A/N: Hi, everyone! I want to thank you for all of your reviews and support, and hope you'll continue. Even with Bloodlines coming out I really hope you'll continue to read my fanfic And if you have read Bloodlines, could you tell me if it met up with your expectations? I want to read it, but I'm sure I would miss Rose and Dimitri too much. Even with Adrian being there to fill the gap, I'm not quite confident it would make up for the absence of everyone else as well. Anyway, enjoy and R & R!

/ Primrue

P.S I can't believe I forgot Robert's last name is Doru in the previous chapter and not Dashkov…Sorry!

~o~0~o~

The place seemed familiar. 'It's here at Court', I realized with a start. I recognized the brick walls, the old statues and the ancient looking buildings. The only thing that made it different was the lack of people. No people running around gossiping or discussing politics. Not even as much as a servant was to be seen. Only the rustle of surrounding trees was giving a sound, something that calmed me. In a weird way it didn't make me feel quite as alone as I could have.

I made myself take a few steps forward.' Okay, new power. Bring it! I'm prepared this time.' I challenged.

And my powers answered me immediately. I'd never seen anyonything so scary in my life. Even Rose without sugar in her system couldn't make me shiver in the way this person did. His eyes looked dead and empty, just as his footsteps sounded. The plants around him instantly decayed where he passed, giving him an even more sinister appearance, if possible, than before.

With each step he was getting closer and as I desperately tried to move, I found that my feet were stuck to the ground. Panic rose inside of me. Even if this happened to be a dream it still felt extremely real. I could almost feel the man's, now raised, hands around my throat. I felt like passing out (which was weird since I reminded myself that I was asleep) and I saw him approaching, and when I realized that he was reaching for someone behind me. I started to turn around, but before I got a glimpse of the person behind me-

I woke up.

"Hi there, stranger."

I was lying in my own bed with the lights on. My eyes tried to adjust to the brightness and I blinked several times before I saw Rose smiling down at me.

"Hi. Where's-"

"She's on the couch." ,Rose said and pointed toward the couch in the corner of the room where Jill slept. "She was watching you the whole night and dozed off about twenty minutes ago. Lissa wasn't too happy about her being here, though. Their fight was not pretty…"

I recalled our latest encounter and could see how that would be perfectly reasonable. Lissa had gone crazy when she had found out about mine and Jill's relationship. Not spirit-crazy, I suppose. Just stressed-out-crazy…I hoped.

"How are you, little Dhampir?" , I asked. I wasn't ready to get into the whole 'me and Jill' thing so I tried to steer the conversation in a different direction.

Rose looked at me with her dark eyes. I found myself thinking that they were beautiful. I guess some things you couldn't change. No matter how much you loved someone else.

"Fine." , she answered. "I broke my arm in the fall but Lissa fixed it."

"Good. I got pretty beat up myself too, if that helps."

She gave a little laugh. "It does help a bit. But, none of that should have had to happen at all." , she said as her smile faltered. "This spirit crap is getting out of hand. Something strange is going on here." I could see how the wheels in her head started spinning. Probably trying to figure out if some evil scheme that may have been put upon us. Evil…

"Rose," I interrupted her thoughts. "I had a new dream."

"What kind of dream?" ,she asked curiously and tried to not look skeptical. She failed.

"A spirit prediction dream. And well, it didn't really tell me much, except that Robert Doru is after someone here at Court. "

She frowned. "I could've told you that much. He's after me, of course. I mean, I killed his brother…" She turned silent and glanced down at the floor. Rose had only defended herself, but it had cost Victor Dashkov his life and now his brother was after revenge. She still felt some kind of guilt, I knew that much. So, I took her hand in mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"You did what you had to do, little Dhampir. "

"Yeah, I know…" She took a deep breath and turned to me. "I've missed talking to you."

Crap. I didn't want it to get emotional. I didn't want to discuss my feelings with Rose. I still felt betrayed by her. Jill had managed to patch some of the messed up pieces within me and had made me want to fix myself on my own as well. But was I ready to forgive Rose? No.

