Three

Impossible. How? "What do you mean by, when you say a new breed?" I was beyond words now. Is that even possible?

"Umm… I guess for starters you can say that were more humane, then other Strigoi."

"Hear, Hear." Alex chimed in.

"Let me see. Oh we didn't lose our magic when we changed." Mary said trying to uplift me.

"You what!" I couldn't help from shrieking, but I did.

"You heard me right. We still have our magic or at least me, Charlie, Rebekah and Alex."

"What about the other two?" Throwing a little suspicion into my voice. Hey what can I say I didn't trust Benjamin. He was rude to me, what can I say, I'm a girl of first impressions.

She shook her said illuminating the flow of her glossy curls. "Dhampirs." She stated subtly waving away my accusations.

"How can you be sure?"

"Hey!" Benjamin sprang up from his seat appearing as if he wanted to launch himself onto me.

"Ben. Relax, you have to be reasonable. After everything that's happened to her and everything that she learns I'm surprised she trusts us even a little already." He scoffed at her remark but gracefully sat himself back down in his original position.

"Are you physic or something?" I asked her impolitely. At this point I didn't care if I sounded like a bitch. I still didn't stock enough credit onto their story for making it believable.

Mary giggled as did Alex and Paul."No I wish, actually I never really did develop into any elemental field…"

"Can you see auras?" I questioned her, cutting her off from whatever she was about to say. At the moment she seemed vaguely surprised by my outburst, but waved it off by answering my query.

"Umm, kind of. If you want to call it that. Why?"

I smiled. She was a sprit user. Why wasn't I surprised?"I think I know you element. You do have an element its sprit."

"Sprit?!" Benjamin shot back.

"I've never heard of anything like that." Mary stated clueless to the information I had just given her.

" Yeah, well it's more as a recent discovery."

She smiled."So I am special?"

"Of course you are." Benjamin said soothingly. Oh great so he's sickly sweet to her, but he's an ass towards me. Yup this guy would get along with Christian just fine.

"Oh good golly gosh. You must be hungry." Mary exclaimed.

"Umm. Yeah."

"Don't worry I'll get you something to eat."And she zoomed off. This is different. It's like Strigoi reflexes mixed with Moroi personalities. Weird. Oh well at least their good I guess. Honestly, I don't even think a Moroi could be that perky and chipper. The only one I didn't believe in was Benjamin. It's not like I have a bad feeling about him or anything he just reminds me too much of my best friends boyfriend. Who I have to admit took months for me to actually even start to like.

"My thoughts exactly." Jumping to my feet, I was stunned by the fact of her sudden appearance.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you." Mary said apologetically.

"Yeah. It's fine." I said coldly.

But Mary still smiled down at me with a warming smile."Well here's your food."

"Thanks." I weakly smiled back, taking the edible substance from I her. I didn't know what the hell it was, but still ate it anyway on account of me practically dying from starvation.

"Hey Mary." I asked her between bites.

"Hmm." She responded

"Can you read mines?"

"Nope. Sadly, but thankfully nope. I'm just what you call, intuitive when it comes around to people."

"Oh."

"What?" She asked curiously.

"Nothing." I replied.

"Well I think some rest is in order."

"For you?" I asked surprised to her statement.

"No silly I can't sleep, I mean for you, come on I'll show you where the bathroom is and everything."

So as if I felt obligated to do so I allowed Mary to tow me along, showing me the bathroom and a heavenly shower. I have no idea when the last time it was when I last bathed. Then as accordingly she revealed a whole new wardrobe closet, which I guess was meant for me, that was hidden in the corner of my apparent bedroom. And the most peculiar thing of all was that I loved every single piece of shirt and embroidered jean that was collected into the compact space. That is still a little too freaky. It's either, Mary is truly physic or something fishy is up. Not letting this piece of data get to me I decided that maybe a good night's sleep was in order, especially after the day I just had. I knew I deserved one. It's not like I had just completely forgotten about Dimitri. Actually I kind of hope that he turned out like one of these guys. The good Strigoi. Okay if that's even possible, but apparently it is. So maybe if I just hoped, I could imagine Dimitri a little more alive, instead of just an empty shell of his former self.

