Chapter 6

The cave had one entrance, which meant only one exit—something none of us were very pleased about. Being on the vampire schedule meant you were fine as long as you were outside. One exit meant harder to get to the light.

We parked a few miles away but close enough that the Moroi wouldn't be in the sun very long. We all walked in silence trying to keep pace with our less or more active counterparts. The plan was that Dimitri and I would go in first followed by Christian and Mia, and Eddie would take up the rear. Dimitri caught my eye and in the uncanny way of ours we were off. We had roughly five seconds of surprise time before the whole pack would be on us. I staked the first one before he could even put his eyes back into his head. Another man twice my size jumped on me trying to get his hands around my neck. My legs were trapped under him but my stake was inches from his heart, if only I could get enough movement to get it into his heart.

Then he burst into flames.

Thank you, Christian, I thought as I got my opening. The stake pierced his heart and he made a shrieking sounds as the light faded from his eyes. I jumped back to my feet and turned to the next threat. A man that use to be dhampir and was roughly Dimitri's height flanked me on one side and a woman that had been human was on the other. Behind them were half a dozen others closing in. My informant was wrong, there was a hell of a lot more than twelve here. We were in trouble.

"Retreat!" I heard Dimitri yell when he realized the same thing I had. I went for the man first striking out with my stake hand. He grabbed me and slammed me against the wall of the cave. My head hit hard and lights danced in front of my eyes. A scream distracted us both but I had just enough time to duck away from him. Fingers snaked around my ankle and a loud cracking sound echoed around the cave. I bit my lip and pushed the pain of my broken ankle to the farthest place in my mind. I landed stomach first and kicked up at him with my other leg. Anger flashed in his eyes as he jerked me to my feet, my fingers still laced around the stake. I sliced the point over his chest but wasn't in the right position to get his heart.

His grasp lessened on my shoulders and I collapsed to the floor unable to stand on my ankle. Dimitri yanked his stake from the Strigoi's back and threw my over his shoulder. He had to fight off a couple of others on the way out, but I couldn't pay much attention to his movements when all I saw was his back. All I can say for certain is that we got outside and that the sun felt great. Dimitri set me down and said something to Mia about helping me to the car. I looked around and saw both Christian and Eddie lying motionless on the floor. I couldn't tell if they were breathing.

"Help Dimitri. I can get to the car myself," I ordered Mia. I would crawl if I had to.

"Rose—"

"Just do it, Mia!" I couldn't believe I had gotten us into this mess. This was my fault. I used a near by tree and used it to get to my feet. Eddie was awake and on his feet as he heavily leaned on Mia. Dimitri had Christian in his arms and was running to the car. The rest of us headed in that direction as well.

Eddie passed out again when we were in the car. A Strigoi had practically ripped out his throat and he was losing a lot of blood. I still didn't know Christian's exact injuries only that he hadn't woken up yet and that he was alive. Mia was bleeding pretty bad but it didn't look like she had any serious damage done. My god of a boyfriend had a lot of scraps and bruises and possibly a broken hand but was otherwise okay. He was also driving thirty miles over the speed limit which probably should have bugged me with only one had on the steering wheel but it didn't.

The second we arrived those of us conscious yelled for the spirit users. Lissa and Adrian came running out and instantly started healing. We helped get Eddie and Christian into room in our house and sat in the kitchen while the miracle workers did what they do best.

I couldn't sit still, even with my broken ankle I couldn't help pacing. Sydney was bandaging up Mia's worst injuries and trying to calm down a distraught Jill in the living. Dimitri sat at the table beside me listening to me rant. "That son of a bitch gave me false information! We could have been killed! There was twice as many as he said there were. I trusted Thomas!" I was yelling at this point even though there was a voice in my head saying that he could have just been mistaken. If it was it was a mistake that could have cost all of us our lives. Thomas was a man who graduated two years after me from a school somewhere in Asia. He came to Court afterward and had ended up joining our little group. At least until he became enraged about his mother's death who was posted in Vegas. He had moved there to find his mother's killer and sometimes found information that was useful to us. If he did he would e-mail it to me and until now he had never been wrong.

"Rose, sit down before you pass out. Your hurt, too," he said the exhaustion only showing in his eyes. "Someone must have given him bad information as well."

"He's never been wrong before! I can't except that! Something's wrong, Dimitri, I can feel it."