LUNCH CONSISTED OF CANNED soup, it turned out. Olena put a couple loaves of bread in the ovens – apparently she had whatever it was that she needed to make that delicious black bread of hers, and we had a dual oven, so she'd decided to make a couple loaves for us. Mostly Dimitri and I. But those were snacks for later. Instead, there had been multiple cans of New England Clam Chowder and split pea soup in the pantry, so in a large pot she'd made us both, as well as a stack of ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. Even though I had been snacking all day, it looked delicious. I couldn't wait to eat. My mother, surprisingly enough,offered to help Olena, and together they served the rest of us. Dimitri and I both had clam chowder, while Lissa took pea soup. She never really liked sea food all that much. Sydney had the smallest portion, by choice, which seemed to worry Adrian. I didn't really understand that. It wasn't like it was anything new – I mean, for as long as I'd known her, I didn't think I'd ever seen Sydney eat a full meal. Not for the first time, I found myself wondering what was going on between Sydney and Adrian.

I sat down beside Dimitri, blowing on my bowl, while Lissa took her seat on the cushions at my feet. Sonya's words came back to me – "There's no telling what scars that may leave on the soul. No telling what changes may be permanent."

What had that meant? Was there a chance Lissa and I still had our bond? It didn't seem likely to me, I mean, it'd been six months. You'd think I would have noticed something, right? I would have said it was nothing, or that she was seeing things, but Sonya had never been wrong about my aura before. I would know. Maybe I was still partially shadow-kissed, but just had lost the bond. That could explain why I had been able to – partially – reach the land of the dead. Except... "it reached for hers. As if to recreate the connection. Some of the shadows returned. It brushed against hers. The gold flared up."

I sighed.

"What's wrong?" Dimitri frowned, looking down at me. I glanced away, meeting Lissa's eyes.

"Nothing," I murmured, "just thinking."

"My turn, right?" Eddie spoke, bringing us back to the task at hand. I nodded and with a deep breath, he began.

"AS MUCH AS LISSA AND Christian's meeting bothered me, it gave me an idea the next day.

"Hey, Kirova – er, Ms. Kirova." I stood in the doorway of her office, not having bothered to make an appointment. She raised her eyes from some paperwork, clearly annoyed to see me.

"Yes, Miss Hathaway?"

"Does my house arrest mean I can't go to church?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You said that whenever I'm nt in class or practice, I have to stay in the dorm. But what about church on Sundays? I don't think it's really fair to keep me away from my religious... um, needs." Or deprive me of another chance – no matter how short and boring – to hang out with Lissa.

She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I wasn't aware you had any religious needs."

"I found Jesus while I was gone."

There were a few snickers – even from Alberta, much to my surprise.

"Isn't your mother an atheist?" she asked skeptically.

"And my dad's probably Muslim. But I've moved on to my own path. You shouldn't keep me from it."

She made a noise that sort of sounded like a snicker. "No, Miss Hathaway, I should not. Very well. You may attend services on Sundays."

The victory was short-lived, however, because church was every bit as lame as I remembered when I attended a few days later. I did get to sit next to Lissa, though, which made me feel like I was getting away with something. Mostly I just people-watched. Church was optional for students, but with so many Eastern European families, a lot of students were Eastern Orthodox Christians and attended either because they believed or because their parents made them.

Christian sat on the opposite side of the aisle, pretending to be just as holy as he'd said. As much as I didn't like him, his fake faith still made me smile. Dimitri sat in the back, face lined with shadows, and like me, didn't take communion. As thoughtful as he looked, I wondered if he even listened to the service."

"Not really," Dimitri admitted.

"I tuned in and out.

"Following God's path is never easy," the priest was saying, "Even St. Vladimir, this school's own patron saint, had a difficult time. He was so filled with spirit that people often flocked around him, enthralled just to listen and be in his presence. So great was his spirit, the old texts say, that he could heal the sick. Yet despite these gifts, many did not respect him. They mocked him, claiming he was misguided and confused."

Which was a nice way of saying Vladimir was insane. Everyone knew it. He was one of a handful of Moroi saints, so the priest liked to talk about him a lot. I'd heard all about him, many times over, before we left. Great. It looked like I had an eternity of Sundays to hear his story over and over again.

