"Yeah.InChicago.With the pack of psi-hounds."
"This was the first time we found you.InPortland."
I sat up from my stretches and crossed my legs. "Um, I don't think I imagined psi-hounds. Who else could have sent them? They only answer to Moroi. Maybe no one told you about it."
«Maybe,» he said dismissively. I could tell by his face he didn't believe that.
I returned to the novices' dorm after that. The Moroi students lived on the other side of the quad, closer to the commons. The living arrangements were partly based on convenience. Being here kept us novices closer to the gym and training grounds. But we also lived separately to accommodate the differences in Moroi and dhampir lifestyles. Their dorm had almost no windows, aside from tinted ones that dimmed sunlight. They also had a special section where feeders always stayed on hand. The novices' dorm was built in a more open way, allowing for more light.
I had my own room because there were so few novices, let alone girls. The room they'd given me was small and plain, with a twin bed and a desk with a computer. My few belongings had been spirited out ofPortland and now sat in boxes around the room. I rummaged through them, pulling out a T-shirt to sleep in. I found a couple of pictures as I did, one of Lisa and me at a football game in Portland and another taken when I'd gone on vacation with her family, a year before the accident.
I set them on my desk and booted up the computer. Someone from tech support had helpfully given me a sheet with instructions for renewing my e-mail account and setting up a password. I did both, happy to discover no one had realized that this would serve as a way for me to communicate with Lisa. Too tired to write to her now, I was about to turn everything off when I noticed I already had a message.From Janine Hathaway. It was short:
I'm glad you're back. What you did was inexcusable.
"Love you too, Mom, " I muttered, shutting it all down.
When I went to bed afterward, I passed out before even hitting the pillow, and just as Dimitri had predicted, I felt ten times worse when I woke up the next morning. Lying there in bed, I reconsidered the perks of running away. Then I remembered getting my ass kicked and figured the only way to prevent that from happening again was to go endure some more of it this morning.
My soreness made it all that much worse, but I survived the before-school practice with Dimitri and my subsequent classes without passing out or fainting.
At lunch, I dragged Lisa away from Natalie's table early and gave her a Kirova-worthy lecture about Christian-particularly chastising her for letting him know about our blood arrangement. If that got out, it'd kill both of us socially and I didn't trust him not to tell.
Lisa had other concerns.
"You were in my head again? " she exclaimed. "Forthat long?"
"I didn't do it on purpose, " I argued. "It just happened. And that's not the point. How long did you hang out with him afterward?"
"Not that long. It was kind of…fun."
"Well, you can't do it again. If people find out you're hanging out with him, they'll crucify you. " I eyed her warily. "You aren't, like, into him, are you?"
She scoffed. "No.Of course not.
"Good. Because if you're going to go after a guy, steal Aaron back. " He was boring, yes, but safe. Just like Natalie. How come all the harmless people were so lame? Maybe that was the definition of safe.
She laughed. "Mia would claw my eyes out."
"We can take her. Besides, he deserves someone who doesn't shop at Gap Kids."
"Rose, you've got to stop saying things like that."
"I'm just saying what you won't."
"She's only a year younger, " said Lisa. She laughed. "I can't believe you thinkI'm the one who's going to get us in trouble."
Smiling as we strolled toward class, I gave her a sidelong glance. "Aaron does look pretty good though, huh?"
She smiled back and avoided my eyes. "Yeah.Pretty good."
"Ooh. You see? You should go after him."
"Whatever. I'm fine being friends now."
"Friends who used to stick their tongues down each other's throats."
She rolled her eyes.
"Fine. "I let my teasing go. "Let Aaron stay in the nursery school. Just so long as you stay away from Christian. He's dangerous."
"You're overreacting. He's not going Strigoi."
"He's a bad influence."
She laughed. "You thinkI'm in danger of going Strigoi?"
She didn't wait for my answer, instead pushing ahead to open the door to our science class. Standing there, I uneasily replayed her words and then followed a moment later. When I did, I got to see royal power in action. A few guys-with giggling, watching girls-were messing with a gangly-looking Moroi. I didn't know him very well, but I knew he was poor and certainly not royal. A couple of his tormentors were air-magic users, and they'd blown the papers off his desk and were pushing them around the room on currents of air while the guy tried to catch them.
My instincts urged me to do something, maybe go smack one of the air users. But I couldn't pick a fight with everyone who annoyedme, and certainly not a group of royals-especially when Lisa needed to stay off their radar. So I could only give them a look of disgust as I walked to my desk. As I did, a hand caught my arm. Jesse.
«Hey,» I said jokingly. Fortunately, he didn't appear to be participating in the torture session. "Hands off the merchandise."
