Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.

I had a different one shot scheduled for today, but I thought of this last night and wanted to post it. It's a lot different from the other ones I've done, but I think you'll like it. I'm not giving any more clues ate to what it is though. Read on to find out. And review and let me know what you thought!

I didn't like being in the Moroi Court.

I may have been here before, but it wasn't like that other time had held good memories for me. I liked it even less that I'd been summoned here by Abe Mazur. That man was as sinister as a serpent. His nickname in Russia, zmey—or snake—was totally fitting.

I paced around the empty meeting room waiting for anyone else to show up. The door opened and I nearly hugged Rose when I saw her.

"Daughter of mine," Abe smiled from his seat on the couch, "so nice of you to finally join us. I thought young Sydney here might actually wear a whole in the floor while we waited."

I scowled at the Moroi man, trying to keep the fear out of my eyes. I was scared of Abe and everything that had to do with our little business arrangement. I hated myself for making any sort of arrangement with the man, but I wouldn't change things. He had helped me get some little semblance of justice for my sister Carly.

"Well, we're here now," Rose smiled, entering the room. It was then that I noticed Rose wasn't alone. Dimitri was with her, but so were the newly anointed Queen, Vasilisa, and her boyfriend, Christian. Jill Mastrano and Eddie Castile were also present. I had only seen Eddie once in passing, but I'd spent some time with Jill. Her eyes lit up when she saw me.

"Sydney!" she smiled. "What are you doing here? Do you know what's going on?"

As more and more Moroi and dhampirs streamed into the room it was hard to focus on her words, but I managed a polite smile and told her I had no idea what we were doing here.

Sonya Karp, a Moroi woman who'd, until recently, been Strigoi was the last to come in. I liked Sonya, as far as one could like a vampire of course, but I was still a little nervous around her. I'd seen her as a Strigoi and every time I looked at her now all I could see were blood red eyes and vicious fangs.

"Well, now that we're all here can you please tell us why?" I said, hoping my bravado hid my nerves. I directed the question at Abe, taking a seat as far away from him as possible.

He simply smiled and crossed his legs. "We're not all here yet," was all he said.

I looked around, confused. Who else could possibly need to be here for whatever he had planned? I was two seconds away from getting up and walking out. I didn't care what he tried to blackmail me with, no way was I staying here one second longer if he was only going to—

"I don't think he's coming," Jill said quietly.

I turned to look at her, unsure of what she meant, but everyone else seemed to understand. It was like everyone in the room collectively looked away. Rose looked down at her hands in her lap. Was it just me or did she look inordinately guilty about something?

"I can go talk to him again," said Lissa, looking at Rose for approval. "I'll tell him it's really important..."

Rose shook her head. "No. Leave him." She looked across the room toward her father. "Can't we just get this over with, old man?"

"No," Abe said in an annoyingly chipper way. "He needs to be here, too. I told you—"

Just then the door opened again and a tall Moroi guy walked in. He looked a little wobbly as he took in all of the faces in the room. "Is it my birthday already?" he asked. "You forgot to yell surprise."

I remembered him as Rose's ex-boyfriend, Adrian Ivashkov. His eyes twinkled a brilliant shade of green, but looked a little glassy as he stumbled over to a chair and sat down. I realized he must be drunk, even though it was a little early, by Moroi time, to be drinking.

From the way he avoided looking in Rose's direction and the way she sighed when she noticed he was drunk, I assumed their relationship hadn't ended well.

"Thank you for joining us, Adrian," Abe said, looking amused. "Now that we're finally all here, we should get started."

"We should," I repeated hoping he'd just tell us what was going on already so I could leave.

Abe smirked, amused by my impatience. "Now, now, Sydney. This concerns you most of all. Really, you should be thanking me for even showing you this."

"Showing her what?" Adrian asked, perking up a little in his seat.

Somehow Abe seemed to think Adrian's question was funny. "Don't worry, you'll see soon enough. It involves you, too. As well as sweet little Jill."

He gestured at Jill and her eyes went wide. "Me?" she squeaked.

"If you don't tell us what's up I swear, old man..." Rose said, letting her threat trail off.

"Alright, alright," Abe finally relented. He stood and walked around to the back of the couch, bending to pick something up. When he came back around he put a box down in the center of the coffee table. "I managed to get my hands on these," he said. "Don't ask me how, I'm not going to tell you." I could have sworn I heard him mutter, You'd never believe me, anyway, but he continued. "And I thought I should share them with you. Especially, Sydney, Adrian and Jill, considering."

"Considering what?" I demanded, all of my previous fear going out the window as a new wave of terror washed over me. What was he talking about?

Adrian stood up and, after a moment to regain his balance, walked over and opened the box. Much to my surprise he pulled out a book.

