Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.

This is a short chapter, so I apologize that it took so long to upload, but the good news is that the next chapter is ridiculously long. (Sydney's got a lot more to say on the events of this chapter than Adrian did.) I'm going to be posting updates to this more regularly from now until Silver Shadows is released. I knew this story wouldn't be too long, and right now it's looking like it will only be a few more chapters. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

A nondescript champagne colored sedan sat in the small alley between the courthouse and the office building next door. I opened the back door for Sydney and then climbed in myself. I was practically vibrating with left over adrenaline, but I took a deep breath and grinned at the driver.

"You might want to hurry," I told him, "before traffic gets bad."

Trey ignored me, smiling at Sydney in a way that most men probably would have been jealous of. You know, if his girlfriend hadn't been sitting right next to him in the passenger seat.

"Sydney!" Angeline squealed. "I'm so glad you're alright and that those Alchemists didn't give you a vasectomy."

Sydney's smile froze and her brows furrowed at Angeline's mistake. But Trey just grinned at her and said, "I think you mean lobotomy, babe. A vasectomy is something else."

I had to hand it to the guy. He was brave. But, oddly, Angeline didn't get offended when he corrected her. Instead she just said, "Oh, yeah. Whoops. I'll look up the other thing later."

"It's good to see both of you," Sydney said, smiling again. "Where are we going?" Her smile faded a little. "The Alchemists aren't stupid. They'll know exactly who helped me escape. And, even if we go to Court, they'll find us..."

"They can't just barge into Moroi territory and kidnap you back," I told her, placing a comforting hand on top of hers on the leather seat between us. She flinched, pulling her hand away, and then looked up at me. The mixture of guilt and sadness on her face had my eyes prickling with unshed tears, but I couldn't let her see that. Instead I smiled and moved my hand back to my lap.

"It'll be okay, Sage," I promised. She nodded a little, but turned away to look out the window. The guilt from pulling away from me was still present in her eyes, the set of her mouth, the tension in her shoulders. It was all over her. Whatever those bastards had done to her, it was right there, behind her eyes.

We didn't talk much for the rest of the ride to the airfield where Lissa's private plane was waiting for us. When Sydney saw the plane something in her posture relaxed for the first time since we'd left the courthouse. It was like this was finally real for her. She was going to be safe.

We said goodbye to Angeline and Trey—they couldn't be seen with us back at Court. Lissa couldn't be involved in this plan until after Sydney was safe. If the Alchemists thought Lissa was complicit God only knows what they'd do. Sydney hugged Trey, then Angeline. I tried not to feel too bad that she could touch them but flinched from me. After all, when Angeline wrapped her arms around her, Sydney had stiffened up a little. Reeducation must have gotten to her more than I'd thought. I guess breaking her tattoo wasn't the cure-all we'd hoped it would be.

Once Trey and Angeline left, off to the Keepers where Trey was meeting Angeline's family for the first time, we boarded the plan. Sydney sat in the seat beside me, though she looked more nervous than she ever had around me. But she smiled, a beautiful smile that, only a few weeks ago, I was convinced I'd never see again. I smiled back, tears in my eyes.

"Don't cry," she said, hesitantly reaching her hand up to brush her fingertips along my cheek. The electric sensation I always got when she touched me shot through me like a lighting bolt.

"I'm sorry for interrupting," the flight attendant said, sidling up next to us. "We're about to take off. Please put your seat belts on until we're in the air."

For the next fifteen minutes Sydney and I shot each other longing glances and timid smiles until the seat belt light blinked off and the flight was well and truly under way. No Alchemists were going to pop out of the cockpit and arrest her again.

"I can't believe you got me out of there," Sydney said, unclicking her belt and turning toward me. "Thank you."

"You had to know I'd never leave you," I told her. Slowly—so, so slowly—I reached out to her, turning my palm face up on her arm rest, giving her the option to touch me or not. Whatever happened to her in reeducation, I knew I had to move slowly until she was ready.

To my relief she brought her hand up and placed it in mine, a determined gleam in her golden eyes. "I love you," she said, her voice determined as well. "I won't let them change that."

Then she leaned up and kissed me in a way that took my breath away. Our lips crashed together, over and over again, desperately trying to prove that we were together again. That no one could separate us. It felt so good to kiss her, like coming home after a long trip away. It was crazy that, no matter how many women I'd been with, Sydney was the only one with the power to make me feel like coming undone just from a kiss. It made kissing anyone else ever seem stupid. Sydney was made for me, so why waste time with anyone else.

But I had kissed someone else. I'd almost wasted a lot more than kisses on someone else.

I didn't exactly stop the furious pace Sydney's lips had set against mine, but the memory of Nina's kisses had me distracted enough that Sydney could tell something was wrong. She pulled away, confusion creating a small frown on her forehead. It was something I normally would have found adorable, but now it was only causing more guilt to lodge itself in my throat.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Nothing, it's okay." I stroked her hair. "Let's just relax until the plane lands, alright? You've been through a lot."

Sydney pushed away from me. "No. What's wrong? You're distracted. What are you thinking about?" She frowned. "Is it because... because of me? Because I'm fine, Adrian. I promise. It's just going to take a little time to shake off the remnants of the compulsion, but I'm okay."

"It's not that. I'll tell you later. I just got you back, let me hold you for a while. Please? I don't want to move too fast after everything..."

"I'm fine, Adrian," she insisted once more. "In fact, I was looking for you to do a lot more than just hold me." There was that heated twinkle in her eye she always got when she wanted me and it only caused my guilt to triple. She leaned up until her lips were touching my ear. "We have some serious business we need to catch up on."

