"My father's a great man, " she replied. "He's going to save the Moroi from the Strigoi."
"Are you insane? " I cried. I was backing up again and suddenly hit the wall. My nails dug into it, as though I could dig my way through. "Youare a Strigoi."
She shrugged, almost seeming like the old Natalie. "I had to do it to get him out of here before the others came.One Strigoi to save all of the Moroi. It's worth it, worth giving up the sun and the magic."
"But you'll want to kill Moroi! You won't be able to help it."
"He'll help me stay in control. If not, then they'll have to kill me. " She reached out and grabbed my shoulders, and I shuddered at how casually she talked about her own death. It was almost as casual as the way she was no doubt contemplatingmy death.
"Youare insane. You can't love him that much. You can't really-"
She threw me into a wall again, and as my body collapsed in a heap on the floor, I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting up this time. Victor had told her not to kill me…but there was a look in her eyes, a look that said she wanted to. She wanted to feed off me; the hunger was there. It was the Strigoi way. I shouldn't have talked to her, I realized. I'd hesitated, just as Dimitri had warned.
And then, suddenly, he was there, charging down the hallway like Death in a cowboy duster.
Natalie spun around. She was fast, so fast. But Dimitri was fast too and avoided her attack, a look of pure power and strength on his face. With an eerie fascination, I watched them move, circling each other like partners in a deadly dance. She was stronger than him, clearly, but she was also a fresh Strigoi. Gaining superpowers doesn't mean you know how to use them.
Dimitri, howeve, knew how to use the ones he had. After both giving and receiving some vicious hits, he made his move. The silver stake flashed in his hand like a streak of lightning,then it snaked forward-into her heart. He yanked it out and stepped back, his face impassive as she screamed and fell to the floor.
After a few horrible moments, she stopped moving.
Just as quickly, he was leaning over me, slipping his arms under my body. He stood up, carrying me like he had when I hurt my ankle.
"Hey, Comrade, " I murmured, my own voice sounding sleepy. "You were right about Strigoi. " The world started to darken, and my eyelids drooped.
"Rose.Roza. Open your eyes. " I'd never heard his voice so strained, so frantic. "Don't go to sleep on me. Not yet."
I squinted up at him as he carried me out of the building, practically running toward the clinic. "Was he right?"
"Who?"
"Victor…he said it couldn't have worked.The necklace."
I started to drift off, lost in the blackness of my mind, but Dimitri prompted me back to consciousness. "What do you mean?"
"The spell.Victor said you had to want me…to care about me…for it to work. " When he didn't say anything, I tried to grip his shirt, but my fingers were too weak. "Did you? Did you want me?"
His words came out thickly. "Yes, Roza. I did want you. I still do. I wish…we could be together."
"Then why did you lie to me?"
We reached the clinic, and he managed to open the door while still holding me. As soon as he stepped inside, he began yelling for help.
"Why did you lie? " I murmured again.
Still holding me in his arms, he looked down at me. I could hear voices and footsteps getting closer.
"Because we can't be together."
"Because of the age thing, right? "I asked. "Because you're my mentor?"
His fingertip gently wiped away a tear that had escaped down my cheek. "That's part of it, " he said. "But also…well, you and I will both be Lisa's guardians someday. I need to protect her at all costs. Ifa pack of Strigoi come, I need to throw my body between them and her."
"I know that. Of course that's what you have to do. " The black sparkles were dancing in front of my eyes again. I was fading out.
"No. If I let myself love you, I won't throw myself in front of her. I'll throw myself in front of you."
The medical team arrived and took me out of his arms.
And that was how, two days after being discharged, I ended up back in the clinic. My third time in the two months we'd been back at the Academy. It had to be some kind of record. I definitely had a concussion and probably internal bleeding, but we never really found out. When your best friend is a kick-ass healer, you sort of don't have to worry about those things.
I still had to stay there for a couple of days, but Lisa-and Christian, her new sidekick-almost never left my side when they weren't in class. Through them, I learned bits and pieces about the outside world.
Dimitri had realized there was a Strigoi on campus when they'd found Natalie's victim dead and drained of blood: Mr. Nagy of all people. A surprising choice, but since he was older, he'd been able to put up less of a fight. No more Slavic art for us. The guardians in the detention center had been injured but not killed. She'd simply slammed them around as she had me.
Victor had been found and recaptured while trying to escape campus. I was glad, even though it meant Natalie's sacrifice had been for nothing. Rumors said that Victor hadn't seemed afraid at all when the royal guards came and carried him away. He'd simply smiled the whole time, like he had some secret they didn't know about.
Inasmuch as it could, life returned to normal after that. Lisa did no more cutting. The doctor prescribed her something-an anti-depressant or anti-anxiety drug, I couldn't remember which-that made her feel better. I'd never really known anything about those kinds of pills. I thought they made people silly and happy. But it was a pill like any other, meant to fix something, and mostly it just kept her normal and feeling stable.
Which was a good thing-because she had some other issues to deal with.Like Andre. She'd finally believed Christian's story, and allowed herself to acknowledge that Andre might not have been the hero she'd always believed him to be. It was hard on her, but she finally reached a peaceful decision, accepting that he could have had both good and bad sides, like we all do. What he'd done to Mia saddened her, but it didn't change the fact that he'd been a good brother who loved her. Most importantly, it finally freed her from feeling like she needed to behim to make her family proud. She could be herself-which she proved daily in her relationship with Christian.
The school still couldn't get over that. She didn't care. She laughed it off, ignoring the shocked looks and disdain from the royals who couldn't believe she'd date someone from a humiliated family. Not all of them
felt that way though. Some who had gotten to know her during her brief social whirlwind actually liked her forher, no compulsion necessary. They liked her honesty and openness, preferring it to the games most royals played.
A lot of royals ignored her, of course, and talked viciously about her behind her back. Most surprising of all, Mia- despite being utterly humiliated-managed to wiggle back into the good graces of a couple of these royals. It proved my point. She wouldn't stay down for long. And, in fact, I saw the first signs of her revenge lurking again when I walked past her one day on the way to class. She stood with a few other people and spoke loudly, clearly wanting me to hear.
"-perfect match. Both of them are fromcompletely disgraced and rejected families."
I clenched my teeth and kept walking, following her gaze to where Lisa and Christian stood. They were lost in their own world and formed a gorgeous picture, she blond and fair and he blue-eyed and black-haired. I couldn't help but stare too. Mia was right. Both of their families were disgraced. Tatiana had publicly denounced Lisa, and while no one «blamed» the Ozeras for what had happened to Christian's parents, the rest of the royal Moroi families continued to keep their distance.