Rose's POV
When I woke I felt startled and shook my head. It wasn't possible. It must've been a left over fragment of Adrian's own fantasy. I'd seen Adrian create images before in his dreams so it must've been that.
"Roza?" Dimitri whispered and nuzzled the back of my neck. I moved a little and rolled over so that I faced him.
"I just saw Adrian, they're holding up well and Stan and Alberta are now on our side." I reported to him. "Anything happen while I was asleep?"
"It's been pretty peaceful so I read a book to pass the time."
"Oi Roza! Dimitri! There's a visitor!" I heard Luka holler from outside the house.
"A visitor?" I stared at Dimitri in surprise. "We'll be right out!" I shouted back and hastily got changed. Within minutes I was ready and we ran out of the house. "Where to?"
"Cain has her down at the town hall." Luka told me and the three of us headed to town straight away.
"Good morning Rose." Mark smiled in greeting. "I guess you've heard of our visitor."
"Yeah, do you know anything about it?"
"Her name's Sydney and she's an Alchemist."
"A what?" I stared at him in shock.
"An Alchemist."
"What is that?" I frowned in confusion. I could safely say that I'd never heard of them before.
"Mark, Roza has no knowledge of the Alchemists because she never graduated." Dimitri reminded him before turning to me. "Pupils learn about the Alchemists closer to the time of their graduation. In short, it is the job of the Alchemists to keep the existence of us vampires a secret to the humans."
"They're basically the clear up squad?" I arched my brows in surprise. "And people with chemical magic? That's kind of hard to believe but after everything I've been through, I don't know why I get surprised anymore."
"I have to warn you that Alchemists don't like us much as a general whole."
"They don't like us?"
"They see us as nothing but trouble." Mark sighed.
"Which is probably true if they're our clear up squad." I commented dryly. "Who would want to be a part of the clear up squad for vampires?"
"You do have a point about that," the pair of them agreed.
"How long are you going to confine me in a puny conference room for?" I heard an agitated voice demand as we walked into the room.
"Is there something wrong about this town's conference room?" I asked coolly. "It might not be huge but it's not puny. Good morning Cain." I smiled at him and he flashed a smile back in greeting.
The Alchemist turned to face me and I noticed the way she seemed to scrutinise me for a moment before giving a sigh. "I was hoping that they were joking when they said that they leader of the town was a lousy drop out."
"Lousy?" I demanded. "Who said I was lousy?"
"I just did."
"Listen, I may have been a drop out but I refuse to be titled lousy!" I glared.
"Roza." Dimitri warned.
"To me, all vampires are lousy and drop outs are the worst because they're the ones who cause the most trouble for us and we don't even get paid for our efforts or sufficient protection."
"Alright, let's just cut to the chase since we're obviously not going to like each other. What're you doing here? Do you work for the Queen?"
"I don't work for the Queen and I never will. I'm here to offer my assistance to this town under the orders of my boss."
"Who is your boss?"
"I don't have to tell you but I give you my word that I'm not here to cause trouble or danger to this town," she said sternly.
"I'll have to take your word for it." I sighed. "I'm Rose and this is Dimitri."
"I'm Sydney," she said. She seemed to pause for a moment before speaking again. "Is it true that this was the town where Raisa died?"
I was surprised by her question and looked away before she could see my tears. "Yes. On both occasions." With that said I dashed from the room and put Mark in charge of her. I didn't want to talk to a vampire hater about Riya. I had a feeling that if I stayed there for much longer, a fight would've followed not long after.
Dimitri found me soon after I fled from the room and he found me at Sofia's where I was currently having breakfast.
"Roza? Are you okay?" he asked with a soothing tone.
"Yeah. Sorry, I just thought that it would be better if I left before I pounced on her." I smiled apologetically.
"No, that was a mature decision Roza. Before, you would have definitely jumped on her first. You wouldn't have walked away," he smiled proudly and kissed my cheek in a fond gesture.
I smiled and hugged him tightly around his waist. "Thank you Dimitri."
