Hola! This is the prologue of the story. I hope you'll enjoy it more than I do.



Prologue

I was facing them. Facing fifty Strigoi – give or take a few. I bent myself into my battle stance and wandered my eyes on all the pale-skinned and red-eyed monsters. They were my monsters now. When they saw me, actual fear crossed their eyes before the hunger for power overtook.

"Ah, the Rose Hathaway has decided to visit our little sanctuary." A blond Strigoi, Nathan, strode gracefully toward me with open arms. "Welcome! I hope that you had changed your mind about my offer?"

A smiled played on my lips like they usually do when I have a scheme. Whatever that scheme was, it was good.

"Yes, Nathan." He recoiled like he had been visibly spat at. I had a couple tricks on my sleeves at how to scare or agitate Strigoi. It was my nature. But then again – I had no such nature. I was one of them. Or so my father was.

Okay, my life is complicated as it already is; can we leave it at that? Thank you.

"Where is she?" I imagined tearing his skin with my own bare hands – I could do it. Effortlessly. A slow smile crept to my lips and it seemed to disconcert Nathan and the whole Strigoi coven.

"Who is she, Slayer?" he asked and my eyes narrowed at what he had just called me. I didn't like being called that – it made me feel like I was that blond girl at TV who kills vampires as a hobby. Mine was not a hobby. It was a responsibility. An obligation that I needed to accomplish. Wipe out all Strigoi communities.

"You know who I mean, Nathan." I applied necessary venom on my voice and his eyes widened at my tone and I heard him snarl.

"Oh, my darling Rose Hathaway." He covered his snarl with a chilling laugh. "Whoever do you mean?"

That was all it took. My temper flared up to its limit like an erupting volcano.

"Oh, Nathan," I said in a sickly sweet voice.

"Yes, darling?" he turned to look at me with red eyes. Hungry ones. He was stupid enough to infuriate me. Let him have his proper punishment for doing so.

"Have you heard the quote 'pigheadedness kills the Strigoi'?" I asked and rubbed my heating hands together.

"Oh, no." he shook his head and stepped forward to me. "Why haven't I heard of it?" he was stupid enough not to listen to my warning.

"Because there is no such quote." And with that, the ball of fire in my hands flew to his body and I heard him scream. In a motion too slow for my liking, the Strigoi attacked me. Er, they tried to but before they could even touch my hair with long talons of nails and fangs, I threw fire at them and they screamed and burned. Strigoi were easy to kill.

About half of the Strigoi ran to get weapons. Yes, weapons and I meant guns.

Oh, dear heavenly Father, I groaned silently. This is going to get painful.

A Strigoi with a glock ran to me with inhuman speed which I fought with my own. She aimed the gun at me but before she could pull the trigger, I had kicked the gun out of her hands to the air and I caught it easily. With expertise that I had been doing for years, I unloaded the gun with one hand smoothly and replaced it with my own sliver bullets.

"You are so going to get bitch-slapped." I taunted and cracked the gun and pointed it at her. "Or rather bitch-shot." I said before pulling the pulling the trigger and hit her squarely on the heart. It was bad enough that I couldn't use my karate skills – sensei would scold me if he'd know I was using weapons instead of his perfectly trained Wu Shu.

Believe it or not, that only took me five seconds. I whirled around, arms spread and I concentrated my mind and spirit to my other element, air. I made an adequate-in-size twister enough to baffle other Strigoi that were about to shoot me with their guns. They looked at my twister and I started pulling the trigger of my new best friend – Glockie.

When I was done killing all the Strigoi about two minutes later, I checked out the tunnel. It was pretty messed up and heaps of burned and shot Strigoi bodies were everywhere. I sighed and closed my eyes, stretching my hearing to further places.

First, I heard nothing, just the quiet drift of air and dropping waters but then I heard screams. Girl screams. My eyes jerked open and I took off to where the screaming was.

"HELP ME! ANYBODY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. One disadvantage for having great hearing ability is that every sound I hear is too loud. Eventually, I found where the screams were and boy! Were they hidden and far.

There were two Strigoi and a Moroi in the room. The princess. The Strigoi who had the princess' neck near his mouth cringed at the sight of me.

