Rose's POV

That feeling in my gut had disappeared for most of the drive, though I was surprised when we turned onto an old worn road that looked like a mix of dirt and gravel. It ran through a dense forest. There was no sign of civilization, and it took a good amount of time for us to get through the winding tunnel of trees. Even then, there was no sign of much in the way of life. We drove a good fifteen minutes through a wild meadow and then finally we pulled up to a huge wrought iron gate.

I stared at the house through the bars with my mouth hanging open like a fish trying to catch flies. The place was a fortress that was encased in a stone wall barrier that must have been the size of the walls around our house. The mansion there was in the style of a small medieval age castle. By mansion I mean mountain of course. The building was huge. Marco's dad must be loaded.

As the heavy gates opened and we drove on, I stared out the window with wide eyes. It was something out of a fairytale and I couldn't decide if it were the princess' castle or the wicked stepmother's. Well in this case it would prince or stepfather but regardless the place carried a strange vibe to it. When Marco pulled up to the front of the house, a man came out to meet us and he was a Moroi. That was positively shocking considering Marco was a dhampir and not many dhampirs knew who their fathers were. Dimitri was the only one I knew of who had.

It was an oddity. I didn't get enough time to dwell on. As soon as the realization hit a sharp pain shot through my head. My site fuzzed out and everything went black. I woke up to find myself on the dirty floor of a windowless room. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything. Groggily, I tried to stand up only to find I couldn't go past a sitting position. It was then that I realized something was around my wrists and ankles. I couldn't see what but it sounded like metal. I tugged at the restraints a little as light suddenly covered the room, allowing me to see.

It was definitely a windowless room with a dirty floor. I looked at my wrists and frowned as I saw I was chained to the wall. Sadly, it wasn't a pipe and the metal looked positively unbreakable. I tugged and pulled to no avail. Growling in frustration, I gave up. A few minutes later, I heard a sound like something heavy and metal being moved and then some locks turning. Then a door opened and moonlight shone through. From my angle I could see that outside a little. It was only a glimpse because someone suddenly blocked the view as they entered.

I stared up at Marco and glared at him and suddenly I recalled what happened. I had been hit on the back of the head by Marco. He just stared at me with a smug expression. Forgetting my restraints, I tried to lunge at him, intent on ripping his throat out with my bare hands. I couldn't move far without the chains jerking me back.

"Are you obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons or something?" I shot, greatly pissed off when his reaction came with an amused and twisted laugh.

"My father didn't want to risk it," he said.

I flinched at the voice. It wasn't Marco's. Well, I suppose it was but it wasn't the voice I was used to hearing as his. This voice was that of my attacker's. It was that Russian accented voice, and it made my skin crawl to finally know the face of the bastard only to find out I had been dating him for over month.

"You bastard," I hissed.

"Ah so you remember," he said, grinning like he had won some sort of prize.

"Who the hell are you, really?"

"You don't waste time, do you?" he asked, but continued before I could speak my venomous reply. "My name is Yulian. You'll meet my father in an hour. He had something to do and wanted me to make sure you were. . . comfortable."

"Comfortable?"

He smirked at me and could feel the goose bumps erupt on my skin. It was not the warm expression that I was used to seeing on that face. It was cold and cruel; almost something a Strigoi would wear. However, there was more to it than that. The expression held something else. When he spoke of his father, his eyes lit up in way that just screamed how much the man meant to him. He might be a sadistic prick, but the guy genuinely cared about his dad. A Strigoi would not have been capable of that.

"Okay so his actual order was for me was to make sure you woke up from the blow I gave you," he said shrugging as if we were talking about something as unimportant as the weather. "He was afraid I might have accidentally hit you too hard. He didn't want you dead right away. He has something to do with you first."

With that he turned his back on me and left through door. I heard the lock turn as soon as the door shut. Cursing him under my breath, I started pulling at my restraints. It would have been so much better if I had been chained up to the plumbing or something. Of course nothing ever went the way I want it and the bastards just had to have me chained to a damn wall, and the wall just had to be forged by a freaking god. I wasn't going anywhere any time soon and it was really pissing me off, and it was quite a surprise when I found myself drifting off to sleep.

I came to screaming in agony. My head felt as though it had been cleaved in two and then stabbed with a million knives. Even feeling Victor torturing Lissa with air or the ghosts assaulting me hadn't been this bad. Just as suddenly as the pain had started, it stopped.

"Hello, are you with us again?" a voice I didn't recognize said brightly.

I looked up to glare daggers at the new man only to get a shock as I was hit with a distinct sense of familiarity. The kicker was I couldn't place exactly where I might have met him, and it was more like I only seen parts of him before. He came closer and I launched at him only to be reminded of my medieval situation. I couldn't get very far. The guy noticed and flashed me a smirk.

"Who the hell are you!" I snapped, pretty pissed off.

"Zarek Krupin," he said. "You may call me Z."

Our eyes met and I suddenly felt an odd fluttering sensation in my head. It wasn't compulsion. It was like someone was just poking into my head. I didn't like that one bit at all. Narrowing my eyes on my captor, I focused on blocking my thoughts from him. If Lissa could do it to me, why can't I do it here. The rustling in my head eventually stopped so I assumed I was succeeding in the block.

"Your mother ever teach you it's rude to go where you aren't invited," I hissed.

He didn't reply. He just stared at me for a moment before his smile widened. A second later, that excruciating headache came back and I found I could no longer think. This time I clenched my teeth and refused to make a sound, but damn it hurt. Eventually, the pain got so bad that I passed out.

Sorry for such a long wait. This will be the last chapter that will be entirely in Rose's POV for a while. Rose's POV will still be done but it won't be as much. Dimitri's POV will be the main and I might throw in some others POVs. But again it'll mostly be Dimitri.