Wow!

You guys! I was completely blown away by the response from the last chapter! I was expecting maybe 2 people to review it but instead I got about 14!

Thank you all so so much! I honestly didn't think that this story was very good but I wanted to finish it out anyway :)

Hope you like this chap and once again, Richelle Mead owns VA :D

Chapter 5

"What the hell?" Rose exclaimed. "Is this daring escape being sponsored by Honda?"

I mentally rolled my eyes. Of course Rose wasn't thinking about the fact that we were being pursued by a hundred guardians.

When neither myself nor Sydney answered, she asked another question.

"Are we going to New Orleans?"

"No," Sydney answered, after we had climbed in and she was backing out of the parking space. "We're going to West Virginia."

Rose's head turned abruptly to look at me, as though willing me to deny it. I didn't.

"I assume by 'West Virginia,' you actually mean 'Hawaii,' she said to us. I had another urge to roll my eyes. "Or some place equally exciting."

"Honestly, I think you're better off avoiding excitement right now," Sydney said to her wisely. "And West Virginia's actually really pretty."

I saw a hint of amusement in Rose's eyes and had a feeling she was thinking of some sarcastic comment. One that she didn't voice out loud though.

"Why are you helping us?" Rose directed her question at Sydney.

"Why do you think?" she answered darkly. Abe hadn't told me how he had gotten a human – an Alchemist – to help us. But if Abe was involved, it couldn't have been good.

"Abe." Rose stated, voicing my thoughts.

Sydney sighed loudly. "I'm really starting to wonder if New Orleans was worth it."
I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about but Rose seemed to understand.

"Okay. So why are we going to West Virginia?"

I saw that Sydney was about to respond but I cut her off.

"Not yet." I knew that if Rose found out that we were they to basically hide her from the Moroi world then she would give both myself and Sydney more than a little bit of hassle.

Rose turned in her seat and sent me a glare; if I hadn't been on the receiving end of them so often, I would have been a little scared of her.

"I'm so sick of this! We've been on the run for six hours now, and I still don't know all the details. I get that we're staying away from the guardians, but are we seriously going to West Virginia? Are we going to make some cabin our base of operation? Like, one on the side of a mountain that doesn't have plumbing?"

In normal circumstances, I would have laughed at her outburst, but if I was in her place, I would have been frustrated too. Frustration on her part, however, was necessary at this very moment.

Sydney gave Rose an exasperated look and said, "Do you actually know anything about West Virginia?"

Rose looked on the verge of another outburst but then spoke with more control to Sydney.

"You know we've been set up, right?" I had been curious myself as to whether or not this Sydney person believed us. I didn't know her very well after all and still didn't trust her completely. And after all, Alchemists didn't like Dhampirs and Morois. "We didn't really do anything. They say I killed the queen but-" Rose continued but Sydney interrupted her before she could finish.

"I know," she said. "I've heard all about it. All the Alchemists know about it. You two are at the top of our most wanted list."

It still didn't answer the question of whether or not she believed us. She seemed uncomfortable, but that was probably due to the fact that she was suddenly with two half-vampires that she had been taught to hate all her life.

"I didn't do it," Rose insisted.

Sydney didn't agree, and yet she didn't disagree. All she said was, "You should eat. Your foods getting cold. We've got a little over three hours to go and won't be stopping except for gas."

Sydney's tone signalled that she was done talking about it, and she stared at the road ahead of her while Rose turned to the McDonalds bag and dug in.

Unexpectedly, Rose swivelled in her seat and offered what looked like a cheese burger to me.

"You want one? Gotta keep up your strength." She said, pushing the burger toward me.

I looked at the piece of food. It looked appealing but I hadn't had an urge to eat in a long time. In the end, the hungry feeling in my stomach made me give in, as well as the fact that Rose was right – we all needed to keep up our strength.

I took the burger from her hands and she offered me a box of fries as well before turning around to face the front again.

I ate what she gave me, and was surprised by how good I thought it was. I thought it would take months before I got used to eating and drinking anything other than blood again.

