The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel Read online

“I’m telling you, you’d like him. He goes to a public school and just started at Spencer’s.” Spencer’s was a coffee shop Trey worked at, an arrangement that yielded me discounts. “The other day, he was going off on unaerobic vs. aerobic respiration, and I was thinking, ‘You know who this sounds like? Melbourne.’”

  “It’s anaerobic respiration,” I corrected. “And it still doesn’t mean I have the time. Sorry.” I had to admit, I was immensely curious about how that topic would have come up between baristas, but figured it was best not to encourage Trey.

  “Okay,” he said. “Don’t say I never tried to help you.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” I assured him. “Hey, there’s Eddie.”

  “My cue to go then. See you guys.” Trey gave a mock salute to Eddie and me. “Don’t forget my offer if you want a hot date, Melbourne.”

  Trey left, and Eddie shot me an astonished look. “Did Trey just ask you out?”

  “No. He’s just got some co-worker he wants to set me up with.”

  “Maybe that’s not a bad idea.”

  “It’s a terrible idea. Let’s go outside.”

  The desert heat didn’t seem to care that it was October, and I led us to a bench right by the dorm’s stucco walls. Partial shade from some nearby palm trees offered mild relief. People swore the temperature would taper soon, but I’d seen no sign of change. Eddie handed me my car keys and a shopping bag from a local superstore.

  “I had to guess at size,” he told me. “When in doubt, I went big. Figured it was safer that way.”

  “Probably.” I sat down on a bench and rifled through his purchases. Jeans, khakis, a few solid colored T-shirts. They were very practical, very much something a no-nonsense guy like Eddie would pick out. I approved. “The size actually looks right. Good eye. We’ll have to send you out shopping more often.”

  “If that’s what I have to do,” he said, face serious. I couldn’t help but laugh in surprise.

  “I was joking.” I put the shirts back in the bag. “I know that couldn’t have been fun.” Eddie’s face gave nothing away. “Oh, come on. It’s okay. You don’t have to play stoic with me. I know you didn’t enjoy it.”

  “I’m here to do a job. Doesn’t matter if I enjoy it or not.”

  I started to protest but then thought better of it. After all, wasn’t that my philosophy too? Sacrificing my own wants for higher goals? Eddie was intensely dedicated to this mission. He never backed down. I expected nothing less from him than single-minded focus.

  “So, does that mean you’re up for some experiments tonight?” I asked.

  “Of cours—” He stopped and reconsidered. “Are Jill and Angeline coming?”

  “No. Angeline’s still under house arrest.”

  “Thank God,” he said with visible relief.

  His reaction was probably the most surprising thing to happen today. I couldn’t imagine why Eddie would look so relieved. Aside from his guardian loyalty to Jill, he was also crazy about her. He would’ve done anything for her, even if it wasn’t his job, but refused to share his feelings with her. He thought he was unworthy of a princess. An uneasy thought occurred to me.

  “Are you… are you avoiding Jill because of her and Micah?”

  Micah was Eddie’s roommate, a nice guy who caused Eddie all sorts of therapy-worthy trauma because he bore so much similarity to Eddie’s dead best friend, Mason. Micah also had a weird pseudo-dating relationship with Jill. None of us were happy about it, since (aside from the Keepers) humans dating Moroi or dhampirs was strictly taboo. We’d finally decided it would be impossible to keep Jill from a social life, and she swore nothing serious or physical was going on between her and Micah. They just spent a lot of time together. And flirted incessantly. He didn’t know the truth about her, but I wondered at what point he’d want more from their relationship. Eddie kept insisting it was better for Jill to have a casual relationship with a human than one with an “unworthy” dhampir like him, but I knew it had to be torturous.

  “Of course not,” said Eddie sharply. “It’s not Jill I want to avoid. It’s Angeline.”

  “Angeline? What’s she done now?”

  Eddie ran a hand through his hair in frustration. His was a sandy blond, not far from my own, which was a dark gold. The similarity made it easy to pass ourselves off as twins. “She won’t leave me alone! She’s always dropping these suggestive comments when I’m around… and she won’t stop staring at me. Like, you wouldn’t think that’d be creepy, but it is. She’s always watching. And I can’t avoid her because she’s with Jill a lot of the time, and I have to keep Jill safe.”

