Vampire Academy: Spirited Offspring

Zoey

"Faster Dimitri!" I yelled from the passenger seat, though we were already well over the speed limit.

"Rose, I can't go any faster!" He said through gritted teeth. He'd told me this a number of times but I kept telling him to go faster.

The diner was a rapidly fading image behind us as the truck sped towards Baia, as fast as Dimitri could urge it.

My heart was pounding, but I had what I called guardian clarity.

Everything was slowed down, my mind seemed to working over time going over every little detail and everything that could possible happen.

The alchemists had gotten Zoey.

I wasn't sure how yet, being that they had Eddie's dhampir strength, Sydney's human magic, and Adrian's spirit. But they'd gotten her.

Dimitri ran over a bump in the road, causing the truck to bounce up before crashing onto the ground again. My stomach rolled.

I quickly rolled down the window before violently puking out of it.

Dimitri spared me a single glance before turning his eyes back to the road.

We couldn't stop, we didn't have time. Besides, I was fine.

Dimitri flew onto a side road, our speed seemed to increase though I knew it hadn't. We were already pushing this truck to the limit.

When we finally got to Sydney and Adrian's, Dimitri flew into the drive way. He slammed on the breaks, and jumped out of the car. I followed suite.

We rushed inside. It was a mess, broken things every. The curtains were on fire, broken windows. Sydney was nowhere in sight, but I could hear her chanting in the bedroom in a language that was neither Russian nor English.

Adrian was pacing, and I could feel Spirit magic radiating off of him. His face was a mix of fear and anger.

Dimitri was already scouting around, looking for anything that could help.

"Adrian, where's Eddie?" I asked tentatively.

"He went chasing after the car the alchemists had. He took our truck, but I doubt he's going to catch them. " Adrian said so quietly I wouldn't have heard them if I was human.

"What's Sydney doing?" I asked.

"Activating a tracking spell she put on Zoey about a year ago. She always was worried this would happen. She has to activate it before they drug her though." Adrian's voice broke halfway through the sentence.

"You really think they'd drug her?" I questioned. "A two year old girl?"

He glared at me, though I knew it wasn't me he was mad at it still surprised me. "Rose! As far as they're concerned Zoey's an abomination! Unnatural! They're probably going to experiment on her! They have no humanity, you don't even know half the things they did to Sydney!"

I didn't say anything else as Adrian went back to his pacing. There really wasn't anything to say to that.

As I sat on the couch, I tried to think of anything I could do to help. But all that kept flashing through my mind was Zoey. with her messy blonde hair and emerald green eyes, and her enthusiasm for anything and everything that only two year olds had.

Finally Sydney and Dimitri both entered the room.

"I managed to activate the tracking spell, but they must've had help on the other side because it drained my magic pretty badly." Sydney's voice sounded dead. It was something I couldn't understand yet, the voice of a mother.

Because even though I was pregnant, no one could take my baby from me yet. And if I was being truthful, the baby as it's own person didn't seem real yet.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked, jumping up from my spot on the couch ready for action.

"Nothing!" Dimtri's voice startled me. "At least you're not going to do anything, Roza. You're staying here."

"What? Zoey's missing!" I yelled.

Sydney stepped forward. "Rose, I have done so much for you and Dimitri over the past few years. And I know this is a lot to ask. But I need you to stay here, and I need Dimitri to come with us. Because if you're here safe, Dimitri can help us better. So you have to stay. There's no debate. We're going to contact Queen Vasilisa, then we're going to go look for my daughter. Understand?"

There was no arguing with Sydney's tone of voice.

"I understand." I said, my voice quiet.

Dimitri stepped forward. I'm going to drive you back home, then I'm going to come back here and help."

Dimitri led me out to the car, and all I could do was try to keep it together. Damn hormones were making me emotional, but in truth I knew it wasn't just the hormones. I hated being useless. I hated being an incubator.

"Damnit." I said as I felt tears enter my eyes.

Dimitri looked at me from the corner of his eye as he drove. "Roza, don't cry. I'll be fine. I'll call you every chance I have, we're going to get Zoey back and then I'll be here for you."

I knew he was just trying to help, but his words caused something inside of me to snap.

"Dimitri, I am Rose Hathaway!" I glowered at him. "I don't want to be depenedant on people, I want to help others! I want to help Lissa, find this stupid strigoi army. I want to help Adrian and Sydney get Zoey back, I want to be useful! I want this stupid baby out of me!"

He looked startled as I exploded, but he just turned his eyes back to the road and kept silent as he drove us home. Smart of him.

Once we got there he led me into the house and ran up to our room to get his stuff, when he came back down I was sitting on the couch staring at my feet.

"I'm sorry, Dimitri." I told him.

He knelt down to my height. "Roza, you have nothing to be sorry for. I can't imagine what you're going through. But don't worry, you'll be back to being a bad ass ninja soon. As soon as that baby's born we'll have to take turns going out to fight the bad guys. Can you imagine how hard its going to be when I have to stand to the sidelines with a baby?"

I had to admit, the thought did make me laugh a little.

I leaned forward and he placed a delicate kiss on my lips. "I'll keep in touch, Rose. And hopefully I'll be back in a day or two."

"Come back soon, Comrade." I told him, and watched as he walked out the door.

I looked down to my stomache.

"You better be awesome. I mean, odds are good, what with your parents being me and Dimitri. But I just let the man I love walk out the door to face alchemists who torture 2 year old girls. So, all I'm saying is you better be worth it. Not that I'm doubting you, but you know." I said, and afterwards I felt a little better.

I knew I wouldn't mind sitting here, if I was able to hold the baby in my arms. I would be able to soon. I just had to be patient. Which was difficult, being that I was the most inpatient person.

I moved my gaze to the window.

"We've got 2 months left little kid. 2 months, and then you'll be here in the world."