I apologize for how long it's taken me to post another chapter. I also apologize for how short this chapter is. I will make up for it. I've been having a hard time with the passing of my friend.

A group of four Alchemist rushed to the scene where there was screaming, and by screaming I mean bloody murder screaming. When they saw me, a strigoi, they started backing up slowly. They looked horrified by the scene in front of them. The despicable human that I chose as my dinner was almost dead. To the alchemist, I'm sure he looked dead. I could faintly detect a heartbeat with my strigoi hearing.

"Don't worry, no alchemist is on my menu tonight." I told them. I looked at every face and saw a familiar one. Sidney Sage.

"Why, hello Sydney." I flashed her a dangerous smile, which included my fangs.

"Rose?" Sidney asked, looking puzzled with fright. Her golden tattoo on the side of her cheek seemed to glow in the dark. It was quite appealing. I wondered if it was real gold in her skin. If so, it would be valuable.

I smiled wider. "The one and only. Tell me, how is my dearest friend Queen Vasilisa?" I rose to my feet, snapping the human's neck like it was twig. All four alchemists flinched at the sound. He fell to the ground, limp before my feet. I felt blood slide down my chin and I felt sticky everywhere, especially on my knees and thighs. I'm sure I looked like I walked straight out of a horror film.

Sydney looked at her colleagues, like she should ask permission to talk before she proceeded. "Rose, you're strigoi now…"

I rolled my red eyes and sarcastically said "wow, you are observant."

The Alchemist kept backing up. I could hear screeching tires from two miles away, racing toward our direction. No doubt they were guardians.

I rushed up to Sydney. Her fragile human eyes couldn't keep up with my speed until I was face to face with her. I expected her to scream and run away, but instead she stayed where she was at and held her breath. Her eyes widened in shock and fear and I could smell her fear radiating off of her like she was a scented candle.

"You are going to do something for me, Sydney." A stray hair of hers came loose out of her perfect little bun. I reached up slowly, just to make her feel threatened. It worked, because her heartbeat picked up like she was running a marathon.

I tucked the stray hair behind her head and grabbed her hand. She tried to pull away, but I just held onto it tighter. When I did that she stopped struggling, probably because she knew that I was way stronger than her.

"You are going to take this man's body to guardian headquarters where the moroi queen can see him. If you fail at this, I will not only kill you, but I will kill every alchemist I come across. Understood?"

She gulped and started to shake. "Y-yes."

I released her and she ran towards her colleagues which were almost to the end of the ally just as the vehicle that were two miles away pulled up. The people that came out of the vehicle were guardians, but they weren't familiar guardians. They may have been assigned to protect the alchemist by our government.

I walked over to my victim, picked him up and threw him right at Sydney's feet.

"Take this trash and deliver it." I yelled, showing my fangs. I then took off as the guardians started shooting bullets in my direction. I could hear as the bullets came toward me and just like in a movie, I moved out of the way to see and hear it fly past me. I started bouncing off walls to move out of their way.

Lissa POV

I was with Christian in the study. My Queenly duties ended for the day and both of us were hard at work with practicing magic. I wanted to improve my magic by using offensive as well as defensive. I don't like Victor, but he has a good point. We use to be amazing warriors, fighting side by side with the dhampires. Now, we rely on them. Well, it's time to rise up and take a stand with the guardians. Christian agreed that he'd teach me some basic maneuvers that any moroi could handle. I planned on being better than the regular moroi; afterall, a Queen should be better than her subjects.

I also wanted to ketch Rose off guard with how much better my magic is now than when she seen me use it last.

I was learning how to lightly put my opponent on fire when Guardian Hathaway, Guardian Hans and Guardian Belikov came rushing into my study room. I paid close attention to Dimitri's face as he entered. He looked most distraught than the other two guardians.

"What is the meaning of this?" I demanded. "You are to knock on doors, not barge through them. Especially if you are coming into my house." I looked at Guardian Hans when I said this. I wasn't happy.

The men and Guardian Hathaway bent down on one knee. "Our apologies my Queen, but we have guests at the gaite that request your highness's presents most urgently."

"What guests? What is the meaning of this urgency?" I demanded to know. I put my hands on my hips. My red silk dress flowed with my every movement.

"It's regarding Rose." Dimitri said, his eyes darkening. He looked glum and that was enough to send me on edge.

I felt the blood rush out of my face. "What has she done?" My mind started to race. I thought the worst- she told the world about our race.