  I thought back on recent interactions. “Are you sure you’re reading this right? I’ve never noticed anything.”

  “That’s because you don’t notice that kind of thing,” he said. “You cannot imagine how many excuses she finds to rub up against me.”

  After seeing her homemade jean shorts, I actually could imagine it. “Huh. Well, maybe I can talk to her.”

  Like that, Eddie snapped back to all-business. “No. It’s my problem, my personal life. I’ll deal with it.”

  “Are you sure? Because I can—”

  “Sydney,” he said gently. “You’re the most responsible person I know, but this isn’t what you’re here to do. You don’t have to take care of everything and everyone.”

  “I don’t mind,” I said automatically. “It is what I’m here for.” But even as I said it, I wondered if that was true. A bit of the anxiety from the bunker returned, making me question if what I did was truly Alchemist responsibility or the desire to help those who—against protocol—had become my friends.

  “See? Now you sound just like I did earlier.” He stood up and flashed me a grin. “You want to come with me to Adrian’s? Be responsible together?”

  His words were meant as a compliment, but they echoed too close to what the Alchemists had told me. And Mrs. Weathers. And Jill. Everyone thought I was so amazing, so responsible and controlled.

  But if I was so amazing, then why was I always so unsure if I was doing the right thing?

  CHAPTER 3

  EVEN THOUGH EDDIE had told me not to worry about Angeline, the curious part of me couldn’t help but prod him about it on the drive over to Adrian’s apartment. “How are you going to handle it?” I asked. “Have a heart-to-heart?”

  He shook his head. “Mostly I was going to simply avoid her unless absolutely necessary. Hopefully she’ll lose interest.”

  “Well. I guess that’s one method. But, I mean, you’re a pretty direct person.” If faced with a roomful of Strigoi, he would’ve walked in without hesitation. “Maybe you should try that kind of approach instead. Just confront her and tell her honestly that you’re not interested.”

  “That’s easy in theory,” he said. “Not so much in person.”

  “Seems easy to me.”

  Eddie was skeptical. “That’s because you’ve never had to do it.”

  Going to Adrian’s was a lot easier than it once had been for me. His apartment used to belong to Keith and was also the site where a Moroi named Lee and two Strigoi had died. Those were hard memories to shake. The Alchemists had offered the apartment to me, since I’d also taken on full responsibility for Palm Springs, but I’d yielded it to Adrian. I hadn’t been sure I wanted to live there, and he’d been pretty desperate for his own place. When I’d seen how happy the apartment made him, I knew I’d made the right choice.

  Adrian opened the door before we’d barely had a chance to knock. “The cavalry! Thank God.”

  I hid a smile as Eddie and I stepped inside. The first thing that always hit me about this place was the sunny yellow paint Adrian had put up on the walls. He was convinced it helped the mood and had warned us not to question his “artistic sensibilities.” The fact that the yellow clashed pretty terribly with his secondhand plaid furniture was apparently irrelevant. Or maybe I just wasn’t “artistic” enough to appreciate it. Nonetheless, I actually found the erratic style co
mforting. It bore little resemblance to Keith’s decorating, making it a little easier to blot out the events of that awful night. Sometimes, when I looked around the living room, my breath would catch as visions of the vicious Strigoi attack and Lee’s death haunted me. Adrian’s stamp on the apartment was like light chasing away the gruesome shadows of the past.

  Sometimes when I was down, Adrian’s personality had a similar effect.

  “Nice blouse, Sage,” he told me, deadpan. “It really brings out the khaki in your pants.”

  His sarcasm aside, he looked supremely delighted to see us. He had the tall, lean build that most Moroi guys did, along with their typically pale (though not Strigoi-pale) skin. I hated to admit it, but he was more good-looking than he had any right to be. He wore his dark brown hair stylishly messy and had eyes that sometimes seemed too green to be real. Adrian had on one of those button-up printed shirts that were trendy with guys lately, with a blue pattern on it I liked. He smelled like he’d been smoking recently, which I didn’t like.

