Hey again guys! I know I said that Ch. 4 was the last chapter before I left for my trip, but I got so many amazing reviews that I just had to write one more before I left. Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: It belongs to Richelle Mead, the amazing author!

Chapter 5

After school I hung out with everyone at Starbucks, minus Hunter because he said he had to go home. I couldn't stop thinking about what Dimitri said. Did Tatiana purposely choose me for this experiment to watch me mess up? Did she really hate me that much that she would risk everything? Fat chance. She was definitely up to something though, and I was going to find out what. I don't know how, but I will.

After that I drove home alone - Eddie went to Carson's house - and when I got there, I noticed something different about the house. I walked up to the front door and noticed that it wasn't even closed. That was strange, I remembered closing and locking the door this morning. Mom would still be working until late and Dimitri already left for the academy, which means that no one was home. I examined the door more closely and realized that it had been pried open.

I told myself that it wasn't necessarily strigoi, it could have been robbers or something....

I took out the stake that was in my backpack and slowly opened the door. I cursed Tatiana for getting us such a huge house, whoever had broken in could still be in here and they had a few hiding places to choose from.

My first mistake was not calling for back-up. I knew that but it was too late now. If whoever had broken in was a strigoi, they would surely know that I was here. If it was just a stupid human, then I just feel sorry for them when I kick their butt.

I slowly entered, with my stake raised. The main floor appeared untouched. Everything was in it's place, even the Wii and and big screen TV. Which meant that it wasn't a robber that broke in.

I slowly climbed the stairs and when I reached the top, I saw movement in the corner of my eye. I whipped around but saw nothing.

"Crap, crap, crap." I muttered under my breath.

I know that I wasn't hallucinating. There was something or someone here.

I entered the door on my left, which was my Mom's office. If it was a strigoi, they would definitely go there because she has some important guardian files in there.

I walked in and noticed that the entire room was ruined! Paper were thrown everywhere, chairs smashed, tables turned over. Suddenly, the door behind me slammed shut and I whipped around to find a man standing behind me. A strigoi.

"Well well, if it isn't the famous Rosemarie Hathaway." The man was around 6"3, with jet black hair, a gaunt face, and of course, blood red eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked in a hard voice. "And how do you know who I am?"

He laughed, which made me cringe internally.

Suddenly four figures appeared out of nowhere and moved towards me. The figures were dress in black and their faces were covered with masks so I couldn't identify them. I raised my stake at the closest one but it was ripped out of my hands from behind me. I turned and saw one of them holding my stake. Strigoi couldn't touch stakes... but humans could.

Was that strigoi so stupid that he'd have humans attack me? I felt so offended!

I turned around to the man who'd taken my stake. Even though I couldn't see his face, I thought there was something familiar about him. I don't know what it was, but I was positive I'd seen him before. I pushed that thought to the back of my mind and I jumped up and kicked the stake out of his hand. I heard a crack of bone breaking.

Suddenly, chaos broke out. The three men - minus the familiar guy who's hand I broke - all attacked me at once. It was quite obvious that they were relying mostly on bulk, rather than strength or speed. I kicked and punched, finally getting the kind of action I've been craving all week.

Eventually I got bored of this and went down into a squat and performed the same move that Dimitri used on me, kicking my leg out and tripping them all in one swift move.

I grabbed my fallen stake and stood up, facing the strigoi.

"Damn" I heard him mutter.

Who was this guy anyway? He must be so pathetic if he sent humans to do his dirty work. Was he really that useless? He must have been some lazy moroi before he turned.

"I'll ask again," I said in a low voice, approaching him "Who are you, and what do you want?"

Suddenly, out of nowhere I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. I started to see black dots and then nothing. The last thing I saw was his sick, smiling face.

___________________________

"Rose? Wake up!"

I opened my eyes slowly and found myself on the living room couch. Eddie and my Mom were looking down at me with worried expressions on their faces.

"What happened?" I asked in a groggy voice.

Suddenly my Mom went into business mode on me.

"What the hell do you think you were doing? Why didn't you call for back-up?"

"I'm sorry!" I said in an exasperated voice. My head started pounding and there was definitely going to be a bump in the back of my head where they hit me. bitches.

"Rose," Eddie said in a soft voice "What happened?"

So I explained everything that happened. They both looked slightly taken back when I told them about how the strigoi sent humans to attack me, but believed everything. After that, my Mom went to search the premises and set up new wards. Not that they would help in any way, with humans working with strigoi, wards were completely useless. And we all knew it.

