Vampire Academy: Final Choice

I Really, Really Hate Headaches

I woke up to the sounds of screaming. I didn't really comprehend that they were from terror until a few seconds later, when incidentally there were around 70 Strigoi running past me, beheading guardians and Moroi alike. I woke up then, fear and adrenaline rushing through me like a sugar high.

"Arrghhhhhh….." The scream, and the noise it made as it was cut off, caught my attention. I froze, just in time to hear the guardian near me crumple to the ground. I spun around to look at her, my long hair catching in my eyelashes as I did so. Brushing it away impatiently I realised with a jolt why her screams had cut off. Her body lay on the floor just a few feet away from me, pale and covered in blood. About 10 feet to the left was her head.

I staggered away, running into the bushes and retching until my stomach finally emptied itself. Wiping my mouth I looked up, at the chaos that was the royal court.

Just feet away Strigoi battled guardians and Moroi alike, ripping and tearing through them as though they were nothing more than paper figures. The blood of the fallen was everywhere, limbs scattered around like snowflakes, and the screaming of those the Strigoi had decided to drain echoing around me. I staggered to my feet, frantically reaching for the stake I had hidden in my pocket. I had fought Strigoi before, and I had won too, but this was not a fair battle. This was a massacre.

I felt like I was going to throw up again as I surveyed the court, careful not to give away my position in the dense clump of greenery.

Bodies were everywhere, Moroi, dhamphir and Strigoi alike. If I had thought the massacre at the Badica's house was bad, it was nothing compared to this. This was hell on earth. I felt like I was in shock as I watched hundreds of people either fighting or running for their lives from the Strigoi that had descended upon them. I couldn't believe it. I was literally in denial. All I could think was: this isn't possible. Just that one thought, again and again until suddenly a Strigoi loomed up in front of me and that thought changed to: kill.

I pulled my stake out and within seconds had plunged it into the bitch's heart. Deep and quick, just liek I had been taught. She was dead seconds later. i felt nothing now, my emotions having deserted me. I was completly in the battle mindset.

Now it was onto the next one and the next one and there was barely a break between the masses of Strigoi that I was slaying. I felt and saw nothing, merely the ways in which to kill the Strigoi which attacked me. I was numb, cold and completely emotionless. But suddenly I caught sight of a Moroi girl, about my own age with pale blonde hair, and the last of my numbness shook away, replaced by anger. Fierce, blinding anger, similar to what I had felt back at the academy attack when Christian and I had taken down the Strigoi near the elementary campus, flooded through me, and I leapt forward with a scream.

I grabbed hold of the Strigoi who held Lissa and flipped him around, kicking him in the face as I did so. As soon as my foot hit the ground though, he was lunging for me. I ducked out of the way and jabbed my stake at his back, but he wasn't stupid, and caught it, twisting my arm around as he brought me to the ground. It was then that I heard him speak, his breath reeking of blood. "Rose Hathaway…..well well well. This outta be fun."

He flipped me around to face him, breaking my arm in the process. I winced, determined not to cry out. I looked up into his face for a moment before I realised who he was, and then the pain of my broken arm suddenly disappeared, replaced by a truly bone deep, chilling fear that reminded me of what I had felt when we had left the caves.

It was Nathan.

"Oh shit." I whispered.