She said something in Russian to him, and her voice was as cold as her beauty. Dimitri answered back, his tone confident yet polite. I heard Nathan’s name mentioned a couple of times as they spoke. Dimitri reached down and helped me up, and I felt embarrassed at how often I needed his assistance, when I used to almost be a match for him.

“Rose,” he said, “this is Galina. She’s the one who has been kind enough to let you stay.”

Galina’s face didn’t look so kind. It was devoid of all emotion, and I felt like my entire soul was exposed to her. While I was uncertain of a lot of things around here, I’d picked up enough to realize that my continual residence here was a rare and fragile thing. I swallowed.

“Spasibo,” I said. I didn’t know how to tell her it was nice to meet her-and honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was-but I figured a simple thank-you was good enough. If she’d been his former instructor and trained at a normal Academy, she probably knew English and was faking it like Yeva. I had no clue why she’d do that, but if you could snap a teen dhampir’s neck, you were entitled to do whatever you wanted.

Galina’s expression-or lack thereof-didn’t change with my thanks, and she turned her attention back to Dimitri. They conversed over me, and Dimitri gestured to me a couple of times. I recognized the word for strong.

Finally, Galina issued something that sounded final and left us without any sort of goodbye. Neither Dimitri nor I moved until I felt the nausea dissipate.

“Come on,” he said. “We should get back.”

We walked back through the maze, though I had no idea how he knew where to go. It was funny. When I’d first arrived, my dream had been to get outside and escape. Now that I was here… well, it didn’t seem that important. Galina’s anger did.

“What did she say?” I asked.

“She doesn’t like that you’re still here. She wants me to awaken you or kill you.”

“Oh. Um, what are you going to do?”

He stayed silent for a few seconds. “I’ll wait a little longer and then… I will make the choice for you.”

He didn’t specify which choice he’d be making, and I almost began my earlier pleas to die before becoming Strigoi. But suddenly, instead, I said, “How long?”

“Not long, Roza. You need to choose. And make the right choice.”

“Which is?”

He held up his hands. “All of this. A life together.”

We’d emerged from the maze. I stared at the house-which was crazy enormous when viewed from the outside-and at the beautiful gardens around us. It was like something from a dream. Beyond that, endless countryside rolled away, eventually becoming lost in the darkness and blending into the black sky-except for one tiny part that had a soft purple glow on the horizon. I frowned, studying it, then turned my attention back to Dimitri.

“And what then? Then I work for Galina too?”

“For a while.”

“How long is a while?”

We came to a stop outside the house. Dimitri looked down into my eyes, his face alight with a look that made me take a step back.

“Until we kill her, Rose. Until we kill her and take all of this for ourselves.”

CHAPTER 21

Dimitri didn’t elaborate. I was too startled by his words and the rest of the night’s events to even know how to begin to address them. He took me back inside, past the Strigoi on guard duty, and upstairs to my suite. Nathan was no longer outside.

For a few brief moments, that nagging voice in my head spoke loudly enough to break through my addled thoughts. If I had no guard in the hall and Inna returned soon, I had a very good chance of threatening her enough to get out of here. Admittedly, that would mean I’d have to deal with a house of God only knew how many Strigoi, but my escape odds were better in the house than in this room.

Then, almost as soon as those thoughts appeared, they vanished. Dimitri snaked his arm around me and pulled me to him. It had been chilly outside, and even if his body was cold, his clothes and jacket provided some warmth. I snuggled closer to him as his hands ran all over me. I thought he was going to bite me, but it was our mouths that met, hard and furious. I wrapped my fingers in his hair, trying to pull him closer to me. Meanwhile, his fingers were running against my bare leg, pushing my skirt up almost to my hip. Anticipation and eagerness lit every part of my body. I had dreamed about the cabin for so long, remembering it with so much longing. I’d never expected anything like that to happen again, but now it could, and I was astonished at how badly I wanted it.

My hands moved down to his shirt, undoing all the buttons so that I could touch his chest. His skin still felt like ice, a startling contrast to the burning within me. He moved his lips from mine, down to my neck and shoulder, pushing down the dress’s strap as he covered my flesh with hungry kisses. His hand was still on the side of my bare hip, and I frantically tried to pull his shirt off altogether.

Suddenly, with a surprising abruptness, he jerked away and shoved me down. At first, I thought it was just more of the foreplay between us, until I realized he was purposely pushing me away.

“No,” he said, voice hard. “Not yet. Not until you’re awakened.”

“Why?” I asked desperately. I couldn’t think of anything except him touching me-and, well, another bite. “Why does it matter? Is there… is there a reason we can’t?” Until I’d come here, sex with a Strigoi had never occurred to me…maybe it just wasn’t possible.

He leaned toward me, putting his lips near my ear. “No, but it’ll be so much better if you’re awakened. Let me do it… let me do it, and then we can do anything we want…”

It was a bargaining chip, I realized vaguely. He wanted me-it was written all over him-but he was using the lure of sex to get me to give in. And honestly? I was this close to accepting. My body was overriding my mind-nearly.

“No,” I whimpered. “I… I’m scared…”

That dangerous look softened, and while he didn’t exactly look like the Dimitri from before, there was something a little less Strigoi about him.

“Rose, do you think I’d do anything that would hurt you?” Somewhere, hadn’t there been a discussion about how my options were to turn or die?

The latter seemed like it might hurt, but I didn’t mention that just now.

“The bite… the turning would hurt…”

“I told you: It’ll be just like what we’ve already done. You’ll enjoy it. It won’t hurt, I swear it.”

I looked away. Damn it. Why couldn’t he still be sinister and scary? It was so much easier to put my foot down and resist. Even in the heat of passion, I was able to resist. But somehow… seeing him like this, calm and reasonable… well, it was too close to the Dimitri I’d loved. And that was hard to turn away from. For the first time, it made turning Strigoi seem… not so bad.

“I don’t know,” I said lamely.

He released me and sat up, frustration filling his features. It was almost a relief. “Galina’s patience is running out. So is mine.”

“You said we still have time… I just need to think more…” How long could I use that excuse? The narrowing of his eyes told me not much longer.

“I have to go,” he said harshly. There would be no more touching or kissing, I could tell. “I need to deal with some things.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, both confused and afraid. I didn’t know which Dimitri I wanted. The terrifying one, the sensual one, or the almost-but still not quite-gentle one.

He said nothing. Without any other warning, he leaned down and bit into the tender skin of my throat. Whatever feeble escape strategies I had were gone. I closed my eyes, nearly falling over, and only his arm wrapped firmly around me kept me upright. Just like when we kissed, his mouth was warm against my flesh, and the feel of his tongue and teeth sent electricity through me.