Chapter 7 New Recruits

The sun was starting to glimmer in the distant horizon, so I quickly told Alberta about the conversation Rose and I had had on the way to Missoula last fall. I convinced her that I knew that Rose was coming after me, not because of our love, which is what I knew was really behind this, but because of her dedication to becoming the best guardian she could be. Alberta agreed to try to find Rose, but with her having a three-day head start, she was not sure how successful she could be. After the phone call I made my way back to my room before the humans woke up. Where could Rose possibly be? What if she comes here to find my family? This was turning out to be a huge mess.

That evening Sonya announced that we would be infiltrating the Russian Academy in three weeks. Therefore we needed to start gaining recruits so that they could be properly trained. Given that the Russian academy is considerably smaller, it was decided that we would only need between 20 to 30 new recruits. The town we are near had just started the Maslenitsa celebration. Maslenitsa, also known as Pancake Week, is a traditional celebration to mark the start of spring. Many people were out and about despite the still freezing temperatures and Sonya and Mikhail decided this would be an excellent opportunity to acquire new recruits without drawing too much attention to the strange disappearances. As much as it repulsed me to be a part of hunting people down and turning them into monsters, I volunteered to go with the two Strigoi that would be hunting tonight. I can't risk not being along if Rose is in Russia. Sonya gave me a questioning gaze, given that I was so new, but once she took in my shear size she replied, "Despite being young, he has Dhampir training. He already knows how to fight. He will discipline himself against the hunger and his size will help you. Take him!"