A week had passed and things had become pretty normal. Practice with Dimitri became strictly mentor and student, nothing more. My words must have upset him almost as much as they hurt me to say them. Over the last week or so, Landon and I were hanging out more and more. He even convinced Guardian Young to let him take me out to dinner. He told me to ask Dimitri since we were so close, but I knew better. That would have been a big fat no, and a door slammed in my face, so I had to beg him to ask Guardian Young instead, knowing that he'd talk to Dimitri and I wouldn't have too. When he got it approved, I was slightly happy, and curious as to how Dimitri answered, or what he'd said. I was upstairs getting ready, when there was a knock at my door. When I opened it, there stood Dimitri. Automatically, I panicked, thinking he was going to call of my trip. He gave me a once over, and a slight smile spread over his face.

"You look cute." He said, then rethinking what he'd said, he cleared his throat and his guardian mask slipped over his face. "I brought you something." He pulled a case out of his pocket and handed it to me. It was heavy and when I opened it, I saw it was a stake. "I want you to have it, just incase. Landon isn't that far in his training yet, and I'm not taking chances on you two being unprotected."

"Nothing's going to happen." I said. I wasn't sure if I was the only one that heard the double meaning behind my words.

"You can never be too careful, and I'm not going to take the chance. I know you know how to use it efficiently. I'll be a little less concerned, knowing you're prepared for anything." He said. I nodded.

"I'm ready for anything." I said. He inclined his head.

"Good… Have a good time." He said, his voice hard. I knew he wanted me to have anything but a good time.

"I will." I said. He turned to walk away, but I called after him, when he turned, I smiled warily. "Thank you… for letting me go."

"No problem." He said, between clenched teeth. He turned and walked out, as I shut the door and went back to the bathroom to apply the last finishing touches to my hair and make-up. This was the first time I'd actually attempted to look decent since I'd been here, although I managed to look amazing on my own, this was the first effort I'd put forth in awhile. I slide my stake into my belt, and made sure it was completely hidden. I then went downstairs to find Landon standing in the main room, his hair was its usual messy, but it was obvious it was a intentional messy, and it suited him. I couldn't imagine it any other way. He had a nice dark blue button down shirt, and blue jeans. His green eyes shined as I came into view.

"Hey there."

"Well hello handsome." I said, smirking. He chuckled and rubbed his knuckles on his shirt, before shrugging.

"Thanks… You look amazing, Rose."

"Thanks." I said, looking down at my feet.

"You ready?" He asked, offering me his arm. I nodded.

"Sure, let's go." I said, taking it and allowing him to escort me to the van. He opened the door for me, and then went around to climb into the passenger's seat. The ride there was silent for the most part.

"Are you going to tell me where you taking me?" I asked, about fifteen minutes into the ride. He looked over at me, and chuckled.

"Nope."

"Then how do you know I'll like it?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I don't. Guess we'll just have to find out, huh?" He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, whatever." I muttered. He chuckled. As we drove, he finally pulled into a parking lot. The building was small, and looked like a hole-in-the-wall place. When we circled the building, I saw it was an Italian pizzeria. I was slightly proud of his choice. He raised an eyebrow at me as he pulled into a parking space.

"Is this okay?" He asked.

"Depends, is there pizza good?"

"It's phenomenal." He answered. I nodded.

"Then it's fine." I said. He jumped out, and walked to open my door for me. I smiled. "Such a gentleman." He chuckled.

"When I wanna be." He said. I laughed. We walked around to the front, and inside. The hostess sat us at a table in the back, and gave us our menus before walking away.

"I'm really glad they let us leave tonight. I was getting tide of the estate." I said.

"Me too." He told me. "Atleast you've gotten to leave once or twice… I haven't. I've been stuck there since the moment they dropped me off."

"Yeah, but most of the times when I left… It wasn't on good circumstances." I said. He looked down, and back up at me.

"Yeah, I guess that is true." He said. "How is Lissa? Have you heard from her or… checked in on her?"

"I did this morning. I called her. She's doing fine, which was a relief to hear." I said.

"You still not talking to Adrian?"

"No." I answered simply. I still hadn't spoke to Adrian after what he did. I understood that he thought he was doing good by helping Lissa, but he has no idea what he could have caused, and what I would have done to him if Lissa wouldn't have been fine after stopping the medication. Regardless, he nodded.

"Don't you think it's time to forgive him?"

"Not exactly, no." I said, shrugging. The waiter walked up, and I turned to smile. He looked about twenty years old. He took one look at me, and smiled back.

"Hello, what can I get you to drink?" He asked. Landon nor I missed that he was speaking directly to me.

"Sweet tea." I answered. He nodded and threw me another unnessicary smile before turning to Landon.

"And you?"

"Coke." He said, his voice hard. The waiter nodded.

