Voila. I've recieved some rather flattering reviews from you guys :O Seriously. My ego's going to be huge by the time I go back to school, if you keep on like this.


"I'm disappointed, to say the least," Valik snapped out as he strode over. "Rose? Are you listening to me?"

It was then that it occurred to him that something was wrong. He dropped down to the ground next to me, and grabbed me by the shoulders, forcing me to look at him.

"What happened?" he breathed. More tears were spilling down my cheeks. I shook my head. "Rose, you have to talk to me. What happened?"

I buried my head into his shoulder and cried freely.

*

I woke up in my room, the next morning. I propped myself up on the bed, taking the place in as I slowly came to my senses. My head was pounding, my eyes were hurting, and my throat was sore.

He had been there. I had seen him. Valik bustled in, stopping to swat the bundle of blankets on the chair by the door. It came to me, then, that said bundle was in fact a person; it groaned and moved.

"Get up, you lazy twit," Valik told him.

"Inmint" Anton grumbled inaudibly.

"What?"

"In a minute!" Valik's head snapped towards me, as though he thought that I'd been asleep and that Anton had woken me up. He swatted the other around the head, and came over to sit by my bed.

"How're you feeling?" he asked gently.

"Fine. Just go away," Anton mumbled.

"Not you, you moron." I shrugged, and nodded. I didn't trust myself to speak.

"Are you hungry?" I shook my head.

"No," I croaked. He sighed.

"Do you need to talk about anything?" I shook my head again. He sighed, then, and got to his feet. Yelling something at Anton in Russian, he left the room.

All was quite for a few minutes. Then Anton stirred again, and stood up.

"Morning," he said, yawning. "You look like hell."

"I feel worse," I mumbled in response.

"I heard about your little escapade last night. Apparently, Valik found you sitting in the grass, crying. He couldn't get a word from you."

"Sounds about right."

"What happened?" he asked. I didn't answer. "Oh, come on. You're not just going to bottle it up like that are you?"

"I am," I told him. Then I flinched. "Can I get anything for my head?"

"Food. Drink."

"Pills?"

"Yeah, maybe. But what happened?" I fixed him with a cold stare. "-That's not going to work on me, you know." I sighed.

"I saw..."

"You saw? Who?"

"Him."

He froze.

"He... Are you serious? No. You can't have done. You were still on the Academy grounds."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"I'm calling you delusional." My eyes narrowed. I refused to speak to him, after that.

He didn't tell Valik, though. I was surprised. I thought he was Valik's way of getting answers out of me. Valik did come back in, later that day, to try and question me again - but to no avail. Eventually, he let it slip. I could tell he was still worried, but he knew a hopeless cause when he saw one.

After a couple of days of resting, I went back to my daily routines. I trained, I taught, and then I went back up to my room. I tried to avoid as much contact as possible with anyone else.

I wasn't giving up, though. I watched, how, over a stretch of days, the security deteriorated and eased up. Anton, for example, no longer accompanied me around (although I think Valik still insisted he observe from distances, every now and again). The patrol on my corridor stayed, but the guards circling the building stopped.

It was late in the afternoon when I saw my opening. I was supposed to be going back to my room, as everyone expected me to. There were guards at the front gate, but I'd become aware of other ways to slip out of the Academy grounds, and I did so.

Once I was past the wards, I didn't care who found out I was gone. I ran; pelted it through the woodland that I'd ended up in, and didn't stop until I'd reached the dhampir village.

Nadejda beckoned me inside with a knowing grin.

"I knew you'd be coming, Roza. Head on in; Yelizaveta wants to see you."

As soon as I entered the house, I was barrelled back out by the woman. She grabbed for my arm, hauling me back down the path.

"Ummm..." was all I could muster. She glanced back at me, smiling.

"Hello, Roza. We're going to see Arine."

"The madwoman?"

"The one and only."

*

Arine, was, unsurprisingly quite out of it. We found her in her home, talking to herself in Russian. You could tell, by looking at her, that she was one of those very eccentric people that you'd tend to avoid unless you absolutely had to. We didn't have a choice.

