Author's Note
Hello again! Welcome to chapter two! I'm going to try and update this weekly, so even if I fall behind on the daily word count, I'll still have something for you lovely readers weekly! Even though I did mention I have things planned, I don't have all the details mapped out. I'll need some help from you! What are some events of Vampire Academy that you absolutely must have in Castle? Happy reading!
Lissa ran back into the room, her eyes wide. "No time for explanations. Let's go." I reached for the bags that we always had packed and tossed one to her, barely taking the time to shove my sockless feet into a pair of shoes. She obeyed wordlessly, shouldering her bag without questioning me. We had gone through this drill enough times to know that whatever I said was the gospel. With the endorphins still coursing through my veins, my movements were not as quiet and graceful as I could have been, but we had to use speed to our advantage. We already lost steal, so our best bet was to get out of there as fast as we could.
With all the noise we were making as we grabbed a few last-minute things, it was inevitable that we would wake our housemate, the college boy we compelled to allow us to stay in his house free of charge. Without my say so, Lissa positioned herself in front of him and looked him straight in the eye. "Jeremy, where are your keys?" she asked sweetly.
"In the dish on the counter." He was completely compliant, without asking a single question.
"You gave us your car. We have a family emergency, and you thought it was the least you could do. We had to leave right away. You probably won't even remember us that well. We were quiet, and we weren't around much." She darted forward to give him an innocent peck on the cheek, blushing as she did, before I grabbed for the keys with one hand and gripped her wrist with the other. I pulled her out the backdoor, not even noticing that she was still barefoot. My head spun from the endorphins and the adrenalin, but that didn't stop me from making a mad dash to wear Jeremy parked his car. It was only a few blocks away, but I knew the guardian across the street had heard the back door bang as we made our way out of the house.
As we ran, I wasn't sure who was supporting whom. Lissa and I ran with one arm wrapped around each other's waist, simultaneously keeping pace and holding each other back. Neither of us were at our strongest, and normally it should have been me keeping her upright. I was pretty sure she was my center of balance. Before we could even reach the green Honda, a tall figure stepped out from behind it, blocking off our escape route. I felt Lissa's arm drop from around my waist and I used the one still around hers to shove her behind me. I spun around, keeping her behind me, her arms snaking out to catch my waist as I felt my balance pitch to see that there were two other guardians blocking the road we had just come from. Effectively, they had us surrounded.
"Stay away from her." I barely recognized my own voice. It was haggard from running, and came out at almost a growl. My head oscillated between the first guardian I had seen and the pair that cut us off from our escape plan, unsure who the bigger threat was. Quite literally, the initial guardian was the biggest; his height rivalled even Moroi, and I took him to be the leader of the group. Ever so slowly, the three of them began moving forward in almost perfect synch, trapping us against the trunk of the car. I backed up until Lissa was pressed against the car, my body barely shielding hers from the advancing guardians. "Stay back! Don't hurt her!"
"Nobody is going to hurt the princess." The leader spoke with a foreign accent, although I couldn't quite place it. It was much softer than I would have expected, but he still meant business. I could see three more guardians emerge from hiding places, eyes trained on the leader for any order to move. A total of six guardians tracked us down, more than the queen herself traveled with.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked, keeping my body firmly between my best friend and the guardians. "What do you want from us?"
"My name is Dimitri Belikov," the leader said. "I have been tasked with restoring the princess to safety."
"Bad news, Belikov," I hissed. "In order to get to your precious princess, you're going to have to go through me." I launched myself at him, pulling my hand back to deliver a well-aimed punch, just before he extended his arm and caught me square in the chest, knocking me back. My center of gravity was off, and I could feel myself rushing toward the pavement and what would be a hard collision. Or would have been, had he not reached out with his other arm to quickly grab me and set me to rights. I struggled in his grasp, but I heard a light voice call my name behind me. The fear was still evident in her voice, but she was raised to trust guardians, even if it went against what I said. Fifteen years of conditioning outweighed two years of fear.
