Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 2a- The Strigoi Attacks

Everything was quiet, even more so than usual. I couldn't hear birds or crickets chirping, or even the sound of wind moving through the trees. Mason's terrified eyes met mine, pleading with me.

"Dimitri, there are Strig-" I looked at Dimitri and saw that he had gone paler than I had ever seen him before.

"I know ... I don't know how, but I heard him," Dimitri replied.

"Mason," I asked, "which way?" He pointed to the far side of campus, in the direction of the guardian outpost cabin. "How much time do we have?" He shot me an exasperated look that let me know I'd have to make it easier on him to communicate. I asked, "Do we have hours?" He shook his head. "Minutes?" Please, not seconds. Mason nodded - we had minutes. "How many?" Mason held up a two, then formed his hand into an O. "Twenty minutes?" I asked. He nodded.

"We have twenty minutes. They're coming from that edge of campus," I pointed in the direction Mason had pointed, "back towards that pond by the old cabin Tasha Ozera stayed in."

"Rose. Listen to me. Run. Run as fast and as hard as you can back to your dorm. Tell the guardians about the attack and where to find them." I could only nod. There wasn't time to question and we both knew that he knew what to do. He grabbed my upper arm tightly and looked into my eyes. "Do not stop. No matter what you hear, no matter what you see, do not stop. Not until you've warned the others. Don't stop unless you're directly confronted. Do you understand?"

I nodded again. He let go of my arm.

"Tell them buria."

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Dimitri, Alberta, Christian, and I were the only ones involved in the fight that I had truly cared about and we all made it out unscathed, but the emotional toll, let alone the physical weariness, was already something each of us was dealing with. Christian had basically exhausted his magic and Dimitri and I were both ready to collapse. We'd also seen people that we knew and trained side by side with being dragged away or hurt.

The Strigoi had taken people away, treating them like portable juice boxes for snacking on during the trip back, or to-go food orders for the big bosses in power. It was an appalling thought, even if it was not unheard of for this to happen when Strigoi attacked. Some of them would even bring back a person to turn Strigoi, which was even worse.

No matter why, there was hope that some of the people they took were still alive. Once we'd found and secured 'safe zones' where we'd officially confirmed that the Strigoi had cleared out, all of the students and the remaining adult Moroi on campus were grouped together there. The promised guardians, meanwhile, went to survey the aftermath. I felt like I should've been a part of the fight, but I was forbidden, told that I was done with my part.

It still blew me away that this had happened. It felt like the academies and Court were the places that were made to be safe - the reason that we were sent away from our families as kids. Now, that didn't feel so accurate.

Finding out how many had been captured or killed took hours and those hours moved slower than any of the time before that. The numbers were bad, but not as bad as they could've been. The early warning gave us time to prepare. When the Strigoi breached the wards, there was a fleet of guardians waiting to take them on, and most of the students and adult Moroi roaming campus were able to be directed inside buildings under the lockdown where they could be kept safe. In total, only four Moroi had been killed, along with five guardians. Three Moroi and four more guardians had been taken away.

From the numbers we'd seen and the attacks we'd experienced, the school's guardians figured that there must have been between fifty or sixty Strigoi, total. We'd found forty-two Strigoi bodies, so we killed the majority of them, but maybe as many as twenty more escaped, taking the seven captives with them. Given the number of Strigoi we'd faced all in one night, even though things definitely didn't have a happy ending, we'd fared far better than would have ever been expected. Mason's advance warning was part of what helped us. The Strigoi hadn't gotten on school grounds yet when the guardians were alerted, so we'd had the time to prepare. We'd all gone into lockdown as soon as I gave Stan the warning. Since it was already after curfew when the Strigoi had come, most of the campus was already indoors for the night, also. All of the Moroi victims—dead or taken—were those who had been either teachers or students violating curfew, those that were out in the open when the Strigoi came.

The attacking Strigoi never made it into any of the dorms, but even one life lost felt like too many. I was at my breaking point and felt like I couldn't take anymore, but there I sat in the cafeteria, eating. The campus had reverted to a daylight schedule, so my timing was completely off. Students were only allowed to leave dorms for meals. A guardian meeting was planned to be held later and - surprisingly - I had been invited to it.

"There were seven people taken," I said, "Seven. We should've saved them. We should still save them."

"They're as good as dead," said Christian. All of the anger I'd been feeling welled up inside me. If I knew I could do it, I wanted to go kill them all.

Lissa asked me, "What's wrong?"

I couldn't believe she would ask me that. "What's wrong? What's wrong? Do you seriously have to ask that?" I had said that louder than I meant to. People were looking at me.

Adrian spoke, full of serenity, "Rose, you know what she means. We're all upset. Sit back down. It's going to be okay."

At first, I started to sit. Then, I realized. Compulsion I shot Adrian a look that could kill.

"It is not going to be okay," I said, "not unless we do something about this."

Lissa wasn't talking yet. I could feel through the bond that she was upset that I'd lost my temper with her. Christian, however, said, "There's nothing to be done."

Standing to walk away, I replied, "We'll see about that,"

At that, Lissa finally found her voice. She called out, "Rose, wait." Part of that was worry for me, but she was also scared for herself. She wanted me to stay with her, where she could see me, for both our sakes. But I couldn't stay, not right now.