An opportunist like Victor recognizes a chance when he sees it. He lunges at Rose, creating a distraction for Rose to attack the oncoming guards. It’s a struggle to get Victor out of the prison without anyone getting killed, but they do it.
Just being around the man who’d had her tortured freaks Lissa out, but she tries to be strong for Rose. On their way out of the prison, they pass a wing for the criminally insane, and Lissa senses other spirit users there. It’s another chilling reminder that the use of her rare ability usually leads to darkness and insanity.
They flee the prison, pursued by guardians, but manage to lose them on winding roads. Now it’s time to tackle phase two of Rose’s “Save Dimitri” plan. She tells Victor they need to get to Robert Doru, Victor’s brother. And if Victor wants to stay out of prison, he’s going to help them.
Next stop: Las Vegas.
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
Once they arrive, they get a room at the Luxor, and Victor calls his brother. It takes a lot of convincing to have Robert agree to meet them for dinner.
When there’s a knock at the door, everyone braces themselves.
They’ve been discovered
. Luckily for them, it’s somebody out to have a little fun in the City of Sin. Adrian followed Rose’s credit card trail and has decided to crash her “girls’ weekend.” Only, he’s a bit surprised by what he finds.
“You guys didn’t really think you could go off on a party weekend without me, did you? Especially here of all places—”
He froze, and it was one of those rare moments when Adrian Ivashkov was caught totally and completely off guard.
“Did you know,” he said slowly, “that Victor Dashkov is sitting on your bed?”
—page 153
The normally easygoing Adrian knows a bad situation when he sees it—and Rose can’t help but feel guilty. It doesn’t take him long to find out the motivation behind the whole trip. This is all to help Rose save Dimitri. Adrian is furious. He feels like Rose has been shamelessly using him for his affection and money. It’s enough to trigger his crazy side. He needs a drink to get control of himself, something he promised Rose he’d give up when they started dating.
Rose feels terrible about all of this, but she’s determined not to let it change their plans. Although Adrian doesn’t exactly come around, when it comes time to meet Robert, he reluctantly decides to join them, intrigued by the thought of meeting another spirit user.
Just like Lissa, Robert once had a shadow-kissed bondmate, but he died, leaving Robert to face his spirit darkness alone. It’s deteriorated his mental health—to put it mildly. It’s obvious now why Victor didn’t go directly to his spirit-using brother to help cure his disease. Robert’s way too fragile.
Fragile, yes. But the rumor he brought a Strigoi back to life? Absolutely true.
“That which is dead doesn’t always stay dead . . .” Robert’s words weren’t directed at Adrian. They were spoken to me. I shivered.
“How? How did you do it?”
“With a stake. She was killed with a stake, and in doing so, was brought back to life.”
“Okay,” I said. “That is a lie. I’ve killed plenty of Strigoi with stakes, and believe me, they stay dead.”
“Not just any stake.” Robert’s fingers danced along the edge of his glass. “A special stake.”
“A stake charmed with spirit,” said Lissa suddenly.
—pages 165–166
But it’s not that easy. For a Strigoi to be brought back, the stake must be wielded by a spirit user like Lissa or Adrian, not a trained guardian like Rose. Lissa speaks up to say she will do it, but Rose shuts her down. After all, protecting Lissa is her first priority. Using enough spirit to cure Dimitri could be enough to finally push Lissa over the edge when it comes to her own sanity. Rose refuses to lose her too.
Robert does agree to talk more about this—in private. But on their way back to the hotel room, they run into a snag. A big one.
Dimitri’s tracked down Rose, just as he promised he would. And this time, he’s not interested in being lenient—he’s in it for the kill, and he’s brought two of his Strigoi cronies to help him.
“I told you I’d find you.”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to ignore the grunts of Eddie and the other Strigoi. Eddie could take him. I knew he could. “I got the memos.”
A ghost of a smile curled up Dimitri’s lips, showing the fangs that somehow triggered a mix of both longing and loathing in me.
—page 175
Eddie and Rose fight the Strigoi, allowing the Moroi to escape into the daylight. Rose and Eddie make a great team, successfully slaying two of the Strigoi until there’s only one left standing: Dimitri. Rose feels like she and Eddie
could
kill him together. And Eddie gets the chance, his stake aimed directly for Dimitri’s chest.
But this
isn’t
the time—not when Rose is so close to finding the answer to cure him. Despite all the evil he’s done, Dimitri
can’t
die. Not now. She interferes with Eddie’s aim and they barely manage to escape.
Eddie turns on Rose, furious about what just happened. He doesn’t understand—at least not until she tells him her true motivation for this quest: she loves Dimitri. Eddie can’t believe that he’s risked everything so Rose could try to
save
a Strigoi. Rose is ripped apart by guilt over her actions that have led them here. She knows letting Dimitri live means more people will have to die. But it’s done.
When they find Lissa and Adrian, Rose realizes she’s lost something else—Victor and Robert have escaped.
Not a good day, that’s for damn sure.
Adrian takes them to a Moroi hotel and casino called the Witching Hour so they can establish an alibi and have a safe place to hang out till they wait to catch a flight back to Court.
While at the Witching Hour, Rose learns that Eric Dragomir liked coming there and spending time with the sexy showgirls. Rose bristles at the surprising and racy rumors about Lissa’s father—rumors that will come to mean a great deal more in the weeks to follow.
BACK AT COURT
Of course, when they arrive back at Court, no one knows Rose’s real reasons behind the trip. If they did, her punishment would be
way
more severe. As it is, it’s believed she took Lissa on an irresponsibly wild weekend in Vegas, putting the Dragomir princess in danger, especially now that the news of Victor’s prison break is known by all.