"Anytime Roza."
"Sorry again for giving your husband the tough job of handling the Alchemist Sofia." I grimaced. "By the way, why did she seem to be so calm even with the Strigoi around?"
"She has actually been here for over three hours already so she has sort of gotten over the initial shock." Sofia explained.
"Why didn't anyone wake me up?" I squealed.
"Because you were asleep and Dimitri threatened to tear Luka apart if he dared tried to wake you up." Sofia smirked and smiled teasingly at Dimitri.
"Dimitri!" I stared at him in shock. "That was something important so you should've woken me up."
"You needed your sleep and I didn't want to cut your dreams short." Dimitri reasoned.
"Thanks for the consideration. But really, next time you should wake me up."
"I will try to remember that," he grinned.
For the next few days I learned what I could about the Alchemists and their connection to vampires. I had always wondered why the normal human newspapers rarely contained news about odd occurrences of massacres. It turns out that Alchemists were on the whole placed in public positions where they could easily alter such news and they were in charge of altering memories of mortals who had seen something and survived. After some further probing, I discovered that Sydney had been the one sent here because of her great skills in gathering information and whoever her boss was had sent her here to help.
Another odd thing that occurred to me was that the boss of the Alchemists wasn't only Tatiana. Apparently there was another mastermind who had power over their actions in the Moroi world but I had yet to find out who that was. No matter how many times I asked Sydney, she wouldn't say.
"Rose!" Sydney called out to me as I walked around town as part of my patrol.
"Sydney? Are you okay? You look a little out of breath? Did something happen?" I asked with concern and my guard immediately shot up.
"No, nothing has invaded the town. But there's something I thought I should let you know. Remember when I said that in order to find out a little more about you, I did my own research?"
"You mean when you said you investigated me?" I scoffed remembering the verbal fight I had with her when she told me that she had completely invaded my privacy and investigated my past. "What about it?"
"Well I just received news that Victor Dashkov is on his way here. Someone has offered him protection and he's on his way here for further protection." Sydney informed me.
"Victor Dashkov?" I felt my blood run cold. "How could that be? He was in prison! No one can break out of that prison!"
"That's what I thought too so I did some digging around and I just found out that he was broken out a couple of weeks back. It turns out that he wasn't the only one either. There were a couple of other people who were broken out from that prison and the mental institute beside it."
"People were taken from the mental institute? Wait what mental institute?" I asked in surprise. I wasn't even aware that there was such a place.
"It's a place where people who've spewed nonsense has gone."
"What kind of nonsense?"
"This town's kind of nonsense. People who believe that there's another way. Of course there are some genuinely brain fried people there as well but the majority of the people there seems to be the ones who've had recollection of encountering sane Strigoi."
"Basically, people who endangered Tatiana's authority?" I frowned.
"Pretty much," she nodded. "What are you going to do? All those people are being sent here Rose."
"Well then I guess we should find places to host them." I sighed.
"What?!"
"We can't turn them away Sydney, they'll have no place to go and this place is a sanctuary for those who go up against Tatiana."
"There are some genuine criminals in that group!" Sydney protested.
"And we have sufficient guards around here to keep them in check." I told her sternly. "Do you have any idea who could've achieved the task of breaking them out?"
Sydney was quiet for a moment before shaking her head. "No, there's no indication of who could've done it. The only thing that I know is that a minimal number of guards were killed, but by morning all the guards were found to be bound to the front gate with handcuffs and they were all somewhat drained of blood. They were drained but not to the point of death."
"Drained… We can only suppose that whoever has sent them here is sort of on our side therefore now we have more reason to make sure the people have a place to stay in this town." I grumbled.
"Sort of on our side? What's that meant to mean?"
"It means that there are others out there who are sane Strigoi and they have more power than I could possibly imagine. They are only on our side because they want this town to survive through this mess. They need witnesses to expose the existence of sane Strigoi."
"How many more of them are there?"
"Honestly? I have no idea." I sighed. "Riya never told but she did hint that there were a fair few. This is why I need Valentine around; she's the only one who knows who we should be able to trust."
