L A S T S A C R I F I C E

J O H A N N A B R O O K S

CHAPTER #1

"Rose, wake up." A voice called, waking me up. So this was it. The end. I wasn't going to make a fight, following the rules of Rose conduct.

I opened my eyes and saw Dimitri, my former instructor, standing in front of me. He was unlocking the cell door. I peered behind him and saw my guardians slumped along the walls, unconscious. The only thing that would've been better is if I could've beaten them up. I saw Dimitri staring back and forth. Then he pushes the cell door open. He then puts his hand around my waist and carried me. I was still weak. They injected a needle into me everyday, injecting a drug into me to make me weaker. And it was working.

Dimitri carried me from the cell, and into the garage. Mikhail Tanner, a guardian who I was friends with, stood near a black Mercedes Benz, arms crossed. He clicks a button, opening the trunk. Dimitri places me gently in there. I see Mikhail cut a small portion of the trunk, making a square so that I could speak with the inhabitants of the car. Dimitri enters the car, and so does Christian Ozera, Lissa's boyfriend.

Lissa is in the passenger seat. Mikhail inserts the key in, and turns the car on. Right before he drives away, I see Eddie Castile and Mia Rinaldi standing right in our path.

"When we hear that someone busted Rose out, we knew it was Dimitri. Now if you think were crazy enough to let you go with out us," Mia now walks up to the car.

"Its not going to work," Eddie finishes the sentence for her.

Mikhail sharply turns his head, saying no. Then Mia opens the car door and slides in next to Dimitri. Then Eddie slides into the car, next to Mia. Then Mikhail turns around.

"You gotta—"

He is cut off by a guardian who walks to our car. Dimitri scoots to where the square is, blocking me from view. "Rose, the murder, is on the loose. We need to search your car."

Mikhail opens the car doors, and they look back in forth. Finally the guardian nods his approval. Then the car drives off into the distance.

"Seattle airport up ahead."

I wake up, and saw that Dimitri is peering through the square, seeing what made a racket. When he saw my gaze is back, he smiles, and slips his hand inside of mine.

"Roza, it's so good to have you back."

"Same here Dimka."

He laughs a loud one. I decided I always wanted to hear that. "I'm so sorry for how I acted Rose."

"How would I believe that? It's always the same pattern. You say you don't want me, but in a life or death situation you say you want me! Besides, amn't I dating Adrian?"

"Yes, Rose. I'm so stupid for believing I can get you back," He bowed his head down in shame. It was unusual for him to call himself stupid. He must've been drunk or something.

"Let me go to sleep. Adrian will visit me, and I'll break the news."

Dimitri smiled, and went back to staring at Mikhail. I closed my eyes and saw I was in the courtroom. Adrian was standing in the middle. His eyes were red from crying.

"ROSE, WHAT DID YOU GET INTO?"

"Adrian, this is for the best."

"NO IT'S NOT! YOU GOT YOURSELF IN TROUBLE! THEY ALWAYS SAY SOMETHING! WHEN I FOUND OUT YOU WEREN'T IN COURT, I THOUGHT THEY KILLED YOU ROSE!"

"Adrian, please listen. I wasn't going to die."

Fury now overtakes my body, and I feel like I want to jump him.

"You went with Dimitri didn't you?"

"I did but-"

"It's over Rose. I thought our relationship was based on trust. But it isn't. You betrayed me. When Dimitri came back as a Dhampir, you didn't love me anymore. A relationship is based on being honest, Rose."

"ADRIAN," I call, but he snaps and the dream ends. And I wake up crying.

"Rose, are you okay?" Dimitri asked.

"Adrian yelled at me. He broke up with me. Because… because you came with me." I stuttered on my last words, and felt tears go down my face.

Dimitri patted my shoulder and laid a comforting hand on top of mine. "Its okay, Roza." He knew that I loved it when he called me that.

I saw him lean in to kiss me, and he actually did. I leaned back and watched how fast Mikhail drove, dodging other cars with a graceful skid, always getting the middle finger.

"Where to?"

"Denver?"

"No, too many Vampires," Dimitri interferes, "Go to Elmwood Park, New Jersey. Victor and his brother are from there."

Mikhail nods and drives even faster. I FEEL HORRIBLE ABOUT WHAT I DID TO Adrian. I know the airport is an hour away so I close my eyes. I then found my self in a dream again, and saw Adrian sitting on a tree. He had his back to me and is looking at a picture. A picture of me.

"Adrian," I called softly.

"Did I summon you?" I see a dozen alcohol bottles around the tree, and I smell alcohol on his breath. Strange enough, he's sober.

"Yeah. What's up with the alcohol?"

"This is a subconscious place. It's in my mind. When I want to focus here, I just spent my time here, ignoring what happens on earth. I was ignoring the signs of …."

I know he was going to say my name. "Adrian. I need to be honest. I never really loved you. I went out with you because you would've been happy, and I needed to forget about Dimitri."

"I know. You think me having spirit and all, I won't know that? Bye Rose. See you later."

He turns around, and I close my eyes.

"Rose, can you stop saying 'Adrian,' or, 'oh Adrian! I'm sorry!'" Christian complained, rolling his blue eyes. I stuck my tongue out.

Dimitri had his back to me, acting all stoic. As if! I poke Mia and she turns. "Was I talking?"

"Yeah. Occasionally we would hear Dimitri's name, or Adrian's name."

Eddie turned around too. "Christian was exaggerating."

"As if the poster child for smartass would not exaggerate."

"I heard that!" Christian remarked, "Thanks."

"Whatever, smartass. Whatever you say!"

Now the whole car was laughing loudly. Dimitri had silent laughter, meaning that he was thinking about something. "Rose, sorry to stop your fun, but don't you think there are guardians watching the airports?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Then we need to go through the private planes section of the airport."

"Dimitri, do you think I carry a private Black am-ex card everyday?"

"You think," He starts, "That I won't take it from your crime scene of a room?"

I grin, and then look at the trunk. I was starting to get an ache because of keeping my head down.

"Seattle airport right now."

Lissa peeks and gasps. The man who lets you get a private plane is a guardian I've seen around court.

"Card please?"

We're busted. The only card we have is from Adrian. And he surely knows that. Lissa looks at him.

"Let us in now," Her compulsion takes over him. "Then forget what happened."

The guardian clicks a button and the gate opens. And we were going to find Victor and Robert. Because if Victor was the smartass of all villains, which he was, he would know who would've done this crime.