AN: Hello Lovelies! I'm back and I'm so excited to get back into writing again. I have every intention of making this sequel the best that I can. This story has been planned out and I have a lot in store for all of you. Thank you to every single one of you for all your support for my first story and I hope you continue to support me throughout this sequel. Thank you to all the people who sent me PM's about what they wanted to see in this story and I will do what I can to include it in here as much as possible. Anyway, let's get on with the first chapter. Enjoy!

DPOV

A week. That's how long Rose has been unresponsive, lying in a bed and not moving an inch. If it weren't for the slight rising and falling of her chest I would have thought she was dead. I hadn't left her side afraid of not being here when she woke up. I wanted to be here when she did. We had tried everything we could but not even Vasilisa could heal her, she said that something was blocking her and her healing didn't work on Rose.

Being a Draugr should mean that she could heal fast but even that was taking much longer than usual. Her wound was still bleeding, her heartbeat was faint and her body was cold. I tightened my grip on her cold hand and rested my head on the edge of the bed feeling my eyelids becoming heavy.

I couldn't remember the last time I had slept but with the woman I love on the edge of death, there was no way I was going to be at peace enough to sleep. Instead my mind drifted back to a week ago when I had arrived at New Orleans.

Flashback

We had managed to trace her phone to W New Orleans hotel and that was exactly where I and two other guardians were heading. Kirova had assigned Guardian Jean and Guardian Knowles, although I didn't know them well, I did know that they were dedicated to their jobs, as most guardians are. Knowles and I remained near the elevator as Jean walked over to reception to ask if they had seen Avery.

They exchanged a few words and I scanned the area not that there would be any danger during the daytime for humans. I was surprised to learn that Avery had come here, which also happened to be where Rose was as well. A part of me thought that it wasn't a coincidence considering they were friends. The question was why Avery had chosen to come here. Guardian Jean returned to us.

"The receptionist said that she came by here a few moments ago, she asked for the number of the room Rose Hathaway is staying at."

My heart skipped a beat and I straightened up at the sound of her name. She was here. I would see her again.

"What's the room number?" I asked.

"576."

We stepped into the elevator and made our way up to the floor. As we walked closer and closer to her room I became even more excited and was waiting in anticipation to hold her in my arms again. Being away from Rose was too much to handle and knowing that I was about to see her any second made me quicken my steps.

When we reached her room, the door was slightly ajar and there were frantic voices, I could even hear someone crying. I signalled to the other two behind me to be prepared and simultaneously we all withdrew our stakes. I pushed the door open and saw Abe, Pavel and a human who I assumed was Sydney hovering over something. Pavel was the first to notice us and he looked up with a grim expression.

He shifted slightly to reveal what they were fussing over and not a single part of me was prepared for the sight I was about to witness. On the ground was Roza lying on her back, her eyes were closed but that wasn't what shocked me. It was the obvious stake that was in her chest and judging by the looks on the three people by her side, I knew that this was bad. Within a second, I was kneeling by her side and desperately looked around at each of them.

"What happened?" I demanded.

Sydney's lip was quivering and she let out a whimper while Abe stared at Roza's body. Their lack of doing anything to help her was frustrating me. All I had to do was pull the stake out, then she would heal and that's exactly what I did. I removed the stake and dropped it as I moved her body so that her back was leaning against my chest. My eyes burned into the wound and I waited and waited and waited. Nothing was happening.

"Why isn't she healing?"

They looked just as confused as I felt. "She should be healing. Why hasn't the bleeding stopped?"

"I don't know," murmured Abe. "This has never happened before."

Pavel kneeled next to me and placed a towel on her wound to stop the bleeding. "We should take her to a hospital."

"We can't," said Sydney. "There will be too many questions that we don't have answers to."

"Will someone just tell me what happened?" I snapped.

Sydney flinched but answered me. "Avery staked her. She's a spirit user. Adrian sensed her power from our room and Rose had called him while Avery was with her so we came here to see what was going on and we saw Rose like this. Avery was sitting next to her but when she saw us she started fighting Adrian with spirit. We had to restrain her and get her away from Rose. Adrian's with her right now but Rose still hasn't woken up."

