Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection: 1/6 (117 page)

Ouch
. Both Lissa and I were shocked.

“Then why are you making me stay in this hellhole? Let me go back to Court!”

“And embarrass me further? We barely got out without damaging this family’s reputation—much. No way am I going to send you there alone and let you do God knows what.”

“Then send me to Mom! Switzerland’s got to be better than this place.”

There was a pause. “Your mother is . . . busy.”

“Oh, nice,” said Avery, voice heavy with sarcasm. “That’s a polite way of saying she doesn’t want me. No surprise. I’d just interfere with her and that guy she’s sleeping with.”

“Avery!” His voice rang out loud and angry. Lissa flinched and stepped back. “This conversation is done. Get back to your room and sober up before someone sees you. I expect you at breakfast tomorrow, and I expect you to be respectable. We have some important visitors.”

“Yeah, and God knows we’ve got to keep up appearances.”

“Go to your room,” he repeated. “Before I call Simon and make him drag you there.”

“Yes, sir,” she simpered. “Right away, sir. Anything you say, sir.”

And with that, he slammed the door. Lissa, ducking back behind the corner, could hardly believe he’d said those things to his own daughter. For a few moments, there was silence. Then, Lissa heard the sound of footsteps—coming toward her. Avery suddenly rounded the corner and stopped in front of Lissa, giving us our first good look of her.

Avery was wearing a tight, short dress made of some kind of blue fabric that shone silvery in the light. Her hair hung long and wild, and the tears pouring from her blue-gray eyes had destroyed the heavy makeup she wore. The scent of alcohol came through loud and clear. She hastily ran a hand over her eyes, obviously embarrassed at being seen like this.

“Well,” she said flatly. “I guess you overheard our family drama.”

Lissa felt equally embarrassed at being caught spying. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I was just passing by . . .”

Avery gave a harsh laugh. “Well, I don’t think it matters. Probably everyone in the building heard us.”

“I’m sorry,” Lissa repeated.

“Don’t be. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No . . . I mean, I’m sorry he . . . you know, said those things to you.”

“It’s part of being a ‘good’ family. Everyone’s got skeletons in their closet.” Avery crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. Even upset and messy, she was beautiful. “God, I hate him sometimes. No offense, but this place is so fucking boring. I found some sophomore guys to hang with tonight, but . . . they were pretty boring too. The only thing they had going for them was their beer.”

“Why . . . why did your dad bring you here?” Lissa asked. “Why aren’t you . . . I don’t know, in college?”

Avery gave a harsh laugh. “He doesn’t trust me enough. When we were at Court, I got involved with this cute guy who worked there—total non-royal, of course. Dad freaked out and was afraid people would find out. So when he got the job here, he brought me along to keep an eye on me—and torture me. I think he’s afraid I’ll run off with a human if I go to college.” She sighed. “I swear to God, if Reed wasn’t here, I’d just run away, period.”

Lissa didn’t say anything for a long time. She’d gone out of her way to avoid Avery diligently. With all the orders the queen was giving Lissa lately, this seemed the only way Lissa could fight back and stop herself from being controlled. But now, she wondered if she’d been wrong about Avery. Avery didn’t seem like a spy for Tatiana. She didn’t seem like someone who wanted to mold Lissa into a perfect royal. Mostly, Avery seemed like a sad, hurting girl, whose life was spinning out of control. Someone who was being ordered around as much as Lissa was lately.

With a deep breath, Lissa rushed forward with her next words. “Do you want to eat lunch with Christian and me tomorrow? No one would mind if you came to our lunch period. I can’t promise it’ll be, um, as exciting as you want.”

Avery smiled again, but this time, it was less bitter. “Well, my other plans were to get drunk by myself in my room.” She lifted a bottle of what looked like whiskey out of her purse. “Scored some stuff of my own.”

Lissa wasn’t entirely sure what kind of an answer that was. “So . . . I’ll see you at lunch?”

