LPOV

"What happened to its chest?" Zoe squinted at the Strigoi's body as she moved closer to it. "Where's the stake?"

"Magic. It was killed with magic." I spoke automatically.

She moved away from the body suddenly, her eyes wide. "Magic?"

Valentin, obviously going with the story, went on. "A Moroi fire user."

"Where is the vampire then?" she looked at each of us questioningly. I could tell she wasn't believing us.

"They left. They didn't feel like sticking around knowing an alchemist was coming. You know, seeing as you hate them so much." I said, not even trying to hide the rude tone.

Valentin looked at me with astonishment as Zoe simply glared. "Why would I trust a beast that drinks blood and produces magic? Moroi, Strigoi, and your own kind are filthy, evil-"

"Keep going and you'll find a stake in your own chest." I growled, my hand sizzling with power just itching to be let out.

Valentin stepped in front of us. "We'll be going. Thank you for your assistance." he said politely to Zoe before grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the alley.

I let him take me, not wanting to be near her any longer.

As he kept walking, in the direction of the hotel might I add, he shook his head. "What were you thinking? They already hate us enough. Do you seriously think that's going to help the situation? With Adrian Ivashkov in a relationship with one of them, they hate us more than they used to, so we have to be careful."

I shrugged. "Why should I be careful? She was a rude, big mouthed, bit-"

He cut me off. "It doesn't matter. Our relationship with the Alchemists is strained. We need them so we try to keep them happy. It's how the system works."

I wanted to explain I didn't care. I wanted to tell him that I had just met my aunt for the first time and she was a raging bitch- which seemed to surprise me. But I also knew I couldn't. The only people I could talk about it were with Dylan or Victor. And honestly Victor seemed to be the only person who I felt like talking with...

SPOV

I watched Ivy, for about the millionth time, as she once again tried to connect with Andre through their bond. Only there was no trying. For the last few sessions she had successfully connected and I was able to read her aura.

It was interesting. It was as if her aura shimmered and changed. One moment it was her usual aura, but then gold seemed to appear in places. It was like Andre's aura was merging with her's while she was connected.

She opened her eyes and everything went back to normal. "So, anything?"

I shrugged. "Nothing different from the last times. You get a little gold mixed with your usual colours but there's nothing that can tell me how you'll learn to control your bond... or get rid of it."

Ivy looked away. We hadn't actually discussed what they wanted done about their bond. With Lissa and Rose they had been best friends for years before their bond formed. With Adrian and Jill they had been close as well, almost as close as Rose and Lissa. But Andre and Ivy hadn't really been friends for long. The only reason why they started to hang out together was Lily...

Lily...

I sighed, getting up from the couch and walking past Ivy where she sat on the floor in my lounge room. At first I had been hesitant about letting her in my apartment seeing as no female student could be alone in a male staff member's apartment- or male student and female staff member. But she didn't want to get caught by anyone, and well I liked to be close to my alcohol.

It was a way for me to dim my emotions. With Lily gone I was a wreck, but alcohol seemed to ease everything. Sure it went I could only read auras right now, and I was sure even that would become difficult in time, but it was all I could think of that would help.

Ivy stood and looked over at me, her face slightly scrunched up as if she disagreed with me drinking. "Are you okay Mr. Drozdov? I mean you seem really- You don't seem like yourself."

I shrugged, downing the scotch I had just poured myself. "Don't worry about me, let's just get back-"

There was a knock on the door, cutting me off. Groaning I moved to the door, opening it without thinking.

Turns out, on the other side of the door was a furious Rose.

"Ivy, I suggest you leave." Rose didn't even look away from me. Without thinking about it, Ivy bolted for the door, but before she could get out Rose grabbed her arm. "I don't want to find out you were in a male teacher's apartment without a female supervisor accompanying you again. Understand?"

Ivy nodded. "Yes Miss." as soon as Rose let go of her arm Ivy rushed out.

Rose simply turned back to me, glaring. "What on Earth do you think you're doing?"

I watched as she walked in, her eyes scanning the place. I hadn't dusted, vacuumed, or moped. The dishes weren't done. The laundry wasn't done. I had been sleeping on the couch. The place was honestly a disgrace, but I didn't care.

"This place looks horrible." she turned back to me. "You look horrible. And you stink too."

I shrugged, walking back to the bench where the bottle of scotch sat. "Why do you care?"

She stormed over and snatched the bottle from my hands. "I care because Lily would care." my eyes went wide as I looked into her's realising she knew. "Everybody else may be clueless and blind but I'm not. I know about you and Lily and your feelings."

"If you know, why don't you go and tell Jill? Tell the whole world. A teacher in love with his stu-" oh...

