Chapter 5:

Rose

When Dimitri and Mikhail were gone and Mia was in the living room reading, I decided I had some time to work on the other mission I was sent on. And I had a pretty good idea of where to start.

It had taken me a bit of back and forth, but Abe had finally given me Sydney's number here in America. The number I had memorized in Russia obviously wouldn't work here anymore. I had asked Sydney to video chat me on the company laptop I had gotten.

Alright, maybe I was bragging a bit.

I still had Abe's satellite connector and had the presence of mind to take it with me, even before I knew of this mission. Having an untraceable connection seemed very handy.

The second time setting it up seemed easier and I was done in less than five minutes. I started on my report for that day, waiting for Sydney to contact me, when I saw the green and red buttons appear on the screen. I pressed the green button and a picture of Sydney came on the screen.

I was about to greet her, but she wouldn't give me the chance. "What have you done now?" She asked exasperated.

"Me? Why would I have done anything." Okay, maybe that is usually how our interactions started, although I didn't steal her stupid files either.

"So you don't need me to bail you out of somewhere."

"No."

"You don't need me to stop an interracial dispute between you and some alchemists you insulted."

"No."

"You don't need me to hide you away somewhere, because you were convicted of treason?"

so close. "No. I just need your expertise."

"Oh okay." She straightened out, I guess she was worried what I would ask her. She can always say no. I wasn't forcing her into doing anything. But I knew secretly Sydney was pleased I asked for her expertise. She prided herself on the knowledge and skills she had.

"What do you need?"

"Those files that were stolen about some bank account linked to Lissa's Dad?"

She narrowed her eyes a bit. "Yes? What about them?"

"I don't know who took them, but I might have an inkling as to why. I wanted to see if you can find someone connected to the bank account. Someone on the receiving end of the bank account?"

She rubbed her eyes. "That isn't really easy and things have been in a bit of chaos here since the Queen was murdered."

I hadn't considered how this impacted the Alchemists too. I mean the day to day would still continue, but ultimately unrest in the Moroi world would be bad news for the Alchemists too.

"I appreciate any help you can give."

"Why do you need this anyway? Why were those records stolen?"

Tatiana had specifically asked to keep this in a select group of people. And I doubt her idea of 'select' had included an Alchemist. But their records had been stolen and I didn't know if Sydney was crossing boundaries looking into this.

"We believe Lissa might have a sibling out there. Her father may or may not have had an affair. That bank account is believed to link to his mistress and the child. We need to find out who the child is. So Lissa can get her seat on the Council. That is more important now than ever before."

Sydney probably knew more about the monarch election than I did. I didn't have to tell her Lissa's vote could sway the council to a different candidate.

She sighed and I knew I had her. "This will take me some time. And I can't make any promises. It really isn't as easy as you make it out to be. But I will let you know if I find anything."

I logged off after telling her the phone number of the company phone. Okay, still bragging, but it felt good that Hans had trusted me.

I was just finishing up my report when Dimitri and Mikhail walked through the door. They were both silent and glaring at each other. Had they been this way the entire ride here? I wonder what happened? Dimitri could be a bit antisocial, but he was pleasant enough with other Guardians. And I had never seen Mikhail upset with anybody. Even back at the Academy he was a very likable guy from what I heard.

But boy drama could wait.

We had some business to take care of.

Dimitri and Mikhail laid out the information they had gathered on the table. They explained each exit point and pointed to locations on the maps on the pictures.

"There are indeed three Strigoi." Dimitri said as he pointed towards the main building. "From the heat-signatures we believe they are all held up in the main room here."

Damn. I preferred to seperate them.

"We should see if we can separate them. So we can take them one by one." Dimitri said, I just stared at him. It was like he was reading my mind. But drawing them out meant we had a different problem.

"Drawing them out would be ideal. We can separate them and we will be able to fight them more efficiently than in a small space. Mia would also be able to help with her magic if they are outside yet stay at a safe distance." I saw everyone agreed there. "But that means going after dark." I finished.

It was a trade off. Going during daylight hours would give us a better chance of escape but we would have to fight indoors. The space wasn't as large as I would have wanted to do that. If it had been a warehouse like where Dimitri had taken Lissa, it wouldn't have been a problem, but this would give us a disadvantage. there were too many places to hide, too many walls to impede fighting.

My team was staring at me, expecting me to make the decision. Both were valid options. Sunlight was safer as an exit strategy, but would be more dangerous inside. Going after dark would mean better fighting conditions, but our escape would be limited if we got cornered.

