So, here's a new chapter. I learned when you're writing a Jeddie story, no one really cares about Trey and Adrian, but I still hope you like this. I decided to post this today because it's exactly one year since I started reading Vampire Academy (which by the way belongs to the amazing Richelle Mead, who also ons the characters and most of the plot), my life changed to so much better and i also wouldn't be writing this story today otherwise. Anyhow, there are spoilers ahead and I'm sorry for mistakes. This chapter is also a little bit shorter than most, because I had to shrink the contents down a little bit, since, again, it would be too long otherwise. I hope you enjoy and please, tell me if you do (or if you don't), especially since I'm one review to 30!
I dived into Adrian's mind completely. We needed all the details we could get to find them.
His vision was blurry for a while. He hit his head pretty hard. Even when he was perfectly aware, black spots apperaed in front of his sight every once in a while. All I managed to realize was that he woke up sitting, leaning on the wall of the room he was in.
He closed his eyes to mild the pressure on his mind. The feeling was similar to a hangover, and even thought his sight was probably the only thing to help me locate him, I understood he wanted to rest a bit.
Adrian was just as confused as I was. He had no idea where he ended up or what was going on. He didn't even remember the last thing that happened. I felt something like a pounding hammer in my brain as he tried to focus. The fight with Sydney popped into his mind. I faintly smiled as he brushed it aside. He wasn't completely over that and he knew there were bigger problems to face right now.
He remembered leaving down the shore upset about the fight. He walked for about an hour and then... Then he woke up wherever he was right now.
Neither of us had any idea what could it be that happened to him. It couldn't be the sun, because it wasn't up yet when it happened. I honestly didn't have any other ideas, and Adrian didn't want to think on because of the pounding in his head. I just wished he'd open his eyes so that I could see where he was.
He leaned his head back on the wall and regretted the action immediately. Obviously I was right about the bump. He squealed in pain. I was about to give up and go back to my own head, because there was nothing I could do right now, when a voice that sounded a lot like Trey echoed in the silence: "Adrian?"
He opened up his eyes and turned his head towards where he thought the voice came from. Trey's eyes met him only a few feet away, confirming my guess.
Adrian winced. Trey looked like he just got out of a fight. His face was full of scratches and he had a nasty bruise over one of his eyes. There wasn't much left of his shirt (although I have no idea when he had the time to change, since he was only wearing a pyjama bottom the last time I saiw him) , so I could see that most of his body was also black and blue. And he also looked like he barely kept his eyes open, not only because of the swelling around one of them. The creepiest part was that he was tied to the wall with chains on each of his hands.
"Well, would you look at that? We're roomates again," Adrian laughed. The hoarse tone his voice had surprised both of us. "So, um, what even happened?"
Trey leaned as close as the chains allowed him. "Come closer, so they don't hear us," he said quietly.
"Who?" I asked out loud. I'm pretty sure Angeline said something, but I didn't listen because things got interesting.
Adrian looked around to see who wasn't supposed to hear him and Trey talk. There were two huge shirtless guys by the door. And they were human. Maybe this was more than Moroi politics. Maybe some criminals took them for hostage or something. Could that be?
He leaned closer to Trey. It surprised us both that he wasn't held by the chains. It looked like only Trey was locked up. So Adrian crawled closer.
"I don't know much," Trey began, whispering, "But it's the Warriors. And I swear, I have nothing to do with it. I don't even know what happened, except that they found me at the beach and beat me up until I fainted. You were already here when I woke up, and I knew one of the guards. That's how I know who they are. And they have the tattoos. He told me they hit you with a baseball bat and got you here."
"Wait a second," Adrian said. His thoughts were the same as mine: this was insane. "Why would they beat you up, and hit me with a baseball bat? I don't get anything, but this part the least of all."
Trey laughed bitterly. "Because you're Moroi. And they know you're a spirit user. They were afraid you were gonna attack them in a way they can't deal with. At least I'm human and they know my weaknesses."
This story just kept getting crazier and crazier.
"And why didn't they lock me up too if I'm that dangerous?" Adrian snorted. Trey shrugged.
"Dunno. All I know is that the guy who told me the first part got replaced by another guard because his coworker told on him. I don't even know where we are, except on the island," he replied.
Adrian gave him a quick nod and looked around the room to finally find out a little more about the place he'd probably spend some time in. I stayed in his mind because, well, I didn't really find out much. The building looked like it was falling apart. There were traces of many years of rain and bad roof on the ceiling, and also a few cracks. I thought Adrian might need a helmet. His head was damaged enough already, he didn't need plaster to fall on him or anything.
