Chapter Two

"Broken"


When I woke up, I immediately recognized my surroundings to be that of a hospital. Great. This was just what I needed. I didn't have a clue how long I'd been in here and when I looked down at my arm, I saw I was wearing a sling. Fantastic.

I tried to sit up and instantly regretted it. The room started spinning and I felt like I was going to be sick.

Nearly as soon as the nauseous feeling hit me, the door opened and in walked the last person I wanted to see right now. "Easy, little dhampir. You got diagnosed with a mild concussion, so you're probably not feeling too hot right now."

"Whatever gave you that impression?" I remarked dryly. I slowly pushed myself up with my good arm and let my head fall back on the bed.

"Well, it's good to know you're sarcasm is still in tact," he said as he sat down in the chair next to the bed. "I wouldn't know what to do without it."

"I'm sure you'd manage. But, I don't think you'll have to worry about that going away."

"Glad to hear it."

An awkward silence passed for a minute or so and I couldn't take it anymore. Plus, I was curious as to how long I'd been in here. "How long was I out?"

He shrugged. "A day or so." He tried to keep his voice level and controlled, but there was a grimness to it that made me uncomfortable.

I nodded and finally asked the first question I should have asked to begin with. "So how'd you find me?"

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips and he grew amused. "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"When you were unconscious, I contacted you. You told me where you were."

"I don't remember," I said quietly.

"It's okay. You were pretty out of it, even in your dreams." He was quiet for a minute or so and it made me nervous. Adrian was never this quiet. "Please don't ever do this again. You gave us all a scare, Rose."

I stared, feeling thoroughly shocked and surprised. He hardly ever called me Rose.

Adrian brought his hand up to my hair and brushed it away to reveal my neck. I grimaced when he touched a bruise. "It was him, wasn't it? He did this to you." I looked away, unwilling to answer. The pain was still too raw to think about it.

"You can't keep chasing after him anymore. You need to stop."

"I can't," I said quietly. "I wasn't ready this time, but next time I'll—"

"Next time?" he interrupted irritably. "Next time he'll probably finish you off! Just look at what he's done to you, Rose! You have bruises everywhere, he practically ripped your arm out of place, and he gave you a concussion!"

"Mild," I argued lamely. His eyes narrowed and he gave me a pointed look, letting me know that he wasn't amused. "Look, I appreciate your concern, but you don't know what happened back there, Adrian."

"Don't I? He tried to kill you. That's enough information for me."

"He saved me," I countered.

He scowled and was clearly disbelieving of this information. "Excuse me?"

I sighed and started relaying everything that had happened. I was actually surprised I was telling him all of this, but with him . . . I don't know, with him, it was just easy. He let me go at my own pace and didn't pressure me at all to keep going. I think at any point I wanted to stop, he would have been totally cool with it.

Adrian looked like he was going to be sick when I told him how my arm got dislocated. I asked him if he wanted me to stop and he shook his pale, ashen face so adamantly that I nearly started laughing at him.

And then I got to the least fun part of the cabin, the part where I nearly died. "He was choking me and then all of a sudden, he just stopped for some reason. I swear, for a minute it was almost like it was really him again, Adrian."

At that, his eyes darkened and he clenched his jaw. "That's not possible, little dhampir, and you know it."

"I know, but—"

"No!" he yelled. I blinked; Adrian never raised his voice. He was so easy-going and laid back. I think that's once of the qualities that drew me to him. We sat in silence for what felt like eternity. He rubbed a hand over his face and he sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. But Rose . . . you have to know that no matter what you think you saw back in that cabin that it wasn't Belikov. He's gone, Rose."

Tears pooled in my eyes and I knew he was right. No matter what look Dimitri had on his face, it didn't change the fact that he was still one of them now. There was no coming back from it, either. It felt like I lost him all over again, only this time it was so much worse. I blinked back the tears that were threatening to escape and nodded.

"Damn it, I'm sorry."

I shook my head and gave a pathetic, weak excuse for a smile. "It's okay. I needed to hear that. Besides, it'll keep me prepared and keep my head out of the clouds for whenever I find him again."

"What?"

