A/N: I am SOOO sorry for the delay! I spilled water on my keyboard and it was at the service centre for daays. I hope the swift updates will make up for this. Okay, so I'm going to admit something. Things are going to ramp up from this chapter on, I've re-read a few chapters from my story and realized that I ended up drawing quick conclusions to a lot of events that happened earlier. I didn't want to drag the story on for too long. The killer might just be revealed in the very next chapter, I really, really hope you guys will be satisfied with the conclusion, just remember... the murder mystery dynamic was always the B plot, and I'm merely an amateur in this genre. This chapter however, is pure Sydrian goodness. There will be no more denial. No more fights. Just lots and lots of fluff and love! :D
This was kind of a tricky chapter to write for reasons that are hard to explain, nevertheless, I really do hope you guys like it.

Don't forget to review and tell me what you thought!

Credits: This is written purely for fun, rights to all things Bloodlines related go to Richelle Mead. I have no affiliation with the author whatsoever.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Down the Rabbit-Hole

I thought my day couldn't get any worse, so of course, it did.

As I was walking down the hotel lobby so that I could go up to my room and continue some leftover research on the case, the receptionist stopped me. "Uh, Ma'am?" I turned around and walked over to the sheepish looking employee, she was pulling out a key from a drawer. "We had a... situation in your occupied room. It's been closed down for further investigation at the time being. We have moved all of your belongings to another room down the hall, also, we'd like you to check all of your stuff and let us know if it's all still intact."

Something inside my chest began to throb, and warning bells chimed in my head. I narrowed my eyes at her, taking the key. "What happened?" She bit her lip. "I am so sorry, ma'am. If anything out of your luggage has been stolen we will hold ourselves accountable. We'll set you up with insurance and everything. We take these things very seriously."

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. "Can you please explain exactly what happened?" The receptionist looked a little reluctant, but the look on my face must have been either very intimidating or very desperate, because she looked around and nodded. "I... I'm not allowed to give too much away—Hotel policy, but I can tell you this. There was a break-in. The security here is usually very tight, and the only room that seems to be affected is yours, Miss Sage."

That was all the information I needed to freak out. After that, I staggered up to the new room as quickly as I could and began sifting through all of my things. Everything was there except for the second tape; the one we'd procured earlier from Lee's house. A surge of extreme disappointment shook my entire body, and I needed to lean against the wall to try to think this through with a tranquil mind. The timing could have been the worst ever; I'd been very close to encoding that tape! I slowly realized that all the 'souvenirs' Mark had left us were still there, too. The killer... or whoever it was who broke in, must have known that wouldn't help Adrian's case by leaps and bounds.

I cringed, managing to pull off my shoes and sitting on the bed to take a few deep breaths. A killer, or his lackey, had been inside my hotel room. They went through so much risk just to get that little tape back before I'd finished encoding it; if this proved one thing to me, it was that the tape had to have some weight on the case.

Maybe it was evidence, hardcore evidence that had slipped out of my hands. If only I hadn't wasted so much time fraternizing with Adrian; if only I'd kept my focus on the case maybe I could have encoded it sooner and I wouldn't be in such a predicament.

The tape could have probably saved Adrian's case!

Suddenly, I felt nauseated and aggrieved. If Adrian lost this case now, it was going to be because of my unprofessionalism. My indecorous behavior was not only going to cost me this case, but it was going to cost Adrian his freedom, and if we were really unlucky; his life.

So I felt even more disgusted with myself when I felt this aching need to be in his arms. I needed him right now; I needed him to tell me that everything was going to be fine and that it wasn't such a big deal. He would surely have some encouraging words that would keep me from feeling even more humiliated and perturbed.

His words kept nagging me, during the car ride to the hotel; I'd almost got hit by a truck when I'd waited too long on the signal because I was lost in thought. For the second time.

Lost in wrong, lusty, Adrian-filled thoughts! God, he was going to be the death of me. Some day they were going to make a movie about Adrian, and they were going to name it Death By Ivashkov.

His words remained intact inside of my mind, like they'd been engraved in stone and drilled into my head.

It is my fault because I'm in love with you for god's sake!

Everytime I heard those words echo inside me, in his voice, I felt like I was going to die. It was like a blood rush to the head; an indescribable feeling. Like I was free-falling, tumbling towards a dark, bottomless pit that led nowhere and it left my mind reeling and my skin tingling for his touch. The high that I got just from simply thinking about Adrian Ivashkov was dangerous. I was not supposed to like it, this was not who I was groomed to be.

