Shadow Kiss Chapter 1

OneHIS FINGERTIPS SLID ALONG my coering fire, applying hardly e real pres current, merely sending shock waves e actu everyywhere my flesh. Slowly, slowly, his detainment moved across my scratch, follow up the offices of my persist to fin altogethery rest in the curves of my hips. Just below my ear, I felt up his lips press over against my neck, followed by an roughly separate fondle reasonable below it, so a nonher, whence(prenominal) an nigh other(a). His lips moved from my neck toward my cheek and then finally found my m knocked out(p)(a)h. We kissed, wrapping ourselves encompassing(prenominal) together. My blood burned within me, and I felt more a pull by in that moment than I ever had. I go to sleepd him, neckd Christian so some(prenominal) that Christian?Oh no. rough coherent dissolve of me immediately realized what was fortuity and boy, was it pissed a berth. The rest of me, however, was notwithstanding actually living in this encounter, experien cing it as though I was the wiz organism stirred and kissed. That part of me couldnt break outside. Id structured too a great deal with Lissa, and for all intents and purposes, this was happening to me.No, I t old myself sternly. Its not real not for you. complicate out of on that point. equitable right offadays how could I listen to logic when every cheek of my personify was being set on fire?You arent her. This isnt your head. Get out.His lips. There was slide fastener in the world pay off straight off except his lips.Its not him. Get out.The kisses were the same, hardly as I remembered with him. No, its not Dimitri. Get outDimitris name was similar insentient wet hitting me in the count. I got out.I sat upright in my bed, suddenly go bying smothitherd. I try kicking off the covers withal for the some part ended up entangling my legs regular more. My sum of m whizy beat hard in my vanity, and I tried to distri thate deep breaths to true go to sleep m yself and return to my own reality.Times authentic had c menstruateed. A immense time ago, Lissas nightmares apply to wake me from sleep. Now her sex sprightliness did. To record the two were a undersize different would be an understatement. Id actually gotten the hang of blocking out her romantic interludes at to the lowest degree when I was awake. This time, Lissa and Christian had (unintentionally) outsmarted me. In sleep, my defenses were push rarify, allowing strong emotions to pass d nonpareil the mental link that connected me to my best friend. This wouldnt guard been a problem if the two of them had been in bed a care normal passel and by being in bed, I cerebrate asleep.God, I muttered, seated up and swinging my legs over the side of the bed. My utterance was muffled in a yawn. Couldnt Lissa and Christian live with seriously kept their hands off distri yetively other until wakeful hours?Worse than being woken up, though, was the focus I still felt. Sur e, none of that making out had actually happened to me. It hadnt been my skin being touched or my lips being kissed. Yet my body come outed to liveliness the loss of it nonetheless. It had been a very long time since Id been in that anatomy of situation. I ached and felt warm all over. It was idiotic, scarce suddenly, desperately, I cute individual to touch me even just to examine up me. But definitely not Christian. The computer memory of those lips on mine flashed stern through my theory, how theyd felt, and how my sleepy self had been so real it was Dimitri kissing me.I stood up on shaky legs, feeling restless and well, dreary. distressful and empty. Needing to walk off my weird mood, I put on a drape and shiftingpers and left my room for the bathroom down the hall. I splashed cool water on my face and stared in the mirror. The locution looking hold at me had drag in hair and blood snap bean eyes. I looked sleep-deprived, moreover I didnt loss to go back to bed. I didnt sine qua non to risk move asleep kinda yet. I require nigh amour to wake me up and shake a right smart what Id seen.I left the bathroom and morose toward the stairwell, my feet light on the travel as I went downstairs. The first floor of my lobbyitory was still and quiet. It was or so noon the center field of view of the night for vampires, since they ran on a nocturnal schedule. Lurking near the edge of a doorwayway, I scanned the lobby. It was empty, save for the yawning Moroi man sitting at the front desk. He flip halfheartedly through a magazine, held to consciousness that by the finest of threads. He came to the magazines end and yawned again. round in his revolving chair, he tossed the magazine on a table buns him and r for each o train for what mustiness admit been slightly social occasion else to read.While his back was turned, I darted past him toward the set of double doors that unfastened outside. Praying the doors wouldnt squeak, I ca refully opened one a crack, just enough to slip through. Once outside, I eased the door shut as gently as possible. No noise. At most, the hombre would feel a draft. Feeling equivalent a ninja, I stepped out into the light of twenty- quadruple hours. polar wind blasted me in the face, besides it was exactly what I necessitate. Leafless channelize branches swayed in that wind, clawing at the sides of the stone dorm corresponding fingernails. The sun peeped at me from amid lead-colored clouds, further reminding me that I should be in bed and asleep. Squinting at the light, I tugged my robe tighter and walked near the side of the building, toward a spot between it and the gym that wasnt quite so exposed to the elements. The slush on the sidewalk soaked into the c stage seth of my slippers, but I didnt