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Twenty-four

THE WHOLE WORLD WAS still At this ti, but it seemed quieter than usual Even the wind had fallen silent Mason looked atincreased

Then, I knew

"Di - "

Too late Dimitri and I saw him at the same tioi swooped toward us, and I could alends used to say But Di He had his stake - a real one, not a practice one - in his hand and oi had hoped for the elerappled, and for a round on the other Then Dioi’s heart The red eyes widened in surprise, and the Strigoi’s body cruround

Diht, and a thousand silent es passed between us He turned away and scanned the woods, peering into the darkness My nausea had increased I didn’t understand why, but sooi around us That asme 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 doruardians"

I nodded There was no questioning here

Reaching out, he gripped aze 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 theain

"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 et help And a runts and hits that told me he’d found another For only a heartbeat, I let myself worry about hio I couldn’t just think about one person, not when hundreds of lives were depending on oi at our school It was impossible It couldn’t happen

My feet hit the ground hard, splashing through the slush and ht I could hear voices and shapes - not the ghosts fro for so long But nothing stopped ether, he’d made me run laps every day I’d coain that it was essential It would er, he had said And, he’d added, a day could coht and would have to flee This was it

The dhampir dorm appeared before me, about half its s lit It was near curfew; people were going to bed I burst in through the doors, feeling liketo explode from the exertion The first person I saas Stan, and I nearly knocked hiht my wrists to steady asped 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 hi More ghost stories "Rose, I don’t knohat you’re - "

"I’m not crazy!" I screa at us "They’re out there! They’re out there, and Di 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 s uardian 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 seanize the around, I realized so There were no other seniors with ht, 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 eleuardian protection, as well as a lot of the sas on all the first-floor s 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 ca parties, specifically seeking out Strigoi and trying to figure out how uardians thinned out, I stepped forward

"What should we do?" I asked

Alberta turned tobehind er than ht

"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 froet in on this floor" She scanned around us, at the door and s 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 the a babysitter, but then she did so 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 soh they were a year froraduation, they were still deadly in their way I pulled a couple of the," I said in a low voice "And stay on watch If souardians, it’ll be up to you"

Their faces were sober, and they nodded at my directions They understood perfectly There were sorasp the seriousness of our lives But rew up fast

I went to the second floor because I figured that here I’d be ot past the first floor, this was the next logical target I showed uardians on duty and told them what Alberta had said They respected her wishes, but I could tell they didn’t wantwith one smallOnly soh, 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 knoas going on How oi were there? Where were they? I realized then that I had a good way of finding out Still keeping an eye on myas best I could, I cleared my mind and slipped into Lissa’s head

Lissa ith a group of other Moroi on an upper floor of her dorm too The lockdown procedures were undoubtedly the saroup than with mine, probably due to the fact that even while inexperienced, the novices with oi The Moroi had none, despite those adaate soistics 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 caned to her

Since I was coot the full force of her feelings Jesse’s torture session seely, 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 dor He had on his usual lazy face, but I could see fear oi Besides, Christian told you she ith Belikov She’s probably safer than we are"

Lissa nodded, wanting desperately to believe that "But Christian"

Adrian, for all his bravado, suddenly looked away He wouldn’t meet her eyes or offer any conciliatory words I didn’t need to hear the explanation because I read it from Lissa’s mind She and Christian had wanted to meet alone and talk about what had happened to her in the woods They’d been supposed to sneak out and meet at his "lair" in the chapel’s attic She hadn’t been fast enough and had been caught by curfew just before the attack,she remained in the dorm while Christian was still out there

It was Eddie who offered the words of comfort "If he’s in the chapel, he’s fine He really is the safest of all of us" Strigoi couldn’t enter holy ground

"Unless they burn it down," said Lissa "They used to do that"

"Four hundred years ago," said Adrian "I think they’ve got easier pickings around here without needing to go all medieval"

Lissa flinched at the words easier pickings She knew Eddie was right about the chapel, but she couldn’t shake the thought that Christian ht in theher up, and she felt helpless with no way to do or find out anything

I returned toin the second floor hallway Finally, I really and truly grasped what Di soet ; I was still worried about Lissa I worried more about her than any other Moroi on campus The only way I wouldn’t have been worried would have been if she were uardians But at least I knew she was as safe as she could be right now That was so

But ChristianI had no idea I had no link to tell me his whereabouts or to even let me know if he was alive This hat Diame when you didn’t have a bond - and it was a scary one

I stared at the ithout seeing it Christian was out there He was e And even if the field experience was hypothetical well, it didn’t change things He was a Moroi He uard him They came first

I took a deep breath and wrestled with the decision before uardians followed orders With the dangers around us, following orders hat kept us organized and efficient Playing rebel could so after the Strigoi in Spokane

But it wasn’t like I was the only one who faced danger here Everyone was at risk There was no safety, not until all the Strigoi were gone fro this as busy work, meant to keep me out of the way True, someone could invade the second floor, and I’d be useful then And true, a Strigoi could try to get in through this , but that was unlikely It was too difficult, and, as Adrian had pointed out, they had easier ways to get prey

But I could go through the

I knerong, even as I opened theup I was exposinginstincts Obey orders Protect Moroi

I had to go ht air blew in No sounds fro I’d climbed out of my room’sa number of times and had some experience with it The problem here was that the stone beneath the as perfectly se down by the first floor, but the distance to it was longer than et to that ledge, however, I could walk off to the corner of the building where so would let e beloas going to have to drop down to it If I fell, I’d probably break oi, as Adrian would say With a quick prayer to whoever was listening, I cli onto its sill with both hands and letting e as I could I still had two more feet between it ande and I started to wobble, but ainedthe wall I’d made it From this point, I easily round, barely noticing I’d skinned ht I heard sooi, I wouldn’t ht here, and while roup of novices at once, there were easier ways Moroi were less likely to put up a real fight, and anyway, Strigoi preferred their blood to ours

Still, I moved cautiously as I set out toward the chapel I had the cover of darkness, but Strigoi could see in it even better than I could I used trees as covers, looking every way I could, wishing I had eyes in the back of , save more screams in the distance I realized then that I didn’t have that nauseous feeling fro was an indicator of nearby Strigoi I didn’t entirely trust it enough to walk off blindly, but it was reassuring to know I had some kind of early alarm system

Halfway to the chapel, I saw someone move out from behind a tree I spun around, stake in hand, and nearly struck Christian in the heart

"God, what are you doing?" I hissed

"Trying to get back to the dor"

"There are Strigoi on campus," I said

"What? How?"