"...and so it was with shadow-kissed Anna."

I jerked my head up. I had no idea hat the priest was talking about now, because I hadn't been listening for some time. But those words burned into me. Shadow-kissed. It had been a while since I heard the, but I'd never forgotten them. I waited, hoping he'd continue, but he'd already moved on to the next part of the service. The sermon was over.

Church concluded, and as Lissa turned to go, I shook my head at her. "Wait for me. I'll be right there." I pushed my way through the crowd, up to the front where the priest was speaking with a few people. I waited impatiently while he finished. Natalie was there, asking him about volunteer work she could do. Ugh. When she finished, she left, greeting me as she passed.

The priest raised his eyebrows when he saw me. "Hello, Rose. It's nice to see you again."

Christian chuckled, "I'm sure."

"Yeah... you too." I said. "I heard you talking about Anna. About how she was shadow-kissed." What does that mean?"

He frowned. "I'm not entirely sure. She lived a very long time ago. It was often common to refer to people by titles that reflected some of their traits. It might have been given to make her sound fierce."

I tried to hide my disappointment. "Oh. So who was she?"

This time his frown was disapproving rather than thoughtful. "I mentioned it a number of times."

"Oh. I must have, um, missed that."

His disapproval grew, and he turned around. "Wait just a moment." He disappeared through the door near the altar, the one Lissa had taken to the attic. I considered fleeing but thought God might strike me down for that. Less than a minute later, the priest returned with a book.

He handed it to me. Moroi Saints."You can learn about her in here. The next time I see you, I'd like to hear what you've learned."

I scowled as I walked away. Great. Homework from the priest.

In the chapel's entry way, I found Lissa talking to Aaron. She smiled as she spoke, and the feelings coming off her were happy, though certainly not infatuated. "You're kidding," she exclaimed.

He shook his head. "Nope."

Seeing me stroll over, she turned to me. "Rose, you're never going to believe this. "You know Abby Badica? And Xander? Their guardian wants to resign. And marry another guardian."

Now this was exciting gossip. A scandal, actually. "Seriously? Are they, like, going to run off together?"

She nodded. "They're getting a house. Going to get jobs with humans, I guess."

I glanced at Aaron, who had suddenly turned shy with me there. "How are Abby and Xander dealing with that?"

"Okay. Embarrassed. They think it's stupid." Then he realised who he was speaking to. "Oh. I didn't mean -"

"Whatever." I gave him a tight smile. "It is stupid."

I felt Dimitri look at me, but I wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Wow. I was stunned. The rebellious part of me loved any story where people "fought the system." Only, in this case, they were fighting my system, the one I'd been trained to believe in my entire life.

Dhampirs and Moroi had a strange arrangement. Dhampirs had originally been born from Moroi mixing with humans," Dimitri, Sydney and I made a face, recalling the Keepers. "Unfortunately, dhampirs couldn't reproduce with each other -"

"Not like you don't try," Adrian muttered. I shot him a dirty look.

"or with humans. It was a weird genetic thing. Mules were the same way, I'd been told, though that wasn't a comparison I really liked hearing. Dhampirs and full Moroi could have children together, and, through another genetic oddity, their kids came out as standard dhampirs, with half human genes, half vampire genes.

With Moroi being the only ones with whom dhampirs could reproduce, we had to stay close to them and intermingle with them. Likewise, it became important to us that the Moroi simply survived. Without them, we were done. And with the way Strigoi loved picking off Moroi, their survival became a legitimate concern for us.

That was how the guardian system developed. Dhampirs couldn't work magic, but we made great warriors. We'd inherited enhanced senses and reflexes from our vampire genes and better strength and endurance from our human genes. We also weren't limited by a need for blood or trouble with sunlight," I cast a glance towards Sydney, recalling our earlier conversation, "Sure, we weren't as powerful as Strigoi, but we trained hard, and guardians did a kick-ass job at keeping Moroi safe. Most dhampirs felt it was worth risking their own lives to make sure our kind could still keep having children.

