I'm sorry it's taken me so long!

But here it is, the newest chapter. I wish I could tell you the number of chapters left, but it always ends up longer than I expect.

"What?" I shriek, squirming and fighting, trying to pry my wrist out of his grip. "Have you lost it? We have to go back! We have to find him! Let me go, you stupid, son of a b-"

Dimitri whirls, his eyes blazing. In all the things I've ever said to him, this was probably the first time I had truly been intentionally hurtful and insulting. "The chapel is burning, Rose. We need to get away from anyone associated with Viktor. Adrian is gone, and right now, the fire is his biggest threat. He's safe."

Spoken like a true guardian.

I swallow the lump in my throat, the smoke of the fire leaving a dry, burning trail.

"Rose, you have to trust me."

Slowly, so slowly, I slide my hand into his.

He continues on, tugging me behind him. We fled away from the dhampir buildings, away from the Moroi apartments, away from Lissa's hiding spot. "Then where are we going?"

"Away. As far away from Viktor as we can be while trying to figure this out."

"Figure what out? Dimitri-"

But he doesn't say a word, and we just continue to run into the dark of the night. The Court is eerily quiet, everyone in lockdown. We are alone, it seems, just the two of us. When we get to the crumbling brick dhampir buildings, Dimitri lets go of my hand and leaps upwards, closing his fingers around the bottom rung of the fire-escape ladder that twines up up the side of the building. The whole thing comes sliding down with a screech of metal.

"Hurry," is all he says. "Someone will have heard that."

He grabs me by the waist and gives me a boost, clasping my thighs until I can grab onto the ladder. Following me, he instructs me to keep climbing, climbing, until we're almost near the top of the aged structure.

I stop when he tells me, pressing against the rungs when he crawls right over top of me, trying to pry open the unmoving window. I can feel his muscles tense, and can tell he's using the full force of his body to try and open the damned thing.

It doesn't budge.

After several minutes with no success, I sigh and lean forward, stripping off his leather jacket. Wrapping it around my knuckles, I slam my fist into the window, shattering the glass.

Once we both clamber inside, I raise my eyebrows at him and hand him back his duster, trying to keep a smirk from my face.

Silently, he slips back into his coat, avoiding my gaze, and takes the lead once more.

I hate not being in on these plans, but I restrain my temper and let him take control. And I despise myself for it.

We creep down the hall. By the time we reach the door at the end of the hall, he already has tensed his body, prepared to break down the door. In one smooth movement, the door is open and we are inside.

By the less-than-neat state of the room, I can tell this isn't Dimitri's apartment.

"Where are we?" I whisper, staying in the middle of the room while Dimitri scurries around, entering the kitchenette, pulling out knives and any sharp objects he can find. "This isn't your room, is it?"

Dimitri shakes his head. "No. They removed any potential weapons after assigning me this room."

Although he shrugs it off, I can see how it pains him.

"So whose room did we just break into?"

Dimitri shrugs once again, and continues to rummage around the place. The world outside is dark, and the light of the moon is barely enough to be able to see, even with our dhampir eyes. We stumble through the dark, too afraid to turn on the light and alert the opposing world of our presence.

He wraps any sharp ends in whatever thick material he can find and divides them between the two of us, allowing me to shove my pockets full of the weapons. One advantage of fighting dhampirs-there were more than a rare selection of ways to kill them. Unfortunately, that also applied to us. We had to be just as careful.

Once our pockets are full, we exit the room and find a different escape, sliding down the drainpipe.

I grab the hem of Dimitri's leather sleeve as allow him to lead me through the dark alleys. I wonder if some of the heightened senses of being a strigoi remained with him...

The padding of our shoes against the pavement are the only sounds that can be heard. We don't talk, barely breathe. I can feel as my heart slams against my ribcage, and can feel the heat of Dimitri's skin, as well as his own thundering pulse when my hand brushes his wrist.

"Where would Viktor be?" I whisper in his ear. "Where do you think he's gone to?"

"I don't know. Someplace safe. Someplace with low security, but still hidden."

With a gasp, I jerk Dimitri's sleeve back, snapping him in the other direction, and take the lead. I can tell he's surprised at the turn of events, but he follows nevertheless.

His hand spins and he ends grabbing my wrist. "Care to explain where you're taking me?"

I pull him along. "To the Queen's old quarters. Secure, because, she was the Queen, but no one will be guarding it, because she's... well, you know."

