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the guardians hadn't done anything about the recent attack. But still. Was he really that
unhinged? He had to know how dangerous this was. Was it possible…was it possible I'd upset
him so much with the making-out disaster that he'd gone off the deep end? Enough to go do this
and get Mia and Eddie to join him? Not that those two would be hard to convince. Eddie would
follow Mason anywhere, and Mia was almost as gung ho as Mason to kill every Strigoi in the
world.
Yet, out of all the questions I had about this, one thing was definitely clear. I'd told Mason
about the Strigoi in Spokane. Hands down, this was my fault, and without me, none of this
would have happened.
"Lissa always makes eye contact," I coached Christian as we approached the exit. "And speaks
in a really, like, calm voice. I don't know what else. I mean, she concentrates a lot too, so try
that. Focus on forcing your will on them."
"I know," he snapped. "I've seen her do it."
"Fine," I snapped back. "Just trying to help."
Squinting, I saw that only one guardian stood at the gate, a total stroke of luck. They were in
between shifts. With the sun out, the risk of Strigoi had disappeared. The guardians would still
continue in their duties, but they could relax just a bit.
The guy on duty didn't seem particularly alarmed by our appearance. "What are you kids doing
out here?"
Christian swallowed. I could see the lines of tension on his face.
"You're going to let us out of the gate," he said. A note of nervousness made his voice tremble,
but otherwise, he did a fair approximation of Lissa's soothing tones. Unfortunately, it had no
effect on the guardian. As Christian had pointed out, using compulsion on a guardian was
nearly impossible. Mia had gotten lucky. The guardian grinned at us.
"What?" he asked, clearly amused.
Christian tried again. "You're going to let us out."