"I'll be right back with that." He said, before turning and walking away. Landon's face was priceless. I giggled, causing him to turn to me.

"What?" He asked.

"You're face… You looked like you were trying to burn him with your eyes." I said. He rolled his eyes at me, and laughed.

"Did you see the way he was looking at you?" He asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm used to that look. I get it a lot." I said.

"It's rude when you're in the company of another guy." He said.

"It's not a big deal."

"He was undressing you with his eyes." He told me. I laughed.

"Like you don't." I said, smirking at him. He growled at me, which made me laugh harder.

"That's different."

"Oh yeah? How?" I asked. He fell silent. I nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought." He fell silent. When the waiter came back, I kept my eyes on Landon. He was looking down, avoiding seeing the waiter gawking at me.

"What can I get you guys to eat?" He asked. I looked at Landon.

"A large supreme pizza?" Landon asked me. I nodded.

"Sounds good." The waiter nodded once.

"Alright, I'll go put it in. By the way, my names Dirk if you need something." He said, looking solely at me as he took our menus and walked away. I shook my head.

"Anyway, back to the conversation we were having."

"What?" I asked.

"Adrian… You really should forgive him." He said. I sighed.

"Why do you think so?"

"You guys were friends." He said.

"He did something that was uncalled for." I said.

"He was trying to help." He said. I shook my head.

"He had no real idea of what he was doing. He could have gotten her hurt, even killed if being off the medicine affected her. He should have talked to me first." I said.

"He's still your friend."

"Was."

"Rose…" He muttered.

"Why are you so worried about it?" I asked.

"It's just-." He stopped.

"It's just what?" I asked. I was completely confused at his reasoning for wanting me to forgive Adrian, when I could honestly careless.

"I think it's good that you have friends, Rose… Friends at the estate. It scares the hell out of me knowing you have darkness in you. I'm not scared you're going to hurt me… I'm just scared of what it could do to you. I worry about you, and I know Adrian's a spirit user… and I guess I just thought he'd understand a little more, and that he'd be good if you ever needed someone, because I haven't really even begun to understand everything with the bond and spirit, and I just think it's good for you to have more people at the estate that have your back than just me and Dimitri." He said. I stared at him for a second and smiled. It was really sweet that he was that concerned about me, and if I needed someone.

"I'll be fine. I don't need him."

"Forgive and forget, Rose." He said.

"I'm a girl. I hold grudges. Keep that in mind." I teased. He rolled his eyes.

"Just promise me you'll think about it."

"I promise." I said. The pizza came out, and our waiter… Dirk set it down and looked directly at me with a pleading look.

"Is there anything else I can get for you?" He asked. I looked up at him, and smiled.

"No thanks… We're good… Right babe?" I asked, looking at Landon. His head snapped up, and he nodded.

"Yeah, we're fine." Dirk nodded and walked away extremely disappointed. I laughed, causing Landon to shake his head.

"You just crushed that poor boys dream."

"He'll live. He wasn't the first and won't be the last to be shot down by me." I said. He chuckled, and smiled.

"I guess you're right." He said. We dug into the pizza, eating and talking.

"Do you miss your academy?" I finally asked. He shook his head.

"Not exactly." He said.

"Really? Why not?"

"I wasn't exactly everyone's favorite guy back home." He told me.

"Really? Why?" I asked.

"I just wasn't. I was a smart ass, and people back home couldn't handle it, so a bunch of people didn't like me." He said. I just nodded.

"I have that problem too. I just miss my academy because of Lissa." I said.

"I know." He said, smiling and taking another bite of his pizza.

"It's gonna be weird when we all go back."

"I don't wanna talk about that." He murmured, looking away.

"Why?" I asked. He shook his head. "Landon..."

"I'll miss you… I don't know what I'm going to do when I can't see you anymore." He said. It was obvious how much Landon really liked me. I just smiled.

"We'll figure it out." I said, not sure what else to say to that. It was sweet. We finished our pizza and Landon paid, and we headed outside. He looked at his watch, and sighed.

"So, our curfew isn't for another two hours. You wanna go walk the lake?" He asked. I nodded.

"Sure. Anything to keep me away from that place longer." I told him. He smiled as he opened the van door for me, and we headed to the lake. He parked off the side of the road, as we started along the sidewalk, he reached for my hand and intertwined his fingers in mine.

"So, how are you?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Darkness wise." He corrected. I nodded.

"I've been fine lately. It makes me wonder when it's gonna explode out of me. I feel it sometimes, but it hasn't lashed out of me yet. I'm thankful for that… but I'm worried about when it does."

"Me too." He murmured. As we walked, I kept feeling my stomach swirl. I ignored it because it wasn't bad or anything. It was just a slight thing I kept noticing.

"We should probably start heading back to the van." I said. He nodded and we turned around. The moment we turned, I noticed someone standing off in the distance. It was dark, and I couldn't see, but I could make out the shape of a person.

