Ok, so here is the third chapter for this updated story. I've been asked this a few times and, just to let you all know, THIS IS THE SAME STORY AS BEFORE! It's simply being spellchecked, sentence rearranged and basically beta-ed by my sister, DragonGirl323. Nothing from the original story has been modified. It's still the same, only now just being edited. So please, do give this another chance because it is written better the second time around.
Also, I've made this Facebook page in hopes to attract more people to read my stories and get more notice about when I update and such, so here is my link:
(Facebook dot com)/ #! / MortalParalight (remove the spaces and please fill in the blanks that are written there, i.e.. (Facebook dot com) is the address of Facebook)
So now, without further ado, please READ AND REVIEW!
Disclaimer = I don't own Vampire Academy or anything mentioned in here!
Chapter 3
Guilt
Lissa's Point of View
No, this couldn't be possible. Rose couldn't have been taken. She had to be somewhere around the Academy, still avoiding me because of my harsh words yesterday. She could not have been taken by Strigoi. It just wasn't possible. Rose would have killed them without breaking a sweat. She wouldn't have been taken down that easily by a few Strigoi.
"No, you're wrong. She can't be gone," I said, shaking my head vigorously, trying to make sense of the situation. Christian was frozen in shock behind me and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, but my mind was much too flustered to even notice his presence. "She couldn't have been taken..."
"I'm sorry, Lissa. I know it's hard to admit, but she was taken last night. We found her blood on the guard tower outside the ward. There was a small trail that led into the forest, but then it stopped and disappeared. All we can presume is that at least three Strigoi were involved in the attack. We're going to do all we can to try and find her, but it's going to be hard. We don't know in what condition she is in right now, but all we can hope for is that we'll find her alive," Alberta said grimly.
They were speaking so casually, no hint of panic or urgency in their voices. She could be dead for all we knew, or badly hurt and they were just standing here doing nothing! What was Rose even doing out in the…forest…? Oh God. She wouldn't have been out in that damn forest if it weren't for me and what I'd said to her!
Putting the heels of my hands against my temples, I bent my head forward in shame. "Oh God... It's all my fault," I said, blaming myself for all of this. It was all my fault. If I hadn't told her that, then she wouldn't have been out walking towards the gate and she wouldn't have been taken! Oh God!
Dimitri placed a hand on my arm and tried to look me in the eyes. "It's not your fault, Lissa. No one could have—"
"It is my fault! If I hadn't told her all those horrible things, then maybe this wouldn't have happened! She'd be here participating in the field experience and I'd be trying to make up for what I said, but now because of me, she's gone! She could be badly hurt or worse because of—"
"Stop it." Guardian Hathaway's voice echoed harshly through the mostly empty gymnasium. She looked at me, her gaze melancholic.
"Lissa, you can't possibly think that way. None of this is your fault," Dimitri tried to tell me, but I wasn't listening. My mind just kept replaying what was said during our fight, the heartbroken look on Rose's face when my words finally sunk in, and watching her walk away. It was the last I'd seen of her before this happened. What if they were hurting her now? And why would they just take her? It couldn't just be a random abduction.
No, there had to be at least two main reasons why they wanted Rose and no one else.
First, they wanted revenge for what had happened in Spokane when Rose killed those two Strigoi. It had stopped the killings for a while, but now, the Strigoi could be resurfacing for revenge. Hopefully, that wasn't the reason because it could be gruesome.
The second reason was one that turned my blood cold and made me freeze completely. What if they took Rose to try to get to...me? We had our bond and everyone knew that once we graduated, she'd be my guardian. Plus, I was also the last Dragomir alive. They could easily use her to get to me.
But they would never be able to exploit Rose like that. Right?
Would she really tell on me after everything that happened? No. I might have misjudged her once, but I won't do it again. She's been more loyal to me than anyone in my entire life. Rose would rather...die...than tell those monsters anything.
Suddenly, my attention turned back to the guardians. "We need to keep as many guardians as possible around the Academy. If the Strigoi try to resurface, at least they'll have a little competition ahead of them. A small group of strong guardians should come with us while the rest stay here to protect the students, and most importantly, Lissa and the other royals. Since Rose is gone we won't be ensure Lissa's safety through their bond. We need as much protection as possible around here," Dimitri explained, and my determination seemed to grow inside of me. They were trying to leave me behind. That was not going to happen.
"No," was my only response. They all looked at me with a mix of shock and confusion. They didn't know what was going through my mind.
"You believe things should be done differently to protect the students?" Alberta asked, slightly shocked that I would speak up like this.
Shaking my head, I unconsciously rubbed the collected moisture out of my eyes while I spoke. "No, I think that heavy protection for the students is a great idea. But you're taking me with you."
"That is out of the question!" Janine exclaimed, her voice rising in fear of losing me along with her daughter.
