No Matter the Cost

Have To Save Her

Thirty-eight hours. We were going on thirty-eight hours. No one had seen Rose since I’d talked to her on the roof. Then they found Mason Ashford missing and I knew. Going to break someone’s heart,she’d said. Mason’s.

All the guardians wanted to discuss was strategy, but I didn’t see the use at this point. We knew where the strigoi were. We’d followed them from the mall in Spokane to an abandoned house just outside the city. They cared too much about planning and not enough about action.

Now you’re sounding like me, I heard Rose’s voice loud and clear in my mind. Too close. I was too close to her, but at this moment I didn’t exactly care. We had to save her.

Silently, I scolded myself. This wasn’t just about Rose anymore, not with Christian, Mia, Eddie and Mason in the mix. We had to save them, and frankly, I was tired of waiting.

Without another thought, I stood up and walked out of the debriefing. Enough of this. I had to help Rose.

I parked a few blocks from the abandoned house and cautiously approached it. Mentally, I tried to prepare myself for any situation I might walk into. Subconsciously, my hand closed around my stake. I would save Rose, no matter the cost.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Spinning around, I readied my stake.

“Whoa, whoa, Belikov, it’s me,” Christian said, wide-eyed. Upon recognizing him, I immediately looked around for Rose.

Eddie lay unconscious on the ground, fresh blood stains on his neck and collar, but no one else was around. “Where are they?” I asked, my voice grave.

“Mason and Rose stayed back. Mia went back to make sure everything was okay. I tried to stop her.”

Shaking my head, I pointed to Eddie, “Take care of him.”

“Belikov!” Christian called as I began to run toward the house.  “There are two of them. Be careful.”

I nodded curtly and left him. I ran directly into Mia. She was in hysterics.

“Mason, he…Rose, strigoi…dead,” she said through shallow breaths. Taking her into my arms, I carried her to where Christian and Eddie were.

“Where are Mason and Rose?” Christian questioned immediately.

“Watch her. Don’t let her go anywhere, okay? Christian? She’s in shock.” I grabbed him by the shoulder to make sure I had his attention. “Don’t move. The guardians are coming. Do you hear me?”

He nodded blankly. That’s when I saw it. In his eyes. Doubt. For whatever reason, he doubted Mason and Rose were alive. No. I shook the thought from my mind and ran back to the house, dreading whatever I’d find inside.

I peeked in the window and found three dead bodies, two of them decapitated. My throat dropped into my stomach. Not her. Please not her.

Quietly, I climbed through the window with my stake ever ready. It was quiet…too quiet.  Approaching the bodies, I was both horrified and relieved to find that none of them belonged to Rose.

First was a strigoi. He was tall, and I had to wonder how on earth either Rose or Mason had beheaded him. The second was the other strioi, a woman this time. It really wasn’t uncommon for them to be in pairs like this. Maybe it made eternity less lonely?

The last body made my stomach turn. Mason. His head was turned just a little too far to the right, his eyes glassy. Reaching down, I closed his eyes and bowed my head for a second.

With a look around the room, I decided on opening the bloodstained door closest to the male strigoi. It led into the basement. Two lines of blood trailed their way down the wall as if someone had dragged a bloody hand down the wall. And at the bottom of the stairs lay two more bodies. Christian said two…?

Both of these men had duct tape on their mouths, jagged bite marks on their necks, and both were…human. This discovery took me completely by surprise, but what surprised me more were the torn flexi cuffs on both of them.  If they were working for the strigoi, why were they handcuffed?

Continuing, I came across a makeshift jail cell, and to my relief, Rose. She sat in the corner, staring at the wall. “Rose?”

“Dimka.” Her voice was too calm, too smooth. She didn’t turn to face me. After all the death she’d witnessed, she was probably in shock.  Slowly, I made my way across the room.

“Roza?” I patted her hair. “Are you okay?”

She turned to look at me, but instead of the beautiful brown eyes I’d grown accustomed to, two horrible red ones met mine. She smirked at my surprise. “Never been better.”

Then everything went dark.