Since Moroi usually wanted to have and raise Moroi children, you didn't find a lot of long-terrm Moroi-dhampir romances," my eyes fell to Sonya and Mikhail, "You especially didn't find a lot of Moroi women hooking up with dhampir guys. But plenty of young Moroi men liked fooling around with dhampir women, although those guys usually went on to marry Moroi women. That left a lot of single dhampir mothers, but we were tough and could handle it.

However, many dhampir mothers chose not to become guardians in order to raise their children." I glanced over at the Belikov's this time, feeling guilty at my earlier prejudice, before I knew them, "These women sometimes worked "regular" jobs with Moroi or humans; some of them lived together in communities. These communities had a bad reputation. I don't know how much of it was true, but rumours said Moroi men visited all the time for sex. And that some dhampir women let them drink blood while doing it. Blood whores."

"Sorry," I said to them.

"Regardless, almost all guardians were men, which meant there were a lot more Moroi than guardians. Most dhampir guys accepted that they wouldn't have kids. They knew it was their job to protect Moroi while their sisters and cousins had babies. Some dhampir women, like my mother, still felt it was their duty to become guardians – even if it meant not raising their own kids. After I'd been born, she'd handed me over to be raised by Moroi. Moroi and dhampirs start school pretty young, and the Academy had essentially taken over as my parent by the time I was four.

Between her example and my life at the Academy, I believed wholeheartedly that it was a dhampir's job to protect Moroi. It was part of our heritage, and it was the only way we'd keep going. It was that simple. And that was what made what the Badicas' guardian had done so shocking. He'd abandoned his Moroi and run off with another guardian, which meant she'd abandoned her Moroi. They couldn't even have children together, and now two families were unprotected. What was the point? No one cared if teenage dhampirs dated or if adult dhampirs had flings. But a long-term relationship? Particularly one that involved them running away? A complete waste. And a disgrace."

This time, I did look at Dimitri. "Uh, so I take that back. I mean, not the running away part. But on dhampirs together. So long as it doesn't happen all the time... well. I mean, uh.."

He chuckled and held me close, "it's okay, Roza. I understand."

"After a little more speculation on the Badicas, Lissa and I left Aaron. As we stepped outside, I heard a funny shifting sound and then something sliding. Too late, I realised what was happening, just as a pile of slush slid off the chapel's roof and onto us. It was early October, and we'd had early snow last night that had started melting almost immediately. As a result, the stuff that fell on us was very wet and very cold.

Lissa took the brunt end of it, but I still yelped as icy water landed on my hair and neck. A few others squealed nearby too, having caught the edge of the mini -avalanche.

"You okay?" I asked her. Her coat was drenched, and her platinum hair clung to the sides of her face.

"Y-yeah," she said through chattering teeth.

I pulled off my coat and handed it to her. It had a slick surface and had repelled most of the water.

"Take yours off."

"But you'll be -"

"Take this."

She did, and as she slipped on my coat, I finally tuned into the laughter that always follows these situations. I avoided the eyes, instead focusing on holding Lissa's wet jacket while she changed.

"Wish you hadn't been wearing a coat, Rose," said Ralf Sarcozy, an unusually bulky and plump Moroi. I hated him. "That shirt would have looked good wet."

"That shirt's so ugly it should be burned. Did you get that from a homeless person?"

I glanced up as Mia walked over and looped her arm through Aaron's. Her blond curls were arranged perfectly, and she had on an awesome pair of black heels that would have looked much better on me. At least they made her look taller, I'd give her that."

Mia glanced up, "thanks?" She half grinned. I grinned back.

"Aaron had been a few steps behind us but had been miraculously avoided being nailed by the slush. Seeing how smug she looked, I decided there'd been no miracles involved.

"I suppose you want to offer to burn it, huh?" I asked, refusing to let her know how much that insult bugged me. I knew perfectly well my fashion sense had slipped over the last two years. "Oh, wait – fire isn't your element, is it? You work with water. What a coincidence that a bunch just fell on us."

Mia looked as if she'd been insulted, bu the gleam in her eyes showed that she was enjoying this way too much to be an innocent bystander. "What's that supposed to ean?"

"Nothing to me. But Ms. Kirova will probably have something to say when she finds out you used magic against another student."

