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It didn't take long for me to find her. Ash was in the same alleyway as before, but there was more than one body. My eyebrows shot up when I saw the bodies. And yes, my eyebrows went up, it was one of the things I have gained since becoming strigoi, and I loved it. There were at least three other drained bodies around her, which means she must have been busy. It made me feel a little smaller in power next to her. That will change. She had saw me coming and dropped the girl she was drinking from and licked the blood left over on her lips.

"Now that's what I call a full course meal ! Are you full? How was Scrumptious I saw you dancing with?" She winked at me. Personally, I enjoyed her witty comments. We got along so well.

I gave her a harsh laugh and licked my lips as well. "Oh, let's just say he defiantly lived up to his name." We shared a good chuckle for a few seconds and then lapsed into a silence, other than the club's bass pouring out through the walls. "So what are we going to do now?"

She thought about it for a moment and then spoke. "Well not now, but soon, we'll have to go to court and meet with Daddy. He'll have to approve of you first before you can get a position on the council, next to me of course! But right now, let's have some fun!" She sprinted off with her strigoi speed and I followed in suit.

It had only been two days since the attack on St. Vladimir s but I quickly became accustomed using my new speed and strength. I liked having the wind in my face. I'm free, free from guarding those stupid moroi. They come first. I grew up listening to that. I;m sick of it. I hate them. I had to sacrifice my life for them. The sacred moroi.

Now that I look back at it, I really wasted so much of my life just to be with Lissa. I could have been doing anything. But no, I had to be by her side at every single second. Now, I'm completely and utterly free. I don't have to superglue myself to someone. I can do anything I want. Sometimes, I have to remind myself but being with Ash really makes it easier. I have fun around her.

We just started to make our way outside of the city until I finally asked her where we were going.

"I have a little challenge for you, just to test your skills. We're going to a dhampir town a couple miles away from here. Let's see how the town reacts when they see two, powerful strigoi ripping through their precious, little town. Hell, let's feed while we're there. After all, dhampirs always taste better than humans."

I stiffened involuntarily. Was she talking about the town that Dimitri grew up in? The one where his family lives? The little voice in the back of my head was warning me again, my muscles stiffened even more. You can't be near him! The voice said. You'll kill him! You love him! I brushed away the voice and smiled in anticipation. Let's do this.

There was a small, wooden sign on the outskirts of the town. All it said was, 'Baia'. So this is Dimitri's hometown! Every cell in my body was screaming at me to keep back, to run as far away as I possibly could from here. But I kept my pace beside Ashleigh the whole way.

"Oooooh! I can't wait! You'll love the taste of dhampirs Rose, They kinda taste like vanilla, but some almost taste like they have a hint of cinnamon!" Ash said enthusiastically. I knew she had history with dhampir towns and had her fair share of moroi blood. I learned a lot more about her from the hour it took to get here.

~Flashback~

"So what's court like?" I asked her. Truthfully, I was very curious. After all, no one has mentioned it before so either A, the guardians were keeping it from us or B, they didn't even know.

"Well, daddy is the king there! He's very powerful you know. He always calls me his little princess, but really, I'm far from it." I attempted to raise my eyebrows at her from her last statement but miserably failed. She laughed "I think it's really funny how you can't do that. Actually no, it's hilarious."

I let out a growl and tackled her to the ground. I took a couple swipes at her but she just barely dodged them. I pinned her to the ground and was straddling her waist, keeping her body underneath me. When suddenly, I felt the ground underneath me and saw her above me, fangs out. We were only playing around but her face still managed to look terrifying. She was defiantly on of those people you don't want to piss off and I wondered how old she must be. We were rolling around in the ditch for a while before she finally waved the white flag.

"Okay, okay! Truce!" She said giggling. Gosh, her laugh is like the sound of angels, very light. I held up my head and grinned in victory.

"So, why exactly are we going to a dhampir town? Other than the fact that they taste better. How many dhampirs have you killed to know that some taste like cinnamon?" Truthfully, I wanted to know a whole lot of other things, I just want to know everything! Now there's nothing holding me back. I could do anything I wanted. And boy, did it feel good!

Ashleigh let out a soft chuckle, I wouldn't have been able to hear it if I was still an incompetent dhampir. "Well, where do I begin?I guess I'll have to start from my beginning." I gave her a few moments for her to think. She took a few unnecessary breaths before she started to talk.

