CHAPTER FOURTEEN- YOU'RE CAUGHT
I'd quickly explained to Alexander about the Mána and how I knew about it and what had happened at the Academy. We set off into the rain and jogged around the perimeter of campus.
"I don't see how this is helping," Alexander said annoyed.
"Shhh! Be quiet!" I hissed at him. He listened and didn't say another word. I caught some movement at the corner of my eye and waved Alexander to a stop. "Do you see anything?" I asked as I squinted into the down pour.
"Hmmm…yeah, I do. Back there, it looks like there are some people there…" he voice trailed off and I nodded to his questioning look. I was positive that it was this academy's version of the Mána.
"Let's move in closer, just to make sure," I said and we jogged closer and when we were within hearing rage, I ducked down into a thick bush. Alexander followed suit. We both lay there in the dirt, straining to hear over the rain. I couldn't hear anything, and just as I was about to suggest going closer when a loud voice could be heard clearly over the rain.
"Now, we're going to try a little test on you," the voice said and I vaguely recognized but not well enough to place it. "They're going to do a few things and you are going to try to use compulsion on them to make them stop. Do you think that you can do that or not Tristin?"
Tristin the voice rang through my mind. I remembered Leo mentioning his best friend being a Royal Moroi named Tristin Badica. The Mána was made up of Royal Moroi, only the elite as Jesse Zeklos had made it sound when he was trying to persuade Christian and Lissa into becoming one of the members of their stupid little club. It looked as though this group had the same idea as Jesse and Ralf had.
"No, Riley, I don't want to do this," a weak feminine voice said. It sounded like she was really cold. I peeked over the hedge and saw that the girl was surrounded by a group of other Moroi. The girl was wearing only a t-shirt. One of the others was holding it in his hands; most likely to give more incentive to Tristin Badica to use a strong form of compulsion. I shook my head in pure disgust; this was completely wrong and the way they were treating the Badica girl was just inacceptable.
'I am going to stop this' I mouthed to Alexander and when I started to get up he followed me.
"Riley, I don't want to do this, just give me my coat and let me go back to my dorm," the girl pleaded. I was fully standing now and I saw Riley –he was the boy Jane Ivashkov was getting all cuddly with in the lounge earlier today- grab Tristin Badica (another Moroi who was in the lounge) and shove her roughly; enough to make her fall down into the mud. Alright, that was it; I couldn't let this go any farther.
As Riley advanced on Tristin Badica, I ran up and stood in front of the girl blocking his way. "Leave her alone," I said dangerously.
He looked shocked to see me. "Guardian Hathaway, what are you doing here?"
"Stopping you from harming an innocent girl," I said and turned to offer Tristin Badica my hand. She looked up at me gratefully and took my hand. I took off my sweater and gave it to her; good thing I'm wearing a black tank, I thought as she pulled my hoodie on over her head and stuttered out a thank you. I smiled kindly at her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, in hope of heating her some.
I turned back to Riley. "You are in for some serious trouble," I said glaring at him. This brought back the memory of what Jesse had done to Lissa.
"Oh, what are you going to do? You're just a new guardian and won't be able to do anything to me. My father can have you thrown away," he smirked. I hated it when people talked about guardians as if they were possessions.
"I may not be able to punish you but-"
I hadn't noticed that Alexander had stayed hidden until this moment as he walked forward angrily.
"But I can," he ground out.
Riley and the others looked so shocked it was comical; I would have laughed if not for the horribleness of the situation. I felt Tristin Badica lean closer to me as she hugged her arms to her chest. I wrapped my arm around her more tightly.
"Hathaway, get her inside others are coming," Alexander said tightly, but I could tell that he wasn't mad at me. I nodded and gently prodded the clinging girl, "Come on," I said quietly, and then I looked at the Moroi who was holding her coat. "Give it to me," I ordered and he gave it to me with not one moment's hesitation. I took it and led the girl out of the circle and I tried to shield her from the rain with my body, not caring that I was totally drenched.
We started to make it across campus and somewhere along the way, Tristin Badica fainted so I had to pick her up and jog her to the clinic. I walked in and the Doc looked disappointed to see me again so soon, but when she saw the limp Moroi in my arms, she got down to it. Immediately leading me to one of the open rooms to set her in and then she shooed me out after I'd put her coat down.
I took this opportunity to go back to the edge of campus back to where Alexander and I had found Riley Zeklos and his little group. As I ran through the rain, I adjusted so that the rain seemed like nothing to me and I was just running in a black t-shirt and jeans.
When I'd reached the spot, I found Alexander, Mikhail, Mercutio, Colin Meradov and two other guardians there taking hold of the Moroi and starting to walk them back to campus. Alexander was walking behind the rest of them, like he was supervising what was happening.
I strolled up beside him. "So," I said casually. "How's it going down with them?" my voice had turned hard at the end and lost its easy edge to it. Alexander gave me a look, I wasn't sure if it was a 'I wonder why she's acting like this' or 'what the hell's wrong with her' type of look.
"Well, I'm going to have to take them before Headmistress Modia, then from there, her and I will discuss a suitable punishment for their actions." He paused before saying, "Would you like to come with me? You were the one who found them out,"
I shook my head. "No, thanks, I'd rather…be somewhere else," I chose my words carefully.
"Then can you at least explain to the headmistress what would have happened if you hadn't known of this type of…student organization? Please," he looked at me with expectant eyes. Then they widened as they ran over my body. "Rose, you should probably have a coat of some sort on," he muttered. I looked down, realising how I must have looked with a sopping wet black shirt on.
