole.

I saw his eyes upon me and felt my anger intensify however I wasn't going to show it to him. I kept my guardian mask on as well as I could and turned to Tasha. I felt him tense and a look crossed his face as if he thought I was going to hit her. I must admit I thought about it but I wouldn't.

"I am so happy for you Ms Ozera. I'm sure you will be well protected and I wish you all the happiness with Guardian Belikov." Dimitri just about fainted when I said this. Then I turned towards him and he opened his mouth to speak but I wouldn't let him. I held my hand up and let all the hurt and betrayal I felt in my heart show. He soon understood the ramifications that his decision of leaving me had left.

"Guardian Belikov I wish you all the well and I know you will do a fine job protecting Ms Ozera. Also thank you for the training you have given me. Goodbye Guardian Belikov." And with that I just walked away. From the man I loved and the woman who unknowingly stole him from me. I could feel his longing gaze on my back but I never once turned around to check. I just went to the one place I was freed of memories, memories in which I hoped to be washed away as the pain and hurt in my heart turned into tears and heartbroken sobs soon shook my body until blackness came upon me. A blackness in which I dove into head first in an attempted to escape this pain.

(Luke POV)

She just walked away. How could she walk away? Those eyes, the pain I caused her. I wished to throw myself before her and plead for her to take me back, to forgive me. As I watched her retreating shadow I knew then I had made a choice and that was it. I had given up complete trust and understanding for a woman whom I had no attraction to but yet was easily able to be with. There was no deeper connection that goes beyond this lifetime, no spoken words that have a deeper meaning that only is understood by those two, no more of the heartfelt nights of watching the one you love sleep. No more of that pure bliss that was the last week.

"It would be easy to be with Hayla". This sentence I have been muttering inside my mind for the last few days have become no more convincing then the moment I first whispered them. She hadn't awakened in me the passion I felt with Rose. Rose, she was younger than me and she hadn't seen the world yet and yet with this she also somehow knew more about life. She saw the world with wise eyes and just understood the world in ways many people don't ever experience.

Oh lord how I wished we could be together. To see her walking away from me. To see her upset. I knew I would never be able to make up for everything I have done to hurt her. I lied to her by saying I didn't love her. It was horrible to do. To see how her eyes lost their spark, the fire that had burned so brightly since I had known her. I was so deep in thought I hadn't noticed Kayla grab my hand until she poked me and pulled me from my mind before my epiphany.

"Lukey, what was that all about?" I heard the curiosity behind her simple question.

"Nothing, Kayla darling, let's go now." I said in a voice I couldn't recognise. This was a dead tone, it did not wrap lovingly against the pronunciation of Kayla's name, it did not gain the undertone of delight as I gazed upon the woman beside me. As we moved to the car I turned back towards the gates, hoping to find an answer, a sign that she still wanted me to stay. However all I had gained from this look was one of emptiness as no-one stood there to beg me to stay, no all of them were encouraging me to go. And that was the end of it, that was my choice.

I closed my eyes and drifted to the darkness of sleep as we created distance between myself and the woman I loved.

Suddenly my darkness was interrupted.

A beach, soft waves rolling so peacefully you can barely hear the sound of the waves crashing towards the calmness of the water beneath i. Suddenly my focus on the waves was cut short because of a sound, a beautiful carefree sound that my heart would recognise even in death drifted on the wind to me ears.

"Who's there?" I heard myself call and then I knew. "Adrian"

"I walked over a dune and saw Rose there, laughing with Adrian. Why would she be laughing when I just left? She was so hurt and angry before. It's not that I don't want her to be happy but so fast; it had been about 4 hours since I left and she was happy now with Him." I whispered to myself as if it was a confession I could only share with the wind that lifted my hair creating an uneasiness within my very soul.

As I whispered this confession I was shocked at myself. Didn't I leave her? Wasn't I the one who ended us and any chance of something happening between Rose and myself? I looked over again and I knew Adrian had seen me. Then he kissed her. That fool had kissed her. I waited for Rose to say something but she didn't. She kissed him back and I felt my heart ripping apart at the seams. Yeah she really loved me didn't she? I was infuriated and stormed over to pull Rose out of his arms and yet my feet couldn't move. She began kissing him more and more passionately and I felt sick and just wanted to leave, I knew if I glanced at them again I would cease to exist, I could not exist, this woman had me so completely and she was kissing another. Then realisation had struck me.

