Hey guys!(: Hope your liking it, and I'm really sad to make these next couple chapters, cause like I said in the beginning, some ones going to die. I'm really sorry if you don't like who it is, but just wait till the end, its gonna be good:) Remember to review!(:-Taylor:)
Chapter 10
"OK, Victor and his strigoi minions could be back any second, so we got to act fast." Said Adrian, stating the obvious. "If we go out that door, we might encounter ten strigoi. We could just end up right back in here, or we could get killed. So we need a way to find out how manys out there." I said. Every one looked at me. "What?". "Rose, don't you have like a built in strigoi detector?" Christian asked. I felt stupid, but then I thought about it. "It wont help. I cant tell you how many is out there, just if they are close or not." I explained. "Maybe if you could walk up to the door and see how strong it is we might have an idea." he said. I guess it was worth a shot. I walked over to the door, and once I got there, no nausea. Hm. I motioned Dimitri up here and all the others followed. I whispered," Nothing. I can't feel anything." Dimitri took a deep breathe and cracked open the door, braced for an attack. Once again, nothing. "Lets go while we have the strait shot." I nodded, and we hustled quietly down the hallway. It looked like we were in a dungeon. The walls were brick and had dust coated on them. The light came from ugly bar lights on the ceiling. The room we had just left had tile floor and wooden walls, so that made me think we were in some ware house, and that was an office.
As we silently jogged down the place, running into a couple of cross sections which was weird, I started to feel a little nauseous. "Hey, slow down. Some ones near. Get ready. And Lissa, if me and Dimitri can't fight them off, run. I don't care where, just try to get out. Don't worry about us." Lissa nodded, but she told me in my head 'Don't give me that crap. I'd rather get killed trying to help rather than running.' I ignored that. We rounded another corner, and three strigoi were had just turned to attack. Without hesitating, me and Dimitri jumped on them. In almost three or four minutes we had two down. The last one was on the defensive. After a few seconds of trying to sake him, I tried getting a blow on his head, letting him try and get on the offensive when he gave Dimitri an opening. Just like that, he was dead.
We went back to retrieve the others, and we got a couple good jobs. "If y'all are going to do that every time we make a kill, I'm thinking about letting them get us." I said. Lissa rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You killed strigoi. I know its just an average day for you but its still a big deal for us. Now lets go before more come." She had a point. We kept walking when we found a ladder. Huh. I climbed up in back while Dimitri was in front. Once he got to the top, we all stopped. "What's wrong?" I asked, turning on my defenses. "Just a cap. I don't know whats up there, either. Stay alert." I did. After a moment, I heard some scraping metal and we started moving again.
We all climbed out of the passage ways to find ourselves in a blandly decorated room. The walls were an ugly grayish blue, and the curtain over the one window was a huge, thick gray one made out of a material that I thought was wool. There was a area rug, the ugly blueish color, also. A desk sat near the door with paper files all over it. After checking that there was no danger nearby, I walked over to the papers. Records. Eric Dragimors records, along with Mariana's. Then there were blue prints, receipts, and some type of essay looking thing. It stood out, so I picked it up and starting reading. 'I'm sad to say that today we must undergo the process of awakening another strigoi. It's against my nature, but I cannot let the other royals regain much control if I am to succeed in being a leader among strigoi, and one day control all the Moroi. Robert is on edge around the rest of the strigoi, and it pains me to ask him to leave, but I'm afraid he is in the way. If only he would agree...But that can always be done by force. Anyways, I almost have a big enough army to be able to capture Micheal and his sister, along with her guardian, which I am sure that will be Rose, so I have to be sure to have a large, strong army to over come her. I will come back to write what happened with the strigoi awakening.' Ugh. Sick. I looked down and at the bottom of the page, there was some more writing. I read it. 'It seems as if the world is up side down. I have forced my own brother to awaken. I truly do regret this, because he is not the same anymore. The only reason he hasn't killed me, or ran off is because he is grateful to me for forcing this new life upon him. He makes the others stay, too. They are awaiting me to join them. I don't necessarily want this life, but I will not die from this disease. As soon as Valissa is dead, I will be turned. This is the last time i will be writing, because my plan is under way, and I will be strigoi before long.'
Oh. My. God. Victor forced his own brother to become strigoi. He really is out of his mind. I slumped, then realized that everyone was towering over my shoulder, looking at the paper with disgust. Some one started clapping, and we all about jumped out of our pants. "Well done. I thought I had fool proofed everything, but your no fools, I can see. You passed all got out of your ropes, passed all six strigoi, and managed to find your way through the sewer. I'm impressed!" Victor told us. "Well, you guys didn't take my stake, and we only found three strigoi. So maybe this wasn't fool proofed after all." I snapped back. He swore under is breath, then he spoke where we could hear. "I told the to check you. Oh well, you've just set yourself up for death. There is no way you can get past all of the strigoi I have. Like I said, I'm not stupid." He smiled, and he pressed a button on a remote control that was attached to his pants. Before we could react, strigoi were every where. "I'll leave you all to battle it out. Try not to make too much of a mess." Victor walked out of the room, leaving us with fifteen or so strigoi. Without breaking my glare at all of them, I told Christian,"Get everyone into a corner. Surround them in fire, and stay in there with them." He scoffed. "Like hell I will. Guys you heard her, Get into a corner." I didn't have time to argue with him. I felt the room heat up a little, and then we started our attack. Christian lit up a couple, while me and Dimitri fought some on our own. All of them were at us at once, mainly at Christian, seeing as he was killing as well as defending. I broke away from Dimitri to go stake the ones who panicking in the fire. Those were easy kills. Dimitri continued by himself, and I worried about him every second, but that didn't stop me from fighting. I could feel Lissa's terror, and then again, her out rage. She wanted to help some how too. Good thing she was surrounded in fire.
