Alright, so I got the edited chapter back from my beta and have finally been able to make the proper changes for this chapter. So, this is the same chapter as last time, only really better, thanks to DragonGirl323. So, since you guys have read this chapter before, for those who haven't, please READ AND REVIEW!
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Disclaimer = I don't own Vampire Academy or anything mentioned in here!
Previously on A Friend's Courage…
Suddenly, I was back in my own body, but I wasn't in Lissa's dorm room anymore. Somehow, while being inside her head, I had walked all the way into the hallway and looked down to find a stake in my hand. Dimitri had lent me a stake just in case of emergencies and it was always near me. But the fact that I had taken it while being inside Lissa's head was astonishing.
But what shocked me was that Gabriel had gotten past the barriers and now had Lissa in hand. Maybe he even had Adrian, Dimitri, and Christian with him too, using their cell phones to lure my friends away from me. Would they still be alive when I found Gabriel?
Well, no matter what, he had to be stopped.
Just as I was about to run out of the building, I heard a scream, then Stan's voice boomed through the hallways. "Strigoi have penetrated the grounds! All students, get to the nearest guardian and stay with them! I repeat, Strigoi have penetrated the grounds!"
Chapter 35
Face to Face
Rose's Point of View
How could Strigoi have penetrated the grounds? Strigoi couldn't penetrate the barriers. They were infused with all four elements: fire, earth, wind, and water. Strigoi couldn't touch the wards or even the stakes, considering that they had the same four elements embedded in them. But how could Strigoi have penetrated the grounds?!
They couldn't unless...unless humans had helped them. It was exactly like a few months ago, just before the ski lodge incident and the Spokane incident. Humans had broken the wards at Arthur Schoenberg's—a very famous, or was a famous, guardian that was killed by Strigoi unfortunately—house and let Strigoi run loose on the Moroi living there and killed them all, along with the guardians protecting them.
Now Gabriel was doing the same thing. He was trying to break into our school and kill everyone to get to his target: either me or Lissa. And obviously, Gabriel had brought friends. Lovely...
I was standing in the middle of the grounds when my eyes detected a Moroi, running and screaming, with a Strigoi about to lunge at him, smirking as he was close to drinking the Moroi's blood. Suddenly, it wasn't a male Moroi that I was seeing. It was Lissa, running for her life as the Strigoi chased after her, so close to killing her. I couldn't let him do that.
Without thinking, my instinct took over and I jumped in between the Moroi and the Strigoi, forcing the Strigoi to stop dead in its tracks. Luckily, and without thinking of what I was doing, I lunged at him and tackled the Strigoi to the ground, allowing the Moroi to run to safety. The Strigoi tried to fight me off, but anyone could tell that he was new and not very experienced in fighting. My stake went right through his chest and pierced his heart, his eyes widening in surprise before he slumped to the ground, dead.
Pulling my stake out of his body, I realized what I had just done. I'd just killed a Strigoi. It was my first kill, and my first real fight, since Bozeman. It might have been simple instinct, but it didn't matter. I had only seen a threat and it was the thought of Lissa that made me react when I saw the male Moroi. My mind didn't realize that it was a Strigoi that was under me, or even the fact that it might have been Gabriel. I had killed a Strigoi and it lay dead under me.
"Rose!" I heard my mother scream the same that another Strigoi snarled.
Another one was coming my way, angry as ever. But this time, it was different. My body froze and hesitated for a split second, but the moment that my mother screamed my name again, something snapped in me and my stake flew up, scratching the Strigoi on the cheek and making him back up. In that time, my stake went into his chest and he fell to the ground, dead. My mother joined me and looked down at the two Strigoi, dead beside one another. As she turned her attention to me, she saw the Strigoi coming at us, several of them ganging up to take us on. My mother and I went back to back, stake in hand as they lunged toward us.
"Rose, you need to get out of here now," she said, her body becoming rigid against my back as the Strigoi quickly advanced on us.
"You're kind of outnumbered, Mom. I know you're good, but I'm not taking the chance. It doesn't matter if I'm scared of these Strigoi or not. No one else is gonna die on my watch…and especially not you," I replied before lunging at one of the Strigoi.
