Rosemarie Hathaway

I was wearing a leather jacket and jeans while Sam was standing next to the refreshments table in a $900 suit. The wine was spiked with Moroi blood, I was meeting with the Strigoi leader closest to the Moroi Royal Court. Still, Frederick was 15 miles away but it was hidden very well and could hold large numbers of Strigoi. Wes announced, "they're here" but everyone, about 10 of my own Strigoi and their humans, could hear them running through the halls. Having this many Strigoi here put everyone on edge, and they didn't even know my plans for the evening. I had Sam practicing staking a Strigoi for weeks now, there was a silver stake attached to one of the legs of the refreshments table. It was covered by table cloth but it was easily accessible, the rest of his Strigoi were either going to die or follow me. Frederick saw me and, without breaking his stride, he crossed the room and shook my hand. "Rosemarie Hathaway, famous Strigoi hunter turned Queen of New York." Frederick didn't have any molnija marks, he had been a Moroi, this would just make subduing him easier. "Frederick, how have you not been destroyed by guardians already? You're frighteningly close to court, I'm dying to know." I gesture around the room but our groups were mingling and talking, not paying attention to their leaders. He smiled and said, "I'm not going to tell you before you tell me how you killed Veronica after being a Strigoi for... what, 2 days?" I shrugged it off, I had to know how he did it before I killed him. Frederick gestured to Sam, "get me and Rose some wine!"

Lifting his glass up he toasted, "to new friendship!" Everyone roared back, "to new friendship!" Frederick must've been naive as a Moroi, I quickly downed the glass, the blood was just enough to add a tinge to the flavor. I nodded at Sam, it was time, then I turned to Frederick, "Veronica wasn't expecting me to make an attempt on her so early on and being a Dhampir helped." He nodded, "my lair was an old bunker for some war, most of it is underground and it was abandoned." Out of the corner of my eye I caught Sam approaching Frederick, he was only 3 meters away, but any moment now Frederick was going to hear his footsteps. Seizing Frederick I pinned his arms behind his back and said, "thank you for telling me what I needed to know." Sam plunged the stake into his heart. I was only 5 inches away from the stake and it was making me uncomfortable, every instinct was telling me to get as far away from it as possible. "Put that thing back in the vault," I snarled, "and someone get rid of this body!" It was time to pay a visit to Pennsylvania.

I quickly found out that there were 2 huge problems. First off, how was I going to transport 50 Strigoi to Pennsylvania without attracting a huge amount of attention. Also, how am I going to keep them fed, I couldn't transport a huge amount of feeders and I couldn't let them feed off people in the surrounding areas. Number 2 was easy, apparently Fred had a little underground New York City of humans, he could've started a blood bank. I decided to solve problem number 1 by sending small groups of 2-4 between 1 hour intervals, slow but it wouldn't attract suspicion. Wes was my temporary replacement and he wasn't allowed to do anything without consulting me, not that he would change anything that mattered.

About 5 days later everyone had arrived, tomorrow we would attack the Court. The plan was that we'd send in a human to stake the wards then the entire group except for 30 will split up into 3 groups, all trying to kill off as many Moroi and Dhampir as possible. I will take one group to find and kill or capture Tatania, then the remaining 30 Strigoi will cover our escape. There is enough coverage from the trees near the Royal Court to stop us from dying from the sun. I checked in on Lissa, she was sitting in the room back in New York, she had no idea of the monumental gathering and massacre about to take place. So long as she wasn't trying to escape then I didn't care what she was doing. I called Sam and his concerned voice echoed from the phone, "is something wrong?" "Actually, I'm wondering if anything is wrong down there." "Nothing's wrong down here, it's weird not seeing as many Strigoi around base but otherwise..." he replied smoothly. "Is Wes doing anything he... shouldn't?" "No, he's just been yelling at Quin a lot," he reported. I had forgotten about his petty hatred of Quin, I made a mental note to check if Quin was dead or not when I get back, not like it was going to be a monumental loss.

All the Strigoi were in place, I gave a quick nod to the human, she ran quickly with the stake in hand and plunged it into the ground. The ward shattered, a guardian saw her and started to run at her in order to tackle her. Racing as fast as I could, I tackled the guardian and sunk my teeth into his throat, all 3 of the groups moved silently to the capital. Humans hid bodies of the Moroi and guardians we killed, I caught a glimpse of Tatiana being lead away by 10 Dhampirs towards the woods. I ran after them as the rest of my group eliminated any Gaurdians we passed. We cut Tatiana off at a clearing in the forest, at 7 Strigoi, we were roughly able to surround them. I headed straight for Tatiana, one male guardian jumped in front of me with a stake in hand, I veered away from him. Ducking under a swipe that was close enough to make my hairs on my neck stand on end. Half a second later I kicked his knee, it collapsed, he reflexively bent down letting his body protect his knee. Then I grabbed his head and broke his neck. Looking around, 4 of mine had died and 2 of them were dead not including this one, I cursed myself. Of course the Dhampirs protecting the queen would be more capable, what was I thinking? 4 guardians circled around Tatiana protectively while 3 guardians attacked my 3 Strigoi. For a brief moment I was able to catch the eye of the Queen of the Moroi, and she looked so scared, I grinned. A Dhampir was about to stake an old Strigoi named Uriel when I barreled straight into him, the stake flew out of his hands and lay a good 5 meters away, Uriel broke his neck then dragged him away to feed on him. The other Strigoi were doing better, they had eliminated one of the guardians and were toying with the last. Letting him swipe at one of them before the other would tap him on the shoulder. "Stop fooling around and finish this, the Queen is getting away!" They quickly broke his neck and ran up next to me, I hadn't noticed they were identical twins until now, it was actually kind of creepy.

4 on 4, this was going to be easy, one slightly unsettling thought crossed my mind. What if Tatiana was learning to use the element she specialized in against us, Christian had proven that when he helped me kill Strigoi at St. Vladimir's. I quickly dismissed it, she probably thought that she was completely safe behind the wards and her royal guard. The guard was the only thing between me and Tatiana, she shouted, "Queen Tatiana, run!" Then she pulled out her stake, her hair was short so that I could see her molnija marks, she had 7 which was pretty impressive. She was in her early 20's and short, she was faster than I thought she was going to be and she swept my legs out from under me. Then she stabbed the stake down, I was able to twist just in time for it to brush my heart, I feigned death and she pulled it out and warily stalked back to protect Tatiana. Now I realized why I was so hesitant to kill her, she was like my mother around the time when she first had me. I watched Tatiana's eyes as they widened and she opened her mouth to scream while I snapped the guardian's neck, remembering how my mother had chosen her job over her own child. Grabbing Tatiana by the shoulders I drank deeply from her, her sweet Moroi blood trickled down my throat. One of the twins asked, "shouldn't we turn her?" I shook my head, imagining dealing with a Strigoi Tatiana for, well forever. As soon as she was dry, I ripped her head from her body, every day that passed I was feeling stronger. The sun's rays were peeking over the horizon, the first human I find I will compel to take her head to Moroi Court, Uriel had gone to meet the other groups and he returned saying, "we lost 30, everyone is hiding in the woods until night so that we can return to base."