"She always wakes up," whispered Pavel.

"What do we do?" I asked desperately. "There has to be something we can do to help her. She's still alive."

"That's impossible," spoke Jean. "I'm sorry but she's dead, there's nothing we can do for her."

I had forgotten that Knowles and Jean were in the room with us. They were both puzzled and clearly didn't know how to handle this situation. I couldn't worry about them; right now all I could think about was finding a way to help Roza.

"We have to do something. Anything."

"All we can do right now is wait," said Abe. "She'll wake up. She has to."

He sounded like he didn't even believe his own words. I knew that no one in that room believed him. He did have a point though. There was nothing we could do except wait and that's what we did. We waited.

End of Flashback

Every single day that went by of her remaining in her coma was making it even harder and harder for me to keep my sanity. I don't know what I would do if I lost her and I didn't even want to think about it. A life without Rose was not something I was willing to deal with. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looking up, I saw Adrian. He looked worse than I did and I pitied him.

Not only was his best friend on the brink of death but his great aunt was also murdered. When we came back from New Orleans, we had flown straight to Court and Adrian managed to get Roza a private room away from any prying eyes. He was also the one who compelled Jean and Knowles to forget that they had seen Rose lying dead on the floor.

"I figured you would want something to keep you awake," he said as he handed me a coffee.

"Thanks. How are you holding up?" I asked as he pulled up a chair.

"As you would expect."

It was obvious he hadn't been sleeping in a while judging by the tired look in his eyes. His hair was messy, not in the way it was usually styled and he was wearing the same clothes from yesterday.

"Abe and Sydney?" I asked, taking a sip of my coffee.

He sighed heavily and leaned back in this chair. "They're both sorting everything out about Avery. Abe's trying to send her away to Tarasov as discreetly as possible. He has a few connections in that place so it shouldn't be too hard. The further away she is from Rose, the better."

"I still can't believe she would do something like this."

"She was going crazy. Avery thought she was helping Rose be free from the darkness and the only way to do so was to kill her."

I flinched at his words. The idea that someone had planned a way to kill her made my blood boil and my heart sink at the same time. Even though I knew that Avery wasn't in her right mind, I was furious with her. I kept my eyes on Rose as I continued to speak with Adrian and he filled me in on what was happening outside of this room.

"Eddie, Lissa and Christian are still worried about Rose. Lissa has been dragged into the world of moroi politics ever since my aunt was murdered and Christian has been by her side, same with Eddie."

After graduation, Eddie had been assigned to Christian and the three of them had settled into Court. Rose would have been happy to hear that they were all here together. They had come in to see her while I refused to leave her side. Lissa and Christian were surprised to see me being so insistent on staying with her that they figured out that our relationship was beyond professional.

Thankfully they didn't say anything when they realised but I'm sure that Eddie was the one who offered them answers. Guardian Hans was also becoming difficult to handle since he was waiting for The Dark One, in fact everyone here was. They were expecting to be saved from whoever had murdered the Queen but there was nothing we could do. It wasn't like we could tell him that The Dark One was in a coma and we weren't sure if she would even make it.

"Everyone's losing their minds out there," said Adrian. "They would feel safe if they knew who was behind it but not knowing is causing everyone to panic."

"The Queen was murdered. We could all be in danger," I replied bluntly.

Adrian didn't seem to be affected by my words and instead looked like he was going to pass out any second. I left him alone and lifted Roza's hand to my lips, kissing it softly.

"Please wake up," I murmured in Russian.

RPOV

I may be a badass but I certainly didn't look like one right now. There was nothing around me, just shadows that I couldn't see past. I was huddled on the ground beneath me with my legs pulled up against my chest. Wherever I was, it was silent, not a single sound could be heard except for my uneven breathing. I had been running around trying to find a way out of here but it was like the shadows followed me and eventually I had given up knowing that it was pointless.

I had even tried screaming hoping that someone would get me out of here. Wherever here was. I remembered everything though. I remembered Avery's rambling and calling Adrian to come help me. I remembered the stake, the pain that followed and waking up alone in a place I wasn't familiar with. Thankfully, my chest didn't hurt and the wound wasn't there anymore but I could clearly remember how painful it had felt.

