Olena and her daughters all got up and moved to the kitchen. Slowly everyone but Tatiana and Adrian followed after them. Before Abe left the room the turned back and picked up the books and took them with him. Olena opened the fringe and started taking out everything they needed to make sandwiches. Karolina and Sonja started asking Dimitri and Ivan questions, like how have they been, what they were doing before coming here, what were their thoughts on the books. All this were asked in Russian, so Christian looked a little lost, he could understand Russian mostly but the Belikov siblings were speaking so fast he was having a hard time keeping up.
Yeva walked over to Olena and smiled at her daughter. Olena looked up at her mother, Olena saw that Yeva was looking at Dimitri and Ivan with s mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Olena shook her head and smiled at her mother.
"So any special ladies in you two's lives?" Olena asked before her mother could ask it the same but in a much more embarrassing way. Dimitri and Ivan's heads snapped to Olena. The girls laughed at the look on their faces.
"Mama," "Miss Olena," Dimitri and Ivan moaned at the same time. Dimitri and Ivan looked at each other trying to figure out how to respond to Olena
"Fine, Fine," Olena smiled "Just wondering when Dimitri is going to be giving me another daughter,"
"Mama," Dimitri shook his head he knew that she knew that was not a possibility for him. But like always Olena held out hope that her son would find a nice girl to settle down with.
After a few mined the food was done, slowly everyone returned to the living room taking drinks and the food with them. Tatiana glared at the food but as she was hungry she picked up one sandwich and ate it. As most of the people in the room were dhampirs the food didn't last very long, but thankful everyone had their full,
Karolina picked up the book and opened it at the right chapter.
SIX
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.
"Nothing new," Alberta said thinking about how easily Kirova got annoyed
"Yes, Miss Hathaway?" "Does my house arrest mean I can't go to church?" "I beg your pardon?" "You said that whenever I'm not 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.
"Is that going to work," Victoria asked
"Depends on Kirova's mood," Alberta answered
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." "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."
"She's probably very annoyed," Alberta said thinking about how easily Rose had gotten her way.
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.
Victoria nodded thinking about all the time her mother forced her to go to church.
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. 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.
Dimitri and Ivan looked at each other, they made a small note about st Vlad healing people.
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 what the priest was talking about now, because I hadn't been listening for some time. But those words burned into me.Shadow-kissed.
Yeva smiled she hoped that Rose would figure it out.
It had been a while since I heard them, 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." "Yeah…you too," I said. "I heard you talking about Anna. About how she was „shadow-kissed.‟ what does that mean?"
"Why does she care about that?" Tatiana asked shaking her head, while everyone ells wanted to know more about shadow kissed as well.
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."
Everyone laughed at that. They all could imagine the face Rose was making.
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 marryanotherguardian." Nowthiswas exciting gossip. A scandal, actually.
Olena and her family all shook their heads, not understanding what's so wrong with it.
"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 realized who he was speaking to. "Oh. I didn't mean—" "Whatever." I gave him a tight smile. "Itisstupid." Wow. I was stunned. The rebellious part me of loved any story where people "fought the system." Only, in this case, they were fightingmysystem, the one I'd been trained to believe in my entire life.
"A life she didn't really choose ," Olena whispered under her breath. Tatiana and Janine shook their heads they also didn't understand why the guardians would abandon their charges for each other.
Dhampirs and Moroi had a strange arrangement. Dhampirs had originally been born from Moroi mixing with humans. Unfortunately, dhampirs couldn't reproduce with each other—or with humans. It was a weird genetic thing. Mules were the same way, I'd been told,
All the dhampirs in the room were frowning, they also didn't like the comparison
though that wasn't a comparison I really liked hearing. Dhampirs and full Moroicouldhave 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 simplysurvived. 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.
All the dhampirs nodded again, while Tatiana just shook her head. She believed that the dhampirs should have felt worthy, after all, they were guardian royal moroi's
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. Sure, we weren't as powerful as the 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-term Moroi-dhampir romances.
Olena nodded remembering her time with the father of her children. While Abe looked longingly at Janine
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.