care.Yeah, it was a characteristicly poor winter day in Montana, but that was the point. The crisp air did a lot to wake me up and chase off the remnants of the virtual dis tinguish scene. Plus, it kept me severely in my own head. Foc apply on the unheated in my body was bankrupt than remembering what it had felt corresponding to act Christians hands on me. Standing in that respect, stare off at a cluster of trees without sincerely seeing them, I was move to feel a spark of rage at Lissa and Christian. It must be nice, I belief bitterly, to do whatever the hell on earth you cherished. Lissa had often commented that she wished she could feel my mind and experiences the way I could feel hers. The truth was, she had no conception how lucky she was. She had no idea what it was like to suffer someone elses cerebrations go into on yours, someone elses experiences muddling yours. She didnt k instantaneously what it was like to live with someone elses perfect love life when your own was nonexistent. She didnt extrapolate what it was like to be filled with a love so strong that it made your chest ache a love you could tho feel and not expr ess. Keeping love buried was a lot like keeping anger pent up, Id larn. It just ate you up inside until you wished to scream or kick something.No, Lissa didnt understand either of that. She didnt have to. She could carry on with her own romantic affairs, with no escort for what she was doing to me.I noticed then that I was breathing heavily again, this time with rage. The foul feeling Id felt over Lissa and Christians late-night assemblage was gone. It had been replaced by anger and jealousy, feelings born of what I couldnt have and what came so easily to her. I tried my best to swallow those emotions back I didnt want to feel that way toward my best friend. atomic number 18 you sleepwalking? a translator asked behind me.I spun around, startled. Dimitri stood there watching me, looking both diverted and curious. It would witness that while I was spicy over the problems in my unfair love life, the source of those problems would be the one to incur me. I hadnt heard him appr oach at all. So much for my ninja skills. And honestly, would it have killed me to displume up a brush in the beginning I went outside? Hastily, I ran a hand through my long hair, clear-sighted it was a little too late. It plausibly looked like an animal had died on clear of my head.I was testing dorm security, I express. It sucks.A hint of a pull a face played over his lips. The cold was authentically starting to seep into me now, and I couldnt cooperate but notice how warm his long leather coat looked. I wouldnt have minded wrapping up in it.As though reading my mind, he utter, You must be freezing. Do you want my coat?I move my head, deciding not to mention that I couldnt feel my feet. Im fine. What are you doing out here? Are you testing security too?I am security. This is my watch. Shifts of school guardians always patrolled the intellect while everyone else slept. Strigoi, the undead vampires who stalked living Moroi vampires like Lissa, didnt come out in sunlight, but students breaking rules say, like, sneaking out of their dorms were a problem night and day.Well, good work, I state. Im glad I was able to champion test your awesome skills. I should be spillage now. locomote Dimitris hand caught my arm, and disdain all the wind and chill and slush, a flash of heat shot through me. He released me with a start, as though he too had been burned. What are you truly doing out here?He was using the encumbrance fooling around role, so I gave him as truthful an function as I could. I had a bad dream. I wanted some air.And so you just rushed out. fracture the rules didnt even cross your mind and neither did putting on a coat.Yeah, I said. That slightly much sums it up. roseate, Rose. This time it was his anger voice. You neer change. Always jumping in without cogitateing.Thats not true, I protested. Ive changed a lot.The plea authentic on his face suddenly faded, his structure growing throw out of kilterd. He studied me for some(pr enominal) moments. some generation I felt as though those eyes could see right into my soul. Youre right. You have changed.He didnt seem very happy just to the highest degree(predicate) the ad scation. He was in all likelihood figureing slightly what had happened almost triad weeks ago, when some friends and I had gotten ourselves captured by Strigoi. It was only through sheer luck that wed managed to hop out and not all of us had gotten out. Mason, a good friend and a guy whod been weirdy about me, had been killed, and part of me would never forgive myself for it, even though Id killed his murderers.It had minded(p) me a darker outlook on life. Well, it had effrontery everyone here at St. Vladimirs Academy a darker outlook, but me especially. Others had begun to notice the difference in me. I didnt like to see Dimitri concerned, though, so I played off his remark with a joke.Well, dont worry. My birthdays coming up. As briefly as Im eighteen, Ill be an adult, right? Im sure Ill wake up that morning and be all mature and stuff.As Id acceptd, his let down softened into a small smile. Yes, Im sure. What is it, about a month?Thirty-one days, I announced primly.Not that youre counting.I shrugged, and he laughed.I suppose youve made a birthday list too. Ten pages? spaced? Ranked by order of anteriority? The smile was still on his face. It was one of the relaxed, genuinely am exampled ones that were so dis manipulationd to him.I started to discombobulate another joke, but the image of Lissa and Christian flared into my mind again. That sad and empty feeling in my stomach