“Where did you get that from?” I asked in awe. I’d seen a lot of his work but never anything like this.
His eyes were on his heart, completely caught up in his work. “Just something kicking around in my head. Reminds me of you. Fiery and sweet, all at the same time. A flame in the dark, lighting my way.” His voice . . . his words . . . I recognized one of his spirit-driven moments. It should’ve unnerved me, but there was something sensual about the way he spoke, something that made my breath catch. A flame in the dark.
He swapped out the silver paintbrush for a black one. Before I could stop him, he wrote over the heart: AYE. Underneath it, in smaller letters, he added: HONORARY MEMBER.
“What are you doing?” I cried. The spell had shattered. “You ruined it!”
Adrian regarded me with a mischievous look. “I figured you’d be flattered at being accepted as an honorary member.”
“How can I get in?” asked one of the girls.
In spite of my outrage, I took the shirt when he offered it to me. I held it up gingerly, careful not to mess up the paint job. Even through the ridiculous words, the fiery heart was still stunning. It shone through, and I couldn’t stop admiring it. How could someone so irreverent create something so beautiful? When I finally looked up again, I found Adrian watching me. That earlier thrall seized me, and I found myself unable to move.
“You haven’t painted anything,” he said softly.
“That’s because I have zero creativity,” I told him.
“Everyone’s got some creativity,” he insisted. He handed me the silver brush and slid over to join me against the wall. Our legs and arms touched. He laid out his own AYE shirt across his lap. “Go ahead. Add something, anything.”
I shook my head in protest and tried to hand him the brush. “I can’t draw or paint. I’ll ruin it.”
“Sydney.” He pushed the brush back into my hand. “It’s a pirate skeleton, not the Mona Lisa. You’re not going to decrease its value.”
Maybe not, but I had a hard time imagining what I could possibly add to this. I could do a lot of things, but this was out of my league—especially compared to his skill. Something in his expression drove me, however, and after a lot of thought, I gave my best shot at drawing a tie around the skeleton’s neck. Adrian frowned.
“Is that a noose?”
“It’s a tie!” I cried, trying not to feel offended.
He laughed, clearly delighted at this. “My mistake.”
“He can go to a boardroom meeting,” I added, feeling a need to defend my work. “He’s very proper now.”
Adrian seemed to like that even more. “Of course he is. Proper and dangerous.” A little of his mirth faded, and he grew pensive as he studied me, holding me in his gaze. “Just like you.”
I’d been so worried about the artistic challenge that I wasn’t aware of just how close he’d moved to me until now. So many details came into focus. The shape of his lips, the line of his neck. “I’m not dangerous,” I breathed.
He brought his face toward mine. “You are to me.”
And somehow, against all reason, we were kissing. I closed my eyes, and the world around me faded. The noise, the smoke . . . it was gone. All that mattered was the taste of his mouth, a mix of cloves and mints. There was a fierceness in his kiss, a desperation . . . and I answered, just as hungry for him. I didn’t stop him when he pulled me closer, so that I almost sat on his lap. I’d never been wrapped around someone’s body like that, and I was shocked at how eagerly mine responded. His arm went around my waist, pulling me onto him further, and his other hand slid up the back of my neck, getting entangled in my hair. Amazingly, the wig stayed on. He took his lips away from my mouth, gently trailing kisses down to my neck. I tipped my head back, gasping when the intensity returned to his mouth. There was an animalistic quality that sent shock waves through the rest of my body. Some Alchemist voice warned me that this was exactly how a vampire would feed, but I had no fear. Adrian wouldn’t hurt me, and I needed to know just how hard he could kiss me and—
“Oh my God!”
Adrian and I jerked apart as though someone had thrown cold water on us, though our legs stayed entangled. I glanced around in a panic, half expecting to see an outraged Stanton standing over us. Instead, I looked up into the terrified face of a girl I didn’t know. She wasn’t even looking at us.
