Don't be Scared Little Alchemist

Chapter 3

"Dude! Enough with the alcohol already!" scolded Gareth, shooting daggers in my direction. After getting over the monster hangover I'd woken up with, I was already beginning to feel the craziness of spirt creeping up on me. It was such an awful feeling that it was difficult to describe. It was like there was someone invading my mind and messing with stuff, trying to control me. I could almost see it seeping into my head, wrapping everything inside it in a think layer of 'crazy dust' that I couldn't sweep away without being intoxicated. Oh wow... I already sounded insane. I needed a cigarette- now!

"Sorry..." I apologized, lowering my head slightly and screwing the lid back onto the bottle of liquor I'd been about to secretly add to my coffee. My guardians hated me drinking all the time, they knew how bad it was for me and they tried to stop me doing it too much. Last night had been an exception, I'd gone particularly insane, talking in poetry and rhymes like some kind of kids storybook character. I scared myself when I got like that- it made me wonder how much time I had left before they shipped me off to an asylum and locked me up forever like the did with Avery Lazar- a spirit user who'd become obsessed with bonding herself to people and lost control of her powers. As much as I hated to admit it, things had gotten far worse since I'd broken up with Rose, even worse when she and Lissa went off to collage and worse still after I left the Royal Court. I could see that Eddie and Gareth were trying their best to help me, but it didn't always work. There was only so much a dhampir could understand about magic after all, since they couldn't wield it.

The long and short story was- I missed Lissa. We'd been in this together, we'd muddled through all the madness and we'd helped each other improve our skills. In a way it felt as though I'd lost a limb, she was like a little sister to me and I hadn't seen her in over a year. I had no-one to go to with my many spirit-related issues and I had no one to help me figure out how and why I randomly ended up in Sydney's dream last night... I guess I'd have to figure that one out alone.

And so it began, for what seemed like no reason what so ever. It appeared all hell had suddenly broken loose as the Strigoi attacks that used to happen to us so rarely increased to two or three per week. If I didn't already know what selfish creatures they were and how they couldn't care less about one another, I would have thought they were getting revenge for what Eddie did to those guys the other night. I couldn't deny it- my guardians were good, really good. They made taking down a super strong, super speedy Strigoi look as easy as making a cup of tea (which to be fair is actually a pretty hard task since I still haven't quite figured out how to work the kettle).

Of course, with a Strigoi attack, comes the issue of what to do with the bodies which can only be solved by- you guessed it- an Alchemist. Or more precisely, the particular Alchemist that appeared to be assigned to this area at the moment- Sydney Sage.

We hadn't talked properly since the night I slipped into her dream, at most we would exchange a brief wave of acknowledgement. She wasn't being so outright rude as she used to be, but she wasn't being nice either. She was pretty much blanking me, probably embarrassed that she'd had such a vivid dream about me in which I was actually nice to her. I wondered what she'd think if I ever told her I'd actually been there...

"Hey" I called out to her one night as she was about to leave. It'd been a mild Strigoi encounter, not much of a fight and only one to take down. Sydney turned to me with a look of annoyance on her features. It was- once again- extremely late for a human. "Little Alchemist."

"Don't call me that" she threatened, an astonishing sense of authority in her voice for someone who thought I'd come and drain her blood while she was sleeping.

"Temper" I mock-scolded her, wagging my finger in her direction, "you should be ashamed Miss Sage." I'd found out her surname a few night's ago when she'd gotten a phone call from her superiors while she was cleaning up after my guardians' latest battle. With my super-sensitive Moroi hearing, I could hear the other end of the conversation too.

"What do you want Adrian?" she asked hastily, "make it quick." I was seriously considering telling her all about my powers and how I'd ended up in her head the other night due to a crazy, out of control spirit overdose... which shouldn't have actually happened when I'd been completely drunk. However, I decided against it. It would freak her out, and besides, if she didn't know about my powers I figured I could have a bit of fun with this.

"I bet you, you'll dream about me tonight" I told her with a wink. I could feel Eddie and Gareth's disapproving eyes on the back of my head, realising what I was doing. They really hated it when I overused spirit, it made me a rambling, metal psycopath and as you can imagine- not a very fun person to protect and live with.

"I don't have time for this" she replied, getting into her car. "And for the record- I have far better things to dream about thank you very much." She was really on the defensive tonight wasn't she?

"I'm serious" I told her, jogging over to her little red vehicle and leaning up against her half open window. "I bet you dream about me tonight and if you do..." I paused for a while in thought, wondering what I could make someone I barley knew do for me. The last thing I wanted was the girl's money... how much did Alchemist's make anyway? Was it an unpaid job? Either way- the great nephew of the late Queen Tatiana Ivashkov was bound to be far richer than anyone who cleaned up Strigoi bodies for a living. Cash wasn't an issue here.

