White light suddenly burst out around her, a light that dwarfed the fire’s brightness. It was like someone had dropped the sun into the middle of that room. I cried out, my hand rising instinctively to shield my eyes as I stepped backward. From the sounds in the room, everyone else was having a similar reaction.
For a moment, it was as if there was no bond anymore. I felt nothing from Lissa—no pain, no magic. The bond was as colorless and empty as the white light filling the room. The power she’d used had over-flooded and overwhelmed our bond, numbing it.
Then the light simply disappeared. No fade-out. Just . . . gone in an eye blink. Like a switch had been flipped. There was silence in the room, save for a few murmurings of discomfort and confusion. That light must have been toxic to sensitive Strigoi eyes. It was hard enough for me. Starbursts danced in my sight. I couldn’t focus on anything as the afterimage of that brilliance burned across my vision.
At last—with a little squinting—I could vaguely see again. The fire was gone, though black smudges on the wall and ceiling marked its presence, as did some lingering smoke. By my estimation, there should have been a lot more damage. I could spare no time for that miracle, though, because there was another one taking place in front of me.
Not just a miracle. A fairy tale.
Lissa and Dimitri were both on the floor. Their clothes were burned and singed. Angry red and pink patches marked her beautiful skin from where the fire had hit hardest. Her hands and wrists were particularly bad. I could see spots of blood where the flames had actually burned some of her skin away. Third-degree burns, if I was recalling my physiology classes correctly. Yet she seemed to feel no pain, nor did the burns affect her hands’ movement.
She was stroking Dimitri’s hair.
While she sat in some semblance of an upright position, he was in an ungainly sprawl. His head rested in her lap, and she was running her fingers through his hair in a gentle, repetitive motion—like one does to comfort a child or even an animal. Her face, even marred with the fire’s terrible damage, was radiant and filled with compassion. Dimitri had called me an avenging angel, but she was an angel of mercy as she gazed down at him and crooned soothing, nonsense words.
With the state of his clothes and what I’d seen in the fire, I’d expected him to be burned to a crisp—some sort of blackened, skeletal nightmare. Yet when he shifted his head, giving me my first full view of his face, I saw that he was completely unharmed. No burns marked his skin—skin that was as warm and tanned as it had been the first day I’d met him. I caught only a glimpse of his eyes before he buried his face against Lissa’s knee. I saw endless depths of brown, the depths I’d fallen into so many times. No red rings.
Dimitri . . . was not a Strigoi.
And he was weeping.
SEVENTEEN
THE ENTIRE ROOM SEEMED to hold its breath.
Yet even in the face of miracles, guardians—or Strigoi, for that matter—were hard to distract. Fights that had paused now resumed with just as much fury. The guardians had the upper hand, and those of them who weren’t engaged with the last surviving Strigoi suddenly leapt toward Lissa, trying to pull her away from Dimitri. To everyone’s surprise, she held on to him tightly and made a few feeble attempts to fight off those crowding around her. She was fierce and protective, again putting me in mind of a mother defending her child.
Dimitri was holding on to her just as intently, but both he and Lissa were outmatched. The guardians finally pried them apart. There were confused shouts as guardians tried to determine whether they should kill Dimitri. It wouldn’t have been hard. He was helpless now. He could barely stand when they jerked him to his feet.
That woke me up. I’d simply been staring, frozen and dumbstruck. Shaking off my daze, I sprang forward, though I wasn’t sure who I was going for: Lissa or Dimitri.
“No! Don’t!” I yelled, seeing some of the guardians move in with stakes. “He’s not what you think! He’s not Strigoi! Look at him!”
Lissa and Christian were shouting similar things. Someone grabbed me and pulled me back, telling me to let the others handle this. Without even thinking, I turned and punched my captor in the face, discovering too late it was Hans. He fell back a little, seeming more surprised than offended. Attacking him was enough to attract the attention of others, however, and soon I had my own group of guardians to fight off. My efforts didn’t do any good, partially because I was outnumbered and partially because I couldn’t take them on the same way I’d attacked Strigoi.