Actually, apparently Mary and her little band of perky Strigoi can even go out into the sunlight without it bothering or effecting them. They also can eat real food, and every once and awhile they'll have a heartbeat. Mary says it brings her hope that maybe one day she'll return to her old Moroi self once more. I'd like to see this happen. Never in my life had I ever thought to stumble upon a group of Strigoi like these. But no matter how close I get to them, I know that I must not stray away from my mission.

So lying down at the brink of sunset I abandoned the wariest of my thoughts into the back of my mind, and I began to dream, through another night.

"Roza. Roza."

"Oh Dimitri. Don't go please don't go."

"I'm coming for you."

"I'm right here, come and get me."

"Roza."

"Oh Dimitri."

"Don't cry."

"I can't help it, it's only a dream."

"Then let's pretend it's not a dream and make it real."

"Why can't you be real?"

"I' am real Roza, look with your eyes."

"I can't, if I really look then you will only disappear."

"Roza."

"No Dimitri. You're not real you're a Strigoi."

"That's what you think."

"Huh."

Then he was gone.

"No Dimitri. No. Please don't go. I need you. Please, I love you."

Whether I was sobbing in real life or in my dream I had no clue, all I wanted to do was wake up!

"Rose. Rose please. Rose wake up. Rose!"

"Huh. What?" I sprang up into a sitting position alarmed at the voice calling my name."Dimitri!" I shouted back.

"No Rose it's me, Mary."

"Mary." I repeated back, coherency reigning into my mind.

"That's right Rose." Alex silently whispered.

Finally opening my eyes I saw three very concerned pairs of black eyes looking down at me.

"Shh. It's okay. Rose. Nothing is going to harm you." Mary cooed as she allowed me to place my head against her. Silent tremors shook my body as I cried into her. Why? Why did have to be a dream? Why couldn't it be real?

"Mary?"

"Yes?" She questioned back soothingly. I didn't need a soothing voiced however, at the moment I needed answers.

"How did you get to be who you are today? I mean why you, why did you get chosen for this new breed of Strigoi?" Yes it's true, I Rose Hathaway have finally believed the truth they have been telling me all along.

"Well." She hesitated. Okay Strigoi don't hesitate. Period. "I guess it has to do with love."

"Love?" I questioned.

"Yeah you know, love. That's I guess the reason how we get transformed into this type of… Strigoi. Apparently, if you love someone enough it can trigger a signal strong enough…. Ugh." She sighed." I sorry I can't explain well enough, Rebekah you do it. You're the doctor." Uhh, Rebekah was a doctor. A Strigoi doctor? This just keep getting weirder and weirder.

"Right." Rebekah began." Well as Mary was saying when you love someone strong enough. During the change it can trigger something that doesn't technically make you lose yourself, or rather your humanity. So to speak you still die, but you also don't lose hold on who you truly are. Do you understand?"

"Uh-huh. But how did it work for you?"

"Oh uhh…Well like Mary just told you I was or still am a doctor, and I sort of always had a strong hidden love for my job along with all my patients. It use to crush me so badly whenever I lost one of them. But as for, let's say Alex who was having secret flings with a human boy…"

"And thanks to him, he is still human as well as me, or at least for humanity sake." Alex countered.

"Right." Rebekah continued."To sum it all off Paul had a love towards the ones he guarded. Charlie had a love to his job, similar as to mine. But as for Mary and Benjamin, I guess you can say that… That the passion they had towards the other is what made them the most humane out of all of us."

"It's true." Mary said. Flashing her wedding band for us all to see.

That made me smile. Not in a happy way, but more as a splurge of the moment, and not just on the fact that every single being (besides me) got to become in my case, Strigoi, but the fact that there was still hope for Dimitri yet.

