Blood Promise Page 0,67

her enemies, exactly. I honestly didn't yet understand who they were.

"We're just talking," said Denis. "I just want to understand what happened to your brother. Believe me, I think his death was a tragedy."

"He wouldn't have regretted it," I told them. "He died fighting for what he believed in."

"Defending others who took him for granted."

"That's not true."

"Oh?" Denis gave me a lopsided smile. "Then why don't you work for the guardians? You've killed Strigoi but have no promise mark. Not even a graduation mark, I heard. Why aren't you out there throwing yourself in front of Moroi?"

"Denis," said Nikolai uneasily, "please just leave."

"I'm not talking to you, Kolya." Denis's eyes were still on me. "I'm just trying to figure Rose out. She kills Strigoi but doesn't work for the guardians.

She's clearly not like the rest of you soft people in this town. Maybe she's more like us."

"She's nothing like you," Viktoria snapped back.

I got it then, and a chill ran down my spine. These were the kind of dhampirs that Mark had been talking about. The true unpromised ones. The vigilantes who sought out Strigoi on their own, the ones who neither settled down nor answered to any guardians. They shouldn't have unnerved me, not really. In some ways, Denis was right. In the simplest terms, I really was like them. And yet... there was an air about these guys that just rubbed me the wrong way.

"Then why are you in Russia?" asked one of Denis's friends. I already couldn't remember his name. "This is a long trip for you. You wouldn't have come here without a good reason."

Viktoria was picking up her sister's anger. "She came to tell us about Dimka."

Denis eyed me. "I think she's here to hunt Strigoi. There are more in Russia to choose from than there are in the States."

"She wouldn't be in Baia if she was hunting Strigoi, you idiot," returned Viktoria evenly. "She'd be in Vladivostok or Novosibirsk or somewhere like that."

Novosibirsk. The name was familiar. But where had I heard it? A moment later, the answer came to me. Sydney had mentioned it. Novosibirsk was the largest city in Siberia.

Denis continued. "Maybe she's just passing through. Maybe she'll want to join us when we go to Novosibirsk tomorrow."

"For God's sake," I exclaimed. "I'm right here. Stop talking about me like I'm not. And why would I want to go with you?"

Denis's eyes gleamed with an intense, feverish light. "Good hunting there. Lots of Strigoi. Come with us, and you can help us go after them."

"And how many of you will come back from this?" Karolina asked in a hard voice. "Where's Timosha? Where's Vasiliy? Your hunting party keeps getting smaller each time you return here. Which one of you will be next? Whose family will be the next to mourn?"

"Easy for you to talk," retorted the friend. Lev, I think his name was. "You stay here and do nothing while we go out and keep you safe."

Karolina gave him a disgusted look, and I recalled how she was dating a guardian. "You go out and rush into situations without thinking. If you want to keep us safe, then stay here and defend your families when they need it. If you want to go after Strigoi, go join the guardians and work with those who have some sense."

"The guardians don't hunt Strigoi!" cried Denis. "They sit and wait and cower before the Moroi."

The unfortunate part was, he had a point. But not entirely.

"That's changing," I said. "There's a movement to start taking the offensive against the Strigoi. There's also talk of the Moroi learning to fight with us. You could help be a part of that."

"Like you are?" he laughed. "You still haven't told us why you're here and not with them. You can say what you want to the rest of this group, but I know why you're here. I can see it in you." The crazy, eerie look he gave me almost made me think that he could. "You know the only way to rid the world of evil is to do it on our own. To seek out the Strigoi ourselves and kill them, one by one."

"Without a plan," finished Karolina. "Without any thought of the consequences."

"We're strong and we know how to fight. That's all we need to know when it comes to killing Strigoi."

And that was when I understood. I finally got what Mark had been trying to tell me. Denis was saying exactly what I had been