Rose's POV
Since the queen took a personal interest in helping me defeat the Strigoi stalking me, she ordered Hans to hand over his best guardians. Twenty-five of them. I only told Dimitri ten because I wasn't sure what he would tell Tasha, and if Tasha would be trustworthy with that information. Plus, Dimitri would be more cautious if he thought only me and ten others were coming to his aid; I hope. Before I could get into the first of five SUVs, Lissa came running up to the garage. Well, speed walking is more like it. God forbid the public see the queen running in an emergency. As it was, we were getting a lot of curious looks from Moroi going about their day.
I pulled my hair tight into a ponytail. Standing there in combat boots, jeans and a cotton T-shirt, I felt like the old me. If the circumstances weren't so dire, I would have been happy to see me in my good old Rose attire.
The public didn't know about the Belikova girls' kidnapping yet, but nothing stayed a secret for long here. It was only a matter of time before the council found out that one of the princesses was leaving for a rescue mission. Hopefully I'd already be on the road by then. I closed the door to the SUV so the guards inside wouldn't hear Lissa.
She brushed some hair from her face, trying to appear composed. "I know you don't have time for this right now, but I have some good news. I'm bringing Jill back to court. Today. Eddie's catching a separate flight right now and he'll meet you in Pittsburgh." I stared at her with my mouth agape. I looked back and forth from the SUV. "Umh," I blinked several times.
A guardian handed me a holster for my stake. "Thank you?" I said distractedly. "We'll have to talk about this later." She nodded and smirked at me as I tightened the holster on my thigh. "It's not often you see royalty in war gear," she commented. I laughed bitterly, "Well, I'm not your average princess, am I?" We hugged each other before she was escorted away and I got in the passenger seat of the SUV.
I should have been worrying for the girls, but I found myself wondering about my friends in California while we waited to leave the warded areas. Mostly I thought about Adrian, and if we could be friends at this point. I knew Sydney was with them, would she come to Court?
My mind couldn't focus on that for long though, and soon I was thinking about those two weeks I spent captive.
I took a calming breath before buckling myself in. The moment Tasha told me what Randall had done I knew it was a ploy to get us to rescue them, but there was no way I couldn't go. I clenched my jaw to help hold back the water building in my eyes. Once I got my memories back of what Randall had done to me, and the compulsion which made me a slave to him, all I could hear in my head was You're mine now. Randall wasn't an idiot. I was afraid of him, and what power he had over me still. I was only safe from him within Court's walls, but that protection was being stripped away any second now.
Guardians connected the radios in the SUV to each other to keep open communication. Once all five cars said they were ready to leave, Jonah, the driver in my car, started the engine. My mind snapped back to the mission at hand. Dimitri was alone right now, and knowing Randall, Dimitri would need our help.
My mom, Abe, Lissa and Christian were all still oblivious to the fact that Randall is Dimitri's father. To them, he's just a Strigoi obsessed with kidnapping and torturing girls like me. The guards with me only knew that three girls were in danger, and my power gave me the ability to order a rescue mission for them. If I wasn't the princess, or if my best friend wasn't the queen, we would have been left to our own devices. I knew the guardians were curious about our mission, and in all honesty they had a right to know what they were risking themselves for.
Alexander, a guardian who worked at the academy when I was a student there, leaned forward, almost resting his chin on my headrest. He was a cool guy most of the time, I remember him breaking up a few parties in my days, but he always "forgot" to report the students to Kirova. "So," he began, "Now that Hansie isn't here, are you going to tell us more about what we're doing?" I laughed at the nickname for Hans, glad that some of us had a sense of humor.
"There are three girls," I said, and all the guardians nodded. They already knew this. I looked around at all of their intent faces, these were men (and two women in the other cars) who dedicated their lives to protecting others. These were the guardians who had cheered for me and supported me in the early days of my controversial coronation. I pressed down on the dial for the radio so that the guardians in all the cars could hear this, praying Dimitri would forgive me for destroying his privacy.