The Strigoi tried to go around me, but I intercepted him and elbowed him in the face, pushing him back a few feet. I was about to pounce on him and stake the Strigoi in the heart when three more Strigoi, two male and a female, jumped on me, pinning me to the ground. I was able to bury my stake in one of the males before another Strigoi pinned both of my arms down. Trying to kick them away didn't help my case and my mother couldn't help me at the moment either, seeing as she had four Strigoi to handle on her own—which she wasn't having any trouble with.
The male Strigoi opened his mouth, intending to bring his fangs down to my neck, but I head butted him square in the forehead, causing a bright flash of pain to explode behind my eyes. Luckily, that got him to back off. The female was caught off guard by my sudden movement, forcing her to run her nails along my upper arm roughly, digging into the skin. Gritting my teeth, I yanked my stake from the dead Strigoi and impaled her through the heart. Her clawed hands released me and she fell to the ground beside me, dead. Before I had the chance to shift gears, the male Strigoi grabbed my neck and began squeezing, forcing me to make choked gasps as he cut off my air supply.
Removing my stake from the woman's chest was difficult, but not impossible. My arm was bent at an unnatural angle, making pain shoot through my shoulder—the injured one—repeatedly. But in the end, my hand grasped around the stake, pulled it out of the female Strigoi's chest, and staked the male Strigoi, making him release his painfully strong grip on my neck. Coughing a little from the choke hold, I watched him fall to the ground dead, putting the count of dead Strigoi to five in total.
I honestly thought that I would never be able to kill a Strigoi, or even fight someone ever again, especially after Gabriel's torture sessions. It was unbearable to think that, soon, I would have to face him and dispose of him before he killed any of my friends.
While I watched my mother lunging at one of the Strigoi my mother was handling, I searched through the bonds to see if Adrian or Lissa were hurt or…killed… Luckily, they were fine. Neither of them were in pain. It was simply fright that was overwhelming their emotions. Neither of them had ever been up against a Strigoi, or even been close to one. I had been attacked by Natalie, but that was different. Dimitri had been the one who killed her. He wasn't afraid of anything. Not even Gabriel…
Sometimes I wished that I was bonded to him so that his strong emotions and feelings could flow into me.
After staking the Strigoi, my mother took care of the rest she was facing and turned to me. "Are you crazy?! I thought I told you to get out of here!" she scolded, not caring that the grounds were in chaos with Moroi running for their lives and guardians battling Strigoi. "You could have gotten hurt, or worse!"
"You could have gotten killed! You were outnumbered! I tried to lend you a hand! I told you that no one else is gonna die because of me!" I shouted, angling my shoulder away from her view so that she wouldn't see the gash on my arm. Unfortunately, she did see it.
Grabbing my arm softly, she pulled me toward her and examined the wound. She tore a strip off the bottom of her white tank top and wrapped it around my arm, trying to stem the bleeding. I winced a little and looked around in case some Strigoi decided to attack us. Luckily, they were all busy attacking other guardians.
Mom wrapped my arm nicely and looked down at me. "Okay, now you need to go and get to safety," she said, pointing to the building behind us. Another Strigoi decided to make an appearance and, with the help of my mother, we both took it down easily, plunging both of our stakes in his heart simultaneously. "I mean it, Rose! Get to safety!"
"Mom, I can't! He has Lissa, Christian, Adrian, and Dimitri! He's luring me out and he wants me to face him alone! I have to go and get them back!" I said, looking around in case other Strigoi decided to interrupt our conversation again. How many had Gabriel sent out?
"You are not going anywhere near him! I won't let him get to you again!" my mother screamed as two more Strigoi rushed us. One of them pinned my mother to the ground and I easily disposed of the Strigoi trying to bite my neck before staking the Strigoi holding my mom down in the back. Holding my hand out to her, she took it and stood up, looking around once more before turning her attention back to me. "Thanks."
"Will you be able to handle the rest with Alberta and Stan? I have to go now. Gabriel's not known for his patience. Trust me," I said, knowing full well that my mother would understand why Gabriel didn't like to be kept waiting.
"I can't let you do this, Rose. I can't let you go there alone. What if he kills you this time…?" my mother said, placing her hands on my cheeks affectionately and worriedly.
She didn't want to let me go… This was too hard. It shouldn't have to be this way. I knew—well, a part of me did anyways—that I might not come back alive. Maybe my mother knew that as well. But at least the others would return home safely, if I could prevent Gabriel from doing any harm.
"I can't lose you."
