Chapter 7

"Rose." Eddie was pulling my arm trying to wake me. "We have to go." He continued pulling my arm. About a minute past by with him trying to get me up until the nausea feeling rushed through me and got me up in a defensive stance throwing Eddie off me. "Rose?" He asked. I grabbed my stake out just in time as did he when he noticed what I was doing.

We were both ready to jump into the fight together but before we could, guardian Simon, or Mike, jumped into it before we did, catching the Strigoi off guard as it was focused on me and Eddie and not Mike.

He threw the Strigoi back a few steps giving him about 2 seconds to stake him, in which he used very well and killed the Strigoi right then and there. "Nice kill." Eddie said in an amazed voice. "Quick kill. It's never nice to kill Eddie." I corrected him. Mike nodded at Eddie and me and we decided to go just a little deeper into the cave.

We fought off 2 other Strigoi, or Mike fought off 2 other Strigoi. He didn't let us in on the fighting once. And I love to fight. And I'm good at it too. And he should know that. And yet, I think he does. "Why don't you let us fight?" I asked after a while of constant walking.

"Because, if you think about it, it's my job to keep you alive, so if I fight all the ones at the start, when I die, you two will still have the power and energy to fight off other Strigoi and get out of here alive." I cannot believe I hadn't thought about that. "Hey Mike, thanks." Eddie said with a smile.

The guardian nodded our way but instead of nausea, I felt…nothing. Again with the nothing. It was tarting to irritate me. But I have to deal with it. I gave him a confused look and he just stared out into nothing for about 2 minutes before shrugging and saying, "Never mind."

Eddie and I shared glances before shrugging it off as well. "What was-" The guardian had cut my words off with a shut-up hand motion. OK. Nothing weird about this guy. I quickly but silently walked over to where Eddie was standing and whispered, "Do you have any clue what's going on?"

He shook his head once and we both looked at Mike. I was going to walk over to him but decided not to. I also wanted to sit down, but chose not to just in case. We were all silent and didn't move once for 5 minutes, literally. I was counting.

I decided that since nothing had happened for a while, that it would fine if I sat down. That if there were Strigoi around, my nausea would kick in and I'd be standing in my guardian stance with my stake out ready to fight. Mike was whispering into some weird small microphone thingy that would allow him to communicate to the other guardians.

He walked over to us with the normal guardian expression that a lot of guardians at the school had. "They found no Moroi. Alberta thinks they took them with them for turning or later snacks." I was frozen. I looked up into his eyes and saw sorrow in them. Sorrow that guardians wore all the time that you anyone could easily pick it up.

They both took in my silence, but Eddie was first to react. He put his arm around me and pulled me into him. My head lay on his shoulder, my eyes closing and hiding back tears. The guardian was moving, I could hear and feel his foot steps coming closer to us. "Alberta says we are free to go. We'll wait for them outside the cave. In the morning light."

With that said, Eddie and the guardian pulled me up, even though I could have gotten up by myself. I pulled away from Eddie and Mike and walked off to the right of the cave alone and with my head down. I pushed back a few tears and let some out at the same time.

I didn't want them to see my pain, so I quickly brushed away my tears even though they would have known what I was doing as both their sets of eyes were on me. I stopped walking for half a second and both of them were at my side once again. "I'm OK." I lied. They knew I was lying. Losing your best friend. The person you are bonded to. Well, they don't understand the bond part, but I knew Eddie understood most of my pain.

"Rose, it's OK to be upset. I was upset for days when we lost Mason." Eddie was trying to make me feel better so I gave him my bets fake smile. Then the Mike spoke again. "We have to keep going. They aren't positive that they killed all the Strigoi they passed, they could have missed one or two." We all began walking down the same cave route we came in from.

At one point, I thought I saw the end of the cave, but it was a small flame. "Eddie…what's that? Over there?" I pointed to the flame and they both shrugged. "Fire, I guess." Eddie stated the obvious. "Well yeah. But how would the cave have a small fire? Did we pass it on our way in?"

We all glared at each other than to the small flame. Eddie ran up to it and easily blew it out. "Now it's not a problem." He joked. I gave him a half smile, trying to make it a bigger one to ensure him that I was OK and that I was strong. But it didn't work. The instant I smiled, it was gone the next. And in replacement, nausea.

"Eddie!" I called. They both ran out to me and I grabbed my stake out, they both followed my lead to the Strigoi. As I walked towards it, the nausea got stronger and stronger. We were lead to a small 3-way turn off. I took a step to the right turn off then to the middle one, than to the one on the far left.

I stared out for 2 seconds, then they asked me what route. "All of them." I said and they both were shocked. "There is a Strigoi in all of them." I said again. "What one is strongest?" Eddie asked me, knowing about my nausea thing. I took more steps into them, and the far left was just a bit stronger, so there might have been 2 in there. "This one." We all walked in and were surprised to see the Strigoi fighting each other.

IT was kinda refreshing that they were fighting each other instead of us. We slowly walked back out deciding they will eventually kill each other and didn't need out help, yet. We then chose the middle route, walking straight a head of us. The Strigoi was waiting for us, clearly he knew we were coming. He gave us an evil smile then Mike jumped in on the fight.

The Strigoi looked old, which meant he was an ancient and powerful Strigoi. Eddie realised it as well as we both found each other jumping in on the fight. He gave a long, strong fight, but we eventually took him out…well Eddie staked him while Mike and I were beating him up.

We walked back out slowly, just in case the other Strigoi heard and was waiting for us out there. But it wasn't there. So we nodded over to the last route. When we first saw the Strigoi, it reminded me of Lissa. She had long golden blonde curly hair. Her figure stated she was a new Strigoi. Also her reflexes showed that as well.

She turned around Eddie and I froze. So did the Strigoi. Or should I say Lissa, the newly turned Strigoi.