Hiiii everyone! Thank you so much for clicking on this fanfic and thank you to all who posted a review on my first chapter! It really lifts the spirits! This chapter is super new compared to the rest of what I've written (I wrote this in the last couple of days, your reviews really motivated me!).
In this chapter, we discover a bit more about Sophia and Damon, their mentorship roles and their friendship. We also get another character's P.O.V. too and we revisit an iconic landmark on campus...any guesses where ;)? Enjoy ~

Disclaimer: VA belongs to the one and only, Richelle Mead.

Guardian Petrov

Sophia's P.O.V.

Senior Year - End of September - 17 years old

I stood in the training room waiting for Damon to show up to our after-school practice. It was about a month after the school year began and Damon and I had been scheduling in three sessions every week, coordinating around his shifts.

Today, he'd set up our training room with dummies. The ones used to practice staking. They were quite the characters with different style of clothing and coloured hair. Whoever dressed up these dummies must've put a lot of thought into it. One thing they all had in common was painted red eyes, in an attempt to replicate Strigoi's eyes in order to familiarise ourselves with it.

One of the dummies I stood before bore dark, basically black, curly hair. I crossed my arms and tilted my head to the side, hip sticking out and stared at the dummy. Well, glaring was more accurate, actually.

I just stared and stared, sizing her up until Damon showed up. I had no clue what was taking so long, he was always usually on time.

It could've been no later than five minutes later when something knocked me off my feet and pinned me to the ground.

"Ow," I groaned, feeling dizzy.

"What," he breathed, "have I told you about being aware of your surroundings?"

Right. That's how Damon worked. The minute we stepped into this room, it was a free-for-all and you'd better be prepared for a surprise attack. Like he said that first day, don't wait for someone to say 'go' or a whistle to blow. The same principle applied to our trainings. Not every session began that way, considering the element of surprise needed to remain. And usually, I was always on my guard, but today I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't heard Damon walk into the room.

Blinking, I cleared my vision and stared up at my so-called mentor. His dark hair was uncharacteristically messy this afternoon, his eyes looked a little tired but beneath his azure eyes was a hint of amusement.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. He helped me up. "You're right. I should've been paying attention."

He hummed in response and studied me curiously. "Something on your mind?" Damon knew me pretty well in the short few months since we first met. He knew I was normally always ready for anything. I had that in my DNA.

"Just caught up in a memory, that's all."

Damon continued studying me and rose an eyebrow. He had that look on his face. The one that said I better be honest because he knew I was giving a bullshit answer.

Sighing, I gestured to the dummy with curly black hair. "She just reminds me of the first girl I killed."

"Strigoi. Not girl," he corrected.

I frowned. "She was still a girl."

"Yes," he agreed. "But, labelling her as one makes it feel too humane. Too young. She was a Strigoi, Soph."

I nodded, understanding what he was getting at. I still felt a little bad about killing those two female Strigois. It was something my Dad and I had talked about, how even though it's something we have to do, it's still taking a life. And those female Strigois were once human. It was just a waste, that's all.

"Now, if you're done feeling sorry for yourself for killing Strigoi and saving your own life, can we get on with the lesson?" Damon asked.

I rolled my eyes and waved him on. He was such a blunt asshole sometimes. Even if he was right.

"So, I take it we are practicing staking one of these today?" I asked, moving on from my memory bank.

He shook his head. "No."

"No?" I questioned. "What the hell else do you want me to do with them?"

His lips quirked into a smirk and he waltzed off to the supply closet to our right. I knew that look. He was up to something.

He didn't take long in the closet, he just grabbed something and came right back, hiding whatever it was behind his broad back.

"I want you to decapitate them," he answered. He held out his hand revealing the item behind his back and presented a red axe.

I laughed. "You can't be serious. Aren't these dummies only meant to be used for staking?"

Damon shrugged carelessly. "I don't care. They're a training tool. Now, cut off her head." He thrust the axe in my hands and jerked his head to the black curly haired dummy.

