A/N: Hi - everyone! I was able to get this next chapter written. Sorry, it's going to be a little shorter, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!


Rose


Chapter 4

Present Day…

Falling.

We were falling for what seemed liked forever.

The moment my captor, Ryan, had taken me up the mountain, I had known he was trying to control every vantage point. While our Dhampir senses allowed us to see in the dark, the woods at night were mostly the Strigoi's domain. It was hard to control all the vantage points they could attack from, and you never knew what cave or hole they were crawling out from.

Unfortunately, for me, Ryan was smarter than most Strigoi who really only gave into the bloodlust and the thrill of the hunt. No, Ryan, had a deep seeded plan all along and was much smarter than any of the other Strigoi's I had come across in the past.

But I was Rose Hathaway. I was better.

I looked over the mountain into the deep blue water below. It has to be at least fifteen to twenty stories down from where we stood. A normal human, would probably die right on impact. As it was; weighing my options, if we plummeted down into the abyss, there was no confirmation I would end up living through it. My friend would though. The perks of being the undead.

I couldn't let Ryan hurt the ones I loved. He might currently have me at his mercy, but that didn't mean I was going to let his plan move forward into motion and cause any more damage than he had already done.

Don't, Dimitri's eyes pleaded when they rested on my face.

As I said, we could read each other's thoughts with just a simple look of our eyes. He knew I wouldn't go quietly, and I certainly wouldn't go any further by Ryan's orders. I could feel Dimitri's ask to just wait. Wait a little longer for the backup that I knew he had already called in.

I shot him a rueful smile. Backup could clean up what else needed to be taken care of based on what we uncovered thus far. I needed to take care of this.

I hesitated; only for a moment. I wasn't scared to die if that meant caring and saving the ones I loved. What I wasn't looking forward to, was the possibility that I might never see Dimitri again. Never gaze upon his warm brown eyes. Run my fingers through his shoulder-length hair. Feel his warm, muscular, body pressed against mine as we made love.

I was doing the right thing. I believed that deep down in my soul. According to the man I loved, we had one. If I died, and this was it for me, hopefully this last act meant something if I was to be judged.

I made sure to hold Dimitri's gaze. I poured every ounce of love from deep within me as I told him I loved him with my eyes. I could see the moment of panic in his. I knew he was going to try and stop me, even if that meant losing his own life in the process. Ever my protector.

Ryan had been so focused on Dimitri, that he didn't even bother to realize his grip on the weapon at my neck eased a bit. I grabbed hold of his wrist with my hand, spinning out of his hold. I took one look back at Dimitri who was already taking his first step forward, as I lunged off the mountain, taking Ryan with me.

"No!"

It was Dimitri's scream that followed me off the mountain, before Ryan's followed suit. I made sure to hold my grip on Ryan's wrist even tighter knowing once we hit the water, the force would likely pull us apart. I couldn't let that happen.

As my body slammed into the water, it had felt as if I had been run over by a dump truck. Every facet of my body ached and hurt, and my head was dizzy and heavy as I could feel the weight of my body fall deeper and deeper into the deepest darkest blue of the water.

My eyes sprang open, as if someone had just jammed a shot of adrenaline through my chest. My arms came up to wade through the waters and I used my senses to look around. A few feet away, Ryan was floating just as I had been. Now, was my chance.

I shot straight ahead, using my tired legs and arms to move towards his direction. There was an extremely sharp pain in my ankle that caused me to grimace every time I flexed my foot back and forth, and I was pretty certain, my left shoulder was dislocated. I pushed back the pain, until I reached Ryan's floating body.

I yanked hold of the collar of his shirt. With my right arm, I felt for my stake that was still shoved up my sleeve of my shirt—the literal ace up my sleeve—that Ryan had missed. He may have taken away my first stake, but he hadn't realized that I had carried a back up stake. One of Dimitri's rules that would hopefully once again save my life today. He was always saving my life even when he wasn't around.

When Ryan had been so focused on moving us and keeping his sights on Dimitri, I moved my backup stake from my ankle to my upper sleeve. I waited and waited until the right moment. The right opportunity, and that moment was now.

I gripped the stake in my palm, winding my arm backwards to get the necessary momentum to strike him right through the heart. One of my many first lessons when I had come back to St. Vlad's to finish my guardian training. Dimitri had always stressed that killing a Strigoi wasn't easy. They protected their chest as much as they protected their head. Trying to stake them took a considerable amount of effort and strength, which took me a lot longer to build up through my training sessions with Dimitri.

