Unlike my expectations. I ended up being alive — well actually undead but those are technicalities. Suffering in hell eluded me once again it seemed.

My skin felt cold as I realised I was dripping wet. I tried to move my limbs and slowly retracted them to feel my shirt. How much of it was damp with water or how much of it from the seeping blood from my heart, pooling on my chest.... I didn't know.

I could feel the magic surging in me as the gaping wound in my heart was healing up fast — faster than it probably took for Rose to stake me.

Wait! She staked me? But then how am I so alive? I remember her aim being accurate in spite of the precarious position I was in. I remember feeling that moment of pride in her abilities and my training and yet a fear for my life. That Rose was savage. That Rose was the brave heart I had originally intended for her to be.

Slowly I tried to turn, the gravels of the river bank crunching under me. Supporting my weight on my hands I sat up, half leaning.

"Excuse me sire! Are you okay?" a timid voice held up a lantern. A human-- a female.

Before she could utter another word the control of my body had gone from myself. I pounced on her, breaking her neck, draining her in one go. I felt the surge of power, more sweet now owing to my drained strength. I needed blood, more blood. The regret of killing someone that actually came to my help has come and gone in one fleeting moment.

I lay down once more. Taking in heaving breaths. The wounds had healed themselves by now. The stars were beautiful in the fading pale moonlight. I couldn't help but think of Rose and where she would be now. What had triggered the sudden change in her?

"Master! Master Dimitri!" a familiar shrill female voice jolted me from my reverie. My power waxing now... I sat upright and winced slightly. It'd take a bit more of feeding and some hours of rest for me to return to my formal state of glory.

"Master Dimitri. I thought she killed you. We searched the whole water for your body." Nina was towering over me, Alexei at her side.

"She forgot my lesson." I chuckled.

"What?" Nina gave me a confused look, helping me get in my feet.

"She didn't check back to see if I was really dead or alive. I guess the water current had dislodged the stake and my body had healed itself."

"We found the stake, Master." she confirmed. "At some distance from here."

"Nina. My grandmother used to say, the water of Ob never takes anything. I guess it didn't take me too."

"Would you have liked for it to?" her voice seemed soft, humanly. "I felt like that after killing Nathan. It was like a part of me died."

"Well..." I thought for a while, hobbling on. "I can't say I haven't given it a thought..."

When Rose was, on that bridge. I had a plan in place for if I lost her. If she died without being turned, I had seriously considered killing conspicuously to just be staked by some other guardian. Strigoi or not, some part of me knew that I was going on because Rose was.

"Are you giving up then, sire?" it was Alexei this time, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Not really. I'll chase after her. This game is too far gone. Now I feel like I have something to prove — if only to myself. Either I'll turn her or get killed doing so..."

The determination in my voice silenced the other two and soon the crunch of our feet was the only thing that echoed through the night, besides the sloshing of the Ob.

—————

"Sir! As you said, I'm deputing one of our human agents as feeders to the St Vlad's."
Nina stood at my side, hands folded in submission.

"Nina. I'd be happy if you personally oversee matters at the Academy until Rose graduates. It's very crucial to our plan."

"Sure I will." she mumbled, moving to the phone in one corner or my room and swifty dialling her contacts.

I looked at the letter in my.

You forgot another lesson: Never turn your back until you know your enemy is dead. Looks like we’ll have to go over the lesson again the next time I see you—which will be soon.

Love, D.

Crisp and clear with an undertone of threat! That's a love letter befitting a Strigoi! I chortled before sliding it in the envelope.

Picking up the set of forceps from my table, I carefully took the stake and dropped it into the envelope, sealing it shut.

"Nina dear!" I crooned.

"Yes Master?" she whispered in the middle of the call.

"Drop this thing at the post office for overnight speed post please, darl!" I said.

She nodded, keeping the phone down. I moved out of my room and swiftly strode past the medley of new and old staff, past the gates to the grounds and hedges.

I looked back and surveyed the mansion, kissed by the fading twilight — my estate... My empire was just staring to rise.

——————
THE END
———
Gifted to the one and only KashishBelikov for being the Roza to the Dimitri in me...
From the role play to the real life.
YA lyublyu tebya, Milaya!
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A/N Did you guys like this version of Strigoi Dimitri? Please mention in the comments below if you liked this book! Thanks for reading.

— Masquerade... Signing off...