"Valentine?"
"Valentine, she's a sane Strigoi."
"Where is she now?"
"She's in charge of gathering allies for this town. She's the only one who knows who Riya's contacts are. So at the moment I have no idea where she is. I haven't heard a single thing from or about her since she left." I explained to her. "So how many are going to join the town?"
"Around a dozen."
"A dozen… damn I don't even know if there's going to be enough room…" I groaned and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. "We're going to have to build even more accommodations. Alright time to get to work again. Thanks for letting me know Sydney." I gave her a smile before dashing around town to gather the necessary people to discuss about building more houses for the newcomers. The town was already becoming a little cramped so it was about time to have to build new ones.
"Rose? What's up? Is there going to be an attack?" Mark asked curiously as he glanced around at the people who were gathered.
"No but Sydney told me that around a dozen people are on their way here."
"A dozen? But… we don't have the room for that!" someone protested.
"Exactly, that's why I got you guys together. We were going to have to build more buildings eventually so I need your expertise for this since I have no personal experience on architecture. Can I leave this job for you guys to sort out? I'll be glad to help out with any manual labour, just let me know what to do. As for the designs, I won't be able to help with anything like that I'm afraid." I explained.
"Well I can certainly see why people would label you a legendary undergraduate guardian," one of them burst out laughing. "Good think Riya found you in the woods kiddo, there's no way we would've been able to cope without you around to order us. Do you know how long we have?"
"Sydney?" I turned to Sydney for the answer.
"You have one week before they arrive. It would be impossible for you to build a house big enough in that time." Sydney rolled her eyes.
"It might be impossible to provide them a house, but it's long enough for us to build a big enough shelter to accommodate them until we finish building something suitable." I shook my head with a grin. "So the first target would be to build a sufficient shelter big enough for a dozen people, the second target would be to build enough houses."
"Roger that!" people chorused and got to work with the designs.
I flexed my shoulders a little and had just stood up to leave the council hall to continue my patrol when I was suddenly drawn into Lissa's mind through our bond.
Through her eyes I tried to survey the area and tried to work out her surroundings. She was in a car at the moment and it seemed that Kirova was driving. They currently seemed to be in an SUV. I had to guess that it was time for that move Kirova had mentioned to them and all I could pick out from Lissa's mind was completely jumbled up thoughts. She didn't really seem to have any idea about where they were going and to top it off she was tired because Christian had kept her up almost all night.
Everything seemed alright but then Lissa's fatigue was smashed out of her. Literally. They were on the motorway on the lanes closest to the woods when all of a sudden something smashed into the side of the SUV forcing the vehicle to roll down the small hill into the dark woods. The force of the hit had her mind reeling and she couldn't help but let out a small scream of shock.
Eventually after what felt like forever the rolling seemed to come to a halt and it took a while for Lissa to get her bearings. Alberta was the first to recover from the shock and she smoothly unfastened her seatbelt and slid out through one of the broken windows to survey the surroundings. Kirova and Stan were next and Kirova called for everyone to get out of the van as quickly as they could.
"Lissa are you okay?" Christian asked with concern clear on his face when he saw that Lissa still hadn't moved to get out. By now she was alone with Christian and everyone else was already outside. Everyone except for Mia who had been sitting on the side that had been hit and she was unconscious. Panic spread through Lissa and she shook away her disorientation and unfastened her seatbelt straight away to help Mia.
"Christian help me get her out, I'm not strong enough to do it," she told him and when she'd unfastened Mia's seatbelt, Christian took hold of her and gently but swiftly lifted her out. Lissa had barely gotten half of her body through the window when a command was directed at her.
"Lissa get back down!" Eddie shouted. Lissa did as she was told and her eyes widened in fear and shock as a body sailed over where she had been a second ago. Watching through the smashed windscreen, she saw the fight that was taking place outside.
