CHAPTER 2
"Slow down! I like the car, but I don't want to die in it!" Lissa shrieked. "Okay, i'm feeling a lack of trust here." Adrian joked. "You just started to feel it now?" I said sarcasticly. I loved speed. But Lissa's overwhelming fear of crashing won me over. "But seriously, slow down. If we get pulled over, it'll cost us to much time." I said. He finally slowed down. A lot. There was about a half an hour left, till we were at the court. My heart was pounding, and I was actually terrified. Our plan wasn't the most brilliant plan of the years. But we couldn't come up with anything else. "Okay, let's go through this one last time." I said. "We park our car in a safe distance, get in, use compulsion on Tatiana, break Victor free, run back to the car and start driving." I said. "Start driving where exactly?" Lissa asked. "I don't know.. Just far away from the court. And while we're in the car we make Victor tell us where his brother is. And then we go from there." I felt Lissa's insecurity. And fear. But she wasn't afraid to get caught, she was afraid of our plan failing, and me getting my heart broken. Again. She was afraid of not knowing what i'd do if I couldn't be with Dimitri. I was afraid of the same thing. I turned on the music, and sunk back in my seat.
We pulled over in the woods and covered our car with leaves as much as we could. I know, I know. What a cliché. As we started walking, Lissa slid down by my side, and took my hand, holding it, as if she was afraid I would run away. She was my best friend in the whole world. We were inseparable. I squeezed her hand and smiled. She smiled back.
We we're getting close to the court when the nausea hit me hard. I came to a stop and the feeling overwhelmed me, it almost blackened my vision. Oh crap. "Rose, wha.." Lissa got quiet when she saw them. I was frozen, terrified. I let go of Lissa's hand and pulled out my stake. There was lots of them. And they had us surrounded. "Well, this sucks." Adrian had his eyes locked on them. They were hungry. And closing in on us. My worst fears was becoming a reality. I knew I couldn't protect Lissa and Adrian. It was one or the other. A Strigoi moved to close, and I jumped him. I kicked him, so he flew back and took down a couple of fellow Strigoi with him. Another one attacked and I punched him, turned around and punched him again. He tried to kick me, but I was too fast. I jerked a step back and threw my stake at his heart. Jackpot. The stake hit him hard right in the heart, and the Strigoi whimpered and fell to the ground. Five other Strigoi was about to jump me and I pressed up to Lissa, when he appeared. "Stop.." I recognized the sound within a heartbeat. "This sucks even more." Adrian choked out.
He was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt and his long and brown duster and his hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, similar to the very first time I'd met him. And he was holding up our desperate escape. Again. If he wasn't a dead and walking, I would have thought he looked hot. Very hot. Crap.
"Nice to see you again, Roza." I could hear a faint Russian accent. "You know, this is getting so old.." I growled. I could hear Lissa in my head. "Don't tempt him, Rose.".
I kept her behind me, and away from Dimitri. I was going to defend her, even if it was the last thing I did. And looking at our misfortunate situation, I guessed that it was.
"You know, it's not her that I want." Dimitri smiled, showing his fangs. "Even though it wouldn't hurt to end the Dragomir bloodline once and for all."
"You won't get a chance to even come near her." I growled again. "But like I said, it's not her I want right now." he kept his cool face on. "That's right. You want me. Then take me and let them go." I could hear Lissa shriek in my head. "What the hell are you doing? I'm not going to let him take you!" I looked at her and smiled. "Liss, you've got to." I turned my head towards Dimitri again. "I have to be sure that they'll get to the royal court, so that they can be protected by the wards." I said coldly. "It's not the time to be demanding, Roza" his eyes pierced right through me. "Then I'll keep fighting you off, until I get killed or you get the message through you thick skull and let my friends go." Dimitri chuckled. "You never change." he said, raizing an eyebrow. "Want to test that theory?" I said fearlessly. He smiled again and looked me in the eyes, like he once used to. He was beautiful. Dangerous. Even though I knew he wasn't the same man anymore, wasn't the man I fell inlove with, I couldn't help but still want him. I wanted to kiss him. But in the state of condition he was in, he couldn't love me. He couldn't love me the same way he once did, the way I loved him. "You now, I could just kill you right now." He said smiling. "If you wanted to kill me, you'd skipped the smalltalks, and done it by now, comrade." I replied sarcasticly. I actually didn't understand why he hadn't finished me off yet. Lissa and Adrian didn't say anything. They were concentrated. They were ready to leap and run. A thought came to my mind.
Lissa once used her supercompulsion making Jesse think he was being attacked by huge spiders. Maybe she could do the same here. Maybe she could distract the Strigoi enough to escape. It was our best shot. Our only shot.
I projected myself into Lissa's mind, feeling overwhelmed by her fear. All the frightening images popped into her mind, and scared even me. She was freaking out in silence. "Lissa. Listen." - "Rose, is it you?" -
"Listen to me, we're running out of time. Can you use your compulsion to make the Strigoi see things? So that they can be distracted? Even for a little while. Just enough for us to escape." I said.
