Alright, so here is the newest version of this chapter. I know it's been a long time coming, and I apologize, but the month of June is always the busiest for me. So here it is, all thanks to my beta, DragonGirl323. So, without further ado, I know that you guys have been waiting a while for this one, so here is it. Please let me know your opinions after finishing the chapter!

Also, just to remember that I've made this Facebook page in hopes to attract more people to read my stories and get more notice about when I update and such. It has more than 100 likes so far, so if you are interested in seeing nice quotes, good videos, and get the next updates for my stories, here is my link:

(Facebook dot com)/ #! / MortalParalight (remove the spaces and please fill in the blanks that are written there, i.e.. (Facebook dot com) is the address of Facebook)

So now, without further ado, please READ AND REVIEW!

Disclaimer = I don't own Vampire Academy or anything mentioned in here!

Previously on A Friend's Courage…

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!"

Chapter 36

Her Courage

Dimitri's Point of View

"NO!" I screamed after finally removing the gag from around my mouth and getting his attention. I just hoped it wasn't too late.

His wrist was already placed against my love's lips and his blood was flowing down into her mouth, which I had to stop. He couldn't turn her. No, he couldn't.

"Leave her alone!" I demanded, trying to struggle and get out of my binds to help my Roza. She didn't seem to be conscious. Even as his blood went down her throat, she wasn't responding. Rose wasn't drinking. Was she even alive? He'd taken so much blood from her body… "I said leave her alone! Don't touch her!"

Gabriel sighed, looked down, and pulled his wrist away from my Roza's lips, leaving them painted bloody red. Her head fell to the side and laid there motionless, limp in his hold. But she didn't stay that way. Gabriel threw her against a tree, back first, and my beautiful Roza's head snapped back against the rough bark before she slumped to the ground.

"No!" I screamed, thrashing even more.

Lissa and the others began struggling even more, their wrists getting rubbed raw under the texture of the flex cuffs. By the look in Christian's eyes, I knew that he wanted to use his fire powers to burn Gabriel and maybe the flex cuffs off, but Gabriel was too dangerous. He might kill Christian before the Ozera boy could do any harm. Lissa had tears running down her face as she looked at Rose's limp form, her arm in front of her head and one of her stakes near her hand, just barely in her grasp.

"Roza! Roza, wake up! Come on, Rose! Please!"

"You're really starting to get on my last nerve, Dhampir," Gabriel said, stalking toward us, anger burning in his eyes. He didn't like being interrupted, especially not while he was having his 'fun'. But he would not hurt my Roza again. Not if I could prevent it. "Maybe I should start with you."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a slight movement. Rose began moving her fingers, trying to move her body. She was conscious! My Roza was alive! If only she could get her strength back… The darkness! It was our only hope! Rose was our only hope of killing Gabriel and ending his torment.

Her neck was still bleeding ever so slightly, meaning she still had blood in her system. But…what would happen to her now, considering that there was Strigoi blood in her body now? He didn't give her enough to awaken her, but would she be all right?

Christian growled and used his element to burn Gabriel's hand, making the Strigoi growl and back away, clutching his burnt hand. Gabriel growled deeply and strode over to Christian, gripping his neck tightly, making Christian gasp in pain. Lissa's expression turned to fury and panic as Gabriel leaned in closer to Christian's neck, smelling it first. Adrian's eyes only showed fury as he struggled against his binds. They were both mad. That's what we needed. We needed them to get mad. Rose needed to suck their anger away, even if…if it could mean her death. I never wanted that, but we would all die if she didn't go up against Gabriel. I would lose her… I never wanted to let her do this, but what choice did we have? I knew that she would pull through this. She was a fighter. Roza would come back to me, no matter what.

"You're an Ozera… A royal. How interesting. It'll be better than I thought to take your life. Three royals and two stupid Dhampirs all in one feast… So delicious," he said with a smirk, inching his fangs closer to Christian's neck.

