"Let the games begin."

The only people who seem uneasy about this agreement are Viktor's guards and, of course, Dimitri.

"Go ahead, Viktor," I encourage. "It's your move."

Suddenly, the earth begins to rumble, and it makes me stagger backwards. Just as quickly as it starts, it ends, my only battle marks are few strands of hair out of place.

Viktor raises a brow, and gestures for me to continue.

"That's the best you've got?" I say slowly, taking a step forward and reaching into my pocket for a kitchen knife, previously stolen from the old apartment.

The snakey smile I've become so familiar with slithers back onto his face. The ground become to rumble once more, but this time, it didn't stop. The murmur turned into a powerful roar, shaking me to my core. It seems I am the only one targeted, because everyone around me seems to be unaffected.

The floor below me hiccups, and I am violently thrown into the air, my weapon flying from my hand, and I slam to the ground, landing painfully on my shoulder.

"Roza!"

Taking the warning, I roll twice, watching as the knife plummets into mossy floor inches away from my eyes.

"Damn Earth users," I mumble, and wedge the steak knife from the ground. I take a lunging step forward, and the rooftop, once again, begins to quake under my feet. This time, determined, I manage to stay on my feet, charging at Viktor with added enthusiasm.

And damn whoever designed a rooftop garden, apparently, for I feel vines wrap around my ankles and up my legs, encasing me in a shell of leaves and roots. I am pulled onto the dirt floor, my head slamming against the ground. I grunt and struggle as I am dragged towards the edge of the roof, where the vines had climbed up the side of the mansion.

Damn Earth users.

"Rose! Roza!" Dimitri lunges away from his captors, running full forced towards me, but the vines snag his feet as well, and he is quickly bound.

I swallow my whimpers of fear and jerk my arms, trying desperately to free my hands, trying to free myself.

I bite into the vines, ripping them off of my hands, and slicing through the plants around my sides. By the time I get myself free, I'm already over the edge.

The kitchen knife and the severed plants tumble over the side of the roof, falling five stories into the rockey path below.

I can hear Dimitri's yells of loss, Adrian's muffled cries of panic, and the wind roaring against the side of the Queen's quarters. With shaking arms, I pull myself back up onto the roof.

"That's all? That's the only thing you've got?" I challenge, sounding much more confident that I truly feel.

"I already know, Rosemarie, that you don't give up nearly as soon as you should. You're too stubborn for your own good," Viktor announces smugly. Despite his confidence, his brow is shining with sweat, and his shoulders slumping with exhaustion. He was using a lot of magic, especially for someone with his sickness. He's fading fast. I just need to hang on.

I dig into my pockets, looking for something, anything, to use as a weapon, but I have nothing.

"Roza! Roza!"

Dimitri! He would still be carrying all the weapons we left the apartment with. Running towards him, I manuver around the vines that hold him, pulling his silver stake from his jacket pocket.

"Take it," he gasps. "Take them all, Roza. Be careful."

I can tell he can barely breathe, but I have no time to allow myself the distraction of removing the plants that entangle him.

I move towards Viktor, my pulse pounding in my ears. Viktor is now sitting in the plastic lawn chair, utterly exhausted, and Robert takes a step forwards. He lifts his hands, his pale palms facing me, his expression blank.

He's lost it.

I am seconds away from plunging the stake into Viktor's chest when my vison goes blank, and I am swallowed whole.

~xXx~

"Rose, Rose, oh God, Rose please wake up. Rose, don't leave me. Rose? Rose!"

My eyes flutter open, and a rush of unbelievable pain washes over me. I could feel a throbbing, horrible ache within my gut.

Lissa hovers over me, her angelic hair in disarray, tears streaming down her face. "Rose? Rose, please wake up. Oh God, I don't know what to do."

She looks so... young. God, how old is she? Eleven? Twelve? I try to speak, but my voice is hoarse and comes out no more than a croak.

"Li...L...Liss?"

She collapses onto my chest, sobbing hysterically. "They won't wake up, Rose. They won't wake up. I don't know what to do. Oh God, oh God."

With great effort, I manage to turn my head to the side. I can see the twisted metal of the car, the motionless bodies of the Dragomir family.

"I wish there was something I could do, Rose. Please don't leave me."

"He..." I cough violently. "Heal..m..me...magic...Liss..."

Lissa begins to cry even harder. "Magic? I wish I could, R...Rose. I don't think there's anything I can do. Air users don't have that kind of power."

Oh God. No.

"A...air?"

Lissa nods weakly, and grips my hand. "Yeah. I'm sorry, Rose, I want to help you! I want to be able to do something. But I c...can't! Rose, I don't think I can use my magic to heal you. Rose, please, no...!"

