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When I came back into reality I was laying on the floor. Someone had tipped the chair I had fallen asleep in backwards and I had fallen out. From the pain I was now feeling in my head as I tried to sit up and access my surrounding, I must have hit my head pretty hard.

"Aw poor baby…did I wake you up." Nathan said coming into my view. He was giving me one of those malicious smiles Strigios got when they caused distress to their victims.

Before I answered him I continued to access my surrounding. Only a little bit of nausea which meant that only one Strigio was in the room. Also, to my advantage Inna wasn't here. Inna yes, she had understood me what I was trying to tell her. She brought Nathan to me. I then quickly glanced at the clock: 1:55AM. Crap, Inna hadn't brought him to me fast enough. Dimitri will be here any minute now. I have to act quickly.

"As a matter of fact you did." I said standing up and forcing myself not to acknowledge the pain in my head. I refused to allow Nathan to know he had caused me pain. "I was having a pleasant dream." I said in my usual Rose attitude.

Suddenly Nathan was right in front of me pushing me up against the wall. "I'm not playing your games. Your time is running out blood whore. Where is the Dragonmire girl!"

"So smug now that Dimitri isn't around."

"Where is she?" Nathan said abruptly pushing me into the wall harder. I was now so pushed up against the wall that I thought my body would explode from the pressure. I had to gain control.

"I will bring you to her."

"No. Tell me where she is!" He said pushing me into the wall further. Now I was absolutely sure my body would explode from the pressure. I needed to approach this situation differently.

"What I'm trying to say is that I just don't want to tell you where she is. I want to watch you kill her." I said trying to sound evil and disturb. You know the usual way Strigios sound.

"Why?" Nathan said warily.

"I hate her. She doesn't care about me. I thought she was my friend but really I'm nothing but an expendable guardian to her." I said trying to sound furious. I knew that this was an issue all guardians faced. We were expendable. Nathan had been a Dhampir and from the looks of his body he was also a guardian. He would know what if felt like to be replaceable.

"You would betray her like this?" Nathan said still sounding a bit wary. However, it was written all over his face, my apparent new disgust for Lissa was appealing to him. It meant that I was serious about handing her over to him.

"She isn't my friend!" I said screaming. "I want her to die. I want to watch it." I said pausing briefly to access Nathan. I could see that he was becoming more and more intrigued by me. I also saw something else. Passion. My sudden crude attitude was becoming more appealing to him; I was becoming more appealing to him. I had been around boys long enough to know the look they gave when they were infatuated with you. Despite Nathan's hard Strogoi features, I could see just a hint of his infatuation for me. Nathan wanted me.

As I glimpsed at the clock briefly I saw that the time was now 1:59AM. Time was running out. If Dimitri showed up and saw Nathan with me, he would surely kill Nathan. Then after, I may also die.

I may not know about a lot of things in the world but the one thing I'm fairly familiar with is men. True Nathan was a Stigio but he was still a man. I had been wanted by many boys throughout my life. I knew how to make them 'putty in my hands'.

"Dimitri was wrong about you. He said you were weak." I said trying to get a reaction out of him and being satisfied when I saw his features fill up with anger. 'Weak' was a word Dimitri threw around in my face a lot when trying to convince me to become one of the undead. It was a word that was feared by Strogios. Only the strongest succeeded Dimitri had told me frequently. Predator versus prey. It was a concept Strogois lived by.

"You're not weak. You're strong. Together we can be strong. "I said moving my face closer to his. When I felt him release his hard grip on me I knew I was getting through to him. "Dimitri says he keeps me locked away in here because he wants to turn me into a Strogoi. So why hasn't he done it yet?" I said hoping that Dimitri didn't tell him the real reason for my hesitation. "The truth is that if I'm a Stigio then I will go after the Dragonmire myself. Dimitri wants the girl for himself. He asks me all the time about her wareabouts." Unlike with Dimitri, I knew Nathan wouldn't be able to sense my lies but I hoped my speeding heart beat or sweating didn't give me away. When his features didn't change due to my dishonesty, I continued. "I won't give her to him because she is yours." I said trying to sound convincing. "We have to hurry; Dimitri will be back any minute now. If he comes here he will take the Dragonmire for himself. We can't let that happen."

