Rose has just found a checklist of the attacks.
Strigoi
were
here—and they might be back soon. Rose doesn’t share what she’s figured out with the others. All she knows is they need to get out of there. Right now.
THE KIDNAPPING
Rose is relieved that it’s still light out, which means they’re safe from Strigoi for the moment, but she needs to get back to the lodge and report what she’s found as soon as she can. Unfortunately, they get lost on their way back to the bus station.
And they’re not alone—someone is after them.
A van screeches to a halt and three big guys get out. The novices fight back, and these humans might lack dhampir strength, but they’ve managed to corner Rose and her friends. When one of the humans grabs Mia and presses a gun to her neck, the others are forced to get into the van so she isn’t killed.
Bound and scared, the five of them are taken to a house and put in a small room in the basement, tied to chairs. Their panic rises when a man and woman enter the room. They’re unfamiliar, but one thing’s for certain: they’re Strigoi. Very possibly, they’re the Strigoi that attacked and murdered the royal families.
The man’s name is Isaiah and his companion is Elena. Isaiah knew Christian’s parents, who had chosen to become Strigoi. He’d personally warned them not to go back to the Moroi world to reclaim their son so he could become Strigoi too. Christian’s aunt Tasha had fought hard against them—it’s how she was scarred—and guardians eventually killed Christian’s parents.
Isaiah wants to “awaken” the Moroi he’s just captured—both Mia and Christian. This way, he’s helping Christian’s parents fulfill their dream of having him join the ranks of the Strigoi.
But Mia and Christian must willingly
choose
to be awakened. Isaiah wants to make a game out of it. It’s big fun for him!
For Isaiah to grant Christian or Mia immortality, they need to kill one of their dhampir friends—something that they’d never agree to do.
Not yet, anyway.
“Easy to be brave when you aren’t hungry. Go a few days without any other sustenance . . . and yes, these three will start to look very good. And they are. Dhampirs are delicious. Some prefer them to Moroi, and while I myself have never shared such beliefs, I can certainly appreciate the variety.
Christian scowled.
“Don’t believe me?” asked Isaiah. “Then let me prove it.” He walked back over to my side of the room. I realized what he was going to do and spoke without fully thinking things through.
“Use me,” I blurted out. “Drink f rom me.”
—page 270
Rose wants desperately to protect her friends. She’s already experienced the bite—when she and Lissa had run away, her friend had regularly fed on her. Rose knows that it can be addictive and she’s strong enough to handle that—but Eddie and Mason haven’t. She wants to save them from having to experience that.
Isaiah disagrees. Why give her what she wants? He bites Eddie instead—cautioning that if the novice resists, he can make it very painful. Once Isaiah uses compulsion on Eddie, the dhampir offers up his neck freely.
Rose looks away—sickened that they’re at the mercy of this Strigoi.
When Isaiah leaves, the group is bruised, hungry, and terrified of what will happen next.
During the second day of captivity, Rose falls asleep and dreams about Adrian again. This time, he admits that just like last time, this isn’t a normal dream—it’s a
shared
dream. They’re both dreaming of the same place, and this is an actual conversation they’re having. One in which Adrian makes an observation about Rose’s shadow-kissed status that will come to be very important later.
“I need to know what you mean. About there being darkness around me. What does it mean?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Everyone has light around them, except for you. You have shadows. You take them from Lissa.”
—page 275
Rose tries to tell him where she is so the group can be rescued. But the dream fades away and she wakes up when the Strigoi arrive to taunt the Moroi about their growing hunger. Isaiah is ready to bite Eddie again, who’s become addicted to this act thanks to the drug-like endorphins in a Strigoi’s saliva, but Rose offers to let Isaiah bite her instead.
She’s very adamant and selfless about it—so much so that Isaiah guesses that she’s done this before . . . and liked it. He thinks Rose might be a blood whore in the making. But he’s not going to give her what she wants. He bites Eddie again and Rose feels
envy
this time instead of disgust. She hates to admit that part of her did become addicted to the bite. And yes, part of her does want to experience that again, even knowing the consequences.
Before he leaves, Isaiah sneeringly tells Christian that when the time comes, the Moroi will have a willing victim in Rose.
Later, Rose slips into Lissa’s mind. Adrian thinks Lissa holds the key to finding Rose. He insists that as a spirit user, Lissa should also be able to talk to her in her dreams—just like he can—and that Rose and Lissa’s connection would be stronger because of their bond. But Lissa’s still on the medication that cuts her off from her magic, so he can’t properly teach her to do this.
Rose finally understands why Adrian had so many questions for Lissa earlier. Suddenly, it all makes sense. Adrian’s questions. The dreams. It’s because he’s a spirit user too!
He threw his arms up in the air. “How can I teach you to walk through dreams then? How else are we going to find Rose?”
“Look,” she said angrily, “I don’t want to take the meds. But when I was off them . . . I did really crazy stuff. Dangerous stuff. That’s what spirit does to you.”
“I don’t take anything. I’m okay,” he said.
No, he wasn’t, I realized. Lissa realized it too.
—pages 283–284
Still, despite her reservations, Lissa finds herself being tempted more and more by Adrian’s offer. She wonders if she’d be okay—relatively speaking—if she went off her medication. Adrian can use spirit and seems fairly okay, other than some crazy talk now and then . . . (Although she’ll later come to realize that he’s far from okay. He self-medicates with cigarettes and alcohol.)
