Chapter 8

The atmosphere had been one of mourning for three long days when Adrian burst into the room with the usual smug grin on his face. I could hardly temper myself from the thought of punching him. How could he be so relaxed when Lillith was there… Then it clicked into my mind. He wouldn't be able, just if… I was clinging to him in seconds.

'Tell me you talked to her. Tell me she's okay. Is she coming back?'

She had to be okay, because Adrian actually laughed and motioned for all of us to come in the next room. But when I tried to interrogate him further, he just shrugged and went near Lissa to practice some kind of weird yoga-thing.

'Can you tell us what the hell happened?' That came from Dimitri and hearing him swearing –well, swearing in anything but Russian- was so shocking that the two of them did look at him.

'Lily contacted me last night. It's pretty obvious that she's still alive, and she looked well, but she didn't tell me anything else. She just gave instructions for me and Lissa to make… some kind of mental-conference. She doesn't want to say anything unless we are all there.'

I rolled my eyes but somehow I was glad she wanted all of us to hear. Then one of his words echoed in my brain. 'Wait a second, she contacted you?'

'Well, not really, I've been trying to reach her since she left, but somehow she can block me out. So it's of her will that we talked.'

'Yeah, it sounds like her. She's good at shielding.' I remarked half-bitterly, glancing at Dimitri and Lissa.

After some more minutes, Lissa told us to close our eyes and let our mind free. As weird as that sounded, we did it. Anything to see her. And in front of our eyes began to form a misty dream-landscape. I was accustomed with such things because of Adrian and probably Dimitri was too from my and Lissa's memories, but I heard Viktoria and Eddie and even Zmey –yes, my father stayed at Court, as my mother did, but she was too professional to make herself heard- gasp. But the image was blurred and somehow translucent. Not that anyone would comment. Lillith was there, in a short purple dress and aside from the dark circles under her eyes and the obvious melancholy, she looked like herself. She looked… contempt. She did it! I couldn't believe something like that. She did it!

'Adrian?' her voice was equally blurred and way too soft but it was enough that we could hear her. She squinted in our direction then to my left, where I knew Adrian was. 'Are you sure you did all that I told you to? I can't see them. They are just like… shadows. The only ones I can see are you and Lissa.' she paused for a moment, then squinted again at me and at Dimitri. She was pretty exact for someone who couldn't see. 'And I guess the two darker forms are Rose and Dimitri. Can you please try to concentrate? I really want to see them.'

'I'd like to see you concentrate more than I do. Do you have any idea how it is to keep eight persons in a single dream? Even when one is a spirit user and one a human-medium?' he snapped nervously, but I could hear that he wasn't mad at her.

She nodded in apology but waited a little more until she started talking. And with small huffs and puffs, Adrian and Lissa probably cleared the image, because she could stare right in my eyes. 'Rose! I wanted to tell you in the Court too and I tried, I really tried, but I know I wasn't clear enough. I'm so very sorry for what I've done and I swear, I swear I never tried to hurt you or anything and I would do absolutely anything for you to… well, I know it's too much to be forgiven but…'

She sounded so frantic and desperate that I didn't know whether to feel guilty for condemning her so much or happy that she was so considerate. I waved her off. 'Adrian, tell her that she's damn stupid. I'm not mad at her anymore. Though I should probably be. That wasn't nice at all.'

From the look in her eyes I got that she heard me well enough. She exhaled deeply, as if she got rid of her worst fear an slowly lowered herself on the ground, blurring a little more when she moved. Lissa motioned for us to sit down too and when her hand moved, the image in front of our eyes turned completely white. That made me wonder how hard exactly was the thing the three of them were doing. I said three because Lillith was surely also concentrating a lot. And when they were moving, the image was blurring or even disappearing. When we were moving… well, nothing happened.

'So, Lily…' It was Abe who spoke and all of us turned to him. All but her, Lissa and Adrian, though they barely checked themselves. 'Letting aside the craziness of the situation you are in. how are you doing?'

