I was meeting Eloise by the black SUV outside one of the many exits of the Moroi Court. It was almost sundown; a cast of orange and pink washed over everything the sun's rays touched. The wind was picking up as the temperature was dropping, and as I leaned against the SUV's door, I huddled into the leather jacket I had picked up earlier from my hotel room and kept my eyes open for Eloise.

I had compelled her to do a series of things for me—the most important being to get word to Staffan that I had joined Rose to meet with Queen Vasilisa at the Court airport (a lie, of course). This provided me with time to make my escape, which was surprisingly easy as I slipped pass a compelled guardian at a gate exit leading to a tiny road among trees.

At last, I heard trotting footsteps come from around the van.

"Adrian?"

I found Eloise hovering near the rear. A glazed look was in her eye, and regretfully, guilt surged in my gut. I flashed a weak smile.

"Guardian Harper, did you tell Staffan what I wanted you to?"

Eloise nodded slowly. Sighing, I picked up my feet and approached her, then taking her cold cheeks into my hands, I let my forehead touch hers and muttered, "Good. I'll release you from the compulsion now then."

And I did. It was like the tightness in my chest was suddenly relieved, and I saw Eloise stumble from my hold as she hazily shook her head. A moment later, she refocused and her eyes fell onto me with a look of confusion and accusation. Eloise stuttered.

"W-what am I doing out here?"

She glanced around as I reached into my jacket and produced a box of cigarettes (snatched from my hotel room). I lit one and took a long whiff before answering.

"I'm about to hit town, Eloise. I compelled you to help me escape Court. Of course, I can't tell you why or where I'm going, but I'm not going to force you to come along with me. I'm simply telling you this out of courtesy."

Eloise watched as I blew an cloud of smoke out of my mouth. She winced before registering the SUV van and the duffel bag I had on the cold hard ground.

"Wait," she said, calculating the bag. "You're leaving ... just like that? Surely you must know the moment you do, you'll become suspicious in the eyes of the guardians—"

"Oh, come on, Harper," I jabbed. "I already am suspected by the guardians. It's a wonder why they haven't chucked me in a prison along with my mother already."

Eloise took a hesitant step while holding up her hands, like she was trying to calm an animal. I frowned at the thought.

"Adrian, I can't let you go. You know that. And, right now, it's more than just because I'm a guardian—it's personal. You compelled me for God's sake. That's illegal, and quite frankly, downgrading!"

I averted my eyes ruefully. "Well, it wasn't like you'd have helped me willingly. I needed to get a vehicle and I needed a few hours to get far away before anyone noticed I'm gone. That could only be done with your help."

"Adrian!" chastised Eloise, taking yet another step. "Don't be an idiot. What good would it do if you left now? What would you achieve?"

Fixing Eloise a dark look, I threw my cigarette on the ground and crushed it with my boot. Then, I said: "I'm going to find Keanu. I'll bring him in for you, if you want. But I can't sit around and do nothing." Not while Sydney's in potential danger, I silently added.

Eloise studied me for a quiet moment, her eyes watching me as if she was making up her mind. I didn't care what she decided to do, though. She could return to Court and tell the guardians that I had escaped, or she could come with me to the Wild Blue's Bar. It would be helpful having someone who knew how to fight Strigoi in case some decided to come and kidnap me again, but having Eloise tag along in my mission to find Sydney and capture Keanu wasn't really a necessity.

At last, Eloise spoke, breaking our eerie silence.

"What about Jill, Adrian?" she asked. "What are you going to do about her?"

I glanced to my duffel bag almost instantly and my face fell.

"She'll be fine in court as long as Rose is there. And as for our bond ..." I looked up from the bag back to the petite guardian. "After I leave, I'm cutting my connection to magic. I'll go on the anti-depressants, which will hopefully mean Jill won't be able to slip into my head anymore."

Eloise started towards me, and for a second, I braced myself for an attack. Whereas I thought Eloise would drag me forcefully back to Court—and although I was a guy and was confident I could hold a fight against another Moroi, a dhampir of any gender I knew I could not—, Eloise came to pat me on the shoulder and flash me a defeated smile.

"Well, then. I may get in trouble, or I may even be revoked of my guardian status and be kicked out to some blood whore village in some remote part of Texas, but I don't trust you well enough to let you wander about by yourself without protection." Eloise opened the SUV door and gestured for me to hop in. "It's time to go, Ivashkov."

I gave her a surprised look, but didn't hesitate beyond that. We climbed into the front seats of the black van and I started the ignition.

Finding the Wild Blue's Bar wasn't hard when you had Google Maps in the palm of your hands. Eloise Harper owned an iPhone, and at a simple command, I told her to type in the location of my rendezvous point and filled her in on the note she was compelled to give me earlier this week. In return, while she waited for the map to load, an expression of bitter astonishment arose to the surface of her face and she turned abruptly in her seat to glare at me.