I had killed a lot of Strigoi since then. Each one was a constant reminder that I had one shot and I always needed to make it count.

I gasped.

Ryan's eyes snapped opened, just before I could bring my arm forward. His mouth opened; his fangs on full display as he snarled at me. My lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen. Water training had been another mandatory request of Dimitri's, and something I would need to focus more time on if I survived this.

Ryan brushed off my hand, grabbing hold of my sweater, trying to yank me closer to him to bite my neck, but I managed to deflect and butt him right in the head. His head snapped back, but he was coming at me again as if I barely even hurt him.

He punched me right across the cheek. Even in the lightness of the water, I could still feel the impact. My tongue grazed across the inside of my cheek, the taste of copper on my tongue. He was going to pay for that.

He tried to come at me again, but I blocked with my left forearm, pain shooting up my arm since it was my dislocated one, brining my right hand with the stake across his cheek. A nasty cut appeared in its wake, his hand coming up to wipe at the blood.

He snarled; bubbles coming from his mouth as he tried to shout some profanity at me. I followed up with another punch to the head, and using as much momentum with my knee to kick him in the balls.

I brought my right hand back again to finish the job, but he blocked again. The dizziness from before was back. My lungs were burning. I was running out of time and strength. Ryan grabbed hold of my sweater and again yanked me forward. I felt my head dip backwards, my neck even more exposed to him now.

White circles started to fill the back of my eyes, as they started to blink gingerly opened and closed. Even in the water, I could feel his breath on me. I could feel the smoothness of the tip of his fangs as he brought them right to my throat and near my artery.

"Roza…Roza…fight!"

Dimitri's voice in my head was like an awakening. My eyes snapped opened and I did what needed to be done.

Ryan's eyes went wide, his head jerking backwards, his body glowing in shades of white, orange, and red colors. As if he was going to burst into flames like he would if I had pushed him into the sunlight, but this was different. This was the power he had acquired from a Moroi that was killed along the way.

Blood started to pour from his mouth as he looked down at the sliver stake protruding from his chest. The stake I had thrusted there. He snarled at me one more time, his head moving forward as if he was going to strike, before his eyes closed, the light around him fading, and his body going limp.

I tugged my stake free, my lungs screaming at me one final reminder that I needed air. Now! The remaining adrenaline I had left was depleted, and I was starving for the need of oxygen.

Armed with my stake in my hand, I pushed aside the agonizing pain in my dislocated shoulder and ankle and started to use my momentum to push me towards the top.

Now that my immediate danger of the Strigoi being dealt with, I had another matter in itself that I had to attempt to figure out.

As I broke through the water's surface, my lungs gasping for gulps of air, my lips began to shatter incessantly. Next to the sound of the waves around me, the chattering of my teeth and lips were the only confirmation that I was indeed alive. For now, anyway.

With Ryan dead, the threat of hypothermia was looming upon me. It was still winter, in Colorado, with temperatures that sometimes reached below freezing. While it wasn't cold enough for the falling snow to stick, it was still freezing out. Even with my Dhampir benefits and senses, I wouldn't live much longer in these conditions.

It's then I then realized the other downside to my plan of jumping off the mountain into the water below. The mountain was preceded by a waterfall, which in the short period of time that Ryan and I had been unconscious, the flow of the river from the waterfall moved us down from where we had been when we first landed. I could be miles and miles from where I had jumped and left Dimitri and the rest of the guardians standing.

I squinted in the night, calculating that off in the distance I could see a bank a couple of miles from where I was floating in the open span of waters.

I grunted; as I started to make my way towards the bank, closing the distance with each lap forward. Each stroke and kick, pushed more of the icy water across my skin. I had been through a lot of pain in my short life, but with each stroke I took, it was as if thousands of tiny needles were being stabbed into my skin over and over again.

I could feel the heaviness in my arms and legs as I continued to push through. The pull to want to just stop, close my eyes, and go to sleep was getting stronger and stronger to fight against. The only thing that kept me moving, was Dimitri's face behind my eyes.

After what felt like forever, I felt a sigh of relief the moment I felt the first scrapes of the riverbed beneath my feet. I used my remaining strength to push through the water, falling to my knees once I felt my boots hit the dirt.

My arm throbbed from the additional stress I put it through. I held it close to my body, using my other arm to assist in my crawl away from the water, until I landed on top of the outline of the forest floor.

