“Yes, I know. But why? You must be freezing.”
I had on a heavy winter coat, hat, gloves, and all the other requisite cold-weather accessories. He was right about the sandwich. “Not so much, actually. My face is a little, I guess.”
He shook his head and gave me a wry smile. “You’ll be cold when you’re in the car and all that snow starts melting.”
“I think you’re more worried about the car than about me.”
He laughed. “I’m more worried about you getting hypothermia.”
“In this? This is nothing.” I patted the ground beside me. “Come on. You make one too, and then we can go.”
He continued looking down at me. “So I can freeze too?”
“So you can have fun. So you can leave your mark on Idaho. Besides, it shouldn’t bother you at all, right? Don’t you have some sort of super cold resistance from Siberia?”
He sighed, a smile still on his lips. It was enough to warm me even in this weather. “There you go again, convinced Siberia is like Antarctica. I’m from the
southern
part. The weather’s almost the same as here.”
“You’re making excuses,” I told him. “Unless you want to drag me back to the car, you’re going to have to make an angel too.”
Dimitri studied me for several heavy moments, and I thought he might actually haul me away. His face was still light and open, though, and his expression was filled with a fondness that made my heart race. Then, without warning, he flopped into the snow beside me, lying there quietly.
“Okay,” I said when he did nothing more. “Now you have to move your arms and legs.”
“I know how to make a snow angel.”
“Then do it! Otherwise, you’re more like a chalk outline at a police crime scene.”
He laughed again, and the sound was rich and warm in the still air. Finally, after a little more coaxing on my part, he moved his arms and legs too, making an angel of his own. When he finished, I expected him to jump up and demand we get back on the road, but instead, he stayed there too, watching the sky and the mountains.
“Pretty, huh?” I asked. My breath made frosty clouds in the air. “I guess in some ways, it’s not that different from the ski resort’s view . . . but I don’t know. I feel different about it all today.”
“Life’s like that,” he said. “As we grow and change, sometimes things we’ve experienced before take on new meaning. It’ll happen for the rest of your life.”
I started to tease him about his tendency to always deliver these profound life lessons, but it occurred to me then that he was right. When I’d first begun falling for Dimitri, the feelings had been all-consuming. I’d never felt anything like it before. I’d been convinced there was no possible way I could love him more. But now, after what I’d witnessed with Mason and the Strigoi, things were different. I did love Dimitri more intensely. I loved him in a different way, in a deeper way. Something about seeing how fragile life was made me appreciate him more. It had made me realize how much he meant to me and how sad I’d be if I ever lost him.
“You think it’d be nice to have a cabin up there?” I asked, pointing to a nearby peak. “Out in the woods where no one could find you?”
“
I
would think it was nice. I think you’d be bored.”
I tried to imagine being stuck in the wilderness with him. Small room, fireplace, bed . . . I didn’t think it’d be
that
boring. “It wouldn’t be so bad if we had cable. And Internet.” And body heat.
“Oh, Rose.” He didn’t laugh, but I could tell he was smiling again. “I don’t think you’d ever be happy someplace quiet. You always need something to do.”
“Are you saying I have a short attention span?”
“Not at all. I’m saying there’s a fire in you that drives everything you do, that makes you
need
to better the world and those you love. To stand up for those you can’t. It’s one of the wonderful things about you.”
“Only one, huh?” I spoke lightly, but his words had thrilled me. He’d meant what he said about thinking those were wonderful traits, and feeling his pride in me meant more than anything just then.
“One of many,” he said. He sat up and looked down at me. “So, no peaceful cabin for you. Not until you’re an old, old woman.”
“What, like forty?”
He shook his head in exasperation and stood up, not gracing my joke with a response. Still, he regarded me with the same affection I’d heard in his voice. There was admiration too, and I thought I could never be unhappy as long as Dimitri thought I was wonderful and beautiful. Leaning down, he extended his hand. “Time to go.”
I took it, letting him help pull me up. Once standing, we held hands for a heartbeat longer than necessary. Then we let go and surveyed our work. Two perfect snow angels—one much, much taller than the other. Careful to step inside each outline, I leaned down and hacked out a horizontal line above each head.
