Rose POV
I still loathed flying. The pressure in my head was unbearable. I couldn't think straight let alone open my eyes. Stupid shadow kissed bullshit. I was beyond grateful to land in Moscow and be out of the godforsaken plane. It was so much easier to keep the ghosts out while on the ground. The pressure from my headache lingered, but I knew it would fade soon. I put my walls back up and willed the ghosts away as I headed towards the baggage claim.
From here, I didn't really know where to go. I tried my best to think of a plan before getting here, but it was useless. I figured I would just hang around some seedy looking bars and hope for the best. It's ironic considering I'm hoping for the best at one of the worst possible times in my life. I grabbed my one suitcase and headed towards the Russian night.
I wasn't far from the airport when I realized I was being followed. Whoever it was following me was obviously not trained at it. My more advanced hearing couldn't pick up footsteps, but I could see the pale skin from the peripheral vision. Super; I'm in Russia for 10 minutes and the Strigoi descend.
I spotted a narrow alley up ahead and made a quick turn down it. I wasn't going to let this guy come up from behind me. I was here on a mission and nothing could get in the way of that. I skidded around another corner and stopped waiting for the bastard to walk by. My body was tense and adrenaline was coursing through my veins. I was ready for this. Being a guardian was in my DNA. Less than a minute later my follower came around the corner. I didn't hesitate as I leapt at them with my stake firm in my hand.
I was surprised at the person who I was fighting. It was not a tall and powerful man like I had imagined. It was a really beautiful woman. Her beauty stunned me for the slightest second. Strigoi aren't beautiful; they're dead. It's not natural for them to look like this. Her red eyes widened in surprise as she bounced back slightly from my attack. What the hell? I hit her with enough force to knock her on her ass.
"What are you doing?" She cried in question as she easily evaded the swipe of my stake. We fell into the motion of circling each other.
"I'm gonna kill you!" I snarled as I lunged at her again. She maneuvered out of the way once more faster than I have ever seen.
"What the hell for?" She hollered as she dodged another one of my swipes. This bitch was fast, but for the life of me, I was not going to die today. Before she could collect herself, I went in for another hit. She threw her arm up defensively and my forearm collided with it. Damn. Pain surged up my arm and I could only hope I didn't break anything. She must be made of stone or something, but whatever it is was a pain in the ass. We continued in a circle and I noticed she was acting on sheer adrenaline. There was no training to her movements and she was relying on pure instinct. She took her eyes off of me for a second to glance down the alley and I used the opportunity to plunge my stake directly into her heart.
What the hell?
"Why aren't you dying?!" I screeched in fear as I saw her look at the stake in astonishment.
"Don't you know that's just a myth?" She nearly laughed as she ripped my stake out from her chest. Strigoi can't touch stakes because of the magic. My head began to spin as I tried to figure out what the hell was happening. "I'll hand this back as long as you don't stab me again." She offered, holding my stake out tentatively. I scanned her once more and saw the gaping hole left by my hit was already healed. I took the stake slowly and sheathed it once more.
"What are you?" I questioned while trying to hide the trembling in my voice. This was not a time to show fear.
"I could ask you the same thing." The woman retorted snarkily. "Look, we obviously know nothing about each other, why don't we sit down and talk?" I scanned her eyes to see a hint of betrayal, but I only saw desperation. I brought my body out of my rigid defensive stance and nodded. She lowered herself to the ground and sat in a criss-cross position with such grace it stunned me.
Oh boy. I never thought I'd be sitting in an alley in Russia with some random woman who looks like a Strigoi but isn't a Strigoi. What do I have to lose? I sat on the cool brick ground and faced her. "I'm Rose."
"Bella." She stuck out her hand for a handshake and I took it tentatively. The minute our skin touched, I flinched. She felt like ice! "Yeah, sorry about that. It comes with being immortal." She shrugged in apology.
"How the hell are you immortal?" I questioned. I could feel my brows pulled together in confusion at this perplexing creature. She ran a hand through her long mahogany hair and sighed.
"It's a very long story, but I am willing to tell it all if you will tell me yours." Bella offered generously. I wanted to roll my eyes at having to tell the story of the Royal Moroi and damned dhampirs.
"Okay, deal." I finished the agreement. A flash of pain came across Bella's face before it quickly disappeared behind a collected mask. Wonder what the hell that is about?