It was wrong, especially because I had a boyfriend. But everything with Adrian was heightened, every fleeting emotion, touch, action. I could still feel every part of my body that he had touched, and they tingled simultaneously. When I was around him it was like every organ inside my body was turning to mush in one quick Domino effect, falling one by one and transforming into liquid. I felt the need to steady myself again.

I was so lost, I had fallen so deep down the rabbit hole that I had reached a point of no return. How many times was I going to fool myself into pretending that I didn't feel it too? How many times was I going to skip away from him, feeling scared and helpless? My entire speech to him earlier this day felt bleak and constructed.

I'd been honest, but I'd also been dead wrong. Somehow, along this tragic roller-coaster ride that had become my life, I'd fallen for Adrian, very hard. Right now, thinking back on all the horrible things I'd said to him I felt like a shell of a human. There was a hole where my heart should be, a giant, painful one and it was only getting wider. I felt empty and alone.

Mostly, I felt like I'd lost a friend.

Even right now, I needed to call him; he was the first person I wanted to tell about the break-in. It was his case that I was working on after all, he was the sole person who deserved to know about this misstep—it was his fate on the line here, not mine.

Well, technically, my fate was now on the line too.

I peered at my phone; I had absolutely zero calls or messages from him.

Do I love him, too? Suddenly, I realized that I didn't even need to think about it, the answer was automatic and I felt like everything that had happened before this moment was pointless. I thought of the few times that we'd been together over the past few weeks and for once, I didn't regret it.

The truth was, I didn't hate myself at all for wanting him, not really. Somewhere in between his quips and my disregard for them I'd fallen in love with him, too. I could see his face when I closed my eyes, that warm, sometimes smug, smile of his. Those dazzling green eyes that could light up everything in their wake and set them all on fire, and his lips—I'd never felt something more soft or inviting against my own.

I needed him right now. I wasn't sure what I was going to do once I was at his apartment, but I'd figure it out along the way. So I drove, and it was the longest drive of my life. The anticipation was killing me, heat was spreading inside every single part of my body, and my eyes were starting to burn... I didn't know if they were because of the tears or because of something else, but I didn't dwell upon it to find out.

I rang his bell at least three times and tapped my foot on the floor nervously as I waited, tugging at my lower lip in anxiety. He opened the door and his green eyes went wide. His hair was slightly wet from a recent shower, and he smelt really good again; like he'd bathed in that expensive yet irrevocable scent. He was wearing a black t-shirt—one that stuck very well to his chiseled torso.

"So something horrible happened, but I'm assuring you that I will work on it. There is no way on earth that I am going to let this case go down without a fight. I'll look for clues, I'll hunt Lilah down, I'll do whatever is necessary-"

He cocked his head to the side and arched an accusing eyebrow, "Are you going to get to some kind of point soon or are you on your way to inventing fire?"

I took a deep breath and strode right into his apartment. "Make yourself right at home," he muttered.

I just waved off his nonplussed sarcasm.

"Someone broke into my hotel room and they got the tape when I was at the brink of unearthing whatever it was hiding. I would take the fight right to Lilah but I'm not sure if she's the killer."

Adrian thought about this, then shut the door behind me and turned around. "I happen to have the scoop on that. I may have done some research because there was no way that I was going to leave the case to your paws and I did find some information. Did you send Clarence's secretary a head's up?"

At first, I was a little confused at what he was getting at and then it struck me. I felt my eyes widen, "Oh, no. I led her straight to it."

"Oh, yes. Turns out, Sheila Donovan isn't dead—or, well, the real one is but Lilah Lehane is going by two names. Sheila by day and Lilah by night is what I'll assume. She's working as Clarence's secretary for the moment. I did some more digging and found out some solid stuff; Lilah Lehane is her real name. She broke out of a rehab facility in Chicago when she was sixteen and apparently killed one of her inmates' a.k.a the real Sheila Donovan."

Compressing all this sudden newfound information was starting to prove a little hard and I collapsed on Adrian's couch. So Lee wasn't her first kill.

"So... She's impersonating the real Sheila Donovan?"