“You guys won’t believe what happened!” she exclaimed, directing her words to our fellow artists. She pointed vaguely behind her. “Over across the street at Kappa, they found one of their girls unconscious, and they can’t wake her up. I don’t know what happened, but it sounds like she was attacked. There’s police out front and everything.”
Adrian and I stared at each other for one shocked moment. Then, wordlessly, we both stood up. He held my hand to steady me until my trembling legs strengthened. I’m weak because of this news, I told myself. Not because I was just making out with a vampire.
But those dangerous and intoxicating kisses faded almost instantly when we returned to Lynne’s sorority. It was busy with frightened people, and campus security moved in and out, allowing us to step right inside the open door.
“What happened?” I asked a brunette standing nearby.
“It’s Lynne,” she said, biting her lips. “They just found her in an empty auditorium.”
Something in the way she spoke made me uneasy. “Is she . . . alive?”
The girl nodded. “I don’t know . . . I think so, but they said there’s something really wrong. She’s unconscious and looks . . . well . . . old.”
I met Adrian’s eyes and vaguely noticed he had silver paint in his hair. I’d still been holding the brush when I’d wrapped my arms around him. “Damn,” he murmured. “Too late.”
I wanted to scream in frustration. We’d been so close to warning her. She’d allegedly left just before we’d arrived. What if we’d come sooner? What if we’d visited her before the other two girls? I’d chosen the order randomly. Worse, what if we’d been able to find her instead of having art time with the drunken sorority girls?
What if I hadn’t been all over Adrian? Or maybe he’d been all over me. Whatever you wanted to call it, I hadn’t exactly resisted.
The more we learned, however, the more unlikely it seemed we would’ve been able to do anything if we’d stuck around Lynne’s house and investigated. Nobody knew where she’d gone. Only one person had seen her leave, a girl with curly blond hair who frustrated the campus police with her vague answers.
“I’m sorry,” she kept saying. “I just . . . I can’t remember the girl she left with.”
“Nothing?” asked one of the officers. “Height? Age? Hair color?”
The girl frowned, looking as though she was using every ounce of mental effort. At last, she sagged in defeat and shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Did she have black hair?” I suggested.
The girl brightened a little. “Maybe. Er, wait. It might have been brown. No. Red, maybe?”
Adrian and I stepped away, knowing we could do no more. “That girl seems awfully confused,” I said as we walked back to my car.
“She certainly does,” he agreed. “Sound familiar?”
“Very,” I muttered, recognizing the signs of magic.
No one could deny it. Veronica had been here. And we’d been too late to stop her.
CHAPTER 12
I FELT LIKE A FAILURE when I delivered Ms. Terwilliger the news before classes the next day.
She told me, her face pale and grim, that there was nothing I could’ve done. But I didn’t know if I believed that. I still berated myself with the same questions as last night. What if I hadn’t spent the previous day with Marcus? What if I hadn’t spent so much time making sure the Mustang was taken care of? What if I hadn’t been engaged in a massive public display of affection on the floor with Adrian? I’d let personal matters interfere, and now a girl had paid with her life. I wanted to skip school and warn the others immediately, bu
t Ms. Terwilliger assured me that Veronica wouldn’t be able to feed so quickly. She told me waiting until later in the day would be fine.
I gave a reluctant nod and returned to my desk, figuring I’d try to read until class started. I didn’t expect to have much success. “Miss Melbourne?” she called. I glanced back and saw that her sad expression had lightened up a little. She almost looked amused, which seemed weird, given the situation.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You might want to do something about your neck.”
I was totally lost. “My neck?”
She reached into her purse and handed me a compact mirror. I opened it and surveyed my neck, still trying to figure out what she could be talking about. Then I saw it. A small, brownish purple bruise on the side of my neck.
“What on earth is that?” I exclaimed.
Ms. Terwilliger snorted. “Although it’s been a while for me, I believe the technical term is a hickey.” She paused and arched an eyebrow. “You do know what that is, don’t you?”