“What’s that?” he asked, when I stood beside him again.
“Halos,” I said with a grin. “For heavenly creatures like us.”
“That might be a stretch.”
We studied our angels for a few moments more, looking at where we had lain side by side in that sweet, quiet moment. I wished what I’d said was true, that we had truly left our mark on the mountain. But I knew that after the next snowfall, our angels would disappear into the whiteness and be nothing more than a memory.
Dimitri touched my arm gently, and without another word, we turned around and headed back to the car.
Compared to that memory of him and the way he’d looked at me out there on the mountain, I thought the angel looking back at me in church seemed pale and boring in comparison. No offense to her.
The congregation was filing back to their seats after taking bread and wine. I’d stayed seated for that, but I did understand a few of the priest’s words.
Life. Death. Destroy. Eternal.
I knew enough about all this to string together the meaning. I would have bet good money “resurrection” was in there too. I sighed, wishing it were truly that easy to vanquish death and bring back those we loved.
Church ended, and I left with the Belikovs, feeling melancholy. As people passed each other near the entrance, I saw some eggs being exchanged. Viktoria had explained that it was a big tradition around here. A few people I didn’t know gave some to me, and I felt a little bad that I had nothing to give in return. I also wondered how I was going to eat them all. They were decorated in various ways. Some were simply colored; others were elaborately designed.
Everyone seemed chatty after church, and we all stood around outside it. Friends and family hugged and caught up on gossip. I stood near Viktoria, smiling and trying to follow the conversation that often took place in both English and Russian.
“Viktoria!”
We turned and saw Nikolai striding toward us. He gave us—by which I mean, he gave her—a brilliant smile. He’d dressed up for the holiday and looked amazing in a sage shirt and dark green tie. I eyed Viktoria, wondering if it had any effect on her. Nope. Her smile was polite, genuinely happy to see him, but there was nothing romantic there. Again, I wondered about her mystery “friend.”
He had a couple of guys with him whom I’d met before. They greeted me too. Like the Belikovs, they seemed to think I was a permanent fixture around here.
“Are you still going to Marina’s party?” asked Nikolai.
I’d nearly forgotten. That was the party he’d invited us to the first day I’d met him. Viktoria had accepted then, but to my surprise, she now shook her head. “We can’t. We have family plans.”
That was news to me. There was a possibility something had come up that I didn’t know about yet, but I doubted it. I had a feeling she was lying, and being a loyal friend, I said nothing to contradict her. It was hard watching Nikolai’s face fall, though.
“Really? We’re going to miss you.”
She shrugged. “We’ll all see each other at school.”
He didn’t seem pacified by that. “Yeah, but—”
Nikolai’s eyes suddenly lifted from her face and focused on something behind us. He frowned. Viktoria and I both glanced back, and I felt her mood shift too.
Three guys were strolling toward my group. They were dhampirs as well. I didn’t notice anything unusual about them—smirks aside—but other dhampirs and Moroi gathered outside the church took on expressions similar to those of my companions. Troubled. Worried. Uncomfortable. The three guys came to a stop by us, pushing their way into our circle.
“I thought you might be here, Kolya,” said one. He spoke in perfect English, and it took me a moment to realize he was talking to Nikolai. I would never understand Russian nicknames.
“I didn’t know you were back,” replied Nikolai stiffly. Studying the two of them, I could see a distinct resemblance. They had the same bronze hair and lean build. Brothers, apparently.
Nikolai’s brother’s gaze fell on me. He brightened. “And you must be the unpromised American girl.” It didn’t surprise me that he knew who I was. After the memorial, most of the local dhampirs had left telling tales about the American girl who had fought battles against Strigoi but carried neither a promise mark nor a graduation mark.
“I’m Rose,” I said. I didn’t know what was up with these guys, but I certainly wasn’t going to show any fear in front of them. The guy seemed to appreciate my confidence and shook my hand.
“I’m Denis.” He gestured to his friends. “Artur and Lev.”
“When did you come to town?” asked Nikolai, still not looking happy about this reunion.
“Just this morning.” Denis turned to Viktoria. “I heard about your brother. I’m sorry.”
