Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1)(57)

Other protest pictures confirmed what I knew. By far, most people supported the young queen. Those against her were a minority—but a loud and dangerous one. A video from a human news show in Denver showed two Moroi guys nearly getting in a bar fight. They were shouting about queens and justice, most of which wouldn’t make sense to a human observer. What made this video special was that the guy who’d filmed it—some random human with a cell phone camera—claimed he’d seen fangs on both men in the argument. The videographer had submitted his recording claiming he’d witnessed a vampire fight, but no one gave it much credibility. It was too grainy for anything to show up. Still, it was a reminder of what could happen if the Moroi situation spun out of control.

A status check showed me that Queen Vasilisa was indeed trying to get a law passed so that her rule was no longer dependent on there being at least one other person in her royal family. Alchemist experts guessed it would take three months, which was about what Rose had said. The number loomed in my head like a ticking time bomb. We needed to keep Jill safe for three months. And for three months, Vasilisa’s enemies would be trying harder than ever to get to Jill. If Jill died, Vasilisa’s rule would end—along with her attempts to fix the system.

Yet none of this was what had really driven me to research. I wanted to know about Jill’s initial attack, the one that no one talked about. What I found wasn’t much help. No Alchemists had been there at the time, of course, so our information was based on what Moroi sources had reported. All we knew was that “the queen’s sister had been viciously and severely attacked—but had made a full recovery.” From what I’d observed, that was certainly true. Jill showed no signs of injury, and the attack had occurred a week before she came to Palm Springs. Was that enough time to heal from a “vicious and severe” attack? And was an attack like that enough to make her wake screaming?

I didn’t know but still couldn’t shake my suspicions. When Jill came home later, she was in such a good mood that I couldn’t bear to interrogate her. I also remembered too late that I’d meant to research the case of Clarence’s niece and her bizarre death by throat-slitting. Jill’s situation had distracted me. I let the matter go and called it an early night.

Tomorrow, I thought drowsily. I’ll do it all tomorrow.

Tomorrow came much more quickly than I expected. I was woken out of a heavy sleep by someone shaking me, and for a split second, the old nightmare was there, the one about Alchemists carrying me away in the night. Recognizing Jill, I just barely stopped myself from screaming.

“Hey, hey,” I scolded. There was light outside, but it was purplish. Barely after sunrise. “What’s going on? What’s the matter?”

Jill looked at me, face grim and eyes wide with fear. “It’s Adrian. You have to rescue him.”





CHAPTER 14




“FROM HIMSELF?”

I couldn’t help it. The joke was out before I could stop it.

“No.” She perched on the edge of the bed and bit her lower lip. “Maybe ‘rescue’ isn’t the right word. But we have to go get him. He’s trapped in Los Angeles.”

I rubbed my eyes as I sat up and then waited a few moments, just in case this was all a dream. Nope. Nothing changed. I picked up my cell phone from my bedside table and groaned when I read the display.

“Jill, it’s not even six yet.” I started to question if Adrian was even awake this early but then remembered he was probably on a nocturnal schedule. Left to their own devices, Moroi went to bed around what was late morning for the rest of us.

“I know,” she said in a small voice. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. He got a ride there last night because he wanted to see those . . . those Moroi girls again. Lee was supposed to be in LA too, so Adrian figured he could get a ride home. Only, he can’t get ahold of Lee, so now he can’t get back. Adrian, that is. He’s stranded and hung over.”

I started to lie back down. “I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that. Maybe he’ll learn a lesson.”

“Sydney, please.”

I put an arm over my eyes. Maybe if I looked like I was asleep, she’d leave me alone. A question suddenly popped into my head, and I jerked my arm away.

“How do you know any of this? Did he call?” I wasn’t a super-light sleeper, but I still would’ve heard her phone ring.

Jill looked away from me. Frowning, I sat up.

“Jill? How do you know any of this?”

“Please,” she whispered. “Can’t we just go get him?”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on.” A weird feeling was crawling along my skin. I’d felt for a while that I was being excluded from something big, and now, I suddenly knew I was about to find out what the Moroi had been hiding from me.

“You can’t tell,” she said, finally meeting my eyes again.

I tapped the tattoo on my cheek. “I can hardly tell anyone anything as it is.”

“No, not anyone. Not the Alchemists. Not Keith. Not any other Moroi or dhampirs who don’t already know.”

Not tell the Alchemists? That would be a problem. Among all the other craziness in my life, no matter how much my assignments infuriated me or how much time I’d spent with vampires, I’d never questioned who my loyalty was to. I had to tell the Alchemists if something was going on with Jill and the others. It was my duty to them, to humanity.