Sorry it took me so long to update, I've been wrecked with work and holiday shopping. I will try to catch up by writing more because I really want to finish this during my school vacation.
Thanks again for all the support, you guys make my day.
Review if you want more.
Thanks – Val
Chapter 11
I followed Janine instantly and we went to the Guardian meeting room. Tasha understood and just nodded off, realizing that it was not the place to her. We all tried to go over the details of what happened and see if we could get any clues as to where they were.
I noticed long dark hair and unmistakable eyes and only glanced briefly, because the minute Rose noticed my gaze I looked down. Damn, I was trying to get over her. We were discussing strategies as to how to avoid all these attacks.
Some of the Guardians believed that all of us massed together made us easy pickings for Strigoi because there were so many. However, being alone left you vulnerable. Here there were plenty of Guardians to go around protecting all of the Moroi.
Overall, the details were this: eight Moroi had been killed along with their five Guardians while there were still three Moroi missing which meant they were either dead, or worse, turned Strigoi.
The attack hadn't really been anywhere near the resort and actually somewhere near northern California. But nonetheless, it would cause a commotion in the Moroi world. Two states was far too close for the Moroi.
"There had to be more than last time," said Guardian Hathaway.
"More?" exclaimed one of the other guardians. "That last group was unheard of. I still can't believe nine
Strigoi managed to work together-you expect me to believe they managed to get more organized still?" Of course you idiot, I thought. Couldn't he see the evidence around him?
"Yes," snapped Janine sounding fierce as ever. The small woman even terrified me and I was almost twice her size.
"Any evidence of humans?" someone else asked.
Janine hesitated, but I knew the answer to that. "Yes. More broken wards. And the way it was all conducted...it's identical to the Badica attack."
Harsh memories flooded me –all the death- even Art, the legend, had been murdered in cold blood.
I thought about the repercussions this could have, if humans worked with Strigoi, than it would be difficult to keep Moroi safe. There would be constant serial killings seeing as there was no way in hell there were enough Guardians to go around. Moroi could no longer trust the wards, or even moving around in sunlight.
I remembered what Rose had said to me at the Badica house: This changes everything, doesn't it? She couldn't have been more right.
Janine flipped through some papers on a clipboard. "They don't have forensic details yet, but the
same number of Strigoi couldn't have done this. None of the Drozdovs or their staff escaped. With five
guardians, seven Strigoi would have been preoccupied-at least temporarily-for some to escape.
We're looking at nine or ten, maybe."
"Janine's right," I answered realizing the harsh reality. "And if you look at the venue...it's too big. Seven couldn't have covered it."
The Drozdovs were one of the twelve royal families. They were large and prosperous, not like Lissa's
dying clan. They had plenty of family members to go around, but obviously, an attack like this was still
horrible.
Through the whole mess, I saw how Janine was a voice of reason, a reminder that they had to stay focused and fully assess the situation. Her composure calmed everybody; her strong manner inspired us. It was how a leader behaved and it was difficult not to admire that.
Rose even looked with awe at her mother –finally –at least she was making some progress.
I remained collected, like I had to. We discussed the attack more, how the Drozdovs had been having a belated Christmas party in a banquet hall when they were attacked.
"First Badicas, now Drozdovs," muttered one guardian. "They're going after royals."
"They're going after Moroi," I answered flatly. "Royal. Non-royal. It doesn't matter." I hated all the stupid royal shit. We were in the 21st century, why would royal even matter? I also loathed the fact that royals always got dibs on Guardians.
When the group started to break up, I noticed Rose go to her mother.
"Rose," Janine said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
Rose pointed to her clipboard. "Who else was killed?"
"Drozdovs." Janine answered.
"But who else?"
"Rose, we don't have time-"
"They had staff, right? Dimitri said non-royals. Who were they?" I guess she'd been listening to me, I thought.
Wow.
I should not be rejoicing in something stupid like that.
I sound like a fifteen years old girl.
Of course she was listening, she was probably worried about Lissa.
"I don't know all the names." Flipping through a few pages, she turned the clipboard toward me.
"There."
"Okay," I told her. "Thanks." Rose looked really worried; I couldn't ask her why though. I had to continue my job.
Who did she know that was killed?
