I keep having these nightmares. Nightmares that there are people out there that want to use me for their own advantage. Not that I'm too nice or anything. Some people think I'm the meanest person in the world. It depends on my mood. Right now, I'm a little laid back since three glasses of champagne with strawberries can really wear me down. I myself know that sometimes I can have temper issues, but I have my ways of calming myself down; one way is alcohol. If I drank or smoke, it would lessen my chances of getting into trouble; well, situation-like trouble, not underage illegal trouble. Another thing that helped me was a new friend I made. Her name is Gia Lynn, and I'm sitting on the bed next to her on the second floor of this house. The academy must have found out by now that I was missing, but is there really a way they could track me down? I left to have a life, not to have fantasy rubbed in my face. Sometimes I really wish I was born as a regular human, and now and then at the library, I would look up books about cures to hereditary deficiency, but there was no information left in about dhampirs and moroi or whatever. Physically, there were advantages to my unusual genes. With the combination of dhampir and moroi blood, my figure was perfect to me. I was curvy around the right areas and had a nice tan to my skin. I was born blonde, and now my hair reaches down to my mid back, while my bangs only reach slightly passed my eyebrows, since I don't want hair strands stabbing my eyes if they ever get the opportunity. I got my nose pierced not too long ago, and there's a silver gemstone in it. I got it done on my birthday, August 25th, as a high school graduation present. I also have a couple of tattoos. There's a purple lily on my foot, a boldly designed cross right below my neck (which would appear weird since I was a vampire, but I didn't care), and a more special tattoo that I'd gotten just recently here in Alaska. It was a medium sized Victorian heart with a crown on top of it on my ribs. There's was just something very different about it. While in Alaska, I found a moroi, a spirit user at that, who wanted to get together sometime. At that time, he didn't know I was one of his kind. But once he did find out, I told him about my hereditary mishap, and he suggested that I get a symbol done of it with his blood. At first, I thought he was insane, since I just met him, but having a moroi spirit user's blood in my skin may have an awesome effect. So later on, he gave me small bag of his blood, and I told my tattoo artist to mix the blood with the ink he was going to use. So yes, I have spirit in my ink, which is amazing. I haven't been able to find anything to use the spirit on anyhow. Maybe if I had stayed at St. Vladimir's longer, I would have learned more about moroi powers and dhampirs and what not, but at the same time, I couldn't stand the hell hole. I had to get out and away from everybody. The nightmares seemed to have gotten worse ever since I was enrolled there, but if I told my parents about it, they would have thought I was just nervous or making up an excuse, so I had to leave with my own permission.

We were about to get ready to head out of the house and go to a nearby amusement park. To my surprise, it wasn't so cold in Fall in Alaska, so I felt comfortable to dress however I wanted. I was told often that I dress like I'm for sale, not surprisingly often by my own family, but I was just being myself. I chose to wear a navy metallic tube dress that went no lower than six inches above the knee and seemed to cling to my body, showing off my shape. I was also wearing fishnet tights with silver high heels with studded straps that went up to the ankle. The only fancy jewelry I wore was just the charm necklace that I have gotten from my older sister when I was thirteen, before she died. No one knows how she passed away or where her body was for the matter. Someone just came to us and gave us the grave news: Janice was nowhere to be found. So we just figured she was dead. But I never taken off the charm she gave me. Not for anyone or anything. It was a crescent moon with diamonds in it, so it was more expensive than it looked. But money wasn't the concern for this charm; it was the thought that counts. Gia was equally as attractive as I was, and we nearly had the same taste in fashion. You could say that she had an average weight, but she was curvier than I was. Lighter than I was, but definitely not pale. Her hair was wavy and reached down to her cleavage. It was blonde around the top layer and the bottom/under layer was brown. She had two lip piercings, a ball under each side of her lips, and her ears were gauged to double zeros (which was the size of a quarter). As for inkage, this girl had a whole sleeve inked onto her and a couple of back tattoos as well. She was human, but was very well aware of the whole moroi and dhampir deal. She said that there was another species of vampires that she heard of as well, but forgot the name of them. I figured if they were easy to forget like that, they weren't such a big deal.

"Do your parents mind that we're walking to an amusement park at midnight?" I asked Gia questionably. She narrowed her eyes another direction then chuckled.

