Chapter 10
I couldn't believe what I was seeing; this really couldn't be my father, right? As I struggled with my words and trying to stay sane, I had a glimpse from the corner of my eye, someone else appearing out of the shadows.
Whoever it was appeared before me with a black hood covering his eyes; he removed the hood and I was staring into the face of Abe. I looked back at the moroi that had just bitten me and saw that he was Abe too. Feeling lightheaded, I looked from one to the other, trying to work out if I was seeing things or whether this was all a nightmare; a sick nightmare.
"Rose, it's me Abe; your father. He's trying to trick you into thinking it's me so you don't trust me anymore and start trusting the wrong people." The man with the black hood said. "Come with me now; please." He pleaded.
The man that had bitten me looked at the other 'Abe' with amusement. I tried to work out who was who but this task felt impossible. I had never thought Abe would bite me, but then everyone was acting differently lately; or maybe I just refused to see the truth.
I looked back at the man with the hood who was looking at me, pleading with my eyes to believe him but at the same time acting almost indifferent, which was when I realised he was the right Abe; my father.
In the short time I had known him, I had come to know his facial expressions and the way in which he portrayed himself to other people, whether they were family or not; this time was no different. He always tried to make people think he had a cocky arrogance and an air of indifference, but this wasn't the case. Only people that knew what he was about would understand, otherwise it was hopeless.
I turned to the mysterious moroi still holding my arm and felt my anger start to be built up. "Get your arm off me." I said quietly and slowly, but all he did was smirk and as he was about to laugh, someone else appeared to join our group; this guy was Dimitri. Feeling shocked, I watched him as he walked with a confident stagger, and as he was about to near me, I saw the Abe with the black hood quickly move so he was in front of me. He didn't turn to look at me, nor the hand that was holding my arm in a strangling grip, but I saw how he tensed up and knew he was mad.
"If you come any closer to my daughter, I will kill you. You got that?" He said, the anger lacing his voice and if I hadn't been his daughter, I knew I would have been petrified of him; I wasn't scared of people that easily, but it was like Abe was in a bubble of violence – cross it and you were dead.
I watched as Dimitri completely ignored him and began a graceful walk, one that I used to find attractive and now I knew I didn't; I know I just said it was a graceful walk, but on closer inspection it was more the walk of someone who was too cocky and sure of themselves. When he was near me, I saw how black hood Abe moved into a battle stance and without me realising it, had taken a silver dagger out of one of his pockets, one that was sure to kill Dimitri should it hit him in any part of his body; it was that powerful.
"Calm down, I just want to tell Jeremy that he doesn't have to shape shift for any longer." He clicked his fingers and then the next thing I knew, the moroi that had been 'Abe' before, was now a man who was of average height and weight, had piercing blue eyes and dirty brown hair; he had the beginnings of what looked like a beard and he looked about forty, although if you looked closer, you would realise he was actually probably only about twenty-five. Jeremy loosened his grip on me and stepped back, walking to one of the pillars near the stairs and leaning with his back against it; he folded his arms and stayed silent as Dimitri took over on the 'entertainment'.
Having been distracted on Jeremy, I hadn't realised that Abe had moved towards Dimitri, his shining dagger with him, whilst instead of looking frightened as he should have, Dimitri looked at the dagger, amusement lighting his eyes. "I want you to get out of Court, get out of the country and away from all our lives. You understand?" Abe said to Dimitri in a menacing voice. At this question, which was more of a statement on Abe's part, Dimitri burst out laughing.
