Rose quietly cursed as she walked through the cold Montana night. She had been walking for over 6 hours,trying to hitchhike. "Apparently, I suck at hitchhiking," Rose muttered as a blue Cadillac whipped past her and into the night. Cursing again, she listened carefully,wondering if any strigoi were following her. She'd had killed almost 15 strigoi in the last 6 hours, which was abnormally large. 'No they can't be, or else they'd have attacked by now" Rose thought as she looked straight ahead, dying to get to Missoula. Rose had made several stops to make sure that no strigoi, or creepy humans, were following her. Rose kept on thinking of Dimitri, and what Lissa had said to her before she left the academy.

'You don't have to go Rose, you don't,' Lissa had said. Rose kept replaying that over and over again in her head. Then a picture of Dimitri came into her mind, his kind soul was gone, and now he was a cold killer. Rose pushed the image away, back into the darkest corner of her mind.

"I'm sorry Lissa, but I'm doing a favor to all of us," Rose said to herself. She heard a gentle rustling nearby and turned. Growling, she saw those eyes that only strigoi would have. Rose sighed and took her stake out, as the strigoi attacked her. Quickly, she dodged the strigoi's advantange. It was late at night and Rose knew that if she made one fatal mistake, she'd be dead. As the strigoi, glared and backed into a tree, a sliver of light fom the moon appeared to reveal the strigoi that had bitten Dimitri. Rose's heart stopped immediately, as the blond strigoi smiled maliciously.

"Well,well,well if it isn't Vasilisa's guardian, or was guardian," The blond strigoi sneered as Rose tightened her grip on his throat. He laughed for no apparent reason, and just stared at Rose intuitively.

"I'd thought I'd have an easy kill tonight, but I guess I got a dhamphir," he said his sneer turning into a smirk.

"Where's Dimitri?" Rose finally asked, her voice husky. He didn't answer right away, he just kept smirking and sighed. Rose already knew the answer,but she couldn't help but ask it. 'Mason, you better be looking over me right now' Rose thought as her nails dug deep into his throat. "That long haired guardian that I bit? Well to tell you the truth, he was way too easy, I thought he'd give a fight, but sinced you asked, he's one of us," he answered his smirk fading slightly. Rose held her breath as a sob climbed her throat.
"You asshole, I loved him and you took him away from me!" Rose yelled as she stuck the stake into his heart, twisting it so he would feel intense pain. He gasped loudly,his eyes wide with horror, as his breathing stopped. Rose took the stake out and tucked it into the inside of her jacket. Rose sighed and counted him as her 16th kill. "It's gonna be a long night," Rose said as Mercedes pulled up and a very cute brunette man rolled the window down.

"Need a ride miss?" He asked charmingly. Rose smiled at him politely and nodded opening the car door and grabbing her bag, the blond strigoi's body just inches away.

"Thanks, um who are you?" Rose asked as he drove off. She looked at him questioningly and he smiled.

"I'm Max, so where are you off to anyways?" Max asked shaking her hand in a friendly gesture.

"Oh hi Max, I'm uh going to Missoula," Rose said, momentarily thinking of Dimitri. Max stared at the road, a smile still on his face.

"Really? I was just going there to stay for a day, I'm driving to Pennsylvania and I kinda need my sleep," Max said shrugging.

Rose laughed a little bit and examined the darkly tinted windows or the Mercedes. "Are you different?" Rose asked finally glimpsing at him.

"What do you mean by different? Like in supernatural different?" Max asked his face contorted. Rose nodded and Max sighed. "Well um I'm kinda like a vampire," Max explained his hand tightly gripping the steering wheel.

"You're a Moroi aren't you Max?" Rose whispered to him. Max stared at her in suprise and nodded in agreement. "Wow, um well, I'm a dhamphir, I was just um wondering why you had these darkly tinted windows, I guess it's because you're moroi," Rose explained getting comfortable.

"I know, I was watching you kill that strigoi with you're stake, I thought you were faltering for a second, then you killed him," Max said as Rose stared in shock.