I pulled away, startling her. Her amber eyes went wide and she looked more confused than ever, but now there was hurt in her expression too.

"Adrian, what's going on?" she demanded. She looked ready to cry. God, I'd messed everything up!

I closed my eyes for a moment before looking up at the ceiling. I almost wished we were already in Pennsylvania, that way there'd be some distraction or another to get me out of this, but there wasn't. We were tens of thousands of feet in the air, all alone on a private jet with a four hour flight ahead of us. Unless we crashed—and I sincerely hoped we wouldn't—there was no getting out of this. So I took a breath, manned up and told her what had been plaguing me for weeks.

"Sydney, I'm sorry," I started lamely. "Look, when you were gone I didn't handle it very well."

She nodded slowly, whether because she had expected it or because she was just going along with my confession, I honestly wasn't sure. But she took my hand in hers anyway.

"I went off my pills, I tried so hard to find you in a spirit dream. I needed to see you, to know you were alive and okay. And when I couldn't find you I lost it a little. I started drinking, only sobering up long enough for spirit dreams." She squeezed my hand, but didn't interrupt. I wished she'd interrupt. "Everyone told me I needed to move on, that you were gone. Well, Jill and Eddie didn't, but they didn't have any way to find you either so..."

"Adrian, it's okay," she said softly. I realized my eyes had closed and when I opened them she was staring at me with so much love in her eyes my heart ached. It killed me. I was such a bastard.

"So, one day, after a huge fight with Lissa about trying to find you and then another dead end with Marcus, I ran into that girl Nina." My voice cracked and I had trouble finding it again. Mostly because she'd let go of my hand. She sat back in her seat, her eyes confused and hurt and already starting to tear up.

"No," she said softly, blinking to keep the tears at bay.

"I didn't sleep with her," I said quickly, trying to make it better somehow. "I swear, Sydney. But... we kissed."

"Just a kiss?" she asked, her eyes pleading for me to say it was only a kiss. Something quick, something she'd initiated and I, like a good, loyal boyfriend, had had the sense to pull away from. But I hadn't, and this was going to hurt her no matter how meaningless it had been. Even if I didn't have sex with Nina, I'd still cheated.

I shook my head. "Not exactly."

Sydney turned away from me and then stood up. I caught her hand.

"Sage, it didn't mean anything. And I swear, I didn't have sex with her."

"What did you do, Adrian?" she hissed. "Was it that easy to move on? I was gone so you just hooked up with the next girl that came around?"

"It wasn't like that. You know it wasn't. I was desperate for you, and she was there. I'd just had a fight where my friends told me I was too obsessed, that I needed to move on. When I ran into Nina... I didn't plan for anything to happen. She invited me to get a drink with her and then Marcus called and said they still hadn't found you and... I just didn't want to be alone. I wasn't thinking anything would happen between us, because you're the only one I wanted." I faltered, not wanting to go into detail, but knowing it would only make her angrier if I didn't tell her the truth. "We went back to her place and she kissed me. And, for some pathetic reason, I didn't stop her."

I'd been holding onto her hand as if for dear life, but now she wouldn't look at me as she twisted her wrist and slipped her fingers out of my grasp. "What did you do?" she repeated.

"We made out a little," I admitted. "But I stopped before it got too intense. I promise you, okay? I didn't sleep with her. We actually ended up talking about you."

She snorted. "I don't know if that's supposed to make me feel better or not."

"I don't know either, but it's the truth. I needed someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't judge, and she asked me about you. Out of all of my friends, she's the only one who figured out how desperately in love with you I am."

Sydney nodded, but still wouldn't look at me. "After you cheated on me with her. While I was locked away with the thought of you as my only guiding light." She sneered as a thought occurred to her and it ripped my heart out. "My flame in the dark."

"Sydney, please..."

"Just not now, alright?" She stood again and moved to another seat near the back of the plane. I let her have her space, even though it killed me. I could hear her crying for awhile, but she pulled herself together by the time the pilot announced our arrival in Pennsylvania.

We'd taken Lissa's private plane, but since there was no airstrip within the royal court's walls, we still had to drive almost forty minutes from the small airfield. Sydney and I, stuck in the back of the limousine Lissa had sent to pick us up. It could have been a perfect opportunity to make up for lost time, just like the plane ride, only I'd gone and screwed that all up.

"We've made some progress with the vaccine," I ventured into the silence. Sydney refused to talk to me about anything else, but maybe the vaccine... She turned her head toward me, just the slightest fraction, but it was something. "I don't want to scare you, but we could use a blood sample if you're willing. I had this idea—"

"About my blood?" she demanded. "Is that why you came and got me? Because you needed a sample the Alchemists weren't willing to give?"

"Sydney." I frowned at her, knowing that her attitude was all my fault, but disturbed by it nonetheless. "You know that's not true."

"I don't know what I know right now," she mumbled, turning her head back toward the window.

"I know you're angry with me," I started wearily, "but I'm still here. If you need to talk, or... anything at all."

She nodded her head once, which was a better reaction than I'd been hoping for, but still wouldn't look at me. I turned to look out my window as well, watching the trees pass until finally, finally, the woods gave way to civilization.

I couldn't imagine anything from here would get better, especially not with Sydney and Nina in the same place. But Sydney was safe now. If she refused to ever speak to me again, she was safe. Lissa would make sure of it.

I wouldn't let anyone hurt her any more.

Not even you?

I tried to suppress the thought, but the image of Sydney crying on the plane came back, vividly. No. Not even me. From here on out I'd do exactly what she told me to do, exactly what she needed.

Even if it breaks my own heart in the process.