Lissa and Rose left after that and the rest of the Guardians and I went over the same details over and over again. And how to prevent that sort of thing from happening here. Eventually, we dispersed.
Guardian security was reinforced then and because of all the commotion, logically, with so many royals and other important Moroi at the lodge, a meeting was organized that night to discuss what had happened and what might be done in the future. Nothing official would be decided here; the Moroi had the Queen and a governing council elsewhere for those types of decisions. Everyone knew, though, that opinions gathered here would make their way up the chain of command. It was held in an enormous banquet hall inside the lodge, one with a podium and plenty of seating.
Some guy I didn't know was in charge of moderating and stood at the podium. Most of the royals on
hand gathered at the front of the room. Everyone else, including students, took seats wherever they
could. "
I saw Mason and Rose sit down. I decided to take the seat next to Rose; we needed to discuss the Ivashkov thing after this. I definitely hadn't forgotten about it.
Rose glanced at me in surprise but said nothing. There were few guardians at this gathering; most were too busy doing damage control. It would figure. There she was, stuck between both her men. Unless we included fucking Ivashkov.
Yup, Adrian better look around and know I'll be watching my cubby.
The meeting kicked off shortly thereafter. Everyone was eager to talk about how they thought the Moroi
should be saved, but really, two theories got the most attention.
"The answer's all around us," said one royal, once he'd been given leave to speak. He stood by his chair
and looked around the room."Here. In places like this lodge. And St. Vladimir's. We send our children
to safe places, places where they have safety in numbers and can be easily guarded. And look how many
of us made it here, children and adults alike. Why don't we live this way all the time?"
"Plenty of us already do," someone shouted back.
The man waved that off. "A couple of families here and there. Or a town with a large Moroi population.
But those Moroi are still decentralized. Most don't pool their resources-their guardians, their magic. If
we could emulate this model..." He spread his hands out. "...we'd never have to worry about Strigoi
again."
"And Moroi could never interact with the rest of the world again," Rose muttered. Well, until humans
discovered secret vampire cities sprouting up in the wilderness. Then we'd have lots of interactions. I can imagine the humans now conducting science experiments on things they could not explain. Vampires existed only in legends for them now.
The other theory about how to protect the Moroi involved fewer logistical problems but had greater
personal impact- particularly for me.
"The problem is simply that we don't have enough guardians." This plan's advocate was some woman
from the Szelsky clan. "And so, the answer is simple: get more. The Drozdovs had five guardians, and
that wasn't enough. Only six to protect over a dozen Moroi! That's unacceptable. It's no wonder these
kinds of things keep happening."
"Where do you propose getting more guardians from?" asked the man who'd been in favor of Moroi
banding together. "They're kind of a limited resource."
She pointed to where I and a few other novices sat. "We've got plenty already. I've watched them train.
They're deadly. Why are we waiting until they turn eighteen? If we accelerated the training program and
focused more on combat training than bookwork, we could turn out new guardians when they're sixteen."
I grunted at that. Are they fucking serious? They are kids. Moroi's like that don't give two shits about Dhampirs. They don't care if anything happens to us. I leaned forward and placed my elbows on
my knees and rested my chin in my hands, my eyes narrowed in thought.
"Not only that, we have plenty of potential guardians going to waste. Where are all the dhampir women?
Raising their children. Oh no, they don't deserve anything. I swear, sometimes they talk about us as if we're animals.
"Our races are intertwined. The Moroi are doing their part to help the dhampirs survive. Why aren't these women doing theirs? Why aren't they here?" Continued the woman.
A long, sultry laugh came as an answer. All eyes turned toward Tasha Ozera. Damn, what the hell was she going to do? I was all for someone advocating for the Dhampirs –or at least someone to get this bitch to shut up –but why did it have to be Tasha? She was already a stir in the Moroi world.
Whereas many of the other royals had dressed up, Tasha was dressed casual in her usual jeans, a white tank top that showed a bit of midriff, and a blue, lacy knit cardigan that came to her knees.
Glancing at the moderator, she asked, "May I?"
He nodded. The Szelsky woman sat down; Tasha stood up. Unlike the other speakers, she strode right
up to the podium, so she could be clearly seen by everyone. Her glossy black hair was pulled back into a
ponytail, completely exposing her scars in a way I suspected was intentional. Her face was bold and
defiant. Beautiful.
