Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.

I'm really going to try to finish Through the Darkness before Silver Shadows comes out, so this will probably be the last one shot until SS.

Anyone looking for a book rec? Have any of you guys read the Throne of Glass series? If you haven't you really, really should. I wouldn't steer you wrong ;)

Also, have you guys read the sample chapters of Silver Shadows yet? Holy mother of flailing fangirls! It's so, so good and so, so heartbreaking, but also really perfect.

"Sage, please just talk to me."

Adrian trailed behind me as I moved through the safe house Dimitri and Rose had taken us to. It was a nondescript one story on the outskirts of Los Angeles. A good place to lay low until the Alchemists gave up their search. Which they were bound to do sooner or later. Hopefully.

Adrian had come for me in reeducation, just like I'd known he would. He'd shown up with Marcus and Eddie and the rest of our friends to rescue me, and I'd thrown myself at him, more in love than I ever had been. But that was before he confessed to getting involved with Nina while I was being tortured. Tortured! I felt perfectly justified in my anger and I wasn't ready to let it go just yet. So I did the thing that I knew would hurt him the most.

I ignored him.

It didn't stop him from following me into the kitchen, though.

"Sage..."

"Adrian, leave her alone for a while," Jill said gently from her place at the kitchen table. Eddie was sitting next to her, looking very uncomfortable with all of the tension in the room. "She needs space right now."

"Don't tell him what I need," I snapped, and when her pale green eyes went wide I felt so awful I could only turn around and take it out on the person causing my anger. "And don't you speak to me anymore!" I hissed at Adrian. Then I got a Coke out of the fridge and made my way back to the living room.

His face crumpled when I'd turned on him. The image kept playing itself over and over again in mind. But, then again, so did the images I'd conjured up of Adrian and Nina together. Doing all sorts of things, even though Adrian swore to me it hadn't gone that far. I prayed he wasn't lying to me, but still. He'd let it start, which was further than I would have liked it to have gone.

Rose and Dimitri were sitting in the living room, discussing our next move. I knew Abe was heavily involved in this escape plan they'd put together, and somehow, that knowledge actually made me feel better about the whole thing. Abe had a lot of contacts. A lot of people who owed him favors, favors like the one I'd once owed him. If anyone could keep the Alchemists off our backs it was Abe Mazur.

"Sydney," Rose said, calling my attention from the can of soda in my hands. "Are you okay? You look a little flustered."

"I'm fine," I told her, trying to calm my frayed nerves. Getting upset wasn't helping things with Adrian or anything else. I needed to be calm and collected and deal with whatever was thrown at me next. It had only been twenty four hours since Adrian and the others busted me out of reeducation, and we'd been on the move most of that time. The Alchemists wouldn't give up that easily, and when—if—they found us I needed to be ready.

Rose didn't look convinced, but she and Dimitri got to work, going over a map of the city, planning the way out should we need it. I took a sip of my soda—not diet. I couldn't care less about my calories since being sent to reeducation. It was simply soda, and I hadn't tasted anything but water in so long—and rested my head back against the couch, ignoring the feeling of someone sitting down beside me. I didn't need to look up to know who was next to me. I ignored him, the way I'd been doing, but he still sat close.

"There's an old subway system that runs right along a street a few blocks from here," Rose said, pointing at a map. "Abe said that there's a tunnel—"

"Sydney Sage." A voice from outside shouted loudly, causing everyone in the room to flinch. The voice was clearly being amplified, but it had a tinny quality that made me think the speaker was using a megaphone and not a PA system. Like cops do when they surround the house they know the suspect is hiding in.

A chill ran down my spine and I nearly forgot how to breath. Adrian and Rose didn't look any more composed, but Dimitri stood, walking toward a window to see what was happening.

"There are four Alchemists out back blocking the door and windows," Eddie said, barging into the living room through the kitchen door. Jill was following on his heels, a look of terror in her eyes.

"There are at least a dozen out front," Dimitri confirmed, dropping the shade on the window he'd been peeking out of. "They're milling around two SUVs."

"How did they find us?" Adrian demanded, rising to his feet. He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at Rose. "I thought Abe said this house would be safe for a few days, at least."

