2

I stared around the kitchen for a moment and imagined Riya cooking breakfast at the stove and everyone chatting happily scattered around the room. The image lingered in my mind for a moment before everything faded away to the sad silence. What's done is done, moping around isn't going to get me anywhere but killed. I thought grimly. I headed out of the house and headed to the town to begin my share of the work for the day.

A lot of people had been injured, both Moroi and dhampir. The hospital crew definitely had their hands full and there was only one spirit user here which was better than having none at all. The ground had been patched back up, the ditches hidden away again until the next attack. People looked weary; some dragged themselves around from place to place in grief. No doubt everyone heard the news of Riya's death.

"Rose!" Mark called when he saw me patrolling around the town. I gave him a smile and headed over. "So what'd you think is going to happen?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. I mean, I don't know how long it'll take for those guardians to reassemble themselves for another attack. I hope it won't be any time soon, this town definitely won't be ready for a while, especially with our loss." I shook my head. "All we can do is hold up the best we can with repairing the town and treating the injured ones. We'll find those who aren't as hurt and we'll set up patrols. We're short of guards at the moment with Dimitri and Cain in Baia trying to get help there and Valentine has gone off to contact other contacts."

Mark stared at me for a moment before dragging me towards the town hall where the mayor was. "Yo chief, Rose has stuff to say concerning the town." Mark declared as he dragged me into the hall where several people were debating.

"What? Mark what're you doing?" I stammered.

"Miss Hathaway -"

I cut the mayor off, I hated being called that. "Rose, please call me Rose."

"Alright then, Rose. I'm sure you're aware that we are in something of turmoil here. Because of our choice of lifestyle, many here in this town, human or not have been forced into this war between the Queen and the Strigoi." The mayor held up his hand when he noticed I was about to have an outburst. After all, from the way he was explaining things, it was as though he was resenting having trusted Riya all those years ago. Back talking the dead, especially Riya was so not on. "We do not regret having chosen this way of living. I am merely stating the facts that humans are at a disadvantage here. After all, we cannot fight any where near as well as dhampirs and Moroi can."

"I'm sure that we can come up with something to help with that disadvantage chief." Mark grinned.

"Also, Valentine has gone to track other contacts. I'm sure that someone will be able to give some input on how we can even the playing field." I added. "Dimitri and Cain have already gone to gather more help and to bring Konstantin and Aleksandr back. I also have friends that I can contact and I know they'll be more than willing to give us a helping hand."

"Rose tell them about your plan." Mark urged.

"Plan? What plan?" I asked him incredulously. I don't remember having one at all.

"What you were telling me outside," he sighed exasperatedly.

I stared at him for several moments more before I realised what he meant. "That wasn't a plan."

"It was something for people to do nonetheless; human or not," he grinned.

"Well, I was suggesting that we place people on guard, moving around in the trees and stuff. Set up some bases high enough so that attacking guardians won't be able to see. We'll get the Earth specialists to help shield the bases on the tree tops. Dhampirs can't see in the dark, not completely and they'll most likely be trying to attack during the night to make things easier. They know we have humans here now and they know that attacking in daylight would be just as hard as the night.

We should perhaps train more people to help out in the hospital too. I noticed last time that we were very tight on staff so it'll probably help. What sort of humans have we got here?"

Everyone in the hall was staring at me as if I had two heads. A man with a gruff voice, messy brown hair and hard blue eyes spoke first. "We've got a few high school students but they're smart and are training to be medics. Adults wise, we have a few fashion designers, construction workers and three blacksmiths."

"Basically hard working well built men?" I smiled. This wasn't going to be as bad as I thought!

"Pretty much," he nodded. "I'm Alan by the way."

"Nice to meet you. I take it you're the spokesman for the workers." I grinned.

"Something like that," he gestured vaguely.

"How do you usually get the food supplies?"

"We get imports."

"That could be endangered right?"

"That's why we have a year's worth of reserves hidden underground in a freezer." Alan grinned.

"Right, so who does the deliveries?"

"It's different every week. But without fail, there's always a huge truck full of food that arrives. We have our own meat farm though so we do have fresh meet."

"Okay, so that's food done. What about health supplies?"

"Comes with the food but in a different truck."

"This town is well structured." I grinned.

Council of Strigoi general POV

"Can you sense her?" Blake asked for the millionth time that evening.

Haru shook her head and slouched in her chair. "Let her rest Blake." Malerna reprimanded. "Even Haru has her limits and searching for Raisa cannot be easy."

"I can't believe this, how could this have happened?" Jasper groaned feeling the clashing of emotions in the room.

"Even the best falls sometimes, especially when they have something to care for more than their own lives." Raphael commented sadly.

"And we all know that Raisa cared more of her town than anything else." Faa-Lin added.

"It wasn't just a town to her, it was her family. A family that she'd built and protected till her last breath." Eshe sighed.

"Ain't that the truth? And they're not even out of danger yet. The guardians could attack that town at any moment." Agon scoffed.

"Not quite, they did damage the guardian's structure." Jonathon shook his head. "They won't be able to reassemble for a while," he spoke with experience having been a general himself before his 'death'.