"Look, kill the Strigoi here and I'll leave a trail for you to follow. Gather as many guardians as you can and follow my trail, alright? If I come across any Strigoi along the way, I'll kill them and so you guys can follow that as well. But I can't let them die, Mom… I have to settle this," I stressed, never breaking eye contact with her. Tears threatened to flow from my eyes, but I kept them back, not wanting my probably final moments with my mother to be wasted with tears. "I love you, Mom. Please be careful and stay safe, alright?"
She hugged me tightly and stroked my back, and I was happy that the Strigoi were leaving us alone for the time being. "You should take your own advice."
We pulled away from each other and she looked me straight in the eyes, cupping my cheek softly. I think this is the only time that she actually looked like she would cry in the middle of a battle. "You better come back to us, Rose. I mean it. Do whatever you have to do to kill him, but come back to me alive, alright?" I nodded, trying to reassure her, but it was obvious that it was a fifty/fifty chance that he would kill me. My mother handed me an extra stake, placing it softly in my hand as she kissed my forehead then looked me in the eyes again. "We'll get there before he can do anything. I promise."
"Thanks, Mom. Just gather everyone that you can and follow me."
Hugging her for the last time, I ran off, placing the extra stake safely in my back pocket. I staked any Strigoi that crossed my path with my own stake and hurried out of the wards, following the pull of the shadowkissed bonds to find to Gabriel.
Unfortunately, there were a few Strigoi in my path, my cue that I was headed in the right direction. They knocked me into the trees and threw me to the ground, but I staked every one of them. In total, there were eleven Strigoi dead by my hands. My courage was growing; it was no longer that small white ball cowering in the darkness I had seen before. It was growing into something larger, something that might be able to take down Gabriel. Maybe I could beat him.
That's a big maybe…
Crouching down and touching the ground below me, I opened up my mind to see exactly where Lissa and Adrian were being held. Looking through Lissa's eyes, I saw Gabriel pacing from left to right, impatient as usual. Lissa turned her head to look from Adrian and Dimitri to Christian and I could tell that none of them were injured. He must be waiting to hurt them if I didn't show up.
They couldn't be hurt, not because of me.
Peering deeper into the bond, I could see that my friends' wrists were bound above their heads with flex cuffs with rope holding their arms in the air. There was also rope tied around each of their waists, keeping them pinned against the tree trunks, a gag around their mouths to prevent them from speaking, and flex cuffs binding their ankles.
At least they weren't hurt.
Snapping out of her head, I began running in Lissa's direction, slowing down as I closed in on their location. It felt like I was walking to my death, and it brought a strange sense of peace to realize that I was embracing it. If I could save the ones I loved, then that would be a good death, right? My death, my sacrifice, would mean something. Lissa wouldn't have to worry about being assigned a faulty guardian once she graduated. Dimitri could fall in love with someone his own age, maybe a Moroi. Christian and Lissa would be happier together without me interfering, and Adrian would finally find someone to love…
Things can be normal for them after I'm gone.
Sliding into the shadows of a group of bushes, my eyes detected my group of friends, each tied to a tree one beside the other, with Gabriel pacing in front of them, his angry red gaze locked on them. And he seemed hungry.
How long would it be until he began feeding?
But at least Gabriel had chosen an open playing field. There was a waterfall just beyond the trees with rocks surrounding the flowing river on either side. More importantly, the rocks looked sharp. They might be a useful weapon later on. Other than the rocks, there weren't many useful weapons at my disposal. Only the two stakes I had would kill Gabriel.
Great…
Dimitri didn't seem frightened, but I could tell that Lissa, Christian and Adrian were freaked, mostly Lissa. Fear shone in her eyes and pulsed through the bond, completely overpowering Adrian's emotions. She didn't have to be afraid though. None of them did. Things would work out in the end. Gabriel would be dead, and maybe so would I.
Hoping that my presence would help Lissa's fear diminish, I slowly stepped out of the shadows, one stake in my hand while I kept the other hidden behind my back. Luckily, I was wearing a baggy shirt, so the stake was unnoticeable. Lissa saw me immediately and began struggling and shaking her head, trying to tell me to get out of here. But I couldn't leave them. Not now, not with him.
Gabriel saw Lissa's struggling and turned to face me, grinning once his eyes landed on me. We were just a few feet away from one another, but images of what he did to me back in Bozeman still made me want to shiver. I couldn't give him the satisfaction of looking scared.