"The dhampir girls we're going to rescue are Karolina, Sonja, and… and Viktoria Belikova." I almost couldn't say Vika's name. Many of the guardians gasped, instantly knowing their relationship to Dimitri. "They were taken by a Strigoi named Randall Ivashkov. He's the same Strigoi that held me hostage for two weeks before returning me to Court." I didn't know how to continue from there. I took my finger off the radio button. I said everything, right? No. They had questions.
"Why did he send you back to Court?"
"Why did he take Belikov's family?"
"Why didn't he kill or turn you?"
"What does he want?"
"Do the girls know he also took you?"
"Will he harm the girls?"
I held up my hand to stop the constant stream of questions and pressed the radio button again. "First of all, I don't know why he didn't turn me when he had the chance. Or kill me. But this could be his plan to get me back. He gave me back to Court in the first place because I was under compulsion, and when I crossed the wards I was triggered to attack dhampirs and Moroi with me. Lucky for me, and others, I was with Guardians Castille and Tanner, and they subdued me. We broke the compulsion Randall put on me. When we were outside the wards, we sort of ran into Randall's partner and killed him. He might be upset about that. The girls do not know that he had me hostage, but he probably told them. He likes to play mind games. He loves using his compulsion," a shudder ran through me as I remember Randall getting into my head. It was a thousand time worse than Spirit. Considering what he did to Olena as a Moroi, I wasn't too optimistic about the girls' conditions.
"I don't know if he'll hurt them. I hope not." I chewed the inside of my mouth for a while, considering telling them about Dimitri's parentage. Was that important information? No, the guardians didn't need to know that. They didn't ask more questions, though I could tell they were still curious about a lot. I was grateful for their silence, and their will to save these girls. I almost feared once they found out the girls were dhampirs they would see the mission as pointless and want to turn back. But that didn't happen, if anything they seemed more determined than before to get these girls home safely.
Alexander reached out and squeezed my shoulder, "Don't worry, we'll save your sisters and keep Randall away from you, too." I smiled back. I would have to find a way to thank all of them later. Jonah coughed from the front seat, "Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but how did you find out about the girls? Did Randall get a hold of your phone number?" I could see why he was concerned. As well as being physically strong, the guardians prided themselves in their security training. It would come as a blow to all of us if outsiders were able to get into Court walls with technology.
I bit my lip. Shit, I thought. I would have to tell them about Tasha. After all, she would be there. I know Dimitri didn't want people to know about her, but there was no cover for her once the guardians got a visual on her. I cleared my throat.
"Uhm... Natasha Ozera told us." As expected, the guardians were floored by this news. I started talking quickly to avoid their questions. I told them everything, how Tasha was working with Randall the whole time, and called us out of the blue to save Dimitri's sisters. How it was all planned, and I would bet all my money Randall wanted Tasha to call us.
"But listen, we're there to save Dimitri's sisters. If we can catch Tasha, great, but the sisters are the priority. If Tasha gets away… so be it." The guardians gave me sidelong looks. I was asking them to go against their orders. Technically, Tasha was to be killed on sight. I looked around the SUV, but it was one of the guards in another car who agreed first. His voice came through sounding crackled, "Okay. Get the girls. We can do that. Tasha's not the mission today." My shoulders sagged in relief as the other guardians nodded in reluctant agreement.
After that the car ride passed mostly in silence. No one felt like putting music on, given the severity of the situation. Dimitri finally called to let me know that Randall was at the hotel. There's at least six Strigoi working for him. Dimitri apologized for setting me up as the bait, and my guardians are to stay hidden until we need them. Randall will take him to his sisters, and they'll call me with an address. I shared this news with the guardians, who weren't happy about letting me go in alone.
"You're a princess! It's our job to protect you."
I groaned with my face in my hands. "I'm a fully trained guardian. And not to sound like a bitch but I have more molnija marks than all of you. Pretend I'm just plain old Guardian Hathaway for a moment, okay?" They grumbled, their mood brought down by the order, but like everything else, they followed me. Their trust in me was kind of amazing. Apparently they thought the same of me.
