MRI as a Breast Cancer Screening Tool

MRI as a Breast Cancer Screening Tool Chapter 1 Introduction In the United States, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, accounting for 26% of all cancer cases in women (Jiao, 2014). The standard of care for women over the age of 40 is mammography. It has been shown to increase life expectancy by detecting breast cancer through a quick and easy x-ray. Magnetic resonance imaging, which is more sensitive to breast cancer is costlier and produces more false-positive results, therefore it is not used as often. When mammography is the only test being done, breast cancer is more likely to go undetected in patients with dense breasts and those with small lesions. In high-risk women, MRI has been shown to detect breast cancer in earlier stages than mammography. MRI screening is successfully reported between 77% and 91% (Jiao, 2014). Most detections from MRI are located within axillary lymph nodes during stage 1 breast cancer. A patient may simply refuse yearly mammograms, when she goes five years later breast cancer may be in the fi nal stage whereas MRI could’ve detected it years earlier. Women are recalled more often for additional diagnostic testing when screened less frequently and recalled less often when screened more frequently (Orel, 2005). The American Cancer Society recommends MRI testing for women with the BCRA1 & BCRA 2 genes or a lifetime risk of 20% or greater for breast cancer (Saslow, 2007). Women who inherit the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have a 45% to 65% chance of developing breast cancer (Plevritis, 2006). BRCA 1 gene carriers are at a greater risk for developing breast cancer at an aggressive pace. Tumors in women screened with mammography alone are larger and more likely to have metastasized to axillary nodes (Taneja, 2009). MRI is approximately ten times more expensive than mammography making its cost effectiveness a critical consideration (Jiao, 2014). Due to its lower specificity than mammography increased costs are related to biopsies and additional exams. Estimated lifetime costs for 10,000 women would be higher by $10.6 million with MRI in combination with mammography than with mammography alone. In 2009, the costs billed to Medicare for a bilateral mammography was $49.76 while a bilateral MRI was $965.57 (Jiao, 2014). The price per quality adjusted life year would be $310,616 when MRI was performed with mammography (Fieg, 2009). MRI screening is most cost effective if the cost of MRI decreased or the cost of mammography decreased, when the risk of breast cancer increases, when mammography performance worsens, and if greater quality of life is accomplished (Orel, 2005). MRI becomes cost effective when patients with high-risk profiles are treated. If cancer was detected early enough, chemotherapy can be reduced. MRI is also needed for surveillance when breast conserving therapy results in recurrences. MRI would yield an additional 106 years of life per 10,000 women (Fieg, 2009). Women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 start mammograms at the age of 25 which makes MRI more cost effective and would decrease their radiation dose. Given the aggressive nature of breast cancer, screening with MRI whether alone or with mammography is cost effective and will prolong life expectancy (Berg, 2012). Contrast enhanced MRI is proven to detect breast cancer in the earliest stages compared to ultrasound and mammography. Statement of the Problem and Professional Significance Is MRI effective as screening tool for breast cancer? Which modality is the most effective study for diagnosing breast cancer? Are imaging modalities other than MRI a waste of time and money for patients? Mammography is seen as the first step in preventing breast cancer when a patient turns 40. For some patients, it might already be too late. Mammography is quick and low cost but does not detect breast cancer in patients with dense breasts or small lesions. MRI is considered the gold standard in imaging but is used with fewer women. As the population grows and rates of cancer increase, patients are demanding precise diagnosis and early detection for cancer. What factors should stand out to differentiate who receives MRI vs. mammography? By gathering medical history and diagnosis from several women receiving breast MRI’s, data will be examined to determine whether or not breast MRI’s were needed for proper diagnosis and if testing detected further malignancies. Research Hypothesis 1. It is hypothesized that MRI will be more effective in detecting breast abnormalities than Ultrasound or Mammography. This can be tested by comparing the results of their MRI with results of previous tests.    2. It is hypothesized that at least 50% of patients will feel more confident regarding their diagnosis following a MRI scan. This can be tested by having patients rank how they felt before and after having the test and talking with a radiologist on staff (using a scale of 1-10). 3. It is hypothesized that patients will not have had a mastectomy or received radiation until an MRI is performed. By surveying patients to determine who was and wasn’t diagnosed prior to MRI and what measures they took to prevent the malignancy from spreading I can determine these results.    4. It is hypothesized that patients positive for breast cancer will have at least one lesion undetected on mammography or ultrasound because of its small size or position in the axillary region.   This can be tested by comparing MRI test results with other imaging modalities. 5. It is hypothesized that 10% of participants will have had inconclusive results. This can be determined by whether the radiologist recommends a breast biopsy. MRI can produce false-positives, which cause the radiologist to compare results with past imaging. 6. It is hypothesized that at least 50% of the participants were recommended to have an MRI after inconclusive testing in other modalities. This information will be obtained through obtaining previous medical history in the survey. Definitions Breast cancer Uncontrolled growth of breast cells resulting in a malignant tumor (Medical Dictionary Online, 2018). Malignant Cancerous tumor that can spread to other parts of the body. Benign Tumor that is not dangerous to health. Quality adjusted life year Used to assess the value for money of medical intervention. One QALY = one year of perfect health (Science Direct Online, 2018). Probabilistic sensitivity analysis Technique used in economic modeling that allows the modellar to quantify the level of confidence in the output of the analysis (Science Direct Online, 2018). National comprehensive cancer network Not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. BRCA 1 breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein- Identified in 1990 and is on chromosome 17, increases likelihood of cervical, uterine, and colon cancer (National Cancer Institute, 2018). BRCA 2 breast cancer type 2 susceptibility protein- Identified in 1994 and is on chromosome 13-, increases likelihood of stomach cancer, gallbladder cancer, and melanoma (National Cancer Institute, 2018). Ultrasound Imaging test using high frequency sound waves. MRI Imaging test that used magnets to generate a detailed picture. Mammography Images produced from low dose radiation. Gadolinium Chemical element of atomic number 64, injected into patients as contrast during MRI. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) Presence of abnormal cells inside a milk duct in the breast (Medical Dictionary Online, 2018). Mastectomy Surgical operation to remove a breast. Stereotactic biopsy Procedure that uses mammography to precisely identify and sample an abnormality within the breast. Limitations and Delimitations This study will survey twenty women (all ages) who are scheduled for breast MRI’s at Geisinger Community Medical Center during September-November 2018. I will conduct surveys with the patient prior to their MRI. Breast MRI’s will be conducted on a 1.5T, Siemens machine. All patients will be scanned using the same protocol for imaging regardless of medical history. External limitations are obtaining a medical history, incompletion of the patient’s MRI, lack of intravenous access for contrast, claustrophobia, and no show appointments. I will rely on patients to give me a detailed, accurate medical history. Assumptions During a typical work day in MRI at Geisinger Hospital a breast MRI is completed once. Within a typical month at least 20 scans are completed. This should allow me to survey enough patients over a six-week period. Permission for this study will come from patients who allow me to ask questions regarding their medical history and diagnosis. In accordance with HIPAA, I will keep all patient names and identifying information anonymous. Chapter 2 Introduction The purpose of this research project is to determine if MRI is effective as an imaging tool for diagnosing breast cancer. By surveying women, who have been diagnosed or are currently being diagnosed, collecting medical history, and analyzing data, imaging modalities will be examined to determine the most reliable, accurate, and timely way to diagnose breast cancer. If MRI is more efficient than mammography and ultrasound, time and money spent on those modalities could be eliminated. Women can be treated faster, and cancer could be diagnosed earlier when proper testing is ordered. Breast cancer during stage one is treatable, thousands of lives could be changed when it is diagnosed in a timely manner. Cancer is the overall most common cause of death in America with breast cancer being the most common type (Jiao, 2014). One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime making it a very costly disease. Standard protocols for screening are determined by the American Cancer Society. Screening mammography is recommended for women with a 25-30% lifetime risk of breast cancer (National Cancer Institute, 2018). This includes women treated for Hodgkin disease and those with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer. Screening mammography typically starts at age 40 unless preexisting conditions are present, screening begins at age 25. The Gail, Claus, and Tyrer-Cusick models are used to estimate breast cancer based on family history. Breast cancer genes 1 and 2 (BRCA) are found in 1/500-1/1,000 women. Women of Jewish ethnicity have a 1/50 risk (National Cancer Institute, 2018). Those who test positive have a 65% chance of breast cancer by 70 years old (Saslow, 2007). What are American Cancer Society Guidelines? Recommendations for women at average risk of breast cancer are women between 40 and 44  have the option to start screening with a mammogram every year. Women ages 45 to 54  should get mammograms every year. Women 55 and older  can continue with mammograms every year or switch to having mammograms every other year (American Cancer Society, 2018). Screening should continue as long as a woman is in good health and is expected to live 10 more years or longer. Not all types of breast cancer cause a lump in the breast. Many breast cancers are found on screening mammograms which can detect cancers at an earlier stage, before the mass can be felt, and before symptoms develop. Women who are at high risk for breast cancer based on certain factors should get and MRI and a mammogram every year, starting at age 30 (American Cancer Society, 2018). This includes women who have a lifetime risk of breast cancer of about 20% to 25% or greater, have a known BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, have a first-degree relative (parent, brother, sister, or child) with a  BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, had radiation therapy to the chest when they were between the ages of 10 and 30 years, or have Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Cowden syndrome, or Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndrome, or have first-degree relatives with one of these syndromes. (American Cancer Society, 2018). The American Cancer Society recommends against MRI screening for women whose lifetime risk of breast cancer is less than 15%. MRI in this case would be less cost-effective and timelier for patients to get done. How does MRI detect breast cancer? There are three imaging modalities that can effectively detect breast cancer. MRI, mammography, and ultrasound are commonly used in different combinations. MRI uses magnetic fields to produce cross-sectional images of breast tissue. Hydrogen atoms in fat and water contribute to the signal that is produced (Pilewskie, 2014). Gadolinium, IV based contrast, is administered to detect lesions and cancer. Subtraction images are obtained to differentiate fat from enhancing lesions. MRI produces high quality imaging from signal to