There was another crash and two Strigoi landed into the SUV and approached Lissa. I cursed and wished that I was there to protect her. She was my best friend damn it and all I could do was watch and feel how terrified she was at the situation. I couldn't do anything to reassure her because the bond was only one way and no matter how much I wished for it, I couldn't get across to her.
Through the bond I could feel that Lissa's movements were practiced but still somewhat clumsy as she tried to dodge from the grasp of the Strigoi approaching her. She tried her best to put a safe distance between her and her attackers but there was only so much she could do in such a confined space. She knew that the only way would be to get out of the SUV. With that in mind she made sure that her movement was swift and decisive and with one move she tried to throw her body through the smash windscreen. It started to work but when she was halfway through it the Strigoi dragged her back in and she screamed.
"Lissa!" Christian shouted and tried to run to help her but he was blocked off by another Strigoi. There were far too many surrounding them so everyone was occupied.
"Let go of me!" Lissa shouted and threw a blind punch ahead of her. She felt pain ricochet up her arm as the strike connected with a Strigoi's face and she heard the snarl of anger from whoever she'd just hit.
"You bitch, we were only going to bring you in but we'll just settle for killing you instead!" one of them hissed, presumably the one she'd hit. Roughly he grabbed hold of her shoulders then slammed her back down ruthlessly and her head hit the dashboard causing stars to appear in her vision. She vaguely saw him lean down with his fangs out and she could feel his saliva dripping on her neck as he considered the spot that he would bite her.
Lissa struggled as hard as she could in her disorientated state and she screamed.
"Quite the noisy one isn't she?" the other Strigoi chuckled and clamped his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. Fear began to envelop her even more than before and just as she felt the fangs brush her skin, she was suddenly out of the SUV and she could feel a set of arms wrapped around her in a secure hold. The hand that was on her mouth dropped to the ground along with the arm that it belonged to and Lissa yelped in shock and disgust. Glancing back at the SUV, she saw the two Strigoi snarl at her and whoever had just protected her. One of the Strigoi within was missing an arm…
Bile rose but she forced it down, she refused to be sick. With the snap of her captor's fingers, the SUV suddenly burst into flames and exploded. She shut her eyes in fear expecting pieces of the vehicle to be flying out in all directions but when nothing hit her at all, she opened her eyes and saw that the explosion had somehow been contained.
"Lissa!" Christian shouted and ran towards her. "Who are you?" he asked warily at the one who was still holding onto her with a strong grip.
"My name is Alphonse and I'm here to protect you Princess as you play a key role for us Strigoi," he smiled in a charming way and I had a feeling that it was a highly flirtatious smile too. Christian must have thought so too because his expression turned a little sour.
"Let her go," he growled and took Lissa's hand to drag her from the Strigoi's grasp.
"Ah, you must be her boyfriend, judging from your reaction. You should work on your protecting skills, if it had been me, I never would've left her alone like that." Alphonse commented lightly.
Fire suddenly lit up in Christian's palm and he made a move to punch the Strigoi but couldn't land a single punch no matter what he tried.
"Well it seems that our assistance was required more than I thought, you're not strong enough to withstand this fight let alone this war," he commented as he continued to dodge Christian without any effort. His body was suddenly enveloped by flames and for a moment Christian thought that it was his win. So did I, until I saw Alphonse patting the flames out as though they were nothing to him at all. To top it off, as though to show who the bigger man was, Alphonse produced an even bigger fire ball in his hand.
Alphonse seemed like he was just about to pounce to continue the fight when suddenly he face planted onto the muddy ground and his flame was instantly extinguished. An agitated looking lady towered over him with her hands on her hips as she glared down at him and even stepped on his back to keep him on the ground.
"Sorry about his behaviour Princess Vasilisa but my brother loves to show off to other people and he has the irritating habit of rousing fights too. Don't mind him," she smiled sweetly and apologetically at Lissa and Christian. "Are you both generally unharmed?"
"Yes." Lissa nodded and gave a small smile of her own. "I'm sorry but who are you?"
"I'm Sephrina and as Al already mentioned, we were sent to protect you because of your knowledge and the influence you could have over the vampire nation."