A small smile spread on her lips but, though I couldn't be sure because of the mist, it looked almost… hunted. 'I'm not very sure, but I suppose I broke the records. I'm in the house… literary. I'm living with them. Quite creepy, but I can handle it. I'm telling you just that it's somewhere around Sandpoint. I don't want any "help" yet.'

'Sandpoint? Isn't that near Spokane?' I asked, an icy feeling getting me as I thought about my first killing.

'Not that near, but it seems their headquarters are in this area. And there are a lot of houses, believe me. With a lot of Strigoi! But the good point is they are just here. All the Strigoi from America and some from Europe.'

'How many of them?' Dimitri's voice was frozen. Probably that meant something for him, seeing his experience as a former Strigoi.

'Can't be sure. In this house… around fifty? Totally, I'd say three hundred, maximum three hundred fifty.' She shrugged, stopping our gasps just in time. The number was overwhelming. All Moroi and dhampires in America together didn't make two hundred fifty. 'With a little luck, their number will drop with at least twenty today.'

'What do you mean? I hope you aren't doing anything too obvious.'

'Not at all. Today we are shifting… servants. I met a girl who's going to the smallest meeting location. I…' She paused for whole minutes, trying to steady her breathing. 'I placed a bomb. That means probably three humans dead, but it's worth it.'

'How do you know she won't tell a Strigoi about the bomb?'

She stared at Dimitri as if she had been slapped. 'Because I'm not stupid! I didn't convince her to place the bomb! I snuck the bomb in her packages. It'll explode in…' she checked her watch anxiously. 'two hours. Even if the Stigoi would think about checking her things, they won't have enough time. Boom- boom. Twenty-two of us, twenty of them. It doesn't sound so bad, does it? And with some luck, there will be much more down before they'll start suspecting me. And… by the way… Adrian, who's the most important between lord Avraam and lord Chester?'

Even I knew the names. They were two very important members of the Ivaskhov family. I eyed her suspiciously, wondering if it would be possible for her to already know the Strigoi's plans.

'Most important like what? Power, money, influence?' asked Adrian shifting uncomfortably, but steadying himself as soon as the image began to blur.

'Most important like, who would make you and the queen feel more desperate if he would be gone?' I stared at her hard, until my eyes started tearing from the mist. She could be cruel and cold enough to sacrifice three of her own kind just to kill some Strigoi, but she asked Adrian who he would like more to live from his family? Not who was better for the Court?

'I… I guess Chester is closer to us.' stammered Adrian, clearly not catching the idea.

Lillith exhaled deeply, a faint smile on her lips and turned to where my mum was staying. 'Order protection around lord Chester. Keep just three other members of the family near lord Avraam. Good guards, but not too many. We can justify around twelve, I guess. Avraam is old and respectable and from the last attack we are keeping the guards up. There will come around twenty Strigoi. Split the guardians; we have to kill all of them… But we'll have to sacrifice lord Avraam. Lord Chester is summoned immediately to Court. They'll probably drop the mission.'

It took three long minutes for the information to sink. Dimitri shot up along with me, my mother, Eddie and Viktoria. Abe was to shocked to move. 'We can't let Moroi die like this! Not when we can stop it!' It was my mother and Eddie in unison.

Lillith rose to her feet so careful and slowly that we almost died from the anticipation. But she just shot us icy looks. 'If you're stupid enough to think this kind of information is spread freely, go and make ambuscades for every party of Strigoi that is coming. Blow my coverage. As if I care. I came here knowing I'd probably die. Sooner or later, what's the difference, right?'

Viktoria tried a shy 'What if we get all the Moroi coming to Court?'

'At least equally stupid. Maybe I can convince them that they don't have spies, but that will stop them just a little time. They'll tighten the lines, maybe even create more of their kind. For now, they don't want any new one. It seems they are somehow… instable. But they'd do it and then attack the whole Court at once. All of us dead, aside from a handful of bait. Does it sound better?'