He flashed me a smile but kept his hand on me. "Rose, tell Paul about the time you started the fight in Ms. Karp's class."
I cocked my head toward him, giving him a playful smile. "I started a lot of fights in her class."
"The one with the hermit crab.And the gerbil."
I laughed, recalling it. "Oh yeah. It was a hamster, I think. I just dropped it into the crab's tank, and they were both worked up from being so close to me, so they went at it."
Paul, a guy sitting nearby whom I didn't really know, chuckled too. He'd transferred last year,
apparently, and hadn't heard of this. "Who won?" I looked at Jesse quizzically. "I don't remember. Do you?"
"No. I just remember Karp freaking out. " He turned toward Paul. "Man, you should have seen this messed-up teacher we used to have. Used to think people were after her and would go off on stuff that didn't make any sense. She was nuts.Used to wander campus while everyone was asleep."
I smiled tightly, like I thought it was funny. Instead, I thought back to Ms. Karp again, surprised to be thinking about her for the second time in two days. Jesse was right-shehad wandered campus a lot when she still worked here. It was pretty creepy. I'd run into her once-unexpectedly.
I'd been climbing out of my dorm window to go hang out with some people. It was after hours, and we were all supposed to be in our rooms, fast asleep. Such escape tactics were a regular practice for me. I was good at them.
But I fell that time. I had a second-floor room, and I lost my grip about halfway down. Sensing the ground rush up toward me, I tried desperately to grab hold of something and slow my fall. The building's rough stone tore into my skin, causing cuts I was too preoccupied to feel. I slammed into the grassy earth, back first, getting the wind knocked out of me.
"Bad form, Rosemarie.You should be more careful. Your instructors would be disappointed."
Peering through the tangle of my hair, I saw Ms. Karp looking down at me, a bemused look on her face.
Pain, in the meantime, shot through every part of my body.
Ignoring it as best I could, I clambered to my feet. Being in class with Crazy Karp while surrounded by other students was one thing. Standing outside alone with her was an entirely different matter. She always had an eerie, distracted gleam in her eye that made my skin break out in goose bumps.
There was also now a high likelihood she'd drag me off to Kirova for a detention.Scarier still.
Instead, she just smiled and reached for my hands. I flinched but let her take them. Shetsk ed when she saw the scrapes. Tightening her grip on them, she frowned slightly. A tin
gle burned my skin, laced with a sort of pleasant buzz, and then the wounds closed up. I had a brief sense of dizziness. My temperature spiked. The blood disappeared, as did the pain in my hip and leg.
Gasping, I jerked my hands away. I'd seen a lot of Moroi magic, but never anything like that.
"What…what did you do?"
She gave me that weird smile again. "Go back to your dorm, Rose. There are bad things out here. You never know what's following you."
I was still staring at my hands. "But…"
I looked back up at her and for the first time noticed scars on the sides of her forehead. Like nails had dug into them. She winked. "I won't tell on you if you don't tell on me."
I jumped back to the present, unsettled by the memory of that bizarre night. Jesse, in the meantime, was telling me about a party.
"You've got to slip your leash tonight. We're going up to that spot in the woods around eight thirty. Mark got some weed."
I sighed wistfully, regret replacing the chill I'd felt over the memory of Ms. Karp. "Can't slip that leash.
I'm with my Russian jailer."
He let go of my arm, looking disappointed, and ran a hand through his bronze-colored hair. Yeah. Not being able to hang out with him was a damned shame. I really would have to fix that someday. "Can't you ever get off for good behavior? " he joked.
I gave him what I hoped was a seductive smile as I found my seat.
«Sure,» I called over my shoulder. "If I was ever good.»
CHAPTER 6
As much as Lisa 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 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 Lisa.
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."
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 Lisa, 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 theback, 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. Yet despite these gifts, many did not respect him. They mocked him, claiming he was misguided and confused."
Which was a nice way of sayingVladimir 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. 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 Lisa 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?"
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 thealtar, the one Lisa 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 Lisa 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 marryanother guardian."
Nowthis 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 realized who he was speaking to. "Oh. I didn't mean-"
«Whatever.» I gave him a tight smile. "Itis stupid."
Wow. I was stunned. The rebellious part me of loved any story where people "fought the system. " Only, in this case, they were fightingmy 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. 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,though that wasn't a comparison I really liked hearing. Dhampirs and full Moroicould 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 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. Dhampirs couldn't work magic, but we made great warriors. We'd inherited enhanced senses and reflexes from our vam
pire 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. 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 dhampirwomen, 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. 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 rumors said Moroi men visitedall the time for sex.and that some dhampir women let them drink blood while doing it. 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. 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 abandonedher 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.
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