I crossed my arms and shrugged. "I gave the girl my sweater," I offhandedly said. He shook his head and started to take off his guardian jacket. "No, no! You keep yours; it's no use getting you soaked too," I protested and decided that if he still tried to offer me his coat, I would refuse it. Alexander saw the defiance in my eyes and sighed. "Come on," I said. "Let's go inside, I'm pretty sure you don't want to get anymore wet than you already are, but I don't really care,"
He chuckled at my logic and looked me over again. "You really should put something on over your shirt, I wouldn't want anyone being distracted," his voice held the unspoken statement that I was…attractive, per se. I looked away and felt my face get warm. I hoped he couldn't see it in the rain.
I wanted to break the silence so I said the first thing that came to my mind, "Do you want to race?" I asked and my voice was eager. Now voicing the suggestion, it became very appealing and I really, really wanted to do it.
"Rose, that would be inappropriate, considering the given situation," he said disapprovingly.
"Come on, don't you want to?" I pleaded.
"No," he said curtly, but I could see he that he did want to race me. Just out of curiosity; and I really wanted to race him-right now.
"Please?" I begged.
"No, Rose, do you know what we're doing here? This is serious," he was now in full guardian mode and the curiosity in his eyes faded into nothingness. I rolled my eyes, "Whatever,"
We didn't say anything else as we followed our little spectacle through the heavy rain.
*****
When we'd finally gotten to the building Alexander asked me to go in with him first, to explain what would have happened if their group had progressed any further. I agreed, somewhat nervously, but I held my head high as I walked into Headmistress Modia's office.
"Rosemarie! Alexander! What a lovely surprise! Oh, why are you so wet?" she exclaimed in a bit of a rush. "What's happened?" she demanded.
"Well, Headmistress Modia, Alexander and I were just talking over dinner and he mentioned something that caught my attention; students coming to the clinic with severe wounds and burn welts. I remembered this situation as the one that had happened presently at St Vladimir's Academy in Montana. This was the work of an elite Royal Moroi group that was planning on using compulsion. At my academy, they were physically harming the Moroi, by using their elements to torture and hurt the others that they were trying to get to join their group. They call this group the Mána," I explained calmly, pushing my hand to my side. Now that the rain wasn't keeping it cool, it was burning. "I thought the same type of thing was going on here, so I took Alexander with me to do a jog of campus. We found Riley Zeklos, who appeared to be the leader of this group and other Moroi, trying to force Tristin Badica to use compulsion on the other Moroi so they would stop hurting her when Riley would order them to do so, they had taken the girl's coat and she was standing in the rain in so more than a t-shirt and jeans." I paused then said, "Guardian Contrive wishes me to explain what would have happened if this had escaped our attention and gone on; what actually happened at my academy." I took a deep breath then continued. "The use of magic in the sense that the group Riley Zeklos was conducting would have overrun the magic of the wards and made it so that the wards were weak and breakable. This would have resulted in Strigoi being able to attack the academy and no one would have been expecting it, because they'd have all thought that they were safe behind the wards.
"The way the magic was being used would have effected the good magic that was protecting the academy and broken down slowly on the wards strength and would eventually result in braking the wards completely, if they were not being renewed as often as they are at academies." I said my speech formally, never breaking eye-contact with Headmistress Modia.
She looked stunned, and then she looked to Alexander. "This is all true?"
"Every word, Headmistress," he answered straight-faced.
She nodded soberly- not that I can imagine her drunk. "Bring them in," she ordered coldly, but we both knew that her anger was not directed towards the guardians. We walked out of her office and Alexander said, "That was brilliant!"
I stopped walking. "Excuse me?"
"What you did, that was stunning, and for such a young guardian to control themselves in such a manner! That was excellent, Rose!" he laughed and my eyebrow mashed together.
"It's not normal?" I asked worriedly.
"No, it's not normal for a brand new guardian to handle a situation at this magnitude with such efficiency, no, not at all. An amazing performance," he complimented me and I smiled proudly. "I've got to get the others; did you want to stay for this?"
"No, thank you, I'm going to get changed then I'll check on Tristin Badica before I call it a night," I said and Alexander nodded and I walked away out into the rain again.
I'm sorry, this chapter is so short and so terrible, which is really disappointing, but I want Rose to have more evidence for what is to come—it's not an attack on the Academy by Strigoi, it's different. I'm not copying the plot from the Richelle Mead books, I just borrowed her characters and the Mána thing, and I'm not going to use anything else really.
I'm just some of the events that the novices had to go through during their training; e.g. like the field experience and little things like that. Just so you now, I might be changing some of the scenes that were involved in the Richelle Mead books. My friend, RoseVanVamp16 didn't really like my idea for that or some of the other ideas I was planning on turning my story in, so it'd be so great if you could give me a little more feed back, it really helps and motivates me—it's also good to hear some constructive criticism, I love that type of thing, and I might need some ideas for what should happen next.
I've got a really good idea, or so I think, for what should happen much further into my story, much, much further. I might need some help. Oh, there's also going to be some more outbursts from Dereck and does anyone have any ideas for what I should do with Tory and Blake? I'm kind of stuck there because I've got one idea and I would really enjoy hearing your suggestions...
Hey one more thing--I need you all to do something for me. Can you either put in your review or PM me the answer to this question: In the Movie Twilight, who is hotter: A) Jasper B) Emmett? I really need you guys to send your answers in. If you're wondering what mine is, it is Jasper all the freaking way! I personally think that Jasper is much better than Emmett. Send in your answers!
So please review and I send my endless love to all of you…
Alice :P