I could tell she was incensed. She fought with more passion than I'd ever seen before, and there was a perpetual snarl on her face that I wasn't sure she was entirely aware of. I watched from the sidelines as she finally won a sparring match. There was a scattering of applause from her fellow novices.

As I made my way to the second class I was to guard, I over heard the redhead, Mason, asking her how Vasilisa was. It made me think of the dreadful fox, and then I couldn't get the image out of my mind. The blank eyes of the harmless animal staring up, so different from the red-rimmed ones of Strigoi.

I was on lunch duty today, and by the time lunch arrived I had managed to pull my thoughts away from the fox. We still didn't know who'd done it, and there was no point to stressing over something that I didn't have any control over. That's what I told myself, anyway.

The Princess sat at a table with Natalie Dashkov, looking shaken. I doubted Natalie prattling on about the fox helped much. I knew I wasn't supposed to pick favorites with the students, but I really didn't like that girl. Something about her just set me off. Her bringing my freshly freed thoughts back to the canine didn't improve my opinion of her any.

I worked my way through the cafeteria, passing the door to the feeder room and peeking in. I knew my face didn't move, but inside I was grimacing. It was a necessary part of a Moroi's life, but it was disgusting. And the humans, the feeders, who let them do it? Even worse. The idea that feeders are the dregs of society had been ingrained in us our entire lives.

I couldn't see anything through the doorway, though, and moved on. They had room dividers and cubicles set up so that you couldn't see right in.

I kept wandering, but these sorts of things were boring, and nothing happened.

Not too long after, a guardian named Alan came to relieve me so I could have lunch myself. I trudged my way out of the students area and found the stairs up to the staff lounge. I smiled at the Moroi who handed me my plate, and she nodded meekly at me. I've never really understood why Moroi respond that way to me. Sure, I'm good at what I do, but it's not like I'm going to hurt them. I'm here to protect them. The royal Moroi aren't as bad. A lot of them just ignore me. Some of them are friendly. And other guardians have a habit of looking at me with reverence, unless they happen to be quite accomplished themselves. That's part of why I'm so introverted. The other part, the bigger part, is just that I prefer my own company.

Pulled pork sandwiches were on the menu today. The Moroi — I think her name was Tessa — knew me well enough to pile three of them onto my plate. I shot her a grateful smile, and she mustered up the courage to meet my eyes and smile back. Well that was progress.

I sat at an empty table and proceeded to mow down on the food. I hadn't realized I was starving until I sat down to eat. Still, I forced myself to eat at a (relatively) sedate pace.

I still finished early, and got up to head to the next class on my guard schedule. They had me assigned to the same classes the Princess was in after lunch, which meant I guarded almost all of Rose's classes. I half wondered if that was by design.

I rounded the corner and saw the two girls standing outside the animal behavior classroom. They were talking, and I ducked back behind the corner, telling myself I didn't want to interrupt their conversation. Yeah, right, the sensible part of my brain scoffed. I told it to shut up.

"I do like her, but she's just incompetent about certain things," a voice, I was fairly certain it was Rose, said.

There was a short pause, then she sighed and continued, "How are you doing with all this?"

"Can't you already feel it?" Vasilisa teased. I wished I could see their faces.

"Yeah," Rose agreed, "but I want to hear it from you."

"I don't know. I'll be okay. I wish everyone wouldn't keep staring at me like I'm some kind of freak." I felt an abstract sense of anger.

Rose's anger was apparently much less abstract, and perhaps closer to rage than anger. "Who's bothering you?" she demanded.

"Rose, you can't beat up everyone we have a problem with," she chided, but her heart wasn't really in it.

"Mia?" Rose guessed.

"And others," the Princess avoided giving a straight answer. "Look, it doesn't matter. What I want to know is how this could have . . . that is, I can't stop thinking about that time—" There was that other time again. What was the other time? What had happened?

"Don't."

"Why do you keep pretending that didn't happen? You of all people. You made fun of Natalie for going on and on, but it's not like you've got a good grip on your control switch. You'll normally talk about anything."

"But not that," Rose insisted. "We need to forget about it. It was a long time ago. We don't even really know what happened."

I saw a blonde Moroi named Jesse pass me, and I tried to look like I was doing something important, not just standing around eavesdropping on a couple of teenage girls. Because man does that sound creepy.

A few seconds later, I heard a masculine voice call out, "Hey, Rose." Jesse.

"Hey," Rose responded, easily switching modes into seductress.

"So hey, I'm going to be in your dorm tonight for a study group. You think . . . maybe . . ." he proposed. I imagined him leering at her, and her with a hand on a cocked hip.

"Sure," she purred.

"I'll be there." I pictured him winking.

"I'll meet you in one of the common areas, with further instructions." She would have winked back.

I heard footsteps and assumed he'd left. The assumption was verified when Vasilisa spoke. "You're under house arrest. They won't let you hang out and talk to him."

"I don't really want to 'talk' to him. We'll slip away." I filed that information away for later, and shook my head in disappointment.

