Ch. 6

DPOV

Songs: Breezeblocks – Alt J, Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

I slept adequately for the first time in days. Not out of comfort or want, but from complete exhaustion. I retreated to my room after my conversation with Alberta and Janine and was so mentally drained that I fell asleep immediately after falling face first onto my bed.

I dreamt of Roza. There were no exchanges of words or familiar conversations, only flashes of images of her. The sunlight shining on her hair as she ran by me, memories of her nervously biting her lip—and her smile. Her beautiful, daring smile. When I finally woke and came back to harsh reality, I wanted nothing more than to bury my head in those memories. But trying to latch on to them was like catching smoke with my bare hands.

Then the usual thoughts came. Why won't she let me in? When will she finally see me? Does she still love me? Do I even deserve her love?

In a fleeting attempt to escape from my thoughts I reverted to my recent routine and headed towards the gym. I had slept longer than I thought, and the gym was already filled with Guardians. Since the attack, many of us had become restless and frequented the gym more often than not. I avoided eye contact with any of them and headed straight to my familiar corner. Luckily, most of the regular attendees here were used to my surly demeanor and left me to my excessive conditioning.

Hit after hit landed on the stationary bag. I was starting to feel unfulfilled and considered abandoning my solitary post to go for a run. However, my thoughts betrayed me and immediately shifted to Roza. Our morning runs together had quickly become one of the highlights of my day as we challenged one another, increasing our strides. The images of her next to me brought me back to my earlier dreams and I started pounding the bag harder. Just when I thought I was on the verge of breaking another one, I was interrupted.

"Belikov!"

The shout came from across the gym and the familiar voice stopped me in my tracks. I turned around, hoping my ears had misled me, only to be sorely disappointed. Sure enough, Janine Hathaway was standing in the middle of the sparring ring with the same hostile look on her face as the day before.

"Guardian Hathaway," I replied, gritting through my teeth.

"Are you going to stay in that corner all day unleashing on that worn out old punching bag, or do you fancy a test of your skills against a live opponent?" The surrounding chatter died down and I could feel curious eyes flit between me and the Scottish Guardian. Tension between us rose as I stood there staring at her, unsure how to respond. I didn't know if I would be able to keep my emotions in check and wasn't keen on a repeat incident of my last sparring match.

"Oh c'mon Belikov, I'll go easy on you," she boasted placing her hands on her hips. I could hear light chuckles from some of the Guardians nearby. "Besides, I'm very interested to see what you've been teaching my daughter."

Her slight may have gone unnoticed by the majority of the surrounding onlookers, but it was enough to make me send all reservations out the window. I strode over to the center of the room and stepped into the sparring ring to face her full on. Janine cracked her knuckles and took position across from me as others gathered to watch the spectacle. One of the Guardians who regularly reffed the sparring matches began walking up to the ring, but with a wave of her hand Janine shooed him away. Apparently, she wasn't interested in making this a clean fight. Guardian Hathaway had a renowned reputation for her combat skills. Her size and initial demeanor may have fooled some, but I wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating her.

It scared me how badly I wanted this. I could feel my anger and aggression starting to cloud my judgement and I quickly had to put myself in check. There was a darkness in my blood, the only thing my good-for-nothing father had given me, and I constantly fought to keep it at bay. I had lost control of it before and unleashed my fury upon him after witnessing him abuse my mother for the last time. I would never take back my actions that day, but I promised I wouldn't allow myself to sink down to his level again. When I fought it would be with honor, not with malice or a desire for domination. I inhaled a cleansing breath and took my initial stance.

"Ready," Janine questioned. I shot her a quick nod in reply and with that, it was on.

She lunged at me, immediately going on the offense, and tried to catch me off guard. I easily blocked her first attack and tested her deftness with a sweep towards her left thigh. She managed to evade my kick and repositioned herself for a counter attack. This went on for a few minutes, the both of us testing one another's skills one maneuver at a time until Janine seemed satisfied with what she was able to pick up on. She cranked up the speed and intensity of her blows and I returned in kind.

She threw a left hook towards my side and immediately followed with a roundhouse towards my shoulder. I was able to block her first attack, but the second hit caused me to falter to the side. I righted myself in time to avoid another kick towards my face, pushing her leg back and throwing a punch at her chest. I made contact for the first time since we had started, and I could see fury in Janine's eyes.

