Later, when I’d thought about it, I decided Angeline might not be such a bad choice. She was the same age as Jill, possibly giving Jill a closer connection than I could manage. Angeline, while not trained the way a guardian like Eddie was, still could hold her own in a fight. If anyone came for Jill, they’d have their work cut out for them getting through Angeline. And with the aversion Angeline’s people had toward “tainted” Moroi, she would have no reason to further the politics of some rival faction.
As I studied her and her threadbare clothes, I wondered, though, just how well she was going to adapt to being away from the Keepers. She wore a cocky look on her face that I’d seen when visiting her community, but here it was underscored with some nervousness as she took in Adrian’s place. After living in the woods her entire life, this small apartment with its TV and plaid sofa was probably the height of modern luxury.
“Angeline,” said Abe. “This is Adrian Ivashkov.”
Adrian extended his hand, turning on that natural charm. “A pleasure.”
She took his hand after a moment’s hesitation. “Nice to meet you,” she said in her odd southern accent. She studied him for a few more seconds. “You look too pretty to be useful.”
I gasped in spite of myself. Adrian chuckled and shook her hand.
“Truer words were never spoken,” he said.
Abe glanced over at me. I probably had a look of terror on my face because I was already imagining the damage control I’d have to do with Angeline saying or doing something completely wrong at Amberwood.
“Sydney will undoubtedly want to . . . debrief you on what to expect before you begin school,” said Abe diplomatically.
“Undoubtedly,” I repeated.
Adrian had stepped away from Angeline but was still grinning. “Let Jailbait do it. Better yet, let Castile. It’ll be good for him.”
Abe shut the door but not before I got a glimpse behind him to the empty hallway. “It’s not just the two of you, is it?” I asked. “I heard there were others. Sonya’s one, right?”
Abe nodded. “They’ll be right up. They’re parking the car. Street parking’s terrible around here.”
Adrian looked over at me, hit by revelation. “Hey, do I inherit Keith’s car too?”
“Afraid not,” I said. “It belonged to his dad. He took it back.” Adrian’s face fell.
Abe stuffed his hands in his pockets and strolled casually around the living room. Angeline remained where she was. I think she was still sizing up the situation.
“Ah, yes,” mused Abe. “The late, great Mr. Darnell. That boy’s really been beset with tragedy, hasn’t he? Such a hard life.” He paused and turned to Adrian. “But you, at least, seem to have benefited from his downfall.”
“Hey,” said Adrian. “I earned this, so don’t give me any grief about bailing on Clarence. I know you wanted me to stay there for some weird reason but—”
“And you did,” said Abe simply.
Adrian frowned. “Huh?”
“You did exactly what I wanted. I’d suspected something odd was going on with Clarence Donahue, that he might be selling his blood. I’d hoped keeping you on hand would uncover the plot.” Abe stroked his chin in that mastermind way of his. “Of course, I had no idea Mr. Darnell was involved. Nor did I expect you and young Sydney to team up to unravel it all.”
“I’d hardly go that far,” I said dryly. A strange thought occurred to me. “Why would you care if Keith and Clarence were selling vampire blood? I mean, we Alchemists have reasons for not wanting that . . . but why would you feel that way?”
A surprised glint flashed in Adrian’s eyes, followed by insight. He eyed Abe carefully. “Maybe because he doesn’t want the competition.”
My jaw nearly dropped open. It was no secret to anyone, Alchemist or Moroi, that Abe Mazur trafficked in illegal goods. That he might be moving large amounts of vampire blood to willing humans had never occurred to me. But as I studied him longer, I realized it should have.
“Now, now,” said Abe, never breaking a sweat, “no need to bring up unpleasant topics.”
“Unpleasant?” I exclaimed. “If you’re involved in anything that—”
Abe held up a hand to stop me. “Enough, please. Because if that sentence ends with you saying you’ll talk to the Alchemists, then by all means, let’s get them out here and discuss all sorts of mysteries. Say, for example, like how Mr. Darnell lost his eye.”
I froze.
“Strigoi took it,” said Adrian impatiently.
“Oh, come now,” said Abe, a smile twisting his lips. “My faith in you was just being restored. Since when do Strigoi do such precision maiming? Very artful maiming, I might add. Not that anyone probably ever noticed. Wasted talent, I tell you.”
“What are you saying?” asked Adrian aghast. “It wasn’t Strigoi? Are you saying someone cut his eye out on purpose? Are you saying that you—” Words failed him, and he simply looked back and forth between me and Abe. “That’s it, isn’t it? Your devil’s bargain. But why?”
I cringed as three sets of eyes stared at me, but there was no way I could acknowledge what Adrian was starting to put together. Maybe I could have told him if we were alone. Maybe. But I couldn’t tell him while Abe looked so smug and certainly not with an outsider like Angeline standing there.
I couldn’t tell Adrian how I’d found my sister Carly a few years ago, after a date with Keith. It was when he’d still been living with us and just before she went off to college. She hadn’t wanted to go out with him, but our father loved Keith and had insisted. Keith was his golden boy and could do no wrong. Keith believed that too, which was why he hadn’t been able to take no for an answer when he and Carly were alone. She’d come to me afterward, creeping into my bedroom late at night and sobbing while I’d held her.
