Hi guys, please don't kill me, i bring the gift of a new chapter for the new year! Oh, while I remember, I was just rereading some of the reviews (always makes me feel better) and noticed one about the tarot card website; I've put the link on my profile. There is a poll there, so if you have an opinion, feel free to vote, or if you have another idea, just message me, I'm always gunna reply, whether you like it or not.

Enjoy the new improved chapter 10! Yey, double figures

RPOV

I read the names again and again, making sure I had read it right. Yes, both still there Edward Castile and Dimitri Belikov both there, both missing. To be happy about your lover and best friend being missing really said something about the situation, but right now, I'd take missing over dead any day. Now that I knew they were safe, I looked over the list again, seeing if I recognized any other names. The list was short, maybe only twelve or thirteen. I saw several names that anyone who had taken Guardian theory would recognize; some were in my curriculum, some were legends. One name I recognized was one hell of a shock. "Stan Alto" I said aloud, not entirely meaning to. Apparently it had sounded like a question, as Alberta answered. "Yes, Rose. Somewhere in between giving you detentions and telling you off, he still found time to be a Guardian." It was meant to be a joke; however the humor lacked in her voice. I sat in the chair opposite her, looking at the list again. "We have to get them back." I said fiercely, lifting my eyes to meet Alberta's older, wiser ones. "Rose –" she started, but I could tell by the look in her eyes and the apologetic tone in her voice what she was going to say. I cut her off, not wanting to hear her say that we couldn't. "Not just because of Dimitri, or Eddie, but because we have lost too many Guardians to lose anymore, and these," I said, pointing to the list in my hands, "are some of the best Guardians we have, you know that. Even Stan." I conceded. Alberta smiled slightly at the last part, but then sighed. "I agree with you Rose, but we have one big problem you have overlooked; we don't know where they have been taken."

I realized she was right, it hadn't occurred to me. With my jump in now, think about it later attitude – I'd gotten better at impulse control, but it seems some things never change – I hadn't even considered it. Thinking back to the attack on the school was something I avoided at all costs, but now, I realized that that held the answer to all of this. Back then I had been able to ask Mason where they were. Thinking of Mason always made me feel a pang of pain, but today it was amplified when I realized I couldn't ask the dead for help anymore, I had no way of finding out where they were. My ties with the world of the dead were severed when I had been shot, and I brought myself back without the help of spirit. This meant no more bond, and no more of the 'I see dead people' routine. At the time it had seemed annoying, being crowded by the faces of the dead every time I felt the wards, not to mention the splitting headache. Seems the phrase 'you never know what you've got until it's gone' was appropriate.

Then, just like that, it came to me; there was someone who could help. I looked at Alberta, who had apparently been sat patiently while I was thinking. "No, we don't, but I think I know who might." I said, and with that, I got up, thanked Alberta and left to go to the one person who might be able to help me.

"Rose, what a surprise. For a nonbeliever I certainly see you allot." Said Rhonda, looking up from her cards she had been shuffling. The room was exactly how I remembered it; all plush and crimson cushions and heady incense. "Why is it such a surprise, shouldn't you know I was coming?" I knew I was wasting time, but I couldn't help myself. No matter how many times I said things like that to her, she was never offended. Today she simply ignored me. "Did you look at your card?" she asked me. "Erm, no. But that's not what I'm here to talk to you about." I tell her, becoming very conscious of the time, and how little I had; every minute that went past made it more and more likely someone was dead. I was not going to let that happen. Rhonda seemed oblivious to this and stood up, turning to put her cards away. "Regardless, my dear. If you didn't open, surely you have suspended your suspicions about me. Now come sit so we can find these Guardians." She said, turning to me holding a big map that looked like it could be of the entire state. Her face was completely serious, but there was an amused look in her eyes, most probably from my reaction. She sat down opposite me, setting the map down on the table and smoothing it out. "What do I do?" I asked her, watching her taking a crystal that hung round her neck off and hold it out, tangling from the chain, swinging slightly like a pendulum. She watched it too, waiting for it to still. When it did she turned to me. "You could think of him, strengthen the connection between you. That will make them easier to find. Close your eyes and concentrate." I did as she said, and thought of Dimitri. It wasn't hard to do; he was always occupying space in my mind. I could see him in my mind's eye; his handsome face, eyes the color of melted chocolate that could say a thousand words in a single glance and express more emotions then I thought possible. I saw his body, which looked like it had been carved out of marble by an ancient Roman sculptor. His strong arms that kept me safe, his sculpted abs. I was pulled out of my mental gawking by Rhonda clearing her throat. "Nothing inappropriate Rose, that won't help." She told me and I could hear the amusement in her voice. I decided to stick to the neck up from that point on, concentrating on the way he made me feel as opposed to how he felt. It may have been minutes, it may have been hours we sat there, but eventually I heard a thud. I opened my eyes to see Rhonda smiling. I looked down at the map to see what had happened. The crystal had dropped onto the map but wasn't lying flat. It was balanced on the spike and the chain was slack, so it wasn't being held up. I looked closer, trying to read what it said in the dim light of the room. "We found them?" I asked, disbelievingly. "Yes," Rhonda said, "we found them."

