A/N: Ok...here we go. We finally learn who the mastermind is. If you had a guess, let me know if you were right!

Dimitri

Chapter 18

Present Day...

I jammed my stake in the heart of the last Strigoi I had been squaring off with.

Mikhail gripped his side as she got back to his feet. "Shit! That hurt."

"You, ok?" I asked.

He breathed in deeply through his nose and out his mouth. "Those bastards are on a whole other level."

"Dimitri!"

I turned; Christian's raised voice coming from the other side of the compound where I had left him and Rose. I was aware that at some point he had left Rose to come and help us in the fight. There were too many of them and even with our Moroi earth element user and the other fire user, we had been outnumbered. I would've been too angry with him for leaving Rose if it hadn't been for the fact that he had given us the upper hand when did it almost seem bleak.

So far, we had lost six guardians in the raid. Luckily, all four fire Moroi were safe, but our earth Moroi had been a little banged up. Considering the loss, we had encountered in the beginning, losing six of our own to kill thirty-five of them was now the most successful mission to date.

I ran back through the rooms until I reached the office space where I had left Rose, Christian, and Josh. Christian looked at me and I could see from one glance that something was wrong. He pressed his lips together, a slight shake of his head.

I already knew Rose wasn't here. I would feel her if she was. We could be standing in a room with more than a hundred people wall to wall, and I would still find her. I would still feel her. Every single time.

My eyes took in my surroundings. I clocked the three additional dead Strigoi laying on the ground that weren't there before we had left.

"What the…"

Mikhail's voice said behind me. I moved closer to Christian, seeing half a lower body visible from the desk. Christian bowed his head, his expression turning to one of sadness and disgust. I knew that look, because it was one that every of our kind worn when we lost one of our own.

I rounded the corner, seeing Josh's lifeless body. The gaping hole in his neck where he had been bitten bit a Strigoi. His eyes were still open, his expression frozen in shock, fear, and sadness.

"I found him like this. Rose wasn't here," Christian added.

I had just gotten her back, and now she was gone from me. Again.

"Mikhail, check in with Tom's team." They had been the ones patrolling outside to catch any fleeing Strigoi. "Someone had to see something."

Mikhail radioed Tom, one of the squad leaders who had been just as busy in the fight as the rest of us. We had expected that once we dealt with who had kidnapped Rose, the rest would scatter for some sort of safety. It was why two of the four Moroi we had brought stayed with Tom's team.

"He says no one came in or out other than Strigoi."

I turned away from Josh's lifeless body, my mind racing. "That can't be possible. We had coverage points on every exit. Someone should have seen if anyone was fleeing with an unconscious woman."

"They had to have another way," Mikhail surmised.

My eyes snapped up to the bookshelves of the room. I was aware of the weight of stares of both Christian and Mikhail on my back.

"Then there had to be another way out. A way we weren't aware of, and a way that bypasses all visible exits."

Christian's brows raised. "Like a secret hidden passageway?"

I nodded. "Mikhail, see if you can locate their security systems. There should have been footage in this room."

Mikhail had firsthand knowledge of all security measures. It was the last position he held prior to Sonya being restored. Being off active guardian duty of protecting a Moroi, gave him the ability to spend all his free time looking for Sonya when not on shift. My hope is it would help aid us today.

"I'm on it," Mikhail announced, already talking into his ear piece giving commands to request half of his remaining team not focused on recovery efforts, go with him to where the security room was within the compound to review the security footage.

Christian stayed behind with me. "What are we looking for?" he asked.

I moved over to the first of the larger walls, my hands knocking on the panel to see if it was solid or hollow sounding. "They had to get out of here undetected. There has to be a way they moved through the compound." I was so sure of it.

Christian joined me as we started moving throughout the room. "Dimitri, I want you to know, I take full responsibility. I should have stayed like you asked, but she—"

"It's not your fault," I interjected, as I knocked on another spot on the wall, trying to keep my focus on the task, and not let the fact that I had failed Rose again enter into my thoughts. "You saved lives."

