Blood Promise

The fourth installment in the Vampire Academy series picks up in the aftermath of a devastating Strigoi attack on St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for Moroi (living, mortal vampires who wield elemental magic) and dhampirs (half-human, half-vampire warriors who train as guardians to protect Moroi). Rose Hathaway, an eighteen-year-old dhampir, has dropped out of the Academy and traveled to Russia to find and kill Dimitri Belikov, her former instructor and the man she loves, who was forcibly turned into a Strigoi (an undead, immortal vampire driven by evil) during the attack. Rose and Dimitri once agreed they would rather die than exist as Strigoi, and she is determined to honor that wish. Her departure has strained her bond with her best friend, Lissa Dragomir, the last surviving princess of a royal Moroi line. Rose and Lissa share a one-way psychic connection: Lissa once used spirit, a rare magical element, to unknowingly resurrect Rose from death, making Rose "shadow-kissed" and able to enter Lissa's mind and sense her emotions.

In Saint Petersburg, Rose stakes out an elite Moroi nightclub seeking leads on Dimitri's hometown in Siberia. She meets Sydney, a young American woman who belongs to the Alchemists, a secret human organization that conceals the vampire world from ordinary humans. Sydney reluctantly accompanies Rose to Siberia on orders from her superiors. During the journey, Rose slips into Lissa's mind and observes troubling developments at St. Vladimir's: Queen Tatiana, the Moroi monarch, has sent Avery Lazar, the daughter of the Academy's new headmaster, to the school, where Avery quickly befriends Lissa. Adrian Ivashkov, a Moroi spirit user and the queen's great-nephew who is in love with Rose, visits Rose in dreams to urge her to come home, but she refuses to reveal her location.

After a harrowing nighttime Strigoi attack, Rose and Sydney arrive in Baia, Dimitri's hometown. Rose is taken to the home of Dimitri's mother, Olena Belikova, who nurses her back to health. Rose meets Dimitri's sisters Karolina, Viktoria, and the pregnant Sonya, as well as his formidable grandmother Yeva, who is rumored to have prophetic dreams. Rose gathers her courage and tells them the truth: Dimitri was not killed but was turned into a Strigoi. The family grieves, holding a memorial service and treating his turning as death.

Rose settles into life with the Belikovs but faces pressure from Abe Mazur, a powerful and enigmatic Moroi known as Zmey (Russian for "snake"), who insists she leave Russia. Yeva leads Rose to Mark and Oksana, a married dhampir-Moroi couple who share a shadow-kissed bond like Rose and Lissa's. Oksana is a spirit user, and Mark warns Rose that her grief-fueled quest mirrors the reckless self-destruction of unpromised dhampirs, vigilantes who hunt Strigoi independently and die young. Mark gives Rose a silver ring charmed with spirit to stabilize her moods.

Tensions escalate when Rose discovers that Viktoria's secret boyfriend, Rolan Kislyak, is a manipulative Moroi who also fathered Sonya's unborn child. Abe offers to drive Rolan away permanently if Rose promises to leave Baia. Rose agrees, but Viktoria blames her for the interference. Heartbroken, Rose departs. Before she goes, Yeva reveals she speaks English and tells Rose she dreamed of her arrival, confirming Rose must leave to fulfill her true purpose. Rose joins Denis, a brash unpromised dhampir, and his hunting group on a trip to Novosibirsk.

In Novosibirsk, Rose takes charge, insisting they hunt Strigoi together rather than splitting up. She interrogates captured Strigoi about Dimitri before allowing the kills. After several nights, she finds one who claims to know Dimitri and releases him to carry a message: Rose Hathaway is looking for Dimitri.

The gamble works. One evening, Dimitri appears behind Rose on the street. She has her stake ready but hesitates, unable to strike. Dimitri knocks her unconscious and takes her to the estate of Galina, a Strigoi who was once his Academy instructor. Rose wakes in a luxurious, escape-proof suite where Dimitri tells her he wants to turn her Strigoi so they can rule together. He begins biting her regularly, and the endorphins from Strigoi bites create an addictive haze that erodes her willpower and clarity. Days blur together as Rose sinks into dependency.

Gradually, Rose fights through the addiction. When Nathan, the Strigoi who originally turned Dimitri, attacks her to extract information about Lissa, the confrontation shocks Rose further out of her fog. She starts refusing Dimitri's bites, feigning exhaustion to buy time, and breaks a cracked chair leg free to fashion a crude wooden stake. During a quiet conversation, Dimitri shows flickers of his old warmth, but when Rose asks why he wants her, he never says he loves her, only that he wants her. Rose recognizes the absence of his soul. She kisses him goodbye and drives the wooden stake into his chest, stunning him long enough to escape.

Rose fights through the estate, retrieving a silver stake from a vault of confiscated charmed objects. In the library, she encounters Galina, and Dimitri, having recovered, bursts in and fights his former instructor, giving Rose the opening to stake Galina through the heart. Rose smashes a window and flees through the estate's hedge maze with Dimitri in pursuit. At a bridge over the Ob River, Dimitri corners her. Rose climbs onto the railing, prepared to jump rather than be turned. When Dimitri lunges for her, she tells him she will always love him and drives the silver stake into his chest. He whispers that this was what he was supposed to say and falls into the river below.

An elderly couple picks Rose up on the road, and she is brought to a safe house where Abe, Mark, and Oksana are waiting. Rose suddenly realizes Lissa is in immediate danger: Avery is a secret spirit user who has been using compulsion to manipulate Lissa into reckless behavior, encouraging heavy drinking to suppress Lissa's spirit abilities and weaken her resistance. In a desperate improvisation, Oksana enters Rose's mind while Rose is connected to Lissa through the bond, creating a psychic chain that allows Rose to communicate directly with Lissa for the first time. Rose coaches Lissa through a physical confrontation with Avery's brother Reed and her guardian Simon, both of whom are shadow-kissed and bonded to Avery. Adrian, sensing the massive surge of spirit across campus, arrives and joins the psychic battle, using his own compulsion. Together, Lissa, Adrian, and Oksana combine their power to overwhelm Avery's allies, and the psychic overload cascades through Avery's bonds, driving Avery, Reed, and Simon permanently insane.

Oksana then mentions that a spirit user named Robert Doru once claimed he could restore a Strigoi to its original living state. Abe identifies Robert as the half-brother of Victor Dashkov, a royal Moroi imprisoned for kidnapping and torturing Lissa. Rose files this away as Abe arranges her return to the United States.

Adrian picks Rose up at the airport. Rose reunites with Lissa, and the two renew their friendship, with Rose confessing everything that happened in Russia. Alberta, head of the campus guardians, offers to reenroll Rose so she can graduate. Rose's mother, Janine Hathaway, appears at guest housing, and Rose is stunned to learn that Abe Mazur, whose full name is Ibrahim Mazur, is her father.

Then a padded envelope arrives from Russia containing the silver stake Rose used on the bridge and a note in Dimitri's handwriting: He survived, and he is coming for her. Rose realizes her blow did not reach his heart. Torn between grief and desperate hope, she seizes on the possibility that Robert Doru's alleged ability could save Dimitri. The only person who might know Robert's location is Victor Dashkov, locked away for life. Rose concludes that she and Lissa will have to break Victor out of prison, but first she must stay at the Academy and graduate, all while knowing Dimitri may arrive before she can act.