I smiled and waved back.
"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 Lisa would do."
"If she was with you, she'd be okay."
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. 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.
My vision cleared, leaving me back on the track and out of Lisa'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 Lisa met up with us, her face streaked with tears. 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. I felt safe with him beside us.
A half hour later, we were crammed inside Lisa's dorm room with three other guardians, Ms. Kirova, and the hall matron. This was the first time I'd seen Lisa'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. Lisa 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. 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 Lisa'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.
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.
What had happened to the fox was sick and twisted, obviously done by someone too fucked up for words. Lisa 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. 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. 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, " Lisa 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."
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.
"It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay."
Not looking like she believed me at all, Lisa 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 Lisa. 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 Lisa was in danger?»
"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? Lisa 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. 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, to Lisa, 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 expression. When I finished, he simply beckoned me forward like I hadn't said anything. "Come on. You're late for practice.»
CHAPTER 8
Burning with anger, I fought harder and better that day than I ever had in any of my classes with the novices.So much
so that I finally won my first hand-to-hand pairing, annihilating Shane Reyes. We'd always gotten along, and he took it good-naturedly, applauding my performance, as did a few others.
"The comeback's starting, " observed Mason after class.
"So it would seem."
He gently touched my arm. "How's Lisa?"
It didn't surprise me that he knew. Gossip spread so fast around here sometimes, it felt like everyone had a psychic bond.
"Okay.Coping. " I didn't elaborate on how I knew that. Our bond was a secret from the student body.
"Mase, you claim to know about Mia. You think she might have done that?"
"Whoa, hey, I'm not an expert on her or anything.But honestly? No. Mia won't even do dissections in biology. I can't picture her actually catching a fox, let alone, um, killing it."
"Any friends who might do it for her?"
He shook his head. "Not really. They're not really the types to get their hands dirty either. But who knows?"
Lisa was still shaken when I met her for lunch later, her mood made worse when Natalie and her crew wouldn't shut up about the fox. Apparently Natalie had overcome her disgust enough to enjoy the attention the spectacle had brought her. Maybe she wasn't as content with her fringe status as I'd always believed.
"And it was justthere, " she explained, waving her hands for emphasis. "Right in the middle of the bed. There was bloodeverywhere."
Lisa looked as green as the sweater she wore, and I pulled her away before I even finished my food and immediately launched into a string of obscenities about Natalie's social skills.
"She's nice, " Lisa said automatically. "You were just telling me the other day how much you liked her."
"I do like her, but she's just incompetent about certain things."
We stood outside our animal behavior class, and I noticed people giving us curious looks and whispering as they passed. I sighed.
"How are you doing with all this?"
A half-smile crossed her face. "Can't you already feel it?"
"Yeah, but I want to hear it from you."
"I don't know. I'll be okay. I wish everyone wouldn't keep staring at me like I'm some kind of freak."
My anger exploded again. The fox was bad. People upsetting her made it worse, but at least I could do something about them. "Who's bothering you?"
"Rose, you can't beat up everyone we have a problem with."
«Mia?» I guessed.
"And others, " she said evasively. "Look, it doesn't matter. What I want to know is how this could have…that is, I can't stop thinking about that time-"
"Don't, " I warned.
"Why do you keep pretending that didn't happen?You of all people. You made fun of Natalie for going on and on, but it's not like you've got a good grip on your control switch. You'll normally talk about anything."
"But notthat.We need to forget about it. It was a long time ago. We don't even really know what happened." She stared at me with those big green eyes, calculating her next argument.
"Hey, Rose."
Our conversation dropped as Jesse strolled up to us. I turned on my best smile.
"Hey."
He nodded cordially to Lisa. "So hey, I'm going to be in your dorm tonight for a study group. You think…maybe…"
Momentarily forgetting Lisa, I focused my full attention on Jesse. Suddenly, I so needed to do something wild and bad. Too much had happened today. "Sure."
He told me when he'd be there, and I told him I'd meet him in one of the common areas with "further instructions."
Lisa stared at me when he left. "You're under house arrest. They won't let you hang out and talk to him."
"I don't really want to 'talk' to him. We'll slip away.»
She groaned. "I just don't know about you sometimes.»
"That's because you're the cautious one, and I'm the reckless one.»
Once animal behavior started, I pondered the likelihood of Mia being responsible. From the smug look on her psycho-angel face, she certainly seemed to be enjoying the sensation caused by the bloody fox.
But that didn't mean she was the culprit, and after observing her over the last couple of weeks, I knew she'd enjoy anything that upset Lisa and me. She didn't need to be the one who had done it.
"Wolves, like many other species, differentiate their packs into alpha males and alpha females whom the others defer to. Alphas are almost always the strongest physically, though many times, confrontations turn out to be more a matter of willpower and personality. When an alpha is challenged and replaced, that wolf may findhimself ostracized from the group or even attacked."
I looked up from my daydreams and focused on Ms. Meissner.