He let out a discouraged sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. "If something happens to her…"

I swallowed, because the thought of something awful happening to Rose when she had already been in an injured state, if she had been turned into one of those enhanced creatures, there would be hell to pay. I would spend every last waking second of my life bringing every single person associated with this operation to justice. By justice…I meant death.

My gaze was firm. "It still wouldn't have been your fault."

I could tell he wanted to believe me. Just as I wanted to believe myself. We both had a job to do. Rose knew that too, considering I was confident she had probably threatened Christian to go and protect us or she would have herself even in that state, but that didn't mean the guilt I was carrying at failing to protect her, wasn't threating to want to consume me.

"Dimitri…you're going to want to see this," Mikhail said through our coms.

"We're on our way," I replied, abandoning the room and in search of the security room.

As Christian and I descended the stairs, Mikhail was there standing behind one of his guardians who was sitting at the front of the computer, pulling up video coverage.

"What did you find?"

Mikhail's arms were crossed over his chest, his right hand resting on his chin. "This…" he turned to his guardian under his command. "Show Guardian Belikov the video of the office."

The video played, showing Rose, Christian and Josh, before Christian had left the room right at the point in which the battle between us and the Strigoi could have gone either way. That left Rose and Josh remaining in the room.

A few minutes later, we could see the additional Strigoi enter the room. Before Rose and Josh figured they were there, it had been two late. It was three Strigoi on the two of them. Technically one, since Josh had no experience or skills in fighting Strigoi let alone enhanced Strigoi.

Rose in her injured state, only had one who figured she would be an easy kill, while the other two had gone after Josh. I had held my breath as Rose managed to kill the one that had attacked her, the pain in her expression as she continued to favor her shoulder, and limp on her ankle as she moved to go and help Josh.

What I also noticed in watching the exchange, is that while the Strigoi attacking Josh were intent on killing him, the Strigoi focused on Rose, weren't going for any sort of kill shot or blow. They were purposely trying to subdue her.

They each fought with their perspective Strigoi. Rose was more fluid and precise, a few times able to help Josh fend his off as well. She had knocked the Strigoi attacking Josh to the side, as he fell to the floor from a nasty hit. She continued to grapple with the one in front of her, jamming the letter opener in his neck long enough to hold out her hand and demand Josh's stake.

Josh hit had been pretty good, attempting to get to his feet and regain his equilibrium. Rose had seen it. I had seen it. We had all seen it, expect for Josh. The Strigoi that had been fighting him had the same letter opener and stabbed him in the back.

I saw the shift in Rose. The same shift I had seen the night Mason died. There could have been twenty enhanced Strigoi attacking her, but the pure fury fueling her in that moment would have ripped every last one of them to shreds.

She staked the final Strigoi, falling to her knees as the tears fell from her eyes, as she tried to save Josh by covering his neck wound. Without a spirit user—and maybe even then—his injuries had been severe losing too much blood to quickly. Out of the corner of my eye, I felt Christian stiffen, the moment Josh took his final breath.

Then I saw what it was that Mikhail had called me down here to see. Rose's eyes went wide, her face contorted with pain. Her body involuntary shook from her head to her toes. Her body straightened as if her body was held together by a string and a new master was pulling her up tightly into a straight line.

She was being electrocuted.

The person responsible for inflicting harm on Rose, stepped out from the shadows and into the frame of the camera.

"Is that…" Christian's tone was in utter disbelief.

"I never thought…" Mikhail added grimly.

My hands clenched into fists. Just seeing their face on the screen made me scowl and filled me with a combination of dread and furry.

"So, Igor wasn't the boss? He wasn't the mastermind behind all this?" Christian asked inquisitively to anyone in the room.

I shook my head. "No. This was a partnership. Igor had a vendetta against me." I looked back to the computer screen, the face of Rose's captor angling towards the camera as if they knew they were being watched. "They wanted, Rose. This was personal."

"What do you want to do?" asked Mikhail.

