"Guess the situation doesn't call for me barging in screaming and kicking, does it," I said to nobody in particular. Dimitri had his hands full, obviously, and the Moroi girl in his arms wasn't a good audience either, because she was in a dead faint.

"Like to see you try, though," another voice said. I had had an audience after all, it seemed. A weary-looking guardian was standing in a corner, huddled over another figure while Dimitri somewhat helplessly picked up the unconscious girl, apparently not knowing what to do with her. Even though his words could be interpreted as saucy, he appeared everything but. He looked like he had a few sleepless nights behind him and a mighty brawl to boot and was at the end of his strength and wisdom. What furthered this impression was the resigned way he bent over the person on the floor, of whom I could only see a shock of tangled black hair and shaking shoulders.

"Looks like we crashed a party," I said wryly.

"Yeah, it's our pity party," the stranger guardian murmured.

It was then I noticed Dimitri nodding towards something behind my back meaningfully. "Um.. Rose?"

I turned just in time to see two Strigoi running over the untidy lawn in our direction. Apparently, since I was the only one not tending to some sort of patient, the task of dealing with them fell to me. I made a quick jump out of the house – the place really didn't need a to-the-death battle taking place inside it – and took a defensive stance.

The first Strigoi immediately annoyed me by showing her large and dirty teeth in a broad grin as she charged me. I didn't even leave her the time to shut her ugly mouth before my stake plunged into her heart. The other one, a male, was more cautious, and required some ferocious kicking on my part before my stake found its aim.

I took a moment to make sure my opponents were no longer a threat to this world – as if my stake would miss, but one can never be too sure – and to ascertain that there were no more monsters coming at me, then I turned and went back inside the house.

The kitchen was empty, but I heard soft voices from the adjacent room. I followed them into a small sitting room, where Dimitri had deposited the unconscious girl onto a sofa. The other person, whom I could now discern to be a girl roughly the same age, was standing beside it, the stranger guardian's arms on her shoulder.

Dimitri went to meet me by the door, where we could have a whispered conversation in private.

"The guardian is the one who called us. Looks like he was right in seeking help. The girls look pretty shaken. And the spirit user girl collapsed right into my arms."

"Nina, right?" I said. Lissa had briefed us on this case, but she had had to hurry because we had to catch a flight immediately. "Did you get a chance to talk to the other one?"

"No," he said dejectedly. "She won't talk. She would probably be running now if not for her sister."

I guessed so. The girl had been a Strigoi before her spirit user sister restored her back to her dhampir form, if our intel was to be believed.

"She's a dhampir," I remarked.

"Yes. I guess Lissa's information did only go so far."

It had been a crazy day. Guardian headquarters had notified Lissa that there had been a call, telling them that they probably wouldn't believe it, but a Strigoi had been cured. They had answered that they believed it alright, because the majority of them had already been witness to a miracle like this, and the miracle's subject was standing right next to me: none other but my boyfriend Dimitri Belikov. Lissa had send the two of us over to investigate asap. Hence my presence in the suburbs of Texas via a bramble-ridden backyard.

"We need to get them to the safe house. There will be more guardians there," I said. Dimitri nodded.

"I wish there was time to explain more," he whispered. I understood. Having been in the same situation, he wanted to make this easier for this girl, even though he had never met her. I touched his shoulder briefly.

We neared the tired threesome again. This time, the dhampir girl lifted her face from where she'd watched her sister to meet our eyes. Hers were radiating that wild and desperate battle that I had seen in all those who had come back from a state worse than dead. This girl had been a monster and had only had hours to come to terms with what she'd done.

"Olive," Dimitri said in a calm voice. She blinked at him dazedly.

"We need you both to come with us. We can't stay here. There might be Strigoi coming."

Your old friends might come to see what you have become, was probably the meaning she derived from this, but I trusted Dimitri to do the talking. He knew best, after all.

"Olive," the other guardian said in a gentle voice.