As the guardians hauled me out, I noticed then that Lissa and Dimitri had already been removed from the room. I demanded to know where they were, yelling that I had to see them. No one listened to me. They dragged me away, out of the warehouse, passing a disturbing amount of bodies. Most were Strigoi, but I recognized a few faces from the guardian regiment at the Court. I grimaced, even though I hadn’t known them well. The battle was over, and our side had won—but at a great cost. The surviving guardians would be doing cleanup now. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Alchemists showed up, but at the moment, none of that was my concern.
“Where’s Lissa?” I kept demanding as I was shoved inside one of the SUVs. Two guardians slid in with me, one sitting on each side. I didn’t know either of them. “Where’s Dimitri?”
“The princess has been taken to safety,” one of the guardians said crisply. He and the other guy stared straight ahead, and I realized neither was going to acknowledge the question about Dimitri. He might as well not exist for any of them.
“Where’s Dimitri?” I repeated, speaking more loudly in the hopes that might get an answer. “Is he with Lissa?”
That got a reaction. “Of course not,” said the guardian who’d spoken before.
“Is he . . . is he alive?” It was one of the hardest questions I’d ever asked, but I had to know. I hated to admit it, but if I were in Hans’s place, I wouldn’t have been looking for miracles. I would have been exterminating anything I perceived as a threat.
“Yes,” said the driver at last. “He . . . it . . . is alive.”
And that was all I could get out of them, no matter how much I argued and demanded to be released from the car—and believe me, I did a lot of that. Their ability to ignore me was pretty impressive, really. To be fair, I’m not even sure that they knew what had happened. Everything had occurred so fast. The only thing these two knew was that they’d been ordered to escort me out of the building.
I kept hoping someone I knew might join us in our SUV. Nope. Only more unknown guardians. No Christian or Tasha. Not even Hans—of course, that was understandable. He was probably afraid I’d accidentally punch him again.
When we were loaded up and on the road, I finally gave up my badgering and sank back into the seat. Other SUVs had left with ours, but I had no clue whether my friends were in them.
The bond between Lissa and me was still numb. After that initial shock where I’d felt nothing, I’d slowly regained a slight sense of her, telling me we were still connected and that she was alive. That was about it. With all that power that had blasted through her, it was almost like the bond had been temporarily fried. The magic between us was fragile. Each time I tried to use the bond to check on her, it was as though I’d stared too brightly at something and was still blinded. I just had to assume it would reestablish itself soon because I needed her insight on what had happened.
No, scratch insight. I needed to know what had happened, period. I was still in a bit of shock, and the long ride back to Court allowed me time to process what few facts I had access to. I immediately wanted to jump to Dimitri but needed to start at the beginning if I really wanted to analyze all that had occurred.
First: Lissa had charmed a stake and withheld the info from me. When? Before her college trip? At Lehigh? While captive? It didn’t matter.
Second, in spite of her failed pillow attempts, she had gotten the stake into Dimitri’s heart. It had been a struggle, but Christian’s fire had made it possible. I winced,
recalling the burns Lissa had suffered during that ordeal. I’d felt the pain of those before the bond blanked out, and I’d also seen the marks on her. Adrian wasn’t the world’s best healer, but hopefully his magic would be enough to take care of her injuries.
The third and final fact here . . . well . . . was it a fact? Lissa had stabbed Dimitri and used the same magic she would for a healing . . . and then? That was the big question. What had happened, aside from what felt like a nuclear explosion of magic through our bond? Had I really seen what I thought I’d seen?
Dimitri had . . . changed.
He was no longer a Strigoi. I felt it in my heart, even though I’d only had that brief glimpse of him. It had been enough to allow me to see the truth. The Strigoi features were gone. Lissa had done everything Robert had sworn she needed to do to restore a Strigoi, and certainly after all that magic . . . well, it was easy to believe anything was possible. That image of Dimitri came back to me, clinging to Lissa with tears running down his face. I’d never seen him so vulnerable. Somehow, I didn’t believe Strigoi cried.
