Okay, here is, as my sister called it, a truly shocking chapter.

Disclaimer-I own nothing you recognise

Lissa's pov

'Oh my God this can't be happening. I'm not ready for this. This is not real. I am going to wake up and this is all going to be a dream.'

Even as I said the words I knew they weren't true. I was pregnant. I'd heard once that mothers can tell they're pregnant before the tests are taken. And I knew that I was definitely pregnant.

Before Rose knew she was pregnant I could feel a fluttering sensation coming from her through our bond. I had that feeling now.

What was I going to do? I was supposed to go to college in the fall. Could I go to college if I was pregnant? Would the Queen still let me attend Lehigh?

I put my thoughts on hold as I got a flood of emotions from Rose. I was nearly knocked off my feet when it swept over me. I still wasn't used to being able to feel Rose.

Anger, fear, hatred, confusion, sadness and about a gazillion other emotions clouded my feelings and then—stopped. It was gone as quickly as it came. Now I felt complete and utter calm coming from her. Okay, something was not right. I had to get to her. Rose was in trouble. I just knew.

I quickly dressed into my school clothes and dashed out of the dorm rooms. All thoughts of my possible pregnancy left my mind. I ignored the dorm matron who was shouting for me to come back.

I ran across the school, trying to get to the dhampir dorms. I knew where they were, I'd visited Rose there countless times. The sun was almost set, and I was breathing hard by the time I got to Rose's dorm building.

'Let me through!' I yelled at the guardians who were stopping me from getting down the hallways to Rose.

'Princess, you need to tell us what's going on.' One of them said. I didn't even recognise him.

'No! Let me get to Rose! She needs help!' I yelled at them. Didn't they understand? My best friend was in trouble.

'Princess Dragomir. What is the meaning of this?' Alberta, the captain of the guardians at my school asked. She didn't sound too pleased to see me trying to break in to the dorm rooms. I on the other hand, was perfectly fine with her being here. She knew about Rose. She'd understand. Right?

'Please, Guardian Petrov. Rose needs help. Something's wrong with her.' I said. My voice was shaking.

'What's going on, cousin? Why were you sprinting across campus?' Adrian's voice came from behind me.

'Adrian! Rose is in trouble!' I told him. I knew Adrian would definitely believe any crazy story I made up about his girlfriend. Even though I didn't exactly have a story.

'Well, why are we standing around here? Let's go see if she's okay.' He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. In my mind it was. The guardians, however, didn't seem to think whatever it was that Rose was doing was worth their time.

'Princess, I'm sure Rose is fine.' Alberta said.

'Rose is not fine. She was okay one second, then she had, like, an explosion of emotions and now she is completely calm. Something is up.' I said, my voice firm and hopefully convincing.

'Can't you check on her? I mean, with your bond?' Alberta said, sounding on sure.

'It only works one wa—' I stopped mid sentence. The bond didn't work one way anymore, but I'd never been in Rose's head before. 'Let me try.'

They looked shocked at my agreement but didn't push me. I breathed slowly and tried to ignore the curious looks coming from the novices in the room. They were curious to see why the Dragomir princess was yelling at the guardians. I focused on Rose's deadly calm feelings and tried to get into her head.

Focus, Lissa. I told myself. After a minute, finally, for the first time ever, I was inside Rose Hathaway's mind.

She was leaning against her bed. She held what I assumed was a silver stake and a piece of paper. Something wet and warm was running down the sides of her face and on her wrists. She looked down at her arms, and I screamed silently in my head.

Blood. It was everywhere. Rose had used the silver stake to slit her wrists. It was gushing out, but Rose didn't seem to care. I read her thoughts and became even more scared than I was.

She was done. She didn't care anymore. She'd failed to do it. She was a failure. She couldn't protect me if she failed to kill him. How could she have missed his heart? He'd told her so many times, don't hesitate. But it didn't matter now. It was going to be over in a few minutes. She didn't want to do it anymore. She didn't want to be a mother. She shouldn't have been pregnant in the first place. It didn't matter now if her baby died. She wouldn't have been able to protect it anyway. She failed as a guardian and she would fail as a mother. Things were better this way.

She started at the blood on her wrist and slowly brought it up to her lips. She tasted it. She didn't see what all the fuss was about. Blood didn't taste that good. It tasted...odd. And it was all slowly leaving her body. Dimitri couldn't make her a Strigoi if she didn't have blood. It was all going to be over soon.

I tried to get back to my own body, and as soon as I did, I screamed my lungs out.

'Rose is trying to kill herself!' I screamed at them. 'We have to go to her! We have to go get her now!' and I sprinted away from them and up the stairs to her dorm room.

I could hear people running after me. But I didn't care about them right now. All I cared about was Rose. The bond was becoming weaker and weaker and I knew she was dying. No, she's going to be fine.

The guardian's ran ahead of me and reached the door before me and Adrian, who I knew was running behind me.

They were pounding on the door. It was locked. Oh, God.

I slammed my fists on the door. 'Rose! Open the door!' I screamed. Other novices were exiting their rooms now and had stopped to see what was going on.

'Stand back.' Alberta said, and she kicked the door down.

Everyone ran inside immediately. Rose was still in the same position, but her head was lolled to one side and her eyes were closed.

I rushed to her side and healed the wounds on her wrist. I looked at her face. Blood was smeared all over it. She had bloody scratch marks down her face that indicated she'd dug her nails into the flesh. I healed those too.

'Rose? Can you hear me? Please, Rose, open your eyes.' I begged. I couldn't lose Rose. Not now. Not after everything we'd both been through. Not after losing my family. I couldn't lose the closest thing I had to a sister.

She whimpered and her eyelids fluttered. 'Liss....please....kill me.' Was all she said. I pretended I couldn't hear her.

'You're going to be okay Rose.' I told her, I could hear Alberta shouting orders at people. I held Rose's hand.

She shook her head. Her voice was barely above a whisper. 'No.....I'm not. I will never be okay. He's going to find me Liss. He'll kill me.'

I didn't know what she was talking about. 'I won't let him. He won't touch you.' I squeezed her hand, trying to work out who "he" was.

Her eyelids fluttered again. 'Love you Liss.' And then she closed her eyes and became completely still. Her hand was cold. Her body was limp.

'Rose? Rose! Wake up. Don't do this to me.' I sobbed. She couldn't die.

Someone's arms grabbed Rose and lifted her up. It was Guardian Alto. A teacher with whom Rose had had many in-class yelling matches.

Him and a few of the other guardians dashed out of the room. I hoped they were going to the clinic. I looked at Adrian. His face was paler than usual and he had a look of terror that I'd never seen on him before.

'Come on, let's go.' I said, already running out the doors to follow the guardians.