Then the girl on the sofa stirred, and Olive almost cringed away from her. Involuntary, my mind was transported back to when I first saw Dimitri after he had been turned back. His rejection of me had hurt so much, but now I understood what had moved him. Olive must feel the same kind of horror for what she had put her sister through than Dimitri had felt for me then.

It was the sisters' guardian friend who took the first action. He scooped Nina into his arms and moved towards the door.

"We need to leave now," he said determinedly. "Olive."

She trudged along behind him like a doll on a string, her eyes fixed on her sister, who had closed her eyes again and was leaning her head against the guardian trustingly. Dimitri and I flanked the small procession as they stepped out on the narrow path that led to the street. Two cars were parked there: one that must be the other guardian's, and ours, a ways back so as not to draw attention.

We got into our car; I was driving, Dimitri next to me, and the girls and their guardian in the back. It was a strange arrangement, as we would usually never have allowed three strangers and potential threats to ride in our backs, but there was no splitting them up.

Dimitri kept a sharp lookout, as was the other guardian, but there were no more Strigoi jumping at us. The safe house was only a few minutes' drive away – not ideal, but the best we could get in what little time we had. Guardians were waiting for us in front of the house. Neither of us had said much during the ride.

"Where are we?" the Moroi girl asked slowly. She seemed to be regaining some of her strength.

"We need a feeder for her," I called to one of the guardians whom I picked at random. I had no idea about the structure of command here, but I guessed that Dimitri and I were high enough up to be making demands like this. The guardian was on his phone in a second.

"A safe house. Those guardians will take care of you," the strange guardian told her. He made sure the sisters were okay with going into the house before he let Dimitri draw him into a corner to have a word.

"You both need to get some rest," I told them. I wasn't the one you usually picked for bedside talk, but with a roomful of guardians, I guess I was as good as the next guy.

"I have seen what you've been though before," I said. "You will need a feeder and a good sleep, Nina. And you, Olive… Well, I think you should talk to Dimitri."

Feeling a little inadequate, I accompanied them to a large bedroom that a guardian showed us, where they both sat on the bed after some helpless standing around. Olive still had that spooked look when Dimitri came back.

"James is flying to Court to give a firsthand account of what happened with you," he explained. I guessed James was their guardian friend. "I'm sorry we have to take away the only familiar face in this situation, but what you did was remarkable, and we need every bit of information we can get. You are both still in no condition to travel, so we are staying here with you for a while."

Blank stares met his speech. Dimitri turned to me.

"Adrian should be arriving every minute now. Maybe you'd better wait for him up front. I'll stay here."

I nodded. As much as I wished to help those girls, Dimitri was the much better choice for that. I turned and, with a last look at them, left the exhausted sisters in his care.

….

Adrian showed up with the only member of the Palm Springs group that I had only heard about, but never met in person. I braced myself against any of the reproachful grimness about what I had done to him that he usually conveyed to me as I got up and went to greet him. And of course, his first words were a stab at Dimitri. There was more humor to it than there used to be, though; Adrian no longer seemed so bitter about our breakup. I had noticed this before, at Sonya's wedding, and attributed it to a possible and very sensational attraction to the Alchemist Sydney…

Having his accompanying guardian, Neil, send in to meet Dimitri – whom he seemed to venerate as the guardian hero he was- I could finally talk to Adrian in private. I just had to get one on him and pretend I fully expected him to have sex with every available girl in a fifty mile radius around Palm Springs. Not that that didn't sound like him. But I had the distinct impression that it merely sounded like who he used to be. It was for the best that I didn't communicate Dimitri's and my suspicions that there was something between him and Sydney. As a Moroi and an Alchemist, a relationship between them was a thing of the utmost impossibility anyway, and I would just embarrass him by implicating it.

His spirit work impressed me, though, seriously. There was nothing cloudy or unfocused about him when he finally got a good look at Nina and Olive. Olive, especially. By the way Nina looked at him when he did his mojo, he must have been using massive amounts of spirit. I hoped he would be okay afterwards. When Nina and he left for some "spirit talk", he clearly had trouble keeping upright and pretending he was alright. Using large amounts of spirit took a toll. I had seen it many times, last time in Nina when she fainted several hours after having exerted herself. He'd need a long rest now.

