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He tucked the stake into a leather sheath hanging froainst the wall, hands stuffed in pockets I waited, figuring he was joking, but when he said nothing else, I realized he’d , I launched into what I knew

"Silver always has powerful effects on any ical creature¡ªit can help or hurt theh power into it These stakes are really hard-core because it takes four different Moroi to ing" I frowned, suddenly considering soed and are about the only non-decapitating weapon that can do daoi¡ªbut to kill theh the heart"

"Will they hurt you?"

I shook h my heart it will, but it won’t hurt me like it would a Moroi Scratch one of them with this, and it’ll hit them pretty hard¡ªbut not as hard as it’d hit a Strigoi And they won’t hurt humans, either"

I stopped for a moment and stared absentlass in sparkling, crystalline patterns, but I hardly noticed Mentioning humans and stakes had transported hwith the lesson Di question As the ti hi up the dummies Instead, he waited until al me over to one of theoatee Dimitri took the stake out from its sheath but didn’t hand it toto put this?" he asked

"In the heart," I replied irritably "I already told you that like a hundred times Can I have it now?"

He allowed hiave hied

With overdramatic emphasis, I pointed to the left side of the dummy’s chest Dimitri shook his head

"That’s not where the heart is," he told me

"Sure it is People put their hands over their hearts when they say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem"

He continued to stare at me expectantly

I turned back to the dummy and studied it In the back ofCPR and where we had to place our hands I tapped the center of the dummy’s chest

"Is it here?"

He arched an eyebrow Nor "I don’t know," he said "Is it?"

"That’s what I’ you!"

"You shouldn’t have to ask y?"

"Yeah Junior year I was on ’vacation,’ re stake "Can I please touch it now?"

He flipped the stake again, letting it flash in the light, and then it disappeared in the sheath "I want you to tell me where the heart is the next time we meet Exactly where And I want to knohat’s in the way of it too"

I gave hi from his expression¡ªht Di the earth Then, there were times like this

I headed off to first period, a co incompetent in front of Dimitri, and I’d really, really wanted to use one of those stakes So in class I took out my annoyance on anyone I could punch or kick By the end of class, no one wanted to spar with me I’d accidentally hit Meredith¡ªone of the few other girls in h her shin padding She was going to have an ugly bruise and kept looking at ized to no avail

Afterward, Mason foundmy face "Who pissed you off?"

I immediately launched into my tale of silver stake and heart woes

To hed "How do you not knohere the heart is? Especially considering how ave hiiven Dimitri This time, it worked Mason’s face paled

"Belikov is a sick, evil reat offense he co"

"Thank you" I said primly Then, I considered "Can vipers be rabid?"

"I don’t see why not Everything can be I think" He held the hallway door open for h"

I gave hieese are deadlier than vipers?"

"You ever tried to feed those little bastards?" he asked, atteet thrown to vipers, you die quickly But the geese? That’ll go on for days More suffering"

"Wow I don’t knohether I should be iht about all this," I re to find creative ways to avenge your honor, that’s all"

"You just never struck me as the creative type, Mase"

We stood just outside our second-period classroo, but there was a suggestive note in his voice when he spoke again "Rose, when I’s to do"

I was still giggling about the vipers and abruptly stopped, staring at hiht Mason was cute, but with that serious, smoky look in his eyes, it suddenly occurred to me for the first time that he was actually kind of sexy

"Oh, look at that," he laughed, noticing how ets rendered speechless Ashford 1, Hathaway 0"

"Hey, I don’t want to make you cry before the trip It won’t be any fun if I’ve already broken you before we even hit the slopes"

He laughed, and we stepped into the roouard theory, one that took place in an actual classroom instead of the practice field It was a nice break frouardians standing at the front eren’t froiuardians had already started co to campus to accompany their children to the ski resort My interest was piqued iuy who looked like he was about a hundred years old but could still kick e He had deeply tanned skin and was built well enough that a few of the girls in class looked ready to swoon

The last guardian was a woman Her auburn hair was cropped and curly, and her brown eyes were currently narrowed in thought As I’ve said, a lot of dhauardian path Since I too was one of the feomen in this profession, I was always excited to meet others¡ªlike Tamara

Only, this wasn’t Tamara This was so but pride and exciteer, and burning outrage

The wo in front of the class was my mother