"We go after dark. We need to take them all down anyway. Escaping will mean leaving at least one of them alive to tell the other's Dimitri is a Dhampir again. It will mean any information we have now will be useless and with no way of getting more."

It would mean a greater risk, but I had thought about it.

"Dimitri and I will go in and fight, Mikhail, I want you outside to take care of any who slip past us. and Mia, I want you to be back-up for Mikhail and create a diversion if necessary." I said as I was pointing at the map of the building, indicating where each one of us would be.

I looked at Dimitri for a moment to see if he disagreed at all with my plan. But he didn't. I knew this was our best bet and it would keep our volunteers relatively safe. I really didn't want to get them killed on the first night.

"We need a ruse to get them outside." Dimitri said. I turned to him and smiled. "Oh, leave that up to me."

He didn't seem to like that one bit, but since he wasn't team leader it wasn't his call. I was starting to like this role-reversal.

I looked at the clock on my new company phone -Okay, last time I mention that- and we had a couple hours left before it would be dark enough.

"So in the meantime, I want us to get to know each other in a fight. I know how Dimitri fights and he knows my fighting style, hell, he invented my fighting style, but there are four of us. Mostly, Mia, you are our wild-card. For us as well as the Strigoi. I need to know your limits and strengths."

She nodded, I could see she was determined to show us she was an asset and my faith in her was deserved. Mia had once saved me by distracting a Strigoi by breaking a fish tank but I doubt there would be any fish tanks around this time. And I was very curious to see what she had learned in these past few months.

"I am a little curious as well." Mikhail said.

It would be important for Mikhail to know what Mia could do. I imagine they would be working together the most. I prefered not working with Dimitri, but I knew in a fight, Dimitri and I were well matched and would fight together seamlessly. It wouldn't be smart to try and recreate this with Mikhail. And I kind of wanted to keep them away from the main action. Dimitri and I were sent on this mission. It was our responsibility to kill these Strigoi, not theirs.

The hotel room wasn't the ideal place to do some sparring, certainly not with magic so we looked for a place outdoors that was far far away from civilization. Last thing we needed was a human stumbling on Mia using her magic.

I would never hear the end of it from Sydney.

We picked a forest so it would give Mia some coverage too. It was midday and the sun was warm and bright. It was the middle of summer after all.

We had all changed into some training gear. I still had a vest covering me because the air conditioning in the hotel room and in the car was on. But the moment we stepped out of the car in the middle of nowhere I began sweating and had to take it off.

After I placed my vest in the back of the car and walked around it towards the other, I heard an intake of breath. Dimitri's. It only lasted for a second before his Guardian mask slammed over his face, but I had seen it. He thought I looked good.

I might have done it on purpose a little. I smiled inwardly. If you can't flant your amazing body in front of your ex, what point is there in life? I wore tight fitted yoga pants with a mesh on the legs and a glorified sports-bra sort of top with a criss-cross design that left my stomach completely bare. It left nothing to the imagination, while giving me the full range of motion I needed to fight.

But I must admit, he didn't look too bad either. Which wasn't fair. He should look hideous. Maybe I had hoped he had developed a little fat from his inactivity even if it had only been a short while that he had been in a jail cell. Or maybe the transformation had left him with an altered metabolism, that meant he would gain weight. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He wore some loose fitted pants that hung low on his hips, which only seemed to elongate him. He wore a wife-beater that allowed me to trace his eight-pack down into his pants, where I imagined I could feel the ridges if I traced it with my tongue. Wait? What? No, I mean I could see his abs.

Damn. Beaten at my own game.

Mikhail wore almost the same outfit as Dimitri and objectively he looked good too, but it just seemed less sexy coming from Mikhail. Mia had also opted for a more fashionable sports outfit. I wouldn't expect any less, except her stomach and arms were mostly covered, protecting her from the sun.

I started on some stretches and the rest was doing the same. I swear I heard a low growl when I bent my arms behind me pushing my chest out, but that must have been a wild animal in the trees. I might have bent down for a leg stretch just to test that theory, but all that got me was some teeth grinding.

Once we were finished, I took my stake from the bag we brought and walked over to a tree. I scratched a circle into the tree with the tip at eye level. Then two smaller circles in the top half of the circle. Underneath those two dots I placed a curved line with two triangles on the end with the tips pointing down.

Mia was the first to laugh once she realized what I had drawn. A vampire smiley. Mikhail chuckled and Dimitri sighed and I could practically see him rubbing his eyes, even though my back was turned to him.