I nodded and felt more determined than ever to find Dimitri again. I couldn't let him roam the earth, killing people. He wouldn't want that. "As soon as my arm's healed, I'm going back out there."

Adrian swore under his breath. "Have you not been listening to me? Have I just been talking to that wall over there?" he exclaimed heatedly.

"No, I heard you. Loud and clear. But you can't make me quit, Adrian. I need to get back out there and fight him and finish the job. He doesn't want this!"

"Then let somebody else take care of it!" he argued. "You nearly died, damn it! Don't you care that he almost killed you?"

"Of course! Of course I care, Adrian. I was scared out of my mind! But I can't let that stop me from doing this. I can't just let somebody else 'take care of it'. We promised each other."

"I'm not letting you go back out there again, Rose. It's not going to happen."

I raised my eyebrows at his audacity. Has he not met me before this? "You're not going to let me? I'm sorry, I didn't realize you gave me orders."

He smirked and crossed his arms. His pompous air returned and I remembered why he got on my nerves. I figured my, "Adrian's so nice" phase wouldn't last too long.

"I don't give you orders, no. I wouldn't dream of it. But I can easily cut off your money supply," he said smugly.

I glared at him and tightened my fists. He was not playing nice. He knew I needed that money. There was no way I'd be able to do this search without it. "You can't do that."

He laughed outright and quirked a brow. "It's my money, little dhampir. I believe I can do what I want with it."

"Adrian—"

"I am not going to pay you to kill yourself, Rose. If you want to continue this suicidal quest of yours, go ahead."

"Oh please! I am not suicidal!"

Adrian scoffed, clearly losing his patience. "Did you forget that I can see auras? That hasn't changed since you've been away. I can see yours now, and honestly? I wish I couldn't."

That caused me to falter just the tiniest bit. What did he mean? Was there something wrong with me that I didn't even realize?

"You're making that up," I said with uncertainty.

He shook his head sadly. "I'm not. I wish I were, but Rose . . . I've never seen one quite this dark before. There's nothing positive about it. It's all shadows and darkness," he said quietly. "It's like you've lost your light."

I shut my eyes and tried to ignore the pain that was piercing my heart at his observation. I lost my light a long time ago. A little over seven months ago, to be exact.

"Look, I'm not the best with words when it comes to stuff like this. I've never lost anybody the way you—" he stopped in mid-sentence, and I was surprised that he was trying to censor himself for my sake. "Well, I just have never lost anyone I truly cared about to the Strigoi before. I couldn't imagine what you're going through right now."

I glared at him. "No. You can't," I said somewhat bitchily. I felt bad, but only a little. He didn't understand and he was judging me like he had every right in the world to. I didn't appreciate the fact that he seemed to think I was so depressed that I wanted to kill myself. I wasn't to that point and hopefully, I would never get there.

"I know you're upset, but this isn't healthy. It's turning into an obsession and you don't even realize it," he said softly.

"That's not true," I refuted.

"It is. You're not even healed from your last encounter with him and you're already in talks of starting up your search again."

"Please understand. I need this. Don't you see? It's the only way I'll be able to move on with my life."

He shook his head once more. "I'm sorry. I don't understand. I won't ever be able to understand this. You're slowly killing yourself with this and I can't sit by and watch it happen."

When I didn't say anything, he heaved a heavy sigh and I heard him stand up. "Like I said, if you're so insistent on continuing this ridiculous search, then be my guest. Just don't expect my help. You'll have to find somebody else to be your backer," he said somewhat bitterly.

"Fine, I will!"

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, good luck with that Rose. I need to get out of here. You're making me . . . irritated."

He stormed out of the room, not even giving me a chance to say anything else.

I huffed in annoyance. It wasn't a "suicidal quest" as he called it. He was just being overdramatic and completely unreasonable. Did he forget that I trained to hunt these things? Did he forget that before I bailed on the academy that I was close to becoming a guardian and make a living killing Strigoi? What a drama queen!

I folded my arms and began taping my index finger on my forearm, still angry. He hadn't even asked about all the other Strigoi I killed along the way, which was so many I lost count after the first twenty. So really, I was doing just fine. I made one mistake and suddenly it's a quest for me to kill myself.