What I figured out about working with Damon this past month was that he was a little unconventional in his methods as a mentor. He wasn't wrong though, and his training method wasn't unfounded either for the real world. So, I knew he was being completely serious about me decapitating the dummies.

"You're such an ass," I told him.

"An ass you'll thank later," he said. "You can't get caught up in memories of past kills out on the field, Soph."

"I know that," I said through gritted teeth, moving over to the dummy.

I swung the axe behind me and with as much force as I could muster, I aimed for the neck of the dummy and hit her. The axe bit into her neck only by a few inches.

Huh. Wasn't as far as I was hoping to get. Everyone knew decapitations were the hardest way to kill Strigoi and henceforth, the least used technique of killing them. Staking was considered the most popular and in more recent years, setting them on fire too as the numbers for Moroi using magic to fight surged.

Wasting no time, I pulled the axe out and swung it backwards and lodged it into her neck again. Honestly. What did they make these dummies out of?

It took about five or six hacks before the dummy's head finally disconnected and crashed to the floor. Sweaty, out of breath, shoulders and arms singing with muscle pain, I dropped the axe onto the ground too.

"You. Bitch," I huffed to the dummy's head rolling around the training room floor.

Damon said nothing whilst I worked on the dummy, not even one small critique. I glanced to him now, approval shining in the depths of those gorgeous eyes.

"That was perfect," he praised. Nodding to the dummy beside the headless one, he continued, "Now cut that one's head off. But switch arms."

I was too breathless to argue, and putting my trust into Damon's approach, I ripped into the next dummy. It took only a couple hacks more to decapitate the second dummy since my left side is not as strong as my right. Sometimes, Damon would make a comment that I needed to lift my left arm higher to gain more weight behind it. Other than that, he was quiet.

The rest of our training session did actually end up involving a few dummies getting a stake through their hearts, and me landing several blows to them to practice my physical combat skills. Damon assessed my technique more than anything, making a few notes for us to work on next time.

It was a quick hour and once the clock struck five signalling the end of our lesson—and the start of dinner—Damon and I could drop the mentor-student roles and be friends. I mean, we were always friendly and the way we talk to each other during our sessions were perhaps a smidge less than professional, but it couldn't be helped. We'd known each other for months prior to him being assigned to the academy.

During our lessons, Damon was the hard-ass mentor that any student needed him to be; and I was the dedicated, respectful, listening student that any teacher loved to have.

Before and after our trainings however, we could lighten up.

I helped him pack away the dummies in the supply closets they lived in and we left the room as another guardian and student entered.

Once outside, I turned to him and touched his forearm. The arm that bore swirls and whorls of beautiful tattoos, to be precise. "Are you okay?" I gazed up at him with concerned eyes.

I was well aware that he picked up my concern for him. His blazing blue eyes softened. "I'm fine, BK," he responded, using one of his long-standing personal nicknames for me. It was a shortened version of him calling me Belikova. "Just a little tired. Alto had me working a double-shift today. You were my last stop before my bed."

I passed him a flat smile. Despite his initial assignment of being security to the school, I had roped him into being my mentor unexpectedly, which he happily—and perhaps proudly—took on. But he was working overtime for me too. The whole point of this arrangement is so that it works on his schedule, not mine.

"We could've arranged our session for another night," I insisted.

"It's fine. The double shift was a last minute cover anyway," replied Damon.

I shook my head. "Yeah, but still…"

Damon gave me a lazy grin. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine after I get some sleep. You should go get some dinner."

He squeezed my shoulder and we began walking again. Once we came to the heart of campus where we'd have to split ways, he added one more final note. "Oh, and, rub some pain relief cream on your shoulders tonight. It'll help with the soreness tomorrow. The axes are a bitch, Soph."

We said good night and I headed off to dinner with a hint of a smile on my face and feeling warm all over.

The next day, I found out just how right Damon could be. My shoulders were sore. They were so stiff, I could hardly move them all the way up. I'm glad he told me to put the pain relief cream on last night.

"What is wrong with you?" Chad whispered to me in our morning bodyguard theory class. I kept rolling my shoulders and stretching them out to relieve the tension.

