Hey! Thanks for reading. I really appreciate it. Hope you love the fourth chapter. I do. But I'm bizarre, soooo, I don't know. It is a little cruel. But what are you reading this for? Get on with the chapter! I just like to ramble.

Disclaimer: I don't any of the characters, they are Richelle's. Except maybe Skylar. I made his personality and name. But the concept was Richelle's so, I don't know.

I woke up with my head spinning, forgetting Dimitri's fate for a few fleeting seconds. I couldn't get past the dizziness and the pain that coursed through my head, adding to the already horrendous headache. Why'd I have to be a guardian? It did murder to your nerves, both mental and physical. I groaned, not thinking about how it would alert the Strigoi to my being awake. My throat was a little sore, like I had had the wind knocked out of me. Tensing my arms, I feel my lower left arm practically explode in pain. Shoot, I had a vague impression it may be broken. I tried to pull my arm out from behind me but my hands were bound together it rope and duct tape. Over kill, I thought, but, then again, they might not know what a strong dhampir was capable of.

I rolled into a sort of sitting position, which was hard because my legs were bound as well in the same fashion. Propping myself up with my good arm, letting my left just kind of dangle, I took in my surroundings. I was in a plain room with only one boring, white door; a room with absolutely no stimulation. Agitation flicked around in my head. Did they have to torture me this way? It was worse than pain.

In the middle of switching into my full whining mood, the door swung open, making me start. But when the Strigoi walked in, I almost had the breath knocked out of me. It was the blonde Strigoi and Dimitri. Only… it wasn't Dimitri, and it wasn't the Dimitri from my dream. I could see the ring of red in his eyes and he was pale, missing his wonderful completion that I had seen only the last time I slept. Seeing him as a shell killed me a little more. But Dimitri had already killed me so much inside I barely noticed it. I was about as much of a shell as he was, but he was still somewhere at least. He circled me and leaned down behind me ignoring my jerky attempts to turn around and look at him. But all he did was detach the binds from my wrists. I snarled when our skin touched. He ignored me.

Once my hands were free I pulled my left arm to my chest, keeping it away from anything that might hurt it. With my other hand I took the bindings off my ankles. It was hard work with one hand, and the knots were tied pretty well, but I managed it. Once finished, I glared at the pair and they just stared right back at me, silent laughter in they're red eyes. Eventually I figured that defiance wasn't getting me anywhere so I looked down at my arm.

It had a huge, vertical gash up and down my arm. I gaped, both at the amazing size of the cut and the fact that I didn't even tell the difference between broken bone pain and flesh wound pain. It didn't throb like a damaged bone, but it stung, like any good cut did. I glared at the Strigoi. They had cut me, bound me, caged me, and made me sick to my stomach. Geez, I hated them so much more than the dang royal Moroi at St. Vlad's. Strigoi beat the crap out of them.

Dimitri was eyeing me boldly. I shrunk under his glare. He spoke first. "You are still inexperienced and weak. Why'd you come after us?" He sounded like the old Dimitri a little bit, with the Zen life lessons and all, but his voice had no emotion in it, like he was trying to get me to trust him but didn't quite know how.

I tipped my head up, shook the hair he used to love so much from my eyes and answered, "To release you from your torment. You told me yourself you'd rather die than awaken" I filled the last word with as much anger and sarcasm as I could manage, then added, thinking about last night, "And you need to!"

That made Dimitri kneel down and get in my face. Boy, he was still a babe as a Strigoi. "Awakening isn't so bad. You might even like it. You're high most of the time you spend changing, and when you awaken you see life in a whole new perspective." That reminded me to much of Isaiah's comment about my being a blood whore in the making. This was so not Dimitri anymore. I had no clue what had taken over him, but it wasn't pretty at all. I only knew that he was stuck in the world in-between.

Tear went rushing into my eyes but at the very least they didn't cascade over. I cold tell that Dimitri knew he hurt me, but instead of remorse, he smiled. It was a twisted mockery of his old breath-taking one. I spat in his face, angry at his stoic hardness and cruelty. He didn't really acknowledge my reaction, but he stood up and wiped the saliva off his face.

Blondie gave Dimitri a look and Dimitri stepped back submissively. I hated to see him so obedient. It practically made me forget the old Dimitri who would not heed orders if needed. I was staring at Dimitri when Blondie came and sat down by me, tossing an arm over my shoulder. I shuddered at the contact, but let it stay, knowing that he would just put it back more forcibly.

"I don't believe we've been introduced more formally," He started cordially. "My name is Skylar, and you're name is Rosemarie, I presume?"

Ugh, he was going to call me by my full name. I hated being called by my full name. Rose was so much less of mouthful, and I only tolerated it by my mother, because she gave it to me, and I usually slapped anyone else who used it. But I figured I shouldn't slap him as he would probably slap back harder. "Yes," I said stiffly.

He, of course, laughed and asked, "Or would you prefer Roza? I've been told that one gets a nice reaction out of you." His cackling laugh resumed and I felt like I might implode.

"No! Rosemarie is more then fine, thank you." The words came out awkwardly. I didn't want to talk about my failing love life with a Strigoi. I didn't even ever talk to Lissa about it.

"So, Rosemarie, how do you plan to get yourself out of this pickle?" He sounded about sixty using the language he did.

"Well first I'm going to knock some proper language into you then kill you both and finally have a well deserved break and graduate high school like the normal people do." As I said that I realized how entirely calm I sounded, totally different than how I felt when I talked to Dimitri. Like I was bantering with some dumb Royal Moroi at school. I realized that was how Dimitri used to feel when he used to talk to me and then someone else. Completely calm around others, but for me he – lost control? Maybe he didn't want to stay in control. Or maybe he felt more comfortable around me because we understood each other.

Skylar laughed effortlessly. "Ha, you amuse me. I might just have to change you. It may be interesting." I grimaced as he said interesting. It shouldn't be called that. "Dimitri was immediately so totally submissive. He wasn't a challenge at all. But you, you have fight inside. A ton of it. I admire that."

He was about five seconds away from getting nailed in the face by my good arm. I had no time to think up any good comment so I said defiantly, and rather unoriginally, "I would rather die than join you." Yep, it sounded quite lame coming out in real life. But maybe that's because I wasn't some hot, famous action star that always ended up on top. I was just Rosemarie Hathaway, high school drop-out and killer.

He looked at me and smiled demonically. Then he grabbed my hair and pulled me to the ground. I tried to get him off me as he yanked himself on top of me. "Well, I'm afraid you won't have much of a choice." A shudder rippled through me as he leaned down and put his mouth to my neck…

"No," A voice demanded from behind Skylar. "Let's watch her for a while. I'm not sure she would be a very good Strigoi." Thank you, Dimitri, for not trusting me enough to join him. I might have gotten off easy today.

"Whatever you say. I'll leave her here for you." Skylar started to turn towards the door, but then he stopped. "Oh, Dimitri, you have two days to make your decision or I'll make it for you." Then he walked out. Dimitri was quick to follow, but not before he looked at me almost angrily.

I didn't think about his reaction to me. I just started making a plan to escape. With Dimitri…

Yay! Another cliff hanger. Not so big as the others. Also, I'm sorry if this chapter was a little awkward. I added the dream scene after I did this, so, yeah. I tried to work it out but I was tired and may have missed a few spots. Please realize I'm human and only fourteen. Us teenagers make mistakes!

Thanks to Sam and Elizabeth. You brighten my day by putting up with my weirdness and reviewing. Three cheers for the Betas.

Read and review please!
Lora Cullenson