Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.
So this one is a little different. It was an idea that popped into my head yesterday and I just couldn't stop thinking about it until I wrote it down. I hope that it makes sense and is enjoyable and not too cheesy. Please review and let me know!
Sometimes change happens slowly. Like falling in love. It happens quietly and without a whole lot of fanfare. Sometimes you know it's coming and sometimes it hits you out of the blue, but looking back it's been there the whole time. Sometimes it's the last thing you could have ever possibly foreseen for yourself. For your life.
But then other changes come more quickly. Like when a relationship ends. When it's sucked away from you before it ever really had a chance to develop. Then you're left trying to get back the thing that was ripped away.
But not all quick changes are a bad thing. Sometimes they're the exact thing you've been waiting for. Like finally landing that one lead that can help you get back the thing you've been searching for.
I shook off the thought. I couldn't focus on anything but the task at hand. I couldn't get caught up in the hope and joy that breaking into this building brought me. I couldn't risk the distraction. She was too important.
It had been nearly a year since the Alchemists took her away from me. Nearly a year since I saw those beautiful golden eyes light up when she smiled. Since I heard her laugh. Anxiety flooded me every time I thought about it. What if she wasn't here? Despite what my contact had said about the Alchemists keeping reeducation patients in this building, she might not be here.
Dammit! I had to concentrate.
I followed Eddie and Dimitri down the deserted hallway. It was sterile and white with fluorescent bulbs lighting the way. There were no shadows, no places to hide. I wasn't sure if that was comforting or terrifying.
Dimitri held up a hand in a hold motion as we came to a connecting hallway. He was such a freaking boy scout. I probably would have made fun of him if I wasn't feeling so indebted right now. He was helping me, after all.
After checking it out he motioned us forward, down the hall and to the right. This was it. This was where she should be.
There weren't any Alchemists guarding this hallway, no one guarding the people in the small cells on either side. Eddie and I peered through the plexiglass windows on the steel doors, looking for her, while Dimitri stood guard. If anyone did come along I trusted him to handle it.
The first three cells were empty, the next had a woman in it. She was older, with limp brown hair. Definitely not the woman I'd come looking for. I felt bad passing by her cell, but I couldn't risk jeopardizing the plan by breaking anyone else out. I just couldn't.
"Adrian," Eddie hissed and my heart sped up. "Over here."
I'm pretty sure I moved faster than I ever had before. I was peering into the cell he gestured to within the space of a blink. At first I didn't see anyone inside. White cinderblock walls surrounded a room no more than six feet wide. There was a cot pushed up against the far wall, a thin, scratchy looking blanket crumpled on top of it. It wasn't until I pressed my face against the glass that I saw what Eddie was referring to.
A small, blonde was sitting in the corner by the door. Her head buried in her knees so I couldn't make out her features. Even so, I was about ninety percent certain this was the woman I'd been looking for.
I used the keycard Marcus managed to swipe for me and opened the cell door. It swung into the room and I was right behind it, turning so I could see her.
She didn't even look up. Whatever they'd been doing to her, she wasn't even interested to know who'd come into her room. But I saw the way her muscles tensed. It was a small thing, but I noticed it. She was playing tough, but she was still scared.
For a moment I stood there, staring, completely mute. If I called her name and she looked up and it wasn't her I might have fallen apart, right there. Worse, if I called her name and it was her, but she didn't remember me. Or what if she was scared of me now? That was what reeducation was for, right? To put fear back into people the Alchemists deemed too close to vampires. What if they'd succeeded?
I forced myself to take a step closer and I even managed to say her name.
"Sydney?"
Her responding flinch hit me in the gut almost as much as her disappearance did ten months ago. I pushed passed it and knelt beside her. "Sydney? It's me."
Finally she looked up. And it was her. It was without a doubt Sydney Sage looking back at me. But there was something off in her golden gaze. Like the spark had died inside of her. It broke my heart.
She stared at me for a few seconds. Searching my face for something. At least she recognized me, I think. And she didn't look afraid...
"Did they finally get your eyes right?" she asked quizzically. She sounded so normal, so Sydney, yet there was something wrong with her words. What was she talking about?
"Sydney, we have to go now," I said firmly. Standing, I held a hand out to help her up. She looked at it suspiciously and then up at me.
"I won't fall for it. Even if they did get the eyes right. You're not him and I'm not going anywhere until I see her." Her chin jutted out in defiance and I was struck by how much I loved this girl, even when I had no idea what she was talking about.
