Chapter 2 - Differences

The next morning, I get ready to make my way to breakfast after having a lie-in due to my sessions with Dimitri cancelled now. I love the time we spent together in that gym, but I need to distance myself from him, it's too risky for the cause for me to put my emotions and feelings for him out there with everything going on. I slipped up in Spokane, got to close…

As I make my way out of my room, I see Meredith, the only other dhampir girl here at the academy, and I'm taken aback slightly by the daggers sent my way. Usually, we'd have a quick chat in the morning… then I remembered the slight argument Eddie and I had with the guardians outside. She must have heard it.

Sighing to myself, I roll my eyes before making my way to the cafeteria. These dhampirs… loyal to a fault… it's what's going to get them all killed in the end.

Just outside the food hall, I meet the eyes of other novices and even a few guardians who look at me like less of a person, that because I disagree with something, I'm now a completely different person. The sight makes me laugh as I run into Eddie who's currently arguing with Mason quietly.

As I look up at the two, I notice the Seraphim looks exasperated as Mason has a furious glare now directed at me.

"And you… you're the last person I thought would have thought that… the Moroi need us Rose. What else are we meant to do?!" He shouts now, making everyone turn their heads at us.

Rolling my eyes, I look at him before speaking, "All I'm saying is why should we die for them? I you want to hunt Strigoi do it… but if every capable dhampir spends their life guarding Moroi who are more than capable of looking after themselves, the whole Strigoi situation will only get worse." I grab Eddie's wrist and drag him into the building. I'm really not in the mood to deal with this before I eat. As we get our plates and pile them up with whatever's on the menu, I automatically make my way towards Christian, Adrian, Lissa and Mia and don't actually notice the stares at me as I sit.

"Where the hell have you been little dhampir?" Adrian states angrily, "and what's all this shouting about?!"

Before I can reply, Lissa starts, "I'm surprised you came back. Got bored of being a blood whore Rose?" She calmly states to which I look at her in shock and hurt. Why would she say something like that?

I can see the rest of the group is just as shocked as they watch her cautiously. But I steel myself and look her directly into her jade eyes. "I was visiting a friend, but what the hell is this about me not being your guardian Liss!?" I huff, looking at her curiously. Off the bat, I can notice a difference in her… This isn't Lissa, not really. Something's… off.

And I see Eddie notices it too as he meets my eyes.

"I don't need a lazy novice as my guardian Rose. Now do me a favour and stay out of my way." She stands up, dragging Christian along with her and just before she leaves, she turns and quietly but calmly says, "I bought you back to life. I can easily take it back. Remember that." And as the threat lingers in the air, she leaves, leaving two shocked Moroi with us.

Eddie and I know that the threat is a lie. That Spirit isn't capable of that. But the fact that she says it… makes me wonder what happened to her.

I shake my head before meeting Adrian's expected gaze. Sighing, I speak, "To answer your question, we were in New York helping an old friend. Sorry we didn't have a chance to speak to you or tell you about it."

Mia looks at us in shock for a second before she starts asking all sorts of questions about New York, a city she's always wanted to go too. After about ten minutes of grilling us about every little detail about the city that never sleeps, I watch her leave to class as Eddie and I are about to get up but stopped by Adrian.

"Now tell me what you were actually doing…?" He whispers, watching the two of us through a spirit-induced gaze.

Warily, we say, "We were just in New York with a friend."

"I know that, but that's not all you were doing… what aren't you telling me? And what's this I hear of you two trying to incite fights amongst the dhampir…"

I look at Eddie before looking back towards the Moroi, "We just mentioned how we thought it was ridiculous that dhampirs were essentially trained to die for Moroi and that we thought the whole idea of it was… well, bullshit."

He sighs to himself before raising his hands to his head and looking at us again but whispers very lowly as he leans in closer…

"What I'm trying to say is…" Adrian starts but stops suddenly. He watches us intently then, as if he's studying something about us.

"Look Adrian…" Eddie starts, "if you haven't got anything else to say, we'll see you at lunch, we gotta get to class."

And at that we quickly make our way to class, leaving Adrian where he sat, still watching us intently with a removed look on his face.

"What the hell was that about?" Eddie asked as he moved his hands through his short hair.

Shaking my head, I replied, "I haven't a clue… guess it's just Adrian being Adrian I guess." And at that, we quickly make our way to the gym where our first class is beginning and, on the way, we discuss how we are going to go about this plan of ours.