"Okay. Well, to answer one of your questions. I've fed on a lot of dhampirs in my life as a strigoi, along with moroi. I don't really know exactly what year I was born in, I think it was about 525 BC. To make it more realistic on how old I am, well, let's just say I was born in the great pyramid."

Both of my eyebrows shot up and my eyes widened in surprise and she gave me a moment to take in this information. Holy shit. She couldn't be talking about Egypt could she? She had a slight accent that sounded kind of like Russian, but apparently I was off... By a lot. She's so OLD! Clearly i had underestimated her power as well... I didn't even know Vampires were around that long!

"At the time, the Persians were taking over Egypt. My name was Azar back in those days. It's a Persian name that meant 'fire'. My mother called me by a Persian name because once they took over Egypt, she had a feeling they would kill off the rest of us. That, and they have never seen someone with red hair such as mine before, it resembled a flame. Some people wanted to kill me because they took my hair colour as a sign of misfortune, but the Pharaoh was against it. The prophet in the temple said that my name will be remembered by many so the Pharaoh thought I would be an asset of his.

The pharaoh was still convinced that I would be of very great use to him so he gave me an unusual education. I learned to read and write inside the temple along with the boys my age. Of course, in those times, girls weren't supposed to be educated. Many were against it and shunned me.

My mother was really the only one I could talk to, she was my only friend. I didn't know my father. My mother said he was a traveller passing through and she fell in love at first sight. They had been together for about a week before they finally decided to uhh, combine their love?"

I snickered at her loss of words. Combine their love.. hah! In other words, they had sex. Ash really wasn't the type of person to be shy about sexual things but I guess anyone would be when talking about their parents doing it. She gave me a dark glare and continued her story.

"Little did she know that he was a creature of the night, a dhampir. There was no way she would have known that she was a moroi either. He left the next day and a couple weeks later my mom found out she was pregnant with me. Long story short, I was born and she was heartbroken.

It wasn't until my birthday, May 22, when I turned eighteen and the Persians attacked. My mother and I hid in the temple in a secret compartment that allowed us to see outside. We thought we would be safe if the army had failed to take down the Persians. But they were not successful and a man came into the temple, only one man. There were about a dozen people inside the temple and they were all dead in a matter of two seconds, all were decapitated."

A strigoi, there was no other explanation for it. She didn't even have to tell me to find that out. There's only one creature that could have the speed and power to decapitate a dozen people in less than a minute. I kept quiet, I wanted her to finish her story. It is defiantly better than mine.

"He must have heard our breathing increasing in the compartment and he wretched open the door. He dragged out my mom by her long, black hair. I will never forget her piercing, blue eyes. The fear inside them was indescribable. After a split second , they went blank. I knew she was taken from this world.

The funny thing was, I didn't even cry for my mother. I loved her, but the tears would not come out. I think I was in shock, really. I couldn't keep my eyes off of the man who just killed my mother. He had shoulder length, blonde hair and red-ringed eyes. I never saw anything like him, he was different. I guess that's why I wasn't scared of him. I felt like we belonged together, because we were both different. Me, with my cursed red hair and him, with his red-ringed eyes. I was definitely drawn to him.

I just stood there for what felt like the longest time. He did the same, looking into each others eyes. It was pretty odd considering her just slaughtered the others with no hesitation but he took the time to look at me.

He finally spoke in a Russian accent, 'Hello Little Fire'. I didn't know how to respond to him so I just continued to look at him. Then he asked me if I wanted to be with him forever. I was confused by what he meant but then I saw his fangs. Osiris must have sent him to this world to find me.

He held out his hand for me, which I took. I wasn't scared or sad. I felt as if a weight I didn't know I had, had been lifted off of my shoulders. When I took his hand, he pulled me to his body and bit me. It was painful at first, but the endorphins did their job quickly.

I blacked out and woke up in a dark room. I was very confused about what had just happened, but then the door opened and out came the stranger who's hand I took. He explained to me what I had become and the powers I now possessed.

'My name is Kira Morozov and I am your father, Little Fire. May I ask your name?' My father... how could this man be my father? As I inspected his face a little more, I could tell that we had similar features and decided to believe him. So I told him my name.

"My name is Azar Ozera."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Ashleigh POV

I remember it like it was yesterday. The day that my life had changed forever, for greater good. If I stayed as I was, I would've committed bloody murder. And I only realized it after I was free from that hell hole.

After I had found out that Kira, the man who killed off about half of our entire town alone, was my father, I decided to stick by him through thick and thin.