DPOV

Although I hadn't opened my eyes yet, I knew a few things for certain. One; I had woken up in a completely different place to the one I had been knocked out in; my guess, I was in a basement somewhere, judging from the smell of damp and the dull dripping sound. And two; I wasn't alone in there; I could hear someone moving, then a sharp intake of breath, which sounded to be in pain. Another thing I knew for certain was that I had a skull splitting headache that rivalled any a bottle of Russian vodka had ever given me. As my brain started to wake up, and I remembered what had taken place before I had been knocked over the head; ergo the killer headache, I realised what was happening and why the hell I was in a basement; I, and whoever else was in here with me, had been captured.

All of this I realised in a matter of seconds and, as I opened my eyes, I saw that I was, sadly, right in my estimations. As my eyes focused in the dark room, I could make out dripping pipes above us, spanning the expanse of the huge room, looking to stretch the entire floor space of a small house. The walls were unpainted plaster which, in the lack of light, took on a blueish grey color. There was a door at the top of some hardwood steps; the only exit. There were no other doors, no windows. I also saw several other people in a similar state as my, on the floor around the room, hands tied behind their backs in flexi-cuffs, and feet and knees bound in rope, for all intents and purposes immobilising us; these bastards knew what they were doing. I didn't often think much about the perks of being a dhampir over a human, but right now, I was thanking God for our acute eyesight, which was enabling me to not only see in what almost complete darkness, but also be able to tell who the people where. Stan Alto sat up against the wall to my left, breathing ragged. Hans was also to my left, but lay unconscious on the floor. Eddie sat to my right, on the far side of the room. He looked in a bad way; battered and bruised with a bleeding lip, but alive and conscious. There were four others around the room. Three of which I didn't know very well, the other lay facing the wall, so I couldn't decipher who it was. Eight of us. Out of all of the Guardians that had been there, and the reinforcements that had been sent afterwards, there were seemingly eight of us left alive; a depressing thought.

From above, we heard movement, footsteps, voices. Everyone who was awake tensed and looked towards where the noise was coming from. Second later, light burst from the doorway and a pair of feet appeared at the top. As the person descended the stairs, a wave of fear came over me. I'm not entirely sure how I knew; maybe because of the unfaltering grace in their gait, but I knew they didn't belong in the world of the living; they were Strogoi.

A tidal wave of memories which had before been forgotten came rushing back, threatening to take me under, but I couldn't let it. I fought against them, knowing I had to concentrate on the present. Five Strogoi descended the stairs, followed by several human henchmen, for want of a better word. One brought with him a metal fold out chair, dumping it in the middle of the room before saying "Which is the one the boss wants?" those words caused me to internally shiver, but not at much as the next ones. They came from a Strogoi who was searching the faces of the people tied up on the floor. He turned to me, his eyes meeting mine. He smiled, but there was no emotion behind it, then, he inclined his head towards me and said "Him." Before I could react, the humans approached me; one kicking me in the stomach hard enough to take the breathe; and fight along with it, out of me for a few seconds, long enough for them to wrestle me into the chair and secure me tightly to it. The Strogoi came to stand directly in front of me, bending at the waist so that he was at eye level with me. "Well well, seems the rumours are true, and you were so powerful when you were in our world. Such a big fall back down into the gutter". The condescending tone in his voice annoyed me no end, there were no words to describe my hatred of him and his entire race at that point. I spat in his face, making him recoil, then stand straight, wiping his face with the back of his hand. He looked back down at me, with a hatred which matched my own in his crimson eyes. Without warning, he lifted his hand, and struck me across the face with the back of it; hard. It made the world spin, and the metallic taste of blood erupted in my mouth. I spat the blood out and slowly turned back to face him. His hand rose again, to strike me again, but was stopped by another hand catching his arm and throwing him to the side. "You were told not to do anything until I arrived, Marcus. You will pay for your disobedience." And with an incline of the other Strogoi's hand, he was dragged up the stairs by two of the Strogoi who had entered with him. The one who had spoken last turned to me, and I saw in reality the face which had been haunting my dreams. Nathan, the blonde haired Strogoi who had taken my life from me. "Ahh Dimitri, it has been too long. Such a shame we parted on such bad terms don't you think? I know what you're thinking, 'How?' Well, you know as well as me that newly awakened Strogoi are uncoordinated, sloppy. It is your own fault for doing a thorough enough job of making sure I was dead, and now, looks like the tables have turned on you." He paced in front of me as he spoke, occasionally gesturing his hand in a flippant manner. "So, now we have a chance to catch up, how is Rose? I've heard how... close you to are." At the mention of Rose's name, my blood boiled "Don't you go near her Nathan, you son of a bitch." I said in a menacing, low voice what I didn't fully recognise as my own, leaning forward in my restraints as far as possible. Everyone else in the room backed off a little, the person my threat was aimed at, however, didn't seem as fazed. "Oh, but i don't need to, she'll do the legwork for me. She's so blinded by love; she would walk through the gates of hell and not notice the temperature difference." He said the word love like it burned him to say it, like it caused him pain. Though I hated to admit it, I knew he was right; besides, Rose had gone half way around the world to get me when I was an undead monster, I knew she would be coming for us know, as I would for her. He had stopped pacing and was now looking at me intently. "Yes, you know I'm right. So," he said, clapping his hands in front of him "we wait for your lovely Rose to walk right into the Lion's Den." With those final words, Nathan, along with the rest of his entourage, left, closing the door behind them and plunging the room into darkness once again, and leaving me with a sea of thoughts to wade through.