"Rose, it's okay," she said softly. "It's okay. We'll be okay."
I couldn't believe her. Not in this. If he was instructed to take us back to safety, he would be taking us back to the Academy. There was no safety there, only a bigger threat than what we faced out here. We ran away because no one believed us, everyone thought there was no danger. The Academies were supposed to be a safe space, somewhere that parents could send their kids without fear. Moroi civilizations were often regarded as private colleges or well-to-do cities. Some of them preferred to intermingle with humans, and others preferred to live at the Royal Court where they could operate on the more comfortable nocturnal schedule.
"You're not taking us back to the Academy," I stubbornly insisted, staring up at the guardian who held me captive. "If you think that's safe, then you've got several things coming."
"I am not taking you back to the Academy," he said. He turned me in his grasp and released me, for the most part. One hand remained on my shoulder, making it clear that if I did not cooperate, he would have no problems about making me move. He led the way a few blocks down, where three black SUVs were parked on the side of the road. I stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, a move he just barely caught me from. My hair fell away from my neck and his eyes flashed downward at the movement, no doubt catching the bites that had yet to heal. "Are you stable enough to walk without assistance?"
I nodded slowly, scratching the side of my neck and wincing as my fingertips came away sticky with blood. I hastily wiped my hand on my jeans, glancing back over my shoulder at Lissa. Now I knew that he had been watching long enough to see that I had let Lissa feed from me. Before he saw the marks, he could have easily have assumed the alternative, and I think I would rather prefer that. Giving blood wasn't something I was happy about, but as long as it kept Lissa alive, then I was willing to do it. I didn't want to feel ashamed for what I had done to keep my Moroi alive.
"We have three vehicles. Due to the successful extraction of both the princess and the novice, there will be three guardians in the first car, and two in the third. I shall keep the princess and novice with me. The lead car knows the directions to the airport. The jet is on standby, and we will be taking off as soon as the tower is ready for us." His accented words were clipped as he stated the plan of action to everyone in the group. I bristled at the fact that he talked about Lissa and me like we were objects, not people, until I realized that's exactly how he thought of us.
We were targets. He was on a mission to retrieve us, and that's what he did. After he had us in easy reach and had returned us to safety, whatever he meant by that, he could wash his hands of us completely. It made me sick to think that a guardian, someone who would dedicate their lives to ensuring the survival of the race that created us, would think of one anyone like that. Better than anyone, guardians should know what it's like to be treated as subhuman.
When we finally reached the SUVs and all three drivers unlocked the vehicles, I patted the pocket of my sweatshirt before I realized that I had no idea where the keys to Jeremy's Honda went. Considering he might have forgotten he even had a car, or thought that it was gone for good, I wasn't too concerned about it. Belikov opened the back door so that Lissa could slide in, but held me back from following her as he closed the door. "Front seat," he insisted, gesturing to the passenger seat. "I want to be able to watch you." Under any other circumstances, it might have sounded sinister, but it was clear that he wanted to be able to ensure that we weren't planning to attack him on the drive. Not that we were, I was sure neither one of us wanted to endure another car crash that may or may not result in the loss of lives, but he wasn't so convinced.
I slid into the passenger seat, immediately relaxing against the leather interior. It didn't dawn on me until later that the cars were way too nice to be Academy issued. There was no way these would have fit into the budget. Not that I knew anything about cars, but I knew that these must be expensive. There were only a few moments after he got in the car and started the ignition that we idled, before the lead driver took off and Belikov guided the second car to follow suit.
There was no conversation to be had. I could feel Lissa's fear radiating through the bond, and I wanted more than anything to reach back and reassure her that things were going to be okay. Any movement I made was caught in the corner of Belikov's eye and his frown deepened, causing me to clamp my hands together in my lap. He couldn't stop my gaze from flicking back to Lissa in the rearview mirror, and it did so frequently. I tried to be aware of everything, from the scenery we quickly passed to my best friend in the backseat, but the events of the night eventually caught up to me, and my head fell against the cool glass of the window, and I felt myself drifting off to sleep.