It was only after Nina came back to tell us Adrian had collapsed on her bed and she had joined Olive in hers that I withdrew with Dimitri to talk things over.

"What a girl. Reads about you and Sonya and just decides to try it herself. I think I like her guts," I said.

"She's brave, no doubt."

"I hope Olive will be able to… deal," I said. Dimitri only hummed in response.

"Any news from Sonya?" I changed the subject.

"She got a flight almost as soon as we did. She'll arrive in a few hours."

Sonya had had to cancel what remained of her honeymoon. Of course, the possibility to make a major breakthrough in an age-old Moroi problem warranted a shortening of her romantic travel through Europe with her new husband, Mikhail. I knew I hardly needed to feel sorry for her: she would be thrilled to examine this groundbreaking evidence of spirit being involved in a restored person's immunity against ever being turned Strigoi again.

"We need to get the blood to Court as soon as possible. Nina and Olive should come as well. Maybe Sonya will be able to see something, too, when she arrives," Dimitri said.

"I'll get a flight booked for you. You go and tell the sisters," I replied.

Two hours later, both sisters and Dimitri stood in front of the house, ready to go. Some of the other guardians had already left, some were going with them. They would have quite an entourage on their flight.

"Lissa will want to see you as soon as you have recovered sufficiently," I told the girls.

"Lissa?" Nina asked. "As in, Vasilisa Dragomir, the Queen?"

"The very one. Don't worry, she won't make you kneel or anything. She's nice."

It was weird to see people react this way to hearing they would meet my best friend: Nina looked at me with big eyes, seeming almost frightened at the thought. I guess that was how most people reacted when hearing that they were about to meet the ruling monarch of their entire race, the most highly venerated person Moroi society had to offer. That this person happened to be my best friend since first grade usually didn't reassure people any.

When the cars rolled down the street and left me alone in front of a somewhat dilapidated building containing a sleeping Adrian, a watching Neil and a waiting feeder lady, I sat down on the porch swing again. I had some time to kill, because I was sure Adrian wouldn't wake up for a few more hours. Time to think things through.

A new spirit user. One that had figured out how to cure a Strigoi by herself. And then just went ahead and did it. She sure was something, this Nina Sinclair. If she set to helping Sonya in her research with Olive's blood, there might be hope for a breakthrough yet.

This had been worth the hectic end to our first week of the semester. A slight sigh escaped me when I thought about how little quiet time we had in between catastrophes*. I would never have admitted it to anyone, but sometimes I found myself wishing for a little more normal life. Sometimes. Like, when I was rudely shaken from sleep with the words, Rose, get up. We have work to do. I mean, seriously, Dimitri could at least have thought of something that sounded less like straight out of a mobster B movie.

When I looked up from watching the tips of my worn-out shoes deep in thought, I realized who deeply in thought I had really been; I had not noticed the approach of the tall, wiry guy standing right before me watching me with a curious look.

"Dude!" I exclaimed before I could check myself. There was no danger; the guy was obviously Moroi, not Strigoi, and didn't seem anything but entirely harmless, but there was no way I should have let someone sneak up on me this way. I was slacking!

The boy raised his arms in a gesture of appeasement and immediately started to stammer. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you! It's just that there were… There never were before… those were all guardians, the people who just left, weren't they?"

I studied him more attentively. He seemed to be around my age, though dressed fairly out of fashion for a guy not even in his twenties; he was wearing something that looked like a checkered slip-on over a light brown knitted sweater. His hair, a brownish blond matching his sweater, was a curly mob on top of his head.

"Yup, they were guardians," I told him. I would certainly not tell this stranger about the miraculous salvation that one of the people who had just left had caused.

"What were they doing here? There are never any Moroi or dhampirs in this part of town. Or even in this town, it's not a particularly Moroi-friendly climate. I have the misfortune of living here," he ended, smiling sheepishly. I don't really know why, but something in his open manner and this smile reminded me of Mason. Even though I had just met him, I already liked this guy.

