"Why are you still stalking us?" I asked. "Well, um, sorry. I, uh, thought I could help you find this Robert guy" Alex stuttered nervously. "So, you've been eavesdropping too, huh?" I laughed. I was sort of starting to like this kid. He reminded me of Christian, but also, a bit of myself. He looked at the floor nervously, not wanting to answer. "Don't worry, you can help us. You're a good fighter which will help if anything bad happens" I told him. He put his head up and looked me in the eyes with a mischievous smile. Dimitri and I walked into the elevator and stood either side of him.
When we reached the ground level, we walked towards the front doors and worked out a plan. I borrowed Dimitri's phone to text Lissa and get her to 'tell me' when she found something out. She knew what I meant by 'tell me' because just after I sent the message, she said something through the bond. Okay, good luck. I smiled and we headed out to the car park where we all jumped in the car.
It was quiet on the way out to Red Rock Canyon. I didn't hear anything from Lissa until we reached a service station. Dimitri went to fill up the car, so Alex and I headed in to find some street directories and have a look at the information centre. Red Rock Canyon was everything you'd expect. Red. Rock. Canyon. It was like, a ghost town compared to places like Missoula and Philadelphia. I wouldn't have expected any more coming from Robert, him being a crazy spirit user and all.
Once we found a street directory, we headed back to the car. Dimitri had just finished filling it up and was heading inside to pay. Alex and I both sat in the back to have a look at the map. There wasn't much info on it, but a few moments later, I got a message through the bond. There is a back road about 4 miles out of Red Rock Canyon, I've still got the GPS we bought a while ago so when you get back we can make a plan. I put the map down when Dimitri got to the car.
I told him what Lissa had said to me, and Alex hadn't quite caught up. On the way back to Vegas, I explained the bond to Alex and how Lissa is a spirit user. He didn't believe it at first, but when I told him about Dimitri, he asked, and Dimitri told him it was true. He was rendered speechless for the rest of the trip back to Vegas, and when we got back, Lissa, Adrian and Christian were waiting in our room.
We organised our tactics, we all knew that once they heard us enter, if they were there, they would be out of the house in seconds. We decided that the moroi should enter first, Alex could be waiting somewhere to stop them from leaving with a fire wall. If Adrian and Lissa got in soon enough, they could use compulsion on Victor, both of them because Victor was good at compulsion himself, which would make him stronger at blocking the compulsion out. Dimitri and I would go after Robert, with charms that Lissa will make to stop him from using compulsion on us.
Once we were finished organising, Lissa started charming rings. We weren't going to leave until Lissa was up to full strength though, and Adrian would be learning to charm objects. If we could get them both to use their powers on the charms, they would be much stronger, but Adrian was still learning and wasn't very good. I remembered when Lissa had made me a charm and it had singed my wrist.
I was worried about the long term effects of making Lissa use so much spirit. I remember the way Ms. Karp used to act, and shivered at the thought. I can't let that happen to Lissa, though. I know she will never turn strigoi, but I need to make sure she won't go crazy.
Alex and Christian decided to stay in our room. They wanted to practice magic, and they wanted to see if they could learn some of our 'Guardian moves'. I used to be against teaching moroi, especially my friends, to fight strigoi. I have changed since then, my whole world has changed. Dimitri and I agreed to help them, as long as they didn't go on strigoi hunting sprees. We told them this is only for self defence. We all knew that Victor was a good Earth user. We needed to go prepared, even if they weren't there.
We got some pillows off the bed, knowing that Adrian could help with the bill, and put them out in front of us, so that Christian and Alex could show us their best punches. "Fire away guys, hit us with your best shot" I smiled. Christian walked towards the pillow, and got in a stance that would help with his balance. It was just like what the guardian's had taught him and Lissa on their Lehigh trip, which turned into much more. He pulled his arm back, and swung upwards. I barely budged as he hit the pillow.
"I mucked that one up" He muttered. We all laughed, and he got prepared for another hit. Dimitri walked over to him and lifted Christian's elbow a little and demonstrated how to hit the pillow. Once he was done, Christian did exactly what was said, and swung. I was pushed backwards, only a little, and quickly regained my balance and smiled. "How was that?" He grinned. "That was much better" I smiled. "My turn!" Alex pushed past Christian and got in a stance, as Christian had shown. He got prepared to hit, and swung. It was a great punch, especially for a moroi. I ended up taking a step backwards just to stand up straight."That was great" Dimitri smiled. We all grinned at Alex, except Christian who just nodded.