Chapter two:

A spirit on the loose

I hurriedly got up and opened the door. Cass stood outside wearing a strapless, blue, patterned dress and a pair of black pumps, her trademark frown was plastered on her face.

"Hurry up!" she exclaimed in an annoyed tone.

"For what?"

"The graduation ceremony, you do realise St Vladimir's students have graduated today right?"

I stared at her in disbelief. Randomly, I grabbed several garments and put them on; in about five minutes I was ready for the ceremony. As I came out from the bathroom, I realised Cass was staring at me intently.

"You like what you see?" I asked her in my most cocky voice.

"Your not seriously going to wear that outfit, are you? You look like a paedophile!" she exclaimed eyeing my outfit," You realise your going to a graduation ceremony right? This graduation ceremony is apparently for kids."

"Whatever, come on lets just go!"

We walked to the car with an awkward tension between us. The event was for graduating students, I wondered if Jill was going to be there. If she was, I was going to need a restraining order. And maybe twelve guardians.

"Adrian, you do realise this is an over night event, right?" she muttered eyeing what was in my bag.

"What? You tell me that now?"

Disbelief framed my voice, she really was a bitch!

"I thought you already knew!" she cried as she stared at me, her eyes were open wide and were full of earnestness.

Obviously, she thought I knew. I was Adrian Ivashkov after all. Normally I was polished and put together and had all the necessary information at my fingertips but today I felt muddled. I felt pressured. I felt worried. The queen's life could be on the stake if I failed. Lissa could die if I didn't find her.

The car suddenly came to a halt. Instinctively, I stared out the window to see what had stopped the moving vehicle. Strigoi. There were two Strigoi standing near the car; their faces were full of anger and death.

In about three seconds, Cass was out of the car and fighting the Strigoi. Her silver stake gleamed in the night sky as she effortlessly staked the first Strigoi. The second Strigoi was more difficult to stake than the first. Its manoeuvring was skilled and was more powerful than the other Strigoi.

This time she seemed to be struggling. I frowned. Cass seemed to be getting more tired every second. I wanted to step out of the car but I knew that it would cause her more trouble. After a few minutes of struggling, Cass finally managed to stake the Strigoi.

She ran to the car. Her entire body was limp and tired. She clambered to the backseat.

Understanding what she meant, I moved to the front seat and started driving. At first the car's movements were hasty and rolled unsmooth but after a while the car became more co-ordinated and smooth.

The sun peaked out from under the dark grey clouds. At last, it was daytime. After a whole day of driving I was beginning to feel quite tired. I turned around and saw Cass was still sleeping. Damn. I was going to have to drive a little longer.

My mind wandered to her aura again. Why had she been so mad at such a little mistake? Why had she been so tired after killing two Strigoi? I had seen Rose kill much more Strigoi than Cass but even after all those kills she had still remained strong.

A distant light clicked but my mind was too tired to work out the problem or solution.

Finally, after hours of thinking and wondering we were at St Vladimir's. It was the same as I remembered it; the iron gates were still tall and gothic and the castle was still dark and gloomy. I smiled. It still looked like crap.

"Cass! Wake up! We're at St Vlad's!" I half-shouted into her ear

"No need to shout, I'm already awake." She muttered, "I should tell you, the party actually starts in an hour."

I sighed; I knew this bad timing was going to happen eventually.

"Whatever, we better get ready for the ceremony…are you still going to wear that costume?"

She groaned.

"Sorry, didn't bring it." She said as she punched my arm. I winced. That was going to bruise.

"Adrian?"

I turned around and saw Rose, her dark brown hair had been pulled into a ponytail and she wore the crisp, dark uniform all guardians wore. Her entire face was splotchy.

Her bloodshot eyes were full of anger and sadness and her nose looked like it had been rubbed a thousand times.

"Rose! Hey, how are you?" I asked, wincing at how stupid I sounded. Obviously, she wasn't fine. Lissa, her best friend, was missing and possibly dead.

"Adrian?"

I turned around again and found myself standing in front of Jill Manstrano, the girl who was very scary when it came to kissing. I grimaced and braced myself for the cause of my death.

Apart from the crazy kissing, Jill was actually pretty cool and today was no exception.

She even looked cool today, she wore a red halter dress and her usual bouncy curls had been tamed into a sleek bun. The only thing on her that was weird looking was her face expression. She bore the same look Rose had on the other day. I frowned. What was happening?

"What is she doing here?" Jill growled as she narrowed her eyes at Rose. I felt Rose's whole body tense; her face was full of anger and hatred. Her hand curled into a ball.

"STOP!" I cried stepping between the two girls before anything else could happen, "What are you doing?"

In a flash, I felt my whole body being thrown against a wall. Jill glared at Rose, a mask of hatred and anger filled her face.

"YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT TO MY BOYFRIEND!" Jill screeched, lunging herself at Rose.

I winced. Boyfriend? This was a joke. Every second, Jill seemed to become more childish and arrogant. This was just crazy, normally Jill was kind and smart and sensitive. A light inside me clicked. Compulsion.

Someone was using compulsion on Rose and Jill. This was impossible, it wasn't Cass or Rose or Jill. It was …me. I could only be the one who was using compulsion on them. I was distantly aware of my surroundings; right now I needed a drink.

I hurriedly got up and sprinted to the bar not caring if they were fighting or not. The further I was away from them, they would be safer. As I sat on the leather seats of the bar I felt my head reel; my mind felt like it would explode; in my whole entire life I had never felt so worried. If I was controlling them without even wanting to control them that meant that I was all ready insane.

"Sir, what drink do you want?"

"Oh, um… a Tom Collins…" I responded snapping out of my dreamy haze.

"Sir…I'm sorry but we don't sell alcoholic drinks."

"What do you sell then?"

"We sell non alcoholic drinks."

"Give me a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon and lime, okay… you can handle that?"

The waiter shot me a dirty look and scurried of the fetch my glass of water.

"Adrian Ivashkov are you a dream within a dream?"

I turned around and found myself staring into a pair of emerald green eyes. I knew who she was before I heard her voice or stared into those mischievous eyes.

"Brianna Lazar…a pleasure to see you," I replied mustering a smile despite what had just happened.

She smiled. Brianna was in the middle of a disgusting relationship with Blake Lazar who was in a relationship with my mother. I felt the contents of my stomach heave. Talking about my mother's sex life was quite disturbing.

"So…how's your relationship with Blake, your cousin?" I inquired taking small sips of my drink while staring at her features; she had pale skin and extremely dark brown hair. She looked a tad like me. Her smile faltered a bit.

"It's okay…though he still hasn't broken it off with your mum," She cried adding an exasperated sigh, "It's not fair. All the old chicks get the hot guys…"

I could totally agree with her, my aunt, Queen Tatiana, had a string of hot guys following her around every day. I shuddered. Talking about my aunt's sex life was even more disturbing.

"Well, Brianna…I've got to go to get ready for the ceremony," I said as I walked to my suite.