They were in a huge room, and it looked really empty with only the two of them and the guards in it. There was no furniture or anything. It made it look even larger. The door was also as worn out as the walls and the ceiling. Adrian smiled as he thought it wouldn't be hard to break through it if it wasn't for the guards. He wasn't in chains anyway. And he could use compultion, he realized.
But I didn't think it was a good idea, and he let go of it soon too. There might be more Warriors outside the room. And he couldn't just leave Trey behind.
Another idea struck Adrian's mind. He could use compultion on the guards to make them free Trey. Actually, he could use tons of compultion and all his spirit power. And if anything went wrong, Trey could fight. They could totally do that!
But I still didn't like this very much. Adrian was speeded up by adrenalin and inspiration, forgetting to think reasonably. God knows how many of them were there. God knows where they were. God knows what physical condition they were really in. The Warriors proved plenty of times that they were dangerous.
Adrian was still considering his idea all excited, and I was about to get to the guardians to save them before they could get into any more danger.
Then a guy walked in. Again, all Adrian could realize from his look was that he's human. His clothes were completely casual, jeans and a T-shirt. I assumed he must be a Warrior, because how would he get in otherwise? Adrian glanced at Trey, who also looked like he's never seen the guy before. His aura was mostly red, with patches of brown and grey. From the conceited expression on his face, the tones and the combination, I assumed the colors expressed their worst possibilities; strenght, anger, ego, scepticism, greed, self-involvment. It was pretty sure the red didn't mean sexuality in this case. I'd learned that much about auras.
"So you're both awake now," the guy said, chuckling in the cold, creepy way. He leaned on the wall. Both of the guards seemed afraid of him, so he was probably some kind of authority.
"So you see our eyes are open, congrats," said Adrian. Trey quietly laughed in the back.
"Cooperate, or I won't tell you anything," the guy growled and stepped closer to Adrian. He just raised his eyebrows and kept other sarcastic remarks to himself.
"Why are we here?" Trey asked.
"You're a bait," the guy replied. "We've been cooperating with the Alchemists for a while. They wanted to trap someone, but they didn't know how. We kind of messed something up, so they wanted us to help them with the dirty work in order to keep cooperating. We got this bait idea and now we're waiting for some naive Alchemist girl to come save you."
Both Adrian and Trey gasped. Well, I did too, to be honest.
"Sydney..." Adrian breathed. The guy laughed coldly.
"You know what this reaction means?" He paused, but no one even tried to guess, so he continued: "It means we've chosen the right bait. The girl will be here in a few hours and boom, she's ours." He snapped his fingers to illustrate how fast that was going to happen. Maybe she will be here, Adrian thought. But my wife's not stupid. She's not comming alone and unprepared. Right, Jailbait?
He knew! Well, of course he knew. Of course we'd try to save them.
"And where exactly will she be in a few hours?" asked Trey. The guy laughed.
"As if I'm telling you. We're still on the island, that's it. The west part, if it helps." Adrian stroke his hand impationately.
"We know that! Don't you have anything better to tell us?" The guy only shook his head with an evil grin over his face.
"And how, oh how did you find us?" Adrian asked then.
"Oh, your friend over there helped us," the guy replied, making Trey's jaw drop. "Adrian, I swear..." he began. Adrian did nothing but laughed.
"I know. But I'd love to hear what this idiot has to say to us."
The Warrior didn't react to being called an idiot, he only spoke on: "You see this cute piece of leather you're wearing, former Warrior?"
Adrian glanced at Trey who was looking at his wrist. I noticed a number of times he was always wearing a brown leather bracelet, more like a band, with a few simbols on that I couldn't understand.
"It's the only thing I have left from my father since he cut me off. He gave it to me when I first joined the Warriors," he said quietly.
"Yes, that's what you knew," the guy replied. "What you don't know is that every Warrior has one," he showed us his wrist, " And that it's a built-in GPS. That's how we found you guys when you weren't at Court. You're less protected here, so we knew we have to hurry up. We even replaced some of the guardians with our own people to destroy the wards. And so, we were able to get inside the hotel's property and capture the two of you."
They destroyed the wards? No wonder I could see ghosts!
Adrian was already a step ahead: "But you guys know wards are only against Strigoi, right?"
The Warrior stared him for a while. "Um... Okay, thanks for the update."