noise ratio and high spatial resolution (Pilewskie, 2014). MRI is safe for all women (unless contraindicated by pregnancy) and doesn’t use radiation. A drawback to MRI is false positives that are produced and additional testing that this creates. On the other hand, additional testing leads to a higher number of cancer detected. The more women who are being closely watched and recommended for further tests, the greater their likelihood of being diagnosed earl y. In a study in the UK involving high risk populations, 4% found MRI â€Å"extremely distressing† and 47% reported having disturbing thoughts about it six weeks after (Saslow, 2007). Due to the psychological distress of MRI, other testing needs to be considered. Imaging Limitations Unlike other imaging tests, MRI candidates need to be screened for metal before considering the test. Pacemakers, aneurysm clips, specific stents and filters, and neuro-stimulators are not allowed in the machine. Body habitus and claustrophobia are also factors to consider. A small, loud environment can cause emotional distress and anxiety for a patient, some patients will refuse MRI testing. Breast MRI testing should be completed with and without contrast. Gadolinium, MRI contrast, can only be injected in patients with a glomerular filtration rate of >60. Patients on dialysis, with impaired kidney function, diabetes, high blood pressure, or certain allergies may not be able to receive contrast, making the test inconclusive. MRI results can also be misleading. False-negatives and false-positives occur from technical limitations, patient characteristics, quality assurance failures, human error, and heightened medical concern. A false negative exam looks normal even though the patient has breast cancer. They are more likely to occur in younger patients with dense breasts. MRI is commonly used for dense tissue to differentiate benign and malignant lumps. A false positive test looks abnormal even though the patient doesn’t have cancer. False positives occur in half of women getting mammograms over a ten-year period (Gillman, 2014). MRI’s and MRI guided biopsies are usually recommended for more accurate diagnosis. A patient’s need for definitive findings may increase testing ordered. According to the American Medical Association, 7% of women are biopsied only because of MRI findings. The call back and biopsy rates of MRI are higher than mammography in high risk populations due to the increased sensitivity of MRI (Gillman, 2014). MRI is also able to obtain images for women with breast implants. 3D and 2D images are acquired in all planes, whereas mammography could miss an area of interest and compromise the breast implant.    Economic Impact   Cancer treatment can be impacted by lack of insurance, proximity to health care facilities, and availability of services. According to  Cancer Facts & Figures 2018, â€Å"Uninsured patients and those from many ethnic minority groups are substantially more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at a later stage, when treatment can be more extensive, costlier, and less successful.† (American Cancer Society 2018). Without routine mammograms, breast cancer can go undiagnosed and impose much higher costs when it’s found in a later stage. Early detection can potentially eliminate radiation, chemotherapy, mastectomy, and breast reconstruction. In 2009, the average Medicare reimbursement for a bilateral mammogram was $49.76, a bilateral MRI $965.57, and mastectomy $13,590.03 (Moore, 2009). These procedures drastically differ in costs therefore insurance companies use cost effectiveness and quantity adjusted life years as means in determining which patient will benefit from costlier studies. MRI screening becomes more cost effective as the cost of MRI decreases or the cost of mammography increases. It is also more cost effective for patients with higher risk profiles such as BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes. MRI combined with mammography would produce 106 years of life per 10,000 women compared with mammography alone (Taneja, 2009). The drawback is that MRI in addition to mammography would increase lifetime health care costs for those 10,000 women by $10,600,000 (Taneja, 2009). What does insurance cover? Breast cancer is the costliest cancer to treat. In 2010, it cost $16.5 billion in the United States to treat breast cancer. A major concern when ordering breast MRI’s is that insurance will deny it or charge a high co-pay. MRI’s cost more due to radiologist, facility, contrast, and technology fees. According to a survey by the American Cancer Society, many patients are cutting prescriptions, not going to their doctor, and not getting preventive services due to the high costs. Yearly mammograms are covered by insurance companies. The average cost of a breast MRI in the United States is $1,325 with prices ranging from $375 to $2,850. Patients with health insurance are responsible for paying their deductible, copay, and coinsurance amounts. The amount of each of these costs depends on their health plan. Patients without health insurance are responsible for 100% of mammogram and MRI costs. Case Study In a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, titled MRI evaluation of the Contralateral Breast in Women with Recently Diagnosed Breast Cancer, 969 women with a diagnosis of unilateral breast cancer and no abnormalities on mammography went for a breast MRI. MRI detected clinically occult breast cancer in the contralateral breast tissue in 30 women (Lehman, 2007). Biopsies were performed on 121 of the 969 women whose MRI showed breast cancer (Lehman, 2007). Of those 121, 30 were tested positive. MRI was able to detect cancer that was missed by mammography and clinical exam. Within the 969 women, 33 tumors were diagnosed with 30 being from MRI. The three others were diagnosed from a mastectomy specimen before a biopsy could be performed. Those three samples contained ductal carcinomas in situ and measured 1, 3, and 4 mm in diameter. The most common types of invasive cancer found on MRI was ducal carcinoma (67%), invasive lobular carcinoma (22%), and tubular carcinoma (Le hman, 2007). 96.7% of cancer found was stage 0 or 1. The overall high accuracy of MRI is due to technology and interpretation of results. Contrast enhanced MRI aids in distinguishing benign from malignant patterns. This study also showed that screening MRI can improve on mammography by detecting cancer in women at high risk especially those with aggressive cancers. When ordering MRI, cost effectiveness continues to be a major concern. In the article, American Cancer Society Guidelines for Breast Screening with MRI as an Adjunct to Mammography, benefits of MRI’s sensitivity in detecting lesions is noted but without data on the recurrence and survival rates, MRI is not recommended as a screening exam. The article compares study results from six published studies, sensitivity for MRI is consistently higher than mammogram and ultrasound while specificity was lower than mammogram and ultrasound. High sensitivity means MRI correctly identifies a patient with cancer. Low specificity means MRI is not able to correctly reject a patient without cancer as accurately as other modalities. MRI has higher error but in calling back more patients and performing more biopsies, it diagnoses cancer more accurately. With this being said, the article does not recommend MRI as a screening tool unless women are at an increased risk of breast cancer, have a fami ly history, or carry the BRCA gene (Stephens, 2011). Conclusion Women who present with signs and symptoms of breast cancer or have a family history should be screened with MRI in addition to mammography. It is not acceptable to deny patients imaging studies that can prolong their life. Breast cancer is 100% treatable when caught early. Due to advances in technology and a growing healthcare system, facilities are more readily available to treat women. Patients no longer need to wait months for tests or results. Steps should be taken to reduce anxiety associated with MRI cancer screening and wait time. Patients should be informed about the likelihood of false-negative and false-positive findings. Whether or not patients need to go through additional imaging, the chance of early detection outweighs the stress of additional testing. MRI is a very useful imaging test that can save lives if performed. Patients who want to be proactive in their treatment should be encouraged to get routine imaging tests done and educate themselves on different stages of breast cancer, so they understand the process they are going through. By creating high resolution imaging, MRI proves to be the most effective study for diagnosing breast cancer. MRI is able to detect smaller masses and abnormalities than other imaging tests miss. Utilization of MRI is crucial for early detection, with its results breast cancer can be highly treatable and late stages along with metastases can be stopped. MRI used in screening for women with high risk factors proves more cost effective than mammography and ultrasound because it detects cancer in earlier stages which reduces the need for more invasive, long term care. MRI is also able to cover a larger area including axillary lymph nodes where cancer is commonly missed on mammograms. References: Jiao, X., & Hay, J. (2014). Cost-Effectiveness Of Breast Mri And Mammography For Screening High Risk Population.  Value in Health,17(3). doi:10.1016/j.jval.2014.03.780 Orel, S. (2005). 1–10 Efficacy of MRI and Mammography for Breast-Cancer Screening in   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Women With a Familial or Genetic Predisposition.  Breast Diseases: A Year Book Quarterly,16(1), 37-38. doi:10.1016/s1043-321x(05)80023-2 Saslow, D., Boetes, C., Burke, W., Harms, S., Leach, M. O., Lehman, C. D., . . . Russell, C. A.   Ã‚   (2007). American Cancer Society Guidelines for Breast Screening with MRI as an   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Adjunct to Mammography.  CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians,57(2), 75-89.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   doi:10.3322/canjclin.57.2.75 Feig, S. (2009). Cost Effectiveness of Breast Cancer Screening With Contrast-Enhanced MRI in High-Risk Women.  Breast Diseases: A Year Book Quarterly,20(4), 383-385. doi:10.1016/s1043-321x(09)79390-7 Berg WA, Zhang Z, Lehrer D, et al. Detection of Breast Cancer With Addition of Annual   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Screening Ultrasound or a Single Screening MRI to Mammography in Women With Elevated Breast Cancer Risk.  JAMA.2012;307(13):1394–1404. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.388 National Cancer Institute. (2018). 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The Role of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Screening Breast MRI in Populations at Increased Risk for Breast Cancer.  Womens Health,10(6), 609-622. doi:10.2217/whe.14.61 Pilewskie, M., & King, T. A. (2014). Magnetic resonance imaging in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer: A review of the literature.  Cancer,120(14), 2080-2089. doi:10.1002/cncr.28700 Heil, J., Czink, E., Schipp, A., Sohn, C., Junkermann, H., & Golatta, M. (2012). Detected, yet not Diagnosed Breast Cancer Screening with MRI Mammography in High-Risk Women.  Breast Care,7(3), 236-239. doi:10.1159/000339688 Lehman, C. D. (2007, March 29). MRI Evaluation of the Contralateral Breast in Women with Recently Diagnosed Breast Cancer. Retrieved September 19, 2018, from http://www.nejm.org/ Stephens, T. (2011). 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Last Sacrifice Chapter Twenty-four