Gabriel spread his arms wide and grinned even wider. "Well, look who's finally here! The lamb has come to meet her death," Gabriel said, his voice rising in amusement as he took a few steps toward me. "And she has a weapon. A feisty little lamb, aren't you?"
"Let them go. This is between you and me," I said, gripping the stake even tighter.
In my peripheral vision, I could see my friends and boyfriend struggling against their bonds, but they weren't getting anywhere.
"But that would ruin the hostage part of this whole plan. See, I need your friends alive so that you would come to me willingly. Once you're dead, then I will kill them and let them go. But before that, I'm going to have my fun with you," Gabriel said, grinning as he began cracking his knuckles in an attempt to scare me.
To be honest, he did scare me a little, but I tried to do what Dimitri had said and make my courage grow so that it could overcome my fear.
"It's going to be fun to dispose of you. And I have so many colourful ways of killing you that I just can't decide. What to do, what to do…" he said, tapping his chin with his finger.
"I've got one way for you," I said, running at him full speed in the hopes of finding an opening.
It might have been stupid, but I tried to strike him, only to have him step aside, grab the back of my shirt, and throw me into a tree. A gasp of pain escaped my lips as my right side collided with the tree's rough surface. Gripping my stake, I slowly got to my feet and cradled my arm with my free hand while glaring at him.
"Seems as though Rosie's got some thorns on her stem, doesn't she?" Gabriel teased, walking toward me slowly.
Lissa began struggling even more as she tried to get to me, but it was no use. The binds were far too strong for her small physique. Even Dimitri was having issues with his own binds, which was a lot to say for the Russian God. I straightened up and tried to grip the stake even more now, crouching a little as a sign that I was ready to fight.
"Ah, and she still has some guts left in her too. I figured that I had killed that little spunk left in you, but I must have been wrong. Guess I really will have to kill you and this time, make sure that that spunk of yours is gone…"
"Not if I get you first… Come and get me, little boy," I said, waiting for him to attack this time.
Maybe he was right. My old spunk was coming back and it'd be good to use it now, mostly to try and make him a little tense.
Gabriel grinned and lunged at me, his fangs barred and ready to sink into my throat. Dodging to the side, I tried to roundhouse kick him, but did not succeed. He unfortunately grabbed my ankle and tried to knock me down, but, taking the risk, I kicked him in the side of the head with my opposite foot, falling on my side on the ground. Luckily, he fell to the side, his hand on his head. Standing up, I tried to stake him from the back, thinking that this would be an easy win, when suddenly, he turned around at an incredible speed and grabbed my throat, squeezing to the point where I could barely breathe.
"You're really starting to become a nuisance," Gabriel said, growling a little as he straightened, lifting me off of the ground by the neck and walking toward my friends.
Attempting to escape was no use. His hold on me was too strong. Gabriel gripped my neck tighter and grinned a little, never breaking eye contact with me as I tried to pry his hand off of me with no success.
"You're really got some spunk left in you. I like that. But unfortunately, I liked how you looked before... Weak, broken, bloody..." he said as his other hand went up my left arm and, gripping my shoulder tightly, wrenched it right out of its socket. His grip loosened on my neck as a blood curling scream erupted from my lips. Lissa and the others were just a mere five feet from us and she tried to scream against the gag, struggling even more against her binds. "Ah, pure music to my ears..."
That was it. I did not want to go through the torture that he had put me through again. Once in my life was enough.
Gripping the stake in my right hand, I tried to stake him, but wasn't able to fully plunge it into his chest. It was still enough to make him scream in utter pain and drop me. I coughed strongly as I crawled away from him. Standing up, I hovered my right hand above my shoulder as searing pain went through it. I wasn't able to move it at all. He had dislocated it badly and I was afraid of putting it back in place myself. It might hurt even more than getting it dislocated.
Gabriel glared at me and tried to take a step forward, which caused horrible pain shoot through his chest from where my stake was still embedded in his chest. Damn it. My stake had gone in a few inches, but not enough to pierce his heart. And he was pissed now.
"You're gonna pay for that, Rosie," he growled, using his left hand to step towards me, growling at the pain that the stake in his chest brought him with every movement.
Standing up as best as possible, I summoned up my courage—little as it still may be—and ran at him, trying not to jostle my dislocated shoulder too much. He was only walking toward me, but he had figured that he had the upper hand. That might be true, but I was not going down without a fight.