Viktoria’s expression was hard, but she nodded politely. “Thank you.”
“Is it true he fell defending Moroi?”
I didn’t like the sneer in Denis’s voice, but it was Karolina who voiced my angry thoughts. I hadn’t noticed her approaching our group. She didn’t look happy to see Denis at all.
“He fell fighting Strigoi. He died a hero.”
Denis shrugged, unaffected by the angry tone of her voice. “Still makes him dead. I’m sure the Moroi will sing his name for years to come.”
“They will,” I replied. “He saved a whole group of them. And dhampirs too.”
Denis’s gaze fell back on me, his eyes thoughtful as he studied my face for a few seconds. “I heard you were there too. That both of you were sent into an impossible battle.”
“It wasn’t impossible. We won.”
“Would Dimitri say that if he were alive?”
Karolina crossed her arms over her chest. “If you’re only here to start something, then you should leave. This is a church.” It was funny. Upon meeting her, I’d thought she seemed so gentle and kind, just an ordinary young mother working to support her family. But in this moment, she seemed more like Dimitri than ever. I could see that same strength within her, that fierceness that drove her to protect loved ones and stand up to her enemies. Not that these guys were her enemies, exactly. I honestly didn’t yet understand who they were.
“We’re just talking,” said Denis. “I just want to understand what happened to your brother. Believe me, I think his death was a tragedy.”
“He wouldn’t have regretted it,” I told them. “He died fighting for what he believed in.”
“Defending others who took him for granted.”
“That’s not true.”
“Oh?” Denis gave me a lopsided smile. “Then why don’t you work for the guardians? You’ve killed Strigoi but have no promise mark. Not even a graduation mark, I heard. Why aren’t you out there throwing yourself in front of Moroi?”
“Denis,” said Nikolai uneasily, “please just leave.”
“I’m not talking to you, Kolya.” Denis’s eyes were still on me. “I’m just trying to figure Rose out. She kills Strigoi but doesn’t work for the guardians. She’s clearly not like the rest of you soft people in this town. Maybe she’s more like us.”
“She’s nothing like you,” Viktoria snapped back.
I got it then, and a chill ran down my spine. These were the kind of dhampirs that Mark had been talking about. The true unpromised ones. The vigilantes who sought out Strigoi on their own, the ones who neither settled down nor answered to any guardians. They shouldn’t have unnerved me, not really. In some ways, Denis was right. In the simplest terms, I really was like them. And yet . . . there was an air about these guys that just rubbed me the wrong way.
“Then why are you in Russia?” asked one of Denis’s friends. I already couldn’t remember his name. “This is a long trip for you. You wouldn’t have come here without a good reason.”
Viktoria was picking up her sister’s anger. “She came to tell us about Dimka.”
Denis eyed me. “I think she’s here to hunt Strigoi. There are more in Russia to choose from than there are in the States.”
“She wouldn’t be in Baia if she was hunting Strigoi, you idiot,” returned Viktoria evenly. “She’d be in Vladivostok or Novosibirsk or somewhere like that.”
Novosibirsk
. The name was familiar. But where had I heard it? A moment later, the answer came to me. Sydney had mentioned it. Novosibirsk was the largest city in Siberia.
Denis continued. “Maybe she’s just passing through. Maybe she’ll want to join us when we go to Novosibirsk tomorrow.”
“For God’s sake,” I exclaimed. “I’m right here. Stop talking about me like I’m not. And why would I want to go with you?”
Denis’s eyes gleamed with an intense, feverish light. “Good hunting there. Lots of Strigoi. Come with us, and you can help us go after them.”
“And how many of you will come back from this?” Karolina asked in a hard voice. “Where’s Timosha? Where’s Vasiliy? Your hunting party keeps getting smaller each time you return here. Which one of you will be next? Whose family will be the next to mourn?”
“Easy for you to talk,” retorted the friend. Lev, I think his name was. “You stay here and do nothing while
we
go out and keep you safe.”
Karolina gave him a disgusted look, and I recalled how she was dating a guardian. “You go out and rush into situations without thinking. If you want to keep us safe, then stay here and defend your families when they need it. If you want to go after Strigoi, go join the guardians and work with those who have some sense.”