Chapter 7

I was telling Lissa about what happened when the door suddenly opened, Elizabeth and her husband were running away. I try to chase them but as soon as I reach the corner they've already disappeared. I decide then to take advantage of their disappearance to enter the room stealthily followed by Lissa.
We reach Dimitri undisturbed while the chaos erupts trough the council members that shouts and move around.
"What did I miss?" I ask him making him aware of our presence, he's oddly distracted at the moment and I bet that if I would've tried an attack on him I could have caught him by surprise.
"They didn't say much actually, just that they're a different kind of vampires and that they need an army of moroi and dhampir to fight against others like them, that according to them are going to attack one of our schools".
"It's terrible, did they mention which school would be attacked?" intervenes Lissa.
"No, they wanted a deal and since they didn't get one they left just before dawn. We suspect they're vulnerable to sunlight just like strigoi".
"Why is everyone so tense then? We know their weakness; we'll just have to keep them outside next time they show up" I explain thrilled to know how we can defeat them.
"Most of them worries that there is really going to be an attack, especially the ones that has kids enrolled at other schools".

"Rose, what are you doing here?" interrupts us my mother.
"I'm here to know what happened, why didn't they try to follow them? They can't be too far if they can't walk under the sun".
"One of the guards was warned and is doing it right now" answers my mother sending me a glare that makes me understand that she's not too happy about my presence here.
"Someone must do something to find out which school they were talking about" intervenes Lissa still worried that an entire school may be massacred.
"Liss, don't worry; it's not sure that there'll even be an attack" I try to calm her.

After a while another guardian enters the room and goes towards the queen, everyone stops still as soon as they see him understanding his role. He whispers something to the queen's ear that announces with a tense expression: "they were able to escape. After a thorough investigation they were able to identify some tires marks not far away the east exit; sadly, the tracks only led to the main road and it's impossible to investigate further. Another level of security will be added to every school in Eastern Europe and the lessons will be exceptionally moved to a daylight schedule as a further precaution until further notice. This new rules will have to be communicated by nine p.m. to whom it concerns and will have effect immediately. Everyone not strictly required must now leave this room, I will hear individually every witness so that I can gather every possible information, a guardian will call you when your turn comes".

Everyone leaves after that and even if reluctantly I follow them. As soon as I'm out I'm stopped by Alberta that tells me that Kirova wants to see me. Of course, in the middle of a crisis they must worry about my punishment. After saying goodbye to Lissa and Dimitri I go to her office followed by my mother.
"There's no need for you to come, Kirova is perfectly capable of punishing me on her own" I tell her.
"I wanted to speak with you" she answers and we walk in silence for a while before she resumes: "It worries me how easily you jeopardize your life, you never to stop a second to think and act impulsively, you won't go far if you keep acting like this".
"Yeah I know; protocol is essential to be a good guardian".
"No, you won't go far because you'll be dead" she answers me, I stop where I stand turning to look at her surprised by her words. I've never seen her this tense, she's usually the image of composure, the perfect guardian.
"I know that our job is already dangerous, that's why protocol exists: to avoid unnecessary risks that can only lead to your death. Do you realize that you're lucky to be still alive?" at the end of the sentence she barely holds her tears, despite our rocky relationship she's still my mother and I can't see her like this. I instinctively get closer and hug her, she's a bit taken aback at the beginning but she hugs me back and we stay there like this for several minutes.


It's just been two days since my punishment started but I'm already hating it, I've been suspended from class and every recreational activity for a week and as if that wasn't enough I have to organize the archive during the day, so that when the academy day starts I'm too tired to even think about sneaking out.
The worst part is not being able to see Dimitri, while I can see how Lissa and the others are doing through the bond I know nothing about him.

It's eight in the morning when I leave my dorm to reach the administrative offices, I don't rush seeing as there's almost no one checking on me this early and I lay back in the grass relaxing under the sun. I stand up almost an hour later and I find an unusual confusion when I reach my destination. The guardian that usually checks on me tells me to go back to my room as soon as he sees me.
"What happened?" I ask and when he doesn't answer I ignore his order and go looking for someone to answer my questions.
"We just heard about an attack on a school in Siberia, we're planning to send some guardians to see what happened and help the survivors. Rose, you should go back to your room, there's nothing you can do" Alberta finally answers me.
"I could go with them, it's likely that the next attack will be here and if I go it means that there'll be an extra guardian protecting the school. I feel useless here, organizing the archives is pointless right now and I can't even go to class, please let me be useful".
"Alright, but you'll have to do everything the other guardian and the doctors tell you to. If you act without thinking as your usual you'll end up in isolation like Kirova wishes, this is your last chance" she says solemnly, I didn't expect her to agree so I follow her in another room where there are some moroi that sometimes work with the infirmary. I guess I'm not the only one that figured out they could attack here next and they won't risk losing all their doctors. In fact despite it'd be more logical to think that they keep attacking the nearby schools the warning originally started here, not to mention that the queen is still here to figure out how to react so we're the perfect target.
"Don't leave this room, the less know about your involvement the less will try to stop you; just because I decided to trust you doesn't mean that everyone else agrees with me" she warns me.
The others in the room send me a glare after that but I just ignore them and go sit in the couch. For a moment I think about my mother's words about my irresponsibility but I convince myself that this is different, I'm following Alberta's orders. I wonder who the other guardian is going to be, just hoping it's not someone that'll treat me like a kid.

The door opens two more times letting new healers enter, every time I startle fearing it's someone that would order me to go back to my room. In this moment we're six with me but I don't know how many are missing, the last two are not from the school and must have been called for the occasion. Still no trace of the guardian, even if it's already been half an hour since I arrived.

The door opens again and this time it's Adrian who enters, he comes sitting near me and I watch him surprised. I don't even need to ask that he answers to my silent question.
"I asked my aunt to be included in this healer group, at least I'll be able to test what Lissa tried to explain" he explains while taking a cigarette from his packet.
"Who told you I'd be here?" I ask figuring out that was just an excuse.
"Alberta, she figured she could convince me to come" he says taking his first puff of smoke.
"She was right" I answer moving away to avoid the smoke, in the meantime I check on Lissa that is luckily still soundly asleep unaware of what is going on.
Another half an hour passes between Adrian's flirt and my refusals, at least I got to annoy the snooty moroi that kept glaring at me. The door is finally opened by Dimitri that looks at me strangely as soon as he sees me, obtaining a sudden mood swing in Adrian.
"The jet is set; we're ready to go" he says leading us.

When we board he stops to talk with the pilot, in the meantime I seat on the bottom row while the others scatter and Adrian seats near the liquor cabinet.
After a while Dimitri joins me and it's hard not to throw myself to him, I missed him a lot in these last days and the knowledge that 24 hours of flight when I couldn't touch him awaited us only made things worse.
"Rose, what are you doing here? I thought you were grounded" he starts, sitting a little more close than socially acceptable but luckily no one is looking at us.
"I convinced Alberta that it'd be more useful letting me go and having another guardian protecting the school instead of continuing my isolation, I'm surprised they chose you. I thought they were keeping the good ones at the academy".
"The school that was attacked was my sister's, I asked to be here" he answers trying to sound nonchalant but I notice in his eyes he's worried that his little sister may be in danger. I take one of his hands and hold it tight trying my best to comfort him and even if he's squeezing my hand I don't care as long as it's helping him. I just hate that I can't do it properly hugging him and giving him everything he deserves.