"You-you think that I-I would really do that just because of your 'scary' face?" Dimitri said, barely being able to say the words because of his laughter. As Abe stared at him in shock, he didn't realise Jeremy, who having took his weapon out of his pocket, had launched it at Abe and the weapon, being able to see it now, was a dagger, almost identical to Abe's and it hit Abe in his left thigh. I hadn't been able to warn Abe myself because just like Abe, I had been too focused on Dimitri and therefore when I saw the blow, I fell back slightly from shock and as I began walking quickly to Abe, who had fallen down in agony, I felt Jeremy from behind me and place a piece of thick material around my mouth and then covering my eyes with another of the same type material; however, this piece of material was see through and I was able to see the on goings in front of me. I started to wiggle around a lot, trying to get Jeremy's hands off me as he held me in a firm grip. Dimitri, having seen Abe fall to the floor, took Abe's dagger off him and stabbed it into his back. When he saw his achievement, as I knew he would see it, he grinned like a child on Christmas Day.
I tried to scream, but with the cloth covering my mouth this was no easy task. Tears had started to burn my eyes and this fuelled my anger like never before; with my arm, which Jeremy hadn't had chance to tie yet, I elbowed him in the chest and because he hadn't expected it, I saw him lurch back in agony and I saw Dimitri walking at a fast pace towards us, particularly me, in fury. I saw him holding his dagger, ready to lunge at me when he got in front of me, but when he was there, I kicked him in the chest and watched as he fell to the floor, clutching his chest. Jeremy had let go of me at this point, shocked at my sudden defence and he went to see if Dimitri was alright as I ran to where Abe was. On the run to Abe, I had thrown the cloth that had been covering my eyes and the cloth that had been covering my mouth.
Abe was close to unconsciousness when I leaned down to see if he was alright. He was pale in the face, more pale than was normal for a moroi, and his wounds both in his left thigh and back were awful. I wanted to cry with fear and panic at the state he was in. Abe was my father and although I hadn't even known him for a year, I had grown to love him as one and to see him like this was one of the worst things I had ever faced and would ever face in the future.
Abe looked at me, his eyes about to close and said, "Get out of here." Then his eyes closed. I knew he wasn't dead at this moment but there was every chance he could soon. The thought frightened me but I knew he was right; I had to try and protect myself from Dimitri and Jeremy and whoever else was on this weird and dangerous tirade and there wasn't much I could do for Abe now, except killing myself and him in the process. I was angry I couldn't help him, but I knew it had to be done.
I scrambled up from where I had crouched down beside Abe, and as I began to walk at a fast pace away from the group, I heard Dimitri gasp out to Jeremy, "Don't let her escape. Get her now." Jeremy didn't need to be asked twice and as I began to run down the staircase, I heard Jeremy behind me, getting closer and closer to me, but I didn't give up. Once I was at the bottom of the staircase, although I still saw the eeriness of the place, I ran to where one of the doors was which led to the grounds of the Court.
When I was out there, I briefly looked at the night sky with the stars twinkling in the sky and rushed to where the main big fountain was. I crept behind it, and stood there for a moment, panting from all the running I had just done and not knowing how to feel about the whole situation. I was scared about what could happen to him in Dimitri's presence and although I knew Abe was powerful and could protect himself from other powerful forces, I wasn't sure today. He was in bad shape and I hated that I wasn't able to get someone to help him and I was terrified that he could die.
Realising that I was alone and Jeremy wasn't around anywhere, I felt my heartbeat slow for a second. Maybe I was safe now? All I could hear was the water dripping from the fountain and seeing the water made me realise how thirsty I was and how perspiration was dripping from most of my pores. With a scoop of my hands, I drank some water and it was then that I realised I was wrong in my assumption that I was alone for once; I felt a movement behind me and when I turned round, (too late it turned out) I saw Jeremy smirking at me with clear triumphant in his eyes.
He grabbed me, his hands circling my waist, but where Christian had held me gently and adoringly, Jeremy held me roughly and aggressively. I began to scream and tried to kick Jeremy, but it was no use. I had always tried to make out I was the strongest dhampir out there, I mean, someone who has the amount of marks as I do at my age, would gladly think this, but Jeremy was clearly proving this assumption wrong. Knowing that I had missed defeat, I let Jeremy start to drag me away.
As we were walking back into the darkened Court, it was then that I saw Christian step out of the shadows with a dagger in one hand and a fire ball in the other. His eyes were glazed with pure menace directed at Jeremy. He stepped towards us and I felt rather than saw Jeremy's shock at his sudden appearance.