  Dimitri and Sonya were sitting at the kitchen table going over a bunch of papers with hand-written notes on them. The papers were kind of haphazardly scattered around, which made me wonder how much work they could really be accomplishing. I would have had those pages neatly stacked and organized by topic.

  “Glad you’re back, Sydney,” said Sonya. “I’ve needed a little female support here.” The prettiness of her red hair and high cheek bones was tainted by the fact that she showed her fangs when she smiled. Most Moroi were taught early to avoid that, to prevent detection from humans. Sonya had no qualms about doing it in private. It still bugged me.

  Dimitri smiled at me. It made his already handsome face even more so, and I knew that “Zen master wisdom” wasn’t the reason Rose had fallen for him. “I’m guessing you didn’t take a nap.”

  “Too much to do,” I said.

  Sonya gave Eddie a curious look. “We’ve been wondering where you were.”

  “Busy at Amberwood,” said Eddie vaguely. He’d mentioned in the car that it might be best if Angeline’s indiscretion and his forced shopping weren’t mentioned. “You know, keeping an eye on Jill and Angeline. Besides, I was waiting until Sydney came back since she wanted to see what we were doing.” I let the white lie slide.

  “How is Angeline?” asked Dimitri. “Is she improving?”

  Eddie and I exchanged glances. So much for avoiding her indiscretions. “Improving how exactly?” I asked. “In combat, in following the dress code, or in keeping her hands to herself?”

  “Or in turning off caps-lock?” added Eddie.

  “You noticed that too?” I asked.

  “Hard not to,” he said.

  Dimitri looked surprised, which was not a common thing. He wasn’t caught off guard very often, but then, no one could really prepare for what Angeline might do.

  “I didn’t realize I needed to be more specific,” said Dimitri after a pause. “I meant combat.”

  Eddie shrugged. “There’s a little improvement, but it’s hard to get through to her. I mean, she’s absolutely dead set on protecting Jill, but she’s also convinced she already knows how. She’s got years of that sloppy training drilled into her. It’s hard to break that. Plus, she’s… easily distracted.”

  I had to swallow a laugh.

  Dimitri still looked troubled. “She has no time for distraction. Maybe I should talk to her.”

  “No,” said Eddie firmly, in a rare show of contradicting Dimitri. “You’ve got plenty to do here. She’s my responsibility to train. Don’t worry.”

  Adrian pulled up a chair, turning it backwards so he could rest his chin on its back. “What about you, Sage? I know we don’t have to worry about you violating the dress code. Did you have fun at your Alchemist spa this weekend?”

  I set down my bag and walked over to the refrigerator. “If by spa, you mean underground bunker. And it was just business.” I made a face as I looked inside. “You promised to get me diet pop.”

  “I did promise that,” said Adrian, no remorse whatsoever. “But then I read some article that said those artificial sweeteners aren’t good for you. So, I figured I’d watch out for your health.” He paused. “You’re welcome.”

  Dimitri said what we were all thinking. “If you want to start tackling healthy habits, I could suggest a few.”

  If Eddie or I had said that, it would have rolled right off Adrian—particularly since it was completely valid. But coming from Dimitri? That was different. There was a huge amount of tension between the two men, tension that had been building for a long time. Dimitri’s girlfriend, a notorious dhampir named Rose Hathaway, had briefly dated Adrian. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but she’d been in love with Dimitri the whole time. So, there was no way that situation could have ended well. Adrian still carried a lot of scars from that and was particularly bitter toward Dimitri.

  “Wouldn’t want to inconvenience you,” said Adrian, a bit too coolly. “Besides, when not hard at work with this research, I’m actually conducting a side experiment on how cigarettes and gin increase charisma. As you might guess, the results are looking very promising.”

  Dimitri arched an eyebrow. “Wait, go back. Did you say hard at work?”

  Dimitri’s tone was light and playful, and again, I was struck by the double standard here. If I’d made that comment, Adrian’s response would’ve been something like, “Absolutely, Sage. I’ll probably win the Nobel Prize for this.” But for Adrian, Dimitri’s words were a call to battle. I saw a glint of something hard in Adrian’s eyes, a stirring of some old pain, and it bothered me. That wasn’t his way. He always had a smile and a quip, even if they were often irreverent or inappropriate. I’d gotten used to that. I kind of liked it.

