A/N: First story in a while! has changed a lot! Dunno if I like it too much...Well, anyhow. This is my first 'none-anime' story, unless you count 'Heart of the Sea' and 'Lucky Accident', which I won't be touching for a while. This one really does mean a lot too me, though. I love this story series. I can't wait until the next book...Next year....Ergh. So yeah. Please be gentle! This is just a prologue.
Disclaimer: Vampire Academy belongs to Richelle Mead.
Ah. Fuck. That hurt a lot.
I winced, feeling blood seep down my neck, matting into my hair. That was going to be a joy cleaning out later. Lately, I've realized that cleaning blood out of your hair really isn't that easy. Especially when it's been there for a good few days. I learned this the hard way when I tried to clean up my hair after five days of blood soaking into it. God, that had been a chore. I didn't particularly enjoy doing it. It probably would've been way easier if I cut my hair really short.
But Dimitri had loved my hair so much, and in spite of everything I couldn't cut it for that reason.
My thoughts were brought back to the present when an arm pinned against my neck, briefly making me remember when I'd put Camille into the same situation a month ago. But, see, I was in control and wasn't hurting her or trying to. This? This was crushing my windpipe, and I'd be dead if I didn't stop him soon.
Quickly thinking, I brought my knee up and slammed it into the groin of my attacker. He immediately let go, gasping and I clutched to my throat for a split second before grabbing my stake and shoving it through his ribs during his momentary lapse of paying any sort of attention. His red eyes widened before a gurgle sound escaped his lips and he fell limp to his side, eyes wide and unseeing. I didn't even pause to think about how many Strigoi I've killed within the last month now; I just swiftly pulled the stake out and walked through the cave, eyes watching everywhere at once as I walked.
There was no nausea as I walked through the passages, and this made me a little worried. I wasn't just randomly tromping through a Strigoi-infested cave after all; I was looking for someone. A specific Strigoi anyhow, who was rumoured to know something I needed to know. Something about him. About Dimitri. It was a long shot, but I was taking a lot of those lately. They'd have to make up some new tattoo for me if I ever got out of this alive; I'll probably cut down a good portion of Strigoi on this mad manhunt of mine.
Suddenly, my stomach turned and I spun around in time to avoid a Strigoi lunging at me, ducking and rolling out of the way. I immediately sprung up, glancing around briefly before realizing he was the only one; he must've been who I was looking for.
"Are you Tobias?" I asked then, keeping my stake up in case he decided talking wasn't in his style. The Strigoi paused though, looking at me in interest; he was one of the older Strigoi I'd seen so far, and so more in control of himself than the others. We could probably sit down and have tea and blood pudding if he randomly decided it. And I don't mean that English sausage stuff for blood pudding, if you catch my drift here.
"I am," his accent was heavy and German; made sense; I was in the throes of Germany; deep into the country, heading in the general direction of Russia. I was placing all my money that Dimitri would be there, in his homeland; he'd always hinted that he'd like to go home one day. And now that he didn't have an obligation to protect the Moroi, why not do so?
I inwardly shuddered at the reminder of what happened to the man I loved. The man I was out to find. To kill.
"I need to find Dimitri Belikov. I hear you have information on him. I just want to talk; not to fight you."
Tobias raised an eyebrow, clearly confused by my words. He relaxed his stance, and I relaxed mine—a little. I was still around a Strigoi; I wasn't going to leave myself completely vulnerable. "What do you need to know about that young one? He has done nothing to the Moroi or dhampirs. Your hunt makes no sense to me."
"It's personal." I said simply, narrowing my eyes at him. "Do you have information on him or not?"
"I do," Tobias said, smiling a little and raising his hands as if to placate me; I stiffened, sliding back slightly. "Calm yourself, little dhampir, I am not going to hurt you as long as you don't hurt me. A fair deal, right?"
"Sure," I shrugged my shoulders, keeping a close eye on him. The 'little dhampir' comment made me thing of Adrian, and how I'd used him to get this far. Brief guilt washed over me before I pushed it aside for more important things. "Sounds fair."
"Then let's put away your scary stake. It makes me nervous." He glanced his red eyes at my silver stake, filled with Moroi magic, with life. I frowned, hand tightening it.
"No way in hell. I don't care how much you promise not to hurt me; I'm not so much of an idiot as to just blindly put my weapon away. You're still a Strigoi, I'm still a dhampir. And you could be very hungry." He glanced at me, before smiling lightly, tightly. "The stake stays out where I can defend myself."
"Fair enough." He moved away from me, keeping the distance between us wide; that wouldn't matter if he decided to attack me, though. He could clear that distance faster than I could breathe and then there'd be another fight and I wouldn't get any information. Better keep my temper in control, then.
"So, what is it that you want to know?" He asked then, looking at me curiously. "I'll need to know specifically what information you want before I give it to you."
"I need to know where he is." I said then, staring straight into the eyes of the creatures I hated more than anything. I'd killed so many, sworn to kill even more and here I was, civilly talking to one. I had stooped very low in my travels. Very, very low. I was not the same Rose as I had been when I had left the Academy a month ago. Leaving behind my best friend and everything I had held dear to go out on my own. Sometimes I regretted that. Sometimes I regretted leaving Lissa behind and Eddie and even Christian. Sometimes I regretted not graduating, becoming a guardian, helping the vampire community with my skills and strengths.
Then I would close my eyes, see those brown eyes, so warm with love, turn red and I'd forget all my regrets for my biggest regret. Letting Dimitri turn when I could've tried to help him. Being too weak to protect him.
"When he came to me, he was heading towards Russia, where he was born. He needed a way to get there without exposing himself to the sun, so I showed him an underground pathway that would lead him as far as the border to Poland. Russia is, of course, a very far way off. And to take that journey on foot is even more tiring. But he is young, he'll probably have a little more energy about himself than the older Strigoi." He looked at me in interest, and the look in his eye told me he had things he wanted to ask the strange dhampir he was talking to. "He could be as far as Berlin for all we know, or even farther."
Right now we were in a countryside near the town of Hannover, so Berlin was actually a good ways off. If Dimitri had been walking this secret passage for a few days or even weeks, he could've gotten a fair distance. I was behind; I needed to catch up to him and fast.
Turning to Tobias, I smiled at him; it was one of the smiles that had once been described to me as 'frighteningly sweet'. "Thank you, Tobias."
And before the man could even sense what was coming (which was rare of Strigoi, but I was getting really good at killing them lately), I lunged at him, slammed my shoulder into his chest making him stumble back and before he could even wrap his hands around my neck I stabbed him through the ribs like Dimitri had shown me how on the practice dummies what felt like ages ago. I pulled the stake back then as Tobias fell lifelessly to the ground at my feet, before looking around the cave.
"So…It's to Berlin then."