Previously:

"Guardian Petrov, I admit that I'm not completely one hundred percent sure, but I am certain that I have a hunch that the remaining strigoi in the area are hiding in the caves you pointed out earlier. Eighty miles all around the court should be far enough to radar wherever these vampire bastards are hanging around."

Alberta looked out of place with a dumbfounded look on her face. "Guardian Belikov, when do you believe would be the best time to set out?"

"Oh, absolutely at once we need to make a move on," I said confidently. "In fact, it is pertinent that we leave immediately; the strigoi possibly could have left by now," I added.

She checked her watch. It was nearly four pm. The sun would be going down soon and they would be on the move. "We have wasted enough time already," I continued.

The guardians shuffled around and in seconds they were out of the room as well as out of my mind. As they were attending to the needs of the mission, I was doing the same.

Rose walked into the room and her eyes met mine.

Feeling all my power and more importantly my manliness diminish, I ran out of things to say to her.

"Hi."

She grabbed me by the front of my flannel. "I'm coming with you," she demanded.

My eyes narrowed at her. Did she really think she was ready for this? Did I think so? Could this be the last time I would ever see her?

I wanted to sigh, but instead I pursed my lips and stared hard into her unwavering eyes. "Meet me at the guard post in two minutes, the rest of the team is leaving in five," I said, and remembering that this possibly could be the last time I would see her, and noting that there was no one else around, I leaned in, cupping her jaw in my big hand, pushed my lips on to hers. Not surprisingly, Rose applied a fair amount of pressure in return to this kiss. It seemed to have the intensity of the last hour of our life all summed up.

"Whatever you do," I told her, "do not die."

She took a step back and stood ramrod straight. "Aye aye, Captain."

Currently:

"Ooh, shit," I moaned.

I doubled over, and people stopped around me to see what was going on. I thought I was about to vomit. Surprisingly, nothing came out. I coughed and coughed, but still nothing came out.

"Strigoi," I paused, taking a step back. I saw Dimitri approach me, a determined yet worried look on his face as he came closer and closer.

"Roza, what's wrong?" he asked warily.

"Strigoi," I murmured again, taking more steps back; the intensity of the pain in my stomach was terrifying to me. Every time I thought of that word my stomach would whirl. Dimitri's soft hand on my shoulder slowly lifted and then I felt cold and alone once again.

"Guardian Belikov;" said a guardian, "we're right above a cave."

Dimitri's eyes turned to slits. "Surround the caves." He glanced up at the sun. "We're losing sunlight; once it's completely gone their strengths will be amplified. We need to close in on them," he demanded. Men and woman guardians alike shot off in different directions.

I walked a little closer towards Dimitri. He lifted his hand out to me, and I strode towards it. He looked like a total badass. He wore the mere dark flannel and jeans, equipped with a utility belt that all of use wore that allowed us to keep more than one stake on us at all times. Also on the belt was a gun, in case of a human, and a flame-thrower that only few had. I was not included. Dimitri was.

I grasped his hand in mine and Dimitri used it to pull me towards him. I gripped my stomach and paused, not looking into his eyes.

"Roza, what's wrong?" he asked in a concerned voice, bringing his hand around to the lowest part of my back, above my ass.

I swallowed hard. "I'm not sure… I just have an uncanny sense of when strigoi are around… I guess an advance of being one," I jus

t felt pain, but I smiled through it. Dimitri seemed to notice, although he smiled in return and let go of my hand to brush some hair off of my face.

"Stay strong, Roza. You're an asset to me, remember?" he asked.

This made me chuckle.

"How could I forget?" I replied.

xXx

A loud—scratch that—ear piercing scream infiltrated Dimitri's and my moment. He whipped his head around in the direction of the noise, and my eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head. Dimitri was correct. There were in fact hoards of strigoi hiding in these cliff sides and caves. He turned back to me briefly and then a moment later, he did a 180 and was running towards the shriek.

"Dimitri!" I called after him, and not a second later did I take off on my own and chase after him. He never turned around, and I understood. He was passionate about this case. Why? Beats me.

My stomach lurched. My throat was on fire.

"Rosemarieee!"

I whipped my head around, stopping right in my tracks. My stomach still ached as it tossed and turned, but I knew that voice anywhere. Dimitri seemed to be in a trance, running straight, running without me by his side. Little did he know I had been stopped. He had scaled down the side of the cliff before I had a chance to call out to him to make him stop.

I flared my nostrils and barred my teeth. I rose a single brow and breathed in a deep, fresh breath of air.

"Bastard," I muttered under my breath.

"Rosemarie."

