“I nodded. "Yup. What I did was tantamount to treason in their eyes." "I don't know what 'tantamount' means, but it sounds pretty serious.”

“Is Adrian here?”“Who?”“Adrian. Tall. Brown hair. Green eyes.”She frowned. “Do you mean Jet?”“I … I’m not sure. Does he smoke like a chimney?”The girl nodded sagely. “Yup. You must mean Jet.”

“That's pretty weird—and when I say something's weird, you know it's serious.”

“Cool',” said Adrian. “'Wind.’ I see what you did there, Sage. Pretty clever.”

“It matters to me. That's what you don't get. You can't understand. You can't understand what it's like knowing what I did. That whole time being Strigoi...It's like a dream now, but it's one I remember clearly. There can be no forgiveness for me. And what happened with you? I remember that most of all. Everything I did. Everything I wanted to do.”

“Vladimir did great things—so could she. Besides, they come first, right?""Not always."I stared. I'd had they come first drilled into me since I was a child. It was what all guardians believed. Only the dhampirs who'd run away from their duty didn't subscribe to that. What he said was almost like treason."Sometimes, Rose, you have to know when to put yourself first.”

“He shook his head. “No. Because there's no one else out there who understands you like I do.”I waited for more. “That's it? You're not going to elaborate on what that means?”Those green eyes held me. “I don't think I need to.”