Chapter 2

DPOV

I was lying on the ground, weak and powerless as I watched the monster bite and feed off of my Roza, draining her of life and watching as her body fell slack in the demons arms. I felt pathetic and useless after the blond Strigoi fed off me and all I could do was watch in torment as Rose was killed right in front of me. My heart broke into a million pieces as I looked onto Rose for the last time and I saw her whisper "I'm sorry". She believed that she had let me down, that was my Roza always selfless until the end putting everyone else first. She believed that she had failed me when I was the one that failed her and before she could hear my retort I saw her black out. Although I was hurt and vitiated, as soon as I saw her go limp, I found a new surge of energy course through my veins fuelled by a strong and powerful rage. This monster had killed my love, my life, my soul mate and that was a big mistake because now I had nothing to lose.

However nothing is ever what it seems and although I believed that the Strigoi's intention was to kill Rose I was duly mistaken for she had a fate worse than death in-store. After the Strigoi pulled away from her neck with the remnants of Rose's precious blood lingering on the side of her mouth, the red head bit into her wrist and forced her vile blood down Rose's throat. After a few moments I noticed Rose thrashing around on the ground as though she were on fire. Her scream was absolutely terrifying but I was hypnotised and could not look away. The raging anger that had started building up inside of me turned into an inferno like I had never known and I felt as though I could have destroyed every single Strigoi hiding out in the cave. However I knew that I had to keep my strength up because when Rose's transformation was complete, she would have to be my number one priority - becoming my greatest threat.

The red head left Roza's side and sauntered over to me, lifting me up by my hair and pulling me into an upright position linking my arms behind my back. She was laughing at the scene before her, laughing at the way Rose was screaming for anyone to kill her and rid her of the pain. I was trembling by that stage which only made the Strigoi laugh even louder as she probably believed I was scared but in fact I was boiling with an all consuming fury. The next moment however the screaming stopped, and as if drawn to the laughter Rose snapped her head up at us.

"Well look at your pretty little Strigoi girlfriend, I'm pretty sure you want nothing to do with her now! Come over here princess and have your first feed."

Seeing Rose for the first time as a Strigoi put out the fire coursing though my blood and I was once again left broken and lost. She was not my Roza any more but one of them and my brain was not willing to process that but how could I deny what was right in front of me. However the more I watched her the more I became confused. We all stood there for a moment and what was blatantly obvious was that Rose was not rushing over to me to feed for the first time as her sire instructed. I could not see blood lust in her eyes but instead confusion and something else I couldn't pinpoint. This was when my mind started racing at a million miles an hour and I realised I had to think fast about how I was going to get out of this predicament. Various ideas were running through my mind as I focused on Rose and assessed her every movement. The more I watched her the more I interpreted her intentions and the fact was that if I knew my Roza - and I did know her very well, I could see that she was trying to convey a message to me. It seemed as though the old Roza was still in there, yes she looked different from the outside but the connection between us remained and I could sense that she was going to fight for me not against me. All my Dhampir instincts were telling me that I needed to be cautious and not to trust her but my own instincts were begging me to do the exact opposite.

"Hmmmm Dimitri I never realised how amazing you smell" Rose gave me one of her sexiest smiles, but I also saw her pleading for me to play along with her in this story.

"Roza please don't do this!" I hoped I sounded convincing.
"But Dimitri you are just so desirable".

She grabbed me by the front of my Duster and pulled me down to my knees but before she lowered herself to my neck our eyes locked once more and I looked beyond the red rings around her eyes and delved into those beautiful brown irises. They promised me so much and with that I closed my eyes and left the rest to fate. If this was the way I was going to die, by the hands of my one true love - was there any better way. I think not.

With a kiss to my neck to seal the promise, Rose stalled for a moment and then flipped over me to behead the female Strigoi with her bare hands. Between her skills and the deadly animal raging inside of me at that moment we killed every Strigoi insight.

After we discovered that there is no more Strigoi left, it was just me and Rose which left me in a very tricky situation. On one hand I understood that she had just saved my life and helped me kill off the enemies but she was still a Strigoi and my Dhampir instincts were screaming at me to kill her. My hand tightened around my Stake as I struggled with such an important decision. Could I kill my Roza?

She should have needed to feed off me by now, so why hadn't she?

Instead I saw her simply taking in her surroundings.

This was not how a Strigoi usually behaved and so with that question lingering in my mind I made my choice.