I decided to upload another chapter as well, seen as though chapter 12 is horrifically short :P

Chapter 13

I started dozing a little again in the passenger seat as we continued our long drive.

I was snapped out of my daze with a jump when Sydney slammed on the breaks.

"Sorry," she said. "That jerk cut me off."

I relaxed back into my seat and looked sideways out the window.

"Where are we?" Rose asked us.

"Outskirts of Lexington," Sydney replied, as she pulled into a small gas station.

She filled up on gas and then typed Donovan's address into her GPS.

"Not a great part of town, from what I hear," I told them. "Donovan runs a tattoo parlour that's only open at night. A couple of other Strigoi work with him. They get partiers, drunk kids…the kind of people that can easily disappear. The kind Strigoi love."

"Seems like the police would eventually notice that every time someone went for a tattoo, they disappeared," Rose said to me.

I laughed, not at all humorously. "Well, the 'funny' thing is that they don't kill everyone who comes in. They actually give tattoos to some of them and let them go." I said, recalling how I laughed when I had been a Strigoi and had first heard this. "They smuggle drugs through the place too."

"You sure know a lot," Rose said, almost carefully, like she thought I knew about the drug smuggling because of personal reasons.

"I made it my business to know a lot, and Strigoi have to keep a roof over their heads too," I replied. "I actually met Donovan once and got most of this straight from the source. I just didn't know where exactly he worked out of until now."

"Okay," she said. "So, we've got the info on him. What do we do with it?"

"Lure him out." I answered her. "Send in a 'customer' with a message from me needing to meet him. I'm not the kind of person he can ignore – well, that he used to not – never mind," I cut myself off. "Once he's out, we get him to a place we choose."

"I can do that." Rose said.

"No," I replied quickly. "You can't." I said carefully. I knew Sydney wouldn't react to what I was going to imply.

"Why not?" Rose asked me.

"Because they'll know you're a dhampir the instant they see you. They'll probably smell it first. No Strigoi would have a dhampir working for him – only humans."

You could cut the awkward silence in the car with a knife as my words sunk in on both of them.

"No!" Sydney exclaimed. "I am not doing that!"

"I don't like it either," I told her, shaking my head. "But we don't have a lot of options." It was true; if there was any other way we could do this, then I would.

"If he thinks you work for me," I continued. "He won't hurt you."

"Yeah? And what happens if he doesn't believe me?" Sydney demanded.

"I don't think he can take the chance," I assured her. "He'll probably go with you to check things out, with the idea that if you're lying, they'll just kill you then."

After I spoke, it crossed my mind that I probably shouldn't have said the last part of that sentence, but then again, she should know the complete truth.

"You can't send her in," Rose said. For a moment I thought she was going to give me grief about letting Sydney go in alone when we should be protecting her. She didn't however. "They'll know she's an Alchemist. One of those wouldn't work for Strigoi either."

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. I thought of some way to get around that obstacle.

Surprisingly, it was Sydney who came up with a solution.

"When I was at the gas station, they had, like, one rack of makeup. We could probably cover up most of my tattoo up with powder."

We drove back to the gas station and I waited in the car while Rose went in with Sydney to get the makeup.

She'd be a lot more help than I would when it came to makeup.

Once Rose had caked enough makeup on to cover Sydney's tattoo and deemed her good enough, we headed off to Donovan's.

We drove around a little bit first, before I saw a back alley close to the parlour. There was a wired fence on one side and a low brick wall on the other. It was a good attacking point. I instructed on what to do and how to act.

"You want to look awed," I said to her. "Humans who serve Strigoi worship them – they're eager to please. Since they're around Strigoi so much, they aren't as startled or terrified. Still a little afraid, of course, but not as much as you look now."

"I really can't help it," She said, gulping.

Surprisingly, Rose hugged her. There had only ever been very few people that Rose hugged. Lissa, Adrian, Eddie, maybe Mason. I think her mother, once? And me, of course.

"You can do this," Rose said encouragingly in her ear. "You're strong – and they're too afraid of Dimitri. Okay?" She said, sounding so sure and confident.

Sydney nodded and then she turned the corner of the building, and disappeared from out sight.

Rose looked at me. "We may have just sent her to her death."

So she wasn't as confident as she was letting on.

"I know – but we can't do anything now. You'd better get into position." I told her, knowing that it wouldn't take Donovan long to get outside if he did come and we'd best be ready.

I hoisted her up onto the roof of the low building and then made my way to the opposite side of the building that Sydney had gone around. I hid just around the corner. It was just a waiting game now.

After a couple of minutes, I heard the footsteps and prepared myself.

Peeking around the corner, I saw three of them heading down the alley, Sydney in front of them. So, the plan was to take out the other two and then question Donovan. Looking up, I saw Rose poised and ready for the go ahead to attack.

They stopped after a few more steps.

"Belikov?" Donovan's voice boomed. "Where are you?"

"I'm here," I answered coldly. I walked around the corner to face them.

Donovan visibly tensed when he saw that I wasn't a Strigoi, and all of my anger and fury came rushing to me.

I was suddenly seeing red. I realised that this meeting was a lot more than just finding out where Sonya Karp lived. It was personal.

"Dhampirs!" One of the others exclaimed, smelling us.

That was when Rose jumped and landed right on top of the guy who had realised there was more than just me here. She began fighting while I took on the other two.

As I fought, every last emotion and feeling I had felt since I had been turned back overwhelmed me. I channelled it as I slammed the Strigoi continuously against the brick building, both of us almost grunting with the force.

