Hey everyone, hope you're still out there! I did upload this earlier but it didn't save the changes I made so if you got two Update emails that's why.

SO this is the last chapter. FINALLY. I read all of this on live preview and it seems that just about every chapter has an apology fro latenees and I feel really bad about it. Feel free to tell me off! Anyway, as it's the last chapter Dimitri goes to rescue Rose. I lifted speech from the book. IT IS IN NO WAY MINE. Richelle Mead owns all!

The jet didn't move fast enough. It was going top speed but it still wasn't fast enough. The longer we were in the air the longer Rose was going to be in the clutches of the Strigoi. The longer Rose was there the less likely she was to survive. And I honestly didn't know if I could go on in a world like that. Without Rose… Well what was the point in living, in anything?

The worst thing was if she did survive this there was still no way we could be together. But if she was still alive the sacrifice of our happiness was worth it. Anything would be worth her living.

But what if she wasn't simply dead? What if the worst happened? What if she were strigoi? I remembered the promise we'd made in the back of the SUV when we went on the shopping trip. We'd both rather be dead than Strigoi. They weren't promises exactly but I knew Rose would do it for me. And I'd do it for her. Oh, I'd do it in a heart beat.

The jet eventually landed and we all transferred into Jeeps. Alberta got a phone call.

"Mia!"

I snapped my head up from the SatNav I was programming. Everyone leaned forward and began listening. I could vaguely hear Mia's hysterical voice.

Try and clam down. Where are you? What road?... We'll be there in half an hour." She snapped the phone shut. She pulled the SatNav out of my hands put a zipcode in it. "Go there. That's close to where Rose is."

In the mirror I saw Janine quickly buckle her seatbelt. "Drive fast, Belikov."

I didn't need telling twice. I stomped my foot down on the accelerator and in a squeal of tires we were off. Alberta radioed the others and told them where to go then the car was silent. Everyone was preparing. Preparing to face one strigoi, two maybe. Or maybe five. Five strigoi we all knew.

Alberta made a call to the alchemist and then put a new zipcode into the SatNav.

A car drove into my path going slowly. I had to break suddenly but then I slammed my hand on the horn. The car more or less jumped out of the way and I put my foot back down. Even with the danger that we were heading towards, and maybe even heart break, I felt the thrill of adrenalin rush though my veins with the speed. Once again I thought how Rose would love this.

It didn't take us long to get to the general area the house was in and then we were on the street. There were three people slumped on the sidewalk. I slammed the breaks on and jumped out of the car.

Christian was leaning against a tree. Eddie was more or less unconscious. Mia ran up to me tears streaming down her face.

"Rose! She's in there! She killed them. But Mason… Mason's dead! He's…"

I let her go and rushed towards the house. It was the only one with the door open. Alberta and Janine moved with me at the same time. We ran up the steps and then froze.

There was blood everywhere. Heads detached from bodies. Glass littered the floor. And Rose. Rose bent over Mason's body. Mason's body… I didn't want to think about it. It was too horrible. It was my fault he was dead. If I hadn't told Rose, if I'd kept quiet like I should have… He was still you. He had a promising future ahead of him. He was dead and it was my entire fault.

Rose's head snapped up and her eyes gazed at us, feral and promising danger.

She was broken. Broken beyond repair. Despair filled me and crushed my heart. She was broken and all because of me. She had no idea who we were. She looked at us but we were just threats to her. She stood up and pointed a bloodied sword at us.

"Stay back." she warned. "Stay away from him." Her voice wasn't her own. It was void of emotion, blank and… not hers. There was no colour, no vibrancy. Not even a harsh threat.

Tentatively I stepped forward.

"Stay back!" she yelled, panic creeping in.

There. There it was. At long last there was emotion. An emotion I expected too. After all that she'd been through blind panic was the only thing I expected from her at the moment. It being there gave me hope. There was a part of her left after all. I took another step forward.

"Rose, drop the sword." My voice was soft as if I was talking a stray cat and trying to convince it I wasn't there to hurt it but save her. Rescue her. Rescue her from the nightmare I'd created.

Her hands shook. Slowly I was getting through to her. Of course I was. I loved her and she loved me. If I couldn't get through to her then no one else could.

"Get away from us." she was less convinced. Closer to letting go of her tight hold on her emotions and closer to coming back to us.

"It's okay." I stepped closer. "Everything's going to be okay. You can drop the sword." My heart was hammering in my chest. If this didn't work I didn't know what would.

"I can't." I saw her struggled with words. "I can't leave him alone. I have to protect him."

I almost smiled. There. She was acting like a guardian again. A messed up, emotionally charged and at the moment useless guardian but she was acting like a guardian. A guardian who refused to leave her charge's side.

Softly I said, "You have."

And that was it. She dropped the sword. It clattered to the floor. She swiftly followed it. Relief pounding though my heart I took the last couple of steps towards her and wrapped my arms around her. She was cold. So, so cold. I helped her up and held her against my chest.

Finally something in our lives made sense. We were in love and I was the first person to talk to her and hold her. I was the one who was going to comfort her while everyone else sorted things out. No one knew of course that we were so very sweetly in love, but that didn't matter. We were together and she was safe. I tried to gently pull her out of there but she refused to move. Instead of forcing her I held her tighter.

"I love you, Roza." I murmured in Russian. It was a good job that no one here spoke it. Btu if they did what did it matter? She was safe. She was alive. "I love you. It's okay. It's all over. It's over and I'm here. I'm not letting go. Not now. Not ever. Oh, Roza you scared me so much, you know that. Please, never do anything like that again. Oh, I love you. I love you more than the world."

"Get her out of here, Belikov." Janine commanded.

I guided her in the right direction and this time she went. It seemed to take a great effort for her to put one step in front of another, but each step became more sure than the least and eventually we made it out into the safety if the sun.

Mia rushed up to us. She stopped when she saw that Rose was still in shock and freaking out. Instead of asking questions like I'd expected she quietly walked by my side back to the Jeeps.

I opened a door for Rose and she slowly climbed in and leaned against the back of the chair she sat on. A first aid kit was thrust into my hands. I took it and put it on the top of the car and quickly examined her. She had a bruised neck as if she had been dragged somewhere. What was more of a problem though was her bloodied, glass torn hand. As gently as I could I cleaned the wound. She should have flinched but I think shock was starting to take over and numbed her to a lot. I bandaged the hand.

"She was… brilliant." a tired voice said.

I looked over. Christian Ozera. He looked better than I expected but then I guessed a feeder had been quickly found.

"She was always looking for a way out. Then she suggested using magic. I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

At that moment two people came out of the house carrying a stretcher. The body was covered but for a stray lock of red hair.

"I keep thinking that maybe if I had then maybe Eddie might not be so bad and that Mason…"

"Mason chose to come here." I said for my benefit as well as his. "You can't blame him."

"He got us out, you know. Rose distracted the Strigoi and he got us out… Then he went back in." his voice was thick and he was on the verge of tears.

"Mr. Ozera, you're supposed to be resting." A firm but gentle voice said and someone guided him away.

Eventually another alchemist arrived and took over for us and we made our way back to the jets. We drove slowly this time, all of us worn and shocked by what we had seen.

SO that's the end. Please leave a review and thank you for sticking with it though the horribly late updates. All of your reviews have been greatly appreciated :D