Chapter 7:

We arrived at our new location a day ago. So much preparations went into the packing up, moving and installing this circus which almost resembled a small town. I hadn't had a chance to talk to Sydney again.

Now that I knew what to look out for, I could see that the entire clan that belonged to Mr Sage stayed clear of us. Some were just a little better at hiding it than others. I suppose they were all gypsies. Maybe not all practicing, because else we would probably have felt more of their magic. But any one of them could be our culprit.

Now that we had moved again, I wondered if they would take a new girl. We would have to keep our eyes open.

I regarded every gypsy with scrutiny. They didn't seem to find this odd, afterall, they were regarding us the same way, although I doubt Sydney had informed them that I knew they knew.

Dimitri had cataloged all gypsies associated with the circus and had kept extensive records of them all. Where they went, how often they interacted with each other and others of the circus. Their files were currently sprawled out in front of us. We were trying to see who could be our suspect.

I moved Sydney, her sister and her father to a single pile. "I think it is safe to say those are out."

Lissa picked up Mr Sage's file. "Are you sure? Mr Sage still gives me the creeps everytime he walks past me."

I know he did. He seemed weary around Dhampirs, but the strength of his xenophobia intensified when he was anywhere near the Moroi. I mean, Dimitri and I were technically half human and without magic, so maybe it was easier with us. But I believed Sydney when she said her father couldn't have taken the girls. I didn't necessarily think Christian and Lissa were safe from him, but I don't think he would harm his own kind.

That left four more suspects.

"I think this one is too old." Christian picked up the file of an older Gypsy that mostly did stage preparations and costumes, anything you could do sitting down.

"Now hang on, maybe he is using the girls for some rejuvenation rituals, like stealing their youth." I had no idea what kind of rituals gypsy magic could do, but until I had a list from Sydney about what kind would require human sacrifices I wasn't ruling anything out.

"If he is, he is failing miserably. His gout got a lot worse since we joined and I have seen no rejuvenation of any kind." Dimitri therefore moved the file towards the rejected pile.

That left three. One guy in his forties, his wife and a younger guy.

Dimitri picked up the wife and husband, Lissa picked up the younger guy.

"Keith, I met him, he didn't seem so skittish as the rest, he was actually a little charming. He was interested in what happened to us and where we came from."

I grabbed the file and placed it in the middle. "Prime suspect number one." I said jokingly.

"Hey, I happen to be an excellent judge of character. I mean I can read people's auras for goodness sake."

"And have you read his?" I asked.

She crossed her arms over her chest "Well, no, but."

Christian and I snickered. Lissa believed the best of everyone. Keith might be a serial rapist for all we know.

"Isn't that the one with the bad eye?" Christiand asked and Lissa nodded.

Oh Yeah, I remember seeing him. It looked to be recent. There was a story there, I knew it. Maybe I would ask Sydney.

"Maybe that is why he is taking those girls, maybe some weird healing ritual." I had been joking, but Dimitri wrote the possibility down on his file.

"Probably not, it would seem a lot to take two girls just to heal one eye and again I see no change in him since we have been here."

Argh, it was useless before we knew what kind of spells would need girls.

"I suppose more watching and waiting." I groaned as I leaned back. Then I moved up again, having had an idea a few days ago and I hadn't discussed it with Dimitri.

"Speaking of just watching and waiting, I thought I could go on stage tomorrow night on my own."

Dimitri looked at me confused. "You are going to throw knives at yourself?"

I rolled my eyes as I heard Christian snicker behind me.

"No, of course not, but I have been practicing. I can juggle knives. I can do five now. And I can hit a target fifty feet away." Although I suppose juggling knives sort of is throwing knives at yourself.

Dimitri crossed his arms and his look was pensive. I knew that look. He didn't agree because his first instincts were always to protect me and me throwing knives in the air and catching them didn't seem safe. He was worried what would happen if I didn't catch one. But there was also the second thought that warred with the first. The one that I was a capable woman who he trained. If I thought I could do it, he would trust me.

"Okay, It will give me some time to watch the three gipsies."

The next day I was practicing for my very first solo show. I picked up a few knives and started to slowly toss one in the air, getting a feel for the weight and once I thought I had it, I added a second one. One in each hand. I was right handed, so I was sure that I could catch the knife in the right hand, but I was doing alright on the left one. Then I passed the left knife to the right, while lifting the knife that had been in my right hand into the air. By the time it came down, I had the other one thrown into the air again and my right hand was free to catch the first. And on and on it went.

Dimitri was silently watching me from the steps of our wagon. He sat down and had one knee propped on one of the steps, one of arms was draped over his knee.

