My family arose early the following morning. So early, in fact, that by the time Rose and I were ready and had arrived downstairs; they had all of the preparations for the small get together sorted.

Rose and I took our time eating breakfast and then we both went upstairs to freshen up. On our way back down, I heard the doorbell ring. The guests had arrived.

The get together turned out to be anything but small. The whole town showed up.

I was greeted by one person after the other, each of them with the same questions.

How? When? Why?

And each time, they got the same answers.

There were many familiar faces around the house. For example, the first person to approach me was Mrs. Burkov. She had looked after myself and my sisters when we were younger. She had taught me for the first couple years of my life before I left for St. Basil's to train as a guardian.

Upon approaching me, she was wary and cautious. Her husband too, was with her. They questioned and talked to me, all the while keeping a safe distance. I had prepared myself for this sort of reaction from people, but Rose had told me that they would relax after a couple of minutes.

I was surprised to see that she was right.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Burkov settled into a light-hearted conversation and relaxed completely. Rose had been right when she had told me that people would accept me no problem after spending a few minutes with me.

Throughout the morning and afternoon, I tried to keep an eye out for Rose. She was around, but she left me to do the mingling by myself, knowing that it was something that I had to do alone. I was surprised to see that she didn't do a lot of mingling herself: the majority of the time she spent observing everyone. I felt a little guilty. All I wanted to do was to go to her side and make her feel comfortable. It was impossible however; every time I tried to get a footstep closer to wherever she was standing, another person would grab my arm and start up a new conversation.

The look in her face was far off, and I wondered if she was thinking about the last time she had been in a gathering like this in this very same house. I wasn't there…for obvious reasons…but it couldn't have been a very nice occasion. The memories swimming in Rose's eyes and mind told me that much.

I was in the middle of conversing with an old neighbour of my family's when I saw two fairly familiar faces approach Rose. Her face immediately brightened upon seeing them and she embraced them. I felt myself relax a little as Rose did but kept an eye on her as she spoke to the couple.

Oksana and Mark, I realised. They were the bonded pair Rose had met while last in Russia.

I returned my attention to the elderly woman speaking to me just as glasses of Russian vodka were being passed around. I took one to be sociable, but didn't drink any of it. I had long since decided that I wouldn't drink while my loved ones may need protecting from any sort of threat.

"Dimka?" I realised my mother was at my side. "Are you okay, love? Hungry?" she asked me, that motherly look in her eyes.

"No thank you, mama," I replied and gave her hand a squeeze. She turned to greet some other guests when a man suddenly cut through the crowd, making his way towards her.

"Olena." The man said when he reached her. With a jolt, I realised he was human – an Alchemist, to be correct. I could see the golden lily tattoo on his cheek that I had seen so often on Sydney Sage's.

"Henry," my mother greeted him. "How nice to see you again."

I was curious as to how he knew my mother, and to how she knew him. I was also wondering why she looked so weary when she saw him approach her.

"We need to talk about the Blood King," he said straight out. I furrowed my eyebrows, his statement not meaning anything to me.

"This is hardly the time," my mother replied. Several groups who were standing nearby were now looking over at the strange talk. My mother suddenly gestured to me. "My son is visiting. He hasn't been here in years."

The Henry man turned and looked at me. Before turning back to my mother, he gave me a very brief nod of greeting, which I returned.

"It's never the time. The longer we put this off, the more people are going to be hurt. Another human was killed last night, you know."

Now this really got my attention. And Rose's.

She strode over.

"Who was killed?" she demanded, her presence not going un-noticed by anyone. "And who's doing the killing?"

Henry took a quick glance at her, and then turned away, obviously not deeming her important enough to even bother answering, immediately making me dislike the man.

"You have to do something," he addressed my mother once again.

My mother threw up her hands in exasperation. "What do you think I can do?" I was getting seriously annoyed at this guy now. I knew almost every Alchemist was fairly arrogant – it was something I'd learned to live with whenever I'd had to be around them. But trying to order my mother and annoying Rose could only put them in my bad books.

"Because you're…well, you're kind of what passes for a leader around here. Who else is going to organise dhampirs to take care of this menace?" he answered her.

"I don't lead anyone," she answered him back immediately. "And the people here…they certainly can't be ordered into battle on a moment's notice."

"But they know how to fight," countered Henry. "You're all trained, even if you didn't become guardians."

"We're trained to defend," she corrected him. "Certainly everyone here would turn out if Strigoi invaded our town. We don't go out seeking trouble, though. Well, except for the Unmarked. But they're all away right now. Once they return in the autumn, I'm sure they'll happily do this for you."

Henry was becoming very frustrated. "We can't wait until autumn! Humans are dying now."

