"Oh." It was late April, but I had no clue what day Easter fell on this year. I'd lost track of the days. It hadn't happened yet, so their school must have their break the week before Easter. St. Vladimir's took its vacation afterward. "Where is your school?"
"It's about three hours away. Even more remote than here." Viktoria made a face.
"Baia's not so bad," teased Nikolai.
"Easy for you to say. You'll eventually leave and go see new and exciting places."
"Can't you?" I asked her.
She frowned, suddenly uncomfortable. "Well, I could... but that's not how we do it here-at least not in my family. Grandmother has some... strong opinions about men and women. Nikolai will be a guardian, but I'll stay here with my family."
Nikolai suddenly gave me a new appraisal. "Are you a guardian?"
"Ah, well." Now I was the uncomfortable one.
Viktoria spoke before I could come up with anything to say. "She killed two Strigoi outside of town. By herself."
He looked impressed. "You are a guardian."
"Well, no... I've killed before, but I'm not actually sworn." Turning around, I lifted up my hair to show them my neck. In addition to all my regular molnija marks, I also had the little star-shaped tattoo that meant I'd been in a battle. They both gasped, and Nikolai said something in Russian. I let my hair drop and looked back. "What?"
"You're..." Viktoria bit her lip, eyes contemplative as she groped for what she wanted to say. "Unpromised? I don't know the English word."
"Unpromised?" I said. "I guess... but technically, aren't all the women here?"
"Even if we aren't guardians, we still get marks showing we completed our training. No promise mark, though. For you to have killed so many Strigoi and have no loyalties to a school or the guardians..." Viktoria shrugged. "We call it being unpromised-it's a strange thing."
"It's strange where I come from too," I admitted. Unheard of, really. So much so, that we didn't have a term for it. It just wasn't done.
"I should let you two go," said Nikolai, his lovesick eyes back on Viktoria. "But I'll see you at Marina's for sure? Maybe sooner?"
"Yes," she agreed. They said their farewells in Russian, and then he loped off across the street with the kind of easy, athletic grace guardians often acquired with training. It reminded me a bit of Dimitri's.
"I must have scared him off," I said.
"No, he thinks you're exciting."
"Not as exciting as he thinks you are."
Her eyebrows rose. "What?"
"He likes you... I mean, really likes. Can't you tell?"
"Oh. We're just friends."
I could tell from her attitude that she meant it. She was completely indifferent to him, which was too bad. He was cute and nice. Letting poor Nikolai go, I brought up the guardians again. I was intrigued by the different attitudes around here. "You said you can't... but do you want to be a guardian?"
She hesitated. "I've never really considered it. I get all the same training at school, and I like being able to defend myself. But I'd rather use it in defense of my family than Moroi. I guess it sounds..." She paused again to think of the right word. "... Sexist? But, the men become guardians, and women stay at home. Only my brother left."
I nearly tripped. "Your brother?" I asked, keeping my voice as steady as possible.
"Dimitri," she said. "He's older than me and has been a guardian for a while. He's over in the United States, actually. We haven't seen him in a long time."
"Huh."
I felt horrible and guilty. Guilty because I was keeping the truth from Viktoria and the others. Horrible because apparently no one from back home had bothered to pass the news on to his family yet. Smiling at her own memories, she didn't notice my change in mood.
"Paul actually looks exactly like he did at that age. I should show you pictures of him-and some recent ones, too. Dimitri's pretty cute. For my brother, I mean."
I was sure seeing pictures of Dimitri as a little boy would rip my heart out. As it was, the more Viktoria began to talk about him, the sicker I felt.
She had no clue about what had happened, and even though it had been a couple of years since she'd seen him, it was clear she and the rest of the family loved him like crazy. Not that that should be a surprise. (And really, who couldn't love Dimitri?) Being around them just one morning had shown me how close they all were. I knew from Dimitri's stories that he was crazy about all of them, too.
"Rose? Are you okay?" Viktoria was peering at me with concern, probably because I hadn't said anything in the last ten minutes.
We had circled around and were almost back at her house. Looking at her, at her open, friendly face and eyes that were so much like Dimitri's, I realized I had another task ahead of me before I could go after Dimitri, wherever he was. I swallowed.
"I... yeah. I think... I think I need to sit down with you and the rest of your family."
"Okay," she said, the worry still in her voice.
Inside the house, Olena was bustling around the kitchen with Karolina. I thought they were making plans for tonight's dinner, which was startling considering we'd just finished a huge breakfast. I could definitely get used to the way they ate around here. In the living room, Paul was building an elaborate racetrack out of Legos. Yeva sat in a rocking chair and appeared to be the world's most stereotypical grandmother as she knit a pair of socks. Except most grandmothers didn't look like they could incinerate you with a single glance.