Now Avery hesitated. But slowly, a faint gleam of hope and interest appeared on her face. Concentrating, Lissa tried to bring up her aura. She had a little difficulty at first, probably worn out from all the practice with Adrian tonight. But when she was finally able to get a grip on Avery’s aura, she saw it was a mix of colors: green, blue, and gold. Not uncommon. It was currently ringed in red, as often happened when people were upset. But right before Lissa’s eyes, that redness faded.

“Yeah,” Avery said at last. “That would be great.”

 

“I think this is as far as we can go today.”

On the other side of the world, Sydney’s voice startled me out of Lissa’s thoughts. I didn’t know how long I’d been daydreaming, but Sydney had turned off the main highway and was driving us into a small town that fit perfectly with my backwoods images of Siberia. In fact, “town” was a total exaggeration. There were a few scattered houses, a store, and a gas station. Farmland stretched beyond the buildings, and I saw more horses than cars. The few people who were out stared at our car in amazement. The sky had turned deep orange, and the sun was sinking farther and farther into the horizon. Sydney was right. It was nearly nightfall, and we needed to be off the road.

“We’re only a couple hours away at most,” she continued. “We made really good time and should get there pretty quickly in the morning.” She drove to the other side of the village—which took, like, a minute—and pulled up in front of a plain white house with a barn beside it. “Here’s where we’re staying.”

We got out of the car and approached the house. “Are these friends of yours?”

“Nope. Never met them. But they’re expecting us.”

More mysterious Alchemist connections. The door was answered by a friendly looking human in her twenties who urged us to come inside. She only spoke a few words of English, but Sydney’s translation skills carried us through. Sydney was more outgoing and charming than I’d seen her thus far, probably because our hosts weren’t despicable vampiric offspring.

You wouldn’t think riding in a car all day would be tiring, but I felt exhausted and was anxious to get an early start in the morning. So after dinner and a little TV, Sydney and I went to the room that had been prepared for us. It was small and plain but had two twin beds covered in thick, fluffy blankets. I snuggled into mine, grateful for the softness and the warmth, and wondered if I’d dream of Lissa or Adrian.

I didn’t. I did, however, wake up to a slight wave of nausea rolling through me—the nausea that told me there was a Strigoi nearby.

I
BOLTED UPRIGHT, EVERY PART of me awake and alert. There were no city lights to shine through the window, and it took me several seconds to make out anything in the darkened room. Sydney was curled up in her own bed, her face unusually at peace as she slept.

Where was the Strigoi? Definitely not in our room. Was it in the house? Everyone had said the road to Dimitri’s town was dangerous. Still, I would have thought Strigoi would be going after Moroi and dhampirs—though humans were a big part of their diet too. Thinking of the nice couple who’d welcomed us into their home, I felt something tight clench in my chest. No way would I let anything happen to them.

Slipping quietly out of the bed, I grabbed a hold of my stake and crept from the room without disturbing Sydney. No one else was awake, and as soon as I was in the living room, the nausea went away. Okay. The Strigoi wasn’t inside, which was a good thing. It was outdoors, apparently on the side of the house near my room. Still moving silently, I went out the house’s front door and walked around the corner, as quiet as the night around me.

The nausea grew stronger as I approached the barn, and I couldn’t help but feel smug. I was going to surprise this Strigoi who’d thought it could sneak into a tiny human village for dinner. There. Right near the barn’s entrance, I could see a long shadow moving.
Gotcha
, I thought. I readied the stake and started to spring forward—

—And then something struck me on the shoulder.

I stumbled, astonished, and looked into the face of a Strigoi. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the shadow by the barn materialize into
another
Strigoi striding forward. Panic shot through me. There were two, and my secret detection system hadn’t been able to tell the difference. Worse, they’d gotten the drop on me.

A thought immediately flashed into my mind:
What if one’s Dimitri?

It wasn’t. At least, this close one wasn’t. It was a woman. I had yet to get a feel for the second one. That one was approaching from my other side, moving fast. I had to deal with this immediate threat, though, and swiped at the woman with my stake, hoping to wound her, but she dodged so quickly, I hardly saw her move. She struck out toward me in an almost casual way. I wasn’t fast enough to react and went flying toward the other Strigoi—a guy who was
not
Dimitri.