"Are you seeing this too?" I asked, as we slowly walked. He nodded.

"Should we run?"

"No, that'll let them know we see him." I told him, reasoning and survival skills kicking in. It could have been anyone, a human murder or rapist, a strigoi, a dhampir murderer. You never knew.

"Just keep walking." I murmured, never taking my eyes off the spot he was standing. I blinked one time and noticed he'd gotten closer exceptionally closer. I frowned, knowing what it was then.

"Landon… If I tell you to run, you're going to run back to the van and call for help, okay?"

"What and leave you, no way?" He whispered.

"I'm trained and I have a stake. I know what I'm doing. If we plan on getting away from here alive, you've got to trust me, okay?" He was silent for a second, before I looked up at him. "Please."

"Alright." He murmured. He started walking closer and closer until he stood in front of us.

"Well hello there, what are you two doing out here all alone." He said. As he stepped into the light, I saw the dark red rim around his eyes. Damn it.

"What do you want?" I snapped.

"Oh, no need to be snappy now." He said. "I only want one little thing."

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Landon squeezed my hand. We knew what was coming.

"You!" He said, lunging at me. I pushed Landon back, and pulled my stake, raking it across the strigoi's face as he reached me.

"Landon, GO!" I screamed. The strigoi went to go after him, but I grabbed him, connected a punch to his face. He growled and tried to tackle me to the ground, but I planted my feet, keeping me from going anywhere. I threw kicks and punches, trying to weaken him. He was strong and fast, but I knew I had to be stronger and faster to beat him. He connected more of his hits than I did, but with the adrenaline pumping through my veins, I felt no pain. This wasn't training. This was the real deal and it was life or death. I wasn't sure how long our fighting had gone on, it seemed like hours, but I knew it was only a few minutes. I heard footsteps fast approaching, and it distracted me. I let him get a hand hold and he threw me to the ground. I whimpered as my back hit the pavement, but I held my head up, keeping it from slamming the ground. He grabbed a hold of my throat, and revealed his fangs, but he didn't get the chance to use them before he was tackled off me by Landon.

"No!" I screamed. I scooped my stake up off the ground and went running to where they'd fallen. He drew back and punched Landon hard in the face, and Landon was out. "NO!" I cried again. I grabbed his head, and went berserk on him, swinging punches. I wasn't letting this one go. I had to finish this. I threw him to the ground, and went to stake him, when he head butted me, throwing me off. I felt myself slipping in and out of consciousness. I tried to prompt myself to full awakeness, but it wasn't working. I heard the strigoi cry out and heard a lot of growling and a few other sounds that didn't sound like they came from him. When I forced my eyes open, I saw him swing a right hook and connect with Landon's face one time. I tried to get to my feet.

"Landon…" I slurred, trying to get up. When I finally managed to get to my feet, and open my eyes, they were both gone. "No!" I screamed. I started running, looking for where they'd gone, but it'd been so out of it, and I hadn't seen where they disappeared. I sank to my knee's sobbing helplessly knowing that it was my fault. I'd agreed to this. I let this happen. I should have been stronger. I should have been faster. This wasn't fair. I sat there for the longest time, before I heard lots of footsteps running towards me. I didn't look up. I didn't care. My stake lay on the ground a good four feet away from me. If it was a pack of strigoi I was as good as dead, and I didn't even care.

"Rose?" I heard, the voice laced with a slight Russian accent. I still didn't look up. "Rose, are you alright?" Was I alright? Physically, I was okay. I was a little battered and bruised but it wasn't anything a shower and an icepack wouldn't fix, but emotionally, mentally, I was losing it. My best friend, a boy that could have possibly been my boyfriend was now gone and it was my fault. He stepped in front of me and knelt down. The look of pain that crossed his face, made the tears stream faster. "Roza, answer me… are you okay?"

"No…" I whispered, the word coming out hoarse and cracked.

"Where is he? Where's Landon?" I didn't know how to answer, or if I could say it without losing all sense of composure. "Roza, where's Landon?" He asked again.

"He's gone… The strigoi took him. I tried. I tried so hard, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't good enough because he's gone." I screamed, crying. My entire body was shaking at this point. Dimitri grabbed me, wrapping his arms around me and holding me.

"Come on; let's get you back to the estate."

"No… I have to go look for him. He's out there." I cried. He took my face in his hands and met my eyes.

"Roza… He's gone. He isn't coming back." The pain was very prominent in his voice as well.

"He can't be gone… he has to come back. He can't leave me…I need him… I-. I-." I stopped; knowing anything else I could say would be pointless and babble. He helped me to my feet, but my legs were jelly beneath me. He then scooped me up into his arms and carried me to the van. "Landon!" I cried, knowing it wasn't going to do me any good. He was gone.