Bloodline spoiler:

In fiery heart Sydney was taken to a re-education centre (brainwashing). They found out she was in a relationship with a Moroi (Adrian), and of course they didn't tolerate that, she was tortured for months to adhere to the alchemist creed. A sleeping agent they pumped into the vents at night prevented Adrian from dreamwalking Sydney as formulating a rescue plan.

Chapter 4

DPOV

I woke up with a killer headache. It had been a long time since I had been knocked unconscious. I saw Rose coming out of it as well. I crawled over to her and she groaned when she opened her eyes but smiled when she saw I was hanging over her.

"What happened?"

We got up and looked around the room.

"That is what I would like to know."

It was clear we were taken for a reason. The room was locked and had no windows and functioned as a prison for us but it was also furnished and had a bathroom. Neither Rose nor I was restrained in any manner. I had a brief flashback to Russia when I held Rose but I quickly pulled myself out of that. I needed to focus.

"I don't know what they want from us, but it is clear we were their target."

"Who? Strigoi?"

"Maybe, but I don't think so. We would be dead now."

"Who would want to take us though?"

"Take us I don't know, but I know we are a symbol of success for the progressive camp. I imagine the more conservative don't really like us."

Rose threw her hands up in the air in frustration and immediately regretted it and grabbed her head.

"So, not only do we have to take into consideration that we could die from Strigoi and are bound by duty but now stupid Royal Moroi are against us too. We can't win."

"We are alive that is all that matters right now. I am sure Lissa is already looking for us."

"Alive for now."

As soon as Rose said it the doors to our 'suite' opened and a man I recognized quite well stepped in. I wasn't surprised to see him here actually if my theory was correct and we were being detained by conservative Royals. Before us was my uncle Nathan Ivashkov.

"Well, I do hope you two will survive. You are kind of our last hope."

The way he said it though didn't sound desperate or in need of help.

"What do you want? Why are we here?"

I asked my arms crossed over my chest. I was standing tall in front of him and although he felt confident enough with six guardians at his back, I saw him take a step back.

"You two can help our people by helping us with an experiment. So far the results have been… disappointing but I am sure that the two of you who have already died once or twice in your case (he said while looking at Rose) will have no problem surviving this."

"What kind of experiment?"

I heard the fear in Rose's voice. Years of training prevented anyone else in the room from hearing it, but I could tell. I shared her sentiment. Dying we were prepared for, hell we were used to it. But the way Nathan was describing this experiment was sending chills down my spine. And I knew enough about Nathan to know that when he says it will benefit our people, he mostly means himself.

"We have made some interesting contacts and we have come up with a solution to our Strigoi problem. Dhampirs are simply too weak. They make up for it by their training and numbers but those have been plummeting over the years. And the queen refuses to hear my please for breeding programs. So the solution is simply, make Dhampirs stronger. We know human warriors have used Moroi blood in alchemists tattoo's to enhance their strength. So we thought we would do the same to Dhampirs."

"That won't work. We already have the benefits of Moroi blood in our genetics."

I told him a bit exasperated. But instead of looking offended he was starting to form a creepy smile on his face.

"Yes, we wouldn't be tattooing you with Moroi blood. We would be using Strigoi blood. Image if Dhampirs had the strength of Strigoi, we would have created the perfect soldiers."

Rose and I just stared at him. He was insane. It would definitely level the plane field but it was impossible. Strength comes at a price. And the price for Strigoi strength was losing your soul.

"So far though, all Dhampirs we have tried this on have had an… adverse reaction."

The man had a talent for beating around the bush. I wondered for whose benefit it was. He was obviously not concerned with our mental health due to this news so I wondered why he was using euphemisms instead of being straight with us. But I guess years of being in royal circles and never saying exactly what you mean, had made it second nature.

"They either reject the blood and die from an immune response or they turn."

Rose and I stepped back. That is why he wanted me, I couldn't turn, but what about Rose?

"So we decided to try it out on you two. We already know you can accommodate Strigoi power but are immune to turning and Rose has come back from the dead twice, let's see if she can come back a third time."

I stepped in front of him.

"No. Use me. I'll volunteer, I have the best chance of this working anyway. Just leave her out of it."

He scrunched up his nose.

"Your affections towards her are sickening. Both of you should have lend your bodies to the continuation of your race and the survival of ours, but instead you chose to create an unnatural and pointless bond."

With that he turned around and walked out. I was certain I could take on six guardians and get us out of here, I saw Rose make the same deduction. But before either of us could make a move I saw the guardians had a breathing mask on and I felt myself getting dizzy again. They were pumping in a sedative through the vents. I guess he did have alchemist friends. I recall Sydney went through a similar thing.

We had been here for several days now. I don´t really know how many. It was hard to keep track when there was no window. Based on our meals it was probably day five or six.

