Bloodlines

I scoffed. "Then I'm definitely not helping, even if I could. You couldn't pay me to cross Abe."

I could see Adrian bracing for another argument and decided to make my exit. Turning my back on him and any further protests, I headed out of the kitchen and back to the living room. There, I found Jill and Lee talking, and she wore the first genuine smile I'd seen in a while. She laughed at some comment he made and then looked up at my entrance.

"Hey, Sydney," she said.

"Hey," I said. "Are you about ready to go?"

"Is it time?" she asked. Both she and Lee looked disappointed, but then she answered her own question. "I guess it is. You probably have homework, and Eddie's probably worried already."

Adrian entered the room behind me, looking pouty. Jill glanced at him, and for a moment, her gaze turned inward, like her mind had gone somewhere else. Then she turned back to me. "Yeah," she said. "We should go. I hope we can talk later, Lee."

"Me too," he said, standing up. "I'll be around here, off and on."

Jill hugged Adrian goodbye, clearly reluctant to be leaving him too. With Lee, she'd looked mostly like she was sad to leave something that had just gotten interesting. With Adrian, there was more of a sense like she wasn't sure how she was going to get by. Her next scheduled feeding was in two days, and Adrian was encouraging, telling her she was strong enough to get through the next school day. Despite how much he kept annoying me, I was moved by his compassion for the younger girl. Anyone who was that nice to Jill couldn't be that bad. He was starting to surprise me.

"You look better," I told her as we drove toward Vista Azul.

"Talking to Adrian... to both of them... it was helpful."

"Do you think you'll be okay tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Jill sighed and leaned back against the seat. "It was just nerves. That, and I didn't eat much breakfast."

"Jill..." I bit my lip, hesitant to plunge forward. Confrontation wasn't my strong suit, particularly with awkward personal topics. "You and Adrian..."

Jill gave me a wary look. "What about us?"

"Is there anything... I mean, are you guys... ?"

"No!" Out of the corner of her eye, I saw Jill turn bright pink. It was the most color I had ever seen in a vampire's face. "Why would you say that?"

"Well. You were sick this morning. And then really adamant about seeing Adrian. You're always sad to leave him too..."

Jill gaped. "Do you think I'm pregnant?"

"Not exactly," I said, realizing it was kind of a nonsensical answer. "I mean, maybe. I don't know. I'm just considering all the possibilities..."

"Well, don't consider that one! There's nothing going on between us. Nothing. We're friends. He'd never be interested in me." She said it with a dismal certainty - and maybe even a little wistfully.

"That's not true," I said, fumbling to undo the damage. "I mean, you're younger, yeah, but you're cute..." Yes, this was a terrible conversation. I was just babbling now.

"Don't," said Jill. "Don't tell me I'm nice and pretty and have a lot to offer. Or whatever. None of that matters. Not when he's still hung up on her."

"Her? Oh. Rose."

I'd nearly forgotten. The trip to Court had been the first time I'd seen Adrian in person, but I'd actually seen him once before on security camera footage when he'd been at a casino with Rose. The two of them had dated, though I wasn't entirely sure how serious the relationship had been. When I'd helped Rose and Dimitri escape, the chemistry between those two had been off the charts, even if they'd both been in denial of it. Even I'd been able to spot it a mile away, and I knew next to nothing about romance. Seeing as Rose and Dimitri were officially a couple now, I had to assume things with Adrian hadn't ended well.

"Yeah. Rose." Jill sighed and stared vacantly ahead. "She's all he sees when he closes his eyes. Flashing dark eyes and a body full of fire and energy. No matter how much he tries to forget her, no matter how much he drinks... she's always there. He can't escape her."

Jill's voice dripped with astonishing bitterness. I might have written it off as jealousy, except that she talked as though she'd been personally been wronged by Rose too.

"Jill? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh." Jill shook her head, like she was shaking off the cobwebs of a dream. "Yeah, fine. Sorry. It's been a weird day. I'm a little out of it. Didn't you say we could pick up some things?" A sign for the next exit advertised a shopping center.

I rolled with the change in subject, glad to be away from personal matters, though I was still pretty confused. "Uh, yeah. We need sunscreen. And maybe we can get a little TV for the room."

"That'd be great," said Jill.

I left it at that and took the next exit. Neither of us spoke about Adrian for the rest of the night.

Chapter Eight

"ARE YOU GOING TO EAT THAT?" asked Eddie.

Eddie might not have known about all the shenanigans that went down with Jill on the first day of school, but not seeing her all day had unnerved him. So, when she and I came downstairs for the second day, we found him waiting in our dorm lobby, ready to go with us to breakfast.

I pushed my plate and its half a bagel across the table. He'd already polished off a bagel of his own, as well as pancakes and bacon, but was quick to accept my offering. Maybe he was an unnatural hybrid creature, but from what I could tell, his appetite was the same as any human teenage guy. "How are you feeling?" he asked Jill, once he'd swallowed a mouthful of bagel. Since he'd eventually hear she hadn't been in class, we'd simply told Eddie that Jill had been sick from nerves yesterday. The hangover allegations still infuriated me, but Jill insisted on letting them go.

"Fine," she said. "A lot better."

I didn't comment on that but secretly had my doubts. Jill did look better this morning, but she'd hardly had a solid night's sleep.

In fact, she'd woken in the middle of the night, screaming.

I'd leapt out of my bed, expecting no less than a hundred Strigoi or Moroi assassins to come bursting through our window. But when I'd looked over, there'd only been Jill, thrashing and screaming in her sleep. I'd hurried over and finally woken her up with some difficulty. She'd sat up gasping, drenched in sweat, and clutching her chest. Once she'd calmed down, she'd told me it was only a nightmare, but there'd been something in her eyes... the echo of something real. I knew because it reminded me of the many times I'd woken up thinking the Alchemists were coming to take me to the re-education centers.