Chapter One

Sydney P.O.V

I was used to my missions for the Alchemist's being hush hush, I had even grown used to the idea of never really being in the know with what was being asked of me. But when Stanton showed up at my house at three in the morning and informed me that I was being whisked off for a new task, I had to admit I was surprised. After everything that had gone down with Rose and her escape, I was not exactly in the Alchemist's good graces. Although once I had been informed of my upcoming placement, I should have guessed it was their sick form of punishment.

"Miss Sage, I am not going to lie to you. We are sending you on this next mission as basically a babysitter. I am sure you have been made aware of the drama surrounding Jill Dragomir's arrival at court and recently there was an attack against her life made. A successful attempt, she was fatally stabbed in the chest. But by a stroke of luck, there happened to have been a spirit user close by that managed to rejuvenate her. She is now alive and well but is deep in hiding, so as she remains safe and the Moroi are not thrown into chaos. But the Moroi dissidents are not happy with the spirit user, so now he is also being sent into hiding. He will have a skilled Guardian assigned to him but he is somewhat… difficult you might say. Not very good at keeping a low profile or keeping himself out of trouble. So we need you to accompany them and ensure that they not only stay safe but keep themselves out of the public eye. You will be departing shortly, the three of you will meet up for a connecting flight and then you will fly together to the designated safety location. Do you have any questions about what is being asked of you?".

Stanton looked at me expectantly and I did not dare question her. I was thin ice with my higher up's, so now was the time to do exactly what was asked of me. "No mam" I answered quickly as I followed her out the door to the waiting car.

"In this envelop you will find all your flight details and the information about your new charge. I trust that you will do what it takes to ensure this mission is a success. Your father has expressed his concern regarding your commitment to our cause, but I have faith that you have seen the errors of your way and are now well aware of the importance of our responsibility. Contact me if need be". With that, she shook my hand firmly and stalked away. I opened the door to the back seat and saw a professionally dressed Alchemist sitting in the front seat, waiting to drop me at the airport. He did not respond to my salutations, so I guessed my indiscretions with Rose had been made public knowledge. It was going to take a while for me to regain my reputation with my people, so my commitment to wherever I was being sent was imperative.

I opened the envelop to see that my first flight would be taking me east, stopping in Chicago for only one hour, before boarding a flight to Jacksonville, Florida. Before I could read further, we arrived at the airport and it became evident that I was going to have to run in order to check my baggage and board before the gate closed.

I made it on board with only moments to spare, garnering me death stares from the flight attendants. I sat in my seat with a sigh, glad to see that the spot next to me was empty. I had three hours to peruse the details of the operation and the less eyes on me the better. I kept my eyes on the safety instructions and made sure that I had an escape route planned before settling in for an uncomfortable couple of hours.

I opened the envelop and was surprised to find a college brochure for a liberal arts school in the pile. Flagler College was in St. Augustine and it was a stunning. The school had a sprawling campus and was centred around Ponce de Leon Hotel. I audibly gasped when I realised that I would not only be living on campus bur attending classes at Flagler. My courses were pre-planned and in typical Alchemist style three of the four classes were centred science but I had lucked out and had also been enrolled in introduction to ancient architecture. It has always been a passion of mine and now I was going to have an opportunity to study it on a daily basis. Being born into an Alchemist family had secured me a life of home schooling and high level science education. I had zero say in my academic interests my whole life, so being given a mission that allowed me somewhat freedom of intellectual knowledge was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had spent most of the flight reading the Flagler admissions brochure and it occurred to me that I had not bothered to read up on who I would actually be babysitting whilst on this seemingly dream assignment.

I was about to pull out the further information when the same flight attendant who had stared me down earlier, passed by to tell me to return my seat to the upright position for landing. Not wanting to irritate her further, I stowed the envelope with my overhead luggage and returned to my seat for a seamless landing. Racing to my feet, I grabbed my bags and rushed to leave the flight. I only had an hour to race to my connecting flight and I needed to take the time to aqquaint myself to the details of the Moroi I would be in charge of. I rushed through the airport and made my way to my new gate. I had just rounded the corner when I stopped dead in my tracks. Seated near the window, looking bored to death, sat Adrian Ivashkov. The ex-boyfriend of Rose and a royal pain in the arse. This could not actually be happening.

Adrian's P.O.V

After we had rushed off our plane from Montana, worried that we would miss our connection, we ended up having a delay of almost two hours. I still was in shock over what had happened in the last two days. It had been just an average day at court, boring society dinner, followed by a boring political meeting. I had been sitting by, playing solitare on my phone, when all of a sudden an Air using Moroi had blown the Guardians standing by Jill sideways and had pierced her heart with a knife. He had been thrown to the ground by Dimitri and before I knew it, I was on my feet and rushing to Jill's side. I saw her aura fading and it was almost non-existent. I reached for her hand and felt her pulse fade away. I was not even aware of what I was attempting, I wasn't even sure if I was capable of doing it but spirit took a hold of me and the room lit up around me. I poured the magic through Jill and I felt her pulse beat once more. Her aura began to filter back through her, her eyes opened in fear. Rose leant over me, and ripped the knife from Jill's chest and she gasped in shock. The wound healed up and the colour came back to her clamy skin. I brushed the hair from her eyes, so happy to see them filled with life again. "Jailbait, you gave me quite the scare. You just cannot stay out of the limelight, can you?" I asked with a laugh but the lightheadedness took over me.

