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SEVENTEEN

A FEW DAYS LATER, LISSA foundnews

"Uncle Victor’s getting Natalie off ca in Missoula For the dance They said I could co She looked surprised at my silence

"Isn’t that cool?"

"For you, I guess No malls or dances in my future"

She s two other people besidesyou and Camille"

I threw up o to the library after school No one’s going to let et Head too"

"Dio withured out otwith dresses And you know if they let you go to the o to the dance"

"Do we go to dances now?" I said We never had before School-sponsored social events? No way

"Of course not But you know there’ll be all kinds of secret parties We’ll start at the dance and sneak off" She sighed happily "Mia’s so jealous she can barely stand it"

She went on about all the stores we’d go to, all the things we’d buy I ad soet this mythical release

"Oh hey," she said excitedly "You should see these shoes Ca on" She opened her backpack and began rifling through it

Suddenly, she screamed and threw it down Books and shoes spilled out So did a dead dove

It was one of the pale brownthe freeway and under trees on caure out where the wound was Who knew soardless, the bird was definitely dead

Covering her mouth, Lissa stared wordlessly, eyes wide

"Son of a bitch," I swore Without hesitating, I grabbed a stick and pushed the little feathered body aside When it was out of the way, I started shoving her stuff back into the backpack, trying not to think about dead-bird germs "Why the hell does this keep - Liss!"

I leapt over and grabbed her, pulling her away She had been kneeling on the ground, with her hand outstretched to the dove I don’t think she’d even realized what she was about to do The instinct in her was so strong, it acted on its own

"Lissa," I said, tighteningtoward the bird "Don’t Don’t do it"

"I can save it"

"No, you can’t You proo" Still feeling her tension, I pleaded "Please, Liss You pros You said you wouldn’t You promised me"

After a few ainst mine "I hate this, Rose I hate all of this"

Natalie walked outside then, oblivious to the gruesouys - ohthe dove "What is that?"

I helped Lissa as we rose to our feet "Another, um, prank"

"Is itdead?" She scrunched up her face in disgust

"Yes," I said fir up on our tension, looked between the two of us "What else is wrong?"

"Nothing" I handed Lissa her backpack "This is just so to tell Kirova so they can clean this up"

Natalie turned away, looking a little green "Why do people keep doing this to you? It’s horrible"

Lissa and I exchanged looks

"I have no idea," I said Yet as I walked to Kirova’s office, I started to wonder

When we’d found the fox, Lissa had hinted that someone must know about the raven I hadn’t believed that We’d been alone in the woods that night, and Ms Karp wouldn’t have told anyone But what if so this not to scare her, but to see if she’d heal again? What had the rabbit note said? I knohat you are

I didn’t ured there were only so many of my conspiracy theories she could handle Besides, when I saw her the next day, she’d practically forgotten the dove in light of other news: Kirova had given o on the trip that weekend The prospect of shopping can brighten a lot of dark situations - even animal murder - and I put my oorries on hold

Only, when the tis attached

"Head back," Diht in Mr Nagy’s class?"

"She doesn’t blame you for that Not entirely I convinced her you needed a breakand that you could use this as a training exercise"

"Training exercise?"

He gave oing with us Victor Dashkov, as sickly as ever, was there with his guardians, and Natalie practically barreled into hi, one that ended when a coughing fit took over Natalie’s eyes ith concern as she waited for it to pass

He claimed he was fine to accoht he’d be putting hiirls

We rode out the two-hour trip to Missoula in a large school van, leaving just after sunrise Many Moroi lived separately fro at theirtheir hours The back s of the van had tinted glass to filter the light and keep the worst of it away froroup: Lissa, Victor, Natalie, Cauardians, Ben and Spiridon, always traveled with Victor The third was one of the school’s guardians: Stan, the jerk who’d humiliated me on my first day back

"Cauardians yet," Dimitri explained to me "They’re both under the protection of their fa cao because I’e wouldn’t have a personal guardian yet, but circumstances make her unusual"

I sat in the back of the van with hiuardian wisdo exercise" Ben and Stan sat up front, while the others sat in theup on news Ca older royals, s Natalie, on the other hand, looked left out and kept trying to shift her father’s attention from Lissa It didn’t work He’d apparently learned to tune out her chatter

I turned back to Diuardians Princes and princesses always do"