"We don't know. They won't say anything else until you are present, your majesty." Hans replied back quickly."

"Again, who are 'they?'?" I demanded as politely as I could. I was still upset that they didn't knock.

"The Alchemist." Guardian Hathaway replied back. "One of the Alchemists said they knew Rose from when she was a dhampire in Russia."

"Sydney Sage." I said back immediately. I took out a deep breath. "Something is wrong." I said to them. I looked over at Christian. "Come, we have to find the meaning of this urgent rendezvous, and what Rose has done." I said the last part with a heavy heart.

Christian was by my side in an instant. He held out his arm for me and I took it. Together all of us left the study and followed the guardians. My guard followed us as well. We got into a black Cadillac Escalade. Two black motorcycles, one on either side of the Escalade, two motorcycles in front and two behind us. I felt like I was the president of the United States.

While we were on our way, we were briefed on the three other Alchemists as well as the guardians that brought them here. Apparently the guardians that were assigned in the area were out patrolling when one of the alchemists sent out an SOS. That group heard the SOS and responded to find out what was wrong. Hans told me that was all the information they would give.

We reached the Hilton hotel and I was told that one of my guardians pre-arranged a suite so the Alchemist and I could talk in private where I would be safe.

We went up the elevator and went up. It felt like the elevator was going as slow as a slug. My mind was racing due to hearing Rose's name. Christian, sensing my anxiety, squeezed my hand.

"What has she done now?" I asked, worried.

Christian looked at me. "It's not Rose, Lissa. Our Rose would never do this. She swore to protect you. You need to remember that this thing inside her body isn't the Rose we know and love; it's an imposter, a very evil and hostel imposter."

A tear fell from my eyes. "If I had the power to rewind time…"

"No Lissa. What happened to her wasn't your fault. It happens to guardians all the time. Unfortunetly it happened to her. She would have wanted you to kill her the second she was turned. I doubt-"

Christian cut off. With every word he said, my chest felt heavier and heavier.

"Continue."

He pursed his lips, like he didn't want to, however he wouldn't defy an order from his Queen. Moments later he continued. "I doubt Rose would even want us to restore her soul after all the damage she has done."

I felt light headed. I couldn't imagine a world without Rose in it.

"What are you saying."

"Think about it Lissa. Remember what Dimitri was like after you restored him? No offence, but Rose is way worse than he ever was."

I looked over at Dimitri and his jaw looked clenched shut in a painful way. I wonder what he was thinking…

Suddenly the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened. I felt like I got punched in a stomach after what Christian said. He did have a point, but Rose would want to live. Right?

We followed the guardians out of the elevator and through the hall to where the suite was.

We entered the suite and everyone stood up.

"Her royal highness Queen Vasilisa Leigh Rhea Dragonmire and Lord Ozera." Guardains Hans informed everyone in the room.

The guardians in the room bowed down on one knee and stood up, putting one fist to their heart and stood at military attention. The Alchemist, feeling like they should bow because everyone else was, bowed down to me and stood at attention.

"Sydney Sage." I said her name and she took a step forward. I held out my hand for her to shake. It wasn't a queenly gesture, but this was Rose's friend and a friend of hers is a friend of mine. It took a minute for her to shake it. Rose told me that she thought we were evil creatures of the night. She was probably hesitant on even being in the same room as us.

"I want to hear everything. Do not leave out any details. We are trying to ketch her." I demanded as I heading over to where there was a big rectangle cherry oak table with everyone tailing me. Ontop of the table was a huge black bag. It looked to of been seven feet long. I promptly ignored it, wanting to know what this was about Rose more than anything. Christian pulled out the chair on the end for me to sit down and he pushed it in. He sat on the other side of me while Sydney sat on the other chair closest to me. The other Alchemists sat beside her, filling up the one side of the table. The guardians that responded to the SOS sat down on the other side of the table. My guardians, including Dimitri and Janine stood around the table, waiting to the meeting to begin.

"We were on our way back to the hotel that we were all staying at." Sydney started the story. "We had an in-service that we were all required to attend. As we made our way back to our cars, all of us heard screams coming from an alleyway. We went to check it out, because the man's screams were agonizing to hear. It sounded like he was in a tremendous amount of pain. We came running. At first it looked like someone was wrapping his foot until we got closer."

I gulped. I could tell where she was going with this. It was Rose doing the torture. I eyed the bag, having a feeling what was inside of it now.

