Chapter 10

Well it seems I finished typing up this chapter before I posted up the last one, I had the last one for a month, but I didn't have internet access for that month. Sooner than expected, but why wait?

Enjoy

Disclaimer: don't own VA, Richelle Mead does! But I do own Raphael, Annabelle, Nicole and Alex … if my sister does not find them first.

I stood there staring at Alberta in shock before Raph squeezed my arm and hissed, 'Snap out of it! Someone is going to notice soon!' which jolted me out of my shock quickly.

'I'll take that as a compliment, thank you Alberta. Could you tell me more about this person when we return to the academy? She reminds me of someone I used to know.' I told Alberta. Alberta agreed and we quickly filed into the SUV and left for the mall. We had chosen a different mall this time, one slightly closer to the academy for a quicker escape if the strigoi attacked again. Which would have been unlikely, but with my luck you'll never know.

As we entered the mall, Adrian called out, 'Little Dhampir, don't pick anything out for the ball, remember I'll be choosing your outfit for you.'

I gave Lissa an I-told-you-so look before agreeing to Adrian. I did not need the extra stress from trying to get new clothing that looked like it would fit what I looked like in the glamour I put up. So I had all my work cut out for me. A couple of guardians had followed us from the academy, I would have been surprised if they did not as we had 3 royal moroi and 1 non-royal moroi together, scouted around the first couple of shops and gave us the go ahead before checking the rest of the mall out leaving four guardians watching from afar, the academy really was not taking any chances this time.

We split up so Mia, Annabelle, Lissa, Alberta, two of the far guardians and I went one way while Adrian, Christian, Mason, Eddie, Dimitri and the other two far guardians went the other way. We (the girls) went into the first shop we saw that had a dress that caught one of our eyes, we did this at least nine times before Lissa found her perfect dress.

It was a jade green dress that matched her eyes beautifully, it came to rest on the floor and was strapless. There were golden designs on the top of the dress, the designs becoming lighter the lower you look until there aren't any designs anymore. The dress bunched up at the sides.

Once Lissa found her dress, I figured we would not have a lot of time left in the mall, I walked up to Alberta and said, 'Hey Alberta, would you mind if I went out to look for something on my own?'

'No, I won't mind, Rose, just be careful and meet us in the food court in about an hour okay?'

'Sure Alberta' I shouted back as I walked away from her, now thankful for my bank account.

'So what are you going to do?' Raph asked from my arm. I jumped I had forgotten about him.

'For what' I answered

'Don't you think your friend would notice if you suddenly look like what you normally look like? What are you going to do about that? '

'They will notice, I'll change the glamour everyday so my features will change slowly except for my height, I'll spread that over a week because I need to get used to it.'

'Then what are you going to do if you are fighting and you can't keep your glamour up?'Raph asked, making a good point.

'I'll do what I have to do,' I sighed in reply. Raphael went silent. I finished my shopping with five minutes to spare, which I used to change into some new clothes and send the rest of the clothes to my dorm room before meeting the others in the Food Court. I rearranged my glamour so I would look a bit different.

'Where did you go, Rose? You just disappeared and Guardian Petrov just said that you needed to get something done,' Lissa said as soon as I approached the tables they were taking up.

'Oh, I just went to the other side of the mall to pick somethings up' I said vaguely, 'so have we finished shopping?'

'Yes,' everyone said, I nodded and sat between Lissa and Mia.

'Okay, now that everyone is here. We will be going to the academy after we eat and you will have an hour to get yourselves sorted before curfew. Are we clear?' Alberta said standing up as I sat down.

There were various nods in response and Alberta sat down again just as the food arrived. This time it was burgers and chips, I wolfed down my burger and was discreetly giving Raphael some chips. I don't think anyone noticed but Alberta looked at me and frowned before turning around again. When we were done, we through our rubbish in the bin then walked to the SUVs.

'Rose, we've got company' Raphael said in my ear just as the nausea hit me.

'Not again,' I groaned

'What's wrong Rose,' Alberta asked

'The strigoi are back for Round 2,' I said and the first strigoi came in sight.

There were around 15 strigoi this time, they did not move to attack but the guardians and novices surrounded the moroi anyway. The first strigoi caught sight of me.

'Ah we meet once again Rosemarie or should I say Princess Emrys' he said. I could feel the gazes of my friends and the guardians burning into my back.

'I don't know what you are talking about' I said calmly.

'Do not lie, princess. All strigoi recognize your scent,' the strigoi sneered. 'Especially after your kind come into their maturity.'

'You lie.'

'So you do admit to being the princess.' The strigoi snarled.

'No I don't,' I denied, breaking out of formation. 'I am Rosemarie Hathaway, shadow kissed of Vasilisa Dragomir.' The strigoi's snarl widened.

'If that's how you want to play it, our master wants you anyway.'

The strigoi surrounded me, then attacked. This pissed me off, 15 strigoi vs me a single novice. I sent a couple of fire balls at the closest five strigoi, leaving me with 10 strigoi to fight. The guardians began trying to help me but I yelled at them to get the moroi into the SUV, they hesitated for a second before doing as I asked. I could hear Adrian demand to be let go, Christian's, Mia's and the novices' shouts that they could help and Lissa just screaming my name. Once every novice and moroi was in the SUV the guardians surrounded the SUV, knowing they could not leave yet.

Noticing I was distracted, the strigoi attacked me again. I was barely able to block the punches and kicks aimed my way. I saw an opening and staked five of the remaining strigoi in the same way shaking my head. The remaining strigoi watched me warily, and surrounded me in a loose circle. More strigoi came out of the woods and soon I was surrounded by about 50 strigoi.

'Shit,' I muttered

Now I could hear Alberta screaming for me to get out of there on top of my friends' screams, thankfully I was far enough that it couldn't damage my eardrums.

I just smirked. I jumped over the strigoi closest to the guardians with the help of the element air. I surrounded the strigoi with flames that went high into the air (I had to prevent the humans from noticing first of course, don't you think they would notice a two storey high circle of flames?). The strigoi that tried to jump through the flames just came out the other side as ashes. I slowly made the circle of fire smaller and smaller until there was nothing left, destroying all of the strigoi, leaving ashes in its wake.

Once the circle of fire was gone, my legs collapsed underneath me and I was gasping for breath, I had never used so much power or focused so hard before. Alberta and Dimitri came up to me and carried me into the SUV. The guardians were still eying me warily, but I took no notice of them.

'Rose! Are you okay? I was so scared! Don't you ever do that again!' Lissa said, healing my bruises as she talked.

'Well Rose, you are officially the new pyromaniac after that one,' Christian said, but I saw a hint of concern in his Ozera blue eyes.

'Wow Little Dhampir. You had me worried when you were surrounded by all those strigoi, but you just burned your way through – pun intended,' Adrian said shooting me a smile.

'Rose, are you okay?' Alberta asked from upfront.

'Yeah, all in one piece, just a bit tired.'

'Okay, please let Rose rest today, I'm sure she will answer all your questions tomorrow and Rose, get some rest. I'll tell you about Anastasia tomorrow, okay?' Alberta said firmly. I just nodded and fell asleep with my head on Lissa's lap and my legs on Mason's lap with Lissa playing with my hair.

A/N:

Well thank you to all those reviewers, some good ideas and moral support coming through, though reading back on my first few chapters they seem almost, dare I say it, … childish? Oh well, I'll replace those chapters at some point in time.

Thank you for reading

Hilary (no and not for reading 'Hilary')