As we move closer and closer, I pull Dimitri down behind a rose bush in the garden that lines the entrance to Queen Tatiana's old house. Although we can barely make it out, I can distinguish two dhampirs guarding the front entrance.

"Good call," breathes Dimitri in my ear, and he shifts, up onto his toes, and begins to creep closer to the guards.

Sliding a knife out of his pocket, he holds the blade between two fingers, testing the weight, before throwing it effortlessly into the mid-section of the dhampir on the left.

I don't hesitate, using the momentary distraction to leap from my hiding spot and smash the second dhampir's head into the stone, letting him crumple to the ground.

In a morbid curiosity, I lean over, examining the wound of the knife on our first victim. A clean shot, perhaps not killing him, but seriously injuring him, obviously.

How the hell had he done that?

"Seriously, Belikov?" He rolls his eyes in his normal avoiding-any-conversation-about-his-unbelievable-skill sort of way, and helps me drag the bodies behind the bushes, hiding them from view. "You must have been unbeatable at darts. You have to teach me how to do that."

"Make you a deal. If we get out of this alive, I'll teach you whatever the hell you want to know," he promises, his dark hair falling over his eyes once more.

I slide an extra elastic off of my wrist and give him a moment to secure the strands at the base of his neck. "And what's my end of the deal?"

He gives me a serious look, one that I can't decode. "You just have to stay alive."

Without letting me ponder his words, we slide into the building.

The front hall is unbelievably grand, with marble floors and plush carpets. An enormous chandeliar hangs overhead.

I immediately turn so I am back-to-back with Dimitri as we slowly make our way up the grand staircase. I am carefully watching the dark shadows near the bottom of the steps for any sign of movement, as I'm sure Dimitri is doing as we near the top.

I bring whatever weapon I can into my hands, gripping onto it, fearing that it will slip from my grasp with my sweating hands. We search the entire house thoroughly, but we don't see any movement, or hear even the slightest of breaths.

"They have to be here," Dimitri whispers, as if reading my thoughts. "Why else would his dhampirs be guarding the entrance. They must be here."

I knew he was right, but, despite what the entire Moroi population seemed to believe, I had never been in the Queen's house before, and certainly hadn't been through her bedchambers and private quarters to murder her.

"Does this place have a cellar?" I ask quietly, more to offer the information than to ask if Dimitri if he knows. "Or maybe an attic?"

Frowning in thought, he takes my hand once again and leads me up the stairs, checking every door in the corridor of the highest floor until we find a winding case of rickety wooden stairs leading to an unknown location.

I begin the ascend first, but Dimitri pulls me back, and steps in first himself. "What the hell are you doing?" I hiss.

"Scouting ahead," he replies bluntly. I grab at his shoulder, but he shrugs me off. "Enough. I won't put you in danger."

"Me in danger? Who the hell do you think you are? This is my battle, Dimitri, the only reason you were brought here was to break me. You decided to tag along, alright? You're not my mentor anymore! You don't call the shots! Can't you shut up and listen for once? Damn it, Dimitri, I really hate you sometimes."

He blinks in surprise at my harsh tone. I have never, never, spoken to him like that before, at least while completely sober and free of spirit influence. I suppose this night was full of surprises.

"Alright."

So, with a reluctant hand on my hip, he follows me up the pitch-black staircase.

Call it Guardian senses, but after several minutes of catious climbing, I reached gently above me, and felt that the steps simply lead up to a dead end, the ceiling.

"A dead end?" I curse.

I feel his hand slide up my back through the unseeing darkness, using me as a guide to find the slanted wall. He shifts for several minutes, before I feel his breath in my ear.

"There are handles, here. It's a door."

Tugging does nothing to open the double doors, but when he thrusts his arms upwards, they easily fly back, sending a rush of cold air spiraling around us.

Dimitri and I step up into the night, onto the flat roof of the Queen's quarters, the seering wind swirling at the ends of our hair, the hems of our jackets.

Viktor sits on a small lawn chair, surrounded by countless of his dhampir guards.

Adrian, bound and gagged, is at his feet.

I'm terribly sorry for how long it is taking for me to update, I really am! I didn't use to be this bad! I've just been so busy these past few months!

But, if it helps, for those who are actually still ready, than I'd like to let you know that I have finally figured out how to continue with this story, although it's quickly drawing to an end. Not quite yet, mind you, so if you can stick with me, it'll be great!

-PRG