Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice (Dimitri's POV)

Chapter 11

Rose and I froze. I knew that name. Everyone knew that name. Sydney gave us a dry smile.

"I take it you know who that is," she asked.

"Of course," Rose exclaimed. "She was my teacher. She went crazy and turned Strigoi."

"I know." Sydney nodded. Sonya Karp had taught Rose? Oh God. I hoped Rose had been nice to her. She had every right to be crazy.

"She's not..." Rose's eyes widened. "She's not the one who had an affair with Lissa's dad, is she?" I felt shock course through me. Imagine your father having an affair with your school teacher. I shuddered at just the horrid thought of it. No, I didn't think that was right.

"Not likely. The account was opened several years before she was added as the beneficiary-which was right when she turned eighteen. So if we're assuming the account was created around the time the baby was born, then she would've been way too young. Sonya's probably a relative."

"You must have records about her family," I said. This could actually work if we did. Our plan would, for once, go right! "Or if not, some Moroi probably does. Who's close to Sonya? Does she have a sister?" Mikhail Tanner was close to her. We could always ask him.

"No." Sydney shook her head. "That'd be an obvious choice, though. Unfortunately she has other family-tons of it. Her parents both came from giant families, so she has lots of cousins. Even some of her aunts are the right age." Great.

"We can look them up, right?" Rose wondered, excitement building up. If we could contact some of Sonya's family, Lissa could get a place on the council and may be able to sort out this mess, as well as the stupid stuff about graduating at 16. Sydney shrugged.

"There's a lot of them. I mean, yeah, we could. It'd take a long time to find everyone's life history, and even then-especially if this was covered up enough- we'd have a hard time finding out if any of them is this woman we're looking for. Or even if any of them know who she is." I tried to think of people that looked like Sonya Karp and people that looked like Lissa Dragomir. I was coming up blank. How were we going to get this information? Suddenly, something Rose had taught me back when we were in Russia, flashed up in my mind. It was horrible, and I took my time deciding whether to put it forward or not. But, it was for the greater good. If I could just make this one little sacrifice...I started slowly.

"One person knows who Jane Doe is," I murmured.

They looked at me.

"Sonya Karp," I explained. Rose threw her hands up in the air with exasperation, just like I knew she would.

"Yeah, but we can't talk to her. She's a lost cause. Mikhail Tanner spent over a year hunting her and couldn't find her. If he can't then, then we're not going to be able to." I turned and stared at the lovely summer's day out the window. I wouldn't be able to enjoy that if I was a Strigoi. I'm not a Strigoi. I'm not a Strigoi. I am a dhampir, and I can help my friends by doing whatever they ask of me. I sighed and looked back. "That's because he didn't have the right connections."

"Mikhail was her boyfriend. He had more connections than anyone else." Boyfriend. It seemed like a petty word. Eternal lover suited it more. Poor guy. He had tried so hard, but we could only do the impossible to get to her.

"Does your phone have reception out here?" I asked Sydney. She nodded and handed it to me. It was so small in my palm and I couldn't believe I was actually going to do this. I'd tried to put this world behind me. I took a deep breath and headed out the door. I dialled the number, squeezed my eyes shut and pressed the send button. Pressing the phone to my ears, I waited for the endless beeping to be interrupted by the harsh voice that I knew.