(Sorry for taking so long for updating! I was out of town and I couldn't take my computer with me so that's my excuse take it or leave it… But look! There's a long chapter after this author's note! =])

Chapter NINE: Dreams

Adrian's POV

Last nights party seemed a far away memory, something was waking me from my drunken slumber. An annoying buzzing noise, my phone, "Hello?" Even I could tell my speech was slurred.

"Rose has never wanted anything from you, but she needs you know now. Can you help or not?" Lissa's frantic voice sobered me immediately.

"Lissa, you know I'd do anything for Rose. What does she need? Oh, and by the way where the HELL are you two? Everyone's worried, then Belikov and Christian disappear too. Did they find you?"

She cut me off before I could shoot any more questions, "Adrian, shut up! Christian and Dimitri are here and we're all fine, at the current moment. I did something bad though, I wiped Rose's mind a couple weeks after we got here, she had gotten in an accident. And, well Strigoi have found this the perfect time to get back at her mom. They've captured her, I don't know where they are, but she might. Can you dream walk to her and figure it out?" Lissa was almost crying.

"Oh, God. Hold, on," I put down the phone. I let my eyes glaze over, Rose, Rose, Rose, I thought. I could feel her, but I couldn't quite hold her. Damn, she's not sleeping, but she's so tired, so, so tired. Fighting to stay awake in fear that if she closes her eyes, she'll never open them again. "I can't. She's not sleeping, she's tired though, and I just can't get a strong enough hold. Where are you? I'm coming, I want to help, and this will be easier in person then over the phone anyway. I promise I won't ell anyone," Lissa told me everything.

I grabbed random clothes and shoved them in a duffel bag. I can't believe this, when Lissa and I discovered we could wipe someone's mind… Well, we decided it was just too horrible and swore to each other we would never do it. That had actually been her idea! And now Rose, my little Dampir, is gone. I love Rose, no matter what she, or my great aunt, may think. What if we can't get her memories back, then what? Its amazing Lissa could even do it in the first place; it takes such a great deal of power. Power I didn't even sense in her before.

Since I basically live at the academy, I let my guardians be reassigned to someone who needed him or her more. Which made it much easier to get off school grounds. "Just be careful, Mr. Ivashkov," Alberta said sternly. I smiled and thanked her for her concern even though it wasn't needed. Jumping on the first train I could, I impatiently made my way to Lissa and, eventually, Rose. The whole time I tried to see if she was asleep yet. Of course, she wasn't. I was starting to get pissed off; I swear she's doing this on purpose. She always did like to make me crazy. Just go to sleep, Rose! It could save your life!

Finally making it to Lissa's, I banged on the door, "Hey, Adrian," Lissa opened the door, I hadn't had a drink since last night, I must look horrible. "It'll be all right, Rose is tough. She may not be able to fight, but she's not going to give up," her words maybe false, but right then I needed to hear them.

Lissa maybe the one who caused all of this, but she was still scared shittless for her friend, and she felt guilty, which she should. It's not nice, but I can't lie to myself, I'm so mad at her. "I know; we'll get her back. We have to. If we don't who am I going to bug the crap out of and call my little Dampir?" I hugged her tightly. We're best friends, just because I'm mad doesn't mean I'm going to stop being here for her.

"Hello, Adrian. Nice to see you again," Christian made his presence known. I can't believe after all this time and all the flirting with Rose; he still thinks I want to steal Lissa away from him. I mean, she's beautiful, sure, but my heart belongs to Rose. Which just sucks for me, now doesn't it? I raised my hands in a sign of peace, laughed a little, and left the room.

"Hey, Guardian Belikov," I said formally. I don't like him, he captured Rose's heart, he knows he's too old and it's forbidden. Well, then again, Moroi men didn't have the best track record staying with one Dampir for long, which is terrible. I'll admit I had flings in school, but nothing like that.

"We will be spending an extended amount of time together, you can call me Dimitri if you wish," he mumbled not looking up from a map. That was unexpected; to call a guardian by their first name was considered disrespectful unless you were friends. From all I've heard about Dimitri Belikov, he doesn't have many friends or maybe he doesn't want them. I don't know.

"Okay. Dimitri, then, I thought I should tell you; she hasn't gone to sleep yet. She's not in any real pain though," I added as an afterthought.

"You know?" he looked up confused.

"Do you mean about how she's doing…. Or how you feel for each other?"

"Both, I guess."

"She's drifting, it's sort of an in between state, I cant get into her head, but I can feel her. And for the other one, Rose never like me. There was always someone else. Then, one day shortly after meeting her, I saw you two training, you guardians think fighting is so angry, but I saw the looks. In between the hits and kicks, love. It's always been you. I thought once that if I had met her sooner I'd have a chance, but the truth is it has always been you. She'll never love me, but that's not really on topic anymore, so I'll stop before I say something I'll regret," I was blabbering.

(Author's Note: that part about training I kind of made up… I forget how Adrian knew or he just sensed it with his aura reading thingy? Anyways my friend has my books that's why I can't check so sorry.)

"You do really do care for her don't you?" he asked.

"Yes, I don't understand why everyone finds that so hard to believe, but it doesn't matter. Let's just get back to finding and fixing her," I looked away. He nodded and went back to his work, "What are you looking at?"

