Vampire Academy Read Online Free PDF

of the class.
    "So what'd you do? How'd you make sure she stayed safe? Did you avoid going out at night?”
    "Sometimes." That was true—especially when we'd first run away. We'd relaxed a little after months went by with no attacks.
    "Sometimes," he repeated in a high-pitched voice, making my answer sound incredibly stupid. "Well then, I suppose you slept during the day and stayed on guard at night.”
    "Er…no.”
    "No? But that's one of the first things mentioned in the chapter on solo guarding. Oh wait, you wouldn't know that because you weren't here.”
    I swallowed back more swear words. "I watched the area whenever we went out," I said, needing to defend myself.
    "Oh? Well that's something. Did you use Carnegie's Quadrant Surveillance Method or the Rotational Survey?”
    I didn't say anything.
    "Ah. I'm guessing you used the Hathaway Glance-Around-When-You-Remember-To Method.”
    "No!" I exclaimed angrily. "That's not true. I watched her. She's still alive, isn't she?”
    He walked back up to me and leaned toward my face. "Because you got lucky.”
    "Strigoi aren't lurking around every corner out there," I shot back. "It's not like what we've been taught. It's safer than you guys make it sound.”
    "Safer? Safer? We are at war with the Strigoi!" he yelled. I could smell coffee on his breath, he was so close. "One of them could walk right up to you and snap your pretty little neck before you even noticed him—and he'd barely break a sweat doing it. You might have more speed and strength than a Moroi or a human, but you are nothing, nothing, compared to a Strigoi. They are deadly, and they are powerful. And do you know what makes them more powerful?”
    No way was I going to let this jerk make me cry. Looking away from him, I tried to focus on something else. My eyes rested on Dimitri and the other guardians. They were watching my humiliation, stone-faced.
    "Moroi blood," I whispered.
    "What was that?" asked Stan loudly. "I didn't catch it.”
    I spun back around to face him. "Moroi blood! Moroi blood makes them stronger.”
    He nodded in satisfaction and took a few steps back. "Yes. It does. It makes them stronger and harder to destroy. They'll kill and drink from a human or dhampir, but they want Moroi blood more than anything else. They seek it. They've turned to the dark side to gain immortality, and they want to do whatever they can to keep that immortality. Desperate Strigoi have attacked Moroi in public. Groups of Strigoi have raided academies exactly like this one. There are Strigoi who have lived for thousands of years and fed off generations of Moroi. They're almost impossible to kill. And that is why Moroi numbers are dropping. They aren't strong enough—even with guardians— to protect themselves. Some Moroi don't even see the point of running anymore and are simply turning Strigoi by choice. And as the Moroi disappear…”
    "…so do the dhampirs," I finished.
    "Well," he said, licking sprayed spit off his lips. "It looks like you learned something after all. Now we'll have to see if you can learn enough to pass this class and qualify for your field experience next semester.”
    Ouch. I spent the rest of that horrible class—in my seat, thankfully—replaying those last words in my mind. The senior-year field experience was the best part of a novice's education. We'd have no classes for half a semester. Instead, we'd each be assigned a Moroi student to guard and follow around. The adult guardians would monitor us and test us with staged attacks and other threats. How a novice passed that field experience was almost as important as all the rest of her grades combined. It could influence which Moroi she got assigned to after graduation.
    And me? There was only one Moroi I wanted.

    Two classes later, I finally earned my lunch escape. As I stumbled across campus toward the commons, Dimitri fell into step beside me, not looking particularly godlike—unless you counted his godly good looks.
    "I suppose you