CHAPTER FOUR – OH NO

Hey guys, this is chapter four. I hope you like it. Okay well here it is!

ENJOY!

I WAS SITTING OUT ON THE small balcony, staring out into the dark night, when I heard someone approaching from behind. I could hear them stubble, curse and I had to hold back a smile. Moments later, Blake was beside me on the balcony adopting my same pose: leaning his elbows on the railing and intertwining his fingers.

"Hey, Rose," he said. I glanced at him and took in his profile: his blond hair was sticking up all over his head which made him look pretty cute and innocent; he wasn't wearing a shirt, but was wearing red and black plaid pyjama bottoms.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" I asked politely, turning back to the scenery.

"I was kind of uncomfortable last night and I couldn't sleep." He mumbled and blushed, which obviously meant that it was more than the problem that he was uncomfortable, but I just smirked and didn't pry.

"We're going to need to leave soon," I informed him quietly.

"I'll go wake Tory up." Blake said immediately, pushing off from the rail and as he was just about to open the door, he hesitated. "Rose… are you okay?"

I wasn't facing him so he couldn't see my face twist in pain. I closed my eyes and answered as quietly as Blake had asked. "Yeah, I'm just worried." I confided.

"Why?"

"Well, I guess you two are sort of my charges now, seeing as you can't fight and Tory's a Moroi. I'm just worried about my new crew." I teased. "Go wake up Tory. We're going to be walking- we can't take a cab to the academy and walking will be hard on him." I said before Blake could reply to my other comment.

"Right," he mumbled and I turned gently pushed past him inside. Blake picked up a pillow and I wondered what he was doing, but I got my answer shortly when he launched it at Tory's sleeping form.

"What! What's going on?" he said looking around frantically.

"Get your ass up," Blake smirked before he walked into the washroom.

"Jackass," I heard Tory mumble as he dragged himself from his bed. He fumbled around for a bit then just fell back onto his bed and rubbed his eyes. Blake came out of the washroom shortly after and flicked Tory's knee as he passed. Tory's leg stuck out to either kick or trip Blake, I don't know, but Blake caught his leg and tugged on it so Tory fell to the floor in a heap. Both boys laughed and I shook my head at their easy going banter.

Tory gathered up his things and went to the washroom. I'd already changed about an hour ago while they were sleeping into a pair of lose fitting sweat pant, tank top and a pull over sweater. I walked over to my bag and recovered my stake and slipped it onto the satchel on my belt that would conceal the stake and then, finally, I put my sweater over it.

I looked up to see Blake staring at me in shock. What did I do?

"What?" I asked irritated.

"You have a stake?" he was looking at the lump at the bottom of my hoodie where the stake was.

"Yeah…you saw it at the airport, remember?" I said slowly. Did Blake have memory loss?

"I know that but… I guess it's just more shocking now that I actually know who you are. It just seems too real, you know? You're deadly." Oh, boy, did I ever know how some things didn't seem real, but when you were thrown into a situation, they seem almost too real.

I nodded soberly. "We all are."

We stared at each other in silence for a bit then Blake suddenly said, "You have a plan. I can see it in your eyes. You wouldn't just walk out there unprepared. What is it?" Just as I was about to say that we should wait for Tory, he walked out of the washroom and saw the excited expression on Blake's face and groaned.

"What's got him worked up now?" he said as he put his neatly folded clothes into his duffle bag.

"I've got a plan." That was all I said and suddenly Tory was down to business. He quickly stuffed everything into his bag, heedless of his belongings. When he finally packed all his things away, he fixed me with a serious stare.

"Spill," he said and that was all the encouragement I needed, so I launched into my stagey, which I knew would work- I had tried it before.

"Alright, you have control over fire, yeah?" I received a curt nod and continued. "Right, so I can sense Strigoi and I'll be able to stake them fairly quickly, but I don't want any casualties. When I tell you that there is a Strigoi, you will light it on fire. But do not use a consuming spell. Got that?" I added quickly, remembering how much of Christian's energy it had used. "I'll only need a little distraction. Set his hair on fire or something. Just something small."