Whenever I had been "killed" I woke up within a few minutes but I had never been stuck in a place like this before. I didn't know how long I had been here and I wondered if the others had found me yet or knew that I was gone. I would hope so. With a sigh, I rested my head on my knees and closed my eyes.

"Rosemarie?"

My head shot up and my breath caught in my throat. I opened my mouth as tears formed in my eyes but nothing came out. Slowly, I struggled to stand up and my breathing became ragged.

"Mum?" I whispered.

Standing a few feet away from me stood Janine Hathway, my mother. She looked the same as I remembered. Her red curly hair stood out amongst the black shadows surrounding us and there was a smile playing on her lips. She lifted her arms and held them out to me and I didn't hesitate to run into them. I threw my arms around her neck and couldn't hold back the sob that was building up in me. I had dreamed about holding my mother ever since she had died and it almost scared me how real she felt.

"Oh my god, is this real?"

She smoothed my hair down with one hand while the other rested on my back. "Of course it is."

"I can feel you," I mumbled into her shoulder. "How can I feel you?"

"You're stuck in the world between the living and the dead. I'm here to help you get back to yourself in the real world Rose."

I pulled back slightly but kept my arms around her, not wanting to let go of her. "What like limbo? How are you here then?"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that you need to fight. You have to return to your body."

"I don't know how to do that? Wait am I dead?"

She stroked my cheek. "No you're not but if you don't return you'll be stuck here. People need you Rose. People need the Dark One and since you're the last in the Draugr bloodline you have to get back."

"How?" I asked, my voice small. I couldn't stop staring at her. How she looked now was completely different to when I found her body. If this was going to be the last time I see her, I was thankful that it would be this moment rather than seeing her dead.

"Clear your mind and focus on every sensation that you feel in your body. These shadows that are surrounding us right now is what's keeping you from returning. They're still here because you're letting them keep you here but you need to fight through it. I know you can do it Rosemarie. You're the strongest person I know."

Tears were forming in her eyes and I struggled to keep it together. We were both getting emotional.

"I don't want to leave you," I said, clinging onto her.

She pulled me against her. "You have to. It would be selfish of me to keep you here with me even though I want to. I know you can do it. No matter where you are, I'm always watching over you. You are never alone."

We stayed like that for a little longer, holding onto each other and the sound of our crying breaking through the eerie silence. I didn't think I would ever get the chance to see her again but now that we were together, I was reluctant to let go. If only I could take her back with me. She pulled away and kissed my forehead as she cupped my face. Her eyes stared straight into mine.

"I'm proud of you. Don't ever doubt that and I want you to know that I will always be there with you. You have great things ahead of you so no matter how hard things might get, promise me that you will never give up."

"I promise." And I meant it.

"Fight Rose. You have to fight."

I nodded understanding that she was right. Even though I wanted to stay with her I had my life to return to and people that were probably worried. Abe, Dimitri, Adrian, Sydney, Eddie, Lissa and Christian. I not only had to fight for them, I had to fight for myself. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath and focused all my energy onto pushing through the wall that was blocking me from reality.

It kept pushing back and I pushed even harder. Fight Rose. I repeated my mother's words in my head and with everything I had, I broke down the wall and pushed my way through the darkness. When I opened my eyes, the shadows around us started to clear up and I could see light peaking through. My eyes went straight to my mother's and I held her hands in mine.

"I love you Rosemarie."

"I love you too mum."

She disappeared slowly and I was left alone with my hands in front of me where I had been holding her hands. Lowering them to my sides I saw the light wrap around me until it became blinding to the point where I had to shield my eyes. Out of nowhere, I felt something push me back forcefully and I opened my eyes, gasping for air. I was distantly aware of voices and I stared at the white ceiling above me. I had done it. I fought through the darkness.

"She's awake."

AN: Rose finally woke up? Do you think the spirit from the stake might have affected her? I hope you liked the first chapter, I know not a lot happened but we're only just getting started. The next chapter should be up in a few days so I won't wait too long to update. Thank you so much for reading! Much love xoxo Have a good day/night! :D ~ Savannah