I don't own Vampire Academy.

Oksana opened the door and wasn't surprised at all. I'd expected her to be squealing like everyone else. Instead, she reached out and hugged him with a big grin on her face.

"The Belikov's couldn't hold it in for long," she explained. Dimitri chuckled. Obviously his family had rung up all their friends. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd gone running through the streets yelling about it. Mark appeared at the door behind her. He shook Dimitri's hand and turned to the rest of us. They both bowed to Lissa, who awkwardly asked them to simply "call me Lissa".

"So you're Rose's bond partner," he realised, smiling.

"Well, actually, no," I told him.

"I thought you said you were bonded to her?"

"I was."

"It seems we have a lot of explaining to do." Oksana invited us in and we sat down around her tiny table, the rest of the guardians lining the wall. Lissa and Christian didn't have as many guards as usual; they thought it was unnecessary to have twelve each like Tatiana had. Instead, Lissa had five and Christian had four. Still a large amount, but Lissa was the last-no, second last-Dragomir and the Moroi queen. Lissa told the story of everything, including our recent breakout that earned a couple of grumbles from Sydney.

"So, your bond is gone?" Oksana asked. We nodded and they glanced at each other. I wondered if they were as comfortable with the bond as we thought.

"What is it that you actually came to talk to us about?" Mark wondered.

"Well, you probably know about Olena and the uncurable disease thing," I began. "So, we came to see if you had found anything."

"Nope. Nothing. We have absolutely no idea what it could possibly be."

"Well, neither do we." There was an awkward silence.

"Why don't we come back to your house, then?" Oksana suggested. We all swivelled to look at Viktoria.

"I'm sure Mama won't mind," she replied. We trudge back to the Belikov's house. Sydney still looked really odd, and I was so worried for her mental health. Viktoria unlocked the door for us and we headed through to Olena. She seemed surprised to have this many people in her house. Yeva went upstairs, grumbling something in Russian. I saw Dimitri grin. Oksana and Lissa both placed their hands over Olena. They gritted their teeth and the power was so strong it was almost visible. But nothing happened. Olena just stared blankly at the ceiling. Lissa panted and I caught her again. Olena was wracking with coughs and she groaned. She was getting worse and worse by the minute.

"Oh, God, Mama," Dimitri cried. "What will we do?" I felt so helpless so I took my position as a guardian at the side of the room. It wasn't like I could do anything whilst we were fumbling from ideas. I wracked my brain for anything and then, suddenly, it came to me.

"Olena, do you remember anything strange happening to you before you got this...disease? Anybody you met?" Everyone turned to me simultaneously.

"Er...why?" she wondered.

"Because I was wondering who gave it to you."

"Well, besides my family, I spoke to an Alchemist, a guy called Spiridon and-" Wait? Spiridon? Crap. Lissa's eyes widened and she seemed to have come to the same conclusion as I had.

"Wait? Was he a dhampir?"

"Yes..." I squeezed my eyes shut.

"He was a guardian for Victor Dashkov," Lissa told her. "What if he's done something?"

"He can't do anything," I said.

"Why not?"

"Because...because...Oh God." Dimitri came and held me tight to him.

"Because what?" Christian prompted.

"She killed him." Dimitri said it for me. I couldn't bear to. The room fell silent.

Oooh. Did you like it? Do you have any guesses as to what happened?