Last Sacrifice

queen can affect everything—for better or worse. I hope it's someone good. One of the Ozeras, maybe. One of Tasha's people.' She glanced hopefully at Christian, who could only shrug. 'Or Ariana Szelsky. I like her. Not that it matters who I want,' she added bitterly. 'Seeing as I can't vote.' The Council's votes determined the election's winner, so again, she was locked out of the Moroi legal process.

'A lot of work will go into the nominations,' Abe explained, avoiding her last comment. 'Each family will want someone to further their interests but who also has a chance of getting votes from—'

'Oomph!'

I was thrust harshly out of the calculating world of Moroi politics and back into the wilds of West Virginia— very painfully so. Something solid and fierce slammed me against the hard-packed earth, leaves and branches cutting my face and hands. Strong hands held me down, and Dimitri's voice spoke in my ear.

'You should have just hidden in town,' he said, a little amused. His weight and position allowed me no room to move. 'It would have been the last place I looked. Instead, I knew exactly where you'd go.'

'Whatever. Don't act so smart,' I said through gritted teeth, trying to break out of his hold. Goddamn it. He was smart. And once again, the closeness of him was disorienting. Earlier, it had seemed to affect him too, but he'd apparently learned his lesson. 'You made a lucky guess, that's all.'

'I don't need luck, Roza. I'll always find you. So, really it's up to you how difficult you want this situation to be.' There was an almost conversational tone to his voice, made all the more ridiculous by the situation we were in. 'We can do this over and over, or you can do the reasonable thing and just stay put with Sydney and me.'

'It's not reasonable! It's wasteful.'

He was sweating, from the heat and undoubtedly because he'd had to run pretty hard to catch up with me. Adrian wore a cologne that always made me heady, but the natural scent of Dimitri's warm skin was intoxicating too. It was amazing to me that I could keep noticing these little things—and be attracted to them—even when I was legitimately mad at him for keeping me captive. Maybe anger was a turn-on for me.

'How many times do I have to explain the logic behind what we're doing?' he asked in exasperation.

'Until you give up.' I pushed back against him, trying again to get loose, but all it did was put us closer together. I had a feeling the kissing trick wouldn't work this time.

He jerked me to my feet, keeping my arms and hands pinned behind my back. I had a little more room to maneuver than I had on the ground, but not quite enough to break free. Slowly, he began trying to make me walk back toward the direction I'd come from.

'I am not letting you and Sydney risk getting in trouble with me. I'll take care of myself, so just let me go!' I said, literally dragging my feet. Seeing a tall, skinny tree, I stuck one leg out and hooked myself onto the trunk, completely bringing us to a halt.

Dimitri groaned and shifted his grip to get me away from the tree. It almost gave me an escape opportunity, but I didn't even manage two steps before he had a hold of me again.

'Rose,' he said wearily. 'You can't win.'

'How's your face feeling?' I asked. I couldn't see any marks in the poor lighting but knew the punch I'd given him would leave a mark tomorrow. It was a shame to damage his face like that, but he'd heal, and maybe it would teach him a lesson about messing with Rose Hathaway.

Or not. He began dragging me again. 'I'm seconds away from just tossing you over my shoulder,' he warned.

'I'd like to see you try.'

'How do you think Lissa would feel if you got killed?' His grip tightened, and while I had a feeling he'd make good on his over-the-shoulder threat, I also suspected he wanted to shake me. He was that upset. 'Can you imagine what it would do to her if she lost you?'

For a moment, I was out of snappy retorts. I didn't want to die, but risking my life was exactly that: risking my life. No one else's. Still, I knew he was right. Lissa would be devastated if anything happened to me. And yet . . . it was a risk I had to take.

'Have a little faith, comrade. I won't get killed,' I said stubbornly. 'I'll stay alive.'

Not the answer he'd wanted. He shifted his hold. 'There are other ways to help her than whatever insanity you're thinking of.'

I suddenly went limp. Dimitri stumbled, caught by surprise at my sudden lack of resistance. 'What's wrong?' he asked, both puzzled and suspicious.

I stared off into the night, my eyes not really focused on anything. Instead, I was seeing Lissa and Abe back at Court, remembering Lissa's feeling of powerlessness and longing for her vote. Tatiana's note came back to me, and for a moment, I could hear her voice in my head. She is not the last Dragomir. Another lives.

'You're right,' I said at last.

'Right about . . . ?' Dimitri was at a total loss. It was a common reaction for people when I agreed to something reasonable.

'Rushing back to Court won't help Lissa.'

Silence. I couldn't fully make out his expression, but it was probably filled with shock.

'I'll go back to the motel with you, and I won't go running off to Court.' Another Dragomir. Another Dragomir needing to be found. I took a deep breath. 'But I'm not going to sit around and do nothing. I am going to do something for Lissa—and you and Sydney are going to help me.'

EIGHT

IT TURNED OUT I WAS wrong about the local police department comprising of one guy and a dog. When Dimitri and I walked back to the motel, we saw flashing red and blue lights in the parking lot and a few bystanders trying to see what was happening.

'The whole town turned out,' I said.

Dimitri sighed. 'You just had to say something to the desk clerk, didn't you?'

We'd stopped some distance away, hidden in the shadow of a run-down building. 'I thought it would slow you down.'

'It's going to slow us down now.' His eyes did a sweep of the scene, taking in all the details in the flickering light. 'Sydney's car is gone. That's something, at least.'

My earlier cockiness faded. 'Is it? We just lost our ride!'

'She wouldn't leave us, but she was smart enough to get out before the police came knocking on her door.' He turned and surveyed the town's one main road. 'Come on. She has to be close, and there's a good chance the police might actually start searching around if they thought some defenseless girl was being chased down.' The tone he used for 'defenseless' spoke legions.

Dimitri made an executive decision to walk back toward the road that had led us into town, assuming Sydney would want to get out of there now that I'd blown our cover. Getting the police involved had created complications, but I felt little regret over what I'd done. I was excited about the plan that had occurred to me in the woods and wanted, as usual, to get moving on it right away. If I'd helped get us out of this hole of a town, so much the better.

Dimitri's instincts about Sydney were right. About a half-mile outside of town, we spotted a CR-V pulled off on the road's shoulder. The engine was off, the lights dark, but I could see well enough to identify the Louisiana plates. I walked over to the driver side window and knocked on the glass. Inside, Sydney flinched. She rolled down the window, face incredulous.

'What did you do? Never mind. Don't bother. Just get in.'

Dimitri and I complied. I felt like a naughty child under her disapproving glare. She started the car without a word and began driving in the direction we'd originally come from, eventually merging with the small state highway that led back to the interstate. That was promising. Only, once we'd driven a few miles, she pulled off again, this time at a dark exit that didn't seem to have anything at it.

She turned off the car and turned to peer at me in the backseat. 'You ran, didn't you?'

'Yeah, but I got this—'