Something in my heart twisted painfully, and I blinked rapidly to stop from crying too. Glancing around, I tuned back into my surroundings. Outside the car, the sky was lightening. It was nearly sunrise. The guardians with me had signs of weariness on their faces, yet the alert expressions in their eyes never faltered. I’d lost track of the time, but my internal clock told me we’d been on the road for a while. We had to almost be back at Court.
Tentatively, I touched the bond and found it was back but still fragile. It was like it flickered in and out, still reestablishing itself. That was enough to put me at ease, and I breathed a sigh of relief. When the bond had first come about years ago, it had been so strange . . . surreal. Now I’d accepted it as part of my life. Its absence today had felt unnatural.
Looking through Lissa’s eyes, at the SUV she rode in, I immediately hoped I’d see Dimitri with her. That one glimpse at the warehouse hadn’t been enough. I needed to see him again, needed to see if this miracle had truly happened. I wanted to drink in those features, to gaze at the Dimitri from so long ago. The Dimitri I loved.
But he wasn’t with Lissa. Christian was there, however, and he glanced over at her as she stirred. She’d been asleep and still felt groggy. That, combined with the aftereffect of that searing power earlier, kept our connection a little hazy. Things shifted out of focus for me off and on, but overall, I could follow what was happening.
“How do you feel?” asked Christian. His voice and his eyes as he peered at her were filled with so much affection that it seemed impossible she didn’t notice. But then, she was a little preoccupied right now.
“Tired. Worn out. Like . . . I don’t know. Like I’ve been thrown around in a hurricane. Or run over by a car. Pick something horrible, and that’s what I feel like.”
He gave her a small smile and gently touched her cheek. Opening myself to her senses more, I felt the pain of her burns and that he was tracing the skin near one, though being careful to keep away from it.
“Is it awful?” she asked him. “Is all my skin melted off? Do I look like some alien?”
“No,” he said, with a small laugh. “There’s not that much. You’re beautiful, like always. It would take a lot for that to change.”
The throbbing pain she felt made her think that there was more damage than he was admitting to, but the compliment and the way he’d said it went a long way to soothe her. For a moment, her whole existence focused on his face and the way the rising sun was starting to light it up.
Then the rest of her world came crashing down on her.
“Dimitri! I need to see Dimitri!”
There were guardians in the car, and she glanced around at them as she spoke. As with me, no one seemed willing to acknowledge him or what had happened.
“Why can’t I see him? Why’d you take him away?” This was directed to anyone who would answer, and at last, Christian did.
“Because they think he’s dangerous.”
“He’s not. He’s just . . . He needs me. He’s hurting inside.”
Christian’s eyes suddenly went wide, his face filling with panic. “He’s not . . . You aren’t bonded to him, are you?”
I guessed by the look on his face that Christian was recalling Avery and how bonding with multiple people had pushed her over the edge. Christian hadn’t been there for Robert’s explanation of the soul going to the world of the dead and how restored Strigoi didn’t get bonded.
Lissa shook her head slowly. “No . . . I just know. When I . . . when I healed him, we had this connection, and I felt it. What I had to do . . . I can’t explain it.” She ran a hand through her hair, frustrated that she couldn’t put her magic into words. Weariness was starting to overtake her. “It was like I had to do surgery on his soul,” she said at last.
“They think he’s dangerous,” repeated Christian gently.
“He’s not!” Lissa glared around at the rest of the car’s occupants, all of whom were looking somewhere else. “He’s not Strigoi anymore.”
“Princess,” began one of the guardians uneasily, “no one really knows what happened. You can’t be sure that—”
“I am sure!” she said, voice too loud for the small space. There was a regal, commanding air to it. “I know. I saved him. I brought him back. I know with every single part of me that he’s no longer Strigoi!”