My eyes remained on the screen. "We now know who we are dealing with. We have a name. I want everything on them. Now we know where to look."

Rose

I now knew what it felt like to be electrocuted. Can't say that was a whole hell of a lot of fun.

My eyes opened warily. Every muscle in my body ached and throbbed.

I groaned. "Can I go one day without being kidnapped," I muttered.

I tried to move my arm, but it was handcuffed. To a bed.

"Definitely a compliment."

I grimaced, even moving an ounce, as I looked around. I was handcuffed to a cot similar to what I would find in an infirmary. My sweater had been removed, but I was still wearing my pants and tank top that had been underneath.

I stiffened, when I noticed the IV sticking in my arm connected to a clear bag, hanging from my bed. I tried to remove it, only to learn my other hand was also handcuffed.

The curtain lifted around me. "It's about time your awake."

I glared at the person standing in front of me. My ability to be surprised anymore had hit its limit. "I'm sorry, my time tables tend to get messed up when I'm shocked and taken against my will," I replied sarcastically.

He eyed me sardonically. "I see your mouth hasn't matured over the years."

"Yeah, well the years haven't seemed to kind to you, either."

Robert Doru.

He was the illegitimate son of Trenton Daskov and Victor Dashkov's half-brother. Next to Natalie—Victor's daughter—former Strigoi that Dimitri and I killed after she turned to please her father—Robert seemed to be the only other person that Victor had any sort of feelings or relationship with.

Next to Lissa, Adrian, Sonya, and Oksana, Robert was the only other spirit user that I knew that had explored the possible depths of what a spirit user could do. He was one of the only other ones that had actually used his ability to restore a Strigoi back to a Moroi. That having been Sonya.

It was also the reason that I believed Victor had maintained a relationship with his half-brother. I didn't believe for one second the dead bastard—and no sentiments to rest his soul—because he didn't have one—that he had known all of what spirit could do. It was why he had risked his daughter becoming Strigoi knowing that Robert would be able to restore her.

What I still never understood at the time, was why Victor had wanted Lissa to use her spirit instead of Robert to help keep his illness at bay. When I had been on the run and agreed to work with Victor and Robert at the opportunity to restore Dimitri back to a dhampir, I finally figured out why.

When Lissa had used too much of her power—like Sonya had—it made them physically and mentally sick. They would experience hallucinations, cuts to their arms, voices in their head, and pain. Pain so bad that it would willingly turn someone who would never want too…into believing the option that turning to Strigoi to make it all better was the only way to make it all stop.

Robert had used spirit one too many times, and had literally become unhinged. During my time on the run, he would often break into fits, talk to himself, and ramble about things that no one—outside of Victor—could understand what he had been saying.

Victor had never given up his quest for power and the want to become King after Queen Tatiana's murder. He had been taken out of contention because of his illness. He would gladly have killed Lissa if it meant he could use every last ounce of her spirit power to maintain his health.

I had been the one to break him out, knowing he could save Dimitri, so when he had kidnapped Lissa's half-sister, Jill, it was my responsibility to return him to face justice.

In my defense, my shadow-kissed ghost dilemma had also thrown a wrinkle in the plan. Even though Victor was doing everything he could with his earth element to kill me, my spirit induced rage with the ghosts surrounding me had accidentally killed Victor in the process.

I never forgot the anguish in Robert's face when Victor had passed. Or the attempt he had tried to bring him back from the dead, before Sonya and Dimitri had put a stop to it. They had removed his body before he could try again, disposing him somewhere that we were certain Robert didn't know the location of.

I hoped that was still the case.

I had always wondered about our decision in needing to leave Robert behind, in our haste to get Jill back to Royal Court to settle everything with Lissa, but since he had been so out of his mind, we had hoped he would end up being helpless and no threat to anyone.

We were wrong.

"You left me for dead," he stated simply, no doubt guessing my thoughts.

"You tried to kill me," I countered. "You tried to bring back your dead brother who was a danger to this world."