"Guardian Hathaway, you can't expect to just leave me behind when my best friend is out there getting tortured because of me! I'm coming with you," I said sternly.
They couldn't just leave me behind, worrying about Rose's safety. Of course, even if I was with them, my emotions would still be all over the place.
"I'm not going to be left behind." Dimitri and the other two guardians looked at one another sceptically and it was obvious that they needed more convincing. "We can bring Christian and Adrian along as well! Christian's element is fire, so he can protect us, even kill a few Strigoi along the way. And Adrian can use spirit to slip into Rose's dreams. Maybe he can find out where she is. There are a few advantages to bringing us with you."
"We can't take the risk of having you all get hurt or killed. Especially you Princess," Alberta said, looking me in the eyes.
"We're willing to take that risk," Christian said, speaking up for the first time. His hands were still on my shoulders and he pulled me closer to his chest to offer me some form of comfort, which I was inwardly grateful for.
"And I am too," another voice spoke up from behind us. Turning around, I saw Adrian approaching us, an uncharacteristically serious look on his features. I assumed he was intoxicated at first, but the determination that was shining in his eyes as strongly as the sun would on a warm summer's day—of what Rose told me—made me think otherwise.
"Were you eavesdropping Mr. Ivashkov?" Janine asked, her a small amount of anger still present in her tone, probably over my little suggestion, but, surprisingly, seemed to have calmed down a little bit.
Adrian shrugged and said, "Had nothing better to do and since you're talking about little old me, then I just had to listen in. But Lissa's right. It would help if you brought us along. We can help in our own way." The three guardians stared at us and Alberta sighed after a few moments of silence, turning to Dimitri.
"Gather half of the strongest guardians with you. We all leave shortly," she said stiffly before making her way toward the door.
"Alberta, you honestly can't be serious! They're only children!" Janine exclaimed, clearly not liking the idea of us going along.
Alberta turned and looked into Guardian Hathaway's eyes, clearly having no choice. "As much as I hate to admit it, they're right, Janine. I don't want to abuse their powers, but they're determined to come with us. Besides, we need all the help we can get at the moment. We don't know where Rose is and they could probably help us. It's our best bet if we bring them along," Alberta replied gently, and at the mention of Rose, Janine calmed down. Her daughter, in this dire moment, came first before this petty argument. Who knew what kind of condition Rose might be in now? We needed to hurry and this arguing wasn't helping anyone. "Janine, I know you want to find your daughter, but this is the only way we're going to accomplish anything. They can help us find her sooner rather than later."
Janine's face turned melancholic and she nodded, angling her face away from us in an attempt to hide her distress. Alberta placed a reassuring hand on the mother's shoulder before both of them left to find more guardians for the trip. Looking at Dimitri's, his features seemed grave as well, considering his pupil was just taken by Strigoi.
"Do you think we'll find her?" I asked nearly in a whisper.
The idea of not finding Rose scared me. No, it absolutely terrified me. We just had to find her. It wasn't even imaginable to go through a day without having Rose get into a fight with someone—or stopping herself from getting into a fight—or having her just be close by and watching me through our bond to make sure I was alright. She really was a true friend.
Dimitri sighed heavily. "We have to." He looked at the three of us and locked gazes with each of us in turn. "Gather your things. As soon as they come back, we leave."
Rose's Point of View
A throbbing pain erupted in my head once the darkness dissipated from my mind. A small groan escaped my lips as my eyes blinked open slowly.
"Ah, I see our little dhampir has awakened," a male voice announced, ringing in my throbbing head.
Where am I? I thought as I attempted to move my hand toward my head, but both hands wouldn't move. Another attempt at moving them brought a sharp pain through my wrists, causing my breath to hiss through my teeth. Looking down, I could see from the corner of my eye that my wrists were bound behind my back by flex cuffs. It was unwelcome déjà-vu from the events in Spokane.
Didn't these Strigoi own anything besides flex cuffs?
"It's futile to escape, so don't even try," the voice said again.
Looking up, I came face to face with a man—no, a Strigoi—with spiky black hair. He was wearing a white shirt that clung to his muscled chest and black jeans. What distinguished him from a human or a Moroi was the startling red tinged red eyes. He would have been incredibly hot if he weren't a Strigoi who probably wanted to kill or torture me.
"Where am I?" I asked, my voice rough, as I struggled in the wooden chair, testing how sturdy it was. He threw his head back at my efforts and laughed as I felt two hands, one on each of my shoulders, push me down and stop my struggling. "You better let me go you son of a bitch or I swear I'll kill you right here and now!" Of course, my threat was empty, but it was the best thing to do right now: not show weakness.