"Princess?" Alexander asked. It was weird to be called that by someone who had confiscated my alcohol in high school.
"Yeah?" He gave me a small, curious smile. "Why did you tell us all of that? I know we're snoopy bastards but you could have told us to fuck off." Jonah yelled, "Language!" in a disapproving voice. I chuckled, "It's okay. Alexander's heard me say a lot worse." Alexander smirked and Jonah flattened his lips into a hard line.
"I told you all," I continued, "because I'm your princess, and you're my people."
Alone, I stood at the entrance to a parking garage. Dimitri had seen his sisters, and once he had been guaranteed they were safe, for the time being, he called me with instructions. Just inside the garage was a Strigoi waiting to take me to Randall and the rest of them. My guardians were waiting in bushes and behind trees near the concrete structure. I had Jonah's cell number already dialed. As soon as I hit the green call button, the guardians would storm the garage.
Eddie was here too. I barely caught a glimpse of him before he went to hide like the other guardians, but he offered me a quick wave and encouraging smile. I felt both relief and guilt that he was here. Everyday, I watched as more and more of my friends and family got sucked into one mess or another.
Studying the building, I couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary. The sun had risen fully now, but it didn't provide much warmth in the late January air.
Last time I saw Randall, he was in my head, using compulsion to make me see things and think things that weren't true. For those awful hours when I left Court last time, before the compulsion was broken, I firmly believed everything he wanted me to. That I had to kill my friends. That he owned me, body and all. I never told Dimitri about the compulsion dreams because they never really happened, but I can't shake the images Randall put in my head. Now I was walking into his trap on my own free will.
I had to trust Dimitri that this would work. I had to do what I could to save his sisters. Steeling myself, I walked into the parking garage. The sunlight barely crept through the open slots in the walls. My eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, looking for the Strigoi. I knew one was near because the nausea was rolling through me. I saw him when he moved forward. Instantly I recognized him from my days with Randall. He was always on the sidelines, never allowed to play with me like Randall and Vladimir did.
"Hello, Julian," I stated curtly. He nodded in acknowledgement, and spared a bored glance for the stake attached to my thigh, before turning around and walking away from me. I followed him, assuming that was what I was supposed to do. My finger lightly brushed the call button on my phone, not yet I thought. I have to distract Randall first. Julian led me to an elevator and wordlessly got in. He took me down to the basement, where all traces of sunlight were gone.
The first thing I noticed was that the basement was filled with plastic tarps, the kind people put in walk-in fridges, hanging from the ceiling. They were everywhere, creating a translucent maze. Then I noticed the temperature down here. There was obviously no heating system, and I resisted the urge to hug my jacket around me tighter. As it was, I could feel goosebumps on my arms and legs. Julian didn't move out of the elevator, but motioned for me to step into the room. He let the elevator close on him, leaving me alone down here.
Well, not completely alone. My stomach was still turning, so I knew there was a Strigoi in the basement with me. I stood there, safe in the corner where I only had to watch three angles of the room, and listened. Even with my heightened senses there wasn't much to hear. There was no water dripping down from the ceiling, or mice squeaking as they ran from holes in walls. I waited there for a few minutes, unsure of what to do or where to go, or what would be waiting for me if I left my corner.
My short fused patience got the best of me, I couldn't do nothing any longer. "Randall?" I called out. Holding my arms out I yelled, "You wanted me, so here I am!" Finally there was a sound; light footsteps coming my way. The nausea increased in me, one hand returned to the phone in my pocket, and my free hand moved to my stake holster, my fingers wrapping around the base of the weapon.
Randall seemed to come out of nowhere, the darkness of the basement making it difficult to see him until he was standing in front of me.
Despite all my mental preparations I was still shockingly pleased to see him. My instincts told me to fight him, to kill him, yet my mind was waging war with me. You remember me, don't you? I heard his voice in my mind, and I was aware that this was yet another compulsion time-bomb; only this time it was set off the moment I laid eyes on him. Fuck. I wasn't prepared to face him under compulsion.
