This chapter is one that Rose has been waiting for. And Christian too.

Hope you all enjoy.

PLEASE R&R.

Getting Ready To Leave

"Punch! Kick!" I yelled orders at Adrian to hit the punching bag. It's been a week that he's been training. And I can totally notice improvement, which makes me extremely happy. Maybe, just maybe, we can leave soon. "Kick!"

"I get it Rose," Adrian yelled, stopping his training. "Kick, punch, bla, bla, bla, etcetera, etcetera. I get it."

"Then do it. Stop yelling at me and do it. You've been doing great all day, don't start now Adrian."

"Well stop yelling at me then." He took a few more punches and kicks before totally giving up. "I've been at it for hours with no break, I'm exhausted Rose."

"Fine," I said as I walked away to find Dimitri. I know I shouldn't be so hard on him, it's just that we need to find Lissa fast before we can never find her. Strigoi never stay in the same place for long, everyone knows that, me more than anyone.

After I found Dimitri, or rather after he found me stomping around, I cooled down pretty fast. All I needed was to be in Dimitri's comforting arms. I didn't even have to tell him what was wrong, he always knew what I was thinking with just one look at my face. He knew that I was ready to leave to go searching for Lissa. Actually, I was ready right when she was taken. But even I knew better than that. That we needed a good plan. And after a week or so of training, day, and night, I think we're ready to go 'hunting'.

"I feel the same way Rose," Dimitri told me after I was completely calmed down and relaxed.

"You do?" I asked, surprised. Usually he wants to make sure one hundred percent that we were ready to take on anything that got in our way.

"Yeah. I think we've waited too long to not got searching. It is Lissa after all. I can tell how much you miss and need her."

"I really do," I whispered, almost on the break of crying right here. "She's been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I need her back, and soon."

"I know Roza. I know," he whispered against my hair, hugging me closer to him as a tear escaped my eye and ran down my cheek.

"What?" Everyone yelled at Dimitri and me. ""You want to what? When?"

"Did I st-"

"You heard us correctly," Dimitri interrupted me, really pissing me off. And I knew he knew that too. "We both want to leave as soon as possible, like tonight, to start our search on Lissa. We've waited a little too long. If we wait any longer, we might never find her." That quieted everyone as they all looked down at the floor.

"They're right," I heard someone say as he stepped forward. Christian. "I wanted to go right when those son-of-a-bitches took her. But then I would probably be dead right now, or maybe worse. But we have waited too long. I agree; we leave tonight." And he left it at that as he walked out the door to get his stuff ready.

"But what if I'm not ready?" Adrian asked from beside me.

"Don't worry. We might not find her right away, so you still have plenty of time to practice. And then you still have the dreams," I said as I smiled at the last part. Recently, Adrian had been going into Dimitri's dreams, really bugging him. He hated that Adrian could do that, but he was a better fighter than me, so he had to deal with it to help get Lissa back. And he'd do anything to help her.

"Yeah," I heard Dimitri mutter beside me. "Can't wait for those." Then he walked off to talk to Eddie and some others.

That night we all packed for any kind of weather. We didn't really have a plan on where exactly we'd all go. Just anywhere that we knew a lot of Strigoi usually went, which meant a lot of big cities. All I knew was that our first stop was going to be Bethlehem. It's one of the biggest cities near hear. I know it's like a one in a million chance, but all we had to do was hope that we'd find something, anything.

"Are you all ready?" I asked as I eyed everyone that was going with us. Christian, Adrian, Eddie, Mikhail, Sonya, Mia, Janine, Abe, and ten other guardians stood there with their luggage, all nodding that they were ready whenever Dimitri and I were. I walked over to where I had put my luggage, about to get it as Dimitri's big, strong hand grabbed it before me. I was about to argue, but the look that he gave me told me not to. So I just walked over to Adrian and Christian.

"Finally," Christian sighed. When I just kept looking at me he continued. "We should of left like a week ago."

"I know, I know. But you and I both know that we had to be prepared. It would be like suicide if we didn't. I don't want you and Lissa gone, or anyone else. I don't think I could handle that."

"Aww, Rose does have a heart," he laughed as I hit his arm. "Sorry, couldn't help it. But yeah, I know, I wouldn't want that either."

"That's what I thought. And do you think you're ready?" I asked as I turned to Adrian.

"No," he replied. "But am I ever?" He chuckled as he hugged me and messed up my hair.