"Damon had me decapitate practice dummies last night with an axe." I began massaging the front of my shoulder where the bones connect. "I'm just a little sore."

I don't think Chad heard anything after 'axe' judging from his open jaw. "What?"

He said it kind of loud that a couple people sitting in nearby seats turned their heads towards us. Chad lowered his voice when he spoke again. "That is so cool. Guardian Kosava hasn't even got me started on weapons yet. We're still bullshitting around with combat moves and sparring." He rolled his eyes. "As if I don't do enough of that already throughout the day."

I repressed a laugh. "Don't worry, you'll get there." I also refrained from telling Chad why he was probably mainly working on combat and sparring. Chad was good at sparring but it wasn't his strongest suit. Guardian Kosava was most likely building up and refining his skills in the areas he lacked first. Damon has me doing anything and everything under the sun. But I was a different case—according to Damon—considering my parents taught me things earlier than the school's timeline.

"Easy for you to say, Soph. Petrov's got you working on freaking decapitations."

"Well…you could always ask him for extra lessons if you want," I suggested.

Chad stared at me dumbfounded for a second. "Why didn't I think of that?" he murmured to himself. To me, he said, "Brilliant, Soph."

Damon's P.O.V.

Alto was really starting to piss me off. It was like he planned these things on purpose. Only two days after my double shift and mentoring session with Sophia, he rostered me on for another double shift. It was as if he was trying to punish me for one, being assigned to the academy (he clearly didn't want me under his wing), and two, getting a mentorship role.

Honestly, I didn't mind patrolling the grounds and wards when the sun was out. It was the most peaceful part of my day, and also it was hilarious to see the look on students' faces, shitting themselves because I caught them sneaking out. So, I tried to make light of the situation even though the double shifts were exhausting.

One 'night', whilst on my perimeter control walk near the edge of the school's wards, I was walking alongside the old guardians' watch post cabin. I swept past the unused, dingy log house, and the funny looking pond with its murky water. If Alto could've managed it, he'd have me living out here in the cabin rather than in the guardian staff wing.

I was almost past the pond when I smelt it. A very familiar stench. I inhaled it and glanced around trying to determine which direction it was coming from.

There it was.

Near the cabin. I saw little grey cloudy drifts float across the air and slowly disintegrate into nothingness. I drew closer, following the smoke and the smell. Careful to remain quiet. I rounded the corner at the back of the cabin and voila.

Found the culprit.

Her eyes were clamped shut and body crouched down against the wood of the cabin, cigarette burning in between her forefinger and middle finger.

I tsked. "Sophia. What on earth are you doing all the way out here?"

Her eyes shot open at me. She flung the cigarette out of her grasp and it fell onto the grass. She clutched her chest in shock. "Holy shit, Damon. What the fuck are you doing out here?"

"I'm on duty." I took a few steps closer and crouched down. I picked up the cigarette, rolled it between my fingers and stamped it out on the wood. "Bad habit."

She crossed her arms and huffed. "I know."

"You didn't answer my question: what are you doing all the way out here? Couldn't you have snuck into another part of the woods? One a bit safer than…here?"

"No! All the other kids always sneak into the good parts of the woods. No one ever comes here. Since…you know…" I did know. Everyone knew. Especially Sophia. This is the place where her father and mother first came across the Strigoi on campus all those years ago. This entire territory was completely out of bounds. Which is why it shocked me to my very core that she, out of all the people in the world, would choose to sneak out here.

I arched an eyebrow at her. "Bit dumb, don't you think?"

She gestured upwards to the sky. "The sun is out. No Strigoi are coming in here. And since they figured out a way to put up a ward of spirit ten years ago, no one can break that even if they run a stake into the ground. We're safe."

I nodded. She was right. "True, but I still wouldn't risk it and I still wouldn't be out here."

I sat down beside her, our shoulders nearly touching. "Tell me why you're really out here."

