A slow, tingling warmth spread through my skin. At first, Adrian's touch was comforting, like an embrace. I felt my tension and pain begin to ease. All was right in the world. He was in control. He was taking care of me.

He was using his magic on me.

"No!" I shrieked, pulling away from him with a strength I didn't know I had. The horror and full realization of what was happening to me was too powerful. "Don't touch me! Don't touch me with your magic!"

"Sage, you'll feel better, believe me," he said, reaching toward me again.

I backed away, clinging to the edge of the counter for support. The fleeting memory of that warmth and comfort was being dwarfed by the terror I'd carried my entire life for vampire magic. "No, no, no. No magic! Not on me! The tattoo will heal me! I'm strong!"

"Sage - "

"Stop, Adrian," said Jill. She approached me tentatively. "It's okay, Sydney. He won't heal you. I promise."

"No magic," I whispered.

"For God's sake," growled Adrian. "This is superstitious bullshit."

"No magic," Jill said firmly. She took off the button-up shirt she'd been wearing over a T-shirt. "Come here, and I'll use this to wrap it so that you don't lose any more bl - "

An earsplitting shriek jerked us all back toward the living room. Eddie had made his kill, driving his stake right into the middle of Dawn's chest. In my brief scuffle with Adrian and Jill, Dawn must have gotten some shots in on Eddie because there was a large red mark on one side of his face, and his lip was bleeding. The expression in his eyes was hard and triumphant, however, as he pulled the stake out and watched Dawn fall.

Through all the confusion and horror, basic Alchemist instincts took over. The danger was gone. There were procedures that needed to be followed.

"The bodies," I said. "We have to destroy them. There's a vial in my purse."

"Whoa, whoa," said Adrian as both he and Jill restrained me. "Stay where you're at. Castile can get it. The only place you're going is to a doctor."

I didn't move but immediately argued with that last statement. "No! No doctors. At least, you have to - you have to get an Alchemist one. My purse has the numbers - "

"Go get her purse," Adrian told Jill, "before she has a fit here. I'll bind the arm." I gave him a warning look. "Without magic. Which, by the way, could make this ten times easier."

"I'll heal on my own," I said, watching as Jill retrieved my purse.

"You realize," added Adrian, "you're going to have to get over your dieting fixation and consume some major calories to fight the blood loss. Sugar and fluids, just like Clarence. Good thing someone bagged up all this candy on the counter."

Eddie walked over to Jill, and she paused as he asked if she was okay. She assured him she was, and although Eddie looked like he could kill about fifty more Strigoi, there was also a look in his eyes... something I couldn't believe I'd never noticed before. Something I was going to have to think about. "Damn it," said Adrian, fumbling with bandages. "Eddie, go search Lee's body and see if there's a key for these goddamned handcuffs."

Jill had been caught up in talking to Eddie but froze at the words "Lee's body." Her face went so pale, she could have been one of the dead. In all the confusion, she hadn't noticed Lee's body in the chair. There'd been too much movement with the Strigoi, too much distraction by the threat they presented. She took a few steps toward the living room, and that's when she saw him. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out right away. Then she sped forward and grabbed his hands, shrieking.

"No," she cried. "No, no, no." She shook him, as though that would wake him. In a flash, Eddie was by her side, his arms around her as he murmured nonsensical things to soothe her. She didn't hear him. Her whole world was Lee.

I felt tears spring to my eyes and hated that they were there. Lee had tried to kill me and then had summoned others to kill me. He'd left a trail of innocents in his wake. I should be glad he was gone, but still, I felt sad. He had loved Jill, in his insane way, and from the pain on her face, it was clear she'd loved him too. The spirit bond hadn't shown her his death or role in our capture. Right now, she simply thought he was a victim of Strigoi. Soon enough, she'd learn the truth about his motives. I didn't know if that would ease her pain or not. I was guessing not.

Weirdly, an image of Adrian's Love painting came back to me. I thought of the jagged red streak, slashing through the blackness, ripping it apart. Staring at Jill and her inconsolable pain, I suddenly understood his art a little bit better.

Chapter Twenty-Six

IT TOOK DAYS for me to finally get the whole story, both about Lee and about how Eddie and Jill had come to the rescue that night.

Once I had Lee as the missing piece, it was easy to connect the murders of Tamara, Kelly, Melody, and Dina, the human girl he'd mentioned. All of them had been killed within the last five years, in either Los Angeles or Palm Springs, and many had documented evidence of knowing him. They weren't random victims. What little we could find out about Lee's history came from Clarence, though even that was muddled. By our best guesses, Lee had been turned forcibly into a Strigoi about fifteen years ago. He'd spent ten years that way until a spirit user restored him, much to Lee's dismay. Clarence hadn't had all his wits about him even then and hadn't questioned how his son had returned home after ten years without aging. He evaded answering our questions about Lee being a Strigoi, and we didn't know if Clarence simply hadn't known or was in denial. Likewise, it was unclear if Clarence knew his own son was behind Tamara's death. The far-fetched vampire hunter theory was probably easier for him to stomach than the murderous truth about his son.

Investigations into Lee's college in Los Angeles showed he hadn't actually been enrolled there since before he became Strigoi. When he'd become Moroi again, he'd used college as an excuse to stay in Los Angeles, where he could more easily pursue victims - and we suspected there were more of them than we had records for. From what we'd observed, he'd apparently tried to drink from a few of each race, in the hopes that one of them would be "the one" to make him a Strigoi again.

Further research into Kelly Hayes had uncovered something I should have thought of right away. She was a dhampir. She'd looked human, but that stellar sports record was the tip-off. Lee had stumbled onto her when visiting his father five years ago. Getting the drop on a dhampir wasn't easy, which was why Lee seemed to have gone to the effort of dating her and luring her in.