And there were two ways to make a Strigoi. Strigoi could forcibly turn humans, dhampirs, or Moroi with a single bite. Moroi tempted by the promise of immortality could become Strigoi by choice if they purposely killed another person while feeding. Doing that was considered dark and twisted, the greatest of all sins, both against the Moroi way of life and nature itself. Moroi who chose this dark path lost their ability to connect with elemental magic and other powers of the world. That was why they could no longer go into the sun.

This is what had happened to Christian's parents. They were Strigoi.

CHAPTER 5

Or rather, they had been Strigoi. A regiment of guardians had hunted them down and killed them. If rumors were true, Christian had witnessed it all when he was very young. And although he wasn't Strigoi himself, some people thought he wasn't far off, with the way he always wore black and kept to himself.

Strigoi or not, I didn't trust him. He was a jerk, and I silently screamed at Lisa to get out of there-not that my screaming did much good.Stupid one-way bond.

"What are you doing here? " she asked.

"Taking in the sights, of course.That chair with the tarp on it is particularly lovely this time of year. Over there, we have an old box full of the writings of the blessed and crazy St. Vladimir. And let's not forget that beautiful table with no legs in the corner."

«Whatever.» She rolled her eyes and moved toward the door, wanting to leave, but he blocked her way. "Well, what aboutyou? " he taunted. "Why are you up here? Don't you have parties to go to or lives to destroy?"

Some of Lisa's old spark returned. "Wow, that's hilarious. Am I like a rite of passage now? Go and see if you can piss off Lisa to prove how cool you are? Some girl I don't even know yelled at me today, and now I've got to deal with you? What does it take to be left alone?"

"Oh. So that's why you're up here.For a pity party."

"This isn't a joke. I'm serious. " I could tell Lisa was getting angry. It was trumping her earlier distress.

He shrugged and leaned casually against the sloping wall. "So am I. I love pity parties. I wish I'd brought the hats. What do you want to mope about first? How it's going to take you a whole day to be popular and loved again? How you'll have to wait a couple weeks before Hollister can ship out some new clothes? If you spring for rush shipping, it might not be so long."

"Let me leave, " she said angrily, this time pushing him aside.

«Wait,» he said, as she reached the door. The sarcasm disappeared from his voice. "What…um, what was it like?"

"What waswhat like? " she snapped.

"Being out there.Away from the Academy."

She hesitated for a moment before answering, caught off guard by what seemed like a genuine attempt at conversation. "It was great. No one knew who I was. I was just another face. Not Moroi. Not royal.

Not anything. " She looked down at the floor. "Everyone here thinks they know who I am."

"Yeah.It's kind of hard to outlive your past, " he said bitterly.

It occurred to Lisa at that moment-and me to by default-just how hard it might be to be Christian.

Most of the time, people treated him like he didn't exist.Like he was a ghost. They didn't talk to or about him. They just didn't notice him. The stigma of his parents' crime was too strong, casting its shadow onto the entire Ozera family.

Still, he'd pissed her off, and she wasn't about to feel sorry for him.

"Wait-is this your pity party now?"

He laughed, almost approvingly. "This room has been my pity party for a year now."

«Sorry,» said Lisa snarkily. "I was coming here before I left. I've got a longer claim."

"Squatters' rights.Besides, I have to make sure I stay near the chapel as much as possible so people know I haven't gone Strigoi…yet. " Again, the bitter tone rang out.

"I used to always see you at mass. Is that the only reason you go?To look good? " Strigoi couldn't enter holy ground.More of that sinning-against-the-world thing.

«Sure,» he said. "Why else go?For the good of yoursoul?"

«Whatever,» said Lisa, who clearly had a differentopinion. "I'll leave you alone then."

«Wait,» he said again. He didn't seem to want her to go. "I'll make you a deal. You can hang out here too if you tell me one thing."

«What?» She glanced back at him.

He leaned forward. "Of all the rumors I heard about you today-and believe me, I heard plenty, even if no one actually told them to me-there was one that didn't come up very much. They dissected everything else: why you left, what you did out there, why you came back, the specialization, what Rose said to Mia, blah, blah, blah. And in all of that, no one, no one ever questioned that stupid story that

Rose told about there being all sorts of fringe humans who let you take blood."

She looked away, and I could feel her cheeks starting to burn. "It's not stupid.Or a story."

He laughed softly. "I've lived with humans. My aunt and I stayed away after my parents…died. It's not that easy to find blood. " When she didn't answer, he laughed again. "It was Rose, wasn't it? She fed you."

A renewed fear shot through both her and me. No one at school could know about that. Kirova and the guardians on the scene knew, but they'd kept that knowledge to themselves.

"Well. If that's not friendship, I don't know what it is, " he said.

"You can't tell anyone, " she blurted out.

This was all we needed. As I'd just been reminded, feeders were vampire-bite addicts. We accepted that as part of life but still looked down on them for it. For anyone else-especiallya dhampir-letting a Moroi take blood from you was almost, well, dirty. In fact, one of the kinkiest, practically pornographic things a dhampir could do was let a Moroi drink blood during sex.

Lisa and I hadn't had sex, of course, but we'd both known what others would think of me feeding her.

"Don't tell anyone, " Lisa repeated.

He stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and sat down on one of the crates. "Who am I going to tell?

Look, go grab the window seat. You can have it today and hang out for a while.If you're not still afraid of me."

She hesitated, studying him. He looked dark and surly, lips curled in a sort of I'm-such-a-rebel smirk.

But he didn't look too dangerous. He didn't look Strigoi. Gingerly, she sat back down in the window seat, unconsciously rubbing her arms against the cold.

Christian watched her, and a moment later, the air warmed up considerably.

Lisa met Christian's eyes and smiled, surprised she'd never noticed how icy blue they were before.

"You specialized in fire?"

He nodded and pulled up a broken chair. "Now we have luxury accommodations."

I snapped out of the vision.

"Rose? Rose?"

Blinking, I focused on Dimitri's face. He was leaning toward me, his hands gripping my shoulders. I'd stopped walking; we stood in the middle of the quad separating the upper school buildings.

"Are you all right?"

"I…yeah.I was…I was with Lisa… " I put a hand to my forehead. I'd never had such a long or clear experience like that. "I was in her head."

"Her…head?"

"Yeah.It's part of the bond. " I didn't really feel like elaborating.

"Is she all right?"

"Yeah, she's… " I hesitated.Was she all right? Christian Ozera had just invited her to hang out with him. Not good. There was "coasting through the middle, " and then there was turning to the dark side. But the feelings humming through our bond were no longer scared or upset. She was almost content, though still a little nervous. "She's not in danger, " I finally said. I hoped.

"Can you keep going?"

The hard, stoic warrior I'd met earlier was gone-just for a moment-and he actually looked concerned.Truly concerned.Feeling his eyes on me like that made something flutter inside of me-which was stupid, of course. I had no reason to get all goofy, just because the man was too good-looking for his own good. After all, he was an antisocial god, according to Mason. One who was supposedly going to leave me in all sorts ofpain.