Blood Promise Page 0,121

a moment ago, I'd wiped blood from his face-blood from some poor person whose life had been snuffed out within the last few hours, most likely.

"I was in Lissa's head," I said at last. There was no harm in telling him this. Like Nathan, he knew she was at the Academy. "And... I got pushed out."

"Pushed out?"

"Yeah... I was seeing through her eyes like I usually do, and then some force... I don't know, an invisible hand shoved me out. I've never felt anything like it."

"Maybe it's a new spirit ability."

"Maybe. Except, I've been watching her regularly, and I've never seen her practice or even consider anything like that."

He shrugged slightly and put an arm around me. "Being awakened gives you better senses and accessibility to the world. But it doesn't make you omniscient. I don't know why that happened to you."

"Clearly not omniscient, or else Nathan wouldn't want information about her so badly. Why is that? Why are the Strigoi fixated on killing the royal lines? We know they've-you've-been doing it, but why? What does it matter? Isn't a victim a victim-especially when plenty of Strigoi used to be royal Moroi?"

"That requires a complicated answer. A large part of hunting Moroi royalty is fear. In your old world, royalty are held above all others. They get the best guardians, the best protection." Yes, that was certainly true. Lissa had discovered that much at Court. "If we can still get to them through that, then what does it say? It means no one is safe. It creates fear, and fear makes people do foolish things. It makes them easier prey."

"That's horrible."

"Prey or-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Prey or predator."

His eyes narrowed slightly, apparently not liking the interruption. He let it go. "There's also a benefit to unraveling Moroi leadership. That creates instability, too."

"Or maybe they'd be better off with a change of leadership," I said. He gave me another odd look, and I was a bit startled myself. There I was, thinking like Victor Dashkov again. I realized I should just be quiet. I wasn't behaving like my usual scattered and high self. "What's the rest?"

"The rest..." A smile curved up his lips. "The rest is prestige. We do it for the glory of it. For the reputation it gives us and the satisfaction of knowing we're responsible for destroying that which others haven't been able to destroy for centuries."

Simple Strigoi nature. Malice, hunting, and death. There didn't need to be any other reasons.

Dimitri's gaze moved past me to my bedside table. It was where I took off all my jewelry at night and laid it out. All his gifts were there, glittering like some pirate's treasure. Reaching over me, he lifted up the nazar on its chain. "You still have this."

"Yup. Not as pretty as your stuff, though." Seeing the blue eye reminded me of my mother. I hadn't thought about her in a very long time. Back in Baia, I'd grown to see Olena as a secondary mother, but now... now I kind of wished for my own. Janine Hathaway might not cook and clean, but she was smart and competent. And in some ways, I realized with a start, we thought alike. My traits had come from her, and I knew with certainty that in this situation, she wouldn't have stopped planning escape.

"This I haven't seen before," Dimitri said. He'd set the nazar back down and picked up the plain silver ring Mark had given me. I hadn't worn it since I was last in the Belikov house and had set it on the table next to the nazar.

"I got it while I was-" I stopped, realizing I hadn't ever brought up my travels before Novosibirsk.

"While you were what?"

"While I was in your hometown. In Baia."

Dimitri was playing with the ring, moving it from fingertip to fingertip, but he paused and glanced over at me when I said the name. "You were there?" Strangely, we hadn't talked much about that. I'd mentioned Novosibirsk a few times, but that was it.

"I thought that's where you'd be," I explained. "I didn't know that Strigoi did their hunting in cities here. I stayed with your family."

His eyes returned to the ring. He continued playing with it, twirling it and rolling it around. "And?"

"And... they were nice. I liked them. I hung out with Viktoria a lot."

"Why wasn't she at school?"

"It was Easter."

"Ah, right. How was she?"

"Fine," I said quickly. I couldn't bring myself to tell him about that last night with