I responded quickly, leaping up and kicking him. I held the stake out, creating distance between us, but it did little good when the woman came up from behind and grabbed me, jerking my body against hers. I gave a muffled cry and felt her hands on my throat. She was probably going to break my neck, I realized. It was a fast, easy technique for Strigoi that then let them drag off a victim for feeding.

I struggled, jostling her hands slightly, but as the other Strigoi leaned over us, I knew it was useless. They’d surprised me. There were two of them. They were strong.

Panic surged in me again, an overwhelming sense of fear and desperation. I was afraid every time I fought Strigoi, but this fear was reaching a breaking point. It was unfocused and out of control, and I suspected it was touched by a bit of the madness and darkness I’d absorbed from Lissa. The feelings exploded within me, and I wondered if they’d destroy me before the Strigoi did. I was in very real danger of dying here—of letting Sydney and the others get killed. The rage and distress of that thought were smothering.

Then, suddenly, it was like the earth burst open. Translucent forms, glowing softly in the darkness, sprang up everywhere. Some looked like normal people. Others were horrible, their faces gaunt and skull-like. Ghosts. Spirits. They surrounded us, their presence making my hair stand on end and sending a splitting headache through my skull.

The ghosts turned toward me. I’d had this happen before, on a plane, when apparitions had swarmed and threatened to consume me. I braced myself, trying desperately to summon up the strength to build barriers that would shut me off from the spirit world. It was a skill I’d had to learn, one I usually kept in place without any effort. The desperation and panic of this situation had cracked my control. In that horrible, blood-curdling moment, I again selfishly wished Mason hadn’t found peace and left this world. I would have felt better if his ghost were here.

Then I realized I wasn’t their target.

The ghosts were mobbing the two Strigoi. The spirits didn’t have solid forms, but every place they touched and passed through me felt like ice. The female Strigoi immediately began waving her arms to fend the apparitions off, snarling in rage and something almost like fear. The ghosts didn’t appear to be able to hurt the Strigoi, but they were apparently pretty annoying—and distracting.

I staked the male Strigoi before he ever saw me coming. Immediately, the ghosts around him moved to the woman. She was good, I’d give her that. Despite struggling to fend the spirits off, she was still able to dodge my attacks fairly well. A lucky punch from her made stars burst before my eyes and sent me into the barn wall. I still had that ghost-induced splitting headache, and my head slamming into the barn didn’t help. Staggering up, dizzy, I made my way back to her and continued my efforts to get a shot in at her heart. She managed to keep her chest out of my range—at least until one particularly terrifying ghost caught her off guard. Her momentary distraction gave me my chance, and I staked her, too. She fell to the ground—leaving me alone with the spirits.

With the Strigoi, the ghosts had clearly wanted to attack them. With me, it was a lot like on the plane. They seemed fascinated by me, desperate to get my attention. Only, with dozens of phantoms swarming, it might as well have been an attack.

Desperately, I tried again to summon my walls, to block the ghosts off from me as I’d done long ago. The effort was excruciating. Somehow, my out-of-control emotions had brought the spirits, and while I was calmer now, that control was harder to bring about. My head continued throbbing. Gritting my teeth, I focused every ounce of my strength into blocking out the ghosts.

“Go away,” I hissed. “I don’t need you anymore.”

For a moment, it looked like my efforts were going to be useless. Then, slowly, one by one, the spirits began to fade. I felt the control I’d learned before gradually slip into place. Soon, there was nothing there but me, the darkness, and the barn—and Sydney.

I noticed her just as I collapsed to the ground. She was running out of the house in her pajamas, face pale. Kneeling at my side, she helped me sit up, legitimate fear all over her. “Rose! Are you okay?”

I felt like every scrap of energy in my brain and body had been sucked out. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think.

“No,” I told her.

And then I passed out.

 

I dreamed of Dimitri again, his arms around me and beautiful face leaning over me to care for me as he’d done so often when I was sick. Memories of things past came to me, the two of us laughing over some joke. Sometimes, in these dreams, he’d carry me away. Sometimes, we’d be riding in a car. Occasionally, his face would start to take on that fearsome Strigoi image that always tormented me. Then I’d quickly order my mind to brush such thoughts away.