"Do I care?" She replied. We both laughed as our heels clacked against the concrete. I have to admit, we look more like we're heading towards the nearest bar rather than the amusement park, but we both feel that we had to look our best no matter where we went; even to the dumpster to put trash in. Well, okay, we wouldn't go that far, but we did keep our features in touch. From the neighborhood that Gia lived in, the park was only 2 miles away. Since I had a big stamina, it would be no problem for me, but it made me wonder if Gia's ever walked there before; in heels. But if she wanted a break, I'd be nice enough to give her one. A stray cat stared at us as we walked past it and a neighbor's yard. It meowed normally as we kept walking on, but then it meowed as if it desperately needed something. Turning around, we saw that the cat was following us as if we owed it something.

"That cat is strange." Gia stated, staring at it.

"Does it want anything from you or just attention?" Natasha asked. Right after, the cat glanced at something else, then shrunk back as if it saw something frightening, then ran back to its own property. "What was that about?"

"Who knows? Let's keep walking."

It was a full moon tonight, so even without the lamp posts out in the streets, it was easy to perceive where we were going. From where Gia lived, the moon looked a lot closer than where it was, and there were no clouds or fog to block its light shine. I didn't even realize I stopped walking, and Gia had too, but we were both staring at it in curiosity.

"I wish I could take a picture, but I don't have my camera with me." Gia groaned. She was lucky she had me, so she wasn't at a total loss, so I reached and grappled in my bag looking for my easy-to-lose Blackberry Storm. Anything was easy to lose in my bag; you could lose your pet dog in here if possible. Feeling something hard and cold against my fingers, I grabbed around my little talking device.

"You can use my phone. It has a camera on it."

"Well I'm certainly glad you're here to help." Gia teased. I handed over my Blackberry to her before she switched it to camera mode and aimed it where the moon sat. "Cue me, Natasha?"

"Soy cheese!" I shouted at her, laughing. It was my other way of saying cheese on the camera, whether I was in the picture or not. I've said that since I was little. I heard the little snap imitation on my phone go off and I walked over to take a look. Just how it looked outside; perfect.

"Nice shot, Gia. You take photography?" I asked her, and while I did I could have sworn I heard something quickly pass by us.

"I took the class once in my freshman year of high school, but I learned more about it on the internet."

"Like everyone else." We chuckled once more at our statements, but a bush had rustled behind us, somehow stopping our laughter. We glanced at it and it seemed to have stayed still, but I knew that something weird was going on. "I think we should keep walking…"

"Yeah, the park doesn't stay open long. Even if it didn't, we could still walk around and look at the rides ourselves." It seemed like we had a solution for every problem we faced, but the moment we began walking, a bigger problem had jumped out of nowhere right in front of us. Gia yelped out and grabbed hold of me while I just got startled and jumped back in alarm at the sudden figure in front of us.

"What the hell!?" Gia shouted. Her grasp was still around my waist as we examined the stranger that appeared out of nowhere. In fact, his features looked totally out of the ordinary compared to a regular human being's. He was blonde like me, and his hair was down to his chin. He was taller than both of us and I sized him up to at least six foot tall. Now, here were the strangest features: He was pale, like, white as a sheet, and I didn't even think someone could be out of the sun for so long. And either he was wearing fancy contacts, or his eye's pupils were really ringed with red. Nowadays, things would turn out awkward, especially while I was around, but I didn't expect this to happen.

"What are you ladies doing out in the middle of the night by yourselves?" The man asked. His voice sounded cold, but his smile was grim. "You should know better than to do that; especially you." His dark, red ringed eyes glanced over towards me. "No guardians, no weapons, no protection, and no brains for that matter. It's like both of you are just crying out for me to come and kill you."

Gia's eyes widened and her hand reached inside of her purse, in search for something while she kept her eyes on the man. "Who're you supposed to be, threatening us like we're your enemies?!"

The blonde stranger chuckled at the question as if the answer was obvious. "If you must know, my name is Nathan." His eyes slowly turned towards me once more. "I'll start with you."

And just like that, just like that, he was in front of me; and while Gia cried out and tried to shove him away, he grabbed her neck and shoved back, only with probably five times more force. It was unbelievable to see Gia shoved so hard by the neck, she hit the metal fence behind us and grunted in pain. It must have hurt, since she suddenly sunk down on the grass, her purse and belongings seemed to have gotten loose and were scattered all around her, but she seemed too stunned to reach out towards something and grab it.

"Gia! Are you okay?!" I shouted towards her, but another problem was that Nathan had one hand holding the back of my neck, the other snaked tightly around my waist. The first reflex I had when a guy grabbed me against my will was to punch him as hard as I could, and that was exactly what I did, but it didn't faze him. Not even a little. I still tried to push him away, but his strength was phenomenal, like I was trying to push off a brick wall.

