disclaimer: We do not own Richelle Mead's world or characters

Christian's POV:

There was definitely more than a dozen by the time Sonya had led us back to Mikhail.

He was fighting three at once. There was more than a dozen. There had to be fifty. A hundred. Maybe more. It was a mob.

I made a fireball and threw it at the nearest one.

"Oh my god," Sonya said beside me. I glanced at her. Her face had paled.

Her arms were crossed; her hands squeezed her elbows.

When I turned back, Dimitri was already between Mikhail and one of the strigoi. Within seconds, there was a stake through his heart.

"Christian!" Sonya called. I turned.

There was a strigoi between us. His back was too me, and he was approaching her.

Her face was pure terror.

"Hey!"

The guy turned. His red eyes settled on me, but they were obscured by stringy yellow hair. I made another fireball.

I threw it, and the strigoi went up in flames. Sonya cried out in surprise. It was a sudden brightness, a deep contrast to the darkness only broken by a single streetlamp.

I spun back around and scanned what was going on. Eddie was fighting one strigoi, and not doing as well as usual by the looks of it. Dimitri was now in a fight against two. Mikhail had killed the first two strigoi there and was onto another. I went to help Dimitri and tossed fire at one of them. Then the one behind him.

At this rate if there were so many, we wouldn't be able to stop them. They'd get further into court, and-

Lissa.

"Dimitri!" I yelled over the noise of fighting and screaming strigoi. "What about Lissa? The press conference!"

He said something in Russian I didn't understand, probably a swear, and stabbed his stake through the strigoi's heart. He looked at me for a split second before moving onto the next one.

"Call Rose. Tell her."

"I don't have my phone. When I left our room, I didn't think this was going to be happening."

"Take— " The strigoi swung at him. He ducked and sliced it's lower leg with the stake. "Take mine."

A strigoi ran at me and I through a fireball at it.

Dimitri pulled the phone from his pocket, through it to me, and kicked the strigoi in the chest.

I caught the phone and called her.

"Get Sonya back to the palace!" He stabbed another strigoi.

I nodded, pressed the phone to my ear, and ran for Sonya, who was standing, frozen, in the sidelines. "C'mon. We're going back to the palace."

The phone was ringing.

We started our way there, walking as quickly as we could. Within one ring we were far enough away that I was convinced the strigoi weren't going to go after us. Sonya kept glancing back after I'd stopped, though.

"What, Dimitri?" She sounded annoyed.

"It's Christian. Dimitri gave me his phone to call."

"What's going on?"

"Christian," Sonya whispered to me. I turned my head. There was a strigoi running toward us.

"Strigoi," I said.

I formed a fireball, but before I could throw it, I tripped on something on the street and fell. The phone slipped from my hand.

"Christian!" Sonya exclaimed.

"Keep going," I said and formed another fireball. Another strigoi had noticed us, and came up behind the first, starting a monkey see, monkey do line.

I formed a second fireball in my other hand and threw them both, at the same time as I tried to stand.

I turned back to Sonya to make sure she'd listened. She was already a little bit away.

A hand grabbed my neck.

Sydney's POV:

I was sitting with my knees pulled to my chin. It seemed I was sitting that way a lot lately. This time was on the kitchen floor with my back pressed against the cabinets.

Adrian knelt in front of me, his eyes sad for me, his hand pressed to the floor.

Jill stood in the entrance of the kitchen. She also watched me with sad eyes, but her arms were crossed, her posture slightly protected. Jill rarely ever looked this guarded, at least since I'd seen her last. What had happened since I'd left?

The door opened in the other room again, and Jill stuck her head out. I huddled closer as a small, barely noticeable breeze tickled my cheek.

"Sonya? What's wrong?" Jill said.

Sonya appeared in the doorway at the same time Adrian turned his head, leaning to one side and blocking my view.

"There are definitely more than a dozen," she said. "There's more now. I don't know how they're getting in, but there's so many..."

Adrian stood and walked over to her. Finally I could see what was happening. Jill's fingertips rested against Sonya's arm, probably to comfort her. Sonya's eyes were frantic, her skin paler than even a moroi's should be. Her eyes were wet, but she wasn't crying.

"I don't know if they can handle them. Christian called Rose, but she's handling everyone at the press conference."

"Well, we can't do anything," Adrian said.

"Exactly."

This was the palace. If they had come to the moroi royal court, there had to be a plausible reason.

And usually a reason for attacking the royal court is to attack the queen.

Who would live here?

"They're probably coming here," Jill said, catching on.

"I guess we hide then." Adrian said.

"Where?" said Jill. "What's the safest place in a palace?"

Adrian snorted. "Wherever the guardians are. And they're all gone."

They thought for a minute. I considered as well, though I wasn't sure that I'd be able to voice my opinion either way.

"Bathroom?" Sonya said. "In a hurricane, aren't you supposed to hide in a bathtub?"

Adrian looked skeptical. "What does that have to do with this?"

"I don't know, but it's the best we've got," Jill said. "Come on."

Adrian went to help me up, but I stood on my own. The bathroom? There was only one way out of a bathroom, and there was no where to hide but behind the shower curtain, which wasn't exactly genius hiding.

I didn't know where to go, but I figured away from the door was the best option, and somewhere with good hiding places.

With brisk strides, I left the kitchen and went the opposite way from the living room.

"Where are you going?" Adrian said. I kept walking.

There was a staircase on my left and slightly in front of me. My first thought was that we'd be trapped up there. But I didn't know if there was a door outside anywhere else on this floor, so my second thought was that we'd be further away from places they could get in.

I weighed the options as my foot landed in the area in front of the open panel.

Either we can get out to the other blood sucking monsters, or we're harder to fine.

