I sat curled up on the couch at Clarence's house, a book opened on my lap, headphones were plugged into my Ipod and the tiny speakers were sitting comfortably in my ears. November Rain by Guns'N'Roses was paying but I wasn't listening to it, nor was I reading the book. I was too busy thinking about how I was going to tell everyone that I was being re-assigned. I'd gone to Donna Stanton and asked to either be re-assigned or just sent home, after I had woken up next to Adrian Ivashkov and had him lie to me, which I later found out wasn't a lie. Adrian Ivashkov was a twenty-something year old Moroi guy who was in love with me. He had messy brown hair, brilliant emerald green eyes, a tall, lean, yet strong body and a cocky, yet caring attitude. Moroi were mortal vampires who wielded one of the four elements; Air, Water, Earth and Fire. But recently, a fifth and rare element had been discovered; Spirit. Adrian specialised in Spirit. It would eventually drive him completely insane.
The front door opened and the sound of footsteps sounded through the house as did voices. I recognised a few as Dimitri Belikov, Eddie Castile, Angeline Dawes, Jill Mastrano Dragomir, and Adrian Ivashkov. I closed my book and stood up as they all walked in. My eyes fell on each of them in turn, lingering longest on Adrian. I hadn't seen or spoken to him since his party a week ago. His gaze met mine and I quickly looked away. Everyone- except Adrian- greeted me and we all sat down and waited for Clarence to join us. We engaged in small talk, none of us really knowing what to say. Finally, Clarence joined us. I stood up and took a deep breath. I was just going to get it out there, tell them, before Jill and Adrian fed. My hands were shaking and I pressed them into my side to hide it. My heart was also pounding like crazy and I tried taking deep, slow breaths to calm it.
"I'm being re-assigned." I blurted out. I expected chaos to break out, but instead I was met with silence as everyone digested this information. My eyes studied each person in turn, unsure of what to expect. I studied Adrian and he studied me right back. My heart thudded loudly against my ribs and that emptiness inside me became complete hollowness. Adrian's normally sparkling emerald green eyes looked dull and well, just green. I could see his world shatter, along with his heart. Tears sprang up in my eyes; I quickly blinked them away so he wouldn't see. I looked away from Adrian and tried to compose myself. Adrian was, after all, the reason why I'd asked to be re-assigned in the first place. I'd explained that to Donna Stanton and she'd understood. Relationships between Moroi and humans were frowned upon for fear of the humans discovering about the whole vampire world, though many had already discovered it. But, relationships between the vampires and the Alchemists? Wrong. Completely wrong. I told myself that I don't have any sort of romantic feelings for Adrian. I told myself that everyday; over and over.
The room and been silent for way too long. I wished someone would say something, anything. It was deafening and I didn't like it. Not one bit. Finally, a choked sob broke the silence and I turned my head towards the heartbreakingly devastated sound. It was Jill. There were tears streaming down her face. I hated seeing her cry, it made me want to cry. I dropped down to my knees in front of her and pulled her into my arms, letting her sob.
"Please don't go." She sobbed as she clutched me tightly. I could feel the prickly feeling of tears in my own eyes and rapidly blinked them away.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Was all I could manage. A tear escaped and I hastily wiped it away. This wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to cry! But I'd spent so much time with them, gotten to know this mismatched group, gotten attached, that really, the tears were inevitable. All at once the rest of the group began asking questions. Going from a suffocatingly silent room, to a deafeningly loud room? Yeah, it hurt. It hurt quite a lot. The only one staying silent was Adrian. I dared a peek at him but he'd turned away and all I could see was his back. The muscles in his back were tense. My heart twisted inside my chest. He turned back around and saw me looking at him. I let go of Jill and jumped to my feet. I made to move toward him, but stopped when he let out a tormented cry. His handsome face twisted in visible torment and he pulled violently on his hair. He turned and stalked off into the kitchen. A second later, there was the sound of shattering glass and I flinched. He knew he was the reason behind my decision. He came back out and stormed right past me. I looked down at the floor. There was a trail of bright red fluid on the floor. He must have cut his hand when he'd shattered a glass. I hurried after him and found him in the bathroom, his hand under running water. He looked up and saw my reflection in the mirror. His expression hardened. He spun around so fast that it startled me. I looked down at his hand and moved to the medicine cabinet. I pulled a first aid kit and looked inside. There were bandages, disinfectant and some needle and thread to stitch him up. Not that he'd need it when he could heal himself. I took out the disinfectant and one of the bandages.
"Here, let me clean it." I came to stand in front of him by the sink and turned on the cold water, dipping a washcloth under the faucet. I grabbed his hand and gently dabbed at the cut. He flinched.
"I thought you never wanted to see me again?" He asked me, his tone icy. I rolled my eyes.
"You're injured." I rinsed out the cloth and grabbed another one, this time using it for the disinfectant. "This is going to sting."
"Your fault." He groaned as the disinfectant seeped into the cut. I looked up at him.
"I know it's my fault Adrian. And I'm sorry my actions caused you to smash a glass and split your hand open. But it's the right thing for me to do." I said. There was that tormented look in his eyes again. I rinsed off the other cloth and began applying the bandage. "You don't need stitches, but keep it clean and change the bandage daily." I pulled my hand away, but he just reached out for it and closed his hand over mine, effectively trapping it.
