Shadow Rider (Vampire Academy Fanfic)

Chapter 1 - Rose

The Moroi world was in turmoil.

When Lissa became Queen, she'd been unable to address the greatest threat looming right around the corner: the Strigoi. Strigoi numbers were increasing rapidly, and as a result, Moroi numbers were decreasing at a horrifyingly quick rate. As for us dhampirs... well, we were dwindling.

In the last week, the Strigoi had slaughtered numerous members of three royal families: the Badicas, the Contas and the Zeklos. The families were nowhere close to being wiped out, but the deaths were still a massive blow to the Moroi community.

It seemed that Lissa was never going to receive her much wanted education at Lehigh University. She was constantly being shipped back to the Moroi Court in order to attend important meetings and in this case, deal with the aftermath of Moroi slaughter.

Fortunately, Lissa was not alone in this. There was no denying it – I was her most dedicated and devoted guardian. Besides protecting her body, I advised her and helped her keep her head in line when it was all becoming too much.

Thankfully, I always got to be a near-guard, since I was female and the same age as Lissa. I was the only one of her guardians that was always by her side at the university. Two older and more experienced male guardians were her far-guards.

Normally, she had an entire entourage of guardians with her. But Lehigh was well protected. Every classroom was outlined with guardians, all of them solemn-faced and drop-dead serious. I did my best to imitate them, but it was not like I could purposefully ignore Lissa when she wanted to chat during breaks. Multitasking was something I was getting pretty damn good at. I managed to entertain Lissa with my witty, sarcastic humour while keeping a constant, watchful eye on our surroundings.

Lissa sometimes complained that I was over-protective. A student had once backed out of a classroom and bumped into her, causing Lissa to drop all her books. I had reacted automatically. Or as some would say – overreacted. In one fluid motion I had grabbed the poor Moroi student and tripped him so he'd fallen to his knee, my fist poised and ready only inches from his face.

Lissa – always horrified at seeing people get hurt – had called my name and squeezed her face into my line of vision. Seeing her had caused all my adrenaline-spiked hostility to subside, and I had finally released the student. I'd been quick to offer my apologies, but the student had scrambled away, shooting me an affronted look, like he thought my attack had been personal.

As if. I didn't attack people unless I had a good reason to.

Okay, sometimes I did.