Olena smiled and nodded agreeing with Rose. Karolina nodded smiling at her mother and her siblings and how they all had turned out.
However, many dhampir mothers chose not to become guardians in order to raise their children. These women sometimes worked "regular" jobs with Moroi or humans; some of them lived together in communities. These communities had a bad reputation.
Ivan and the Belikova's all shook their heads they didn't understand why people couldn't just leave the communities alone.
I don't know how much of it was true, but rumors said Moroi men visitedall the timefor sex, and that some dhampir women let them drink blood while doing it.
"Not true," Olena snapped, yes the father of her children had taken blood from her but it was never given freely
Blood whores. 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.
Janine looked down, she knew it was the right thing to do, but she sometimes wished that she had kept Rose and raised her with Abe.
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 dhampirs job to protect Moroi.
Olena looked at the book sadly. Olena couldn't imagine giving up her children any of her children. Abe also sighed sadly, he wished he had gotten the chance to raise his daughter and hopeful give her more options.
It was part of our heritage,andit 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 abandonedherMoroi. 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. 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 realized what was happening, just as a pile of slush slid off the chapel's roof and onto us.
That got everyone a little riled up.
"Why can't they just leave the two girls alone," Alberta sked shaking her head
"Because you teach children that it's okay to be horrible," Abe said glaring at Tatiana
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 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.
The guardians in the room all nodded approving of her actions
"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.
"Oh I really don't like that girl," Victoria shook her head.
"Agreed," Christian said nodding.
"Why is she focusing on the girl's shoes," Janine asked frowning. She sometimes really wished that Rose would be more focused on her future duties
At least they made her look taller, I'd give her that. Aaron had been a few steps behind us but had 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."
"Oh please punch her," Abe and Christian said at the same time. Dimitri also wished for some reason that Rose would show the Moroi girl her place
Mia looked as if she'd been insulted, but the gleam in her eyes showed that she was enjoying this way too much to be an innocent bystander. "What's that supposed to mean?" "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.
"Ah, please do," Abe smiled.
"I'm really starting to like her a lot more," Ivan smiled at Dimitri who just shook his head.
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 specialization. Inside, I seethed. I had to do something about Mia, I realized. 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."
Tatiana nodded agreeing with Rose, while Christian just glared at the book
"I don't want to teach anyone a lesson," said Lissa. "AndI'mnot 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 jeansarefrom 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 its freaking Stella McCartney." "And that's a crime?" I affected a solemn face.
"Yes," Tatiana and Adrian nodded
"Absolutely. You've gotta take revenge." "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 was waiting for me outside our dorm after I'd parted ways with Lissa.
"Oh, he knows her too well," Alberta smiled worriedly. Alberta didn't really want to know what Rose was going to do with Mia.
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 wereoutside." "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 lounge 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," Tatiana and Janine said. Ivan looked at Dimitri who was glaring at the book.
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." I groaned. "Don't tell me that. I don't want to hear about your glamorous 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 remember you doing that at least ten times with people that pissed you off."
Alberta nodded remembering all the time Rose had gotten into fights. Abe smiled proudly he really enjoyed hearing about how his daughter rebelled against everyone.
"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."
"Oh this is so not going to end well," Alberta shook her head.
I felt a smile tug at the 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'vegotto tell me now." "It'd be wrong," he teased. "How do I know you'd use this knowledge for good instead of evil?" I betted my eyelashes. "Can you resist this face?" He took a moment to study me.
"Sadly no," Alberta shook her head, she knew that Mason was crazy about Rose.
"Well with a face like that I don't think anyone would resist her," Adrian said looking at the drawing of Rose. Abe glared at him and took the picture out of his hand.
"No. I can't, actually. 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."
"Not good," Christian said already picturing how the other royals would react to that.
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.
Olena and her daughters smiled proudly.
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?" "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."
"No I want to know what she is going to do," Victoria and Sonja said at the same time.
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 the priest's 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."
"Oh those two," Alberta and Janine shook their heads. Dimity, Adrian and Abe all glared the book, not liking Rose with another boy.
