Hey you guys, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to my first reviewer Angeldog14, thanks, that one review is what keeps me writing.

Also, come on people, where are those reviews at? I have been thinking about writing a few Twilight and Harry Potter stories as well, what do you think? I update as often as possible, I am a dedicated Navy wife as well as the mother of the cutest 7 month old alive. They keep me busy. This chapter was so hard to write, be nice!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Vampire Academy, no copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 4: LISTEN!

I was shocked still by the decision to trust me with two royals. I knew I could handle it, and at least keeping watch over them would keep me busy.

We were still living at the academy, getting our affairs in order to move on into the real world. Lissa still wished to go to college and where she wanted go, Christian and I would follow. Lissa had not decided whether or not to accept the Court's offer for her to live there, even though they would take Christian just to get her there. I thought this would be the best way to live, but this was Lissa we were talking about, unpredictable.

We were all heading off the lunch as I urged her to make a decision when the conversation they always had brought up more often than I'd have liked came up again, breaking my heart to pieces all over again.

"As soon as we are out of here we will go back, Rose, we can help him." Lissa told me as we sat down. I wanted to believe in that so much, but the research wasn't very reliable since a healing ritual of this sort had never been done, or completed I should say. Sure, the healers had tried in the past, but none had lived to know for sure if it could really be done, only the by-standers running away could tell of what had been attempted.

They told me about those who believed that there was a way to 'heal' a Strigoi back to his or her normal self, as long as some piece of their humanity was still intact. It had now been over a month, there was no hope in my gut telling me that Dimitri had been able to keep it. It had been too long, we'd end up killing him if he didn't kill us first.

"If you could just listen to us for once, I'm sick of people treating us like we are some fragile humans that don't know anything." Christian said, backing Lissa up. He was starting to get annoyed at me, but I didn't care anymore.

Finally I gave in, if there was some possibility that we weren't too late, maybe they could help him. If they couldn't, I would be there to at least finish the job I had set out to do before they rudely interrupted me. I refused to get my hopes up, even though I should trust in Lissa more since she was the one who made me shadow-kissed. She had not only saved my life, she had brought me back to life. I owed her.

There was a spark of hope in her eyes as we set off on our 'vacation.' At least that's what we told everyone we were doing. We even brought Adrian along, since he was apparently a key part in this experience. I still wanted to believe them, but could I let myself be vulnerable again just to be let down?

I pushed those thoughts away; after all, I had a job to do. I had to protect my royals. We had a good few weeks to complete our task since school didn't start up again until the fall, it was only June. Lissa had decided to take up the Court's offer after all. We could all be together that way; it would be Christian, Lissa, Adrian, and I. I couldn't complain.

We made it to Spokane, in hopes that Dimitri was still lurking in the tunnels below. The chances were very slim that he would still be there after I had come after him a few weeks ago, but we still hoped.

"We should at least have a plan, ya know?" I said to the other three.

"Right" Christian said as he turned to face us all with a concentrated expression on his face.

"Well, I think that I should go first, since I can just catch fire to any Strigoi in our way, we still have a few hours until the sun sets, it will be plenty of time." He said. Oh I don't think so.

"No way are you going first! Are you crazy?" I battled him. He looked defeated and didn't push the issue and let me have my way, so long as he would stay in the back, in case any came from behind.

The plan seemed as good as any, besides, it was all we had.

We took off down the first tunnel, bidding the sunlight farewell. There was no going back now, we had to go.

It was eerily quiet and I didn't know whether I should rejoice, or be seriously worried.

"I've got two UV flashlights that should help our case a bit; it won't hurt them as much as the sun, but it will scare them just long enough to attack." I told them all, handing them each a remote sized light.

They held those lights with their lives as I looked into all of their eyes, looking for some form of fear or regret. Nothing but determination locked my gaze from each of them, giving me a confident feeling about this after all.

We went through about four long tunnels and met a steel door, it was locked.

"Dammit, it's locked." I said in pure frustration.

"OH move OVER!" Christian said aggravated. OF course, he could just melt the lock, how silly of me not to think of it first, ha.

He had the lock melted and I moved back to the front, stake in hand, ready for anything. I pushed open the door slowly.

I could hear someone struggling, grunting in frustration, but I couldn't quite see well enough to know. I shined my light into the room and there was a dark-haired man tied to the wall in some sort of torture contraption you would only see in SAW. It was Dimitri, in pain that I'd caused him, again.

"Dimitri!" I screamed at him, running to untie him.

"Wait! Don't untie him yet, wait until we are out of here first, then we untie him and let him speak, got it?" Adrian said; a worried expression on his face. I know he didn't trust our mission here, but came along because he didn't want anything to happen to me.

It took two of us to carry him out of there, he was very heavy. He was very weak; they must have been starving him, because he didn't fight back. Why would his own kind be torturing him? What had he done?

We arrived to the end of the tunnel that led into a dark alley-way, we had made it out just in time for sun-set, but the question was. NOW WHAT?