Rose's POV

There was blood everywhere, on my hands, my feet, my clothes. Smoke rose from the ruins around me. Pale corpses filled my vision, their unseeing eyes cast toward the heavens as if asking why. It smelled like death.

"Pretty little picture, isn't it?" Asked a deep honey voice, a voice that had been haunting my dreams for too long. I turned, and he was there. This time, he wasn't blurry. His eyes were the same crimson that marked all Strigoi. His lips were full and twisted into a smirk. His cheeks were angular, sharp, and he had curls the color of gold. He was as pale as Lissa.

With a wave of his hand, the image of carnage vanished, replaced by a picture of the school grounds. "Nothing to say, Little Dhampir?"

"What happened?" I whispered, eyes wide. The man sauntered toward me, his walk predatory and confident. My instincts were telling me to move away from him, but I held my ground. Sometimes my stubbornness got the best of me.

"You're in a coma."

"Oh jesus. I feel like I'm trapped in a fucking soap opera." I muttered, eyes intent on the Strigoi. I didn't know the extent of his power over me in this dream world, but I was going to be ready if an attack came.

"Hardly." He sniffed disdainfully. "I had to put you to sleep. You're easier to take this way, Rose."

"You can't get on campus." He smiled, fangs gleaming in the artificial sunlight.

"You don't sound all that sure, Ms. Hathaway." He began to circle like a shark that scents blood.

"We have wards."

"Yes." He walked behind me. I turned and kept my hands at my sides. "But wards can be taken down."

"Good luck. Some of the top guardians are stationed at the school."

"Borya, Dash, Tekiv, Hathaway, Belikov, and so many more." His voice was only a whisper. "Borya may be strong, but he's not fast enough. Dash is distracted by his wounded charged. Tekiv is wounded himself. Hathaway is out of the picture for the moment. And Belikov," his grin was malicious, "well, he's too distracted to even think straight. The rest will fall without proper leadership."

"You underestimate them."

"Rose, many of my followers are turned dhampirs. They think like you do, they strategize how you strategize. The only difference is that they are faster, stronger, and better." I felt my heart speed slightly in my chest. He had a point. The turned dhampirs were taught the same way as I had been. They knew how to fight, how I would attack. But they had unnatural strength and speed. "You will be like them someday, Rose. You will revel in your strength and freedom. It's all a matter of time, my dear."

"That'll never happen. I'll kill myself before I become a Strigoi." He laughed a cold mirthless laugh. He seemed hollow, merely a shell.

"Which is why I have you in this sleep."

"How?" I took a step towards him, fists clenching. "How can you do any of this? Stigoi shouldn't be able to-"

"I draw all kinds of beings with multitudes of talents. I borrow their talents sometimes." That made even less sense. How could he borrow talents?

"I don't understand." He was in front of me, holding my face between his cold soft hands. His grip on me was light but he looked as if he was trying to hold me tighter. Something was preventing him.

"It's too complicated." He looked over my features with a creepy sort of fascination. "But I do control your surroundings, Rose Hathaway. I can make you see anything I wish. I can make you watch Lissa's death, your mother's death, Dimitri's…Or I can show you how your life with me will be." I could feel his breath against my face. It smelled like peppermint. "I own you."

Lissa's POV

Her dark skin was weirdly pale. The white bandage across her neck was slightly tinged with red. She'd barely stopped bleeding. Dimitri sat at her bedside, eyes never leaving her. He really cared about her. He was a good instructor.

"Lissa, the feeders are here." Christian informed me softly, touching my shoulder. His touch sent a wave of reassurance through me.

"I'm not hungry."

"You have dark circles under your eyes." It wasn't because I was weak, only because I could not sleep without nightmares. The man with the cold hollow voice spoke to me every night.

"I don't want to leave Rose, Christian. I want to be here when she wakes up." I could tell he wanted to argue, but he didn't. I felt bad I was troubling him. He always seemed to be worried about me. Him and Rose both.

"The nurses said she stabilized. Her hearts beating, she's breathing regularly, she's just…asleep." He held my hand in between each of his and brought it to his red lips.

"I don't understand what happened to her. I talked to Dimitri. And what little he did say, it sounded as if the wound just appeared." I spoke rapidly, my nerves bouncing around in my body. A dark wave of depression had settled over me, despair weaving around me. I needed Rose.

