As the fighting raged on, I pushed my way through it listening to the soft hum in my head telling me where to go and trying not to look for familiar faces around me, least I feel the urge to jump in and help one of my friends. No Strigoi stopped me. I knew they were on orders. Save her for me.

I turned into an empty corridor lined with doors and the voice in my head told me to take the stairs to the left at the end of it. Were it not for my silent rune, my steps would have echoed through the hall-not that it mattered; he was expecting me. The stairway leading down was dark, so I took my witchlight out of my pocket and held it over my head. By its soft glow, I could see that the steps were made of rough stone and seemed to be older than the rest of the building.

You're getting close. The door will be a few feet in front of you.

The staircase spiraled downward until I could see a faint light. When it became enough to see by, I put away the witchlight and slid out my stake. I was almost there. I just had to turn the corner. I stopped, suddenly thankful for the noiseless rune that prevented the guards from sensing my presence, and let out a shaky breath, knowing it was likely I would die down here. In another dank basement. I was reminded of the basement my friends and I had been held in. I was developing a distinct dislike of basements.

Torches lined the short hall at the bottom on the staircase, throwing my own monstrous shadow on the wall, stake in hand. Only two Strigoi were posted at the door and upon recognizing me before I could make it to them, they turned slightly and opened the double doors. It would appear that they were on orders not to kill me and intended to obey for fear of Dimitri. They should have been afraid of me. I dispatched them quickly, as I'm sure Dimitri knew I would. I couldn't afford potential threats nearby. I had to focus on Dimitri.

I stepped over the body of one of the Strigoi and entered the room. Dimitri was sitting in a chair on the far side of the room when I entered, a sure sign of arrogance. He looked up as I entered, red eyes glittering, then stood, quick enough to show that he recognized me as a threat, but slow enough that he appeared confident of my death. "Ah, Roza! I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten me."

"Not a chance, Comrade," putting as much Rose attitude in the words as I could muster, "Where is Lissa?"

He ignored my question"They didn't send you in here instead of fifty of their best men." He plucked one of the roses from the vase, twirling it in his fingers. Roses, really? Nice touch.

It wasn't a question, but I answered it like one. "No one sent me," I snapped.

He looked up, his eyes boring into me. "Of course. You always do your own thing. It's Infuriating."

Well, here it goes. While I thought of myself as a decent liar, Dimitri had always been able to tell. I tried my best to keep my face neutral. "The guardians wouldn't like 'my own thing'." I started to walk in his direction, hoping that this stupid stunt would at least provide an opening. "I wanted to find you, to join you."

He chuckled, if you could call it that, and stopped twirling the rose. "Roza... this is bad acting, even for you."

"It's not-I'm not-I miss you," I attempted, weakly, but I knew it was no use.

I twisted the ring on my finger slightly. He didn't buy it. I fucking told you so.

Dimitri's smile ran from his face and it became cold and hard. He crushed the rose in his fist then let the petals fall to the ground, watching them . When he looked back up and his eyes met mine, they were piercing. "This.." he gestured to the air, "All this death is because of you. If you'd let me awaken you...let us be together...well, none of this would have happened. We'd still be in Russia, in each other's arms. Your friends would be safe..."

Your friends would be safe. Lissa. I opened my mouth to respond just as my name rang out from outside. It wasn't Lissa, but I jerked my head toward the sound, then demanded, "Where is Lissa?" practically stomping my way toward him.

In a few swift strides, he came to stand before me, just inches from me. He smiled, a cold and wry smile, roughly grabbed my chin and tipped it up. He stared down at me from his great height and almost hissed, "Not here." The coldness seemed to transfer from his face to my chest.

I twisted the ring on my finger. Lissa's not here. A warning voice sounded in my head, Rose... I ignored it.

"You won't hurt her?" I meant it as a confident assertion of my knowledge, but it came out as more of a question.

He bent down and brushed his lips against my forehead, then whispered in my ear, "That depends on you."

At that point, I figured this was as big a distraction as I was going to get. I jerked my hand from my pocket and pulled out my stake, warm from my body heat, and thrust it at Dimitri. But he was paying more attention than I gave him credit for, and he reached out and grabbed my wrist, twisting it and my arm behind my back. Without missing a beat, I kicked back at him, and his grip loosened just enough for me to spin out of his hold, my stake grazing his chest as I did so, giving me time to stumble backward just as he reached for my neck. I heard shouting and movement from outside. It was closer than the shout had been and I panicked. If they come in here, they'll kill him. Or he'll kill them.

Dimitri stood a little way away from me, eyes boring into me, no doubt looking for a good opening. An idea came to me. A stupid, reckless idea, but then, that was kind of my specialty. I walked toward him, getting close to a wall. This was a big no-no. Never get trapped with your back against the wall. Except, this was exactly what I had planned to do. I knew what he would do in this situation. It's what I would have done. What he had trained me to do. His movement was almost instantaneous and he seemed to strike like a snake. He grabbed my wrists, pinned me against the wall and made some mention about another lesson of his I hadn't learned. I wasn't listening. My heart was slamming through my chest. My stake was still in my hand. He was too arrogant, too sure of himself to make me drop it.

Hoping his body would respond the way it used to rather than the way he wanted it to, my head shot forward and I kissed him, fiercely. It did more than catch him off guard, which was all I was hoping for. One of his hands released my wrist, and it ran up my neck into my hair. It would be my hair that did the trick. I could have laughed. It would be awkward from this angle, especially with our proximity, but I had already started this disaster and planned on sticking to it. My stake struck him in the chest, but not his heart. He broke away, surprised. I pressed on, pushing him against the wall right where I had been and driving the stake home. I felt a strange tingling sensation move from my hand to my arm.

He stared at me, wide-eyed. Confused? A gasped "Roza" was all he managed before his eyes rolled and he became dead weight. I jerked out the stake and I turned to let his body fall to the floor, then dropped down beside it. Surely I should have seen something, if it had worked. I had surely felt something. Did I imagine it because I wanted it to be true? I didn't know, but my heart had moved to my throat and lodged itself painfully there as I fought the urge to cry. I had stabbed him before, thought I watched him die before, but I hadn't seen his body. Hesitantly, I moved my trembling hand to brush his skin, afraid of what I would feel. Do bodies feel differently when they've had the life sucked out of them? My first instinct when hurt is to use an iratze, but it wouldn't work on him. My mind raced as I tried to think of what I could do, anything I could do. Eyes glassy, I hovered my hand over the wound in his chest-which was no longer there...and heard a gasp, startling me so that I jumped. My head jerked toward the sound. Dimitri's eyes were open. And they were brown.