Chapter 4:

I passed some of the student's parents on the way to my first class. I recognized more than half of them. They were easy to pick out of the crowd too. Since they wern't from the school's regiment. Parents and their guardians had already started coming to campus to accompany their children to the ski resort. And I knew my next class would have more of the schools guardians than usual.

I arrived at Rose's bodyguard theory class. I had known that guardians that normally worked out side the Academy were paying a visit today, although I didn't know who.Until I saw the bright red hair that belonged to a short Scottish woman. Janine Hathaway, Rose's mother.

I was surprised to see her standing in front of the class, among two other guardians whom I faintly recognized. Both men, one tall but old while the other was strong and young. I nodded out of respect before taking my rightful place in the back of the class room.

Janine was tough, she was the kind of guardian that you didn't want to get stuck battling with. She was one of the few woman we had, and the shortest. With being only five foot tall she looked small and helpless. But fought like a tiger. I had seen her in action, she had guarded one of my Moroi's friends. And I remember the way she fought. Light as a feather and quick as a whip. If I was this surprised to see her I couldn't imagine what Rose's reaction might be.

The students started to pile into the room then. And as usual Rose was the last of them. Walking in with Mason at her side. I saw her look up her eyes darting immediately to Janine. Her face darkening as she took her seat.

But as she sat down her posture slummed as she seemed to sink into her chair. As if to melt right in it. Staring at her mother in complete bafalment.

Stan spoke up now, introducing the guests and explaining that they were going to share real-life experiences with the class. I glanced around checking the windows and doors for any sign of dangers, although not surprisingly, found none.

Stan paced the front of the room. "I know this is unusual. Visiting guardians usually don't have time to stop by our classes. Our three guests, however, have made time to come talk to you today in light of what's happened recently..." Everyone in the room knew he was referring to the Badica incident. Clearing his throat he tried again. "In light of waht's happened, we thought it might be better to prepare you to learn from those currently working in the field."

The class tensed with excitement. Apparently hearing gory stories was more interesting than learning from a textbook. The one time I glanced in Rose's direction she turned around and met my eyes, I averted mine quickly, hoping she didn't catch me staring at her.

The old guy launched into his story. His descibed the time when the youngest son of the family he guarded had wandered off in a public place that Stirgoi were lurking in.

"The sun was about to set." He told them gravely. He swept his hands in a downward motion, showing the class how a sunset worked. I hid a smile that was playing at my lips. "There were only two of us, and we had to make a snap decision on how to proceed."

I could see Rose lean forward out of the corner of my eye. She was clearly engrossed in the story. "We had the family stay inside a restaurant with my partner while I swept the rest of the area." Continued the old guardian, he spread his hands out in a sweeping motion. By the time he finished his story the boy had been found with no Strigoi encounters. A happy ending.

The younger guardian went next. Talking about howhe'd gotten the drop on a Stirgoi stalking a Moroi. Which tended to happen a lot more than others thought.

"I wasn't even technically on duty." He said. "I was visiting a friend and the family he guarded. As I was leaving their apartment, I saw a Strigoi lurking in the shadows. He never expected a guardian to be out there. I circled the block, came up behind him, and..." Then he made a staking motion, far more dramatic than it needed to be. He finished off his staking with a twist. Which was really unnecessary.

I glanced around the classroom, mainly at the girls. They looked as if they were about to fall out of their chairs they were so awed by the young guardians looks. Each of them were swooning with wide adoring eyes. I felt a pang of jealousy inside my chest. Hoping that Rose didn't share the same expression. And from this angle I couldn't tell if she did or not. Which made that jealous feeling tighten.

It was Janine's turn next. By the posture of Rose's back I could tell that she despised hearing a word from her mother. And as she launched into her story Rose's posture grew darker and darker.

Janine talked about how her charge, Lord Szelsky, and his wife had attended a ball put on by another prominent royal family. Several Strigoi had been lying in wait. Janine had discovered one, promptly staked it, and then alerted the other guardians present. With their help, she hunted down the other Strigoi lurking around and performed most of the killings.

"It wasn't easy." She explained, she had a briskness to the way she spoke, making her statement far from sounding like bragging. "There were three others on the premises. At the time, that was considered an unusually large number to be working together. That's not necessarily true now, considering the Badica massacre." I could see a few people flinch at the casual way she spoke about the attack. She wasn't there, so there was no reason for her not to. She hadn't seen the things I saw at that house. But when your charge lives outside of the wards then I guess that "massacre" was a normal every day thing. She continued. "We had to dispatch the remaining Strigoi as quickly and quietly as possible, so as not to alert the others. Now, if you have the element of surprise, the best way to take Strigoi is to come around from behind, break their necks, and then stake them. Breaking their necks won't kill them, of course, but it stuns them and allows you to do the staking before they can make any noise. The most difficult part is actually sneaking up on them, because their hearing is so acute. Since I'm smaller and lighter than most guardians, I can move fairly quietly. So I ended up performing two of the three kills myself."

Everyone's face shone with wonder, as if they couldn't believe that a guardian was capable of killing that many Strigoi in one night. I was kind of awed myself, never before had I heard of so many killings in one night.

She continued with the story. When she and the other guardians had killed the remaining Strigoi, they'd discovered two Moroi had been taken from the party. Such an act wasn't uncommon for Strigoi. Sometimes they wanted to save the Moroi for a later "snack"; sometimes lower-ranking Strigoi were dispatched by more powerful ones to bring back pray. Regardless, two Moroi were gone from the ball, and their guardian had been injured.

"Naturally, we couldn't leave those Moroi in Stirgoi clutches." She said. "We tracked the Strigoi to their hideout and found several of them living together. I'm sure you can recognize how rare that is."

