Disclaimer: I own nothing,

Chapter 7

Rose POV

After all of the Strigoi were dispatched and burned, I sent a silent message to Edward in my head so that he could get Alice or Rosalie to get me more clothes. Rosalie rushed into the house and thankfully came out with a t shirt and a pair of sweatpants. I ran into the tree line with them and changed quickly. Once I was dressed I walked back inside the house where the others were sitting. I could see the questions in their eyes but in honesty I didn't know how the Strigoi knew that I was here or about my powers. I sat down on the couch and they all looked at me expectantly but I didn't know what to do here. They wanted answers to the same questions that I was asking myself. Finally my anxiety rose to the point where Jasper stepped in and came to my rescue.

"Guys I think if Rose knew why they were here then she would have told us. I don't think that she is intentionally trying to hide anything from us and she is probably asking herself the same questions that you are dying to ask yourselves." Jasper said and I sent him a grateful smile.

"We are sorry Rose. We never even heard of Strigoi or had a run in with them until you came into our lives so we are a little on edge." Carlisle explained and I nodded.

"We do have to hand it to you though Rose, you are one scary fighter." Emmet said and I saw many of the other vampires nod just as Jake came into the house with a slightly frantic look to him. His eyes landed on me and I saw the relief fill his features.

"Rose are you alright?" He asked and I couldn't help but to laugh a little.

"Jake, I'm fine. That out there was nothing that I hadn't dealt with before." I said and he looked confused. God why do all the good looking guys in this world have to be dense in the head. I heard a silent chuckle from the other side of the room and I glared at Edward who had apparently heard my thoughts. He smiled and shook his head. "Seriously, I am fine. When I was still at the academy, the school was attacked and there were Strigoi in large numbers like we just saw. One of the Moroi that was here before, Christian, and I teamed up. He used his power to distract Strigoi while I staked them. We were nowhere near trained fully but I ended up staking more of them than the school could count. That's where I got the marks on my neck." I hadn't explained all of this in so much detail when we first met the Cullens or the wolves, but now it seemed appropriate. I turned and showed them the marks that I had received. There were collective gasps and I felt a cold hand move lightly over the back of my neck over the marks. "The molnija marks represent individual kill and the zveda represents the bearer killied too many to count." I turned back to face the others and they maintained a look of shock with the exception of Jasper. "My first marks were before I graduated and I killed my first two at 16." My mood plummeted thinking about how we lost Mason that day.

"Rose, what's with the sadness and guilt your throwing out?" Jasper asked and I sighed hard.

"Who's Mason?" Edward asked and I glared hard at him.

"Stay out of my head Edward!" I shouted. I was going to tell them the story when I was ready but he was really pushing me right now. I immediately put my blocks all the way up and made sure they were up tight. I actually should have done that sooner because some of Lissa's darkness was leaking into me. I closed my eyes tightly and tried to calm myself and fight off the darkness. I could feel Jasper sending me calming waves and I finally got myself under control.

"Thank you Jasper." I said, my voice barely a whisper, but I knew that he heard me. He nodded and I took a deep steadying breath. Jake ended up on one side of me and Jasper on the other, helping me remain calm. "When I was still a student at the academy, there was a high number of Strigoi attacks just before Christmas. The school decided that instead of releasing the students to their parents for the holidays, they would send the entire school to a ski resort near Spokane. Dimitri and I were still stuck in the student/mentor roles and I ended up getting mad at him one day because he was offered to be the guardian for someone I grew to despise. Another novice that was there liked me but I couldn't return his feelings but we tried briefly. I was so mad at Dimitri at the time that I let some information that I shouldn't have to Mason. Later I went to find him, but he had left the resort with my friend Eddie and Mia. Mia and I weren't friends at the time though. They had ventured on their own to Spokane to hunt for the Strigoi hideout and eliminate it. I got Christian to go to the gates with me to use compulsion on the guardian there, but his skills were seriously lacking. I ended up knocking the guard out but Christian still wanted to go with me. Finally we tracked the others down before they encountered any Strigoi. However when we were going back to the bus station, there were some humans that were working with the Strigoi who grabbed us off the street." I sighed deeply, knowing this was going to get much worse.