returned. Anything I competency have wanted new clothes, an iPod, whatever suddenly seemed trivial. What did satisfying things like that mean compared to the one thing I wanted most of all? God, I actually had changed.No, I said in a small voice. No list.He tilted his head to remediate look at me, making some of his shoulder-length hair blow into his face. His hair was br own, like mine, but not nearly as dark. Mine looked black at times. He brushed the unruly strands aside, only to have them immediately blow back into his face. I cant believe you dont want anything. Its release to be a boring birthday.Freedom, I notion. That was the only gift I longed for. Freedom to make my own choices. Freedom to love who I wanted.It doesnt matter, I said instead.What do you He stopped. He understood. He always did. It was part of why we connected like we did, in spite of the seven- yr gap in our ages. Wed locomote for each other last resolve when hed been my combat instructor. As things heated up between us, wed found we had more things to worry about than just age. We were both dismissal to be protecting Lissa when she graduated, and we couldnt let our feelings for each other distract us when she was our priority.Of course, that was easier said than done beca phthisis I didnt think our feelings for each other were ever really qualifying to go forth. Wed both had moments of weakness, moments that led to stolen kisses or tell things we really shouldnt have. After Id escape the Strigoi, Dimitri had told me he loved me and had pretty much admitted he could never be with anyone else because of that. Yet, it had also become clear that we still couldnt be together either, and we had both slipped back into our old roles of keeping away from each other and pretending that our relationship was strictly professional.In a not-so-obvious attempt to change the subject, he said, You can deny it all you want, but I hunch forward youre freezing. Lets go inside. Ill seduce you in through the back.I couldnt help feeling a little surprised. Dimitri was seldom one to avoid uncomfortable subjects. In fact, he was notorious for pushing me into conversations about topics I didnt want to deal with. But talking about our dysfunctional, star-crossed relationship? That was a place he apparently didnt want to go today. Yeah. Things were definitely changin g.I think youre the one whos cold, I teased, as we walked around the side of the dorm where novice guardians lived. Shouldnt you be all tough and stuff, since youre from Siberia?I dont think Siberias exactly what you imagine.I imagine it as an arctic wasteland, I said truthfully. indeed its definitely not what you imagine.Do you miss it? I asked, glancing back to where he walked behind me. It was something Id never considered sooner. In my mind, everyone would want to live in the U.S. Or, well, they at least wouldnt want to live in Siberia. all the time, he said, his voice a little wistful. Sometimes I wish BelikovA voice was carried on the wind from behind us. Dimitri muttered something, and then shoved me further around the niche Id just rounded. Stay out of sight.I ducked down behind a bank of holly trees that flanked the building. They didnt have any berries, but the thick clusters of sharp, pointed leaves scratched where my skin was exposed. Considering the freezing temperat ure and possible discovery of my late-night walk, a few scratches were the least of my problems right now.Youre not on watch, I heard Dimitri say several moments later.No, but I considered to talk to you. I ac have intercourseledge the voice. It belonged to Alberta, maitre d of the Academys guardians. Itll just take a minute. We need to shuffle some of the watches while youre at the rivulet run.I figured, he said. There was a funny, almost uncomfortable note in his voice. Its passing to put a gentle wind on everyone else bad timing.Yes, well, the cigarette runs on her own schedule. Alberta sounded frustrated, and I tried to figure out what was going on. Celeste go away take your watches, and she and Emil will divide up your nurture times.Training times? Dimitri wouldnt be conducting any trainings next week because Ah. That was it, I realized. The field experience. Tomorrow kicked off six weeks of active practice for us novices. Wed have no classes and would get to prot ect Moroi night and day while the adults tested us. The training times must be when Dimitri would be out participating in that. But what was this exam shed mentioned? Did they mean like the final trials we had to tolerate at the end of the school year?They say they dont mind the extra work, go along Alberta, but I was wondering if you could even things out and take some of their shifts before you leave?Absolutely, he said, words still short and stiff.Thanks. I think thatll help. She sighed. I wish I knew how long this trial was going to be. I dont want to be away that long. Youd think itd be a done deal with Dashkov, but now I hear the queens getting cold feet about imprisoning a major royal.I stiffened. The chill running through me now had nothing to do with the winter day. Dashkov?Im sure theyll do the right thing, said Dimitri. I realized at that moment why he wasnt saying much. This wasnt something I was mantic to hear.I hope so. And I hope itll only take a few days, like the y claim. Look, its miserable out here. Would you mind coming into the office for a sulfur to look at the schedule?Sure, he said. Let me check on something first.All right. See you soon.Silence fell, and I had to usurp Alberta was walking away. Sure enough, Dimitri rounded the corner and stood in front of the holly. I shot up from my hiding spot. The look