Hey everyone! Okay, so there's a really, really good and exciting reason why I didn't post this chapter as early as I had anticipated and said I would! And the reason is because I wanted to spend my time finishing off the story, so that I could post the last three chapters together within the same week! I wanted to do this because I feel like if I didn't have time to post these last chapters close together, then they would all lose their shock value.

So please forgive me!

Anyway, without further ado, I give you the third last chapter!

Chapter Sixteen

DIMITRI POV:

I NEEDED TO STAY FOCUSED on the mission. No matter how much I hated the fact that Rose and I had been forced to separate, there was nothing I could do about it now.

I lengthened my stride and quickened my pace, as I closed in on the small, run down house Sydney had been staying in. I didn't bother with using any stealth, and instead opted for the more abrupt method of kicking the door in.

I held my arms up, stake in hand, ready to strike at a seconds notice. But there was no need, as the lower level of the house was completely empty.

My stomach sank with dread as I charged up the stairs. There was only two bedrooms on the second floor, and I doubted I would find a group of Alchemists and Warriors crammed into either one of them.

But I couldn't rule anything out, so I kicked in the door of the first room, and did a quick sweep of it. But just as I had predicted, no-one was there. I thought that my luck would be the same in the second room, but as the door swung open in front of me, I found an unconscious figure sprawled across the bed.

I rushed to her side, and felt for her pulse, making sure she was still alive. She was.

"Zoe," I whispered softly, as I lightly shook her shoulders.

Her face creased, and her body tensed as she slowly opened her eyes.

She tried to get up, but I stopped her.

"What happened?"

She rubbed her temple, trying to clear her head. Moments later, her neck snapped up and her eyes widened with terror. I waited for her to speak, but instead she pointed to her mouth and made a cross symbol.

Oh right, I had forgotten that she was unable to speak thanks to the Alchemists. Zoe was up on her feet before I could stop her, and grabbed a pad of paper and pen from the floor. She started furiously scribbling on the note pad, so fast that I thought the paper might catch on fire.

She turned the pad around so I could see what she had written. And it was exactly what I had been dreading.

They knocked me unconscious and captured Sydney and Adrian.

This news came as no surprise, but what she wrote next did.

I know where they're going.

I had no idea how she knew this, or why the Alchemists had left her behind. It didn't make sense for them to take Adrian, but leave Zoe behind. I mean, she is one of them. Or at least, she used to be. Either way, I doubted that Adrian would have been taken over her, unless…

"They don't just want Sydney! They want you, Adrian and Lissa!"

That's what Rose had warned me of in the spirit dream. And if what she said was true…

I didn't know what the Alchemist's game was, which made me feel completely raw. But I knew being separate from one another was only going to make things worse. I needed to rescue Sydney and Adrian, and I needed to do it now.

I still didn't fully trust Zoe, but if there was even the slightest chance she knew where they were, I had to take it.

I grabbed hold of Zoe and pulled her out the door, and down the stairs with me. We left the house, and entered the dense woods.

"Where are they going?" I asked firmly when we were under the safety of the same large Oak Tree Rose and I had assigned to be the rendezvous point. Even though it had only been ten minutes since we had split up, I had secretly hoped to find Rose, Lissa and Christian sitting under the tree waiting for us.

But, it was never going to be that simple. It never was.

Zoe passed me the pad once she had finished writing.

One of the older men of the group mentioned the air field, and being able to take off immediately since there was a Jet already prepped and good to go. I think that's pretty self-explanatory.

She was right, it was pretty obvious. And I knew exactly what Jet they were talking about too. I wanted to kick myself for being so ignorant. We had practically handed the Alchemists a functional plane that was ready to take off at a moment's notice. We had given them a way out, a means of escape. If what Zoe said was true, there was very little chance that I'd be able to get t Sydney and Adrian in time, but that wouldn't stop me from trying.

"Zoe, I'm going to the air field, but you need to stay here."

She shook her head furiously and tried to move past me, but I held out my arm out to stop her. She immediately froze, still clearly horrified by any form of physical contact with a Vampire.

"You'll be safer here, and I need you to tell Rose what's happened when she gets here." There was also the fact that she would slow me down, and most likely get in the way of the rescue, but I decided it was best to leave that out.

My logic seemed to outweigh any of her counter arguments, and she eventually nodded in understanding and slumped against the tree.

I didn't waste time with goodbyes, and instead raced off towards the air field.