"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 tries 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.
"They had a bond," Dimitri said, shocking everyone. No-one ever thought that Vlad and Anna had a bond.
"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 asaint." "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 code." Bound. It was a weird word choice, but that didn't necessarily mean Anna and Vladimir were ripping each other's clothes off.
Everyone nodded agreeing with Rose. The idea that the two were romantically involved just seemed wrong for them.
"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. "Yeah?We'refriends, 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."
"True," all the boys in the room nodded. making all the woman in the room glared at them.
I started giggling uncontrollably and knew I'd probably get in trouble again. "Well, try to read my mind and stop being such a—" I stopped laughing and looked back down at the book. Bound togetherandalways knows what is in his heart and mind. They had a bond, I realized. 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."
"Okay done, who is next?" Karolina asked closing the book.
"I will," Sonja said taking the book.
~~~~
A COUPLE WEEKS PASSED AFTER that, and I soon forgot about the Anna thing as life at the Academy wrapped around me. The shock of our return had worn off a little, and we began to fall into a semi-comfortable routine. My days revolved around church, lunch with Lissa, and whatever sort of social life I could scrape together outside of that. Denied any real free time, I didn't have too hard a time staying out of the spotlight, although I did manage to steal a little attention here and there, despite my noble speech to her about "coasting through the middle."
Tatiana, Janine and Alberts all shook their heads but for different reasons. Alberta because she was happy that no matter what Rose still didn't change. Tatiana and Janine were shaking their head because they didn't approve of how Rose was handling everything.
I couldn't help it. I liked flirting, I liked groups, and I liked making smartass comments in class.
Adrian smiled tilting his head, while Ivan and Dimitri thought back to their days at school.
Her new, incognito role attracted attention simply because it was so different than before we'd left, back when she'd been so active with the royals. Most people soon let that go, accepting that the Dragomir princess was fading off the social radar and content to run with Natalie and her group.
Tatiana shook her head and whispered unacceptably, she was going to have to have a talk with the young lady when they got back.
Natalie's rambling still made me want to beat my head against a wall sometimes, but she was really nice—nicer than almost any of the other royals—and I enjoyed hanging around her most of the time. And, just as Kirova had warned, I was indeed training and working out all the time. But as more time passed, my body stopped hating me. My muscles grew tougher, and my stamina increased. I still got my ass kicked in practice but not quite as badly as I used to, which was something.
All the guardian in the room nodded glad that Rose seemed to be catching up. Dmitri oddly felt proud of Rose.
The biggest toll now seemed to be on my skin. Being outside in the cold so much was chapping my face, and only Lissa's constant supply of skin-care lotions kept me from aging before my time. She couldn't do much for the blisters on my hands and feet. A routine also developed with Dimitri and me. Mason had been right about him being antisocial.
Olena and Ivan frowned at that, they didn't like the idea that he was isolating himself so much. They both wanted him to be happy and live a more normal life. Well normal for a guardian
Dimitri didn't hang out much with the other guardians, though it was clear they all respected him. And the more I worked with him, the more I respected him too, though I didn't really understand his training methods. They didn't seem very badass. We always started by stretching in the gym, and lately he'd been sending me outside to run, braving the increasingly cold Montana autumn. Three weeks after my return to the Academy, I walked into the gym before school one day and found him sprawled on a mat, reading a Louis L'Amour book. Someone had brought in a portable CD player, and while that cheered me up at first, the song coming from it did not: "When Doves Cry" by Prince. It was embarrassing to know the title, but one of our former housemates had been obsessed with the 80s.
Karolina, Sonja and Victoria all laughed happy that Dimitri still hasn't gotten a better taste in music or books. Oh, how they enjoyed teasing him whenever he came home,
"Whoa, Dimitri," I said, tossing my bag on the floor. "I realize this is actually a current hit in Eastern Europe right now, but do you think we could maybe listen to something that wasn't recorded before I was born?" Only his eyes flicked toward me; the rest of his posture remained the same. "What does it matter to you? I'm the one who's going to be listening to it. You'll be outside running." I made a face as I set my foot up on one of the bars and stretched my hamstrings. All things considered, Dimitri had a good-natured tolerance for my snarkiness. So long as I didn't slack in my training, he didn't mind my running commentary.