CONSIDERING THEIR EARLIER antagonism, I was a bit surprised to see Sonya and Robert combine their powers to create an illusion for the Dashkov brothers. It obscured their appearances, and with the addition of some fake names, the Mastrano family just assumed the guys were part of our increasingly bizarre entourage. Considering the distress and upheaval already going on in the house, a couple more people seemed the least of the Mastranos' worries. In playing good Moroi hosts, it wasn't enough to just cook up dinner. Emily also managed to get a feeder to come by–a sort of â€Å"blood delivery service.' Normally, Moroi who lived outside sheltered areas and intermingled among humans had access to secret feeders living nearby. Usually, these feeders had a keeper of sorts, a Moroi who made money off the service. It was common for Moroi to simply show up at the home of the feeder's â€Å"owner,' but in this case, Emily had made arrangements for the feeder to be brought to her house. She was doing it as a courtesy, the kind she'd do for any Moroi guests–even ones who were delivering news she'd dreaded receiving for most of her life. Little did she know just how desperately welcome blood was to the Moroi we'd brought along. I didn't mind the brothers suffering a little weakness, but Sonya definitely needed blood if she was going to continue her recovery. Indeed, when the feeder and her keeper showed, Sonya was the first to drink. Dimitri and I had to stay out of sight upstairs. Sonya and Robert could only manage so much spirit-illusion, and hiding Robert and Victor's identities from the feeder's Moroi was imperative. Obscuring both me and Dimitri would have been too much, and considering our most-wanted status, it was essential we not take any risks. Leaving the brothers unsupervised made Dimitri and me nervous, but the two of them seemed too desperate for blood to attempt anything. Dimitri and I wanted to clean up anyways, since we hadn't had time for showers this morning. We flipped a coin, and I got to go first. Only, when I finished and was rummaging through my clothes, I discovered I'd gone through my clean â€Å"casual wear' supply and was down to the dress Sydney had included in the backpack. I grimaced but figured it wouldn't hurt to put the dress on for one night. We wouldn't be doing much more than waiting around for tomorrow's departure, and maybe Emily would let me do laundry before we left. After decent hair styling with a blow dryer, I finally felt civilized again. Sydney and I had been given a guestroom to share, and the brothers occupied another. Sonya was going to stay in Jill's room, and Dimitri had been offered the couch. I didn't doubt for a second he'd be stalking the halls as the household slept and that I'd be trading shifts with him. For now, he was still showering, and I crept out into the hall and peered down over a railing to check out the first floor. The Mastranos, Sonya, and the brothers were all gathered with the feeder and her keeper. Nothing seemed amiss. Relieved, I returned to my room and used the downtime to check on Lissa. After the initial excitement of passing her test, I'd felt her calm down and had assumed she was getting much-needed sleep. But, no. She hadn't gone to bed. She'd taken Eddie and Christian over to Adrian's, and I realized she was the one who'd woken him up from the dream I'd shared with him in the car. A skimming of her recent memories gave me a replay of what had happened since the time he left me and staggered to his door. â€Å"What's going on?' he asked, looking from face to face. â€Å"I was having a good dream.' â€Å"I need you,' said Lissa. â€Å"I hear that from women a lot,' said Adrian. Christian made a gagging sound, but the faintest glimmer of a smile crossed Eddie's lips, despite his otherwise tough guardian- stance. â€Å"I'm serious,' she told him. â€Å"I just got a message from Ambrose. He's got something important to tell us, and †¦ I don't know. I'm still not certain of his role in everything. I want another set of eyes on him. I want your opinion.' â€Å"That,' Adrian said, â€Å"is not something I hear a lot.' â€Å"Just hurry up and get dressed, okay?' ordered Christian. Honestly, it was a wonder anyone slept anymore, considering how often we were all pulled out of sleep. Adrian nonetheless did dress quickly, and despite his flippant comments, I knew he was interested in anything related to clearing my name. What I was uncertain of was whether he'd tell anyone about the mess I'd gotten myself into, now that I'd slipped and revealed some of my true activities. My friends hurried over to the building they'd visited before, the one where Ambrose lived and worked. The Court had woken up, and people were out and about, many undoubtedly wanting to find out about the second monarch test. In fact, a few people catching sight of Lissa called out happy greetings. â€Å"I had another trial tonight,' Lissa told Adrian. Someone had just congratulated her. â€Å"An unexpected one.' Adrian hesitated, and I waited for him to say he'd already heard that from me. I also waited for him to deliver the shocking news about my current company and whereabouts. â€Å"How'd it go?' he asked instead. â€Å"I passed,' she replied. â€Å"That's all that matters.' She couldn't bring herself to tell him about the cheering people, those who didn't just simply support her because of the law but because they actually believed in her. Tasha, Mia, and some surprise friends from school had been among the onlookers, grinning at her. Even Daniella, there to wait for Rufus's turn, had grudgingly congratulated Lissa, seeming surprised Lissa had made it through. The whole experience had been surreal, and Lissa had simply wanted to get out of there. Eddie had gotten pulled away to assist other guardians, despite his protests that he was Lissa's escort. So, Christian and Tasha had ended up having to take Lissa home alone. Well, almost alone. A guardian named Ethan Moore joined them, the one Abe had teased Tasha about. Abe exaggerated some things, but he'd been right this time. Ethan looked as tough as any guardian, but his kickass attitude occasionally faltered whenever he looked at Tasha. He adored her. She clearly liked him too and flirted along the way–much to Christian's discomfort. I thought it was cute. Some guys probably wouldn't go near Tasha because of her scars. It was nice to see someone who appreciated her for her character, no matter how disgusted Christian was by the thought of anyonedating his aunt. And I actually kind of liked seeing Christian so obviously tormented. It was good for him. Ethan and Tasha left once Lissa was securely back in her room. Within minutes, Eddie showed back up, grumbling about how they'd delayed him with some â€Å"crap task' when they knew he had better things to do. He'd apparently made such a fuss that they'd finally released him, so he could hurry back to Lissa's side. He made it just ten minutes before Ambrose's note arrived, which was lucky timing. Eddie would have freaked out if he'd come to her room and found her gone. He would have thought Strigoi had kidnapped his charge in his absence. That was the series of events leading up to what was happening now: Lissa and the three guys going off to Ambrose's secret meeting. â€Å"You're early,' he said, letting them in before Lissa could even knock a second time. They stood inside Ambrose's own room now, not a fancy parlor for clients. It resembled a dorm room–a very nice one. Much nicer than anything I'd endured. Lissa's attention was all on Ambrose, so she didn't notice, out of the corner of her eye, Eddie quickly scanning the room. I was glad he was on his game and guessed he didn't trust Ambrose–or anyone not in our immediate circle. â€Å"What's going on?' asked Lissa, as soon as Ambrose shut the door. â€Å"Why the urgent visit?' â€Å"Because I have to show you something,' he said. On his bed was a pile of papers, and he took the top one. â€Å"Remember when I said they were locking off Tatiana's belongings? Well now they're inventorying and removing them.' Adrian shifted uncomfortably–again, only something I noticed. â€Å"She had a safe where she kept important documents–secret ones, obviously. And †¦' â€Å"And?' prompted Lissa. â€Å"And, I didn't want anyone to find them,' Ambrose continued. â€Å"I didn't know what most of them were, but if she wanted them secret †¦ I just felt they should stay that way. I knew the combination, and so †¦ I stole them.' Guilt shone on his face, but it wasn't murderous guilt. It was guilt for the theft. Lissa eyed the stack eagerly. â€Å"And?' â€Å"None of them have anything to do with what you're looking for †¦ except maybe this one.' He handed her the piece of paper. Adrian and Christian crowded around her. Darling Tatiana, I'm a bit surprised to see how these latest developments have unfolded. I thought we had an understanding that the safety of our people required more than just bringing in a younger crop of guardians. We have let too many of them go to waste, particularly the women. If you took actions to force them back–and you know what I'm talking about– the guardian ranks would swell. This current law is completely inadequate, particularly after seeing how your â€Å"training' experiment failed. I'm equally shocked to hear that you are considering releasing Dimitri Belikov from his guards. I don't understand exactly what happened, but you cannot trust mere appearances. You may be unleashing a monster–or at the very least, a spy–in our midst, and he needs to be under much stricter guard than he currently is. In fact, your continued support of the study of spirit is troubling altogether and no doubt led to this unnatural situation. I believe there is a reason this element was lost to us for so long: our ancestors realized its danger and stamped it out. Avery Lazar stands as proof of that, and your prodigy, Vasilisa Dragomir, is certain to follow. In encouraging Vasilisa, you encourage the degradation of the Dragomir line, a line that should be allowed to fade into history with honor and not the disgrace of insanity. Your support of her may also put your own great-nephew at risk, something neither of us would like to see happen. I'm sorry to burden you with so much condemnation. I hold you in the highest regard and have nothing but respect for the way you have so skillfully governed our people these long years. I'm certain you will soon come to the appropriate decisions–though I worry others may not share my confidence in you. Said people might attempt to take matters into their own hands, and I fear for what may follow. The letter was typed, with no signature. For a moment, Lissa couldn't process it as a whole. She was completely consumed by the part about the Dragomir line fading into disgrace. It hit too close to the vision she'd seen in the test. It was Christian who pulled her back. â€Å"Well. It would seem Tatiana had enemies. But I guess that's kind of obvious at this point in the game.' â€Å"Who's this from?' demanded Adrian. His face was dark, furious at this thinly veiled threat to his aunt. â€Å"I don't know,' said Ambrose. â€Å"This is exactly the way I found it. Maybe she didn't even know who the sender was.' Lissa nodded her agreement. â€Å"There's certainly an anonymous feel to it †¦ and yet, at the same time, I feel like it's someone Tatiana must have known well.' Adrian gave Ambrose a suspicious look. â€Å"How do we know you didn't just type this yourself to throw us off?' â€Å"Adrian,' chastised Lissa. She didn't say it but was hoping to urge Adrian to feel out Ambrose's aura for anything she might not be able to detect. â€Å"This is crazy,' said Christian, tapping the piece of paper. â€Å"The part about rounding up dhampirs and forcing them to be guardians. What do you think that means–the â€Å"actions' that Tatiana knows about?' I knew because I'd been tipped off about a lot of this earlier. Compulsion, Tatiana's note had said. â€Å"I'm not sure,' said Lissa. She reread the letter to herself. â€Å"What about the â€Å"experiments' part? Do you think that's the training sessions Grant did with Moroi?' â€Å"That was what I thought,' said Ambrose. â€Å"But I'm not sure.' â€Å"Can we see the rest?' asked Adrian, gesturing to the stack of papers. I couldn't tell if his suspicion was legitimate distrust of Ambrose or just the result of how upset his aunt's murder made him. Ambrose handed over the papers, but after going through the pages, Lissa agreed: there was nothing of use in them. The documents mostly consisted of legalese and personal correspondence. It occurred to Lissa–as it had to me–that Ambrose might not be showing everything he'd found. There was no way to prove that for now. Stifling a yawn, she thanked him and left with the others. She was hoping for sleep, but her mind couldn't help but analyze the letter's possibilities. If it was legitimate. â€Å"That letter's evidence that someone had a lot more reason to be pissed off at Tatiana than Rose did,' observed Christian as they wound their way back upstairs toward the building's exit. â€Å"Aunt Tasha once said that anger based on calculated reason is more dangerous than anger based on blind hate.' â€Å"Your aunt's a regular philosopher,' said Adrian wearily. â€Å"But everything we've got is still circumstantial.' Ambrose had let Lissa keep the letter, and she'd folded it and put it in her jeans pocket. â€Å"I'm curious what Tasha will have to say about this. And Abe too.' She sighed. â€Å"I wish Grant was still alive. He was a good man–and might have some insight into this.' They reached a side exit on the main floor, and Eddie pushed the door open for them. Christian glanced over at Lissa as they stepped outside. â€Å"How close were Grant and Serena–‘ Eddie moved a fraction of a second before Lissa saw the problem, but of course, Eddie would have already been watching for problems. A man–a Moroi, actually–had been waiting among trees in the courtyard that separated