"Find anything?" I asked Sydney as I came back into the house. She looked pensive as her eyes met mine. I'm sure she had questions about my tear stained cheeks, but she kept those to herself.

"I'm not sure..." she answered. I took my place back at the table, interested in what she had to say.

"Remember a few months ago, when I called you about some records being missing?" She asked. I nodded slowly, unsure where she was going with this.

"Sonya had something to do with it?" I asked.

"Not exactly with the break in, but she was tied to some of the information they took," she went on. I could tell she was slightly hesitant to spill alchemist secrets, but she pressed on anyway, "her name is on a bank account set up for a Jane Doe. We don't have any clue as to who that could be. But we do know that the account was set up by Eric Dragomir."

It felt like the breath had been knocked out of me as she said that. Why would Lissa's dad have a bank account for a Jane Doe, and how did Ms. Karp get involved? I didn't know what it could be for, but I had a feeling it wasn't anything good. Plus, Ms. Karp had no relation to Lissa or her family. She didn't even know her until having her as a teacher at the Academy. I told Sydney as much, and she seemed to agree with me, especially after finding out I had no idea what the account was for.

Her discovery was interesting for sure, but I wasn't sure it was reason enough for the Queen to want Sonya hunted down. She was already dead in the eyes of moroi society. Did Tatiana fear that we would try to restore her? If she did, why did she send us after her in the first place instead of keeping her location a secret. Maybe Sonya knew more than we were aware of, information that made her dangerous to the Queen.

I couldn't quite figure it out, which led me to conclude that we were missing something. This made me consider Abe's words closer than I had before. I knew if I was going to continue to hide information from Court, I would have to be even more careful. I was walking a dangerous line, one that could take my friends down with me. I went to sleep that night thinking of ways this could all go wrong.

The next day was mostly quiet and uneventful. Us three guardians spent a few hours in the gym, but the rest of the day we just lounged around and hung out. I had the distinct feeling like I was waiting for something, but I couldn't figure out what.

I decided I was sick of waiting and I took some time in the evening to give my dear old dad a call. He answered, seeming excited to hear from me. I wanted to see if he had any knowledge of potential Dragomir scandals. I figured if anyone knew of any shady backdoor deals, my dad would be that person.

He pondered the question for a moment before assuring me he didn't. I could tell it caught his attention, because he insisted he would see if he could dig up any information for me. I didn't fill him in on our latest escapades, but I think he knew something was up. He casually mentioned Sydney had an escape plan for us should we need it, and I tried not to sound too grateful for it, lest he think we would be needing it soon.

The whole conversation lasted less than ten minutes, and then I was back to feeling uneasy. I tried to distract myself with video games and we even all tried watching a movie together. Still, nothing seemed to ease my anxiety. That was, until I felt my phone vibrate against my leg. I shot up out of my chair and into the kitchen for some privacy.

"Did you find anything?" I asked into the phone.

"Hello to you too, Roza," I heard him chuckle on the other line. I let myself relish that sound for a moment before pressing on.

"Did you?" I asked again, ignoring his previous statement.

"I know someone who thinks he can get in contact with her. I'm waiting to hear back," he answered, voice pitched down in pain. I could feel that hole in my heart as he spoke, knowing how hard this would be on him.

"Thank you. I know that wasn't easy for you to do," I responded.

"Don't worry about me. I want to help, no matter what it takes."

"I can't help but worry about you," I admitted shyly.

"I believe that's my line, Rosemarie," he said, uncharacteristically using my full name. I almost didn't mind it so much when he used it.

"Funny how the roles have reversed, huh? I'm the badass one now," I teased, the distance between us making me feel a little bold.

"You've always been the badass one. You know I could never compete," he was back to chuckling once more, and I was happy I could still drag that out of him. Despite the uncertainty between us, I let the laughter fall from my lips before we both fell silent.

There was so much I had wanted to say to him, so many questions I wanted to ask him. But that was before. Before he had told me his love had faded, before any chance at a happy ending for us had died. Now those things didn't really matter. Still, I couldn't help but keep the conversation going. I wanted to commit the sound of his voice to memory.

"Are you doing okay, Dimitri?"

"Yeah, I think so. I'm trying to move on from... things. It's not easy, but I feel I owe it to Lissa to live," he responded.

