AN: HELLO MY DEAR BEAUTIES!
I know! I'm like the worst ever! It's been a month and trust me, I feel terrible. At first it was due to business then it was due to laziness and then business again! (Hectic? I know.) Anyway, I am here now! Don't worry. I will not give up on this story!
That being said, this story is coming to a close pretty soon. This chapter will either be the second to last or third to last. I haven't decided if I want one really long chapter or two shortish ones. We will have to see.
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy or any of its characters. Everything belongs to Richelle Mead.
*one year after end of last chapter*
I took a deep breath. The air was warm and a little humid, strange for autumn, but I didn't mind. This was it. The day that I had been waiting for since coming to the Academy a whole year ago. It felt like it had been longer thanks to the near agonizing waiting. No, not near agonizing. It was agonizing. Day after day, week after week, month after month. Waiting. Just like Alberta had said. But now it was finally over.
I stood outside the apartments of a small college campus in Portland, Oregon, looking into a dark window only one story up. I couldn't see anything inside, but my heart raced with the knowledge that they were in there. We finally had them.
Two weeks ago we received a call from a newbie guardian, whose Moroi lived in Oregon, claiming he recognized the Princess. We, of course, immediately sent a request to the Alchemists to investigate and validate his report, and, with the usual Alchemist efficiency, they confirmed that the information was good only three days later. When Alberta told me the news my first reaction was to drive here right away and grab them, cuff them, throw them over my shoulders – basically whatever it would take to bring them back. But then I looked at the layout of the grounds where the guardian had said he'd seen them and realized that me going in alone wouldn't be enough. My four person strike team wouldn't even be enough. There were too many escape options...so our rescue/kidnapping had to be delayed. We had to gather a bigger team and that in turn made the strategizing and planning take longer.
Then finally, finally, we were given the green light. It took a lot to get me truly excited, but this did it. Not only was I about to meet and retrieve the two girls that I'd spent the last year of my life searching for, but I was also away from the Academy, really away, for the first time since the first and only (and failed) retrieval mission. Sure, I'd left Academy grounds to run errands and such, but this was different. This was action, and the feeling sent my adrenaline pumping.
Everything was unusually quiet for a college campus. The only sounds were the distant honking of cars and the rustling of leaves as the wind blew through the trees.
And the sudden sound of a girl screaming.
It was coming from the dark, open window that I was currently observing. My muscles tensed and my nerves lit up as I automatically reached for my silver stake. But this wasn't a Strigoi attack. After years in the field, you learn to differentiate between screams, and this one didn't hold the tell tale horror that meant the sight of an undead vampire. I removed my hand from my stake holster at my belt, and, out of the corner of my eye, saw Laurence (the newest and youngest guardian on the team) relax visibly. It was his first mission and while you should always be prepared, we were not expecting to deal with Strigoi tonight. My first mission hadn't been so fortunate.
Seconds after the scream, light filled the room. I could now see everything perfectly from my vantage point. And what I saw was a dark haired dhampir holding a pale and light haired Moroi, stroking her hair and whispering what I could only assume were soothing words.
Rose and Vasilisa.
A cat suddenly jumped up onto the window sill, then onto the bed where they were sitting. Vasilisa began stroking it, calming down further. What had made her scream?
Rose began to study the shaken girl with concern and then said something that made the Princess shy away guiltily. When she replied timidly Rose looked upset. "Screw that!" she yelled, the first audible part of this conversation. What were they saying?
My confusion only grew when Rose removed the tank top strap from her shoulder and pulled her hair back. But realization quickly dawned on me when she bared her neck to the girl. Vasilisa was hesitant at first, but she eventually gave into her obvious desire and need for blood. She bit into Rose's neck, satisfying her hunger. My eyes widened fractionally and then quickly moved away from the scene, and it certainly wasn't because blood made me squeamish. No, it was because dhampirs giving blood was looked down upon in our society. It was considered dirty and sordid (and many other grotesque synonyms), especially during sex. So what these girls were doing could be translated to a smutty make-out session. Which was probably why Laurence was openly staring with wide, glassy eyes. I clenched my jaw, knowing what his newest fantasies would now look like.
But this wasn't sex. This was survival. Rose was sacrificing herself for her friend. You could practically see the strength flowing from her into Vasilisa. The situation still made me uneasy, but the only disgust I felt was for Laurence and his ogling of the underage girls. For Rose I gained a degree of respect.
When Vasilisa did pull back less than a minute later, she laid Rose down onto the bed, got up, and left the room. I silently cursed myself for not acting when I had the chance, when they were both together.
"We have lost visual on Princess Vasilisa, Rose is still in the room. Wait for my signal to move in. I want them in the same room, if possible, when we extract them," I commanded through my ear piece, getting back to business.
Still looking at the window, the only thing I really saw was the cat. It had jumped back onto the sill when Rose moved closer to Vasilisa. For some reason animals just didn't like dhampirs, and that was evident now considering the death glare I was getting from the feline. Its back was arched and its tail hairs stood on end. I could only guess that it was growling softly as well.