"Well, I am irresistibly handsome and hot and amazing company. So, I'm not that surprised." However, I could still tell the truth. "Though I've missed it too, little Dhampir."

She smiled at that and gave my hand a gentle squeeze. "Thank you." It startled me to see how much she really meant it.

There was a tiny snore coming from the couch and both Rose and I couldn't help but laugh. The air felt a bit more relaxed than I ever thought it could be around us ever again. Maybe we had just been meant to be friends. It was never going to be easy, but I think we would manage. At least, until I died from craziness and she was killed by Robert Doru… Happy futures for both of us.

"Hey, you brought me wine! I would've preferred Vodka, but I think this'll do." , I said as I inspected my gift. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Stop your bitching. You should be glad you're getting anything at all. Now that you're still refusing medication we need something to keep you sane…r. "

"Thank you, for the utter lack of confidence in me. " , I said sarcastically. I opened one of the two wine bottles and started drinking. "Is Jill still with Lissa? I thought she'd be off to college by now."

"I told you. Lissa has postponed her going to college. With everything going on her at Court and Robert Doru-"

"God, I'm beginning to hate that name."

"-she just figured she was needed here."

I nodded. During the last week, the avenging spirit user had been creating damage in Seattle. Several people had gone missing and there were rumors that Strigoi was working for him now. And why wouldn't they? He had managed to get hold of Victor's money, he was powerful (even if not the most clearheaded person) and he wanted to kill the bodyguard of the Queen. Which would make it easier to kill the Queen herself. That kind of thing was sure to be tempting to any power seeking creature, which the Strigoi happened to be.

"But, Jill is still going to school in a week, you know. " ,said Rose.

I stopped chugging down my second bottle of wine and froze. I couldn't go with her, I knew that much. My condition was improving but nonetheless, it was still unstable. The day before the attacks in Seattle, I had had a dream about it and I got the feeling that people started to believe me now. 'All it took was for a few people to die.' , I thought darkly.

If Jill left, I would be alone again. Even if Rose and I were gradually getting back to how we used to be, she had her Russian boy. And Lissa was still not seeing me. Rose had told me she thought the idea of me and her sister as "icky". My mother had visited and I'd made my peace with her. When a woman forgets to put on make-up out of worry for her son, you've got to give her a break. But she wasn't exactly the kind of company I would want around me 24/7.

I wouldn't even have Eddie (not that I wanted to, but still…) who was going to follow Jill to school as her guardian. I'd had a real difficult time not being jealous and accepting that one.

"Her life can't stop because of me." , I said. "It will be good for her to get away from all of this politics and crazy spirit folk."

Rose looked as if though she agreed and gave a teasing smile. "I still get surprised every time you're being mature and making sense."

"Yeah, well, even if it is 'oh so fun' to be crazy, a guy needs to take a break. "

We continued to tease and talk for an hour before Rose had to leave. She said goodbye and told me she'd try to pry Jill away from Lissas grasp before Jill would leave. I thanked her and was yet again alone. My room held nothing exciting to do except for books. Oh wait, had I said books were exciting? I meant that there was nothing exciting to do at all.

Still, I went to the bookshelf after staring at the ceiling for half an hour. There was everything from science to fantasy. I randomly picked one and began to read. Ugh! It was a western novel! I put it back and gave up the search for a good book. Instead I decided to draw.

I let my hands move gracefully over the paper. A forest appeared and soon thereafter a wonderful, orange sky with a glowing, red sun. I felt more peaceful than I had done in a long time and was startled when I felt something touch my mind.

'Who's there?', I demanded.

No answer.

Suddenly my hands started to move by themselves as my mind was taken over by someone else. It felt like the time where I'd attacked Rose, but this time it was ten times stronger. The red pen I was holding, rapidly and furiously spelled out a sentence. When my mind was once again my own I stared at my paper and knew that only one person could've done this.

I decided to go to Lissa and took with me the paper that with red, huge letters held the message:

"I will kill you all."

~o~0~o~