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"So, better to jump in now while you still feel…not as bad.”
"What kind of logic is that?" I retorted.
But I didn't argue anymore as he led me into the weight room. He showed me the weights and
reps he wanted me to do, then sprawled in a corner with a battered Western novel. Some god.
When I finished, he stood beside me and demonstrated a few cool-down stretches.
"How'd you end up as Lissa's guardian?" I asked. "You weren't here a few years ago. Were you
even trained at this school?”
He didn't answer right away. I got the feeling he didn't talk about himself very often. "No. I
attended the one in Siberia.”
"Whoa. That's got to be the only place worse than Montana.”
A glint of something—maybe amusement—sparked in his eyes, but he didn't acknowledge the
joke. "After I graduated, I was a guardian for a Zeklos lord. He was killed recently." His smile
dropped, his face grew dark. "They sent me here because they needed extras on campus. When
the princess turned up, they assigned me to her, since I'd already be around. Not that it matters
until she leaves campus.”
I thought about what he'd said before. Some Strigoi killed the guy he was supposed to have
been guarding? "Did this lord die on your watch?”
"No. He was with his other guardian. I was away.”
He fell silent, his mind obviously somewhere else. The Moroi expected a lot from us, but they
did recognize that the guardians were—more or less—only human. So, guardians got pay and
time off like you'd get in any other job. Some hard-core guardians—like my mom—refused
vacations, vowing never to leave their Moroi's sides. Looking at Dimitri now, I had a feeling he
might very well turn into one of those. If he'd been away on legitimate leave, he could hardly
blame himself for what happened to that guy. Still, he probably did anyway. I'd blame myself
too if something happened to Lissa.