Thanks again to BriEva for consulting on this chapter
Sydney
My cheek was sore when I came to my senses. I wanted to reach up and feel it, but I held back. I wasn't hearing the stupid, monotone voice, so I hoped that they didn't know I was awake. I ,just kept my eyes closed and tried to remember something, anything, from when I had last been awake.
I remembered seeing Adrian in a spirit dream, then being awakened. I remembered all of the Alchemists' threats being executed - the cold mist, the brightness – and the stupid voice was there too. I remembered lying on my side, trying to keep my back to it all and keeping a small flame in my hands, trying to keep it small enough that it would not glow against the wall.
There was some heat, and it did make me feel better. I don't know how long I had kept it up before I was startled by a noise – something, a door or something, was opening behind me; someone was entering my cell. I barely had the presence of mind to let the fire go, but I did.
Then I remember feeling a needle in my arm and blacking out. They had drugged me again.
It didn't take much for me to make the connection – they had drugged me into submission and re-inked me. That was the reason my cheek was sore. It wasn't a surprise, really. I had wondered if they had done it when they first brought me here, and I knew they could do it anytime.
Whether they had done it when I arrived or not, they were doing it now. They were ramping things up. They were still trying to get me to confess, so I guessed must be holding up to them OK after all.
I still wanted to lift my hand, to touch my cheek and feel what was there. Would there be a bandage of some kind, or would it just be exposed to the cold air?
I pushed that thought out of my mind and tried to think of Adrian. They - maybe him, maybe others, maybe both - were coming for me. I just had to hold on a little longer.
I knew that I had just come back to my senses and wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I tried to control my breathing, ignore the cold floor I was lying on, and go to sleep. I wanted to see Adrian; I wanted to sleep, to give him the chance to reach me in another spirit dream...
Adrian
"You're supposed to be helping me be good! " Sarah exclaimed, . "I'm supposed to be changing, making things right."
"This is good," Jackie insisted. "Sydney is good. You know Inez wouldn't have sent you to do this if she wasn't."
Sarah didn't look comforted. We were riding in an SUV with some of Abe's guardians. He hadn't gone straight to New Mexico as I had hoped. Instead, he had gone to Phoenix and told us to meet him there.
Sometime along the way, Jackie and Sarah had talked to Inez, and Inez had revealed a few things about the teen witch, things Jackie did not know when Inez had first sent her to help find Sydney. Sarah was young and powerful - she had been raised and trained as a witch nearly from her birth; though apparently not for good. Sarah had power, her evil mentor knew spells and wanted to use them get money and power. The gist, as Jackie had explained, was that Sarah had been used.
Once Inez knew where Sydney was, she knew how Sarah could be used to help us get her out of there.
"Does Inez really know her?" Sarah muttered. "What has she done that Inez would care about?"
"She took out a rogue witch that was stealing the power of other witches," Jackie, who was sitting between Sarah and me, said. I almost expected her to add, 'Including my sister," but she didn't. I also wasn't so sure the rogue witch was gone.
"She also took out a rogue Alchemist that was stealing blood from a vampire and selling it to be used in dangerous tattoos that were being sold to humans," I added.
Sarah turned to me, but just stared briefly, apparently unimpressed. She turned her attention back to Jackie. "Is she strong? Inez knows I would have trouble doing this alone."
"As strong as I've ever known," Jackie said, nodding. "The question is, will she be able to use her power. It sounds like she's drugged."
"I'll need her power if we're supposed to drag him along as well," Sarah grumbled, nodding towards me. She was only talking to Jackie. It was obvious she wasn't happy about what she had been asked to do, and she seemed annoyed that I was involved. "I've only done it taking one other person before. Well, that and whatever we..."
She cut herself off and glanced at me again before turning her attention back to Jackie.
"We'll be helping you," Jackie said. Then she saw that I was looking at her with what must have been a look that said I wasn't quite following. "That's why I'm here. Inez and the others of my coven will be connected with me like they were by phone when we found Sydney. Different method, since we won't be as close to Sarah, but it should still be effective enough."
"It better be," I heard Sarah grumble.
"What's the plan?" I asked Jackie. "You said before that you couldn't teleport her out of there, so what are you going to do?"
I saw Sarah actually elbow Jackie. That was fairly surprising, but then Jackie whispered "I won't" to her before turning back to me. "You'll have to wait to see. If something goes wrong and Sarah has to just get herself and Sydney out, you need to be able to deny knowledge of what happened."
