"Sorry," he said. "I"ve just never seen some of these. Only the molnija marks. That's how we count our Strigoi kills. You"ve got . . . a lot."
"The S-shaped mark is unique to them," said Raymond disapprovingly. That look was quickly replaced by admiration. "The other's the zvezda."
This earned gasps from Joshua and Angeline and a "What?" from me.
"The battle mark," said Dimitri. "Not many people call it zvezda anymore. It means "star."
"Huh. Makes sense," I said. The tattoo was, in fact, kind of shaped like a star and was given when someone had fought in a big enough battle to lose count of Strigoi kills.
After all, there were only so many molnija marks you could cram on your neck.
Joshua smiled at me in a way that made my stomach flutter just a little. Maybe he was part of a pseudo-Amish cult, but that didn't change the fact that he was still good-looking. "Now I understand how you could have killed the Tainted queen."
"It's probably fake," said Angeline.
I'd been about to protest the queen-killing part, but her comment derailed me. "It is not! I earned it when Strigoi attacked our school. And then there were plenty more I took down after that."
"The mark can't be that uncommon," said Dimitri. "Your people must have big Strigoi fights every once in a while."
"Not really," said Joshua, his eyes still on me. "Most of us have never fought or even seen the Lost. They don't really bother us."
That was surprising. If ever there was a Strigoi target, a group of Moroi, dhampirs, and humans out in the middle of nowhere would be it. "Why not?" I asked.
Raymond winked at me. "Because we fight back."
I pondered his enigmatic statement as the family sat down to eat. Again, I thought about the entire community's willingness to fight when we'd first arrived. Was it really enough to scare off Strigoi? Not much scared them, but maybe certain things were too much of an inconvenience to deal with. I wondered what Dimitri's opinion would be on that. His own family had come from a community that separated itself somewhat from mainstream Moroi life, but it was nothing like this.
All of this spun in my mind while we ate and talked. The Keepers still had a lot more questions about us and Tatiana. The only one not participating was Angeline. She ate as little as Sydney and kept watching me with a scowl.
"We need some supplies," said Sydney abruptly, interrupting me in the middle of a gruesome story. I didn't mind, but the others looked disappointed. "Where's the nearest town that would have a coffee shop . . . or any restaurant?"
"Well," said Paulette. "Rubysville is a little over an hour north. But we have plenty of food here for you."
"It′s not about food," I said quickly. "Yours has been great." I glanced at Sydney. "An hour's not so bad, right?"
She nodded and then glanced hesitantly at Raymond. "Is there any way . . . is there any way we could borrow a car? I′lll. . ." The next words clearly caused her pain. "I'll leave the keys to mine until we get back."
He arched an eyebrow. "You"ve got a nice car."
Sydney shrugged. "The less we drive it around here, the better."
He told us we could take his truck and that he "probably" wouldn't even need to use the CR-V. Sydney gave him a tight smile of thanks, but I knew images of vampires joyriding in her car were dancing through her head.
We set out soon after that, wanting to be back before the sun went down. People were out and about in the commune, doing chores or whatever else it was they did with their lives. A group of children sat around a dhampir reading a book to them, making me wonder what sort of education process they had here.
All of the Keepers stopped whatever they were doing as we passed, giving us either curious looks or outright smiles. I smiled back occasionally but mostly kept my eyes ahead. Joshua was escorting us back to the "parking lot" and managed to walk beside me when we reached the narrow path.
"I hope you won't be gone long," he said. "I'd wanted us to talk more."
"Sure," I said. "That'd be fun."
He brightened and chivalrously pushed aside a low-hanging branch. "Maybe I can show you my cave."
"Your—wait. What? Don't you live with your dad?"
"For now. But I'm getting my own place." There was pride in his voice. "It's not as big as his, of course, but it's a good start. It's almost cleaned out."
"That's really, um, great. Definitely show me when we"re back." The words came easily to my lips, but my mind was pondering the fact that Raymond's house was apparently "big."