My body sags from exhaustion, despite the energetic vibe in the air.

Couples grind and pulse, dancing wildly to the music. Lights swirl around their heads, moving as part of the crowd.

But I can feel the nausea rise. They're here. Somewhere.

As I move around the floor, I can feel it intensify and shrink, as if controlled by an internal compass. I slip past dancers, pressed together.

All shapes and sizes, and species, litter the floor. Mostly Dhampirs and Moroi, but some unknowing humans, as well as a few strigoi, apparently.

Clubs were a major hangout for strigoi. Alcohol made targets vunerable, and therefore, easy targets.

I had my phone on me, for emergencies, and quickly check the screen.

72 New Voicemails

83 Unread Messages

I snap it shut, the feeling of nausea getting stronger. I made my way down a thin hallway, where I believed the bathrooms to be, the sick feeling growing. I turned the corner..

And hit a dead end. Cursing under my breath, I press myself against the wall, the nausea, once again, getting stronger.

Outside. Doing who knows what to an innocent victim.

I run to the end of the hall, quickly turning the corner, and running smack into the person walking.

He grunts and stumbles, holding me to keep me upright.

"Sorry," I mumble, trying to get passed.

"Roza?"

I freeze, my eyes slowly, slowly, scaling his body, and meeting the familiar brown pair of eyes.

NO!

But I am immediately embraced, Dimitri holding me tightly in a hug, burying his face into my neck. "Oh, Roza."

I want to just melt into his hug, but all my reason comes back, hitting me like a tidal wave, and I jerk away, attempting to run down the hall.

Dimitri looks surprised, but comes at me, shoving me around the corner to avoid any attention. I was trapped.

I strike out at him, throwing my fist towards him. Dimitri ducks and shoves me backwards, hard. He quickly grabs my wrist, the force swinging me around.

He takes my other wrist, and brings them both behind my back, pinning me against him and the wall.

I fight, but there's no use. He's to strong.

"Let me go!" I hiss.

He leans down, his lips next to my ear. "No. I'm taking you back to Court."

I slowly, so slowly, lean back into him.

"No!" I argue. "I'm not going. I'm eighteen. You can't force me."

Dimitri sighs. "Fine. I'm kidnapping you."

I lean back even further, praying Dimitri didn't notice. "Would you just leave me alone? I don't love you, okay? And you don't love me. I don't want you in my life!"

I can feel him tense against my body. "Too bad. It's not like I'm here because I love you and am begging for you to take me back. I was hired to bring you back."

Okay, that stung. But hired? I lean back even further, just needing another inch or so...

"Hired? What, now they hire ex-strigoi to bring back supposed criminals?"

Dimitri tenses even more, his muscles tight and edgy. "Please, don't."

Guilt trickles through me, using Dimitri's insecurities against him, but I need to.

"When they don't really care about a runaway, they send the men most desperate for a job?"

"Rose, please," he begs shakily.

I swallow my shame and continue. "A social outcast, dragging back another social outcast, as if trying to worm back into the ranks of society by-"

"Rose," Dimitri grits his teeth. "Stop."

I scoff, leaning back even more. And I jump.

Straight into the air, into I Dimitri's arms, and he releases my arms to support my waist. Perfect.

I bring my feet against the wall and push. We both tumble to the floor, and I bury my elbow into Dimitri's gut.

He grunts, rolling over to clutch his stomach. I jump off of him and take off, not looking back.

...

Nearest exit, nearest exit, nearest exit.

And, like a beacon, I spot the glow of the sign, advertising my escape.

I slip out the back door, into the reeking back alley.

My body tenses, although I don't understand it until I hear the sick voice in my ear.

"Well, what do we have here?"

I spin quickly, afraid of what I will see.

Blue eyes. Blue eyes? Not red, no familiar line of contact lenses. Just the shallow blue eyes of a Moroi with a hungry look on his face.

I am about to punch him in the nose, when a hand comes from behind and grabs me.

Another Moroi, but with well-defined muscles. Something extremely rare on a Moroi. I freeze.

This Moroi had strength, reflexes better than any Dhampir...and about seventy-five pounds on me, as well as him and his 'friends' outnumbered me.

I had strength, but it had been weakened by several days of not eating.

Not enough.

I looked at him, the man behind me, as well as three other Moroi, all who at least appeared incredibly strong.

The man smiles at me, and I try to jerk away, but the man behind me just grabs both of my arms and twist them behind me.

I try to pull away, but one man grabs hold of my hair, the other comes to stand in front of me.

"Looking for a bite, Dhampir?"

I hiss. "Get the hell away from me."

His lips turn into a grin, and the freaks beside him grab tightly onto me, and the first Moroi reaches for the buttons on my silky, red shirt.

I struggle and fight but they hold onto me.

Fear and...shame...bubbles through me, and I refuse to cry. Not in front of them. But the very thought of what they're about to do to me makes me want to collapse, to crumble, implode.

They shove me against the wall, and the man starts to work on my skirt.

Suddenly, I hear a clash, and the men let me go, before they get too far. I roll to the ground, crawling towards the corner of the alley.

Through my blurred eyes and the dark setting, I really couldn't see.

But Blue Eyes appeared right before me, but when I blink, he's gone.

Screaming. Yelling. Grunting. Crashing. I'm numb.

"Roza?" A warm, concerned face appears before me.

I wince, but recognize his soft eyes. "Dimitri?" I whisper.

He nods, and I throw myself into his arms, letting myself sob. I had never felt so...violated.

And he held me. After everything I had said to him, after giving him so much pain, he just held me.

"It's alright, Roza."

I nod into his shoulder, my arms tight around his neck, sobbing until I have run dry, and my hysterics have subsided into hiccups.

Dimitri slowly pulls away. I try to bring him back, but he drags my arms back around his neck and leans forward, his hands quickly doing up the buttons on my shirt, and pulling back up the waist of my skirt.

He helps me up, and gently wipes the hair from my eyes, and, for the first time, I notice the beaten men lying on the ground. Dimitri turns my jaw upwards.

"Roza, I'm going to get you out of here, okay?"

I nod, clinging to him like a lifeline. He brings me out of the dark alley, into the light.