"It should have been!" Rose said, looking at a loss. She was as caught off guard as the rest of us. Only, we probably shouldn't have been. The Alchemists weren't a group to be trifled with. I knew that better than most.

"Sydney Sage, surrender yourself into our custody and no harm will come to you or these... people!" The voice again.

"They could have tracked us somehow," I suggested, my voice sounding much calmer than I was feeling, knowing those maniacs were right outside. "Traffic cameras, maybe? Or they could just have spies on every street corner, feeding them information." I stood as well, turning away from the window. I didn't want to see who was there.

"We're just trying to help!" The voice came again, but this time it was different. This time I knew who I was hearing. "Sydney, let us help you!"

"Is that...?" Adrian moved to the window, pulling back the curtains the way Dimitri had, but I didn't need the visual.

Ian. What was he doing here? The Alchemists had no reason to drag him into this. He had no reason to be involved in this at all. Did they think a friendly face would help sway me?

"It's that guy Alchemist who was at Court with you," Rose said, peering around Adrian. He dropped the curtain and they both stepped back. "It looks like they're sending him in."

There was a quick knock on the front door and then the original voice again. "Let Mr. Jansen in and you can discuss things in a more civilized manner."

Ian knocked on the door once more. Everything was happening so quickly, I didn't have time to consider what the Alchemists motives for sending Ian in might be. "It could be a trap," I said, looking toward Dimitri who was biting a lip and looking at the front door.

"It's probably a trap," Rose agreed. "There's a tunnel downstairs that Abe told me about, but it's hidden. We could make a run for it, make it to the subway, hope it comes up somewhere they won't be looking."

"I say we let him in." Dimitri's words astonished us all. He turned away from the door, looking directly at me. "It's our best bet."

"What?" Adrian demanded. "No! You're insane if you think for one minute I'll let them touch her again—"

Dimitri looked unfazed by Adrian's shouting. "They won't get near her," he promised. "But letting Ian in gives us the chance to work this out amicably."

"They won't—" I started, but Dimitri ignored me.

"Sydney, it's the only way they'll ever stop chasing you." He shrugged his massive shoulders underneath his leather duster. "If we can work this out you'll be free to do what you want. If we can't, we can still take the tunnel. No harm, no foul."

"Except that it's a trap," Rose grumbled.

"Maybe," he conceded. "But isn't it worth the chance? If anyone can talk their way out if this it's you, Sydney."

Everyone turned to me, waiting for my reaction. I didn't know. Would I rather take this chance or be on the run the rest of my life? Rose didn't seem to like the idea, but she was deferring judgement to me. Adrian looked even less pleased, but I quickly turned away from his pleading gaze. Dimitri was right, if there was even a slim chance that we could settle this than I had to do it. I just needed to find a logical argument.

"Let him in."

Dimitri ordered Eddie and Jill to watch the back of the house, in case anyone tried to ambush us while we were distracted, then opened the front door.

As soon as Ian walked into the living room Adrian stepped up between us, crossing his arms over his chest. Dimitri and Rose were beside him, a living barrier between us. Ian looked like he was ready to bolt, his eyes shifting between all of the vampires in the room, but he swallowed his fear and straightened up.

"Sydney," he said, watching me through the small space between Rose and Adrian's shoulders. "We want to settle this before it gets out of hand. No one wants anyone to get hurt here."

"No one's getting hurt," Dimitri said, his voice quiet and subdued, even for him. He was trying not to scare Ian. "We opened the door, now tell us what's going on outside."

Ian swallowed, and when he spoke, he addressed me. "They want you to come out. We're your family, Sydney. We'll take care of you."

"The way you helped her in reeducation?" Adrian growled. "I'm sure Sydney agrees that was very helpful of you guys."

"I can handle it," I hissed at him. My anger growing every time he tried to help. If he'd cared so much about me, why did he cheat on me with Nina? No, he needed to keep his mouth shut until I had a chance to sort out my feelings. I turned back to Ian.

"I'm not going to turn myself in. I won't. But if you're willing to negotiate—"

A bark of laughter peeled out of Ian before he could stop himself. "What on earth could you possibly have to negotiate with?"

This was it. The thing is been considering since Dimitri mentioned trying to work things out amicably. Obviously the Alchemists didn't care that I didn't want to be in reeducation. And they weren't going to back down just because the Moroi were defending me. No, this plan would only work if we had something solid to give them, something the wanted more than they wanted me.