"That wasn't an attack," she scoffed. "And it wasn't me. It was an act of God."

A few others laughed, much to her delight. In my imagination, I responded with, So is this, and then slammed her into the side of the church. In real life, Lissa simply nudged me and said, "Let's go."

She and I walked off toward our respective dorms, leaving behind laughter and jokes about our wet states and how Lissa wouldn't know anything about specialisation. Inside, I seethed. I had to do something about Mia, I realised. In addition to the general irritation of Mia's bitchiness, I didn't want Lissa to have to deal with any more stress than she had to. We'd been okay this first week, and I wanted to keep it that way.

"You know," I said, "I'm thinking more and more that you stealing Aaron back is a good thing. It'll teach Bitch Doll a lesson. I bet it'd be easy, too. He's still crazy about you."

"I don't want to teach anyone a lesson," said Lissa. "And I'm not crazy about him."

"Come on, she picks fights and talks about us behind our backs. She accused me of getting jeans from the Salvation Army yesterday."

"Your jeans are from the Salvation Army."

"Well, yeah," I snorted, "but she has no right making fun of them when she's wearing stuff from Target."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with Target. I like Target."

"So do I. That's not the point. She's trying to pass her stuff off like it's freaking Stella McCartney."

"And that's a crime?"

I affected a solemn face. "Absolutely. You've gotta take revenge.

Christian yawned. "Girls."

"I told you, I'm not interested in revenge." Lissa cut me a sidelong look. "And you shouldn't be either."

I smiled as innocently as I could, and when we parted ways, I felt relieved again that she couldn't read my thoughts.

"So when's the big catfight going to happen?"

Mason," Eddie choked on the name and I patted his shoulder, sighing, "sorry," he said, "was waiting for me outside our dorm after I'd parted ways with Lissa. He looked lazy and cute, leaning against the wall with crossed arms as he watched me.

I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

He unfolded himself and walked with me into the building, handing me his coat, since I'd let Lissa go off with my dry one. "I saw you guys sparring outside the chapel. Have you no respect for the house of God?"

I snorted. "You've got about as much respect for it as I do, you heathen. You didn't even go. Besides, as you said, we were outside."

"And you still didn't answer the question."

I just grinned and slipped on his coat.

We stood in the common area of our dorm, a well-supervised loung and study area where male and female students could mingle, along with Moroi guests. Being Sunday, it was pretty crowded with those cramming for last-minute assignments due tomorrow. Spying a small, empty table, I grabbed Mason's arm and pulled him toward it.
"Aren't you supposed to go straight to your room?"

"Yes," Dimitri and Alberta stated.

"I hunkered down in my seat, glancing around warily. "There are so many people here today, it'll take them a while to notice me. God, I'm so sick of being locked away. And it's only been a week."

"I'm sick of it too. We missed you last night. A bunch of us went and shot pool in the rec room. Eddie was on fire." Eddie looked up, grinning a little, "I remember that. It was a hell of a lot of fun."

"I groaned. "Don't tell me that. I don't want to hear about your glamourous social life."

"All right." He propped his elbow up on the table and rested his chin in his hand. "Then tell me about Mia. You're just going to turn around and punch her one day, aren't you? I think I remembered you doing that at least ten times with people that pissed you off."

Viktoria looked a little shocked, "really?" I glanced away.

"I'm a new, reformed Rose," I said, doing my best impression of demure. Which wasn't very good. He emitted a choking sort of laugh. "Besides, if I do that, I'll have broken my probation with Kirova. Gotta walk the straight and narrow."

"In other words, find some way to get back at Mia that you won't get in trouble for."

I felt a smile tug at corners of my lips. "You know what I like about you, Mase? You think just like I do."

"Frightening concept," he replied drily. "So tell me what you think of this: I might know something about her, but I probably shouldn't tell you..."

I leaned forward. "Oh, you already tipped me off. You've got to tell me now."

"It'd be wrong," he teased. "How do I know you'd use this knowledge for good instead of evil?"

I batted my eyelashes. "Can you resist this face?"

He took a moment to study me. "No. I can't, actually."

"And that," I stated, "should have been my first clue that he had feelings for me."