Yelizaveta cleared her throat.

"Arine?" she called out sweetly. The old woman carried on like she hadn't heard for a few moments, and then looked up in surprise.

"Katleen!" the woman exclaimed, before babbling something out in Russian. I glanced at Yelizaveta curiously.

"She said, 'Katleen, it's been such a long time. I haven't seen you since we were at school together."

"Who's Katleen?" I asked. Yelizaveta shrugged.

"I'm not really sure. This woman is as old as my mother, so I think she's mistaken me for one of her old schoolmates. Perhaps Nadejda knows, though."

"Oh?" Arine cried out, suddenly, and asked something. Yelizaveta returned swiftly, with an unhappy tone.

"She wondered if you were my daughter."

What would have normally been about five minutes' worth of small talk took near enough an hour. I felt useless, just sitting there listening while Arine and Yelizaveta chatted on. Yelizaveta's demeanour was placid, but I could tell her patience had begun to wear thin.

I knew when the conversation changed tone, and snapped to attention. Yelizaveta had fixed Arine with a cold stare, and had demanded something. Arine's expression had changed about five times during the space of a second: first confused, then shocked, then horrified and terrified, and finally, quite angry. She shouted something in return.

"What's going on?" I whispered. Yelizaveta ignored me, and shrieked back at the old woman, who finally let out a defeated sob. She slumped in her chair, staring at the wood floor. Then she began to talk again, in a hushed tone. Yelizaveta whispered to me, as the woman spoke, and I realised that she was translating for me.

"Listen carefully, because I waste my time no more with you after this. I tried to tell people before, but you passed me off as mental and locked me away in my own home as my prison. Now you seek my advice for your own selfish gain.

"But yes, there is a way. I saw it with mine own two eyes. I felt it..." she trailed off. A tear rolled down her cheek.

"I once had a lover who fought as a Guardian for me. He got captured and turned by the demons, and I, young and blinded by love, had sought them out to gain my revenge. I found myself caught in a battle with he whom I had loved the most, and I found myself in the terrible position of giving myself up to the Strigoi side, or killing him.

"It was self defence. I saw the smallest of openings, and dove at his throat... I had no other way. I had not specialised in any sort of magic during my time at school. I could do strange things that no one could ever explain, but I never aligned with an element in my life. I dove at his throat, and I bit him. It was instinct.

"There, I felt the most sickening, thing. I swear I saw the Strigoi in his blood, an alien body. It did not belong. I felt his - my Konstantin's - pain, too. I willed the Strigoi out of him. I wanted to drag it out."

She paused. The words slowly sunk in, and my eyes began to widen in shock and horror. Arine opened her mouth to continue. Then she stopped, and closed it again. She shook her head, muttering something. Yelizaveta started to argue, but she was cut off by an angry scream.

Eventually, she got to her feet. I followed suit.

"We're leaving." She whispered.

She strode out of the door, and down the road. She was silent on the journey back, and silent when we reached the house, where Nadejda stood waiting.

"Well?"

Yelizaveta stormed past her.

"It didn't go well?" she asked me, in a hushed voice. I shrugged.

"I think... I need to think about this. I think I understand. I'm not sure." Nadejda nodded, but as I turned to leave, she grabbed my arm.

"Roza... please. For Yelizaveta's sake. Please save him."

"I..."

"Please?"

I nodded, numbly.

*

When I got back to the Academy, I knew something was wrong. I went rushing into the building, where I stopped one of the Guardians.

"What's going on?" I asked. Her eyes were wide.

"There was a fight... a showdown between the Moroi and Strigoi. We had an alert from a nearby village. They were looking for you! And when they couldn't find you, they had to go alone."

"What happened?" I breathed. She looked at me solemnly.

"Nobody died, but two were badly injured."

"Who?" I asked. My voice was scarce. I had a horrible feeling I already knew.

"Valik, and the Moroi boy. Anton."


I don't need to say it for you to know what's coming.... but I will anyway :D


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