Eddie is also punished alongside Rose. They’re both given grunt work to do around Court, and Rose is threatened by the head guardian, Hans, with something even worse for the future: a desk job.
Through the bond, Rose sees Christian confront Lissa about their little trip. He knows enough to see it wasn’t just a fun and frivolous vacation. Lissa confides what they learned about bringing Strigoi back to life and how, even though Rose is against it, she wants to help. Christian wants to come along on her upcoming trip to tour Lehigh University. While there, he’s promised to teach her how to stake a Strigoi.
Since Rose is barred from socializing as part of her punishment, Adrian visits her in a spirit dream. She knows he’s not happy with her, even though he’s acting cool about everything. His support is heartening, and she knows that she cares deeply about him, despite her many Dimitri issues.
I suddenly felt unworthy. He was so easy to underestimate. The only thing I could do was lean my head against his chest and let him wrap his arms around me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Be sorry you lied,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Don’t be sorry you loved him. That’s part of you, part you have to let go, yeah, but still something that’s made you who you are.”
—page 225
LISSA THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Lissa and Christian head with an entourage—minus Rose, because she’s still being punished—for the university tour. At the hotel, Christian and Lissa practice fighting. It’s an encounter that triggers both their tempers...
and
their passions. A punch
almost
leads to a super-hot kiss until Lissa’s current guardian Serena comes in to figure out what’s causing all the commotion. When she sees they’re trying to learn to fight, she volunteers to help out.
Great, someone else who doesn’t seem to see how dangerous this is.
Rose isn’t happy her friend seems so intent on this, but there’s not much she can do about it at the moment, especially since she’s only witnessing this on a psychic level.
Rose is summoned before the queen and the Moroi Royal Council for questioning. She assumes it’s about the “fun trip” to Vegas, but it’s actually about her past actions—such as going to Russia to extract personal revenge after the attack at the Academy and killing many Strigoi even before that. The queen wants to establish if Rose is in favor of direct strikes against Strigoi. Rose most certainly is, as her actions prove without much doubt. Later, she will learn that this testimony would be instrumental in the queen’s upcoming controversial decisions—ones that will affect the future of all dhampirs—and not in a good way.
At the moment, though, Rose has to go back to her lousy desk job. It’s Lissa’s birthday, so while sorting paper, Rose visits through the bond to learn her friend loved the tour of the university and is looking forward to attending in the fall. Back at the hotel, Lissa and Christian begin their tutelage. Grant, the other guardian who’s been assigned to the Dragomir princess, also pitches in to help Serena show the two Moroi how to fight. Topics discussed include such important skills as how to properly use a stake. It’s hard work—especially for two who aren’t trained to be Strigoi hunters. But Christian persists.
“I just need more practice.”
“You don’t need to do anything,” she shot back, fighting to keep her voice quiet through her anger. “This isn’t your fight. It’s mine.”
“Hey,” he snapped, eyes glittering like pale blue diamonds, “you’re crazy if you think I’m going to just let you go and risk—”
—page 257
To Rose, it’s obvious Christian doesn’t want the girl he loves to be in danger. It’s a romantic moment, but Lissa forces herself to pull away from it.
Later, Rose checks in to find the entire entourage leaving a restaurant where they celebrated Lissa’s birthday. It’s been lots of fun for all.
But the fun’s about to end.
DIMITRI’S PLAN
Rose watches in horror as suddenly, Lissa and the group are surrounded by Strigoi. They attack without mercy, killing Moroi and guardians alike—including Grant. Serena is seriously injured. With no guardians to protect them, Lissa and Christian find themselves face-to-face with the one Strigoi who Rose least wants to see: Dimitri himself. Rose can only watch on in horror as her friends look like they’re about to be murdered—and it’s all her fault. Dimitri’s only alive because she chose not to kill him. And there’s nothing she can do . . .
Christian summons his fire magic as a last-ditch attempt to protect Lissa, but Dimitri advises him to put it out—or Lissa dies.
“Actually,” said Dimitri, voice pleasant amid the grim scene, “I’d rather you two stay alive. At least for a little while longer.”
I felt Lissa’s face move to a frown. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Christian’s did too, judging from the confusion in his voice. He couldn’t even manage a snarky comment. He could only ask the obvious: “Why?”
Dimitri’s eyes gleamed. “Because I need you to be bait for Rose.”
—page 262
Even though it’s an obvious trap, Rose needs to save her friends. She races to get Hans and the rest of the guardians. Teams quickly form for the rescue mission. Rose is going, as are fire-using Moroi, like Christian’s aunt Tasha, who has always been in favor of Moroi fighting back against Strigoi.
Enough’s enough. Rose let Dimitri live last time. This time? It’s different. He can mess with her, but he can’t put her friends in danger. Even though there might be a way to restore a Strigoi, she knows it’s too late for Dimitri. He’s stepped over the line and has to die. Adrian agrees.
“Good,” said Adrian, relief flooding his features. “I’m glad.”
For some reason, that irritated me. “God,” I snapped. “Are you that eager to get rid of any competition?”
Adrian’s face stayed serious. “No. I just know that as long as he’s still alive—or, well, kind of alive—then you’re in danger. And I can’t stand that. I can’t stand knowing that your life is in the balance. And it is, Rose. You’ll never be safe until he’s gone. I want you safe. I need you to be safe. I can’t . . . I can’t have anything happen to you.”
—page 268