"Okay, Mia. What have you been learning these past few months?"

She bit her bottom lip, suddenly a bit shy. "I have been training with some Guardians to learn self-defense. I am not near as good as you, but I could spar a little. And I have been working with Christian to see how I could use water."

She looked around the forest and raised her hands. Several droplets of water moved from the ground towards her hands. It had rained in the last few hours so there was plenty of water to choose from. She eventually gathered enough water and moved it towards the vampire tree. She moved the bubble of water over his face and made a gurgling sound, mimicking a drowning person.

"I have mostly focused on gathering water where there is no water. I can extract water from the smallest droplets, like rain. I can also use pretty much any water based liquid."

That was amazing. She certainly had come a long way.

"Oh, I can also see the water inside someone, like in blood. I can't manipulate it, but I can diagnose internal bleeding that way."

That might actually come in handy. I hadn't considered water users might actually prove to be good medics too. They might not be able to heal anything like a spirit user can, but a body was eighty percent water or something right. Water users would be useful there. Amazing.

There was debate about how the other elements could help. It had been one of the arguments against Moroi fighting Strigoi. Fire users were obvious. But the other elements were a little more obscure. But to have a magic medic as support? It could save a lot of lives. Certainly if Mia could figure out how to control it. Maybe fix the internal bleeding and help pump the blood.

"That is amazing Miss Rinaldi." Mikhail and Mia are evidently not on a first name basis yet. "But even if you could move the water towards a Strigoi, Strigoi can't drown."

I was about to respond to Mikhail saying I had first hand witnessed that a Strigoi was certainly panicked when the entire fish tank had been dumped on his head by Mia, but Dimitri beat me to it. Except his example hadn't been of Isaiah.

"Strigoi still have that reflex to fight the water. Your lungs still fill up with water. It is uncomfortable and although the effects won't kill you, you will do anything to get the water out. It is a very effective diversion."

Dimitri hadn't talked about drowning as Strigoi like he had witnessed this in others, he had phrased it like it had happened to him. Where had he… Oh God, the bridge. He might not have died, but how long had he been under water with that stake locked in his chest? How excruciating had that been?

I looked down at my hands, fidgeting with my fingers. Maybe Dimitri was right that we couldn't be around each other. Because everytime we interacted, no matter how small, something always seemed to remind us of when he was Strigoi. Or how I had killed him, or how he had tortured me. Maybe these events were just too big to put aside like that. They would always taint the relationship between us.

Mia seemed to notice the shift in our mood. So she distracted everyone. She seemed to be good at that. "I also carry this around." She rummaged through the bag that had held my stake. She pulled out a water bottle. It had a loop around the top so it could be attached to a belt or something.

When we all stared at her, she rolled her eyes, flipped the top with one hand and drew a bit of water from the bottle, moved it towards the tree and smothered it again.

There were three 'ohs' coming from us when we understood why she had the water bottle. It made so much sence. Even in a desert with no water, she would have her own.

We were starting to understand that fighting with Moroi magic would be widely different from any fighting we had done in the past. Christian and I had fought together in the Academy raid and had worked together pretty well, but again, fire users were obvious in how their element would be used. We were learning so much about what we would actually need to be in battle together with a Moroi. Something so simple as a water bottle for a water user was one of them. The other elements were always around them. But water, although not scarce, would require more creative solutions sometimes.

It took us most of the afternoon, but we seemed to have figured out the skill level of our compatriots. Mikhail wasn't half bad, but had to concede to Dimtiri and I. Mia actually had a bit of skill too, but lacked speed and power to do much damage. Dimitri had offered to show her some techniques that would be useful if she ever had to get away. Some quick and dirty techniques designed to incapacitate for a moment. She had happily accepted.

Dimitri and I hadn't spared. I don't think either one of us was ready for that. But we brushed it off as unnecessary, after all, we knew each other's fighting style very well. It wasn't long ago that we had been in a battle to the death with each other. Actually we had seemed to do that on a weekly basis lately.

I had no doubt we would be able to take down an enemy together. That too hadn't been that long ago. We had taken down Galina together. Again, another reminder. If I felt all these memories tugging at me, did Dimitri? Is that why he found it hard to look at me?

But even as a Strigoi, Dimitri and I had fought well together, I had no worries tonight would be any different. I was ready. We were ready.

Ready for the first slayer raid in a very long time.

I just hoped I wouldn't fuck it up.