The three of them dropped to the ground with their heads lowered. It was too much to grasp. It was almost too much for me too, but I managed to stammer a 'When did you become so cold?'

She looked at me with sad eyes and started laughing. Or maybe howling. It sounded like mourning and fear. 'Cold? Do you think I'm cold, that I don't care about all these deaths? If it would be a way, believe me, I'd sacrifice myself over and over again just to keep them alive a little longer. But I can't. It's all of us or just some of us. "From two evils, choose the least." This is what I'm trying to do. And believe me, it's terrible. That's why I'm the one here and not Trudy from the academy or John from the front desk or Lace from the security. They are trustworthy. But they wouldn't be able to make such decisions.'

I actually knew Trudy. She was young, but brave. And she was a great person. I wondered once why she didn't go to spy Strigoi too. Now I knew the answer. She was too kind. She wouldn't be able to stand it. But Lillith seemed so kind and gentle before. I remembered some of Lissa's words, that she had tons to hide, personality, reasons, ideas, ideals. I was starting to believe her. But somehow I couldn't bring myself to think that Lillith was mean or stone-hearted. I could actually see the pain in her eyes and in her posture. No, it wasn't easy for her. I dropped to the ground too, like the other three. She seemed to defeat all of us one by one. Just Dimitri was still standing.

'You can call me stupid.' he began and my eyes shot up at him. It wasn't our tone that he was using. It was something much more thoughtful. 'But I remember my Strigoi life very clearly. And a servant needs years to become trustworthy enough to hear such plans. If I remember well, I don't know any human to hear our plans when I was a Strigoi. You need years even to become trustworthy enough to be admitted in the house. And here you are, after just three days, not just in but already at the top of the leader. It was, first cleaning, second being bitten, third turning off shields, fourth kidnapping, fifth guarding, sixth spying actively, seventh professional killing, just eighth planning and at the ninth level, because you knew too much, being killed or turned Strigoi.' At our shocked gasps he turned and lifted his shoulders 'Well, we had to be organized. Now, even if sometimes the levels are switched or combined, I've never seen someone at more than the sixth. And even that, it was just one woman who died almost immediately. And she was there for around sixteen years. Now, you are telling us that in three bloody days, you reached the eighth level?'

She shifted her weigh uneasily, not even caring about the blur. She seemed anxious to leave us. After hard moments of silence, she finally faced Dimitri. 'Don't be stupid. Even with the best compulsion in the world I wouldn't be able to do this. I'm actually at the first levels. I just… happened to be the servant of the general. I just acted very very dizzy when the boss came in and they didn't mind me being around. But I guarantee there will be more attacks than these two. Try to guard well any Ivaskhov who's out of the Court. Just don't be too obvious.'

Dimitri stared some more moments then lowered himself on the floor too. And with this she got all of us. She relaxed visibly. But just then Adrian shot up. Lissa yelped in surprise and pain as she tried to re-stabilize the image. We could see and hear just part of what they were doing because they were moving a lot. They looked like… fighting?

'You did WHAT? … could you! I thought… believe!' That was Adrian. And damn, he was shouting at the top of his lungs.

'…only way! Would you… You knew… SORRY!... DON'T!' Lillith sounded truly desperate and pleadingly. The image cleared just once, enough to see Adrian brushing her hair to one side. The image blurred back immediately and probably the others didn't have enough time to see the essential, but to me it was like an explosion. Two small puncture wounds in her neck. I felt the world darken around me and I had just enough time to wonder what would happen if I was fainting in a dream. She let them bite her! And still, she remained strong enough to hear what we needed. It wasn't just about her death now. What she was trying to do, torture herself? This was way worst than we thought.

So, what do you think? :D Hope I made my point until now. Lillith may be a little crazy and all but she is a good person. I still don't have any suggestions what to do with Viktoria and now that I'm home, your time is way shorter. If you don't want me to write something that you probably -surely- won't like in the next chapter -that meaning, tomorrow or even sooner- you'd better start giving me ideas. Love you ;)