"I was introduced to this world when I was 17 years old. I moved back to my hometown in Forks, Washington to live with my dad. While I was there, I met this family, the Cullens, that was different from everyone else in town. They were pale white, had skin like ice, and eyes that changed colors. I couldn't figure out what made them different for a very long time, but I eventually did." Bella paused briefly, remembering more of her story. "They were vampires. It didn't scare me or send me running for the hills like it should have. Weird things happened to me all the time, so I ran with it. I formed a relationship with Edward which landed me in more danger than I could imagine. A crazed man named James was a tracker and wanted to kill me for sport. The family protected me, but it wasn't long until something else went wrong. Edward's brother, Jasper, tried attacking me at my 18th birthday all because of a little cut. Edward decided he didn't want to be with a simple human after that. He and the entire family left and kind of shattered my fragile life. James' mate, Victoria, came back and changed me into one of them. I killed her when I woke up." Bella's face was very thoughtful as she tasted her words on her lips before speaking them. It seemed that this wasn't a story she told to anyone before.
"So how does it work? Being a vampire?" I asked with curiosity that surprised me.
"So in the world I'm from, all vampires were originally human. We look very similar to our human bodies, but we become indestructible. Our skin becomes pale and for some reason, we become indescribably beautiful. It is a part of what makes us dangerous. Everything about us attracts humans in; our beauty, our eyes, our smell, our skin, and our smile. To change another person into a vampire, you have to bite them and release venom into their bloodstream. This is a very difficult thing for most vampires because of our thirst and weakness for human blood. From that point on, it is two to three days of excruciating pain. You feel as if you are being burned alive in the pits of hell. When you wake up, you have the clearest vision, hearing, and smell. You can run at incredible speeds and having immeasurable strength. Once you become a vampire, you stop aging that day. If you are changed at 18, you stay 18 for all of eternity. Nothing changes from your hair to your height. We aren't harmed by the sun, stakes, garlic, and we don't sleep in coffins. We only have one real enemy; werewolves."
"Werewolves are real too?" I could feel my eyes nearly bugging out of my head.
"Yes, they are very real. They come from a long line of Native Americans. They only turn into werewolves through the genes they carry and once those genes are activated by the presence of a vampire. My best friend is a werewolf. Or at least he was my best friend. I don't know anymore since I'm his mortal enemy." Bella's eyes became inexplicably sad, but quickly turned back to normal as she continued. "There are these vampires called the Volturi. They are in charge of our world. They are very old and heartless Italian men who make sure we never expose the secret of vampires. They step in if someone begins acting suspicious or leaving being a lot of bodies." Bella's explanation left me dumbfounded. How long had other vampires like this existed? Did the Court know about them? Could two separate worlds live side by side and never know it?
"How do you die?" I asked, pushing as much confidence into my voice as I could. I didn't want her to know how much this freaked me out.
"We can only die in three ways. I'll tell you as long as you promise not to kill me." Bella stated seriously. She gave me a hard look with her piercing red eyes.
"Come on. Cut the bullshit. If I was going to kill you, I would have done it already." I grumbled in my impatience. She caught my lie and rolled her eyes.
"That's why I'm still here." She smirked. I rolled my eyes to prove my point and looked at the crazy woman impatiently. "We can die from decapitation and being ripped apart, but our bodies must be burned or we'll pull ourselves back together. It's an extremely difficult task." The word decapitation sent chills straight to my heart as Mason immediately popped into my mind.
"What do you eat?"
"That is a tricky question. Most vampires survive off of human blood." She started, but I interrupted.
"Yeah, I get that. We have feeders." Bella's eyes widened in shock at my words. "Did I say something?"
"Feeders?" She tested the word on her lips and frowned. I tried my best to raise one eyebrow at her in question, but failed miserably so I stuck with two.
"Yeah. Humans who offer to be fed off of for the high." I explained casually. The feeders really bothered me, but there was no point in trying to explain that now. "Isn't that how it works for you?"
"No. It's much different. The bite isn't pleasurable at all and releases no high. We kill humans to survive; drink them dry." My blood ran cold at her words and an uneasy feeling began to surge across my skin. "Although, there are other ways to survive. The Cullen's were considered vegetarian vampires because they survived on the blood of animals. They would hunt deer, bears, and mountain lions back in Washington to feed. It isn't as satisfying as human blood, but it is part of keeping your mortality. I am following that path. I don't want to be a monster. I don't want to kill people." I nearly let out a sigh of relief at her words. It was nice to know I wasn't sitting across from someone who was planning on drinking my blood.