I listened as those words dissolved any warm feelings I had built up during the call. Of course he still felt like he owed it to Lissa. He still didn't care about what I had done for him. He was only going to live his life because he thought that's what she would want. I don't know why I expected any other answer, but hearing this one over and over was starting to get old.

So far, I had done a good job of not taking anymore darkness from Lissa. Now I could feel it creeping into me unintentionally as I let myself get angry at his words. It swelled inside me until I couldn't hold my tongue any longer.

"So that's why you're helping me, isn't it? Because Lissa would be upset if I got myself killed. It doesn't actually matter to you, huh?" I spat the words out as if they were poison on my tongue.

"No, of course not, Roza-" he started before I interrupted.

"So it's just the guilt then? You'd feel responsible if I was killed?" I shot back.

"Roza, listen-"

"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" I screamed out at the other line. "You'd feel guilty, but you wouldn't actually care, because you don't care about me anymore! Well you can just stop, because I don't want your pity, Dimitri! I'm not a child and I'm not going to get myself killed!"

I was so worked up I had started pacing around the kitchen. I heard the living room lapse into a tense silence, and I realized everyone would be able to hear me too. I turned and walked out the back door as I tried to get myself under control.

"Do you think this is easy for me? Do you think I want to push you away? I'm not good for you, Rose. I tortured you, I fed from you, I wanted to turn you. Maybe you can pretend like that didn't happen, but I can't. You think I feel nothing, but that's not the truth. I feel everything," he said, the pain back in his voice.

"I'm not pretending that it didn't happen. I went through hell to bring you back because I love you. Because I think you're worth it. I don't think about what happened in the same way you do because I don't hold anything against you," I explained. He said nothing in return, the only sound on the other line was his breathing, heavy after our exchange.

"Please call me if you hear anything back," I said, effectively ending the call. He tried to say something back to me, but I hung up the phone before he finished. I had officially reached my limit, and I couldn't hold myself together if I kept arguing with him.

I stood outside wiping tears from my eyes when I heard Christian call my name from the door.

"I don't want to talk about it," I yelled over my shoulder.

"Sydney just got a call from Guardian Roland. The one we met hunting at the moroi college?" He said. I turned to face him, giving him a grateful look before moving towards the house.

"What does he want?" I asked as we walked shoulder to shoulder back into the living room.

"There's been another strigoi attack at the college," he told me, "and they killed a moroi, and his guardian," he finished uneasily. I looked around at everyone, and their faces told me all I needed to know.

"So we go hunting. Can we be ready by tomorrow?" I asked. The room nodded back at me, and I ordered everyone to pack and get some sleep so we could leave at first light.

When we arrived in town, the first thing we did was meet with Guardian Roland at his charge's house. He gave us a brief description of the attack, though he wasn't sure how many strigoi we were dealing with. He was hesitant to guess the number after what we encountered the first time. He did tell us that one had been spotted on the edge of town heading towards an unused warehouse. That was their best guess as to where the strigoi were hiding out.

We thanked him before heading on our way. I wanted to stake out the warehouse before going in, and there were only a few more hours of daylight left. We made a rough plan to stake out today and come back tomorrow to finish them off when we had more time in the sun.

Once we got closer, we realized there was no way to pull up to the warehouse without giving ourselves away. We decided instead to park down the road and walk up to it so we didn't attract as much attention. I initially asked Christian and Sydney to wait in the car, but they insisted on coming, and I couldn't say no to them. The walk ended up being almost a mile, and we were silent the entire time as we focused on our surroundings.

The warehouse was far from town, and it was backed up by woods on three sides. It reminded me of my time in Russia, and I had to push the thought from my mind. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but I did notice a car parked close to the back of the building in the dirt, as if it was trying to stay hidden. As we walked closer, I could feel the nausea rise in my stomach. I shared my observation with the group, and we were glad to confirm strigoi were actually here. Hopefully they would still be here tomorrow when we came back.

We decided to start walking back to the SUV when the sun was about to set. We walked at a brisk pace, ready to head back to safety and start planning our attack. I could tell something was wrong as we approached the car, and the other guardians stiffened beside me. We quickly pushed Christian and Sydney in between us as we reached it.

All four tires on the car were slashed open, sitting so flat underneath the car that it would be impossible to drive. It was clear that it was done intentionally, seeing as we hadn't seen any other cars pass by us in our time here. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as I tried to figure out what happened. The others shared the same look, and we all came to the same conclusion.

