“Surely . . . there must have been a way. . . . It wouldn’t have been a problem. . . .”
I shrugged, unwilling to think about or mention our last kiss in the forest, back when Dimitri and I had thought we’d figured out a solution to all of our problems.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We just tried to stay apart. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t.”
Her mind was a tumble of emotions. She felt sorry for me, but at the same time, she was mad. “You should have told me,” she repeated. “I feel like you don’t trust me.”
“Of course I trust you.”
“Is that why you’re sneaking off?”
“That has nothing to do with trust,” I admitted. “It’s me . . . well, I didn’t want to tell you. I couldn’t bear to tell you I was leaving or explain why.”
“I already know,” she said. “I figured it out.”
“How?” I asked. Lissa was full of surprises today.
“I was there. Last fall when we took that van into Missoula. The shopping trip? You and Dimitri were talking about Strigoi, about how becoming one makes you something twisted and evil . . . how it destroys the person you used to be and makes you do horrible things. And I heard . . .” She had trouble saying it. I had trouble hearing it, and my eyes grew wet. The memory was too harsh, thinking of sitting with him that day, back when we were first falling in love. Lissa swallowed and continued. “I heard you both say you’d rather die than become a monster like that.”
Silence fell between us. The wind picked up and blew our hair around, dark and light.
“I have to do this, Liss. I have to do it for him.”
“No,” she said firmly. “You don’t have to. You didn’t promise him anything.”
“Not in words, no. But you . . . you don’t understand.”
“I understand that you’re trying to cope and that this is as good a way as any. You need to find another way to let him go.”
I shook my head. “I have to do this.”
“Even if it means leaving me?”
The way she said it, the way she looked at me . . . oh God. A flood of memories flitted through my mind. We’d been together since childhood. Inseparable. Bound. And yet . . . Dimitri and I had been connected too. Damn it. I’d never wanted to have to choose between them.
“I have to do this,” I said yet again. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re supposed to be my guardian and go with me to college,” she argued. “You’re shadow-kissed. We’re supposed to be together. If you leave me . . .”
The ugly coil of darkness was starting to raise its head in my chest. My voice was tight when I spoke. “If I leave you, they’ll get you another guardian. Two of them. You’re the last Dragomir. They’ll keep you safe.”
“But they won’t be you, Rose,” she said. Those luminous green eyes held mine, and the anger in me cooled. She was so beautiful, so sweet . . . and she seemed so reasonable. She was right. I owed it to her. I needed to—
“Stop it!” I yelled, turning away. She’d been using her magic. “Do not use compulsion on me. You’re my friend. Friends don’t use their powers on each other.”
“Friends don’t abandon each other,” she snapped back. “If you were my friend, you wouldn’t do it.”
I spun back toward her, careful not to look too closely into her eyes, in case she tried compulsion on me again. The rage in me exploded.
“It’s not about you, okay? This time, it’s about me. Not you. All my life, Lissa . . . all my life, it’s been the same. They come first. I’ve lived my life for you. I’ve trained to be your shadow, but you know what? I want to come first. I need to take care of myself for once. I’m tired of looking out for everyone else and having to put aside what I want. Dimitri and I did that, and look what happened. He’s gone. I will never hold him again. Now I owe it to him to do this. I’m sorry if it hurts you, but it’s my choice!”
I’d shouted the words, not even pausing for a breath, and I hoped my voice hadn’t carried to the guardians on duty at the gate. Lissa was staring at me, shocked and hurt. Tears ran down her cheeks, and part of me shriveled up at hurting the person I’d sworn to protect.
“You love him more than me,” she said in a small voice, sounding very young.
“He needs me right now.”
“I need you. He’s gone, Rose.”
“No,” I said. “But he will be soon.” I reached up my sleeve and took off the chotki she’d given me for Christmas. I held it out to her. She hesitated and then took it.
“What’s this for?” she asked.
“I can’t wear it. It’s for a Dragomir guardian. I’ll take it again when I . . .” I had almost said if, not when. I think she knew that. “When I get back.”
Her hands closed around the beads. “Please, Rose. Please don’t leave me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. There were no other words to offer up. “I’m sorry.”
I left her there crying as I walked toward the gate. A piece of my soul had died when Dimitri had fallen. Turning my back on her now, I felt another piece die as well. Soon there wouldn’t be anything left inside of me.
The guardians at the gate were as shocked as the secretary and Kirova had been, but there was nothing they could do. Happy birthday to me, I thought bitterly. Eighteen at last. It was nothing like I had expected.