His mouth tightened. "Victor was a gift to this world. He was the only one who had a vision. A vision that was for the good of our entire race."

I shot him a look of incomprehension. "He tried to murder his niece. He had his own daughter turn Strigoi, and he used you over and over again until you reached the point that you couldn't even function without his assistance."

"You know nothing, girl." He barked.

"I know now, we should have killed you when we had the chance."

He sneered, a sickening smile curling on his lips. "You should have. A mistake I won't make with you."

I felt a coldness run up my back at his threat, but I had also been threated with my life for the last few weeks. It was starting to get pretty old.

It was then that I realized while I might think that Robert was unhinged, he was clearly well enough to be a part of this operation. Or had he found Victor and everything we thought about spirit was wrong. Was it possible that you could actually bring someone back from the dead and not just the brink of death?

"Victor…"

His eyes narrowed. "My brother is dead." He confirmed, the words spoken as if they left a sour taste in his mouth.

"This…the terminator Strigoi's…that's all you?"

His eyes gleamed with pride. "I can't take all the credit. As I said, Victor had a vision. He had been working on this for years. He had suspected after we had learned that we could restore a Strigoi, that there was more that spirit could do. He was right."

"He was a mad man," I reminded him.

I knew I should be careful in antagonizing him any further. I could still see crazy behind those brown eyes. Like Lissa, I wondered if without Victor around to force Robert to use his powers on a constant basis, if he had taken some time away from using his abilities and regained some sort of normalcy.

"Without my Victor around, it was left up to me to continue on with his vision."

I stared in timid bewilderment at the fact that he seemed to really believe in whatever plan and strategy he had been working on.

Then it all clicked. All of the information I had come across in the office back at Igor's place. The draining of blood from Moroi and Dhampirs. The notes and research over the years before it was perfected with the one thing that Robert could do—use his spirit element.

Oh, no!

Victor may have been certifiably nuts, but he had been right about this. Spirit couldn't just be used to restore the effects of Strigoi, but when used just right…it was able to create a terminator Strigoi using the blood of Moroi and Dhampir and pulling out the best of their abilities to make them damn near unstoppable.

"Why?"

He scoffed. "Why?" he repeated, as if the answer was so obvious, I was stupid to even ask. "We are gods, Rose. Moroi and Dhampirs. We should never have to hide. We should never have to be checked by those alchemists as if we are some dirty secret."

I gulped. "You want to rule the world." I guessed.

His eyes lit up. "We should rule the world. We are all powerful, as we should be. It's nothing that doesn't already exist today, Rose. It's a part of evolution. Theirs predators and then there is prey."

I shook my head. "So, what…you want to wipe out the world until there is nothing left but your terminator Strigoi's. You still haven't been able to perfect their flaws of bloodlust and power. Eventually they would turn on each other. Like they always do."

He shrugged his shoulders as if that was a minimal risk. "As I said, only the strong should prevail."

Like Victor, the years hadn't been kind to Robert either. I sensed that he was still using enough spirit to bind the blood to make his terminator Strigoi. He looked older, hunched over, needing a cane to walk. As it was, he was leaning on the cane now, choosing to sit on the stool that had been placed at the edge of my bed.

"Lissa would never let this happen. You would never be able to take over the world. They would stop you." I pointed out.

He turned his head to the side and spat. "Your queen is gutless, weak, and easily persuaded. She doesn't have what it takes to do what is needed."

I arched a brow looking at his tightened grip on his cane. "And you do? You don't seem like you could even survive the war you would set into motion."

"Victor was the leader. I was just the brains. I can find the muscle to do the job for me."

My jaw clenched. "If you were hoping that would be Igor Zeklos, I hate to disappoint you." I wasn't sorry at all for killing that bastard.

A stab of pain hit my chest so suddenly, that if I hadn't been chained to a bed, I was sure I possibly could have passed out. It reminded me that the man in front of me, the man I was surely responsible for aiding Igor's delusions was responsible for killing Josh.

