Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1)(49)

Clarence occasionally chatted with Eddie and Lee, but his eyes constantly strayed to Jill. There was a wistful look in his gaze, and I remembered that his niece had only been a little older than Jill. I wondered if perhaps part of the reason he’d been so willing to take us all on was in an effort to reclaim some part of the family life that had been lost to him.

Keith had sat down near me, at first making me uncomfortable but then later giving me a reason to pick his brain. Seeing the others engaged in conversation, I asked him softly, “Have you ever heard of knockoff Alchemist tattoos making it into the general population?”

He gave me a startled look in return. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“At Amberwood, there’s this trend. There’s apparently someplace in town that gives metallic tattoos, and they have special properties—kind of like ours. Some just kind of give off a high. Others kind of have a steroid effect.”

He frowned. “They’re not bound with gold, are they?”

“No. Silver and copper. So, they don’t last. Probably so the people giving them can make more money.”

“But they can’t be ours, then,” he argued. “We haven’t used those metals for tattoos in centuries.”

“Yeah, but someone may be using Alchemist technology to create these.”

“Just to get people high?” he asked. “I wouldn’t even know how you’d go about that with metallic agents.”

“I have some ideas,” I said.

“And let me guess. They involve narcotic mixtures.” When I nodded, he sighed and gave me a look like I was ten years old. “Sydney, it’s most likely someone’s found a crude tattooing method that’s like ours but has no connection. If so, there’s nothing we can do about it. Drugs happen. Bad things happen. If it isn’t mixed with Alchemist business, then it isn’t our business.”

“But what if it is connected to Alchemist business?” I asked.

He groaned. “See? This is why I was worried about you coming, this tendency you have of running off with tangents and wild theories.”

“I don’t—”

“Please don’t embarrass me,” he hissed, casting a glance at the others. “Not with them, not with our superiors.”

His rebuke silenced me, mostly from surprise. What did he mean about this “tendency” I had? Was he actually suggesting he had made some deep psychological analysis of me years ago? The idea that I would embarrass him was ludicrous . . . and yet his words planted a seed of doubt in me. Maybe the tattoos at Amberwood were just an unrelated fad.

“How’s PE?” Adrian’s words dragged me from my own thoughts. He was still getting the summary of school from Jill. She made a face at the question.

“Not great,” she admitted, giving a recap of some of the worse moments. Eddie shot me a meaningful look, similar to the one from earlier.

“You can’t go on like that,” exclaimed Lee. “The sun around here’s brutal.”

“I agree,” said Keith, of all people. “Sydney, why didn’t you tell me how bad it was?”

I think my jaw hit the floor. “I did! That’s why I was trying to get you to contact the school.”

“You didn’t really give me the whole story.” He flashed one of his sugary smiles at Jill. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this for you. I’ll get in touch with school officials—and the Alchemists.”

“I already talked to them,” I argued.

But I might as well have not said anything. Keith had already switched topics and was talking to Clarence about something irrelevant. Where had this about-face come from? Yesterday, Jill’s discomfort had been low priority. Today, Keith was her knight in shining armor. And in the process, he was suggesting that I was the one who’d screwed up. That’s his plan, I realized. He doesn’t want me here. He never has. And then something even worse occurred to me.

He’s going to use this to start building a case against me.

Across the room, Adrian caught my eye again. He knew. He’d been eavesdropping when I talked to Keith in the driveway. Adrian started to speak, and I knew he was going to call Keith out on his lie. It was gallant but not what I wanted. I would deal with Keith myself.

“How was LA?” I asked quickly before Adrian had a chance to say anything. He looked at me curiously, no doubt wondering why I wouldn’t let him be a witness to my case. “You went there with Lee last night, right?”

Adrian looked confused, but a grin smoothed over his face. “Yeah,” he said at last. “It was great. Lee showed me college life.”

Lee laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t know where you were half the night.”

Adrian got this look on his face that was somehow charming but made me want to slap him at the same time. “We parted ways. I was getting to know some of the other Moroi in the area.”

Even Eddie couldn’t stay silent at that. “Oh, is that what you call it?”

Jill abruptly stood up. “I’m going to get my blood now. Is that okay?”

There was a moment of awkward silence, largely because I don’t think anyone really knew who she was asking permission from. “Of course, my dear,” said Clarence, stepping into his role as host. “I believe Dorothy’s in the kitchen.”