"The Strigoi vaccine," I said, my tone as confident as I could muster.

"The..." Ian sputtered. "You don't have that. Our labs haven't come up with anything conclusive and the Moroi only got it to work the one time..."

"That's true," I admitted. "But I know how to make it a vaccine that can be distributed. And I'll only tell the Moroi how to do it."

Dimitri still had his eye on both Ian and the front of the house, but Rose and Adrian glanced back at me. Whereas Rose looked thoughtful, no doubt wondering what it was I knew or if this was all a bluff, Adrian looked like he knew exactly what I had realized in the long, dull, restless hours I'd been locked away in a cell. My blood. Witch blood. Strigoi couldn't stomach human magic, the same as they couldn't stomach spirit. But of course Adrian knew. Adrian always knew exactly what was going on in my head—

No. You can't think about him now, Sydney.

Ian was weighing me, trying do decide if I was telling the truth. "I... If you have information about the vaccine you have to share it. Whatever your sins, you have to do it for the good of humanity."

"I will," I swore. "Once I'm allowed to travel freely back to the Moroi Court and once I have it in writing that the Alchemists will leave me alone. Forever. I quit, I'm not one of you anymore. Leave me be and I'll get you your vaccine. That's my deal."

Ian looked flustered. Clearly he saw the advantage to my proposition. I could see it, the gears turning behind his eyes. He could be involved in ridding the world of Strigoi, once and for all. He'd be a hero. Only it wasn't his decision to make and he was worried the people in charge might be too petty to make the call. It was my worry as well.

"I'll... I'll call it in to my superiors," he said reaching for his cell phone. But before he could grab it the floor dropped out from under me.

The whole world shook and swayed and I hit the ground hard. I could hear Jill cry out from the other room. There were grunts and shouts as debris fell from above us. I heard Adrian call my name and I shouted for him too, but, even though we'd been standing right next to each other, I couldn't find him in the chaos. The house shook again, only this time I realized why.

A bomb. They'd set off some sort of bomb, probably on a structurally integral beam somewhere. They couldn't have done that without preparation and without us seeing them. They must have set up the explosion before we'd even gotten here. But how would they have known where we'd be hiding?

Abe had set up the safe house for us. He'd gotten information about the reeducation center I was being held in from one of his contacts. Someone must have betrayed Abe and turned the information about the rescue over to the Alchemists. Oh, man. I'd hate to be that person when Abe got a hold of them.

This all raced through my mind as dust and debris crashed down on top of me, making it hard to breathe. I heard Ian screaming for help, but no help was coming. The Alchemists had sacrificed him to get to the rest of us. A distraction while they literally brought the house down on top of us. They must have decided eliminating us—me, Adrian, Rose and Dimirti, possibly even Jill, the Dragomir Princess—would go further toward helping their real goal: destroying vampires, Moroi, Strigoi, and dhampirs alike. This was their plan all along, I realized. They'd let us escape reeducation just to catch us in this trap.

The shaking finally ceased and I drew my arms down from where they'd been draped over my head. Poor protection against an explosion, but it'd worked well enough that I was still conscious. I could feel bumps and bruises all over from where the ceiling had collapsed on top of me, my leg hurt enough that I couldn't stand, and I could feel a warm trickle of what had to be blood running down my face. But I was alive.

I heard a groan to my right and tried to turn toward it. "Adrian!" I called out.

Then a groan came from behind me. "Sydney?" His voice was soft and strained, but it was him.

"Adrian!" I tried dragging myself in the direction of his voice, but I didn't have the strength. I was beginning to feel dizzy and breathing in the dust in the air wasn't helping. Finally I managed to move a few feet towards him, cutting myself on broken pieces of furniture and ceiling as I went. I could see now that my arms were covered in blood and two of the fingers on my right hand were broken from where debris must have hit them. But I couldn't feel anything but a stiff ache and a bone deep exhaustion.

It felt like I'd been crawling forever, but I'd only moved a few feet when I spotted a bloody hand in the rubble. "Adrian?" I coughed and red flecks spattered a piece of torn up sheetrock in front of me. That wasn't good, but I couldn't think about myself right now. "Adrian."