"What am I doing here? Why do you need me?" Trey asked.
"Oh," said the guy. "Yeah, we want a few members back too." Trey clenched his fingers into fists and tried to get up, but the chains pulled him back, so he fell ungracefully on his butt.
"I'm never comming back," he growled.
"Yeah, you're never comming back to your 'friends'," the guy scoffed. "You're staying with us, whether you like it or not. We'll make you if you resist."
An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
"Hey, question," Adrian said after a minute or two. "You guys realize this makes no sense, right? I mean, except for the guards by the door, I can just walk out of here." The guy frowned and then started to laugh in the creepy way again.
"As if. Yeah, since you're Moroi, we're still not sure if you're safe. For now we're keeping you this way, but if you try to attack anyone or escape or use your powers, you're going to be executed immediately."
Adrian opened his mouth to say something, but the Warrior already interrupted him.
"And you're not getting any food, water or," he grimaced, "Blood, of course. You're also executed for trying to bite someone." Adrian snorted.
"Please," he said, "As if I'd bite any of you maniacs. Your blood'd probably kill me sooner than lack of it."
I didn't like any of the things I'd just heard. So I left Adrian's mind and quickly reported what I saw to Sydney and Angeline. They agreed it was nothing good, so the three of us left to the hotel's conference hall, which the guardians had hired for a few hours to plan the attack.
The hall was so large it didn't seem to have an end. Of course, not all the seats were taken, but it had been a while since the last time I'd seen so many guardians together.
Hans Croft, the Court's lead guardian or something like that, was by the podium, explaining something with a bunch of tables while fiercly drawing something on a chalkboard. The other guardians were listening all focused. Only the best and most serious were here. Eddie's attitude to our relationship - as hurtful as it was - proved it very well. We couldn't have unreliable guardians. And we needed good protection, especially since this happened so close to the Queen.
"How do we do this?" I whispered to Sydney and Angeline. Sydney shrugged, and Angeline, well...
"EXCUSE me, we have something to SAY!" she yelled, making all the heads turn into our way. Sydney got one of those confident Alchemist smiles together, and I blushed under all those looks and froze. It felt like the time Rose first brought me to Court to confirm I'm a Dragomir. Not much's changed in the past year since then. Princess or not, I was still a shy girl who didn't like to speak in front of a huve croud.
Then I caught Eddie's look somewhere in the last rows. He gave me an encouraging smile. I could almost hear him say it's going to be okay. It was good to know at least someone in the room was on my side. I smiled back and followed Angeline, who was already taking over the podium.
"So, um, most of you know I'm bound to Adrian... I couldn't reach him before, but I made it now, and... Well, they were both trapped by the Warriors of the Light."
The hall exploded with reactions. Hans clapped his hands to silence them down and started to plan something again, all enthusiastic. All the guardians looked as passionate as him and I realized this was about more than just Trey and Adrian. The Warriors, althought maybe not as known as a thread, unlike the Strigoi, had shown a number of times that they're a pain. That they do endanger us, especially if they really do unite with the Alchemists. We couldn't have those 'vampire hunters' control us or whatever they were trying to do. We needed to show them what we're made of.
"There's one more thing," I tried to add. Nobody heard me. "THERE'S ONE MORE THING!" Angeline repeated loudly. I blushed again as the hall silented down.
"Um, this may not be as major. I just wanted to say they're still on the island. The..." I had to think to remember, "... West... Part."
Before I knew, I was back in the room with no idea how I got there. The weight of the day was already getting to me, but I refused to go to to sleep before I found out what's going on. Eddie wouldn't leave me without updates, would he? Would he?
He wouldn't. I realized that an hour or two later, when he showed up, finding me and Sydney barely awake watching TV in my bed and Angeline snorring in his.
"So?" I asked, trying not to yawn.
"Well, we're going in tomorrow morning, around eight. Tonight the rest of the plans and preparations are going to be made, our weapons are getting ready, although we hope there won't be any victims or wounded. Hopefully, they'll cower away when they see us, but we're ready to attack in case of need," he replied, with his face distanced. I saw he was still lost in the plans, already thinking of the fight the next day.
I wondered what I'd have to do. The timing seemed a bit late, they could go right away, but as long as we were saving them, I had nothing to complain about. Maybe, since we had time, I should call Christian up for another magic practise.
Sydney seemed to be thinking in the same direction as me.
"What will the rest of us do?" she asked Eddie. He gave her a blank look, taking a while to snap out of his thoughts and progress what she just asked him.