"Just appeared?" Adrian's voice sounded behind us. Christian and I turned. "What do you mean 'just appeared'?" He demanded, eyes looking a little frantic. He didn't smell like his usual mixture of fine cologne and alcohol. In fact, his eyes looked haze free.

"I-I don't know. No one does." I stuttered, taken aback by his intensity.

"Not even Belikov?"

"No one, Adrian. She just fell over and…" I felt tears sting my eyes and I cleared my throat. I transferred my gaze back to my best friend's dormant form. "I can't help but think…He did it, somehow. That everything was His doing."

"Dream Man?" Adrian asked. I nodded.

"And the explosions on campus, the ones taking out Kirova's office and the conference room…coinciding with Rose's attack…it can't all be a coincidence." A sigh escaped Rose's lips and all attention turned back to her. Her eyes moved under her eyelids. Her fists clenched and unclenched. She looked…distraught. Nervousness flooded my person. For some reason, I didn't feel like she was alone in her head.

A stirring on the cot beside her broke my trance-like focus on Rose. Her mother was waking up.

Janine Hathaway's bleary green eyes shot open. She got up slowly, her short cropped red hair falling into her freckled face. She looked somewhat disoriented as the machines attached to her started to beep. She frowned as she looked around. Her hand felt at her neck and a flash of realization danced across her features. And then her eyes settled on me. I shifted uncomfortably as I looked towards her daughter.

"Lissa, what are-" She stopped as she followed my line of sight. My heart clenched in sympathy as pain appeared in Janine's face. She immediately stood, the wires attached to her ripping from her body. The machines began to flat line.

Janine moved beside her daughter, sparing a glance toward Dimitri. "What happened?" When she spoke, her voice was deep and clear. "Was there an attack?" Janine's hands hesitated as she reached out to touch Rose. Instead, she kept her hands fisted at her sides.

"We don't really know. She just…fell." All of the infirmary seemed to be fixed upon us. Janine was dead still, eyes on Rose's face.

"Her neck?" No one answered. We didn't know how to. She hadn't fallen on anything, hadn't been actually attacked, but yet her neck had been mauled.

"We don't know." Dimitri answered, low and angry. There was a darkness to his tone that promised violence. He was scary.

Janine sat back in a chair and ran her steady hands over her paled face. She kept them at her mouth.

I wanted to ask if she was okay, but I didn't know how. I'd been friends with Rose for so long, but I didn't know how to deal with her mother.

Suddenly, Headmistress Kirova was behind me, her eyes on Janine. "Guardian Hathaway. You're awake." Janine stood slowly, angling her body so she was facing both Rose and the Headmistress.

"My charge…is-"

"He's fine, Janine." Headmistress answered. Janine nodded and looked back to Rose. "She is stable as well." The room lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. "There is a briefing, in the conference room. We need you, Dimitri." Dimitri looked up, his black eyes piercing. I shivered.

He said nothing as he stood, fists at his side. His dark eyes were slightly bloodshot, his lips pressed into an extremely tight line. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but he reached out a finger and brushed Rose's skin, a look of soft worry crossing his dark face.

"Belikov." Headmistress said in a distinctly authoritative voice. The muscles in Dimitri back stiffened as he straightened to his full height. Without another word, he strode from the room, his footsteps soundless against the linoleum. "Janine." Headmistress nodded her head. "I assume you'd like to stay here with her." She was addressing Janine, who stood deathly still over Rose. Janine only nodded.

Headmistress's gaze transferred to Christian, Adrian, and me. "We're having a school assembly in about an hour. I would like each of you there, including you, Adrian." When she saw my hesitation, she added, "I know it's hard to be away from her. But it's important for you to be there not only for the other students, but to hear the information we've gathered. It's for your safety as well." I nodded after a while. I didn't want to leave Rose, but I needed to know what was going on.

"Okay." My soft voice was even more subdued. "We'll be there." Christian reached his hand over mine. His touch sent a wave of warmth through me.

"Thank you." Headmistress left us then, the room more solemn than anything. The room stayed quiet long after Headmistress left. No one had anything to say. Rose stayed still, her dark hair spread like a halo around the white sheets.

And then, when we were getting ready to leave, Rose's lips parted and she whispered, so distinctly I'm sure everyone heard her, "Save me."