"D…Don't…touch t…them…" a female voice said weakly, interrupting Gabriel's movements.

Turning my head toward the voice, Rose moved her shaky arm backwards, placing her pale hand against the ground and trying to lift herself up, struggling to do so. Her dislocated shoulder made it difficult for her to move, but she inched her way toward the stake and grabbed it shakily, her head bent forward so that I couldn't see her face.

"You…leave them…alone…" Rose said a little more clearly. The wind kicked up, swirling around her hair, showing us brief glimpses of her face. She looked so pale… Would she be able to beat him? I believed in my Roza. I knew she could do it.

Gabriel let Christian go and turned to look at Rose's shaking form. "Well, well, well. You just won't die, will you?" Gabriel asked condescendingly, taking a few steps in Rose's direction. Looking at Lissa and Adrian, they looked relieved to see Rose conscious, but I could tell that their anger was diminishing. That couldn't happen. "Guess I'll have to fix that problem."

"Lissa, Adrian," I whispered, glad that Rose currently distracted Gabriel.

All three Moroi turned their attention to me. Considering that I was the only one who had removed my gag, I knew they wouldn't be able to answer me.

"You both need to get angry. Rose needs to absorb your darkness and place it into her." Lissa looked at me with a frightened expression, knowing that Rose could get hurt because of this. "Listen, she doesn't have the strength right now to kill him, so he'll kill her before she can do anything. And none of us want that. We know that she can do this, so you both need to get angry and lend her a hand. Do it," I stressed, watching as Gabriel approached my love slowly and tauntingly.

Lissa looked back at Rose and closed her eyes, hopefully starting to get angry. But Gabriel was advancing on Rose quickly. Maybe he was impatient that she was still alive. But my Roza was a fighter. She'd kill him in the end.

"You're really starting to become a bother, Rosie. You know you can't win against me. Why don't you just give in and die already?" he asked, stopping a few feet away from her.

Rose slowly got to her feet, clutching the stake in her hand with all her might. Her head was bent in exhaustion, the wind still swirling around her, lifting her clothes and hair ever so slightly in the air. And it grew as Rose began taking Lissa and Adrian's anger away. "You might be stronger… You can try to break me down… But you'll never win… Light will always defeat darkness…" Rose said, lifting her head and looking directly at Gabriel.

She might not have gotten her colour back yet, but it showed that her strength was returning. Of course, that was simply the darkness filling her as she embraced it and controlled it. My Roza's eyes turned slowly from brown to black, but they returned to brown as she seized control of the anger inside of her. That's my girl. She placed her free hand on her dislocated shoulder, winced a little, and pulled her arm back into place, the sharp pop echoing through the clearing.

"I have something that you will never have. Friends. Friends who help me through everything that you've done to me. And they've helped me developed something that I thought that I had lost: my courage. And my courage will help me kill you, if it's the last thing I do!" she shouted before gripping her stake, bringing her hand to her chest, and charging at him with incredible speed, even for a Dhampir.

Gabriel's eyes widened a little in surprise, but he crouched and, at the moment Rose scratched his chest with the stake, he growled and grabbed her wrist, ready to propel her away from him again. Gabriel threw her toward the trees, expecting Rose to break some ribs from the impact, but she spun in the air, placing her feet against the bark of the tree, and propelled herself to him, flying at lightning speed as she plunged her stake in his stomach and twisted his right arm upwards, making him flop to the ground with a thud.

Rose backed up a little, not wanting to be too close to him as he stood up, growling in pain with the stake lodged in his stomach, and replaced his shoulder. "I'll break you and grind you into pathetic little pieces, if it's the last thing I do," Gabriel growled, walking toward her slowly.

"Bring it on, pretty dead boy," Roza responded, pulling the extra stake out from behind her shirt and rushing at him, ducking as he tried to grab her while he growled at the pain in his stomach.