"What am I going to do?" Blake said pouting.

"You'll need to watch Tory at all times. Make sure he's safe, and if a Strigoi jumps you, well…" I trailed off, and then I was suddenly digging through my bag again. "Do you know how to use a stake?"

"Um, no."

"That's okay, you'll only need to distract it for a few short seconds, then I'll take care of it from there." Then I found my extra stake and held it out to Blake. He stared at it in astonishment.

"A-are you sure?" he stuttered.

"As long as you can take this seriously." Wow, who would have ever thought the day would come when I would sound like my mother. "We need to protect Tory." As soon as I mentioned the thought of Tory being in danger, the reality of the situation hit Blake full force. And in the short time I'd known him; Blake actually looked like a real guardian. Now, he was getting it. Finally, some progress, he needed to learn that this was the real world and we could very well die.

"I can do this." Now Blake looked as determined as Tory did. He reached out and slowly gripped the handle of the silver stake and pulled it toward him. It reminded me of the first time I'd held a stake. It was one of my training sessions with Dimitri, before my life got so messed up. I wished things could go back to the way they were before. Yeah, well, we can't go back, Rose. Suck it up and go forward. Live your life. Finish what you need to do here and then go back to Lissa. I told myself sternly. I have to stop getting caught up in my memories, it's like I'm reliving everything. And I didn't want to. I wanted to forget everything not remember. Forget the world. All my troubles. I wanted to just curl up somewhere, close my eyes and just lay there for eternity and not be bothered and forget everyone and everything.

But I can't.

I shook off all my thoughts; I didn't have time for them now. I needed to protect these two runaways. Blake caressed the stake and finally tore his gaze from it to stare at me in awe. I grabbed another satchel and walked over to him and clipped it onto his belt. I secured it and placed his stake inside. Patting his belt, I hoped he didn't get the wrong idea, and then I turned back to Tory.

"You can do this?" I asked and he nodded, completely serious, it also looked like…like he's been waiting to do this for a long time. Tory wanted to hunt Strigoi. He wanted them to face death and he wanted to be the bringer of it. Huh. Maybe he'll want to join me and Blake while we training.

I grabbed my bag and set out the door, down to the elevator and the boys followed suit. The man at the desk looked alarmed at the sight of us (well, it was three AM) and I brushed his questions away with vague answers. Once I'd finished paying him for our stay, we marched out into the early morning. A sharp gust of wind greeted us but we bowed our and hunched our shoulders and kept going. I was fairly sure that no Strigoi would attack us while we were in this little town, but if any were out there, I was positive they would attack once we hit the trees. But I was on my guard anyway. There were no chances I could take.

We were silent as we trooped towards the trees and when we reached them, I felt Blake stiffen – he was afraid, that was obvious. I bet the kid had never seen a Strigoi before. Hey, if I were him, I'd be scared shitless too. But I couldn't comfort him, not now at least, and I couldn't tell him everything was going to be okay- because that'd be a lie, because I didn't know what was going to happen. We went about twenty miles without an encounter and I let myself hope that we could get to the academy without seeing any Strigoi, which was completely foolish. I would never get that lucky as long as I would ever live.

I sensed them a few moments before they made them selves known, and those few moments gave me enough time to whisper a warning to Tory and Blake. I threw myself in front of Tory just as one Strigoi leapt at him. I vaguely felt a pressure against my upper arm, but thought nothing of it because my adrenaline was on high. The Strigoi's hair caught fire and I staked him in under five seconds. I exchanged looks with the boys and then started off at a brisk jog. I felt so much nausea and couldn't tell where it was coming from. I was about to voice another warning when my nausea spiked and I was grabbed from behind. I didn't even think about it, I took my stake and stabbed backwards beside my head. I heard a pretty scary scream and the Strigoi's hold loosened and I turned around and almost came to a stand still.

It was the blond Strigoi.

The one I'd seen over Dimitri. My heart stopped beating as I remembered how this Strigoi had looked crouching over Dimitri and sucking his blood.