"Thing is, you know what these vampires are like, anything they don't like, they get rid of. If we do too much, they may just kick us out and then what use will us stirring trouble do…" Eddie adds, as he kicks a few stones in front of us, keeping our heads down from all the students staring at us, no doubt having heard of our little outburst with Mason this morning and the Guardians earlier on.

"I know… we'll have to be careful. Try to keep it quiet, out of the classroom. You and I both know that there are a few Moroi out there who want to learn to protect themselves. Mia Rinaldi for one… maybe we should speak to her, tell her we want to help Moroi. Especially non-royals."

"That's a good idea. She can easily get to other Moroi then too. But the dhampirs? What to do about them?"

Looking down at the ground, I think, "The dhampirs are a tough one. All of the ones here are firm believers in their way of life, however insane it is. We'll have to think on that later."

Finally, we see the gym, and enter to start our first class of the day. As we both try to ignore the stares and glares of all the dhampirs in the room, we set aside our bags as we get ready to practise our combat training and everyone automatically gets into pairs and Eddie and I make our way to a mat at the back of the room, far removed from everyone else. As we hear Alto shout start, we circle each other before I strike first, being careful to keep to their style of fighting, however hard it is.

Ten minutes later, and we are both stuck on an even fight, as we block and defend each attack from the other and we almost miss Alto coming over to us as he watches us with a blank gaze. Finally, I manage to take Eddie down, as I force him to the floor, my legs pushing down his chest and arms securing his head. He taps out and we both get up where we meet the Guardian's gaze.

"Can we help you, Alto?" I ask as the entire class now watches.

"It's probably for the best that neither you wish to be Guardians, seeing as you barely took down a dhampir." He comments, sneering at us, before turning away and the class resumes.

I lock eyes onto Eddie as we both start grinning uncontrollably. Yeah, it was definitely a dhampir we barely took down…

We restart then, and for the rest of the morning we go from class to class until it's time for lunch.

I walk alone to the cafeteria as Eddie and I had different lessons, and I notice Mia bounding up to me, almost anxiously. As she sidles up to my left, I look her over as I watch her wring her hands nervously.

"What's up Mia?" I wonder as I slow down, watching the Moroi girl before she matches my gaze, sighs and pulls me to the side.

"Is it true?" She questions, "That you both don't want to be Guardians?"

She watches me with a bated breath as I reply and sigh, "No, we don't. I want to stop Strigoi, and help people protect themselves. But, all this training, it shouldn't mean I end up being a glorified guard dog for the rest of my life."

I take a seat at a bench in the shadows as she joins me. I look to her as I continue, "Moroi can do so much more… and neither of us think it's fair that the majority of you… everyone who's non-royal or can't afford a guardian, doesn't know how to protect themselves from the Strigoi."

She grins then, as her tight blonde ringlets bounce around her face.

"You know, I always thought you were a staunch dhampir Rose. Being so close to the Royals and all that… You may not know this, but most of the non-royals aren't big fans of the dhampir…" She mutters lowly, giggling at this unknown secret.

My head whips around then, because this was in fact, news to me.

"What do you mean?" I wonder as she looks around before continuing.

"The dhampir, here and outside the academy, at least the ones who are wanting to be or are already Guardians, don't really notice us. If you're not royal, you tend to be irrelevant to the dhampir… Same goes for the royals. It's why you see such a big divide in all three groups here and outside. The dhampirs essentially kiss ass to the royals and the royals love it. Before… Spokane… I thought you were the same, and even after, as I watched you follow the princess around like she was some… god… but hearing this… I'm sorry I judged you so quickly."

I watch her quietly, as I take in the information. Neither Eddie nor I had ever really thought about the difference in groups. We thought it was a royal vs non-royal thing, never had it crossed our minds that the non-royal Moroi didn't really get on with the dhampirs but looking back at it… it was so obvious. Apart from a handful, I'd only ever spoken to Royal Moroi here, and never really crossed paths with anyone else.

Maybe… just maybe, this could work in our favour…

"I had no clue…" I started, "Looking back though, I should have known there was such a divide, but I was blind to it." I take her hands then as I look into her eyes, "honestly, Mia, I'm so sorry."

