Promising.
Disclaimer: The Vampire Academy series belongs to Richelle Mead but this is completely my own.
Chapter One – Thoughts, Feelings and a Promise.
I'm free. The iron gates closed behind me. If only it were under different circumstances. If you had asked me a six months ago what my goal was, I probably would've said to get out of St Vladimir's. As long as I had Lissa, my best friend in tow I wouldn't have cared where we were. But times have changed. I have changed. As a dhampir, I still want to be the kick arse guardian I know I am, I want to protect Lissa and I want to kill Strigoi. But like I said times have changed and I made a promise. Not in the literal sense but I am still honour bound, a least I feel I am. I have to do it. I guess it is just the same old rebellious me. Breaking rules and pushing boundaries, that just what I do.
Starting down the highway that led east from St Vladimir's, I paused. A rippling shock of emotion poured through the bond shared between me and Lissa and yet I couldn't make out what it was. I sensed apprehension, anger, determination and sadness so deep it torn my heart even further. I shook it off, I didn't need to be in her head, I had enough of my own feelings to deal with and yet in doing so why did I feel so guilty like I had just committed a major crime or something? Lissa. My best friend but more than that, a sister. I was bound to her more than just a guardian to a charge, as I'm shadow kissed. The bond I mentioned early was one-way and it let me feel Lissa's emotions, it lets me inhibit her and also allows her to talk to me. While this bond is highly useful, at the moment I was finding it highly irritating! I don't want to feel! I just want to be me. Rose. Roza.
I cringed as the word formed in my mind. It had been said in the same, soft, sweet, calm voice of Dimitri. I groaned and stabbing needles of pain hit me everywhere, it was worst then the throbbing headache I have had since I stepped outside the ward. Why oh why did I have I think of him. My mentor, my lover, Guardian Belikov. The picture formed in my head before I had allowed it. His dark brown hair falling to his shoulders, his brown eyes endlessly deep, warm and filled with love and then I saw them swirl and change before me, becoming so dark and soul less, becoming the eyes of a Strigoi.
I stopped my footfalls, I couldn't breathe, I needed to forget, maybe if I wasn't hurting I would have noticed the sound of tires earlier but as it were I didn't. Looking around in the growing darkness, I saw the headlight coming towards me, deciding for a moment whether or not hitchhiking was the best idea. Then I realised it was the only one. I flagged down the oncoming car and saw it slowing down. I leaned over the window and flashed the most striking, devilish smile I could muster. As I looked onto the driver's faced I gasped. I should have saved the smile. The beautiful woman looking back at me had jet-black hair, blue eyes but her most distinguished features were the purplish scars laid across her left cheek. I scowled, nodded in recognition and angrily murmured "Tasha Ozera".
Chapter Two – A long, long ride.