I knew exactly what was happening and I couldn't do anything to stop it. Looking at him, I could see some of the same features that made me so attracted to Dimitri.
My own thoughts were screaming back, telling me it was compulsion, that I didn't feel that way about him. But I was lost to the compulsion as soon as I made eye contact with him. I found myself staring at him, a sense of awe running through me. He was so powerful, and he wanted to share that with me.
"Oh my dear Rose, it's so good to see you again. Did you really think I would have let you go so easily?" A shiver ran through me, but I wasn't afraid; I felt excited. The small part of my brain that was still like me was screaming out, telling me to hold the stake tighter, but my grip on the weapon was becoming slack.
"Randall…" I breathed.
STOP, ROSE! STOP! THIS IS FUCKING RANDALL, PLEASE RUN! I was screaming at myself, but my conscious was clouding over. He took a step toward me, and the predatory look in his eyes helped my conscious kick in. Attraction mingled with fear and the instinct to protect myself. I was silently begging myself to move, to at least press the call button in my pocket.
He continued his prowl towards me while I was frozen in place. "Randall," I whispered again, my lip trembling. "Please," I whispered, though I wasn't sure what I was asking for. He grinned, flashing his fangs to me, and nodded as if he knew exactly what I wanted.
"Dimitri is with his family," he said, closing the space between us and bringing his hand to cup my neck. "We don't have much time, Dimitri will come looking for you soon, but this won't take long," he said seductively. Before I knew it his mouth was on my neck, kissing and sucking the skin.
My whole body was shaking, cursing myself for allowing him to do this to me. The other part of me was actually enjoying it, the same small part of me that enjoyed being his hostage, the part I had to silence to try and escape from him. I did it twice before, I could break his spell again. I concentrated on Dimitri and Randall's differences, the warm brown color of Dimitri's eyes, the way Dimitri would laugh when I did something ridiculous, where Randall only laughed cruelly. The way Randall liked to punish me with his twisted mind games and stories of Olena.
But with his mouth on my neck I felt the anticipation of a bite...
In my time with Randall, there wasn't much physical contact. No, Randall had a much more powerful and enjoyable toy to use as a Strigoi - my mind. As a Moroi, he felt limited, because he could only inflict damage with his fists. I remember perfectly the day he explained it to me as I was chained to the wall. "When I'm in your head, you don't know if what I'm doing is reality or imagination. That's the beauty of it, Rose. You'll never be able to wash me off your skin, because you don't even know if I was there in the first place. You'll always be mine."
He never meant for me to remember that, as soon as he told me he wiped it from my memory, it was one of the memories returned to me with Robert's help.
Randall's fangs grazed at the skin on my neck, snapping me back to reality. Images of what he did to me, both what he actually did and what he made me think he did, were surging through me, cleansing me of any attraction to this monster. I knew what I needed to do
I silently cursed, why did the plans always have to constantly change? I couldn't act rash, or I would endanger Dimitri and the girls. I had to be a puppet for a little while longer. So I ignored every instance in my body; I relaxed and sighed as dreamily as possible. "Are the girls really with their brother?" I asked, leaning my head back, making my pleasure seem as real as possible. Randall wasn't the only one who could play mind games.
"Yes," he mumbled, his hand moving to grip my ponytail. Shit, I thought. That would make it a lot harder on me when I attacked him. I decided to keep playing the compulsion-seduced girl to get more out of him. I could still feel the hum of his magic in me, urging me to give in and let Randall do to me what he wanted, but it was easily squashed now that I was in control of my thoughts.
I could feel my pulse speeding up as Randall's other hand ran down the side of my body, feeling my curves, gripping my waist.
"Take me to them," I demanded anxiously. "I want to see them." He let go off my hair and took a step back to study me. I left my one hand limp at my side; if I reached for the stake now I could ruin everything. I gave him a puppy-dog look, hoping he would see me as the helpless girl I was pretending to be.
