"Rose," he said, forcibly trying to keep a serious tone, "I can think of many words to describe you, sexy and hot being at the top of the list. You know what's not on the list? Sane."
I laughed. "Okay, well, then my job is to be the less crazy one."
He considered. "That I can accept."
I brought my lips up to his, and even if there were still some shaky things in our relationship, there was no uncertainty in how we kissed. Kissing in a dream felt exactly like real life. Heat blossomed between us, and I felt a thrill run through my whole body. He released my hands and wrapped his arms around my waist, bringing us closer. I realized that it was time to start believing what I kept saying. Life did go on. Dimitri might be gone, but I could have something with Adrian--at least until my job took me away. That was, of course, assuming I got one. Hell, if Hans kept me on desk duty here and Adrian continued his slothful ways, we could be together forever.
Adrian and I kissed for a long time, pressing closer and closer. At last I broke things off. If you had sex in a dream, did that mean you'd really done it? I didn't know, and I certainly wasn't going to find out. I wasn't ready for that yet.
I stepped back, and Adrian took the hint. "Find me when you get some freedom."
"Hopefully soon," I said. "The guardians can't punish me forever."
Adrian looked skeptical, but he let the dream dissolve without further comment. I returned to my own bed and my own dreams.
The only thing that stopped me from intercepting Lissa and Christian when they met up early in her lobby the next day was that Hans summoned me to work even earlier. He put me on paperwork duty--in the vaults, ironically enough--leaving me to file and stew over Lissa and Christian as I watched them through my bond. I took it as a sign of my multitasking skills that I was able to alphabetize and spy at the same time.
Yet my observations were interrupted when a voice said, "Didn't expect to find you here again."
I blinked out of Lissa's head and looked up from my paperwork. Mikhail stood before me. In light of the complications that had ensued with the Victor incident, I'd nearly forgotten Mikhail's involvement in our "escape." I set the files down and gave him a small smile.
"Yeah, weird how fate works, huh? They actually want me here now."
"Indeed. You're in a fair amount of trouble, I hear."
My smile turned into a grimace. "Tell me about it." I glanced around, even though I knew we were alone. "You didn't get in any trouble, did you?"
He shook his head. "No one knows what I did."
"Good." At least one person had escaped this debacle unscathed. My guilt couldn't have handled him getting caught too.
Mikhail knelt so that he was eye level with me, resting his arms on the table I sat at. "Were you successful? Was it worth it?"
"That's a hard question to answer."
He arched an eyebrow.
"There were some... not so successful things that happened. But we did find out what we wanted to know--or, well, we think we did."
His breath caught. "How to restore a Strigoi?"
"I think so. If our informant was telling the truth, then yeah. Except, even if he was... well, it's not that easy to do. It's nearly impossible, really."
"What is it?"
I hesitated. Mikhail had helped us, but he wasn't in my circle of confidants. Yet even now, I saw that haunted look in his eyes, the one I'd seen before. The pain of losing his beloved still tormented him. It likely always would. Would I be doing more harm than good by telling him what I'd learned? Would this fleeting hope only hurt him more?
I finally decided to tell him. Even if he told others--and I didn't think he would--most would laugh it off anyway. There would be no damage there. The real trouble would come if he told anyone about Victor and Robert--but I didn't actually have to mention their involvement to him. Unlike Christian, it had apparently not occurred to Mikhail that the prison break so big in Moroi news had been pulled off by the teens he helped smuggle out. Mikhail probably couldn't spare a thought for anything that didn't involve saving his Sonya.
"It takes a spirit user," I explained. "One with a spirit-charmed stake, and then he... or she... has to stake the Strigoi."
"Spirit..." That element was still foreign to most Moroi and dhampirs--but not to him. "Like Sonya. I know spirit's supposed to make them more alluring... but I swear, she never needed it. She was beautiful on her own." As always, Mikhail's face took on that same sad look it did whenever Ms. Karp was mentioned. I'd never really seen him truly happy since meeting him and thought he'd be pretty good-looking if he ever genuinely smiled. He suddenly seemed embarrassed at his romantic lapse and returned to business. "What spirit user could do a staking?"
"None," I said flatly. "Lissa Dragomir and Adrian Ivashkov are the only two spirit users I even know--well, aside from Avery Lazar." I was leaving Oksana and Robert out of this. "Neither of them has the skill to do it--you know that as well as I do. And Adrian has no interest in it anyway."
Mikhail was sharp, picking up on what I didn't say. "But Lissa does?"
"Yes," I admitted. "But it would take her years to learn to do it. If not longer. And she's the last of her line. She can't be risked like that."