"Those women aren't here, Monica, because they're too busy raising their children-you know, the ones
you want to start sending out to the fronts as soon as they can walk. And please don't insult us all by
acting like the Moroi do a huge favor to the dhampirs by helping them reproduce. Maybe it's different in
your family, but for the rest of us, sex is fun. The Moroi doing it with dhampirs aren't really making that
big of a sacrifice."
I had straightened up now, my expression no longer angry. That was fucking hilarious. I couldn't believe she just said that at one of these prim and proper meetings. I couldn't help but grow fascinated.
In my peripheral view, however, I saw Rose with a homicidal look on her face and I wondered what the hell she was thinking? I was pretty sure usually she would applaud this sort of behavior.
"And the reason we're waiting for these guardians to turn eighteen is so that we can allow them to enjoy some pretense of a life before forcing them to spend the rest of their days in constant danger," continued Tasha. "They need those extra years to develop mentally as well as physically. Pull them out before they're ready, treat them like they're parts on an assembly line-and you're just creating Strigoi fodder."
A few people gasped at Tasha's callous choice of words, but she succeeded in getting everyone's
attention. She said it how it is.
"You create more fodder still if you try making the other dhampir women become guardians. You can't
force them into that life if they don't want it. This entire plan of yours to get more guardians relies on
throwing children and the unwilling into harm's way, just so you can-barely-stay one step ahead of the
enemy. I would have said it's the stupidest plan I've ever heard, if I hadn't already had to listen to his."
She pointed at the first speaker, the one who had wanted Moroi compounds. Embarrassment clouded
his features. I was amused. Things had suddenly grown very interesting, I should've brought popcorn.
"Enlighten us then, Natasha," he said. "Tell us what you think we should do, seeing as you have so much
experience with Strigoi." Asshole. I should knock him out.
That didn't deter Tasha at all though, because that was just the sort of woman she was.
A thin smile played on Tasha's lips, "What do I think?" She strode closer to the stage's front, gazing at us as she answered his question. "I think we should stop coming up with plans that involve us relying on someone or something to protect us. You think there are too few guardians? That's not the problem. The problem is there are too many Strigoi. And we've let them multiply and become more powerful because we do nothing about them except have stupid arguments like this. We run and hide behind the dhampirs and let the Strigoi go unchecked. It's our fault. We are the reason those Drozdovs died. You want an army? Well, here we are. Dhampirs aren't the only ones who can learn to fight. The question, Monica, isn't where the dhampir women are in this fight. The question is: Where are we?"
Tasha was shouting by now, and the exertion turned her cheeks pink. Her eyes shone with her
impassioned feelings, and when combined with the rest of her pretty features-and even with the
scar-she made a striking figure. Most people couldn't take their eyes off her.
Monica Szelsky fixed her gaze on Tasha. "Surely you aren't suggesting the Moroi fight alongside the guardians when the Strigoi come?"
Tasha regarded her levelly. "No. I'm suggesting the Moroi and the guardians go fight the Strigoi before
they come."
A guy in his twenties who looked like a freaking girl shot up. I would have wagered money he was royal. No one else could have afforded blond highlights that perfect.
Flamer.
He untied an expensive sweater from around his waist and draped it over the back of his chair. "Oh," he said in a mocking voice, speaking out of turn. "So, you're going to just give us clubs and stakes and send us off to do battle?"
Not you pretty boy, I thought, you'd be useless.
Tasha shrugged. "If that's what it takes, Andrew, then sure." A sly smile crossed her pretty lips. "But
there are other weapons we can learn to use, too. Ones the guardians can't."
The look on his face showed how insane he thought that idea was.
I probably had one of those insane expressions on to. Tasha couldn't do this at a place like this. They'll throw her to the dogs I thought. What the hell was she doing? I had to stop her, but I couldn't.
He rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah? Like what?"
Her smile turned into a full-fledged grin. "Like this."
Please Tasha, I thought, don't.
But she did.
She waved her hand, and the sweater he'd placed on the back of his chair burst into flames.
He yelped in surprise and knocked it to the floor, stamping it out with his feet.
There was a brief, collective intake of breath throughout the room. And then ... chaos broke out.