Chapter 5

She was here. Getting closer, than further away. Constantly, that was the feeling through our bond. And her constant fear for herself and the other captured Moroi was a strong feeling inside her. I wanted to escape into her head, but physically couldn't. And I wasn't in the best position to either.

I had to keep my focus on killing Strigoi and saving Lissa. And the other Moroi. 1 down, 5 to go. Eddie was safe with us if he stayed behind us and didn't fight. I thought the other guardians like Alberta would have made me watch him to make sure he stayed safe, but no one said a word about anyone doing that. Instead, we all continued following the Strigoi.

He led us deeper and deeper into the cave and occasionally my nausea feeling would rise, then fall. Closer to the Strigoi then his pace would fasten, and we'd be more behind than before. Strigoi would take fast turns and change direction to try to confuse who ever was following them. But for Dhampir's to be following Strigoi, was rare.

Strigoi almost never ran from a fight. Unless the Strigoi knew he or she had absolutely no chance of winning the fight, it would flee then and there. With the amount of guardians here, he had no chance on us. And the best part was, he knew that. The bad part was, he most likely would tell the other Strigoi and there would be a mini war in this cave tonight. We all knew that would happen soon. We had to be ready. Stake and all. Well…we only have a stake each, so we need to keep it with us at all times and never let it go.

The feeling between the bond I share with Lissa is getting stringer and stronger giving me hope that she is near and we will save her. No matter what. She is coming home tonight or maybe this morning since I have no idea what the time is.

It looked like we had been running in circles all night, but it felt like we were running in a constant straight line. We were all getting closer and closer to saving everyone and Lissa. And getting closer to really see Dimitri as a Strigoi. I don't think about it much, but when I do, I always get teary eyes. I hadn't quite wanted to think about it either.

But soon, I will see him. Wether I want to or not. Well, I could, but the only way not to see him was to turn back now and flee from this whole situation. And I couldn't do that. Not to the guardians, the captured Moroi and Lissa. I could never do that to Lissa.

She needs me to save her. I need her to stay true to myself. There is no way in hell I am letting a bunch of Strigoi ruin my life. I'm not letting them take Lissa. Or any other Moroi. But they might have done that already to the other Moroi. But I do guess that they'd leave Lissa to last. Make her watch every feed. Every murder. Every turn even.

Maybe they have intensions of turning her. Making her join them. By choice or be turned by one of them. But to them, she'd lose her soul with both options. But to them, awakening is a very good thing. That it wasn't considered the end of life, it was considered the new beginning.

But to me, and other Dhampir's, it is considered kinda half dead. The loss of the soul. The loss of all humanity. The loss of all life. Dhampir's had said for years that if they were turned, they wanted to be hunted down and be killed. That was what Dimitri had said when we were together one night.

I had agreed with him. And soon his wish of being killed after turning will come true for him. I don't know if it will be me killing him or one of the other guardians, but he is not walking out of this alive, if that is even what he is.

We should be very close to the centre where everyone is being held captive. This experience so far kept on bringing back memories of when Dimitri and I were together. In training, the night in the cabin and other times when we found ourselves together and in love.

The memories of when our lips met and when our hands touched. The memories of him wrapping my hair around his finger. He always loved my long hair out so he could touch it. The way he called me Roza. These memories and a lot of other ones were racing through my head all at the same time. It was too much to handle right now.

And Lissa is the only one who knows. Unless she told Christian. And well Adrian knows about Dimitri and me as well…but he'd caught us in the act. All of those moments meant so much to me and now, well soon, he will be gone. They will just be memories that will fade.

The only person that might understand is Lissa. I could never tell anyone else. Adrian, I could never talk to him about Dimitri. He'd never understand. Just like my mum. She'd never understand. She'd probably hate me for falling in love with my mentor. This proves once more, that Lissa is the only person I can truly trust. Without her, I would be a mess. An even bigger mess that what I am now.

I need to focus on what is going on. The cave. The Strigoi. Lissa. Dimitri. This will be painful. I just know it. Either way, I will lose someone I love tonight. But that one person has to be Dimitri. I wont let him take Lissa with him. This may be the night I sacrifice myself for her more than ever.

The nausea picked up a little so we are getting closer. Of course, everyone would have known we were closer, but not this close. This strong nausea always meant Strigoi were close. Very close. Maybe he had stopped running? Maybe he ran into a dead end. I silently laughed at my little joke as guardian gave me disgraced looks.

I didn't bother to say anything except "We're close. Really close." Albert eyed me for a little bit than stopped making everyone else stop as well. The Strigoi was dead. Lying there in front of us. Dead. Not staked, not burned, not anything. Just dead. Alberta ordered for Stan to go check it out. To make sure it was actually dead. Not just playing dead.

He slowly walked up to it, which in my head was a mistake. If you are not sure if it is dead, you should rush in and stake it while you have the opportunity. If the Strigoi was alive, it could jump up at you and snap your neck just like that. If it caught the guardian off guard.

But it didn't move. Not even breathe. It just continued lying there. He staked it anyway. Just to make sure. But it still didn't move so it clearly was-

I screamed out in pain and fell to the cold ground not having a clue on what my body was doing or what had caused my scream of pain.