They opened the gates and I stepped through, outside of the school’s grounds and over the wards. The lines were invisible, but I felt strangely vulnerable and exposed, as if I’d leapt a great chasm. And yet, at the same time, I felt free and in control. I started walking down the narrow road. The sun was nearly gone; I’d have to rely on moonlight soon.
When I was out of earshot of the guardians, I stopped and spoke. “Mason.”
I had to wait a long time. When he appeared, I could barely see him at all. He was almost completely transparent.
“It’s time, isn’t it? You’re going . . . you’re finally moving on to . . .”
Well, I had no clue where he was moving on to. I didn’t know anymore what lay beyond, whether it was the realms Father Andrew believed in or some entirely different world that I’d visited. Nonetheless, Mason understood and nodded.
“It’s been more than forty days,” I mused. “So I guess you’re overdue. I’m glad . . . I mean, I hope you find peace. Although I kind of hoped you’d be able to lead me to him.”
Mason shook his head, and he didn’t need to say a word for me to understand what he wanted to tell me. You’re on your own now, Rose.
“It’s okay. You deserve your rest. Besides, I think I know where to start looking.” I’d thought about this constantly over the last week. If Dimitri was where I believed he was, I had a lot of work ahead of me. Mason’s help would have been nice, but I didn’t want to keep bothering him. It seemed like he had enough to deal with.
“Goodbye,” I told him. “Thanks for your help. . . . I . . . I’ll miss you.”
His form grew fainter and fainter, and just before it went altogether, I saw the hint of a smile, that laughing and mischievous smile I’d loved so much. For the first time since his death, thinking about Mason no longer devastated me. I was sad and I really would miss him, but I knew he’d moved on to something good—something really good. I no longer felt guilty.
Turning away, I stared at the long road winding off ahead of me. I sighed. This trip might take awhile.
“Then start walking, Rose,” I muttered to myself.
I set off, off to kill the man I loved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, I can never express enough gratitude to the friends and family who hang with me through the ups and downs that go along with writing a book—let alone one as powerful as this. Many thanks to David and Christina for their speedy beta reading; to I.A. Gordon and Sherry Kirk for their help with Russian; to Synde Korman for her help with Romanian; to my agent Jim McCarthy who is wise and does all the hard stuff for me; to editors Jessica Rothenberg and Ben Schrank for all of their guidance
; to the Team Seattle authors for their distraction and good cheer; and to Jay for being infinitely patient…and even making a good joke once in a while.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
Acknowledgments
Blood Promise
RAZORBILL
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Copyright © 2009 Richelle Mead
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mead, Richelle.
Blood promise : a Vampire Academy novel / Richelle Mead.
p. cm.
Summary: Just days before graduating from St. Vladimir’s Academy, guardian-in-training
Rose travels to Siberia to drive a stake into the heart of the boy she loves, the monstrous
vampire Dimitri.
eISBN : 978-1-101-13894-6
[1. Vampires Fiction. 2. Supernatural—Fiction. 3. High schools Fiction. 4. Schools—
Fiction. 5. Siberia (Russia) Fiction. 6. Russia (Federation) Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M478897Bl 2009
[Fic] dc22
2009009254
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author s rights is appreciated.
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http://us.penguingroup.com
In memory of my grandmother,
a feisty southern lady and the best
cook I’ve ever known.
PROLOGUE
ONCE WHEN I WAS IN ninth grade, I had to write a paper on a poem. One of the lines was, “If your eyes weren’t open, you wouldn’t know the difference between dreaming and waking.” It hadn’t meant much to me at the time. After all, there’d been a guy in the class that I liked, so how could I be expected to pay attention to literary analysis? Now, three years later, I understood the poem perfectly.
Because lately, my life really did seem like it was on the precipice of being a dream. There were days I thought I’d wake up and discover that recent events in my life hadn’t actually happened. Surely I must be a princess in an enchanted sleep. Any day now, this dream—no, nightmare—would end, and I’d get my prince and happy ending.
But there was no happy ending to be found, at least not in the foreseeable future. And my prince? Well, that was a long story. My prince had been turned into a vampire—a Strigoi, to be specific. In my world, there are two kinds of vampires who exist in secrecy from humans. The Moroi are living vampires, good vampires who wield elemental magic and don’t kill when seeking the blood they need to survive. Strigoi are undead vampires, immortal and twisted, who kill when they feed. Moroi are born. Strigoi are made—forcibly or by choice—through evil means.
And Dimitri, the guy I loved, had been made a Strigoi against his will. He’d been turned during a battle, an epic rescue mission that I’d been part of as well. Strigoi had kidnapped Moroi and dhampirs from the school I attended, and we’d set out with others to save them. Dhampirs are half-vampire and half-human—gifted with human strength and hardiness, and Moroi reflexes and senses. Dhampirs train to become guardians, the elite bodyguards who protect Moroi. That’s what I am. That’s what Dimitri had been.