"I'm sure I'll have questions, but I can't think of any now." I told her truthfully. Bella nodded and stared at me intensely again. "You've got to stop doing that shit. It freaks me out."
"What?" She questioned innocently.
"Staring at me! It's weird!"
"I didn't mean to. It's a tendency for my kind to hold still when stressed out or in thought, at least that is what I figure." Bella paused in thoughtful silence for a moment before continuing. "What's your story?"
Here we go.
"Okay, well this is long. I come from a world of three different kinds of vampires and a whole lot of rules/standards. There are the Moroi who are the good vampires. They are alive and born and raised. We have academies where the Moroi and Dhampirs go to school and train. There is a Queen and royal families and all the bullshit that comes along with politics. There are twelve royal families in total and they come first in our society. Moroi are gifted with the ability to control an element; earth, fire, air, water, or spirit. They can go out in the sun, but it makes them weaker. They survive off of feeders and it release endorphins into that person. Moroi also heal quickly, but not as quickly as you did. Next there are dhampirs, like me. We are half Moroi and half human, but we are born from Moroi and Dhampirs. We are not considered vampires in the slightest. We do not have any magic wielding abilities, but we do heal quickly, but not as quick as Moroi. We are sturdier, unlike our Moroi counterparts who are tall and slim. We are built to fight and defend the Moroi. I have been taught all my life that 'they come first' and since I was a child, I have trained to do that. Dhampirs train to become guardians for the Moroi. Lastly, there are the Strigoi, which are the evil vampires. They are dead, unnatural, and immortal. They aren't born. There are only two ways to become a Strigoi; a Moroi has to kill another person willingly by drinking their blood or a Strigoi changes you into one of them by drinking from you and forcing you to drink their blood. It is considered blasphemy to willingly turn into a Strigoi. They do not feel anything. They lose all the light they once had from the magic and become pure evil. They are super strong and fast. They have red pupils and pale skin. That's why I thought you were one. The only way to kill Strigoi are by sunlight, a silver stake through the heart, decapitation, or lighting their ass on fire."
"You were right, that is a lot of information." Bella pondered thoughtfully to herself.
"There is even more when it comes to norms to follow in this messed up society." I snorted in disgust.
"Like what?" Her eyes lit up with curiosity. I sighed and started explaining more.
"Dhampirs are usually born from dhampir women and Moroi men, but these men rarely stay around. If you are a dhampir woman who has had a child, but doesn't become a guardian, it is frowned upon. If a dhampir woman lets a Moroi feed off of her during sex, she is considered a blood whore. It is one of the worst things to be labeled in our society. There are communes where a lot of these women stay to raise their children. When it comes to the Royals, there is a lot of bullshit with 'princes' and 'princesses' and learning how to say the right thing and to whom. There is constant drama running through that circle. This drama increases when you are thrown into an academy like the one in Montana."
"There seems like there is a lot more rules to your society than mine." Bella stated after a few minutes of being quiet and freakishly still. "Why are you in Russia?"
It felt like the weight of the universe came crashing down on my chest at that moment. I didn't allow myself to think of why I was really in Russia. I couldn't allow myself to. It felt like all the control I had built up began to slowly fade. As much as I willed it to go away, one tear slipped down my cheek. Dammit!
"I'm sorry if that was too personal to ask. You don't have to tell me." Bella reassured softly. I couldn't believe I was losing my shit in front of her. I suppose I could explain it slightly. She doesn't care about the rules and laws of my world. She won't judge me for it. At least, I don't think she would. Maybe she could help?
"I'm here to hunt down someone I love. Not many people know of our relationship. It wasn't something approved of back home." I murmured through a shaky voice. "He was turned into a Strigoi against his will. I figured his hometown would be the best place to start." Bella's eyes became sympathetic as she looked like she understood the entire situation.
"I can help you if you like." She offered. I could hear the slightest sound of hope in her voice. "I really don't have anything else to do."
"Sure, why not." I mustered with as my strength as I could. This mission was seeming less impossible now with this odd new acquaintance by my side.
Looks like our two badass women are teaming up! Wonder what kind of trouble they will find themselves in!
Leave a review with your predictions or what you would like to see!
Thanks so much for reading!
Love you guys!
GVE