"Let her go and no one will get hurt." I said in a frighteningly calm tone.

The female Strigoi who I knew as Elena spoke. "And how will we guarantee that you will not hurt us R –" before she could say my name, I pulled Glockie's trigger shot her mouth then her heart. There, that ought to shut her up for good. Revealing my identity was seriously dangerous. That was why I always wear my ninja clothes and mask whenever I go hunt down Strigoi.

I heard the Moroi whimper and I suddenly felt guilty for my actions. I shouldn't have done that with her here – Moroi were fragile creatures who, like me, wield magic. Except they only have one element.

I looked at the Strigoi that held her hostage. I recognized this Strigoi from many of Nathan's encounters with me. His name was Isaiah, I remembered. And he was one aggressive Strigoi.

"Let her go, Isaiah." I ordered in a hard tone.

"What if I won't?" he snarled and tightened his hold on the Moroi's neck and she gasped for air.

"Then you will leave me no choice." I said calmly – I always had this weird effect on Strigoi. Most of them thought that every time I use that tone they were better off as dead.

"You don't have a choice either." He said and an evil glint crossed his eyes. "If you shoot me, you'll shoot her too. If you'll burn me, you'll burn her too." I hated it. He was right and I fucking hated it. I was helpless.

Nah, I'll think of something. I always do.

Okay, Isaiah is covering his own body with the Moroi's small one and if I'll shoot, the gun's bullet, somehow, is easy for a Strigoi to dodge if they were aware that they are being shot. So, mark that as an ex. Burn…is a no-no, too. Ugh, that just makes me feel worse; I should have taken sensei's illusory lessons on how to use fire without physically burning the person. Damn, as he always says "regrets come last." Stupid old Chinese man with his crappy life lessons.

That only left me with two choices. Seek help with the Moroi or…leave which was not really a possibility. I will not leave until I get the princess safe.

I looked at the Moroi's eyes and saw that they were the color of pale green. They were filled with fatigue and pain and it made me more than a little helpless. Okay, option one was a no-no, too. What the hell am I supposed to do? Helpless, I sighed and sat on the damp tunnel floor in a lotus position and meditated. I know, it sounds stupid but that was what sensei always told me to do when I wasn't thinking clearly. "Push out the bad energies" as he had said. "Imagine a golden light surrounding you, wrapping its warmth around you…" I recalled his words.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me?" I opened one eye to him and saw him looking at me like a hawk, still holding the Moroi to him. It was funny looking at him like that.

Before he could speak, we heard a loud bang, footsteps and voices.

"What the –" one started.

"Shut it, Alto." A woman said. "We don't need to hear more profanity from you."

"There is no time for bickering Celeste and Alto." Another woman's voice said her voice as hard as flint it would make me proud. "Call in guardian Belikov." Ah, guardians. I had heard many stories about them. Mostly was great stuff like risking their lives just to protect Moroi. Their devotion… shit.

I was so not going to get myself caught and fail sensei's trainings. I had wasted precious time. Again, another quote he says, "Time is gold." No matter how I hate his theory about life, I loved the old man like my father.

I switched my attention back to the Strigoi. He was distracted for the moment. He was looking around the place – maybe looking for an escape. I chose that second to get my silver chain, rounding it in circles on air like what people in cowboy movies do. My weapons were my own creation. I had made the plain sterling silver sensei had gotten for me and chanted some few spells to them with my magic and voilà! Instant Strigoi exterminator weapons.

"Duck, Moroi!" I screamed at the princess and she did, luckily, go stumbling away from the Strigoi's grasp.

I propelled my thick silver chain to the Strigoi's neck like what Sookie Stackhouse did in True Blood. I was fond in watching TV when sensei wasn't home – he never lets me watch TV for more than an hour. He says I'll turn into a lazy couch potato if I'll always watch them.

Isaiah gripped the tight hold of the chain as it started to emanate smoke from its wake. I was never the one who likes to see a person – even Strigoi – suffer. I quickly shot him. Once. Twice. Thrice.

Three times' the charm. Isaiah fell.

"What the fuck was that?!" the first guys shouted and I heard an audible growl.

Lucky enough for me, the tunnels were complicated to find and far. I still had time to erase the princess' memories about me. I heard them sprinting.

