Shadow Kiss – Vampire Academy #3

Stan laughed, genuinely pleased. “Nice job, Castile.”

Eddie withdrew the stake and helped his instructor up. With the action gone, I could now see how bruised and blotched Stan’s face was. Attacks for us novices might be few and far between, but our guardians were picking fights daily during this exercise. All of them were taking a lot of abuse, but they handled it with grace and good humor.

“Thank you, sir,” said Eddie. He looked pleased but not conceited.

“I’d be faster and stronger if I were Strigoi, of course, but I swear, you could have rivaled one with your speed there.” Stan glanced at Lissa. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she said, face aglow. I could sense that she’d actually enjoyed the excitement. Her adrenaline was running high.

Stan’s smiling face disappeared as he turned his attention on me. “And you – what were you doing?”

I stared, aghast at his harsh tone. It was what he’d said last time too.

“What do you mean?” I exclaimed. “I didn’t freeze or anything this time! I was ready to back him up, looking for a chance to join in.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “That’s exactly the problem. You were so eager to get a punch in that you forgot that you had two Moroi behind you. They might as well have not existed as far as you were concerned. You’re out in the open, and you had your back to them.”

I strode forward and glared at him, unconcerned about propriety. “That is not fair. If we were in the real world and a Strigoi attacked, you cannot tell me that another guardian wouldn’t jump in and do everything they could to take that Strigoi down as quickly possible.”

“You’re probably right,” Stan said. “But you weren’t thinking about eliminating the threat efficiently. You weren’t thinking about your exposed Moroi. You were thinking about how quickly you could do something exciting and redeem yourself.”

“Wh-what? Aren’t you making a few leaps there? You’re grading me on what you think was my motivation. How can you be sure what I’m thinking?” I didn’t even know half the time.

“Instinct,” he replied mysteriously. He took out a small pad of paper and made some notes on it. I narrowed my eyes, wishing I could see through the notepad and discern what he was writing about me. When he finished, he slipped the pad back in his coat and nodded at all of us. “See you later.”

We watched him walk across the snowy grounds toward the gym where dhampirs trained. My mouth was hanging open, and I couldn’t even get any words out at first. When did it end with these people? I was getting burned again and again on stupid technicalities that had nothing to do with how I’d actually perform in the real world.

“That was not even fair. How can he judge me on what he thinks I was thinking?”

Eddie shrugged as we continued our journey toward the dorm. “He can think whatever he wants. He’s our instructor.”

“Yeah, but he’s going to give me another bad mark! Field experience is pointless if it can’t really show how we’d do against Strigoi. I can’t believe this. I’m good – I’m really good. How on earth can I be failing this?”

Nobody had an actual answer for that, but Lissa noted uncomfortably, “Well… whether he was fair or unfair, he had one thing right: You were great, Eddie.”

I glanced over at Eddie and felt bad that I was letting my own drama take away from his success. I was pissed off – really pissed off – but Stan’s wrongness was my problem to deal with. Eddie had performed brilliantly, and everyone praised him so much on the walk back that I could see a blush creeping over his cheeks. Or maybe that was just the cold. Regardless, I was happy for him.

We settled into the lounge, pleased to find no one else had claimed it – and that it was warm and toasty. Each of the dorms had a few of these lounges, and all were stocked with movies and games and lots of comfy chairs and couches. They were only available for student use at certain times. On weekends, they were pretty much open the whole time, but on weekdays, they had limited hours – presumably to encourage us to do our homework.

Eddie and I assessed the room and made a plan, then took up our positions. Standing against the wall, I eyed the couch Lissa and Christian were sprawled out upon with considerable envy.

I’d thought the movie would distract me from being on alert, but actually, it was my own churning feelings that kept my mind spinning. I couldn’t believe Stan had said what he’d said. He’d even admitted that in the heat of battle, any guardian would be trying to get into the fight. His argument about me having ulterior, glory-seeking motives was absurd. I wondered if I was in serious danger of failing this field experience. Surely, so long as I passed, they wouldn’t take me from Lissa after graduation? Alberta and Dimitri had spoken like this was all just an experiment to give Lissa and me new training, but suddenly, an anxious, paranoid part of me began to wonder. Eddie was doing a great job of protecting her. Maybe they wanted to see how well she could work with other guardians. Maybe they were worried that I was only good at protecting her and not other Moroi – I’d let Mason die, after all, right? Maybe the real test here was to see if I needed to be replaced. After all, who was I, really? An expendable novice. She was the Dragomir princess. She would always have protection –  and it didn’t have to be me. The bond was pointless if I ultimately proved incompetent.

Adrian’s entrance put my frantic paranoia on hold. He slipped into the darkened room, winking as he flounced into an armchair near me. I had figured it was only a matter of time before he would surface. I think we were his only entertainment on campus. Or maybe not, judging from the strong smell of alcohol around him.

“Are you sober?” I asked him when the movie ended.

“Sober enough. What have you guys been up to?”

Adrian hadn’t visited my dreams since the one in the garden. He’d also laid off on some of his outrageous flirting. Most of his appearances with us were to work with Lissa or to ease his boredom.

We recapped our encounter with Stan for him, playing up Eddie’s bravery and not mentioning my dressing-down.

“Nice work,” said Adrian. “Looks like you got a battle scar too.” He pointed to the side of Eddie’s face where three red marks glared back at us. I remembered Stan’s nails hitting Eddie during the struggle to free Lissa.

Eddie lightly touched his cheek. “I can barely feel it.”

