Wow! I kept getting emails on my iPhone all day telling me about the reviews and favorites of this story. xD I really appreciate it you guys, it makes me so happy to know I can make you guys happy! I also LOVE hearing you guys' opinion on SB and what you think is going to happen in the actual Last Sacrifice! Keep talking to me about it, I wish I had more time to reply to everyone. Anywho, I hope you enjoy this next installment of my version of Last Sacrifice.


Last Sacrifice
Chapter Two
Catphant.

The rest of the day (or night, I don't know which—it was hard to tell when you were locked underground) passed without any massive, heart-attack-inducing events. Not that Dimitri appearing had been that big of a deal to me anyways. He hadn't said much during the little amount of time he was down there, and it appeared to me that he hadn't planned to. If anything, it was kind of torturous to see him on the other side of those bars and not myself. Hell, it was torturous knowing that he was out anywhere without me next to him. That was how it should have been. And to think, that less than five months ago we had thought everything was planned to be perfect.

I didn't spend any more time in my fantasy world that day. Somehow, seeing Dimitri in person had diminished any kind of fake Dimitri I could conjure up in my head. The two would just never be the same. Instead I passed the time by using a small rock I found in the corner and drawing pictures along the brick of my cell walls. I was not an artist by any means, but it gave me something to do.

"Is that an elephant or a cow?"

The voice snapped me out of my current drawing, but I didn't turn or freeze like I had last time. Continuing to draw, I replied quietly, "It's a cat."

The voice of what would be my boyfriend (had I not been locked up in a cell) continued, "I thought you hated cats?"

"Your smart-ass comments can get old, you know," I told him dryly, shading in the catphant's fur. He snorted.

"And your stubborn, hard-headed-ness is what I thrive off of, little dhampir."

"How did you get down here?" I hoped he would give me a better answer than what Dimitri had, but just to be safe, I warned him, "And don't you dare say you 'just asked'."

He paused as if that was exactly what he had planned on saying, and then spoke, "I…well, let's just say it wasn't easy. Did you know you need a total of twenty-four guardians around you at all times?"

I took the opportunity to snort myself this time, "I don't need them."

It was silent for a moment before he would speak again, "Maybe. But we need you, Rose."

The silence was etched into the atmosphere surrounding us again, and suddenly the scratching of my now tinier rock was getting on my nerves. Calmly (and very unlike Rosemarie Hathaway I might add), I set the makeshift chalk down and took a deep breath.

"I miss you guys, too."

Adrian smirked, something I could see out of the reflection of a broken piece of metal in my corner, "While we do miss you, little dhampir, and you might want to consider deflating that head a little bit, I wasn't speaking of Lissa, Christian and I."

A little hurt, I turned to him, "Then who in the Hell are you talking about, Ivashkov?"

He frowned, clearly displeased with my reply, "The Moroi."

This time I snorted purposefully, "Oh yeah, they need me so much they had to stick me in a damn holding cell."

Adrian sighed, "Believe it or not, Rose, that is exactly why they stuck you in here."

"Besides the fact that I'm going to trial for," I made quotation marks with my fingers, "'Murdering the Queen'?"

"Well, yes, that is a small part of it."

"Small? They're planning on executing me if all goes their way, Adrian!" I threw my hands in the air in exasperation.

He wagged his finger at me, "Shh, not so loud. I got the majority of the guardians to leave us alone, but they're only standing upstairs and I think causing a scene will give them good enough reason to come back down here and remove the only person that can help you."

Unwavering, I stared at him, "And how on Earth can you do that?"

He cocked his eyebrow at me challengingly, "Have I ever let you down before?"

This time it was my turn to cock my eyebrow.

"Alright, touché. But really, Rose, I have done so many miraculous things. Why wouldn't I be able to do this one?"

"Break me out of here, fight off a horde of guardians, keep me from being killed, and somehow set all this right?"

"Well, not in so many words. I just like the word 'run' personally."

I rolled my eyes, "Sorry, I've lived the fugitive life too many times to want to go back to it, Adrian. "

"Right, well, if it helps, your father has some plans of his own."

I groaned, "Exactly what I needed to relieve the piles of stress currently on my shoulders. My crazy father planning some even crazier scheme to break me out of prison."

"Hey, this isn't prison. If you were in prison, you'd have lost half your sanity by now."

I rolled my eyes once more, "I think I lost that a long time ago, Adrian. Now, what's this plan of my father's?"


"Hey, when's dinner?"

The guard I'd yelled at turned to me with an amused expression, quite used to my outbursts, "Nice to see you're somewhat back."

"Answer my question, moron."

He scoffed, "Not for another hour."

I put on my best fake pouting face and produced a shrill whine, "But I'm hungry noooow…"

"So is every other prisoner, I'm sure."

"Can I just have a piece of cake?"

He stayed quiet, but then sighed, "Sure kid, if it'll get you to shut up. I regret wishing that you were back to normal."