Robert waved his hand as if my disclosing that piece of information was insignificant. "Igor was a means to an end. We both wanted something out of the deal. I delivered on my end." He scowled. "He almost didn't live up to his end."

His eyes flickered back to me. Message received. The deal on his end…had been me.

My expression was utter disbelief. "You did all this just to get Dimitri and I?"

"Not just you and Dimitri." He grinned. "You were the most important part. My research and manifest are in motion. You can't get us all."

A pit formed in my stomach. I searched every ounce of his face to determine if what he was saying was true. I thought back to all of the Strigoi I had encountered throughout the mission. Each one of them had given cryptic messages throughout about what was to come. That we wouldn't be able to stop them. I had hoped it was just those that considered Robert and Igor their master.

"I wouldn't be so sure," I retorted.

He smirked. "Well, I know you won't." He let out a long sigh as if this was something that he had thought long and hard about. "I've had so much time to think about what I would do with you. What I believe Victor would want to do with you if he were still here."

I know he wanted me to ask. He felt that he was the predator in this situation and that I was the prey. It amazed me that he still didn't know that I didn't go down without a fight and I wouldn't.

His eyes glanced up at the bag hanging behind me, his eyes traveling down to the tube that was stuck into my arm. I tried to school my expression and not show an ounce of fear, but Robert was a spirit user. He would be able to tell by my aura even if I attempted to lie.

"I could just kill you," he explained. "But then I thought what a waste that would be. As much as I despise you, Rose…as much as I want you to pay for the death of my brother—"

"I will never let you turn me Strigoi," I interjected.

He laughed. "Oh, dear, Rose…I have no plans to turn you. The world doesn't need a Strigoi Rose Hathaway."

"Then, what could…"

My words died on my tongue. It all clicked. The bag, the IV, what I had seen back at Igor's place with the cots lined up with Humans, Dhampir, and Moroi.

"That's right," he observed, seeing me figure it out. "There is something special about you, Rose. You're only the third known case of being shadow-kissed. There must be something special with you when you should have died time after time. Maybe your blood is key to even more power on my newly created Strigoi."

"Your sick!" I exclaimed.

He used his cane to stand from the stool as he came over to my bed. I couldn't go anywhere being chained there, but I still shrunk away as he came over to the bedrail. He checked my bag and IV, before the door opened again.

In walked a woman in a white lab coat. Another human. She didn't even look remorseful as she walked in. As if I was some lab rat that she was coming in to check in on.

She dropped a sliver tray to the side of me on the cabinet, my eyes glancing over at the tools. It was everything she needed in order to make sure they could do exactly what Robert had said he was going to do. Take my blood from me.

I still couldn't fathom the reason why a human would want to surround themselves with unruly Strigoi. I had guessed that she was promised the gift of eternal life—that was if some Strigoi didn't slip and think she was a snack.

"You won't get away with this. Dimitri will find you. He will kill you."

Robert shrugged as if he expected that. "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I am ready for that." He leaned in towards me, his eyes darkening. "Not before I see every last ounce of your blood drawn from you, as vengeance for what you have done to my poor Victor."

My wrists pulled at the cuffs. "I take it back. I'll kill you."

He laughed. "Oh, Rose. Your biggest flaw, was that you could never see the big picture."

My eyes narrowed. "And you do? You think I am buying any of that story you sold me back there." His eyebrow twitched in amusement. "You didn't create all this because you want to just rule the world. Someone else might…but not you. You did this hoping it would bring back your brother. You failed."

His eyes darkened, his grip on his cane turning his fingers so white it was fathomable it could get any whiter than that of his aged skin.

"You're right," he agreed. "Which should tell you just how dangerous of a man I can be right now."

That did actually make me shiver. Mostly because I knew that unlike Igor who I did believe wanted to start a war and rule the Strigoi race, in addition to killing Dimitri as some part of a vengeful plan…Robert only wanted to see one thing through. My death as a debt to be paid for the death of his brother. A life for a life.

