My mind was reeling when I returned to the Belikov house. Without the bricks, the walk back had been a lot easier. It had given me a chance to ponder Mark’s words. I felt like I’d received a lifetime of information in a one-hour conversation.

Olena was going about the house, doing her normal tasks of cooking and cleaning. While I would personally never want to spend my days doing those sorts of domestic duties, I had to admit there was something comforting about always having someone who was around, ready to cook and worry about me on a daily basis. I knew it was a purely selfish desire, just as I knew my own mom was doing important things with her life. I shouldn’t judge her. Still, it made me feel warm and cared for to have Olena treat me like a daughter when she hardly knew me.

“Are you hungry?” she asked automatically. I think one of the greatest fears in her life was that someone might go hungry in her home. Sydney’s perpetual lack of appetite had been a nonstop worry for Olena.

I hid a smile. “No, we ate at Mark and Oksana’s.”

“Ah, that’s where you were? They’re good people.”

“Where is everyone?” I asked. The house was unusually quiet.

“Sonya and Karolina are at work. Viktoria’s out at a friend’s, but she’ll be glad you’re back.”

“What about Sydney?”

“She left a little while ago. She said she was going back to Saint Petersburg.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “Left for good? Just like that?” Sydney had a blunt nature, but this was abrupt even for her.

“The Alchemists… well, they’re always on the move.” Olena handed me a piece of paper. “She left this for you.”

I took the note and immediately opened it. Sydney’s handwriting was neat and precise. Somehow this didn’t surprise me.

Rose,

I’m sorry I had to leave so quickly, but when the Alchemists tell me to jump… well, I jump. I’ve hitched a ride back to that farm town we stayed in so that I can pick up the Red Hurricane, and then I’m off to Saint Petersburg. Apparently, now that you’ve been delivered to Baia, they don’t need me to stick around anymore.

I wish I could tell you more about Abe and what he wants from you. Even if I was allowed to, there isn’t much to say. In some ways, he’s as much a mystery to me as he is to you. Like I said, a lot of the business he deals in is illegal-both among humans and Moroi. The only time he gets directly involved with people is when something relates to that business-or if it’s a very, very special case. I think you’re one of those cases, and even if he doesn’t intend you harm, he might want to use you for his own purposes. It could be as simple as him wanting to contract you as a bodyguard, seeing as you’re rogue. Maybe he wants to use you to get to others. Maybe this is all part of someone else’s plan, someone who’s even more mysterious than him. Maybe he’s doing someone a favor. Zmey can be dangerous or kind, all depending on what he needs to accomplish.

I never thought I’d care enough to say this to a dhampir, but be careful. I don’t know what your plans are now, but I have a feeling trouble follows you around. Call me if there’s anything I can help with, but if you go back to the big cities to hunt Strigoi, don’t leave any more bodies unattended!

All the best,

Sydney P.S. “The Red Hurricane” is what I named the car.

P.P.S. Just because I like you, it doesn’t mean I still don’t think you’re an evil creature of the night. You are.

Her cell phone number was added at the bottom, and I couldn’t help but smile. Since we’d ridden to Baia with Abe and his guardians, Sydney had had to leave the car behind, which had traumatized her almost as much as the Strigoi. I hoped the Alchemists would let her keep it. I shook my head, amused in spite of her warnings about Abe. The Red Hurricane.

As I headed upstairs to my room, my smile faded. Despite her abrasive attitude, I was going to miss Sydney. She might not exactly be a friend-or was she? — but in this brief time, I’d come to regard her as a constant in my life. I didn’t have many of those left anymore. I felt adrift, unsure what to do now. I’d come here to bring peace to Dimitri and had only ended up bringing grief to his family. And if what everyone said was true, I wasn’t going to find many Strigoi here in Baia. Somehow, I couldn’t picture Dimitri, wandering the road and farms for the occasional prey. Even as a Strigoi — and it killed me to think those words-Dimitri would have a purpose. If he wasn’t returning to the familiar sights of his hometown, then he would be doing something else meaningful-inasmuch as a Strigoi could. Sydney’s comment in the note had verified what I kept hearing over and over:

Strigoi were in the cities. But which one? Where would Dimitri go?

Now I was the one without a purpose. On top of it all, I couldn’t help but replay Mark’s words. Was I really on an insane vigilante mission? Was I foolishly rushing to my death? Or was I foolishly rushing into… nothing? Was I doomed to spend the rest of my days wandering? Alone?

Sitting on my bed, I felt my mood plummet and knew I had to distract myself. I was too susceptible to dark emotions as long as Lissa used spirit; I didn’t need to further encourage them. I slipped on the ring that Mark had given me, hoping it would bring some sort of clarity and tranquility. I felt no noticeable difference, though, and decided to seek peace from that same place I always did: Lissa’s mind.

She was with Adrian, and the two were practicing spirit again. After some initial bumps in the road, Adrian was proving a quick study at healing.

That had been the first of Lissa’s powers to manifest, and it always irked her that he made more progress on what she had to teach him than vice versa.

“I’m running out of things for you to heal,” she said, setting some tiny potted plants onto a table. “Unless we start cutting off limbs or something.”

Adrian smiled. “I used to tease Rose about that, how I was going to impress her by healing amputees or something equally absurd.”

“Oh, and I’m sure she had a smartass response for you each time.”

“Yes, yes, she did.” His face was fond as he recalled the memory. There was a part of me that was always insanely curious to hear them talk about me… yet at the same time, I always felt bad at the grief my name seemed to invoke.

Lissa groaned and stretched out on the carpeted floor. They were in a dorm lounge, and curfew was swiftly approaching. “I want to talk to her, Adrian.”

“You can’t,” he said. There was an unusual seriousness in his voice. “I know she still checks in on you-that’s the closest you’ll get to talking to her.

And honestly? That’s not so bad. You can tell her exactly how you feel.”

“Yeah, but I want to hear her talk back like you do in your dreams.”

This made him smile again. “She does plenty of talking back, believe me.”

Lissa sat up straight. “Do it now.”

“Do what now?”

“Go visit her dreams. You always try to explain it to me, but I’ve never actually seen it. Let me watch.”

He stared, at a loss for words. “That’s kind of voyeuristic.”

“Adrian! I want to learn this, and we’ve tried everything else. I can feel the magic around you sometimes. Just do it, okay?”

He started to protest again but then bit off his comment after studying her face for a moment. Her words had been sharp and demanding-very uncharacteristic for her. “Okay. I’ll try.”

The whole idea of Adrian trying to get into my head while I was watching him through Lissa’s head was surreal, to say the least. I didn’t quite know what to expect from him. I’d always wondered if he had to be asleep or at least have his eyes closed. Apparently not. He instead stared off at nothing, his eyes going vacant as his mind left the world around him. Through Lissa’s eyes, I could see some of the magic radiating off him and his aura, and she tried to analyze each strand. Then, without warning, all the magic faded. He blinked and shook his head.