After his conversion, the rest of the Moroi world had considered him dead. And to a certain extent, he was. Those who were turned Strigoi lost all sense of the goodness and life they’d had before. Even if they hadn’t turned by choice, it didn’t matter. They would still become evil and cruel, just like all Strigoi. The person they’d been was gone, and honestly, it was easier to imagine them moving on to heaven or the next life than to picture them out stalking the night and taking victims. But I hadn’t been able to forget Dimitri, or accept that he was essentially dead. He was the man I loved, the man with whom I’d been so perfectly in sync that it was hard to know where I ended and he began. My heart refused to let him go—even if he was technically a monster, he was still out there somewhere. I also hadn’t forgotten a conversation he and I had once had. We’d both agreed that we’d rather be dead—truly dead—than walk the world as Strigoi.
And once I’d had my mourning time for the goodness he’d lost, I’d decided I had to honor his wishes. Even if he no longer believed in them. I had to find him. I had to kill him and free his soul from that dark, unnatural state. I knew it was what the Dimitri I had loved would have wanted. Killing Strigoi isn’t easy, though. They’re insanely fast and strong. They have no mercy. I’d killed a number of them already—pretty crazy for someone who was freshly eighteen. And I knew taking on Dimitri would be my greatest challenge, both physically and emotionally.
In fact, the emotional consequences had kicked in as soon as I made my decision. Going after Dimitri had meant doing a few life-altering things (and that wasn’t even counting the fact that fighting him could very likely result in the loss of my life). I was still in school, only a handful of months away from graduating and becoming a full-fledged guardian. Every day I stuck around at St. Vladimir’s Academy—a remote, protected school for Moroi and dhampirs—meant one more day was going by in which Dimitri was still out there, living in the state he’d never wanted. I loved him too much to allow that. So I’d had to leave school early and go out among humans, abandoning the world I’d lived in nearly my entire life.
Leaving had also meant abandoning one other thing—or rather, a person: my best friend, Lissa, also known as Vasilisa Dragomir. Lissa was Moroi, the last in a royal line. I’d been slated to be her guardian when we graduated, and my decision to hunt Dimitri had pretty much destroyed that future with her. I’d had no choice but to leave her.
Aside from our friendship, Lissa and I had a unique connection. Each Moroi specializes in a type of elemental magic—earth, air, water, or fire. Until recently
, we’d believed there were only those four elements. Then we’d discovered a fifth: spirit.
That was Lissa’s element, and with so few spirit users in the world, we hardly knew anything about it. For the most part, it seemed to be tied to psychic powers. Lissa wielded amazing compulsion—the ability to exert her will on almost anyone. She could also heal, and that’s where things got a little strange between us. You see, I technically died in the car accident that killed her family. Lissa had brought me back from the world of the dead without realizing it, creating a psychic bond between us. Ever since then, I was always aware of her presence and thoughts. I could tell what she was thinking and feel when she was in trouble. We had also recently discovered I could see ghosts and spirits who hadn’t yet left this world, something I found disconcerting and struggled to block out. The whole phenomenon was called being shadow-kissed.
Our shadow-kissed bond made me the ideal choice to protect Lissa, since I would instantly know if she was in trouble. I’d promised to protect her my whole life, but then Dimitri—tall, gorgeous, fierce Dimitri—had changed it all. I’d been faced with that horrible choice: continue to protect Lissa or free Dimitri’s soul. Choosing between them had broken my heart, leaving an ache in my chest and tears in my eyes. My parting with Lissa had been agonizing. We’d been best friends since kindergarten, and my departure was a shock for both of us. To be fair, she’d never seen it coming. I’d kept my romance with Dimitri a secret. He was my instructor, seven years older than me, and had been assigned to be her guardian as well. As such, he and I had tried hard to fight our attraction, knowing we had to focus on Lissa more than anything else and that we’d also get in a fair amount of trouble for our student-teacher relationship.
But being kept from Dimitri—even though I’d agreed to it—had caused me to build up a lot of unspoken resentment toward Lissa. I probably should have talked to her about it and explained my frustration over having my entire life planned out. It didn’t seem fair, somehow, that while Lissa was free to live and love however she wanted, I would always have to sacrifice my own happiness to ensure that she was protected. She was my best friend, though, and I couldn’t bear the thought of upsetting her. Lissa was particularly vulnerable because using spirit had the nasty side effect of driving people insane. So I’d sat on my feelings until they finally exploded, and I left the Academy—and her—behind for good.
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