Hello, sorry for the break, Here's an exciting chapter to maybe make up for it? Kind of short, but I'm doing my best with what I have. ;P
Chapter 4
Anastasia POV
Darkness shrouded the forest. Darien, Erika and myself were in: nestled beneath a tall old oak tree. Darien had recently woken me up for my watch. She looked kind of pale, but I'd paid no attention. She might be feeling the gruel and bread trying to come back up, or maybe she was scared or something.
I sat there for an estimated half hour before my dhampir hearing heard a shrill girl scream from deeper inthe forest. I leapt into action, Darien had heard it too and had leapt to her feet, jostling Erika who somehow seemed a little brighter and healthier. My mind didn't focus on that though, the heat of the moment had me nod to my crew and we dashed into the dark woods.
No, really. It was dark.
"Erika, could you light this place up?" I yelled over the whistling wind that had picked up chilling me through my sweater.
She smirked and reduced her pace - as did we so she didn't get left behind. She then murmured something I couldn't pick up over the near gale-force winds slamming my ear-drums. A boiling ball of magma formed between her palms and we set off again, every nook and cranny illuminated by the orange light.
Soon, I stumbled over something and landed on top of another.
"Agh! What the hell?" A harsh whisper of protest came from underneath me.
Erika's magic had disappeared the second she'd tripped, so through the darkness as I scrambled off the bodies I'd landed on I could make out features of faces.
Ethan Ivashkov had hissed at me, around him, huddled together were Ruby Dashkov, Tyler Zeklos, and Janessa Badica.
Darien looked ready to yell, but Ruby put a finger to her lips and crawled over to whisper to us, face stricken with fear. She'd always been nervous and her nerves seemed easy to scramble.
"Strigoi are out in the clearing. There are three of them. Andrew's somewhere around here."
I nodded and Darien reluctantly held her tongue, insults at the back of her throat until less dire circumstances occured. I motioned for Erika and Darien to stay and I silently stalked through the foliage until I nearly bumped into the native dhampir. When he saw me he looked relieved. After scanning the strigoi who were talking around a small fire, i motioned for him to go around to the other side. After about a minute, I saw a flash of copper skin. we both found weapons: a sharp stick for myself, and I couldn't see Andrew's.
We both launched over to the strigoi. I managed to sink my stick deep into the strigoi in front of me. I managed to stun it, so then had spun and staked it in it's heart. It might not have killed it, but it would put it in shock for a good hour.I moved on to see the other two strigoi attacking Andrew. He was fending them off with a sharp rock, but I could tell exhaustion was setting in. I slashed one's back and it spun to backhand me so hard I stumbled back. It grabbed my stick and snapped it. Still recovering from the blow, I hadn't prepared for her to grab my neck and pin me by it to a tree trunk. Suddenly blood spattered me and my foe dropped. I saw a sharp rock embedded in her neck and looked up to see A male strigoi and Andrew unconcious beside him.
"NO!" I shrieked. but the blood-covered vampire fleedbefore i could reach it. I threw Andrew (with huge effort) over my shoulder and ran to the moroi. All I saw was blood.
"There was more than three." Ethan said. I couldn't have agreed more.