He was powerful. There was no doubt about that. But that wasn't the reason I stayed with him, I felt like I should be by his side. Plus, where else was I supposed to go? It's not like I could go back home, that was long gone behind me.

Soon after the Persians took over my homeland, Caesar and his empire fell. After that, years and years passed and soon enough, we didn't hear anything about Egypt at all. It was almost as if it were lost to the world.

I noticed that all of my senses had been enhanced by quite a bit. I quickly became accustomed to them.

I felt free. There's nothing to hold me back anymore and I can do anything I want, no one to judge me. I think the best part of it is that no one could stop me. Well, with the exception of my father.

We travelled as soon as the sun set over the horizon. I had picked up on many different languages such as Russian and Ukrainian, over the years and had become fluent with them.

We stayed in small towns here and there all over, I didn't really know where we were. We could have been on a whole other continent and I wouldn't have known. I had really grown on Russia though, I considered it my home. I loved everything about it and we always lingered there for years before taking off to somewhere else.

We would feed on humans and the occasional dhampirs in the small towns that we were passing through. Sometimes we would stay long enough to hear the people mourning when they heard someone they knew had died and screaming when they found the distorted body.

It hadn't made me sad. My newly, twisted mind had actually enjoyed hearing family and friends sob over their lost, loved one. It gave me some sense of satisfaction, that I did a good job at slaughtering them.

My father had also given me a lot of praise when we went hunting. He said that I was slowly catching up to him, which really is something.

In the odd occasions, we would run into other strigoi passing through. There was one particular meeting I will never forget, even to this day.

Me and father were passing through a tiny, dhampir village to feed. We were tired of human blood and desired something with a little more flavour to it.

"Azar, we will split up from here. I have some business I must attend to. I will come find you after, try not to make too much of a mess, will you?" He winked and sped away, leaving the dust behind him.

Okay, let's find something tasty, shall we?

I ran through one of the few streets in the village and came to a stop. There was the most delicious scent I've ever smelled, lingering in the air. My throat burned for it. And it was coming from the house with the mahogany door right in front of me.

I slowly made my way to the house, there was about a little over an hour until the sun rises so I'll have to make this quick. I opened the door and peeked inside. Sensing no one, I made my way through the house.

The interior was nothing special, wooden panelling along the walls, a moderate kitchen, a living room with a small fireplace. Once I reached a light, chestnut door that was the slightest open, my throat started to burn. It wasn't painful, just very irritating. Like an itch you couldn't scratch.

Inside the room, were two women. One was tall and slender, with platinum blonde hair and Jade, green eyes. She was speaking to the woman in front of her that seemed oddly familiar. It was a short looking woman that had fair, olive skin with brown hair and deep, dark blue eyes.

I couldn't pinpoint where I had seen her from but the deja vu feeling just wouldn't go away.

And then it hit me like a train.

The short woman was the prophetess from my homeland, Lady Ramla. She was the one who potentially saved my life by having one of her visions. The interesting thing was, she looked exactly the same as she did before I left.

I had been planning on eavesdropping on her conversation but a woman with strawberry blonde hair stepped out from nowhere, palms out and I swung open the door.

Before I could take one more step towards them, I found myself covered in flames. And it hurt like a bitch. The flames were singeing every part of my body.

So many questions were running through my mind at once.

Where the hell is the fire coming from? Was the house on fire? How could I not notice? Wouldn't I have smelt it? Why is Lady Ramla here? How is she alive? Did the Persians not kill her? Did she slip away? Why didn't she age at all?

I was flailing everywhere, attempting to get the flames off of me, But I could not. Soon enough, I was on the ground writhing in pain. Layers of my skin had already burned off.

Then suddenly, the heat was gone. The flames had disappeared. But I could not get up off of the cold, stone floor.

All I could do was lay there, eyes looking up to the ceiling. I was still very confused by this whole situation. Why is the prophetess here? Who is the strange woman with the Jade eyes? And the one who stepped from the shadows?

Piercing, endless blue eyes hovered above me. I tried to get up but all the strength I could muster was a lift in my arm about two inches off of the ground by my side.

"Hello Azar Ozera." she spoke in my native tongue, "I'm sure you're very confused about what's going on here, but I will explain shortly. First of all, you are aware you are not human anymore correct?" I lifted my lips to reveal my fangs as I let out a sound resembling a hiss, coming from a cat.

I had to give her credit for not looking away from my intense glare. I would think that they were filled with pure malice. She didn't even bat an eyelash at me.

