Shadow Rider (Vampire Academy Fanfic)

Chapter 39 - Thanatia

Casimir was walking back from what had been yet another promising practice session with the magic users. He focused on them and their achievements to keep his mind off Rose's troubling accusations.

Jenny had called him a few minutes ago, hoping to meet up, but he wasn't in the mood. He had a hollow, almost nauseous feeling his stomach, as if he was unbearably nervous about something.

He wondered if his guardian was alright. He tried to shake away the worry, tried to conjure happy images in his mind, but it was useless.

He wondered if his guardian had been turned into Strigoi yet.

Or worse - was she dead?

He tried to think about Jenny instead, but when he did, he felt nothing in particular. No, he begged, don't let me be over her yet.

How could he know, anyway? He couldn't think rationally at all, feeling this miserable. He would just have to soldier through it.

He set his jaw and continued on along the corridor, not seeing the woman following him.

I finally realised who I was, and where I was. Casimir! I yelled silently, unheard, watch out!

But Casimir was beyond my reach. And I, like him, couldn't have foreseen what happened next anyway.

A bomb went off.

The corridor was blasted into pieces. It all happened so fast that one second Casimir was standing upright, the next he found himself lying in a heap, crushed beneath the crumbled wall. The explosion had flung him right at the wall, and his shields had knocked the wall away completely. He stared around in confusion, not seeing anything in the dusty darkness.

He began to choke so loud he didn't hear the scream.

A woman was hurtling towards him, knife held in an outstretched hand. He only had time to widen his eyes in surprise.

He had no time to process what was happening before him, because behind the attacking woman, he saw a screaming Rose approach, also holding a knife.

Good grief, he thought. Are they both going to kill me? One isn't enough?

But the next second, Rose's knife disappeared from her hand and wound up protruding from the other attacking woman's chest. She collapsed on top of Casimir, her blood staining his dusty shirt.

It appeared that Rose had hurled her knife at the other woman, to get to kill him herself, or what?

He didn't care. His arms and legs were trapped beneath the rubble, and he couldn't concentrate on anything else but breathing.

'Casimir!' Rose screamed again. Was she the one who had been screaming earlier? 'Are you okay!?' She moved away the dead woman's body, not looking at it.

Casimir stared at her in confusion. Why was she hesitating?

'Hello!?' she yelled again, squatting down to haul away the rocks holding him down. 'I was coming after you to apologise for how I was being all pissy earlier, when I saw that woman following you. Argh!' Sweat was forming on her brow. A particularly large boulder had crushed his leg - it appeared to be the only serious damage he had sustained. His arms, and left leg weren't badly hurt. 'Can you help me with this?' Rose asked. 'Do your telekinesis thing.'

'I don't think I can control it well,' Casimir whispered. 'Get back.'

Rose nodded, and took several steps away, hiding her body behind the half-collapsed wall. Casimir grunted, and the rocks shot away from him.