"He had to. Especially as he had to grow up in his family," Ivan smiled looking at Dimitri's family who all smiled and nodded at him. Dimitri just shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Hey," I asked, moving on to the next set of stretches, "what's with all the running, anyway? I mean, I realize the importance of stamina and all that, but shouldn't I be moving on to something with a little hitting? They're still killing me in group practice." "Maybe you should hit harder," he replied drily. "I'm serious." "Hard to tell the difference."
Alberts smiled and nodded. She had never taught Rose but she knew how Rose was
He set the book down but didn't move from his sprawl. "My job is to get you ready to defend the princess and fight dark creatures, right?" "Yup." "So tell me this: suppose you manage to kidnap her again and take her off to the mall. While you're there, a Strigoi comes at you. What will you do?" "Depends on what store we're in." He looked at me. "Fine. I'll stab him with a silver stake." Dimitri sat up now, crossing his long legs in one fluid motion. I still couldn't figure out how someone so tall could be so graceful.
"Oh, we all want to know that," Victoria nodded looking at Dimitri like she was trying to figure out how he did it. Ivan nodded remembering the few times he had seen Dimitri train and fight
"Oh?" He raised his dark eyebrows. "Do you have a silver stake? Do you even know how to use one?" I dragged my eyes away from his body and scowled. Made with elemental magic, silver stakes were a guardian's deadliest weapon. Stabbing a Strigoi through the heart with one meant instant death. The blades were also lethal to Moroi, so they weren't given out lightly to novices.
"I believe it's fatal to stab any living creature through the hart with anything," Christian shook his head.
My classmates had just started learning how to use them. I'd trained with a gun before, but no one would let me near a stake yet. Fortunately, there were two other ways to kill a Strigoi. "Okay. I'll cut his head off." "Ignoring the fact that you don't have a weapon to do that, how will you compensate for the fact that he may be a foot taller than you?" I straightened up from touching my toes, annoyed. "Fine, then I'll set him on fire."
"Okay with what?" Christian smirked. Everyone but Tatiana and Janine felt sorry for Rose, but they understood why Dimitri was doing what he was doing
"Again, with what?" "All right, I give up. You've already got the answer. You're just messing with me. I'm at the mall and I see a Strigoi. What do I do?"
Everyone was looking at Dimitri waiting for him to answer.
"You run," Dimitri said like it was the most oblivious thing in the world.
He looked at me and didn't blink. "You run." I repressed the urge to throw something at him. When I finished my stretches, he told me he'd run with me. That was a first. Maybe running would give me some insight into his killer reputation. We set out into the chilly October evening. Being back on a vampiric schedule still felt weird to me. With school about to start in an hour, I expected the sun to be coming up, not down. But it was sinking on the western horizon, lighting up the snow-capped mountains with an orange glow. It didn't really warm things up, and I soon felt the cold pierce my lungs as my need for oxygen deepened. We didn't speak. He slowed his pace to match mine, so we stayed together.
Olena smiled and nodded at her son.
Something about that bothered me; I suddenly very much wanted his approval. So I picked up my own pace, working my lungs and muscles harder. Twelve laps around the track made three miles; we had nine more to go. When we reached the third-to-last loop, a couple of other novices passed by, preparing to go to the group practice I'd soon be at as well. Seeing me, Mason cheered. "Good form, Rose!" I smiled and waved back.
"And she's going to slow down," Ivan said shaking his head, he knew that Dimitri was not going to like that. Hell, he could see that his friend was glaring at the book.
"You're slowing down," Dimitri snapped, jerking my gaze from the boys. The harshness in his voice startled me. "Is this why your times aren't getting any faster? You're easily distracted?" Embarrassed, I increased my speed once more, despite the fact that my body started screaming obscenities at me. We finished the twelve laps, and when he checked, he found we'd shaved two minutes off my best time. "Not bad, huh?" I crowed when we headed back inside for cool-down stretches. "Looks like I could get as far as the Limited before the Strigoi got me at the mall. Not sure how Lissa would do." "If she was with you, she'd be okay."
