I'm baaaaaacckkk! It's funny, this the perfect song for Adrian...but I'm not going to use it the way people would immediately assume it would be used. I'm going to use it in the spirit of Halloween! Yay!

Disclaimer: Nothing's mine. It all belongs to Richelle Mead.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) by Marilyn Manson

Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused

Adrian cringed as he looked around Amberwood Prep. He had assumed that prestigious schools like this were above fake spider webs and bat ornaments. He'd been positive that this was going to be the one place he could walk around without being afraid of a rubber corpse popping out at him, without recorded shrieks of horror ripping into his heightened hearing. So you can imagine his disappointment when he arrived at the school his "relatives" attended and found that it practically oozed with Halloween spirit—also known as Adrian's worst nightmare.

Yes, okay, so maybe it was a little bit ridiculous that a vampire was scared of all things that had to do with Halloween, but it wasn't Adrian's fault. When he was ten, his parents took him to a haunted maze where a zombie clown with a chainsaw had chased him all the way to the exit. Ever since then...

Adrian shuddered, both with shame and fear. If anyone he knew had the right to be cowering under the blankets this time of year, it would be Sydney. His mood brightened considerably. He could go find her and either tease her to cover up his own fear or commiserate with her for the whole night, all depending on just how scared the Alchemist was. Now all he had to do was break away from Eddie, Micah, Angeline, and Jailbait.

It was getting harder to hide his terror, especially since Eddie was dressed as—you guessed it—a zombie clown. Jill, on the other hand, was a princess, decked out in a shimmering gown of white and pink. It was a little bit ironic to hear Micah (who looked simply dashing as Captain America, Adrian thought with a small smirk) teasingly call her Princess Melrose. He would never know how close to the truth he was getting, nor did he notice the flickers of darkness that passed across Jill's jade eyes at the word "princess."

Angeline's costume had to be the most amusing of all: she was an angel, complete with the halo and feathery wings. Adrian hadn't had much to do with the young dhampir—she reminded him far too much of Rose—but so far he'd seen no proof that she was in any way angelical, contrary to her name.

"So, where's Sydney?" Adrian asked casually, barely holding back a whimper when, to his left, a motion-sensor-activated severed head released a loud scream of agony.

"Her friends dragged her away," Jill said unhappily.

"By 'friends' I trust you mean books, right?" said Adrian. Eddie snorted, but shook his head.

"No, they're real," he said. "Kristin and Julia. And I think I saw Trey with them, too. They're probably still in the West cafeteria."

"I'll just be on my way then," Adrian told them, even as he started to slip away. "It's my brotherly duty to meet this Trey person."

It was a half-truth. Well, more like a quarter truth. Adrian needed to get away and meeting Trey seemed like a good enough excuse to do it. Besides, Adrian did want to meet whatever guy was hanging around Sydney—he just wasn't sure how much "brotherly duty" had to do with it.

Jill waited until her bondmate was out of earshot before asking Eddie, "Do you think it's time we tell him that we know he's afraid of Halloween stuff?"

"Nah," Eddie said after a pensive moment. "We'll let him keep his dignity for just one more year."

It was fairly easy to spot Sydney, even in the crowded cafeteria. She hadn't bothered to hide her tattoo tonight, and it flashed to Adrian like a beacon. He noticed she was talking to a couple other girls with her hands on her hips, suggesting she wasn't very pleased with them. The other girls were in hysterical giggles, so Adrian gathered that Sydney's wrath wasn't much scarier for humans than it was for vampires. There was no sign of Trey.

Adrian slid through the crowd of teenagers easily, ignoring all of them, his eyes set on Sydney. Or rather, the back of her head. Had he focused on anything else but the back of her head, he might have taken a pause.

"Hey! Little sister!"

Sydney turned around slowly to face him, pausing her lecture and then Adrian stopped dead because Sydney Sage was dressed up for Halloween. Adrian wasn't sure he had ever seen this much of her chest or her legs and wasn't sure he ever would again. It made him wish he wasn't pretending to be her brother so he could take a moment to memorize the curves of her body he had never been given the pleasure of truly seeing before.

"And what are you supposed to be?" Adrian asked curiously because, honestly, he couldn't tell.

"A prostitute," Sydney said darkly. Adrian doubted it. Maybe by her standards, but by his, he would guess she was dressed as a sexy...something. The little black velvet dress with the deep V-neckline and knee-high hemline didn't leave a lot of clues. He studied her black leather boots thoughtfully, wondering just how much her friends had had to suffer through the get the Alchemist into this.

"She's a vampire," Sydney's blonde friend said cheerfully.

"We tried to get her to put on the fangs so people would know, but she resisted," the other girl sighed. "It took forever to get her into the costume in the first place and by the time we were done with her makeup, we didn't have enough time to fight about the fangs."

"A vampire?" Adrian repeated dumbly. No wonder Sydney looked like she was about to resign her soul to eternal damnation. Adrian's shock turned into a grin and his grin became mad-scientist laughter that suited his costume well.

"Well, what the hell are you supposed to be?" Sydney snapped.

Adrian looked down, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Isn't it obvious?" he said, gesturing to his suit and bow-tie which Clarence had so kindly loaned out to him. "I'm Bill Nye the Science Guy."