"What vampire nation? It's in shambles and currently being ruled by a lunatic queen who's a total psycho." Alphonse grumbled as he lifted his face from the ground.
"Who were you sent by?" Kirova narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she approached them.
"We're not entitled to give that information just yet but I give you our word on behalf of both Alphonse and I that we are here to protect you with our own lives." Sephrina gave a small bow.
"I don't trust them." Christian whispered and judging from the wary glances of the others, he wasn't the only one. Suddenly, Adrian stepped forward and seemed to scrutinize Sephrina and she arched her brows in amusement, probably wondering whether he was attempting to intimidate her or something. Adrian seemed to stare for a moment longer before giving a small nod.
"I say we trust the pair of them," he shrugged.
"What?" Christian stared at him in surprise. "You're not charmed just because she has a pretty face right?"
"No Christian, I'm not." Adrian spoke with a dry tone and rolled his eyes. "They seem to give off a similar aura to Rai so I'm judging the decision based on that. If they have a similar aura, it means that they're probably sane, well, as sane as they can be anyway."
Come to think of it, now that I paid more attention to the only way I knew how to differentiate them by appearance, I did notice that their eyes were just like the other sane Strigoi; their eyes weren't consumed by red but simply had red rings around their irises. Either Valentine was doing a really good job and had managed to send help through Riya's contacts, or these two were sent by the other players of this war who wanted to secure the existence of sane Strigoi.
It was obvious to me that Riya hadn't been the only major commander of this war. That was made clear to me by that Strigoi who had appeared with his dog that time when I was heading back to the house. I recalled that his name was Max or something… I vaguely remembered that he'd mentioned something about someone who would be sent to the town that Konstantin and Aleksandr would recognise. I began to wonder when he or she would arrive and who he or she would be.
"Rai? You must mean Raisa right?" Alphonse piped up excitedly and jumped up causing Sephrina to nearly lose her balance but she recovered almost instantly. "You've met her?"
"A couple of times," we all nodded.
"Aw that's not fair, even though I've seen her I haven't had the chance to talk to her since her change," he complained.
"So, you knew her before?" Lissa asked with interest.
"Sure, we went to the same Academy and I was her senior by a year. As you can see, I didn't get taken down until a fair few years after she did." Alphonse said proudly.
"Stop boasting already." Sephrina groaned and hit him again.
"So… now that our ride exploded, how are we going to get to our next check point?" Eddie asked as he gestured at what used to their SUV. "Not to mention we need to find some place to stay fast. We need to know what happened to Mia and whether it's serious or not."
"Oh!" Lissa suddenly gasped and remembered that Mia had been injured by the crash. She could only guess that Mia had received the injury when the Strigoi first made contact with the vehicle and had hit Mia indirectly. Lissa hastily checked Mia over trying to locate Mia's injury and found that Mia had a fractured rib from the impact that she had to take and she was also suffering a concussion. Without another thought or wasting any more time, Lissa took a deep breath and let it out before drawing her magic into her hands and began to heal Mia.
"As soon as we sensed the Strigoi that approached you, we called for another pick up to be left at a gas station not far from here. We can start heading over whenever you all feel ready." Alphonse stated.
"How long have you been tailing us?" Alberta asked warily.
"We arrived at the house yesterday and started keeping watch then." Sephrina informed her.
"We didn't even notice!" Stan gave a startled gasp.
"That's our job," she gave a smile.
"I'll carry the girl; it'll be best if you all conserve your energy just in case there's another attack." Alphonse advised them and picked up Mia gently, carrying her on his back. "Shall we get moving?"
"The sooner we get to Drake's place, the better." Kirova said and they all started walking. I wondered why despite the fight and the oddity of an SUV suddenly rolling off the motorway, no one seemed to take any notice. It was as if it hadn't happened at all which I found suspicious. No matter how dense someone was, I doubted that it would be possible to dismiss a rolling SUV.
I didn't linger in Lissa's mind for much longer because I suddenly felt someone shaking me back in Russia.