"We all ended up in a basement, being separated by Moroi and Damphir. The two Strigoi toyed with us, starving all of us and the leader's plan was to get one of the two Moroi to turn willingly by draining one of the three Damphirs." Gasps erupted around the room and I shut my eyes tightly. I felt a cool hand take mine and I smiled in thanks to Jasper and Jake who had taken my other hand. "I really don't know how many days it was, and every day the Strigoi would come in and feed from Eddie, leaving him so weak he thankfully doesn't remember much of the details. I managed to work out a plan but I needed Christian to help and thankfully he got the message. He told the human guards that he was ready to turn. He said he wanted to drain me." Gasps erupted again and I could feel the calm and sympathy that Jasper was sending me. "The guards untied him and he pretended to feed from me while burning the plastic flex cuffs around my wrists. That was the worst, slowly burning into my wrists until they were melted enough to break loose. Chris and I took on the human guards and managed to subdue them and untie the others, but we still had to get out of the house."

We took the guns from the humans and tied them up. Eddie was completely out of it and we were almost out when the two Strigoi appeared in the living room. I ordered Mason to get the others outside and to safety since they were ash in daylight. I created a diversion while Mason got the others out but now I was in a house alone with two Strigoi." I took another shaky breath and the hands that held mine tightened slightly.

"The male Strigoi had me, just about to drain me when Mason came in. He was still in the sunlight, safe and I told him to leave. He didn't. He lunged at the Strigoi and the Strigoi caught him, breaking his neck right in front of me and kicked his body over to the other Strigoi. I finally lost it. With a little help from Mia, she uses water and exploded the salt water fish tank wrapping the water around one Strigoi's head as a distraction. I pulled a dull sword from the top of the fireplace and ended up decapitating two Strigoi. Mase was the only one who didn't make it out alive." I felt the tears falling and I didn't even try to stop them. I didn't know what Jasper's past was like but I could see understanding in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Rose, I shouldn't have pushed." Edward said and I nodded silently. There wasn't a sound in the room and I looked up to see that the room was filled with all the vampires that were here for the confrontation with the Volturi. I didn't say a word, but just stood and went upstairs to bed. Since the story about Mase, I vaguely wondered why I hadn't seen any ghosts if the bond was back. I didn't worry about that much and drifted off to sleep quickly.

Jasper POV

Rose was an amazing young woman and had been through so much. I could tell that she didn't want to tell the story about her first kills and I felt the immense guilt rolling off of her. Once she told her story, I understood why she felt that way but the boy that died also made his own decisions. She had tears flowing freely when she finished and I felt truly sorry for this girl. She was only eighteen and had already been through so much. I felt a little anger towards Edward for pushing her to explain this to us and it dimmed considerably once he apologized. She stood abruptly without saying a word and went upstairs to bed. We all sat silently for a few moments before anyone spoke.

"Wow, I never expected her to have already been through so much." Jacob stated and we all nodded in agreement. I knew that she missed her friends and maybe we could have them visit after the thing with the Volturi is finished. I hoped that there was a good outcome for that but just as it was with Maria all those years ago. We won't know until it happens.

-oO Oo-

Well the day was finally here and Rose had been quiet since the other night after telling her story. She was focusing on what needed to be done and I was proud of her for that, but her silence was a bit of a concern.

Rose POV

The day that we had all dreaded was here and we were getting ready to head towards the clearing where this showdown of sorts would take place. I hadn't said much to the others since the other night when I talked about Mason and I had a hard time staying focused on the tasks at hand. I kept my mental walls up tightly and got things prepared. I asked Bella for a bag that was easy to carry of Ness and she gave me a small backpack that would be perfect for the papers and the money that they needed if this went bad. I had Carlisle open his safe and I retrieved the papers, putting them in the bag and we went to the clearing together. I would stay close to Ness and Jake to start in case anything went wrong.

Once we got to the clearing Jake took his wolf form and Ness stayed clung to his back. I handed her the backpack and looked at them both and Bella.

"Jake, if this goes bad, run as fast and as far as you can. Don't stop until you are sure that its safe. Everything you may need is in that bag." I stated and Bella confirmed it. She talked to them for a few minutes more when I started to feel them approach.

Okay the consensus so far is to stay with Dimitri but i still want to hear more thoughts on this before i finally decide so please R&R.