Yet, as more and more clothes came off, it went beyond just animal passion. It was sweet and wonderful at the same time. When I looked into his eyes, I could see without a doubt that he loved me more than anyone else in the world, that I was his salvation, the same way that he was mine. I’d never expected my first time to be in a cabin in the woods, but I realized the place didn’t matter. The person did. With someone you loved, you could be anywhere, and it would be incredible. Being in the most luxurious bed in the world wouldn’t matter if you were with someone you didn’t love.
And oh, I loved him. I loved him so much that it hurt. All of our clothes finally ended up in a pile on the floor, but the feel of his skin on mine was more than enough to keep me warm. I couldn’t tell where my body ended and his began, and I decided then that was how I always wanted it to be. I didn’t want us to ever be apart.
I wish I had the words to describe sex, but nothing I can say would really capture how amazing it was. I felt nervous, excited, and about a gazillion other things. Dimitri seemed so wise and skilled and infinitely patient—just like with our combat trainings. Following his lead seemed like a natural thing, but he was also more than willing to let me take control too. We were equals at last, and every touch held power, even the slightest brushing of his fingertips.
When it was over, I lay back against him. My body hurt . . . yet at the same time, it felt amazing, blissful and content. I wished I’d been doing this a long time ago, but I also knew it wouldn’t have been right until exactly this moment.
I rested my head on Dimitri’s chest, taking comfort in his warmth. He kissed my forehead and ran his fingers through my hair.
“I love you, Roza.” He kissed me again. “I’ll always be here for you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
The words were wonderful and dangerous. He shouldn’t have said anything like that to me. He shouldn’t have been promising he’d protect
me
, not when he was supposed to dedicate his life to protecting Moroi like Lissa. I couldn’t be first in his heart, just like he couldn’t be first in mine. That was why I shouldn’t have said what I said next—but I did anyway.
“And I won’t let anything happen to you,” I promised. “I love you.” He kissed me again, swallowing off any other words I might have added.
We lay together for a while after that, wrapped in each other’s arms, not saying much. I could have stayed that way forever, but finally, we knew we had to go. The others would eventually come looking for us to get my report, and if they found us like that, things would almost certainly get ugly.
So we got dressed, which wasn’t easy since we kept stopping to kiss. Finally, reluctantly, we left the cabin. We held hands, knowing we could only do so for a few brief moments. Once we were closer to the heart of campus, we’d have to go back to business as usual. But for now, everything in the world was golden and wonderful. Every step I took was filled with joy, and the air around us seemed to hum.
Questions still spun in my mind, of course. What had just happened? Where had our so-called control gone? For now, I couldn’t care. My body was still warm and wanting him and—I suddenly stopped. Another feeling—a very unwelcome one—was steadily creeping over me. It was strange, like faint and fleeting waves of nausea mingled with a prickling against my skin. Dimitri stopped immediately and gave me a puzzled look.
A pale, slightly luminescent form materialized in front of us. Mason. He looked the same as ever—or did he? The usual sadness was there, but I could see something else, something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Panic? Frustration? I could have almost sworn it was fear, but honestly, what would a ghost have to be afraid of?
“What’s wrong?” asked Dimitri.
“Do you see him?” I whispered.
Dimitri followed my gaze. “See who?”
“Mason.”
Mason’s troubled expression grew darker. I might not have been able to adequately identify it, but I knew it wasn’t anything good. The nauseous feeling within me intensified, but somehow, I knew it had nothing to do with him.
“Rose . . . we should go back . . .” said Dimitri carefully. He still wasn’t on board with me seeing ghosts.
But I didn’t move. Mason’s face was saying something else to me—or trying to. There was something here, something important that I needed to know. But he couldn’t communicate it.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?
A look of frustration crossed his face. He pointed off behind me, then dropped his hand.
“Tell me,” I said, my frustration mirroring his. Dimitri was looking back and forth between me and Mason, though Mason was probably only an empty space to him.
