Chapter 1

ROSE POV

It has been three years since I've been at St. Vladimir's Academy. Three years spent hunting Strigoi in Russia, two years being trained extensively by the best guardians in the world. And because of all of that, of all of the fighting and killing Strigoi, I have become what everyone always saw I had the potential to be, but never saw it before in myself.

I was like a goddess on the battlefield, as fast and as strong as any of the Strigoi battling against me. The training that I had went through those first two years in Russia probably would have killed anyone else, but if it wasn't for my stubbornness, I don't know if I would have made it through either.

I worked by myself. Yes, occasionally, I would be called in for help by some of my former instructors in Russia if they found a large nest of Strigoi they needed help taking out, but I never called for backup myself. I liked it that way, looking out for only myself.

There was no way that I was going to be putting anyone else in danger. I didn't want anyone else following me into nests of Strigoi that should have been the end of my life but I just came out with barely a scratch on me. I wasn't scared of death, not anymore.

You can't be scared of death if you have nothing to live for.

I didn't keep in touch with many of my old life, just Lissa and Adrian mostly. I never said why I left nor where I was whenever I talked to them through the spirit dreams, I just let them know that I was alive and doing okay. I talked to Abe too, finally able to have the relationship with a parent that I have never had before. Janine Hathaway being a poor excuse for a mother.

As I drove down the darkened highway, my thoughts drifted back to the reason why I was here in Montana in the first place.

flashback

*grunt* Rose stabbed one of the last Strigoi through their cold heart and moved onto the last.

The male Strigoi looked up at her smugly.

"You must think you've won, Rachel Mazur, but you haven't."

"What are you talking about?"

"We found out whom you truly are, Rachel Mazur - or should I say Rosemarie Hathaway? - and we know whom you care about most. I wonder what you'll do when she is taken from you?"

Rose was consumed with an ice cold fury and stabbed her stake through the Strigoi's heart, reaching for her phone in the next movement.

"Sydney, I've got another nest ready for pickup for you." Rose said in the phone before hanging up and calling another number.

"Abe, I need a plane from my location to Montana."

"Of course, Kit, but why?"

"There is a plot, Abe. A plot to kill the Queen."

flashback ends

I was about an hour away from the Academy and coming out of my thoughts. It was time to make a phone call.

"Hello?"

"This is Rachel Mazur. I am inbound to your location and will be there in approximately one hour. The sun is currently rising and will be high in the sky by the time that I arrive. There should have been a call earlier to warn you of my arrival?" My voice was formal and icy. Emotionless. Because that was all I felt all of the time.

The person on the other end could barely contain their glee. "We were told that there would be a Guardian arriving tonight but not that it was Rachel Mazur. You're a legend!"

"Thank you." My voice didn't sound very thankful but that wasn't my problem. The current threat to the queen, however, was. "I will be at the gate at seven thirty."

And with that, I hung up, not caring if it was viewed as rude.

'Love fades, mine has.' Drifted through my thoughts. I groaned lowly under my breath. I wasn't angry at Dimitri anymore, though if he was on fire and I was standing next to a jug of water that would save him, I probably would walk away so he could get the water himself. Nope, I wasn't angry at him, not at all.

Although his words showed me the truth about the world around me.

Most people would never be able to touch my heart. There were only three that had that privilege now, and even they didn't have my complete trust.

I wasn't a naive seventeen year old girl any more, I was a legend, a goddess, one of the best fighters our world has ever seen. Alone, I could take on groups of up to twenty Strigoi at once. My neck was covered with so many Molnija tattoos that it had run out of space, that my shoulders were starting to be tattooed upon as well. I had almost a thousand little tattoos on my body, marking my success. I was an ice-cold killing machine, and it took a lot to make me feel anything, let alone to show it outwardly.

I could barely make out the peaks of a tower in the distance behind many trees. Finally, St Vlad's was in sight. Soon, I would be entering a battlefield, one of a different kind than I had become accustomed to. I missed the other one already.