"Okay, here you go: Mia isn't royal."

I slouched back in my chair. "No kidding. I already knew that. I've known who's royal since I was two."

"Yeah, but there's more than just that. Her parents work for one of the Drozdov lords." I waved my hand impatiently. A lot of Moroi worked out in the human world, but Moroi society had plenty of jobs for its own kind too. Someone had to fill them. "Cleaning stuff. Practically servants. Her dad cuts grass, and her mom's a maid."

I actually had a healthy respect for anyone who pulled a full day's work, regardless of the job. People everywhere had to do crappy stuff to make a living. But, much like with Target, it became another matter altogether when someone was trying to pass herself off as something else. And in the week that I'd been here, I'd picked up on how desperately Mia wanted to fit in with the school elite.

"No one knows,'" I said thoughtfully.

"And she doesn't want them to. You know how the royals are." He paused. "Well, except for Lissa, of course. They'd give Mia a hard time over it."

"How do you know all this?"

"I'd like to know that too," Mia stated, frowning. "So that's where you got that."

"My uncle's a guardian for the Drozdovs."

"And you've just been sitting on this secret, huh?"

"Until you broke me. So which path will you choose: good or evil?"

"I think I'll give her a grace - "

"Miss Hathaway, you know you aren't supposed to be here." One of the dorm matrons stood over us, disapproval all over her face.

I hadn't been joking when I said Mason thought like me. He could bullshit as well as I could. "We have a group project to do for our humanities class. How are we supposed to do it if Rose is in isolation?"

The matron narrowed her eyes. "You don't look like you're doing work."

I slid over to the priests book and opened it at random. I'd placed it on the table when we sat down. "We're, um, working on this."

She still looked suspicious. "One hour. I'll give you one more hour down here, and I'd better actually see you working."

"Yes, ma'am," said Mason straight-faced. "Absolutely."

She wandered off, still eyeing us. "My hero," I declared.

He pointed at the book. "What is this?"

"Something the priest gave me. I had a question about the service."

He stared at me, astonished.

"Oh, stop it and look interested." I skimmed the index. "I'm trying to find some woman named Anna."

Mason slid his chair over so that he was sitting right beside me. "All right. Let's 'study.'"

I found a page number, and it took me to the section on St. Vladimir, not surprisingly. We read through the chapter, scanning for Anna's name. When we found it, the author didn't have much to say about her. He did include an excerpt written by some guy who had apparently lived at the same time as St. Vladimir:

And with Vladimir always is Anna, the daughter of Fyodor. Their love is as chaste and pure as that of brother and sister, and many times has she defended him from Strigoi who would seek to destroy him and his holiness. Likewise, it is she who comforts him when the spirit becomes too much to bear, and Satan's darkness trying to smother him and weaken his own health and body. This too she defends against, for they have been bound together ever since he saved her life as a child. It is a sign of God's love that He has sent the blessed Vladimir a guardian such as her, one who is shadow-kissed and always knows what is in his heart and mind.

"There you go," Mason said. "She was his guardian."

"It doesn't say what 'shadow-kissed' means."

"Probably doesn't mean anything."

Something in me didn't believe that. I read it again, trying to make sense of the old-fashioned language. Mason watched me curiously, looking like he very much wanted to help.

"Maybe they were hooking up," he suggested.

I laughed. "He was a saint."

"So? Saints probably like sex too. That 'brother and sister' stuff is probably a cover." He pointed to one of the lines. "See? They were 'bound' together." He winked. "It's a code."

Bound. It was a weird word choice, but that didn't necessarily mean Anna and Vladimir were ripping each other's clothes off.

"I don't think so. They're just close. Guys and girls can just be friends." I said it pointedly, and he gave me a dry look.

"Second clue," I sighed, "hey, how much longer in this chapter, anyways?"

"Just this next page," Eddie replied, his tone pained. And yeah, I was hurting a little too, remembering back to those – relatively – easy days, when Mason was still alive.

"Yeah? We're friends, and I don't know what's in your 'heart and mind.'" Mason put on a fake philosopher's look. "Of course, some might argue that one can never know what's in the heart of a woman -"

"Oh, shut up," I groaned, punching him in the arm.

