Dimitri's POV in Blood Promise Vampire Academy

Prologue

Siberia was still how I remembered it would be. I took in the details, overwhelmed by a sense of familiarity. Looking around now reminded me of home.

Leaving my family and going to the US had been heart breaking, but I knew it was my duty, to protect them, and leave my family to strive for themselves. I had to move away from my family to guard and ensure their safety. My life had been for them and at their disposal, I had been destined to live and die protecting them.

I risked my own life to save them, and failed at protecting myself. As a consequence, I went through something many people would call far worse than death. I was awakened, turned into a remorseless, blood-thirsty creature of the night. A Strigoi. I had always put them first, they taught me to believe it was my duty to put myself so close to death. Before everyone I loved and even my own life, they come first. But now I know better. My only regret now was that I had forcibly been awakened. If only I had known better as a dhampir, maybe make a few strigoi 'friends' who'd awaken me by choice.

My grandmother Yeva believed that the men, or man in my case, of the house had to leave and become a guardian whilst the women took care of the family. Although, I disagreed with her, I still respected her wish. I was the only male in my house since I was thirteen.

My father, would visit just to use Olena, my mother, like she was a 'plaything' which infuriated me to the point that I had beaten him and kicked him out of the house. Since then, I haven't seen him and he hasn't visited. He had never cared about us, his children. I should probably consider hunting down the arrogant bastard and kill him.

In school, those three words had been drilled into my head as a kid, that had been etched into both my heart and soul. They come first. How unfortunate for me to receive such useless teachings.

I left Russia because I was assigned as a guardian at one of the schools in the US. These weren't normal schools, these schools were created to train dhampirs to become guardians and for Moroi to learn to control and master their magic. A Moroi's life held much more value than a dhampir, and I spent my old life serving them. A wonderful mistake.

Dhampirs were created by the offspring of humans and Moroi. After some time, the Moroi and humans became distant with each other and eventually, the Moroi race was forgotten by most of the human race. The dhampir race has lived on by the children of Moroi and dhampirs. Strangely, dhampirs cannot breed with each other therefore, dhampirs need Moroi for their race to carry on. In return, dhampirs must protect the Moroi from people like me.

Guardians assigned at a school would work there to ensure the safety of the students or train them to have the skills to defend Moroi, defend themselves, fight Strigoi and the final move. Which is to kill an 'evil' creature of the night by stabbing them in the heart with a silver stake.

I had moved from school to school on different assignments for the past six years; I became a guardian a few days after graduation which is what novices will go through at the right time. The dhampirs who pass receive the promise mark, showing that they have dedicated their lives to defending Moroi.

I personally believe it's stupid to commit your life to saving someone else you barely know. I had been through graduation back in Baii, my home town, there was some dhampirs who failed. Those dhampirs wouldn't be able to become qualified guardians. Instead, they'd live their lives with humans who are oblivious to the supernatural.

The world consists of two types of vampires. The Moroi, who tend to be pale and lanky with super model thin bodies. They drink blood from humans but they don't kill their victim. If they do, even if it is accidental, they are awakened. Truthfully their missing out, they don't know what it's like.