I added a third and a fourth. I had to throw them higher so I had more time to sWitchthe blades. I had known how to juggle as a kid with balls, but balls had one advantage over knives. It didn't matter which way you caught the balls. With knives orientation mattered...a lot. But luckily with my dhampir reflexes I was able to track the knives efficiently and was able to catch them all by the hilt before throwing them up in the air again, rotating them as I did so.

Now, although juggling knives was an act in and on itself, I prepared something special. I had a few poles with some bells on them. Dimtiri had asked what they were for, but I told him to just watch me.

Instead of throwing one up in the air after I caught it. I sent it towards a bell, I aimed it in such a way, it bounced off the top of the bell, making a nice clinking sound and making it rebound back to me. I had to bend down a bit in order to catch it but I managed and it was integrated into my never ending circle of knives.

I looked over to Dimitri and he seemed impressed.

"Hang on, I can do more."

I threw one out at another bell again and it made a different sound. Then another one, and then the first one again. Together the bells created the simple melody of the first line of a children's song everyone would know.

Dimitri seemed surprised. I finished by catching all knives by the hilt and bowed towards Dimitri.

He started to slowly clapp. "That was amazing. Where did you learn how to do that?"

I shrugged. "Pavel showed me once. And I have been watching Christian, he can't do more than two sticks, but his technique isn't half bad."

Dimitri laughed. "You could do a joint act with him, he can set the sticks on fire and you can juggle them."

I sat down next to him and snuggled close to his chest. "Maybe we call that plan B, or maybe plan Z."

He laughed again. He always did that a lot around me. Most people knew him as a rather antisocial or at least very private person. But with me he was always just Dimitri. No Guardian mask, no duty, just us.

He leaned in and kissed me. It was meant to just be a peck, but neither of us were content with that. His hand went into my hair as I pulled him closer by his shirt. My mouth opened for him and he greedily took my invitation. My tongue and his warred for dominance sending delicious shivers right down to my core.

He pulled back too soon and placed his forehead against mine. He was breathing heavily and so was I. Oxygen hadn't been our priority.

"I really want this over with, The mornings just aren't enough anymore." He whispered against my skin.

The early morning wake-up call had become a regular thing, or at least more regular. If one of us woke up and Christian and Lissa were still asleep they would wake up the other in the most delicious way. I had woken up once before Dimitri and pleasing him while he was waking up had been rather sinful. It had taken him a while to fully wake up and appreciate the reality. Apparently I do that a lot in his sleep. Certainly, now that I was doing it less in real life. So the difference between dream and reality had only been understood when I slid him inside off me. He had been awake then, but already too far gone to alter my course.

But it wasn't enough. We still had to be quiet and much more than a quickie wasn't going to happen.

"I know. But the Guardians at the palace must be close to securing it for Lissa again."

Even if that were true, we were dealing with more than just Lissa being in danger now. If we got the recall order, would we go?

He just nodded, not wanting to give me false hope by lying to me.

"I will patrol tonight and I will find out who is taking those girls, So at least we will have one less problem."

He seemed so certain. I wanted to believe it too. I was glad he was going to be patrolling tonight, because I had a strange feeling about it.

But at least my act was a success. I had made a perfect performance tonight, I still had all my fingers and I had made the tune rather pitch perfect. People had clapped and people had laughed. They appreciated the humor in it. It drew a crowd the second time I performed the act.

They were crowded around me and I loved every bit of the attention. Dimitri had been at the centre of the other act and although I was right there with him on stage I had been a prop not the one in control. It was a little ironic, since Dimitri didn't really like the attention, whereas I loved it.

My father joked I had gotten my flashy side from him and I think he was right. I could appreciate a little dramatic entertainment and didn't mind being at the centre of it. Being Lissa's shadow often meant nobody noticed me. Or they purposely ignored me. Most members of the council had done this.

Christian had just finished his act which already had quite the audience and then more and more people flocked towards the stage eager to hear the music made with knives. Lissa was next to our stage, she had a client. He was a taller man, and he was partially blocking my view of her, but I could make out her hand on his as she read his fortune.

I hadn't seen Dimitri most of the night. With Christian and me here he could be free to stalk our suspected girl-nappers. He was right, if we took down whoever had taken these girls we would have one less problem and we were once step closer to going home.

Christian was off to the side of the stage. He would be keeping his eyes on Lissa while I was on stage. We exchanged looks with each other as a sort of hand off before I climbed the stage. There was cheering, a lot of cheering and already some laughter from people who have witnessed the first round.

I started my act and while I had been nervous the first round, I was getting rather confident in this one. The humor in the act seemed to be it's major attraction. So I tried to exaggerate some of that, by trying to make some weird figures or feigning some mistakes. The little kids would gasp but I would just wink at them.

The grand finale was coming up and I threw the first two at the bells, but the third sound was wrong.

