Vampire Academy Chapter 23 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Finally, all that work training with Dimitri paid off. Rose can run fast, but Christian can't. She's got to go to Lissa, though, so Christian tells her to ditch him so she can make a break for it.
  • Psi-hounds start attacking them, and it dawns on Rose that it was Victor who sent these vicious hunting dogs after her and Rose while they were away.
  • Rose tries to distract the dogs and get them to fight her instead of Christian. One bites her leg, but another shreds Christian up.
  • All of this is happening so fast, that by this time, one of the good guardians, Alberta, and Lissa are on the scene.
  • Lissa sees Christian and reaches out to heal him but doesn't have any power left. She's too weak from healing Victor.
  • Rose sees the look in her friend's eyes, and she feels her love for Christian; she tells Rose to take some of her blood to get stronger.
  • Lissa sucks from Rose's neck and then starts closing up Christian's wounds and giving him more life again.
  • The next thing Rose knows, they're back at the clinic—she was weak after giving her blood to Lissa, and had to get her leg some rest too.
  • Victor is in prison, but no one's really sure what to do with Natalie. Sure, she helped her father and messed around with animals and Lissa, but she's still young, and he was pretty convincing.
  • Lissa dumps Aaron because she doesn't feel anything for him and—immediately afterward—she takes up with Christian. Everyone is blabbing about it, but she doesn't care. She's in love.
  • Rose confronts Dimitri about what happened the night of the dance, and he tells her it was all the work of the spell Victor put in the necklace. In other words, he's just not that into her. Oh, snap.
  • She's hurt, but she gets it—he's seven years older than her and her trainer. She's still super bummed, though.
  • After some rest, Rose decides to go visit Victor in prison. He's not allowed to have visitors, but since she helped bring him in and all, they let her see him.
  • She's angry about what he did, and she wants answers, but Victor doesn't care. He's not apologetic or remorseful at all about what happened to Lissa, and he just wants to be healed so he can help change the way things are run in the government and help Morois.
  • Rose doesn't think anyone of this excuses kidnapping her BFF, but then Victor points out Lissa is fine, thanks to her shadow-kissed guardian, Rose. Wait, what?
  • That word shadow-kissed described Anna, and now Rose is being called it again. What does it mean?
  • Victor fills her in on the fact that it's about crossing over into death, and returning. Lissa brought Rose back to life after the accident—that's what created their bond, and that's why she's shadow-kissed.
  • Before Rose can process all of this, she hears some thumps outside the cell.
  • There, before her eyes, is Natalie. But she's not the innocent, sweet gal pal vying for daddy's attention… She's a Strigoi.