"That town is going to need help. They depend on the supplies imported from neighbouring towns and cities. The Queen could easily shut them down. Eventually they will starve." Malerna said.

"No. We cannot directly interfere. That was the rule remember? She is a master in her own right and has no master above her. Until she is a member of the Council we cannot offer our services." Raphael stated firmly despite his desire to help Raisa.

"In case you forgot Rafe, she may never be able to become a member of the Council." Agon said coolly.

"I have not forgotten, but unless a new leader of that town steps forward and offers a price, we cannot help them."

"What if we simply help make sure their supplies don't get sabotaged? That way we wouldn't be helping the town directly." Haru suggested.

Everyone fell silent for a moment deep in thought and the silence was broken with Maxim strolled into the room with a hardened expression.

"No luck?" Blake asked.

Kiki whined as an answer and Maxim settled in his chair. For the rest of the day the Council considered about how they could help Raisa's town without breaking the rules. Suddenly, without warning Kiki began barking viciously and darted out of the room. Drew, the top guard crashed into the room with his head bowed.

"There's been an emergency, alchemists appeared with a group of dhampirs and Misha's been taken." Drew announced.

"He what?" Blake almost growled.

"It's the Queen. It's her doing." Haru told them. "She's involved with Misha, she's his pet."

"But Misha wants Raisa for himself, why would he have ordered the siege on her town?" Raphael frowned.

"Simple, he didn't plan for her death and no doubt he still has no idea that she's dead. If that Queen can do anything about it, he won't find out for a long while. Not if she wants to live." Agon scoffed.

"Get the intruders out, dead or alive I don't care." Jasper commanded.

"We cannot kill them." Eshe protested. "If we do the guardians will have more to add to the lies being taught."

"What difference does it make? The war's already begun Eshe. The war began with that attack on Raisa's town." Jasper stated.

"I agree with him Eshe." Jonathon commented. "The attack on her town by the Queen is the last straw. There've been attacks before but never organised to such an extent. The war has begun and it's time we made our moves. After all, Raisa no doubt knew about this, other wise she would've have sent us that letter last week."

"Then it's been decided, we'll alert our informers and tell them to keep their guard up for possible attacks." Raphael stated.

"I will continue searching for her." Haru told them.

Back to the town with Rose's POV

It's been a few days now and things seem to be progressing steadily. I haven't had contact from either Valentine or Cain and Dimitri. I just hoped that they were safe. As I'd suggested before, we'd begun constructing bases scattered around in the tree tops to keep watch of intrusions. There was nothing more any of us could do until either Valentine or Cain and Dimitri comes back with news. We were stuck. People continued training and Zana continued to teach others about treating injuries.

Just like the other time when I was faced with indecision, I ended up at the spot in woods where I'd first Riya. I sat on the stump and rested my chin on my hands. "Geez, what are we meant to do now? Give me some help here; the town's people are beginning to lose morale Riya. I'm not you; I didn't save this town from doom. You did. People are growing tired and they're losing hope, fast. I don't know how to get these people together any more. They listen to me, but that's not the problem. I have no idea how to give them more confidence. There've already been three fights in the past week." I sighed talking to the silence within the woods. I rested on my back on a pile of leaves and stared up at the tree tops. A strange little package sitting on a branch caught my eye. It was the same tree where Riya had hung upside down both times when I had no idea what to do. She couldn't have…

I jumped up and dashed over trying to find a way to climb up. Eventually I gave up finding an easy way and just climbed. It was hard; climbing trees was harder than I remembered. After what felt like forever, I finally managed to get onto the branch and I sat on it as I opened the small package. Inside was a letter, a music player and a beautiful rose carved out of wood.

I opened the letter and felt emotion well up when I recognised her artistic handwriting.

'Yo, if you're reading this then that means you're outta confidence again. Shame on you Roza! No doubt if you're reading this then that means I'm gone as well. I know the town's people well so you're probably trying to find a way to boost their morale right? And no doubt the others are fighting or not talking to each other as much? If not then I'm proud of you for being able to keep their fights apart. Hell, even I had difficulty with that.'

I couldn't help but laugh at the way she spoke in her letter. It was as though she was right there beside me. I could practically imagine the pout on her face as she mock glared at me. Riya always had an incredible way of reading the situation although the line about the fights wasn't quite true. The other Strigoi weren't fighting but only because Valentine wasn't here. No doubt, if she was Luka and her would be fighting every day.

'So since you're reading this and you need help, I might as well give you as much support as I could. You being the little leader that you are, have probably already sent Valentine on a hunting mission to get as much help as you could get. Before long, she should be bringing help from someone quite interesting. You'll probably find him incorrigible but that's understandable. I won't go into detail about that but you'll understand after you meet him. Try to mix a fashion maniac with a mafia boss and you've got one of my most trusted companions outside of the town. Well, one who's not a Strigoi anyway.

Since I'm not actually there, I don't know how much help I'll be able to provide. For a start, I'll advise you on how to guard yourselves against Moroi. Since you were learning all about how to protect in school, I'll bet you were never taught how to defend yourselves against them to the max. Go find Mark and ask him to unlock the storeroom number 15."