"Well, it's as I said before but also…I can't go anywhere else." She met my eyes. "No one knows I smoke, and no one can ever know—I mean, aside from my siblings and a few of my cousins but they're sworn to secrecy! My parents will find out if the other kids see me doing this."

I nodded in understanding. I didn't bother to ask why she felt the need to smoke a lot. We both knew she had trouble with it. Smoking was a terrible habit she couldn't shake. It was her only relief, her only way to get all the stress and worries of her life 'out'. I didn't condone this. No one in her life condoned it, I believe. But I understood her need for it. It was almost like an addiction for her. Hell, it could very well already be an addiction.

I blew out a breath. "I don't want to enable this horrid habit of yours, Soph, but…"

She narrowed her eyes. "But what?"

I sighed. If anyone found out I was doing this, I was so fired. I looked Sophia square in those chocolate eyes. "Whenever you feel the absolute need to have a smoke all the way out here, I want you to text me right away."

"Damon—"

"I don't care what time of the night it is," I cut her off. "You have my number. You must text me. I know you are going to keep doing whatever it is you want to do regardless, so it is better I'm out here with you—to keep an eye on you amongst other things—than you be out here alone. Understood?"

A protest began to form on her lips. "Damon—"

"Is. That. Understood?"

She nodded meekly and that was that.

I demanded she return to her dorm at once, something that I was not lenient on; and I returned to my perimeter control.

My shift finally ended at eight p.m. that day, and a new school day was beginning. As if the day couldn't have gotten weirder, what with me catching Sophia doing drugs in the most dangerous, forbidden part of the campus, a student approached me on my way to my room.

"Hey, Guardian Petrov, do you have a minute?" The senior novice asked, falling into step with me. He was a tall dude, dark skinned with short black hair cut almost to a buzzcut, but not quite. Brown, Chad Brown, I think his name was. One of Sophia's mates.

"What can I do for you, Chad?" I said, hoping I sounded kind and not like some grumpy beast.

He cleared his throat. "I know you're super busy with securing the school and whatever shifts Guardian Alto has you down for, but I was just wondering…would you consider mentoring me on the side?"

I stopped in my tracks. Had I heard correctly? Chad wants me to be his mentor? When Sophia asked I hadn't thought twice about doing it because we're friends and sparred together plenty of times. But this? This was—

"I've been talking with Sophia," Chad interrupted my thoughts. "And she said you've got her onto decapitations. I've been observing her, and it's clear how much her performance has enhanced in just one month. There's nothing wrong with Guardian Kosava but I was hoping for a bit more, and learning from two different guardians is never a bad thing, right?"

"No, it's never a bad thing," I agreed coolly.

"So…would you do it? Would you mentor me, too?"

I was unequivocally floored that I couldn't comprehend this on my sleepy brain. Could I even do this? First of all, did I have the time? Second of all, would Alto let me? Or was Sophia simply allowed because of Alberta's influence that first day?

I swallowed. Here this guy was, eager to learn and better himself. Who was I to deny his education? Ultimately, it served a greater purpose. To hell with whatever Alto has to say. If these novices wanted to learn, I'm more than glad to teach them and beat some real sense into them. The academy was too soft sometimes because nothing can really prepare you for loss and pain. But I would teach them so much more than just combat skills. I had already started this with Sophia and I could see the improvement from the tips and tools I provided her with. They were practices you could only implement outside of fighting and physical conditioning. The mental and emotional aspect has a key role that's often overlooked. I was starting Sophia on that path; it was one that helped me and still does. Now, I'm going to pass it down to Chad too.

"Yes, of course. I'd be more than happy to do it. Send over your current timetable with Kosava and I'll compare it against my roster and find some time for you this week."

Chad clapped his hands. "Seriously? Sweet! Thanks Guardian Petrov!"

He clapped me on back and raced off. I headed to my room and flopped face first on the bed wondering what I may have just gotten myself into.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all for reading this second instalment! I really hope you enjoyed :) I'm sorry there weren't any Romitri moments in this chapter but I have soo much more to come! How do you guys feel about Soph & Damon? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Take care and catch you in the next chapter xxx