"You did what?"

I winced while trying to keep my eyes on the road. The SUV's engine purred like a cat, but as I had suspected when the night began to crawl in, bringing darkness along with it, the road became slippier and I found I had to drive slower through this northern hardwood forest.

"Eloise," I breathed as she slumped back into her seat. "I did nothing, I swear. I mean, I did compel you today to lie to your boss, but other than that—"

"Adrian," Eloise interrupted menacingly. "My opinion of you is becoming very downbeat, so you watch what you say."

My grip on the wheel tightened.

"Well, just you and about everyone else share that in common."

"Maybe you shouldn't give us a reason to."

"Maybe you should listen to what I have to say."

Eloise snorted. I glanced to her briefly before explaining.

"Someone compelled you to give that note to me—and that someone is still left a mystery."

Eloise rolled her eyes. "Well, that's reassuring." I gave her an annoyed look, surprised to see this childish side to Eloise surface. I mean, I knew the girl had her guardian personality, and then her friendly and slightly ditsy side to her, but who'd have thought Eloise would ever act like the teenager she was supposed to be. I was suddenly almost half expecting her to start moaning about how much I ruined her life with the surprise road trip.

Unexpectedly, the gadget in Eloise's outstretched hand began to vibrate. Eloise looked to it and slipping out of her gloomy mood, she beamed. I looked down briefly enough to read the name of her phone's screen.

"Tobyhanna," I muttered, and Eloise nodded.

"Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. It isn't that far from here actually."

I peered through the windshield at the dark stretch of road ahead.

"Will we have enough time to make it?" I asked. Eloise began to fidget with her phone.

"What time did it say we had to be there?"

"11:15."

"We still have a while," she answered confidently. "You don't have to rush it."

At that I glanced to my dashboard. Easing up on the accelerator, I shifted more comfortably into the leather seat as if a large burden was taken off my shoulders. It was happening, I thought proudly. I was taking control of my life for once.

"Hey, Adrian," began Eloise hesitantly. Her tiny voice was something I had never heard from her before; I looked to Eloise curiously.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've been wondering for a while, but um ... who's Sydney Sage?"

It took me a few moments to respond to her abrupt question.

"Didn't Staffan tell you?"

I caught Eloise's eye, and she burst into blushes before turning her cheek to look out her window. She cleared her throat softly.

"He did," she murmured. "Guardian Staffan didn't say much though—only that Sydney was an Alchemist who was assigned with Princess Jillian at Palm Springs. He also said that she was a lead to finding Keanu Brown."

I inclined my head thoughtfully. "She was—Is—I suppose."

Eloise turned back. "Well, what did she mean to you?"

I opened my mouth to tell Eloise that it didn't matter, but then thought better of that. I looked at the dhampir and then realized, that for a second, Eloise was only young, probably as old as Sydney. Would she understand if I told her the truth? That Sydney was tricked to believe Keanu was working with Abe Mazur to help us from the Strigoi? Immediately, I answered that question. No. Eloise wouldn't understand. I looked back out the windshield.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is finding Keanu and bringing him to justice."

"And how do you plan to do that? Do you think, that maybe—maybe Keanu was the one who sent the note?" I could see how that thought frightened Eloise. I sighed.

"Yes, maybe. There's a high chance it is him, but then again, it could be an old friend who really did want to meet up with me or something. We'll never know 'till we get there."

Eloise laughed. "An old friend wanting to meet up with you? Somehow the image just won't fit."

I scoffed and raised a brow. "What do you mean by that? I have plenty of friends."

"But do you really? From what I've seen so far, you spend your days either hanging out with Rose or Jill, or drinking away your sorrows inside your hotel room. Excuse me if I see no evidence of a 'social Adrian'."

I rolled my eyes just as Eloise told me to come around the next bend and take a right. It only led us into another straight road hidden among trees, although admittedly, I could see a faint glimmer of moonlight not that far ahead. Oh, right. It was a full moon. I almost forgot.

"Look," I exhaled, weary from my overuse of spirit and the long day I had already been through. "I may have not been on my most ... finest ... behaviour after being dragged from California to Pennsylvania, but you can hardly hold it against me now. I assure you—my self-miserable moments are all gone. You'll get nothing but a lovely, schoolboy Adrian who showers you with bad jokes and probably tons of dirty laundry. Satisfied?"

Eloise blinked twice before shrugging.

"It's better than having to deal with someone who can't flirt even if his life depended on it."

It was at this comment that I wanted to slam on the brakes and send us jerking forward like you always saw in the movies. Trying to keep one eye on the road and one eye on Eloise, my mouth fell open with an overflow of hurt feelings.

"I can't do what now?" I demanded angrily. Eloise nibbled on her lip to hide her giggles and shrugged again.