Ambrose's building from the neighboring one. It wasn't exactly a secluded spot, but it was far enough off of the main paths that it often stayed deserted. The man moved forward and looked startled when he saw Eddie racing toward him. I was able to analyze the fight in a way Lissa couldn't. Judging by the man's angle and movement, he'd been heading for Lissa–with a knife in his hand. Lissa froze in fear, an expected reaction for someone not trained to react in this situation. But when Christian jerked her back, she came to life and quickly retreated with him and Adrian. The attacker and Eddie were deadlocked for a moment, each trying to take the other down. I heard Lissa yell for help, but my attention was all on the fighters. The guy was strong for a Moroi and his maneuvers suggested he'd been trained to fight. I doubted, however, that he'd been trained since elementary school, nor did he have the muscle a dhampir did. Sure enough, Eddie broke through and forced the guy to the ground. Eddie reached out to pin the man's right hand and get the knife out of the equation. Moroi or not, the man was actually quite skilled with the blade, particularly when I (and probably Eddie too) noticed scarring and what looked like a bent finger on his left hand. The guy had probably gone to great extents to hone his knife-hand's reflexes. Even restrained, he was still able to snake up with the blade, aiming unhesitatingly for Eddie's neck. Eddie was too fast to let that happen and blocked the blow with his arm, which took the blade's cut. Eddie's block gave the Moroi a bit more room to move, and he bucked up, throwing Eddie off. Without missing a beat–really, this guy was impressive–the Moroi swung for Eddie again. There could be no doubt about the man's intentions. He wasn't holding back. He was there to kill. That blade was out for blood. Guardians knew how to subdue and take prisoners, but we'd also been trained that when things were moving too fast, when it was an us-or-them situation–well, we made sure it was them. Eddie was faster than his opponent and was being driven by instincts pounded into us for years: stop what was trying to kill you. Eddie had no gun or knife, not at Court. When the man came at him a second time, knife again pointed straight at Eddie's neck, Eddie used the only weapon left that he could be sure would save his life. Eddie staked the Moroi. Dimitri had once jokingly commented that you didn't have to be Strigoi to be hurt by a stake through your heart. And, let's face it, a stake through the heart didn't actually hurt. It killed. Tatiana was proof. The man's knife actually made contact with Eddie's neck– and then fell before piercing skin. The man's eyes went wide in shock and pain and then saw nothing at all. He was dead. Eddie leaned back on his heels, staring at his victim with the adrenaline-charged battle lust that followed any situation. Shouting suddenly caught his attention, and he leapt to his feet, ready for the next threat. What he found was a group of guardians, ones who had responded to Lissa's earlier cries for help. They took one look at the scene and immediately acted on and the conclusions their training drove them to. There was a dead Moroi and someone holding a bloody weapon. The guardians went for Eddie, throwing him against the wall and prying his stake away. Lissa shouted to them that they had it all wrong, that Eddie had saved her life and– â€Å"Rose!' Dimitri's frantic voice shocked me back to the Mastrano house. I was sitting on the bed, and he knelt before me, face full of fear as he gripped my shoulders. â€Å"Rose, what's wrong? Are you okay?' â€Å"No!' I pushed him aside and moved toward the door. â€Å"I have to–I have to go back to Court. Now. Lissa's in danger. She needs me.' â€Å"Rose. Roza. Slow down.' He'd caught hold of my arm, and there was no escaping from that grip. He turned me so I faced him. His hair was still damp from the shower, and the clean scent of soap and wet skin surrounded us. â€Å"Tell me what happened.' I quickly repeated what I'd seen. â€Å"Someone tried to kill her, Dimitri! And I wasn't there!' â€Å"But Eddie was,' said Dimitri quietly. â€Å"She's okay. She's alive.' He released me, and I leaned wearily against the wall. My heart was racing, and even though my friends were safe, I couldn't shake my panic. â€Å"And now he's in trouble. Those guardians were pissed–‘ â€Å"Only because they don't know the whole story. They see a dead body and a weapon, that's it. Once they get facts and testimonies, everything will be okay. Eddie saved a Moroi. It's his job.' â€Å"But he killed another Moroi to do it,' I pointed out. â€Å"We're not supposed to do that.' It sounded like an obvious–and even stupid–statement, but I knew Dimitri understood what I meant. The guardians' purpose was to protect Moroi. They come first. Killing one was unimaginable. But then, so was them trying to kill each other. â€Å"This wasn't a normal situation,' Dimitri affirmed. I tipped my head back. â€Å"I know, I know. I just can't stand leaving her undefended. I want so badly to go back and keep her safe. Right now.' Tomorrow seemed years away. â€Å"What if it happens again?' â€Å"Other people are there to protect her.' Dimitri walked over to me, and I was surprised to see a smile on his lips, in light of the grim events. â€Å"Believe me, I want to protect her too, but we'd risk our lives for nothing if we take off right now. Wait a little longer and at least risk your life for something important.' A little of the panic faded. â€Å"And Jill is important, isn't she?' â€Å"Very.' I straightened up. Part of my brain kept trying to calm me about Lissa's attack while the other fully processed what we'd accomplished here. â€Å"We did it,' I said, feeling a smile slowly spread to my own lips. â€Å"Against all reason †¦ somehow, we found Lissa's lost sister. Do you realize what this means? Lissa can have everything she's entitled to now. They can't deny her anything. Hell, she could be queen if she wanted. And Jill †¦' I hesitated. â€Å"Well, she's part of an ancient royal family. That's got to be a good thing, right?' â€Å"I think it depends on Jill,' said Dimitri. â€Å"And what the after-effects of all this are.' Guilt over potentially ruining Jill's life returned, and I stared down at my feet. â€Å"Hey, it's okay,' he said, tilting my chin back up. His brown eyes were warm and affectionate. â€Å"You did the right thing. No one else would have tried something this impossible. Only Rose Hathaway. You took a gamble to find Jill. You risked your life by breaking Abe's rules–and it paid off. It was worth it.' â€Å"I hope Adrian thinks so,' I mused. â€Å"He thinks me leaving our â€Å"safe house' was the stupidest thing ever.' Dimitri's hand dropped. â€Å"You told him about all this?' â€Å"Not about Jill. But I accidentally told him we weren't in West Virginia anymore. He's kept it secret, though,' I added hastily. â€Å"No one else knows.' â€Å"I can believe that,' said Dimitri, though he'd lost some of his earlier warmth. It was such a fleeting thing. â€Å"He †¦ he seems pretty loyal to you.' â€Å"He is. I trust him completely.' â€Å"And he makes you happy?' Dimitri's tone wasn't harsh, but there was an intensity to it that put the exchange on par with a police interrogation. I thought about my time with Adrian: the bantering, the parties, the games, and of course, the kissing. â€Å"Yeah. He does. I have fun with him. I mean he's infuriating sometimes–okay, a lot of the time–but don't be fooled by all the vices. He's not a bad person.' â€Å"I know he isn't,' said Dimitri. â€Å"He's a good man. It's not easy for everyone to see, but I can. He's still getting himself together, but he's on his way. I saw it in the escape. And after †¦' The words caught on Dimitri's tongue. â€Å"After Siberia, he was there for you? He helped you?' I nodded, puzzled by all these questions. Turns out they were only the warm-up for the big one. â€Å"Do you love him?' There were only a few people in the world who could ask me such insanely personal questions without getting punched. Dimitri was one of them. With us, there were no walls, but our complicated relationship made this topic surreal. How could I describe loving someone else to a man I'd once loved? A man you still love, a voice whispered inside my head. Maybe. Probably. Again, I reminded myself that it was natural to carry lingering feelings for Dimitri. They would fade. They had to fade, just like his had. He was the past. Adrian was my future. â€Å"Yeah,' I said, taking longer than I probably should have. â€Å"I †¦ I do love him.' â€Å"Good. I'm glad.' The thing was, Dimitri's face didn't look all that glad as he stared blankly out the window. My confusion grew. Why was he upset? His actions and words no longer seemed to match lately. I approached him. â€Å"What's wrong? â€Å"Nothing. I just want to make sure that you're okay. That you're happy.' He turned back to me, putting on a forced smile. He'd spoken the truth–but not the whole truth. â€Å"Things have been changing, that's all. It's making me reconsider so much. Ever since Donovan †¦ and then Sonya †¦ it's strange. I thought it all changed the night Lissa saved me. But it didn't. There's been so much more, more to the healing than I realized.' He started to slip into pensive mode but caught himself. â€Å"Every day I figure out something new. Some new emotion I'd forgotten to feel. Some revelation I totally missed. Some beauty I didn't see.' â€Å"Hey, my hair in the alley does not go on that list, okay?' I teased. â€Å"You were in shock.' The forced smile grew natural. â€Å"No, Roza. It was beautiful. It's beautiful now.' â€Å"The dress is just throwing you off,' I said, attempting a joke. In reality, I felt dizzy under his gaze. Those dark, dark eyes looked at me–really looked at me, I think, for the first time since he'd entered the room. A mixed expression came over him that made no sense to me. I could pick out the emotions it contained but not what caused them. Awe. Wonder. Sadness. Regret. â€Å"What?' I asked uneasily. â€Å"Why are you looking at me like that?' He shook his head, the smile rueful now. â€Å"Because sometimes, a person can get so caught up in the details that they miss the whole. It's not just the dress or the hair. It's you. You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me.' I felt a strange fluttering sensation in my chest. Butterflies, cardiac arrest †¦ it was hard to say what exactly. Yet, in that moment, I was no longer standing in the Mastrano guestroom. He'd said those words before, or something very close. So beautiful, it hurts me. It was back in the cabin at St. Vladimir's, the one and only time we'd had sex. He'd looked at me in a very similar way, too, only there'd been less sadness. Nonetheless, as I heard those words again, a door I'd kept locked in my heart suddenly burst open, and with it came all the feelings and experiences and sense of oneness we'd always shared. Looking at him, just for the space of a heartbeat, I had a surreal sensation wash over me, liked I'd known him forever. Like we were bound †¦ but not in the way Lissa and I were, by a bond forced on us. â€Å"Hey, guys, have you–oh.' Sydney came to a halt in the half-open doorway and promptly took two steps back. â€Å"Sorry. I–that is–‘ Dimitri and I immediately pulled back from each other. I felt warm and shaky and only then noticed how close we had been. I didn't even remember moving, but only a breath had separated us. What had happened? It was like a trance. A dream. I swallowed and tried to slow my pulse. â€Å"No problem. What's going on?' Sydney glanced between us, still looking uncomfortable. Her dating life might be non- existent, but even she knew what she'd walked in on. I was glad one of us did. â€Å"I †¦ that is †¦ I just wanted to come hang out. I can't handle that going on downstairs.' I attempted a smile, still utterly confused by my feelings. Why did Dimitri look at me like that? Why did he say that? He can't still want me. He said he didn't. He told me to leave him alone. â€Å"Sure. We were just †¦ talking,' I said. She obviously didn't believe me. I tried harder to convince her †¦ and myself. â€Å"We were talking about Jill. Do you have any ideas on how to get her to Court–seeing as we're all outlaws?' Sydney might not be an expert in personal relationships, but puzzles were familiar territory. She relaxed, her attention focusing inward as she tried to figure our problem out. â€Å"Well, you could always have her mother–‘ A loud crashing from downstairs abruptly cut her off. As one, Dimitri and I sprang for the door, ready to combat whatever mess Victor and Robert had caused. We both came screeching to a halt at the top of the stairs when we heard lots of shouts for everyone to get down. â€Å"Guardians,' Dimitri said. â€Å"There are guardians raiding the house.'

