Who's hyper for the NME Awards tonight? ME!

I sat silently as I contemplated the spirit darkness. I felt the sofa squish beside me but ignored Adrian. The first, and only, time I'd come across spirit darkness so far was when I first arrived at the Academy and Lissa had screamed at me. She'd passed her darkness to Rose through the bond, who took it out on a pillow. Together the two of them managed to get rid of it. But Adrian didn't have a bond with anybody, or anybody there to help him through it. He had Becca, but she was too late. I expect that she probably helped him to chill out after the episode, but she certainly wasn't a darn use when I was being involuntarily attacked.

"Why do you think it happened?" I asked Adrian quietly.

"What? The spirit darkness? I have no idea!" he cried. "I don't know why it happened. I don't know why it made me attack you!"

"When was the last time you...fed?" He pondered that for a moment.

"Probably about a week ago."

"A week?" I exclaimed. "Adrian, Moroi get weak after a couple of days without blood. You should know that! You're supposed to be keeping strong. No wonder you attacked me!"

"Amy, look I'm really sorry, but I just can't go out there and feed off of people on the streets. It doesn't work like that."

"Other Moroi do it all the time." He shrugged.

"I used to. But...I don't know, I just don't think it's right. I don't want to hurt them, y'know? I don't think I can do it." I gave an exasperated sigh and ran a nervous hand through my hair, my fingers combing through the already present knots.

"Do you have any other suggestions as to how you can feed?" I wondered. He shook his head glumly and I anxiously rubbed the back of my neck- a little nervous habit.

Becca padded into the room.

"Maybe you could get it from the hospital?" she offered. We blinked at her for a second, too slow to realise that she'd probably overheard our conversation. "You know, like, getting it from a blood bank or something?" I laughed drily.

"I really don't think it'll be that easy. You can't just break into a hospital, Becca."

"They do it in movies easily enough. I'd say I've picked up a few tips." I leant back into the sofa, arms folded, smirk planted on my face.

"Go on?"

"Well, we walk in there and go up to one of the blood rooms to say we're getting a blood test and then we just...casually...steal one of the blood bags." I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned.

"A. You can't just steal a blood bag! It's never going to be that easy. And b. Haven't you thought about the morals of this? If you steal the blood bag, then the doctor won't have the sample they've taken it for. They don't just take samples and put them there. And a blood test bloody hurts!"

I winced at the memory of it.

"Excuse me, Amy, but your 'take-a-random-girl-off-the-street' idea wasn't exactly what I'd could human friendly," Adrian interjected. I gave him a harsh look.

"Well, let's hear your idea then!"

"...I think we should just go back."

An awkward silence settled on the room as Becca and I gaped at him.

"Go back...where?" Becca asked slowly.

"To the Moroi." I shook my head.

"That's really not a sensible idea," I mumbled, my stomach squeezing as I considered going back and facing everyone after what I'd done. No. That couldn't happen.

"I don't mean as we are. Maybe we could take a spirit disguise and just go to Court like this. Live as normal people."

"But wouldn't you miss your freedom?"

"Wouldn't you miss being a royal?" Becca frowned. I rolled my eyes.

He shook his head at both.

"Freedom has its downsides. Neither of us have fed for a week and the only person to protect us from Strigoi is you, and you're out at school half of the time."

"I'll stop school. If you need me, I'll quit school," I told him honestly. He shook his head.

"You left the Academy to start a new life, not to go out into the open. The whole point of going to school is catching up on what you missed so you could get a normal job. Guarding us was just an additional thing, not permanent. I'm just suggesting that it might be a lot easier if we go back?"

I frowned and got up to get ready for the day.

"I'll consider it."