ELEVEN

Rose

Rose could barely stand. Everything was in agony, especially her shoulder, which had a huge chunk of it missing.

She forced herself back to Christian's side, though. Standing with her stake ready for the next attack.

The Strigoi numbers were thinning, though. Christian's magic had turned the tides on the battle, and several burned heads littered the ground.

She scanned the area, wanting to wake Christian up, to drop to her knees and double-check he was still alive even though she could see the rise and fall of his chest, but if she was distracted and a Strigoi came for her, she'd definitely be dead.

She was probably going to die if that happened anyway.

No one was looking at her now the fire had stopped taking out the monsters, though.

No one except one. One Strigoi on the edge of the battle who didn't look like she'd fought at all.

Ice blue eyes ringed in red met her gaze.

Rose's breath caught in her throat.

It was Moira Ozera. There was no denying it. Right there and staring at her son, and now at Rose.

Rose gripped her stake tighter.

This was all about Christian. The whole reason this attack had happened was for Christian, because they wanted to take him. The focus on him hadn't even been about the fire, it was him. It was why the Strigoi hadn't crushed his throat - it wasn't because she'd been quick enough.

Her blood ran cold. And she'd almost let him be killed, or taken. Taken was what Moira would want.

Moira cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted loudly to the remaining Strigoi, sounding the retreat.

They obeyed immediately. So she was in charge.

The moment they were gone, Rose dropped to her knees at Christian's side and checked his pulse. It was still strong. He'd just exhausted himself using too much magic. "Christian," she said, resisting the urge to shake him awake. "Christian wake up."

It took a few more, increasingly loud, times saying his name, but his eyes flickered open and he groaned. "I'm awake."

"You need to be up. We're going to the minibus, we have to get out of here, to somewhere safer."

The guardians were hurrying to rally the Moroi and novices toward the minibus, and she'd given Yuri, who was leading the group, the nod that she would handle Christian.

She was resisting looking at the novice and Moroi bodies that weren't going to be joining them.

He tried to push himself up and struggled. She helped him up, though her own legs shook so violently she worried she wouldn't be able to keep them both upright.

They made it to the minibus by leaning on each other, and sank into the closest pair of chairs. Christian slumped against the window and Rose rested her head on the seat in front. Her hand was still so tight around her stake it was starting to cramp, but she didn't dare let go.

She was going to have to tell Christian what she'd seen, and she knew he wasn't going to take it well.

The minibus set off and they left the chaos behind. She knew there'd be phone calls being made for people to go and clean up the destruction, and to collect the bodies of the students who hadn't made it. She thought she'd seen two dead novices, and a Moroi, when she'd been surveying it. And Celeste was looking on the edge of death, passed out in the front seat of the bus. She needed emergency medical attention.

She wished they were closer to Liss.

She jumped when a hand rested on hers, uncurling her fingers from the stake and letting it drop into her lap. "It's over," Christian said.

She took a shaky breath. "Yeah." It was only just beginning. If that was Moira Ozera, then it was only just beginning. And she'd coordinated fifteen Strigoi. That was the largest group Rose had ever heard of.

Christian was even paler than usual, and there was blood on his neck from being slammed against the ground. "How are you?" she asked.

"I'm fine. Just tired. I used too much magic. Well, I used as much as I could."

"You saved all our lives," she replied, and meant it. "Without that we'd have all been dead."

"That's—"

"No, it is true. It's absolutely true. You saved my life especially."

"And you saved mine, so we're even."

They were too exhausted to smile. "I guess we're a pretty good team," Rose said. "That was unexpected as well."

He finally did laugh, though it turned quickly to a grimace. "I wish Liss was here to heal your shoulder." He made her lean forward, hand on her arm. "It's bleeding too heavily." He pulled his jacket off and winced even before he pushed it against the wound. "Sorry."

She hissed in pain, but shook her head. "Thanks."

From the back of the bus, someone collapsed into sobs and Rose felt tears pull at her own eyes. When she'd first been rescued from Spokane by Dimitri, she hadn't stopped crying for hours.

"How many people didn't make it?" Christian asked, keeping his voice low.

"I think three, but it could be more."

He shook his head. "I've never heard of anything like that before. There were so many."

"Me neither."

"I wonder how many Moroi here are fire users." He shook his head.

"Well I think you're probably going to have plenty of converts from today even if they didn't help in the fight." Surely no one could come that close to death and have been saved because of Christian's magic and still be on the side of Moroi not at least learning how to defend themselves for extreme situations.

He ran his right hand through his hair and winced when he felt the wound there. His left hand still held the jacket tight to Rose's shoulder.

She wanted to talk over the crying of the Moroi at the back of the bus, but the words wouldn't come. She rested her hand on her stake, but it didn't make her feel any better.

At the hotel, they were seen to quickly, but their injuries weren't life threatening and she only needed her wound disinfecting and bandaging. Christian needed to go to the feeders to get his energy back up, but he ignored her instructions to go while she was seen to by the doctors that had been called, and stuck by her side.

They went through what had happened with Yuri, who was taking everyone's account. She was one of the first he came to, one of the only ones still with a straight face, and who had been in the thick of the fighting.

She kept Moira Ozera's presence a secret for now. That was something she needed to tell Christian first. She wasn't going to drop it on him in front of anyone.

"You did well," Yuri said. "Both of you. Your magic saved my life," he said solemnly to Christian. "It probably saved all our lives. If I had a voice to advocate offensive use, I would be doing." He rested his hand on Christian's shoulder briefly, and then was onto the next person.

"Come on," Rose said, no less exhausted than when she'd been hobbling toward the minibus. "Let's go and get some rest."

First, though, she needed to tell Christian about his mom, and she wasn't sure either of them would be getting any sleep after that.