Last Sacrifice Chapter Twenty-four

CONSIDERING THEIR EARLIER antagonism, I was a bit surprised to see Sonya and Robert combine their powers to create an illusion for the Dashkov brothers. It obscured their appearances, and with the addition of some fake names, the Mastrano family just assumed the guys were part of our increasingly bizarre entourage. Considering the distress and upheaval already going on in the house, a couple more people seemed the least of the Mastranos' worries. In playing good Moroi hosts, it wasn't enough to just cook up dinner. Emily also managed to get a feeder to come by–a sort of â€Å"blood delivery service.' Normally, Moroi who lived outside sheltered areas and intermingled among humans had access to secret feeders living nearby. Usually, these feeders had a keeper of sorts, a Moroi who made money off the service. It was common for Moroi to simply show up at the home of the feeder's â€Å"owner,' but in this case, Emily had made arrangements for the feeder to be brought to her house. She was doing it as a courtesy, the kind she'd do for any Moroi guests–even ones who were delivering news she'd dreaded receiving for most of her life. Little did she know just how desperately welcome blood was to the Moroi we'd brought along. I didn't mind the brothers suffering a little weakness, but Sonya definitely needed blood if she was going to continue her recovery. Indeed, when the feeder and her keeper showed, Sonya was the first to drink. Dimitri and I had to stay out of sight upstairs. Sonya and Robert could only manage so much spirit-illusion, and hiding Robert and Victor's identities from the feeder's Moroi was imperative. Obscuring both me and Dimitri would have been too much, and considering our most-wanted status, it was essential we not take any risks. Leaving the brothers unsupervised made Dimitri and me nervous, but the two of them seemed too desperate for blood to attempt anything. Dimitri and I wanted to clean up anyways, since we hadn't had time for showers this morning. We flipped a coin, and I got to go first. Only, when I finished and was rummaging through my clothes, I discovered I'd gone through my clean â€Å"casual wear' supply and was down to the dress Sydney had included in the backpack. I grimaced but figured it wouldn't hurt to put the dress on for one night. We wouldn't be doing much more than waiting around for tomorrow's departure, and maybe Emily would let me do laundry before we left. After decent hair styling with a blow dryer, I finally felt civilized again. Sydney and I had been given a guestroom to share, and the brothers occupied another. Sonya was going to stay in Jill's room, and Dimitri had been offered the couch. I didn't doubt for a second he'd be stalking the halls as the household slept and that I'd be trading shifts with him. For now, he was still showering, and I crept out into the hall and peered down over a railing to check out the first floor. The Mastranos, Sonya, and the brothers were all gathered with the feeder and her keeper. Nothing seemed amiss. Relieved, I returned to my room and used the downtime to check on Lissa. After the initial excitement of passing her test, I'd felt her calm down and had assumed she was getting much-needed sleep. But, no. She hadn't gone to bed. She'd taken Eddie and Christian over to Adrian's, and I realized she was the one who'd woken him up from the dream I'd shared with him in the car. A skimming of her recent memories gave me a replay of what had happened since the time he left me and staggered to his door. â€Å"What's going on?' he asked, looking from face to face. â€Å"I was having a good dream.' â€Å"I need you,' said Lissa. â€Å"I hear that from women a lot,' said Adrian. Christian made a gagging sound, but the faintest glimmer of a smile crossed Eddie's lips, despite his otherwise tough guardian- stance. â€Å"I'm serious,' she told him. â€Å"I just got a message from Ambrose. He's got something important to tell us, and †¦ I don't know. I'm still not certain of his role in everything. I want another set of eyes on him. I want your opinion.' â€Å"That,' Adrian said, â€Å"is not something I hear a lot.' â€Å"Just hurry up and get dressed, okay?' ordered Christian. Honestly, it was a wonder anyone slept anymore, considering how often we were all pulled out of sleep. Adrian nonetheless did dress quickly, and despite his flippant comments, I knew he was interested in anything related to clearing my name. What I was uncertain of was whether he'd tell anyone about the mess I'd gotten myself into, now that I'd slipped and revealed some of my true activities. My friends hurried over to the building they'd visited before, the one where Ambrose lived and worked. The Court had woken up, and people were out and about, many undoubtedly wanting to find out about the second monarch test. In fact, a few people catching sight of Lissa called out happy greetings. â€Å"I had another trial tonight,' Lissa told Adrian. Someone had just congratulated her. â€Å"An unexpected one.' Adrian hesitated, and I waited for him to say he'd already heard that from me. I also waited for him to deliver the shocking news about my current company and whereabouts. â€Å"How'd it go?' he asked instead. â€Å"I passed,' she replied. â€Å"That's all that matters.' She couldn't bring herself to tell him about the cheering people, those who didn't just simply support her because of the law but because they actually believed in her. Tasha, Mia, and some surprise friends from school had been among the onlookers, grinning at her. Even Daniella, there to wait for Rufus's turn, had grudgingly congratulated Lissa, seeming surprised Lissa had made it through. The whole experience had been surreal, and Lissa had simply wanted to get out of there. Eddie had gotten pulled away to assist other guardians, despite his protests that he was Lissa's escort. So, Christian and Tasha had ended up having to take Lissa home alone. Well, almost alone. A guardian named Ethan Moore joined them, the one Abe had teased Tasha about. Abe exaggerated some things, but he'd been right this time. Ethan looked as tough as any guardian, but his kickass attitude occasionally faltered whenever he looked at Tasha. He adored her. She clearly liked him too and flirted along the way–much to Christian's discomfort. I thought it was cute. Some guys probably wouldn't go near Tasha because of her scars. It was nice to see someone who appreciated her for her character, no matter how disgusted Christian was by the thought of anyonedating his aunt. And I actually kind of liked seeing Christian so obviously tormented. It was good for him. Ethan and Tasha left once Lissa was securely back in her room. Within minutes, Eddie showed back up, grumbling about how they'd delayed him with some â€Å"crap task' when they knew he had better things to do. He'd apparently made such a fuss that they'd finally released him, so he could hurry back to Lissa's side. He made it just ten minutes before Ambrose's note arrived, which was lucky timing. Eddie would have freaked out if he'd come to her room and found her gone. He would have thought Strigoi had kidnapped his charge in his absence. That was the series of events leading up to what was happening now: Lissa and the three guys going off to Ambrose's secret meeting. â€Å"You're early,' he said, letting them in before Lissa could even knock a second time. They stood inside Ambrose's own room now, not a fancy parlor for clients. It resembled a dorm room–a very nice one. Much nicer than anything I'd endured. Lissa's attention was all on Ambrose, so she didn't notice, out of the corner of her eye, Eddie quickly scanning the room. I was glad he was on his game and guessed he didn't trust Ambrose–or anyone not in our immediate circle. â€Å"What's going on?' asked Lissa, as soon as Ambrose shut the door. â€Å"Why the urgent visit?' â€Å"Because I have to show you something,' he said. On his bed was a pile of papers, and he took the top one. â€Å"Remember when I said they were locking off Tatiana's belongings? Well now they're inventorying and removing them.' Adrian shifted uncomfortably–again, only something I noticed. â€Å"She had a safe where she kept important documents–secret ones, obviously. And †¦' â€Å"And?' prompted Lissa. â€Å"And, I didn't want anyone to find them,' Ambrose continued. â€Å"I didn't know what most of them were, but if she wanted them secret †¦ I just felt they should stay that way. I knew the combination, and so †¦ I stole them.' Guilt shone on his face, but it wasn't murderous guilt. It was guilt for the theft. Lissa eyed the stack eagerly. â€Å"And?' â€Å"None of them have anything to do with what you're looking for †¦ except maybe this one.' He handed her the piece of paper. Adrian and Christian crowded around her. Darling Tatiana, I'm a bit surprised to see how these latest developments have unfolded. I thought we had an understanding that the safety of our people required more than just bringing in a younger crop of guardians. We have let too many of them go to waste, particularly the women. If you took actions to force them back–and you know what I'm talking about– the guardian ranks would swell. This current law is completely inadequate, particularly after seeing how your â€Å"training' experiment failed. I'm equally shocked to hear that you are considering releasing Dimitri Belikov from his guards. I don't understand exactly what happened, but you cannot trust mere appearances. You may be unleashing a monster–or at the very least, a spy–in our midst, and he needs to be under much stricter guard than he currently is. In fact, your continued support of the study of spirit is troubling altogether and no doubt led to this unnatural situation. I believe there is a reason this element was lost to us for so long: our ancestors realized its danger and stamped it out. Avery Lazar stands as proof of that, and your prodigy, Vasilisa Dragomir, is certain to follow. In encouraging Vasilisa, you encourage the degradation of the Dragomir line, a line that should be allowed to fade into history with honor and not the disgrace of insanity. Your support of her may also put your own great-nephew at risk, something neither of us would like to see happen. I'm sorry to burden you with so much condemnation. I hold you in the highest regard and have nothing but respect for the way you have so skillfully governed our people these long years. I'm certain you will soon come to the appropriate decisions–though I worry others may not share my confidence in you. Said people might attempt to take matters into their own hands, and I fear for what may follow. The letter was typed, with no signature. For a moment, Lissa couldn't process it as a whole. She was completely consumed by the part about the Dragomir line fading into disgrace. It hit too close to the vision she'd seen in the test. It was Christian who pulled her back. â€Å"Well. It would seem Tatiana had enemies. But I guess that's kind of obvious at this point in the game.' â€Å"Who's this from?' demanded Adrian. His face was dark, furious at this thinly veiled threat to his aunt. â€Å"I don't know,' said Ambrose. â€Å"This is exactly the way I found it. Maybe she didn't even know who the sender was.' Lissa nodded her agreement. â€Å"There's certainly an anonymous feel to it †¦ and yet, at the same time, I feel like it's someone Tatiana must have known well.' Adrian gave Ambrose a suspicious look. â€Å"How do we know you didn't just type this yourself to throw us off?' â€Å"Adrian,' chastised Lissa. She didn't say it but was hoping to urge Adrian to feel out Ambrose's aura for anything she might not be able to detect. â€Å"This is crazy,' said Christian, tapping the piece of paper. â€Å"The part about rounding up dhampirs and forcing them to be guardians. What do you think that means–the â€Å"actions' that Tatiana knows about?' I knew because I'd been tipped off about a lot of this earlier. Compulsion, Tatiana's note had said. â€Å"I'm not sure,' said Lissa. She reread the letter to herself. â€Å"What about the â€Å"experiments' part? Do you think that's the training sessions Grant did with Moroi?' â€Å"That was what I thought,' said Ambrose. â€Å"But I'm not sure.' â€Å"Can we see the rest?' asked Adrian, gesturing to the stack of papers. I couldn't tell if his suspicion was legitimate distrust of Ambrose or just the result of how upset his aunt's murder made him. Ambrose handed over the papers, but after going through the pages, Lissa agreed: there was nothing of use in them. The documents mostly consisted of legalese and personal correspondence. It occurred to Lissa–as it had to me–that Ambrose might not be showing everything he'd found. There was no way to prove that for now. Stifling a yawn, she thanked him and left with the others. She was hoping for sleep, but her mind couldn't help but analyze the letter's possibilities. If it was legitimate. â€Å"That letter's evidence that someone had a lot more reason to be pissed off at Tatiana than Rose did,' observed Christian as they wound their way back upstairs toward the building's exit. â€Å"Aunt Tasha once said that anger based on calculated reason is more dangerous than anger based on blind hate.' â€Å"Your aunt's a regular philosopher,' said Adrian wearily. â€Å"But everything we've got is still circumstantial.' Ambrose had let Lissa keep the letter, and she'd folded it and put it in her jeans