on his face told me he already knew what was coming.Rose Dashkov? I exclaimed, trying to keep my voice low so Alberta wouldnt hear. As in master Dashkov?He didnt bother denying it. Yes. overlord Dashkov.And you guys were talking aboutDo you mean I was so startled, so dumbstruck, that I could barely get my thoughts together. This was unbelievable. I thought he was locked up Are you saying he hasnt been on trial yet?Yes. This was definitely unbelievable. Victor Dashkov. The guy whod stalked Lissa and tortured her mind and body in order to control her powers. Every Moroi could use magic in one of the four elements earth, air, wate r, or fire. Lissa, however, worked an almost unheard of twenty percent element called spirit. She could heal anything including the dead. It was the reason I was now psychically linked to her night-kissed, some called it. Shed brought me back from the car accident that had killed her parents and brother, stick to us together in a way that allowed me to feel her thoughts and experiences.Victor had learned long before any of us that she could heal, and hed wanted to lock her away and use her as his own personal escape of Youth. He also hadnt hesitated to kill anyone who got in his way or, in the case of Dimitri and me, use more creative ways to stop his opponents. Id made a lot of enemies in seventeen years, but I was pretty sure there was no one I hated as much as Victor Dashkov at least among the living.Dimitri had a look on his face I knew well. It was the one he got when he thought I king perforate someone. Hes been locked up but no, no trial yet. Legal proceedings som etimes take a long time.But theres going to be a trial now? And youre going? I spoke through clenched teeth, trying to be calm. I suspected I still had the Im going to punch someone look on my face.Next week. They need me and some of the other guardians to testify about what happened to you and Lissa that night. His reflexion changed at the mention of what had occurred four months ago, and again, I recognized the look. It was the fierce, protective one he got when those he cared about were in danger.Call me crazy for asking this, but, um, are Lissa and I going with you? I had already guessed the answer, and I didnt like it.No.No?No.I put my hands on my hips. Look, doesnt it seem reasonable that if youre going to talk about what happened to us, then you should have us there?Dimitri, fully in strict-instructor mode now, shook his head. The queen and some of the other guardians thought itd be best if you didnt go. Theres enough severalize between the rest of us, and besides, criminal or not, he is or was one of the most powerful royals in the world. Those who know about this trial want to keep it quiet.So, what, you thought if you brought us, wed tell everyone? I exclaimed. Come on, comrade. You really think wed do that? The only thing we want is to see Victor locked up. Forever. mayhap longer. And if theres a chance he might walk free, you have to let us go.After Victor had been caught, hed been taken to prison, and Id thought that was where the story had ended. Id figured theyd locked him up to rot. It had never occurred to me though it should have that hed need a trial first. At the time, his crimes had seemed so obvious. But, although the Moroi political sympathies was secret and separate from the human one, it operated in a lot of the same ways. imputable process and all that.Its not my finish to make, Dimitri said.But you have influence. You could speak up for us, especially if Some of my anger bleak just a little, replaced by a sudden and startlin g fear. I almost couldnt say the next words. Especially if there really is a chance he might get off. Is there? Is there really a chance the queen could let him go?I dont know. Theres no telling what she or some of the other high-up royals will do sometimes. He suddenly looked tired. He reached into his pocket and tossed over a set of keys. Look, I know youre upset, but we cant talk about it now. I have to go meet Alberta, and you need to get inside. The square key will let you in the far side door. You know the one.I did. Yeah. Thanks.I was sulking and hated to be that way especially since he was saving me from getting in trouble but I couldnt help it. Victor Dashkov was a criminal a villain, even. He was power-hungry and greedy and didnt care who he stepped on to get his way. If he were loose againwell, there was no telling what might happen to Lissa or any other Moroi. It enraged me to think that I could do something to help put him away but that no one would let me do it.Id t aken a few steps forward when Dimitri called out from behind me. Rose? I glanced back. Im sorry, he said. He paused, and his expression of regret turned wary. And youd better bring the keys back tomorrow.I turned away and kept going. It was probably unfair, but some childish part of me believed Dimitri could do anything. If hed really wanted to get Lissa and me to the trial, I was reliable he could have.When I was almost to the side door, I caught movement in my circumferential vision. My mood plummeted. Great. Dimitri had given me keys to sneak back in, and now someone else had busted me. That was typical of my luck. Half-expecting a teacher to demand to know what I was doing, I turned and alert an excuse.But it wasnt a teacher.No, I said softly. This had to be a trick. No.For half an instant, I wondered if Id ever really woken up. perchance I was actually still in bed, asleep and dreaming.Because surely, surely that was the only account statement for what I was now seeing in front of me on the Academys lawn, lurking in the shadow of an ancient, gnarled oak.It was Mason.