I don't own the VA world, just the characters in this chapter and the story they living in.

Chapter 3: Tests and Blood

DianaPOV

Over the years there has been a small conflict between moroi and dhampire's here in the Darz. Because the moroi could fight and wield magic they thought they were better without us. That we were pretty much useless because they can do everything we can do and more. Ok maybe everyone wasn't like that but most of them were and that has made us dhampire's very independent. We barely hanged in same group as them, sometimes never but one day we are going to need them to help with our races survival. I can almost say we can forget about that day.
But until then I am going to stop Shane whatever he is trying to do to that girl. I rose from my seat and walked towards him. He noticed me coming and smiled.

"Well, well. Look who's here. Dina is here to save day." I tensed my jaw at that. I really hated when he called me that. Dina was my nickname in Russia and no one was allowed to call me that. It reminded me too much of… forget it. When I arrived at the scene I took a glance at the girl on the floor and helped her up.

"Are you ok? Did he hurt you?" I asked and offered my hand. She slapped my hand away and rose from the floor.

"I don't need your help. I can deal with this punk by myself." She was about to hit Shane but I stopped her and whispered in her ear.

"Trust me you don't want to fight this guy. I know that from personal experience." I must been very convincing because she looked at my face and then back at him and walked away to her table.

"Ahh, how cute."

"Shut up Shane."

"Or what? You punch me? But my face is so …perfect."

"I have done it before. I can do it again and by the way your face is far from perfect. Your nose is still a little crooked."

"I know but I won something because of it didn't I. By the way after the test I like to book a… meeting with you. Hope you can make it, not that you have any other choice." Everyone gasped their breaths. They knew very much what he meant.
To keep some sort of peace between or races we had a couple of secret rules that the strigoi didn't know about. We call those rules the Code. One of the rules was if a dhampire wants to make a deal with a moroi they have to take shots. Shots were when a moroi drinks blood from a dhampire. Of what I heard the moroi gets to feed ones a week and they stayed in a line to drink from one human until the human can't take it anymore and send a new one. The strigoi watch under the feeding to make sure they don't take too much or kill the human and become a strigoi. Most moroi gets more blood then others, so having a dhampire who can give blood whenever and wherever is a good thing to have. I made a deal with Shane to make him from telling from ugly secret I didn't wanted to be involved in the first place. Well I made the deal after I broke his nose.

And I hate him that he told everyone in this room. I felt weak and I hate being weak. I raised my fist to punch his stupid grin off but he caught it with his moroi reflects and his smile became wider.

"You should save that to the test." He hissed to my face.

"Shane that's enough." We both turned around and saw a moroi girl. She had dark brown curly hair in a ponytail and had blue eyes. She was pretty muscular as moroi can be. Not that different from most moroi girls here.
"Let it go. You have already humiliated her. No need to humiliate her more and besides we are going to be late for the test."

"Just because you are on of the guardians to Master Wright doesn't mean you can boss everyone around Nicole." A moroi girl who sat the table next to her rose from her and was about to say something but was silenced by Nicole who raised her hand at her. I noticed that girl had small freckles which was very unusual for a moroi.

"I'm not bossing "everyone around". I said that this fight was useless and we are going to be late. It's an opinion and a reminder not an order." Shane looked at her annoyingly and back to my face and hissed.

"We will see each other later. Good luck at test not that you're going to need it." Even though Shane and I were enemies we both knew what we were cable off and Shane knew I was almost unbeatable in combat fights. He released my fist and walked away with Nicole and some couple of moroi. And here I stood, looking Shane with a murderous glance while feeling defeated. I will get back at him. I swear to god I will. Tanya and the others were coming towards me and they all looked sorry of me.

"Are you okay? "

"I don't wanna talk about it. Come on, she's right. We are all going to be late."