pocket. â€Å"I'm curious what Tasha will have to say about this. And Abe too.' She sighed. â€Å"I wish Grant was still alive. He was a good man–and might have some insight into this.' They reached a side exit on the main floor, and Eddie pushed the door open for them. Christian glanced over at Lissa as they stepped outside. â€Å"How close were Grant and Serena–‘ Eddie moved a fraction of a second before Lissa saw the problem, but of course, Eddie would have already been watching for problems. A man–a Moroi, actually–had been waiting among trees in the courtyard that separated Ambrose's building from the neighboring one. It wasn't exactly a secluded spot, but it was far enough off of the main paths that it often stayed deserted. The man moved forward and looked startled when he saw Eddie racing toward him. I was able to analyze the fight in a way Lissa couldn't. Judging by the man's angle and movement, he'd been heading for Lissa–with a knife in his hand. Lissa froze in fear, an expected reaction for someone not trained to react in this situation. But when Christian jerked her back, she came to life and quickly retreated with him and Adrian. The attacker and Eddie were deadlocked for a moment, each trying to take the other down. I heard Lissa yell for help, but my attention was all on the fighters. The guy was strong for a Moroi and his maneuvers suggested he'd been trained to fight. I doubted, however, that he'd been trained since elementary school, nor did he have the muscle a dhampir did. Sure enough, Eddie broke through and forced the guy to the ground. Eddie reached out to pin the man's right hand and get the knife out of the equation. Moroi or not, the man was actually quite skilled with the blade, particularly when I (and probably Eddie too) noticed scarring and what looked like a bent finger on his left hand. The guy had probably gone to great extents to hone his knife-hand's reflexes. Even restrained, he was still able to snake up with the blade, aiming unhesitatingly for Eddie's neck. Eddie was too fast to let that happen and blocked the blow with his arm, which took the blade's cut. Eddie's block gave the Moroi a bit more room to move, and he bucked up, throwing Eddie off. Without missing a beat–really, this guy was impressive–the Moroi swung for Eddie again. There could be no doubt about the man's intentions. He wasn't holding back. He was there to kill. That blade was out for blood. Guardians knew how to subdue and take prisoners, but we'd also been trained that when things were moving too fast, when it was an us-or-them situation–well, we made sure it was them. Eddie was faster than his opponent and was being driven by instincts pounded into us for years: stop what was trying to kill you. Eddie had no gun or knife, not at Court. When the man came at him a second time, knife again pointed straight at Eddie's neck, Eddie used the only weapon left that he could be sure would save his life. Eddie staked the Moroi. Dimitri had once jokingly commented that you didn't have to be Strigoi to be hurt by a stake through your heart. And, let's face it, a stake through the heart didn't actually hurt. It killed. Tatiana was proof. The man's knife actually made contact with Eddie's neck– and then fell before piercing skin. The man's eyes went wide in shock and pain and then saw nothing at all. He was dead. Eddie leaned back on his heels, staring at his victim with the adrenaline-charged battle lust that followed any situation. Shouting suddenly caught his attention, and he leapt to his feet, ready for the next threat. What he found was a group of guardians, ones who had responded to Lissa's earlier cries for help. They took one look at the scene and immediately acted on and the conclusions their training drove them to. There was a dead Moroi and someone holding a bloody weapon. The guardians went for Eddie, throwing him against the wall and prying his stake away. Lissa shouted to them that they had it all wrong, that Eddie had saved her life and– â€Å"Rose!' Dimitri's frantic voice shocked me back to the Mastrano house. I was sitting on the bed, and he knelt before me, face full of fear as he gripped my shoulders. â€Å"Rose, what's wrong? Are you okay?' â€Å"No!' I pushed him aside and moved toward the door. â€Å"I have to–I have to go back to Court. Now. Lissa's in danger. She needs me.' â€Å"Rose. Roza. Slow down.' He'd caught hold of my arm, and there was no escaping from that grip. He turned me so I faced him. His hair was still damp from the shower, and the clean scent of soap and wet skin surrounded us. â€Å"Tell me what happened.' I quickly repeated what I'd seen. â€Å"Someone tried to kill her, Dimitri! And I wasn't there!' â€Å"But Eddie was,' said Dimitri quietly. â€Å"She's okay. She's alive.' He released me, and I leaned wearily against the wall. My heart was racing, and even though my friends were safe, I couldn't shake my panic. â€Å"And now he's in trouble. Those guardians were pissed–‘ â€Å"Only because they don't know the whole story. They see a dead body and a weapon, that's it. Once they get facts and testimonies, everything will be okay. Eddie saved a Moroi. It's his job.' â€Å"But he killed another Moroi to do it,' I pointed out. â€Å"We're not supposed to do that.' It sounded like an obvious–and even stupid–statement, but I knew Dimitri understood what I meant. The guardians' purpose was to protect Moroi. They come first. Killing one was unimaginable. But then, so was them trying to kill each other. â€Å"This wasn't a normal situation,' Dimitri affirmed. I tipped my head back. â€Å"I know, I know. I just can't stand leaving her undefended. I want so badly to go back and keep her safe. Right now.' Tomorrow seemed years away. â€Å"What if it happens again?' â€Å"Other people are there to protect her.' Dimitri walked over to me, and I was surprised to see a smile on his lips, in light of the grim events. â€Å"Believe me, I want to protect her too, but we'd risk our lives for nothing if we take off right now. Wait a little longer and at least risk your life for something important.' A little of the panic faded. â€Å"And Jill is important, isn't she?' â€Å"Very.' I straightened up. Part of my brain kept trying to calm me about Lissa's attack while the other fully processed what we'd accomplished here. â€Å"We did it,' I said, feeling a smile slowly spread to my own lips. â€Å"Against all reason †¦ somehow, we found Lissa's lost sister. Do you realize what this means? Lissa can have everything she's entitled to now. They can't deny her anything. Hell, she could be queen if she wanted. And Jill †¦' I hesitated. â€Å"Well, she's part of an ancient royal family. That's got to be a good thing, right?' â€Å"I think it depends on Jill,' said Dimitri. â€Å"And what the after-effects of all this are.' Guilt over potentially ruining Jill's life returned, and I stared down at my feet. â€Å"Hey, it's okay,' he said, tilting my chin back up. His brown eyes were warm and affectionate. â€Å"You did the right thing. No one else would have tried something this impossible. Only Rose Hathaway. You took a gamble to find Jill. You risked your life by breaking Abe's rules–and it paid off. It was worth it.' â€Å"I hope Adrian thinks so,' I mused. â€Å"He thinks me leaving our â€Å"safe house' was the stupidest thing ever.' Dimitri's hand dropped. â€Å"You told him about all this?' â€Å"Not about Jill. But I accidentally told him we weren't in West Virginia anymore. He's kept it secret, though,' I added hastily. â€Å"No one else knows.' â€Å"I can believe that,' said Dimitri, though he'd lost some of his earlier warmth. It was such a fleeting thing. â€Å"He †¦ he seems pretty loyal to you.' â€Å"He is. I trust him completely.' â€Å"And he makes you happy?' Dimitri's tone wasn't harsh, but there was an intensity to it that put the exchange on par with a police interrogation. I thought about my time with Adrian: the bantering, the parties, the games, and of course, the kissing. â€Å"Yeah. He does. I have fun with him. I mean he's infuriating sometimes–okay, a lot of the time–but don't be fooled by all the vices. He's not a bad person.' â€Å"I know he isn't,' said Dimitri. â€Å"He's a good man. It's not easy for everyone to see, but I can. He's still getting himself together, but he's on his way. I saw it in the escape. And after †¦' The words caught on Dimitri's tongue. â€Å"After Siberia, he was there for you? He helped you?' I nodded, puzzled by all these questions. Turns out they were only the warm-up for the big one. â€Å"Do you love him?' There were only a few people in the world who could ask me such insanely personal questions without getting punched. Dimitri was one of them. With us, there were no walls, but our complicated relationship made this topic surreal. How could I describe loving someone else to a man I'd once loved? A man you still love, a voice whispered inside my head. Maybe. Probably. Again, I reminded myself that it was natural to carry lingering feelings for Dimitri. They would fade. They had to fade, just like his had. He was the past. Adrian was my future. â€Å"Yeah,' I said, taking longer than I probably should have. â€Å"I †¦ I do love him.' â€Å"Good. I'm glad.' The thing was, Dimitri's face didn't look all that glad as he stared blankly out the window. My confusion grew. Why was he upset? His actions and words no longer seemed to match lately. I approached him. â€Å"What's wrong? â€Å"Nothing. I just want to make sure that you're okay. That you're happy.' He turned back to me, putting on a forced smile. He'd spoken the truth–but not the whole truth. â€Å"Things have been changing, that's all. It's making me reconsider so much. Ever since Donovan †¦ and then Sonya †¦ it's strange. I thought it all changed the night Lissa saved me. But it didn't. There's been so much more, more to the healing than I realized.' He started to slip into pensive mode but caught himself. â€Å"Every day I figure out something new. Some new emotion I'd forgotten to feel. Some revelation I totally missed. Some beauty I didn't see.' â€Å"Hey, my hair in the alley does not go on that list, okay?' I teased. â€Å"You were in shock.' The forced smile grew natural. â€Å"No, Roza. It was beautiful. It's beautiful now.' â€Å"The dress is just throwing you off,' I said, attempting a joke. In reality, I felt dizzy under his gaze. Those dark, dark eyes looked at me–really looked at me, I think, for the first time since he'd entered the room. A mixed expression came over him that made no sense to me. I could pick out the emotions it contained but not what caused them. Awe. Wonder. Sadness. Regret. â€Å"What?' I asked uneasily. â€Å"Why are you looking at me like that?' He shook his head, the smile rueful now. â€Å"Because sometimes, a person can get so caught up in the details that they miss the whole. It's not just the dress or the hair. It's you. You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me.' I felt a strange fluttering sensation in my chest. Butterflies, cardiac arrest †¦ it was hard to say what exactly. Yet, in that moment, I was no longer standing in the Mastrano guestroom. He'd said those words before, or something very close. So beautiful, it hurts me. It was back in the cabin at St. Vladimir's, the one and only time we'd had sex. He'd looked at me in a very similar way, too, only there'd been less sadness. Nonetheless, as I heard those words again, a door I'd kept locked in my heart suddenly burst open, and with it came all the feelings and experiences and sense of oneness we'd always shared. Looking at him, just for the space of a heartbeat, I had a surreal sensation wash over me, liked I'd known him forever. Like we were bound †¦ but not in the way Lissa and I were, by a bond forced on us. â€Å"Hey, guys, have you–oh.' Sydney came to a halt in the half-open doorway and promptly took two steps back. â€Å"Sorry. I–that is–‘ Dimitri and I immediately pulled back from each other. I felt warm and shaky and only then noticed how close we had been. I didn't even remember moving, but only a breath had separated us. What had happened? It was like a trance. A dream. I swallowed and tried to slow my pulse. â€Å"No problem. What's going on?' Sydney glanced between us, still looking uncomfortable. Her dating life might be non- existent, but even she knew what she'd walked in on. I was glad one of us did. â€Å"I †¦ that is †¦ I just wanted to come hang out. I can't handle that going on downstairs.' I attempted a smile, still utterly confused by my feelings. Why did Dimitri look at me like that? Why did he say that? He can't still want me. He said he didn't. He told me to leave him alone. â€Å"Sure. We were just †¦ talking,' I said. She obviously didn't believe me. I tried harder to convince her †¦ and myself. â€Å"We were talking about Jill. Do you have any ideas on how to get her to Court–seeing as we're all outlaws?' Sydney might not be an expert in personal relationships, but puzzles were familiar territory. She relaxed, her attention focusing inward as she tried to figure our problem out. â€Å"Well, you could always have her mother–‘ A loud crashing from downstairs abruptly cut her off. As one, Dimitri and I sprang for the door, ready to combat whatever mess Victor and Robert had caused. We both came screeching to a halt at the top of the stairs when we heard lots of shouts for everyone to get down. â€Å"Guardians,' Dimitri said. â€Å"There are guardians raiding the house.'

