The After Effect- Chapter 4

Hi guys, sorry for the delay in this chapter, I've been busy moving house! (I also may or may not have re-read the whole VA series in 7 days…) As always let me know what you think of the story and thanks for reading!

'It means blood Rose. Strigoi have captured some of our Moroi'

How was this possible. The school had so many wards and guardians that it was one of the only places that was absolutely safe from Strigoi, where guardians felt comfortable to let Moroi walk around without guardians, even royalty, yet something had broken that. I looked at Dimitri for more answers but this time he didn't have any for me. Although there were guardians everywhere, he reached out and took my hand and started running towards the end of the corridor. I immediately went into Lissa's head, checking she was ok. She was thank goodness, but she was worries and scared and upset. She had known some of those that had been taken.

He pulled me into a large office room that had 12 guardians sat around a large table in the middle, and at least 15 guardians scattered around the walls listening to the conversation being had at the table. Dimitri let go of my hand, and walked to stand against one of the walls. The room was small, so we were very much part of the conversation. Sat at the head of the table was Alberta, with a deathly serious look on her face.

'For those who have joined us' she said, scanning her eyes around the room as we were not the only ones who had just come in, 'a large group of Moroi students and teachers, with 20 from the younger campus and another 20 from the upper campus have been taken by Strigoi. They were outside the academy wards doing a biology workshop, and whilst they had a significant amount of guards with them, there were too many Strigoi there. We know this because one of the guardians made it out with just a concussion and a few minor injuries and by the time he had come into consciousness the Strigoi had taken everybody alive.' Poor guardian I thought, imagine being the only one out alive. I shuddered at the thought.

The meeting went on for hours and gradually more and more guardians arrived. With the room as full as it was no-one seemed to notice that I was there, or if they did, they had bigger things to think about. There was going to be an increased security presence on campus, this was a given as we had not thought so many Strigoi had been lurking on the boundaries of the school. What was taking so long to decide however, was if they thought any of the captives would still be alive, and if it was worth sending out a rescue mission.

After another few hours they were still no closer to finding a solution and yet more guardians had entered. The room was so full Dimitri and I had been pushed to the back and there were many guardians in-front of us. The room was definitely over full capacity. As key figures in the discussion kept battling it out, I became acutely aware of Dimitri pressed up against my shoulder, his smell embracing me, and I relived the events of last night when I had been cuddled up against him. He very slowly curled his hand around mine, being very gentle so that nobody would notice. This was a risky move, but one that comforted us both, and we presumed no-one would notice.

The sun was beginning to rise and the meeting was still at the height of discussing. All of a sudden someone came running through the door and it was my mother. I wondered when she had got here. 'There's a survivor' she shouted. The room went deathly silent after all the arguing that had been going on.
'Bring them in' commanded Alberta. In walked a slim Moroi teacher with short greying hair, whom I recognised as the biology teacher. She was pretty, but very pale, and I noticed two small puncture marks on the side of her neck. She looked like she was barely holding it together. One of the 12 stood up and offered her his chair, whilst someone brought her a hot drink. Alberta gently prompted her for her story.

'We started off just studying the flowers surrounding the academy, and we had near guardians stationed close in a protective circle, and guardians further away in another protective circle.' That was a classic guarding pattern used to guard large groups, one that was hard to break I thought. 'After about an hour we thought we should head back as the sun was beginning to go down, but then our expert noticed an especially rare flower, so we were delayed in leaving the woods, but the guardians thought it would be ok as we were not near anywhere that gave shelter from the sun. As we were about an hour drive away, we all filtered back on the bus, but when we counted the students, we realised that there was one missing. We sent out a team of guardians to look for him, and they found him after about half an hour, and so they brought him back and we were about to set off when the bus wouldn't start. A few guardians went out to check it, and then that's when it happened.' She was barely whispering at this point, but however hard it was for her to relieve the events Alberta prompted her to go on. We needed to know.

'There were 10 Strigoi that I saw, against our 7 that were out fixing the bus, and that battle lasted less than 5 minutes.' I winced, knowing that that was near impossible odds. 'We stayed on the bus as the guardians thought that was the most secure place, but we soon noticed smoke filling it, and we had to evacuate everyone off'. Smart tactics from the Strigoi, but they hadn't burnt people out of places for centuries. 'Once we were out it was chaos. The Strigoi weren't going for the Moroi unless we ran, and they were slowly getting rid of all the guardians. Eventually they loaded us into mini-vans and drove to a derelict building perhaps 10 minutes away. We were unloaded and they began to drink from us, but not kill us, and then they made me leave. They made me leave my students to come back her. They wanted me to tell you exactly what had happened.'

All the guardians faces in the room looked shocked at this. It had never happened. They were baiting us out. Alberta began to get the specifics from the teacher, and then someone came to take her to the feeders as she had lost a lot of blood. 'It is in my opinion that there are many Moroi still alive out there' announced Alberta, 'and we cannot leave them to die. I believe we should strike. Does anyone disagree?' she asked. The room was silent. Everyone was onboard. We would strike.

I hope you all enjoyed! Next chapter will be dramatic ;) I would love to hear any ideas you may have!

Molly