So I said it would be a new years present. I am sorry I am a little bit late. Even though it is the new year ;). the story just got bigger and bigger. But I finished it. So here is the first chapter. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think.

Prologue

DPOV

I had a bad feeling. I knew Ivan said I deserved some time off to do my errands. And he was right. I only needed a few hours. And it wasn't like I haven't had time off before. But this was different. There was something in my gut telling me I shouldn't be doing this. I ignored it until I was on my second errand. Something just didn't sit right with me. So I turned back around and went back to Ivan's house.

The blood trail leading into the house was already an indication I had been right.

I heard him scream and I ran. I ran over the body of the guardian that had replaced me. I was just in time to see the Strigoi sink his teeth into Ivan's neck. I didn't hesitate; I lunched at the Strigoi to get him off of Ivan. He was strong and I knew he was old, but I was all that was standing in the way of him killing my best friend so I would not yield. I would defend him.

I blocked as the Strigoi attacked and I could feel the bones break in my arm. Another hit to my side fractured a couple of ribs. He was getting the upper hand but was also getting more cocky by the second. I just needed an opening. I took another hit and fell down. He was on top of me and his fangs were inches from my neck. Just where I wanted him. He hadn't seen me grab my stake. He thought I was losing. I plunged the stake into his heart from beneath him and I saw his eyes roll back into his head.

I threw him off of me and stumbled across to Ivan. He was pale, well paler the he should be and he had lost a lot of blood, but he was alive.

RPOV

Miss Karp had helped us escape the academy. Lissa thought she was being followed and at first I thought she was just being paranoid, she had been acting strange lately. But I had felt it too. Eyes on me. I could never detect anybody, but I had to agree with her. And when Miss Karp believed us too, I knew it was time to run. I needed to keep her safe.

Miss Karp had smuggled us out of the academy during a party and we were currently on a bus to Chicago. We needed to get far away from the academy and go into hiding. I had to remain strong for Lissa but I was terrified. What were two fifteen year old girls going to do? We had no money, no place to stay, only a few changes of clothes. But I didn't want Lissa to worry so I stayed strong, even if I didn't feel it.

We got off the bus and it was nighttime. I was already tense. This would be prime hunting ground for Strigoi. I knew I didn't stand a chance against them. But when we got off the bus it wasn't Strigoi waiting for us at the busstation it was Victor Dashkov. Lissa was excited. She thought he might be able to help us, but I was more concerned with how he knew we were here. And in that moment as I looked at him, the gentle smile he always carried replaced with something dark and devious, I knew we had been running from him. I tried to pull Lissa back as she walked towards Victor but I was too late. A guardian already stabbed her with a needle and her body went limp. I struggled against two guardians and was satisfied when I knocked one to the ground. But eventually I could feel darkness tugging on me as my world went black and my body went limp.

Chapter 1:

DPOV

I sat on the couch and started laughing. He looked ridiculous. Ivan was standing in front of me with an English hat on, a pipe in his mouth and a tweed cape. He was supposed to look like Sherlock Holmes but he just looked ridiculous.

"Oh come on Dimka, let's do this. I love a good mystery. These girls have been missing for two years and one of them is the last Dragomir princess. No one has been able to locate them."

I groaned. He had been going off on this for three days now, ever since he heard the girls had been missing. He was going all out to convince me. Although technically I had no say in it and I would have to follow him if he decided he wanted to do this. I appreciated he was asking me and not telling me to go with him.

"Here, maybe this would convince you."

He handed me a couple of photos.

"Look at them. Can you imagine those poor girls all alone in the world, not to mention they are hot."

I had taken the pictures from him and was looking at them. I looked at him scolding. They were fifteen in this picture. Although when I looked at them I could appreciate that two years later they would be stunning. The princess had platinum blond hair and green eyes indicating she was indeed a Dragomir, pretty if you like that sort of thing. But when my eyes traveled to Rosemarie, I had to remind myself that she indeed was fifteen in this picture. She had beautiful long dark hair and matching dark eyes. Her skin was almond suggesting a more Middle Eastern heritage. She was in one word beautiful; although I would not admit she was hot. But I did imagine she would have turned a lot of heads.

I groaned again and sighed heavily.

"Fine, where do we start?"

Well it turns out we started where everyone started, which was nowhere. I had tracked them to Chicago when the trail went cold. I knew the girls had to get supplies somewhere, so instead of teenage girls I was looking at what they might need. Like a feeder for the princess. I had a hard time believing they would have organized this all by themselves and kept hidden for two years, so Ivan and I started to investigate known associates.