Last Sacrifice Chapter Twenty-four

CONSIDERING THEIR EARLIER antagonism, I was a bit surprised to see Sonya and Robert combine their powers to create an illusion for the Dashkov brothers. It obscured their appearances, and with the addition of some fake names, the Mastrano family just assumed the guys were part of our increasingly bizarre entourage. Considering the distress and upheaval already going on in the house, a couple more people seemed the least of the Mastranos' worries. In playing good Moroi hosts, it wasn't enough to just cook up dinner. Emily also managed to get a feeder to come by–a sort of â€Å"blood delivery service.' Normally, Moroi who lived outside sheltered areas and intermingled among humans had access to secret feeders living nearby. Usually, these feeders had a keeper of sorts, a Moroi who made money off the service. It was common for Moroi to simply show up at the home of the feeder's â€Å"owner,' but in this case, Emily had made arrangements for the feeder to be brought to her house. She was doing it as a courtesy, the kind she'd do for any Moroi guests–even ones who were delivering news she'd dreaded receiving for most of her life. Little did she know just how desperately welcome blood was to the Moroi we'd brought along. I didn't mind the brothers suffering a little weakness, but Sonya definitely needed blood if she was going to continue her recovery. Indeed, when the feeder and her keeper showed, Sonya was the first to drink. Dimitri and I had to stay out of sight upstairs. Sonya and Robert could only manage so much spirit-illusion, and hiding Robert and Victor's identities from the feeder's Moroi was imperative. Obscuring both me and Dimitri would have been too much, and considering our most-wanted status, it was essential we not take any risks. Leaving the brothers unsupervised made Dimitri and me nervous, but the two of them seemed too desperate for blood to attempt anything. Dimitri and I wanted to clean up anyways, since we hadn't had time for showers this morning. We flipped a coin, and I got to go first. Only, when I finished and was rummaging through my clothes, I discovered I'd gone through my clean â€Å"casual wear' supply and was down to the dress Sydney had included in the backpack. I grimaced but figured it wouldn't hurt to put the dress on for one night. We wouldn't be doing much more than waiting around for tomorrow's departure, and maybe Emily would let me do laundry before we left. After decent hair styling with a blow dryer, I finally felt civilized again. Sydney and I had been given a guestroom to share, and the brothers occupied another. Sonya was going to stay in Jill's room, and Dimitri had been offered the couch. I didn't doubt for a second he'd be stalking the halls as the household slept and that I'd be trading shifts with him. For now, he was still showering, and I crept out into the hall and peered down over a railing to check out the first floor. The Mastranos, Sonya, and the brothers were all gathered with the feeder and her keeper. Nothing seemed amiss. Relieved, I returned to my room and used the downtime to check on Lissa. After the initial excitement of passing her test, I'd felt her calm down and had assumed she was getting much-needed sleep. But, no. She hadn't gone to bed. She'd taken Eddie and Christian over to Adrian's, and I realized she was the one who'd woken him up from the dream I'd shared with him in the car. A skimming of her recent memories gave me a replay of what had happened since the time he left me and staggered to his door. â€Å"What's going on?' he asked, looking from face to face. â€Å"I was having a good dream.' â€Å"I need you,' said Lissa. â€Å"I hear that from women a lot,' said Adrian. Christian made a gagging sound, but the faintest glimmer of a smile crossed Eddie's lips, despite his otherwise tough guardian- stance. â€Å"I'm serious,' she told him. â€Å"I just got a message from Ambrose. He's got something important to tell us, and †¦ I don't know. I'm still not certain of his role in everything. I want another set of eyes on him. I want your opinion.' â€Å"That,' Adrian said, â€Å"is not something I hear a lot.' â€Å"Just hurry up and get dressed, okay?' ordered Christian. Honestly, it was a wonder anyone slept anymore, considering how often we were all pulled out of sleep. Adrian nonetheless did dress quickly, and despite his flippant comments, I knew he was interested in anything related to clearing my name. What I was uncertain of was whether he'd tell anyone about the mess I'd gotten myself into, now that I'd slipped and revealed some of my true activities. My friends hurried over to the building they'd visited before, the one where Ambrose lived and worked. The Court had woken up, and people were out and about, many undoubtedly wanting to find out about the second monarch test. In fact, a few people catching sight of Lissa called out happy greetings. â€Å"I had another trial tonight,' Lissa told Adrian. Someone had just congratulated her. â€Å"An unexpected one.' Adrian hesitated, and I waited for him to say he'd already heard that from me. I also waited for him to deliver the shocking news about my current company and whereabouts. â€Å"How'd it go?' he asked instead. â€Å"I passed,' she replied. â€Å"That's all that matters.' She couldn't bring herself to tell him about the cheering people, those who didn't just simply support her because of the law but because they actually believed in her. Tasha, Mia, and some surprise friends from school had been among the onlookers, grinning at her. Even Daniella, there to wait for Rufus's turn, had grudgingly congratulated Lissa, seeming surprised Lissa had made it through. The whole experience had been surreal, and Lissa had simply wanted to get out of there. Eddie had gotten pulled away to assist other guardians, despite his protests that he was Lissa's escort. So, Christian and Tasha had ended up having to take Lissa home alone. Well, almost alone. A guardian named Ethan Moore joined them, the one Abe had teased Tasha about. Abe exaggerated some things, but he'd been right this time. Ethan looked as tough as any guardian, but his kickass attitude occasionally faltered whenever he looked at Tasha. He adored her. She clearly liked him too and flirted along the way–much to Christian's discomfort. I thought it was cute. Some guys probably wouldn't go near Tasha because of her scars. It was nice to see someone who appreciated her for her character, no matter how disgusted Christian was by the thought of anyonedating his aunt. And I actually kind of liked seeing Christian so obviously tormented. It was good for him. Ethan and Tasha left once Lissa was securely back in her room. Within minutes, Eddie showed back up, grumbling about how they'd delayed him with some â€Å"crap task' when they knew he had better things to do. He'd apparently made such a fuss that they'd finally released him, so he could hurry back to Lissa's side. He made it just ten minutes before Ambrose's note arrived, which was lucky timing. Eddie would have freaked out if he'd come to her room and found her gone. He would have thought Strigoi had kidnapped his charge in his absence. That was the series of events leading up to what was happening now: Lissa and the three guys going off to Ambrose's secret meeting. â€Å"You're early,' he said, letting them in before Lissa could even knock a second time. They stood inside Ambrose's own room now, not a fancy parlor for clients. It resembled a dorm room–a very nice one. Much nicer than anything I'd endured. Lissa's attention was all on Ambrose, so she didn't notice, out of the corner of her eye, Eddie quickly scanning the room. I was glad he was on his game and guessed he didn't trust Ambrose–or anyone not in our immediate circle. â€Å"What's going on?' asked Lissa, as soon as Ambrose shut the door. â€Å"Why the urgent visit?' â€Å"Because I have to show you something,' he said. On his bed was a pile of papers, and he took the top one. â€Å"Remember when I said they were locking off Tatiana's belongings? Well now they're inventorying and removing them.' Adrian shifted uncomfortably–again, only something I noticed. â€Å"She had a safe where she kept important documents–secret ones, obviously. And †¦' â€Å"And?' prompted Lissa. â€Å"And, I didn't want anyone to find them,' Ambrose continued. â€Å"I didn't know what most of them were, but if she wanted them secret †¦ I just felt they should stay that way. I knew the combination, and so †¦ I stole them.' Guilt shone on his face, but it wasn't murderous guilt. It was guilt for the theft. Lissa eyed the stack eagerly. â€Å"And?' â€Å"None of them have anything to do with what you're looking for †¦ except maybe this one.' He handed her the piece of paper. Adrian and Christian crowded around her. Darling Tatiana, I'm a bit surprised to see how these latest developments have unfolded. I thought we had an understanding that the safety of our people required more than just bringing in a younger crop of guardians. We have let too many of them go to waste, particularly the women. If you took actions to force them back–and you know what I'm talking about– the guardian ranks would swell. This current law is completely inadequate, particularly after seeing how your â€Å"training' experiment failed. I'm equally shocked to hear that you are considering releasing Dimitri Belikov from his guards. I don't understand exactly what happened, but you cannot trust mere appearances. You may be unleashing a monster–or at the very least, a spy–in our midst, and he needs to be under much stricter guard than he currently is. In fact, your continued support of the study of spirit is troubling altogether and no doubt led to this unnatural situation. I believe there is a reason this element was lost to us for so long: our ancestors realized its danger and stamped it out. Avery Lazar stands as proof of that, and your prodigy, Vasilisa Dragomir, is certain to follow. In encouraging Vasilisa, you encourage the degradation of the Dragomir line, a line that should be allowed to fade into history with honor and not the disgrace of insanity. Your support of her may also put your own great-nephew at risk, something neither of us would like to see happen. I'm sorry to burden you with so much condemnation. I hold you in the highest regard and have nothing but respect for the way you have so skillfully governed our people these long years. I'm certain you will soon come to the appropriate decisions–though I worry others may not share my confidence in you. Said people might attempt to take matters into their own hands, and I fear for what may follow. The letter was typed, with no signature. For a moment, Lissa couldn't process it as a whole. She was completely consumed by the part about the Dragomir line fading into disgrace. It hit too close to the vision she'd seen in the test. It was Christian who pulled her back. â€Å"Well. It would seem Tatiana had enemies. But I guess that's kind of obvious at this point in the game.' â€Å"Who's this from?' demanded Adrian. His face was dark, furious at this thinly veiled threat to his aunt. â€Å"I don't know,' said Ambrose. â€Å"This is exactly the way I found it. Maybe she didn't even know who the sender was.' Lissa nodded her agreement. â€Å"There's certainly an anonymous feel to it †¦ and yet, at the same time, I feel like it's someone Tatiana must have known well.' Adrian gave Ambrose a suspicious look. â€Å"How do we know you didn't just type this yourself to throw us off?' â€Å"Adrian,' chastised Lissa. She didn't say it but was hoping to urge Adrian to feel out Ambrose's aura for anything she might not be able to detect. â€Å"This is crazy,' said Christian, tapping the piece of paper. â€Å"The part about rounding up dhampirs and forcing them to be guardians. What do you think that means–the â€Å"actions' that Tatiana knows about?' I knew because I'd been tipped off about a lot of this earlier. Compulsion, Tatiana's note had said. â€Å"I'm not sure,' said Lissa. She reread the letter to herself. â€Å"What about the â€Å"experiments' part? Do you think that's the training sessions Grant did with Moroi?' â€Å"That was what I thought,' said Ambrose. â€Å"But I'm not sure.' â€Å"Can we see the rest?' asked Adrian, gesturing to the stack of papers. I couldn't tell if his suspicion was legitimate distrust of Ambrose or just the result of how upset his aunt's murder made him. Ambrose handed over the papers, but after going through the pages, Lissa agreed: there was nothing of use in them. The documents mostly consisted of legalese and personal correspondence. It occurred to Lissa–as it had to me–that Ambrose might not be showing everything he'd found. There was no way to prove that for now. Stifling a yawn, she thanked him and left with the others. She was hoping for sleep, but her mind couldn't help but analyze the letter's possibilities. If it was legitimate. â€Å"That letter's evidence that someone had a lot more reason to be pissed off at Tatiana than Rose did,' observed Christian as they wound their way back upstairs toward the building's exit. â€Å"Aunt Tasha once said that anger based on calculated reason is more dangerous than anger based on blind hate.' â€Å"Your aunt's a regular philosopher,' said Adrian wearily. â€Å"But everything we've got is still circumstantial.' Ambrose had let Lissa keep the letter, and she'd folded it and put it in her jeans