He sighed and pointed to the maze of tarp, "Anything for you, Rose." I walked in front of him, despite it making me more vulnerable to an attack, it made me seem more trusting of him. He guided me through the maze with his hand on my back telling me when to turn left and right or go straight. The basement was enormous; we were walking for a long time before I heard faint voices talking to one another, one of the voices I instantly recognized.
I could see their figures through the tarp before I finally reached the room, Randall standing right behind me. Dimitri and Tasha were sitting in chairs, and he stood as soon as he saw me, but I looked away, afraid of what would happen if I seemed too attentive of him. All three girls were there, chained to the wall. There were four Strigoi in the area with them, and with Julian upstairs, there was at least one other Strigoi hiding somewhere. The girls all screamed out my name in unison, both happy to see me, and worried that I was with Randall.
I smiled at them, and I didn't realize how afraid for their safety I was until then. Seeing them unharmed flooded me with relief. I turned to look at Randall, a small smile still plastered on my face. "Aren't you going to let them go? I'm here now, you don't need them." I heard one of them gasp behind me. I really didn't want Dimitri to have to see this. I still had one hand in my pocket, and I thought now would be a good time to signal the guards, but maybe we didn't need them at all.
"Not yet. There's someone else who wants to talk to you, okay?" he brushed my cheek with the back of his hand. I closed my eyes and smiled more broadly, "Yeah."
He nodded, "Stay here then. I'll be right back with him." I didn't have long to wonder who this man was, because as soon as Randall was out of sight the girls were shooting daggers at me with their eyes. I stood there, not making eye contact and staring off into space. I had seen plenty of people under the influence of compulsion, so I copied the distracted demeanor of someone like Clare.
The girls were asking me questions like, "What's going on?" and "Are you fucking Randall?" I flinched at the last one, but only offered a spaced-out smile in response. I could feel Dimitri's eyes on me, studying me. The girls were getting angrier at my lack of response and their questions were getting louder.
"Give it a break, she's under compulsion," Dimitri snapped. They all looked at him and back at me, jaws open wide. I slowly drew my empty gaze to Dimitri to take my turn to do the studying. His face didn't tell me anything, but he winked at me. The Strigoi were standing behind him, so they missed it. I grinned broadly and started laughing, my way of letting him know we were in this together, and that I was grateful he was helping me keep the facade up.
"You make it sound like a bad thing," I chuckled.
"What's so funny?" Randall asked, his voice coming closer. "Hm? Oh nothing, Randall," I called out. I turned around to the opening of the tarp. There were three blurry figures approaching.
Randall stepped into the area first, followed by Rufus Tarus and his guardian. I was surprised to see him, but I shouldn't have been. It all made sense, he helped break Tasha out after all, so he was involved in this from the beginning. I started laughing hysterically and I had to clutch my stomach as I pushed out air, "Let me guess," I wheezed, "you helped kill the queen, too."
He offered me a tight smile but no answer. "Hello, Princess Hathaway. I hoped we could have a friendly discussion about your future, but that's going to be difficult when you have guardians waiting to ambush the building."
Randall whipped his head in my direction, "What?"
Don't react don't react don't react I chanted in my head. Tarus's guardian must have heard about my departure from court with twenty-five of his coworkers. Rufus smirked at me, knowing he had just tipped the scale against me. Randall grabbed my hair and yanked it back to force me to look him in the eye. "You brought guardians with you?"
I nodded, using all of my will to keep up my composure. "And when will they 'ambush' the building?" I could feel him using even more compulsion on me, I was able to resist it, but I didn't know how long that would last. I needed to act now. I dropped my act and spat in his face, but he only pulled my hair harder, forcing my head backward, and I yelped instinctively.
I pressed the green call button in my jacket pocket and took my hand out to reveal the phone to Randall, showing the screen that connected me to Jonah. I gave him a triumphant smile, "They're coming right now."