"Sage," I said softly, "we have to go." I grabbed hold of her hand and drag her to her feet. Surprisingly, she let me. "Whatever you're talking about we'll figure it out once we get the hell out of here."
Once standing, she stared at me again. For longer this time. She took in everything about me in that look. Everywhere her gaze touched I felt warm, comfortable, like sleeping in after an especially bad hangover. I took her in, too. For some reason I had gotten it into my head that the Alchemists would keep her malnourished. That they'd starve her while she was here, keeping her weak. But she looked healthy. Really healthy. She had gained a few pounds since the last time I'd seen her. And it was most obvious when my gaze skimmed over her chest.
"Adrian?" she asked, sounding baffled. "Are you... you're here. You must be. The other one's never call me Sage... Adrian, what's going on?"
My breath caught when she said my name. She did recognize me and she was clearly not afraid. My fear of her being brainwashed and crazy ebbed away as I watched her take in her surroundings. Her mouth dropped open when she saw Eddie in the open doorway behind me.
"It's not a dream," she whispered and the look of hope in her eyes made me smile.
"Not a dream," I repeated.
Then she launched herself at me. Her arms swung around my neck and she kissed me in a way that was almost embarrassing with Eddie standing right there. But I didn't care. I kissed her back, pulling her closer, tighter. My hands traveled down her body, pulling her legs up around my waist. I wanted to weld the two of us together in that position. I was never letting go of her again.
Finally she pulled away, gasping, and I set her on her feet. Eddie cleared his throat.
"You guys, we really need to go now." Then he smiled a little. "Hey, Sydney."
She grinned the most amazing grin I'd ever seen on anyone's face and let go of me to go hug him. I took her hand and led her down the cell block to where Dimitri was waiting. Even the Russian looked relieved to see her. He pulled her into a hug and then he was back in guardian mode, eyes sweeping down the hall.
"It's still clear," he said softly. "We need to go now."
I nodded, taking Sydney's hand again and intertwining our fingers. I turned down the hall in the direction we had planned, but Sydney dug her heels in, refusing to budge.
"Sage," I started, but she shook her head.
"Wait here," she whispered and then slipped her fingers from mine and took off down the hall in the opposite direction. It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening, that Sydney was running away, then I took off after her.
I had no idea where she was going as I followed her through the halls and into a stairwell, but I'd be damned if I let her out of my sight again. Two flights of stairs later I watched her slip through a door and down another sterile, white hallway. She slid into a room just as three men in casual business attire strolled down the hall. One had a coffee in his hand and was joking with the others. I dipped back into the stairwell before they saw me.
"Adrian?" I heard Eddie calling from a flight down. "Is everything alright up there?"
"Sydney ran into some room," I said back. "There are alchemists in the hall. I can't get to her. Wait. They're leaving."
I pushed the door open again, about to follow after Sydney, when I saw her dart through the door and back into the stairwell. She was already pushing passed me, running down the stairs with a pink bundle in her hands. I shook my head, fearing that I may have gone insane for real this time.
Was that a baby in her arms?
She shot passed Eddie and into the hall, back to where Dimitri was waiting.
"Is she carrying a baby?" Eddie asked me, looking confused.
I shrugged and kept moving. Dimitri didn't comment on the baby, and thankfully the little rugrat kept quiet too as we followed the twists and turns of the Alchemist labyrinth. For the most part, the halls were clear, just like Marcus had said they would be, but we had to dodge a few people here and there.
I wanted to take Sydney's hand again. I wanted to pull her to me as we waited for Dimitri to do the final check of the hall leading to our exit. But she had the baby, wrapped in a tiny pink blanket, clutched to her chest. I wanted to ask her what was going on, why she had kidnapped a baby, but there wasn't any time. We'd figure it out once we were clear of the building. Dimitri pushed open the exit door and, with a hand on her back, I led Sydney out of the prison she'd been stuck in for so long.
Tires squealed as a van pulled up in front of us and the side door was thrown open. "Get in!" the blonde girl in the van shouted.
"Jill?" Sydney asked, but climbed into the van. I climbed in after her and pulled her into the back seat with me.
The others hopped in and the driver stepped on the gas, flooring it out onto the road leading away from the reeducation center.
"Sydney?" Rose said as she steered us away from that hellhole. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Sydney sighed. She leaned on my shoulder and looked around the van at everyone who helped me get to her. Rose driving like a maniac. Angeline in the passenger seat, watching for anyone who might be tailing us. Dimitri leaning forward to whisper something to Rose. Eddie and Jill sitting next to each other, both of their mouths hanging open as they stared at the baby in Sydney's arms. I turned to look at it, too.
