Disclaimer: i do not own richelle mead's charcters or events those are all hers

i do hwever own the new characters that come in this story

I was walking through a forest that was vaguely familiar but i was pretty sure I had never been there in my life. I heard whispering all around me but that wasn't anything new. What was new was that it sounded more like hissing. then sundenly i felt horible neasuea i turned around in an effort to defend my self. I gasped and I saw five strigoi. Standing in front of the other four was the person i hoped i would never have to see again and yet hoping and praying that i would- the guy i had been in love with then watched him die- Dimitri.

I pulled out my stake to do what i had him promised so long ago. but there was something about different about him - other than the fact that he was a strigoi- he looked very sad. it reminded me of the way mason had looked when i had seen his ghost. i glanced away and for the first time noticed the other strigoi standing behind him and-oh no-there were my friends- Lissa, Christian, Adrian, and Eddie. and they all looked sad

But their sad look disapeared replaced with an arrogant one. They all took one look at my stake and laughed at me. Then Dimitri steped forward with a cocky grin on his face -one that had never been there when i knew him - and said "Rose you really think you can beat all of us"he said tauntingly

"Yeah,"Lissa chimed in "i mean you couldn't really kill all of your 'friends' let alond your 'lover'" i hated the way she used air quotes. but she was right i wasn't sure if i could any more they all still looked like my friends except for the evil grins on their faces and the red around their eyes.

Suddenly i was questioning -not for the first time since i left saint vladimir's- what i had set out to do not more than two weeks ago. How could i kill the man i loved when he would still looked like, well him. Then i remembered why i had to do this, Dimitri -the one with a soul- would not want to live like this- as a monster. We'd had a conversation a long time ago and had promised each other that, should this ever happen to either one of us the other would destroy us. Because neither one of us would ever want to live as and evil twisted creature, the same creatures we had trained and lived to kill.

Dimitri steped forward so that he was right next to me, and it was torture he was no longer dimitri he was some hateful hidous monster he wasn't my dimitri. he put his mouth right next to my ear and whispered to me a single word in Russian- his native language- "Buria" it was a word i had only heard once but i would never forget. It meant storm, he had said it to me on the night when the strigoi had attacked the academy and he had told me to run and not stop until i found some one.

Then he turned his head wo that he had a better angle on my neck and plunged his teeth into me i screamed and screamed

Until i woke my self up i glanced around my surroundings and remembered that i was on a plane, heading to siberia to do what i had just had a night mare about. I realized pretty much every one on the plane was staring at me one guy in particular sitting in the same row as me but cuple seats down. i instantly could tell he was a dhampir then i looked at the other three he was sitting with two were moroi a guy and a girl the other was another dhampir a female. Oh shit they were guardians. I reckognized the two moroi they were brother and sister that had been seniors at saint Vlad's when i was a sophomore , the year i left with Lissa. Their names were James and Lauren Ivashkov. The appeared to remember me too. Hmm i wonder how closely they were related to Adrian

"Rose?" asked Lauren "Rose Hathaway?" Yup they remembered me

"Yeah it's me"i said with a smile they had been at alot of the parties Lissa and i had went to and i liked them

"Wow you and Vasilisa were the ones that left right?" James asked

"Um yeah" my smile faded a little

"Come here and talk to us" said Lauren i slid into the seat the guardians had moved out of so we could talk

"hey what was with the screaming a second ago" asked James

"oh i uh had a bad dream" it was true

"oh"he seemed satisfied with my answer "So did you ever go back to the academy? where is Lissa? is she okay? " he shot questions at me

"Yes we did go back they caught us about six months ago. Lissa is still at the academy" i told him

Lauren looked at me "Why did you leave again and why isn't she with you?" she seemed concerned

"well did you guys hear about the attack on the academy?" i asked they nodded somberly "well one of my best friends died" it was mostly true he was the closest thing i had "but when they went to go get all the bodies his wasn't there and he is now a strigoi"

Now both the guardians were intensly listening too but i had to keep my voice quiet because of the humans around but they probably wodn;t be able to heat me any way i was speaking way to low but our hearing was fine for this

"but that doesn't explain why you left" James stated questioningly

"well" i continued "a while ago we had promised each other that if either of us was ever turned into a strigoi we sould hunt the other down be cause neither one of us wanted to be a monster" i said just as as tear escaped down my cheek "i am going to kill him"

"oh Rose that is terrible i'm so sorry" she paused " if you don't mind me asking who was it that died" she didn't ask because she was morbidly curious about my life but because she had been friends with afew of the novices before she graduated

i sighed "his name was Dimitri Belikov he was my mentor and he was Lissa's guardian we got t obe friends while we were training" i couldn't look at their faces they looked too relived not because it was just a guardian but be cause it hadn't been any of their friends

"oh i'm sorry that is so sad"

"it's okay" i lied then i lightened up and plastered a fake smile on my face" so what have you two been up to since i left" they started rabmling on about their college expeirences and what they were doing going to Russia i wasn't listening my mind was some where else with lissa.