Chapter Nineteen - Handle With Care

It was a massacre - a blood bath. Five Guardians had already been brought in confirmed dead, and at least double that were severely injured and in the infirmary. Doctor Olendzki was overwhelmed with patients, and her new Moroi assistant wasn't exactly the best. That's why I was here - to help.

It was 4am on Monday - late Moroi afternoon - and it had been exactly six weeks since the Strigoi came for Rose. Truth be told the place hadn't been the same since she left. The Guardians were all on edge, the protection details were stricter, and the curfew had been brought forward to 8.30 instead of 10.

Grant and Serena had replaced Dimitri and Rose as my Guardians, which admittedly wasn't the worst - Serena was just a year older than me, so she seemed to be a lot easier to be myself around, even if she was supposed to be my protector. Grant wasn't that bad, either, and in fact he was a pretty decent guy. Funny. Almost like the male equivalent to Rose, except fifteen years older and a lot beardier.

Eddie, Christian, Adrian, and I were all out on the field after finishing our final lessons of the day. Eddie was picking at the grass from where he sat besides Adrian, and I was resting blissfully against Christian's chest as we all sat in, what I had presumed to be, comfortable silence.

"Something's not right." Eddie stopped his meticulous trimming of the grass in mid-air, looking around the place with a slightly sceptic look. I furrowed my brows at him as I sat up straight, following his lead as I also looked around, though I had no idea what I was looking for.

"What is it?" Christian asked, and Eddie shook his head.

"I don't know. I've just got a bad feel-"

"Strigoi!" Frantic screams from across the campus cut him off before he could finish his sentence, and each of us immediately looked in the direction of the cries. Three Moroi were running towards the main campus while a Junior Novice immediately jumped up onto his feet from where he sat near the statue of St Vlad's, running in the direction for the emergency alarm.

I felt Christian hauling me to my feet from behind as everybody kicked into action, sirens sounding throughout the entire grounds. "Come on, we need to get inside!" I heard him urge as he pulled me forwards, Eddie and Adrian already making their way ahead of us.

I could see Guardians rushing out in the direction that the screaming Moroi had come from on the other side of the school, many of them brandishing their stakes as they prepared to fight. I shook my head at the sight, scared for their lives.

"There's two Guardians already confirmed dead - Samuelson and Torgan were both on Ward Duty when they were attacked by Strigoi." Alberta wooshed past us as we headed towards the Moroi dormitories, two Guardians flanking her on either side. I spun around as she walked, wrenching my arm out of Christian's grip as I went.

"Guardian Petrov!" I called out for her frantically, stepping forwards. Upon hearing my voice she immediately stopped in her path and turned to face me. Her eyebrows were knit together in a tight line, and she liked simultaneously angry and fearful as she begun approaching me. "What's happening?"

"Liss, we need to get to safety-" I heard Christian try to coax me from behind as he pulled at my arm again, and I quickly threw him off as I kept my gaze fixated on Alberta.

"We have reason to believe the Strigoi that are after Rose have attacked again." She said sternly with a worried nod. "We think they've discovered that she's fled the compound, and they're here to deliver the repercussions."

"Let me help!" I insisted, stepping forwards with my palms open in a pleading gesture. "Send me to the infirmary with Dr Olendzki. I can help her heal the Guardians that come back injured."

"Princess Vasilisa, you need to go to your dorm where you are safe." Alberta shook her head and began to turn away, but I quickly stepped in her path.

"Please!" I begged desperately. "They're after my best friend and I know she'd want to help if she was here. Send Grant and Serena with me to the infirmary - they can protect me there!"

Guardian Petrov seemed to hesitate as she looked between me and the Guardians who had been following her, and were now watching our encounter from close by. She clenched her teeth together and mumbled something under her breath in a defeatist attitude. "Fine, but you stay in the infirmary until I give you the okay to leave." I nodded frantically. Anything to help. She sighed, turning back to the Guardians. "Mula, Smith, take Miss Dragomir here to the Infirmary. Find her Guardians, as well - Grant Woods and Serena Lyttle."

And that was how I ended up here - surrounded by both the dead and the injured. I'd arrived just as they brought in Guardians Samuelson and Torgan from the ward lines, and I visually cringed away at the sight of their torn throats and bloodied clothes. The sight made me fearful as I realised that could have been Rose, had she not left when she did. I shook the thought out of my head. Focus, Lissa. People need you.