"She's definitely the one. I saw her with him earlier, and there's definitely a resemblance there. You would be blind not to see it." said the lady who had come out of nowhere.

"I bet she even has her father's temper too." The woman with the jade eyes added.

"She does indeed have her father's temper," Lady Ramla said, "She's always been a little spitfire, that one. I always regretted telling the pharaoh what I saw of this little fire baby."

I snarled at her. How dare she! Who does she think she is? I'll rip her little body to pieces once I can move again. My thoughts on how to torture Lady Ramla were soon interrupted by the lady with the Jade eyes.

"Hello. My name is Lyna Dragomir. Your father is Kira Morozov, correct?" her eyes bore into mine. These people aren't affected by my glare at all! I'm beginning to lose confidence in myself...

I opened my mouth to yell at her, but it only came out as a croak, "Who the hell are you! I'm going to RIP you to SHREDS. You're going to wish you were never-"

"Born? Yeah. I've heard that one once too many times." The jade eyed girl said, Lyna. Okay.. That's it. When I can move again, She's at the top of my hit list.

"Let's move her already! He'll come looking for her once he realizes we are not there, if he has not already." Lady Ramla explained. Wait.. what is going on here? Who will come looking? Who the hell are they talking about! I am beyond annoyed at this point. My finger twitched. Hm. Looks like I can move again.

"Mariya, get the chains! We'll move her now." Lady Ramla shouted to the girl who came out of nowhere, who I was now guessing is named Mariya. Hm, Mariya mean bitter in Russian. Well then, this one will be a challenge if her name suits her personality. Mariya got up and left the room to go retrieve what I was guessing, the chains that Lady Ramla was talking about. But not before she whispered something in Lyna's ear. Going by her posture, I'm guessing it was a threat or a warning. Because as soon as the words left Mariya's mouth, Lyna went stiff all over.

I could feel my muscles slowly coming back to me, my limbs less sore. The burns were still visible, but that's only the outer layer of my body, not as important. They will never expect me to heal this quickly, I'll catch them by surprise.

As soon as the door shut behind Mariya, Lyna moved to the corner of the room, never keeping her eyes off of me. I breathed in short, gasps. Lady Ramla started to gather all the weapons they had and put them in a brown sac. Mistake number one, don't put away your weapons when your enemy is still alive, no matter how weak they may look. Apparently, my act of looking weak and helpless worked, because Lyna soon turned her back on me and helped put away weapons.

They had all sorts of things, stakes, crossbows, guns. There were things I've never seen before. All, I'm guessing, to kill me. Or the person who they were talking about earlier, the one who was waiting for them, the one who will supposedly be looking for me. Once they put away the final weapon, I sprung up from the floor. As I suspected, they were not expecting me. But someone else had.

I was going to grab their necks and push them up against the wall. I was going to force information out of them before I left. But I was stopped by something burning my neck. No, not burning. I wouldn't know how to describe it. It was just, searing pain. My eyes darted down to see what was causing this immense pain. There were chains around my neck.

It seems that Mariya came back with the chains.

Why does it hurt so bad? These are just chains, nothing I haven't touched before. Why do they suddenly hurt?

"These are chains infused with fire. I wouldn't suggest to struggle against them, unless you want to die. We also do the same with stakes, so I wouldn't suggest fighting against us if we have those either. It is fatal to your kind. The evil kind." Mariya whispered in my ear. I dropped to my knees and started choking, struggling to breathe. My body could not stand to keep up with the magic in the chains.

Lady Ramla and Lyna turned around with wide eyes. Fools. Did you expect me to just stay with you of my own free will?

"I told you not to turn your backs on her. I told you that this would happen, when you wouldn't expect it." Mariya said, directing it at Lyna. So that was what she told her before she left.. "Now, let's get a move on. He should be on his way any time now. We need to be long gone by the time he gets here."

The chains tightened around my throat, making me gasp in pain, then turning into a hiss. Lady Ramla grabbed the bag of weapons, making her way to the center of the room.

Lyna bent down and pulled back the carpet lying on the floor, revealing a door underneath. This must be our way out...

Mariya tightened the chains on my neck, "Move!" She said forcefully. I could only comply, since the chains were slowly beginning to burn away at my body. I wouldn't be surprised if she chopped off my head..

I got to my feet, not without struggle, and made my way to the door, following after Lady Ramla. I put one foot through the door and was met by a staircase. I looked down and saw that it was a very long staircase. Lyna closed the door and covered it with the carpet behind us, leaving darkness ahead of us.

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