"I stopped you once…I will stop you again."

His leer was telling. "I've waited patiently for years for this, Rose. If by chance, Dimitri hasn't died from all the Strigoi I have sent to him, if he figures it out and tries to swoop in like a knight and shinning armor…it will be too late for you. He was probably better of dying back at Igor's compound. At least then, he wouldn't have to live with the guilt that comes from losing the one you love."

I actually felt the last part of his statement was genuine. As crazy and unstable as Robert Doru was, he was loyal and loved his brother to a fault.

If what Robert said was true, if I was going to die, and Dimitri didn't make it in time, the anguish I knew he would feel over my death picked at me like one would pick a scab. It would never heal, because he would never be able to let it heal.

My eyes snapped back to the human in the room as she finished organizing her tray, her eyes casting a look at Robert. If I could keep him talking, maybe it would prolong them from trying to drain my blood.

"How did you get your supply?" I blurted, the first thing coming to my mind. The one thing I still didn't have all the answers to.

He looked away from the human who seemed exasperated and annoyed by the constant interruptions. As if I was inconveniencing her about my looming death.

It had been in vain, since Robert still gave her the go ahead, her expression perking back up as she came to my side with the device. I pulled away from her as far as my arm would let me handcuffed to the bed.

"Be still," she demanded, her sharp eyes giving me a scathing look. "Or I will give you something that will render you immobile."

I didn't want to obey, but I would fight to my very last second. I couldn't do that if they gave me something that would prevent me from fighting. The thought made me sick. Is that what they had done to capture their Moroi and Dhampir? Inject them with something that prevented them from fighting back?

My arm stilled; her expression turning pleased at my obedience. I tried not to watch, but it was like trying not to watch an accident as you passed by.

She added the contraption to the wire hanging in the tube, and twisted the cap. My arm jumped instinctively as I saw the first of bright crimson red leave my arm and begin to fill the tube.

I winced.

Robert took in a deep breath. "To answer your question, dear, Rose, since you won't be alive much longer, I don't see why I can't tell you…"

I looked away from the blood slowly draining from my arm and back at his smug face.

"You were right. I have no interest in leading the war that is about to come. I never have. Igor had potential, but there was one other player in this game that you are forgetting about."

I tried to rack my brain for every name in the dossier, every name from the club, every word that had been uttered to me in the last month. I was coming up empty handed.

"Some brothers do what they do out of love, and others do what they do because of good olde competition."

My eyes went wide. "No!"

I knew the moment he knew I had realized the last clue.

It made sense.

A place where Moroi and Dhampir thought they were safe and protected.

A place where you could easily manipulate the information without anyone the wiser.

St. Anna's Academy.

The supplier…had been Ian Croft all along.

And he had done it right under his brother's nose.

"Do you mind if I sit here with you, Rose?"

I snarled. "Go to hell!"

He laughed. "You first."

My eyes returned to the tube, my blood freely flowing now. My head started to feel woozy, spots going in and out of my eyes. I was losing too much too quickly. He really was bleeding me dry.

I looked away from Robert, not wanting him, his voice, or the talk about his twisted plan to rule the world to be the last thing I thought about before I went unconscious.

I closed my eyes, committing to every one of Dimitri's features, as they flashed behind my eyes. I went to my happy place. The place of his arms tightly wrapped around me, as he whispered my name, Roza, over and over ahead as he told me he loved me in English and Russian.

His touch felt so real, that I sunk into it, giving up on trying to fight through the haze and back to the surface. No…here…there was no pain. There was just love. Love, peace, and my full heart that would always belong to him in this life and the next—if there was one.

His warm brown eyes looked back at me. He flashed me a smile as he held out his hand, as I placed mine in his. I could feel the smile creep up on my face, my body relaxing.

"Your safe now, Roza. I won't let anyone hurt you," he said, his voice a fleeting whisper in the wind.

"I know," I said, my words coming out breezy. "I love you, Dimitri."

And then everything went black.

A/N: We're down to our final two chapters.