I collapsed on my back, taking a minute to let my breathing get back under control. I tugged my arm closer to my body grimacing at the pain radiating all throughout my body. I was well aware of tears slipping out of both sides of my eyes, whether from the pain or the relief that I was alive, I didn't know.

My skin felt like ice with the wind boring down on me, laying in my soaked clothes. I already guessed I was in the middle of the stages of hypothermia based on the continued chattering of my teeth, the twinge of blue I could see to my skin, and the fact that even moving an inch felt like I was trying to move double my body weight.

I rolled onto my side, being careful not to aggravate my injured arm and shoulder. I grit my teeth as I pushed myself to a sitting position and then back to my knees and finally to a standing position. The moment I put pressure on my ankle, I instantly lifted it up, wincing at the pain that coursed up my calf. The only plus side, it didn't appear broken, but I would need to do something to help elevate the weight to keep moving.

First, I needed to find someplace safer to lay my head down for the remainder of the night and get warm. I hobbled my way away from the bank and into the middle of the forest. It only made the task more daunting and difficult with a bum ankle and injured arm. I had to take my pace much slower than normal to not upset it any further.

After what seemed like forever, I found what looked like an opening to a small cave. It was the best option for the night and would provide me some protection from the remaining elements.

I turned back; looking at the ground for any available twigs and items that could be used as kindling. I didn't have any lighters and without a Moroi like Christian, whose element was fire, I was going to have to build myself a fire the old fashion way.

"Never thought I would see the day when I wished Christian was here," I muttered to myself as I bent down to pick up another stick.

I hobbled back over to the spot that I had created for my shelter for the night, and threw a pile of sticks and kindling into a circle with some stones as a perimeter.

I chastised myself for ever complaining about taking survival classes in our early years at the academy. At the time, it didn't make sense why we needed to learn how to camp and survive in the woods, but seeing my current predicament, I was glad I paid some attention.

Rose, you should always be prepared for the unexpected, Dimitri's voice in the back of my head said.

I was missing him more and more. I wasn't totally oblivious that hearing his voice so clearly in my mind, probably meant that wasn't a good thing. If I was reaching the point in hypothermia to where I began to hallucinate, it meant death was near. I shivered at the thought. It took me back to the time when I had been shadowed kiss and saw the dead. Constantly clawing at me, bringing me closer to the brink of death.

I shook the thought away and focused back on my task at hand. It took me a little longer to string a bow with my hands shaking so violently, but once I had my bow drill ready to go, I needed to work on starting to light the fire.

Since I didn't have a knife, the closest thing I could use to create a groove into a flat piece of softwood, was the stake I had placed back into my boot. My fingers were numb, the stake falling from my hand over and over, before I finally created a hole large enough to build the fire.

It had been painstaking and long—and another reason I truly hated camping—but I had finally initiated a spark. Within seconds, my kindling burst into flames and the heat wrapped around my chilled body was a welcome relief.

Now that I had a place to sleep and a fire, I needed to work my way to getting warm and tend to my injuries. It was going to be a long trek ahead of me until someone might be able to locate where I was, and I wasn't going to make it far in the condition I was in.

With the fire burning for now, and warmth slowly kissing my skin, I focused on my injuries first. While gathering my fire wood, I had picked up the flattest piece of wood possible that I could use as splint on my ankle. I was confident that it wasn't broken since I could stand to put some weight on it, but not enough without support.

I tore a piece of my sweater at my stomach making two long strips that I could use to secure the splint in place. Placing the wood next to my ankle, I wrapped it tightly for the added support. Flexing it several times, my ankle was already feeling better. I was sure it would be enough to aid me on my journey ahead.

Next, came my shoulder. It was definitely dislocated, sending spasms of pain each time I even moved it a bit. I tore more pieces of my sweater—which I knew was risky because of the cold—to help create a makeshift sling once I managed to put in back in its place. If I could.

I stood; waiting to see if my new splint would work, satisfied when I was able to stand on both legs with enough support and momentum to do what I needed to do next. I hobbled over to the nearest tree that was thick and secure enough for my next task.

I grimaced; as I pulled my arm away from my body and into the position to pop my shoulder back into place. Looking at the ground, I picked up the nearest stick in front of me and bit down hard. This was going to hurt. A lot.

Squaring my footing; I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath as I swung my body forward, thrusting my shoulder directly into the tree. I screamed through the pain, a combination of white and red spots flashing in front of my eyes, before the pain slowly started to recede.

