A/N: I FORGOT TO DO THE DISCLAIMER.

I DON'T OWN VAMPIRE ACADEMY OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACHTERS

I ACTUALLY DON'T EVEN OWN THE FIRST FOUR BOOKS. I CONSTANTLY BORROW THEM FROM FROM MY FRIEND, ABI. SHE GETS PRETTY PISSED AT ME FOR THAT.

Chapter 1

I stared blankly at the wall. There was nothing to do in this cage. They're keeping me locked up for something I didn't do. I'm pretty sure that that's not legal. I know that at the hearing they decided to go to trial on the evidence that stands, but, you know, what about the whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing? Oh, yeah. That was humans. I'm not human. Right.

These last three days, I've spent most of my time in Lissa's head. No one was allowed to come down and see me. The guards wouldn't even talk to me. I had four or five on duty outside my cell at all times. You know, because I'm dangerous. I killed the queen (note sarcasm). I sometimes heard my friends arguing voices, wanting to come down to see me. Abe hadn't been down to see me, and that was what I found most alarming. He was my lawyer. Did they really think that I was that dangerous that they wouldn't let my lawyer down to see me—who also happens to be my dad, as I found out three months ago. We aren't super close or anything, but still.

I could understand why Liss and Adrian weren't allowed down to see me, but I knew that if they got really desperate, they would just compel the guards. Adrian was visiting me in my dreams, though, every night. I suppose that was why they didn't just compel the guards; Adrian constantly reassured Lissa that I was alright. I spent most of my time in Lissa's head, but she was asleep right now, and she was having a few nightmares that I'd really rather not see.

She had talked to Abe not long after my hearing, only a few hours. When she asked him what would happen if I went down, he told her the same thing that he'd told me: 'They execute traitors.'

Those three words had been running through my mind since he'd said them. I don't want to die; I like being alive. I pushed that thought aside. Abe promised, I reminded myself. He said he wouldn't let me go to trial. I was seriously beginning to doubt that man.

And then there was Dimitri. I had heard his voice only once since I'd been down here. It was the day after my hearing, and he'd said that he needed to speak to me about some things. I really hoped that 'some things' meant 'us.' He said that he doesn't love me, yet when the guardians came to take me away, he fought them for me. "No. I won't let them take you." He had stubbornly protested. It was a complete turnaround since just the day before; he had ripped my heart out when he'd said the one thing that could've hurt me more that I already was.

"This isn't over. I won't give up on you."

"I've given up on you," he said back, voice also soft. "Love fades. Mine has."

It'd felt as though I had been punched in the gut. I'd run out of the church and cried for most of the day. Then, when he'd said those six words, three days ago, my whole perspective had changed. What if he was only staying away for fear of what he could turn into, for guilt over what he did to me when he was Strigoi? But I couldn't let myself hope. He might've only fought because he felt guilty about letting me fight last time; when the Strigoi attacked the school, and the rescue mission. I'd been badly injured and he'd blamed himself for not getting back to school quicker. But I don't regret a second of it.

Because the night that the Strigoi attacked, was the night we'd finally given into each other. It was the best and worst night of my life. We'd had sex, and then, when we were on our way back to the school, Mason had appeared, warning me.

It was my idea to launch a rescue mission, since Eddie was within the group the Strigoi took to their lair. Then Mason had shown me the way to where they were.

I suppose I should thank Jesse for that night. The bad parts and the good parts, shockingly enough. There was no one at St. Vladimir's that I had hated as much as Jesse Zeklose. He's spread rumours about me shortly after I had returned, and then he let the Strigoi in.

He'd tortured Lissa, because he'd wanted her to be part of his group. The mână. He'd wanted Lissa to join. He and his friends had tortured Lissa with the four physical elements: Earth—thrown stones at her face—air—smothered her and throwing the air right back in her face—water—drenched her and drowned her from the water in the pond—and I turned up just in time before they decided to use fire. They were going to throw fire at her. I'd showed up just in time to stop them. I beat up Ralf, who was going to throw the fire balls, and as the group dispersed, I noticed that Jesse was still there.

Lissa was now taking her turn at torture. She was so angry that she was using a type of compulsion so strong that she could make someone live through their worst nightmare. She made Jesse think that spiders were crawling all over him, she was so angry. She explained that he wanted her to compel them to make them stop. After a bit of convincing in my part, she managed to send the darkness through the bond. I beat Jesse to a pulp, until the guardians came and peeled me off him. Dimitri had taken me away to get cleaned up…and then it happened.

But, as the magic in the torture was happening right on top of the wards—magical circles around the school and court that keep Strigoi away—the wards had broken. It was a lot like the previous winter when we had discovered that humans were breaking the wards with stakes. The magic in stakes and the magic of the wards had fought, and the stakes won. Then Strigoi could get in.

That's what had happened with Jesse's torture session. They were using all four elements right on top of the wards, and the torture session had won out.

I suppose it was Jesse's fault that Dimitri had been turned Strigoi, too. If there'd never been an attack on the Academy, then I wouldn't've suggested that we go on a rescue mission, and if there'd never been a rescue mission, Dimitri wouldn't've been turned. And if the Strigoi hadn't been able to get in, in the first place, then neither would've happened.