He swung at me, but I grabbed my extra stake and scratched his arm, which gave me a small opening at his chest. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to fully drive my stake through his chest, but it was enough to grab my stake at an awkward angle and, while sliding under his legs, and yanked it out of his chest. I screamed as the sudden movement jarred my dislocated arm, making white-hot pain shoot through my body. Placing one of the stakes behind my back, I watched Gabriel stand up, his chest already starting to heal.
But his eyes just radiated anger. This couldn't be good.
"Alright, I am through messing around with a weak little Dhampir like you," he said, growling deeply at me. And then his behaviour changed.
He became lethal now, just a white blur around me. Using his speed, he passed by me and gripped the back of my neck, the once again propelled me toward the trees. But the impact never came. Instead, a strong breeze flew past me and his cold hand grabbed my neck, pounding me to the ground with his hand still gripping me tightly. A gasp of pain erupted from my throat as the stake that was tucked in the back of my pants stabbed me. I immediately felt a wet spot beginning to spread on my jeans, some of my blood leaking from the wound. Alongside that wound, some blood was running down the back of my head from getting it knocked into the ground.
Gabriel growled and lifted me off the ground by the collar of my shirt, and unfortunately, the stake in my hand slipped out of my grasp, dropping to the ground near the trees. I couldn't reach for it because I was too busy trying to pry his hand off of me to get the stake in my back. He was squeezing my neck so tightly that my air was once again being cut off.
Gabriel looked at my neck and tsked in disappointment, shaking his head. There was only one thing that came to mind when he did that. He wanted blood. "That used to be much more…black and blue…the last time I saw it. I guess it just needs a little 'touch up'," Gabriel said before sinking his fangs into my throat roughly, making me gasp in pain as he began to drink my blood in slow gulps.
The sense of euphoria and bliss that the endorphins brought made my body relax and I completely forgot about my hidden stake. My eyes slid shut halfway unintentionally, watching the sky above me with hazy vision. Gabriel stopped drinking after a while but immediately bit into my neck again, causing only a small sting of bearable pain, thanks to the endorphins.
He bit me at least five more times and drank from me nonstop, but I barely noticed what was happening. The endorphins made me feel dazed and blissful. But they also made me feel numb. Maybe it was because of the amount of blood he was taking from me. It felt as though I was barely able to move anymore. My arms and legs were numb and my body felt cold. Even my head felt dizzy and heavy.
Once he pulled back, my hearing had started to diminish as well. All I could hear was a dull humming. "Hmm… That's the best meal I've had in days. Ain't that right, Rosie?" I felt a sudden sting on my cheek as my head was snapped to the side and I figured that he must have slapped me. But I couldn't feel much of anything now. I knew that I would pass out soon and maybe never wake up. "But I don't like it when you're this quiet. I know… Maybe I should continue with my original plan. Your dearest wish can be granted. Immortality is right at your disposal, Rosie. And you can serve me," Gabriel continued, his voice resonating like a machine on the fritz.
He seemed so far away until I felt a wet substance hit my lips. It was blood. His blood. He wanted to turn me, make me a Strigoi… My worst nightmare would come true.
Gabriel removed whatever was against my lips—through the haze I saw that it was his wrist that was bleeding—and he grinned. "Ready, Rosie?" he asked, bringing his wrist very slowly toward me again, trying to traumatize me with the idea of awakening as a Strigoi as soon as his blood ran down my throat and I would start drinking.
This couldn't happen. I didn't want this. But I didn't have the strength to fight him anymore. He had taken so much blood from me that my body was slowly shutting down. I tried moving my fingers and they seemed to respond, but not efficiently. Just the tiniest of movement from my finger told me that he had left me just a small amount of blood left in my body to function properly, to stay as conscious as long as he wanted me to. And at this rate, either I would stay conscious, die, or I would become a Strigoi. Honestly, the latter was the worst of the three.
His wrist was so close to my lips now that fear began creeping inside of me slowly, my already slow heartbeat beating slightly quicker than before. Gabriel's grin never left his face. But then someone spoke, and it wasn't Gabriel.
"NO!"
So, since this was a pretty lengthy chapter, what did you guys think of it? Was it good? Was it bad? Are you guys anticipating the next chapter? Well, don't fret, because I'll give you guys a few days to read this one and then update (with or without the edited version, since I don't have it yet) the next chapter. So please REVIEW!
Mortal-paralight
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