The edges of my vision began to fade to black, and I am swept away from Lissa, disappearing into the darkness, the pain fading with it.

~xXx~

I gasp out, my mind returning to my body, a splitting headache coming with it. I have fallen to my knees.

Robert's hands return to his sides, and he sways for a moment, quickly regaining his balance.

It takes several moments before I can shed the feelings of panic.

I'm alive. Lissa uses Spirit, not Earth. She saved me. I didn't die. She save me. I'm alive.

Shakily, I rise to my feet, swallowing my fear.

"That's...That's the best you can do? A stupid vision? A Spirit-induced vision?" I challenge. "That's all you've got?"

I lunge forward again, stake in hand, before another dream sweeps me off of my feet.

~xXx~

"I am not having sex," I warn him between kisses.

Jesse pauses, an incredibly attractive smile gracing his face.

"Alright," he purrs, and returns to my neck. His kisses are sloppy, and he drools a little more than I'd like, but that doesn't stop me from gasping when his teeth brush my skin.

"Don't," I mutter breathlessly, but Jesse doesn't hesitate to scrape his teeth along my neck. "I said don't. I'm not that kind of girl."

"You've done this before, though. I can tell."

I struggle against him. "I said don't. But I can think of something else you can do with your mouth."

He raises a brow, and continues. Somewhere, deep in my mind, I note that Dimitri should be storming in at any minute now, dragging Jesse off the couch and throwing him from the room.

He doesn't.

But I do feel Jesse's teeth against my neck once more.

"Jesse, for God's sake, I said-"

I am broken off when he sinks his fangs into my skin. The sharp pain startles me, but it is immediately replaced with a rush of endorphins. I float higher and higher, for what seems like hours.

I whimper when he pulls away. Jesse chuckles and smirks. "Now, now. I thought you weren't that kind of girl? I guess I was right. All you dhamp girls like it."

He pulls at the button of my jeans, the clasp of my bra.

Stop! I want to scream, but the drug makes my words sloppy, my movements weak. I am powerless to stop him. So I am forced to lay there, unable to stop Jesse as he struggles with his own belt, removes the rest of my clothes. I feel a horrible, numbing pain, even with the endorphins, and everything fades to black.

xXx~

"No!" I scream, coming back to myself. The headache is becoming worse and worse, and tears are coursing down my face.

I lift my tearing eyes to Viktor's smug smirk. Slowly, so slowly, I push myself off of the ground, fingering my stake again, and start towards Viktor.

"Is that," I pant. "The best you can do? Is that it?"

Using the dirty sleeve of my sweater, I wipe away my tears. "Come on, Viktor. Earth was useless. You're magic is useless. How the hell are you going to convince people to put their lives on the line when you can't even break a little dhampir girl?"

I charge towards him again.

Again and again, I am pulled into horrible nightmares, of Jesse torturing Lissa, of Dimitri, Adrian, and I dying in the train crash, of turning strigoi, each dream taking me longer and longer to recover from.

The most recent had me sprawled onto the ground, my head ringing with agony, Dimitri yelling helplessly at me, begging me to wake up, for I hadn't moved in over three minutes.

Wiping my face with the back of my hand, I realize that my nose is bleeding, and I have somehow managed to bite my tongue. Spitting out blood, I rise to my feet once more, and begin to walk towards Viktor on shaking legs.

"Just give up, Rosemarie. You're already breaking. Best to let go before you completely lose your mind."

My head is ringing, I if it weren't for Lissa, Adrian, and Dimitri, I probably would have collapsed. Every muscle was screaming at me, every step sent a pounding pain up my spine and into my skull.

I am pulled into blackness once more.

~xXx~

"No!"

Isaiah takes Mason's head between his hands, twisting quickly, and I watch helplessly as the body of my friend crumples to the floor.

"Mason! MASON!" I scream, hysteria taking over. I am about to cry, collapse onto Mason's body, allow Isaiah to kill me. I no longer want to live.

"Roza, no!"

Someone catches me around the waist, and I swivel, beating my fists against the chest of my captor.

"No no no no no!"

Isaiah fades away, and we are pulled away, much like Adrian's dream-walking.

"Rose! Roza, look at me. It's just a dream. Roza, I'm here, look, it's just a dream. Hold on, Rose."

It takes several minutes for me to calm, even with my face buried into Dimitri's chest and him stroking my hair.

"Wha... What are you doing here? Is this part of the nightmare? Oh no, Dimitri, what's going to happen to you? Oh God, oh God oh God..."

"Shh, Roza."

He grabs my face in his hands. "Roza, look at me. This isn't part of the dream! Adrian put me here."

Looking around, I see we are at the cabin. Our cabin.

I sniffle. "He can dream-walk with people other than himself?"