Scenarios played through my mind as I pushed my body to the limit. I had no idea when the Alchemists and Warriors had left with Adrian and Sydney. Maybe they had been waiting in a nearby building when our Jet had landed, and boarded as soon as we had exited. But that would mean that they had already left, I couldn't bring myself to believe that.

Despite the problems Adrian and I had faced in the past, he was a good guy, and I respected him. Who knew, maybe we would even be friends one day… okay, so maybe not, but I still didn't want him or Sydney in the hands of the Alchemists. And as a Guardian, it was my duty to make sure that didn't happen.

I entered the lush, green clearing that separated the forest from the rest of Court. There was still a touch of sun left in the sky, so there wouldn't be any Moroi up for at least a couple of hours yet. But that didn't mean I had nothing to worry about, especially when there seemed to be some Guardians under compulsion.

I was almost to the edge of the clearing, when I heard a loud bang; followed by another one and another one. I knew the sound, it was a gun shot. And it was coming from the opposite direction of where I was heading- The Royal Head Quarters.

Fear washed over me, causing me to stop. I turned toward the building where I knew Rose and the others would be, and I knew I had to make a decision.

Did I continue to the air field in the rare chance that Adrian and Sydney would still be there, or did I go and help Rose protect the Queen and Christian?

Our duty had always been based around the motto of: "They come first."

But who is the "they" in this instance? Is "they" the Queen and her boyfriend, or the ex- Alchemist and the party boy Moroi?

Did I stick to the plan, or did I follow my instinct?

Closing my eyes, I inhaled the cold air around me, and then headed off in the direction of The Royal Head Quarters, praying that I had made the right decision.

If guns were involved, I knew Rose would need some back up. And with not knowing whether Sydney and Adrian were even still in Court, I had to decide what was more urgent.

As I closed in on the building, I heard another gun shot, and despite the sinking feeling in my stomach I knew I had made the best decision.

When I neared closer to the back of the building, my Dhampir eye sight focused in on the scene playing out in front of me. Christian was on the ground, pressing Lissa protectively against the brick wall of the building, using his body as a shield. Both of them were looking up, and I followed their line of sight just in time to see Rose fumble through a broken window and latch onto the piping that was attached to the brick wall. She slid down with haste, and jumped off when she was close enough to the ground. I expected her to land on her feet, but instead she crumpled on to the grass below.

I picked up my speed, and managed to reach Rose's side just as Lissa helped her to her feet.

"Dimitri? What are you doing here?"

Rose looked around, her eyes wide as she searched for any signs of Adrian and Sydney. She met my eyes, and I shook my head. I watched as her muscles tensed in anger, as she realised that I had lost Adrian and Sydney.

"They're coming," Christian hissed. I strained my ears and picked up the faint sound of footsteps. Rose ushered Lissa and Christian to start moving, silently indicating for them to head toward a hedge of bushes that laid off to the right of the building. Rose went to follow after them, and as she did a ray of sun light illuminated her figure, allowing me to see that her stomach was soaked in blood.

She noticed my gaze, and smiled sheepishly.

As we climbed into the bushes after Christian and Lissa, she turned and whispered into my ear, "It's not my blood."

I couldn't help but smirk. Relief swept across me as we waited silently for time to pass.

When I had seen Rose collapse before, I had assumed it had been from her injuries during captivity and exhaustion, but when I saw the blood…

I refused to think about what could have happened. Rose was safe, and we would make sure Lissa and Christian got out of here, alive and well.

If only I had been able to do the same for Adrian and Sydney…

ROSE P.O.V:

IT SEEMED LIKE HOURS HAD passed since we had nestled into the bushes for protection, but according to Dimitri's watch, it had only been five minutes. We had all heard the footsteps coming our way, yet they seemed to had vanished, which meant that either the threat was gone, or something majorly bad was about to happen. And if history was to repeat itself, it was probably going to be the second.

I gritted my teeth as twigs scraped against my aching body. I had attempted to be cautious when entering the bush to protect the new wound on the side of my stomach, but I still managed to knock it into multiple branches, causing it to bleed even more rapidly. I had lied to Dimitri when he noticed the blood. When I had been up stairs, and the door crashed opened, there was only one person I had to fight. It should have been easy, but the person was a Guardian, and it wasn't just anyone. It was Mikhail. He had come at me with a gun, and I had faltered, allowing him the time to plant a bullet into my side. Even though we were prepared as Guardians to take down Stirgoi, even if they had been someone we had known, I struggled with the concept of hurting someone who was under compulsion. Mikhail had no control over what he was doing, but if I had taken no action, he would have killed me. So I was quick to recover, and used one of the chairs to knock him out.

