Shadow Rider (Vampire Academy Fanfic)

Chapter 18 - Rose

Monday had arrived, and with it our first official lesson of the advanced guardian training program. Sergei had made the announcement yesterday, just after Dimitri and I had finished dinner together with Lissa and Christian.

Now, we were all gathered in the gym, facing Thanatia. She stood at the front, wearing her normal pissed off look, a look that was now mingled with determination.

Not that many had turned up, but there were still about 40 people in the room, most solemn-faced, some expectant and even curious. Dimitri and I stood at the very front, next to Ash, who had been blabbing non-stop, until Thanatia had finally yelled at him to shut up.

When the clock struck six, she shut the door and faced us, looking imposing in her dark attire.

'We are gathered here tonight because we all share a common goal: we want to protect our Moroi against the growing Strigoi threat. To do it, we have to rethink our methods, we have to understand our enemy much better. We must ask ourselves: why is the situation today so bad, and how did we get here?

'I'll do my best to answer these questions myself, but the truth is, even the Scandinavian vampires don't have all the answers. The point of this meeting is to figure out the best way for us to move forward - together. But right now, I'll do my best to explain what we know so far.'

She paused for a moment, bowing her head, as if mentally preparing herself for what to say next.

'The reason why the Strigoi have been so successful is really quite simple.' Her deep voice rang out in the gym, and the guardians watched her with sullen, grim faces.

'They figured out something we failed to do: the ultimate desire of every human. Despite us and the Moroi being as mortal as they are, there's something that differs between us. The lifespan of humans is too short for everything they wish to accomplish. Technology develops so rapidly, distracting them from the very thing that birthed them: nature! Almost no human escapes the poor life quality or even fatality of disease. The majority live in severe poverty, surviving on mere scraps. So, how does a human escape disease, poverty, the shortness of time and the inescapable fate of death? If there was a way for all of that to go away, why wouldn't a human feel seduced by the possibility of immortality?'

Still silence met her, but the air was almost tangibly heavy with shock and apprehension. I felt the skin on my arms prickle, and a slight knot of real fear formed in my chest.

There was no doubt at all that Thanatia, despite her young age, was a woman wise beyond her years. I suppose any person who had died at the age of thirteen and been brought back to life only to immediately experience ghost-sightings, would have matured way faster than a teenager should. Not to mention she had been vigorously determined to kill every Strigoi on earth and was as a result part of an exclusively elite team of vengeous, shadow-kissed guardians. One could see how she was incredibly knowledgeable on the subject of Strigoi.

'The Strigoi figured that out,' she continued, pacing slowly around us, her eyes striking and serious, measuring up every guardian in the room, 'and suddenly, they found that this human desire for immortality was so strong that they could make them do something for them in order to be turned. They're recruiting an army,' she said. 'This practice became incredibly popular only a decade ago, and only in recent years have we experienced human stakings of wards, a useful offensive tactic that's left us completely vulnerable.' She shook her head then, and her voice took a decidedly dark turn. 'We've been lazy!' she snapped, anger flashing in her eyes. 'We've been so ignorant, allowing the monsters to organise themselves and recruit human slaves in order to attack us even in broad daylight. We're hopelessly outnumbered, with hundreds of humans being turned Strigoi every day.' Her voice was harsh and accusing, but really, she was right. It was our responsibility to protect the Moroi, but in failing to accept change and in response change our ways, the Strigoi had grown more powerful every day, while our change had come too late to match it. And even now we hadn't adjusted completely.