Rose slid under his legs and slashed at his calf, making him fall to one knee. Before he could right himself, Roza grabbed his hair and threw him to the ground, making him growl in pain. My love grabbed the stake from Gabriel's stomach and yanked it out, making him try to claw at her, but she moved out of the way, anticipating his next moves. Stepping back, she crouched and gripped the stakes in both of her hands, watching Gabriel try and stand up slowly.

"This is getting too easy. I should have done this a long time ago. Would have saved myself the torment," she taunted, getting ready for his next attack.

"You'll regret the day you were ever born, Rosemarie."

"Honestly doubt it."

"We'll see about that," Gabriel said before running at her, trying to use his speed to gain an advantage over her, but she rushed up to him, almost using the same speed he was using.

My Roza leapt into the air and he grabbed her ankle to try and unbalance her, but she pushed her feet into his chest and kicked him to the ground, stepping on top of him as she placed the edge of her stake against his throat. As Gabriel looked up at my Roza, he chuckled, but didn't move. Looking at her, I could see why he seemed to be amused. Rose was sweating and panting horribly, not because of the strain on her body as she fought him, but because of the toll darkness was taking on her. How long could she last like this?

"You're pathetic. I see that you are growing weaker, Rosie. You don't have what it takes to kill me," Gabriel said, reaching out and grabbing her neck at lightning speed, squeezing ever so slightly and bringing her closer to his face.

Rose chocked a little, but positioned the stake over his heart, ready to drive it in. I knew that she could. One move and it'd be over for him. But his hold on her neck scared me. He could snap her neck before she could do anything. My poor Roza…

"I can kill you… And I will…" she said as she placed her hand on top of the stake and shoving it downwards forcefully.

"I wouldn't bet on it!" Gabriel said, throwing my Roza by her neck toward the waterfall. But he gasped and my eyes darted to his chest for a split second before watching as my Roza hit the rocky base of the waterfall, her back arching grotesquely as the back of her head impacted the rocks before she fell into the water, stomach first.

She'd pushed the stake into his heart before he threw her. Gabriel had had enough time to throw her away, but not before she drove the stake through his heart and killed him in seconds. Gabriel's eyes widened as he looked down and saw the stake pierced through his chest and his head fall to the ground, eyes staring upwards lifelessly as his hand fell to the ground beside him, unmoving.

Rose had done it!

I smiled and closed my eyes in relief. "She did it… You did it, Rose!" I exclaimed before looking around, hoping that Rose had gotten out of the water, but there was no sign of her. "Rose?" I called, looking at the water where she had fallen.

There were bubbles where she had fallen a few seconds ago, but no Rose. She was still underwater. Looking back at the rocks, there was a distinctive red smear painted across them.

Oh no… "Roza!" I screamed, struggling against the binds just as Alberta, Stan, and Janine emerged from the forest, followed by several other guardians. Maybe they were expecting to fight Gabriel on their own when they arrived.

Alberta looked around and locked eyes on Gabriel's limp form on the ground as Stan hurried over to us and began cutting our binds. Alberta gave an order to the other guardians to spread out and to search for anymore Strigoi around the area before the guardians nodded and ran off in different directions. But they were missing the biggest picture of all: Rose's floating form in the water.

"Get Rose out of the water! She's drowning!" I screamed, making Janine's eyes widen before looking over at the water and diving in head first.

Stan got all four of us out of our restraints quickly as Janine swam to the surface with Rose's limp head leaning on her mother's shoulder. My Roza's eyes stayed closed. This couldn't be good. Alberta crouched down and extended her hands to Janine, indicating that she could take Rose from her arms. Janine willingly handed Rose to Alberta as she pulled herself out of the water, Alberta dragging my Roza out and placing her on the ground, her head resting in Alberta's lap.

Janine kneeled by her daughter and placed her ear on Rose's chest, checking for a heartbeat. But, as Janine's eyes widened, my worse fears came true. "She has no pulse," Janine said, causing Alberta's eyes to widen ever so slightly before placing Rose's head softly on the ground so Janine could start admitting CPR to her daughter.

