Only, when the time came, I discovered my release came with strings attached.

"Headmistress Kirova thinks you've done well since coming back, " Dimitri told me.

"Aside from starting a fight in Mr. Nagy's class?"

"She doesn't blame you for that. Not entirely. I convinced her you needed a break…and that you could use this as a training exercise."

"Training exercise?"

He gave me a brief explanation as we walked out to meet the others going with us. Victor Dashkov, as sickly as ever, was there with his guardians, and Natalie practically barreled into him. He smiled and gave her a careful hug, one that ended when a coughing fit took over. Natalie's eyes went wide with concern as she waited for it to pass.

He claimed he was fine to accompany us, and while I admired his resolve, I thought he'd be putting himself through a lot just to shop with a bunch of teenage girls.

We rode out the two-hour trip toMissoula in a large school van, leaving just after sunrise. Many Moroi lived separately from humans, but many also lived among them, and when shopping at their malls, you had to go during their hours. The back windows of the van had tinted glass to filter the light and keep the worst of it away from the vampires.

We had nine people in our group: Lisa, Victor, Natalie, Camille, Dimitri, me, and three other guardians. Two of the guardians, Ben and Spiridon, always traveled with Victor. The third was one of the school's guardians: Stan, the jerk who'd humiliated me on my first day back.

"Camille and Natalie don't have personal guardians yet, " Dimitri explained to me. "They're both under the protection of their families' guardians. Since they are Academy students leaving campus, a school guardian accompanies them-Stan. I go because I'm Lisa's assigned guardian. Most girls her age wouldn't have a personal guardian yet, but circumstances make her unusual."

I sat in the back of the van with him and Spiridon, so they could dispense guardian wisdom to me as part of the "training exercise. " Ben and Stan sat up front, while the others sat in the middle. Lisa and Victor talked to each other a lot, catching up on news. Camille, raised to be polite among older royals, smiled and nodded along. Natalie, on the other hand, looked left out and kept trying to shift her father's attention from Lisa. It didn't work. He'd apparently learned to tune out her chatter.

I turned back to Dimitri. "She's supposed to have two guardians. Princes and princesses always do."

Spiridon was Dimitri's age, with spiky blond hair and a more casual attitude. Despite his Greek name, he had a Southern drawl. "Don'tworry, she'll have plenty when the time comes. Dimitri's already one of them. Odds are you'll be one too. And that's why you're here today."

"The training part, " I guessed.

"Yup.You're going to be Dimitri's partner."

A moment of funny silence fell, probably not noticeable to anyone except Dimitri and me. Our eyes met.

"Guarding partner, " Dimitri clarified unnecessarily, like maybe he too had been thinking of other kinds of partners.

«Yup,» agreed Spiridon.

Oblivious to the tension around him, he went on to explain how guardian pairs worked. It was standard stuff, straight from my textbooks, but it meant more now that I'd be doing it in the real world. Guardians were assigned to Moroi based on importance. Two was a common grouping, one I'd probably work in a lot with Lisa. One guardian stayed close to the target; the other stood back and kept an eye on the surroundings.

Boringly, those holding these positions were called near and far guards.

"You'll probably always be near guard, " Dimitri told me. "You're female and the same age as the princess. You can stay close to her without attracting any attention."

"And I can't ever take my eyes off her, " I noted. "Or you."

Spiridon laughed again and elbowed Dimitri. "You've got a star student there. Did you give her a stake?"

"No. She's not ready."

"I would be ifsomeone would show me how to use one, " I argued. I knew every guardian in the van had a stake and a gun concealed on him.

"More to it than just using the stake, " said Dimitri in his old-and-wise way. "You've still got to subdue them. And you've got to bring yourself to kill them."

"Why wouldn't I kill them?"

"Most Strigoi used to be Moroi who purposely turned. Sometimes they're Moroi or dhampirs turned by force. It doesn't matter. There's a strong chance you might know one of them. Could you kill someone you used to know?"

This trip was getting less fun by the minute.

"I guess so. I'd have to, right? If it's them or Lisa…"

"You might still hesitate, " said Dimitri. "And that hesitation could kill you.And her."

"Then how do you make sure you don't hesitate?"

"You have to keep telling yourself that theyaren't the same people you knew. They've become something dark and twisted.Something unnatural. You have to let go of attachments and do what's right. If they have any grain of their former selves left, they'll probably be grateful."

"Grateful for me killing them?"

"If someone turned you into a Strigoi, what would you want? " he asked.

I didn't know how to answer that, so I said nothing. Never taking his eyes off me, he kept pushing.

"What would you want if you knew you were going to be converted into a Strigoi against your will? If you knew you would lose all sense of your old morals and understanding of what's right and wrong? If you knew you'd live the rest of your life-your immortal life-killing innocent people? What would you want?"

The van had grown uncomfortably silent. Staring at Dimitri, burdened by all those questions, I suddenly understood why he and I had this weird attraction, good looks aside.

I'd never met anyone else who took being a guardian so seriously, who understand all the life-and-death consequences. Certainly no one my age did yet; Mason hadn't been able to understand why I couldn't relax and drink at the party. Dimitri had said I grasped my duty better than many older guardians, and I didn't get why-especially when they would have seen so much more death and danger. But I knew in that moment that he was right, that I had some weird sense of how life and death and good and evil worked with each other.

So didhe. We might get lonely sometimes. We might have to put our «fun» on hold. We might not be able to live the lives we wanted for ourselves. But that was the way it had to be. We understood each other, understood that we had others to protect. Our lives would never be easy.

And making decisions like this one was part of that.

"If I became Strigoi…I'd want someone to kill me.»

"So would I, " he said quietly. I could tell that he'd had the same flash of realization I'd just had, that same sense of connection between us.

"It reminds me of Mikhail hunting Sonya, " murmured Victor thoughtfully.

"Who are Mikhail and Sonya? " asked Lisa.

Victor looked surprised. "Why, I thought you knew. Sonya Karp."

"Sonya Kar…you mean, Ms. Karp? What about her? " She looked back and forth between me and her uncle.

"She…became Strigoi, " I said, not meeting Lisa's eyes. "By choice."

I'd known Lisa would find out some day. It was the final piece of Ms. Karp's saga, a secret I'd kept to myself.A secret that worried me constantly. Lisa's face and bond registered complete and utter shock, growing in intensity when she realized I'd known and never told.

"But I don't know who Mikhail is, " I added.

"Mikhail Tanner, " said Spiridon.

"Oh.Guardian Tanner. He was here before we left. " I frowned. "Why is he chasing Ms. Karp?"

"To kill her, " said Dimitri flatly. "They were lovers."

The entire Strigoi thing shifted into new focus for me. Running into a Strigoi I knew during the heat of battle was one thing. Purposely hunting down someone…someone I'd loved. Well, I didn't know if I could do that, even if it was technically the right thing.