I turned to the princess on the floor and – damn it! – saw that she was passed out.

"This way." A slightly accented voice of a man said.

Uh-oh, I didn't give them more credit for their speed. Note for next time: don't underestimate dhampirs – they're fast, too. And smart. At least the guy with the Russian accent was. This was bad, the princess was fast asleep and it was just not possible to compel a sleeping beauty. Damn, think fast, Rose!

The footsteps were getting louder. I had no choice now. Get caught or be remembered. I chose the second one so I withdrew my chain and put Glockie on my bag within seconds. I sprinted to the nearest exit as quietly as I could. When I had found a boarded window on the tunnel, I crawled out and switched my ninja clothes to ordinary ones. It was easy considering the place was isolated. Tucking my ninja clothes inside my duffel bag, I put on my dark glasses and with the short sundress with a trench coat that hid my tattoos.

I was in a suburb in Spokane and I had to wait for a bus to pull up at those crappy benches on the side of the road. While waiting for the bus, I read the newspaper.

The headline was what caught my attention:

TWELVE PEOPLE MISSING FOR THE LAST TWO WEEKS

I started reading what I already knew. It turned out that all the missing people on the newspaper were all sixty-nine and I knew all of those missing people were turned to Strigoi by Nathan and his crew for an absurd revolt against Moroi. For short, they wanted a war. What were they up against the whole dhampir populace when they couldn't even defeat one girl?

I sighed and leafed through the newspaper. Other news was the oil prices getting higher and other things that didn't really concern me.

A few moments later, I heard voices not so far away from where I was.

"He can't be that far." A woman said.

"He still ought to be lingering in the place." the guy with the Russian accent said.

"I am sure the Slayer likes to hang out at a place like this." the man - Alto, I remembered – said, sarcasm thick on his voice.

"Guardian Alto, if you do not shut your pie-hole this instance I swear that you will –" I cringed at the violence of the threat.

I watched the newspaper as I eavesdropped on the guardians. When a minute passed, I took a look at my watch and flinched. It was way past my curfew – sensei was going to kill me. And then make me suffer. Damned old Chinese man with his damned curfews. I heard footsteps just a couple of meters away from me.

"Look – I'm glad somebody is here after all." Alto said and the next thing I heard was a sickening crack and I had to hide my laugh with a cough. Guardian Alto just had his nose broken. Man, sucks to be him.

"What was that for?" he asked in a pain-filled voice.

"You want a black-eye for that broken nose, Alto?" the woman threatened and her tone really made me proud. She was just nearly as good as me in using menacing tones.

My shoulders slumped – what was taking a bus so long? And who were these guardian stalkers?

"I thought the roads routed here were blocked." The guy with the Russian accent said.

Ah, bullshit, Rose. Now what? Okay, just stay calm and cool. And don't you dare blush!

"Let's talk to her. I know it's risky – but we don't have a choice. Queen's order."

No, this is so not happening to me. I just leafed through the newspaper, my hands sweating a little. A monarch was looking for me. Shit. I was caught in a suburb where no one else was living in. Double shit.

"Come on. A question or two won't hurt." The woman said her voice blank. The three of them slowly strode toward me. In a time of crisis like this, I only had one option and I hated doing it. Better do it, Rose, I told myself.

"Excuse me, can we ask you something?" I looked up and saw that the woman guardian had forced a smile out of her lips. She looked quite pretty except that her hair was too short.

It took every ounce of my will power not to jump at them and break their necks to avoid from acting like a spoiled brat of a girl.

I forced out a horrified expression on my face and stood up, making my movements clumsy and jerky. I clutched my bag to my chest and cried out, "If you want to get my iPod, iPhone, laptop and my million dollar money, it's not with me!"

When they saw my reaction, the two of them frowned – the woman and Alto, I presumed. The third guy was stoic, just looking at me. I thought of how hot he looked. He was very tall but his eyes looked dead. They bore into mine like nails on the coffin. I shivered at his gaze and I made that as an excuse of quivering from fear.

I was glad I was wearing my glasses.

"Don't follow me!" I shouted one more time and like a petty girl, ran away. Quite randomly. I didn't know where I was going but when I saw a bus pull up, I rode.


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Love lots.

Kate