Rose Hathaway

"Rose, we can't keep doing this. We need help." Lissa said assisting me into my bed. "It's been a year, we should just go back. Nothing has really changed for us since we left. We barely escaped this time. We need to just admit we aren't any safer out here than we were back at the academy. It's time, Rose. We'll be okay, but we need to go back. We have to." Her words died out as I succumbed to the endorphins in my body and drifted off into a happy filled sleep. Oh, before I go any further, I should explain a few surprising facts.

Our society consists of what most people would call myths and is made up of three types of people. The Moroi- who are the good vampires. They require blood to survive, but never kill their human feeders. They can also go out in the sunlight and though it makes them weak, it won't kill them. They also are in tune with the elements of earth and will be able to magically control one of the four elements. There are also twelve very special families that our kings and queens are chosen from. Lissa is from one of those families.

The second group is the Dhampir-originally half vampire and half human and the protectors of the Moroi. They do not require blood to live and do not have any magical abilities. They have taken great traits from both their human and Moroi heritage, though. From the Moroi they gain their heightened senses and speed. From Humans they received their stamina and strength. Many years ago though our society pulled away from the humans and now we live hidden alongside them, so Dhampir are the result of Moroi and Dhampir relationships. This is also the group that I fit into.

The last group is the bad guys. The ones of human nightmares, heck they're the monsters of our nightmares. Strigoi-the epitome of every scary vampire movie or book you've ever seen. Strigoi come about in one of two ways. They are Moroi that have chosen to drink blood of another person until they kill them, or are forcibly turned by another Strigoi.

Hiding our society from modern day humans is also why we go to private academies such as Saint Vladimir's in Montana. All of our academies throughout the world are hidden in remote places away from any humans. St. Vlad's is where I met Lissa and in the long run, landed us in the trouble we are in now.

One year ago, Lissa and I ran from the most prestigious academies in the United States for our kind in fear of Lissa's safety. Well-Lets start over at the very beginning.

At the young age of five, my mother dropped me off at Saint Vladimir's Academy in Montana, before moving on and concentrating on her career. I will explain more about that later though, because Lissa is a much better and much more important subject.

I met Lissa in kindergarten and we became the best of friends after I tossed a book at out teacher calling her a not so nice name. You see my full name is Rosemarie Hathaway and Lissa is short for Vasilissa Dragomir, two very long names and quiet challenging for someone so young. Since that day on, we did everything together. Her parents even began taking me along on their family outings, in hopes that I would one day become her sanctioned Guardian.

It was one of those outings, two years ago, that started everything strange and weird between us. Lissa's parents were driving us and her brother Andre back to the academy after a family vacation, when a deer had ran out in front of the car. Lissa's dad had swerved to miss it and lost control. The car ended up rolling and hitting a tree. Lissa and I by some miracle were the only survivors. The worst part was that with the death of her parents and brother, Lissa was now the only living member of the Dragomir family line, making her very special in our society.

Since that day Lissa and I had formed a special bond with one another. Well, it was technically only a one way bond, but it is essentially what has kept us alive the last two years. You see, since the night of the wreck, I have been able to feel Lissa's emotions in my head. Sometimes I can even hear her thoughts and when she is really emotional, can be pulled into her head completely. Lissa had also gained extra abilities. She was able to heal all of my physical wounds. We didn't understand why and we had been careful to hide it, but somehow, someone had figured it out.

That is why we ran. Somebody was leaving dead animals and threatening notes in and around Lissa's dorm room. It had grown to be too stressful for Lissa and her fear was beginning to consume both of us. Without knowing who to go to, we did the only thing we could do. We slipped out of the academy and took a bus to Chicago. The only problem was after a few months there someone had sent Psi-hounds after us. Psi-hounds are mean ugly beasts that are also kept from humans. They are most easily described as mutant wolves that are able to communicate telepathically. They are also very vicious.

Lissa and I had evaded them though and moved again, only to be found again a few months later by Psi-hounds. We finally moved to Portland, Oregon six months ago and had kept ourselves pretty hidden. That was until earlier tonight. The Psi-Hounds had found us while we were heading to my Taekwondo class. We were able to escape them, but I had taken a pretty big scrape on my arm from one. Lissa had healed me, but it left her drained, so after a couple bottles of water and a big dinner, Lissa fed from me. This weakened me and the endorphins in her saliva left me in a euphoric state, but it was close enough to daylight, that I could sleep it off.

That is also why Lissa chose my half dazed sleepy state to broach the subject of going back to the academy. She knew I would be too out of it to disagree. I awoke a little before noon to find that Lissa had already packed all of our things and did the one thing I had banned her from doing early on. She had used her credit card to purchase plane tickets back to Montana.