I felt the grief spring back up inside me, but I pushed all images of dead bodies away from me and focused on the task at hand.

I looked around the back seats of the car and noticed there was two small backpacks. I opened one and my heart gave a funny leap in my heart when I saw one of the long, leather coats that I loved so much. I remembered Abe promising that there would be one waiting for me. Before investigating much further, I picked up the second bag and gave it a quick search.

"I think this is for you," I addressed Rose, leaning forward and handing her the backpack filled with clothes in her size. Rose opened her bag as I went back to my own.

"A duster?" Rose exclaimed as I pulled the coat out of my bag. "You managed to get him a duster, but you couldn't find me a pair of jeans?"

"Abe said it was essential." Sydney said, unconcerned. "Besides, if all goes like it's supposed to, you won't be doing any fighting."

Rose just looked at her. Unhappiness clearly etched on her face.

The next three hours in the car were spent in silence, each of us obviously consumed by our own thoughts.

My own, drifted back to the last time Rose and I had been completely alone.

In her own personal prison.

I hated myself. I hated myself for what I had done to her - to what I had done to others.

I stopped myself from thinking about it anymore when we reached West Virginia. It was dark out which worried me a little. The dark made us more vulnerable to Strigoi. Usually, they preferred Moroi, but that didn't mean they didn't like to prey on Dhampirs every once in a while.

After checking and re-checking that we hadn't been followed, I deemed it safe…from guardians anyway.

Sydney drove to the quiet Motel that we were going to be staying at indefinitely.

The three of us climbed out of the Honda and walked towards the entrance. It felt good to stretch my legs after sitting down for so long.

We got checked in, under fake names of course, and we walked down the badly-looked after hallway.

Sydney stopped outside her own room and handed me a key to the second room.

"We're not all staying together?" Rose asked.

"Hey, if you guys get caught, I don't want to be anywhere near you," Sydney replied. Nice. "I'll still be nearby though. We'll talk in the morning."

"We're sharing a room?" Rose looked at me and asked.

Sydney shrugged her shoulders. "All the better to defend yourselves."

Then she turned and entered her room, closing the door behind her.

I glanced at Rose just as she glanced at me and we both headed into our own room. Rose walked in ahead of me and I shut and locked the door behind us for protection.

I felt exhausted. It had been a long day and a half. I noticed an old wooden chair near the corner of the room and sat down, a sense of relief at finally being able to relax a little running through my bones.

Rose sat across the room on the bed, facing me. "What now?"

"Now we wait," I finally admitted to her.

"For what?"

"For Lissa and the others to clear your name and find out who killed the queen." I told her simply. I waited for the outburst.

Rose sat staring at me expectantly, as though waiting for a further explanation. When I said no more, the expectant look slowly turned to one of disbelief.

"What are we going to do?" She demanded. "How are we going to help them?"

"We told you earlier: You can hardly go looking for clues at Court." I told her patiently. "You need to stay away. You need to stay safe."

She gestured around the room. "What, and this is it? This is where you're stashing me? I thought…I thought there was something here. Something to help."

"It is helping." I explained, still patiently, to her. "Sydney and Abe researched this place and decided it was out of the way enough to avoid attention."

Rose shot to her feet. I immediately tensed at her sudden movements.

"Okay, comrade." My stomach fluttered once again at the use of her nickname for me. I ignored it.

"There's one serious problem here with your logic," she continued. "You guys keep acting like me staying out of the way is helping."

"What's a serious problem is us repeating this conversation over and over. The answer to who murdered Tatiana are at Court, and that's where you friends are. They'll figure this out." I tried to convince her.

"I didn't just get in a high-speed chase and jump state lines to hole up in some crappy motel! How long are you planning on 'staying out of the way' here?"

I stayed calmed despite her outburst.

"As long as it takes. We have the funds to stay here indefinitely."

"I probably have enough spare change in my pocket to stay here indefinitely! But it's not happening. I have to do something. I won't just take the easy way out and sit around."

I rolled my eyes mentally. I had gotten used to her stubbornness and slight childishness during our many trainings back at the Academy. I felt pain at the thought of my days before I had been turned.