"Hold still and be quiet," Threatened Nathan. "Your death will be filled with ecstasy." His eyes widened and looked down to my neck. Now technically, I knew what he was. He was a vampire, but not a dhampir, and defiantly not a moroi, but what was he?! Before I realized it, he was bringing my head up and his mouth opened, exposing sharp fangs. I screamed the moment I felt the tip of his fangs touch the flesh of my neck, but something immediately stopped him, and I opened my eyes (not realizing they were shut) to see what was happening.

Gia was finally on her feet, standing behind Nathan, and in her hands right on top of his neck was a lit lighter. Even being a smoker had its crazy advantages. She had burned Nathan on the back of his neck, and he cried out and let go of his grasp on me, making me fall on the street on my side, which did hurt a little bit, but we had bigger concerns.

"You bitch!!" Nathan shouted, and at the same time, in unbelievable speed, he turned around and swung his hand towards the side of Gia's cheek. She didn't see it coming, and ended up getting scratched by his not-too-sharp-but-not-too-dull nails. She screamed as she grabbed her cheek, which had four large scratch marks on it. At least she was able to see that Nathan was onto her now, and she had the cigarette lighter in her hands right in his face threatening to burn him. But I couldn't just lay there and watch. Feeling like there was damage done when he dropped me, I struggled to get up at least on my butt to turn and face him.

"Leave us alone. Now," I said to his back. "Or she'll burn you to death."

Nathan turned from me to Gia a couple of times, and then he groaned angrily. "I've swallowed things more frightening than you two." He backed up away from us as if he was calling quits. "I'll be back for you before you know it." His eyes darted at me again, being set to a glare. As much as I hated getting dirty looks, I had a feeling I had to keep my mouth shut at the moment. Then he jumped high, high into one of the trees and then elsewhere. I stared at his path for a moment, making sure that he wasn't coming back this instant, and then sighed in relief that he was gone. Gia ran over to me and offered her hand, and I grabbed it as she helped me get on my feet again, though it was a little hard with heels on.

"Are you okay?" Gia asked me with a concerned look.

"I should be asking you that," I replied, brushing some dirt off my shoulder. "You took the most damage."

"I know. It was nothing. Not that I've gone through worse, but you know what I mean. What did he want from you anyway?"

"I'm not sure." I replied. Nathan's attention was directed at me mostly when he attacked us. It was as if he knew about me being moroi and dhampir, and it was sort of a big deal. "You still want to go to the theme park?"

Gia cackled. "Of course! No way is some dude going to ruin our night."

"Then let's go now. No more interruptions for the night."

At least I hoped.

To our surprise, the amusement park was still open. However, we were a little late, since the park would close in half an hour. As we walked through the entrance, I did catch a couple of people double-taking in our direction, not that we cared. Neon and blinking lights appeared everywhere as we walked along with the crowd towards the first ride we wanted to go on.

"You know," Gia said. "You told me you've never been on a ferris wheel before."

"Yeah. And?" I questioned. I remember when I was little, I was a little bit terrified of giant wheels, but as I got older, I just didn't care to ride them. I guess now would be a good opportunity. "…You want me to go on with you, don't you?"

"Hell yeah I do! It's amazing, we've got to try it now before we leave."

"Come on now, it'll still be there tomorrow and the next day and the next."

"No, I mean when we leave Alaska. We're going around other parts of America!"

I almost thought that she was joking. "Wait, why are we leaving anyway? It seems nice. I don't see any reason to."

"Because I'm worried about you. You said that you left St. Vladimir's without warning, and they could be trying to track you down. We can't stay in one place forever."

"As complicated as that school is, I never heard of a school with some kind of tracking device to find lost students."

"Well they must have had to something to start looking for you…I don't want you to go back yet."

"Neither do I." I replied. Even though I've only been in Alaska for a month now, it was almost like home. But if she had to move to a different spot in the country just to make Gia feel more comfortable, she would do it. "Okay, Gia. We think of someplace else to go. But we have to make this night last as long as possible."