She sighs then before smiling at me, "It's okay. To be honest, I wanted to get into the royal circle for years but recently, I've decided what's the point? The royals don't care about us, so why should I about them?" And as we sit there, I look at Mia, and I mean, really look at her, and I don't see the annoying bitchy girl I thought she was in the past, but a girl who was so sick of their system here and how, even though her and all other Moroi, were expected to dote on the 12 families and even praise dhampirs for what they did, she wasn't interested. And my respect for the girl then grew so much.

"I actually wanted to ask you a question though Rose…" She started before looking nervous again.

"Sure, what is it?" I ask, as my head tilts to the side.

"Could you… if you don't mind… teach me how to fight?" She asks, and I watch the hope in her eyes.

"I…" I'm cut off before I can answer as both of our attention is dragged away by the commotion at the cafeteria doors.

Mia and I both quickly make our way over as we see Eddie and Mason on the floor, brawling and throwing punches at each other. My eyes widen as I take in the scene before I rush to pull them apart and as Alto and Dimitri have Mason, I quickly grab Eddie's hand and flee the scene, before they actually notice it was Eddie and we make our way to the Church attic where I can tell him about Mia and question him on whatever in hell that whole thing was…

"What on earth was…" I started before he fell dramatically into a seat.

"It was him okay. I did nothing, but I heard him and the other novices speaking about what we'd said and then he just… attacked… It was all of them, but the guardians quickly got involved but they didn't really see who it was." He huffed as he let his wings then fall open as he flapped them lightly. "I'm getting fucking sick of these dhampirs you know…"

Sighing, I take a seat from across him as I start, "Yeah, I know. But… I have good news." His head pops up, eyes looking at me questioningly. "I just had an interesting chat with Mia…"

"And…? Don't let me wait in suspense Charlie."

Laughing slightly, I continue, "According to her, the Moroi, not the royals now, actually aren't fond of the dhampirs as well as the oh so beloved monarchy they have."

Raising an eyebrow at me, he questions, "What in the hell do you mean Pyro?"

Rolling my eyes, "I mean, they aren't as keen as the whole Guardian guarding Royal Moroi and them not being allowed to learn how to fight as we thought they are. It may be the common Moroi are the key to starting this rebellion the Council told us to start…"

He ponders the idea quietly, as he rises and paces the room, wings folded against his back but still visible.

A few minutes go by until he speaks, "Then we start there. Make connections with the non-royal Moroi. I hadn't even realised we hadn't…" He uttered before hiding his wings then.

"Neither did I… but she asked me to train her. And at least for now, it'd have to be physical, not elemental, but it's a start…"

Nodding, we both smile, as we then decide to leave the attic and having realised enough time had passed from the little fight, make our way to get lunch as we both hear our stomachs growl.

We walk into the cafeteria and watch as the novices glare and whisper at us, but ignoring the rising tension amongst the dhampirs in the room, we go to sit with Mia and Adrian, who as he notices us, gets that weird look back on his face again.

As we sit down with our food, I look to Mia and smile before speaking, "We'll train you."

Immediately, she jumps across the table and grabs us into a hug before sitting back down, still visibly excited.

"Thank you so much. It really means a lot." She speaks and as Adrian still looks off into the distance unfocused, we speak about what we can do and arrange to meet her in the church attic after lessons are over.

The times flies and before we know it, it's time for our next lesson as Mia quickly runs to her class and Eddie and I get up to leave. I sigh as he goes off and I make my way to class a little slower, but just as I'm about to leave, Adrian grabs my arm and pulls me down again.

I look at him strangely before asking, "Is everything okay Adrian?"

He nods then but quickly changes his mind. "I'm not sure… I can't seem to put my finger on it." He speaks vaguely, looking at me but… not at the same time... What is he doing? "I don't know why Rose… but it's so subtle… I might be wrong… but it's there… I swear it is."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I ask as I lean forward, watching the Moroi with a worried gaze.

"It's just, I could almost swear, that you and Eddie both have auras of elements in your auras…" He mutters, and I tense suddenly. He notices as his eyes narrow again and I quickly stand up and leave before saying, "I don't know where you get these things from Adrian, maybe you should stay off the drink." And quickly make my way out of the building and to my next lesson, the encounter playing on my mind.

Surely, he can't know, can he?

I know he can tell the difference in elements with Moroi, he said himself he knew about Lissa because hers was a gold but in us… I didn't realise he was that good at reading auras…

I need to tell Eddie…

Grabbing my phone out, I text him quickly to let him know.