I was too fixated on Mason to worry what Dimitri might think. There was something here. Something big. Mason opened his mouth, wanting to speak as in previous times but still unable to get the words out. Except, this time, after several agonizing seconds, he managed it. The words were nearly inaudible.
“They’re . . . coming. . . .”
TWENTY-FOUR
T
HE WHOLE WORLD WAS still. At this time of night, there were no birds or anything, but it seemed quieter than usual. Even the wind had fallen silent. Mason looked at me pleadingly. The nausea and prickling increased.
Then, I knew.
“Dimitri,” I said urgently, “there are Strig—”
Too late. Dimitri and I saw him at the same time, but Dimitri was closer. Pale face. Red eyes. The Strigoi swooped toward us, and I could almost imagine he was flying, just like vampire legends used to say. But Dimitri was just as fast and nearly as strong. He had his stake—a real one, not a practice one—in his hand and met the Strigoi’s attack. I think the Strigoi had hoped for the element of surprise. They grappled, and for a moment they seemed suspended in time, neither gaining ground on the other. Then Dimitri’s hand snaked out, plunging the stake into the Strigoi’s heart. The red eyes widened in surprise, and the Strigoi’s body crumpled to the ground.
Dimitri turned to me to make sure I was all right, and a thousand silent messages passed between us. He turned away and scanned the woods, peering into the darkness. My nausea had increased. I didn’t understand why, but somehow I could sense the Strigoi around us. That was what was making me feel sick. Dimitri turned back to me, and there was a look I’d never seen in his eyes.
“Rose. Listen to me. Run. Run as fast and as hard as you can back to your dorm. Tell the guardians.”
I nodded. There was no questioning here.
Reaching out, he gripped my upper arm, gaze locked on me to make sure I understood his next words. “Do not stop,” he said. “No matter what you hear, no matter what you see,
do not stop
. Not until you’ve warned the others. Don’t stop unless you’re directly confronted. Do you understand?”
I nodded again. He released his hold.
“Tell them
buria
.”
I nodded again.
“
Run
.”
I ran. I didn’t look back. I didn’t ask what he was going to do because I already knew. He was going to stop as many Strigoi as he could so that I could get help. And a moment later, I heard grunts and hits that told me he’d found another. For only a heartbeat, I let myself worry about him. If he died, I was certain I would too. But then I let it go. I couldn’t just think about one person, not when hundreds of lives were depending on me. There were Strigoi at our school. It was impossible. It couldn’t happen.
My feet hit the ground hard, splashing through the slush and mud. Around me, I thought I could hear voices and shapes—not the ghosts from the airport, but the monsters I’d been dreading for so long. But nothing stopped me. When Dimitri and I had first begun training together, he’d made me run laps every day. I’d complained, but he’d stated over and over again that it was essential. It would make me stronger, he had said. And, he’d added, a day could come when I couldn’t fight and would have to flee. This was it.
The dhampir dorm appeared before me, about half its windows lit. It was near curfew; people were going to bed. I burst in through the doors, feeling like my heart was going to explode from the exertion. The first person I saw was Stan, and I nearly knocked him over. He caught my wrists to steady me.
“Rose, wh—”
“Strigoi,” I gasped out. “There are Strigoi on campus.”
He stared at me, and for the first time I’d ever seen, his mouth seriously dropped open. Then, he recovered himself, and I could immediately see what he was thinking. More ghost stories. “Rose, I don’t know what you’re—”
“I’m not crazy!” I screamed. Everyone in the dorm’s lobby was staring at us. “They’re out there! They’re out there, and Dimitri is fighting them alone. You have to help him.” What had Dimitri told me? What was that word? “
Buria
. He said to tell you
buria
.”
And like that, Stan was gone.
I had never seen any drills for Strigoi attacks, yet the guardians must have conducted them. Things moved too fast for them not to have. Every guardian in the dorm, whether they’d been awake or not, was in the lobby in a matter of minutes. Calls were made. I stood in a semicircle with other novices, who watched our elders organize themselves with amazing efficiency. Glancing around, I realized something. There were no other seniors with me. Since it was Sunday night, all of them had returned to the field experience to protect their Moroi. It was oddly relieving. The Moroi dorms had an extra line of defense.