Everything had changed.

"Survival isn't as easy as you think." I told her, my arms crossed over my chest.

"Oh God," Rose groaned. "You've been hanging out with Abe, haven't you? You know, when you were a Strigoi, you told me to stay away from him. Maybe you should take your own advice."

Pain. Memories. Hurt.

Three things that engulfed my entire being as soon as the words left her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean-"

I cut her off, not being able to bear another word.

"We're done discussing this. Lissa says we're staying, so we're staying here."

"That's why you're doing this? Because Lissa told you to?" She exclaimed angrily.

I ignored her anger.

"Of course. I swore I'd serve and help her."

I knew I was being extremely childish, but I wanted to hurt her after she had deliberately brought up my own painful memories.

Rose's anger wasn't evident on her face. She stood still, and darkness seeped into her eyes. A dangerous sign.

"Forget it. I am not staying here." Her voice wavering with the anger she was trying to hold in.

She moved towards the door and faster than ever, I was in front of her, blocking her path and pushing her out of the way.

I pinned her against the wall by her wrists.

"You're staying here. Whether you like it or not."

I could see the wheels turning in her head.

Before I had time to block, she kneed me in the stomach, making me almost fall to my knees in pain. She was small for a dhampir, but boy did she have strength.

She had pulled out of my grip while I had been frozen in surprise. She got as far as the door once again before I recovered and grabbed her, throwing her onto the bed. She landed face first into the questionably 'clean' bedclothes. I leaned all of my weight on her, keeping her down, while also pinning her hands and legs for good measure.

She struggled underneath me, to no avail. I wasn't letting go.

"Stop this," I said to her quietly. "Be reasonable for once. You can't get past me."

"I'm not the one being unreasonable," she growled at me. "You're the one caught up in some noble promise that makes no sense. And I know you don't like to sit out of the action any more than I do. Help me. Help me find the murderer and do something useful." She said and stopped struggling.

I couldn't help but feel surprise that she knew that I wasn't exactly fond of the idea of waiting out here for who knows how long. Nobody else had guessed that.

"I don't like sitting around, but I also don't like rushing into an impossible situation!" I continued to argue against her.

"Impossible situations are our speciality," she said. Her words sparked more memories…this time different ones. Ones of us fighting in the battle at the Academy a couple of months back and of Lissa shoving the spirit-induced stake through my chest.

Rose lashed out abruptly. I kicked myself for not staying focused. She tried to get out from under me but only got as far as turning around so that she was on her back before I had her pinned once again.

"One day," I said, trying to compromise with her. "You can't even wait one day?"

"Maybe if we'd gone to a nicer hotel. With cable."

Only Rose.

"This is no time for jokes, Rose."

"Then let me do something. Anything." She almost pleaded.

"I. Can't." I spoke through my teeth. She didn't understand that this was just as hard for me as it was for her.

I was expecting another angry or even sarcastic remark.

What she did next was definitely not what I was expecting.

She kissed me.

My whole being froze once again in surprise. Not being able to stop myself, I kissed her back.

Why? I didn't know. I just knew that I couldn't stop myself.

It was then that I realised – despite everything that had happened…everything I had said and done to her…I wanted her. I needed her.

It was also then, that she punched me.

Her fist hit my left cheekbone and pained shot through the left side of my face.

Before I knew what had happened, she was out of my hold and heading out the door.

I jumped up off the bed just as she slammed the door behind her.

Reaching the door, I yanked it open…running into an abandoned cleaning cart.

I groaned loudly in annoyance at the thing and flung it to the side, it's contents spilling out all over the floor, and a poof of dust filling the air.

"There's a guy chasing me!" I heard her voice ring out from the lobby.

Shit.

Why did she have to make everything so difficult?

The answer was simple…because she was Rose.

I reached the lobby less than a minute later. The desk clerk made to stop me in my path but I just shoved him aside and pushed opened the front door, and headed out into the dark night.

Let me know what you thought please! Or if you have any ideas or suggestions that you think would make it better :) Thank you!

-Laurie