A/N: Hey, sorry it took so long, I was writing this chapter in my journal thing and I was writing it during class and my teacher took it off of me. He took a week and a half to give it back! He gave it back and is just like "It's good... Adrian is portrayed perfectly..."

"What the hell? MY ENGLISH TEACHER READS THE BLOODLINES SERIES!"

DISCLAIMER: RICHELLE MEAD OWNS THE BLOODLINES SERIES

Sydney's POV

I ran down the stairs, moving my body towards the music and laughter of the ball.

"Father, I told you; I do not wish to marry!"

Exclamations drifted from behind one of the many closed doors that drabbled down the hallway. I hesitated before deciding against better judgement and following the sound of the arguments.

"You will do as I tell you, Adrian."

"Why?" a voice countered. "Telling me what to do? Pushing me around? All while mom's downstairs working her ass off to find me the perfect wife!"

I gasped quietly. It was the King and the Prince. It had to be.

"Don't speak to me like that! I am your father and you will not disrespect me like this!"

"Whatever."

I heard a lock click open and I immediately pushed myself into the darkness that the shadows provided. A young man emerged and I had to say.

He was gorgeous.

His brown hair was styled to look like this head had just left the pillow; he was tall-6'5, maybe-and pale making his high cheek bones prominent. And his eyes.

They were emerald green; mesmerizing and mischievous-although they held anger and frustration, from the argument I'm sure. He slammed the door shut and stormed off in the other direction. I breathed a sigh of relief and followed him at a safe distance-assuming he was heading to the ball room.

Clinking of champagne glasses and music and laughter flowed into my ears at my arrival. The room was extremely large and was lit with bright, shining chandeliers hanging elegantly from the high ceiling. It was filled with young women and older men-as fathers normally accompany their daughters to events such as this.

I spotted the Prince moving from lady to lady as they danced. A rotating partners dance-one that I recognized and immediately slipped in.

Every woman wanted to dance with the Prince as they eagerly awaited their turn.

Me included.

Adrian's POV

I was extremely pissed off about what happened with dad. Who the hell does he think he is? Telling me what I can and can't do, who I can and can't marry.

"So, how are you?"

I looked down at a young redhead.

Meh, too short.

"Nothing."

And I moved onto a medium height brunette.

"Hi, I'm Rose," she said, seductively.

I think she'd make a great trophy wife.

I began to dance with her, bombarding her with questions about her home life.

"And my step-sister is so annoying, she's ugly and she's blond. Eww!"

I chuckled.

Then she came into my line of sight. I began ignoring the brunette I had been talking to and followed this girl's every movement. Sunny blond hair flared as she turned to look me straight in the eye from across the room. Her honey golden eyes-that went so well with her fiery red dress-filled with emotion that I could not place, it intrigued me.

I made my way across the room to her and took her hand.

"May I have this dance?"

Her eyes nervously looked up at me; I pretty much fell in love with her right then and there.

"Um, I-yeah, yeah. Sure."

I almost laughed at her innocence.

I swept her into the dance, and we just moved together, no words were spoken, not that they needed to be; but I wanted to know what was on her mind

"So, what's your name?" I asked her.

She was about to respond when it was time to change partners.

I smirked at her before circling behind the guy that was supposed to dance with her next and bumped him into the next girl, connecting back up with the girl, I repeated my question.

She looked shocked. "Um, my name's Sydney…"

"Sydney."

When I said her name I could almost taste strawberries on my tongue; incidentally that was exactly what she smelled like.

"My name's Adrian," I told her before letting go of her hands and repeating the same move as before and joining back up with her.

A man a little younger than me looked extremely annoyed, but I ignored him.

"I know, you're the Prince," she said, softly.

I sighed. "Look, I don't want you to have to force yourself to talk to me, if you don't want to, I'll leave."

And try again later, I added mentally.

She looked startled. "Oh, no, that's not it at all; I was just trying to make sense of why you would talk to me. I'm not royalty. And I doubt your father would allow you to even talk to someone like me."

I repeated the Duck-Around-And-Sneak-Back-To-Sydney move before asking her what she did.

"I'm… a servant."

"But you are dressed in finest silk, you carry yourself with dignity and respect, most of all you are clean. And you are a servant?"

"My friends sneaked me in," she confessed.

My eyes widened and I backed away. "You really are a servant."

Her beautiful golden eyes filled with hurt. "So that's it?"

I wanted to hold her and tell her that I didn't care that she was a worker, I didn't care that she wasn't royalty; but to my horror:

I did care. I cared that she wasn't raised the way I was. I cared that she wore rags every day. I felt almost disgusted at the fact that she was below me.

Almost as if she read my mind, her eyes welled up with tears and I felt my chest tighten, I could barely breath.

Then the clock struck midnight. Her tear-filled eyes flew to the clock.

"No," she whispered.

She dashed out of the ballroom, tears sill falling from her eyes.

I had to go after her. I took off running about five seconds after her.

She was running down the stairs, towards the entrance when I saw something gold fly from around her neck onto the velvet stair lining. She looked back at it but a guy who seemed to appear out of nowhere shouted at her to leave it and they took off. Running to the entrance, the last thing I saw was the carriage that contained the only girl I wanted to wed inside.

I walked back to the stairs and picked up with small golden object. It was a necklace, a golden cross; she had been wearing it while we were dancing and I had noticed whenever she had a free hand, she would twirl it around her fingers.

"I will find the girl that this necklace belongs to, and I will marry her," I vowed, quietly, before retreating to my chambers, just wanting to be alone and see no one.

Except Sydney. I would see Sydney.