Text to: Feathers

From: The sparky Winchester

Adrian might know we have something to do with air and fire from our auras. I doubt he knows the full story but be careful… We may have to watch Ivashkov a little closer from now on.

As I send the text, I worry slightly because if we are found out now then, everything we are trying to do would be a waste of time. Also, they may try to kill us before we even have a chance to leave and run.

My phone vibrates in my pocket as I pull it out and read the reply from Eddie.

From: Feathers

To: The Sparky Winchester

Shit, okay will do. Let's hope he doesn't figure it out anytime soon…

Yeah, let's hope he doesn't…

I take a seat in my next few classes and try to ignore the bad feeling in my gut. Mia watches me closely I notice, and she must have noticed the worried look on my face when walking in, but she says nothing and instead asks about her training.

"So, what will be doing then?" She asks as she keeps me distracted and I smile at her before speaking.

"Well, first we'll have a talk about what you can do already, make you go up against us. We'll also try and figure out how your magic could play into it. But, at the same time, it's not exactly true that Moroi are unable to fight… they just choose not to. You're small, so we can sue that to your advantage, but your water may be your biggest strength…"

She looks at me confused as she asks, "How do you mean? My magic can't kill Strigoi…"

I laugh quietly as I look at her, "No, but you could stop them. Keep them in place, maybe even freeze them. And if there's more than one or two, getting to a safe place may be your best bet, especially if you're only just starting training…"

As I speak, her eyes widen in amazement at the thought of what her magic could do and it's something I've never really understood about the Moroi. They have this amazing power at their fingertips, but none of them ever learn or even understand just how to use it. It's all for show, little theatrical tricks, not the amazing magic it could be…

It's why we don't call it magic for us, Hunters and Elementals, but bending. It's based off of a martial arts style, depending on your bending, and it's an art form that has been with us since we first existed.

We carry on speaking about her training as she asks questions on how to fight and when to fight and before we know it, it's the end of the day and we make our way to the church attic to meet Eddie before dinner.

As we walk up the narrow and damp staircase to the dusty attic, we walk in through the small door and notice Eddie looking around the room before noticing our arrival.

"So here you wanna fight then?" Eddie quips as he smirks and takes a seat in the old and dirty room. "Well, before that, we are going to have to work on your stamina, muscle and all that. There isn't much point in fighting if you haven't got the capacity for it."

"That's okay," Mia adds, grinning, "Whatever I need to do I'll do."

"Well, you have no experience previous…" I start, "And you're Moroi… you're all a little… lazy."

She raises a brow at me as she laughs and I continue, "But… we could get a little muscle on you. Every morning and night, you'll need to sneak out of your room, and we'll go for a run, to build that stamina in you, and then get you doing some weights on the way, to build up some muscle."

She nods happily at the prospect before turning serious and speaking, "Are you two sure you wanna do this? I mean, couldn't you get in trouble."

"We need to do this Mia. It's what we want to do. Trust me, we want to help." I comment as I reassure the girl. "Plus, troubles what I'm made for."

"She's right, we don't mind. We're happy to help. But you seriously need to get some stamina. If you're ever in trouble, the best thing to do is run. Especially now. When you're more experienced and could stand your ground in a good fight, then you could try and kill a Strigoi… but right now. Running is your best weapon. That is, until Rose here figures out just how you can use your magic to your advantage."

"That sounds good to me." Mia adds and suddenly, Eddie grabs her up and pushes her to the door.

"Good, cause your first run starts now. Rose, we'll meet you later at dinner." Eddie shouts as they leave.

"Wait, aren't you coming Rose?" Mia asks.

"I'll meet you in the morning, Eddie will do night, I'm going to do some research on water and see what I can come up with but have a great time." I shout as I watch them make their way to the forest line, hidden from the guardians but still within the wards.

In the meantime, I make my way towards Lissa's dorm, intending on figuring out the completely unexpected reaction to my return…

As I make my way to her dorm room, I think about how to handle the situation. As much as I hate how close we are due to the way it affects my thinking on this mission, she's still my bond mate. I need to help her, if not for her, but then for me and Toothless, because this darkness she's creating is seeping into us and it won't end well…

Before I know it, I'm outside her door and knock as I hear her voice from inside.

The door opens to reveal Christian, who looks tired and worried at me.

"Rose, look. Now isn't the best time…" He starts as I hear Lissa shout from behind him.