"You can't flirt. Don't think I didn't pick up on those not-so-subtle comments, because I did. I just decided not to pay any attention to them."

"Well," I said, gasping as I snapped my focus back to driving. "Here I was thinking you were a good guardian, but you're just like the rest of them. Always tugging at the rug under my feet to make me look like a fool."

Eloise laughed, a sound high and rather juvenile.

"Oh, hey, take a left here."

"Here?"

"Here," she confirmed, pointing to the corner to the windshield. I threw on the indicator at the last moment and turned sharply, bringing the van into a glow of moonlight. Ahead was a tiny wooden sign reading 'Tobyhanna'. Eloise and I shared an anxious look.

"Ready?"

The Wild Blue's Bar was full of badly dressed cowboys and middle-aged women dressed in jean shorts and a tied white shirt as an attempt to be a 'cowgirl'. I could tell from the look on Eloise's face as we entered that she did not enjoy the sight of all the flabby midriffs, shown evidently from both genders. When she led me to a little booth to the far corner of the stereotyped, leather-and-mechanical-bull-type of bar, I scanned the crowd within for any obvious signs of Keanu. Much to my demise, I saw no resemblance of him among the multitude of locals, let alone anyone other than Eloise and I who seemed even remotely vampirish.

I turned back to her, caught her typing on her iPhone, and frowned. I leaned across the table to snatch the phone and it easily slipped form her hands. She yelped.

"Hey!"

"Hey yourself, Harper," I said, looking at the phone. Just as I thought: Eloise was texting. "Have you been sending secret updates to Staffan as to what I've been up to?"

Eloise's eyes widened and she shook her head frantically. "What? No! Of course not! I promise, I'm all in with you on this one. I want to find Keanu just as much as you do. I wouldn't ever tell Staffan where we're at."

I studied Eloise for a quiet moment before looking to her phone. It was locked now, with a pass code appearing, so ruefully, I handed it back over to her. She took it out of my hand with a quick snatch. I pulled back instinctively.

"Hey," I hissed. Eloise poked her tongue out.

"Hey yourself, Ivashkov," she shot, and I rolled my eyes to look over the crowd once more. Nothing new. Just a bunch of drunk cow-people dancing. I turned back with a sullen face.

"Eloise, what's the time?"

Eloise momentarily peered up form her phone. "Don't you have a watch?"

I satirically showed her my wrists. "Does it look like I do, Sherlock?"

Eloise groaned and told me the time. It was only 10:30. I sighed.

"You know, the note said it'd only be a 30 minute drive. It felt like two hours."

Eloise waved her hand without glancing at me. "Well, it probably was. I don't know. I wasn't keeping track."

I slumped into my chair further and sighed once more. This wasn't quite the action packed encounter I'd thought I'd have. For one, it was a shoddy place to meet up in—and on the worst night ever—and two, I wasn't even sure I knew who to look out for. Hopefully, I thought, the mysterious note sender would come and find me instead.

It was at that moment, however, that a familiar tune began to play. 'Thank God I'm a Country Boy' began to blast from the old jukebox, and along with it came a cacophony of singing from the drunk cow-people. I was tempted to bang my head against the table repeatedly, sure it would be a better rhythm than the singing crowd, but found myself moving to the bartender to order a strong glass of scotch instead. When I patiently waited for my drink, trying to keep my temper cool as men in undersized jeans and large brimming cowboy hats constantly bumped into me, someone slithered to the stool beside me and ordered a glass of whisky. I hardly shared the man a second look, but when my drink came and the bartender slid the glass to my eager hands, the man next to me patted me on the shoulder as I was about to pay.

"The first round's on me," he grinned, and for a second, I felt my blood boil and my hands clench. I looked over, and surely enough, dressed in brown leather boots and wearing a ridiculous fluffy pink cowboy hat, was Keanu Brown, his black fringe slightly longer than the last time I saw him. He handed over a twenty dollar note to the bartender and kindly said, "Keep the change," before turning back to me—and, well, my fist.

As my punch made impact on that flawless face of his, Keanu was sent stumbling back a fee feet, his hand clutching his nose and he gasped and blinked widely. I pulled up my leather jacket's sleeve and shook my hand, trying to ignore the pain that screamed in my fingers. Keanu stood up straight, still holding his noise, and was taking in large breaths of air.

"Jesus! Cool down, Ivashkov."

I spun around, readying myself for a second punch. As my fist went flying through the air, and a wide spread of murmurs was sent through the few around us, Keanu neatly went low and dodged my attack. Of course, not knowing a thing about actually fighting, after I missed my target and had placed my entire weight behind the blow, my body lurched forward and I knew I was going to tumble. Luckily, Keanu made it in time to straighten himself up and catch me against his chest.