At least, the teenage Moroi did. The elementary campus did not. It had its normal guardian protection, as well as a lot of the same defenses our dorm did, like gratings on all the first-floor windows. Things like that wouldn’t keep Strigoi out, but they would slow them down. No one had ever done too much more than that. There’d been no need, not with the wards.
Alberta had joined the group and was sending out parties throughout campus. Some were sent to secure buildings. Some were hunting parties, specifically seeking out Strigoi and trying to figure out how many were around. As the guardians thinned out, I stepped forward.
“What should we do?” I asked.
Alberta turned to me. Her eyes swept over me and the others standing behind me, ages ranging from fourteen to just a little younger than me. Something flashed across her face. Sadness, I thought.
“You stay here in the dorm,” she said. “No one can leave—the whole campus is under lockdown. Go up to the floors you live on. There are guardians there organizing you into groups. The Strigoi are less likely to get up there from the outside. If they get in on this floor . . .” She scanned around us, at the door and windows being monitored. She shook her head. “Well, we’ll deal with that.”
“I can help,” I told her. “You know I can.”
I could tell she was about to disagree, but then she changed her mind. To my surprise, she nodded. “Take them upstairs. Watch them.”
I started to protest being a babysitter, but then she did something really astonishing. She reached inside her coat and handed me a silver stake. A real one.
“Go on,” she said. “We need them out of the way here.”
I started to turn away but then paused. “What does
buria
mean?”
“Storm,” she said softly. “It’s Russian for ‘storm.’”
I led the other novices up the stairs, directing them to their floors. Most were terrified, which was perfectly understandable. A few of them—the older ones in particular—looked like I felt. They wanted to do something, anything to help. And I knew that even though they were a year from graduation, they were still deadly in their way. I pulled a couple of them aside.
“Keep them from panicking,” I said in a low voice. “And stay on watch. If something happens to the older guardians, it’ll be up to you.”
Their faces were sober, and they nodded at my directions. They understood perfectly. There were some novices, like Dean, who didn’t always grasp the seriousness of our lives. But most did. We grew up fast.
I went to the second floor because I figured that was where I’d be most useful. If any Strigoi got past the first floor, this was the next logical target. I showed my stake to the guardians on duty and told them what Alberta had said. They respected her wishes, but I could tell they didn’t want me to be too involved. They directed me down a wing with one small window. Only someone my size or smaller could probably fit through, and I knew that particular section of the building was nearly impossible to climb up, due to its outside shape.
But, I patrolled it anyway, desperate to know what was going on. How many Strigoi were there? Where were they? I realized then that I had a good way of finding out. Still keeping an eye on my window as best I could, I cleared my mind and slipped into Lissa’s head.
Lissa was with a group of other Moroi on an upper floor of her dorm too. The lockdown procedures were undoubtedly the same across campus. There was a bit more tension in this group than with mine, probably due to the fact that even while inexperienced, the novices with me right now had some idea how to fight Strigoi. The Moroi had none, despite those adamant Moroi political groups wanting to instigate some sort of training sessions. The logistics of that were still being figured out.
Eddie was near Lissa. He looked so fierce and so strong—like he could single-handedly take on every Strigoi on campus. I was so glad that he among my classmates was assigned to her.
Since I was completely inside her mind now, I got the full force of her feelings. Jesse’s torture session seemed meaningless now compared to a Strigoi attack. Unsurprisingly, she was terrified. But most of her fear wasn’t for herself. It was for me and Christian.
“Rose is fine,” a voice nearby said. Lissa glanced over at Adrian. He’d apparently been in the dorm rather than guest housing. He had on his usual lazy face, but I could see fear masked behind his green eyes. “She can take on any Strigoi. Besides, Christian told you she was with Belikov. She’s probably safer than we are.”