"Well if they want to do experiments on us, why don't they just do it already. I don't want to be a labrat but I hate sitting around just waiting for death."

I know she was getting fidgety. So was I. We had been going over escape plans, we had been trying to sleep to see if Lissa or Adrian would visit us but nothing. I noticed that whenever we would doze off they would turn on the sedative again. It prevented us from going into REM sleep and thus preventing Adrian or Lissa from dreamwalking us. A smart countermeasure against dreamwalking. When Sydney was taken by the alchemists for re-education they used a similar approach. Although there it was to control their routine and not prevent dreamwalking, since they had no knowledge of the possibility. But I think with us it was Nathan's way of keeping us isolated from Spirit users.

"What do you think they are waiting for?"

I had been asking myself that question for five or six days now.

"They are missing an ingredient. Or the manufacturing process takes a long time. Maybe they have to wait on an alchemist to do the actual tattooing."

"Argh. I am going insane."

The door opened and Nathan walked in.

"Well you don't have to wait any longer. Indeed we needed another ingredient: fresh Strigoi blood. The alchemist will be here in the morning and then we will get started."

I saw someone in a lab coat walk around Nathan. He looked a little apologetic but I saw him eyeing Nathan apprehensively. I doubt he was here by choice. He was holding a case. He placed the case on the table next to the door and opened it. It had a vile and two syringes.

"An injection of immune-suppressants. To minimize the change of an adverse reaction. I suggest you take it."

Rose looked at me but we both decided it was our best bet. At least her best bet. Even if the whole concept was sick. In the end Nathan wanted us to live.

When they left again she crawled up to me and snuggled closer.

"Actually I prefer this. Last time I died or you did we didn't know, now we can at least say goodbye properly."

"We are not going to die. We aren't meant to die like this."

"I also wasn't supposed to die at fifteen in a car accident, and you shouldn't have died hours after we finally decided to be with each other, but we did. Besides I already died once giving my life for Lissa and you died in battle so maybe now we die in a less graceful way. We simply fade into nothingness by disease."

"Roza."

She turned around and looked at me.

"It's okay. We made it longer than most."

I felt her sob against my chest.

"It's a good thing we never had any kids, at least now we will not leave behind orphans."

I understood her depression. But we weren't dead yet. And I wouldn't have her spend her last hours like this.

"Roza. Even if all we have is tonight I am glad I get to spend it with you. At least this time I'll leave this world with you being the last thing I see."

She smiled and then I kissed her. It started slow but soon became desperate. We both knew this would probably be the last time we would ever be together. Because as much as I wanted to follow Nathan's delusional thought about us being the most likely to survive I knew we would probably end up the same as the rest. I just hoped Rose would die from an immune response instead of turning.

I was running my hand through her hair taking out the hair clip. I loved her hair. I tried remembering every strand, every sensation, every moan. My hand followed her body and made its way under her shirt. Her lips left mine for a brief moment as she took her shirt of. Mine followed. She was running her hand down my abs and kissing my neck and chest.

I pulled back for a moment. I knew from the timing of sleep agent that they were monitoring us.

"They have cameras here don't they."

I asked her and she looked up to me. I saw her contemplate this and a small smile came across her face.

"Then let's give them a show"

I was a private person. The thought of someone being able to see our most intimate interactions was not appealing. I know Rose was a bit more adventurous and secretly liked the thought of people watching but mostly it was the idea of being able to get caught that was enough for her. Now we were blatantly on camera. But for once I didn't care. This could be the last time I was with my wife and I would hold her and kiss her and make love to her until they would pry her away from me.

Our pants were next and when I joined my body with hers I couldn't help but cover us up a bit. Not that the sound of my skin pounding against hers wasn't illustrative to our activities. Neither were our moans for that matter. But I didn't care. I needed her and she needed me. Because no matter what way this would go, our lives would change for ever. But I didn't think about that at the moment. Morning could have been eons away. Tonight I was making sweet love to my beautiful wife. We made love deep into the night.

third POV

They were watching the camera's. They had been waiting for this moment the entire week. Although their bantering was fun to watch, this was basically like watching porn at work. What man didn't like the idea of that? Besides they had all been waiting to see Rose Hathaway naked. Her beauty was legendary. They were sorely disappointed when the Russian covered most of the good bits.

"Well I know at least one perk of being married to another guardian. This is round three already."

One of them said.

"I know, my Moroi girlfriend can't keep up with that."

The boss walked in and looked at the camera's. There was a look of distain on his face. As if the fact that two Dhampir's were together was physically hurting him. But he didn't move. He stayed and watched the 'freak show' for at least ten minutes before he excused himself. Many guardians actually excused themselves for a bathroom break. Must be the new coffee.