Richelle Mead - Blood Promise

Table of Contents

VAMPIRE ACADEMY novels
by Richelle Mead:

ONCE WHEN I WAS IN ninth grade, I had to write a paper on a poem. One of the lines was, If your eyes werent open, you wouldnt know the difference between dreaming and waking. It hadnt meant much to me at the time. After all, thered been a guy in the class that I liked, so how could I be expected to pay attention to literary analysis? Now, three years later, I understood the poem perfectly.

Because lately, my life really did seem like it was on the precipice of being a dream. There were days I thought Id wake up and discover that recent events in my life hadnt actually happened. Surely I must be a princess in an enchanted sleep. Any day now, this dreamno, nightmarewould end, and Id get my prince and happy ending.

But there was no happy ending to be found, at least not in the foreseeable future. And my prince? Well, that was a long story. My prince had been turned into a vampirea Strigoi, to be specific. In my world, there are two kinds of vampires who exist in secrecy from humans. The Moroi are living vampires, good vampires who wield elemental magic and dont kill when seeking the blood they need to survive. Strigoi are undead vampires, immortal and twisted, who kill when they feed. Moroi are born. Strigoi are madeforcibly or by choicethrough evil means.

And Dimitri, the guy I loved, had been made a Strigoi against his will. Hed been turned during a battle, an epic rescue mission that Id been part of as well. Strigoi had kidnapped Moroi and dhampirs from the school I attended, and wed set out with others to save them. Dhampirs are half-vampire and half-humangifted with human strength and hardiness, and Moroi reflexes and senses. Dhampirs train to become guardians, the elite bodyguards who protect Moroi. Thats what I am. Thats what Dimitri had been.

After his conversion, the rest of the Moroi world had considered him dead. And to a certain extent, he was. Those who were turned Strigoi lost all sense of the goodness and life theyd had before. Even if they hadnt turned by choice, it didnt matter. They would still become evil and cruel, just like all Strigoi. The person theyd been was gone, and honestly, it was easier to imagine them moving on to heaven or the next life than to picture them out stalking the night and taking victims. But I hadnt been able to forget Dimitri, or accept that he was essentially dead. He was the man I loved, the man with whom Id been so perfectly in sync that it was hard to know where I ended and he began. My heart refused to let him goeven if he was technically a monster, he was still out there somewhere. I also hadnt forgotten a conversation he and I had once had. Wed both agreed that wed rather be deadtruly deadthan walk the world as Strigoi.

And once Id had my mourning time for the goodness hed lost, Id decided I had to honor his wishes. Even if he no longer believed in them. I had to find him. I had to kill him and free his soul from that dark, unnatural state. I knew it was what the Dimitri I had loved would have wanted. Killing Strigoi isnt easy, though. Theyre insanely fast and strong. They have no mercy. Id killed a number of them alreadypretty crazy for someone who was freshly eighteen. And I knew taking on Dimitri would be my greatest challenge, both physically and emotionally.

In fact, the emotional consequences had kicked in as soon as I made my decision. Going after Dimitri had meant doing a few life-altering things (and that wasnt even counting the fact that fighting him could very likely result in the loss of my life). I was still in school, only a handful of months away from graduating and becoming a full-fledged guardian. Every day I stuck around at St. Vladimirs Academya remote, protected school for Moroi and dhampirsmeant one more day was going by in which Dimitri was still out there, living in the state hed never wanted. I loved him too much to allow that. So Id had to leave school early and go out among humans, abandoning the world Id lived in nearly my entire life.

Leaving had also meant abandoning one other thingor rather, a person: my best friend, Lissa, also known as Vasilisa Dragomir. Lissa was Moroi, the last in a royal line. Id been slated to be her guardian when we graduated, and my decision to hunt Dimitri had pretty much destroyed that future with her. Id had no choice but to leave her.

Aside from our friendship, Lissa and I had a unique connection. Each Moroi specializes in a type of elemental magicearth, air, water, or fire. Until recently, wed believed there were only those four elements. Then wed discovered a fifth: spirit.

That was Lissas element, and with so few spirit users in the world, we hardly knew anything about it. For the most part, it seemed to be tied to psychic powers. Lissa wielded amazing compulsionthe ability to exert her will on almost anyone. She could also heal, and thats where things got a little strange between us. You see, I technically died in the car accident that killed her family. Lissa had brought me back from the world of the dead without realizing it, creating a psychic bond between us. Ever since then, I was always aware of her presence and thoughts. I could tell what she was thinking and feel when she was in trouble. We had also recently discovered I could see ghosts and spirits who hadnt yet left this world, something I found disconcerting and struggled to block out. The whole phenomenon was called being shadow-kissed.

Our shadow-kissed bond made me the ideal choice to protect Lissa, since I would instantly know if she was in trouble. Id promised to protect her my whole life, but then Dimitritall, gorgeous, fierce Dimitrihad changed it all. Id been faced with that horrible choice: continue to protect Lissa or free Dimitris soul. Choosing between them had broken my heart, leaving an ache in my chest and tears in my eyes. My parting with Lissa had been agonizing. Wed been best friends since kindergarten, and my departure was a shock for both of us. To be fair, shed never seen it coming. Id kept my romance with Dimitri a secret. He was my instructor, seven years older than me, and had been assigned to be her guardian as well. As such, he and I had tried hard to fight our attraction, knowing we had to focus on Lissa more than anything else and that wed also get in a fair amount of trouble for our student-teacher relationship.

But being kept from Dimitrieven though Id agreed to ithad caused me to build up a lot of unspoken resentment toward Lissa. I probably should have talked to her about it and explained my frustration over having my entire life planned out. It didnt seem fair, somehow, that while Lissa was free to live and love however she wanted, I would always have to sacrifice my own happiness to ensure that she was protected. She was my best friend, though, and I couldnt bear the thought of upsetting her. Lissa was particularly vulnerable because using spirit had the nasty side effect of driving people insane. So Id sat on my feelings until they finally exploded, and I left the Academyand herbehind for good.

One of the ghosts Id seenMason, a friend who had been killed by Strigoihad told me Dimitri had returned to his homeland: Siberia. Masons soul had found peace and left this world shortly thereafter, without giving me any other clues about