I shook my head. I could probably get the little witch to tell me what the plan was - and a whole lot more about the darkness that was in her aura, about the past she was supposedly trying to fix. Really, though, I didn't care about any of this, I just wanted Sydney out of there.
After Jackie and Inez had talked about Sarah and what she could do, Jackie had convinced me to put her in touch with Abe. Abe had discussed it with Inez and Jackie, but not with me. To be honest, I was glad to be left out of the conversation - I never liked talking to Abe. But it meant that I wasn't quite in the loop, even though I would be going in and was supposed to use my skills to help us get back out.
"You mean I don't need to know in case Sarah wants to just get herself out and leave Sydney and me inside," I retorted.
Sarah glared at me now. "I heard you were some big, bad vampire. What do you need me for at all?"
I opened my mouth to respond, though I wasn't sure what I was going to say, when Jackie raised her hand. "Stop, both of you. You know Sydney wouldn't like it," she said to me. Then turning to Sarah, she said, "And this kind of thing is what Inez was talking about. You say you want to help witches, now you have a chance."
I decided that if I wasn't going to be in the loop, I would just ignore both witches. I turned, stared out of the window and thought about Sydney. Jackie was right, of course. Sydney wouldn't like me fighting with those sent to rescue her; but she knew me. She knew I would argue with anyone who I worried might leave her in a bad situation – like maybe abandoning her in the middle of a rescue.
I just watched the desert roll by. I had no idea how much further we had to go, and I didn't care. We were finally going to Sydney. I found myself thinking the girl I loved, thinking about what it would be like to have her right next to me as we were driving away from her prison after we had gotten her out. I forced the witches and guardians in the car with me out of my mind and just focused on Sydney and me – the way it should be, the way it would be soon.
It took Sydney's "Adrian?" for me to realize that she was sitting next to me.
I glanced over to her and saw that she wasn't dressed. I almost grabbed the bag of clothing that I had brought for her and that was at my feet now, before I realized that I had pulled her into a spirit dream. By this time she had managed to dress herself anyway.
"A car?" she asked, looking around her. "The backseat of a car?" Somehow I had pulled her into the vehicle we were traveling in.
"It's an Explorer, actually," I corrected. "You should know that, and you have no idea how much I've dreamed about you being with me in the backseat of…well, anything."
She smiled up at me, looking tired.
"We're coming for your right now," I had the presence of mind to say.
"Who?" She asked.
"Me, Jackie, a little bitch…I mean witch, some of Abe's guardians."
She hesitated briefly. "Not Abe?"
"Nope," I said, finally pulling her into a hug. "You know he would never do what he can send someone else to do." She nodded as I held her to my chest. "But his guys will help us get in, and the little witch is supposed to help us get out."
She leaned back a little and looked up at me. "Get us out how?"
I shrugged. "Don't know. I'm not important enough to know the entire plan."
Sydney sighed, so I added. "I don't like it, but you'll have to take it up with Jackie and Inez."
"Inez?" she asked, surprised.
I nodded. We had separated a little and our eyes were locked now. "She knows witches with powers you've never imagined. Not that they tell me what they are, but she thinks the little witch can get us out."
"Ok," she said slowly. "I trust Inez." She sighed. "So whatever it is will probably work. But then we'll be fugitives."
"A bridge we've already crossed," I pointed out. "But luckily I've got this all planned out. I know a hundred things we can do to stay hidden."
She smiled. "A hundred? Did you really come up with that many escape plans?"
"If I didn't I can close the gap between what I have and a hundred. My mind is awesome for this kind of thing."
She laughed. "I have to keep reminding myself that you're not just a pretty face."
"I'm glad you remember the pretty face, at least," I said. "But soon, you'll be able to think about my other awesome qualities because my pretty face will be with you constantly. I'm not letting you out of my sight again."
I hugged her again, but was interrupted when I heard "Adrian!".
I tried to look down at her, but she was gone. Jackie had grabbed my arm and was shaking me.
"Adrian, are you alright?"
I closed my eyes and shook myself. "Sure."
"We're here," Jackie said as I opened my eyes back up.
Just beside Jackie, I saw Sarah looking at me with a what might have been a jeering smile as the younger witch added, "It's showtime."