Lissa leaned forward and studied him. “You got that protecting me.”

“I got that trying to pass my field experience,” he teased. “Don’t worry about it.”

And that’s when it happened. I saw it seize her, that compassion and undeniable urge to help others that so often filled her. She couldn’t stand to see pain, couldn’t stand to sit by if she could do something. I felt the power build up in her, a glorious and swirling feeling that made my toes tingle. I was experiencing how it affected her. It was fire and bliss. Intoxicating. She reached out and touched Eddie’s face….

And the marks vanished.

She dropped her hand, and the euphoria of spirit faded from both of us.

“Son of a bitch,” breathed Adrian. “You weren’t kidding about that.” He peered at Eddie’s cheek. “Not a goddamned trace of it.”

Lissa had stood up and now sank back to the couch. She leaned her head back against it and closed her eyes. “I did it. I can still do it.”

“Of course you can,” said Adrian dismissively. “Now you have to show me how to do it.”

She opened her eyes. “It’s not that easy.”

“Oh, I see,” he said in an exaggerated tone. “You grill me like crazy about how to see auras and walk in dreams, but now you won’t reveal your trade secrets.”

“It’s not a ‘won’t,'” she argued. “It’s a ‘can’t.'”

“Well, cousin, try.” Then suddenly he raked his nails across his hand and drew blood.

“Jesus Christ!” I yelped. “Are you insane?” Who was I kidding? Of course he was.

Lissa reached out and held his hand, and just like before, she healed the skin. Elation filled her, but my mood suddenly dropped without any real cause.

The two of them launched into a discussion I couldn’t follow, using standard magical terms as well as some terms I was pretty sure they’d invented on the spot. Judging from Christian’s face, it looked like he didn’t understand either, and it soon became clear that Adrian and Lissa had forgotten us in their zeal over the mystery of spirit.

Christian finally stood up, looking bored. “Come on, Rose. If I wanted to listen to this, I’d be back in class. I’m hungry.”

Lissa glanced up. “Dinner’s not for another hour and a half.”

“Feeder,” he said. “I haven’t had mine today.”

He planted a kiss on Lissa’s cheek and then left. I followed alongside him. It had started snowing again, and I glared at the flakes accusingly as they drifted down around us. When it had first started snowing in early December, I’d been excited. Now this white stuff was getting pretty damned old. As it had a few nights ago, though, being out in such harsh weather defused my mood a little, the cold air kind of snapping me out of it. With each step closer to the feeders, I felt myself calming down.

A “feeder” was what we called humans who volunteered to be regular sources of blood for Moroi. Unlike Strigoi, who killed the victims they drank from, Moroi took only small quantities each day and didn’t have to kill the donor. These humans lived for the high they got from vampire bites and seemed perfectly happy to spend their lives that way and separate from normal human society. It was weird but necessary for Moroi. The school usually had a feeder or two in the Moroi dorms for overnight hours, but for most of the day, students had to go to the commons to get their daily fix.

As I continued walking, taking in the sights of white trees, white fences, and white boulders, something else white in the landscape caught my attention. Well, it wasn’t white exactly. There was color – pale, washed-out color.

I came to an abrupt halt and felt my eyes go wide. Mason stood on the other side of the quad, nearly blending in with a tree and a post. No, I thought. I’d convinced myself that this was over, but there he was, looking at me with that sorrowful, phantom face. He pointed, off toward the back of campus. I glanced that way but again had no clue what to look for. Turning back to him, I could only stare, fear twisting within me.

An icy-cold hand touched the side of my neck, and I spun around. It was Christian.

“What’s up?” he asked.

I looked back to where I’d seen Mason. He was gone, of course. I squeezed my eyes shut a moment and sighed. Then, turning back to Christian, I kept walking and said, “Nothing.”

Christian usually always had some witty stream of comments whenever we were together, but he was silent as we made the rest of our journey. I was consumed with my own thoughts and worries about Mason, so I had little to say either. This sighting had only lasted a few seconds. Considering how hard it was to see out there, it seemed more than likely that he’d been a trick of the eye, right? I tried to convince myself of this for the rest of the walk. When we entered the commons and escaped the cold, it finally hit me that something was amiss with Christian.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, trying not to think about Mason. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he said.

“The way you just said that proves you aren’t fine.”

He ignored me as we went to the feeders’ room. It was busier than I’d expected, and all of the little cubicles that feeders sat in were filled with Moroi. Brandon Lazar was one of them. As he fed, I caught a glimpse of a faded green bruise on his cheek and recalled that I never had found out who had beaten him up. Christian checked in with the Moroi at the door and then stood in the waiting area until he was called. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what could have caused Christian’s bad mood.

“What’s the matter? Didn’t you like the movie?”

No answer.

“Grossed out by Adrian’s self-mutilation?” Giving Christian a hard time was a guilty pleasure. I could do this all night.

No answer.

“Are you –  Oh.”

It hit me then. I was surprised I hadn’t thought of this before.

“Are you upset that Lissa wanted to talk magic with Adrian?”

He shrugged, which told me all I needed to know.

“Come on, she doesn’t like magic more than she likes you. It’s just this thing with her, you know? She spent all these years thinking she couldn’t do real magic, and then found out she could – except it was this wacky, completely unpredictable kind. She’s just trying to understand it.”

“I know,” he said tightly, staring across the expansive room without actually focusing on any of the people. “That’s not the problem.”

“Then why …” I let my words fade as another revelation hit me. “You’re jealous of Adrian.”