My instant reaction was to tell our parents, but Carly had been too afraid—especially of our father. I was young and nearly as scared as she was, ready to agree with whatever she wanted. Carly had made me promise I wouldn’t tell our parents, so I sank my efforts into assuring her that it wasn’t her fault. The whole time, she told me, Keith had kept telling her how beautiful she was and how she’d left him no choice, that it was impossible for him to take his eyes off of her. I finally convinced her that she’d done nothing wrong, that she hadn’t led him on—but she still held me to my promise to stay silent.
It was one of the biggest regrets of my life. I’d hated my silence but not nearly as much as I hated Keith for thinking he could rape someone as sweet and gentle as Carly and get away with it. It wasn’t until much later, when I had my first assignment and met Abe Mazur, that I’d realized there were other ways Keith might pay that would allow me to keep my promise to her. So, I’d made my deal with the devil, not caring that it bound me—or that I was stooping to barbaric levels of revenge. Abe had staged a fake Strigoi attack and cut out one of Keith’s eyes earlier this year. In return, I’d become Abe’s sort-of “retainer Alchemist.” It was part of what had driven me to help Rose with her jail break. I was in his debt.
In some ways, I reflected bitterly, maybe I’d done Keith a favor. With only one eye left, maybe he wouldn’t find it so “impossible” to keep it off uninterested young women in the future.
No, I certainly couldn’t tell Adrian any of that, but he was still looking at me, a million questions on his face as he tried to figure out what in the world would have reduced me to hiring Abe as a hit man.
Laurel’s words suddenly rang back to me. You know, you can be scary as hell sometimes.
I swallowed. “Remember when you asked me to trust you?”
“Yes . . .” said Adrian.
“I need you to do the same for me.”
Long moments followed. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Abe because I knew he’d be smirking.
“‘Spunky’ was kind of an understatement,” Adrian said. After what felt like forever, he slowly nodded. “Okay. I do trust you, Sage. I trust that you have good reasons for
the things you do.”
There was no snark, no sarcasm. He was deadly earnest, and for a moment, I wondered how I could have earned his trust so intently. I had a weird flash to the moments just before Abe had arrived, when Adrian had spoken of painting me and my feelings had been a jumble.
“Thank you,” I said.
“What,” demanded Angeline, “are you guys talking about?”
“Nothing of interest, I assure you,” said Abe, who was really enjoying this all too much. “Life lessons, character development, unpaid debts. That sort of thing.”
“Unpaid?” I surprised myself by taking a step forward and fixing him with a glare. “I’ve paid that debt a hundred times over. I don’t owe you anything anymore. My loyalty is only to the Alchemists now. Not you. We’re finished.”
Abe was still smiling, but he wavered slightly. I think my standing up for myself had caught him off-guard. “Well, that remains to be—ah.” More knocking. “Here’s the rest of our party.” He hurried to the door.
Adrian took a few steps toward me. “Not bad, Sage. I think you just scared old man Mazur.”
I felt a smile of my own begin to form. “I don’t know about that, but it felt kind of good.”
“You should backtalk people more often,” he said. We grinned at each other, and as he regarded me fondly, I felt that same queasy feeling return. He probably wasn’t experiencing that exact sensation, but there was an easy, bright mood about him. Rare—and very appealing. He nodded toward where Abe was opening the door. “It’s Sonya.”
Spirit users could sense each other when they were close enough, even behind closed doors. And sure enough, when the door opened, Sonya Karp strode in like a queen, tall and elegant. With her red hair swept into a bun, the Moroi woman could have been Angeline’s older sister. Sonya smiled at us all, though I couldn’t help a shiver as I thought back to the first time I’d met her. She hadn’t been nearly so pretty or charming then. She’d been red-eyed and trying to kill us.
Sonya was a Strigoi who’d been restored back to a Moroi, which really made her the ideal choice to work with Adrian on figuring out how to use spirit to prevent people from being turned.
Sonya hugged Adrian and was walking over to me when someone else appeared in the doorway. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised at who it was. After all, if we wanted to figure out what special spirit magic in Lee had stopped him from being turned again, then we needed all the data possible. And if one restored Strigoi was good, then two were better.
Adrian paled and went perfectly still as he stared at the newcomer, and in that moment, all my high hopes for him came crashing down. Earlier, I’d been certain that if Adrian could just stay away from his past and any traumatic events, he’d be able to find a purpose and steady himself. Well, it looked like his past had found him, and if this didn’t qualify as a traumatic event, I didn’t know what did.
Adrian’s new research partner stepped through the door, and I knew the uneasy peace we’d just established in Palm Springs was about to shatter.
Dimitri Belikov had arrived.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
STARTING MY FIRST NEW SERIES in four years—even one set in a familiar world—has been one of the most difficult tasks of my writing career. I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of many, many people. First, thank you to Jesse McGatha, who initially gave me the idea to create the Alchemists. Little did I know what would become of them! Many thanks also to Jay, for constantly giving me “make it work!” encouragement on those days when everything seemed lost. Your support helped me find my way.
On the publishing side of things, I’m indebted to my amazing agent, Jim McCarthy, who always makes sure everything works out in the end. Thanks for helping get these books out! Thank you also to editors Jocelyn Davies and Ben Schrank for their constant vigilance and guidance in this new venture. And finally, much gratitude goes out to all of the many Vampire Academy fans around the world who inspired me to keep writing about Moroi and Strigoi.
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Bloodlines b-1 Page 36