At some point Adrian had turned up to offer his assistant as well, despite Dr Olendzki's urges for him to leave.

"Listen, Doc," he said in a somewhat condescending voice as he approached her. "You've got a dozen injured Guardians in here and only two qualified doctors. There's only so much you can do - I have the same abilities as Vasilisa. Let me help."

Reluctantly she agreed, though I'm sure she would have put up more of a fight if it wasn't for the freshly injured Guardians that came through the door just then.

I sat down next to one of the Guardians who had just been brought in - he was one of the lucky ones with not entirely life threatening injuries. "This isn't going to hurt." I told him as I closed my eyes, placing my hand on his shoulder. I poured my energy into healing the broken shoulder, letting it flow into the broken radius further down his arm.

I heard him let out a sigh of relief as the bones fixated back into place, and I opened my eyes once I was sure he was all healed. He thanked me profusely, and I smiled and got to my feet to look for the next person. I was starting to get a little dizzy, but nowhere near close enough for me to stop.

"You're better at this than I thought." Adrian's snarky voice came through as he came through the door, looking between me and the brand new Guardian I'd just healed. I folded my arms, arching an eyebrow at him. "You're a newbie Spirit user. It took me months to be able to perfect healing bones to the point of perfection."

"I've had a lot of practice." I shrugged. And it was true - after awakening the Spirit Magic when I brought Rose back after the crash, there had been more than a handful of times where I was needed to heal people, namely Rose. She was always getting herself injured in training or pranks, and most of the time Dr Olendzki called me in for help if she was busy.

Adrian just nodded, glancing over to where the doctor's assistant was placing a white sheet over yet another dead Guardian. "It sucks. To know that they're dying just to protect us."

"That's very profound of you." I narrowed my eyes at him as I walked over to the medical bench, washing my hands before drying them. "I didn't think of you as the caring type."

"I'm arrogant, not blind." He said with a humouress laugh as he came to stand besides me. "I can see the sacrifice the Dhampir make for us, and how little we as Moroi give them in return. It's unjust."

I just looked at him in surprise, never having assumed Adrian would be the type to care for Guardian well being. He always seemed so in his own head about things, suffering so much with dealing with his Spirit and the Darkness that he didn't have time to care for anything else. I guess I was wrong.

I turned to go find someone else to help when I saw another Guardian being brought in on a stretcher, screaming and crying. Immediately I recognised the golden blonde curls and the high pitched voice as Serena.

"Serena!" I tried to hold my voice back as much as I could so I didn't shout, immediately making my way over to where Dr Olendzki was bringing her to. Her hair was matted with blood and a deep gash was evident across the top of her forehead. Her clothes were wet and clinging to her body with both the sweat and the blood, and the doctor acted quickly with a pair of scissors as she tore open the jacket she was wearing.

As soon as she did, I could see the blood spilling over her shoulders and down her arms. I stepped back and covered my mouth as a choked sound came out, the rust-and-salt smell of the blood filling the room with a sickening aroma. She was drifting out of consciousness, rambling under her breath about a girl named Georgina.

I shoved past the Guardian that had brought her in and sat down on the bed besides her legs, reaching across her to press both of my hands on her blood-ridden shoulders. "Lissa, leave it, she's too far gone!" Adrian tried to force me away from her, and I shoved him away with a scream.

"She's my Guardian, Adrian! She's eighteen years old! She doesn't deserve to die. Not yet - not like this." I could feel the tears brimming at my eyes as I turned back to her, her head flopping lifelessly to the side. I swallowed back the tears and closed my eyes, pouring every ounce of energy I had left into her.

I could feel my body shaking and my arms giving way beneath me, but I knew I couldn't give up. Adrian was cursing beneath me as he no doubt watched my pour my essence into Serena, and I knew he wanted to force me off of her but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

My arms went limp, and suddenly I couldn't feel anything except for the darkness swelling inside me as I tumbled backwards towards the floor. I felt arms around me, but my eyes were too heavy to see who they belonged to as everything went blank.

I opened my eyes with a whine, my head throbbing. I expected to see the bright lights of the top of the gym, and was shocked when instead I saw a firm wooden framing, almost like an old timely home. I pulled myself up into a sitting position, my arms flopping over on my legs as I looked around the room. I didn't entirely recognise the place, but it did have a familiar feel to it. There was a two seater sofa on one side of the room sat opposite a flat screen TV, a small circular table on the other side with three chairs. There was at least four bottles of various alcohols scattered around the room from what I could see, and the room stunk like a bar.