What could the Alchemists be doing with a baby in a place like that? A part of me really didn't even want to know.
"Sage?" I asked, putting an arm around her and reaching to turn her face toward me. She shook me off and pulled the baby closer, moving the fuzzy pink blanket away from its face.
She leaned in, whispering to the kid. Nothing that I could make out as actual English phrases. Just soft cooing noises.
"Sydney," Jill said quietly. "What's with the baby?"
I stroked her hair with one hand as she held the little girl—I assumed from the pink blanket that it was a girl—tight.
"She's–she's..." Sydney stuttered over her words, scaring me a little. Sydney rarely stuttered over anything. "I couldn't leave her."
"Okay," I said. "It's okay. No one is going to make you leave her. But why don't you let Jill hold her for just a couple of minutes, until I can get you checked out?"
Even after ten months Sydney still turned to me and raised her eyebrows in that yeah right sort of way she had. I smirked.
"I mean it. I just want to make sure you're okay. Please?" When she still didn't look convinced I leaned close. "I just want to hold you for a minute, okay?" I whispered. "We'll take care of the kid, but please? Just give me a minute?"
I watched as Sydney's eyes closed slowly, tears spilling from underneath her lashes. "I can't," she said. "I can't let her go."
"Why not?" I asked, truly at a loss.
She didn't answer me. Instead, she held the baby up for me to see. The kid looked normal enough. All babies kind of look the same, you know? This one was young, a newborn, but there were no obvious scars or wounds that suggested the Alchemists were abusing it. But then the kid opened her eyes and looked at me, and I suddenly had the feeling of being punched in the gut.
Impossibly green eyes looked back at me. The greenest eyes I had ever seen on another person. In fact, the only time I'd ever seen eyes like that were when... when I looked in the mirror.
The kid cooed and ahhed for a second while she looked up at Sydney. Then she turned that brilliant green gaze on me. And, I swear, I felt my heart break into a million different little pieces. I wasn't sure what emotion I was feeling, so I decided that I was feeling all of them. Anger, pain, grief, loss, elation, relief, happiness. But mostly confusion. So that was the one I went with.
"How?" I was almost surprised when I actually managed to say the word. The kid was still staring at me and I was staring right back. Tough little cookie, I thought. She didn't look away once. It was like she was studying me, weighing me. Maybe even judging me. I felt judged. But maybe that was just me judging myself.
"How do you think?" Sydney smirked.
I gaped at her and she reigned in her expression. I was usually all for jokes, especially sexual ones—especially, especially sexual jokes from Sydney—but right now, looking at a baby who had clearly stolen my eyes, I wasn't feeling up to it.
"Sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood," Sydney said. She fidgeted, fixing the baby's blanket before looking back up to me. "It must have been that time... Remember?"
She said it so carefully, so cautiously, that I wondered if maybe she thought that I wouldn't remember. "Of course I remember," I said. "I remember every moment I've ever spent with you. But how... We were always careful. And, I mean, those are my eyes." For some reason I pointed at the kid, like maybe Sydney hadn't noticed her eyes.
The kid did the strangest thing then. She giggled—it sounded gurgley—and reached up with one tiny little hand. She wrapped five, stubby, little fingers around my pointer and held on for dear life. She was smiling at me. There was a little drool at the corner of her mouth, but she was smiling.
My heart tripped over itself.
"She's mine?" I asked, even though I knew. It only took one look to know. "Which means she's yours. Which means you...?" I gave Sydney's chest another look. "So that's why your boobs are so big."
I hadn't really meant to say that out loud. It was just the first thought that occurred to me. I thought Sydney would look embarrassed or angry—yeah, Adrian, what a great time to be thinking about my boobs—but instead she snorted.
"Yeah," she glanced down at herself. "They haven't gone back down to normal size yet."
I bit my tongue to keep from commenting on that. As far as I was concerned I hoped they never went back down to the size they used to be, but now wasn't the time for that statement.
"I didn't know," Sydney was saying, looking down at the baby again. She wouldn't look up at me. "I didn't know until they took me in and ran a few tests. Apparently the Alchemists don't reeducate people until after they know for sure they're not pregnant."
Her tone sounded so bitter my chest ached for her, but still, I almost sighed in relief. "So they didn't hurt you?"
She laughed, but it didn't sound like a happy one. "No. No, they didn't hurt me. Not physically."