…

After the incident in the cafeteria I wasn't so nervous anymore. I became angry, humiliated and restless which I took out on my opponents. I might punch a little harder than I should sometimes but it doesn't matter. It would just add more points for my sake. I won all my rounds and everyone (especially boys) looked impressed at my performance. I was after all very skilled fighter. The three extra hours of training did really help. The others weren't that bad either. Tanya was really flexible and acrobatic. It was very even when both we fought each other. Marcel was fast and Derek was more strategic. All of them were a challenge when I fought them one by one but I defeated them as well. They weren't that angry when I won over them. We didn't get to fight any moroi which was a bummer. I really wanted to teach Shane a permanent lesson. More permanent than a broken nose.

After a couple of hours of punching and kicking we had lunch. I could heard how everyone whispered about me. Some over the scene during breakfast and some whispered how I successfully defeated all my opponents. Apparently I was the only one among the dhampire's. The others tried to ignore the breakfast scene and tried to cheer me up. It did surprise me a little that they cared so much about me already. Maybe we all four could be friends. They were really funny and cool people to talk to. It was pretty obvious that Marcel was the funny one. We sometimes laughed or rolled our eyes at his comments. Ok I didn't laugh I just smiled. I never laughed but I never had a better lunch than this one. I noticed that Derek shot me some glances here and then. Not mean or judge but curious like he wanted to know me better. I really hope he doesn't fall for me. It would make my life so much simpler. I don't do dating or hookups. I made that very clear back in the Russian commune.

After lunch we would have the weapon test. The weapons we used were different kinds of guns. There was also a test in fencing. I noticed that Derek did very well on the guns test. He hit the most difficult targets even some of the targets I couldn't hit perfectly, which said a lot. I was a very good shooter. Marcel's specialty seemed to be fencing and defeated everyone, even me. After the test we were all tired and went back at our rooms to rest. I was going into the elevator with the others when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Forgot something Dina?" I turned around and saw Shane. He had exhaustion in his eyes and had some battle scars. Probably from all the attack spells from his opponents.

"At least wait after I have showered." My body screamed after a cold refreshing shower and besides I was really tired. The strigoi were very harsh on the tests.

"Unfortunaly I can´t and besides I like you all adrenaline and sweaty." Dirty pervert. I turned to the others and gave them a reassuring smile.

"Go ahead. I will catch up with you later."

"Are you sure?" asked Derek and gave Shane a murderous look.

"Go." They all nod and went in to the elevator and I was alone with Shane.

"Another victim? Does he know that you're a heartbreaker?"

"Can we just get this over with?"

"Sure follow me." He said and pressed the button to the second elevator. We walked to his room in silence and I saw all the glances from the other moroi but I ignored them and held my head high. No way I am looking weak and defeated in front of them. We came to his room which didn't look so much different from mine. Maybe in a little manlier style but it was still nice. The only problem was that this was Shane´s room. Shane walked and sat on his bed and pat on the bed for me to sit next to him. He always chose to do this on a bed when he had an opportunity. Again a dirty pervert.

"Come and sit here I promise I won't bite." He started too laughed.
"Too hard."

"Very funny. Let's just do this okay." I said and sat next to him with my back against him. He pushed my thick dark hair aside and whispered in my ear.

"You don't have to say it twice. I'm so hungry." He breathed in my scent and brushed his lips against my neck. If he wasn't Shane I would think that was sexy but I felt a sting of disgust when he touched me and begged to god that this would be over soon.

"Just do it!" I said with clenched teeth. He bit and I help back a gasp. It hurt at first but then it felt… so good. Like I was flowing above clouds. I tried hard to keep my face neutral as possible but it was so hard. He let go and I felt a wave a dizziness and disappointment which I fight off to look as normal as possible but I was so tired from all the fighting today.

"Twenty shots left Dina. Maybe I have to start to spare them." I liked the fact that he wouldn't bite me so regularly but I still want to finish them all off. Fast. I rose from the bed and tried hard not to fall down. He took a little more than he should have.