Sydney got up and unzipped the bag, a look of pure disgust on her face. She stopped opening the bag as soon as she revealed the man's face. She looked back at me and it was a minute until she found her voice. "Rose was the one I had seen with the man. She was dressed in the most indecent club wear clothes I've ever seen. She was like..."

"Let me guess, a black widow trapping her prey." Christian finished for her. "She looked like a goddess from hell?"

Sydney nodded and somehow found the strength to roll the black bag all the way down so that all of us could view the man's body. Everyone took a deep breath of horror. Some guardians even looked away.

The man's privates were covered up by a bloodied towel, telling us that she tore his manhood off. I could understand Sydney's disgust. The man had vampire bite marks all over his body. There wasn't a spot that she didn't left untouched somehow. If it wasn't bruised or torn up, it was bitten. Rose bit every main artery in the body; parts of his skin were ripped open by her fangs. She ripped so deeply that I could see arteries, veins and tendons.

The man's stomach was a different story. It looked like Rose literally tore it open with her hands. Pieces of flesh were torn from the body. Recalling my human anatomy, some of the man's organs weren't in the right spot and his intestines were shredded to pieces. His body smelled something fierce. I never actually smelled a dead body, and the smell was horrific.

I shivered and stood up, trying not to vomit. I covered my eyes, as if to rid the sight of this horror.

"Rose did this?"I asked mostly to myself out of shock and horror. Christian got up and held me in his arms. It took a few minutes for me to compose myself. I looked at Dimitri and his eyes were wide with horror. His mask that he had on all day and at every meeting dealing with her, finally cracked and shattered.

"Rose told me to bring you this trash," she used her fingers to quote in the air, "to you. She wanted you to see it."

I waited, but she didn't say anything else. Instead, we all just watched as she rolled the bag back up so we won't view the body.

"That's it to your story?" Guardian Hans said as I sat back down. "I thought there would have been more." But he looked just as disgusted as me.

Sydney looked at me. "Rose said if I didn't do this, she would kill every alchemist she see's and then kill me. Rose also wanted to know how you were doing. She seemed very interested in you. Why?"

"She was my best friend and my top guardian." I told her. "Usually guardians that turn strigoi want to kill or turn people closest to them."

She frowned. "She isn't just about turning you." She looked at the body. "She is sending a message. Rose isn't a fool; she is very smart. She tortured this man to send a direct message."

"I agree with her." Guardian Hathaway said. "Rose isn't fooling around. She needs to be stopped."

That sent everyone into an argument. I tried to listen to what everyone was saying, but I couldn't keep up. I didn't realize until now just how many people were in this suite. It seemed to be about twenty people. The three alchemists, the five guardians that responded to the SOS, Christian and I along with my ten guardians; that makes twenty people in this suite talking all at once.

"Silence!" I shouted, standing back up. The room went quiet. I walked the perimeter of the room and then turned to face my audience. "Rose is trying to stir us up and it's working. This," I pointed to the body, "is her message. The question is how are we planning on responding? It can't be by force, because like we talked about earlier, that is what she's expecting! She has slaves of strigoi that listen to her every command! What we will do is find out how many there are. We can't let this message deviate us from our original goal. Rose sent this as a way to get us riled up." I was still shaking from seeing the body.

Guardian Belikov recovered and I was surprised to hear him speak. "Rose doesn't need to be restored." For the first time, Dimitri went pale. "She needs to be killed." He looked over at me. "Queen Vasilisa, I'm sorry, but this is too dangerous."

I snorted. "That's what Rose said about restoring you. We need to try."

He shook his head, but it was Rose's mother that responded. "Dimitri is right." She put her hand on his shoulder in comfort. "It's too dangerous. How many guardians are going to die in the process of trying to save her?" She shook her head. "It's too dangerous. I want my daughter back, but not at the cost of more lives."

Now I felt selfish, but I didn't care. I wanted my best friend back. "What lives?" I demanded. "Rose hasn't killed any guardians yet. She has only killed humans."

Now Dimitri laughed, but it wasn't a laugh. I sounded more like a choke. "No, Rose has killed moroi and dhampires." He looked deadpan at me. "She isn't an innocent anymore Lissa."

My world started crashing down. I had everyone on board to restore her, now everyone just wants to kill her.

"No." I stated loud enough so everyone could hear me. "Rose will be restored by my hand."

"With all due respect your highness," Guardian Hans said looking at me with a hard expression. It looked like he wanted to yell at me and call me an idiot. "You don't have the authority to tell us guardians what to do."