She leapt towards me throwing a series of punches as I tried to keep up with her incredible speed. I dodged and blocked the majority of her hits and pushed myself further back from her reach before responding. I knew my speed was relatively unmatched, especially for my size, but Janine's was unlike any I had seen before. We began circling each other like two wild predators as our audience shouted cheers for either side. I decided I would have to use my strength against her instead and lunged at her waist. She avoided my grab, but I was able to throw an elbow between her shoulder blades. Janine fell forward to the mat but rolled before I could catch hold of her. She propped herself up on one of her knees and landed a kick to my left tibia. I folded over as the pain shot through my leg and she used the opportunity to leap onto my back. Before she could successfully put me in a chokehold I grabbed her right leg and threw her off of me.

We fell into another rhythm of blocking, dodging, and attacks and I could see her anger starting to boil over for how long this was taking. I saw an opening in between her blocks and reached for her wrists. I pulled her back against me so that she could no longer throw any punches towards me. Janine struggled for a moment then swung the back of her head into my jaw and simultaneously used her leg and body weight to trip me, pulling us both down towards the ground. She managed to escape my hold during our tumble and pounced on top of me. Before I could react, she had one leg bent across my torso with the other putting pressure on my throat. She used both of her hands to hold down my right arm, and the backs of her legs to pin my left arm to my side. I tried shifting out of her grip but was slightly punch-drunk from the blow to my jaw and my airflow was being quickly cut off from the pressure of her knee.

She leaned closer towards my face, whispering so that no one else could hear. "I've heard people here call you a god, but seeing your behavior these past few days gives me little hope in this school's judge of character." I stared back into her furious eyes.

"Your combat skills were...impressive," she sounded less than impressed. "But the way you've been brooding about, sulking in vacant corners, only amplifies my initial thoughts from yesterday: my daughter deserves better." I stilled at her affront. "You say you love her, but you've shown me little to prove that. You've given up. On her, and on yourself."

Her words seeped into me like a poisonous sting, momentarily immobilizing me. Still in a precarious position, I channeled that pain into rage; not rage at her, but rage at myself.

With one final attempt at escape, I threw my legs towards her. I latched onto her torso and slammed her back to the ground. I gasped for air when her leg finally freed my throat and could see her doing the same as my hit knocked the wind out of her. Noticing how close she was to my reach, a panicked look crossed her face and she rolled to her side, attempting to stand. Before she could make her move, I swung my leg towards hers, sweeping her back down. She laid there holding her head and stomach and I slowly raised to a standing position next to her. I heard familiar voices shouting congratulatory remarks towards me, but ignored them and kept my focus on my fallen opponent.

"You're right," I responded. "I've acted completely unworthy and undeserving of her. Even if she won't see me now, I still need to find a way to help her." I reached my hand down towards Janine and she stared at me in astonishment. She hesitantly reached for my hand and I pulled her up. "I will not give up on her." When she was steady on her feet I turned and left the ring, feeling a mix of shame, pride, and for the first time in over a week...hope.

RPOV

Songs: Bad Dream - Ruelle

I had been standing outside the wards for almost fifteen minutes and there was still no sign of Mason. I started to think that maybe he had finally moved on, or maybe he didn't want to see me. After everything I had done, he would most likely be ashamed of me.

"Mase, please. I need to talk to you," I recited for about the tenth time. After another moment of silence, I decided he probably wasn't going to show and turned to head back to the school.

Suddenly I felt a slight chill trickle from my shoulders to my fingertips. I whipped around expecting to see his transparent figure, but there was nothing there. "Mase. Mason, are you out there?" The chill started to grow, and I slowly backed towards the wards still facing the outskirts of the tree line. I started to feel something else more familiar course through me. A faint pull luring me in. It couldn't be, I thought to myself. The feeling completely disappeared as one of my feet breached the bounds of the wards. I stood there for a moment, one foot on each side of the protective barrier and decided to come back out.

When I was clear of the border I could sense Lissa's bond barely tugging at me, but there was something different and chilling about it. Just then, Mason appeared right in front of me. He was shaking his head with a stern look on his face. I couldn't tell if he was trying to tell me something or if he was expressing his disappointment in me, but the chill was still growing.

"What are you trying to say? What is happening?" He placed his hands out ahead of him as if he was trying to push me back towards the wards. His mouth started to move, and it almost looked like he was saying go. Before I could decipher his message, it was if my presence was recognized and I could feel the other side of the bond shudder. I wasn't completely pulled in, like I had been so many times before; my vision was blurred and I felt queasy.