"It seems we've captured a feisty little one, doesn't it?" The man had a pronounced Texan accent. On anyone else, it would have been sexy, but on him, it was just wrong. He began approaching me while I still tried to struggle under the grasp of the Strigoi holding me down. "You're in my lair, little dhampir. And you're going to be here until you give us what we want," he stated, staring me down.
To be extremely frank, his red eyes scared me. It reminded me of the events back in Spokane when Mason had died. Although I would never let on how truly frightened I was. That would only add fuel to the fire. A part of me had hoped that I would never be stuck in this kind of situation again, but that was false hope. What could they possibly want?
"I'll never help you," I said strongly, still trying to move my arms to no avail. Since there was no point in struggling anymore, I went still and stared the Strigoi down. He laughed shortly and shot a sickening smile at me.
"You won't have a choice, little dhampir," he replied, clearly amused.
Looking me up and down, he reached into my pockets, searching them. I tried twisting my body to fight his hands off, but a few more Strigoi appeared and restrained my legs and my head, pinning me down completely. Once he found what he was looking for, my wallet, he took it out and fished out a certain card with my name on it. Crap. He knew who I was now. This couldn't be good…
"Rosemarie Hathaway. Quite a beautiful name. I've heard some very interesting things about you, Rose. Such as your friend, Vasilisa Dragomir and you being shadow-kissed, physically linking you to the princess." Oh no. They wanted Lissa. That's why they took me. They want to continue what Isaiah started: destroy the royal lines, making them extinct. Well, he wouldn't get her. Nothing he could do to me would make me give her up. "So…are you going to tell us where she is and make our lives easier?" he asked, approaching me slowly and meaningfully.
"Never."
He chuckled in amusement and placed his hands on my calves sickeningly, placing my wallet back in my pocket as if nothing had happened. Looking deeply in my eyes, his smile evaporated and he just stared at me.
"Now see, I don't want to have to use compulsion on you until I've officially broken you, but I'll give you another chance before we have to ask you the hard way. Where is Vasilisa?" he asked, still staring me down.
"Guess you'll have to go at it the hard way then," was my only response and he growled under his breath, straightening up completely, but still staring at me. "You're not gonna get Lissa. I won't tell you anything."
"We'll just see about that. Andrew, Dan, pry her mouth open," the Strigoi commanded, looking at Andrew on my left and Dan on my right as he said their names. They both nodded and placed a hand against my nose above my upper lip and another on my chin. "Open it enough for me to still keep eye contact with her."
"Yes, Gabriel," Andrew said before yanking my chin down, forcefully pulling my mouth open. My eyes were still locked with Gabriel's and he was just staring at me, his face a stony mask.
"Last chance, Rose. Tell us where Vasilisa is," Gabriel demanded, snapping his fingers.
Another Strigoi entered the room, dragging a redheaded Moroi that looked to be in his mid-teens along with him. The poor boy looked frightened but healthy. He must have just been taken by these men. Poor him… Gabriel looked at my silent form, already knowing that I wouldn't cooperate with him. He sighed once more, shaking his head in mock exasperation, and turned his attention to the Moroi. Grabbing the Moroi's chin, Gabriel locked eyes with the little boy and the Moroi's eyes glazed over. Gabriel was using compulsion on him. That was just sick and wrong.
"I want you to use your specialization on this dhampir. Make her suffer," he said, making my eyes widen.
What was this boy's element? Would it be water that they would drown me with? Or earth and hurt me with the chair? Or air or fire?
Struggling weakly, but unable to resist the Strigoi's compulsion, the boy's gaze fell on me and in an instant, I felt a gust of air enter my mouth and fly down my throat, stopping mid-way. He was blocking off my airways, pushing more air above the blockage in the middle of my throat, trying to suffocate me with too much air, air that I couldn't even use. Chokes and gasps of pain escaped my lips as the Moroi tortured me.
Make it stop! I screamed internally as my body jerked and spasmed, fighting a futile battle. Black spots clouded my vision, the air continuing to push my blocked airways. Even attempting to breathe through my nose was impossible. I was being slowly strangled by the very thing that kept me alive.
"Stop," Gabriel said, grabbing the Moroi's chin and forcing him to look away from me.
The Moroi's magic was still suffocating me though, and right when I was on the cusp of blacking out, the air was sucked out of my mouth in one swift movement, allowing me to breathe again. Gasping and coughing for breath, Andrew and Dan stepped away and let me cough violently, tears threatening to spill out of my eyes.
How could one person be so cruel? No, he wasn't a person. He was a Strigoi. The human or Moroi he used to be was long gone.
Gabriel stepped over to me and grabbed my chin fiercely, making me look into those sickening red eyes.
"Now, I'm going to ask you one more time… Where. Is. Vasilisa?"
So what did you all think of this edited chapter 3? Still good? Needs work? Let me know what you think in some REVIEWS!
Mortal-paralight
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