The van was silent now. Even holier-than-thou Dimitri was riveted to his spot between the from seat and the middle row, staring back at me and Sydney.
I swallowed, afraid of the implications her words presented. I brushed her bangs back away from her face. They'd grown out in the time she'd been gone.
"They kept me sedated, so I wouldn't be able to get in touch with you. Some special blend, they said, that wouldn't hurt the baby. I couldn't tell you..."
"It's okay," I leaned my head down, resting it against hers and squeezed her shoulder.
"I wanted to tell you so badly. And then once I had her they took her from me a–and..." Her voice cracked. "They asked me so many questions. Made me do things–"
"What kind of things?" I demanded, my brain already imagining the worst of the worst.
"Not those types of things," she said quickly, freeing one hand from the—from our—baby and taking my hand in hers. "It was mostly about magic. They didn't even seem to care that I was pregnant with a half-vampire. All they wanted to know was what I could do with my magic. They made me help them with things. I performed spells for them and in exchange I could see her," she said, pulling the kid close again. "I tried to escape once, but they... They threatened her. I knew I should try again, but I couldn't bring myself to do it."
I sat back, one arm still around her shoulders as I took everything in. The Alchemists had not only kidnapped my girlfriend, but they'd threatened my kid's life...
She watched me for a few seconds, waiting for a reaction, but when I didn't give her one she thought I was angry. "I'm sorry, Adrian. I know I'm dropping this huge bombshell on your head and it's insane to think you'd want this–"
"Sage, what the hell are you talking about?" I asked. "Don't say things like that. You have no idea how much I want this."
And I did. It surprised me how much I did want it. How much I wanted her and this sweet, innocent child we'd created. The baby giggled at me again, wiggling its feet inside the blanket.
"I think she wants me," I said to Sydney, smiling a little.
"You think every girl wants you," she teased, but her voice sounded thicker than usual.
I raised my eyebrows, asking silent permission to hold my daughter.
My daughter. Those were probably the scariest two words I'd ever thought in my entire life.
But somehow, when Sydney cooed, "You want to go to Daddy?" my heart felt like it might explode from sheer joy. I was this sweet little thing's father. And that scared me as much as it excited me. I took the pink bundle from Sydney and held it carefully to my chest. The last thing I wanted to do was fumble my kid the first time I held her.
"What's her name?" I asked, feeling the kid wriggle around in my arms. I gave her back my finger and she wrapped her hand around it.
Sydney leaned over, fussing with the pink blanket again. I realized it was a nervous habit she'd developed. "Her name, it's... it's Adrianna."
I whipped around to look at her, but she wouldn't meet my gaze.
"I know," she said. "It's cheesy, but... I wasn't sure if she'd ever meet you. I wanted to give her something of yours. Your name was the only thing I could think of."
I looked down at my daughter. Adrianna Ivashkov. "It's not cheesy," I said. "It's beautiful. She's beautiful."
Sydney smiled. She looked like she was glowing she was smiling so brightly. "You're just saying that because she looks like you," she joked.
I looked back down at Adrianna and shook my head. "She looks like you. Blonde hair, perfect, little kissable nose." I leaned down and kissed my baby's nose. She giggled again and I smiled, then turned and kissed Sydney's nose. "Yup. Definitely the same nose."
Sydney was still smiling but it started to wobble. I watched her eyes well up and her chin tremble. "God, I missed you," she said, her voice cracking.
I wrapped an arm around her again, pulling her close to me. She buried her head in my shirt, both arms wrapping around my waist. I looked up to see everyone had, at some point, turned to face forward in their seats. Giving us the illusion of privacy. It was a small van and there was no way they couldn't hear everything we were saying, but I appreciated the gesture. The only one who met my gaze was Rose. She was looking at me through the rearview mirror.
"When we stop for gas someone is changing seats with me," she announced, "so I can sit in the back and play with the baby."
Sydney laughed at Rose's demand, which caused Adrianna to giggle again. I pressed my cheek against the top of Sydney's head and held her close, thinking about how fast things change. How just this morning I was lonely and miserable, desperate to find this girl. Now, here I was, one arm wrapped around the love of my life, the other wrapped around the daughter I didn't know we had. Everything had changed. I had changed. It was both fast and slow. I had been changing ever since I'd been exiled to Palm Springs with the rest of them. But I'd also changed so drastically in the last five minutes I wasn't sure I'd recognize myself in the mirror. I'd gone from flippant, womanizer to someone's boyfriend, and then to someone's father. And I wasn't going to screw those new roles up.
No way in hell.