"Good." Gia replied, grinning. We both got in line to the ferris wheel, which was fairly short because people were just leaving the park due to the close closing time, so it was a high chance that we were to get on board next. As the wheel slowly made its rotations while we waited patiently, I looked around to see that the amusement park did seem slightly empty. Everyone was about to leave and go home, while we were going to stay and enjoy the view, and possibly hang around anyway after the park closed. Apparently Gia did it before, so I doubt that she would get me in any trouble intentionally. As my head would turn to look around, my vision would pass a hooded man that was looking in my direction, but I thought it was just a random person glance like most people would do. But as I began to turn around the opposite way to glance at the line, my eyes drew past him again, and apparently he was still looking this way. He wasn't just glancing at me for a second, he was staring at me, and it sort of creeped me out. I tried to ignore him, but even looking another direction, I felt his gaze sitting on me. I realized that the ferris wheel was slowing down, and eventually came to a halt. By the time the whole round of people got off, Gia grabbed me by the wrist to follow the line, which was finally moving forward. Predictable for us, we got the last seat before there weren't any more left. Wherever there was a line nowadays we were always the last ones. As soon as we were strapped in, we felt the hum of the cranks moving the wheel, and it slowly began to move in a giant circle.

I had to say, for the first time on the ferris wheel, it seemed pretty relaxing. I instantly had sunk into a comfortable position in my seat and stared through the side window to enjoy the scenery. I've heard of way bigger wheels, like the London Eye, but I really didn't care how big or quickly it went. It was going just right.

"So how is it so far?" Gia asked me, grinning as if she had a little secret to share with me.

"I think it's very wonderful, thank you for asking." I replied back laughing. Due to my instincts, I'm naturally more awake at night than I am at daytime, and Gia just dealt with my nocturnal side and slept during the day so that we could hang out at night, but it was possible that I could sleep here this very moment. The wheel was more peaceful that I had imagined it would be. While we were almost at the very top, I glanced down at the ground beneath us; and to my dismay, that man was still there. Now he was talking to someone else with his back turned towards me (since he was in front of the ride itself), but I noticed that now and then, he actually pointed at the seat that me and Gia were sitting at. He was definitely onto us about something.

"Gia, I'm not so sure if I'm comfortable here anymore." I said with an even tone, keeping my eye on the mystery man. At least it wasn't Nathan; otherwise we would have made a scene, even if nobody was around.

"Why? Are you airsick?" She replied. Of course I would be the only one to notice the guy staring at us continually. I pointed down at his direction and spoke once more.

"No. I got over that a long time ago. Look down at where I'm pointing."

And she did. At first, she looked like she was still looking for something as if the guy I was talking about wasn't important, but while she was still looking around him, she did catch him glancing up at us a couple of times.

"You mean that guy?"

"Mhmm. He's been looking at us ever since we got in line."

"Maybe he finds us attractive." Gia laughed. But I didn't find it a laughing matter. A guy that found us pretty wouldn't have the nerve to stare at us that long without saying anything.

"I'm not joking around, Gia. I don't like the way he's looking at us."

"Then we'll just ask him what's up and why he's bothering you."

"No…I think when we get off when just head back home. He hasn't moved at all since he saw us."

Gia glanced down at the man once more, probably thinking of other reasons why he was onto us or if he wanted something.

"Okay, we can leave then." She concluded. It only gave me a small amount of relief, but it was better than confronting him. The ferris wheel was on its last axis and began to slow down to a halt to let people off. The moment the wheel stopped was the moment the amusement park was officially closed. The moment we got off the seat and onto bare ground once more we began walking away. The host of the ferris wheel gave us a goodbye and hoped he had a nice ride. Physically, I did; mentally, well for one I don't like it when people stare at me for a long while. I seemed to have developed the guts to turn around and see if the guy was still there. To my surprise, he was gone. Nobody but us seemed to be around the park but us.

"Gia, wait." I said, holding Gia's hand to stop her from walking further.

"What is it?"

"He's gone. That one guy that was looking at us is gone."

"So…is that good or bad?"

"I'm not sure," I replied, feeling bemused. I gave a heavy sigh and stared at his past spot for a long moment. "I don't know. Let's go home."

Gia nodded and be begun to turn around back to the way we were headed, but it was like a déjà vu moment; the guy that was looking at us from afar was now right in front of us, blocking our path. My instincts automatically told me to quickly head another direction. Keeping Gia's hand in my grasp, I turned back around, but there was another problem; the guy that this man was talking to earlier was in my way. And it seemed like out of nowhere that two other men blocked our left and right path, so Gia and I were trapped with no easy way of escaping. We stayed close, but then I glanced at the first man we ran into. He was tall; Very tall. I'd say about six foot seven or six foot six. He was obviously older than us, mid-twenties or so, and I would find him quite attractive if he wasn't holding us in a hostage situation. His hair was brown and shoulder length and let loose, but he could tie it in a ponytail if he wanted to. His eyes were a dark brown color you could even see in the dark. The other three men that surrounded us weren't worth examining. What I also noticed was that they weren't the only ones around. I looked more closely at the entrance and the exit, and even some random parts of the park. There were mysterious men and women at every corner, making escape possible. It was this guy that brought them all to trap us here at this spot that we had to question.