“Of course I know!” I lowered the mirror. “But there’s no way—I mean, we barely—that is—”
She held up a hand to silence me. “You don’t have to justify your private life to me. But you might want to consider how you can actually keep it private in the next fifteen minutes.”
I was practically out of my seat before she finished speaking. When I emerged from the building, I had the amazing fortune to find the campus shuttle just pulling up. I hurried onto it, and although the ride to my dorm only took a few minutes, it felt like forever. All the while, my mind reeled with what had happened.
I have a hickey. I let Adrian Ivashkov give me a hickey.
How in the world had that happened? The devastating news about Lynne had allowed me to ignore the full impact of my indiscretion, but there was no avoiding that now. Against every principle I possessed, I’d allowed myself to get drawn into kissing Adrian. And not just kissing. Thinking about the way our bodies had been pressed together made me feel as flushed as I had last night.
No, no, no! I couldn’t think about that. I had to forget it had happened. I needed to make sure it didn’t happen again. What had come over me? I didn’t feel the way he felt about me. He was Moroi. And even if he hadn’t been, he was undoubtedly the most unsuitable guy for me in the world. I needed someone serious, someone with the potential to get a job that had medical benefits. Someone like Brayden.
Yeah, how’d that work out for you, Sydney?
What happened with Adrian had been wrong. It had obviously been some twisted act of lust, probably brought on because he was so forbidden. That was it. Women fell for that kind of thing. When I’d researched relationship books, I’d seen one called Bad Boys and the Women Who Love Them. I’d ignored it because Brayden was pretty much the opposite of a bad boy. Maybe it would be worth getting that book now.
A flame in the dark. I needed to forget that Adrian had ever called me that. I had to.
We had another minute before we would reach my dorm, so I sent a quick text to Adrian: I have a hickey! You can’t ever kiss me again. I honestly hadn’t expected him to be awake this early, so I was surprised to get a response: Okay. I won’t kiss you on your neck again.
So typical of him. No! You can’t ever kiss me ANYWHERE. You said you were going to keep your distance.
I’m trying, he wrote back. But you won’t keep your distance from me.
I didn’t dignify that with a response.
When we reached my dorm, I asked the driver how long she’d wait before returning to main campus. “I’m leaving right now,” she said.
“Please,” I begged. “Wait sixty seconds. I’ll pay you.”
She looked offended. “I don’t take bribes.”
But when I sprinted back out of the dorm—in a scarf—she was still there. I made it back to Ms. Terwilliger’s class just as the bell rang. She flashed me a knowing look but said nothing about my wardrobe change.
While I was in class, I received a text from Marcus. Can you meet today? San Bernardino, 4 p.m.
Well, he’d warned me about short notice. San Bernardino was an hour away. I’d given Eddie a heads-up about the meeting happening this week, and he’d agreed to go. I just hoped he didn’t have anything planned this afternoon. I texted back that we’d be there, and Marcus sent me an address.
When class ended, a girl from my English class caught my attention and asked if she could borrow some notes since she’d been out sick yesterday. Eddie was gone by the time I finished with her, so I didn’t get a chance to ask him about San Bernardino until lunch.
“Sure,” he said, snapping into that fierce guardian mode.
Jill already knew about our errand because I’d told Adrian about it. I felt a little bad about taking Eddie from Jill. Okay, really bad. Removing Eddie was a serious risk, though I reminded myself that he wasn’t always with her every single second. Sometimes it was impossible, which was why we’d acquired Angeline. Still, if anyone in the Alchemists found out I was using her main bodyguard for personal errands, I’d be in big trouble. Well, actually, I’d probably be in big trouble regardless, seeing as I was meeting with a group of rebels. I turned to Angeline, who was trying to decipher some notes about the quadratic equation.
“Angeline, you need to stay with Jill until we’re back,” I said. “And you should both actually just stay in your dorm, to be extra safe. Don’t wander campus.”
Jill accepted this, but Angeline looked up in dismay. “I’m supposed to meet Trey for math. How do you expect me to pass?”