And it was. Strigoi had evil and selfish nature, which made them turn against each other vary easily. Organizing for attacks--when they had an immediate and bloody goal in mind--was the best they could do. But living together? It was almost impossible to imagine.

"We managed to free the two captive Moroi, only to discover that others were being held prisoner. we couldn't send the ones we'd rescued back by themselves, though, so the guardians who were with me escorted them out and left it to me to get the others."

She went on telling how she got captured but managed to escape and rescue the prisoners. In doing so, she performed what had to be the hat trick of the century, killing Strigoi in all three ways: staking, decapitation, and setting them on fire."

"I had just staked a Strigoi when tow more attacked." She explained. "I didn't have time to pull the stake out when the others jumped me. Fortunately, there was an open fireplace nearby, and I pushed one of the Strigoi into it. The last one chased me outside, into an old shed. There was an axe inside and I used that to cut off her head. I then took a can of gasoline and returned to the house. The one I'd thrown into the fireplace hadn't completely burned, but once I doused him in gasoline, he went up pretty quickly."

The class were in awe as she spoke. Mouths gapeing open, eyes bluging out of their skulls and not a sound to be heard. Rose glanced around the frozen classroom. Seeming ultimitly bored out of her mind. When Janine had finished more than a dozen hands flew up into the air. And questions came pouring out.

After about the tenth question Rose's hand went up in the air. I silently pleaded her not to start anything. Although I knew she wouldn't listen, even if she could read my mind. It took Janine a while to notice and call on Rose. She was a little astonished to find Rose amongst the class, as if she never saw her. But I knew with enough training and experience that that wasn't the case. Dhampir's are trained to examine a room very closely and to know every detail.

"So, Guardian HAthaway." Rose began. Oh boy. "Why didn't you guys just secure the place?"

Janine frowned. "What do  you mean?"

It was amazing looking at these two, mother and daughter, side by side. They were nothing alike. Save for the same dark eyes. With Rose's dark long flowing hair, and Janine's short red hair. Their heights contrasted a lot and their attitudes especially.

Rose shrugged, slouching back into her desk. "I don't know. It seems to me like you guys messed up. Why didn't you scope out the place and make sure it was clear of Strigoi in the first place? Seems like you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble."

I could see everyone's eyes and attention shift to Rose. "If we hadn't gone through all that 'trouble,' there'd be seven more Strigoi walking the world, and those other captured Moroi would be dead or turned by now."

"Yeah, yeah, I get how you guys saved the day and all that, but I'm going back to the principles here. I mean, this is a theory class right?" She head moved to Stan's direction, who was regarding Rose with a very stormy look. "So I just want to figure out what went wrong in the beginning." Rose's attention turned back on her mother.

Janine was known for her self control. She didn't loose it once with Rose as she stared at her with a calm face. But by the tightness of her lips I knew she was mad with her daughter.

"It's not that simple." Janine replied. "The venue had an extremely complex layout. We went through it initially and found nothing. It's believed the Strigoi came in after the festivities had started--or that there might have been passages and hidden rooms we hadn't been aware of."

"The class ooh'ed and ahh'ed over the idea of hidden passages. But I could tell Rose wasn't even the slightest impressed.

"So what you're saying is that you guys either failed to detect them during your first sweep, or they broke through the 'security' you set up during the party. Seems like someone messed up either way."

The tightness in Janine's lips increased, and when she spoke her voice had a frosty tone to it. "We did the best we could with an unusual situation. I can see how someone at your level might not be able to grasp the intricacies of what I'm describing, but once you've actually learned enough to go beyond theory, you'll see how different it is when you're actually out there and lives are in your hands."

"No doubt." Rose agreed. "Who am I to question your methods? I mean, whatever gets you the molnija marks, right?"

I stared at Rose then, really stared at her. I knew she didn't like her mother that much, but to shun her in front of an entire class with adults present? That was way out of line. And I couldn't see how she could single her mother out like that.

"Miss Hathaway." Stan's deep voice rumbled through the room. "Please take your things and go wait outside for the remainder of the class."

Rose turned to him. "Are you serious? Since when is there anything wrong with asking questions?"

"Your attitude is what's wrong." He pointed to the door. "Go."

A silence heavier and deeper than when Janine told her story descended over everyone. Slinging her backpack over he shoulder, she crossed the short distance to the door refusing to make eye contact with her mother as she stalked out of the classroom.

The remainder of the period consisted of students asking questions and the guardians answering them. I was to surprised to hear some of the schools guardians speak up and ask their questions. I stayed silent, thinking of how much trouble Rose was going to be in with Janine. No one I knew had the courage to stand up to her that way. I was even afraid of her.

Five minutes before class ended Janine excused herself from the room. I wouldn't doubt that it was to talk to Rose. I stretched my hearing to the door, hoping to catch somewhat of their conversation.

At first their voices were calm and stern. But toward the end of the conversation their voices--mainly Rose's--rose to a shout. I flinched, it was one thing to yell at Rose, and another to be Janine Hathaway and yell at her.

The bell rung then, I took my time getting out of the class room. Knowing one of Rose's friends would comfort her, in some way. I knew I couldn't knew I shouldn't even think about it, but there it was. The feeling of wanting to pull her into my arms and whisper that everything will be alright.

I pushed that painful image away. Repeating over and over as I made my way to the gym it's the right thing.

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Thanks for reading! Please coment and vote telling me how I did on this chapter! I greatly appreciate the support that all of my fans have given me throughout the past (: without ALL of you guys I wouldn't have writen the second book, let alone made it this far (: so thanks!

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