Chapter 1

I woke up to the sound of stones being thrown at my second story window. At first I thought it would be someone playing a prank again, like usual. At high school, I was considered a freak because I preferred to keep to myself. At first—almost two years ago—the girls had tried to talk to me, but I wouldn't talk to them, only to Christian. So people like to wind me up by throwing things at my window. I was shocked this time that it was stones, not tomatoes, or eggs like usual.

Usually, they stop after about two minutes, but when nearly ten minutes had passed and they were still throwing things at my window, I got kinda pissed off and went to see what they wanted. And what I saw shocked me half to death.

There was a dhampir outside my window.

A girl dhampir, about my age, with long, dark hair, and big brown eyes stared up at me. And let me tell you, she was hot. And then I realised that she had probably come with the academy, and I felt the colour drain from my face. If she had come with the academy, then she was probably here to take me and Christian back. She walked towards the front of the house, and I turned to see Christian barely stirring from sleep. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and kicked his bed.

"Dude!" I whisper-shouted. "Wake up! They came to g—" I was cut off by a loud banging on the front door to our apartment. Shit. Christian sat up abruptly, his black hair sticking up in all directions. I threw clothes at him. "Get dressed, dude. We're not getting away now." She banged on the door again and I went to go answer it.

"Open the fucking door, or I'll break it down!" she yelled and I left to go answer it. Well she didn't sound much like a guardian. "About fucking time." She complains as I open the door to her and she walks in. She's wearing an ivory trench coat that comes to her knees and jeans. Her hair was worn loose. She didn't look like a guardian, either. I clenched my fists ready to fight her, even though there's a chance she might not have come with the Academy. She took one look at my fists and said, "Don't even try it. I know what you're thinking, and there's no point. Yes, I am a guardian, and yes, I did come to take you back to school, but if you would just listen to what I'm about to say, then you would probably think so, too."

"I still think I could take you. I mean, how old are you, for a start? There's no way you're a guardian."

"I'm eighteen, and, no, you couldn't take me." And she turned around and lifted her hair. A promise mark, two molnija marks and a battle star. Well shit. "I graduated last semester. Hey, Sparky!" she yelled to Christian who had just entered the kitchen.

"Rose?" he asked warily. What? It couldn't be Rose Hathaway could it?

"Don't worry, I'm not here to plead her case. But you do need to come back with me."

She went to sit at the kitchen table and Christian followed. "So," he began, "what's been going on since we left?"

"Well, I graduated, and that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about." I think she was about to say something more when Christian cut her off.

"Wait—you say you graduated? How is that possible? I didn't think Stan would let you graduate!" I sat down now, tired of waiting.

"Yeah, well, it's true. And I graduated at the top of my class. And that's kinda why I'm here. I need to talk to you about it." She paused, and waited for Christian to interrupt her, but he didn't, and she continued. "The week before the final trials, the school was attacked by Strigoi. I killed more than thirty Strigoi by myself, so they decided there was no point in giving me a trial, and I graduated right after, see?" she lifted her hair, and turned so Christian could see her marks. The look on his face was priceless. I wondered if that was what my face had looked like when I saw them.

"But—but—" he sputtered. Rose cut him off.

"Yes, Christian, last time you saw me I didn't have the marks from Spokane, and now I do, now would you listen?" she said darkly, but seeing the look on his face, she continued smiling, "but at least twenty-five or so got away, even though the other guardians got at least thirty between them, and they took Moroi with them, don't worry, Lissa wasn't one of them," she added seeing the look on his face. Lissa was his ex-girlfriend, and the reason we left in the first place. He was so in love with her and she didn't realise it. Rose continued. "Eddie was bitten again. And, then last week I thought if you two'd've been there, it'd have been an easier fight. You don't know me, but I read your file, and I know why you were transferred to St Vlad's." she addressed the last part to me, and turned to me, and I got the first full view of her face, and she was more beautiful than I'd realised. "So I hacked into a few high school databases until I found Christian Ozera and Dimitri Belikov at Portland High." She turned to me. "Rose Hathaway, pleased to meet you!" she extended a hand and I reluctantly shook it, shocked by her abruptness.

"Dimitri Belikov." I introduced myself warily. Christian laughed at the look on my face.

"Now let's get going," she said cheerfully, and then added, "School starts in less than twenty-four hours and I've still got to convince Kirova and Stan to let you back."

"Why Stan?" Christian asked.

"Because he hated me almost as much as he hated Rose. He probably threw a party when we left."

"No he still hates you. It's something about good students, I think. You were only there a week, and he already hated you. He still hates me because he didn't want me to graduate. And now he's pissed at me more than he was before, which means that he will do anything to stop me getting my way."

"Do the school know you came here?" I asked incredulously.

"No," both she and Christian said together.

"Like I said, Stan does everything he can to stop me doing what I want, so Liss made the pilot bring me here." She explained. "Now let's go." She demanded and stood up, waiting for us to follow. I stood up without complaint, but Christian said, "Is Lissa with you?"

"No, but she is still in school, and you can't avoid her forever…" she seemed to think about something for a second, and then said, "She still loves you, you know."

"Oh, really? So tell me, what is she doing right now?" Rose seemed to think for a moment more, and then a guilty look came over her face. "She's with him isn't she?"