She put the bottle down. "Yeah, that's right. I haven't said anything because I know what it's like. But I don't think Lily will be happy if you get fired for," she gestured at me, "all of this. So clean up and get yourself together."

LPOV

I sat on my bed, hugging my pillow as I went through every detail of meeting my Aunt. After we got back to the hotel Valentin brought me up to my room where I was more than happy to be. After everything that had happened I wasn't in the mood to be out and about.

"So... what was it like, meeting your Aunt? I'm guess it was also the first time you saw an alchemist." Victor sat on the end on my bed. I hadn't expected Victor to be as kind and gentle as he was with me, it was nice.

I shrugged. "It was so... disappointing. I mean I had always thought my family would be nice. Mum used to talk about them, the good parts; though hardly ever about my grandfather. I had thought if they met me things would change, they'd stop hating my mum and dad. But even meeting her then, without her knowing who I am, I could tell she'd never change."

Victor shook his head. "I'm sorry it turned out that way. I know how important family is."

I looked over at him. "Your daughter..."

He had been searching around the school wards looking for her. She had turned Strigoi for him, but was killed by Dimitri. Since his death Victor thought she would be around the school, so he looked for her aimlessly. That's how I found him.

But we never really spoke about her.

I heard the door open downstairs before Dylan's voice called out. "You upstairs?"

"Yeah." I sighed, not really in the mood to talk to him.

But he came up anyway and sat right where Victor had been.

I shook my head. "Victor was sitting there."

Dylan shot off the bed, grimacing. He had never really liked the idea of Victor Dashkov following me around. He moved to the other side of the bed where he sat next to me. "So, Terrance told me you got the all clear today."

I nodded. "Yep."

"I was in the security room. Saw you leave the hotel... and come back."

I sighed. "Let me guess, Valentin?"

"I don't trust the guy. He's too into you." I didn't even bother with a response so he went on. "I talked to Terrance. I want to live in Vegas permanently... so I'm moving into an apartment."

"An apartment?"

He nodded. "Terrance knows some people. He's found the perfect place for us. He's also letting us use one of his cars until we can get one. We'll drive to and from work. We won't have to hunt anymore. We'll just be normal." he smiled.

Us. We. I already felt closed in, claustrophobic and we hadn't even moved in together yet. I couldn't do it. I couldn't move into an apartment with him. I just didn't want that life.

Sighing I said, "Abe Mazur, Rose's dad, has joined the search. It won't be long until they find out you're related to Terrance, and then they'll come here to find us."

He just shrugged. "We'll be gone by then. We'll be in the apartment. How will they find us there?"

I looked over at Victor who leaned against wall to my side. He nodded, knowing what I was thinking and urging me to go ahead.

"They won't find me because I'm leaving Las Vegas."

Dylan sat up. "What?"

"I'm leaving Las-"

He shook his head. "Yeah I heard you. What I don't understand is why. I mean we have everything here. Work, friends, security, each other. Why would you go?"

I looked down at my hands as I fiddled with my fingers. "I don't want to be here anymore. It's time for me to move on..."

He scoffed. "Move on?" looking over at me he asked. "Move on from here, or me?"

"Dyl-"

But he just shook his head, standing up. "I knew it. I had hoped that if we left the school you'd get over Drozdov. I had hoped that if I kept saying I love you, one day you'd say it back. But I knew it." he turned away. "I care about you Lily. Every girl I've been with, nothing compared to you. I chose to try to be in an actual relationship-"

"But this isn't a relationship. We argue all the time. If another guy looks at me you get protective and jealous. You wanted us to hunt for Strigoi but now you don't like it because I could get hurt. What we have, it's just you, and me. There's no us... and I don't know if there ever will be..."

He turned back to me, I had expected him to be mad, but he just shook his head as if he wasn't going to listen. "Tomorrow I'm moving into the apartment. We'll take a break. Say in two weeks, we'll see how you feel and then you can move in and everything will be fine. Trust me, this'll work out."

But I just shook my head, standing up. "I'm not moving in with you. In two weeks I won't be here. I'm staying for another week at the most and then I'm leaving. You can do what you want, but don't wait for me because you'll be wasting your time. Now I think it would be best if you left."

He walked up to me, where I stood by the door. "Lily-"

I just shook my head. "If you don't leave, I'll call security. And I'm sure Valentin's on duty." I gave him a pointed look.

He just glared and I knew I hit a nerve mentioning Valentin. So with that he left, storming downstairs and slamming the door closed behind him.

I walked back to my bed, pulling the covers over me as I got ready to go to sleep. I didn't want to sit around and think about what I had just done, so sleep seemed to be the answer to my problems.

"You did the right thing." Victor whispered from somewhere in the room. "Good night. And sweet dreams, Lily."

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BaMbY