The guardians looked uncomfortable, again not speaking. I think they were just confused, and really, how could they not be? There was no precedent for this.
“Shh,” said Christian, putting his hand on hers. “There’s nothing you can do until we’re back at Court. You’re still hurt and exhausted—it’s written all over you.”
Lissa knew he was right. She was hurt, and she was exhausted. That magic had ripped her apart. At the same time, what she had done for Dimitri had created a bond to him—not a magical one, but a psychological one. She really was like a mother. She felt desperately protective and concerned.
“I need to see him,” she said.
She did? What about me?
“You will,” said Christian, sounding more certain than I suspected he was. “But just try to rest now.”
“I can’t,” she said, even while stifling a yawn.
That smile flickered back across his lips, and he slipped his arm around her, pulling her as close as the seat belts would allow. “Try,” he told her.
She rested her head against his chest, and his closeness was a type of healing in and of itself. Worry and concern for Dimitri still coursed through her, but her body’s needs were stronger for the moment. At last, she drifted into sleep in Christian’s embrace, just barely hearing him murmur, “Happy birthday.”
Twenty minutes later, our convoy arrived back at Court. I thought this meant instant freedom, but my guardians took their time in getting out, waiting for some signal or directions that no one had bothered to tell me about. It turned out they were waiting for Hans.
“No,” he said, firmly putting a hand on my shoulder as I shot out of the car and tried to race away to . . . well, I wasn’t sure where. Wherever Dimitri was. “Hold on.”
“I have to see him!” I exclaimed, trying to push past. Hans was like a brick wall. Considering he’d actually fought a lot more Strigoi than me tonight, you’d have thought he’d be tired. “You have to tell me where he is.”
To my surprise, Hans did. “Locked away. Far, far out of your reach. Or anyone else’s. I know he used to be your teacher, but it’s better if he’s kept away for now.”
My brain, weary from the night’s activities and overwrought with emotion, took a moment to process this. Christian’s words came back to me. “He’s not dangerous,” I said. “He’s not a Strigoi anymore.”
“How can you be so certain?”
The same question Lissa had been asked. How could we really answer that? We knew because we’d gone to incredible pains to find out how to transform a Strigoi, and when we’d complet
ed those steps, there’d been an atom bomb of magic. Wasn’t that enough proof for anyone? Hadn’t Dimitri’s appearance been enough?
Instead, my answer was like Lissa’s. “I just know.”
Hans shook his head, and now I could see he actually was exhausted. “No one knows what’s going on with Belikov. Those of us that were there . . . well, I’m not sure what I saw. All I do know is that he was leading Strigoi a little while ago, and now he’s out in the sun. It doesn’t make any sense. No one knows what he is.”
“He’s a dhampir.”
“And until we do,” he continued, ignoring my comment, “Belikov has to stay locked up while we examine him.” Examine? I didn’t like the sound of that. It made Dimitri seem like a lab animal. It made my temper flare, and I nearly started yelling at Hans. A moment later, I got myself under control.
“Then I need to see Lissa.”
“She’s been taken to the medical center for treatment—which she needs very badly. You can’t go there,” he added, anticipating my next response. “Half the guardians are there. It’s chaos, and you’d be in the way.”
“Then what the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Go get some sleep.” He gave me a wry look. “I still think you’ve got a bad attitude, but after what I saw back there . . . well, I’ll say this. You know how to fight. We need you—probably for more than paperwork. Now go take care of yourself.”
And that was that. The dismissal in his voice was clear, and as the guardians hurried around, it was like I didn’t exist. Whatever trouble I’d been in before seemed long forgotten. No more filing in the wake of this. But what was I supposed to do? Was Hans crazy? How could I sleep? I had to do something. I had to see Dimitri—but I didn’t know where they’d taken him. Probably the same jail Victor had been kept in, which was inaccessible to me. I also needed to see Lissa—but she was deep in the medical center. I had no power here. I needed to appeal to someone with influence.
Adrian!
Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection: 1/6 Page 146