His fingers twitched and I finally spotted the rest of him. His arm was trapped under the collapsed half of a beam. He was lying on the floor behind it, bloody and battered. His forehead was slashed open, bleeding everywhere, but I couldn't see how deep the wound was from here. I told myself head wounds bleed a lot, even non-life threatening ones.

"Sage," he whispered, his fingers stretching for me. I reached for him too. "I love you."

I started to say it back, but our fingers connected and as soon as they did a heady warmth rushed through me. Adrian was healing me, helping me, taking care of me. I felt relaxed and loved. It took a few minutes before he finished, before the urgency of the situation came back. We'd been blown up. Betrayed.

I got to my knees, feeling fine now thanks to Adrian's magic. He was still trapped though, still bleeding. "Adrian, hold still, I'm going to get you out of here." I tried pulling on the beam trapping him, but it wouldn't budge. It was too heavy.

Dimitri! I'd get Dimitri. I looked around, expecting to see him exactly where he'd been, but he was nowhere to be found. Just a pile of rubble in every direction. Tears leaked down over my cheeks and I started pulling on the beam again, desperate to move it. I tried to summon my magic but it wouldn't come.

"Sage," Adrian groaned, coughing. "Stop."

"I can do it," I cried. I tried to smile at him, but my face wouldn't cooperate. "You healed me, remember? I'm good as new. I'll have this off of you in a—"

"Sage," he said again, grasping for my hand. His beautiful green eyes stared up at me through a veil of blood. "It's okay." He flicked his gaze down to his legs and I choked back a sob when I saw that they too were trapped. "You're safe. I just need you," he started coughing, "to be safe. Please go, before the Al... Al... Alchemists find you."

Blood was beginning to appear at the corner of his lips and I shook my head. No, I wasn't leaving. No, this wasn't happening!

"Please, Sydney."

The remaining half of the beam dangled from the ceiling above him, groaning and creaking in a way that made my stomach turn. My magic still wouldn't cooperate, probably from being malnourished in reeducation for so long. I started crying, not knowing what else to do. I was a pathetic waste and I was failing him.

"Don't cry," he said. His voice was soft and slow and he was really hurt! He was... He was dying. As smart as I liked to think I was, my brain couldn't process that information.

"Adrian, let's go. Please, we have to go."

His fingers tightened on mine. And then that beam groaned again and plummeted from what was left of the ceiling, falling right on top of him. Burying him completely, except for his hand. His fingers loosened and I screamed.

Desperate, horrifying sobs wracked my body. I couldn't even breathe. But somehow I managed to stand. I managed to turn toward the sound of voices outside the house. The Alchemists. They were coming in. I finally spotted Dimitri near the front door. He was lying on his side next to Rose. His shoulders were shaking. Hers didn't move at all. I had no idea where Ian was, or Eddie and Jill.

A swirl of angry, violent magic rushed through my body, nearly knocking me off my feet. It was powerful, a force of pure emotion. It was like some cork buried way down deep inside me had been popped and now it was rushing up, up, up. The Alchemists were coming toward me, guns drawn, terror on their faces as they pointed their guns and shouted. I couldn't hear them. My ears were ringing and all I could hear was Adrian's last words. Don't cry. Don't cry. I wouldn't cry. I'd destroy the people who'd done this instead.

The magic reared up, somehow even stronger now that I had a plan. Some of the Alchemists turned away, running for the door. It didn't matter. The world exploded into a swirl of blue sparks, swallowing everything in their path until all I could see was blue. Everything felt light all of a sudden, like maybe I was underwater. Drowning. Maybe we were all drowning in this sea of fire. And then...

Ian was standing in front of me. "I... If you have information about the vaccine you have to share it. Whatever your sins, you have to do it for the good of humanity."

Drowning. I coughed, choking on the air I was gulping down. I could breathe again. I wasn't drowning. There was no trace of blue fire. Ian was staring at me, wide eyed. So were Rose and Dimitri and...

"Adrian!" I practically tackled him, wrapping my arms and legs around him. He staggered, unsure of what was happening. So was I for that matter. One minute I'm standing in a pile of rubble, choking on my own magic, the next I'm standing in a house, having a conversation that already happened.

It already happened...

