The Golden Lily

Brayden left the car idling and stepped out, casting an anxious glance at the NO PARKING

sign. Adrian jumped up from his seat, a look of supreme satisfaction on his face.

"Wasn't I supposed to pick you up?" I asked.

"Sonya had some errands to run and offered to drop me here while she was out," he explained.

"Figured we'd save you some trouble." Adrian had known what I was doing this morning, so I wasn't entirely sure his motives had been all that selfless.

"This is Brayden," I told him. "Brayden, Adrian."

Adrian shook his hand. "I've heard so much about you." I didn't doubt that but wondered who exactly he'd heard it from.

Brayden gave a friendly smile back. "I've actually never heard of you. I didn't even know Sydney had another brother."

"You never mentioned me?" Adrian shot me a look of mock hurt.

"It never came up," I said.

"You're still in high school, right?" asked Adrian. He nodded toward the Mustang. "You must have a side job to make those car payments, though. Unless you're one of those slackers who just tries to get money off of their parents."

Brayden looked indignant. "Of course not. I work almost every day at a coffee shop."

"A coffee shop," repeated Adrian, managing to convey a million shades of disapproval in his tone. "I see." He glanced over at me. "I suppose it could be worse."

"Adrian - "

"Well, it's not like I'm going to work there forever," protested Brayden. "I've already been accepted to USC, Stanford, and Dartmouth."

Adrian nodded thoughtfully. "I guess that's respectable. Although, I've always thought of Dartmouth as the kind of school people go to when they can't get into Yale or Harv - "

"We really need to go," I interrupted, grabbing hold of Adrian's arm. I attempted to tug him toward the student parking lot and failed. "We don't want to get caught in traffic." Brayden glanced at his cell phone. "Traffic patterns should be relatively light going west this time of the day, but being a weekend, you never know how tourists might alter things, especially with the various attractions in San Diego. If you look at traffic models applying the Chaos Theory - "

"Exactly," I said. "Better safe than sorry. I'll text you when I get back, okay? We'll figure out the rest of this week."

For once, I didn't have to stress about handshaking or kissing or anything like that. I was too fixated on dragging Adrian away before he could open his mouth and say something inflammatory.

Brayden, while passionate about academic topics and me disagreeing with him, tended to otherwise be pretty mild-mannered. He hadn't exactly been upset just now, but that was certainly the most agitated I'd ever seen him. Leave it to Adrian to work up even the most easygoing people.

"Really?" I asked, once we were safely inside Latte. "You couldn't have just said 'nice to meet you,' and let it go?"

Adrian pushed back the passenger seat, managing the most lounging position possible while still wearing a seatbelt. "Just looking out for you, sis. Don't want you ending up with some deadbeat. Believe me, I'm an expert on that kind of thing."

"Well, I appreciate your insider knowledge, but I'll manage this on my own, thanks just the same."

"Come on, a barista? Why not some business intern?"

"I like that he's a barista. He always smells like coffee." Adrian rolled down a window, letting the breeze ruffle his hair. "I'm surprised you let him drive you around, especially considering the way you freak out if anyone touches the controls in your car."

"Like the window?" I asked pointedly. "When the air conditioning's on?" Adrian took the hint and raised the window back up. "He wants to drive. So I let him. Besides, I like that car."

"That is a nice car," Adrian admitted. "Though I never took you for the type to go for status symbols."

"I don't. I like it because it's an interesting car with a long history."

"Translation: status symbol."

"Adrian." I sighed. "This is going to be a long ride." In actuality, we made pretty good time. Despite Brayden's speculations, traffic moved easily, enough that I felt I deserved a coffee break halfway through. Adrian got a mocha - "Can you spot me this one time, Sage?" - and maintained his usual breezy conversation style throughout most of the trip. I couldn't help but notice, when we were about thirty minutes out, he grew more withdrawn and thoughtful. His banter dropped off, and he spent a lot of time gazing out the window.

I could only assume the reality of his seeing his dad was setting in. It was certainly something I could relate to. I'd be just as anxious if I was about to see mine. I didn't really think Adrian would appreciate a shared psychotherapy session, though, so I groped for a safer topic to draw him out of his blue mood.

"Have you guys learned anything from Eddie and Dimitri's blood?" I asked.

Adrian glanced at me in surprise. "Didn't expect you to bring that up."

"Hey, I'm curious about the science of it. I just didn't want to participate." He accepted this. "Not much to tell so soon. They sent the samples off to a lab - one of your labs, I think - to see if there's anything physically different between the two. Sonya and I did pick up a... oh, I don't know how to describe it. Like, a 'hum' of spirit in Belikov's blood.

Not that him having magic blood should surprise anyone. Most people seem to think everything he does is magic."

"Oh, come on," I said. "That's unfair."

"Is it? You've seen the way Castile worships him. He wants to be just like Belikov when he grows up. And even though Sonya's usually the spokesperson for our research, she won't breathe without checking with him beforehand. 'What do you think, Dimitri?' 'Is this a good idea, Dimitri?' 'Please give us your blessing so that we can fall down and worship you, Dimitri.'" I shook my head in exasperation. "Again - unfair. They're research partners. Of course she's going to consult him."

"She consults him more than me."

Probably because Adrian always looked bored during their research, but I figured it wouldn't help to bring that up. "They've both been Strigoi. They've kind of got a unique insight to this."

He didn't respond for several moments. "Okay. I'll give you points for that. But you can't argue that there was any competition between me and him when it came to Rose. You saw them together. I never had a chance. I can't compare."