We finally caught a break when we figured out feeders were still being send to a home Victor Dashkov owned when he wasn't there. I had noticed something odd about Victor and his statements. He had looked a lot better in the last few years. He had been suffering from a deadly disease but it didn't seem to bother him anymore. I wondered if a new therapy was working. I thought maybe he would be taking in more blood and required more feeders, but even when he hadn't visited the place for weeks due to his responsibilities at court the feeders were still sent to the mansion. It was also weird that the mansion was isolated, very isolated. Why would he visit that place so often.

I had asked a few fellow guardian friends of mine to help investigate, the five of us and Ivan, because there was no way he was being left behind if there was intrigue to be found, all walked around the perimeter of the home. Ivan wasn't much of a fighter, but since the attack more than two years ago, he had worked hard on his magic. He told me he never wanted to feel so defenseless again. I told him I was there to protect him and would never let anything happen to him, and he called me a little gay and that was the end of that conversation.

We entered the house and the moment I entered the living room I froze. Well for a moment before I was attacked by a guardian. He was down in a few seconds though. I didn't have time for it. Ivan was behind me.

"Nice."

His face fell once he saw what I saw. The princess was sitting in the living room on the coach rocking back and forth with her legs tugged up to her chest and her hands around her. She was rambling to herself. I couldn't see any signs of physical damage, but she was clearly not in her right mind.

But what I didn't find was Rose.

"Stay here with her, I am going to see if I can find Rose, if the princess is here, so must she."

Ivan nodded and he was trying hard to get any kind of reaction from Vasilisa. But he was having no luck.

I was scouting out the house checking the bedrooms, kitchen and lounge room, but no Rose.

I saw there was a stairs down into the basement. I went downstairs and there were several doors. Why I picked the second one on the right first instead of working my way down systematically I didn't know.

But when I opened the door I felt my breath hitch in my chest and my blood run cold in my body. There she was. She was strapped down on a table, her hands bound to the table with shackles. And by the look of the marks on her wrists, this wasn't her first night on this table either. But the worst wasn't the wounds on her body or the fact she had lost a substantial amount of weight. It was her eyes. In the photo her eyes were so vibrant, but these eyes were dead. She didn't even seem to register I was there. I slowly walked up to her and in the gentlest way I could master I talked to her.

"Hey, Rose, I am Dimitri, I am getting you out of here."

No response.

I started to unbuckle the restrains on her wrists, no response.

I gently took her wrists out of the restrains, no response.

I slowly brushed away the hair from her face, no response.

I didn't know what to do, but I needed to get her out of here.

I picked her up as careful as I could. She weighted nothing. I could feel every bone in her body. She clung to me, the first sign she wasn't catatonic.

"You're not real."

I looked down at the fragile girl in my arms as her brown eyes met mine.

"Of course I am, and I am getting you out of here."

The look on her face was almost funny. She scrounged her eyebrow together.

"What seems more likely, that I finally went off the deep end not able to handle this anymore and dreamed a sexy Russian guy came to rescue me or that you are actually here."

Well if she put it like that.

"I assure you I am real. My friend and I have been trying to find you and the princess and now we are taking you both to safety."

He eyes lit up at the word 'princess'.

"Lissa, is Lissa okay, did you get her."

She was trashing in my arms, but she barely had any strength to do it.

"Calm down, Roza, we found her, she is safe."

Safe yes, I didn't know if she was alright though.

But it seemed to calm her down.

I took her up the stairs still in my arms. I didn't trust her legs to carry her. Besides she was holding on to me tight. I don't think she will let go for a while.

I saw Ivan lead the princess into an awaiting SUV. I radioed the other guardians, asking their status. They had made two arrests, one was the guardian guarding the princess and the other one a Moroi man. They informed me he had been trouble and they had to sedate him. He didn't seem to have it all together. They would contact the local alchemists and arrange transportation for them to the nearest prison, from there they would go to court for their trial.

I tried to place Rose in the SUV next to Vasilisa but she didn't let me go. So I got in the car with her and that seemed to placate her. She looked over towards the princess.

"Lissa, Lissa, are you okay."

The princess hadn't said anything coherent at all. She had made no attempt to communicate with Ivan. Rose's words didn't register either. I saw Rose reach for her and I saw her demeanor change. Her eyes focused and were she was first completely unaware of her surroundings, she now seemed to be able to take us in. She still looked disheveled but already a lot better.

"Oh Rose, he said he killed you. But I knew it wasn't true, I felt you. I knew you hadn't died. But I didn't know where you were. It has been so long."

But where Vasilisa seemed to be more coherent I felt Rose clutch my shirt. Her breathing increased and I felt her entire body stiffen. Not that she had been very responsive before, but this was definitely different. I just held her until whatever seemed to affect her had passed.