The weeks flew by as I stayed at what was now a presumptuous suite vacation. Everyone was overbearingly kind and for the first time I did not have a problem with it. Paul taught me some new guardian tricks. And if it must be known, I practiced every day. The strange part was that it felt like their hiding something from me. I already know that without a doubt that they would never bring me into the life that they have all encountered. Somehow if it was believable, they were too nice for that. No, the only one that didn't try to hide anything was Benjamin. But he just acted as if it were normal or something. Strangely, meaning I really didn't care. Strangely, I didn't think I'd ever come to entrust him, ever. Of course, there was this one day in particular when I overheard Benjamin and Mary talking about something, that I still have yet to figure out what it was.

"Uhh.. The boss called today?" Benjamin spoke while I sat on the top step of the stairs, hearing every sound that was occurring in the kitchen below.

"You didn't tell him anything about… did you?" Mary said, sounding frantic.

"Not a clue, just a regular follow up."

"Oh. Ok." She said relieved.

"He's suppose to be coming home by tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night!" She gasped.

"I guess."

"You guess, Ben? What are we going to do about Rose?" Okay what did this have to do with me?

"I don't think he'll mind about her." He said calmly. Ugh I hated the way he talked to her and then gave me shit.

"Oh yeah, ya think." She spoke sarcastically.

"Mary will you just relax. I know this isn't the way you wanted it happen but…"

"Shh."

"Ahh." He said if comprehending something

"Don't worry I'll think of something by tomorrow night." Mary whispered. Then ended the conversation with a loud, sloppy kiss between the two of them.

Tomorrow night? Well that's tonight now. Or rather early morning in human hours. Maybe I could think of some excuse. I mean to tell the truth, I've feel like I've completely forgotten of what I've set out to do, and that was to put Dimitri to his final rest. As much as I would love to hope that Dimitri turned into this type of Strigoi I can't stay positive. I mean what are the actual chances that Dimitri is somewhere out there looking for me, just as I am looking for him? I've been around the town countless times. He's not there. But I did get to see his family. At least from a distance. I wonder if they knew. I wonder if they knew of what happened to their brother and son.

"I'm sorry Dimitri." I sighed staring out the barred window. I'm curious why the hell did they even close off the windows if they didn't care if I really left or not. I needed to leave though. I've been here way longer then I'd anticipated for. It was inevitable, eventually I would have to motivated myself enough to finally leave this place. Dimitri is too much of a main priority to just forget about. Now all I needed to do was to break the news off to the others that my presence here is was waning in.

"No! You can't leave, not yet!" Mary screamed the second I revealed my leaving plans to her.

"I have to; remember I've got places to go, people to see."

"Please, please don't go!" She cried throwing her arms around me, like a little kid telling their parent not to go to work.

"Mary I have to." Putting my words into a hard, steely toned voice.

"Please, please just stay one more night. One more night is all." She begged.

"Ahh fine one more night, god you must really want me to meet your leader." I muttered

"Huh. Why would we want that? Of course, we don't want you to meet our ruler. How absurd is that?" Okay if I wasn't suspicious then, I definitely was now. But I decided not to question it. Sometimes things are needed to be kept quiet and this is something I wanted to find out myself.

"Mary where's my stake?" I asked randomly.

"Why do you want to know?" She questioned.

"Because if I'm going to be leaving tomorrow then I'll need to be armed."

"Oh… umm I'll get it for you. Be right back." Wait a minute, how the hell was she even allowed to touch it? Never mind I'm not even going to question about this group of Strigoi anymore. Seriously I actually couldn't wait to get back to when things were plain and simple; when the Strigoi are evil and us Dhampirs had to destroy them.

"Here ya go." Mary returned holding out my stake for the taking.

"Thanks." I said with a small smile. It felt good getting a grip onto the familiar weapon. That is until I remember of what my mission really was.

"I don't know why you even need it now, there aren't any Strigoi in this region for at least about a hundred miles or so." Mary said while absentmindedly babbling off to the side of me. But I couldn't help it.

"What?!" I asked as I watched her come out of her dazed, spaced expression, she looked at me like I was some foolish girl that should have known the answer to what she was speaking of.