"Stop it. You know I hate it when you do that."

"And that's why I do it," he smiled and kept messing up my hair until I finally pulled away from him laughing up a storm.

When I thought I was about to faint from laughter, Dimitri came up behind me and held me in his arms, making sure I didn't fall. I leaned against his chest, trying to control my breathing as everyone picked up their lugage and walked out to the three vans that we would be using for the twenty of use that were going.

"What's so funny?" I little blonde girl asked as she walked up to us.

"Oh, hey Mia. Nothing. Just Adrian being Adrian," I said as I hugged her. I know we use to dispise each other, but now it's like we're sisters. She was in the training classes with Lissa, so she decided that it was just right to come along to get her back. And she'd be a lot of help with her water. I know I once told her that she would useless with water, but that was before she helped me by drowning a Strigoi, when Mason was killed. But now that she's learned a lot to do with it, training with older water users, it's better to just not piss her off. But she still couldn't take me.

"Of course. He's always messing around. So how is he doing in the trainings?"

"Great. He's improved so much that it's impressive to even me," I said as I gave a big grin in Adrian's direction.

"Wow," Adrian said. "Thanks so much. That means so much to me."

"I'm just saying. You have been doing good."

"Well I have had a great teacher."

"Aww, thanks."

"I was talking about Dimitri here," Adrian laughed as he punched Dimitri's arm. He laughed harder as I tried to hit him as Dimitri grabbed me, pulling me away from Adrian.

"Don't worry. I'll teach you something in a minute," I grumbled at Adrian.

"Oh yeah? What?"

"Of how to get my foot out of your damn ass," I shouted with a grin as I tried to get to him again. But of course, I could hardly move with Dimitri holding me back. "Just one hit," I begged Dimitri. "Just one." I kept throwing my fist in the air, not even coming close to hitting him. I know hw was only joking around, I think he was joking around, but I just felt like hitting someone, and what he said was a good excuse as any.

"I was just joking. You are both great teachers."

"I know. I just feel like hitting you. So come here. You do not want to piss off a pregnant woman."

"Ooooo, I'm so scared." And at that Dimitri loosened up a bit, allowing me to hit him right in his shoulder, making him stumble back and grab his arm.

"Are you scared now?" I smiled as he gave Dimitri a mean look since there was no way I could of escaped his hold.

"Opps," was all Dimitri said as he grabbed me again and laughed. "I guess she slipped."

"Yeah, whatever." He stomped off while holding his shoulder as we burst out laughing, with Mia shaking her head, trying to keep a smile off her face.

After that, we all ate something before hitting the road. We decided that Dimitri, Adrian, Christian, two other guardians, and me all ride in the first van. Janine, Abe, Mia, and four other guardians ride in the second van. And Eddie, Mikhail, Sonya, and the last four other guardians ride in the last van. And then at the last second, Eddie decided that everyone should pack a bunch of food, that way we wouldn't have to stop a lot for food and use all our money up. So we got three large boxes for each van to put whatever they wanted in them. And of course Dimitri let me put most of the food in it. He thought since I was pregnant that I would want a lot of cravings, yeah right. But I did put a lot of my favorites in the box, with Adrian and Christian throwing some of their favorites in as well.

I ended up putting in a box of granola bars, pop tarts of a mixed flavor, a big bag of Chex mix, beef jerkie (have to have that, it's my top favorite), some bread and lunch meat and cheese (lots of cheese, who doesn't love cheese?), some crackers, and a lot of other stuff that I don't really remember throwing in the box. And of course Christian got to throw his hot Cheetos in there, along with Adrian's Doritos. But it's okay since I love those too.

We ended up leaving around four o'clock in the morning, which is really our night, making everyone look kind of tired. And of course Dimitri wouldn't let me drive, so I ended up being in the passenger seat as Dimitri drove. I passed out within a few minutes down the road.

If you don't remember everyone, Mikhail was a guard and Sonya is his wife that was a Strigoi, aka Ms. Karp the teacher.
Just in case you didn't know, just reminding you all.

And I didn't really want to make them leave this early, but I couldn't think of anything else to make themdo.
But there's still loads of things I have in mind for them all in the future.

PLEASE READ & REVIEW...

Coming up (Getting Sick)
You can all just think about that one, it pretty much says what it means.

I'll try to update as soon as possible, I have soo much to do in the next two weeks.
So if I have time, I'll type.
But I already have some of the next chapter done.