"Humans who are too stupid to stay out of trouble," said another woman I had spoken to earlier. She was yet another neighbour. Her husband also felt the need to join in.

"This so called Blood King is just an ordinary Strigoi," he said. "Nothing special. Humans need to simply stay away, and he'll leave."

I decided it was time for me to step in, seeing that my mother nor the Alchemist were going to back down.

"Start from the beginning," I instructed the human, not leaving any room for argument. "Someone explain who this Blood King is and why he's killing humans."

The Alchemist turned and gave a quick assessment, before filling me in on the details of how an old, powerful Strigoi was living up in the mountains and was preying on any human who came close.

"And so…he's what, preying on human hikers that happen to wander nearby?" Rose asked him, also trying to figure out what was going on.

Henry looked surprised that Rose was even keeping up with the conversation. That was the problem with a lot of people who faced Rose – they were expecting just an ordinary young dhampir girl. But the thing about Roza was…she was anything but ordinary.

"No wandering involved," Henry replied, answering her at last. "They seek him out. All the people in these villages are superstitious and deluded. They've built up this legendary reputation for him – gave him that Blood King name. They don't fully understand what he is, of course. Anyway, all he has to do is wait around, because every so often, someone gets it into his head that he's going to be the one to defeat the Blood King. They rush headlong into those mountain paths – and never come back."

"Stupid," commented the neighbour.

"You have to do something," Henry said once again, looking around at anyone who was listening to him. "My people can't kill this Strigoi. You need to. I've talked to guardians in the larger cities, but they won't leave their Moroi. That means it's up to you locals."

"Maybe word will eventually get around and humans will stay away," my mother suggested. I only hoped it was that easy. I was thinking the situation out in my head, and it seemed the only way to get rid of the problem, was to do it by hand.

"We keep hoping that'll happen, but it doesn't," replied Henry. "And before anyone suggests it: no, I don't think any human's going to get lucky and kill the Blood King either."

"Of course not."

The room went completely silent as my grandmother entered the room. She moved forward slowly, and dramatically.

"Only someone who has walked the road of death can kill the Blood King," she said. "I have foreseen it."

I could almost see Rose mentally rolling her eyes.

"Oh for God's sake," Rose exclaimed. "That could mean a hundred different things."

I watched the different reactions with interest. There were some, like Rose, who took the more sceptical view on the situation. Henry was one of these. The majority, however, were looking at my grandmother in absolute awe. She was somewhat famous around here for her predictions. Honestly, part of me also believed that there was some truth in these prophecies, however vague they were.

"I'd have to agree," Henry said. "Walking the road of death could be anything…someone who has nearly died, someone who was killed, any warrior or fighter who's –"

My youngest sister cut him off.

"Dimka," I turned to her at the sound of my name. "Grandmother means Dimka. He's walked the road of death and returned."

I felt many pairs of eyes on me after Viktoria spoke, many of them murmuring in agreement. I heard one person say, "Yeva Belikova has declared it to be so. She's never wrong."

"That's not what she said at all!" Rose exclaimed, obviously close enough to hear the same murmurs I could.

"I'll do it," I told them. "I'll put an end to this Strigoi."

There were a few reasons that I had decided to do this. One, even if we managed to keep the humans away from the caves, the Strigoi would still be alive and would still have to feed. Whether it was here or not, people – humans, dhampirs, Moroi – would die at his hand. Two, I had long since learned that if I wanted something done, it was best to do it myself and make sure it was done right. I had no doubt that if in danger, any one of these people could defend and protect themselves as best they could. But, there were very few – if any – in this room besides Rose and myself that had been specifically trained to defeat Strigoi, and it would be a very bad thing indeed if I was to let an untrained dhampir wander up into danger, not knowing what they were doing. There was also a small selfish part of me that hoped that if I did this, I would be accepted back into my community completely.

Many people cheered after I had declared that I would do it.

The one voice I heard clearly through the noise was Rose's.

"But you don't have to!" she exclaimed, looking a little upset. "She never said you did."

"Roza," I said. I didn't want to have to explain everything in front of everyone, so I tried to tell her that we would talk about it later on our own in that one word.

"I'd like to come with you," a voice said once the cheers had died down. I looked in the direction it had originated. It was Mark, the man Rose had been talking with earlier. He was older than me, and I realised that he was another person who had completed their guardian training. "If you'll have me." he added.

"Of course," I replied, not even having to think about it. Having three properly trained guardians was better than having two. A lot of the time in fights – numbers mattered almost as much as skill itself. "I'd be honoured. But that it's." I added quickly, noticing how people's face had begun to light up when they thought I might bring a group with me.

"What about me?" Rose asked suddenly, looking very annoyed indeed.

I almost grinned at her annoyance.

"I figured that was a given."