"Bomb!" I cried, untangling myself from Adrian. "The Alchemists put a bomb somewhere in the house. It's going to blow in less than five minutes."

"Sage?" Adrian said, grabbing my hand. I tried not to let the sight of him distract me. He'd died not even ten minutes ago, and now he was here, holding my hand. I didn't care why or how. If this was a simply delusion or somehow possible because of my magic, or if the explosion had been some sort of prophetic vision, it didn't matter. Adrian was here, his skin was warm and his grip was tight. That's all I cared about.

"The Alchemists wouldn't do that," Ian said, but his voice wavered slightly. "Not while I was inside."

"Well, then you can stay here and find out," I said, turning toward Rose. "Where's that tunnel?"

Dimitri got Jill and Eddie while Rose led us to the basement. There, behind a workbench that Rose and Dimitri ripped out of the way, was a human sized hole in the wall. Eddie went first, and I was surprised he was even able to fit through it. Then Adrian helped Jill through, then me. The moment he came through I grabbed his hand again. If Eddie looked like he couldn't fit through the hole, Dimitri shouldn't have been able to fit at all, but somehow he managed and then we were running. The tunnel was actually pretty wide inside, but Adrian and Dimitri, even Eddie, had to duck to get through it. The sound of footsteps echoed behind us and there was Ian, hurrying to catch up. He wasn't chasing us, though. He was running with us.

There were no surprises waiting in the tunnel, which I'd worried about, considering the Alchemists had staked out our safe house and placed a bomb. I guess they hadn't known about the tunnel. A shutter rocked the ground beneath us and dirt sprinkled down onto our heads, but the tunnel held.

"They did it," Ian muttered behind us. "Why would they do it? I was inside..."

Another larger shutter nearly knocked me over, but Adrian and I braced ourselves against the wall. More dirt trickled down from above, but nothing collapsed.

Ian looked on the verge of tears. The Alchemists were ruthless and dangerous, and he'd had to find out the hard way. But, at least, it wasn't too late. For whatever reason, we were able to escape the blast that should have killed us. That had killed Adrian and how many of the rest of my friends?

It doesn't matter, I told myself, shaking off the thought. Everyone's safe now. I squeezed Adrian's hand tighter.

We didn't stop until we reached the end of the tunnel. It emptied out into an abandoned subway tunnel, just like Rose had said. Dimitri led us through the dark, Rose by his side. Both of them looked prepared for a battle, but no one was waiting for us there either.

"What happened back there?" Adrian whispered in my ear as we walked. "You went berserk and then the building collapsed."

"I didn't go berserk." But I smiled up at him, unable to help myself. "I don't know what happened. I had a vision or something. The building collapsed and... and everyone was hurt."

He seemed to understand that there was more to it. That whatever happened in my vision—I really hoped it was a vision, because if I'd somehow magically gone back in time to before the bomb went off I didn't know what I'd do—had really shook me. But he didn't press. He simply leaned closer and wrapped his arm around me, kissing my temple as we walked.

"I'm right here." It was all he said, but it caused tears to spring up in my eyes.

"I love you," I told him. "In my vision, I... I didn't get to say it, before... I just love you so much and I don't want to fight anymore."

"I'm sorry, Sage. I can't tell you how sorry—"

"I know," I said, and smiled at him. "I forgive you. This isn't the time to be angry about things."

He pulled me to a stop, letting the others go on ahead, just enough to give us a little privacy. Then he kissed me and I melted into him. When we pulled back and started walking again, it was obvious the others had seen. Jill was beaming and Eddie had a smile on his face. Rose looked pleased and Ian looked disgusted, but who cared about him. I'd just saved his life, he could cut me some slack. Only Dimitri paid us no mind as he led us through the dark tunnel.

And when we finally exited the abandoned subway into a crowded city street, the sun was warm and high in the sky. We weren't safe yet. We still had many miles to go before I would feel truly safe. And the Alchemists would have to be accused of attempted murder. There'd be an outrage from Moroi royals that their Princess was almost assassinated. It was almost an act of war on the Alchemists part. people would take sides, the Alchemists would split, yet again, much the way did when they separated themselves from the Warriors of Light. It was almost too much to think about. But Adrian was here, and the rest of my friends, and we were alive.

At that moment, that was all that really mattered.