Adrian nodded, walking over to me. "I'm talking credit cards, birth certificate, dental records and even report cards. Sheila had tons of experience and a great record; Lilah must've used that to get a job with Clarence. She pronounced Lilah Lehane dead, that's the reason everyone thinks that Lilah's the one who died. She switched the names and everything. Forged all the hard-proof; this girl's got some pretty commendable smarts, I'll give her that. Anyway, apparently Sheila didn't have a lot of living relatives or friends to identify the body. It was game, set, match for Lilah, I'd bet."

"And Clarence has no idea?"
"Nobody's got any idea."

I grew excited all of a sudden, some of my fury washing away already. "We can use this stuff, Adrian! We can do a little more snooping, then all we need is proof and we've won the case!"

Adrian scoffed, "I wish it was that simple."

My mind was already spinning, I was thinking about making a flow-chart or two so that we could compile all the evidence and dirt we had on our girl so far. I needed to know if she had an accomplice or not, how she got in and out of jail...

Then I turned to look at Adrian, seeing him in a whole different light. "You found out all this within the span of the evening?"

Adrian grinned proudly, "Yeah, I guess heartbreak's a good color on me."

That's when it hit me—what I was really here for. Now that we had so much information that the case didn't look like a lost cause anymore, it would just have to wait. "Oh, Adrian..." I sighed, and to my surprise, he pulled me into his embrace. I felt too vile, like I didn't deserve being treated so nicely by him.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? You said something about someone breaking in? How on earth did she pull off breaking into a hotel room?"

This was why I loved Adrian. He was so compassionate and kind, he put on a great facade, but I knew how broken he was on the inside. And he felt this unfaltering need to constantly be of service, and to help those in need. Despite the fact that I had stepped on his heart and crushed it at least three times over in the length of our time together (if I was counting), he was still being cooperative, chivalrous and kind.

It was immensely attractive.

"That's a good question, but it doesn't matter. Not now. I... I'm not fine, but it has nothing to do with the break-in. Adrian, I know I've been extremely fickle-minded and tetchy with you, especially earlier today. I was scared..."

Adrian sighed, cupping my chin and holding it up so that I had to look right at him. "What are you so scared of, Sage?"

"Well, I used to think that I'm scared because I wasn't myself when I was with you, but now I'm just scared that I am myself when I'm with you. If... If that makes sense."

"So you aren't the girl you were when you walked in, Sage. Change is good and it's a part of life. I'm sorry that I said those words to you, they came out of nowhere and they shocked me, even more than they shocked you. But... I meant every word. If you think you can't handle that—"

This time, I was the one who cut him off. I pulled him closer to me and our lips met. He kissed me for a second, and then he came out to take a breath and his eyes were questioning me. "I feel the same way," I whispered.

He couldn't even begin to contemplate how difficult it was for me to get those words out. "I love you, too." Thankfully, he didn't give me the time to contemplate them, either.
We were already kissing again and I was aware. Aware of him. I was intrigued by the way my body immediately responded to his. It was as though tiny bits of iron were embedded in my skin and they were magnetized by his touch, swiveling to follow his every move.

Kissing Adrian was like nothing I'd ever done.

It wasn't like the wet, open-mouthed kisses Brayden had favored, or the romantic, slow, drugging kisses that I'd read about in several novels. Adrian kissed like it was the end of the world and he was getting his last hour to live and making the best of it. His mouth was alive against mine, demanding, passionate, consuming.

Beneath his mouth, I burned.

He dipped his head to trail kisses over my throat as I spread out on Adrian's plush couch. His fingers had already begun working at the hem of my shirt. Beneath my clutching fingers, his hair was impossibly soft and curly. My other hand clutched his shirt.

I made a small noise inside my throat as Adrian moaned against my skin. His lips were smooth and tasted vaguely like clove and mints. I could still feel Adrian's breath against my bare skin as he pulled my shirt off my head and I let him.

Briefly, Adrian looked up at me and met my eyes, his gaze was asking for permission. I could feel the heat of Adrian's body all down my front, separated by scant inches and the thin cotton of his t-shirt.

And so, I gave him a subtle nod of acceptance.

xxxxx

I lay over Adrian's chest that morning, propelling my head up with my right elbow as my left hand traced the contours of his chest, tracing patterns on his arms and abs. His left hand met mine and he clasped his strong, long fingers with mine. Blue veins traced up the inside of his pale arm. His hair was mussed, probably due to the night we'd had. But it was the look in his eyes that arrested my attention: all that heat directed steadily at me.