"Well of course we're not going to allow other Strigoi to kill innocent people around here." She spoke matter of factually." So we kill them ourselves."Okay now I've heard Strigoi killing Strigoi, actually it was quite normal. But Strigoi killing other Strigoi to protect people. Now things were really getting twisted up, but I whipped that thought from my head putting the question I really wanted to ask at hand.

"Mary have you… umm killed any other Strigoi in let's say the past few months or so?" Okay I was nervous. Nervous and I guess a little bit excited, maybe Dimitri has already been stopped. Of course, then that would mean be wasn't a good Strigoi and…. I couldn't counter of what would happen then, but I awaited for Mary to finally answer my important question.

"Yeah we've doused a few."

"Uhh any males, perhaps with dark colored hair, semi- tan white skin and I guess red eyes."

"Are you talking of Dimitri." She chirped. But I had already lost it. I gripped her shoulders and spoke inches from her face. Throwing a very low and scary voice into my tone of voice.

"What do you know about Dimitri?"

She seemed shocked and I guess a little scared, but she answered my comment very calmly."I'm sorry Rose. He's dead and I mean… dead." She shook her head with a nod as if believing the words she spoke. Already I had dropped her and crossed over to the closest window, staring out into the night sky, through the closed off window pane.

"How?" I said now between gasps of breathes. Crying into myself.

"Well how do you guess? The only way to kill a Strigoi is…"

"I know!" I said cutting her off.

"Rose I'm so sorry." She whispered.

"No." I said while dramatically shaking my head."He… He needed this… He needed to die. Than… Thank you. I'm… I'm sorry." I wanted to be alone. I needed to be alone. So I ran passed Mary and ran to the only place where I could possibly find peace. Outside.

The crisp air greeted me the second I opened the door, but I did not find comfort in it. Already the frozen ground was just staring to thaw out. Perfect so I can happily regard that I will not be catch hypothermia tonight, if I decided to pull an all-nighter. I knew the exact place of where I was going. The town, the bench. I needed to do something. It was already too late for what I truly wanted. It's been too long I kept telling myself. Not even a sprit user could bring Dimitri back to life. Besides the only actual sprit user I knew that could do possibly help was Lissa. But she was back home wrapping up the few weeks of school until graduation.

Rubbing my eyes of the cold I soon approached the ever so familiar bench and sat down on it without a second thought. Sure there was still snow on it, but like that was going to get to me. Not tonight. Tonight I decided to rely on foreign powers. My powers. If Dimitri were dead I would be able to communicate with him. Strigoi or not damn it I am going to talk to him tonight.

"Dimitri."I called out. Silence. No response. A slight nausea started to form in my stomach, but I'd gotten so use to it that I barely even recognized what it truly meant anymore.

"Dimitri please I need to talk to you." Silence once more and the nausea increased dramatically. Perhaps he was coming. Maybe I could feel Strigoi as ghost too. Maybe Dimitri really was coming. But looking out into the still frozen town, I lost the last brink of hope. What was I to do? Apparently Dimitri was dead, and this for good, so I guess the only thing left to do now was return home. Return to Lissa and be her guardian for life, then one day dye from insanity. Yeah, I smiled weakly, that's basically what the rest of my life entails.

The nausea was overpowering now. Never in my life had it been this bad before. Gripping onto my stake I was ready, I was ready to fight. No matter how many there were, I was going to take them. I would take them all. Jumping up and twisting away from the bench I stared into the eyes of the enemy. But only one pair of eyes stared back.

"No." I whispered.

Before me wasn't an army of Strigoi it was just one. Just one Strigoi. How could one Strigoi cause me this much pain in the bottom of my stomach? But I could believe it. Only one being on this Earth could bring this much emotion into my body.

"Dimitri." I breathed. But he wasn't a ghost, he was solid. What the hell? Why had Mary lied to me? Why had they kept me locked up for over a month? Unless, unless they knew! They knew my name before I had even given it to them. They knew Dimitri, they knew he was alive and they knew Dimitri would return.