As my eyes started to adjust I could see a pair merlot colored t-strap pumps slowly walking along a patterned cream carpet. There was something familiar about that pattern, but I couldn't quite place it. Light humming of a familiar tune trickled into my ears, distracting me from my investigative thoughts. This couldn't be happening, it was impossible. Lissa was gone. Had I finally let too much of the darkness in and gone completely mad?

I tried focusing on the humming and thought it sounded like Lissa's voice but again, something wasn't quite right. I started to feel hopeful that maybe the Strigoi had left her alive. It would mean that she was still being held captive somewhere but at least she wasn't dead.

"Lissa," I quietly questioned aloud.

I heard a light giggle followed by, "Hello Rose."

It was most definitely her voice. My heart started racing. Were the wards messing with our bond? Why couldn't I sense her before? But more importantly, she was alive. My best friend was alive.

"Rose, Rose, Rose tsk tsk. Always the one to jump to conclusions." Her voice was still a little muffled, but I could tell she wasn't nearly as excited to hear from me as I was to hear from her. She almost seemed...amused. Her footsteps stopped and turned towards a wall, her gaze slowly climbing up. She was deliberately showing me something, a clue as to where she was perhaps? Her vision ran over intricately carved filigree molding that bordered the edges of the floor. As her gaze rose up to an antique gold painted table I tried to memorize every detail. She kept rising, painfully slow, and I could just make out the bottom of a mirror. "Liss, what are you do—"

When her gaze finally caught mine, I knew exactly what she was trying to show me. "Ah there you are Rose," she said as her crimson eyes shot daggers through my soul. She wasn't alive. She was Strigoi.

A cold, fanged smile that betrayed all form of innocence formed on her face as my realization ricocheted through the bond. My emotions were no longer clouding my judgement and it was instantly apparent what was off with her voice and the chilled sensation. Before, I had felt warmth and human emotion when I was pulled into her mind, but now I felt cold and lacking all empathy. There was an underlying feeling of rage and hunger coursing through her but no other signs of humanity, all virtue and love bled from her.

"How do you like the new look," she asked sardonically. I was speechless. "What, cat got your tongue? You were never one to shy away from a conversation, that was more of my mo."

"Liss, I...I'm so sorry," I shakily replied.

"Yeesh were you always such a bore? I've been waiting days for you to finally show up to chat and this is what I get?"

"Waiting? You mean you knew this would happen? That the bond was still open?"

She began inspecting her nails, feigning boredom as she responded. "Not for certain, but I had my suspicions. But that's not what I want to talk about right now." Her once jade-green eyes now painted blood red shot a serious glare into the mirror that caused me to jolt.

"I need you here Rose. Now that I have been transformed, I have never seen things more clearly. The way they treated us was pathetic. Keeping us bound, making us hide who we really are. Now I know who I was always meant to be, and I want you to join me. To rule by my side." Her voice was sickly sweet, like rotting lilies. "Think about it. In your world, they look down on you. See you as inferior. You'll live your short life as a shadow when we both know that isn't who you are. With me, you would be revered as a goddess." The last word hissed off her tongue.

Lissa was my best friend and there was a time I would do anything for her. Her angelic face stared at me with wonder and hunger for my response. Lissa could be passionate and driven when there was a cause she truly believed in, but I realized this—this creature was just a hollow shell of who she used to be. The old Lissa had her reservations, but demeaning our culture and traditions? No, this wasn't her. Her argument may be tempting to some, but it was something I would refuse to bite.

"No."

Although my rejection was simple, it was if I had thrown kerosene onto that small flickering flame of rage and it erupted into a blaze of fury within her.

"You dare deny me?! You swore to be my protector, my Guardian. You promised you would find me, and you failed! You owe me your LIFE!" She lunged at the mirror and the image sent me soaring backwards, terror coursing through me at the monster Lissa had become. I fell into the plush grass and my vision immediately returned to me. I looked around and realized I had fallen back to the other side of the wards. My heart was practically pounding out of my chest and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath.

I scrambled to my feet, digging my fingers into the dirt and immediately bolted from the scene. I raced back towards campus with only one goal in mind. I had to find him and tell him what I saw. Right now, he was the only one I trusted to help me.

A/N: One day I'll get on an actual posting schedule. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Thoughts on the fight scene? I have another one coming in the not so distant future so would love to hear what y'all think. Thanks for reading!

MM