Hey guys! Thankyou for the reviews, favorite stories and subscriptions! The emails I get to tell me about them really make my day! I'm really sorry if you dont like it when it's depressing, but it can't all be as happy as the last chapter or this story would be really boring! I hope you enjoy this!

I walked towards my first class. Since Alberta broke her leg and it set badly, I've been taking her classes. Before I was just here as Christian's guardian, but I had been given a purpose, and it helped the darkness that still leaked into me. Even though Lissa was dead, I could still occasionally see through her eyes and take away her darkness, but only when Poppy visited her.

I sighed, people thought that Christian was the only one really affected by Lissa's death but he wasn't. I could feel the emptiness through the bond, the loneliness without her was almost unbearable. I hadn't realised how used to her emotions I had gotton.

"Hey, Little Dhampir." Adrian said, coming in my direction from the bush he was hiding in.

"What were you doing in the bush, Adrian?" I asked.

"I wasn't in a bush." he replied with a stubborn look on his face.

"Yes you were," I said. "You were in a bush and if you don't tell me why I'll go find out myself."

His expression turned scared, "Ok, ok! I was in the bush, smoking." his voice trailed off at the end of his confession.

"Adrian!" I exclaimed, "You quit ages ago! Why start again now?"

"I did quit ages ago, but then Lissa died and the darkness started building up and I wanted it to go away and I panicked! Everyone was too busy grieving to notice what little old Adrian was doing so I figured, why not? I managed to start again the week Lissa died and it felt so good I've been smoking ever since. And you know what? I don't care what you or anyone thinks about it."

I stared at him in disbelief as he finished his rant, he was shouting by the end of it. I was shadow kissed for long enough to be able to recognise a darkness induced rant when I saw one, but they were always influenced by truth.

Tears began to pool in Adrian's eyes as his knees gave in and he fell to the ground. His body began to shake with the heat wrenching sobs coming from his chest. I ran over to him to give him a hug and comfort him.

"Shhhh, shhhh." I whispered. "It's ok."

After a few minutes of rocking him gently I realised that I was late for the class I was teaching. Poppy appeared to take my place, "Thank you," I mouthed to her. She gave me a nod and a sad smile in return.

"C'mon big guy," She said, lugging Adrian out of my arms. "Lets get you inside." She ducked under his shoulder to take his weight and helped him walk in the direction of his room.

I smiled sadly to myself as I walked to Advanced Guardian Techniques. Poppy and Adrian were best friends forever, mostly because they were also drinking buddies. I didn't like it, but Poppy could almost flick a switch inside of her to stop being drunk, so they were safe. "Or as safe as anyone can be in this world." I mumbled to myself.

I put on my confident face and strode into the classroom, "Sorry I'm late class, now, have you started setting up or have you been wreaking havoc?"

The guilty looks on the class' face's said it all. I laughed, "Well then you know what to do, we want mats and blindfolds! Quickly!"

The class hurried off to get what I told them to. I laughed to myself, this was going to be fun.

As soon as my classes were over, I began walking to the church to see if Christian was ok. Eddie and Mia had told him their news yesterday and apparently he didn't quite take it as well as Poppy and I had.

I was almost there when I felt a startling nausea spread through me, I turned to look around but I didn't need to, I knew that feeling from anywhere. There were strigoi around.

A black figure swept past me at inhuman speed so I attacked. After a few minutes of sparring with this ungodly creature from hell, my stake found its way into its chest.

The nausea did not stop, so I ran to go warn the others. Christian was safe in the church, Mia had Eddie to protect her and strigoi always stayed away from ghosts, so if Poppy was still with Adrian, he should be safe. I ran to the front office and rang the alarm, warning everyone in the area, the students and teachers that there were strigoi about, and the strigoi that they had been found.

I turned to see a tall figure in the doorway, strigoi, I knew it. But he seemed familiar. He stepped into the dim light to illuminate his face and hair. I immediately recognised him. Nathan!

"You b*****d!" I shouted, lunging at him. He deflected my attack almost immediately and we began to fight. He was a difficult opponent, he seemed to know what move I was going to make, just as I had a feeling towards his. We were fighting for an amazing amount of time, each of us getting a few hits in but no-one was obviously winning. I suddenly kicked his legs out from under him and jumped onto his chest, staking him immediately.

As my adrenalin rush ran out I was hit by the sudden exhaustion. I kept trying to stay conscious but my sheer will power wasn't enough. "Why isn't Poppy helping me?" I thought to myself as my eyelids drooped. The last thing I saw before I fell into unconsciousness was the sky beginning to turn pink for the sunrise.

I woke up in a cave. Yeah, a cave. I was stuck there with a scared looking moroi. I shuffled over to him with my bound hands and feet. They come first was ringing in my brain.

"Hi," I began. "I'm sorry your in this mess but we're gonna try and get out, my name is Rose Hathaway. What's yours?"

"Eric," He said. "Eric Dragomir."

Thankyou for reading, i think I'll be able to get the next chapter up tomorrow! And I just want to say one thing to my good friend Emerald-Leaf (AKA Tala), I have not poisoned your brain, you just secretly love vampires! LOL!

Thankyou you guys, *mental hugs!* I will update soon xxx