A/N: This is where it changes. I hope you like it, thanks for the wonderful reviews all of you. I hope you like the change. I'm nervous but I'm hoping it goes over well. Let me know what you think. It's different than the book, so be ready.

Disclaimer: I own none of this, Richelle Mead owns it all.

Chapter 3

From the moment she'd woke up, till the minute she fell back asleep Rose had been on guard, fighting the strigoi who had broken into the school's grounds and started killing the royals. Rose had killed so many of them. Strigoi everywhere seemed too want to kill her personally but their fight wasn't enough to stop her as she went on her way. Rose felt like she was the only one doing anything and as Christian helped her distract the strigoi with his fire she killed even more of them than she would have without his help. Guardians from all over were flying in, but it seemed too difficult to fly the students out.

When Dr. Olendzki finally forced her to rest she slipped into a fitful sleep.

"Do you sleep all the time now, just waiting for me to fall asleep?" She yelled out into the open air. A beach lay before her with waves crashing against the shore as if there were a storm off the coast. She sat down waiting for him but it took him a while to appear.

"Calmed down yet my little Dhampir?"

She looked up at him, "No, they're everywhere I can feel them even in my sleep. It's such a creepy feeling I don't even know how to describe it. Why won't they let me go fight?"

"Because there's no point right now, you're exhausted can't you feel it?"

Rose simply shook her head, she couldn't feel it. Only a little and even with that she could probably have worked around it. "I just want to get out there and fight with everyone else."

"No one else is fighting Rose, they're regrouping." As he came and sat down beside her he spoke once more, "This doesn't just affect you, you know that don't you?"

She really looked at him for the first time since he'd come to see her. He did look tired, black circles plagued his eyes but she'd figured he'd just been drinking. "What does it feel like for you?" She asked trying to show some genuine interest in what he was feeling.

The moment she asked him it was as if his eyes glossed over, "it's just so much sadness. I can't go anywhere without feeling it…so I've been self-medicating." He smiled over at her once he'd said this. "You're not sleeping deep enough for me to stay and I'm sure you're not going to be sleeping much longer anyways, but I wanted to check on you. I've not been able to find my guardian so I've locked myself in my room for now. You will find me once the threat of all of this is all over won't you?"

"Of course I will," Rose woke with those words. Lissa was sitting on the bed beside her as Dimitri stood watch at the door. It was just the three of them now, just like it would be for the rest of their lives. Always fighting, but always protecting each other from whatever dangers lied ahead.

"Rose, you shouldn't be up yet." Lissa pleaded.

Rose felt the effects of compulsion beginning to work on her body, she stood up and tried to mentally shake off the affects that it would have on her. "Don't do that, please not now."

Lissa looked saddened but complied. Rose walked over to Dimitri and tried to get a report from him over what all had happened since she'd been asleep.

"I'm not sure what I can tell you Roza since they haven't told me much since we came here." His words were like butter, melting over her. She leaned against him unashamed of who might see as he wrapped a protective arm around her for support.

"How many have died?" She asked as the ghosts that walked the halls shown bigger and brighter than ever before.

"Too many," he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "I don't know how the school will recover from such an attack."

"They're getting too powerful, there were so many of them banded together. How do they keep doing this?"

"Through tactical skills my precious," a figure stood at the end of the hallway. Rose looked behind her to make sure Lissa was okay. She had no weapons; they'd taken them from her when they forced her to lie down.

"Shit!" she replied as she walked into the room. "Lissa I'm going to need you to stay calm alright."

Lissa looked confused, "What are you talking about Rose? I am calm why would I need to stay calm?"

"Because there's a strigoi in the hallway and I just need you be safe alright? There's also the fact that I don't have a weapon."

"But surely Guardian Belikov does?"

Rose nodded, "but we don't know how many of them there are. So stay safe while we take care of it alright?"

Lissa nodded and began scouring the room for something to protect herself with. "Lissa and if you get a chance call someone for help."

When Rose got back into the hall with Dimitri there were twelve of them. Where had they all come from? Where were the other guards? Panic filled her as she stood there weaponless and ready.

They moved closer as a pack, Dimitri placed an extra silver blade into her hand. "I love you Roza," he replied before making his first move.