It was then that it hit me, crazy as the idea might seem. It'd been a long time since I'd had any kind of involvement with anyone female- I hadn't been seeing anyone since Rose and that includes the one night stands I used to have an un-countable amount of. She really hurt me that badly.

"If you do" I repeated to the bored looking girl in front of me, "I want you to go on a date with me. Just one, harmless date. Just for fun." I saw her expression of boredom change to one of terror and shock. Of course, when I said the word 'date' to an Alchemist, I was thinking something along the lines of go shopping and then go out for dinner. Nothing insanely romantic of course, Moroi and human couples were a serious taboo. "Just a day out" I reassured her, "so I can get to know the wonderful young lady who comes and cleans up after our fights with only a moderate amount of complaining." She rolled her eyes at my last statement before appearing to consider the bet.

"And because I won't dream about you" she stated, blissfully unaware that she didn't really have a choice, "you pay me $2000... okay?" The thing she clearly didn't understand- besides the fact that the chances of her winning the bet were 0 to 100- was that I actually would have given her the money. It was clear that by demanding something she thought I wouldn't give her, she thought I'd have no choice but to call the whole thing off. Think again...

"Cool" I agreed with a quick shrug of my shoulders. Sydney turned the keys in her ignition and prepared to drive away.

"Whatever you say Ivashkov" she said to me lazily.

"See you in your dreams little Alchemist" I replied with a knowing grin. Before I could say anything else, she had already driven away in to the pitch black blanket of darkness.

"I still think it's a bad idea" Eddie told me as he and I sat on my bed when we got home. "She's human! What if you fall for her?" I scoffed at my guardian's stupidity.

"I won't 'fall for her'" I assured him with a chuckle, "it's just one date, just to give me something to do... actually it's mainly to piss her off. Besides, I never seem to meet up with anyone nowadays." I knew Eddie couldn't argue with that. Ever since leaving court I lived a pretty isolated existence and I rarely saw anyone besides Eddie, Gareth and occasionally Mia Rinaldi- Eddie's girlfriend. It may have been his duty to protect me, but he couldn't deny me my freedom to actually make contact with the outside world.

"That'd better be it dude" he warned me, uncharacteristically harsh, "you can't even begin to imagine the uproar it'll cause if you guys end up an item."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" I responded, quickly brushing off his anger, "now can you leave me to it? I have a dream to invade." Eddie merely nodded and wished me good luck before leaving me alone with spirit. It often felt like it was more than just a power, like it was a person in the room with me holding a gun or some other kind of brutal, deadly weapon, just waiting for the right moment to strike. I hated being left alone with it when I was sober, but in times like these I just had to grin and bear it.

It was 4am so she would either be asleep or would be soon. Already feeling the power surging through me, I closed my eyes and un-attached my mind from my body, searching through the vast golden mist for Sydney. Once I had found her, I pushed my mind into her head, entering her dreams quickly and easily. This time, she was in a garden I recognised from a dream I had had with Rose- it was Sonya Karp's.

"Told you so" I taunted, walking up behind the blonde. She quite literally jumped out of her skin when she heard me... well not actually literally because that'd just be weird and disturbing.

"Great" she said, recovering from her scare, "now I suppose I lose the bet." She didn't look happy about it, but she looked less angry/ freaked out/ disgusted than I'd imagined she would.

"Indeed" I chuckled, "now as for the date... say I pick you up today at 8pm?"

"I'd rather you didn't"

"Tough luck Little Alchemist, you lost"

"For the last time Adrian don't-"

"I know, I know" I barged in, cutting her off, "but I say it with affection." I raised my eyebrows at her in a flirty way, earning me the trademark Sydney Sage 'oh gosh your such an idiot' eye roll. "Besides" I continued, "calling you Sydney seems a little too formal for such great friends like us." I giggled at her annoyance at the thought of us ever possibly being friends.

"Great friends?" she questioned in disbelief. "No way."

I pouted at her, before realising how much strain I was beginning to feel from the spirit use. I had to get out of her mind.

"Well, I best be off" I said, "any chance you'll tell me where to come and pick you up or shall I just forget about it assuming you'd give me a fake address?" I actually managed to get a smile out of her with that and she began to consider her next action.

"How about we meet up" she suggested, obviously not wanting to give away where she lived to a 'deadly monster'.

"At the park near my house?" I suggested to which she nodded in agreement. "Cool. See you then Syd- 8pm sharp." I glanced at her in a jokey sort of warning to reinforce my point.

Just as I was vanishing from her dream, I could swear I saw her smile to herself at the nickname I'd just casually given to her.

Hmm... not as happy with this one as the first 2 chapters...

xx