RPOV

When I got back to Alberta, with a slightly out of breath Rhonda in tow, Alberta only paused for a second to ask me if I was sure. I told her yes, and she looked me in the eye for a few seconds, as if to check I wasn't crazy. Apparently satisfied with my mental state, she told me to meet her in the meeting room in twenty minutes. Waiting made me want to scream; I ached to just leave and get them back on my own and not think about the consiquences, but I knew it wouldn't work; I'd get us all killed, a little counterproductive to say the least. So, I settled onto one of the benches which lined the walls of the hallway which led into the meeting room, and allowed my mind to wonder. Unfortunately, the road my mind decided to take was dark, reminding me that the last time I had been in this situation; with Eddie captured then Dimitri, He was taken from me, his soul stolen from him and replaced with a dark, evil ideology that nearly had him lost to me forever. Plus, I lost my best friend. I decided I would not let history repeat itself further. I focused back on the present, just in time to see Alberta walking towards me, with several other high ranked guardians. Among them stood my mother, who I hadn't seen for a few weeks; I didn't even know she was back at court; so much for a resurrected mother-daughter bond. I entered the room after them and closed the door behind me.

It took us only twenty minutes to create a plan, decide on tactics and teams, and cover the logistics. "We still need to get permission from the Queen." said my mother. I was still looking down at the map of the area around where the crystal had fallen – We were able to figure out that only one of the buildings there had I basement and from personal experience, I knew that was where they would be – but I knew that she was looking at me. I looked into her eyes. "I'll talk to her. She'll understand." I said, and then left the room, walking quickly to her quarters; I burst through the door and explained the whole plan to her. When I paused for a breath, the look in her eyes confused me; she looked so sad. "Lisa, what is it?" she opened her mouth to speak, then paused, as if rethinking, then tried again. "I'm so sorry Rose, but I- I can't let you do this, I won't lose you, not again. I couldn't bare it." She was on the brink of tears, but at that point, I didn't care, I couldn't believe she, out of everyone, was saying this. Although I had built a lot of self control, some things never change; I lost it "And I can't lose him Lisa. I thought you understood that, after everything, after everything that has happened! You really think that I am going to just leave him to die? I have been to hell and back for Dimitri, and I would do it again a million times for him. With or without your blessing." I was shouting by the latter half of my outburst and tears had started to fall down both mine and Lisa's faces. We looked at each other, each pleading with the other to listen. "Lisa," A surprisingly gentle, calming voice came from the couch behind her; Christian, "She will fight for him whatever you say, but she is more likely to come back if you let her go with the backup of the other guardians." Christian – who I hadn't noticed before – being the voice of reason was one hell of shock, but he got through to her. Lisa dropped her head, looking at the floor, and nodded. I ran to her and threw my arms around her. I looked over her shoulder and nodded my head to him, as way of thanks. He mirrored the action and gave me a cocky half smile. I walked out of the door soon after, closing the door after me and leaning against it. I closed my eyes. "Hold on Dimitri, I'm coming for you" I said to no one in particular, then set off to save the man I loved from a recurring fate. One which I would end – Tonight.