I staked him straight through his black heart, but it wasn't enough. I wanted…no I needed to cause as much pain to him as I possibly could. I continued hitting and slamming him against the wall, my pain trying to claw its way out of my heart.

"Dimitri!" I heard a familiar voice calling my name. I felt the anger lessen ever so slightly. "I need you!"

My mind catching up with where I was and who was calling me, I dropped the body and ran to her side. Not hesitating, I slammed into Donovan's side and pinned him down, the fury returning. I placed my stake over his heart.

"No!" The same voice as before called out to me. Something dropped to the ground beside me and tried pushing my arm away. My mind vaguely tried to figure out what it was but I was so focused on the hurt inside me and the death I wanted to cause the Strigoi beneath me that it was fruitless.

"We need him" Don't kill him!"

I was about to shove my stake through his chest when a sharp sting ran through the right side of my face.

It didn't hurt that much but I looked towards the source.

Rose's brown eyes were staring into mine.

"Don't kill him." She repeated.

Her words finally registered with me and I was reminded why we had come to find Donovan in the first place.

He started struggling beneath me and Rose helped me hold him down this time.

Rose started to say something else, but I became focused on getting the information we needed as quickly as possible. The faster we got the information, the faster I got to kill him.

I hit his head on the concrete ground a few times.

"Where is Sonya Karp?" I roared at him.

"I don't-" He started. I cut him off before he could finish what he had been about to say.

"Where is she? I know you know her!"

"I-"

"Where is she?" I roared at him once again.

I could see the fear in his eyes…and it gave me pleasure.

"Paris," he said quickly. "She's in Paris!"

"Christ," I heard Rose mutter. "We cannot road trip to Paris."

"It's a small town – an hour away. There's this tiny lake. Hardly anyone on it. Blue house." He explained further.

That was all I needed.

"Do you have an addr-" Rose started, but I had my stake in his heart before she could finish.

I heard the pain I had caused him ring out in his horrible scream.

And I wanted to hear more of it.

I stabbed him over and over again, channelling everything I possible had through my stake and into his chest.

I felt something gripping my arm, trying to pry me away.

"He's dead, Dimitri! He's dead! Stop this. Please."

I could hear desperation in her voice.

It mingled with my own desperation. Desperation to rid myself from these feelings that were eating my insides out.

"He's dead! Let it go. Please. He'd dead."

I heard something in voice.

Fear.

My hand dropped to my side when I remembered the last time I had heard fear in Rose's voice when she had been speaking to me.

All I felt was pain, and hurt and guilt.

And it was killing me.

"It's over. You've done enough." She said quietly to me.

"It's never enough, Roza." I said to her. It came out more like a whisper. "It'll never be enough."

"It is for now." She told me.

Then she pulled me to her. I dropped my stake and clung to her.

This.

This right here was the pain relief that I had been looking for.

She held me tight in her arms. I buried my face in her neck and took deep shaky breaths, breathing in the scent of her hair.

"You're the only one," I found myself not able to get close enough to her. "The only one who understands. The only one who saw how I was. I could never explain it to anyone…you're the only one. The only one I can tell this to…"

She pulled back ever so slightly and stared in to my eyes. "It's okay," she said. "It's okay now. I'm here. I'll always be here for you."

"I dream about them, you know. All the innocents I killed." I told her quietly, my gaze turning from hers to the mangled body beside us on the ground. It felt nice to finally telling someone this. "I keep thinking…maybe if I destroy enough Strigoi, the nightmares will go away. That I'll be certain I'm not one of them." I admitted in a whisper.

Her soft hand touched my chin and turned my head so that I was facing her once again.

"No." She said, "You have to destroy Strigoi because they're evil. Because that's what we do. If you want the nightmares to go away, you have to live. That's the only way. We could have died just now. We didn't. Maybe we'll die tomorrow. I don't know. What matters is that we're alive now."

I clung to her every word. To the sound of her voice, soothing and calming me.

"Remember what you said earlier? Back in Rubysville?" She asked me. "Living is in the details. You've got to appreciate the details. That's the only way to defeat what the Strigoi did to you. The only way to bring back who you really are. You said it yourself: you escaped with me to feel the world again. It's beauty."

I tried to look at the body before us again, but Rose kept my head in place.

"There's nothing beautiful here. Only death."

"That's only true if you make it true," She said. "Find one thing. One thing that's beautiful. Anything. Anything that shows you're not one of them."

I did what she asked me to do. And I didn't have to look for long.

I stared at her for a long time. Studying her dark brown – almost black hair that I had loved so much. Still loved, I realised. It was up in a messy bun, strands falling out and into her face but it only added to the beauty.

"Your hair," I said to her, my voice a whisper again.

"What?" She asked me, seeming surprised to my answer. She reached up and touched one of the stray locks.

"Your hair," I said to her again, realising what she had made me do. She had made me see beauty. "Your hair is beautiful."

She paused for a moment and then spoke again.

"You see? You're not one of them. Strigoi don't see beauty. Only death. You found something beautiful. One thing that's beautiful." She said.

I reached up, wanting to feel her soft hair in my fingers. "But is it enough?"

"It is for now," She replied and her lips embraced my forehead. I felt a slight tingle when her lips connected with my skin.

"It is for now." She repeated and we helped each other to our feet.

AN: Could you guys please please review this one? I was nervous about uploading it – I love this chapter in Last Sacrifice, I think it's such a turning point for Dimitri and I'm worried that I didn't do it justice. It would mean a lot to me :)