"For they are strange and mysterious creatures," he continued in his scholarly voice, "and a man must be a mind reader if he ever wishes to make them happy."

"God, I miss him," I sighed, smiling a little. Eddie nodded.

"Me too."

"I started giggling uncontrollably and knew I'd probably get in trouble again. "Well, try t read my mind and stop being such a -" I stopped laughing and looked back down at the book.

Bound together and always knows what is in his heart and mind.

They had a bond, I realised. I would have bet everything I owned – which wasn't much – on it. The revelation was astonishing. There were lots of vague stories and myths about how guardians and Moroi 'used to have bonds.' But this was the first I'd ever heard of anyone specific that it had happened to.

Mason had noticed my startled reaction. "You okay? You look kind of weird."

"I shrugged it off. "Yeah. Fine."

"And that's the end of chapter six," Eddie stated, leaning back on the couch. Olena stood up and moved to go check the bread. I, meanwhile, had a question to ask Yeva. Hesitantly, wary of her piercing dark eyes, I took the seat closest to her. Abe, Sonya and Mia, meanwhile, went to the feeders. Her shrewd eyes regarded me, and I half-wondered if she already knew what I was going to ask.

"Yeva?" I hesitated, speaking quietly. Again, I wasn't sure if she was playing the "can't speak English" act or not, but I wasn't going rat her out. Curious, Dimitri came to stand beside me, regarding his grandmother with a look of wariness, respect, and love. Her eyes never left mine, and I swallowed. "Mark once said to me... that you could sense a weirdness around him, and around me. A weirdness that meant we were shadow-kissed?" She nodded. "I was wondering... do you still sense that weirdness. Around me, I mean."

Dimitri gave me a curious look, but he didn't have time to say anything before Yeva was speaking – in Russian. Dammit. That crazy old bat. He chuckled and translated for me. "Grandmother says that you've always had the shadows follow you. But that they're weaker than when you were in Baia. She says," he paused and she repeated something, "she says that they were very weak when you came into the house. But since we started reading the book, they've gotten stronger."

I was afraid of that.

"Thank you, Yeva." I stood up, turning to leave, before a thought occurred to me. "Yeva, you said you can sense the shadows around me. And I assume you can sense the lightness around Sonya, Adrian and Lissa, too. Can you sense wards?"

She said something, glancing at Adrian, Mikhail and Jillian. I turned to Dimitri with a questioning look on my face. "Grandmother says that, while Lissa is a gentle girl, who is kind to you, to her shadow friend, Adrian less kind to his. She also says that Mikhail is a shadow friend, too." I blinked, looking at Mikhail. So. Mikhail was shadow-kissed too? I guess I'd have to talk to him later.

"Did she answer the question about the wards?"

He nodded, "Yes, she can sense the wards. And there are wards." I nodded.

"Thank you, Yeva," I repeated. This time, I turned to leave, and Dimitri moved to follow me, but he was stopped by Yeva.

"Dimka?" He glanced back, a curious look on his face.

"Yes?"

"horosho s nei otnosisshya?" She gestured to me. I listened in confusion, noticing a slightly guilty expression on his face. Uh oh. What was that about? I looked between the two of them in alarm, wishing I had bothered to learn Russian. I almost wanted to ask Sydney for help but thought better of it; this seemed like a personal issue.

"Nyet, babushka. Ya ei prichinil bol' " He replied with a soft voice. I could hear regret and pain. My heart began to pound. To my surprise, however, Yeva smiled. If only slightly. It made her look – only a little – less scary.

"Dimka, ya ne imeyu vvidu proshloye. Eto pozadi. Ya imeyu vvidu seichas. Vi snove vmeste, kak ti obrashyaeshsya s nei?"

He nodded.

"Horosho" Her words were to Dimitri, but her eyes fell on me, "Mne nravitsya ona. U neyo ogon'. Plamya kotoroya toch v toch kak tvoyo plamye. Ona otvet iz nebes- chto moya mechta ispolnilas'." Now his expression turned to one of confusion, and my eyes narrowed. What were they saying?

"Vasha mechta, babushka?"