So I'd dropped out of school to go find him, searching all over Siberia, his home country, to fulfil a promise we'd made back when we were falling in love. We'd both promised each other that if either of us ever went crazy and turned Strigoi, then the other would go out and find us and kill us. This was in response to Lissa finding out that a former teacher of ours, Ms. Karp, had turned Strigoi. We'd been told that Guardian Sanders had gone out to search for her…and kill her. We never made a promise in so many words, but the intent was still there in our joking remarks on the mini-bus on our way to a shopping trip in Missoula.

I'd failed miserably in my attempts to kill Dimitri. I'd met his family, and I'd stayed there for almost two weeks. I loved them like my own, but I'd gone to Russia for a reason, and I went out to fulfil that. Dimitri had held me captive for a week and kept me as his own blood whore plaything. Although, one day, he'd been away for almost twenty-four hours, and I'd regained a shred of clarity. So I managed to stall for nearly two days after that, and then we fought. I staked him with a chair leg, then gotten out. I'd staked his former mentor and then we'd fought. I'd managed to stake him on a bridge, but it hadn't been enough. As he hit the water, the stake had fell out. And since then he was more or less stalking me.

I'd recently met Guardian Tomas Sanders, and I found out that he'd never found her. I'd told him about our—our mission I suppose you could say—to return Dimitri to his former state. I'd met a couple in Russia, called Mark and Oksana, and they'd told me about another spirit user they'd once met, who'd claimed to have restored a Strigoi to its original state. I'd then found out from Abe Mazur—my father, ironically enough—that his name was Robert Doru. Victor Dashkov's brother. He'd managed to get a message to Victor in prison, and we'd found out that the only thing that would lead us to wherever Robert was, was if we busted him out of jail.

I hadn't told Tomas about freeing Victor Dashkov, and he was happy to help, because, if he had the chance to save Sonya—Ms. Karp—without killing her, he would take it, no doubt.

At first, he didn't believe, but I convinced him that it was possible. Then he'd wondered how I'd find him.

"It's futile, you know," Tomas said at last. This time, his voice cracked a little. "I tried…I tried so hard to find her. But when they disappear…when they don't want to be found…" he shook his head. "There's nothing we can do. I understand why you want to do it. Believe me, I do. But it's impossible. You'll never find him if he doesn't want you to."

I wondered how much I could tell Tomas—how much I should. It occurred to me then that if there was anyone else in this world who understood what I was going through, it would be this man. Besides, I didn't have a lot of options here.

"The thing is, I think I can find him," I said slowly. "He's looking for me."

"What?" Tomas's eyebrows rose. "How do you know?"

"Because he, um, sends letters to me about it."

That fierce warrior look immediately returned. "If you know this, if you can find him…you should get backup to kill him."

I flinched at those last words and again feared what I had to say next. "Would you believe me if I told you there was a way to save him?"

"You mean by destroying him."

I shook my head. "No…I mean really save. A way to restore him to his original state."

I had been right. It was right for me to have let him go in Vegas. Because what Robert had said had been the truth. And now Dimitri was a dhampir like me again.

And he wanted nothing to do with me. So I guess Tomas was right. I went to all that trouble and effort, and he doesn't care anymore.

Back in the present, it was eleven a.m. and Lissa was asleep. She was having nightmares about what Abe had said. She was worried about what'd happen to me. She was imagining how they would kill me. If she was awake, she wouldn't have these thoughts; she was careful to control them when she was awake. But when she was asleep, her subconscious took over. She couldn't help these images now. There were all sorts of images: staking, shooting, etc. I blocked out the images, but then I realised that she was with Christian. She was thrashing, and had woke him up.

"Liss; Liss. Wake up."

"Thank you, Christian." She kissed him and leaned back against his chest. "I just can't think about it. I don't want to go back to sleep." His arms wrapped around her waist.

"Then don't." he suggested. She pushed him away.

"I'm not in the mood right now. I miss her so much."

"Don't worry, Liss. She'll get out. Just watch."

"Thank you. So much." She crawled back into bed. I decided I didn't want to be there anymore.

"Ugh!" I yelled, throwing the cup someone had placed at the foot of my bed across the room. Cage. Cell. Whatever. The guardians all stared at me. It was the first time I had done something like this in hours. They obviously hadn't been expecting that. "What?" I said, using the best bitchy voice I had. "You scared?"

"Shut up." Growled one of the guards further down the cell block. His name was Andrew, and he was only a year older than me. He had graduated last year from Adrian's old school, Alder.

"No," I argued. "Because I'm pissed off and I'm being locked in a cage for a crime I didn't commit."

"I meant, 'Shut up; I'm being radioed through right now'." He retorted with a dry smile. He asked the woman on the other end if she could repeat.

"Oh." I said lamely; all protests died on my lips. Are they going to let me go? I thought eagerly, and then pushed that thought away. They wouldn't let me go. I was sure of that.

"Your lawyer is here, Miss Hathaway." He said. And then Abe walked in.