"They only practise magic, Christian, it's not like anything's happening, and she's been gutted since you left."

"It didn't seem like they were practising magic when she had her tongue down his throat," Christian stated bitterly, and I could tell that he was trying not to cry.

"No, but they were both drunk, and she was upset because you'd had an argument and I can tell you that right now she is wishing that I'd hurry up and bring you back so she can see you again. And if you remember, you were the one who broke up with her. It was only five months ago; you can't be that retarded now, can you, Sparky?"

Christian gave a one-sided smile and said, "Yeah," then turned away to go pack our mere possessions. I followed him.

I could tell by his face that he was elated to hear she still loved him, but I knew what he was thinking of. The night he caught Lissa kissing Adrian. I wasn't there, but he'd told me about it so many times, I may as well have been.

They'd had an argument during the day about Adrian Ivashkov. He kind of has a reputation for getting with every girl he meets. Lissa had sworn there was nothing going on, but Christian didn't believe it. She'd gone to practise magic with Adrian and when Christian had gone to apologise, he just walked in, without knocking. They were on the couch, kissing, and Christian had just slammed the door, and left. As he'd let, he ran into Rose, who had been on the way to drag Lissa off of Adrian, presumably, and she'd comforted him, telling him how drunk Lissa was, and that she's gutted he saw that. He'd never broken up with her, but I'd transferred from Russia the next week. I didn't have any friends, but Christian talked to me, and a week after I arrived, I left with Christian. We'd been gone five months, now, but apparently, we were going back.

I'd heard stories about Rose; she was in the grade above us, and she was totally badass. Just two weeks before everything with Lissa had happened, he and Rose had been kidnapped by Strigoi, with two of Rose's friends, Mason and Eddie, and another Moroi, Mia. Eddie had been bitten by them, and Mason had been killed. Rose had gotten out Christian, Mia, and Eddie, and had killed the two Strigoi holding them captive. Rose and Mason had been dating, so she was pretty depressed afterwards; they must've waited until she was out of the whole depression thing before giving her the marks, because as far as Christian knew, she didn't have any molnija's.

I'd been transferred from St Basil's in Siberia because I was the best in my grade. They'd actually sent me to work with Rose, ironically, since I was almost at the same level as her, but when I got to St Vlad's, word was going round that she was ill, which was odd; dhampirs hardly ever get ill. I met Christian in the first couple days there, and three days later, we ran away; he couldn't stand to be around Lissa any longer. It was Christian who explained that Rose wasn't actually ill; she was just depressed.

We walked back towards the kitchen and found Rose searching the refrigerator. She seemed to be looking for something very particular, until—"Aha!" she yelled, pulling out a big slice of the pizza we'd had last night. Or, well, the pizza Christian had had last night; I ate mine, and most of his. There was about two slices left. She took a bite, and then looked at me and Christian. "Oh, sorry." She dug out the other slice and said, "You want some?"

I shook my head. "Are we going then?" I asked, impatiently. She shrugged, closed the refrigerator and walked out the apartment door. I followed, carrying both mine and Christian's suitcases. They were pretty heavy.

I had to admit, Rose looked pretty funny; she was just walking along, holding two massive pizza slices. And she only came up to about my shoulders. She was small, even for a dhampir. She was only about five-six, maybe five-seven, at the most. It took her about a minute to eat both slices. She took one suitcase from me, and hefted it along, when she was finished. The car was only a five minute walk from the apartment, and we walked in silence.

When we got to the SUV, we hefted the massive suitcases into the trunk. Christian climbed into the front seat, and I got into the back. Rose and Christian talked all the way to the airport, while I caught up on my sleep.

"Chris, you go sit over there; I want to talk to Dimitri." She motioned with her head towards the other side of the plane.

"Sure," Christian looked pretty confused. I know how he feels. She sat next to me.

"Why did you run away?" she started, "or do I not need to ask?"

"No, I don't think you do."

"Liss?" she asked. I nodded. "But you'd only known Christian, what, five days when you left? Were you not afraid he'd burn you up?"

"Well, that doesn't matter, does it? You know, they come first and all that?"

"S'pose so."

"Why are you still at the school?" I asked.

"I'm set to be Lissa's guardian when she graduates," she explained, "it's what her parents wanted, and then—did Sparky tell you about the bond?"

"The basics." I murmured.

"Well, basically, in the car crash that killed her parents, I technically died, as well, and Lissa brought me back, so we have a bond, and now I get to be her guardian, more or less no matter what." She grinned at me. "And so I'm staying to teach for this next year, and also, I'll be mentoring you, if they let you stay. But if you hadn't left, I'd be doing that anyway. So, you think you could take me?" she asked with a dark smile.

"Well, it's hard to say, if you only consider that you've killed more than thirty Strigoi, I'd say no, but considering I'm more than a foot taller than you, and probably stronger I'd say yes, but seeing that I haven't trained in five months…I think no." she laughed at my nervous babble. The truth is I don't think I could take her on, no way, but if I hadn't left, I probably could.

"Well, we'll see about that later."

"If they let us back, that is."

"When they let you back," she looked up at me, "I'll ask Lissa if there's anything she can do—wink-wink; nudge-nudge." She explained, seeing my confusion.

"Ah," I said, and then she stood and walked away.