Watching him fight was one of the most fascinating things anyone could watch in their entire life. Three of them got past him and came at Rose. She struck out at them killing one, then two, and then the last. A pair of hands grabbed onto her from behind and started dragging her down the hall. "What the…" she planted her feet in the ground and pulled herself out of its grasp. "Don't you ever touch me," she screamed as she jumped on him killing the thing that had tried to hold her captive.

Rose looked around, Dimitri seemed to be holding his own and she scanned the surrounding area for more strigoi. Lissa screamed from the room behind them and as Rose moved to respond a part of her knew it wasn't going to be enough. Lissa's fear was too great for it to be a single strigoi, and she was right. As much as Lissa was trying to fight against them with her magic they were too much. One of them held onto her as another leaned in to bite her. Rose lunged for him but she wasn't fast enough for once. He leaned in and clamped down on her neck, ripping a hole in her throat as he did. He turned around and looked at Rose, immobilized by the fear Rose stopped fighting him. He spat the blood out of his mouth onto her, yet she couldn't move.

Six strigoi filled the room and as Lissa's body fell to the floor in an all too familiar dead thump, Rose couldn't move to get away. Dimitri entered the room having finished off the strigoi in the hallway. He stood behind her protectively but he was injured.

"We've been able to accomplish what we wanted to do, killing the princess was just good fun. Surely you understand Guardians?"

One of the women among the group came at Rose but she didn't block. Dimitri threw her to the ground and took the brunt of her attack. The female strigoi managed to grab hold of his neck and break it in mere seconds. The life left his eyes as he fell on top of her. A mountain of a man brought down but the stupidity of the world around him. Rose was able to crawl out from under him as the strigoi had another force to fight with. The other guardians had finally made it but it was too late. Everything was gone that meant anything in this world.

It seemed the strigoi had called for reinforcements too because once again there were so many of them, and Lissa was gone and Dimitri was gone and she just wanted to let go. She looked around at the guardians that had finally come and noticed that Adrian was there and Rose couldn't hold on, she didn't want to. One of them came at her but her mother killed it before it had a chance to get to her. "Rose you have to leave. Go with Mr. Ivashkov and his guardian, they'll protect you now."

"I can't…" she was just standing there amongst the wreckage looking around panicked.

Her mother slapped her across the face hard enough to bring her back to reality, "You will right this minute."

Rose turned around and followed after them. Adrian was in front of her and his guard behind her, they were watching closely but she wasn't. That's when it hit her. One of the strigoi had thrown an abandoned knife into her neck. The blood flowed freely, practically shooting across the room upon impact. She fell to the floor as Dimitri's ghost came kneeling down in front of her. He placed his ghostly hand on her shoulder as if he were waiting for her. She smiled as she saw how happy he looked she'd be joining him soon. The pain was nothing compared to the happiness she felt in that moment. But Dimitri's face was soon replaced by Adrian's as he picked her up and carried her away.

"Don't you die on me Rose, don't you dare die on me."

"Too late," she gurgled causing more blood to rush out of the wound.

"Find me a room damn it. I can't do it here."

Her mind aware of what was going on around her felt comforted by the ghostly figures that surrounded them like a shield. He laid her down on the bed, but she could feel it was too late. Her heart beat less and less and the more he fought the more she faded. He swore loudly cursing anyone who came to mind. There was so much blood, the smell of death clung to her in new unimaginable ways.

"Adrian," she mumbled.

Tears were spilling from his eyes as he looked down at her, "yes little Dhampir?" Once he said it the sobs he'd been holding back came out. He was sobbing right there in front of her and in that moment she finally realized just how much he loved her.

"Let me go."

He shook his head, "I don't know how."

The room faded to black, as did time, space, and everything else around her. Rose faded into the shadow world she'd grown so accustomed to seeing in her waking hours. They welcomed her, embracing her in what felt like a kind and warm caress. She remembered this feeling, remembered what it was like to be dead. Then it happened, she was ripped from them once more and thrown back into her body. They'd removed the knife that had stuck in her neck so snuggly and cleaned up the blood, leaving behind only the tiniest of scars.

Adrian's body was collapsed beside hers; she looked over at him confused. He smiled at her the best he could through the tears. "I did it," he replied before passing out, whether from the alcohol or sheer exhaustion she didn't know. But as her new guardian escorted her back to her room after everything was clear, all she knew was that she was alive again when she should have been dead and that they were gone when they should have been alive.