Either we're closer to the oncoming blood sucking monsters and they could come in at any time, or we are harder to access.

I turned and ran up the stairs.

Figuring the higher I went, the more likely there was to be a fire escape or something else we could get away through if completely necessary, I didn't stop at the second floor, or the third floor.

I didn't know how high this building was, but I seemed to be running a long time, three sets of footsteps sounding too loud behind me, before I reached the end of the stairwell and almost ran into the door there, closed in the shadows.

I turned the handle, and discovered that it was unlocked. It was an attic. The walls were lined with crates and cardboard boxes of varying sizes and a single window the size of my torso let in a draft from the other side of the room. Underneath it was a window-seat. It looked comfortable, but it must be freezing in the winter.

I went to it and knelt on it's cushion. I had to look out the small part of the opening to see out, but when I did see, I was glad there was barely any chance someone could see in.

There were strigoi all over. Some were in concentrated groups, and some were alone, but there had to be at least one within ten feet of every building.

Adrian looked out too, swore, and whispered, "We better find a place to hide before one decides to check the most important building here.

I nodded and turned to look around. Among the crates and boxes, I saw an old dresser, a wooden chest, and a coat rack. For a fleeting moment, I wondered when the last time anyone had been in here. But Sonya had already found a snug spot behind some boxes in the corner closest to the entrance. I went to the dresser. One of the drawers was actually open, and when I went around the other side, I found that it had no back panel and crawled in the small space where it would normally be.

I don't know where Adrian or Jill hid, but I hoped it was good. And I hoped I didn't just get us all killed.

For a while, the silence was deafening. The only thing I could hear was my own breathing, which I immediately tried to quiet as much as I could. Of course, that wasn't possible.

I could hear when anyone moved. Someone far away bumped something hollow. Someone else slid something across the floor. I hoped it wasn't skin. The wood seemed old enough to split.

There were no strigoi, at least not yet. I remembered being young and playing hide and seek with my sisters and my mom when dad was away on business. When my heart was pounding thinking that Carly would find me first and I'd lose despite being the only one to think to hide in the linen closet under the towels, and keep them folded. I practically suffocated before they finally yelled out they gave up and I crawled out, my hair wet from the heat of all those towels on top of me. Yet, it also reminded me of real hiding. The fear I felt in the ditch, Eddie above me; when I was with Rose on the run and spent every day barely a step ahead of those trying to find us, waiting to slip up and for us all to get in huge trouble.

It reminded me of the terror of being moments away from getting found by everything you're running from.

The door opened. I heard it slam against the boxes, but I'd seen them. They were labeled with things like "journals" and "candles". All things that would be fine as long as they were balanced correctly.

The strigoi didn't try to hide their presence. There were three, each heavy footed. By their gate and the weight of their steps, I guessed they were probably male, probably well built. Either that or they'd sent sumo wrestlers to come find us.

I wished my hands would stop shaking, but they didn't.

I wished my breaths would come slower, but they wouldn't.

I wished my heart could be quieter, but it couldn't.

I wished the footsteps weren't getting closer.

"I can hear them," one said. His voice was guttural and raspy.

"We all can, idiot," the other hissed. "You don't have to say it." His voice was just as toxic as the first one, but it had the lilt of an unfamiliar accent. I couldn't place it. European, maybe? I wasn't prepared to concern myself with that right then anyway.

Accent strigoi sounded close.

My need to know won out, and I risked creaking wood with the shifting of my weight by leaning over to look underneath the dresser.

The bottom draw hung down over most of what I could see, but there was movement.

I held my breath.

It wiped off the surface of the dresser. I could hear it. "Why do you think they leave these up here? Great stuff."

"I don't care."

I felt the wall slide behind me. He was tilting it.

I looked up. Accent strigoi sneered down at me. "Looks like everyone really is drawn to a great finish."

I didn't try to run. There was no way I could. His eyes used to be green. They used to be a bright, grass color. I could tell.

He grabbed my by my shirt, and yanked me up. I was going to scream. I wanted to, but he saw it in my eyes, and covered my mouth.

I pulled at his arm, and he just lifted me higher so I was dangling a foot or two away from him, a good foot off the ground. I tried to kick back, but I was too far from him to get any good kicks in.

"Got her?" said guttural strigoi from the other side of the room. I swung my head around and craned my neck over Accent strigoi's shoulder.

The other strigoi wasn't near Sonya. He was across on the other wall, near the window. I hoped Adrian wasn't there. I hoped no one was there, but Adrian was the tallest of us. He would definitely be stuck trying to hide behind something. Jill could fold up small, and Sonya found a good spot. But There was just too much of him.

This was my fault.

My kidnapper didn't bite me like I thought he would. He didn't kill me either. He just brought me to the door. "Remember," he said, "Who we're here for."

I heard a loud crash downstairs, and someone yell our names, his voice hoarse. Accent swore. "I'm going through the window."

"Shut up. I'm trying to listen."

I saw my opportunity. As soon as we were in the vicinity, I kicked up my legs and pushed them against the wall, one foot on each side of the window.

I was suddenly thankful for my casual supplied clothes. No skirt here.

He tried to get me through the window. But I kept locked in this position as best as I could.

A few months ago, this would have been easy. A few months ago, I would have been able to make his head catch flame. I couldn't even remember what to do now. Did I want to?

I just had to wait for a guardian to find us. Except we weren't where they expected us to be, so we weren't where they would look first. We also weren't nearby. Two, maybe three, I didn't count, floors stood between us and safety. I'd been wrong. Distance wasn't the answer. Escape was.

"I got the other one, just put her through head first."

Holding my arms to my side, he did just that.

We were at a dizzying height. Way too high to get a latter up, and certainly too high to jump.

But he did anyway.