I continued to read the letter, there were about five pages to it. I read it through twice to make sure everything she said was committed to memory before tucking it away into my pocket. I flicked through the play list in the music player and grinned when the first song came up. Riya sure as hell was childish, after all, who would've thought someone her age would still be listening to songs from the 'Lion King'?

I hurried back to the town with the music thrumming through my ears and found the intercom system that was linked throughout the town. I hadn't known one existed until I read it in her letter. The man on duty gave a startled cry when I just barged in and plugged the music player in. I turned the music up to the max and the song 'We Are One' from the 'Lion King 2' came through the speakers. Looking out of the window I saw many people stop dead in the streets to listen and I watched as their expressions changed one by one.

Their depressed faces changed and smiles could be seen all around. I smiled as life returned to the town and hurried out of the studio to find Mark. He was in the town hall discussing about patrol times again.

"Hey Mark, can I borrow you for a moment?" I asked.

"Rose, not right now," he shook his head.

"Please, it's important." I insisted. "And why don't you all take a break. Go outside and get some fresh air or something?" I suggested as I dragged Mark out of the conference room. "Could you open storeroom 15?"

"What? How did you know about that?"

"Riya told me."

"Why would we need to open that room?"

"Because the next time there's an attack, they might have more Moroi with them fighting against us." I explained patiently.

He stumbled somewhat when he stepped outside and heard the song that was being played. "This was Riya's favourite song… and the song she sang all those years ago… Follow me."

I followed Mark to the back of someone's house and he drew out a key from his pocket. When he opened it, dust wafted up and I coughed fanning with my hand to stop the dust from smothering my face. I followed him down the dim stairs and when we reached the bottom, he flicked a switch.

Lights spread throughout the room revealing posters on the walls and shelves. Wards. This room contained wards against Moroi…

"Do the Moroi in the town know about these?" I stammered.

"Yeah, they helped make them." Mark nodded. "This way the wards would only be activated against Moroi the wards don't recognise, in other words, Moroi who intend to harm this town."

"I never knew these things existed…"

"You wouldn't, especially since you never graduated." Mark shook his head. "There was a law placed a couple of decades ago stating that these things had to be banned. They stopped teaching the students about these too and those already knew of it weren't allowed to talk about it."

"No doubt the queen bitch wanted to keep this hidden." I scoffed. "This is perfect; do we have enough people to cast it?"

"Yes, I'll bring it into discussion when I get back to the meeting." Mark nodded.

"Alright, I'll leave this to you Mark." I smiled and left the basement heading towards my next task.

'In the locked storeroom of the hospital, there should be a bunch of rings in a wooden box. You can't miss it. The rings are infused with the magic of spirit users and it should keep the shadows away a little for you and the others who need it. This way, hopefully there won't be as many fights. I'm not sure how it works, I think all you do is put it on and it should work. For further consultation: ask a Moroi called Adriana. She's a spirit user if you don't already know.'

I dashed into the hospital and promptly bumped into Zana. "Hey Roza, what's with the rush?"

"I've got lots to do before the day is up Zana." I grinned. "Do you know where I can find Adriana?"

"The spirit user? Yeah I think she's in room 320 at the moment."

"Cheers, catch you later and you should broadcast the radio throughout the hospital or something. You never know, something good might happen." I winked knowing full well that the songs on that music player were being broadcasted through the radio stations in this town.

"I really don't get you sometimes Rose." Zana laughed. "But I'll get right on that."

I headed upstairs running up three flights of stairs to find the Moroi. "Adriana?" I whispered into the quiet room. I found her sitting beside a patient reading. I beckoned her and she closed her book quietly and slipped out of the room.

"Hey Rose, what can I do for you? Have you hurt yourself or something?"

"No, but I reckon you're the one with the key to the storeroom in the hospital."

"How did you know about that?" she stammered.

"Riya."

"I guess it's to limit the fights huh? I'm not sure whether they'll still work. It's been years after all but I guess there's no harm in using them," she shrugged. She led me to a storeroom on the roof and sitting on the centre table was a small wooden box. "There should be enough for everyone who needs one here."

"Thanks Adriana." I smiled, gave the woman a hug before taking enough rings for every Strigoi and one for myself. I placed it on my finger and I didn't feel anything but I trusted Riya about them. After all, she'd been right about too many things for me to start doubting her now.

I ran through town searching for everyone and giving them their rings.

"Man I haven't seen these things since that first time she left town for an errand." Luka laughed. "How could I have forgotten about them? Good timing Roza, some of us were beginning to lose control and that wouldn't have been smart. Go take them to the Morganville punks, I think Michael is about it lose it."

"Where is he?" I asked startled by the information.

"I think he went into the woods with the other three. They're trying to help him out."

"Thanks." I smiled at him before dashing into the woods. It didn't take long to find them; after all, they were in a fight. Michael was fighting Shane who was no doubt trying to get his friend under control. Carefully I slipped the ring onto his finger and pinned Michael to the ground until he calmed. I handed the other three their rings and they put them on without question, even Shane.