"Please, Sydney. Please don't leave. I know that it's my fault that you're leaving. I'm sorry! I am. I'm really sorry. But, the only thing I'm not sorry about, is loving you. Falling in love with you was the best thing to happen to me since Rose. Please don't break my heart like she did. Just stay. Jill needs you, Eddie needs you, and Angeline needs you. I need you. Please? Just don't go running back to the Alchemists."
"I'm not running back to the Alchemists," I said. Hope filled Adrian's face. "I'm going home. Back to Utah. Back to my mom." Adrian's hands cupped my face. I didn't try to move away as I knew that he would just tighten his hold on me. He lowered his face to mine, our foreheads almost touching.
"At least let me kiss you one last time?" I could have responded but I didn't. He took my silence as an acceptance and he lowered his lips to mine. I felt all my worries wash away as Adrian kissed me. One hand slid down to wrap around my waist, pulling me flush against his body. I revelled in the way our lips moulded together, like they were the missing pieces in a puzzle. My hands had involuntarily come to rest on his hips, just dancing the line of the waistband of his jeans and hot flesh. His lips were like fire and ice twining together to create warmth. And it was that warmth that spread to the tips of my toes. His lips were as I remembered from the first time he'd kissed me. Fierce, yet so full of power. He pulled away and rested his forehead against mine. He sighed and it was so full of sadness.
"I'm sorry." He whispered before turning around and walking out of the bathroom.
"I'm sorry." I quietly echoed.
When I'd finally rejoined the others, they'd instantly bombarded me with questions. I'd answered with vague answers.
"When?" Came Jill's voice. She'd had a go at me after the fiasco the morning after Adrian's party for not believing Adrian when he'd tried to explain to me that we'd only fallen asleep in the same bed and nothing else. As well as telling me that I'd told him that I'd harboured the same feelings towards him, that he felt for me. I'd been drinking quite heavily the night before and obviously hadn't remembered anything the next day, so I'd thought he'd made it all up. Jill had angrily told me she saw it through the bond.
"Three days." I replied. Jill nodded solemnly, and then held out her hand.
"Give me your IPod." She demanded.
"What?"
"You heard me. Give me your IPod."
"Why?"
"Just give it to me Sydney." I pointed to the coffee table. Jill scooped it up and tucked it inside her handbag. "You can have it back later. Once I've finished putting a playlist of each of the four- no five- of our favourite music for you to listen to, so you have something to remember us by." I felt my heart break a little more. Not over losing my IPod for a while, but over the fact that she was gathering all their favourite songs and putting it into a playlist for me to listen to whenever I missed them.
Sometime later, Jill, Eddie, Angeline, Adrian and I left Clarence's house. Adrian had claimed shotgun, making the others groan, and sat beside me, his body slightly twisted towards mine. I could feel him watching me as I drove, so I turned my head and sure enough, he was watching me. He gave me a small, sad smile, which I returned before concentrating back on the road. We dropped Adrian off at his apartment and then headed back to Amberwood, arriving just before curfew. We'd said goodnight to Eddie and made our way to our dorm rooms. I left Jill and Angeline at their dorm room and trudged up one more floor to mine, pulling off my clothes and replacing them with my pyjamas, before collapsing into bed and falling asleep.
Sometime later, I was dragged out of a deep sleep by someone banging on my door. Drowsily, I got up and answered not even bothering to pull on a dressing gown. Jill and Angeline were standing there looking positively terrified. I instantly snapped to attention.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I demanded. They both whimpered.
"Strigoi. Strigoi are attacking Amberwood!" Jill cried. I swiped my phone off the nightstand, and grabbing both girls' hands, ran out. I only had one thing on my mind and one thing only; get them to safety and the, call for help. Turns out, I didn't need to call for help, when we'd reached the lobby of the girl's dorm. There were already guardians there, and they were facing off with a group of about six Strigoi. Eddie was among the guardians. He caught sight of us jerked his head towards the door telling me to get the girls and myself out of here. I nodded my head, showing I understood. I made my way to the door, but halfway there Angeline pulled free of my hand and went to join the guardians.
"Angeline!" I half whispered, half yelled. "Get back here!" But it was too late. She stood next to Eddie, stake in hand. It was no use trying to get Angeline to come back. She was a Dhampir; it was in her nature to protect. She'd also been trained to kill Strigoi. Hesitantly, I let her go and tugged Jill towards the door. My goal was just ahead. Just a few more metres and I'd be able to get her to Clarence's. Two things brought me to a halt; one, Adrian was outside running toward us, and two; a female Strigoi stepped directly in front of me. She was chalk white, her blue eyes ringed in red and blood dripping down her chin. She had long, thick black hair and scarring on one side of her face. She looked familiar but I couldn't place where I'd seen her before. She had an evil sneer on her lips that looked like it had been there probably before she had been turned. I started backing up, pushing Jill behind me. The female Strigoi moved with a predator-like grace. Her movements were eerily frightening yet at the same time; enchanting.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" When she was close enough, her hand shot out and gripped my throat, her fangs bared. Her gaze fell on my cheek then on Jill behind me. The Strigoi's eyes widened in what I thought was supposed to be pleasant surprise. "My, my. An Alchemist girl and the illegitimate Dragomir Princess. You two sure are going to taste absolutely delicious. Ooh, I can't wait to rip out your throats and feast upon your blood." I felt cold, yet sweaty. A cold laugh sounded from the Strigoi.
"You get your goddamned filthy hands off of her, bitch." I looked over the Strigoi's shoulder. I felt my mouth drop open in surprise at the person who had been responsible for this welcome interruption.