"Don't call me Dina". Was all I said while as steady and normal as possible while walking out the room. I walked with rushed steps back to my room. When I got there I slipped on to the door. Damn I really need some sugar. The door suddenly opened and I almost fell in if Tanya didn't catch me.

"Wow, easy girl." She said and led me to my bed. I fell on my back and watched up at the ceiling. God I was exhausted.

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired and dizzy. Nothing I can't handle." She walked to the mini fridge and took out a coke and a big chocolate bar and gave it to me.

"Here eat. You're going to need it." I opened the coke and drank it like it was water and took a big bite on the bar. Tanya walked to the bathroom.

"Where did you get this?" I asked while having chocolate in my mouth.

"I always have some for low sugar situations. That and if I want a snack. " She said and walked out from the bathroom with a towel and bowl of water. She sat next to me and looked at the bite.

"Wow that was a bite. You should probably go see a healer if you want it gone." She said while she washed the blood away. Every commune has a least one spirit user who works as healer. You can almost say they were our doctors. A perfect way to avoid hospitals.

"I don't know which room they are in?"

"Go to room 413. There you will meet Michael Johnson. He's originally from the British commune but was transferred here because they needed a spirit user here and they already had two so and he's also from today the best spirit user in the Darz. Maybe in the world."

"I could visit our healer from the Russian commune."

"I don't know where his or hers room are and besides do you really want to meet an amateur instead of a master. Two moroi got specialized in spirit after he transferred here and he is now there teacher." Impressive.

"How do you know all this?"

"Derek told me when we went on the elevator without you. He was really worried about you, you know and he wasn't the only one." I liked the idea about people caring about me but it made me fell weak and helpless.

"I said I'm fine. You guys don't have to look after me. So is it anything more I should know about this master of spirit?"

"He doesn't have any roommate because he is half crazy. Can't really blame him." I knew what she meant. Spirit is an amazing element but it has it consequences. The more the spirit user uses their powers the more insane they´ll be.

"How does he medicate? Our healer medicates with alcohol."

"He medicates himself with bites. From the strigoi."

"What? And they actually do it."

"Apparently they say they do it to help the poor bastard but I think some of them are doing it for fun. Derek said that he had many bite scars and it's not a big secret that the strigoi like to use us as snack here and then." At the last part she sounded bothered. Both sad and annoyed.

"Have you… have they?" I asked uncomfortably.

"Yes, in a month. Twice. I got a scar here." She said and showed a bite mark on her inner thigh. My eyes wided.

"Why don't you heal that?"

"I keep it like some kind of a little reminder that strigoi aren't such saints most of them pretend to be. How long have you had the deal with Shane?"

"Six months now."

"Why?" I hesitated. I didn't want to talk about it but Tanya had been in a same situation like me and she was very understanding. She doesn't seem like the judging type, so I sighed.

"Because of something that would ruin my reputation and Shane saw it. I was a snack for strigoi for a month as well and he found out. Shane and I have always been on each other's bad sides. He tried to get to bed with me and I rejected him. He never got over it. When he found out about me he agreed to shut up about it if I made him the deal."

"They are all fang-bangers." Fang-banger was a bloodsucker who banged with bites instead of… you know what. Calling a moroi a fang-banger was like calling a dhampire a bloodwhore.

"Tell me about it."

"Do you know what the worst part is? That its feels so good. I don't want to like it but… it´s so hard not to." She looked ashamed to even admit it and I know how she felt very well. I put my hand on her shoulder and spoke gently.

"I know how you feel but just because we like it doesn't make us bloodwhores. It makes us survivors. Survivors who can resist the urge of something so pleasurable and yet disgusting as long we hate to do it."

"You said it sister. You should go now and rest later."

"Room 413?" I asked and she nodded.

"I will back in a minute." I left the room and walked to the elevator to floor four. It took while when I found the room and I also got some glances from moroi who were passing by. I ignored them. I was about to knock on the door when it suddenly opened and a head popped out.