As I waited for my slice of cake, I tapped my foot. Eventually the guard came back, sliding the piece through the small sliver of room they had to do such a thing. I instantly grabbed it and devoured the triple chocolate fudge cake, forcing down the way-too-sugary crap that it was made of.

After I (finally) finished it, I slid the plate across the room and gave another very convincing groan (which really wasn't all that hard considering I really did feel like crap). The guard ignored me at first, but after a couple more, he was forced to turn around and stare at me.

"What now?" He growled, and I held my stomach.

"I think that cake made me sick…" I began, groaning again, "I feel like I'm about to—"

And promptly, I leaned over and puked.

"Well, that settles it I guess," The guardian muttered to himself before he sighed. I heard the jingle of keys and the rattle of my cell door before I threw up again. I looked up in time to see him wince from disgust and take in a deep breath. Motioning with his hand, he began to lead me out of the cell.

He's killed seven Strigoi and he can't take the stench of a girl's puke. Pathetic.

I thought I was free to walk myself, but as soon as we were out of the cell he promptly slapped some cuffs on me. I almost sighed aloud. He was making a very crucial mistake. While it would have been easier without handcuffs, I was still a very capable fighter.

I knew where we were going, and I couldn't help but feel the rush of excitement as I was led up the stairs I had only ever gone down. I hadn't been up in over a month, and the prospect of seeing real, breathing people and breathing in the outside air by myself was almost enough to make me puke again.

"If you need to vomit again, please, stay away from the area of my boots. I just had them polished."

Luckily I was behind his back and was able to roll my eyes.

I saw plenty of people on my way across the court, but none that I wanted to see. No Lissa, no Mia, no Christian, and definitely no Dimitri. I wondered where he was staying now, and if they allowed him to leave without any guardians surrounding him. I wondered if he still thought of me, too.

I saw Adrian, like I knew I would. He was leaning against the pillar of the west courtyard, smoking a cigarette much like he normally would. I gave him a quick glance and he nodded. A crowd of people passed in front of him and by the time they were gone, so was he.

"Here we are. I hate that we have to walk all the way across the court for this. They should really invest in a medical center down in the holding cells."

He opened the door for me and watched my back as we walked inside. He spoke a few words to the receptionist and then we were both led back into another room entirely. A nurse walked in behind us and told me to take a seat on the bench.

"Good evening, Miss Hathaway," She said, taking a look at a clipboard in her hands, "So you're complaining of stomach pains?"

I merely nodded my head, frowning.

"And you think maybe the cake was bad?"

Insert nod.

"Mmm, well, we'll have to do a few tests to see if its food poisoning. I'll be right back with the proper paperwork."

As soon as she left, I looked over at the guardian with me. He was staring out the window, watching the courtyard below. Clearly he was off guard. This was really playing out to my advantage, fortunately. Hopping off the bench quietly, I paused to see if he'd notice, but when he didn't, I knew I was set for the kill.

Well, not kill, but who's counting?

Quickly, I moved behind him and spoke, "Sorry for this, really. But I can't take being in a gross cell any longer."

As soon as he spun around I took the opportunity to knee him in the stomach, which sent him doubling over. Taking this separate opportunity, I used my elbow and hit the back of his head with as much force as I could without trying to shatter his skull.

And he hit the ground, just like I expected.

No movement five seconds later was my cue. Bending down, I slid the loop of keys off his belt and used the same one he'd used to lock me up to unlock my cuffs. Sighing in happiness, I stretched my arms for a bit before glancing around the room.

"Ah ha," I murmured to myself, seeing the air duct. Sliding the chair over to it, I used the fork from my cake (which I had stuck in my pocket) to undo the screws. Climbing into the hole, I kicked the chair away from it and, from the inside, managed to put the screen back and screw it on from the inside.

I'd done it.

"It's not done yet, Rose," I whispered, turning around to begin crawling my way to freedom. Half way down I heard the gasp from the nurse before she began calling for help. There wasn't much time now.

Following Adrian's directions, I realized, was a bad idea. I was lost. I was supposed to end up on the east side of the center where he would be waiting with a car, but I was almost positive I was going south. Call it intuition, but I figured it was because I kept running into dead ends.

Finally, light poured through an opening, actual, genuine sunlight and I was worried for a second that Adrian might not be out there, considering the suns effect on Moroi. I was also scared that guards would be waiting for me, but as I kicked the opening and stared outside, I realized that wasn't true. Well, at least one of them wasn't.

Adrian was nowhere in sight.

I ran out a bit further, hoping he was around some corner, but no luck. "Fuck," I cursed quietly, looking around. Was I in the wrong area? "I knew his directions were shit!"

Spinning around, I was about to head back inside and try all over again, but I was stopped as I ran into a hard chest.

The hard chest of someone who was definitely not Adrian.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, what in God's name are you doing out of your cell?"

Well, I was up shit creek without a paddle now. Might as well hold out my arms and say, "cuff me", because there was no way I was getting out of this one.