Dimitri nodded and smiled
I looked up in surprise. It was the first real compliment he'd paid me since I started training with him. His brown eyes watched me, both approving and amused. And that's when it happened. I felt like someone had shot me.
Everyone froze at that
Sharp and biting, terror exploded in my body and in my head. Small razors of pain. My vision blurred, and for a moment, I wasn't standing there. I was running down a flight of stairs, scared and desperate, needing to get out of there, needing to find…me.
The room seemed to grow tenser by the minute. No one really wanted Rose in danger, but everyone hated the idea that Lissa was in danger
My vision cleared, leaving me back on the track and out of Lissa's head. Without a word to Dimitri, I tore off, running as fast as I could toward the Moroi dorm. It didn't matter that I'd just put my legs through a mini-marathon. They ran hard and fast, like they were shiny and new. Distantly, I was aware of Dimitri catching up to me, asking me what was wrong. But I couldn't answer him. I had one task and one alone: get to the dorm. Its looming, ivy-covered form was just coming into view when Lissa met up with us, her face streaked with tears.
Everyone who knew the academy was impressed they knew how far Rose had run in a short amount of time.
I came to a jarring stop, my lungs ready to burst. "What's wrong? What happened?" I demanded, clutching her arms, forcing her to look into my eyes. But she couldn't answer. She just flung her arms around me, sobbing into my chest. I held her there, stroking her sleek, silky hair while I told her it was going to be all right—whatever "it‟ was. And honestly, I didn't care what it was just then. She was here, and she was safe, which was all that mattered. Dimitri hovered over us, alert and ready for any threat, his body coiled to attack.
Tatiana was worried she didn't like the idea that Lissa was in danger and that someone could get to her in the academy. Alberta meane wile was worried as well. Surely they had improved on the security of the academy.
I felt safe with him beside us. A half hour later, we were crammed inside Lissa's dorm room with three other guardians, Ms. Kirova, and the hall matron. This was the first time I'd seen Lissa's room. Natalie had indeed managed to get her as a roommate, and the two sides of the room were a study in contrasts. Natalie's looked lived in, with pictures on the wall and a frilly bedspread that wasn't dorm-issue. Lissa had as few possessions as I did, making her half noticeably bare. She did have one picture taped to the wall, a picture taken from last Halloween, when we'd dressed up like fairies, complete with wings and glittery makeup. Seeing that picture and remembering how things used to be made a dull pain form in my chest. With all the excitement, no one seemed to remember that I wasn't supposed to be in there.
"A rather good thing," Olena and Dimitri said at the same time.
Outside in the hall, other Moroi girls crowded together, trying to figure out what was going on. Natalie pushed her way through them, wondering what the commotion in her room was. When she discovered it, she came to a screeching halt. Shock and disgust showed on almost everyone's faces as we stared at Lissa's bed. There was a fox on the pillow. Its coat was reddish-orange, tinged in white. It looked so soft and cuddly that it could have been a pet, perhaps a cat, something you'd hold in your arms and snuggle with. Aside from the fact that its throat had been slit.
"What is so bad about that? Sure it's gorse but why would Lissa freak out like that?" Adrian asked looking at Alberta
"Lissa hates dead animals, especially if they were killed. Someone in the school must be messing with her," Alberta answered
"Well, I think we all know who it is." Christian glared at the book
"Mia," all the Belikov girls and Ivan said at the same time.
The inside of the throat looked pink and jellylike. Blood stained that soft coat and had run down onto the yellow bedspread, forming a dark pool that spread across the fabric. The fox's eyes stared upward, glazed, over with a sort of shocked look about them, like the fox couldn't believe this was happening. Nausea built up in my stomach, but I forced myself to keep looking. I couldn't afford to be squeamish. I'd be killing Strigoi someday. If I couldn't handle a fox, I'd never survive major kills.