Nathan seemed to materialize out of thin air. The high grasses swayed, and I looked up into the sky. The sun was definitely going down. I was running out of time before the strigoi pack would gain all possible power in a monopoly to overpower us dhampir guardians—or worse, flee the scene.

Strigoi deserved and absolutely needed to be stopped at all costs.

I turned back to Nathan. "I will end you."

"Oh, not if I end you first, love," Nathan replied, his eyes looking like slits. His hands clenched and unclenched, and he took a single step forward. That's when the fight began.

I unsheathed two of my three stakes and walked forward as well.

"I thought for sure you would be long dead by now."

Nathan smirked. I knew as well as understood that he couldn't feel any emotions, so the prick couldn't be grasping how arrogant he looked. "I do seem to impress most. But, Rosemarie, in killing you, I will have accomplished my ultimate goal." He let out a low chuckle. "The end of you, ahh, the beginning of me."

I said nothing, merely glared at him for a good three minutes.

He took a long breath in. "You realize I can smell fear, right?"

There were a great number of people in these caves—and not only these caves, I noticed. All caves for miles around were occupied by strigoi groups, and now also dhampirs. The number of already dead on the floors of the caves were staggering. The weird part was why were all these strigoi in such a large group? I had thought I was always true that strigoi had a hard time trusting one another (one would think so); which leads me to wonder what was so special about infiltrating the Royal Court just to steal two people? A dhampir guardian and the queen's… half sister.

Wow, I wish I had realized that earlier.

I swallowed. This mission was perhaps the most important of all I have completed in the past. It was pertinent that we find all strigoi, and terminate all strigoi. It really hit a spot in me that I didn't like to draw very much attention to. My weak spot: Rose. The men who attacked Rose when she was so young—the strigoi—each and every one of them needed to die.

And I can and will not stop until all are dead. Females and males alike, I have no sympathy for any who chose to torture Rose.

I pulled a stake out of my belt and slammed a strigoi tossed to me into a wall as I slid stake cleanly and simply into their heart. It was so quick he hadn't even seen it coming. There wasn't even a chance for him to scream.

Another came straight for me, and I straight-armed him right in the face, breaking his cheekbone and sending him into a wall. He didn't have enough time to get up or escape before I quickly decapitated him with a silver knife I kept with me attached to my belt.

I took a step back, looking around for another one to come at me, but everyone seemed preoccupied with one another. And that was when it hit me.

Where was Rose?

"You loved being a strigoi," Nathan demanded. "You enjoyed it. Killing people. Drinking their blood till the last drop; watching the last of their life drain out of their eyes. You took pleasure in it."

I gulped. I still refused to talk.

"Admit it."

I ground my teeth together.

"Admit you'd love to be a strigoi again."

I clenched my hands around my stakes.

"Perhaps…" he looked at my slyly, "you'd die for it."

"Shut the fuck up!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I'd never shouted that loud.

I started coming at him at an astonishing pace. Adrenaline pumped through my veins; I was ready for this fight. I wanted him dead as soon as possible.

Nathan blocked my first attack like he was simply swatting a fly away. I felt imposed and foolish. All of a sudden, Dimitri's words flashed through my mind.

"I'm going to go ahead and stop you right there, and tell you that you are too valuable for me to bring along with on such a mission as this." He paused and laughed. "Oh no, not a doubt in my mind that you will be left here. Oh, you are not coming along."

Time felt as if it took a break.

"Rose. Think about it. Do you even believe you are ready for such a mission?"

Did he believe in me? Did I believe in myself?

Nathan let out a loud, battle cry and came straight at me. I was off guard and I was thrown back at least ten feet until I came to a skidding stop in the grassy earth. The whole lower front of my shirt was ripped open and large gashes spread over my ribs and stomach. The skin was so thin that I wondered if my insides were all intact.

Nathan came and stood over me. He looked as if he were about to laugh in my face. In fact, he crouched down to be nearer to me. He took in a large whiff.

"Ahhh, as always, you smell delicious…"

As silent as a bullet, there was a man standing directly next to Nathan. Nathan turned his head the second the tall man lifted his foot up and rammed his foot into Nathan's gaping mouth. I never thought it was possible to catch a strigoi so off guard. You could almost hear his nose breaking.

The small amount of life left in the sky allowed little light for me to see his face.

"Yebar`!"

As if the Russian didn't tell me it all. I hopped into action after Dimitri's jaw dropping entrance. I grabbed the stake lying next to me and jumped up so that I was straddling Nathan. He was incredibly difficult to keep down, and when I say it was incredibly difficult, I absolutely mean it.