"I've never heard of him," Sydney said, anger replaced by confusion. Adrian shook his head. Of course she wouldn't know. In fact, she probably thought he was some kind of historical Alchemist.

"I'll explain later."

"I'm Julia," Sydney's blonde friend said suddenly. "And this is Kristin."

"Nice to meet you," Adrian said, focusing in on Sydney's friends. Obviously, Sydney's costume had come out of either one of their closets. Julia was a nurse and Kristin was a cat of some kind. Of course, the bags that the costumes had come in all probably had "NAUGHTY" added in bright letters on the front.

"This your brother, Melbourne?" Adrian turned around and found himself looking at a wooden stake with a dulled edge. He moved his eyes away from the stake to the boy who was twirling it expertly around his fingers. He was covered in more crosses than Adrian thought Sydney even owned. Adrian had a good idea of who he was looking at, but opted to guess what he was dressed as instead.

"Vampire hunter?" Adrian suggested. How perfect. He didn't get an answer.

"Trey! You're back!" Julia said flashing a wicked look to both Kristin and Sydney. The latter scowled. Suddenly, Adrian was pretty sure he knew what her lecture had been about.

"Do you really think I'd miss the Halloween show?" Trey asked with a crooked smile.

"Halloween show?" Adrian repeated suspiciously.

"Oh yeah," Kristin said, excitement lighting up her face. "It's different every year, but I heard this year is going to specialize in zombie clowns."

Of course it was.

"That sounds interesting," Sydney said, perking up slightly.

So much for the Alchemist being a little wimp on Halloween. Adrian was going to have to take matters into his own hands. Literally.

"Well, that's a damn shame since we kind of have to go now," Adrian said firmly before grabbing Sydney's arm firmly and tugging her away. Sydney started to squirm once they were out of the building and Adrian looked down at her—or at least he tried. His gaze ended up wandering past her face, down her throat, straight to the wonderful view he had of her cleavage. They were alone and he decided that he was free of his need to play big brother.

"Adrian!" Sydney snapped, making him blink and look up. This time he did manage to look at her face, or more specifically, the lily tattoo on her cheek. The golden lily served as a slap-in-the-face reminder that Sydney was off limits, not just because she was a human, but because she was an Alchemist. Somehow, that just made her even more appealing.

"Nice costume," he said. "I didn't know you were such a fan of vampires, Sage. You should've told me."

"Look! A zombie clown!" Sydney shouted suddenly and Adrian let out a yelp of terror. The uncharacteristic, victorious smirk Sydney shot him made him grimace.

"Okay," he relented. "I'll let the costume thing drop."

"Yes," Sydney said. "Yes you will."

She had to know, Adrian kept telling himself. There was absolutely no way Sydney Sage could not know how ridiculously sensual she looked lying on her bed, still in her costume minus the shoes, sucking lightly on the lollipop Adrian had dared her to eat, regardless of the insane amount of sugar it contained. He was really starting to regret that decision. At the same time, he couldn't help but think that this might have been a sight he would've died to see if she wasn't so completely off limits. He bit in a Snickers bar remorsefully, hoping to drown his sorrows in chocolate since Sydney was so extremely adamant about not letting him smoke in her dorm room.

They were watching a 21 Jump Street marathon, the entire series of which Kristin had apparently forced Sydney to borrow upon learning she had never watched it before.

"I'm starting to see what you meant," Sydney observed. "About us playing 21 Jump Street I mean."

"See?" Adrian said. "All my jokes have a strong truth to them."

"Excluding the ones where you talk about how good looking you are, right?"

"Ouch."

Sydney shot him a playful smile, her lips stained red from the sugary candy. There didn't seem to be anything intentionally sultry about it, but she had to be doing this on purpose. She had to be. Either that or Adrian just needed to stop spending time around girls who constantly had ulterior motives and liked to play games.

"What time is it?" Sydney asked suddenly.

"Late," Adrian said. "For you anyway. It's the middle of my day."

"Damn your unholy nocturnal schedule," Sydney sighed, her amber eyes fluttering closed. She was pinching her arm in an effort to keep herself awake.

"Scared I'm going to bite you if you fall asleep?" Adrian said, only half-teasing. He knew her answer would affect him, he knew it would and he hated that fact.

"No, not really," Sydney said. "Have I ever told you that you're the least scary vampire I've ever met? Almost entirely nonthreatening."

"You're having a fun time crushing my ego, aren't you, Sage?"

"Highlight of my night."

And then, miraculously, she fell asleep.

Adrian watched her for a while, bemused. She wasn't saying a word but she still enticed him to come closer. Adrian smiled somewhat wryly to himself. She was right to not be afraid of him going all Dracula on her neck. He didn't want to bite her. However, there was a long list of other things he wanted to do to her, and that was what Sydney should've been worried about.

Shaking his head, Adrian turned back to the television, leaning his head against Sydney's bed, listening to her breathing. He didn't move an inch that whole night, but images of her lips kept flashing behind his closed eyes.

Lips, he decided, that sweet dreams were made of.

Well, this certainly took a whole mind of it's own, like things always seem to do when I'm not quite sure where I'm going with them... By the way, reviews are always nice :) Thanks to those who reviewed last chapter.