"No matter what, you never get used to it," Dimitri said softly. Ivan looked sadly at his friend, I van knew that the kills did whey on him quite a lot
What had happened to the fox was sick and twisted, obviously done by someone too fucked up for words. Lissa stared at it, her face death-pale, and took a few steps toward it, hand involuntarily reaching out. This gross act hit her hard, I knew, digging at her love of animals. She loved them, they loved her.
Everyone couldn't help but feel sorry for Lissa.
While on our own, she'd often begged me for a pet, but I'd always refused and reminded her we couldn't take care of one when we might have to flee at a moment's notice. Plus, they hated me. So she'd contented herself with helping and patching up strays she found and making friends with other people's pets, like Oscar the cat. She couldn't patch this fox up, though. There was no coming back for it, but I saw in her face she wanted to help it, like she helped everything.
"How is that possible?" Tatiana asked worriedly.
"No idea," Adrian said intrigued
I took her hand and steered her away, suddenly recalling a conversation from two years ago. "What is that? Is it a crow?" "Too big. It's a raven." "Is it dead?" "Yeah. Definitely dead. Don't touch it." She hadn't listened to me back then. I hoped she would now. "It was still alive when I got back," Lissa whispered to me, clutching my arm. "Barely. Oh God, it was twitching. It must have suffered so much." I felt bile rise in my throat now. Under no circumstances would I throw up. "Did you—?" "No. I wanted to…I started to…" "Then forget about it," I said sharply. "It's stupid. Somebody's stupid joke. They'll clean it up. Probably even give you a new room if you want."
"Oh they better," Tatiana said shaking her head.
She turned to me, eyes almost wild. "Rose…do you remember…that one time…" "Stop it," I said. "Forget about it. This isn't the same thing." "What if someone saw? What if someone knows?…" I tightened my grip on her arm, digging my nails in to get her attention. She flinched. "No. It's not the same. It has nothing to do with that. Do you hear me?" I could feel both Natalie and Dimitri's eyes on us.
"What the hell is going on?" Tatiana demanded
"If we knew we would tell you," Alberta answered holding in all her anger for the queen.
"It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay." Not looking like she believed me at all, Lissa nodded. "Get this cleaned up," Kirova snapped to the matron. "And find out if anyone saw anything." Someone finally realized I was there and ordered Dimitri to take me away, no matter how much I begged them to let me stay with Lissa. He walked me back to the novices dorm. He didn't speak until we were almost there. "You know something. Something about what happened. Is this what you meant when you told Headmistress Kirova that Lissa was in danger?"
"Do you think she is going to tell him?" Victoria asked looking at her brother
"I don't think so, she doesn't know him well enough or respect him enough," Alberta said worried for the two girls
"I don't know anything. It's just some sick joke." "Do you have any idea who'd do it? Or why?" I considered this. Before we'd left, it could have been any number of people. That was the way it was when you were popular. People loved you, people hated you. But now? Lissa had faded off to a certain extent. The only person who really and truly despised her was Mia, but Mia seemed to fight her battles with words, not actions.
"That's why it's not her. This is someone ells," Abe said trying to figure out who would do this.
And even if she did decide to do something more aggressive, why do this? She didn't seem like the type. There were a million other ways to get back at a person. "No," I told him. "No clue." "Rose, if you know something, tell me. We're on the same side. We both want to protect her. This is serious." I spun around, taking my anger over the fox out on him. "Yeah, it is serious. It's all serious. And you have me doing laps every day when I should be learning to fight and defend her! If you want to help her, then teach me something! Teach me how to fight. I already know how to run away." I didn't realize until that moment how badly I did want to learn, how I wanted to prove myself to him,
Alberta was shocked, Rose had never taken so fast to anyone. Alberta looked at Dimitri in a new light
to Lissa, and to everyone else. The fox incident had made me feel powerless, and I didn't like that. I wanted to do something, anything. Dimitri watched my outburst calmly, with no change in his express ion. When I finished, he simply beckoned me forward like I hadn't said anything. "Come on. You're late for practice."
"Done, who is next?' Sonja asked holding out the book.