pocket. â€Å"I'm curious what Tasha will have to say about this. And Abe too.' She sighed. â€Å"I wish Grant was still alive. He was a good man–and might have some insight into this.' They reached a side exit on the main floor, and Eddie pushed the door open for them. Christian glanced over at Lissa as they stepped outside. â€Å"How close were Grant and Serena–‘ Eddie moved a fraction of a second before Lissa saw the problem, but of course, Eddie would have already been watching for problems. A man–a Moroi, actually–had been waiting among trees in the courtyard that separated Ambrose's building from the neighboring one. It wasn't exactly a secluded spot, but it was far enough off of the main paths that it often stayed deserted. The man moved forward and looked startled when he saw Eddie racing toward him. I was able to analyze the fight in a way Lissa couldn't. Judging by the man's angle and movement, he'd been heading for Lissa–with a knife in his hand. Lissa froze in fear, an expected reaction for someone not trained to react in this situation. But when Christian jerked her back, she came to life and quickly retreated with him and Adrian. The attacker and Eddie were deadlocked for a moment, each trying to take the other down. I heard Lissa yell for help, but my attention was all on the fighters. The guy was strong for a Moroi and his maneuvers suggested he'd been trained to fight. I doubted, however, that he'd been trained since elementary school, nor did he have the muscle a dhampir did. Sure enough, Eddie broke through and forced the guy to the ground. Eddie reached out to pin the man's right hand and get the knife out of the equation. Moroi or not, the man was actually quite skilled with the blade, particularly when I (and probably Eddie too) noticed scarring and what looked like a bent finger on his left hand. The guy had probably gone to great extents to hone his knife-hand's reflexes. Even restrained, he was still able to snake up with the blade, aiming unhesitatingly for Eddie's neck. Eddie was too fast to let that happen and blocked the blow with his arm, which took the blade's cut. Eddie's block gave the Moroi a bit more room to move, and he bucked up, throwing Eddie off. Without missing a beat–really, this guy was impressive–the Moroi swung for Eddie again. There could be no doubt about the man's intentions. He wasn't holding back. He was there to kill. That blade was out for blood. Guardians knew how to subdue and take prisoners, but we'd also been trained that when things were moving too fast, when it was an us-or-them situation–well, we made sure it was them. Eddie was faster than his opponent and was being driven by instincts pounded into us for years: stop what was trying to kill you. Eddie had no gun or knife, not at Court. When the man came at him a second time, knife again pointed straight at Eddie's neck, Eddie used the only weapon left that he could be sure would save his life. Eddie staked the Moroi. Dimitri had once jokingly commented that you didn't have to be Strigoi to be hurt by a stake through your heart. And, let's face it, a stake through the heart didn't actually hurt. It killed. Tatiana was proof. The man's knife actually made contact with Eddie's neck– and then fell before piercing skin. The man's eyes went wide in shock and pain and then saw nothing at all. He was dead. Eddie leaned back on his heels, staring at his victim with the adrenaline-charged battle lust that followed any situation. Shouting suddenly caught his attention, and he leapt to his feet, ready for the next threat. What he found was a group of guardians, ones who had responded to Lissa's earlier cries for help. They took one look at the scene and immediately acted on and the conclusions their training drove them to. There was a dead Moroi and someone holding a bloody weapon. The guardians went for Eddie, throwing him against the wall and prying his stake away. Lissa shouted to them that they had it all wrong, that Eddie had saved her life and– â€Å"Rose!' Dimitri's frantic voice shocked me back to the Mastrano house. I was sitting on the bed, and he knelt before me, face full of fear as he gripped my shoulders. â€Å"Rose, what's wrong? Are you okay?' â€Å"No!' I pushed him aside and moved toward the door. â€Å"I have to–I have to go back to Court. Now. Lissa's in danger. She needs me.' â€Å"Rose. Roza. Slow down.' He'd caught hold of my arm, and there was no escaping from that grip. He turned me so I faced him. His hair was still damp from the shower, and the clean scent of soap and wet skin surrounded us. â€Å"Tell me what happened.' I quickly repeated what I'd seen. â€Å"Someone tried to kill her, Dimitri! And I wasn't there!' â€Å"But Eddie was,' said Dimitri quietly. â€Å"She's okay. She's alive.' He released me, and I leaned wearily against the wall. My heart was racing, and even though my friends were safe, I couldn't shake my panic. â€Å"And now he's in trouble. Those guardians were pissed–‘ â€Å"Only because they don't know the whole story. They see a dead body and a weapon, that's it. Once they get facts and testimonies, everything will be okay. Eddie saved a Moroi. It's his job.' â€Å"But he killed another Moroi to do it,' I pointed out. â€Å"We're not supposed to do that.' It sounded like an obvious–and even stupid–statement, but I knew Dimitri understood what I meant. The guardians' purpose was to protect Moroi. They come first. Killing one was unimaginable. But then, so was them trying to kill each other. â€Å"This wasn't a normal situation,' Dimitri affirmed. I tipped my head back. â€Å"I know, I know. I just can't stand leaving her undefended. I want so badly to go back and keep her safe. Right now.' Tomorrow seemed years away. â€Å"What if it happens again?' â€Å"Other people are there to protect her.' Dimitri walked over to me, and I was surprised to see a smile on his lips, in light of the grim events. â€Å"Believe me, I want to protect her too, but we'd risk our lives for nothing if we take off right now. Wait a little longer and at least risk your life for something important.' A little of the panic faded. â€Å"And Jill is important, isn't she?' â€Å"Very.' I straightened up. Part of my brain kept trying to calm me about Lissa's attack while the other fully processed what we'd accomplished here. â€Å"We did it,' I said, feeling a smile slowly spread to my own lips. â€Å"Against all reason †¦ somehow, we found Lissa's lost sister. Do you realize what this means? Lissa can have everything she's entitled to now. They can't deny her anything. Hell, she could be queen if she wanted. And Jill †¦' I hesitated. â€Å"Well, she's part of an ancient royal family. That's got to be a good thing, right?' â€Å"I think it depends on Jill,' said Dimitri. â€Å"And what the after-effects of all this are.' Guilt over potentially ruining Jill's life returned, and I stared down at my feet. â€Å"Hey, it's okay,' he said, tilting my chin back up. His brown eyes were warm and affectionate. â€Å"You did the right thing. No one else would have tried something this impossible. Only Rose Hathaway. You took a gamble to find Jill. You risked your life by breaking Abe's rules–and it paid off. It was worth it.' â€Å"I hope Adrian thinks so,' I mused. â€Å"He thinks me leaving our â€Å"safe house' was the stupidest thing ever.' Dimitri's hand dropped. â€Å"You told him about all this?' â€Å"Not about Jill. But I accidentally told him we weren't in West Virginia anymore. He's kept it secret, though,' I added hastily. â€Å"No one else knows.' â€Å"I can believe that,' said Dimitri, though he'd lost some of his earlier warmth. It was such a fleeting thing. â€Å"He †¦ he seems pretty loyal to you.' â€Å"He is. I trust him completely.' â€Å"And he makes you happy?' Dimitri's tone wasn't harsh, but there was an intensity to it that put the exchange on par with a police interrogation. I thought about my time with Adrian: the bantering, the parties, the games, and of course, the kissing. â€Å"Yeah. He does. I have fun with him. I mean he's infuriating sometimes–okay, a lot of the time–but don't be fooled by all the vices. He's not a bad person.' â€Å"I know he isn't,' said Dimitri. â€Å"He's a good man. It's not easy for everyone to see, but I can. He's still getting himself together, but he's on his way. I saw it in the escape. And after †¦' The words caught on Dimitri's tongue. â€Å"After Siberia, he was there for you? He helped you?' I nodded, puzzled by all these questions. Turns out they were only the warm-up for the big one. â€Å"Do you love him?' There were only a few people in the world who could ask me such insanely personal questions without getting punched. Dimitri was one of them. With us, there were no walls, but our complicated relationship made this topic surreal. How could I describe loving someone else to a man I'd once loved? A man you still love, a voice whispered inside my head. Maybe. Probably. Again, I reminded myself that it was natural to carry lingering feelings for Dimitri. They would fade. They had to fade, just like his had. He was the past. Adrian was my future. â€Å"Yeah,' I said, taking longer than I probably should have. â€Å"I †¦ I do love him.' â€Å"Good. I'm glad.' The thing was, Dimitri's face didn't look all that glad as he stared blankly out the window. My confusion grew. Why was he upset? His actions and words no longer seemed to match lately. I approached him. â€Å"What's wrong? â€Å"Nothing. I just want to make sure that you're okay. That you're happy.' He turned back to me, putting on a forced smile. He'd spoken the truth–but not the whole truth. â€Å"Things have been changing, that's all. It's making me reconsider so much. Ever since Donovan †¦ and then Sonya †¦ it's strange. I thought it all changed the night Lissa saved me. But it didn't. There's been so much more, more to the healing than I realized.' He started to slip into pensive mode but caught himself. â€Å"Every day I figure out something new. Some new emotion I'd forgotten to feel. Some revelation I totally missed. Some beauty I didn't see.' â€Å"Hey, my hair in the alley does not go on that list, okay?' I teased. â€Å"You were in shock.' The forced smile grew natural. â€Å"No, Roza. It was beautiful. It's beautiful now.' â€Å"The dress is just throwing you off,' I said, attempting a joke. In reality, I felt dizzy under his gaze. Those dark, dark eyes looked at me–really looked at me, I think, for the first time since he'd entered the room. A mixed expression came over him that made no sense to me. I could pick out the emotions it contained but not what caused them. Awe. Wonder. Sadness. Regret. â€Å"What?' I asked uneasily. â€Å"Why are you looking at me like that?' He shook his head, the smile rueful now. â€Å"Because sometimes, a person can get so caught up in the details that they miss the whole. It's not just the dress or the hair. It's you. You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me.' I felt a strange fluttering sensation in my chest. Butterflies, cardiac arrest †¦ it was hard to say what exactly. Yet, in that moment, I was no longer standing in the Mastrano guestroom. He'd said those words before, or something very close. So beautiful, it hurts me. It was back in the cabin at St. Vladimir's, the one and only time we'd had sex. He'd looked at me in a very similar way, too, only there'd been less sadness. Nonetheless, as I heard those words again, a door I'd kept locked in my heart suddenly burst open, and with it came all the feelings and experiences and sense of oneness we'd always shared. Looking at him, just for the space of a heartbeat, I had a surreal sensation wash over me, liked I'd known him forever. Like we were bound †¦ but not in the way Lissa and I were, by a bond forced on us. â€Å"Hey, guys, have you–oh.' Sydney came to a halt in the half-open doorway and promptly took two steps back. â€Å"Sorry. I–that is–‘ Dimitri and I immediately pulled back from each other. I felt warm and shaky and only then noticed how close we had been. I didn't even remember moving, but only a breath had separated us. What had happened? It was like a trance. A dream. I swallowed and tried to slow my pulse. â€Å"No problem. What's going on?' Sydney glanced between us, still looking uncomfortable. Her dating life might be non- existent, but even she knew what she'd walked in on. I was glad one of us did. â€Å"I †¦ that is †¦ I just wanted to come hang out. I can't handle that going on downstairs.' I attempted a smile, still utterly confused by my feelings. Why did Dimitri look at me like that? Why did he say that? He can't still want me. He said he didn't. He told me to leave him alone. â€Å"Sure. We were just †¦ talking,' I said. She obviously didn't believe me. I tried harder to convince her †¦ and myself. â€Å"We were talking about Jill. Do you have any ideas on how to get her to Court–seeing as we're all outlaws?' Sydney might not be an expert in personal relationships, but puzzles were familiar territory. She relaxed, her attention focusing inward as she tried to figure our problem out. â€Å"Well, you could always have her mother–‘ A loud crashing from downstairs abruptly cut her off. As one, Dimitri and I sprang for the door, ready to combat whatever mess Victor and Robert had caused. We both came screeching to a halt at the top of the stairs when we heard lots of shouts for everyone to get down. â€Å"Guardians,' Dimitri said. â€Å"There are guardians raiding the house.'