"Little Dhampir." My eyes widened in surprise as I immediately recognised the voice, spinning around from where I was sat on the floor to see Adrian leaning against the door with his arms folded and a sly smirk on his lips.

"Adrian?" My voice went up an octave in surprise as I pulled myself to my feet, wiping down the dust from my yoga pants. "Did I die? Is this hell?"

"No, you're not in hell, Little Dhampir." He chuckled with a shake of his head as he walked over to the sofa, moving the empty vodka bottle from it and placing it on the floor besides it instead before sitting himself down. He pat the seat next to him, and I walked over reluctantly.

I crossed my legs over as I looked around the room, narrowing my eyes at the familiarity of the room. The curtains besides the door were drawn, and I could see it was dark outside, though I couldn't see much else. "Where are we?"

"I think the better question is 'where are you'?" Adrian flipped, his gaze focused intently on me as I took in the room. "I've been trying to get into your head for the past two days - nobody will tell me where you fled to."

"It's better that way, Adrian." I sighed as I looked back at him. "The less people who know where I am, the less people I put at risk."

"It's a little too late for that." He scoffed under his breath as he tore his gaze from mine, shoving himself off the sofa as he walked over to the open window.

I narrowed my eyes at him as he turned his back to me. This wasn't like Adrian - he wasn't usually this hostile around me. If it was any other day I'd embrace the fact that he wasn't gawking over me like some sick pervert - but I could sense something was off.

"What are you talking about, Adrian?" I pushed myself to the edge of my seat with my elbows over my knees, watching him carefully as he paced around the room.

"There was an attack on the Academy." He confessed, stopping in his place as he looked up at me. "Seven Strigoi and a presumed three humans attacked the wards in search for you."

Immediately I was on my feet, jaw tensed as I listened to his work. I refused to believe it - they said we had until the Summer Solstice! Why would they attack so soon? I shook my head, wrapping my arms around my torso. "How many got hurt?"

"Eight dead and fifteen severely injured." He said plainly, and I cursed under my breath as I ran my hands through my hair. "Guardian Lyttle was brought in about half an hour ago, nearly dead."

My face dropped. "Lissa's Guardian? Is she okay - where's Lissa?" My breathing quickened as the panic began to set in. If the Academy was under attack then that means Grant and Serena would have been ordered to be by her side - if Serena was injured, did that mean Lissa was? What about Grant?

"They're both fine." I let out a sigh of relief. "Lissa healed her almost to the point of perfect health - just a couple of scratches and bruises on her. Lissa had been healing people for almost an hour, and she was already exhausted. Seeing Guardian Lyttle like that was just too much for her, and she poured every inch of her soul into making sure she was okay. She passed out."

"I guess that explains the fainting." I mumbled to myself as I looked down at my feet, kicking at the reddish carpet beneath my feet.

Thoughts were bouncing around my head at a million miles a minute as I tried to think of what to do - how to protect the people I loved. I'd already moved to the other side of the globe and gone into hiding. That had only made the Strigoi mad. If I went back to St Vladimir's then they'd find me again, and that put everybody in risk. Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Adrian, Alberta - all of them were at risk of losing their lives because of me.

One fleeting thought was to give myself over to them. It was me they were after, and they wouldn't stop until they got it. But then I had the voices of my loved ones in my head again - Dimitri, Lissa. If I gave myself over then I'd be giving up - I'd be letting them win.

"Did they at least kill all the Strigoi?" I asked hesitantly, knowing that eight lives would have been lost for nothing if they didn't get rid of them all.

"Yes," he answered. "But Guardian Petrov says that there are still more after you. She was there when they first attacked before you left - she said that some of them hadn't been at the attack today."

All this time I'd been in Russia without a fear in the world for the Strigoi that were after me - now, as everything became scarily real, all my emotions hit me at once. The reality of the situation was that the people I cared about were in danger, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. I wasn't used to feeling so helpless. I was Rose, freaking, Hathaway. I wasn't the type to sit back and helplessly onlook as people paid for my mistakes - I was the one who protected the innocent. Lissa, Eddie, Dimitri, Christian - they were all innocent. They didn't deserve this.