The brooding continued and most of the time, I was having an internal bitch-fit about Adrian. He was ruining everything!

I was in the middle of thinking up ways to get him away from his guardian so I could kick his ass when the door opened again. I looked up and saw Lissa and Christian together. For once, I was rendered speechless.

"Hey, Hathaway. How are you feeling?" Christian asked when Lissa didn't say anything. Looking at her made me feel immensely guilty for abandoning her and I promptly avoided her gaze.

"I've been better," I mumbled.

"Well you look like shit," he said truthfully. "I'd say it's a vast improvement though, honestly."

Lissa glared at him, but I actually laughed. I'd missed this a lot. This felt normal. It felt nice. There was just one huge difference stopping me from fully enjoying it. I tried not to think about that difference though because it would just depress me again. So I started talking.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"I'm here because I was dragged here," Christian said impatiently.

"Whatever, Christian. You were worried about her, too," Lissa said with a smirk. Relief flooded through me. It was the first thing she'd said since they walked through the door.

Christian's cheeks flamed with embarrassment and I knew Lissa was telling the truth when he didn't offer a witty retort. His lame response was, "Whatever," and he walked out the door, leaving just Lissa and me in the room.

A few moments of silence passed before either one of us said anything. I still felt too guilty.

"So, now that Christian's gone, how are you really feeling?"

I sighed. "I'm fine, Lissa."

"Don't lie to me," she snapped. Okay, so apparently, she was angrier than I first thought.

"Lissa . . ."

"You owe me, Rose. You weren't exactly truthful with me when you were still at the academy and then you left—after you promised to always protect me, you left me. And now that we've come all the way over here and had to watch you fight for your life, you're still not going to tell me the truth?"

I was going into guilty mode again when something she said caught my attention. "What do you mean 'fighting for my life'? Adrian said I was only out for a day or so." She didn't answer me. She was biting her lip and looking away from me, and I felt myself growing irritated. "Lissa?"

"Rose, you died, okay! You shouldn't even be here right now," she said quietly.

"What?"

She nodded and tears began streaming down her face. "You died from internal bleeding. They couldn't stop it."

"Did you, you know, heal me?" She shook her head and started sobbing harder. "Then how am I here? How am I still alive?"

"I don't know," she choked out. "But I'm glad you are. Even though you freaked the doctors out," she said with a low chuckle. "When they came out of the operating room, they were all scratching their heads."

I allowed myself a small smile, but I still felt uneasy. I shouldn't be here.

And then I thought back to the cabin all of a sudden. I don't know what made me think of it, but I remembered the fight clear as bell. But the thing that confused me the most was what Dimitri had been able to do.

My eyes widened. "Lissa, I'm sorry, but could you get Adrian for me? It's important," I said hurriedly. She glanced at me warily, but nodded. "Hey," I said, stopping her before she left. "We'll talk later, okay? I promise." That earned a small smile from her and made me not feel like such a heel anymore.

Once she was gone, I was reeling over what I had remembered. How had I not seen it before? Why didn't I pay attention in the damn cabin?

A few moments later, Adrian appeared in the doorway with his hands in his pockets. He still looked pissed off from earlier. "You beckoned?"

"Yes. I know, you're still pissed at me, but hear me out. I just remembered something and I think you might be interested in it."

"I'm listening."

"He touched the stake," I said quickly.

His nose scrunched in confusion and he tilted his head to the side. "Excuse me?"

I let out an exasperated sigh and sat up straight in bed, ignoring the dizziness that came with the action. "Dimitri. When we were fighting, he touched the stake! Actually, he held it for a long time."

"So?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Aren't you forgetting something, Adrian? You shouldn't be asking 'so'? You should be asking 'how'."

Now his eyes widened in recognition and he sucked in a breath. "He's a Strigoi. He can't touch those things."

"Exactly. So the question is, how did he do it?"


Hey!

Time for another update. Thanks so much for all the reviews. You guys rock! I'm having a lot of fun with this and I hope you all keep reading.

Hope you all enjoy the chapter. Please keep those comments coming :)

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