"Ya mechtala o nei. V moih snah, ona prishla v Baia- ona blistala i gorela kak zvyozdi! Velikii voin, ona- velikii dela zhdut eyo!" Her eyes, once again, fell on me, and her smile grew a little. I was getting really unnerved, "Ona dostoinaya"

He smiled and wrapped an arm around my waist. "Ya eyo ochen' lyublyu, babushka." I recognised the word for 'love'. She nodded.

"Ya znayu. Ne poteryai eyo."

"tak trudno." he laughed, though his eyes held pain, "ya slishkom mnogo eyo poteryal"

"ona vse eshe zdes'- to" She said wisely.

"Yes, she is." Dimitri replied in English, startling me. He removed his arm from me and leaned in to give his grandmother a kiss on the cheek, "Spasibo." Why was Dimitri saying thank you? For the third time, we turned to go, and once again, Yeva called out to us.

"Grandmother." I turned around, not understanding at first. "Call me grandmother."

My eyes widened, not quite sure what to make of this. This was... a good thing, right? The look on Dimitri's face confirmed as much. I nodded, offering a smile. "Spasibo, B-Babush...ka?" She nodded in approval, and Dimitri's smile grew.

"Dimka! nauchi ei russkii!"

Dimitri laughed, "Da, Babushka." He replied. I took his hand, wanting to talk to him but wanting to talk to him in private. I tapped my mother on the shoulder.

"Hey, mom? Dimitri and I are just going to do a check of the perimeter," I said, "There are wards here, so we don't really have to, but... considering how much trouble there's been with wards over the past year, I don't really want to risk it. Just thought I'd let you know."

She frowned, "is it just going to be you two?" I wasn't sure whether she was concerned over our safety or concerned it was an excuse for us to have a... romantic interlude. I nodded and, after a moment's hesitation, tapped my ear piece. "If you need to get a hold of me, or if I need to get a hold of you, I have these. I also have my stake." She nodded.

"Don't be long."

I pulled on my jacket and put on my shoes, Dimitri following suit with that ridiculous duster of his. As we walked out the door, I couldn't help but cast him a sidelong glance, slipping on my gloves. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me what that was all about?"

He smiled at me, keeping his eyes alert for any threat as we turned west into the forest. I kept my eyes down, searching for the silver metal discs that marked the wards. His hand slid into mine. "Grandmother was just telling me that she likes you, and not to lose you." I nearly tripped.

"R-really?" I stammered, glancing up at him in shock. This amused him, "she actually likes me? Last time we met, she acted like I dropped a house on her sister."

"Rose," he scolded, shaking his head. He continued, "Last time, you probably hadn't lived up to her dream."

"Ah yes, her dream," I sighed, "where I shone bright like a star." I paused, "so I guess I've lived up to it now?"

"So she says." He paused to duck under a branch. One that I had no issue with. Hah. Doesn't pay to be tall now, does it, mister six-foot-seven? "She also says to teach you Russian."

"I wouldn't mind that," I shrugged, "It'd be easier than having to rely on you for translations. Well, no," I reconsidered, "it wouldn't be. But I still wouldn't mind it."

He smiled, before growing serious, "Rose, why did you ask her those questions? About your shadows?" I hesitated, not wanting to answer, "Roza..." I sighed.

"when we sat down..." I bit my lip, "well, my first thought was that this was all Victor Dashkov's doing. But that didn't make sense, because he was dead. I knew he was dead. Because I had killed him. But I wasn't sure just then, so I tried to see the world of the dead," he stiffened. I stepped over a log and nearly slipped. He caught my arm.

"Did you? Were you successful?" I shook my head.

"Not really. I mean, I got the headache which I was used to. And I definitely saw shadows and lights. But no ghosts. If anything, it was a milder version of what happened on the plane back when I first started seeing the ghosts, at St. Vlad`s. But, again, a weaker version. And I was able to push it all back way too easily. But when I went outside, Sonya said that my aura... when I did that, it was reaching for Lissa`s, trying to reform the connection. She said that it brushed against hers, cause the gold in Liss`s to flare up and my old darkness to resurface, if only for a little while. She said," I shivered a little, "There's no telling what scars that may leave on the soul. No telling what changes may be permanent. And it made me wonder... I mean, I would have noticed if our bond had reformed, but... what if I never truly broke away from Spirit? At least, not completely? Because, whether I came back on my own the second time, I'd still been to the land of the dead. I had still been shadow-kissed. And I don't think that that ever truly goes away." I sighed, glancing around, "anyways... I might be just over reacting. It looks all clear here, what about you?"