"Rose!" And I hear her bounding towards the door as Christian opens it further, revealing a smiling and slightly guilty Lissa behind it. Shocked at this change in dynamic towards me, I'm unsure of what to say as I stay quiet as I stand in the doorway.

She flings herself at me and I quickly catch Dimitri's gaze from his stance on the wall. He must be guarding her.

"Rose, I'm so so so sorry for what I said this morning, I don't know what came over me, I wasn't in control. I think it was Spirit, please can you forgive me?!" She sobbed into my shoulder as I looked at her bewildered… whatever that was this morning, I know it wasn't spirit, I can tell when it is.

But I should probably go along with it for now, until I know what really caused it.

"It's okay Liss, I forgive you. And I'm sorry for leaving without mentioning anything, I just didn't really get a chance." I add as I hug her back.

She drags me into her dorm then, as Christian, begrudgingly, closes the door behind. What happened there?

She sits me down on the sofa she has in her over-size room and watches me closely as she smiles, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"It's okay, you just scared me… I though you left me…" She whispers before grinning, "But, now that you're back. Will you be my Guardian again?" She asks me, and I see Dimitri tense slightly at my awaited response. "I couldn't imagine anyone but you, it's what we always wanted."

I sigh quietly before matching her expected and hopeful gaze, "Lissa, what I said about Guardians and everything earlier…" I start before she cuts me off.

"I understand Rose, you didn't mean it. You were just mad at me, it's my fault. Everyone knows it's not what you really want."

Even though Lissa is my bond mate and supposed 'best friend', sometimes it shocks me at how little she really knows me…

"Lissa…" I start before sighing and moving away slightly, "That's the thing… I did mean it." I hear gasp and start to convince me otherwise, but I stand up and walk towards the door. "It's nothing against you, or because I was mad because honestly… I was relieved I wouldn't have to be your guardian. I love you, but I don't want my whole life to revolve around you. I want to be my own person, not just your guardian."

"But Rose, you are your own person… no-one says you're not." She says, shocked that for once, I disagreed with her.

"I want to do more than watch you live your life. I wanna go out there and help people. And do it my way, not yours." I add before opening the door, "If you don't like it, tough… but if you're going to hate me for doing what I feel is right… then maybe we aren't as close as I thought…" And with that, I leave, being sure to cut off any notion that I will ever be her guardian. I couldn't do it. Plus, with everything that's going to happen in the next few months… I need her to know that. To understand it…

I hear her opening the door behind me and feel myself hear her thoughts again as the bond is clear once again. I feel her feelings, the sadness, guilt…

In my mind, I hear her apologise, for what I don't know but I need to leave for a bit as her feelings wash over me and I feel them overwhelm me.

I'd always felt another presence in my mind. From the day I met him, Toothless and I had formed a bond, much deeper than the shadow kissed one I had with Liss, but it was two ways. I felt what he was feeling, and he felt what I was. We could communicate through it and we were, almost, as if we were one soul in two bodies. But with Lissa, it was damaging. Instead of becoming one, it was all her. I had no input. Just her emotions, and thoughts, and memories and darkness… seeping into me and Toothless. It was slowly breaking us. And we didn't really know how to stop it. Being shadow kissed wasn't common, in Elementals or Moroi…

But, as I felt the build up of darkness flow into me, I struggled to hold it together as I felt my palms heating up, my blood boiling. I ran then, as the energy threatened to overtake me, as my control on my own powers threatened to be unleash, I ran deep into the forest, passed the wards and I heard a familiar scream as I launched my legs further and quicker.

I could feel him hurting. Feel him losing control. I ran into the clearing when I saw him, destroying a tree with his claws, anything to let out the rage building inside. I slipped onto his back and he flew up, higher than we've ever flown before and carried on, the growl escaping him echoing in the vast sky around us, as his wings took us higher and higher. My flames were falling from my hands now, my entire body heating up.

We had to let go, this was the worst it had ever been. A whole weeks' worth thrown onto us at once… It hurt.

As we reached as high as we could, he opened his jaw to roar as bright shots of plasma shot through the sky, illuminating the clouds around us, and trying to focus the energy into my hand, I shot it out below us, flames bursting into a giant cone of fire. We were directly over the academy but high enough that we couldn't be spotted ourselves as it happened. And I could just see the people outside watching, and screaming, at the sight. As the sky was alight with fire, the roars of a beast were heard…