I realized a little too late it wasn't one of my blades that had hit the bell. I looked around the space but there were just too many people to pinpoint a culprit.

I was still juggling, some people in the crowd looked around confused. They didn't realize it was a different blade that had hit the bell.

I was on high alert. I quickly looked over to Lissa and although my vision was blocked by the large man, I could still see her hand. That was all I needed and focused my eyes back on the crowd. I threw a couple blades at the bell, but always kept one close to me in case I needed to actually throw it at a person.

The moment came not shortly after. This time they weren't throwing the knife at a bell in order to confuse, they were throwing the blade directly at me. I threw one of the blades to intercept and it hit home. The two blades intertwined and my knife had stopped the other's trajectory. They both landed at my feet. The crowd started to clapp harder. They thought this was part of the act. I looked momentarily towards Christian. He seemed confused too. Did he think Dimitri was throwing the knives?

But I started to panic. I still couldn't see who was throwing the knives, they were hidden in the crowd. Their goal didn't seem to be to hurt me, although the knife thrown directly at me told me they didn't care if they did. But if they wanted me dead, there were easier ways to kill me. They threw another knife this time coming from the side. I turned towards it and I noticed a string of fire heading that direction as well. And it was a good thing too, because a second knife missed me by a few millimeters as Christians fire diverted the knife.

I looked back to Christian. He had stepped out on stage and threw one of his fire sticks. I knew he had thrown actual fire, the crowd thought it was part of the act again. They cheered and more and more people were coming to see what was happening.

And I realized this was just what they wanted. They wanted to distract us. They wanted a crowd around so it would be difficult to move in.

I could figure out the attack and its perpetrators later, First I had to get Christian and Lissa to a safe location.

"Stay close." I told Christian and he and I made a quick bow to the crowd. Hopefully they would think the show was over and move out of the goddamn way.

We got down from the stage and I pushed through a couple of people on the side of the stage to get to Lissa's table.

Except Lissa wasn't there. And neither was her client.

"Maybe she saw the commotion and went back to the wagon?" Christian sounded desperate, a feeling I shared. Lissa wouldn't have done that. She would have waited for a signal from me. But just like Christian I was hanging on to hope.

Damn, if only we still had the bond. I would have been able to see through her eyes and I would have been alerted sooner to her being taken.

Damn us all to hell.

I pushed through the crowd. It wasn't easy, there were a lot of people here, by design. I needed another high ground. I took to an empty stage nearby. This one wasn't blocked with faces. I stood and looked around, they couldn't have gotten far.

I scanned the crowd. Come on now, Guardian training. Pick up something unusual. Something to recognize them by. There were just so many people here. It was opening night and everyone wanted to see the circus. Okay, look for people not really looking at the circus.

There… they were moving faster than everyone else. It was just a bit, but I noticed. They were trying very hard not to draw attention to themselves.

Christian noticed I saw something. "Go, I can take care of myself. I can't keep up with you. I'll find Dimitri."

I hesitated for only a moment before I sprinted after them. I moved through the crowd at record speed. I nearly knocked a few people over who hadn't expected me to come barreling down the field. But luckily my reflexes were fast. I was gaining ground. Hang on Lissa, I am coming.

One of them noticed me and split off the group. There were only four of them. I could take four humans.

He engaged me and I must admit for a human he was well trained. He was big and strong. But I was used to fighting big and strong. I evaded a punch and ducked underneath him and punched him in his gut. I needed to take him down fast so I could follow Lissa again.

I leaned forward. I grabbed a chain around his neck, I swung myself around to his back while keeping my arm around his neck. Then I pivoted as I came down, bringing his body with me and slamming it into the ground. His chain broke and I could see angry red marks around his neck, but he was alive.

I got up and started to run again. The chain is still in my hand. Dimitri would pick the guy up and interrogate him. I will take care of the others. It took me a few seconds to locate them again but since they were in a hurry, they were easy to spot.

One of them separated from the group again. Fine by me, one on one was slower for all of us. But I would get Lissa back. He stared at me, then he looked past me and a big smile crept on his face. It sent shivers down my spine.

I would wipe that smug smirk off of his face in a minute. But he didn't move. He didn't engage me, as a matter of fact he started to turn around again and join Lissa's other captors. I was about to start running again, when I felt that cold infect my body. I fell to the ground as the feeling moved from the tips of my toes towards my heart. The feeling was a hundred times worse than when I had felt the magic vicariously.

I stretched out my hand towards Lissa. I wanted to scream to her that I would find her, but no sound came out. She was getting away. No. I have to get up. But I couldn't. My hand fell down as my body was starting to shut down. People were gathering around me and my vision went black. The last thing I saw before I passed out was a mop of auburn hair.