richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

She sat in the chapel's attic, crying. She didn't entirely know why she was crying either. She felt
happy and relieved that I'd been unharmed, that she'd been able to heal me. At the same time,
she felt weak in both body and mind. She burned inside, like she'd lost part of herself. She
worried I'd be mad because she'd used her powers. She dreaded going through another school
day tomorrow, pretending she liked being with a crowd who had no other interests aside from
spending their families' money and making fun of those less beautiful and less popular. She
didn't want to go to the dance with Aaron and see him watch her so adoringly—and feel him
touching her—when she felt only friendship for him.
Most of these were all normal concerns, but they hit her hard, harder than they would an
ordinary person, I thought. She couldn't sort through them or figure out how to fix them.
"You okay?”
She looked up and brushed the hair away from where it stuck to her wet cheeks. Christian stood
in the entrance to the attic. She hadn't even heard him come up the stairs. She'd been too lost in
her own grief. A flicker of both longing and anger sparked within her.
"I'm fine," she snapped. Sniffling, she tried to stop her tears, not wanting him to see her weak.
Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms and wore an unreadable expression. "Do…do you
want to talk?”
"Oh . . ." She laughed harshly. "You want to talk now? After I tried so many times—”
"I didn't want that! That was Rose—”
He cut himself off and I flinched. I was totally busted.
Lissa stood up and strode toward him. "What about Rose?”
"Nothing." His mask of indifference slipped back into place. "Forget it.”
"What about Rose?" She stepped closer. Even through her anger, she still felt that inexplicable
attraction to him. And then she understood. "She made you, didn't she? She told you to stop
talking to me?”