Slowly, On by one. We took down the strigoi. Christian would set a few on fire, and Me and Dimitri would stake them, if Dimitri wasn't battling with one. Once, Me and Christian almost got knocked out when one came from the side too fast for us to stop it and it slammed us against the wall, but Dimitri stopped it. This was just like the battle at the Academy. On and on it went, and we fought each tone until I found that there were no more to Fight. Hm. I looked at Dimitri with wide eyes, and he smiled. "We did it!" he practically shouted. I couldn't believe it. This was the victory of our lives! Christian let the otthers go, and Lissa ran up and hugged me. "I'm so proud of you. You really just saved us." Then she left me and went to Christian. I didn't want to know whats going on over there, so I ran up to Dimitri. I kissed him, and he smiled back. I couldn't believe that we had just made it through all of the strigoi. But something was telling me that this wasn't over. I Went back on guard, and everyone noticed my change in attitude. They all shut up, and i motioned for them to follow me. We went through the door Victor had left through to find him standing across the room with his mouth wide open. Behind him there were only five strigoi, but that was enough. He slit his eyes at us. "How? How could you possibly beat eighteen of them! Lissa will not make it out of here alive." His voice was fierce, and at that moment the strigoi all went after Lissa. Then three more. god, without Christian we couldn't do this. He was still trying though, and we managed to get a couple down. In the midst of the battle I heard Lissa scream, and turned just in time to see one of the strigoi had picked her up. My eyes widened, and I charged after him. Adrian had seen it too, and for some reason he was going after him also.
Then something hit. I remembered Christians words from before...'We could use him as a..sacrifice.' I don't know how he planned to do it, but Adrian was trying to save Lissa by killing himself. "Adrian, I have this. Get the crap out of here with Micheal!" I shouted, a tear escaping my eyes. Both of us still after the strigoi, he shouted,"Little dhampir. You have to help them. This is the least I can do, and in a way, I'm saving the moroi world from Victor. I'll always love you, Rose." I knew he as right, that we would all die if I didn't try and help Dimitri, but Lissa was mine, mine to protect, and she couldn't die. Just as i was about to say something else, I was attacked, and I had to fight him off. I realized I was fighting Robert. "its been a while,Rose." he said. No way was I talking to him. Out of the corner of my eye, I seen Adrain. i managed to keep on the defensive side against Robert while watching Adrian stand between The strigoi with Lissa and Victor. He was using compulsion on it. I heard him say,"Let her go. You won't kill her." The strigoi wasn't listening, but he wasn't killing Lissa either. Victor was shouting at the strigoi too,"What are you doing? Kill Her! Don't Listen to him!" I couldn't believe compulsion was actually working. I just hop- Ow! Robert hit me, and I went flying a good ten feet back. I had to pay attention to my own battle, but I just couldn't help it..."Listen, your not going to hurt her,. Your going to let her go." The strigoi was standing there confused. Then Victor used his own compulsion and said,"Forget her, kill him!" Adrian wasn't making the strigoi resist to that, so the strigoi lunged. I only had time to scream a short "NO!" Before I heard a sickening crack and seen Adrian's Lifeless body on the ground. I was crying, but I leaped at the strigoi who had just Killed him. I caught him by surprise, and he made for an easy kill.
Dimitri had taken care of the rest, and was now fighting Robert. I couldn't worry about that. I was set on Victor. "Its your Fault he's dead. I swear Victor, I'm going to kill you." I hissed. He gave me a wry smile. "That's fine, but you will always have his death on your hands, and I know it will kill you on the inside. It will be alot like Dimitri, except there's no bringing him back." That did it. I jumped him, and dragged him to where Dimitri was over powering Robert. "You get to watch him die first. You can know that his death was on your hands." Just as i said that, Dimitri killed him. I smiled, stake in hand, and pressed it to his chest, drawing blood. He screamed, and I said,"You know, your not stupid. Your an idiot. You should have never captured me and killed me when you had that chance, and none of this would have happened. So enjoy hell." I stabbed the stake through his heart. And just dropped to my knees on the floor. We might have won, but it was at a cost. He was right, I never would forgive my self for Adrian's death. I couldn't help but crying. Lissa was crying too, and Micheal and Christian were standing with there heads bowed. Dimitri came to me, and whispered that it was ok.
I knew we had to do something, so i called Sidney, and then Abe. Sidney sent some people of her own, and Abe found us, looking heart broken. He told us we would arrange for the funeral later, but now we needed to get back to court while the alchemists worked. I stopped sulking enough to listen, and after a few hours we were on our final flight home. That's when I found Lissa, and we rode back together, silent tears escaping both of our eyes. "It was my fault. i could have helped with the compulsion, made him sleep or something. I just...was shocked." Lissa told me. "Oh, Lissa, it was my fault. You were mine to protect, and I didn't do that. I should have gotten you away first." She shook her head. "No, it wasn't none of our faults. Adrian did this, out of love and friendship. We owe it to him to acknowledge that he sacrificed his life for all of us. He died a noble man." Christian said from behind us. He was right, but I still couldn't stop beating myself up with what if questions. But, my exhaustion caught up with me, and I fell asleep after a while of harassing myself. And it was horrible, because I knew that this was the first night of many that there would be no chance of Adrian in my dreams.
Ok, I know I just killed off alot of peoples favorite character, and i'm sorry, but he did die out of love and loyalty. I'm sorry if you don't think that I did the right thing, but like I said, the end is good.:)