"Let. Her. Go." Christian said slowly and angrily and I saw with every word he said, his anger seemed to go up a notch. Jeremy didn't flinch or step back with me in fear, but instead I felt his chest fall up and down with laughter.
"You think I'm scared of you vampire? You want to know what my trick is?" He asked. The next thing I knew the water that had been in the fountain was now flooding Christian and I heard him scream in pain; moroi and dhampirs had always assumed that moroi who had the gift of water were useless, and it was only until Mia had proven me wrong in our last battle against strigoi that I had realised how wrong this assumption was; except, I wasn't fighting against strigoi this time; at least not yet.
Feeling fear for Christian, I began to shake and again tried to twist out of Jeremy's grip; this must have distracted him for a moment against Christian, because the next thing I knew the water that had been hurled at Christian and making him shake with agony, was magically restored to the fountain and Christian had lit up another fire ball; this time he didn't hold back and launched it at Jeremy. I also knew he had used his gift of fire on the mind because the next thing I knew Jeremy had let go of me and was clutching his head, screaming in pain and agony, more than Christian had been when the cursed water had touched him.
Christian launched another fire ball at Jeremy and the next thing I knew, Jeremy fell down on the floor and as soon as his head hit the concrete, his eyes closed in death.
Paying no attention to Jeremy, Christian walked up to me with fear raking his eyes as well as a deadening worry I had never seen before from Christian, especially directed at me. Sure, I had seen him worry about me, but never to this extent. "Rose? Are you alright? Please be alright." He said and when I looked into his eyes, I saw them glittered with tears, which the dark sky empathized.
"I'm okay." I said, as Christian hugged me and I rested my head on his chest for a moment. "I need to know whether Abe is okay or not. He was stabbed pretty bad by Dimitri." I told him.
Christian looked down at me and said, "There is no way you are going back in there. It's way too dangerous. The rest of the moroi and dhampirs were evacuated before to a safe place; you're going there, where you should have gone before this whole mess took place."
"How did you know I wasn't there? Why wasn't I told to go there? What's going on?"
"Well, there's been some type of invasion at the Court and no one's sure what type but when a moroi was killed in cold blood in the night and guys came storming out of nowhere, we knew there was trouble. I would have gone to your room, but I thought you would have been alerted straight away and that put my worry at ease; when you weren't at the safe haven, I started to worry like crazy. I would have known straight away if you had been there and you weren't; as for why you weren't told, I'm not sure and when I find out, I'm going to cause a storm." Christian said, looking like he could rip someone's head off right now at the mere thought that I wasn't told of the danger we were all in.
"Is Lissa there?" I asked quietly, not actually having been aware I said it.
"Yes." Christian said, nearly inaudibly.
"Okay then. Well, it looks like I have no choice but to go with you. But what are my going to do about Jeremy's body?"
"We'll just have to leave it there. It's not like he deserves a special memorial or something is it?"
"Yeah, you're right. Stupid thought." I said, as I saw a hint of a grin light Christian's features. I smiled in return and although I knew we shouldn't be laughing in the situation we were in, it was still good to feel happy for a minute.
As he began to lead me away, we were stopped by more mystery guys who had come from the Court as well. Christian realised first, because the next thing I knew Christian had shoved me behind his back and was making more fire balls, ready to shoot at the swarms of guys who had appeared. However, whereas before Christian had managed to defeat and kill the horrible moroi, he was outnumbered this time and the swarms of moroi and dhampirs that came at him knocked him off his feet and then they turned towards me. They grabbed me and I felt one of them twist my arms in a Chinese burn which made me scream in agony. Another put a piece of cloth around my mouth to stop me from screaming and as I was too distracted by this moroi, or dhampir, (I couldn't tell anymore) I didn't feel the sting in my arm. I looked down at my arm and saw a large needle sticking in there and then the next thing I knew everything had gone black.