"Nothing. You're going back home early in the morning," he said.
"What?" I exclaimed. "We have to help! We CAN help! You can use us! And we can't just sit home helpless, waiting for you guys to do everything!"
"Jill, calm down," he said quietly and held my hand. I winced. He glanced down and let go. "Look, I told you a thousand times, you can't expose yourself! And neither can most of you. For example, Lissa's the Queen. Sydney, the Alchemists are still on to you."
Yeah, that reminded me of what I heard before from that Warrior.
"Actually, Sydney, they trapped Adrian just to get you there. The Warriors are just doing dirty work for the Alchemists," I told her.
"Wait, what?" she exclaimed desperat. "No! They can't do that! They can't get to him because of me!"
"What happened, happened," I sighed.
"But..." Sydney's miserable look was quickly replaced by a determinted one. "Okay. The rest of them stay here, and I come with you. This is my fault anyway." Eddie gave her a look that told her she's making zero sense.
"But by doing that you just let them win! You can't let them get you!" he said incredulously.
"I..." Sydney began, but got interrupted.
"What's the yelling about?" Angeline cried. I explained the updates Eddie just gave us. She was as outraged as the rest of us.
"My point was," Eddie sighed, "That we can handle this. We'll take care of them, and you guys have nothing to worry about."
As reluctand as I was about it, I let go in the end. At least they were saving them. Eddie went to bed for an hour or two, and I stayed awake. I knew I wouldn't sleep even if I tried. And I was still hoping for updates on the location or anything else.
Something actually happened in the middle of the night. Adrian woke up as three other Warriors walked into the room. They passed him by and stopped in front of Trey.
"Are you comming back?" one of them asked.
"I already told you, I'm not," Trey hissed back. The second guy put a whip into his hand and hit his body.
"How about now?" the first guy asked. Trey only clenched his teeth and shook his head. He didn't even twitch when the second guy hit him again. He was used to tough conditions like that his whole life. But I already knew Adrian didn't support violence in any kind of way, especially when it came to his friends.
"What are you doing?" I whispered - even though I knew he can't hear me and I actually knew very well what he's about to do - as he got closer to the Warriors who were beating Trey up.
"Hey, stop," he told them. They sure didn't expect him, so they all looked up. And that was all Adrian needed for his plan. Eyecontact.
"I said stop," he repeated, but this time put all the spirit charm he possesed into those words to make them obey. He used compultion. And they strictly forbidded him to.
So, the three Warriors actually left Trey alone, but I guess their supervisors realized they didn't do their job, because the guy who first got on my friends' back stormed inside only a few minutes later.
"You used your magic!" he exclaimed disgusted to Adrian.
"You beat my friend up," he replied.
"I knew we shouldn't have given you that much freedom. You're being exectued in the morning," the Warrior told him. This was exactly what I was afraid of, but Adrian only laughed it off, like most of the serious things in his life.
"I'm being executed? Cool. I've always wanted to die in style," he said. He didn't think he was in real danger, because he didn't believe the Warriors were actually capable of killing him. I wasn't so sure. I left his mind and set off to take some measures.
Back in the conference hall, the preparations for the attack were more feverous than ever. As I was breaking through all the busy guardians, I realized I'm here alone. I quickly looked for Eddie in the croud.
"Eddie, you guys have to speed this up. The Warriors are beating Trey up and now they want to execute Adrian," I said with a desperat look. "What?" he exclaimed at first and looked at me shocked. But he got himself together in a second.
"Look, we can't! All the plans are made already and... We just can't. We won't be ready in time," he told me. I groaned and hurried away to try the same metode with other people. But when neither Rose nor Dimitri and not even Hans could help me, I gave up.
Well, not quite. The moment I was back in my room (all I did today was run up and down the stairs), I woke up Sydney and Angeline, quickly telling them what was going on with Trey and Adrian and what happened at the conference hall.
"You're going to help me save them, right?" I finished.
"Let's go. The sooner the better. They'll want us to get on the plane if we don't hurry up, and we have to overtake the guardians," Sydney said.
"Girl power?" Angeline asked, making both of us laugh.
"Girl power," we agreed.
I guess this is kind of a cliff hanger again. I hope you liked this chapter, I think it was a bit more dynamic than the preious ones, but i'm not sure I'm ood in writing that. Also, it was almost kind of like in Adrian's POV, which I hope is a good thing. Anyway, the next chapter should be… Comming soon. Please, review!
