Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide (18 page)

Read Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide Online

Authors: Michelle Rowen,Richelle Mead

Tags: #Social Issues, #Dating & Sex, #Emotions & Feelings, #Juvenile Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Fiction, #Horror

BOOK: Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide
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Was it the mention of his family that triggered the softer side of the Strigoi? Or was it . . . the silver charmed with spirit?
She visits Lissa again to find that her friend’s getting in trouble for trashing the library during a party. Just teens having fun, Lissa argues. No big deal. While she doesn’t get suspended, she does get slapped with a bunch of counseling sessions. How
annoying
.
After a session, Lissa spots Christian and runs to him, hopeful for the chance to explain everything to him. He’s wary of her—and doesn’t understand why she’s been acting so crazy lately, so silly and shallow. She’s not the same Lissa he fell for.
“I can’t be with you if that’s your life now.”
Her eyes went wide. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“I’m . . . I don’t know. Yeah, I guess.” Lissa was so consumed by the shock and horror of this that she didn’t really see Christian the way I did, didn’t see the agony in his eyes. It destroyed him to have to do this. He was hurting too, and all he saw was the girl he loved changing and becoming someone he couldn’t be with. “Things aren’t the way they used to be.”
“You can’t do that,” she cried. She didn’t see his pain. She saw him as being cruel and unfair. “We need to talk about this—figure it out—”
“The time for talking’s past.”
—page 383
 
 
It’s over. When he leaves, Avery and Adrian arrive to help a heartbroken Lissa. But then . . . when Avery looks in Lissa’s eyes, Rose can feel her staring right through the bond at her. Then—
snap!
—she’s out of Lissa’s head again.
This time she figures it out. She’d felt a familiar sensation when Oksana read her mind. Avery Lazar is a spirit user! She’s been causing Lissa’s dark moods, pushing her to do stupid things, and using compulsion on Adrian to make him like her.
Rose’s bondmate and best friend is in trouble, and Rose needs to get out of here if she’s going to help her. Time for action.
She manages to make a rough wooden stake out of a chair leg. When the human servant arrives with a tray of food, Rose attacks and demands the codes for the electronic door locks. Then she knocks the girl unconscious.
Before she can escape, Dimitri arrives. It’s time for her decision.
She gives him one more chance to say the right thing.
“Why do you want to awaken me so badly?”
A slightly weary look crossed his face. “Because I want you. I’ve always wanted you.”
And that’s when I knew. I finally realized the problem. He’d given that same answer over and over, and each time, something about it bothered me. I’d never been able to pinpoint it, though. Now I could. He wanted me. Wanted me in the way people wanted possessions or collectibles. The Dimitri I’d known . . . the one I’d fallen for and slept with . . . that Dimitri would have said he wanted us to be together because he loved me. There was no love here.
—pages 394-395
 
 
Rose kisses him goodbye. And then she plunges the makeshift stake into his heart.
Since it’s only wood, it won’t kill him, but it should buy her a few minutes to get past the guard. She races through the estate and forces another human servant to take her to the safe where her silver stake has been stored.
But she’s not free and clear yet: Galina faces off against her. She’s a much more skilled fighter than Rose, and it looks like Rose may have met her match. But then Dimitri arrives, recovered from the staking. Rose thinks he’ll kill her, but instead he shocks her by protecting her from the other Strigoi. He grabs Galina and Rose stakes her—even now, they work well as a team.
Other Strigoi arrive to swarm Dimitri, and Rose finally makes the choice she’s been avoiding. With one last look, she leaves him behind, leaping out of the window and running across the grounds and into the maze of hedges encircling the estate. But she’s not alone for long. Against all odds, Dimitri manages to kill the other Strigoi and is hot on her heels. He calls out to Rose across the distance separating them that since she helped him kill Galina, he’s in charge now. He owes her for that and won’t kill her if she comes to him of her own free will.
So
not going to happen. She climbs a tree and waits for him to approach, then leaps on him, fighting hard but unable to stake him again. She takes off and falls down a steep hillside into a river. There’s a bridge nearby that she wants to get to, but Dimitri catches up to her again.
Feeling she has no other choice, she takes off the charmed silver ring she’s wearing and summons ghosts to attack Dimitri, distracting him so she can get to the bridge. Once there, she puts the ring back on. When the ghosts fade, she’s faced again with the stubborn Strigoi whom she once loved. He refuses to let her escape. She climbs onto the railing of the bridge, and Dimitri thinks she means to kill herself, something he doesn’t want her to do.
“We need to be together.”
“Why?” I asked softly. The word was carried away on the wind, but he heard.
“Because I want you.”
I gave him a sad smile, wondering if we’d meet again in the land of the dead. “Wrong answer,” I told him.
—page 425
 
 
She lets go, but before she can fall to her death, he grabs hold of her and begins to drag her back up. It gives her the chance to finally do what she came to Russia for in the first place.
I looked him in the eye. “I will always love you.”
Then I plunged the stake into his chest.
It wasn’t as precise a blow as I would have liked, not with the skilled way he was dodging. I struggled to get the stake in deep enough to his heart, unsure if I could do it from this angle. Then, his struggles stopped. His eyes stared at me, stunned, and his lips parted, almost into a smile, albeit a grisly and pained one.
“That’s what I was supposed to say . . .” he gasped out.
—page 426
 