"Most challenges are likely to occur during mating season, " she continued.This, naturally, brought snickers from the class. "In most packs, the alpha pairare theonly ones who mate. If the alpha male is an older, seasoned wolf, a younger competitor may think he has a shot. Whether that is true works on a case-by-case basis. The young often don't realize how seriously outclassed they are by the more experienced."
The old-and-young-wolf thing notwithstanding, I thought the rest was pretty relevant. Certainly in the Academy's social structure, I decided bitterly, there seemed to be a lot of alphas and challenges.
Mia raised her hand. "What about foxes? Dothey have alphas too?"
There was a collective intake of breath from the class, followed by a few nervous giggles. No one could believe Mia had gone there.
Ms. Meissner flushed with what I suspected was anger. "We're discussing wolves today, Miss Rinaldi."
Mia didn't seem to mind the subtle chastising, and when the class paired off to work on an assignment, she spent more time looking over at us and giggling. Through the bond, I could feel Lisa growing more and more upset as images of the fox kept flashing through her mind.
"Don't worry, " I told her. "I've got a way-"
"Hey, Lisa, " someone interrupted.
We both looked up as Ralf Sarcozy stopped by our desks. He wore his trademark stupid grin, and I had a feeling he'd come over here on a dare from his friends.
"So, admit it, " he said. "You killed the fox. You're trying to convince Kirova you're crazy so that you can get out of here again."
"Screw you, " I told him in a low voice.
"Are you offering?"
"From what I've heard, there isn't much to screw, " I shot back.
«Wow,» he said mockingly. "Youhave changed. Last I remembered, you weren't too picky about who you got naked with."
"And the last I remember, the only people you ever saw naked were on the Internet."
He cocked his head in an overly dramatic fashion. "Hey, I just got it: it was you, wasn't it? " He looked at Lisa, the back at me. "She gotyou to kill the fox, didn't she?Some weird kind of lesbian voo-ahhh!"
Ralf burst into flames. I jumped up and pushed Lisa out of the way-not easy to do, since we were sitting at our desks. We both ended up on the floor as screams-Ralf's in particular-filled the classroom and Ms. Meissner sprinted for the fire extinguisher.
And then, just like that, the flames disappeared. Ralf was still screaming and patting himself down, but he didn't have a single singe mark on him. The only indication of what had happened was the lingering smell of smoke in the air.
For several seconds, the entire classroom froze. Then, slowly, everyone put the pieces together. Moroi magical specializations were well known, and after scanning the room, I deduced three fire users: Ralf, his friend Jacob, and- Christian Ozera.
Since neither Jacob nor Ralf would have set Ralf on fire, it sort of made the culprit obvious. The fact that Christian was laughing hysterically sort of gave it away too.
Ms. Meissner changed from red to deep purple. "Mr. Ozera! " she screamed. "How dare you-do you have any idea-report to Headmistress Kirova's office now!"
Christian, completely unfazed, stood up and slung his backpack over one shoulder. That smirk stayed on his face. "Sure thing, Ms. Meissner."
He went out of his way to walk past Ralf, who quickly backed away as he passed. The rest of the class stared, open-mouthed.
After that, Ms. Meissner attempted to return the class to normal, but it was a lost cause. No one could stop talking about what had happened. It was shocking on a few different levels. First, no one had ever seen that kind of spell: a massive fire that didn't actually burn anything. Second, Christian had used it offensively. He had attacked another person. Moroi never did that. They believed magic was meant to take care of the earth, to help people live better lives. It was never, ever used as a weapon. Magic instructors never taught those kinds of spells; I don't think they even knew any. Finally, craziest of all, Christian had done it. Christian, whom no one ever noticed or gave a damnabout. Well, they'd noticed him now.
It appeared someone still knew offensive spells after all, and as much as I had enjoyed the look of terror on Ralf's face, it suddenly occurred to me that Christian might really and truly be a psycho.
"Lis', " I said as we walked out of class, "please tell me you haven't hung out with him again."
The guilt that flickered through the bond told me more than any explanation could.
"Lis'! "I grabbed her arm.
"Not that much, " she said uneasily. "He's really okay-"
"Okay?Okay? " People in the hall stared at us. I realized I was practically shouting. "He's out of his mind.He set Ralf on fire. I thought we decided you weren't going to see him anymore."
"You decided, Rose. Not me. " There was an edge in her voice I hadn't heard in a while.
"What's going on here? Are you guys…you know?…"
«No!» she insisted. "I told you that already.God. " She shot me a look of disgust. "Not everyone thinks-and acts-like you."
I flinched at the words. Then we noticed that Mia was passing by. She hadn't heard the conversation but had caught the tone. A snide smile spread over her face. "Trouble in paradise?"
"Go find your pacifier, and shut the hell up, " I told her, not waiting to hear her response. Her mouth dropped open, then tightened into a scowl.
Vampire academy va-1 Page 8