"Are they with Nathan…?" Gia whispered to me while we were back to back.

"I hope not." I replied. As much as they looked nothing like Nathan, they were certainly just as threatening.

Before the silence got any more aggravating, the tall man spoke. "It didn't take much effort to find you here."

What!?

"St. Vladimir's is expecting your return."

"No way." I replied boldly. I couldn't believe this at all. They really did track me down here. But how?!

"You're going have to get past me before taking her away!" Gia shouted suddenly stepping in front of me in her assertive form. I could have sworn I heard one of the other men chuckle.

"You're not of our concern, little girl." One of the other men cut in. "It's this mixed breed that we want." They were talking about me. My parents talk about my most personal information to the headmistress and then suddenly everyone knows about it. You couldn't trust anyone these days. I rested my case when I felt a rough hand grab my shoulders from behind. It was the other man that blocked my southern escape route, and he was trying to keep me from running away. Gia heard me suddenly cry out, and just as I predicted, she lashed out towards the man that had the hold on me. Her fist flew right across his face and he only grunted in slight pain. So it didn't do much, but it did something to help me out. I realize that his grip on me had gotten loose and I tore out of his grasp just to accidentally run into the main guy's. From the force he used to hold me back with his arms wrapped around me tightly, I had a feeling it would take more than a punch to make this guy let go. The moment Gia had her target caught off guard while still attacking the other man was the moment that she got trapped in his clutches too, and we were both done for. I did find it funny, however, that the academy would send this many people to try and catch me and me alone, so they must have thought ahead and figured the possibility that I would be with someone else that would try to protect me and keep me here –Gia in particular- and decided to bring a whole faction of people to lower the chance of getaway.

"You're just a human." The guy holding onto Gia said. "You've no chance of winning."

"You let go of me and I'll take you all on!" Gia snarled back. Funny how she wasn't this aggressive when we got attacked by Nathan.

"You don't have to." The man that got a hold of me said. "We're not trying to harm either of you. We just need you to return to the academy, Natasha."

That made more questions pop in my head, and I manage to wrestle out of his grip without hurting myself. "Who are you, and how do you know my name?"

"I am a guardian at St. Vladimir's as well as the other people around here keeping you from escape." He pointed out his supporters that helped corner us. "My name is Dimitri Belikov. I was officially sent here to bring you back."

"She doesn't want to!" Gia cut in. "She can stay here if she wants. She has legal rights!"

"Yes," Dimitri answered. "But it was her parents' legal decision to keep her in the academy until further notice. So of right age or not, she has to stay until told."

"That's not fair at all!" I replied.

"Guardian Belikov," One of the other men started. "What should we do with her?"

They were talking about Gia, who looked like she was going to pounce on Dimitri if she was let loose. She stared right at him the moment the question was asked, not looking forward to the answer.

"Don't hurt her." I said out loud. As much as I was in clutches before, I knew how to deliver a straight message. Since the Belikov guy said that he 'meant no harm', I said the demand mainly to the other three men that were closest to us. Then I made my voice louder to make it clear to the farther away guardians. "You hear me?! You'll be sorry even if you cut off a single strand of her hair!"

"Natasha, we must go now. We can't take your friend along with us. You know the rules." Dimitri said in a low voice, probably trying to calm both of us down. I glanced back at Gia, who was staring daggers at me. I had realized that if I refused to head back to St. Vladimir's, then we'd both be stuck here as hostages or whatever. They had to make some sort of acceptation.

"Can she at least come as a guest and then go after looking around? I can't just leave her here."

There was a long pause. At least these guardians were nice enough to listen to what we had to say, but they still seemed rough around the edges. After a few more seconds, Dimitri had nodded his head towards the man that held Gia still. At first it looked like he hesitated, but then he slowly undid his grasp, freeing Gia out of his clutches. She rubbed her arms as if he squeezed them enough to cut off their circulation. After Gia was let loose, Dimitri had let go of me as well. I suddenly knew what Gia was doing the moment the guy let go of her. My arms felt like they got the air squeezed out of them, and I rubbed them gently to try and get the circulation back going again. After I finished up with that, I backed up a little bit, still watching the guardians' movements.

"She can come along. But only for a short while." One of the other men said. I heard Gia's sigh of relief as she stood next to me, expecting a different answer. Dimitri had closed his eyes and then opened them to look another direction.

"The cars are parked over there." He pointed towards the exit. "It's about time you went back to where you came."