Here's the next update. Things are going to start speeding up, I promise. Please review and enjoy!:)

Chapter 9- Rose

It was times like this when I wished I was still shadow kissed. It was dark and despite my Damphir senses I couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. Feeling nausea would be useful right about now.

"We're almost there," Nikolai said, putting an arm out to stop me. We had decided to scout around the area in a big circle and meet up on the other side. The Strigoi were residing in a fairly small section with three buildings.

"Okay. Now remember we don't go inside. There's no telling how many Strigoi are in there." It pained me to say that. I've always been the one to rush in without thinking to protect the people I loved. This was different though. I had no idea about that scale of the army. Being dead wouldn't save anyone. Nikolai nodded and we set off planning to be scouting for half an hour.

I wondered if Lissa had noticed that I was gone yet. She would be pissed that's for sure. Eddie would be too and probably Viktoria. I was pretty good at making people mad. Frankly, I knew how risky this was, but I couldn't just sit around. Like when I was fighting Dimitri, the best defense is a spirited offense, and I couldn't afford to be caught off guard.

The side I had taken gave me a view of the back of two buildings. There were few windows and they were all tinted to keep out the sun. I had suspected this would be the case, but had hoped for different. One building was three stories and the other was four. I was guessing they had basements because every monster needs a creepy, crawly cellar right?

Speaking of creepy crawlies, there were none to be found. I thought at least some Strigoi would be outside. Maybe they were hunting or something. Thirty minutes of extremely boring surveillance I reached the meet up point and Nikolai joined me a few minutes later.

"Nothing's here," Nikolai whispered. I nodded and began to tell him about my hunting theory. Then I froze.

"Oh no," I said rather loudly. He motioned for me to be quiet, but I ignored him . "Shit. Dammit!." I started sprinting back to the car we had parked about a mile away. I heard Nikolai behind me. I was impressed, he didn't seem to be struggling to keep up with me at all. I jumped in the car and started driving.

"What?" Nikolai asked, only slightly out of breathe.

"Don't you see!" I paused. "They're not there because they are at Vik's house. They made their move tonight!" He paled. It was pure bad luck that the night we had decided to scout was the night they picked to attack. I was sure of it. They would have killed us first if they had known we weren't going to be in the house.

"What can we do?" He panicked.

"Speed and hope we get there before everything goes wrong." It was harsh, but there was no room for sugar coating in this situation. There was a huge possibility that everyone was dead and both of us had to expect that. We couldn't afford to go into shock when we were needed to fight. I was forced to slow when I came up behind a van who was also speeding, just not as much as me. For some reason I thought of Dimitri and how if he was here I would not be driving. Then I realized that the driver of the van was Dimitri! What a coincidence though I wouldn't call it lucky because that meant they weren't at the house fighting. I called Dimitri and put my phone on speaker.

"Roza!" he exclaimed.

"Dimitri you have to go faster. The army is attacking your house." My brain inappropriately pictured some sci-fi movie with aliens and big silver guns. Not the time, I told myself.

"What? Are you there?" He sounded shocked.

"No I'm behind you," I said gravely. Until then I had been doing a pretty good job of keeping it together, but when he turned around and our eyes connected I lost it. I heard a click that meant he had took his phone off of speaker and I did the same. "Dimitri ," I whispered as Nikolai put in some earbuds to give us privacy. "If I was there they would have more of a chance. If Nikolai and I were there…"

"Why aren't you two there?"

"We were scouting." I heard silence at the other end. I could tell that the guardian side of him wanted to scold me, but he wouldn't. He knew I was on the verge breaking and wanted to help me. I loved him for that.

"Okay did you find any information from that?"

"No," I replied. "But there were three buildings so…" I left the sentence hanging. There was no need to say what I was going to. It meant that there must have been a lot there.

"Okay Rose listen. We're almost there and when we arrive all we can do is jump right into the fray. Fight and don't stop whatever you see. Tell Nikolai that.." I repeated the information to Nikolai and he nodded. We were all on the same page. "And Roza," he said quietly so I knew this was just for me. "Don't hold yourself responsible. You had good intentions in what you were doing. Just be safe okay. I might lose a lot tonight and I can't afford to lose you also." I smiled, forcing the tears to slow. I couldn't fight with watery eyes.

"I will. I love you."

"I love you too," he said before disconnecting. Beside me I saw Nikolai pull a stake out of his boot. I knew he had one goal and it came before anything, even the queen. I wasn't mad at him for that. Infact I wanted to support him.

"Go find her," I said. He turned to me, shocked that I knew his thoughts. "No matter who needs your help just go to her." He nodded. "And Nikolai," he turned to me with a confused look in his eyes. "Get her out of there as soon as you can. Not only for you, but for Dimitri. Get her to safety." Then the house can into view. Windows were smashed and bodies littered the ground. I prayed that a lot of them were Strigoi. It would be stupid to believe none of the were my loved of the corner of my eye I saw Lissa huddled behind a tree with Paul, Zoya, and Katherine, the new baby girl. I sprinted over to them.

"Get these three in the car and join them," I said. She jumped a little. I must have scared her. But she nodded and started to move over there. "Wait," I said putting a hand on her shoulder. "Who is dead?" I hated having to ask Lissa, kind and gentle Lissa, such a gruesome question, but I had too.

"Sonya is who i saw, but there might be more." I almost broke down right then and there. Part of me had hoped that everyone was alive. "And Olena is really injured. She's in the ditch over there. I wanted to hide her." I nodded and pushed her towards the car. I wanted to hug her and tell her how brave she was, but there was no time. I ran over to the ditch and pulled out Olena. She had a huge hole in her neck and her arm was at a weird angle. I carried her to the car. Either she was unconscious or really good at hiding pain because I knew her injuries had to hurt like hell. I lifted her into the front seat. It would have been better in the back, but I couldn't let her grandchildren sit next to her when she was like this. Suddenly I saw Karoline being rushed out of the house by Eddie. He gave me a grave look before running back inside. I helped her into the car and then ran over to Lissa in the drivers seat.

"Get out of here," I told her. "When you are far enough away can you heal Olena?" She nodded and I turned around. We had a ton of guardians who could handle this, but there would still be loses. And who knows who had been lost before us reinforcements had showed up.