"Do it."

I blinked, "huh?"

"Do it," he repeated, an odd tone in his voice, "Try again. You're too far from Lissa for it to touch her aura, right?" I hesitated but nodded, "I'll keep an eye out for Strigoi." He added. With that, I closed my eyes, squeezing his hand. I felt around the edges of my mind, feeling for that mental barrier. We were past the wards, so if I could see ghosts still, then it should have been easier for them. Slowly, I became aware of the wall, though it was faint. Weak. I pushed at it, and it didn't budge, but after a few more times I could slowly feel it start to give. Immediately, a dull ache began throbbing in my skull, a pressure on my eye sockets. I opened my eyes, and pushed more at the wall.

Suddenly, there were ghosts everywhere.

I decided to upload this chapter early because this one, and the next one, are currently my two favourites. In the next little bit, things may get a touch confusing as I work to make sense of my timeline and also the canonical time line of the Bloodlines series. Since, as you may or may not know, Jill, Adrian, Sydney and Eddie are all supposed to be in Palm Springs. So, yeah, things may get a bit confusing for the next bit. Anyways, I'm really glad you're all enjoying this. I suck at replying to people, but I'm going to make an effort to at least reply to the guests:

Guest for Ch. 4:
Thank you!

Rat:
I'm glad you think so! I try to keep it interesting, at least a little bit, so that the characters are actually doing something even as they're reading. Though I really need to work on having them all do something. Some characters react a little louder than others.

Divya:
This soon enough? :D

Kayla Lewis:
I'll try! Thank you!

Brooke:
I try to make it that way. Because I think some people forget just how hard some of this stuff is for Rose. But although she may be appearing a bit weak right now, she'll snap out of it a few times. She has some particularly strong reactions in the Jesse chapter. And it's not a matter of whether they are interrupting, it's whether they want to interrupt. Sometimes I have to force them to say something they may not otherwise say, just because there hasn't been enough talking with them. I always thought they should have a copy of each book anyways. But thanks for the copyright warning!

Translations for this chapter [Courtesy of my friend from school – who's actually from Russia! Thanks Nami!]

horosho s nei otnosisshya?: Do you treat this woman well?
Nyet, babushka. Ya ei prichinil bol': No, grandma. I haven't. I've hurt her a lot.
Dimka, ya ne imeyu vvidu proshloye. Eto pozadi. Ya imeyu vvidu seichas. Vi snove vmeste, kak ti obrashyaeshsya s nei?: Dimka, I'm not talking about the past. That's behind you. I mean now. Since you two have been together again, have you treated her well.
Horosho: Good.
Mne nravitsya ona. U neyo ogon'. Plamya kotoroya toch v toch kak tvoyo plamye. Ona otvet iz nebes- chto moya mechta ispolnilas': I like her. She has a fire... A fire that's just like yours. Shes the answer from the skies that my dream came true [but apparently more fancy?]
Vasha mechta, babushka?: Your dream, grandmother?
Ya mechtala o nei. V moih snah, ona prishla v Baia- ona blistala i gorela kak zvyozdi! Velikii voin, ona- velikii dela zhdut eyo!: I dreamed of her coming to Baia. In my dreams, she shone, burned like a star. A great warrior, who could do great deeds.
Ona dostoinaya: She's a worthy one.
Ya eyo ochen' lyublyu, babushka: I love her very much, grandmother.
Ya znayu. Ne poteryai eyo: I know. Don't lose her
tak trudno:It's hard
ya slishkom mnogo eyo poteryal: I've almost lost her so many times
ona vse eshe zdes'- to: And yet, she's still here.
Dimka! nauchi ei russkii!: Dimka! Teach this girl Russian!
Da, Babushka!: Yes, grandma!
Spasibo: Thank you.