I woke the next day, in what appeared to be the infirmary at court. Rose was sitting in the corner, bored by unconsciousness. She turned when she saw my stir, obviously happy that she could potentially be done with her corpse sitting position. "Good you are awake. We are going to need to get you out of here pretty quickly, so once you are feeling up to it, I need you packed and ready to fly".

Considering I had only been awake for less than a minute, my brain was trying to cope with a lot. The memory of Jill dying in my arms came flashing back, as did her revival. Then came the fact that I was sitting in a room with Rose, who had only two months ago shattered my heart into a million pieces and then stood on those pieces with her hair heeled boots.

"What are you talking about Rose? And if you are going wherever I am packing for, then count me out". I rolled over on my side and slowly pushed myself up out of the bed. I was still slightly dizzy but could feel my strength pouring back into me. Rose rushed over to help me but from the look of disgust on my face, knew better than to try touch me.

"We need to get you out of court as soon as possible. The group that tried to kill Jill, or should I say actually did kill Jill, are not happy with you. We have moved Jill to a secret location and Dimitri is with her, keeping her safe until we can find a more permanent location for her to stay whilst we continue to work on the law keeping Liss as queen. As for you, we need to get you out of here before anyone attempts to hurt you. We are moving you to a permanent safe location, where you will stay indefinitely. Eddie will be assigned with you and there will be an Alchemist appointed to your case".

I had just received an overwhelming amount of information and was struggling to keep up. "What do you mean safe location? Is there a bounty on my head? I get Eddie coming along by why stick us with an Alchemist? So I just have to put my life on hold? I do something noble for the first time in my life and now I am being punished?". I ran my hands through my hair, my frustrations heating their peak.

"You are not being punished Adrian, your being protected. And believe me, the Alchemist was not my choice. They have been well aware of your many dalliance's and behavioural problems for a while now and they don't believe you can actually live in the human world undetected. Go pack Adrian, we do not have time to waste". And with that she left the room and hopefully my life.

The next day had passed in a blur, Eddie Castille and I had boarded several flights, trying to throw any potential followers off our trail. Our final flight would take us to Jacksonville, Florida. We were being sent to live on campus at a Private Liberal Arts college, where we were enrolled in classes and living on campus. I had tried several attempts at higher level schooling before but things had always distracted me in the past, girls, booze ect, ect. This time was probably not going to be any different.

And so now I sit here, in a deserted departure lounge in the Chicago domestic airport, waiting for what I hoped would be the last flight of many for sometime now. My phone battery had long since died and I had lost all communication with the outside world, even though there were not that many people I desire to keep in contact with at the moment. I was desperate to speak to Jill but so far I had not been able to find her in a spirit dream, meaning her schedule was as unorganised as mine. We were waiting for our assigned Alchemist to connect with us, she would be flying in from out west. I knew nothing about her, not even a name, just that she would be living on campus with us. We had been set up with an on campus apartment, complete with cable television and wireless internet, meaning I might never have to leave the building. It had been arranged that I would visit another Moroi on campus to have scheduled feeding sessions, so it seems that in such a short amount of time, everything had been organised for me.

About an hour had passed, even though it felt like a year. We had twenty minutes until we would be able to board the flight and I had been able to use some slight compulsion to obtain a free upgrade for Eddie and myself but decided to leave the Alchemist back in coach. They tended to be boring, uptight stick in the mud types who probably would not appreciate the finer things in life anyway.

I was busy staring into oblivion when in my peripheral vision, I saw golden blonde hair shine in the florescent lights of the airport. The hair belonged to a stunning, conservatively dressed Sydney Sage and she was staring right at me. Our eyes met and for a moment, I was unable to focus on anything other than her beautiful eyes. I had seen her only once before, when she was dragged to court for helping Rose escape. She had sat opposite me in that interrogation room and her stunning eyes had rendered me speechless. She sat guarded and professional but everytime she looked over at me, it was as if she saw deep into my soul. I was dating Rose at the time, but I am still a guy. Sporadically since that night, I had dreamed of Sydney Sage and those insatiable eyes. Her face and body had been the star of countless R rated dreams and I was ashamed to admit it. It was taboo for Moroi and Humans to date, let alone even be friends, so my fantasies stayed strictly private.

It was very common for the Alchemist's to be deathly afraid of us, but if that was the case for Sydney Sage, she was doing a bang up job of hiding it. She had not diverted her eyes away from mine and she was walking towards us, with an air of professionalism about her. She stopped just short of us, and placed her bag down just by her feet.

"Lord Ivashkov, I am Sydney Sage. I have been assigned to escort you and Mr Castille to our safe location and then assure your temporary living situation at Flagler is drama free". She stood with her hand out in front of her, unsure whether I would shake hers in return.

"Sydney, Lord Ivashkov is my father. You know you can call me Adrian. It's a real pleasure to see you again, I am glad this time is a more relaxed situation than the last time we met". I took her soft, gentle hand in mine and almost flinch as a bolt of electricity shot through my entire body. I did everything I could to not flinch and let on that her touch had affected me so thoroughly. Her face was caught up in surprise, seemingly shocked that I remembered meeting her.

"Adrian, then. The Alchemist's fear that you will not be able to keep your identity or your way of life secret or hidden whilst we are in hiding, so I am here to assure them that nothing untoward is happening. I am sure that this whole situation is not what you had planned next but if we work together, than I think this mission can be mutually beneficial". Whether she had meant it or not, using the words mutually beneficial spoke to my male sensibilities and I was ashamed of the fantasies running through my mind.

This was going to be a very interesting couple of months.

AN- I hope everyone enjoyed chapter one. I will continue writing from both Adrian and Sydney's POV and will try to remain as strict to character as possible! Please review and let me know what you think!