"Bad luck," I said. "We were just using this house for a little while. There won't be any more guardian activity here to bother the neighborhood."

He looked disappointed. "I was actually hoping there might be. It's so very human here."

"What do you do?" I asked him, curiously. "Do you work among the humans?"

"Yes, I do," he said with a grimace. "Temporarily, though. I graduated from St. Thompson's Academy, and didn't have much success in finding a job yet. So I work as a clerk for the local health insurance company. It's not the most exciting work."

"Doesn't sound like it," I admitted. St. Thompson's Academy. Not exactly one for the bright and gifted. You were sure find not a single royal going to that academy.

"Well, so, I'm kind of excited to see some of my own kind again. I only see a couple of Moroi at our feeding station, but they're always the same and they're like fifty or so and don't mind living among humans…"

My, that was one talkative fellow. Well, at least I had some company while I killed the time Adrian needed to recover.

"Why don't you sit down for a while?" I offered, gesturing to the house's front steps. His smile broadened.

"Of course," he said, taking a seat. "What's your name?"

"Rose. Yours?"

"Tim. So, what were all those guardians doing here?"

"Guardian business. I can't tell," I said bluntly. I could have lied, but on the one hand, I couldn't think of a good excuse right now, and also, why would I need to lie? Guardians did lots of things they didn't want every passing Moroi to know about. This was no out of the ordinary occurrence.

"Oh," he said, a little disappointed. But then he immediately perked up again. "Are you a guardian already? You look young. When did you graduate?"

I laughed. "You sure are curious. I graduated last year, so yes, I'm a full-blown guardian."

"Cool. There were no dhampirs at my school, they didn't have the resources to fund guardian training, too."

"So you never could experience how bad-ass we are," I said.

"No, I have no idea how bad-ass you are. I would like to know, but then again, I think I would rather avoid any situations where guardian bad-assery would be needed."

I laughed again. "Good you're living in a climate that is likely to put off any Strigoi."

"Yeeea," he said. "That is probably why I am not all too eager to leave for some place with better career option. I'm a fraidy-cat."

"That's not what I said."

"Oh, no, that's what I say. I never was the most courageous of people. I still hope to discover other qualities."

He said it in a humorous tone, so he didn't sound plaintive.

"You know, Moroi learn how to kick major ass at Court nowadays. That be something for you?"

"Yes, I heard about that. But I doubt that I'm cut out to be a Moroi warrior. I'm more of the peaceful type."

"What element do you specialize in?"

"I, um..." He hesitated with something alike to embarrassment. "Air."

"I've seen some air users who could make a Strigoi scrambling to their mommy if they had any care left for her. It's a good element."

"Well, you see, I'm not a particularly good air user."

"Never mind. Other qualities, right?"

"Exactly!" Now he laughed, a hearty, short bark. He had a nice voice.

"Maybe you could be a singer?" I blurted. I was feeling comfortable enough to joke around with this guy. I was rewarded with an even longer laugh.

"I don't know. Might be worth a try. We could start a band together, if you want a change from all the bad-assness."

"I'll be sure to remember when my bad-ass days are over," I said, fully knowing that when my bad-ass days were over, I would probably have died in the line of duty. Never mind. It was fun to banter with someone who did not have a government to lead and a nation to worry about.

"So, how do you like Texas?" Tim asked conversationally.

"To be honest, I haven't seen much of it. But it kind of feels homey… my boyfriend is a big fan of cowboy clothes."

"Not that we wear much of that," he deadpanned. He didn't miss a beat at my boyfriend remark. Good. That suggested he wasn't here to flirt.

"No one but him wears much of that. It's an eccentricity."

"Oh, I would never have thought. For all I know, it could be the latest fashion thing at the Moroi Court."

That made me search for a new subject quickly. I'd better not admit to being from Court. This guy was nice, but I had no interest in raising his curiosity when he learned that his Queen's personal guardian had showed up in his suburb.