Alberta looked down at her pants and noticed they were tainted with blood, then gently turned Rose's head softly to the side, placed her hand under Rose's head and pulled her hand back. Her fingers were covered in my Roza's blood. No…

"She has a head wound. Stan, give me a piece of your shirt to wrap around her head. Quickly," Alberta ordered, replacing Rose's head on the ground so Janine could blow air into my love's mouth, returning to compressions on Roza's chest after a few breaths.

Stan ripped off a large part of the bottom of his shirt and handed it to Alberta, letting her wrap the cotton fabric around Rose's head so her blood could soak into the ripped material. Kneeling beside my love, I grabbed her hand softly, placing it in both of mine as I began to pray for her awakening. This could not happen. She was full of life and she could not leave me like this, not after defeating the man who had been terrorizing her.

"What happened?" Alberta asked, looking down at Rose's body before lifting her eyes to look at Gabriel's dead form on the ground.

"She met him and tried to fight him off, but he was too powerful. He…he grabbed her after she gave him a few good injuries and drank a lot of her blood. She was barely conscious, but she kept trying to fight. That's when he tried to awaken her…" Alberta's eyes widened and she looked at Rose's still form as Janine kept doing chest compressions to get my Roza's heart beating again. "He didn't though. A little of his blood went into her system, but not enough to change her… Not that I'm aware of." Alberta let out a relieved breath, but still looked worried as my love didn't wake up. She had to make it. "She took in Lissa and Adrian's darkness when Gabriel tried to hurt Christian. Rose fought against him again and she got him pinned to the ground under her after a few more hits. She had one of her stakes against his neck and the other one fell somewhere. I'm not really sure. Everything happened in such a blur… He grabbed her neck and threw her against those rocks, but not before she stabbed him, killing him instantly," I explained, mentally pleading for my Roza to wake up.

"She shouldn't have taken the darkness in, even to kill him. Her mind could be shattered because of this!" Janine said, blowing more air into my Roza's mouth and returning to doing chest compressions seconds later. Looking down at her daughter, she growled and began yelling at her daughter as tears streamed down her face. "You promised, Rose! You promised you'd stay safe! You promised you would come back to me alive! Don't you dare die on us!"

"Roza…please… Please don't leave me…" I pleaded, clutching her hand even tighter in both of mine.

A few stray tears fell down my face as I looked back and saw Lissa and Adrian struggling to get to Rose so they could heal her. But luckily, Stan was holding them back. Christian knew that he couldn't do anything to help, but he stayed close, his eyes praying that Rose would make it.

Turning my eyes back to Rose's pale face, some of my tears fell on her cheek as I began speaking again. "Please don't leave me, Rose. I need you. Please come back to us. I love you. Please, Roza… Please…"

Rose's Point of View

Such a bright light… It was so beautiful and so tempting.

Looking around, I saw that I was standing in a beautiful meadow; daisies, lavenders, roses, every flower that you could imagine covered the ground, making the air smell wonderfully. A beautiful river flowed a few feet away from me, the bright light making the river shine. Everything around me was so beautiful, peaceful. It was as if there wasn't a care in the world.

Was I in heaven? Did I even belong here? With everything that happened, it would have been obvious that I belonged in Hell. Guess I was wrong about that… But shouldn't there be more people around? I mean, there was only me and…

"Hey, Rose, long time no see," a voice said from behind me, making me slowly turn my head toward it.

And what I saw shocked me. The man standing in front of me had red curly hair, blue eyes, and dimples on his cheeks, making him look young and innocent. A small smile played on his face as his hands went into his pockets, approaching me slowly.

"I honestly didn't think I would see you here, especially not now."

"Mason…"

So what did you guys think of this chapter? Good? Bad? Could be much better? Please let me know in some REVIEWS!

Mortal-paralight

13