“That doesn’t sound like any Alchemist belief I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s not–because I’m talking to you like a sister now, not just another Alchemist.”
“You sure do flip between those pretty randomly. How do you know which one to be at any given time?”
I shrugged. “It’s in my gut.”
Zoe stood up, her hard expression showing me she was unmoved. “I’m going out. See you for Clarence’s.”
Her words reminded me that it was a feeding night, and as I collapsed onto my own bed, dejected, I wished we were already at Clarence’s. I got out the Love Phone and texted Adrian. Can’t wait to see you tonight. I wish you were here. I need you right now. No immediate answer came, probably because he was working on something for class. I kept writing anyway because it felt good to vent. I love you. The center will hold, and someday, we’ll get away from all this.
When we picked him up for Clarence’s later, I had to fight the urge to get out of the car and run into his arms. Too much was weighing on me. Zoe. The trip to Los Angeles. I didn’t expect Adrian to fight my battles for me, but I just wished he could give me courage before them.
He did without even knowing it, when we got a brief moment alone later. I’d gone to put our leftovers away in the kitchen, and he followed me after a minute or so. “Hey,” I said. My hand twitched with the need to touch him.
“Everything okay?” he asked. I could see the same longing in him. “You didn’t look so great back there. I mean you always look great, but . . . you know what I mean.”
“I do. Big fight with Zoe. Details don’t matter. The short version is she hates me right now.” I shrugged. “Welcome to my life. Did you get the car back? Did you get my texts?”
“Ah.” He averted his eyes. “Yes to the first question. As for the second . . . I, uh, kind of lost the Love Phone.”
“What?” My whole world reeled. “Adrian! That phone’s a record of everything that’s gone on between us. Please tell me you’ve been deleting everything after it comes in.”
His guilty expression told me he hadn’t. “Relax. I didn’t lose it at Alchemist HQ or anything. I’m pretty sure I lost it at a coffee shop with Rowena yesterday. My name’s not on it or anything. Clarence is going to let me borrow his car, so I’ll go back and get it.”
I still couldn’t stop the sick feeling rising in my stomach. “This could be a disaster.”
“How? If anyone even finds it–and it’s not just sitting under a table right now–they’ll just have a good laugh at our sappy talk. No one’s going to be like, ‘Aha! Proof of an illicit human‑and‑vampire affair.’”
He made me smile, just like always, but I was still worried. Jill came into the kitchen just then and grinned when she saw us. She no longer had the inside track into our relationship, but I was pretty sure she knew it had hit the next level.
“Good news,” she said in a low voice. “You’ve probably thrown Angeline off your trail. She’s been trying to get me on board about you, Neil, and Eddie doing covert things. She probably thinks you’re dating one of them.”
I laughed at the joke, glad that Jill was thrown off the trail of our LA trip too. “Yeah, because that totally wouldn’t be a problem.”
Whatever else she was going to say was interrupted as more people came in to put away their dishes. It also ended any further conversation between Adrian and me, and the most I could do was exchange a long, meaningful look with him when I prepared to leave. I hoped I’d survive this night and see him again.
Eddie, Neil, and I took my car to Los Angeles. The only time anyone spoke on the two‑hour drive was to go over the plan, which we did about a hundred times. Both of them were armed with silver stakes, and I’d practiced my fire spell as much as I could. Once I’d needed physical materials and a lot of concentration to do it. Now, I could practically do it in my sleep.
We can do this, I kept telling myself. It’s as good a plan as any.
We found the night club our Strigoi liked to frequent. Immediately, I understood its appeal. It was loud and crowded, and the bouncers didn’t do a good job checking IDs, meaning lots of young and naive people showed up. The club was surrounded by dark, winding alleys, mostly deserted except for drunken clubbers stumbling home. There were a lot of corners and shadows to hide in.
“Here,” said Eddie. We’d done a circuit of the club and found a blind alley beside a building in severe disrepair. Marcus would’ve felt right at home. A second‑story window had been broken, and when Eddie climbed up to it via a dumpster, he found a trashed, empty apartment. “This is where we’ll wait.” He helped me get up there, and we took up a position that mostly hid us in darkness while giving us a vantage on the pavement below. Neil waited down there, hoping he could be the bait he’d proposed. He’d done a lot of vigorous exercise before we left, leaving him sweaty so that the Strigoi would have an easier time smelling him. Strigoi loved drinking from dhampirs more than humans, and they loved Moroi most of all–which was another reason I hadn’t wanted Adrian to know about this. If our guy caught Neil’s scent, it’d be an irresistible lure. Our assumption was that if the Strigoi smelled Eddie, he’d just blend in with Neil. I would blend with the other humans in the area.
After that, there was nothing to do but wait. Our Strigoi usually struck in a specific time frame, and we’d come in advance of it. I hoped that meant he hung out in his lair for a while and hadn’t already been on the scene while we set up. I also hoped he’d actually come out tonight, or we’d have wasted a trip.
When it happened, it was so fast I thought I’d imagined it. The Strigoi leapt off the building opposite the one Eddie and I were in, landing effortlessly on the ground and knocking Neil down in one fluid motion. I stifled a gasp. If the Strigoi had looked around a little, our window hideout would’ve been spotted. He must have been too worked up over finding a lone dhampir.
Neil was completely pinned down, no chance of getting his stake. As the Strigoi leaned in, Neil did have a chance to gasp out, “Wait–turn me–make me one of you–awaken me–”
The Strigoi paused and then laughed. “Awaken you? Do you know how long it’s been since I had a dhampir? I’m not wasting my own blood on you. I’m going to savor this.”
“I can help you. I can serve you.” I didn’t doubt the terror in Neil’s voice was real, and yet here he was, offering himself up for the greater good. I wanted to cry but had to stay strong and wait for my part. “I can help you find other dhampirs . . . and Moroi . . .”
As the Strigoi laughed again, Eddie leaned over to whisper in my ear, so close his lips nearly touched me. Strigoi had excellent hearing. “He’s a strong one,” Eddie breathed. “And old. Very old. We were wrong.”
Neil screamed as the Strigoi bit into his neck. Eddie tensed, and I grabbed his arm. “Wait. We have to know.”
I knew what agony Eddie had to be in because I shared it. We both wanted to help Neil. Doing nothing, even for a handful of seconds, went against every part of our beings. Neil’s cries faded to moans, and as the Strigoi continued drinking, I knew the awful truth. The tattoo was a failure, and we–
The Strigoi suddenly jerked back. “What’s wrong with you?” he snarled. “You taste . . . wrong!”
That was all Eddie needed to hear. In a flash, he was out the window, landing nearly–though not quite–as gracefully as the Strigoi. Eddie’s silver stake was already in motion as his feet hit, but the Strigoi, incredibly, anticipated it. Eddie had been right. Old and powerful. Maybe too old and powerful for us.
Eddie and the Strigoi engaged in a deadly dance, and I looked for an opportunity. It had been obvious to us that if we were fighting in cramped quarters, a fireball could incinerate all of us. My instructions had been blunt and simple. Use the fire only if the Strigoi killed or turned my friends. I was supposed to be the last resort, yet I hoped there was a way I could help Eddie before then because it was clear he had his work cut out for him. Neil, though alive, was down for the count.