"A map."

"Well, no shit a map, but what are you looking for on the map?" that was rude of him. And I thought things were going so well…

"This is from the school to where Rose was staying. If we can pinpoint where she disappeared from maybe we can find some sort of lead to where she is now," he explained. Janine Hathaway burst through the door, her eyes were ringed red, she had been crying recently.

Rose had said her mother didn't care about her, obviously Rose was wrong, "Guardian Hathaway, how are you doing?"

"Mr. Ivashkov, I don't have time for you right now. Where is Vasilisa?" she almost growled. I led her into where Lissa and Christian were sitting on a couch talking. "You're just sitting here while we should be out looking for my daughter?" she sounded furious, she's a scary woman, Rose's mother is.

"We don't know where to start we're waiting for her to go to sleep so Adrian can try to ask her, but right now all we can do is wait, I know she's okay for now, not in too much pain," Lissa shrank back into the couch.

"Not in too much pain? Any is too much!" then she turned on me, oh great. "And you! I don't get the whole spirit thing, but this is Rose we're talking about so try harder!"

I didn't want any trouble, "Okay." I sat down on the couch and tried to enter Rose's mind once more, only this time it worked. I looked around, we were at the ski lodge, the first place we ever met, "Rose, where are you?" I yelled.

"Who are you? What's going on?" the beauty that is Rose stepped into the light. She looked so frightened, oh my, what did Lissa do to you?

"My name is Adrian. I'm here to help you. You can trust me, okay?" I pleaded with my eyes.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" she asked. Now that Lissa is the shadow-kissed one I can actually see Rose's aura, it's beautiful, a swirl of rich blues and deep purples.

"One of what?" I question her. Her eyes are probing me, it's kind of creepy, and a couple of months ago I probably would have loved it, but now…

"Vampire, like the one who did this to me," she held out her wrists. I thought some Strigoi might have bitten into a vein or something, but there was only burn marks there.

"How did you get them?" this is turning out unexpectedly.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to sound crazy, but I swear vampires exist, and one named Christian did this to me," she spoke softly. Oh, no, she remembers Spokane, that's probably the one memory everyone wants her to forget.

Well, I can't lie to her, "Yes, I'm one of them. I don't have any firepower though, but Rose we don't have much time. I'm here for a reason; I need to know where you are. I'm with some people and we want to come help you, please trust me that I'm not trying to hurt you."

"I do. I'm in a warehouse, but I won't be for much longer. The guy said we were leaving in the morning. I tried to ask where but he said I would just go and tell some princess. I don't know. I'm sorry I can't help more. Can you do me a favor though?"

"I'd do anything for you, Rose. What is it?"

"Stay with me." Those three simple words hurt. They said she was scared and she didn't want to be alone. She even looks fragile now, almost Moroi, or even worse, human.

"I want to, but I have to tell my friends about this. I promise I'll be right back though," I tried to smile. So did she. Her face faded from my vision and her mother's, that's really not pleasant, replaced it. "She's in a warehouse, but the Strigoi said he's moving her in the morning."

"That's all? You've been gone for a half hour and that's all you got?" Guardian Hathaway's nosed flared.

"What do you want me to say? She was scared and she doesn't know what's going on," I'm starting to get pissed. She pursed her lips, hung her head, and mumbled an apology. I went back out to Dimitri, "Is there a warehouse district someplace between her school and house?"

His eye's flashed to me then back to the map, "Yes, is that were she is? Which one is she in?" He was speaking fast.

"She's in one of them, I'm not sure which one. We don't have much time, the Strigoi said they're leaving in the morning," I spoke equally fast.

"It's four now, they have to leave by six to stay out of the sunlight. There's ten warehouse's we only have two guardians, there's not enough time, damn it!" Rose's mother came in then and her and Dimitri started fighting about it.

"Listen, we're losing time! Just go, do what you can while you can. I'm going back to her. Just, please," I sat on the couch and went back to Rose. This time we were on campus, in the courtyard. "I'm back," she looked up.

"I didn't think you were coming, you were gone for so long. Where are we?"

"This is St. Vladimir's Academy. It's where you were going to school before you ran away, you and Lissa."

"Who is Lissa?"

"She's your best friend. She saved your life once, and after that you were sort of bonded. Which meant that you were basically in her mind, if she was in trouble you could sense it or you could just feel her emotions."

"And, um who are you? To me, I mean." This confused me, I focused on her aura, she's embarrassed. I'm so confused.

"What do you mean, Rose?"

"Were you some guy I knew, a friend, or…" she blushed, Rose actually blushed instead of saying the word boyfriend.

"Oh, since we're going to give you your memory back I might as well not lie, we were just friends. Well most of the time were friends. I like to annoy you; it's really funny when you're pissed. I love you, but… you love someone else."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For telling the truth. You could have lied, but you didn't. So, thank you, Adrian," she smiled. It faded though and she screamed and she woke up. Shit. Lissa was screaming too, her back was facing me and a woman was holding her.

"Lissa, it'll be okay," she soothed her.

"How do you know? You can't see her anymore," Lissa sobbed.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She turned around and hold out her hand, "Hello, I'm Adrianna Ivashkov."