I glared at guardian Hans. With the most stern voice I could muster up and a look that I felt could cut through glass I said the most dangerous words that could possibly over throw me as Queen: "You will not deceive a direct order from your Queen. Doing so is treason. Do I make myself clear to everyone in this room?"

I looked at Christian and he had on a blank face. He almost looked too stunned for words.

Rose POV

It has been almost a week since I sent my message to the Queen. I haven't seen any guardians or alchemist in the nearby area since I sent my little message. I was hoping my message would send people into frenzy; I am disappointed it didn't. Lissa and Dimitri must be working overtime in calming everyone down. They are probably making plans in trying to hunt me down and put a stake through my heart.

Hopefully my message did what I wanted it to do: make people believe I wasn't worthy of restoration. I'd rather die than be less of a being than I am now. I am at the top of my game now and I won't let anyone take this away from me.

It was Saturday, which is a week ago from when Christian and Eddie came walking into my club. I put out a memo to my fellow strigoi to wear their colored contacts tonight. I didn't explain why to them, because I wanted everyone to be at the club tonight; insurance for me. If Dimitri comes here tonight (I'm sure he will), I don't want him killing my men off.

I decided to wear a dark blue shimmering dress. The fabric scrunched when it hit my waistline, showing off my tone, slender legs. I wore dark blue eye shadow that sparkled. I finished my makeup with a red lipstick that went well with my brown eye contacts. I put on a lot of cover up so that my face, neck, arms and legs would have a tanned complexion. If Dimitri is here tonight, I want him to see me as if I was the same woman before; dhampire. My goal was to play with his mind.

I was at my cube with a drink in my hand when Thoren arrived. I've seen more of him in the past couple days since I threatened him, than I had thought I would. Maybe he thought he hallucinated the fact that I overpowering him? Maybe he thought it was hot, or maybe he really did take my threat seriously? Either way, he made the right choice by coming back. He was just as upbeat about being around me and just as exciting in bed.

I stood up at his arrival and he kissed me on the lips in a gentle manner. "How's my baby tonight?" Thoren asked. I looked at his neck and his wounds were healing quickly. I told him that two spiders bit him on the neck this time and not me. My last bite I told him I got carried away and pretended to be a vampire. I lied again and said that when I did that he got really into it by enjoying it.

"Thoren-" I started but he cut me off.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Thor?"

I rolled my eyes. His ego couldn't get any bigger. He truly believes himself to be one of the strongest men in the world. He even dragged me out to the gym one night to prove it. He indeed, beat every man at weight lifting that entered the gym. It was insane. I found out that Thor had a weakness for sweets as well as animals. He was an animal lover, mainly dogs but he did like cats too. Thor wanted to be a veterinarian, but lacked the funds to do it. He also had another problem: an addiction to drugs.

I had misjudged him when I first met him. Thor does do drugs, but he isn't a junky. I thought he was a guy that wanted to take advantage of women, do drugs and part of a biker gang. It turned out that he needed the drugs to sell for money. Apparently, I sell drugs too cheaply. I found out that some people on my pay role was using me as a source and took most of the money for themselves.

Needless to say, my pay role only consists of twenty strigoi instead of twenty-five. I took care of people that weren't involved, but kept the secrets. Killing off the people that were insubordinate sends out a message to the other people in this group. I won't take any secrets.

We sat down in my cube and started talking about what happened during his day. He slid his hand up my inner thigh, telling me what his true intensions were tonight. I had other plans that didn't include what was already on his mind.

"Let's dance." I suggested as his hands started to go little farther up my thigh than I liked at the moment. He removed his hand and held it out for me to grab.

I took it and he led me to the dance floor. We danced to a couple high beat songs, and surprisingly enough, he didn't get too fresh with me as he usually does. He lead me to the bar and he got us some drinks. I think he liked the fact that he doesn't have to pay for that.

Mmn, maybe I should revoke this freedom from him. After all, it is costing me money. A part of my mind said it isn't worth it for one meal.

He got me a lemon drop martini and him a coke with rum, then he led me back to my cube. As we turned from the bar, I looked up again at the door. This time, it wasn't out of habit. It was because I smelled a familiar musk, the one musk that if my heart still beat, it would have made it stop.

My brown contacts eyes met with his dark brown ones. His posture that was already on edge was now completely ready for battle. I smiled at him and turned my face and followed Thor, putting an extra sway in my hips.

Dimitri Belikov will come to me.

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