in this chapter we see a flashback to the past, this will be shown in it's own page break!

I was sucked into my dreams as soon as Adrian could make the connection, same as last time it was dark, too dark and I could barely make out my surroundings. Just like he'd mentioned it was harder and harder for him to come through.

'Little Dhampir.' But finally I heard the familiar voice call through the still night.

I couldn't help the smile which came over me, 'Adrian.'

His usual quirky smile was absent, instead replaced by a grim, serious look, 'are you ok?'

I nodded, 'have you made any progress?'

'I think we found where he's keeping you,' he explained in an urgent tone.

My eyes widened and my heart began to race, 'where am I?'

'Alaska, right outside of Anchorage,' he said firmly, the grim look on his face deepening.

'How far out are you?' I asked desperately.

Suddenly freedom was in my grasp and I didn't know how I felt about it…I was happy of course, I was going home, but never being able to see Dimitri again, despite his undead state, I was still a little sad about it.

'We're on route now; I'm sleeping in the back of an SUV.' He explained.

'Who's we?' I asked curiously.

'Christian, Lissa, obviously me and a group of seven guardians including your mother.' He offered, his expression finally softening.

I nodded hesitantly, I knew the Moroi had been practicing more and more with the use of their elements, but any time Lissa was involved, I felt nauseous, if anything happened to her because she was getting me out of trouble, I would never forgive myself. But I knew that she would never take sitting on the sidelines as an option.

'You have to be careful, he's got an army here, there are more Strigoi in this location than we've ever had to face before,' I said keeping out the part that Dimitri was probably going to kill me before they had a chance to get to me.

Finally a hint of a grin appeared on Adrian's face, 'don't worry about us, we've got it covered, do you think you'll be strong enough to keep any of them at bay until I come to you?'

'Probably, as long as he doesn't come to…feed,' I murmured.

The correlation to being bitten and fed on was as close to being a "blood whore" as one could get and the thought of it still made me cringe.

Adrian did a good job pretending not to be as angry as I was, and just nodded, 'keep him away, at all costs, do whatever you have to Rose.'

'Did you find the cure?' I asked hopefully, although all logic and reason told me I was being an idiotic little girl.

'Yes,' he replied with a smile, 'that's why you need to be ready, you need to be the one to administer it.'

My heart automatically began racing, 'please tell me this isn't one of your tactics to keep me hanging on until you come.'

He shook his head, 'sadly for me, it isn't, you'll have your Dimitri back.'

I bit my lip as tears sprung to my eyes and that light fluttery feeling in my chest which was reserved only for Dimitri swept through me without restraint.

'Thank you,' I whispered wrapping my arms around him.

'Just stay alive,' he said softly nudging me in the ribs, 'I'll see you soon.'

I managed a nod before the dream ended and I woke with a violent start.

Sweat beaded on my forehead drenching my hair which had fallen on my face sometime throughout the night.

A groan escaped my lips as the pain from my aching body spread through me again, no wonder I was so sweaty, my whole body was feverish trying to recoup. I guess struggling and fighting against Strigoi on a daily basis took it out of you.

I ran my fingers through my hair contemplating what to do next, Adrian's news put me in a better mood than I'd been in for months, to be precise three months, three months since the day everything changed in my life.

St Vladimir's was attacked when Lissa and Christian had been there, thankfully they weren't hurt, but in all the chaos we had lost more than fifteen amazing guardians, amongst them Dimitri. He was turned into one of them right in front of me.

He tells me now that I was incredibly lucky that I wasn't there to witness the turn, apparently it's painful and gruesome, the part where the soul leaves and the body comes back from the dead.

After that they moved everyone to a "safer" location, more guardians, more wards and more Moroi using their elemental magic to protect themselves. But when the next attack came, we were hopelessly underprepared and underarmed, Dimitri led them and when I first saw him my heart fell through the floor.

His usually warm and calm demeanour was replaced with a harsh and determined one. His eyes looked straight through me, picking me out from amongst the chaos.

Lissa and Christian fought alongside whatever was left of the guardians but his attack on the premises wasn't to hurt anyone else, it was to get to me, as much as I think about how horrible this situation is, it's still better than the thought if Lissa being hurt or dead.

I learned through Adrian's dreams that another six guardians died that day.

The latch on the door shook me out of my thoughts and as always for the past three months he came.

If it wasn't for the red rings around his eyes I could have sworn he was the old Dimitri again.

'What do you want?' I hissed getting to my feet as newly pent up fury raged through me.

I was so close to finishing this, to being free and getting him back, that every extra second I had to spend with him now made my blood run cold.

He walked closer and closer until he was inches away.

I felt an increasing urge to punch him in the face although I knew that would only entertain him more.

'You still think someone's going to find you?' He asked incredulously.

My face remained neutral, yes, yes someone is going to find me, I wanted to shout. But he couldn't know that.

'I'm not going to give in to you,' I said firmly, trying to feel as confident as I sounded.

'We'll see,' he smiled, 'how much longer can you hold out Roza?'

I cringed, hearing my name like that from him as a Strigoi made me want to scream, ergo proving his point. How much longer could I really hold out?

'Even if they do find you, they're not going to get to you in time,' he said softly stepping closer to me making my heart pound against my chest, 'what do they have, six, seven guardians left?'

'You should know,' I hissed back balling my fists, 'you killed them all.'

To this he only shook his head, 'I didn't kill any of them, the others did.' He said simply as though that made it all ok.

I let out a sarcastic laugh, 'that's almost worse.'

'For your conscience or mine?' He countered.

'You don't have one,' I muttered stepping back and away from him.

He narrowed his eyes at my move but stayed in his spot.

'What do you want?' I repeated.

Every other day that he had come in it was to feed or simply to torment me, this time was different.

He made no further move toward me; instead he looked at me in some sort of transfixed state and smiled a little too eerily.

I remained still and watched him.

Strangely I felt the onset of fear mixed in with morbid curiosity.

'What do you want Rose?' He asked suddenly.

His question took me by surprise, which these days was a feat in itself, I found myself pondering the best answer to give him rather than the one I wanted to blurt out like a scared little girl.

So I opted for the most honest one I could muster up, 'I want to kill you.'

The next two chapters will tie this up!