Dimitri just smiles. "He hasn't had a drink in a very long time, Roza. Anything is possible."

"Dimitri, I don't think I can do this anymore. I'm breaking, and Viktor knows it," I sob.

He wraps his arms around me, and rests his chin on the top of my head, swaying me gently. "Yes you can, Roza, I know you can. You're so strong, you can do this. You're the only person I know who can."

I shake my head and throw my arms around his waist. "Help me."

"I wish I could. I'm here, Rose. I know it's hard, but you have to do this. Do it for Lissa, for Adrian. God, Rose, do this for me. You're strong, Rose. It's one of the reasons I love you."

I burrow farther into his embrace, and he sighs. "I'll always be here for you, Rose, no matter how distant I am, no matter what I say. I will always look out for you."

"How touching," hisses a voice from behind us. "But aren't you a little old for the drama of a teenage girl, Belikov?"

Viktor takes a threatening step forward, and grabs my wrist. "Time to come back to the real world, Rosemarie."

But before he can drag me back, Dimitri pulls me back into his chest and whispers in my ear. "Hold the tip between your thumb and forefinger. Use your elbow to point to your target. You can do it."

And with that cryptic message, I'm gone.

~xXx~

By the time I come-to, I am dizzy with pain, Viktor is grinning, and Robert looks near ready to pass out.

"Welcome back, Rosemarie. Still going strong, I see?"

Ignoring my screaming muscles, I throw myself off of the ground, and begin to stumble towards Viktor.

He sighs, as if I'm no more than a pest to him.

"Roza, your stake!"

Turning back, I see Dimitri, still bound tightly in a case of vines.

"Use your stake, Rose."

Adrian, whether it's lack of blood or simply exhaustion, is lying against Dimitri, head on his shoulder, eyes closed, his mouth gagged and wrists still tied.

Shaking uncontrollably, I scan the ground, and manage to find my discarded stake on the ground. I pick it up and grip it tightly, the very weight of it dragging my hand downwards.

Hold the tip between your thumb and forefinger.

Slowly, I slide my hand from the hilt to the tip. It's an awkward position, and hard to get a solid grip. Fortunately, the damn thing is balanced pretty well.

Use your elbow to point to your target.

I lift my arm, bringing my hand behind my head. The world begins to spin, I'm dizzy, exhausted, most likely dying.

With great force, I point my elbow in Viktor's direction. I can do this. I have to do this.

Suddenly, my knees give way, and I sink onto the floor.

Viktor smirks and lets out a taunting, bellowing laugh. His dhampir guards laugh shakily along with him, looking unsure and a little nervous.

I can feel my heart thumping wildly in my chest, and I can feel that I am swaying gently, unable to steady myself. The corners of my vision are turning black, and I know I only have minutes, maybe seconds left.

With a shaking hand, I bring back my hand and throw the stake as hard as my weakened state will allow.

Another wave of dizziness sweeps over me, and I collapse onto the ground. Colours swirl above me.

Time seems to slow, images running together like paint smearing over a canvas.

Somewhere, I can hear Robert's piercing scream, and I can feel my body flood with a burning pain. Dimitri's face floats above me.

Hold on, Roza. Please hold on.

I tried to squeeze his hand, tried to say something, but I am a prisoner in my own body, trapped.

"D...Di..."

A cold finger is pressed gently to my lips, and I am silenced. Somewhere, distantly, I can tell that my body is being transported, to where, I'm not sure. I see a flurry of different faces, some that I recognize, many I don't. They all carry the burden of exhaustion.

Lissa appears above me, hovering, assessing. Tears stream down her face, but her expression doesn't falter. Determination burns brightly in her eyes.

Her small hands touch my chest, and she closes her eyes.

A crippling, searing pain washes through my head, and I am clutching, screaming, begging.

Oh God.

Pain.

The worst pain imaginable.

I reach, grope blindly.

Oh God.

Make it stop.

It intensifies.

The faces above me are gone, only replaced by darkness, by stars.

Then nothing.

Nothing at all.

Ahhh! I know, I know! I hate it when chapters end when Rose passes out, but this is kind of essential, and actually fit with the upcoming chapter. Believe me, if there was a better option, I would have chosen it. I can just feel the flaming reviews coming... Well, I know you guys are getting tired of waiting for these chapters, so this was kind of a make-up, if you will. My incredibly busy schedule is almost coming to a close, so, if I am going to start a new story, it will be updated much sooner, I won't leave you hanging for so long, which no one appreciates.

Would anyone be interested if I wrote a new story? I'd love to hear some responses! I have one really strong idea I think I'd like to try. I'd be returning to Dimitri's perspective, and it would be a really, really angst-y fic. I haven't really developed a plot yet, but it's coming. Any comments?