 
Dimitri falls into the river and disappears from sight. Rose is filled with grief, and for a moment she wants to throw herself into the river after him.
But somehow she manages to pull herself together. She gets a ride to Novosibirsk and calls the only person she knows she can trust—Sydney. Sydney hooks her up with another Alchemist who takes the exhausted Rose to a safe house to rest.
When she wakes, Abe is there, as are Mark and Oksana. Oksana has been using spirit to heal Rose’s wounds, and Abe has arranged a flight back to the States for her. Seeing Oksana use her spirit powers is a jarring reminder of the trouble Lissa’s in.
When Rose checks on her friend, things have gone from bad to worse. She’s about to fall from the ledge of a window that Avery has compelled her to stand on. But before Rose can come up with a plan, Avery senses her and shoves her out of Lissa’s head.
If Rose doesn’t do something fast, she knows Lissa is going to die! Fortunately, she has a crazy idea that just might work. She asks Oksana to use spirit to help link up the connection between Rose and Lissa. For the first time ever, the connection goes in both directions, and Rose is able to help Lissa fight back against the compulsion.
Avery strikes back with super-compulsion, enough to make Rose believe she’s somewhere else, living a perfect fantasy life with Dimitri.
So
not fair, especially after what just happened between them. It’s painful, but Rose knows Dimitri is lost to her. Lissa, however, is not. And it’s
Lissa
who she needs to fight for now.
Avery’s brother, Reed, and her guardian, Simon, join the fight... and they’re definitely on Team Avery. It’s suddenly clear to Rose what’s happening—both the boys are bound to Avery. They’re
both
shadow-kissed!
A combination of Lissa’s physical strength and Oksana and Lissa’s spirit magic, along with the timely arrival of Adrian, help Team Lissa win this fight. A last surge of spirit energy fries Avery’s connection to her bondmates—and their minds as well.
Proud of her friend and of Adrian, Rose promises Lissa she’ll be home soon.
A FAIRY TALE
 
Rose tells Oksana that the silver ring she charmed with spirit seemed to bring Dimitri back to his former self for a short time. In return, the spirit user tells Rose something incredible. There’s a rumor—more like a fairy tale—that another spirit user claimed to have brought a Strigoi back to life. The man’s name is Robert Doru.
Abe recognizes the name. Robert is connected to someone Rose knows very well—he’s Victor Dashkov’s half-brother.
The idea that something like this could be possible is stunning... and very sad. Dimitri’s dead because Rose killed him. It’s too late now to think about trying to save him.
Finally, she returns to Montana. In the airport, she finds Adrian waiting for her. She’s exhausted and grieving but very happy to be home. Adrian fills her in—Avery planned to kill Lissa and bring her back to life, just like she did with her brother and guardian, increasing her power by having three bondmates. However, making Lissa seem like an out-of-control party girl would cover her bases if she failed to bring her back from the dead. Now Avery and her bondmates are no longer a threat—that last burst of spirit left them completely insane, and they are institutionalized.
When Rose finally sees Lissa, all is forgiven the minute the two girls embrace. They’re both thrilled to see each other. Rose tells Lissa everything that’s happened to her, leaving nothing out—even the heartbreaking fact that she had to kill the man she loved.
Alberta, the head guardian at St. Vlad’s, wants Rose to come back so she can graduate. She’s too valuable to lose permanently. Besides, a benefactor has helped pull a few strings to smooth things with the school’s officials so she’s welcomed back to the Academy. To Rose it’s fairly obvious this “benefactor” is Abe.
Rose accepts. She’s officially back at St. Vlad’s.
The next day, she runs into Christian and tries to convince him to patch things up with Lissa. But he’s not ready to forgive and forget—her recent actions and behavior really hurt him. While Rose would love to fix things, she agrees to give him time to figure things out.
Walking away from Christian, she’s surprised by a familiar voice calling out to her. Her mother has come to the school especially to see Rose and make sure she’s okay. Rose expects to be reprimanded for acting foolishly, but instead Janine comforts her, happy her daughter is okay after such a harrowing journey. She makes Rose promise to stay in school and graduate.
Janine recognizes the colorful cashmere scarf Rose is wearing—it’s one Abe gave to Rose as a gift. Her mother says that it’s a family heirloom that belongs to Ibrahim.
Ibrahim? It’s a name Rose recognizes instantly, a Moroi her mother was romantically involved with once upon a time . . .
Oh crap.
She didn’t have to tell me. It was all over her face, her expression dreamily recalling some other time and place—some time and place that had undoubtedly involved my conception. Ugh.
“Oh God,” I said. “I’m Zmey’s daughter. Zmey Junior. Zmeyette, even.”
—page 489
 
 
It must have been Janine who sent Abe after her in Russia to convince her to come home. Or rather . . . her
father
.
She supposes there are worse fathers to have.
Abe has even looked further into the Robert Doru issue by contacting Victor Dashkov, but he refuses to say anything. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Dimitri is dead.
Or is he?
An envelope is delivered to Rose that contains a silver stake—the same one she stabbed Dimitri with. There’s a note attached telling Rose that she forgot an important lesson—not to turn her back until she knows her enemy is dead.
Dimitri is alive.
And according to this message, they’ll be going over the lesson again the next time he sees her—which will be soon.
Rose promised she’d stay in school and graduate. She will. But now she has another goal. She needs to find Victor Dashkov and learn more about how his half-brother brought a Strigoi back to life using spirit. It’s a crazy quest and one she’ll need Lissa’s help with.
“Do you believe in fairy tales?” I asked, looking up into her eyes. Even as I said the words, I could imagine Mark’s disapproval.
“What . . . what kind of fairy tales?”
“The kind you aren’t supposed to waste your life on.”
—page 501
 

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