CHAPTER 1

We had just gotten back home from a party. It was midnight and we, unfortunately, had some stuff to finish for school. We just wanted to finish high school. After that, we were going to go wherever life took us. With Lissa's bank account, we could go to the ends of Earth and back, anyway! If anything happened to Lissa, I don't know what I'd do. She was like a sister to me. She still had nightmares about the accident. The weird thing was, I sometimes woke up from her nightmare. This weird quirk happened who knows when, but sometime over the past 2 years, some psychic bond was created between me and Lissa. We had heard of this, in the old legends. But we didn't know that it could really happen.

That night, we had just gone up to Lissa's room when she said, "Rose. Andre called. When we were at the party."

My heart skipped a beat just hearing his name. There. That's the last and final reason why my life completely SUCKS! I was head over heels in love with my best friend's brother, who also happened to be the "King-In-Waiting". In my world, relationships between Dhampirs and Moroi are considered to be another taboo. A Dhampir and the future King? Yeah, that would go over well with the people.

Before she noticed that I was daydreaming about her brother, I said, "What did he say, Liss? Anything important?"

"He just wanted to know how things were going here. He hadn't talked to Alberta in a while. He's been really busy. So he didn't know what's going on through the collective head of the school." Alberta was a Guardian at my school. She was actually THE head.

Andre called her up once in a week and asked her if the school had made progress in locating his darling little sister and her troublemaking best friend. This was to keep up images.

"That's fine. How are things back at Court?", I asked. Court was the place where the administration of the Moroi Government was. The Royal Court. Yes, the Moroi still followed monarchy. Queen Tatiana Ivashkov was the present monarch and I hated her. She was a bitch, plain and simple. The Moroi have 12 Royal Families. Each family's oldest living member became the Prince or Princess.

"The Court is good. The Royals are snobby, as usual.", she said. Not Andre, I thought. After that, we started up on the work we had to do.
After about half an hour of work, the silence of the house was interrupted by the doorbell. "I'll get it.", said Lissa. But I would hear nothing of it. It could be a horde of Strigoi at the door, for all we know. So I firmly stated that I would get the door and went to the front door.

I opened it to reveal a maid who was about 35 years old standing at the door. I immediately dismissed my worries and let her in. I went back upstairs and started in on the homework. But of course, I, being who I was, couldn't concentrate. I decided to go look out the window. What I found out there, took my breath away. Standing there, under a street light, trying to be stealthy, was a very muscular, very hot guy. He was about 6 foot 7. This was not what took my breath away. Not that it wasn't enough to take the breath of a normal, red-blooded girl away. The fact that this guy was a Dhampir was what startled me. What's more, there were about 12 others around him hidden at a few choice hideouts. This was not good.

I went back to Lissa and said, "Liss, fast. Take what we absolutely need. We need to go. The car's in the garage, right? Come on, Liss! We're in danger!" To say that Lissa was shocked would be an understatement.

I took a few more seconds to explain to her what was happening. We were out of the room in a flash. But when we opened the door, there was someone listening in on our panicked conversation. It was the maid. No, that isn't the maid! I realised. She was another Dhampir. When I lookd closer I realised that it was my Mother Dearest.

Right behind my Mom was another Guardian. And another. There were too many for me to fight! We were caught. I looked up and there was the tall guy from the street. He had shoulder length brown hair and chocolate coloured eyes. I couldn't help but feel a burning hatred towards him. Somehow, I knew that he was the leader of the group.

I lashed out at him. I tried to execute a move I hadn't used in almost year. I had never felt the need to use it anyway. Of course he stopped. He was a trained Guardian who was older than me and I was a runaway Dhampir who hadn't been practising. This made me feel incompetent and I hated the fact that I hadn't been practising.

He hit me and I went flying back. He hadn't intended to hit me so hard but thanks to my lack of practise, I wasn't very steady on my feet. In a flash, he snaked his hand forward and took a hold of me. I wanted to hit him, hit them all. But I felt calming thoughts coming from Lissa. When I turned to look at her, she said, "Give it up, Rose. We can't escape." I felt so very shamed. I was supposed to be protecting her and now I was in a situation where I was helpless. Going back to that place was not going to do her any good. I just know it.

Then Mr. Cowboy Duster (I know, right?) put his hand out to Lissa and said in a very deep voice, "I'm Guardian Belikov. I'm here to take you and Rosemarie back to the Academy, Princess." I already hated him even though his Russian accent was very sexy.

A.N - Hey, guys! I hope you guys are liking this story! I haven't gotten any responses yet and I'm really hoping that somebody will tell me if they like where this is going! =) I don't know why nobody thought of Rose falling for Andre. It just came to me one night. I hope it's a good idea! =)