How It All Goes Down
- Hooray for Mason—he got the books and Rose begins reading right away. She learns that St. Vladimir healed people and also went mad. She also finds "shadow-kissed Anna" referenced a couple times, but doesn't come any closer to an explanation of the mysterious term.
- In reading, Rose notices that Vladimir and Anna were a good little team—he relied on her for strength, just like Lissa does with her.
- Then she remembers why she's so interested in the word shadow-kissed. Right before Ms. Karp left, she came to Rose and proclaimed, "You're shadow-kissed!"
- She told Rose that she had to get Lissa out of there to keep her safe, otherwise they'd come after her too.
- Rose wasn't sure what it meant at the time, and she's still not sure if she really gets it, but she knows that she and Lissa and Ms. Karp are all connected to Anna and Vladimir in some way.
- While she's sorting through all this, Mason shows up, wanting to smuggle her out for the night. At first she's reluctant, but when he says it's for Lissa, of course Rose agrees.
- Mason takes her to Lissa's dorm room, where she and Aaron and a bunch of others are drinking whiskey. Rose doesn't really feel like drinking, and she's worried about what will happen if she's drunk and Lissa gets hurt, so she passes on the booze.
- She also gets that Lissa isn't really having a fun time, even though she's laughing and playing along with everyone.
- Rose remembers another party just like this one, before they left. She was drinking—a lot—and getting it on with Greg.
- Everything was going great until some kid named Wade brought a feeder to the party. Loads of the guys took turns sucking on her neck, even though she was way too drugged out at that point.
- This really bothered Lissa—she didn't see why someone should be treated so poorly, no matter what she was, feeder or not—and it clearly struck a chord with her, though Rose was too buzzed to get a real reading from her emotions through their bond.
- Next thing Rose knew, Lissa had used her compulsion powers on Wade, making him smash a bunch of school property so he'd stop hurting the feeder. Rose pleaded with her friend to stop, but she kept going, having Wade smash windows and stuff.
- Eventually, Rose got Lissa to stop, but when Wade came to, he blamed Rose, saying she'd destroyed school property. Rose didn't want her friend to get in trouble, so she took the blame.
- She'd never seen Lissa so out of control with anger, and decided to leave the Academy. Two days later, she broke Lissa out.
- Back to the present, Xander is asking Rose for just a taste of her special dhampir blood. Lissa gets annoyed, but Rose knows not to push it and instead just makes a joke to get rid of the situation.