Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.

This one shot is for Rainy who requested it. I know I said I probably wouldn't be posting any more one shots for awhile, but the idea was too good to pass up. I hope you enjoy it! And now, this is probably the last one shot until Silver Shadows! (P.S. everyone go retweet PenguinTeenAustralia's tweet so we can get two MORE chapters of Silver Shadows before release!)

P.P.S. Rainy, and anyone else who was interested, Throne of Glass is by Sarah J. Maas and it's a fantasy about a girl assassin. There's lots of romance and magic and a really evil bad guy and it's the first book in one of my favorite series. If you've read it (or not) let me know (review or PM) or you guys can suggest some of your favorite books!

"You did the right thing, Zoe. This is for her own good."

Jared Sage said, watching one of the nameless Alchemists catch his daughter as she drooped forward in her seat, a side effect of being drugged into submission. Zoe Sage sat back in her own seat, moving as far away from the lifeless Sydney as possible. She was having a hard time holding back her tears and her face was beginning to heat up in embarrassment.

She shouldn't let this get to her, shouldn't feel sorry for betraying her sister to the Alchemists. Sydney was the one who was betraying her. Lying to her, using her, and all for some disgusting, sleazy affair with a Moroi! Her dad was right. Zoe was helping Sydney by turning her in.

She'd been almost physically sick when she'd found that phone in the back of Sydney's car. All of those messages that creature had sent her sister... All of the messages Sydney had sent him in return. How could she? How could she stand to be so close to him?

It wasn't so awful being around Eddie and Jill, was it?

Zoe swallowed back the response to that question. Eddie was different. He was a dhampir, a half-vampire. He didn't drink blood or use magic or anything unnatural like that. He just happened to be born into the wrong family. That was something she could sympathize with. She herself had felt similar from time to time.

What about Jill?

Jill is a teenage girl, she rationalized. She's my age. But still, she was unnatural. A vampire, a blood sucker. She'd had to drive them to Clarence's house countless times just so Jill could... feed from Clarence's kindly housekeeper Dorothy. It really didn't matter if Jill was nice and funny and had excellent taste in clothes. All that mattered was that she was an unholy creature of the night.

The Alchemist that had caught hold of Sydney before she could fall head first into the metal floor of the van now yanked off his leather gloves and grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer from his pants pocket. Zoe watched, wide eyed as he squirted some out and slathered it over his hands up to his forearms.

"You heard what she said," he said when he noticed her staring at him. "She let that... thing taint her." He shuddered. Then he offered her his sanitizer as if he really thought they could catch some sort of disease just from touching her sister's long sleeves.

"I didn't have any contact," she said lamely, waving off his offer. He slid it back into his pocket. Then she wondered if she should have taken it. She looked to her father, waiting to see disappointment in his expression, but, to her relief, his face was turned down as he typed out a message on his phone.

Zoe's thoughts once again crept back to her discovery of that phone in Sydney's car. Adrian's phone. She'd read the messages, saw the flirtations and smiley faces and outright sexual innuendos. She'd read through a month's worth of her sister's secret romance via text message and it made her angry. And not because Adrian had taken advantage of Sydney or because Sydney'd defiled herself, but because she'd told Adrian everything! All the things she should have told Zoe.

She glanced up to see Sydney, still slumped over, but now propped against the wall of the van as it sped down the highway, out of Palm Springs. She'd heard what her sister had said, anger—no, rage—spewing from her as she hissed at their father, letting him now just how far she'd gone with Adrian. Everything, she'd said. He's done everything to me.

Zoe knew how perverted it was to have a relationship with a vampire, even if Adrian happened to be extremely handsome... for a vampire. He was obnoxious though. Thoroughly obnoxious, and she'd been so certain that Sydney could barely tolerate him, the way she could barely tolerate him. It had made it that much more of a shock to her system when she'd realized something was up between them.

For a moment, watching her sister's head bob up and down with the motions of the van, she felt remorse creep in over what she'd done. Sydney had engaged herself in unspeakable acts with a Moroi, but Zoe wasn't sure that was the reason she'd called her father to rat her sister out. She'd been so angry when she'd discovered Sydney lied to her, about everything. And everyone else knew! Jill for certain, she'd obviously covered for Sydney from time to time, but probably Eddie and Angeline too, even Neil. Everyone knew except Zoe. She was Sydney's sister! Shouldn't she have known something important like Sydney having a serious boyfriend before anyone else?

Sure, she told herself. If Sydney had fallen in love with a human boy, she would have told you. You'd have been the first to know.

But she wasn't so sure that was true. If Adrian had been human, she still couldn't see Sydney sitting in their dorm room, curled up on the bed with a pillow in her lap, sharing intimate details about her relationship with him. About her life. The ugly truth was Sydney didn't like Zoe very much.

That's not true, she scolded herself, fighting back tears. Sydney's been tainted, the way Dad and the other's keep saying. Adrian Ivashkov did this to her. He seduced her, compelled her, even. My sister loves me.

But she knew they'd been at odds for a long time. Before Sydney had even met Adrian, she and Zoe had fought over practically everything. Especially when it came to the Alchemists. Sydney wanted the glory for herself.

If that was true, why would she have thrown it all away for a vampire?

She pushed the thought away quickly, but it left an uneasy feeling in her chest. She'd always thought her sister just wanted to be the better Alchemist, their father's favorite. He'd even egged them on from time to time, almost pitting the sister's against one another. But, in the end, Sydney wasn't after the glory or prestige. She'd simply wanted to be loved.

Zoe knew what that felt like.

She watched her sister's hair fall in front of her face as the van turned off the highway, her head lolling to the side. Their father's words looped in Zoe's mind: this is for her own good. It was, she knew. She pushed the uneasy feeling away, along with thoughts of loneliness and betrayal. This was for her own good. They were helping Sydney get back on track. Even if Zoe doubted her motivations for getting to this point, the truth remained, Sydney needed help and this was the only way she'd get it.

She looked over at her father, smiling up at him, wanting to prove to him—to herself—that she knew this was the right thing to do. But Jared Sage was still too occupied with his phone to notice her smile, or the doubt in her eyes when she glanced back at her unconscious sister.

I did the right thing, she told herself. But, when she said the words herself, they somehow didn't ring true.