The taxi stopped at his dorm first, and he started to get out of the car. “Sydney . . .” He hesitated. “I know you’ll have to catch up on whatever’s going on, but there is something I want to talk to you about alone if you get a chance. Doesn’t have to be today. Just soon.”
“Sure,” I said. “We’ll make it work.”
It wasn’t until I was on my way to my dorm that I realized he might very well want to discuss how I’d created a blazing inferno in a blizzard. I’d known even then that it was foolish and dangerous, but those things had been trumped by the prospect of us freezing to death.
“Sydney!”
Zoe ran into my arms when I entered our room. For a moment, I worried something had gone wrong, but then I saw her face was radiant. “Things were great while you were gone! I mean, I missed you, but there were no problems. I made all the arrangements for Clarence’s, and Eddie even let me drive. Like, not just in parking lots.”
I’d started to open my suitcase and let the lid fall back down. “He did what?”
“It was only on the back roads between the highway and Clarence’s, so there was no problem.”
“Police can be anywhere,” I protested. “Accidents can happen anywhere.” Didn’t I know it.
“Everything was fine,” she said. “He even said I did a really good job. That I was a pro.”
Maybe I should’ve been pleased she was getting friendly with a dhampir, but I couldn’t. “I can’t believe Eddie of all people would do that. It’s irresponsible.”
She nodded. “He said you’d say that and that I should tell you, ‘At least it wasn’t Angeline.’”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed at that. “That’s true. He does have limits.”
Seeing me relax perked her back up. “Speaking of Angeline . . . can you believe she’d never had praline ice cream? I showed them that place you and I went to, and it was so funny. We were all trying not to stare, but it was impossible not to when her eyes were so big. She had three bowls and probably would’ve gone for four if we didn’t have to get back for curfew.”
I stared at Zoe’s sparkling eyes in amazement, overjoyed to hear her talking about hanging out with Jill and the dhampirs like she would ordinary human friends.
“Sorry,” Zoe said, mistaking my silence. “I haven’t even let you talk. How was everything? Anything big happen?”
Yes, most definitely.
“We’re waiting to see how it goes,” I said, returning to unpacking. “They injected Olive’s blood into Neil and have high hopes it’ll protect him from becoming Strigoi.”
“That was very brave of him,” she admitted.
I looked up from a shirt. “Why, Zoe, I think you just said nice things about dhampirs twice in the last five minutes.”
“Don’t get any ideas.” But she was smiling. “But . . . yeah, maybe they aren’t that bad. I mean, they’re not us, but they aren’t so bad to be around. It actually makes things easier, not hating them.”
“It certainly does,” I agreed. A spot of hope blossomed in me. Living with Zoe and her harsh Alchemist attitudes had been agonizing this last month or so. But could I blame her? Hadn’t I been the same? It had taken me a long time to come around . . . could she? Maybe in time, she’d get over trying to impress our dad and realize Moroi and dhampirs were just ordinary people. It was a heady thought, that we could actually be like sisters again and share the same rebel Alchemist philosophy. Maybe Marcus would eventually break her tattoo.
I kept those thoughts to myself, knowing I couldn’t jump ahead of myself. But it was hard not to be hopeful later when we ate dinner with the others and I saw that she no longer looked like she wanted to jump up and run away. Everyone was in good spirits until Jill’s eyes focused on something behind me, and she sighed heavily. I turned and saw two girls hanging a sign for the Valentine’s Dance.
“I wish I could go,” she said mournfully.
“Me too,” said Angeline.
“Well, why don’t you?” I asked.
Jill gave Neil a sidelong look. He was off in his own world. “There’s no one to go with,” she said. Angeline nodded in agreement.
“I’m sure you can find someone.” I glanced at Zoe. “So could you.”
Her eyes widened. “What? A dance?”
“Sure. It’s what the rest of the world does. You should try it.”
“Would you try it?” she asked. “Seems frivolous in our line of work.”
“I have tried it.” For a few seconds, I couldn’t continue, as the memory of my one and only dance sucked me in. Adrian had shown up, drunk, and I’d ended up taking him back to his place, where we’d been caught in a blackout. “Sometimes frivolity isn’t a bad thing.”
Eddie, who didn’t seem put out about the dance, grinned. “Sydney, when we first met, I never would’ve thought those words could come out of your mouth. What happened to you?”
Everything, I thought.
I met his grin with one of my own. “We all need some fun. We should forget that dance and go out and see a movie that night. When was the last time we all did that?”
“I think the answer is ‘never,’” said Jill.
“Well, there we go. We’ll get tickets and bring Adrian along.” I gave Angeline a scrutinizing look she didn’t notice. “Maybe some other people too.” I was feeling a little guilty about having promised Trey to keep Angeline away from Neil, seeing as Neil himself was taking care of that. I felt I owed Trey more for being my test subject, and maybe bringing him along on a group movie outing would help speed along his “figuring things out” process.
Life soon fell into its normal rhythm. I resumed my pattern of quick visits to Adrian after school, though the level of what we did now had definitely been kicked up. I missed those long, languid stretches of time from the inn, but we certainly made the most of what we had. I continued “making up for lost time” and even went so far as to start reading sex how-to books. I felt nerdy until the day I earned an impressed “Where did you learn that, Sage?”
The new developments with Adrian gave me even more motivation to protect us, meaning I went out of my way to pacify Zoe. We still didn’t spend enough time together to make her happy, but I did other things she liked, like letting her drive the car once in a while. I also encouraged non-threatening activities with the rest of the gang and continued to watch as she grew more comfortable with them.
The only thing marring our relationship was the threat of our parents’ divorce. Zoe continued to assume I was on our dad’s side. Whatever uncertainty I’d possessed about the matter had vanished after that lunch/dinner with him. I intended to testify in favor of my mom, even though I knew that could have serious ramifications for the comfortable life I was carving out. The hearing was still a month away, and I did my best to keep reminding Zoe about how much our mom loved us and that she really wasn’t a bad person. I even once suggested that if the court granted joint custody, Zoe might truly be able to split her time between our parents, rather than be one hundred percent committed to Alchemist work, as my mom had feared. Zoe had momentarily brightened at that idea and then shook her head. “Dad wouldn’t like it,” she’d said. Her fear of him was too great.
One of the stranger things to happen to me was that I learned to use a tattooing apparatus. My triumph at returning with bona fide Alchemist ink had vanished when I realized I couldn’t have Wolfe tattoo Trey with it. Not only would it blow our cover story about tattoo removal, it would also mean Wolfe would witness the activation of the charm. So I got Ms. Terwilliger to convince Wolfe to leave the machine at her place, in case we needed him again. In the meantime, I looked up the model and read everything I could about how to use it. When I told Trey the news, he wasn’t thrilled.