I launched myself at him, but he was quick and blocked my attack and ran his nails down part of my forearm before I could move it away. I saw his eyes widen in recognition as he got a full look at me when I backed away.

"So," he said in a mocking voice. "We meet again, dhampir." I grunted in response and jumped at him again; he blocked my attack once more.

"Do you remember me, dhampir?" he taunted me.

"Yeah, I remember you." I spat the words at him and narrowed my eyes. Everything in me was burning with rage and my vision tinged red. There was only me and this damned Strigoi. I hated him so much that I wanted to make his death slow and make sure he was in pain, but as much as I wanted to do that, I couldn't because I had an idea.

I launched myself at him once again with as much force as I had and it made him stumble, and that was all I needed. I shoved him hard and forced myself down on him as I pinned him to the ground. He struggled under me but I held my ground.

"You think you can kill me, dhampir? Do you seriously think you can? Don't you remember what I did to that friend of yours? Or was he more than just a friend?" the Strigoi said, not seeming worried.

"Yeah, I think I can kill you because I'm going to. Yeah, I remember what you did to Dimitri and I'm going to make you pay." I growled back, then I raked the stake across his shoulder, just enough to cause some pain. But what surprised me was that he laughed.

"Now, tell me where Dimitri is."

"Why would you want to know that?" he asked, but from the glow in his eyes, I could tell he knew exactly why.

"Where is he?" I held the stake over his arm threateningly.

"Where is Dimitri? Hmmm. Well, the last time that I saw you, you were in Montana when you came to raid our hide-out. And now we are both in Siberia. Guess whose idea that was. I was prepared to keep Dimitri under watch, to make sure that he was getting strong. But I didn't need to. When he was awakened, he was stronger than any other Strigoi I've ever known." His eyes shined with wonder, but I didn't attack him, I was absorbing this information with everything that I had. "Dimitri is now leading our coven by my side. We rule together and all the others bow to our every order and will. He's doing quite well, actually. I'm very glad I had awakened him, it was the best choice I've ever made." He paused thoughtfully. "Well, other than being awakened, it was the best choice I've ever made."

"Dimitri is here? In Siberia?" my voice cracked, making me sound like a weak little girl who couldn't believe what she was hearing. I distantly heard Blake shouting at me to kill the Strigoi, but I paid him no attention, I was focused on my enemy.

"Yes, he is. But you won't stand a chance if you plan to kill him. He's stronger than me even." The Strigoi sounded completely proud, like he'd made some big accomplishment. It disgusted me, but he gave me the information that I needed. I suddenly gasped in pain as the Strigoi freed one of his arms and dragged his nails into and down the length of my thigh. Fuck that hurt.

"Liking the pain?" he growled. "You'll never stand a chance against Dimitri."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." I spat sarcastically before I staked him. "Bastard." I shoved myself off the ground and faced Tory and Blake who were staring at me in pure shock.

"Let's go." I started off at a limped run and clenched my teeth as pain seared through my entire body, but I didn't stop, I couldn't. As the boys ran by my side, I could see that they were both worn and breathing very heavily liked they'd fought Strigoi themselves. I glanced back and got my answers as I saw a burning body and I imagined Blake fighting a Strigoi and getting pinned to the ground but Tory used the consuming spell to save him- just as Christian had for me. Then, glancing at Blake, I now took in his ripped shirt and the ugly bleeding gash down the right side of his chest. Oh no. No, no, no! I couldn't let him die, no way.

Then the academy came into sight, we were about a hundred yards away. Yes! We're going to make it! Wrong. My nausea kicked in letting me know that there were more Strigoi approaching. Fifty yards…forty yards…thirty yards…

"Open the gate!" I screamed. Twenty yards…ten yards…and the gate was open! I shoved both boys through just as my nausea spiked so high it killed.

"Close the damn gate." I growled before I spun around to face…not cool. About ten Strigoi.

Shit.

So…what'd ya think? I know it's a cliff hanger here, but I just had to do it. Please review, pretty please and don't be shy to give your input- I'm sure I'll need it! Thanks!

REVIEW PLEASE!

~alice~