I'm aware that I have a habit of promising or swearing to do things and not doing them, so I'm not going to do anything like that this time. All I will say is that I finished my exams today for first semester and I had this chapter half-finished on my hard drive, so here it is.

I have another one written on paper that just has to be typed out and spell checked, along with another half-one written on paper that needs to be finished. Depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, I might get both done tonight or tomorrow, since I don't go back to school until Thursday.

If I do get the two chapters done, I'll release one tomorrow and the other next week sometime. That way things won't feel so rushed. Depending on how my next set of classes go, along with other factors, I'll get more or about the same amount of writing done. Hopefully, you'll see a bit more out of me in the coming weeks.

Anyways, here's Fourteen. Like it or not, review it and let me know.

Chapter Fourteen

I stood, slightly blinded by the light from the sun, staring ahead at the buildings that made up the campus.

"Charigos Academy. Never heard of it," I muttered quietly under my breath.

"Don't worry," Grissom responded, sounding amused, "Most people haven't. As I said, it's the Garrison Headquarters for the Moroi Royal Guard. The Royal Guardians are the only ones that know it exists. And Guardians are the only permanent occupants."

Grissom started walking forwards at a slow pace, so I decided it'd be best to simply follow and not cause more problems.

"Maybe you should explain the whole "Royal Guardians" thing to me, since these names are getting really confusing."

"No matter how much you've studied our history, it's really confusing to keep track of. Basically, the Royal Guardians were originally assigned to all Royal Moroi. They were volunteer only. More experienced, better training, better organization. But as the numbers dropped, they were reformed and reorganized into the Queen's Guard, with one sole guarding priority."

Continuing walking, I noticed only a few people other than us moving around, not surprising considering it was daylight at the moment, but I also noticed the lack of tinted glass on most of the buildings. Usually, an academy like this, or any place Moroi lived in, had tinted or darkened glass on the windows to keep the sunlight out while they slept or moved around during daylight hours, but here there was none on any of the buildings I could see.

Eventually, Grissom led me into one of the smaller buildings on the campus, granted "small" here was a pretty relative term, and into an office. There was another Dhampir in the room, sitting behind a desk talking on a phone, and he held up a finger when we came into the room, so the two of us sat down to wait.

He looked to be in his early forties, with short brown hair, steely grey eyes, and skin that wasn't shade one would expect to see on a dhampir. He was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and just as he lowered his hand to put the phone down, I caught a glimpse of a tatoo on the inside of his right arm as he turned in his chair to face us.

"So," he spoke with a low, thickly accented voice that sounded like French, "It has been a long time Grissom." He extended his hand to Grissom, which he accepted and shook.

With a loud laugh, Grissom responded, "Yes, I suppose so. Three years roughly if I can remember correctly. Was just about the time I finished my last term here before Daniel called for leave, wasn't it?"

"Correct," he said, standing up, "I wasn't very happy to see you go. Most of us weren't. But, I suppose you're back now, aren't you."

"For a while, I suppose."

The stranger smiled and turned his head to me, "So, you must be the poor soul my friend here dragged all the way over here. I never knew we brought people this young in."

Grissom said something in a language I didn know, it sounded vaguely European, and I heard my name. Then a surprised reply from the other guy.

"Well, that explains the age then, doesn't it. Sorry, Miss Hathaway, had I known you were coming to visit, I would've organized a tour. Not that it matters, since you'll get it tomorrow during your orientation."

"Yes, well, I should probably get Rose to her room. She'll no doubt want to get settled in."

"Oh, of course. Rose, if you happen to have any questions, feel free to ask. Remember this, there is always somebody in one of the offices here. They'll be more than happy to help you most of the time."

I smiled as I left the room with Grissom and turned to ask him a question, "Who in the hell was that? Since when does somebody have a conversation without introducing themselves?"

"Trust me, you'll get to know him later. Now, come on. It'll be getting dark soon. And this place runs on a daylight schedule."

"Alright, alright. Why are you so pushy all of a sudden."

Grissom shook his head, "Trust me. You're going to want the sleep. Nobodies first day here is ever easy."

As we walked, he explained that the main dorms were in a series of underground levels beneath this building. The reasoning behind this had been lost to him at the moment, and he said he'd figure it out for me later.

As navigated through the first floor (Or rather, floor negative one, I guess), we found the room I'd been assigned and I was told again to get some sleep. Grissom left me with the key.

I opened the door to see a really nice sized room with a queen sized bed in the far left corner. In the right corner was a dresser, at the foot of which was my bag with my clothes in it. Next to that was a desk with a computer and a few drawers, which I discovered were empty.

Laying down on the bed, I was really surprised by how comfortable it was. Eventually, I begrudgingly got up to put my clothes in the dresser and got ready for bed. After a while, I realized it was fairly late, got into bed for a few seconds before drifting into sleep.