Dimitri stood directly above him, stepping on his struggling wrists and brought them above his head. Nathan growled and bore his ferocious looking teeth and fangs.

At the same time, Dimitri and I whipped our heads around as we heard a head splitting whistle coming from behind. And I'll be damned.

It was Tasha Ozera.

I furrowed my brows and wondered why the hell would she be here? How did she get here? There's now way that anyone would let her come along on the mission. In fact, I had totally forgotten about her.

"Ahh, I see the two of you have met," she remarked, walking forward. If anything, Nathan began to relax below me. My mouth cracked open…

"Hang on," I looked down at Nathan, the sight unpleasing although familiar. In fact, it felt obnoxiously familiar. I lived with Nathan for three years. "Are you two… Somehow… Affiliated?" I asked.

Tasha cocked a brow and pursed her lips.

"You could say that." Tasha stopped before us and I noticed Dimitri tense. "Although, I would say Dimitri and Nathan are even more so."

"What are you trying to say, Natasha?"

Tasha smirked and began to chuckle huskily. "Natasha? Is that where we're at now?" she continued to laugh. "You've become so cold, Dimka!" she said in a flirty voice. She sobered up immediately.

"Just like your brother."

"I don't have a brother," Dimitri stated, glaring at Tasha now. He glanced down at me, and then Nathan, and then something in his eyes seemed to tell me that something had finally clicked. "You don't mean that—"

"Nathan," Tasha stated. "Nathan is your half brother."

Dimitri's eyes widened immensely, and he looked half mad. "Shut up… Shut—why should I believe you?"

"Well, I guess you don't have to, but—"

"Quit your yapping, Ozera," Nathan scowled. "And get this bitch off of me."

Dimitri pressed his foot down harder on Nathan's wrist and I pushed the sharp stake against his throat. He struggled, but didn't work hard enough to get me from him.

How in the world was it possible for someone like Nathan to expect someone like Tasha to be able to even lay a single finger on someone like me?

Then I felt like I actually got a good look at the Moroi woman. She held her hands on her hips, a pissed off look adorning her thin features. She was clad in a navy blue long-sleeved shirt and a black vest. She had on dark denim jeans with a thick leather belt and knee-high leather boots.

But more importantly, she had blood splattered all over her. All down her front, shining on her boots, her vest, and in the pale moonlight, I saw it on her face. Around her lips.

It was very clear to me now that Tasha was actually no longer Moroi, but instead a strigoi.

Well now I guess that sums everything up. I hadn't even noticed the nauseating feeling in my stomach because it was already so numb from the pain of Nathan's raking claws.

Her eyes gleamed and she hissed at me. That's probably about the time that Dimitri noticed this change as well.

"Shit!" I shouted. Having Nathan already under me, I squeezed the stake in my hands and began to insert it into his chest. "Don't fucking move, Tasha!" I shouted, looking in her direction.

Dimitri looked down at me. "Where are you going with this, Rose?" he whispered.

Tasha began to move and I turned my head around so fast to face her that I thought for a moment I might have gotten whiplash. "Bitch you take one step and this man is dead!" I screamed.

She snarled at me. "Don't even begin try to tell me what to do, you little cunt!"

"Alright then," I muttered, elbowing Nathan in the face and pulling the stake away from his neck and square into his chest. I had to dig.

And then I realized something a little important. Well, to me anyway.

My first strigoi kill—as a dhampir.

Nathan was cold a moment later, and Dimitri lifted me up from my spot so that we were both turned against Tasha. She looked a little terrified. Okay, a little was an understatement. She looked petrified. Instead of actually coming at us, though, she hissed loudly like a cat and ran off. Down to the caves specifically.

It was dark, just past dusk and I knew that it was a futile task to go after her; we had hardly a chance to get at her at this point. She would be extremely powerful, plus being a newborn does add extra abilities.

I lurched forward, but paused quickly and clutched a hand to my stomach. Dimitri flew to my side. "Roza—!"

"Dimitri, I'm fine. I'm okay. I can fend others off, just please," I paused and looked into his eyes. "Kill Tasha. It will give me peace."

Dimitri snorted. So much for a moment. "You make it sound like you're dying," he said, smirking. He glanced down at my belly and apparently he had second thoughts. "On second thought… I should get you to a medic…"

He lifted me up into his strong arms and I bear hugged him. Not only did I need this close proximity to him now, but the tighter I held him, the more at ease the pain felt. I guess I needed this right now. I needed this so bad.

I clutched him tighter, his flannel in a death grip. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and at that point, I felt numb.

hey this was quick right? next chapter coming up shortly! wrapping this one up so make sure to give me many nice reviews !