"I can try.. But I don't know for how long it'll work. And even if it does work, I don't think I have enough power to distract them all." She could sence where I was going with this.. "Don't worry, I'll take on the rest of them, after you've done it, grab Adrian and run and don't look back!" -
"Are you kidding, you could get killed!" she hissed. "Liss, please.. I need you to go and break Victor free for me. I need you to find his brother, and save Dimitri." I projected back to myself and felt i bit dizzy. "Rose," Lissa said quietly. "Don't". A tear slipped through her eye and Adrian looked confused back and forth between me and her. "NOW!" I yelled, and attacked Dimiti, even though it was against my higher reasoning. I tried to kick him, but he was to fast, he spun around and punched me in the face, unable to catch my footing, I started to fall. It hurt. A lot. But I got up again, ready to attack him once more. Lissa closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Suddenly the Strigoi started to fight each other. "Run!" I yelled. She grabbed Adrian and they ran for their lifes. "No, Rose!" Adrian yelled. "Come on, god damnet!" Lissa hissed, pulling him with her. They disappeared into the woods.
I was standing, my hands clutched into fists, surrounded by my worst nightmare. Dimitri growled and looked freaking pissed off. I smiled and my heart was pounding, giving me an adrenalinrush. "Come and get me" I said, razing an eyebrow coldly. Dimitri stood there, not saying a word. The he looked to the sides and nodded. "Go.." Suddenly the Strigoi began to disappear into the woods too.. "You really think they're worth dying for?" he said when we were alone. "It's not them i'm dying for." I said looking him straight in the eyes. He shook his head. "You think you can save me? You think I need your salvation?" he growled and with one movement he stood so close to me, that I could feel his cool skin without even touching it. It gave me the chills. He looked at me with anger and passion, and the red in his eye scared me.. "I don't know what you need" I said. I was about to break down. I was so tired of waiting for him to return to me. I was tired of never being able to hear him laugh anymore, or feel his touches.. I wanted him to wrap me in his arms and kiss me. He frowned and took a step closer, bringing his hands to my waist pulling me towards him. I let out a tear..This was heartbreaking. He brushed away my tears with a single handmovement and looked at me fiercely in the eyes. "I need you." he said. "All I can ever think about is when I get to be next to you again. But I shouldn't feel this way! I shouldn't feel at all, god damnet! he growled, releasing me again, pushing me down to the ground.. I fell on my knees, not bothering to get up again. My vision was blurry from all the tears. My fear was replaced by heartache. And I was a second away from begging him to kill me.
This was to much to handle. He grabbed my shoulders, and pulled me back up again and shaked me. "I wanted you to become like me. Be with me forever like this, because I always thought you could be used. But I realized, that's not why I wanted you to be with me forever. These feelings are alive. And they're suppose to be dead!" I didn't say anything. So Dimitri's feelings for me was still there. He loved me. Was I reliefed? Was I happy that this dead version of Dimitri also loved me? Was Dimitris feelings keeping me alive at this point? Or keeping a little part of him alive for that matter? Every possible question popped into my mind, and suddenly Dimitri pressed his lips hard against mine, and I forgot what I was thinking about. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he pulled me up to him. I wrapped my legs around his waist kissing him fiercely. He lost his balance and we fell to the ground among the thousand and thousands of leaves. He kept kissing me and I kept kissing him back. I couldn't restrain myself any longer. I wasn't strong enough. He ripped of my jacket, and then pulled of my hoody.. And I pulled of his duster and then his t-shirt. It was cold, and I think I was going numb. But I didn't care.. It felt like we'd been two lovers apart for years. It certainly felt like years. It was more than just lust. More than just passion.. Put I couldn't put my finger on it. I dug my nails into his skin, and he growled.. My heart burned with dessire. He pressed himself closer to me, letting his hand slide up my thigh. I could barely catch my breath. Suddenly he backed of. He stood up, staring at me.. I felt like he was memorizing every part of me. Every inch of my body. He looked confused and torned. And suddenly I came to myself, realizing that this wasn't Dimitri. This was a killer. And my feelings were clouding my judgement. I had to hide them again, if I wanted to survive right now.. Something told me Dimitri had the same epiphany about me. I jumped back to my feet, realizing that I had the chance of running. So I did. I started running, because there was no chance in hell I could kill him right now, I didn't even have my stake.
I've never runned so fast in my intire life. I was running for my life, and I could feel he was right behind me. He was sick of playing games, and wanted it overwith. If I didn't want to be with him as a Strigoi, then he would kill me. I tripped and fell down. As I was trying to get up, Dimitri had caught up with me and pulled me up, only to kick me down again. He kicked so hard, that I actually flew up in the air and hit a tree.. He was so fast. All of the sudden he was next to me. This time I couldn't get up. I couldn't move my body, although I felt great pain. He pulled me back up and smacked me down again. Then he leaned down, to sink his teeth in me, but I couldn't let him. I punched him and got up. Then I kicked him and he blocked my attack. He tried to punch me, but I ducked and punched him in the gut. He growled out of pain- I think I heard a rib crack. Then I flykicked him in the stomach and sent him flying into a tree too.. I started running again. The royal court was in my vision range, and I suddenly felt a burst of hope. Could it actually be, that I might make it?
I was so close, but Dimitri caught up with me again and threw me back to the ground. This time I wouldn't be getting up.. A strong pain shot through me and everything blackened.