Tears sprang from my eyes, as I spit the stick out of my mouth, my breaths coming in pants. I managed to sit back on my ass, as I worked through the pain and getting my breathing back under control. My arm and shoulder were already starting to feel much better, going from an unbearable pain to a dull ache. Without any pain meds, it was going to be a long and sufferable night ahead.

My skin was still cold, and without any other body heat other than the fire, I still needed to get warm. Using the opening of the cave as my greatest barrier from the elements, I slowly peeled away my shoes, socks, and pants from my damp skin and set them out near the fire. Hoping it would help them dry faster.

Grabbing as much as leaves and other elements around me, I did my best to bury myself, lying next to the fire. As it was, I was already starting to feel as if I was at least thawing out.

I laid on my back, careful not to jostle my arm any more than absolutely necessary, and stared up at the night sky. I had survived. Ryan was dead. All in all, those were the two biggest wins I could have hoped for considering the circumstances.

As I looked up at the stars lighting the sky, my mind wandered to Dimitri and what he was doing right now. Another tear slipped from my eye. He would find me. I know he would. I know he wouldn't rest until he did, because it would be what I would do if the circumstances were reversed.


Dimitri


"Roza!"

My feet skidded to the edge of the mountain as I helplessly watched Rose and the Strigoi fall over the edge and into the water below. The sound of their bodies smacking into the water was heard even from where we were standing.

I quickly removed my duster, about to back up and jump after her, when a hand snaked around my arm.

"Dimitri, stop!"

I shucked off the grasp on my arm, but they grabbed hold of me again. "Let go!" I growled, whirling on the person with my fist cocked and ready to hit, if they tried to stand in between myself and Rose.

Mikhail let go, raising his hands up to indicate that he wasn't a threat. His brows furrowed with concern, but he didn't back away from me.

"I know you want to go after her, but you need to think logically. You need to think like a guardian," he said briskly. He looked past me to the water down below. "There's a possibility that she might not have even survived. The last thing we need is you throwing yourself off and dying too."

"She would have," I snapped.

He nodded. "Your probably right. Rose is tougher than most guardians we know."

"He would survive. Rose could be hurt, and if that's the case she won't be able to stand a chance. He'll finish her off," I argued.

Mikhail's hand came down on my shoulder. "Dimitri, I know what you are going through." I wanted to shove him off, but I knew he was only trying to help. If anyone did know…it was him, considering his past with Sonya. "We need to think logically and not with our emotions. Nobody does that better than you. If you want to help Rose, be the guardian she needs you to be."

He was right. I had to shove down the panic that was threatening to grip my heart, and carefully slip back into guardian mode. I was the best when it came to strategy planning. I had to regroup and find a way to get to Rose.

I looked past Mikhail, to Eddie who was still standing there with his mouth agape, frozen at what he had seen. Eddie was a close friend to Rose, who had gone to school and guardian training at the same time at St. Vladimir's. Ever since they had lost their other friend, Mason, they had remained even closer friends over the bonded experience.

Eddie's new charge, and what Rose and I suspected his girlfriend—even if they were secretly dating under the radar —Jill Dragomir, was back at court in between her studies. Since she was at court with no other threats looming over her, Lissa had sent Eddie to us, once the case had progressed.

"Guardian Castile!" His name came out more as a bark, breaking him from his trance. "I need you to organize a search party down the mountain by the river where the water flows. We need divers too."

He nodded. "I'm on it." He took one last look past me, before turning and running off to start working on my order.

Mikhail bent down to pick up my duster laying on the grass, before handing it back to me. "What do you want me to do?"

I grabbed my duster, placing it back over my shoulders. "I need you to coordinate back with Hans. We need all the support we can spare."

He gave me a sharp nod. "Understood." He looked me square in the eye. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to find, Rose. Nobody knows her movements and thoughts like me. If—no—when she made it out of the water, I trained her on what to do. If anyone has a chance to find her, it's going to be me."

Mikhail patted me on the shoulder. "We'll find her, Dimitri."

I answered him with a brisk nod. He turned to walk away, but my mouth opened to call him to a stop. He half turned around to face me.

"Rose's parents. They should be notified."

He bowed slightly. "Then it will be done. I'll keep you updated."

"Thanks."

I turned; looking back out over the mountain and down at the water below. The water flowed, ripples moving at a steady pace.

"Hang on, Roza. I will find you."