Spiridon was Die, with spiky blond hair and a more casual attitude Despite his Greek name, he had a Southern drawl "Don’t worry, she’ll have plenty when the time comes Dimitri’s already one of them Odds are you’ll be one too And that’s why you’re here today"

"The training part," I guessed

"Yup You’re going to be Dimitri’s partner"

A moment of funny silence fell, probably not noticeable to anyone except Di partner," Dimitri clarified unnecessarily, likeof other kinds of partners

"Yup," agreed Spiridon

Oblivious to the tension around hiuardian pairs worked It was standard stuff, straight fro it in the real world Guardians were assigned to Moroi based on i, one I’d probably work in a lot with Lissa One guardian stayed close to the target; the other stood back and kept an eye on the surroundings

Boringly, those holding these positions were called near and far guards

"You’ll probably always be near guard," Die as the princess You can stay close to her without attracting any attention"

"And I can’t ever take my eyes off her," I noted "Or you"

Spiridon laughed again and elbowed Diive her a stake?"

"No She’s not ready"

"I would be if souardian in the van had a stake and a gun concealed on hi the stake," said Diot to subdue the yourself to kill them"

"Why wouldn’t I kill theoi used to be Moroi who purposely turned Sometimes they’re Moroi or dhampirs turned by force It doesn’t ht know one of them Could you kill so less fun by the ht? If it’s theht still hesitate," said Dimitri "And that hesitation could kill you And her"

"Then how do you make sure you don’t hesitate?"

"You have to keep telling yourself that they aren’t the sa dark and twisted Soo of attachrain of their forrateful"

"Grateful fortheoi, ould you want?" he asked

I didn’t kno to answer that, so I said nothing Never taking his eyes off

"What would you want if you knew you were going to be converted into a Strigoi against your will? If you knew you would lose all sense of your old ? If you knew you’d live the rest of your life - your i innocent people? What would you want?"

The van had grown unco at Dimitri, burdened by all those questions, I suddenly understood why he and I had this weird attraction, good looks aside

I’d never uardian so seriously, who understand all the life-and-death consequences Certainly no one e did yet; Mason hadn’t been able to understand why I couldn’t relax and drink at the party Diuardians, and I didn’t get why - especially when they would have seen so er But I knew in that ht, that I had soood and evil worked with each other

So did he We ht have to put our "fun" on hold We ht not be able to live the lives anted for ourselves But that was the way it had to be We understood each other, understood that we had others to protect Our lives would never be easy

Anddecisions like this one was part of that

"If I becaoiI’d want someone to kill me"

"So would I," he said quietly I could tell that he’d had the same flash of realization I’d just had, that same sense of connection between us

"It rehtfully

"Who are Mikhail and Sonya?" asked Lissa

Victor looked surprised "Why, I thought you knew Sonya Karp"

"Sonya Karyou mean, Ms Karp? What about her?" She looked back and forth between oi," I said, notLissa’s eyes "By choice"

I’d known Lissa would find out soa, a secret I’d kept to myself A secret that worried istered co in intensity when she realized I’d known and never told

"But I don’t knoho Mikhail is," I added

"Mikhail Tanner," said Spiridon

"Oh Guardian Tanner He was here before we left" I frowned "Why is he chasing Ms Karp?"

"To kill her," said Dimitri flatly "They were lovers"

The entire Strigoi thing shifted into new focus forthe heat of battle was one thing Purposely hunting down someonesomeone I’d loved Well, I didn’t know if I could do that, even if it was technically the right thing

"Perhaps it is tiently "Today isn’t a day to dwell on depressing topics"

I think all of us felt relieved to get to the uard role, I stuck by Lissa’s side as andered fro at all the new styles that were out there It was nice to be in public again and to do so with her that was just fun and didn’t involve any of the dark, twisted politics of the Acade out I’d h it was only just pastholiday decorations up I decided I had the best job ever Admittedly, I did feel a little put out when I realized the older guardians got to stay in contact through cool little communication devices When I protested my lack of one, Dimitri told me I’d learn better without one If I could handle protecting Lissa the old-fashioned way, I could handle anything

Victor and Spiridon stayed with us while Di not to look like creepy stalker guys watching teenage girls

"This is so you," said Lissa in Macy’s, handing me a low-cut tank top embellished with lace "I’ll buy it for you"

I regarded it longingly, already picturing ular eye contact with Dimitri, I shook et cold"

"Never stopped you before"