  I glanced at Adrian with a smile that I hoped looked genuine, rather than a desperate attempt to provide distraction. “Research, huh? I thought you were a gambling man.”

  It took Adrian a few moments to drag his gaze from Dimitri and fix it on me. “I’ve been known to roll the dice now and then,” he said warily. “Why?”

  I shrugged. “No reason. Just wondering if you’d put your charisma research on hold and step up for a challenge. If you went twenty-four hours without cigarettes, I’d drink a can of pop. Regular pop. The whole can.”

  I saw the glimmer of Adrian’s earlier smile returning. “You would not.”

  “I totally would.”

  “Half a can would put you into a coma.”

  Sonya frowned. “Are you diabetic?” she asked me.

  “No,” said Adrian, “but Sage is convinced one extraneous calorie will make her go from super skinny to just regular skinny. Tragedy.”

  “Hey,” I said. “You think it’d be a tragedy to go an hour without a cigarette.”

  “Don’t question my steel resolve, Sage. I went without one for two hours today.”

  “Show me twenty-four, and then I’ll be impressed.”

  He gave me a look of mock surprise. “You mean you aren’t already? And here I thought you were dazzled from the moment you met me.”

  Sonya shook her head indulgently at the two of us, like we were adorable children. “You’re missing out, Sydney,” she remarked, tapping the open pop in front of her. “I need about three of these a day to keep me focused on all this work. No detrimental effects so far.”

  No detrimental effects so far? Of course not. Moroi never had any. Sonya, Jill… they could all eat whatever they wanted and still keep those amazing bodies. Meanwhile, I labored over every calorie and still couldn’t reach that level of perfection. Fitting into these size four khakis had been a triumph this morning. Now, looking at Sonya’s slender build, I felt enormous by comparison. I suddenly regretted my comment about drinking a can of pop, even if it had succeeded in distracting Adrian. I supposed I could rest easy knowing that him skipping cigarettes for a day was impossible. I’d never be called to pay up on my sugary wager.

  “We should probably get to work. We’re losing time.�
� That was Dimitri, getting us back on track.

  “Right,” said Adrian. “This is five minutes of valuable research wasted. Up for more fun, Castile? I know how much you love sitting around.” Because they were trying to find something special about Dimitri, Sonya and Adrian would often sit the two dhampirs side by side and study their auras in fine detail. Their hope was that Dimitri’s Strigoi conversion had left some sign that would help explain the immunity to being turned again. It was a valid idea, though not something that someone as active as Eddie enjoyed.

  He didn’t complain, of course. Eddie wore a look as tough and determined as Dimitri. “Tell me what you need.”

  “We want to do another aura study,” said Sonya. Looked like poor Eddie would be doing some more sitting around. “Last time we focused on any sign of spirit. This time, we want to show both of you some pictures and see if they trigger any color changes in your auras.” I nodded in approval. A lot of psychological experiments attempted similar techniques, though they usually monitored physiological responses instead of mystical auras.

  “I still say it’s a waste,” said Adrian. “They’re both dhampirs, but that doesn’t mean we can assume any different reactions they have are because Belikov was a Strigoi. Everyone’s unique. Everyone’s going to respond differently to pictures of kittens or spiders. My old man? He hates kittens.”

  “Who could hate kittens?” asked Eddie.

  Adrian made a face. “He’s allergic.”

  “Adrian,” said Sonya. “We’ve already been over this. I respect your opinion but still think we can learn a lot.” I was actually impressed that Adrian had an opinion. So far, I’d kind of felt like he was just going along with everything Sonya and Dimitri told him to do and that he didn’t give these experiments much thought. And, although I wasn’t familiar with the auras that surrounded all living creatures, I could understand his point that individual differences would throw off their research.

  “All data is useful in this case,” said Dimitri. “Especially since we haven’t found anything so far. We know there’s something different about former Strigoi. We can’t rule out any chance to observe it.”