Unfortunately, Rose took notice of the cat's unusual behavior and sat up. She had to close her eyes for a moment and steady herself before stumbling over to the window. She was no doubt still suffering from the effects of the endorphins in the Moroi saliva. That would make my job of apprehending her easier.
She peered out the window and a light breeze played with her long, sleep-mused hair. Within seconds she spotted me and eyed me quizzically. I was hoping that a random guy in the alley wasn't an odd occurrence and that the shadow being casted by the tree I was under would conceal my dhampir characteristics. However, my hope was in vain because her eyes quickly widened in recognition and she jerked away from the window. She began grabbing random things from around the room and then left to, more than likely, find Vasilisa.
"We have been compromised," I said. "I want to be informed the second they leave the building."
"I see them," Yuri declared a minute later. "They've exited through the Northern entrance and are heading towards Brown."
Taking in this information, I gave orders. "I want an all sides approach, but do not engage until I say so."
With that, I took off running down the road parallel to Brown. I was moving faster than the girls were and so my plan was to cut them off. As I passed from the road I was on over to Brown, I saw them. It was hard not to. Vasilisa was barefoot and practically dragging Rose as she stumbled, doing her best to push through the dizziness. Her eyes were locked onto a green Honda about 15 feet to my right. Their getaway car. Their freedom. I wouldn't give them that chance though.
About 10 feet before they reached the car I stepped in front of them, blocking their path. Rose immediately stopped and yanked Vasilisa behind her. She glared at me similarly to how their cat had earlier, with hatred.
I saw my team closing in all around them. There was no way that they could escape, but that didn't seem to faze Rose. In fact it served to increase the fierce and dangerous look in her eyes. This only encouraged the interest and curiosity that had been growing in me since I'd first opened her file so long ago.
"Leave her alone!" she practically snarled at me. "Don't touch her!"
My goal was to collect them, not scare them. So I put my hands out in front of me and took a careful step forward as one might approach a frightened animal. "I'm not going to -"
Apparently my gesture wasn't very convincing because she attacked me. It was a simple move that was taught in fundamentals, and it was poorly executed at that, but the unexpected fire still surprised me. This girl had to know that she had the underhand here, and yet she was still engaging. What was she thinking she could accomplish? I blocked her attacked almost effortlessly, but even that was done a little too hard.
Weakened by the endorphins, she fell backwards and was going to land on the cement street, but I quickly grabbed her forearm before she hit the ground. She steadied herself in my grasp and surprisingly didn't resist. Maybe she was unsure of her ability to stand on her own.
Instincts kicked in and my eyes began to subconsciously sweep over her, looking for injury. But rather than finding any abrasion that I might've created, I found a still bleeding wound on her neck, the one Vasilisa had left. I should've looked away, but I couldn't. How many times had I seen dhampir women around my town with covered bite marks, and bruises on their necks? This one shouldn't have been any different, but it was. The dhampir back home were bitten for filthy pleasure. Rose was bitten to keep her best friend alive. I'd never seen such dedication, and it fascinated me.
Rose, who had been looking at the ground where she would've landed, now looked at me, and noticed where I was staring. Her hand slowly reached to her neck and touched the wound, pulling back she found her finger coated in blood.
I wanted to offer her some medical assistance, but she shook her hair, effectively covering her neck. My eyes lingered there a bit longer till they slid up to her face. At first she looked mildly embarrassed, but then decided she had no need to care what the "enemy" thought and jerked her arm away, readying herself for another attack.
"Rose. Don't." Vasilisa's voiced was so soft. I barely heard it over the still blowing wind.
It took her a minute, but eventually a calming force seemed to come over Rose. The tension in her body left and she had a defeated look on her face. I would have felt bad if this wasn't the moment I had been waiting for for an entire year. The etiquette that had been pounded into me since childhood took over, and I turned to Vasilisa and bowed. After all, she was royalty. When I unfolded my body I found Rose scowling at me. She was holding onto Vasilisa's upper arm in what could have been a gesture of comfort or protection, but I suspected Rose still needed support to hold herself up. It hurt me in a way I couldn't explain, even to myself, to see her in this state. And even more the fact that I wouldn't be able to allow her to completely remedy herself with proper rest once we got back to the Academy. I had orders to bring her directly to the Headmistress. The plane flight would have to suffice.
"My name is Dimitri Belikov," I said, finally introducing myself. "I've come to take you back to St. Vladimir's Academy, Princess."
AN: YAY! Finally we see Rose in the flesh! Please let me know what you think!
lol! Dimitri is one to talk when it comes to "ogling of the underage girls" am I right? Sorry, just pointing it out.
Also, this was the other chapter that I decided I would keep inaccurate to Dimitri's short story in the 10th Anniversary edition due to the fact that I had written this fanfic before that came out. In the 10th anniversary book Dimitri was surprised when he saw the bite on Rose's neck, so he didn't actually witness it first hand, but I always (before reading Dimitri's POV) thought that he had seen them because Rose (in the first book) says that the man outside the window (Dimitri) could have easily "seen what Lissa and I (Rose) had just done." Oh well:)
Thank you for reading! I have yet to revise the next chapter, but hopefully it will happen very very soon. I love you all! Have a wonderful day!
