Okay here's the next chapter!!

I just wanted to say I was SO sad that Dimitri became Strigoi that I cried for ages and then I got really pissed off and threw my book across the room. lol

Chapter 3

They'd been missing for over a day. It had been a day since I had heard Roza's sweet voice. A day since I'd seen her beautiful face. A day since—

'Guardian Belikov!'

I suppressed a groan as I turned around to see Adrian Ivashkov.

'Yes?' I asked, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. Adrian was the last person I wanted to see. I had just finished a meeting with the guardians.

We'd discovered that Lissa and Christian had been fighting before he was last seen. Lissa and Rose had been talking about boys and sex before they went to Priscilla Voda's dinner party. Apparently Rose and Mason were about to get intimate and Rose pulled away, then told him they should call it quits. Many of the guardians were shocked about this because they were all under the impression that Rose was a complete slut. I knew she wasn't though. The other information we got was that Shane, Mason's roommate, had last seen Mason packing a bag around 6 hours before Rose came looking for him. Rose had asked a lot of the guardians if they had seen Mason and had given vague answers as to why she was looking for him. Eddie and Mia must have been together when they left because no-one had seen them except for the guardians who let them out.

'I think I can get in contact with Rose.' Adrian said, snapping me back into reality.

'What? How?' I asked, feeling hope for the first time in what felt like years. Even though it was Adrian who was ultimately giving me that hope. 'Come with me.' I said.

I led him back to the room where the guardians were still investigating the disappearances. They were looking at video footage of Eddie, Mason, Mia, Rose and Christian walking around the lodge, trying to find some clue as to where they had gone. I could see on the small video screen that Rose was talking to Alan at the time the footage was taken.

'Everyone, Lord Ivashkov says he can get in contact with Rose Hathaway.' I announced.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Adrian. He wore a lazy grin.

'How?' Alberta asked.

He cleared his throat. 'Well, you all know that Princess Vasilisa is a spirit user right?' some people nodded others just looked confused. 'Well I am too and I can get into people's dreams. So I'm thinking, if I can get into Rose's dreams she can tell me where they are and you guys can find them.'

I was beyond asking questions now. 'Okay, so do it.' I said.

Adrian looked at me. 'What, right here?'

'Yes. Contact Rose right now and tell us where she is.' I said. The quicker we found out the quicker we could get the students back safe.

'Okay.' He said slowly, and I felt a guilty satisfaction that he seemed nervous. He leaned back against a wall and closed his eyes.

Everyone watched him for a few minutes and I wondered if he'd fallen asleep.

'I think I can get audio.' Said Guardian West. Everyone turned to him and momentarily forgot about Adrian.

'What are you talking about?' I asked.

'On the security tape.' He said. 'All the other kid's conversations have been too quiet to hear from the video camera, but when Rose goes to Christian's room, the background is silent because it's technically the middle of the night. So if I can turn up the volume and make a few modifications to the sound....' his voice trailed off and he concentrated on the screen.

'DAMN IT!' Adrian yelled. Pretty much everyone jumped at the sound of his voice. 'She got woken up before she could tell me where they were. But they are in a basement in a house and they're in trouble. You guys better find them soon.'

My stomach dropped. They were in trouble. 'Thankyou Adrian, you've helped us more than you know.'

He nodded and left the room.

My mind was reeling. What if we couldn't Rose before something bad happened to her? I knew I shouldn't have been thinking about just Rose, but I couldn't help it. If anything happened to her I didn't know what I'd do. She owned my heart and if she was gone then a piece of me would be gone too. Some part of me felt like it knew where Rose was, but that part of me couldn't grasp it.

'I've got it! We can hear Christian and Rose talking!' West said excitedly. We rushed over to the screen where Rose was standing at Christian's door. This could be the breakthrough we needed to find the missing student.

Knock knock knock Rose's fist pounded on the wooden door.

Christian answered looking like he had just woken up. 'If you've come to apologise for her, you can just go ahead and—'

'Oh shut up.' Rose snapped, cutting him off. 'This isn't about you.'

Rose started talking, but I couldn't hear what she was saying.

'Why can't we hear her?' I asked.

'She's talking too quietly for the system to pick up.' West answered.

Christian looked shocked by whatever Rose had said.

'So ... Mason, Eddie and Mia went to Spokane to hunt Strigoi?'

'Yes.' She answered.

Time stopped. The world stopped. I knew what had happened. Rose had told Mason where the Strigoi were – of course she had! She was dating him – and he'd run off with Mia and Eddie to go find them. Rose had realised and gone off to try to find them. I knew she wouldn't have wanted to tell the guardians because that would have gotten her friends in trouble. Rose wasn't the kind of person who sold people out. Right now I wished she was because it would have saved a whole lot of trouble. I felt kind of bad because Rose only knew about there being Strigoi being in Spokane because I told her.

'Holy shit. Why didn't you go with them? Seems like something you'd do.' Christian said. Everyone was focused intently on the screen.

'Because I'm not insane!' Rose practically yelled. 'But I'm going to go get them before they do something even stupider.'

'And what do you need from me?' Christian asked. I think I worked out the reason but I didn't interrupt.

'I need to get off the resort's property. They got Mia to use compulsion on the guards. I need you to do the same thing. I know you've practised it.'

'I have. But...well...I'm not very good at it. And doing it on dhampirs is nearly impossible. Liss is a hundred times better than me. Or probably any Moroi.'

'I know. But I don't want her to get in trouble.'

Christian snorted. 'But you don't mind if I do?'

She shrugged. 'Not really.'

'You're a piece of work, you know that?'

'Yeah. I do, actually.'

West stopped the video footage. No-one spoke for a minute.

'That explains ... so much.' Alberta said. She was right. It had explained why Mason, Eddie and Mia had left, why Rose and Christian went to find them, and why Lissa wasn't involved.

Nobody said anything for a minute. They were clearly trying to process this. I just hoped they hadn't actually found any of the Strigoi.

'Well what are we waiting for? Let's go to Spokane and get them back!' Janine yelled, exasperated.

I couldn't agree more.

Okay. One more chapter to go!!!

Coming up next – A terrifying phone call from Christian and the plane trip to get back the students!!!!!!