"Books?" he asked incredulously. "You made me leave the best seat at the bar for a box of books?" He raised an eyebrow at Abe. "I hope you're not expecting me to read them."

Abe rolled his eyes. "Of course I am," he said. "Look at the covers."

I watched Adrian's brows furrow in confusion, much the same way mine did, as he turned the book in his hand over. It's dust jacket was gold, but I couldn't see the cover from my seat. Adrian's green eyes went wide and he waved the book at Abe.

"Why is Jailbait's face on here?" he asked. "And..." He paused, seeming to think, then pointed at me. "The Alchemist."

"What?" I asked, jumping up and going over to the box. I reached in and pulled out one of the other books. There were six all together, including the gold one Adrian was waving around. The one I grabbed was red and when I turned it over, sure enough, there was a picture of my face, the word Bloodlines scripted across the bottom. I looked at it in disbelief.

"Hey," Rose said, coming up behind me and grabbing the book. "You and Adrian are on this one."

I pulled the book back and then dodged Adrian as he tried to grab it from me, too.

"Come on, Alchemist," he smirked. "I know you probably want to look at my picture a little longer, but let me see."

I scowled. "My name's not Alchemist," I said. "It's Syd—"

"Sydney Sage," he finished for me. "I remember. Now let me see it, huh, Sage?" he said reaching for the book again.

"No," I protested, flipping the book open to have a look inside. "You have your own."

He pouted, but was distracted when Jill waved a blue book at him.

"Here," she said. "You're on this one too, Adrian."

I was too distracted by the book to notice what they were doing. I'd started reading the first page and recognized the narrator immediately. To my shock, horror, and utter disbelief, the narrator of the book was... me.

I closed the book quickly and made the Alchemist sign of evil against my shoulder. How was such a thing even possible? How did Abe have something like this? What ever story these books told, it was my story. And it hadn't happened yet.

"You okay?" a voice asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. It was Adrian and he was giving me a strange look.

"Yes," I said, hoping my fear wasn't coming across in my expression. The last thing I needed was for Abe to notice how scared I was of his little "gift".

"You look like you just saw a ghost," he said, and I was a little stunned at how perceptive he was when he was drunk. Everyone else was fighting over the other four books and looking at the covers, but Adrian had spotted my fear, no problem. He reached out for the red book again. "Let me see."

I shook my head vehemently, not wanting him anywhere near this book or my thoughts. It wasn't until he shrugged and opened the gold book he still held that I realized all of the books were most likely narrated by me. Adrian flipped the book open backwards, going straight to the end.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Skipping to the good part," he said like it should have been obvious. After a few moments his eyes widened slightly at something he saw on the page and he flipped back a few more pages. Now he looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"What?" I asked, leaning forward to try to read over his shoulder. It turned out to be nearly impossible with his greater height.

His green eyes looked like huge emeralds in his pale, sculpted face and I couldn't help but think how attractive he was. Not to me, of course, but for a Moroi. Moroi were all pretty attractive, but there was something about Adrian that set him out from the others in this room. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, though.

Suddenly, Adrian closed the book he'd been reading and grabbed the red one from me before I could stop him. "We need to read these in order," he said, collecting the other books and putting them back in the box.

I was almost shocked by the way he took over control of the situation. It was such a juxtaposition from the way he'd drunkenly teetered into the room just a few minutes earlier.

He set those emerald eyes on Abe and said, "Is this for real?" He still held the red book in his hand and waved it in the air for emphasis.

Abe nodded, once again taking his seat on the couch. "Yes. As far as I know."

"So this is our future?" His eyes darted to my face for an uncomfortable second before shooting back to Abe. Something in his gaze unsettled me.

"Well, not necessarily," Abe said, stroking his goatee. "That's why I wanted you to read them. If you know what the future has in store for you you'll be able to... avoid certain unpleasant events."

"So you're helping us, then?" Rose asked. "Or them? I'm still confused. The books are about Sydney, Adrian and Jill. So you're saying something bad happens to them. Something bad enough that you felt the need to prepare us for. That doesn't sound good."

Adrian shook his head, he seemed almost sober now. "But this is real?" he asked again. His voice had almost a desperate edge to it. "It's real?"

Abe sighed indulgently and leaned back on the couch. "It could be."

Adrian's eyes darted to my face again, but this time he didn't look away immediately. I stared back as his eyes searched mine for something, I wasn't sure what. It made me uncomfortable to have someone look at me like this. Like they were trying to stare into my soul. I turned away.

"Let's just read it already," said Eddie, speaking up for the first time. "See what it's all about."

Adrian nodded and flipped open to the first page. I cringed, knowing they'd be reading my thoughts. My private, future thoughts. But I was just as intrigued by the books as the rest of them.

Adrian met my gaze one last time, giving me an uncertain half smile that held some emotion that I didn't understand, before starting to read.

"Chapter 1," he said.