I tried to steady myself—both physically and mentally—before I pushed away from him, kicking the corner of a stool and catching my feet. I put a good 6 feet between us before spinning back around to glare at Keanu's smug fucking face. He was wiping his lip of blood when I faced him, but I shared no feeling of regret. I was happy I got him good.

Keanu instantly threw his hands up when he met my blazing eyes and winced.

"Adrian, please, just listen to me—"

"That was for leaving Sydney the way you did!" I yelled, jabbing a finger at him. Keanu's face stayed remorseful as I stared at him coldly. He then shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't have a—"

"Don't you fucking dare say you didn't have a choice," I growled, taking a threatening step forward. "You know you did. You had plenty. You should have turned yourself in—we all know what you did to Jill; what you did to us."

"Adrian ..." Keanu's face fell even more. "I can't tell you how much I didn't want to leave Sydney. Or the others. I know I could have stayed and faced the guardians, but ..." Keanu glanced over his shoulder, and if I wasn't focused so intently on him, I wouldn't have noticed the sudden rigidness of his body. He slowly turned back to me. "But I can't explain right now. I really can't."

Crossing my arms, my hand still numb from the punch, I scoffed. "You're pathetic, you know that? You kill Jill, steal information from the guardians—what was up with that anyway? I want to know—I mean it: personally hear it from you—before I take you back to the guardians and clear Sydney's name."

Keanu flinched. "No ... Adrian, no, you don't understand. I didn't kill Jill—I swear on my life!—"

"Well, that isn't really worth much, now is it?"

Keanu quickly looked around the bar again. I could hear the return of the bad singing from the crowd after they must have realized that there wasn't going to be anymore fighting tonight—of course, I couldn't assure that. God only knows how much I wanted to beat the crap out of that face of Keanu's for Sydney and Jill.

Keanu swallowed, loud enough for me to hear. The way he kept his eyes on alert almost made it seem as if he was afraid—what, did he think I brought a legion of guardians along with me? I kind of wished I did.

"Listen to me closely, one more time Adrian. I did not kill Jill. I didn't even steal that information. But," Keanu caught my eye with intense seriousness. "I know who did. And I can tell you. I can tell you everything—I can even help you find Sydney, if you wanted me too. It's just important that we leave this place now."

Something in my throat tightened. "You know where Sydney is?"

Irritation flared in Keanu's eyes. "Yes, I do. The Alchemist have her imprisoned. But look: if you want to help her—if you want to clear her name and find the real culprit behind Jill's death—you have to leave with me now."

I opened my mouth, took a step—was about to threaten Keanu to tell me the truth now or God help him, he'll be sorry—until a hand grabbed me by the arm. It was cold and small, and made me shiver and stop to look at the person who the hand belonged to. It was Eloise, who only briefly looked at Keanu; and Eloise's face was green right down to her neck. She pursed her lips and I realized she was trembling.

"A-Adrian, we aren't alone."

Suddenly, as if I just knew, I looked up and I caught a pair of red swollen eyes staring right at me. The pale white skin and the hollow beauty of the vampire said all that I needed to know. I grabbed Eloise's hand and turned to Keanu.

"You could have just said we had company, asshole," I snarled, and Keanu, with a blinding white gleam, grinned.

"It would have killed the tension."

In a moment, we were running, pushing through the crowd as what I thought I saw was three, maybe four, Strigoi on our heels. Eloise was stumbling over her feet, and suddenly, I realized she was absolutely terrified. But of course! Eloise had never faced Strigoi before: she told me she had only recently graduated from St. Vladimir, and I for one knew that there was no way you could ever mentally prepare yourself when thrown in a situation that meant you were being stalked by malicious blood-craving vampires.

I pushed her ahead of me just as Keanu up front broke through the entrance and led us to a car. In the dim light post outside the bar, I saw a faint glimmer of yellow in the texture of metal. Surely enough, as we all climbed in and heard four large figures tear through the bar's entrance door, it was my car that I involuntarily left at Palm Springs; my sweet, ol' 1967 Ford Mustang Convertible.

But I hardly had anytime to adore it as I jumped into passenger and slammed the door shut. Keanu roared the engine to life and reversed out of the parking lot, fleetingly passing the four Strigoi that hovered by the entrance, hidden in the darkness with only their red watching eyes visible. And then, as we drove away and I looked into the rear-view mirror, I saw a glint of silver. Around the neck of one of the Strigoi figures shun a cross on a silver chain, and immediately I thought how weirdly ironic that was.

Eloise was the first to break the silence in the car as Keanu steered us onto a road that led one way out of Tobyhanna.

"Oh my god," she breathed, and as I threw myself against the familiar seat, I nodded and exhaled in agreement.

"Oh my god, indeed."


Author's Note

Keanu, Eloise and Adrian are teamed up to find Jill's killer and save Sydney! What could possibly go wrong?


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