Adrian's POV

My sketch book was under my arm and it rubbed painfully against my skin as I walked. I hadn't needed to bring it, but in my rush to leave and make Sydney jealous, I had forgotten to put it back.

I continued to walk through the grass of a park over to a bench that had a clear view of the one small river that ran through this place. She was already there, waiting, scribbling on a piece of paper, her brown hair covering her face. Finally she looked up at me and gave me a small smile.

"Elizabeth" I nodded in acknowledgement.

"Ivashkov" she nodded back. For some reason she found it more amusing to only ever call me by my last name. At first it had annoyed me, I had never really felt like a true Ivashkov, but now it made me feel kind of special.

Poor Elizabeth. She was never really in art class, and actually lived in the next town over which was more of a hole than this place. So she had no idea about Jill or any of my 'relatives'. Unfortunately that meant when I first told her my name, Ivashkov slipped out instead of my fake name Melrose. This however meant she never to meet any of my friends or anyone I knew in this small town.

Elizabeth was what I liked to call a scrambled artist. She could write the most beautiful stories and use words to create magic and her head was full of the most amazing artistic ideas ever, however, her body was a little scrambled and she couldn't get those ideas to paper, for she lacked in the art of being good at art. And it was that reason I had taken a liking to her as my new art partner.

I looked down at her work only to see words scribbled all over it with ideas flowing like a river. She smiled guiltily when she saw me looking.

"I thought we agreed you needed to start drawing your ideas now" I tisked, sitting down.

"I tried" she sighed, holding up a drawing that looked like a deformed potato.

"It was a baby" she muttered and I couldn't help but laugh, causing her cheeks to glow red in a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"Why are you drawing babies?" I asked curiously.

"One of our family friends has finally managed to get pregnant after 20 years of IVF" She explained, rubbing out her potato.

"Babies do look like potatoes" I tried to comfort and it worked, giving me a laugh.

"So, how's Sydney?" she asked like she was asking about the weather. Seems Elizabeth didn't know anything about my friends, I was able to talk to someone about my girl issues.

"Ignoring me as usual. Pretending nothing ever happened" I sighed.

"Grab her and just stick your tongue down her throat. Girls love that" she said, attempting to draw a bridge.

"I tried not. Not the tongue bit. She just has thing thing, where she just knows we can't be together" I tried to explain without letting on about the whole alchemist/Moroi thing.

"How complicatedly cliché and yet romantic" she nodded like she approved.

"And Angeline and Eddie are still going out?" She asked.

"Unfortunately. Jill isn't very happy and I don't know what to do" I sighed.

"You tell Jill to fight for him and never give up, even if she has to fight dirty" she added.

Elizabeth that this alluring wit and fight about her that reminded me of Rose. However, she wasn't as physically tough as her, like a human couldn't be, and that gave her a kind of sweet and caring nature.

"I love our talks" I told her and we laughed.

They say every girl needs a gay best friend. Well every guy needs a lesbian best friend. Even though technically Elizabeth was as straight as they came, she was still a girl I could talk to and get advice off who wasn't trying to get in my pants. Because let's admit it, is there any girl who wouldn't want to get in my pants? Other than Sydney, maybe.

Elizabeth may be completely straight, but she had never really had a boyfriend, which I found weird. I had spent my whole life with Moroi and Dhampirs, so she was something particular to me. She was a little bigger and thicker than most stick thin Moroi's, she was even bigger than a Dhampir, but at only 5'5 that made her seem maybe a little pudgy. She had curves in all the right places. Rose was the curviest person I knew and all Moroi were flat chested with no hips, but Elizabeth had wide hips and a very full chest, not that I had noticed. Her hair was a little darker brown than mine and hung just below her shoulders in waves. She had turquoise eyes that intrigued me and her skin was a natural tan that only California surfers could achieve.

She explained that boys were threatened by her awesomeness, but sometimes I wondered if she was just trying to hide her insecurities. But that could just be the artist in me. Sydney always thought that if I hadn't wanted to be an artist, I could have been a poet. She had no idea of the poet she had made me.

It wasn't long before we had gotten bored and began to walk down the deserted park walk, looking for an exist to get out of the park without walking across the grass.

"It's getting dark" Elizabeth noted and I thought I saw her eyes flicker around.

"Not scared of the dark are you?" I laughed and she smiled, although the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Bad things happen in the dark" she said and I had to nod in agreement. I opened my mouth to ask if she wanted a ride home when suddenly she was on the ground. The air filled with her screams as I watched, frozen as a Strigoi sunk his teeth into her neck.

My body was unable to move. My mind couldn't comprehend the fact that a Strigoi was here, in all places, and was sucking the life out of Elizabeth, of all people. My body reacted first and I threw myself on top of the Strigoi man whose skin was as pale as chalk. As predicted he just tossed me off like a rag doll.

"You're next Moroi" he hissed then went back to draining her blood. I threw my fists and tried to remember everything I could that Wolfe had taught me, but I was pretty much useless.

Elizabeth was pale and had gone still. Suddenly I heard gurgling sounds. The Strigoi held his hands to this throat and I watched as the blood began to pour from his mouth in vomit and he choked. "Poison" he spat through the blood.

I was unable to move as I saw a slight glow form around Elizabeth's unmoving body. I watched in horror when all of a sudden the glow burst out like a star exploding, throwing myself and the Strigoi backwards and I heard a crunch as I flew back, only to thankfully see I had landed on a branch.

Suddenly the Strigoi screamed as Eddie sunk a stake into his heart.

"How did you get here?" Were the first things out of my mouth.

"We were in a restaurant a block down. Sydney called to say her and Mrs Terwilliger had felt a burst of magic and needed us to check it out and they were on their way" Eddie explained, going white now the adrenaline was leaving him.

"You always carry stakes on your dates?" I asked and he gave me a small smile.

"Who is that?" Angeline asked pointing at Elizabeth's body. I rushed over to her, probably looking like an idiot as I half crawled half ran to her. Her body was cold and I couldn't find a pulse.

I smeared the blood away with my sleeve. I pushed her bloody hair out of the way, only to find the bite marks had uncovered a few scars on her neck.

Suddenly there was a small gasp and her chest began to rise and fall again.