"Where are you?" He insisted, stepping forwards and placing his hands on either of my arms as his eyes pierced deeply into my own. "Tell me where you are. I can come get you, and I can hide you as well as everyone you care about. I will make sure they're safe."

"No!" I shook my head and wrenched my arms out of his grip, spinning around with my hands in my hair again. "I can't let you do that - I can't put you in danger. I'm the root of this problem, and I need to solve it."

"Rose, please." Adrian begged, grabbing my arm as he tried to force me to look at him. "Let me help you!"

I threw him off me as strongly as I could without hurting him, forcing him to stumble back into the wall as he caught himself. "There's nothing you can do." I shook my head sternly as I spun around to face him. "Not unless you can hunt down the Strigoi that are after me and kill them all - and even then, that's putting people's lives at risk."

"Rose-" he stepped forwards again, and I felt the frustration balling up inside me.

"Get out of my head!" I shouted at him, and suddenly everything went black.

As quickly as everything went black, my vision came back, and I found myself darting upwards as I clutched my chest for breath. Firm hands were pushing down on my shoulders and resting me against a soft, plush material as I gasped for air.

"Rose, Rose." I glanced to the side to see an unfamiliar Moroi in white robes holding me down, a kind expression in their eyes. "Rose, can you hear me?"

"Of course I can hear you." I said incredulously. I'm not deaf, I silently added.

Once the man was comfortable that I was calm again, he slowly lifted his hands away from me and started backing up. I glanced around the room and noticed I was in an infirmary, presumably St Basil's. I was still in my workout clothes and I was sat on top of the sheet on the bed, which meant I couldn't have been there for too long.

I pulled myself up into a sitting position as I leaned back against the stack of pillows, dropping my head back against the wall as a wave of dizziness overcame me. "Miss Hathaway, how are you feeling?" I closed my eyes as the doctor came around the side of the bed with a clipboard and pen in his hand. "You took a pretty nasty fall in Advanced Combat, and you've been unconscious for the better part of an hour."

"Dizzy." I answered honestly, keeping my eyes closed to subdue the faint feeling. "Tired. But otherwise okay."

The doctor hummed in satisfaction at my words, and I heard him walk around to the end of my bed and place something in the folder. "All the tests say that there's no permanent damage to whatever caused you to faint. Perhaps just dehydration, or a random dizzy spell." Yeah, or my weird Spirit-bonded best friend decided to be the hero and exhausted us both. "Your vitals are fine, though you do seem to have a concussion. Being Dhampir, as you are, that should be healed by the end of tomorrow."

"So does that mean I'm free to go?" I said with agitation, wanting to get the hell out of there so I could talk to Dimitri about what Adrian had told me. Chances are Alberta would have already contacted him if the situation was as severe as he made it out to be, but I still wanted to talk to him about it myself.

The doctor sighed reluctantly, before nodding. "Yes, you're free to go. I just need to get your teacher to sign your release papers to say that you're good to go back."

"Wait, what teacher?"

"Guardian Belikov." He said as I stood to my feet, standing to my side to catch me in case another dizzy spell came over me. "Since you were injured under his and Guardian Charkov's watch, one of them needed to be here to sign medical forms."

Just as we rounded the corner to the main lobby of the infirmary, I saw my Russian's eyes light up from where he was pacing. He was still dressed in his work out clothes as well, and immediately walked over to the doctor. "Doctor Gielgud - I presume this means Novice Hathaway is in good health?" His eyes flickered slightly to mine, but otherwise he was in full teacher-Guardian mode.

"For the most part, yes, Novice Hathaway seems to be fine." He directed the pair of us over to the counter where he laid out some forms. "She has a mild concussion which means she is excused from the rest of her lessons today and tomorrow - though she is required to return promptly Wednesday morning."

Usually I would be grinning at the thought of having a day and a half off lessons, but it only made me more depressed. Time to myself would mean more time to worry, and less time with Dimitri, and after everything Adrian and I spoke about that was the last thing I wanted.

"I would like for someone to be with her at all times over the next twenty four hours." Doctor Gielgud continued as he turned the papers to Dimitri, getting him to sign at the bottom.

"That won't be a problem." He nodded, turning to me. "Let's go, Hathaway. You're on bed rest, starting from now." I rolled my eyes childishly at him as he thanked the doctor, before guiding us both out of the infirmary and towards our dormitory.

Now you know what is happening! Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger, but you know you all enjoyed the tension. Thoughts? Opinions? Let me know!