____________________________

"Hey."

I looked up from my paper and found Hunter grinning down at me. I was sitting in the school library finishing up some homework.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked, turning back to my paper.

He took the seat across from me and didn't say anything. I looked up at him and found him staring at me intently, not even realizing that I'd caught him looking. His face was a mix of confusion and wonder. What was up with that? I cleared my throat loudly and he jumped and looked embarrassed.

"Sorry," He muttered "I was just trying to figure out how someone so beautiful and graceful, can also be so strong and powerful."

"...And have a good kick." He breathed, obviously talking to himself.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Did I already kick somebody and not even remember?

"Um...thanks?" What was I supposed to say? No one has ever called me beautiful or graceful. Not in the same sentence anyway.

"So anyway, Eddie was telling me how you two have been practicing martial arts and stuff since you could walk. That's pretty awesome."

Why the hell would Eddie say that? "Um, ya. It's nothing special though." I said, wishing he'd change the subject.

"Well, I've been doing martial arts for a while too! I was wondering if you wanted to swap moves in that kickass gym of yours? The whole gang could come."

Even though he was excited, it almost sounded like he'd been rehearsing before he came to talk to me. Did I really have that big of an effect on guys? Cool.

"I guess so...." I was pretty sure that he'd be spending most of his time on the ground. Oh well, he brought it on himself.

"Great, I'll go tell everyone. See you after school!" He ran off.

As he walked away I studied him more closely. Even though he had pretty long legs, he took swift, measured steps. His head stayed up and he didn't slouch like most guys. I also noticed that he was wearing an unusually long sweater that covered his hands completely. His left sleeve seemed to bulge around where his wrist was. Almost like..... he was wearing a cast.

________________________

"Enough! Stop! I give up!" Mark panted.

"Huh? What did you say?" I asked, lost in thought.

"I said STOP!"

We were all in the gym in our basement. Mark and I were having a race on the treadmills. Although I wasn't even paying attention. All I could think about was the strigoi attack. I had so many questions. Why didn't they kidnap me? What did they want? Who the heck they anyway?

Mark flopped off the treadmill and laid on the ground, catching his breath.

"You win!" He panted.

I looked at the little screen on the treadmill. 3 Miles. Haha, I could still go for a while!

I jumped off the treadmill, pushing the thoughts of the attack to the back of my mind, and walked over to Mark. I looked down at him.

"Had enough yet?" I grinned.

"How in the world do you do that everyday?" He asked, getting up.

I shrugged and laughed, "I told you. Practice."

We walked over to the large mat where Eddie was teaching Hunter and Carson some moves. Lena was sitting on the floor watching. When she saw us, she smiled and waved us over.

"Told you she could kick your butt." Lena said, faking seriousness.

"Ya, ya." Mark muttered.

"HI YA!" Eddie yelled, kung fu style.

Next thing I knew, Carson and Hunter were on the floor. Moaning in frustration that they were on the floor... again.

"What did we do wrong?" Carson exasperated. "We did everything you told us!"

"You didn't do anything wrong." I said in a sensei voice, walking up to them. "You can't expect to get it right the first time around."

"How about the first 100 times around?" Hunter grumbled.

I laughed and went to stand in front of Eddie. Suddenly my face became somber and I crouched into a ready position.

"Let me show you how it's done." I smirk growing on my face.

I struck out and met with Eddie's defensive arm. I struck him a few more times. Sometimes he was fast enough to block me, but most of the time he wasn't. We took turns blocking and striking. I could hear shouts of encouragement on the side, but paid them no attention. I savored the feel of my straining muscles, getting a good workout for the first time since we got here.

Finally, I ended the match by tripping him. I stood over him, smiling in victory.

"Whoo Whoo!"

"That's right girl!"

"Yeah!"

I looked over at my new friends and laughed. Their faces were a mix between awe and shock.

"Wow!" Carson exclaimed, "For such a small girl, you can really hit!"

I was about to reply when someone interrupted me.

"She can, can't she."

I looked behind me, where the voice had come from. My Mother was standing in the doorway, an unreadable expression on her face. Crap.

Author's Note!!!!!!

So there it is! For those of you that didn't read the top, this is the last chapter before I leave for my trip. I return the second week of August. Please don't hate me!! I feel absolutely horrible leaving it halfway done. I might be able to write a chapter or two during my trip, but it seems unlikely. I do intend to finish this story before Summer's over though!!

Review? Pretty please? :)