"It's a trap," Christian said.

"But how? Strigoi can't go out in sunlight," Mikail asked.

"Humans. Some strigoi have humans working for them," I said, sharing a look with Eddie and Christian. We knew that all too well.

"What are our options?" Sydney asked. I could tell she was terrified, and as much as I wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay, I wasn't sure it would be.

"We have maybe twenty minutes until the sun goes down. We can make a run for it and try to flag down a car," I suggested.

"They'll catch us before we do," Eddie argued, subtly nodding at Christian as he did. I knew what he meant. The sun took a toll on the moroi, and I wasn't sure he would be able to keep up. He had already been weakened by the sun.

"There's a car back by the warehouse. I can try to hotwire it?" Sydney offered.

"That will give our position away. They'll hear us for sure," Christian said. I could see where this conversation was going, and I didn't like it.

"It's a trap. We're trapped," I said, piecing a plan together in my head. Everyone turned to look at me.

"I have a plan. Sydney, Christian, you go to the car and start working on it. Mikhail and Eddie will guard you as you do. I'll go inside and distract them. Hopefully it will be enough time for you guys to escape," I concluded, steeling myself for the inevitable.

"No way. We're not letting you go in alone, we have no idea how many there are. You could die," Eddie said, shaking his head.

"But you don't have to," I said softly.

"We won't if we stick together. That's what we do, right?" Mikhail said. I knew we were wasting time arguing, time that we didn't have.

"Okay, fine. Guardians with me, Christian and Sydney in the car," I could see him start to argue, so I had to push back, "I know you think you'd be more useful inside, but I won't leave Sydney alone," I concluded. He nodded in understanding, but I could tell he wasn't happy about it.

"If you see any strigoi, aim to kill," I told Christian, opening the trunk as I did so. I pulled up the floor and reached into a case, pulling out a small handgun and making sure it was loaded. He looked at me questioningly, asking what the gun was supposed to do against strigoi. I let him know it wasn't for strigoi, and I saw in his eyes he understood my meaning.

We walked quickly towards the warehouse, strategizing the whole way there. We agreed to go in the front so hopefully Sydney and Christian would be able to work undisturbed. Since we didn't know how many strigoi there were, it was hard to plan what to do once we got inside. We hoped it was just one or two, but something told me they wouldn't set a trap just to be outnumbered.

We soon reached the building and split up. Christian let us know he would start a fire once they had the car ready, so if we were outnumbered the signal would let us know to make a retreat to the car. I nodded, but in my heart I knew it wouldn't be that easy. I looked to my right at Eddie and left at Mikhail and understood the other guardians felt the same.

The three of us walked up to the door, which was now slightly ajar, a change from our earlier stake out. The sun was officially low enough to not hurt the strigoi, and it was clear that didn't bode well for us. I took a deep breath, and we didn't waste any time charging inside.

We burst through the door, only to be greeted by nothingness. The warehouse was dark and seemingly desolate. The only reason I knew strigoi were here was because of the intense nausea I felt. The three of us silently turned back to back to back as we walked further inside, waiting for something to happen.

All of a sudden, bodies started raining down from the ceiling. I counted at least five on my side, and I knew there were more just out of my range of vision. There were too many of them to fight off, and I knew then that we were in a truly hopeless situation. I took a deep breath, steadying myself. We were guardians, and guardians wouldn't go down without a fight.

We sprung into action, moving as one, not leaving our backs open to the enemy. We struck out hard, and they clearly weren't expecting that. I managed to stake two before I was brutally ripped away from Eddie and Mikhail.

I felt the strigoi pin my arms behind my back and pull me away from the fight. I saw others grab Mikhail, and then Eddie. They weren't trying to kill us, and I stiffened in the strigoi's arms, afraid of what that meant for us.

I heard a loud crash behind me where I couldn't see, and soon Sydney and Christian were marched in front of my line of sight. I cursed to myself, wishing we had tried to run instead. At least then we wouldn't be trapped with nowhere to go. I was frantically trying to think of a way out for us when the man holding me spoke.

"Hello, Roza," he said, leaning down to whisper the words in my ear, breath tickling my neck as he did so.

My blood went cold as I froze, unable to process what I was hearing.