The Princess groaned. "I just don't know about you sometimes."

"That's because you're the cautious one, and I'm the reckless one."

The bell rang then, and they moved inside the room. Other students headed in as well, and I slipped in alongside them, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

I stood stoic against the back wall of the classroom, doing my best statue impression. I didn't really listen to what was going on around me. I just sent my mind to a blank place, much like meditation, and stood. My body was alert; my eyes were watchful, and I could jerk to action in an instant.

A higher pitched voice raised in question cut through my delightful wall of white. "What about foxes? Do they have alphas too?"

My gaze followed the voice back to the speaker, and saw a petite blonde Moroi with ringlets. She sat with her back straight — for the moment, at least. I imagined she'd go back to slouching like all the others once the attention was off her. But she didn't seem to mind the attention.

A few people giggled nervously. Ms. Meissner wasn't pleased. "We're discussing wolves today, Miss Rinaldi," the teacher chastised.

That was the end of the little outburst, and with some effort, I dragged my thoughts back to the thoughtless nothing from before. I didn't always wander here, only when there was something I didn't want to think about. Like, say, a dead fox.

Speaking of which . . . Rinaldi. Mia? The girl heckling Vasilisa after the fox thing? Huh. Something else to file away for later.

Okay, so maybe my blank state isn't as blank as I thought it was.

I watched absently as a Moroi I could only describe as sleazy sidled up next to Rose and her best friend. He said something to her, and I heard her growl back, "Screw you." I tuned in then.

"Are you offering?" he asked.

"From what I've heard, there isn't much to screw."

"Wow. You have changed," he mocked. "Last I remembered, you weren't too picky about who you got naked with."

"And the last I remember, the only people you ever say naked were on the Internet." Her tone was different than with Jesse. With him, she'd been flirtatious. Now she was just confrontational.

He cocked his head. "Hey, I just got it: it was you, wasn't it?" He looked from Rose to Lissa — right, Rose'd asked me to call the girl Lissa — and back again. "She got you to kill the fox, didn't she? Some weird kind of lesbian voo—ahhh!" He burst into flames.

I tensed, but didn't quite jump forward. There was something off about the fire. I ignored the screams (mostly the boy's), Rose protecting Lissa, and the teacher racing for the fire extinguisher to focus on the fire. It wasn't touching him, that's what was strange. It danced above his skin but not on it. Then just as sudden as they'd started, the flames went out.

There was only one person I knew who knew how to do that. And how ironic it was that her nephew just happened to be in this class.

And he was laughing uproariously. That kind of gave it away too.

Ms. Meissner's face was deeply colored from rage. "Mr. Ozera!" she shouted. "How dare you — do you have any idea — report to Headmistress Kirova's office now!"

Christian Ozera stood up breezily, smirking. "Sure thing, Ms. Meissner."

I shook my head to myself, unable to believe he would do such a thing.

Nothing more got done in that class. The students couldn't stop talking about what had happened.

News spread quickly, and everyone was talking about it by the next period — and for the rest of the day. It was understandable. None of the students (and many of the teachers) had ever seen a spell like that, with fire that didn't burn anything. And it had been used offensively. No one did that. It defied all the rules of our society. And no one taught offensive spells any more. Well, none of the instructors from the Academy did. They were thought to be forgotten. Clearly they weren't.

Moroi were tree huggers. They believed magic was meant to take care of the earth and better people's lives. It wasn't always that way, though. Moroi used to fight alongside their guardians, helping rid the world of Strigoi. At some point they got scared of extinction and decided to hide behind us, and now our numbers were dwindling. Now, I'm not saying that I wouldn't do everything to protect any Moroi. I'm just saying the system could be better.

I gave a sigh of relief when my day was finished, Rose was gone away to her room, and I could go do just about anything I wanted. I stayed in the gym, heading to the change room. I pulled out my bag from where I had it stashed and pulled on my black broadshorts. I didn't bother with the shirt, instead carefully folding my duster and setting it on top of the bag and tugging my shirt over my head.

I went back to the main room and laid into the punching bag. The chain creaked as I sent it rocking, jab, cross, hook, roundhouse, cross. I pounded combinations and single hits into the bag, sweat gathering on my brow. My body worked, and my mind didn't have to think. It was better than the whiteness I sent my thoughts to when I was guarding the classrooms, when I knew there was very little chance of seeing any action.

I didn't know how much time had passed when I finally let up. I was slick with sweat, breathing hard. I headed back to the change room and showered, then pulled my clothing back on and headed to my room.

I was putting Assassin's Creed into my PS3 when I remembered what Jesse had said to Rose. I sighed. Maybe she'd be smart and not go through with it. I wouldn't bet money on it, though. What I would bet money on was that their meeting wouldn't be happening until much later. So for now, I sat on my bed with the controller and Desmond Miles, and tried not to think too hard about much of anything for a while.

*Not too exciting, I know. But the next one should be much more interesting. (Rubs hands together and chuckles evilly.)*