"He won't be back soon." Nathan said looking at me cunningly. "Galina sent him on an errand."

Luck. If that wasn't luck then I didn't know what was. Dimitri wouldn't come here soon. I still had time. "He will be back. We have to leave."

"Okay." Nathan said causing extreme relief to race throughout my body. "But first…we still have some time before he comes back." Nathan said pointing to the bed.

To say I was disgusted by his implications would be an under statement. True, I had contemplated sleeping with Dimitri while he was a Strogoi but that was because a part of me still and will always want him. However, I felt no such feelings with Nathan. The suggestion was abrupt and had thrown me off guard. But then again, I fired him up so did I really expect him not to suggest this?

"Inna…Inna will be back." I said scrabbling through my brain to come up with an excuse. "It is almost time for my breakfast. She will tell Dimitri if she sees us together.

"She won't say anything." Nathan said confidently.

"I know Dimitri. He will be infuriated when he sees that I have esc…left." I said noticing the amused look on Nathan's face. The idea of somehow aggravating Dimitri was appealing to Nathan. Therefore, I decided to act on his amusement.

"Dimitri said that he is unable to live without me. He will be hurt when he finds out I left with you." I said trying to manipulate Nathan into forgetting about his sexual ideas involving me. "Dimitri might even come after you in revenge for taking me. Could you imagine the look on his face when he sees that he lost me to you." I said emphasizing the word lost. "You won Nathan. You beat Dimitri." Nathan was loving every minute of my speech. Having lived in Dimitri's shadows for quite some time, he prospered at the idea of finally 'having one over' on Dimitri even if it meant using me.

"He will be back in an hour. We will be gone." Nathan said abruptly which unfortunately startled me.

"Okay let's go." I said walking to the door.

And then it happened, Nathan was in front of me blocking me from walking any further. He moved so fast in front of me that I wasn't able to prevent myself from walking into him. And before I could protest his lips were on mine hungrily like they were sucking the life out of me. Usually when Dimitri kissed me, his kisses were rarely gentle and full of passion. I always felt that Dimitri held back while kissing me in fear of hurting me. However, as Nathan kissed me I was beginning to understand why Dimitri held back. Nathan's kiss hurt. Not just painful but it felt like he may break my jaw any second now. I was sure that when it was done, I would have a bruise around the outside of my mouth if not a sprained mouth.

When the kiss was over, Nathan, oblivious to the pain he caused me, backed away satisfied and proceeded to open the secured door. As Nathan's back was turned to me I quickly placed my hand over my mouth and began to rub around my lips to ease the pain.

When I heard the door unlock, I expected myself to feel relieved to finally be free from this suite but instead as I looked around the room one last time, I felt sad. Although Dimitri was a monster, I couldn't forget the time we shared in this room. It hadn't all been terrible. Many nights Dimitri and I would curl up on the couch or the bed and talk about what we had been up to while we were away from each other. Of course, Dimitri's stories would always involve killings and other terrible Strogio things but still we were together. Now with my new realization that I may walk out the door and never see him again, I felt afraid. I loved Dimitri even though he was a monster. But I knew that we couldn't be together. Not this way. He was a Strogio and I was me. Too many people in my life needed me to be alive and not dead or a Strogio. Maybe in another life time we could have worked out. Maybe I would have given in and let him turn me into a Strogio. However, none of that mattered now. I made my decision. I chose to leave with Nathan.

"Come on." Nathan said which ultimately yanking me out of my daze.

When looked up to meet Nathan's eyes, I saw that he had unlocked both doors and was waiting for me impatiently to leave the suite.

And with one last look around the room at my old life, I began to walk out the door to my new life.

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