"Who are you? What do you want." I hesitated. That's was the creepiest pair of blue eyes I have ever seen. Not scary creepy but crazy creepy. I mentally shooked my head and put on a serious face.

"I'm Diana Kozlova and I need to talk to you."

"Liar."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I called you a liar. You're not Diana Kozlova and you don't want to talk to me." He said and closed door. What the hell. I knocked the door and he opened it again.

"Yes?" he asked politely.

"What do mean I'm not Diana Kozlova and I don't want to talk to you? I do want to talk to you."

"No you want me to heal your bite mark not "talk to me" and no you're not a Kozlova. You are a Belikov." The last one felt like he thrown ice cold knives at my heart.

"How did you..?"

"I'm the best spirit user in the Darz, as from today. I have all the abilities, for example the ability to read people's minds." He said like it was obvious.

"And you do that to all your patients?"

"Actually I do it on everyone who interests me. You are certainly one of them. Come in." he opened the door with a happy gesture and I go a pretty good glance of him. He was shirtless and I his neck and some part of the upper body were covered with old bite marks. He had also a very long blond messed hair in a bun. Oh yeah he looked definitely half crazy.

"Do you want something to drink or eat?" he sounded very excited, another sign that he was crazy.

"No thank you. I just want you to heal the scar." His face fell in disappointment. I guess there weren't many people who hanged with him. I started to feel bad for him.

"As you wish. I must say I really feel bad for you. It wasn't your fault that Alexandrov wanted to have a little snack and now you must suffer because of some fang-banger saw it. You can't imagine all the scenes he wants to do to you." I was surprised he knew all that but then again this was a guy who read people's minds as a hobby.

"Actually I can." He smiled at that and touched my neck and I felt hot and then cold at the same time and a little sting at my neck. He took away his hand to lean against a wall to prevent from falling.

"You're ok?" He shook his head and looked around his room and his eyes fell on me and they were pissed.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" I took a step back.

"I am Diana. Diana Kozlova. Remember?"

"Liar! Get out of here at ones!" And suddenly I wasn't in Michael's room anymore. I was in a park and I saw my parents who looked like monsters coming towards me. I screamed and backed so I hit the door. I opened it and ran away. I was in such hurry that I accidently bumped into someone and fell to the floor.

"Hey! Watch where you going!" I rose up from the floor and was surprised to find Nicole lying on the floor under me.

"I'm so sorry. I… he…" Nicole brushed her clothes and looked at my expression.

"Are okay? You looked like the hell itself was after you. Are the strigoi after you?" said another moroi girl who helped Nicole up from the floor. I realized that it was the girl with freckles who Nicole silenced. She had long light brown hair and brown eyes.

"No something worse, I think?" I wasn't sure. What the hell happened in there? Nicole laughed at my expression.

"You must have met Michael. No one can scare the shit out of people better him. What did you do to him to piss him of?"

"Nothing he just… he just healed me from an injury from the test and suddenly he didn't know who I was and attacked me, I think."

"Yeah, he does that sometimes when he has used a lot of spirit. Don't worry about it. He will feel guilty about it tomorrow. He's a really nice a guy."

"Yeah, when he is in a saner state." Said the freckle girl.

"Don't listen to her. He's is a real sweetheart once you got to know him." She assured me which I found pretty hard to believe.

"Aha? I think I should go now." I said and started to walk away.

"Are you not going to say thank you?" Nicole screamed behind me. I turned around and raised my eyebrow at her.

"Why would I say that?"

"Because of I prevented Shane from humiliate you more than he did." She said like it was obvious.

"I could have handled it." I said and started to walk away again.

"Okay as you wish but don't go and say I didn't do anything for ya." This day was getting more and more tiresome and it was a day for many. But hey that's life here in the Darz.

Poor Dina. So what do you think? Good? Bad? Just review below and I will post the next chapter soon.