"They are so golden." Adrian spoke softly and I tilted my head in confusion, "What?" He smiled, looking slightly dazed. His other hand was tangled in my shriveled hair and he twirled his fingers in it. "Your hair, they're so golden. Like the guy from the fairy tale—RubbleStein, weaved them fresh and turned them into gold." I chuckled softly, rolling my eyes at him. "It's Rumpelstiltskin."
"Huh?"
I let go of his hand and ran it through his hair. "I believe that the fairy tale character that you are referring to is called Rumpelstiltskin."

Adrian flashed me a playful smile, "I knew that."

Sex with Adrian. Adrian and sex.

For some reason, I'd always imagined my first time to be on a bed, not a couch. Then again, I hadn't imagined that my first time was going to be with my first client either. I hadn't been thinking long term, not even with Brayden. With him, we didn't even kiss enough to think about sex. Now that I'd done it, I figured sex with him would have been very organised and composed. Not passionate, intense, electrifying and dizzying like sex with Adrian.

I looked over at him through some wayward locks and he pushed them away from my eyes with his knuckles, "What are we going to do now, Adrian?" I asked. "We," he said, taking my hand once again and kissing my fingers, "Are going to formulate a badass plan, and get the bitch."

"Hmm," I muttered, feeling a lazy smile spread across my face as my finger trailed up and down his chest. "Well, if you have any particular 'badass' plans in mind then you're going to have to confess now because D-Day is nearing and we haven't sorted anything out yet."

Adrian laughed a little, "It's like you're the one who's going to jail," I hit him lightly on the hand and rolled over to my side of the bed - which we'd made our way to after the couch had gotten too uncomfortable, and stared up at the ceiling. "Don't joke about this, I'm serious. You have no idea how much I'm going to kill you if you end up going to jail. We—We have five days left..."

I could feel his muscles tense a little, and he turned to look at me, I realized that he was nervous too, even more so than I was. He was just better at hiding it. I guess I'd solved the mystery that was Adrian Ivashkov—he was great at masking his turmoil, and only slipped in front of those who knew him very well and those who he trusted.

"Trust me," He started, "If I think about it too much, I'd probably be binging on ice cream and listening to sad country music. I'm worried, Sage, I am, but thinking about it or venting on about how afraid I am isn't going to change anything. The only way to eliminate the problem is by taking action, and we're doing that. So for now, can we just... pretend like we're a normal, happy, boring couple and not talk about it?"

I could see it in his eyes, there was pain there. Tons of it. Suddenly, I felt bad about ruining the moment and pointing out all the problems that lay ahead of us. It was in my nature, though, to overthink every single issue and re-analyze it until I came to a fair conclusion. For once, though, I tried to push all the pessimistic thoughts away.

I pursed my lips and grinned at him, "So, what couple thing do you want to do next, Captain Boring?" Adrian's eyes flashed with something playful, "Well, we could do lots of stuff. We could take that horrible couples Pilates class that Mrs. Forrest runs down the lane, or we could have a debate on which one of us is better in bed, or..." He pulled me towards him and gave me a spontaneous, heart-racing kiss.

"We could change our names and move to Israel. We could rent one of those boathouses, squat there, dodge the police. Fugitives on the run. That's romantic, right?"

I laughed, "It's not boring," Adrian nodded, biting his lower lip. "True."

xxxxx

They say that if you've gone through enough in life, nothing surprises you anymore.

I didn't buy it one bit. Life always had a way of turning the tables on you when you least expected it, it had a way of kicking you everytime you reached that point in your life when you thought that things might actually start to look up for you. It was life's way of reminding us that it wasn't a fair ride.

I had a killer to worry about. A real-life killer. I also had Adrian—my first ever Law case client's life to worry about. Not to mention my own if my father ever found out just how 'comfortable' I'd gotten with my client. I had things to worry about. Stuff to do. We had formulated a plan, too. It was risky, but wasn't that something that was inevitable in my life now? The plan wasn't the worst plan I'd ever heard, but it was still coming up to a close second. It was Adrian's initial idea, so I really wasn't surprised. Something else handled the element of surprise for him.

Brayden was here.

And he did not look happy.

A/N: I'd like to believe that Sydney's spur of the moment whim to throw caution away and get together with Adrian was well earned. However, it could just be me being bias towards me. So I'm going to leave that up to you.