I was helpless against an academic argument. “Study in the dorm lobby. That should be safe enough. Jill can just do homework with you.”
Angeline didn’t seem entirely pleased about that alternative, but she didn’t protest it. She started to return to her notes and then did a double take. “Why are you wearing that scarf?” she asked. “It’s so hot today.” It was true. The unseasonable temperatures had returned.
Eddie, to my surprise, said, “I wondered the same thing.”
“Oh, um . . . ” Please don’t blush, please don’t blush, I ordered myself. “I’ve just been cold today.”
“That’s weird,” said Jill, perfectly deadpan. “For someone who always seems to be so cold, you sure can warm up pretty fast.”
It was straight out of Adrian’s playbook. Jill knew perfectly well why I had on the scarf, and I gave her a warning look. Eddie and Angeline appeared completely mystified. I stood up, even though I’d barely touched my food. Probably none of them would find that weird.
“Well, I’ve got to go. I’ll find you later, Eddie.” I hurried off before any of them could question me further.
I’d been a little hesitant to let Eddie in on Marcus. Eddie certainly wasn’t going to turn Marcus or me in to the Alchemists for sideline plotting. That being said, I also didn’t want Eddie to think the Alchemists were involved in nefarious schemes against the Moroi. That might very well be something Eddie would relay back to his own people, which could in turn cause all sorts of diplomatic problems. Even this hint of the Alchemists potentially being in contact with the Warriors was dangerous. I decided that having Eddie as protection was worth the risk of him hearing something he shouldn’t. He was my friend, and I trusted him. Still, I had to give him a little background information as we made the drive to San Bernardino.
“Who are these people exactly?” he asked.
“Ex-Alchemists,” I said. “They don’t like all the procedures and red tape and just want to interact with Moroi and dhampirs on their own terms.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” I could hear caution in his voice. Eddie was no fool. “Why do you want me along?”
“I just don’t know much about them. I think their intentions are good, but we’ll see.” I thought very carefully on how to phrase my next words. I had to give him a heads-up. “They’ve got a lot of conspiracy theories. Some even, um, think there might be Alchemists working with Warriors.”
; “What?” It was a wonder Eddie’s jaw wasn’t on the floor.
“They don’t have any hard proof,” I added quickly. “They’ve got a Warrior girl who spies for them. She thinks she overheard something . . . but it all sounds sketchy to me. They want me to help, but I don’t think there’s anything to uncover. I mean, the Alchemists helped raid the Warriors, right? Disrupting their crazy execution ritual wouldn’t exactly foster good relations.”
“I suppose not,” he admitted, but it was clear he wasn’t entirely at ease.
I decided to move on to safer territory. No need to worry about Marcus and his Merry Men (I couldn’t get Adrian’s name out of my head) until we heard them out.
“How is everything?” I asked. “With Angeline? Jill? I’ve been so busy with, uh, stuff that I feel like we haven’t talked much.”
Eddie didn’t answer right away. “Quiet with Jill, which is good. We want things to be as boring as possible for her. Things are better with her and Micah too. At first, a lot of his friends wouldn’t talk to her after the breakup. But he’s gotten over her enough that they can just be friends . . . so, the others have decided they can too.”
“That’s a relief.”
When we’d first come to Amberwood, Jill had had trouble fitting in. Dating Micah had opened up a lot of social circles for her, and I’d worried about what would happen after they split up. Things had worsened when I’d forbidden her from modeling for a local and very assertive fashion designer, Lia DiStefano, who risked exposing Jill. Jill had felt like she’d lost everything, so I was glad to see things were coming together for her again.
“Jill’s easy to like,” I added. “I bet most of them were happy to stay friends with her.”
“Yeah.” It was all he said, but there was a lot of emotion in that one word. I glanced over and saw a dreamy look on his face. So. Micah might be over Jill, but Eddie wasn’t. I wondered if he even knew it. “How’s Angeline?”
The dreaminess became a frown. “Confusing.”
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