"I guess you shouldn't have any trouble living in a hot surrounding, being an air user. If it gets too hot, you just whip up a breeze…"

"Um… yeah…"

"I suppose it does get really hot down here. It's January now, and still nicely warm."

"Yes, definitely."

"Hey, you know what?" I had gotten an idea. I looked up to the room Adrian was sleeping in. Neil, the British guardian, should be in the room next to his, guarding him. I would like to know how much there was to the British stuck-upness…

"Are you up for a little prank?" I asked conspiratorially.

"Um…"

"There's another colleague of mine in that room up there. And the windows are reeeaally rattly…" I trailed off suggestively.

"Um… well… are you sure that wouldn't frighten him?" He had cottoned on to my plan, but to my disappointment, didn't seem thrilled by it.

"That's the point," I tried once again.

"Okay… I'll try."

It was childish, I know, but I couldn't resist the temptation. This guy had talked about my 'heroics' with Dimitri and called them 'legendary'. He needed to regard me as a little bit more of a person.

Tim looked up at the window I pointed to. I heard a faint rustle at the leaves around the ground, but the shutters didn't move one bit. He looked at me sheepishly, and then back at the shutters. Same result.

"I said I'm no good," he said, sadly.

"It's okay. I never should have asked you. I'm sorry." I was sorry for how dejected Tim looked now. But judging from this display of his powers, he really must have learned nothing in his years of St. Thompson Academy magic lessons.

Unless this guy wasn't really an air user… Didn't that sound familiar? A Moroi who sucked at all four of the elements… because his true element was the unknown fifth?

"Say, what did they say at school about your elemental magic?" I asked him right out. This was way too personal a question to ask an acquaintance of fifteen minutes, but it would be in his best interest if my hunch was correct.

He squirmed uncomfortably.

"Well, you see… I was kind of a … late starter when it comes to elemental magic. For a long time, I didn't specialize at all. That was really awkward. And then I came up with air, but I never excelled in it. Well… that's it."

"Did air come to you as your element or did you just decide it was air because you sucked least in it?"

He blinked. "That doesn't really sound friendly," he said tensely. I had overdone it a bit.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. But… have you ever heard of spirit?"

He huffed. "Heard of spirit? It's our Queen's element. Who hasn't heard of it?"

"And you never thought you could be a spirit user?"

"Me? No way. I just suck. Like you said." He didn't sound secure, though.

"Really, Tim, I don't want to offend you. But it could be, couldn't it? You never specialized in any of the other four elements, right?"

"Well… I really am not much of an air user, am I?"

"So…?"

"But thinking I could share the Queen's element, that's just preposterous. There are only three known spirit users. I cannot be one of them."

He hadn't heard of Avery, of course. We hadn't exactly tried to make the fate of the spirit user gone mad with spirit a public affair. One of the said three spirit users was sleeping in the house behind us this very moment. I was wondering whether it was worth making Tim wait here with me until Adrian woke up and could take a look at his aura.

"The element has been forgotten for so long, Tim. There must be more spirit users who don't know what they are. You should at least-"

"No," he said, standing up brusquely. "I'm not one of them. I think I'd better go."

His tone still wasn't unfriendly, just confused and taken aback. I gave it one more try.

"You could have it tested by the other spirit users. If you want… Sonya Tanner at Court would be only too happy to take a look at you and train you, if you're indeed a spirit user. You should give it a chance!"

"I'd only be disappointed," he said decisively. "I'd better go. Good night."

"Right. Good night."

I watched him take a few steps into the darkness. Then I couldn't resist calling after him: "But remember Sonya's name, if you change your mind! Sonya Tanner! She's really nice!"

Then he was gone, and I went back inside to relieve a very unpranked Neil.

*If you don't know about the catastrophe, read Still Going Strong, chapter 28: Survive! I'm not going to give anything away! ;-)

I know… I baited you with a cruelly short first chapter! I hope I'm in your good books again for posting a long one today!

Hope you enjoyed!