I had kissed another woman in front of Rose before. I am certain now that she must have felt like this.

"Rose please, I love you my Rose!" I yelled against the tormenting winds that seemed to only affect me. I couldn't do anything but stand there and try to turn and leave. But where would I go?

I heard a chuckle as I began trying to plan my escape route. Adrian walked, no the thieving man strutted, towards me. I had endured him but now I had such a black hatred for him that if looks could kill he would have been scorched away from the earth by the heat of my

"You think I can't feel your hatred now Belikov. You don't deserve Rose. You hid away your love for her and now you left her to be with a woman who loves you but you don't love in return. Why must you hurt everyone Belikov? I saw Rose crying and heard it when I went to see her. Your claims of love for her are in your eyes buthow do your actions speak? You are far, far away from her. Wasn't nice was it when you saw her kissing me. Well hopefully you gain an understanding of what you have put her through. So you know what, go to hell Belikov and don't come back because you have destroyed Rose and with her your own happiness that was but an arms length out of reach."

And like that Adrian was gone and the darkness surrounded me again.

I awoke to Tasha kissing me softly and all I could think was that she wasn't my Rose. I had to get out of here. I had to go back to her. I glanced at my watch and saw that I had indeed slept for a fair amount of time, it had been nearly 10 hours since I had left the Academy. However I have to go back as soon as I can, I have to because otherwise I can't live any longer.

(Rose POV)

"Adrian?"

"Hey Rose, thought you might like a break from everything. So want to go for a walk?"

"Um sure I would love to" This wasn't like Adrian to be so kind and nice. Maybe I had judged him too early.

I could feel the sand between my feet and smell the salt air as it circled around us.

"So why did you come to my dreams Adrian?" I had to know the reason.

"Because I can see how much you're hurting and this way you won't have a bad dream about Him"

I was in shock. He understood. I really shouldn't have judged him so harsh.

We walked for what seemed mere minutes when he stopped and smiled at me.

"Time to get up now and I will see you soon." He said smiling sweetly at him and I couldn't resist the urge to hug him. I held him close and just as I was about to stop he pulled me closer and whispered to me "I'm here Rose, whenever you need me." And with that my dream ended.

My alarm was going crazy as I hit it and rolled over. I sighed and went to have a shower.

"Day One" I tried to smile in the mirror but it wasn't right so after a few more tries I just gave up and went down to the common area. Where was everyone?

I walked out the door and instantly felt sick, the type of sickness that alerted me to one thing, the evil vampires, Strigoi. All I could think of was Lissa.

I ran as fast as I could to the Moroi dorms and no-one was there. I decided to go into her head to check she was safe.

"Rose, we have to find Rose!"

"We will find her Lissa just let's make sure you are safe first" Christian said. Ah fireboy you are helpful sometimes.

I slipped out of Lissa's head when I suddenly felt sick. I looked around me to find there were 5 Strigoi. Well I was still angry about Di...No I couldn't say his name as yet, but lets say I was angry, I turned to move into my defensive position when suddenly someone started laughing. I turned to see a Strigoi looking at me intently. Well you want to laugh at me you can be the first to die.

I launched myself at him and began to fight with him, he was very fast and although I had trained with my mentor he was so much quicker than me. I had dodged one of his attacks and landed a few blows on him before he hit me very hard. The hit echoed through my head. The other Strigoi's all looked on expecting the kill to be easy.

Well let's give them a show then. I pulled out the stake He had given me and used it on the Strigoi I was versing. The look of shock was evident on his face as he fell to his death. The others looked just as shocked as the first and before one of them moved I had taken 2 of the other evil vampires down. With no-one left to verse I felt my blood lust stop and looked around me. I had taken life, but this was my job, I was training to become a guardian and had to learn to deal with the consequences. Although they were evil and were planning on taking life they were once people.

As I contemplated this my vision went blurry and suddenly I saw the ground coming fast up towards me. I saw Alberta and Stan coming to help me but when they got here they saw the Strigoi and a look on their face told me something was terribly wrong.