"Everything is set. I even called the academy. They are sending a couple of Guardians to travel with us." Her tone left no room for argument, so with a sigh of resignation, I rolled out of bed and began fixing us lunch. We had just finished cleaning up after ourselves when there was a knock on the door.

Signaling to Lissa to hide behind the couch, I grabbed my 'borrowed' stake, I slipped to the door quietly. Making sure that the door was still chained; I turned the deadbolt and opened the door an inch. Seeing that it was Guardians, I told them to wait a moment and closed the door to unlatch the chain. I backed away towards Lissa, keeping my eyes on them, as they entered the apartment.

"It's okay Lis, it's just the Guardians," I called over my shoulder. Lissa stood and came around the couch to stand slightly behind me. After basic introductions, the Guardians helped us gather our bags up and handing Lissa an umbrella led us down to their awaiting van. Two other Guardians sat in the third row seating.

It didn't take long to reach the airport, and with the use of a private plane, we were able to leave a lot sooner than I expected. Lissa and I sat silent using the bond and careful body language to talk. It was a habit that we had picked up during our last year at St Vladimir's. We couldn't openly discuss our thoughts on who was behind the horrid animal carcasses and notes, so we had started using the perks of the weird one way bond.

'I hope you don't become as stuffy as all the other Guardians after you graduate.' Lissa said through the bond. I looked around in a left-right motion and settling my gaze on the Guardians. We grew bored of watching the Guardians do nothing and Lissa's chattering in my head began to die off. Giving an exaggerated fake yawn, Lissa leaned her head against my shoulder, pretending to be asleep.

I was surprised when one of the Guardians stood and walked over towards us. Taking a seat right beside me, she gave me a slight smile. "I'm just curious about," she began as she looked straight ahead, then turning to look directly at me asked, "Why did you do it?" I knew what she asking, but it wasn't an answer I was ready to give. Shrugging my shoulder, I leaned my head against Lissa's and closed my eyes. I heard the Guardian retreat a few moments later, but still kept the illusion that I was sleeping.

I was shaken out of my dream of a beach and a hot guy rubbing me down with suntan oil, by the images of a twisted metal and the smell of smoke and gasoline. It has been Lissa's most prevalent nightmare since the car accident. When the sight of blood and fire pulsed through my mind, I was able to pull away remembering that it wasn't my own dream. Jerking up in my seat to my long, dark hair plastered to my face. Lissa was still leaned against me. As she screamed out for her brother Andre, I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her.

"Liss, wake up." I said. "Come on, Liss, it's time to wake up." Her screams died down to soft whimpers.

"Oh God," she moaned, flinching into her chair. "Andre." Tears were trailing from her still sleep closed eyes.

"Liss, wake up. We aren't there. You're dreaming. Wake up. Liss, please, wake up." I pleaded as I cupped her face with one hand and gently shook her shoulder with the other. Her eyes fluttered open and I watched as she slowly came back to reality. She rested her head back on my shoulder and I hugged her to me, waiting for her breathing to slow and for her emotions to calm.

"How are you feeling otherwise?" I asked her. The dreams weren't as often as they had been, but we had been using the bond a lot today. It seemed like she would have nightmares more often after she used compulsion or we used the bond a lot.

"Drained and a little sad, but I think I will be okay. I think I could use a feeder when we get back to St. Vlad's." She answered honestly. We weren't able to secure any feeders while we were on the run, so I had fed her every two or three days. Moroi usually had at least one blood feeding a day. I smiled at her in understanding. Although she had fed often enough to keep her going, it hadn't been often enough to keep her at her peak.

"I'm sure we can get you in for a feeding first thing. Well if we survive Kirova first."

"It will be okay. I promise. I will make sure she doesn't do anything too bad to us."

"You, Lissa, she won't do anything bad to you. You're a princess. I'm just a Dhampir. I'll be lucky if she doesn't toss me on my ass in some blood whore community."

"That will never happen, Rose. You're going to be my Guardian. My parents wanted it, and I want it. I am Vasilissa Dragomir and I can always, you know…" her voice lowered to a whisper as she glanced back towards the Guardians.

"Yeah, but you don't have to. You shouldn't have to. You know what it does to you when you do that." I told her shaking my head. I really hated when she used compulsion, especially when she had to use a lot of it. The last time, she had grown really depressed and it was nearly a month after we ran away before she ever started getting back to her old self.

Before we could continue the conversation further, the plane was landing and we were being led to a convoy of black SUVs. Next stop would be St Vladimir Academy.