Rose reluctantly pulls out of Lissa’s head and finds herself back in the basement, tied up with her friends. Everybody’s in bad shape and things seem hopeless.
Suddenly, something occurs to her—the Moroi’s elemental magic! They aren’t
completely
helpless. But how can she let Christian know what she’s thinking? She tries to give him a signal that she wants him to burn through her wrist bindings.
Instead, he asks the guards to untie him: he’s ready to drink blood in order to save his own life, and he wants to drink from
Rose
. She’s not sure if she should play along or not—is he being serious?
“Christian,” I whispered, surprised at how easy it was to sound afraid. “Do n’t do this.”
His lips twisted into one of the bitter smiles he produced so well. “You and I have never liked each other, Rose. If I ’ve got to kill someone, it might as well be you.” His words were icy, precise. Believable. “Besides, I thought you wanted this.”
“Not
this
. Please, don’t—”
One of the guards shoved Christian. “Get it over with or get back to your chair.”
Still wearing that dark smile, Christian shrugged. “Sorry, Rose. You’re going to die anyway. Why not do it for a good cause?” He brought his face down to my neck. “ This is probably going to hurt,” he added.
—pages 288–289
Instantly, intense pain courses through Rose’s body. But it doesn’t start at her neck . . . There’s a searing sensation at her wrists as he begins to burn through the plastic bindings that hold them together. Christian is on her side after all!
Rose breaks free and starts kicking butt. One guard has a gun, but Christian uses his magic to heat it up, so it’s too hot to hold. Then he snips Mason’s bindings so he can join the fight. After an intense battle, the three of them defeat the guards and release Eddie and Mia. Then they formulate their plan of escape. If they can get out of the house, the Strigoi won’t be able to follow them—they burn up when they come into direct contact with the sunlight. The five friends head up the stairs into the main living area of the house, which has an aquarium in it, and Rose instructs Mason to get the others out of there if something bad happens to her.
Just as Rose feels they’re going to make it out okay, Isaiah and Elena appear. Rose holds off the Strigoi while the others get to safety.
“Are you thinking you can take us both on by yourself?” He chuckled. Elena chuckled. I gritted my teeth.
No, I didn’t think I could take them both on. In fact, I was pretty sure I was going to die. But I was also pretty sure I could provide one hell of a distraction first.
—pages 297-298
The Strigoi drag Rose back into the shadows of the room as Mason gets the others outside just in time.
Isaiah is furious that his game has been ruined. To punish Rose, he plans to make her a real blood whore, since he’s aware she’s given blood before and enjoyed it. However, this time it won’t be pleasant for her. He’ll make it hurt every time she’s bitten . . . until she finally dies.
It feels as if all is lost—Rose is going to die slowly and horribly at the hands—and fangs—of Strigoi.
But Rose isn’t alone. She has friends who care about her fate, just as she cared about theirs.
“Let her go, or I’ll kill you.”
We all turned at the new voice, a voice dark and angry. Mason stood in the doorway, framed in light, holding my dropped gun. Isaiah studied him for a few moments.
“Sure,” Isaiah finally said. He sounded bored. “Try it.”
—page 300
Mason raises the gun and fires it into Isaiah’s chest over and over . . . It doesn’t do anything.
Isaiah releases Rose and grabs hold of Mason’s head. Without warning, he twists sharply . . . and Rose hears a sickening crack.
Mason’s eyes go wide . . . and then blank . . . as he collapses to the ground.
He’s dead. The Strigoi killed him. Mason came back to save Rose’s life and now he’s gone forever.
Horror and shock crash over Rose. When Elena makes a move to feed on Mason’s dead body, Rose stops feeling—she just acts. She couldn’t stop this from happening, but she can protect Mason now. She screams for the Strigoi to stay away from Mason.
The
chotki
Lissa gave Rose for Christmas falls from her pocket and Isaiah picks it up, intrigued by the Dragomir symbol on it. He’d really love to kill a Dragomir—
The aquarium suddenly bursts apart. The water magically coalesces in the air and moves forward to wrap around Isaiah’s face, giving Rose a chance to grab a piece of the broken aquarium glass. She plunges it into the vampire’s chest—aiming for the heart. He’s still alive, but he blacks out from the pain. Rose then grabs a sword that’s mounted on the wall and, taking everything she’s learned from both Dimitri and her mother, attacks Elena. It isn’t easy with a dull blade, but her rage gives her the strength to decapitate the Strigoi.
Mia’s at the doorway, looking ill at the violent scene before her. It was her water magic that broke the aquarium and suffocated Isaiah. The girl Rose previously considered her nemesis had come through for her when it counted the most—tough times forge strong bonds and can turn enemies into allies . . . and friends.
When Isaiah tries to rise to his feet, Rose is on him. Hacking and hacking, she finally manages to detach his head from his body, eliminating the immediate Strigoi threat.
She’s killed her first two Strigoi today—a huge accomplishment for a novice guardian. She should feel proud. This is everything she trained for! But it doesn’t seem to matter—Mason is dead. Grief-stricken, Rose doesn’t want to leave his body. Not for any reason.
Others finally arrive, but a dazed and in-shock Rose ignores them, blind to anything but her need to protect Mason’s body. But then Dimitri is there at her side, softly urging her to put down the sword. He soothes Rose, telling her that everything is okay now. She’s still driven to protect her friend, but Dimitri assures her she’s done that.
The sword drops from her hands and clatters to the ground. Rose collapses—she wants to cry, but she can’t. Dimitri wraps his arms around her and helps her to her feet.