I wanted to be honest with Dimitiri, but there was nothing he could do, and we needed to focus on getting Lissa and Christian out of Court. After that, I could ask Lissa to heal me. As much as I hated her using Spirit, I knew she wouldn't let me go to a hospital, and I also didn't really fancy dying for a third time round.

Even though I knew that there was a bullet lodged deep into my stomach, and every minute I was getting closer and closer to losing consciousness, I told myself that it was no big deal. It was just a small graze, and that I would be fine. And as weird as it was, it seemed to help.

"Rose?"

Lissa's soft voice startled me as she placed a hand on my shoulder. I tried to turn to where she and Christian were sitting behind us, but the bush was too thick to do so without making a loud noise. So I stayed where I was, facing out towards the clearing, with the Royal Building to the right of us.

"Yeah Liss?"

"No-one's turned up, so shouldn't we make a move?" She asked, hesitant, not wanting to sound like she doubted our judgment.

I glanced to my left, where Dimitri was, and he nodded in agreement.

I exhaled, not realising that I had been holding my breath.

"Okay, let's do this."

Dimitri left the safety of the bushes first, and after a few seconds, I followed. We checked the perimeter, and everything appeared to be fine.

But appearances can be deceptive, and this certainly was the case. As we helped Christian and Lissa out of the shrubs, the sound of footsteps began again. Except this time, they were much closer. So close that when I turned around, I could see a group of Warriors racing from around the corner of the building.

"Run!"

Dimitri's voice echoed in the cold, thin air, shocking me into action. Pushing Lissa and Christian forward, we began to run. Dimitri and I worked together so that Lissa and Christian were being protected at all times.

As Vampires, we had the upper hand, but injury and exhaustion had made us all weak. The Warriors were closing in on us fast. Our only chance was to get back to the jet and take off, but as I looked around, I realised that we weren't going to the air field. We were heading toward the forest.

"Why are we going this way? We need to get back to the jet!" I yelled to Dimitri.

Without slowing, he looked over at me, his forehead creased.

"We need to go back and get Zoe. I left her sitting under the Oak Tree."

Zoe? Why would Dimitri have left her behind? I knew there was something else he wasn't telling me, but as the bullet in my stomach grinded against my hip bone, I knew there were more pressing matters to worry about. So if he didn't think it was the time to share, I had to trust him. I just hoped he would be as understanding about me keeping my bullet wound a secret, as I was about whatever it was he was hiding.

Oh boy, we sure had some fun conversations to look forward to!

We had almost reached the forest, when more Warriors appeared from the tree lines.

There was about five warriors behind us, and five in front. We all came to a stop, and as I looked hastily around for a way out of this nightmare, I realised there was none. They had lured us out here so they could circle around and trap us.

They were always one step ahead of us, but how? How did they know we'd go this way? How could they have possibly known that!?

Dimitri and I readied ourselves as the Warriors drew closer and closer, doing our best to keep Lissa and Christian safely in between us. But Christian wasn't going to just sit by. He moved so that we were now in a triangular formation, with Lissa in the middle. When the Warriors were a couple of meters away, they stopped. We waited for them to attack, but none of them did. Instead, a few moved to the side to make way for a tall, slim figure.

"Avery Lazar," Lissa squeaked. I wanted so badly to just grab hold of Lissa and tell her that everything would be okay, but I couldn't. I just had to trust that she knew that already.

There was no way I was going to let this freak hurt her.

Avery stalked into the circle, dragging a young girl by the hair behind her. The girl had a Golden Lily tattoo.

Zoe.

"Look who I found!" Shrilled Avery, as she stopped less than a meter away from us and threw Zoe to the ground. "I've always liked playing with dolls! Except, I do have such a bad habit with breaking them!" She stepped forward, pressing the heel of her boot into Zoe's throat. I tensed as Zoe's eye's tightened, and she began to splutter and go bright red.

Before anyone could say anything, she released her foot from Zoe's throat, and turned toward us.

"If you don't want me to break this poor, little dolly, I suggest you all drop your weapons!"

So Avery's finally rocked up to the party! And Rose has been shot... again... She really doesn't seem to have much luck when it comes to guns! :S

Any ideas on what's going to happen, or how the story will end?

Next chapter will be up in the next few days, and then the last chapter will follow very soon after!

Please let me know what you guys are thinking :D

Love you all! Thank you for reading and all the support!